Hong Kong - My Newest Love

As I stated a few posts ago, one of my best friends came to visit me. Korea was never on his list of places to visit, but then again it wasn't on mine either - they just happen to pay me a lot of money. However, he stopped here to visit me before we both headed onto Hong Kong. He had lived there for 6 months a few years ago for school and this of course was my first time.

(Before you get any further - this post will be long and probably not as entertaining as others. You've been warned.)

Hong Kong is one of those magical cities that just blindside you. You of course go and think it's going to be a good time, but you wind up leaving it begrudgingly and figuring out ways to come back. It is a captivating city, and you can feel its energy and that people are there and getting things, important worldly things, done.


You also never forget that you're in a Chinese area, as things are still slightly off... case in point - a street of dried seafood with fresh shark fins on the side of the street:

We got there early Wednesday afternoon, hopped on the excellent Airport Express Train and were in central Hong Kong within 24 minutes.

We checked into the Marriot Courtyard and as we entered our room on the 25th floor and looked out our gigantic floor to ceiling windows we were pretty pleased with ourselves.

We wasted no time, and once we got over the happiness of the room, we took the trolley (yes, amazingly fun trolleys) down to a plaza in central Hong Kong. We walked around there for a bit to see all of the buildings and then subwayed it over to the Kowloon Peninsula to site see.

As we walked around we came to the Peninsula Hotel - an old time British luxury hotel - so we stopped in for a bit of afternoon tea. We took the Star Ferry back to central Hong Kong and took a trip up one of the longest escalators in the world through the mid-levels full of shops and restaurants. Once at the top we headed over to Lai Kwai Fong - the foreigner bar area - and had a beer and some food before heading back to the hotel for the evening to crack open the mini bar and stare out the window (yes, we just sat and stared out the window).

Thursday saw not too much action as there were some meetings to be had, but I did get to see a bit of the Syracuse University program at the City University of Hong Kong. SU is the only American University presence in HK which made me feel pretty good for my alma matter.

Thursday night we did stop on the Kowloon side for a bit to watch the nightly Laser Light Show that HK puts on from their skyline. They play music and each of the buildings light up and its a nice little flair that they add for tourists.


We then took a walk around the lit up area and saw all of the Olympic craziness around. Hong Kong is helping Beijing to host the Equine part of the games this summer. Plus all of China is crazy about it all anyway...

Friday we took a little trip over to Hong Kong Disneyland, and being that I had never before been to a Disney anything it was a really fun afternoon. The highlight for me had to be the Philharmagic Show - which was a 3D theater performance complete with water, smells, wind, and smoke. It was excellent. Also we did the It's a Small World Ride which had only been open for about a week, and the song is forever burned into my brain. The park is very very small though, and took us only about 3 hours to go through the whole thing. It's just hilarious that Disney has a presence in HK.


After Disney we went on one of the craziest bus rides through Lantau Island and wound up on top of a mountain at the Big Stone Buddha and the Po Lin Monastery. Truly a site to see, so if you're there - I recommend it.


We of course went out for a bit of drinking with some of my friend's old friends in Lai Kwai Fong and returned home at 5am, only to wake up and check out at 9am. For our last night in Hong Kong, I was surprised with a night at the Mandarin Oriental - one of the world's premier hotels. We had tea in our room on the 19th floor, overlooking the harbor and central Hong Kong that our concierge herself brought to us.


We headed to an excellent Dim Sum lunch in Kowloon with a few Chinese friends and then went to the Tsim Sha Tsui area to pick up our newly made clothing. Hong Kong is an incredible place to go shopping, but what you should definitely do is go and have clothing made. My friend got a suit and some shirts made, while I had some shirts and a skirt made cheaper than you'd ever get at home.

Saturday evening we took a long trip out to the New Territories and had dinner in Tai Po with a British Syracuse Professor who has lived in Hong Kong for 30+ years. The stories he had to tell were fascinating and he took us out to one of the best Thai food dinners I've ever had. He drove us back to the train station and when we returned to our hotel, we headed to the top floor for an evening in the hotel spa - WHICH happened to be ranked Asia's best spa. This was a title that is well deserved because for 60 minutes I was in pure unadulterated bliss. I've seriously never felt that good in my whole life, that I'm sure of.

For our last night in HK we once again sat looking out our window overlooking the harbor with all of the lights before meeting up with the same friends from earlier to have drinks in the hotel rooftop bar. We sat in this classy establishment enjoying martinis and such before calling it a drunken night around 2am.

Room serviced breakfast woke us up at 6:15am. It was a cloudy rainy morning which fit our moods perfectly being that neither of us wanted to go home. I didn't want to take my 3 hour flight to Seoul and my friend definitely did not want to take his 15 hour flight back to New York. Most people would say that life could be worse, but we now know that it could be better...

Happy Birthday Buddha!

Perhaps the biggest holiday in Korea may just be Buddha's Birthday. It's one of the few national holidays and has about a week's worth of events planned. From what I've seen holidays tend to be very family oriented and quiet, but not for Buddha. Buddha's birthday this year was May 11th, but Seoul put on a parade of parades on Sunday May 5 in the Insadong area. The parade lasted about 2.5 hours and it featured every imaginable and unimaginable type of lantern.

Before the parade on Sunday the Cheoggye Stream near City Hall had quite a few lavish lanterns set up that were all lit up at night. Also the temples and palaces around Seoul gave out lanterns to those who walked through their doors. Unfortunately I didn't get one, BUT they don't condense so it'd be hard to take home anyway. The day of the parade there was the Lotus Lantern Festival that took place down one of the main streets near Insadong where people could make their own lantern, watch performances, and eat all types of Korean food.

Basically it was one of the best celebrations I've seen here, and wish that they would go this all out for all of their holidays. Oddly enough, the closest I saw was when the westerners took over and celebrated St. Patrick's Day.

Anyway - enjoy the photo highlights:

A Tower by Any Other Name...

On Sunday we decided to head up Namsan Mountain to go to Seoul Tower. The funny thing about this tower is that its considered one of the top 10 tallest in the world, but its actually a very tiny little thing. What winds up pushing it towards greatness is the fact that it stands atop the center of one of the biggest mountains in the area in the middle of Seoul.

I also think the tower suffers a bit of an identity crisis as it goes by 8,000 names. You'll see it called Seoul Tower, Namsan Tower, and N Seoul Tower. The official website calls it N Seoul Tower, but once you get up there you'll see all three names in various places.

To get to the tower take the subway to Myeondong and leave out exit #3. Walk towards the hotel and then walk about 15 minutes past it up some stairs and then walk to the right towards the cable car. In order to get to this tower you can do one of three things - A) walk up the many many many stairs B) hike up the trails or C) take the cable car right to the top. My friend and I of course being the lazy SOB's that we are, opted for the cable car. It was about an hour wait to take the cable car - but it was also a Sunday afternoon of a 3 day weekend. The cable car is a great little ride, so in essence its worth the wait.

Once on top of the mountain you'll walk up some more stairs and pass a huge stoned enclosure that used to be a smoke signal area to warn Seoul of an emergency or an attack. This thing must have constantly been smoking for as many times as Korea has been invaded throughout its history.

We bought tickets to go up and had to wait about 20 minutes. There are little shops and snack bars everywhere so we got some tea and waited. The tower has two floors - the top floor which as you walk around shows you the customary distances to other cities in the world, and then the second floor which has various places of Seoul on the windows with little histories.
(Long way away from home)
If there's one thing you do when you visit this tower it should be to go to the bathroom. Being that there's absolutely nothing in front of you the whole bathroom is one gigantic window. It's the same in both the men's and women's bathroom:

Overall its an excellent way to become more aware of this sprawling city and a good way to spend an afternoon. We ended up walking down the mountain afterwards and it wound up spitting us out somewhere near Seoul Station. Not what I intended, but it worked out. Get a map or something before you head out.

Unconventional Stay in a Traditional Korean Hanok

One of my best friends flew halfway around the world to come and visit little old me this past week so I thought I'd attempt to do it up a bit. After our tour of the DMZ we headed back to Seoul and stayed at the Tea Guesthouse near Anguk Station and Insadong.

Now, most people when they travel want to find the best hotels possible, but when in Asia why not do things a little differently?

The tea guesthouse was one of the most unique places I've ever stayed. It's down a quiet street and a pagoda filled area. When you walk in, you enter a small courtyard filled with knick knacks and small houses.


We stayed in the double room which had two andols (mattress on the floor), antique looking furniture, heating/ac, and a desk and computer/tv. When you opened up the back door to the room it opened up into a backyard with a small pond and access to the puppy that was running around.
(The double room)

(The pond in the back)
It was a very nice, secluded little haven in the middle of the city, but it felt like it was miles away from everything (which is a good thing). The staff was helpful, they offered an excellent western breakfast in the morning, and there were plenty of brochures and magazines around to help plan a day if need be. It was nice to spend a night in a traditional place that had paper thin walls like you'd see on tv. We both really enjoyed it and it was a come and go as you please kind of place.

The DMZ - A Toursity Kind of Warzone

Ah the DMZ. The De-Militarized Zone. A span of only a few miles between two warring countries. One at the forefront of modernism and the other led by a madman who may or may not have extremely dangerous weapons. In between the two lies this space of farmers and military co-existing in an active war zone state, BUT also runs daily tours and sells knick knacks and tasty treats.

Specially made DMZ rice.

At a first glance, its thought provoking and fascinating and frightening all at the same time. There are two countries that have been so against each other for so long that they actually have to have miles between them to keep each other out. There are people living in South Korea that haven't seen their family members because they're stuck in North Korea and vice versa. They've been at a standstill for years, and the North is still trying to figure out ways to break into Seoul, as is evident with their digging and finding of tunnels underground. The 2nd most recent tunnel, the 3rd tunnel, was found when they were only 52km (about 32 miles) away from Seoul in the 1980s.

Looking at North Korea, this is the border between the two countries.

At any given time you never know what those crazy North Koreans are up to. The DMZ was built as a temporary barrier between the two, but as they continue to build more permanent structures and keep things freshly painted, its very clear that there will be no resolve in the near future.

However, after all of that goes by the wayside in your brain and you realize you're sitting on a United States Organization (USO) Tour Bus, that you paid $44 to get onto with other tourists, that there isn't exactly any imminent danger. They take you to snack shops, rest areas, banquet halls, and gift shops. I bought some souvenirs for my parents. We joked about walking out the door when we were standing in North Korea and seeing what happened. We were also told not to make any communicative gestures towards the North Koreans and we openly talked about how we were gonna get thrown in jail for waiving furiously at them.


The sign as you head into the 3rd tunnel explaining the stupidity of North Koreans

The whole trip for the USO first takes place in Ballinger hall for a debriefing, then onto the Joint Security Area (JSA) to see where the peace talks were held, then to lunch, and then the Dora Observatory, and lastly the 3rd tunnel where they make you put on hard hats and walk down a steep incline to get to the tunnel that's very wet and dark and short. It was a long day, and extremely informative, and we met some cool people on the tour that were mainly just passing through Korea.

South Korean Soldier guarding the door into North Korea

It is most definitely something everyone who lives here should see, if only to see something that is so definitive in history. It really is some of the most beautiful countryside I've seen here, and it is home to a lot of rare wildlife. Once the countries become united (if ever) there are plans already in place to keep it a nature wildlife preserve. Not to mention it has some of the most fertile untouched soil in the world and grows ginseng, rice, and other various important crops. So much so that the farmers who live in the DMZ are there to farm and making an untaxed living of about $80,000. Yes, dollars. It's unbelievable actually.

North Korea

If you're going to take a tour, make sure you take one through the USO and you book it about a month in advance. This is the third time I've tried to book a tour, and the first two were unsuccessful due to the popularity of the tour. All of the information you would need can be found here.

Olympic Torch Relay Insanity

This whole Olympic Torch Relay thing has taken on a life of its own inciting riots and controversy everywhere it goes. First, this race has been happening all over the world for years, but its just supposed to be a way for everyone to be involved in it. I read in the NY Times the other day that this was actually a Hitler idea in order to shift the public eye to a fake vision of peace while other atrocities are taking place elsewhere. Fascinating idea if you think about it.

The torch came through Seoul on Sunday April 26, and I actually just happened to accidentally see it. We were heading to Smokey's Tavern to try their delicious Burgers in Itaewon when we got off the bus at Hannam to see hoards of Chinese people and flags all lined up along the street. The torch was supposed to come through Seoul on Saturday, but due to security issues they changed everything and the route to be on Sunday instead. I was on one of the last buses to cross over the Han River, which was pretty lucky for me.


We waited about 15 minutes before we saw dozens of police filled buses come down the road, along with the the coca-cola and Samsung floats and then hundreds of runners surrounding the one guy holding the torch.

It was all over in a matter of minutes, but it was still interesting to be apart of. It traveled past us down to City Hall where it met up with 5,000 more fans or supporters before heading onto North Korea for the first time ever. It is interesting to say that North Korea was the only country to have absolutely no protests. A North Korean in Seoul however did try to ruin the festivities by dousing himself in gasoline and running towards the torch attempting to light himself on fire, but the authorities saw and stopped him before he could do any damage. He was of course, protesting China's policy of finding North Korean defectors and sending them back to North Korea which is against UN refugee laws.

Whether or not I think China should have the Olympics, I can never remember a time of the games having this much attention. It is extremely fascinating to see the world's reaction to all of it though. It's also interesting at the rate that we are truly becoming a global community...

Korean War Memorial

If there's anything you do when you get to Korea it should be to see the Korean War Memorial. Roughly 60 years ago Korea fought in a war to gain its freedom from basically everywhere. Japan had its hold on it for years, China did at some point, and then North Korea has tried again and again to get into Seoul.

I recently learned the basics for the war. The US helped Korea to gain its independence from Japan but only because it wanted to be in control of the peninsula for at least 15 years. This wasn't in Korea's plan so the US left the country in 1949 with virtually nothing. However, the Soviet Union had given tanks and money and trained personnel to North Korea and then that's when South Korea was invaded. The US then came back to bail out Korea and it has been here ever since. Basically it was a mini proxy war between the US and Russia that was fought on Korean soil. However, Korea has climbed nicely out of its past life and is now enjoying the modern life and doing quite well for itself.

It however, has not forgotten its past and has sunk a considerable amount of money into one of the most beautiful museums I've ever seen, and I haven't even been inside of it yet. Walking around the grounds at sunset is something I whole heartedly recommend. If you choose to go, it is just outside of Itaewon next to the Yongsan Army Base.

Field Trip - Train Museum!

Every month we go on a field trip. The last field trip was terrible as it was to the Land Museum - but at the end of April we went to the Korean Train Museum and it was actually pretty entertaining. Not to mention it was a well taken care of, huge and beautiful place.

The exhibits were well put together and had every piece of every train you could ever imagine. A good portion of it was in English too, which was pretty impressive. The tour ended with a 15 minute show in the Panorama Room where they had model trains set up and a model of Seoul that each train went around to give you a working view of the various types that go around Korea. It was even accurate in telling which trains were the fastest (KTX - Korea's newest high speed train) and slowest (freight as you'd expect).

Afterwards we went and had a picnic lunch on the grounds with the kids and even got to play around with actual old train cars later. I actually wish we were able to spend more time there, but what can ya do. At the end of the day everyone had a pretty good time.

GO BEARS!!! (Baseball in Korea)

I had the luxury of going to my first Korean baseball game today, and I have to say - Well Done, Korea. I am now a tried and true Doosan Bears fan.

The KBO (Korean Baseball Organization) has 8 teams throughout the country. Each team is sponsored by a company such as the Doosan Bears, LG Twins, Samsung Lions, etc, etc. It's run somewhat like the setup in the US - as far as having a spring training, and a 126 game season, ending with playoffs and a championship.

The Doosan Bears and the LG Twins are the two Seoul Teams and they play out of the same Baseball Stadium in Jamsil, right next to the Olympic Stadium (which is gi-normous):



Today's game was a Bears vs. Twins game and it was great fun to see the "home" teams duke it out. I imagine this would be something akin to the Yankees/Mets subway series, only they just share a city, not a stadium.

There are a few cool things about these games...
1) Tickets are only 8,000W.
2) Said tickets are general admission (or at least they were today). Seriously you can sit anywhere you want in the whole stadium.
3) There are Burger Kings, KFCs, and GS25s directly inside of the stadium so its not just normal stadium fare. Well, if you call this normal:

4) The fans are absolutely insane! They have cheers, and cheerleaders, and tons of songs, and those awesome balloon stick things that you bang together to make lots of noise - which I love and now own to be used again and again.


And last but not least - the 5th coolest thing are the men walking around with kegs on their backs and taps in their hand ready to give you delicious (ok well, mildly tasty at best) Hite Beer for the amazingly low low price of 3,000W. Honestly - what an ingenious idea to carry around a mini keg on your back - it beats carrying a tray up and down stadium stairs spilling it all over the place.


Today's game resulted in the Twins beating the Bears, but I have faith that my team will seek revenge at some point. I'm now the proud owner of a sweet, sweet, white Doosan Bears hat, and have a newfound love for Korean baseball. I will most certainly be back...

She's Getting [More] Ink Done

Well... this really doesn't relate much to Korea, but its more of an update.

I got some ink done by a korean tattoo artist back in February and it just didn't take. Now, my friend who went with me and got one at the same time had his heal just fine. We even used the same lotion afterwards. My other friend who used the same guy and went a week later even had his heal fine. I imagine because of a combination of things I just got dealt a crappy hand in this situation.

SO I went back and got it touched up. The guy used darker colors this time which I love, and my mom was kind enough to mail me over some A&D ointment awhile back. Don't ever let anyone tell you that a touch up job for a tattoo doesn't hurt - because reopening what is essentially scar tissue is NOT a pleasant experience. It's not unbearable, but it isn't something I'd willingly do again, that's for sure. The cool thing about it is that he gave me something called 'New Skin' to put on over it afterwards in the place of gauze or plastic wrap. It could have been kept on for 1-2 days, but after 8 hours I got ansy and wanted it to get some air. Very cool plasticy material that actually looked like a very thick piece of skin.

Anyway, I don't believe it was the artist's fault the first time around, and I don't think it was my faulty aftercare either. Just something that didn't work so I'd still recommend going to 2nd Childhood Tattoo Studio in Itaewon if you're lookin at getting some work done.

First Tattoo:


Second Time Around:

A Day at the Joo* (zoo).

*Koreans tend to pronounce all 'z's like 'j's so words come out like joo and jebra instead of zoo and zebra.

Seoul's zoo is nothing short of incredible. And I know what you're thinking - it's a zoo - if you've seen one, you've seen 'em all. But Seoul's zoo has some interesting features that I haven't seen at other zoos...

First, the zoo is found at Seoul Grand Park about 30 minutes outside of Seoul, which is also home to Seoul Land (an amusement park), a camping ground, hiking trails, and apparently an art museum. The cool thing about the zoo is that its built on a mountain, so you can take a nice hefty uphill walk to the top, OR you can take this awesome sky lift up to the middle for the entrance, or all the way to the top and walk all the way down. The lift goes over some exhibits like the Lion Compound and that was pretty fascinating. The best part of the whole zoo for me was this lift on the way up - even though it costs a bit more. The zoo costs 3,000W to get into to, and the tram is 4,500W for each part (there 4 parts in all, but to go up is only 2).





Basically its your typical zoo - spacious exhibits, entertaining animals, but it had its Asian flair. I saw my first Kangaroo in the Australian pavilion (I think that was the first time anyway). I saw camels do nasty things to each other. I missed out on the Dolphin show because we didn't know you had to actually buy tickets. I even saw a beaver do things to himself I didn't know animals would do. And I saw all sorts of bugs I didn't need to see in the Insectarium Building - BUT I got to see a great mistake on a map in the same building:


And man, is there food everywhere. These people do not waste any space putting in vending machines, or restaurants, or snack bars so you'll never go hungry. All in all it was an excellent way to spend a day, and I couldn't have asked for anything more. There will definitely be a second part to this post once we've figured out how and when to go camping there... I have no doubt my friends will drunkenly try and stumble into the zoo after hours and ride an elephant.

English by the Hour

It is 100% illegal for foreigners on an E-2 or E-4 Visa to teach English lessons to anyone outside of their schools and be paid for it. With that being said, do people do it? Allll the time.

I believe that this is illegal due to the fact that you could easily come here and ditch the school you were working for to make a lot more money elsewhere. This effectively screws over those who spent good time and money to get you here, so the government stepped in to help out the local businesses.

Although it is illegal, I believe that sometimes a blind eye gets turned. There is a website, workinplay.co.kr that helps people find jobs and private lessons. It has been reworked so its all up to date. Also, Dave's ESL cafe has a Korean Job Board which also will sometimes yield some possibilities. The great thing about these jobs being taboo is that if you're lucky enough to find one they usually pay pretty well. I've had 3 separate temporary lessons in the past, and they've paid $40-$45 an hour.

There really is something to be said for getting paid to talk. Literally one of my lessons was just to have coffee with a woman who was in her 40s and just wanted to conversate. I've had to do some planning beforehand, but not much, and definitely not enough that warrants getting paid as much as we do. Makes it hard to think about leaving this type of job, that's for sure...

If you decide to take a private lesson, just be lowkey about it, don't tell many people, and do not let anyone at your school find out.

'Daddy's Gonna Be Up Five-Hundy by Midnight'

That's one of my favorite quotes from Swingers (a movie which I have just recently watched thanks to my guys in NYC last year) as Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau settle in on a night of gambling and womanizing in good ol' Vegas. This somewhat hits home for this particular post since last night a few of us made our way to one of the few casinos around this place.

Koreans aren't allowed to gamble by law, but yet there are still a couple of casinos throughout the country at hotels and such that allow all foreigners to partake. The great thing about the one we went to, which was in COEX Mall in the hotel attached to it, was that its not only free alcohol (which is supposedly customary) but also free food. You can be gambling at any of the tables, place an order off of the menu to the dealer, and within an average amount of time they'll come over and tell you that you can find your meal sitting nicely at a table in the restaurant area.

The place is open 24/7 and the betting is pretty cheap. I played the 1,000W (~$1) roulette tables for awhile and lost a nice 40,000W (~$40). I never hit the streak that my friends around me were hitting so I decided to call it a night. However, after getting a quesadilla and some mushroom soup for the sweet sweet price of free, and many, many gin and tonics also for free, I wandered over to the 3 card poker table to watch two of my friends just dominate and basically bring down the house. Walking away with $300 for one and $1000 for another isn't too shabby. They at least paid for the cab ride back to Suji...

This did spur a conversation to head down to Gwangju at some point during the monsoon season to do a weekend gambling trip. Two hours away from Seoul, and the only place in the country Koreans are allowed to gamble doesn't sound like a bad way to spend a weekend. BUT more on that when it actually happens...

Pretending to be Irish in South Korea

St. Patrick's Day has always been an interesting holiday for me. In college it usually fell during spring break, and who wants to stay in the cold Northeast when there's warmer climates waiting? Even though Syracuse supposedly holds the 2nd biggest St. Patrick's Day parade in the northeast - and only 2nd to Scranton, PA (for some odd reason) I never attended. And usually I had to work during St. Patrick's Day when in NYC.

So, words cannot even explain the insanity that was St. Patrick's Day celebrations in South Korea. It was my best one to date, and I believe that to be so because of 3 reasons - 1) It was an absolute gorgeous spring day 2) I have surrounded myself with excellent humorous alcoholics and 3) Seoul has a very large authentic Irish population that know how to do it right.

The Koreans got into the spirit of the day and held a parade near the Cheoggye Stream in downtown Seoul. Started at 2pm, and went until about 3:15 followed directly afterwards by various performers including b-boys and bands until about 6. It seemed like nearly every Foreigner I knew was in this 5 block radius, and it was an incredible day of happy go lucky drunkeness.

Pictures can only explain the fun:

White Day?

We all remember Valentine's Day right? That day of giving people flowers and candy, and girlfriends get to berate their boyfriends if they forget? Well Koreans love it so much they made up another day just like it - White Day.

I knew it was in March sometime, but apparently it was Friday. I walked into Dunkin Donuts as I do most mornings and a coworker happen to wish me a Happy White Day. From that point on I was showered in candy the whole day.

Valentine's Day here is meant for the girls to shower the boys in chocolate, but White Day here is the exact opposite with the boys showering girls with candy. I'd say its pretty fair to both on both days, but its cute to see the boys try on White Day. One of my friends even got into the spirit and brought me a lollipop to our local bar Friday night. The bar, Exit, even got into the spirit and handed out sparklers to everyone in attendance and it was pretty cool to see everyone indoors waving around tiny fireworks.

Not a significant holiday by any means, but it was cute nonetheless.

Ferry Riding and Spelunking!

Ok, well not completely spelunking, but I did spend some time in some caves.

This past weekend I partook in another Adventure Korea trip - this time only for a day - and it was a blast. Got up at the ass crack of dawn, waited on the corner to meet up with a friend, and while I was waiting I got solicited by a Korean man; "You, Me, Money??" and he pointed to me to get into the van. Riiiiiiight buddy.

Anyway, grabbed some food at the McDonald's and headed on the bus, to the subway, to the AK bus and 3 hours later we were in Chungju. We took a ferry ride down a river for 2 hours and it was absolutely beautiful. My words won't do it justice so just notice some pictures:






After the boat there was some downtime and we of course, took more pictures of the scenery and took this is an opportunity to throw some rocks a very long way into the water. My first couple throws reminded me of something that my 8 year old self just wouldn't be proud of. BUT - after a couple practice throws it wasn't so bad.



The caves came afterwards, and it was pretty fascinating. I didn't see any bats, so that was disappointing BUT we did get to go a little off roading in the cave and walk over this tiny little bridge above people and jump ahead of the line. There weren't any signs in English or Korean so its always cool to be a little bad ass.





The caves were then followed by a little hike to Dodamsanbong Peak & the Stone Gate - a giant land bridge overlooking 3 rather large rocks in the water. According to the legend there lived a couple who loved each other, but had no child. They found a mistress because they wanted to have a baby, but once she had the baby, she began to mistreat and taunt the wife. The heavens saw them, and turned all of them into stones. And that's what those rocks are, and in an S shape. Gotta love Korean folklore.





After a gorgeous spring day, we hopped on the bus back to Seoul and spent the night hangin out with friends in Itaewon. It was an early one though - forgot how tiring fresh air is!

Just When You Think You've Got the Hang Of It....

I've been teaching for 6 solid months now, heading into the 7th. I look back on how I was as a teacher my first month, and even say up until my 3rd month, and realized what a crap show the kids were getting. I have basically found a stride in my teaching methods, and gotten to know the kids pretty well for the most part. It hasn't felt new in awhile, and I appreciated that.

Well, then everything came to a screeching halt and life got turned upside down this week. Some time ago I went in and told my director that I really liked teaching my preschool kids, and that I'd like to keep them when they moved up another level. I also told her I hated teaching activities (science, art, etc) because I loved having that time to do my planning for the day. And last but not least, I told her I found I hated teaching our Hi Kids! curriculum (English beginners) because I just can't keep everything straight and I hate not being able to talk to my kids (I'm a fast talker from NY... its tough to slow down sometimes). She said she understood and everything would work itself out in the new schedule and that she'd try to accommodate everything I said.

Gotta love that language barrier because not only did I only keep half of my preschool kids, I gained activities 5 days a week, AND now have something like 4 Hi Kids! courses. Honestly though, I didn't complain. Life has a funny way of fixing things though...

Today was the first day of the new classes and it felt like my first day of teaching all over again. Didn't have the right books, didn't know the kids names, had no idea where they were in their levels, it was just awkward. Everyone else on the staff agreed.

However two things happened today that really fed my ego. The first being those two preschool classes I loved. Well, apparently the parents were not so pleased that the kids got split up into two different levels of English and wanted to be put back the way they were. AND also on their list of demands was to re-instate me as the teacher for both classes. Which, as sweet as that is, they just effectively took away my 11:30am start time. Oh well - I get one week of sleeping in. And the second, was in my highest level afternoon class, one student dropped and I couldn't figure out why. So when my head teacher spoke to his mother she said it was just because he was going to middle school next year and needed a break from some studies. But she made a point to say that he was too shy to tell me on Friday that he loved having me as a teacher and wanted to say thank you and if he finds time to study English again, he'll come back and want to be in my class. As English teachers its really easy to bitch about the obnoxious kids, but when something like this happens, it honestly does make you feel like you're doing something right.

Anyway, schedules often change from month to month, but I think this one will stick for awhile. Can't really complain.

FC Seoul vs. LA Galaxy!

My first sporting event in Korea, and man did it feel good. I forgot how much I missed being in an arena - be it for a concert or sport. This was also my first soccer game ever (and I have to point out, that I actually hate calling it soccer now after being around so many internationals who call it Football).

I found out about the game two weeks ago via the Facebook event page. The LA Galaxy are on an Asian tour and playing the teams in friendly pre-season games. Tickets for FC Seoul during their regular season are 8,000won, but because the Galaxy are an American team sporting the likes of David Beckham on their roster this special game was a nice hefty 30,000W.
(Beckham)



They played at the World Cup Stadium in Seoul which was a hike to get to from my neck of the woods (hour bus ride to central Seoul and then a 20 minute cab ride). Tickets are always interesting to come by here in Korea for almost anything:


The language barrier usually poses a problem and you cannot buy anything on line like you can at home. You can reserve spaces and wire the money from an atm, but we didn't do that. Since there's a rather large foreigner contingent here we decided to just try our luck and go in a group and buy game day tickets. We were afraid that the game would sell out, but shortly upon getting there we realized that was almost an impossibility. The stadium holds somewhere around 72,000 people and I think, I THINK, maybe 10,000 showed up.

Either way, the game was a lot of fun in the cold weather, but cheap hot chocolate and beer makes it all worthwhile. FC Seoul was no where near a great team, and neither was the Galaxy, but they seemed equally matched. The Galaxy scored the only gametime goal, but FC Seoul tied it up with a penalty shot, and then when the game went into overtime penalty shots where FC Seoul took home the win.








There were oddities of course that I found as a foreign spectator. First being there are no replays. None. They have giant flat screen tvs with all sorts of bells and whistles,but there are no replays of anything - AND barely any announcements. Although when they did tell you they were subbing someone or something, they were in English - that was impressive. Another odd thing that struck me as an incredibly nice thing Koreans do was the returning of the confiscated goods you aren't allowed t bring in. At home, you're basically supporting the gate guard's drinking habit if they take away whatever you're trying to sneak in. Oh those Koreans... so nice:



Next up... baseball season opening day March 15! Doosan Bears all the way... GO BEARS!!!

SLP Graduation Coming Soon to Broadway!

Graduation - a time of reflection, of accomplishment, and a chance to look forward to the future and what it holds now that you have knowledge. Right? SLP went balls to the wall this year with graduation (as I guess is the tradition). But what an odd thing it is to see a Korean preschool graduation that's as big a production as something you'd see on Broadway - and takes just as much work.

Last Thursday we went over to the church for a rehearsal and it was a special kind of hell. Seriously - three days before the actual graduation - and it couldn't have gone worse. There was yelling, and finger pointing, and miserable children and teachers everywhere. So, because of the disaster that was the dress rehearsal, Friday and Monday became non-stop graduation fun time at school.

What were we rehearsing you ask? Well the 3 seven-year old classes each had a 20 minute play to do, my 3 six-year old classes had 4 songs and 2 stories to do, and the 5 year old class had a little story/song they had to do. Some of the kids gave speeches, and there's the logistics of the whole thing, and props - in my opinion it was a bit too much for all of them to handle and I even took some of the songs out of my group's performance.

However I suppose all the hardwork paid off today, as the kids all did a really great job and they have never looked cuter in their little costumes.




I got to meet all of the parents too, and see some of the ones I've met a few times before. The only classes that actually graduated were the 7 year old classes and I'm happy to say that all of my 6 year olds are coming back for another year, so I'll get to teach most of them when the new session starts next week. However, even though they didn't have to, the parents of my Hippo Preschool Class gave me a $50 gift certificate to the Shinsaegae (mall) here as a thank you for the year. It was really nice of them actually. I bought all of the kids candy and pencils and balloons that I'll give them on Friday at our little "end of the year" party, even though they start back up again on Monday.

We operate under the premise that this is not technically a school as much as it is a business and that was never more apparent in the past few days. Graduation isn't necessarily about the kids completing a year of school and going onto the next step in their lives. What all of these hagwons value is saving face, prestige, and grandeur. Graduation is just another day where they are put to the test by performing what they've learned in front of their families. These kids are in for a lifetime of competition and education much more so than the majority of American children back home, and I almost feel bad for them.

It was a pretty entertaining day though, and now that it's over it's time to switch from missiles to guns and prepare for their upcoming year in their new classes.

Dance Monkey, Dance! Or Speak English...

Saturday February 23rd will forever go down as one of the most surreal experiences of my life. First off all, let me just start off the story by saying I left my apartment at 4:30pm Saturday with no real expectations for the night other than one or two plans and wound up returning to my place at 10am on Sunday without sleeping.

Maybe I'll piece this story together by going backwards. I will say that I have seen many an 7/8am night, or coming home after the sun has come up, and its something that just kind of happens here. There aren't any last calls, or any closing times for the most part, and when you're inside of a place you can never tell what time it is. Even if you're not drinking (which I tend to do) you just get caught up in music or conversation or the thrill of meeting strangers from distant lands.

Coming home at 10am happened after an hour subway ride which followed a breakfast at 730am at the first Burger King I've eaten at in about a year. Before breakfast we partook in the "Luxury Noraebang" (Korean Karaoke) in Hongdae for an hour and a half starting at 6am. This place had FREE ice cream that was phenomenal:


We wound up at the Noraebang only after spending a bit of time in the hookah bar called Nabi which is semi-hard to find, but was WELL worth the search at 5am:
(The lattern in the pool in the middle of the room)

We had met people there after spending a couple hours dancing the night away to excellent indie rock music at Club FF (Funky Funky) starting around 330am. This was downstairs from the bar GoGo's that we had spent the previous few hours watching music videos and socializing with most of the people I have come to know in this fair land. We had randomly picked Gogos at 11pm only after what had made this night get off to a bang for me.

Last week a friend had mentioned he knew of a Korean party that wanted some foreigners to come and attend. I assumed it would be a milling about mixer type party, but we walked in and it was apparently some sort of English club that meets for a party once a month for the Koreans to practice their English. When we got there we were told to sit at random tables and thats when the oddness started. Some were fluent, some were ok, and others definitely needed their cheat sheets - but you sit down and were immediately bombarded with questions and given beer and they just wanted to hear you talk. And they were so interested in everything that I had to say it felt like I was performing a show that they had paid to see (which they technically did).



In the middle of the evening there's a speed game where the Koreans have to give clues and the foreigners have to guess which word they're talking about. Well, I rigged it that since our group's category was fruit they just had to give me color combinations or specific words like 'Korean' for pear since they have a different kind here.


We tied for first b/c one of my friends also played the same dirty game. Since there was a 4 way tie they turned the tables and the foreigners now had to guess the word that the Koreans were acting out. I came in 2nd after that same friend had beat me to the punch and we received even more food for the table including a gigantic full squid (which was actually very tasty) and a dish of cold spicy noodles that had river snails (?) in them which were also very good. Hey, I'll try anything once.

Overall it was very odd to sit at the head of a table and be treated with such immense respect and adoration just for speaking my native tongue. It was difficult at first because I wasn't sure of what in the world I had just gotten myself into, but it got much easier. They were fascinated by American culture and the work I do and have done and my interest in Korea. This was the first real chance I've had to interact with a group of English speaking Koreans completely on my own that have had nothing to do with my school. I made some friends out of it and had a lot of free beer (which set up the rest of the night very nicely). The newfound friends have been sending me nice text messages all day. One girl was even an NYU grad and going back to NYU next year for grad school so we will have the chance to hang out there.

It just felt good to go out there and do something very different and rewarding even if it started out as being used for a service. In the end, I think that's a pretty common theme in life, but just as long as everyone's happy it all works. I imagine I'll even go back next month too because it was a hell of a lot of fun.