Between Two Notable Days

12.30.07

Gone to the Han river a few nights during this vacation and taken pictures. Got a new tripod and been trying to figure out how to use it, as well as how to take night photos. Tomorrow is New Years Eve. Excitement abounds for all, no doubt. I've always been a fan of the even numbered years, for whatever reason, so I'm looking forward to '08.

kc

Merry Christmas

12.25.07

Merry Christmas. This is my first Christmas living alone and being completely away from family. Not as rough as one might suppose. Christmas revelry is not as rampant in this part of the world, so there's not as much to feel that I'm missing since advertising and vacation time for most people here is minimum. I think it would be tougher to be in the states but away from home.

Spent the evening with some Korean friends last night. Quite fun. Jenga was in order. This culture is an enormous fan of it, for whatever reason. Someone also brought a Barry White dvd which was, perhaps needless to say, a little odd (or unexpected, maybe). The end of the night was capped off with some viewing of American Idol and Bridget Jone's Diary. Neither of which do i care boo about, but in the company of friends it was endurable. All the best....

kc

Japan

7.31.07

Fukuoka, Japan – adult-packed arcades, cars driving on the other side of the road, melodies announcing every crossable crosswalk, infinite beverage vending machines, cartoons everywhere and on everything, graphic novels, capsule hotels, $6 starting-fee taxis, $5 coins, real sushi, double-priced electronics, and god-knows how much more.

Between a hostel the first night and a capsule motel our last night, my roommate david and I were resolved to ‘bum-shelter’ when every hotel (of about 15) was full Saturday night. We ended up staying in a half-finished motel for half the night until we freaked out and moved to some park benches later, only to be eaten by mosquitoes and assailed by the deafening noise of mate-searching cicadas. All in all, a very good trip.

Mountain Tops

6.1.07

Happy birthday, Kate. Yesterday, after work, i made it to the top of a mountian by my apartment and found another buddhist temple. This was the largest one i've seen. In the pictures about, there are seven stone buddhas to a shelf. In this open courtyard there was a wall about thirty feet high the went around in a half circle probably thirty yards across. There was a freakin lot of stone buddhas. They all have names on them so i suppose they signify donaters. Being as i'm still not fluent in korean (and hardly proficient), i didn't know why they were there other than to be impressive in their numbers....

kc

Buddha's Birthday

5.21.07

Buddha's birthday is coming up this thursday and we managed to make the oversized parade they have every year last Sunday. There were lots of things to see, including this abandoned balloon animal. It was a day of wandering around the city hall area of Seoul and even sitting in one of the few areas where the city has actual grass. Pictures on Flickr.com if you're interested....

kc

2nd Retreat

5.6.07

We took another school employee retreat this weekend to Nami Island. It was beautiful, but extremely crowded seeing as we went on a holiday weekend. The trip would've been a little better, I think if we'd stayed overnight like the last one. Everyone drinks a bit and the Korean teachers seem to loosen up a bit and everyone gets closer. Because of a few Foreign teachers' complaining about having to go we made it only one day.

It was still fun, but it could've been a better, more bonding experience. In the picture is Jay. He's holding a teacher named Sally's baby boy. Jay's dream is to travel to the states and see a baseball game in every major league park. Not a bad dream....

kc

Movie Shoot

4.22.07

My roomate, David, and i went to Korea University to take pictures yesterday and stumbled upon a scene being filmed for a movie. In the picture above there were massive stadium lights in midday shining on this area of the campus and they were pouring down fake rain from a large sprinkler system hung overhead. The girl is about to run straight ahead and make as if she's thrilled to be out in the rain without an umbrella. Don't know what the movie's called and am not extremely concerned, seeing as the 'happy in the rain' scene is well-worn territory at this point, but it was neat to bump into, for sure....

kc

Olympic Park

4.16.07

Took a solo trip to Olympic Park today. It was nice. It's in the South Eastern part of Seoul and it was made, i suppose, for the Olympics (which were held here at some point in the 80's). There are several large stadiums here for cycling and gymnastics and a few big ones down the road for soccer, baseball, and the like. It was fairly peaceful and as Spring is slowly budding things every so often there were bits of color here and there that were pleasant to look at. Weather is pretty much ideal at the moment. Rock.

kc

ps - have posted some new photos on the flickr page. Link on the right. Tons more posted on my facebook account.

Happy Easter

4.8.07

I got a new camera and it's great. I can get close, crisp shots of things now. It's one of the semi-pro cameras where you can change lenses and such. Assuming, anyway, that you have any lenses to change. I have just one lense as of now, but more will come I assure you. Well, barring global warming killing us all prior to that purchase. As for life here: more city travels, more language studies, more cramming English into little Korean kids heads, and more good food. We get next Monday off from work. Ah, the little things....

kc

The Ides of March

3.26.07

March is, quite clearly, almost over. The fabled 'yellow-dust' should be descending upon this little country soon and i am interested in seeing it. Apparantly at this time of year a tremendous amount of wind blows sand from the Mongolian desert across the body of water between Korea and China and creates a bit of an 'atmospheric' disturbance as far away as Japan. It gets hazy and a little more difficult to breath. I've already bought a little mask you see doctors wear in amercia, or people on news reports in other countries who fear SARS.

The girl in the photo above is a Korean coworker named Gina. About six of us went about town the other day taking photos of a rather brown-grassed, bare-tree'd Seoul. It will be a little nicer when we hit spring, i suppose. Other than that, I suppose i've got nuthin'

kc

All New Classes

3.6.07

The picture's a mess of goldfish. We visited the aquarium the other day and saw some sharks, too. It wasn't a huge place, but there were some otters there that i've got sub-par footage of fighting (or wrestling, perhaps, is a more accurate word). Tomorrow is all new classes for me (and the rest of the teachers). All the classes i started with are now gone. I still have a few of the students (which is either by good or bad luck), but it's an all new rest-of-my-existance here. Fun. Or not. We'll see. It's cold again. Been snowing the past two days. Saw that there's a cold spell in China too. Weather's funky, funky, isn't it?

kc

Live Octopus

2.25.07

Interesting experience Friday night. Some of the roommates and I ventured to Hyehwa so that they could eat live octopus. Relatively live, anyway. A woman pulls the octopus from a tank brimming with the little fellows, stretches it several times (ripping it's head off in one of the stretchings), dices it up, adds a few peppers and garlic, puts on plate and serves to eager (or not-so-eager) mouths. They ate (and i filmed) from a street vendor in one of the little tents next to one of the four subway exits. Jay, our Korean friend and coworker, hosted the experience. I have it on video if you go here:

http://youtube.com/profile?user=giantbluemonkey

Other than that, we had the kindergarten play today. It went pretty well. I think english kids are that difficult to understand, too, when they're five or six years old and on-stage. Ah, the people in the picture above (from left to right) are Rob, Jay, David and Scott. All of whom, I might mention, have been, or are my roommates other than Jay. Hasta

kc

Valentine's

2.13.07

I don't have any idea who that is in the picture. I just tried to snap a quick one as i walked by. It seems i'm not the only one who takes an interest in the Han River. I've been going there regularly lately. Well, once every week or two. Sundays, mainly. There are bikers, walkers, joggers, runners, strollers, rollerbladers, basketballers, soccer goers, kite flyers, photographers and me. I grew up on the coasts and apparantly water is a bigger deal to me than I thought, barring, of course, my still-constant and irrational fear of sharks appearing in any body of water (indcluding small ponds and pools).

This weekend we have a five day holiday. I am very ready for it. It's for the New Year. They celebrate it twice here. Western and Eastern. I think this one is supposed to be more family oriented. Tomorrow is Valentine's and today i'm going to have my kids decorate tissue boxes with construction paper so we can drop little notes in them. I will buy some chocolates for them, too. Chocolate is good.

kc

ps - happy valentines....

5 Months Since

01.28.07

It snowed again this weekend but didn't stick. I'm used to the cold now so scarves and skull caps are less necessary. Bummer. I'm already mourning this winter's death. I'm afraid i'm going to melt come summer. Went back to Suwon today to see the fortress again. This time, however, my roommate Rob and another coworker, Ashley, came along. Snapped a few pictures... after we sorted out my hour long detour of selecting the wrong bus. Learning experiences when you're alone; embarassing when you're wasting other's time. But they were, of course, very gracious about the whole thing.

Things are going well here. I can form some rudimentary Korean sentences on my own now. There's joy there. My Brittish roommate who finished his contract with my particular school at the end of November and went back to England for a bit has returned. With the end of January, I am nearing the halfway point of my year contract and still need to explore the city and country a bit. Some of my coworkers are braving a trip to North Korea in a few months during the short period when the border opens to Americans (Meegook, we're called). I'm not so brave. Anyway,

kc

ps - posted some more pictures on the flickr page, which is linked on the right....

Mid January

01/14/07

Firstly, thank you to everyone who has posted comments. I enjoy reading them and am happy that anyone stops by to 'check' on me. Secondly, the picture above is near the Han river. I walked around the area again today. The river divides the city into a North half and a South half, the richer half supposedly occupying the Southern portion. Suyu (my district) is in the North. Third, the characters on the left part of the picture are Chinese and not Korean. Fourth, I'd like to address the 'bowing' thing....

I love it. It is so freakin respectful. I've done it subtly through my life, but people here do it frequently. As I said, I love it. And it's entirely different than the head that nods upwards - the 'what's up' gesture in Western culture. I would like to note that many of the animals in nature make themselves appear larger at times to stave off danger (the peacocks feathers, the lions mane, cats arching their backs, puff fish, bears standing on hind legs, etc). When you nod upwards, you are making yourself appear larger (however subtle the gesture) and when you bow, you are exposing yourself to danger (theoretically). Therefore, i find it infinitely more respectful to bow than to 'what's up' someone. Hasta

kc