So yesterday was a momentous day, it marked the one year anniversary of my arrival to Korea. I had a new student yesterday and she asked me how long I had been in Korea, I usually round up, you know, to sound more impressive, but as my eyes fluttered to the calendar I realized that it was exactly one year. 일연.
"I've been here one year exactly!" I said excitedly.
"Oh.." She paused, and then said, equally enthusiastically, "congratulations!"
After work Tyler and I went to Beer O Clock to have a celebratory beer with our chicken wings, Tuesday night in chicken wing night in Sinchon, by the way. It seems fitting that we arrived during the holidays, this entire week is a time of reflection on the past, present and future. It's my first Christmas away from home, my one year anniversary of being an expat in Asia, and my second new year. I will have officially spend the entire 2010 calendar year outside of the U.S.
I had dinner with my coworker today and we were talking about life, and I said, "it doesn't feel like a year has gone by" but no sooner had the words left my mouth than I realized how silly they sounded. What's a year supposed to feel like? Regardless if I feel like three months, or ten years has gone by, it's only been 365 days.
I'm excited for the next year, life will definitely be different here. Friends are coming and going, and I still have seven more months to experience life on this cool peninsula. I'm going to work on my new year's resolutions over the next couple of days, well two days until nye... I'll probably go with the usual ones that I never stick to, like exercising more and eating better, ha, like that'll happen! Probably being conversant in Spanish? It.... could maybe happen.... we'll see. Anyhoo, I have two days to make up an unrealistic list of soon-to-be forfeited life goals.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Xmas time
Well I am now in the midst of my first holiday season away from home. I just wrapped up Christmas weekend, and this upcoming Saturday will be New Years. It's been a bitter sweet time. Tyler is leaving soon so it was nice to spend Christmas dinner with him and Matt, both of them arrived within a day of me and we trained together and lived in that repulsive love motel together for the first two weeks. We had dinner at a local Canadian restuarant with turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy, yummy.
We ended up staying out really late, a first for me on Christmas. I usually think of Christmas as a holiday to spend curled up in a warm room with coco and family, but this year was still fun.
I got to virtually spend the holidays with my family. I skyped with my sister in Denmark, and waved hello to my danish aunt, uncle and cousin. Then later I skyped with my mom, Peitsa, Mikko and his girlfriend in Castro Valley, California. They had finished family dinner at my step-grandmothers house and were about to travel down to Santa Cruz to see our cousins.
It's so cold in Korea that I'm going to see if I can convince my friends to stay in for New Years... ha, yeah right, I doubt they will go for that, but I'll at least try.
I also got to skype with Vicki, Chris and Jesse today. Three people from back home that I haven't spoke to in much too long. I miss everyone from home a lot, and I look forward to your visits (hintity-hint-hint).
Feliz Navidad y feliz ano neuvo!
We ended up staying out really late, a first for me on Christmas. I usually think of Christmas as a holiday to spend curled up in a warm room with coco and family, but this year was still fun.
I got to virtually spend the holidays with my family. I skyped with my sister in Denmark, and waved hello to my danish aunt, uncle and cousin. Then later I skyped with my mom, Peitsa, Mikko and his girlfriend in Castro Valley, California. They had finished family dinner at my step-grandmothers house and were about to travel down to Santa Cruz to see our cousins.
It's so cold in Korea that I'm going to see if I can convince my friends to stay in for New Years... ha, yeah right, I doubt they will go for that, but I'll at least try.
I also got to skype with Vicki, Chris and Jesse today. Three people from back home that I haven't spoke to in much too long. I miss everyone from home a lot, and I look forward to your visits (hintity-hint-hint).
Feliz Navidad y feliz ano neuvo!
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Hace frio
Hello friends. I am writing this blog huddled on my floor, floor heating in Korea is awesome, and trying not to think about my freezing trek into the Arctic aka Seoul tomorrow morning. I know I always complain about the weather in my blog (a sign that I'm quickly assimilating into a boring adult) but it still blows my mind everyday. In my happy, delusional days of California glory I actually considered 5 degrees C cold. Right now, I can't wait for it to get that warm again! Do you know what -10 feels like??? It feels like little elves are shooting ice darts at your face at 70 mph. So much for trying to look presentable for work. Today I got a glimpse of myself in the elevator mirror and what I saw was a crazed banshee staring back at me through a mismatched combination of hats, scarves and jackets.
The holidays are approaching which means more people are leaving. Two of my good friends are leaving within the next three weeks. It has been a rotating door of people over here, everyone is always coming and going. But I do feel confidant that I will see the important people that I've met over here again in the future, and I do have excuses to go all over the world to visit amigos.
I finished my Discover Spanish podcasts and I've been searching around for a new one. I was bored so I googled "how long does it take to learn a language". According to VERY credible websites (shrug) it takes 720 hours to be a "functional" level. Hmmm... 720. I giddily logged in my hours and.... it came to about six and a half. I was starting to feel disheartened until I thought, oh, why don't I look up spanish words for something that I'm independently interested in? Michael Cera, travel, beer? I settled on beer and it worked. (At a bar) Quieres una botella de Hoegaarden por favor... (ten minutes later) otra cervaza por favor (ten minutes later) hmmm Quieres vodka y agua tonica.... un doble! (ten minutes later) aye, mi cabeza!! por que??
(*Side note: One of the reasons that I didn't want an ipod is because I didn't want to get obsessed/addicted to it, and that is exactly what happened. A couple days ago I misplaced my ipod, I was about 99.9% sure that it was in my house but it wasn't in any of my "obvious" places. At first I distractedly looked around for it, then the irritation grew, which quickly evolved into dread, until finally I was frantically ripping my room apart in an internal panic convincing myself that somehow someone had broken into my apartment and taken it. Of course, in typical Nadja fashion, it was balled up in my top blanket. When I shook my blankets to look for it, it was happily wedged in between and stayed hidden for about 24 painful hours)
Monday, December 6, 2010
la vida tonta.
Hola amigos. Soy Nadja. Soy de los estados unidos, en particular, California. Geeze, pretty difficult huh? While you rack your brain trying to decipher that complicated Spanish sentence I will revel in my 2010 last-minute resolution check list. 2010 New Year's Resolutions: #1. Exercise more and eat healthier (that yoyoed throughout the year, on a bit on a slow patch currently), #2. Get better at geography (this I actually accomplished! Do you know which countries border Bosnia Herzegovina and/or the capital of Vanuatu?? Cuz I do!) #3. Restart Spanish studies... well December technically IS still part of 2010 so, check!
Since I am planning on going to Spain during my Euro trip 2011, because I really loved Barcelona when I went there in 2005 and I have enough Spanish vocab floating around my head to avoid sleeping in the street, I decided to start practicing again.
I downloaded a Spanish lesson podcast called Discover Spanish ("Disco" is all that appears on the small screen, so the people looking at my podcast list think that I'm crazy about Disco). It's really cheesy, so cheesy in fact that the host calls himself Johnny Spanish. Yes. Si, es cierto. I also bought the Lonely Planet Phrase Guide for Spain, and I've been practicing my Spanglish with any friend that has a basic understanding of the language.
Learning Spanish has unexpected and embarrassing consequences.
Exhibit A: When I was in middle school I had to take Spanish at my school. Like most of my fellow classmates I didn't really learn much, just basic greetings and vocabulary that never seemed to be relevant in real life situations. Occassionally a Spanish song would play and I would recognize a couple words and feel an inflated gratification with my self assumed bilingual skills. One time when one of these Spanish songs was playing I heard the word "besame". Besar meant "to kiss" in Spanish and I admired the cute Spanish way to simply say "kiss me". I've never spoken Spanish to anyone.... so fast forward 13 years. A couple days ago I was walking down Namsan tower with a friend of mine from France (who speaks French, English and Spanish, grr Europeans making me feel lazy and unaccomplished) and I was feebly trying to speak to him in Spanish. While I was listing all the words, sayings and conversation topics I knew in my head, it occurred to me that I knew just enough Spanish to be a successful prostitute in a Spanish speaking country.
I thought this epiphany was hilarious so I starting saying different things that related to it, "hola senior. Venconmigo! Eres muy guapo. Dame el dinero." We were both chuckling when I remembered the Spanish song, so I blurted, "Besame!" My friends eyes buldged and he said, "woah.." in a surprised voice.
"What? It just means kiss me."
He started laughing, "No it it doesn't. It means something very bad." After some prodding he finally told me that it's a very vulgar way of saying "F*** me". My innocent childhood misconception came crashing down all around me. "Hee hee whoops." I said, glad that the night sky was shadowing my red blushing face. Luckily I didn't say that in Spain!
Exbihit B: I was taking the subway to my friend's birthday party the other night and I decided to bring my little Spanish book with me on the ride. It's very convenient, it's about the size of a wallet so it can fit in my pocket. Es muy conveniente! I've been working through it chapter by chapter but I decided to be spontaneous and flip to a random page. As I opened the book, the train approached the next station and I looked up to see the name of the stop. I didn't recognize the name, so I looked at the map and oriented myself before I went back to my book. The first phrase on the page that caught my eye was Touch me here -tocame aqui. I giggled sophomorically at an imaginary "that's what she said" comment and then looked to the next phrase. I think we should stop now/ Hmm... thats weird, that one sounds a little sexual too. Oh yeah! Faster! What the?-Do you have a condom? I looked at the top of the page and it said Social: Romance and yes, it was a page telling me what to say during sex! I didn't even think that a phrasebook would have something like that. But then... I look to my right and a Korean guy, maybe a little older than me, is just staring right at the page I was looking at! I quickly slapped the book closed and avoided eye contact with him for the next couple stops.
Since I am planning on going to Spain during my Euro trip 2011, because I really loved Barcelona when I went there in 2005 and I have enough Spanish vocab floating around my head to avoid sleeping in the street, I decided to start practicing again.
I downloaded a Spanish lesson podcast called Discover Spanish ("Disco" is all that appears on the small screen, so the people looking at my podcast list think that I'm crazy about Disco). It's really cheesy, so cheesy in fact that the host calls himself Johnny Spanish. Yes. Si, es cierto. I also bought the Lonely Planet Phrase Guide for Spain, and I've been practicing my Spanglish with any friend that has a basic understanding of the language.
Learning Spanish has unexpected and embarrassing consequences.
Exhibit A: When I was in middle school I had to take Spanish at my school. Like most of my fellow classmates I didn't really learn much, just basic greetings and vocabulary that never seemed to be relevant in real life situations. Occassionally a Spanish song would play and I would recognize a couple words and feel an inflated gratification with my self assumed bilingual skills. One time when one of these Spanish songs was playing I heard the word "besame". Besar meant "to kiss" in Spanish and I admired the cute Spanish way to simply say "kiss me". I've never spoken Spanish to anyone.... so fast forward 13 years. A couple days ago I was walking down Namsan tower with a friend of mine from France (who speaks French, English and Spanish, grr Europeans making me feel lazy and unaccomplished) and I was feebly trying to speak to him in Spanish. While I was listing all the words, sayings and conversation topics I knew in my head, it occurred to me that I knew just enough Spanish to be a successful prostitute in a Spanish speaking country.
I thought this epiphany was hilarious so I starting saying different things that related to it, "hola senior. Venconmigo! Eres muy guapo. Dame el dinero." We were both chuckling when I remembered the Spanish song, so I blurted, "Besame!" My friends eyes buldged and he said, "woah.." in a surprised voice.
"What? It just means kiss me."
He started laughing, "No it it doesn't. It means something very bad." After some prodding he finally told me that it's a very vulgar way of saying "F*** me". My innocent childhood misconception came crashing down all around me. "Hee hee whoops." I said, glad that the night sky was shadowing my red blushing face. Luckily I didn't say that in Spain!
Exbihit B: I was taking the subway to my friend's birthday party the other night and I decided to bring my little Spanish book with me on the ride. It's very convenient, it's about the size of a wallet so it can fit in my pocket. Es muy conveniente! I've been working through it chapter by chapter but I decided to be spontaneous and flip to a random page. As I opened the book, the train approached the next station and I looked up to see the name of the stop. I didn't recognize the name, so I looked at the map and oriented myself before I went back to my book. The first phrase on the page that caught my eye was Touch me here -tocame aqui. I giggled sophomorically at an imaginary "that's what she said" comment and then looked to the next phrase. I think we should stop now/ Hmm... thats weird, that one sounds a little sexual too. Oh yeah! Faster! What the?-Do you have a condom? I looked at the top of the page and it said Social: Romance and yes, it was a page telling me what to say during sex! I didn't even think that a phrasebook would have something like that. But then... I look to my right and a Korean guy, maybe a little older than me, is just staring right at the page I was looking at! I quickly slapped the book closed and avoided eye contact with him for the next couple stops.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Quarter century mark
Hi everyone. Today is my 25th birthday. 25 was always that scary age, the official milestone that meant "no longer a kid", I'm officially out of the young adult category 18-24 and I can't be on the Real World (cruel world!!)
I celebrated my birthday on Saturday night, it was a joint party with my friend Pym because he's leaving the country soon. He's one of my good friends here and he will be dearly missed, Tyler and I refer to him as the voice of reason. Saturday was nice because I got to see a lot of people who have been off the radar for a while. I got an ice cream cake (my favvv) and some warm winter clothes. Nice times with a nice group of people.
Tonight I'm going to go to the doggie cafe with some of my friends and spent my first night as a 25 year old playing with dogs. Sounds pretty good to me.
I have purchased my tickets to Europe and I'll be arriving in London on August 31. That'll give me three weeks in South East Asia and then hopefully another 2-3 months in Europe, just traveling around to all the countries I want to go to. Right now I know I'll be in England, Denmark, Belgium and Spain, but I'd love to go other places if it's feasible. I've been reading Eat, Pray, Love and getting excited about my round the world trip, even though it's far in the future.
I celebrated my birthday on Saturday night, it was a joint party with my friend Pym because he's leaving the country soon. He's one of my good friends here and he will be dearly missed, Tyler and I refer to him as the voice of reason. Saturday was nice because I got to see a lot of people who have been off the radar for a while. I got an ice cream cake (my favvv) and some warm winter clothes. Nice times with a nice group of people.
Tonight I'm going to go to the doggie cafe with some of my friends and spent my first night as a 25 year old playing with dogs. Sounds pretty good to me.
I have purchased my tickets to Europe and I'll be arriving in London on August 31. That'll give me three weeks in South East Asia and then hopefully another 2-3 months in Europe, just traveling around to all the countries I want to go to. Right now I know I'll be in England, Denmark, Belgium and Spain, but I'd love to go other places if it's feasible. I've been reading Eat, Pray, Love and getting excited about my round the world trip, even though it's far in the future.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Peitsa visits and Scavenger hunts
It's monday, November 8th in Korea, and I'm at work after a nice three day weekend. Peitsa came to visit last week. Our family friends, who are both professors, are taking their sabbatical in Kyoto and Peitsa went to go visit them. My mom got him a layover in Seoul for three and a half days so we got to hangout and I showed him around. I was able to get friday off from work and we climbed Ansan mountain behind Yonsei, walked around Sinchon, and then went to the local traditional village in Anguk, where we found a cafe that roasts their own coffee beans (quite rare over here). After Anguk we went to the Chungechung river and looked at the laterns set up for the lantern festival, it was a cultural day and we got a lot of exercise. It was really nice to see him too especially since I didn't think I was going to see any of my family for almost two years.
He loves spicy food so I tried to take him to all the spiciest restaurants that I've been too, but though he enjoyed the tastes, nothing was spicy for him. Has someone burned away all their tastebuds?
After Peitsa left on Saturday I went on a scavenger hunt with Julia, Pym, Tyler, Nick and Nick's friend. The scavenger hunt involved going to five different bars and doing various random stunts for points and we had a camera to document everything. One of the dares was to cheers an older Korean man outside of a convenience store (where they usually drink) and we asked if we could cheers him (innocent enough right?) and he lost it and started yelling at us. Even after we put the camera away and turned away from him he kept yelling at us to go away. Yikes. We opted to not do that one again.
The scavenger hunt was really fun and our team dressed in mismatched clothes (costumes were encouraged). At midnight we all had to meet up with the other teams at the Hongdae park. Then we went out dancing into early in the morning, all in all it was a great night.
I've been listening to Arcade Fire a lot recently, I know I'm really late on the bandwagon but they are really, really good.
He loves spicy food so I tried to take him to all the spiciest restaurants that I've been too, but though he enjoyed the tastes, nothing was spicy for him. Has someone burned away all their tastebuds?
After Peitsa left on Saturday I went on a scavenger hunt with Julia, Pym, Tyler, Nick and Nick's friend. The scavenger hunt involved going to five different bars and doing various random stunts for points and we had a camera to document everything. One of the dares was to cheers an older Korean man outside of a convenience store (where they usually drink) and we asked if we could cheers him (innocent enough right?) and he lost it and started yelling at us. Even after we put the camera away and turned away from him he kept yelling at us to go away. Yikes. We opted to not do that one again.
The scavenger hunt was really fun and our team dressed in mismatched clothes (costumes were encouraged). At midnight we all had to meet up with the other teams at the Hongdae park. Then we went out dancing into early in the morning, all in all it was a great night.
I've been listening to Arcade Fire a lot recently, I know I'm really late on the bandwagon but they are really, really good.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
I renewed my contract
Today is November 1st, my birthday month and the start of my 11th month in Seoul. About a week ago I signed a 7 month renewal contract so I'm employed through August 3, 2011. I was a little worried that they weren't going to offer me an extention so I'm very happy and relieved right now.
It's getting colder but the weather hasn't fully committed to winter cold yet, we'll have a couple days of freezing cold (by California standards) and then a couple days of sun and warmth. This past weekend was Halloween and I had a really nice time. Since Halloween fell on a Sunday I had three days worth of cosutme options and I've always been kean on making my own costume and this year was no exception.
On Thursday night I went to a Halloween party in Gangnam and it was really fun. I made a Guiness bottle costume, I worked on the label for over an hour and I was pretty proud of the result. It got a bit crushed after a night of dancing but I did get some pictures of my masterpiece beforehand!
On Friday my company encouraged the employees to dress up because in Korea people don't really celebrate Halloween. I was a soju bottle (the National drink) and it was really easy to make (green shirt + handmade soju label) much less detail than the Guiness label. My students all laughed and were really curious about the Halloween mumbo jumbo. "What do adults do on Halloween??" "Well... they dress up in costumes and drink alcohol."
Saturday I went on a solo hike up the nearest mountain Ansan, it's behind the University Yonsei which is a hop, skip and a jump away from my house. I downloaded a couple podcasts and went on a three hour hike/walk and it was really nice. The weather was perfect and the mountain wasn't very crowded, which can be a problem on the mountains here. I took a couple pictures, but my camera has the unique talent of taking ANY picturesque sight and making it look lame, so I probably wont post any of them.
Saturday night my friend Julia and I went as ninja turtles along with a Waldo, a Woody and a lumberjack. We went to Itaewon and stayed most of the night at a westerner bar called Dillingers. My favorite costume was a guy dressed as Sailor Venus from Sailor Moon. His skirt was so short and I'm chuckling right now just thinking about it.
High light of the night: Julia and I were talking to the bar tender/ DJ and he told us to come behind the bar to show us something and as soon as we walked behind it, the bar owner announced (with a microphone!) that they were having a costume contest and th ninja turtles were in it! Um... I'm not a big spot light person and we both froze for a second. There were a lot of people there! Some how Julia and I didn't run away and we actually won second place. Unfortunately Brave Heart's costume was too good. I'm glad we did it, even if we did get tricked into participating.
I hope everyone else had a good Halloween too!
It's getting colder but the weather hasn't fully committed to winter cold yet, we'll have a couple days of freezing cold (by California standards) and then a couple days of sun and warmth. This past weekend was Halloween and I had a really nice time. Since Halloween fell on a Sunday I had three days worth of cosutme options and I've always been kean on making my own costume and this year was no exception.
On Thursday night I went to a Halloween party in Gangnam and it was really fun. I made a Guiness bottle costume, I worked on the label for over an hour and I was pretty proud of the result. It got a bit crushed after a night of dancing but I did get some pictures of my masterpiece beforehand!
On Friday my company encouraged the employees to dress up because in Korea people don't really celebrate Halloween. I was a soju bottle (the National drink) and it was really easy to make (green shirt + handmade soju label) much less detail than the Guiness label. My students all laughed and were really curious about the Halloween mumbo jumbo. "What do adults do on Halloween??" "Well... they dress up in costumes and drink alcohol."
Saturday I went on a solo hike up the nearest mountain Ansan, it's behind the University Yonsei which is a hop, skip and a jump away from my house. I downloaded a couple podcasts and went on a three hour hike/walk and it was really nice. The weather was perfect and the mountain wasn't very crowded, which can be a problem on the mountains here. I took a couple pictures, but my camera has the unique talent of taking ANY picturesque sight and making it look lame, so I probably wont post any of them.
Saturday night my friend Julia and I went as ninja turtles along with a Waldo, a Woody and a lumberjack. We went to Itaewon and stayed most of the night at a westerner bar called Dillingers. My favorite costume was a guy dressed as Sailor Venus from Sailor Moon. His skirt was so short and I'm chuckling right now just thinking about it.
High light of the night: Julia and I were talking to the bar tender/ DJ and he told us to come behind the bar to show us something and as soon as we walked behind it, the bar owner announced (with a microphone!) that they were having a costume contest and th ninja turtles were in it! Um... I'm not a big spot light person and we both froze for a second. There were a lot of people there! Some how Julia and I didn't run away and we actually won second place. Unfortunately Brave Heart's costume was too good. I'm glad we did it, even if we did get tricked into participating.
I hope everyone else had a good Halloween too!
Monday, October 18, 2010
Monday Update
Hey everyone. I'm sitting in my office wearing my outdoor coat because there is an uncomfortable draft coming through the closed windows. Brr. October has been an interesting month weather-wise, its rained and shined and the temperature has dropped drastically. Last night I went for a walk with a friend and my sweatshirt, scarf and long pants still left me feeling colder than I would have liked.
Exciting news: My boss has agreed to let me sign for an additional seven months, so my contract can go until early August of 2011. I'm really thrilled because I'm not ready to leave Seoul yet, I have a job, good friends and a comfortable life here and January is just too soon to leave.
I got to talk to my mom and Eva for the first time in months last week. Both of them are doing well. Eva's in Denmark and living a good life, she was approved for her Danish citizenship and she's been taking intensive Danish classes for the past couple months. I really want to go visit her there when I'm done teaching.
I had my second photo shoot yesterday. It was really fun. I like Robin, the photographer, he's fun to work with. The only strange part of the shoot was that the studio booked another group to start exactly when we were scheduled to finish, with no time in between. As we're finishing the final shoot, which required the most dramatic makeup, the next group just bursts in, and it was so awkward. I'm trying to ignore a group of people walking around us, so rude. Who does that? Robin said the pictures should be ready soon so I'll upload some.
Exciting news: My boss has agreed to let me sign for an additional seven months, so my contract can go until early August of 2011. I'm really thrilled because I'm not ready to leave Seoul yet, I have a job, good friends and a comfortable life here and January is just too soon to leave.
I got to talk to my mom and Eva for the first time in months last week. Both of them are doing well. Eva's in Denmark and living a good life, she was approved for her Danish citizenship and she's been taking intensive Danish classes for the past couple months. I really want to go visit her there when I'm done teaching.
I had my second photo shoot yesterday. It was really fun. I like Robin, the photographer, he's fun to work with. The only strange part of the shoot was that the studio booked another group to start exactly when we were scheduled to finish, with no time in between. As we're finishing the final shoot, which required the most dramatic makeup, the next group just bursts in, and it was so awkward. I'm trying to ignore a group of people walking around us, so rude. Who does that? Robin said the pictures should be ready soon so I'll upload some.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
사랑니 (Love Teeth)
Two posts in one day, impressive I know. This was just too sweet to forget: I just had class with one of my students, he's a senior in university and he's getting ready to go abroad to the US for a year. He needs to get his wisdom teeth removed before he leaves, so we were talking about the dentist and the different names for different proceedures. I told him he needed his wisdom teeth removed.
Student: We called them 사랑니 SaRangNa.
Me: SaRang means love right?
Student: Yes, they are called Love Teeth.
Me: Why are they called Love Teeth?
Student: Because you are old enough to be in love when you them.
I thought that was pretty cute and wanted to share it.
Student: We called them 사랑니 SaRangNa.
Me: SaRang means love right?
Student: Yes, they are called Love Teeth.
Me: Why are they called Love Teeth?
Student: Because you are old enough to be in love when you them.
I thought that was pretty cute and wanted to share it.
Hey Again
The summer has come and gone and I didn't make any time for my blog, sorry about that. I'm turning into a white stereotype I guess. The other day I was in a book store, looking for some new reading material, when I came across the book "Stuff White People Like". I picked it up and after too many of the items on the list applied to me I put the book down, I ain't no stereotype. mutter mutter. One of the items said: Starting a Blog and Never Updating it. Gah. So to prove that list wrong, here I go.
I got a new office at work and it's definitely an upgrade. More space. More windows. 3ftx4ft World Map over my computer? Holla. I really like the map and it gives my daydreaming mind even more inspiration to imagine my extensive post-Korea travels.
It's starting to get a bit nippy outside, I pulled my jacket out of the closet and it's been a constant companion this week. I'm not ready for Korean winter again. It was so cold last year.
This upcoming weekend should be exciting, there is a free local music festival in Seoul on Saturday followed by a fireworks show and then on Sunday my Canadian friends want to have a Canadian Thanksgiving dinner. It'll give me some good blogging material (hopefully).
I'm doing well and I hope all of you are as well :)
I got a new office at work and it's definitely an upgrade. More space. More windows. 3ftx4ft World Map over my computer? Holla. I really like the map and it gives my daydreaming mind even more inspiration to imagine my extensive post-Korea travels.
It's starting to get a bit nippy outside, I pulled my jacket out of the closet and it's been a constant companion this week. I'm not ready for Korean winter again. It was so cold last year.
This upcoming weekend should be exciting, there is a free local music festival in Seoul on Saturday followed by a fireworks show and then on Sunday my Canadian friends want to have a Canadian Thanksgiving dinner. It'll give me some good blogging material (hopefully).
I'm doing well and I hope all of you are as well :)
Sunday, June 6, 2010
You haven't REALLY lived in Seoul until strangers yell at you on the street
Like I mentioned before the Spring never happened and we are already rapidly plunging into Summer and its heat and humidity. The sudden weather change has left me in a dilemma of what to wear. I've been happily wearing dresses with tights, but now with the high temps and humidity ratios, tights are not a pleasant option but neither is getting stared at for not wearing them.
The other day I bought a couple of dresses at one of the underground malls, these places are awesome in the sense that I can buy three dresses and a cardigan for $35, but less than ideal when there are no dressing rooms. I've gotten pretty accurate at holding the dress up to myself and judging the length appropriateness but not always. One of the dresses was... a little short when I tried it on at home...but it was at an inappr-pro debateable length. It's not THAT short... errrr?
This morning I woke up to a coffeeless house and I couldn't quite think straight as I retried my outfit. I studied the dress in the mirror... maybe if I wear the cardigan with it! Tights? No tights? No tights got me down one flight of stairs until I felt like I was walking around without pants on and I ran back up to my studio.
I took the train to work and I was walking through the station feeling uncomfortably aware of myself, why was she looking at me? Is it because of the dress length (*Note to people back home: the average dress length in Korea is super super short compared to back home) Then a crazy ranting man that was waving an empty soda bottle in the air started directing his indiscriminate shouting at me, in Korean so I didn't know what he was saying. A;; I heard was "happa" or what I had thought was "heffer".
I asked one of the Korean tutors at work, "what does heffer, or haffa mean in Korea?"
Korean tutor, "not haffa, happa. it means "you're easy".."
Well I guess that answers the question about my dress being inappropriate.
The other day I bought a couple of dresses at one of the underground malls, these places are awesome in the sense that I can buy three dresses and a cardigan for $35, but less than ideal when there are no dressing rooms. I've gotten pretty accurate at holding the dress up to myself and judging the length appropriateness but not always. One of the dresses was... a little short when I tried it on at home...but it was at an inappr-pro debateable length. It's not THAT short... errrr?
This morning I woke up to a coffeeless house and I couldn't quite think straight as I retried my outfit. I studied the dress in the mirror... maybe if I wear the cardigan with it! Tights? No tights? No tights got me down one flight of stairs until I felt like I was walking around without pants on and I ran back up to my studio.
I took the train to work and I was walking through the station feeling uncomfortably aware of myself, why was she looking at me? Is it because of the dress length (*Note to people back home: the average dress length in Korea is super super short compared to back home) Then a crazy ranting man that was waving an empty soda bottle in the air started directing his indiscriminate shouting at me, in Korean so I didn't know what he was saying. A;; I heard was "happa" or what I had thought was "heffer".
I asked one of the Korean tutors at work, "what does heffer, or haffa mean in Korea?"
Korean tutor, "not haffa, happa. it means "you're easy".."
Well I guess that answers the question about my dress being inappropriate.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
MAY!!!
I woke up today in a suspiciously good mood (has someone been putting something in my morning coffee?) the sun was shining, I enjoyed the company of a student who is usually good at monotonistic attempts to lull me to sleep, and I had another really good conversation with a student about the current North-South issue at hand.
A friend from back home recommended a podcast called "Risk" to me, and I've been listening to it nonstop for the last week. So obsessively have I been listening that I've gone through the entire series. What's good about Risk is that each episode features multiple standup comedians and if I like their stuff I can just go to their own websites and listen to more. This is very good because usually when I finish a stint of obsessively watching a series like Six Feet Under or True Blood, I'm left feeling very empty after I watch the last episode, wondering "what do I do now?". Well, with Risk "now" I can move onto each comedian I like. Today I spent most of my break listening to Elna Baker, a mormon standup who lives in New York and who wrote a book called "the new york regional mormon singles halloween dance". She's such a good public speaker and story teller and I've been captivated by her all day. I think it's pretty impressive when someone who you have literally nothing in commong with can be interesting and funny and oddly easy to relate to. Go check her out!
It's been quite a while since my last update, and a lot has happened, so I'll try to remember the good stuff and make it sound interesting. May has been probably the best month I've had since I've been here. The winter FINALLY threw in the towel, Julie came to visit, and I got to take off almost an entire week for vacation and I really, really needed it.
This month I've also been expanding my social horizon and spending time with more people and forcing myself to get out of my rut... I mean routine.
When Julie arrived it was so surreal to see her. It was surreal in the sense that it didn't feel weird at all, I felt like I had just seen her the day before. Julie is one of those friends that I feel like years could go by and we would just pick up right where we left off. We chattered all the way from the bus stop to my house, catching up on all the substantial scandals and gossip. "She did what??" I squealed with excitement at every little tidbit of Korean culture that I could point out along the way, marveling in the fact that for once I could play tour guide instead of tourist (take that Tyler and your all knowing knowingness!). I pointed out the dokbuckee stands, and my favorite restaurant, and my local market and then we (well mostly Julie) dragged her suitcase up to the top floor of my hot and sticky apartment.
The next five days were some of the nest days I've had in Korea. There is so much to do in this amazing city, but with my current schedule its pretty difficult to find time to do them. I had a packed itinerary planned for Julies trip, it was a little overly ambitious and reality called and some plans were canceled.... due to hangovers... I mean lack of sleep. But we did manage to hit all the important touristy spots, we went to Namsan, Namdaemon market, Insadong, Hongdae, World Cup Stadium for a friendly match between Ecuador and Korea and we even went to the DMZ. We went to the DMZ the day before SK declared that it wasm in fact, NK that sunk the ship in March.
The DMZ was interesting but strange, every minute was monitored and controlled. Whenever we went to a location we had "five minutes of free time" and most of the interesting places were in the NO PHOTO ZONE so most of our pictures are on the bus, or standing around in a random place that could be anywhere. The third tunnel and the joint security area were my favorite places. I technically have been in north korea now.
One of the most humorous and awkward parts of the day was the Julie-And-Nadja-Try-To-Take-A-Picture-With-A-Soldier challenge. First we were too shy to ask any of the guards permission, so we tried to take "candid shots in front of buildings" oops, did he end up in the picture in the background? But those pictures were taken haphazardly out of fear and ended up pretty bad and would not make the facebook cut, so next we considered asking them.
At the observation tower (where we couldn't see north korea due to the weather) I kept dancing around one of the soldiers trying to muster up the courage to ask if I could take a picture with him, but right as I was about to blurt out the question with my eager camera in hand a Japanese tourist started poking the DMZ display with his umbrella and the soildier ran at him. Fail #2. Finally we went to the JSA and we got to enter the building that covers north and south soil. In the building there were two soldiers, frozen in their military stance like the guards at Buckingham Palace, with aviators and clenched fists. The tour guide informed the group that we could stand by them and take pictures ... "but don't get too close!" she warned. So Julie and I went to take our pictures with the soldiers and let me tell you.. taking a picture without someone's permission is a what-in-the-michael-cera awkward! Not only do you stand next to this poor soldier that can't move, you also have to worry about getting too close. What is too close? Will I vaguely hear the word "Anniyo!" before being battoned over the head? So, after we took our pictures and looked at them they were so awkward that I might send them into awkwardfamilyphotos.com (just kidding julie... I deleted them...) so Fail #3. Did I mention we were wearing brigth yellow and blue rain ponchos?
Much more to write but I have to do some work. More updates soon(ish) I swear.
A friend from back home recommended a podcast called "Risk" to me, and I've been listening to it nonstop for the last week. So obsessively have I been listening that I've gone through the entire series. What's good about Risk is that each episode features multiple standup comedians and if I like their stuff I can just go to their own websites and listen to more. This is very good because usually when I finish a stint of obsessively watching a series like Six Feet Under or True Blood, I'm left feeling very empty after I watch the last episode, wondering "what do I do now?". Well, with Risk "now" I can move onto each comedian I like. Today I spent most of my break listening to Elna Baker, a mormon standup who lives in New York and who wrote a book called "the new york regional mormon singles halloween dance". She's such a good public speaker and story teller and I've been captivated by her all day. I think it's pretty impressive when someone who you have literally nothing in commong with can be interesting and funny and oddly easy to relate to. Go check her out!
It's been quite a while since my last update, and a lot has happened, so I'll try to remember the good stuff and make it sound interesting. May has been probably the best month I've had since I've been here. The winter FINALLY threw in the towel, Julie came to visit, and I got to take off almost an entire week for vacation and I really, really needed it.
This month I've also been expanding my social horizon and spending time with more people and forcing myself to get out of my rut... I mean routine.
When Julie arrived it was so surreal to see her. It was surreal in the sense that it didn't feel weird at all, I felt like I had just seen her the day before. Julie is one of those friends that I feel like years could go by and we would just pick up right where we left off. We chattered all the way from the bus stop to my house, catching up on all the substantial scandals and gossip. "She did what??" I squealed with excitement at every little tidbit of Korean culture that I could point out along the way, marveling in the fact that for once I could play tour guide instead of tourist (take that Tyler and your all knowing knowingness!). I pointed out the dokbuckee stands, and my favorite restaurant, and my local market and then we (well mostly Julie) dragged her suitcase up to the top floor of my hot and sticky apartment.
The next five days were some of the nest days I've had in Korea. There is so much to do in this amazing city, but with my current schedule its pretty difficult to find time to do them. I had a packed itinerary planned for Julies trip, it was a little overly ambitious and reality called and some plans were canceled.... due to hangovers... I mean lack of sleep. But we did manage to hit all the important touristy spots, we went to Namsan, Namdaemon market, Insadong, Hongdae, World Cup Stadium for a friendly match between Ecuador and Korea and we even went to the DMZ. We went to the DMZ the day before SK declared that it wasm in fact, NK that sunk the ship in March.
The DMZ was interesting but strange, every minute was monitored and controlled. Whenever we went to a location we had "five minutes of free time" and most of the interesting places were in the NO PHOTO ZONE so most of our pictures are on the bus, or standing around in a random place that could be anywhere. The third tunnel and the joint security area were my favorite places. I technically have been in north korea now.
One of the most humorous and awkward parts of the day was the Julie-And-Nadja-Try-To-Take-A-Picture-With-A-Soldier challenge. First we were too shy to ask any of the guards permission, so we tried to take "candid shots in front of buildings" oops, did he end up in the picture in the background? But those pictures were taken haphazardly out of fear and ended up pretty bad and would not make the facebook cut, so next we considered asking them.
At the observation tower (where we couldn't see north korea due to the weather) I kept dancing around one of the soldiers trying to muster up the courage to ask if I could take a picture with him, but right as I was about to blurt out the question with my eager camera in hand a Japanese tourist started poking the DMZ display with his umbrella and the soildier ran at him. Fail #2. Finally we went to the JSA and we got to enter the building that covers north and south soil. In the building there were two soldiers, frozen in their military stance like the guards at Buckingham Palace, with aviators and clenched fists. The tour guide informed the group that we could stand by them and take pictures ... "but don't get too close!" she warned. So Julie and I went to take our pictures with the soldiers and let me tell you.. taking a picture without someone's permission is a what-in-the-michael-cera awkward! Not only do you stand next to this poor soldier that can't move, you also have to worry about getting too close. What is too close? Will I vaguely hear the word "Anniyo!" before being battoned over the head? So, after we took our pictures and looked at them they were so awkward that I might send them into awkwardfamilyphotos.com (just kidding julie... I deleted them...) so Fail #3. Did I mention we were wearing brigth yellow and blue rain ponchos?
Much more to write but I have to do some work. More updates soon(ish) I swear.
Monday, May 3, 2010
I suppose Winter is officially over, not because Spring is here, but because it's Summer now. Where did Spring go? Where is she hiding? Just a mere five days ago we had the coldest recorded day in April in 100 years, and now it's hot, humid and muggy... say what?
Though I did not like the bitter cold, due to my poor circulation and being overly coddled by California weather, it did serve an important function: masking the Seoul stench. This morning as I walked to the bus stop I tried to think of the best ways to describe the smells that were attacking my nostrils... but nothing could quite compare, no words to do these smells justice, until I remembered the Labyrinth. Walking along the streets and going down wind of the sewer is like taking a trip to the Bog of Eternal Stench. Don't let one of those greyish puddles touch you or you'll never get the smell off! and don't even get me started on the Pigeons, the pigeons back home look like cuddly Disney characters compared to the ones here. I'm been contemplating making an album entirely devoted to these decrepit creatures, but maybe I shouldn't permanently scar myself and others.
May is shaping up to be pretty great so far. Last weekend I forced myself to break my usual weekend routine and spent some time with new people and it was great. I went out with two of my friends that I hadn't seen in a while and I met their Italian friends. Imagine the aggressively flirty Italian stereotype paired with shy and reserved Korean girls, it was like an ongoing comedy sketch. "Pretty lady, you have boyfriend??" There must have been three different groups of girls that came and sat with us and then quickly got freaked out by all the thigh touching and sexual innuendos until they ran off. Pretty hilarious.
On Saturday I met a group of Canadians and everyone was so nice, it's true what they say (except about Tyler) about Canadians being the nicest people. Even though I had just met them I felt really comfortable talking with them, and it was an all around positive experience.
Then on Sunday I went to a Doosan Bear's baseball game and enjoyed my sunday with some Cass, friends, and a slight sunburn.
Even though today is Tuesday, it's more like a Friday because we have tomorrow off as a national holiday. I was planning on going to the beach but alas, nature has decided to literally rain on my parade, so I'll have to come up with something else. Cheers!
Though I did not like the bitter cold, due to my poor circulation and being overly coddled by California weather, it did serve an important function: masking the Seoul stench. This morning as I walked to the bus stop I tried to think of the best ways to describe the smells that were attacking my nostrils... but nothing could quite compare, no words to do these smells justice, until I remembered the Labyrinth. Walking along the streets and going down wind of the sewer is like taking a trip to the Bog of Eternal Stench. Don't let one of those greyish puddles touch you or you'll never get the smell off! and don't even get me started on the Pigeons, the pigeons back home look like cuddly Disney characters compared to the ones here. I'm been contemplating making an album entirely devoted to these decrepit creatures, but maybe I shouldn't permanently scar myself and others.
May is shaping up to be pretty great so far. Last weekend I forced myself to break my usual weekend routine and spent some time with new people and it was great. I went out with two of my friends that I hadn't seen in a while and I met their Italian friends. Imagine the aggressively flirty Italian stereotype paired with shy and reserved Korean girls, it was like an ongoing comedy sketch. "Pretty lady, you have boyfriend??" There must have been three different groups of girls that came and sat with us and then quickly got freaked out by all the thigh touching and sexual innuendos until they ran off. Pretty hilarious.
On Saturday I met a group of Canadians and everyone was so nice, it's true what they say (except about Tyler) about Canadians being the nicest people. Even though I had just met them I felt really comfortable talking with them, and it was an all around positive experience.
Then on Sunday I went to a Doosan Bear's baseball game and enjoyed my sunday with some Cass, friends, and a slight sunburn.
Even though today is Tuesday, it's more like a Friday because we have tomorrow off as a national holiday. I was planning on going to the beach but alas, nature has decided to literally rain on my parade, so I'll have to come up with something else. Cheers!
Thursday, April 29, 2010
4 months in Seoul
Yesterday was the four month mark from the day I arrived in Seoul, it feels like I've been here forever but whenever I tell students the time frame they always exclaim, "you're so new!" April is two days away from being over and winter has still not relented. Yesterday we experienced the coldest day in April in the past 100 years, hmmm, another historic day I didn't want to partake in. I even turned my floor heating on last night, because the morning before it was too hard to get up with the combination of coldness and lack of sleep.
Today was good, I actually got up at 5:30am, not the usual snooze and hide under the covers until 6 routine. I worked out, put together a good outfit, and had some breakfast, a rarity for me. I really need to get in the habit of getting up on time because the morning goes by so smoothly when I don't feel rushed, and there is a significant drop in the "you look so tired" comments.
Yesterday I went over to my friend Sylvia's place. Her and her boyfriend have lived in Korea for the past year and they are about to move back to the States, she's also from California. They are living with a friend's parents in a really nice apartment near Seoul station. The apartment felt like a mansion, a REAL kitchen, multiple rooms and bedrooms. I forgot places like that existed! Sylvia had invited me over to take some of her clothes she was getting rid of. After living in the co-ops and having the Free Pile, my inner vulture sprang at the opportunity to get some good and complimentary stuff. Luckily Sylvia is not only my height, but also very stylish, so I got some great digs. I didn't bring enough clothes with me to Korea so it was nice to get everything.
today, after a nice morning at work I went to Costco with two of my coworkers, and needless to say, I'm not impressed with the Korean costco. Not only was it way too far (a bus transfer, aw hell no) but it was mostly comprised of junky American snacks that I never ate back home. What really turned me against the place was the beer section. Or should I call it the overpriced lager section? No ale! The European beer "section" was four different types of lagers, Becks and Stella (bleck) and guess what counts as premium beer? MGD! Yep, though the only association I can muster up is empty red cups sprawled across someone's lawn in Davis, apparently it's classy stuff over here.
But it wasn't a total bust, I did get two bottles of wine for Sylvia's going away party on Saturday. and they are California wines, so I'm excited. AutoMotor Merlot 2005 (good year?)
I'm still collecting funny comments that my students mak and one of these days I will have a post solely dedicated to it, they can be so funny and harsh. Korean's are known for calling it like it is "you look tired" "you look fat" "fat people are lazy", so the list is ever growing. The other day a student started telling me about how he hates fat people and they make him pessimistic and I had to try my hardest to hold it together. People say the most ridiculous things to me, and I have to nonchalantly check their grammar. I am really improving my poker face though!
In the videos we watch, there is this one character named Danny and he works the night shift at Kinko's and bad things tend to happen to him. I had a class with an uptight and quiet doctor the other day and we watched a video where Danny runs into an old friend who is clearly doing much better in life, after the video I asked my usual, "could you summarize the video for me please?" The doctor furrowed his brow, paused, and then said, "in that video.... danny is a ... loser!" I almost laughed out loud. But I held it in. I gotta go back to work, I'll update more later.
miss you all
Today was good, I actually got up at 5:30am, not the usual snooze and hide under the covers until 6 routine. I worked out, put together a good outfit, and had some breakfast, a rarity for me. I really need to get in the habit of getting up on time because the morning goes by so smoothly when I don't feel rushed, and there is a significant drop in the "you look so tired" comments.
Yesterday I went over to my friend Sylvia's place. Her and her boyfriend have lived in Korea for the past year and they are about to move back to the States, she's also from California. They are living with a friend's parents in a really nice apartment near Seoul station. The apartment felt like a mansion, a REAL kitchen, multiple rooms and bedrooms. I forgot places like that existed! Sylvia had invited me over to take some of her clothes she was getting rid of. After living in the co-ops and having the Free Pile, my inner vulture sprang at the opportunity to get some good and complimentary stuff. Luckily Sylvia is not only my height, but also very stylish, so I got some great digs. I didn't bring enough clothes with me to Korea so it was nice to get everything.
today, after a nice morning at work I went to Costco with two of my coworkers, and needless to say, I'm not impressed with the Korean costco. Not only was it way too far (a bus transfer, aw hell no) but it was mostly comprised of junky American snacks that I never ate back home. What really turned me against the place was the beer section. Or should I call it the overpriced lager section? No ale! The European beer "section" was four different types of lagers, Becks and Stella (bleck) and guess what counts as premium beer? MGD! Yep, though the only association I can muster up is empty red cups sprawled across someone's lawn in Davis, apparently it's classy stuff over here.
But it wasn't a total bust, I did get two bottles of wine for Sylvia's going away party on Saturday. and they are California wines, so I'm excited. AutoMotor Merlot 2005 (good year?)
I'm still collecting funny comments that my students mak and one of these days I will have a post solely dedicated to it, they can be so funny and harsh. Korean's are known for calling it like it is "you look tired" "you look fat" "fat people are lazy", so the list is ever growing. The other day a student started telling me about how he hates fat people and they make him pessimistic and I had to try my hardest to hold it together. People say the most ridiculous things to me, and I have to nonchalantly check their grammar. I am really improving my poker face though!
In the videos we watch, there is this one character named Danny and he works the night shift at Kinko's and bad things tend to happen to him. I had a class with an uptight and quiet doctor the other day and we watched a video where Danny runs into an old friend who is clearly doing much better in life, after the video I asked my usual, "could you summarize the video for me please?" The doctor furrowed his brow, paused, and then said, "in that video.... danny is a ... loser!" I almost laughed out loud. But I held it in. I gotta go back to work, I'll update more later.
miss you all
Friday, April 16, 2010
An Update
Hey all, I'm sitting in my office on a Saturday afternoon, watching the sun toying with the idea of peeping out from behind the clouds (psst, do it Mr. Sun, I dare you!) and waiting for a student to arrive. I had this same student two weeks ago, he books multiple classes on Saturdays and then usually only shows up to the last one. If he wants to ditch his last class... that would be okay... Er, I mean I huge hassle for me.... I'd get off an hour early and who wants that?!
Last night I went out for sam gip sal (I'll learn the spelling some day, maybe..) with the work gang and our new coworker. He's lived in Korea before so he brought a whole bunch of his friends and it was fun to meet some new people. Tyler and I called it early last night and I was home and in bed by 11:30pm.
Last weekend I was really spontaneous, I took an impromptu trip down to Busan because a friend from college was in Korea visiting one of their friends from high school. I'd been really wanting to get out of the city so a familiar face was all the incentive I needed. I'm actually really pleased with myself, I woke up Saturday morning expecting to bum around Seoul and after a quick phone call I found myself sitting on the KTX (Korean version of Amtrak) talking to my new friend Seong Jin about korean grammar as I watched the Korean countryside out of my window.
The KTX was great because I got to see a completely different part of Korea. Busan is on the southern coast, so I passed through almost the entire country. I saw farms and small cities, it was great.
For anyone trying to start conversations with Korean people, all you need is korean homework. I've never successfully studied my Korean on public transportation because as soon as I start looking at my flashcards, my neighbor taps my shoulder and asks me, "you're studying korean?!" I feel like one of those frat boys that takes a cute puppy to a beach and walks in near the bikini clad girls. Seong Jin and I ended up talking for the entire ride and he was humorously irritated when I told him I was visiting a guy.
"So... why are you going to Busan."
"To visit a friend from university."
"How do you know HER?"
"I know HIM from university."
(insert side eye) "hmph, him?"
Woah, woah, buddy we just met, a little ealry for the jealous card. The trick is to pretend you aren't jealous in the beginning and once you've roped me in, then you release the full-on crazy!
After I got to Busan I took a taxi to my friends-friends apartment. I have to admit my jealousy was rapant when I saw he lived in a nice, new, high rise apartment (grr) and then we took an elevator (double grr) up to his funished (ra!) and spacious studio (oh, thats it!). We went out and had some dinner at a restaurant that had bad service and the worst kimchi I've ever had. I don't know if Busan always puts salt in their kimchi, but I'm not a fan.
After dinner we jumped in another taxi (taxi drivers in Busan DO let five people smash into their cabs! score) and went in some direction to some part of Busan. Busan has a lot of really cool, tall buildings. In one of the bars we went to we were on the 14th floor with a beautiful view of the beach. It was nice to smell the ocean and breath fresh air for the first time in almost four months. We went all over the city, but I'm not sure exactly where. I was pretty disoriented being
in a new city, I'm still figuring out everything in Seoul!
(I'm not going to say who I was with because I really want to tell the next part of this story without incriminating anyone)
The next morning I was awaken by loud belligerent yelling at 8am. Two of the guys had burst through the front door yelling about the "damn casino" and all the "damn money" they lost. I doubled checked the clock, yes, it was 8am. We all yelled at them to be quiet, which onyl fueled the fire. One of them picked up a chair and threw it at nothing in the midst of the drunken rant. Then they decided that it was a great time to start blasting music, the beatles?
"You guys shouldn't be shushing us! It's his house! You should be asking us if we're okay... (pause and look at the guy on the floor) is there someone under there with you?" I look up. Yes. Someone had snuck a random girl into the apartment, and she was terrified. She probably had one of those is-this-really-happening-to-me moments. LOL.
Everyone eventually clamed down and we all went back to sleep and we got up to get "breakfast". I had some delicious kimchichige, it was the spiciest one I had ever tried. After breakfast we saw some of the hosts friends, one of which informed us that he had... purchased a lady of the night. A 24 hour one to be specific. um..... yep. Only in Busan right?
I got back on the train and started my long journey home. I had intended to study on the way back but I was so tired I just watched surfthechannel until my computer battery died. Crazy weekend, but I got a good story that I can retell for the rest of my life.
Last night I went out for sam gip sal (I'll learn the spelling some day, maybe..) with the work gang and our new coworker. He's lived in Korea before so he brought a whole bunch of his friends and it was fun to meet some new people. Tyler and I called it early last night and I was home and in bed by 11:30pm.
Last weekend I was really spontaneous, I took an impromptu trip down to Busan because a friend from college was in Korea visiting one of their friends from high school. I'd been really wanting to get out of the city so a familiar face was all the incentive I needed. I'm actually really pleased with myself, I woke up Saturday morning expecting to bum around Seoul and after a quick phone call I found myself sitting on the KTX (Korean version of Amtrak) talking to my new friend Seong Jin about korean grammar as I watched the Korean countryside out of my window.
The KTX was great because I got to see a completely different part of Korea. Busan is on the southern coast, so I passed through almost the entire country. I saw farms and small cities, it was great.
For anyone trying to start conversations with Korean people, all you need is korean homework. I've never successfully studied my Korean on public transportation because as soon as I start looking at my flashcards, my neighbor taps my shoulder and asks me, "you're studying korean?!" I feel like one of those frat boys that takes a cute puppy to a beach and walks in near the bikini clad girls. Seong Jin and I ended up talking for the entire ride and he was humorously irritated when I told him I was visiting a guy.
"So... why are you going to Busan."
"To visit a friend from university."
"How do you know HER?"
"I know HIM from university."
(insert side eye) "hmph, him?"
Woah, woah, buddy we just met, a little ealry for the jealous card. The trick is to pretend you aren't jealous in the beginning and once you've roped me in, then you release the full-on crazy!
After I got to Busan I took a taxi to my friends-friends apartment. I have to admit my jealousy was rapant when I saw he lived in a nice, new, high rise apartment (grr) and then we took an elevator (double grr) up to his funished (ra!) and spacious studio (oh, thats it!). We went out and had some dinner at a restaurant that had bad service and the worst kimchi I've ever had. I don't know if Busan always puts salt in their kimchi, but I'm not a fan.
After dinner we jumped in another taxi (taxi drivers in Busan DO let five people smash into their cabs! score) and went in some direction to some part of Busan. Busan has a lot of really cool, tall buildings. In one of the bars we went to we were on the 14th floor with a beautiful view of the beach. It was nice to smell the ocean and breath fresh air for the first time in almost four months. We went all over the city, but I'm not sure exactly where. I was pretty disoriented being
in a new city, I'm still figuring out everything in Seoul!
(I'm not going to say who I was with because I really want to tell the next part of this story without incriminating anyone)
The next morning I was awaken by loud belligerent yelling at 8am. Two of the guys had burst through the front door yelling about the "damn casino" and all the "damn money" they lost. I doubled checked the clock, yes, it was 8am. We all yelled at them to be quiet, which onyl fueled the fire. One of them picked up a chair and threw it at nothing in the midst of the drunken rant. Then they decided that it was a great time to start blasting music, the beatles?
"You guys shouldn't be shushing us! It's his house! You should be asking us if we're okay... (pause and look at the guy on the floor) is there someone under there with you?" I look up. Yes. Someone had snuck a random girl into the apartment, and she was terrified. She probably had one of those is-this-really-happening-to-me moments. LOL.
Everyone eventually clamed down and we all went back to sleep and we got up to get "breakfast". I had some delicious kimchichige, it was the spiciest one I had ever tried. After breakfast we saw some of the hosts friends, one of which informed us that he had... purchased a lady of the night. A 24 hour one to be specific. um..... yep. Only in Busan right?
I got back on the train and started my long journey home. I had intended to study on the way back but I was so tired I just watched surfthechannel until my computer battery died. Crazy weekend, but I got a good story that I can retell for the rest of my life.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
The creeping cold
I'm laying in bed before I have to go to work and the dull irritation in the back of my throat is getting more prominent each day, yep, it's cold season again. I'm been trying to fight off the startings of my sickness for a couple days, but it's really difficult when students who are clearly sick keep coming into my class and contaminating it! I've already had three students that came in coughing and sniffling throughout the class, as I edged my chair further away in disgust.
"Do you want a tissue Mr. Kim."
"No, no."
"Are you suuure you don't want to go get a tissue?"
I went to the pharmacy yesterday with my symptons written in korean and got two little boxes of some sort of medicine (written entirely in korean of course). Medicine is so cheap over here, it was only 8,000 won for two boxes of medicine. I just hope it works. I'm debating if I should go to my korean class today because I didn't go yesterday and if I can't finish all the homework I don't want to go, but I also don't want to be extremely far behind... hmmm...
I'm trying to will myself to health. "Listen body, you are NOT ruining my weekend, you hear? I've been waiting for a weekend for TWO WHOLE WEEKS and you are getting better!"
We have two new coworkers that we are supposed to take out to dinner tonight, so I'll try to stay for dinner and then run home and sleep again. I just took two more mystery pills so I'm crossing my fingers that they do their magic on me, cheers.
"Do you want a tissue Mr. Kim."
"No, no."
"Are you suuure you don't want to go get a tissue?"
I went to the pharmacy yesterday with my symptons written in korean and got two little boxes of some sort of medicine (written entirely in korean of course). Medicine is so cheap over here, it was only 8,000 won for two boxes of medicine. I just hope it works. I'm debating if I should go to my korean class today because I didn't go yesterday and if I can't finish all the homework I don't want to go, but I also don't want to be extremely far behind... hmmm...
I'm trying to will myself to health. "Listen body, you are NOT ruining my weekend, you hear? I've been waiting for a weekend for TWO WHOLE WEEKS and you are getting better!"
We have two new coworkers that we are supposed to take out to dinner tonight, so I'll try to stay for dinner and then run home and sleep again. I just took two more mystery pills so I'm crossing my fingers that they do their magic on me, cheers.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
나 자... (my name in korean)
It's friday morning and I'm quite sleepy. In the midst of exploring Versailles with my mom, taking pictures and looking at the old british buildings that reminded me of Mary Poppins...it quickly came to my attention that I was in fact, not in France but in my bed in Korea and I had dozed off after my alarm! I got up, assessed the damage... 6:13am, it's okay... as long as I leave NOW. I pulled on the nearest dress shirt I had and hightailed it out of my apartment. Three floors make a pretty dramatic departure when you're running down them. I made it to work on time though, with a couple minutes to spare.
I started Korean classes yesterday with Kathy, Ron and Mark. We're taking them at a rival company right around the corner from my office in Jongno. The class is taught entirely in Korean, which was really intimidating at first, but by the end of the two hour class I had already picked up a few words. It dawned on me how much more effective middle school and high school Spanish classes would have been if it had been taught entirely in Spanish by a native speaker, instead of a pretentious Californian that lived in Spain or Mexico for eight months and felt that they "deeply related" with spanish culture...uh huh...
My Korean teacher is really animated and through her charades and white board comics, we were able to go through the alphabet and a couple words. It doesn't sound that impressive, but I really needed to spend a good two hours going over this alphabet that's so different than my own, and I just don't have the patience to do it by myself.
우 유 is milk ... pronounced oooo (in moon)- you, oo-you
주 리 .. is Julie
잔 었 .. is janice
I started Korean classes yesterday with Kathy, Ron and Mark. We're taking them at a rival company right around the corner from my office in Jongno. The class is taught entirely in Korean, which was really intimidating at first, but by the end of the two hour class I had already picked up a few words. It dawned on me how much more effective middle school and high school Spanish classes would have been if it had been taught entirely in Spanish by a native speaker, instead of a pretentious Californian that lived in Spain or Mexico for eight months and felt that they "deeply related" with spanish culture...uh huh...
My Korean teacher is really animated and through her charades and white board comics, we were able to go through the alphabet and a couple words. It doesn't sound that impressive, but I really needed to spend a good two hours going over this alphabet that's so different than my own, and I just don't have the patience to do it by myself.
우 유 is milk ... pronounced oooo (in moon)- you, oo-you
주 리 .. is Julie
잔 었 .. is janice
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
A Week of Goodbyes and I Told You So's...
Hey everyone out there that reads my blog, it's tuesday night and though I'm quite comfy in my new set of sheets (thanks mom) I must admit I'm feeling a little down. The past week has been a bit rough, I'm facing some of those cultural differences and frustrations that I was warned about, and I'm hitting it right on the 8-12 week mark, geeze do I have to be so predictable? Stupid UCLA study abroad homesickness chart making me feel like a statistic instead of an individual mutter mutter...I don't really want to get into it on a public blog, but lets just say I'm going through the "makes you stronger" part of my experience.
I also had to say goodbye to two good friends in a 24 hour period. My friend and coworker Sean left on monday. Remember the guy that I wrote about who helped me out at the club when the creepers were creepin? Yeah, he's gone back to the land of Bogans and Utes... don't get the reference? Here's an easier one, their country's stereotype tell's his "mate" to play "knifey spoony"... He's back in Australia. We all gathered for an epic night on Saturday, in which most of my friends did incriminating things that I'd love to write about but.. you know... the whole public blog thing, but I can say it was a good night and a nice send off for him. He was one of the main people that I spent time with so I'm sad he's gone.
Then today my friend HyunDok came to Sinchon to have a final lunch with Tyler and I before he leaves for the US indefinitely. He's a really nice guy and I wish I had had more time to get to know him. After we ate we walked around Ewha and had some coffee. During our final chat I had an experience that I don't think I'll ever forget. We were walking along the street, I was on the side with the cars and he was on the inside and he switched spots with me.
He started to explain to me,"In Korea, when men and women are walking, the man should walk on the outside, next to the cars, because it's safer-" No sooner had the words escaped his mouth, when I was startled with a loud sound, I heard the most terrible crash. I looked and about 75-100 ft in front of us a motorcycle was flipping over in the air and crashing into oncoming traffic. I just gasped and froze. A taxi had rammed into the motorcycle and it had hit a wall and then flipped over. I started looking for the person and all I could see was a helmet laying far away from the crash.
HyunDok and I walked over and the man was laying in the street in the most unnatural position and I almost started crying. I was sure he wasn't alive. The taxi driver got out of the car and checked on the man, but he didn't move. Everything happened so fast, we waited for the police to come and finally the man started moving around. I was so shaken up. HyunDok even went into oncoming traffic to retrieve the man's helmet. He was really calm but my nerves were flying all over the place, and when we were walking home and got to the corner a motorcycle drove by and I irrationally grabbed HyunDok's arm (the motorcycle was a good five feet away from him), and he looked at me and asked quite nonchalantly, "haven't you seen something like that before?" No, no and I would have liked to keep it that way. He went on to explain that due to the dangerous driving in Korea, accidents like that happen all the time.
It's been a strange week and I'd like things to go back to the way they were. But even during these rough times I still have great friends. Tyler even drew me a nice comic that had a silly picture of me with stink lines radiating off my head, with the caption: Nadja Smells. Awww. It did make me laugh though. It's a Simpson's reference by the way... hopefully I'm a little more Annie-esk in the next entry.
I also had to say goodbye to two good friends in a 24 hour period. My friend and coworker Sean left on monday. Remember the guy that I wrote about who helped me out at the club when the creepers were creepin? Yeah, he's gone back to the land of Bogans and Utes... don't get the reference? Here's an easier one, their country's stereotype tell's his "mate" to play "knifey spoony"... He's back in Australia. We all gathered for an epic night on Saturday, in which most of my friends did incriminating things that I'd love to write about but.. you know... the whole public blog thing, but I can say it was a good night and a nice send off for him. He was one of the main people that I spent time with so I'm sad he's gone.
Then today my friend HyunDok came to Sinchon to have a final lunch with Tyler and I before he leaves for the US indefinitely. He's a really nice guy and I wish I had had more time to get to know him. After we ate we walked around Ewha and had some coffee. During our final chat I had an experience that I don't think I'll ever forget. We were walking along the street, I was on the side with the cars and he was on the inside and he switched spots with me.
He started to explain to me,"In Korea, when men and women are walking, the man should walk on the outside, next to the cars, because it's safer-" No sooner had the words escaped his mouth, when I was startled with a loud sound, I heard the most terrible crash. I looked and about 75-100 ft in front of us a motorcycle was flipping over in the air and crashing into oncoming traffic. I just gasped and froze. A taxi had rammed into the motorcycle and it had hit a wall and then flipped over. I started looking for the person and all I could see was a helmet laying far away from the crash.
HyunDok and I walked over and the man was laying in the street in the most unnatural position and I almost started crying. I was sure he wasn't alive. The taxi driver got out of the car and checked on the man, but he didn't move. Everything happened so fast, we waited for the police to come and finally the man started moving around. I was so shaken up. HyunDok even went into oncoming traffic to retrieve the man's helmet. He was really calm but my nerves were flying all over the place, and when we were walking home and got to the corner a motorcycle drove by and I irrationally grabbed HyunDok's arm (the motorcycle was a good five feet away from him), and he looked at me and asked quite nonchalantly, "haven't you seen something like that before?" No, no and I would have liked to keep it that way. He went on to explain that due to the dangerous driving in Korea, accidents like that happen all the time.
It's been a strange week and I'd like things to go back to the way they were. But even during these rough times I still have great friends. Tyler even drew me a nice comic that had a silly picture of me with stink lines radiating off my head, with the caption: Nadja Smells. Awww. It did make me laugh though. It's a Simpson's reference by the way... hopefully I'm a little more Annie-esk in the next entry.
Monday, March 22, 2010
yellow dust!
A billboard on the building across the street from my office is telling me to "enjoy temptation" with a picture of a tantalizing slice of pizza. Yeah right, you media serpent, you can't trick me into eating the forbidden pizza, it will open my eyes to a world I don't want to know... a world with, with... sweet pizza! sweet garlic bread! Nooo! I want to go back to the garden of garlic and salty Italian food! But I can't...
Today I didn't start work until 8:30 am (my usual starting time is 7:00am) and I had a rare night of eight hours straight of sleep. I did wake with a start at my standard waking time of 5:30 (yep, those dodged 8am classes that I recoiled from are starting to seem like a piece of cake these days) only to happily close my eyes for an additional hour and a half. I have a nice burst of energy today and I even tried this morning. Gots myself lookin' all purdy.
This past weekend I had my first encounter with the dreaded yellow dust (dust that comes over from China). The yellow dust comes in SK during the spring months and sits in the air like an eerie yellow mist, and yes I finally caved and I have a surgical mask. The weather has been pretty bad this year. Not only has winter decided to stick it's uninvited ass around for a bit longer (Screw you groundhog!) but instead of getting the beautiful spring sun, we instead get her ugly sister Yellowdustilina. Why are the pleasant months always the ones that seem to get shafted? Why is spring two weeks but winter is five months?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Dust
Luckily the dust had cleared by Saturday night and I was able to see Frida and some of my Korea friends who are also from California. We went to this cute little basement bar where there is an hourly charge of 2,000 won, but then the drinks are about 2,000-3,000 won each. Basically an insanely good deal. It was a nice night out in Sinchon.
On Sunday the weather was much, much better and Tyler and I went to go meet another tutor and their student who is moving to the US. We had a going away party for him at Castle Praha, and we stayed for a LONG time. Er... five hours? But it was such fun, it didn't seem that long at all. I met someone for a potential language exchange after I finish my April classes. yay. I also got to skype with a lot of people from back home which was really fun. I have some awesome friends :)
Today I didn't start work until 8:30 am (my usual starting time is 7:00am) and I had a rare night of eight hours straight of sleep. I did wake with a start at my standard waking time of 5:30 (yep, those dodged 8am classes that I recoiled from are starting to seem like a piece of cake these days) only to happily close my eyes for an additional hour and a half. I have a nice burst of energy today and I even tried this morning. Gots myself lookin' all purdy.
This past weekend I had my first encounter with the dreaded yellow dust (dust that comes over from China). The yellow dust comes in SK during the spring months and sits in the air like an eerie yellow mist, and yes I finally caved and I have a surgical mask. The weather has been pretty bad this year. Not only has winter decided to stick it's uninvited ass around for a bit longer (Screw you groundhog!) but instead of getting the beautiful spring sun, we instead get her ugly sister Yellowdustilina. Why are the pleasant months always the ones that seem to get shafted? Why is spring two weeks but winter is five months?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Dust
Luckily the dust had cleared by Saturday night and I was able to see Frida and some of my Korea friends who are also from California. We went to this cute little basement bar where there is an hourly charge of 2,000 won, but then the drinks are about 2,000-3,000 won each. Basically an insanely good deal. It was a nice night out in Sinchon.
On Sunday the weather was much, much better and Tyler and I went to go meet another tutor and their student who is moving to the US. We had a going away party for him at Castle Praha, and we stayed for a LONG time. Er... five hours? But it was such fun, it didn't seem that long at all. I met someone for a potential language exchange after I finish my April classes. yay. I also got to skype with a lot of people from back home which was really fun. I have some awesome friends :)
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Another Friday at the Office
I'm in my office and I just had the best overheard-at-the-office moment. My coworkers are talking about "kiddy fiddlers" or as I know them, pedophiles, and Tyler said that a priest in his area was arrested for that. To which David replied, "there was one at my school as well. He never bothered me even though I was a really cute kid!" Oh, David, he's one of the funniest people I've ever met. Gotta love the English sense of humor.
It's another TGIF, and I'm about to start a nonwork weekend. Two.Whole.Days.Of.Freedom. And how will I use my precious, precious time? I'll go to three museums, walk up the Yonsei mountain, take the train out of the city and then pratice for the 10k I signed up for...you were reading that as sarcastic narrative right? I see much sleep in my near, near future.
Today will be quite productive though, I'm signing up for Korean classes for next month. Everyday from 12-2pm. Yikes. But I've been here almost three months and learned hardly any korean, who would have thought that only speaking english would result in not learning korean? April will be rough with the classes, but it's only a month and I'll be taking the classes with Kathy and Mark.
I hope everyone had a good St. Paddy's day. I went out and had some "green" beer at Beer O Clock, more of an off green. The gang enjoyed a couple pints and some fries with waaay too much mayo and then headed off to bed early. Surprisingly enough, that was the most "wild" St. Patrick's Day I've had in years, mid march finals week in not inducive to Irish style drinking, thanks UCD!
I'll write more after this weekend, which WILL be exciting
It's another TGIF, and I'm about to start a nonwork weekend. Two.Whole.Days.Of.Freedom. And how will I use my precious, precious time? I'll go to three museums, walk up the Yonsei mountain, take the train out of the city and then pratice for the 10k I signed up for...you were reading that as sarcastic narrative right? I see much sleep in my near, near future.
Today will be quite productive though, I'm signing up for Korean classes for next month. Everyday from 12-2pm. Yikes. But I've been here almost three months and learned hardly any korean, who would have thought that only speaking english would result in not learning korean? April will be rough with the classes, but it's only a month and I'll be taking the classes with Kathy and Mark.
I hope everyone had a good St. Paddy's day. I went out and had some "green" beer at Beer O Clock, more of an off green. The gang enjoyed a couple pints and some fries with waaay too much mayo and then headed off to bed early. Surprisingly enough, that was the most "wild" St. Patrick's Day I've had in years, mid march finals week in not inducive to Irish style drinking, thanks UCD!
I'll write more after this weekend, which WILL be exciting
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Why is it still snowing?
California dreaming on such a winters day... So after a couple glorious days of warm weather and sunshine (one day I even wore a shortsleeve shirt without a jacket, whhhaaaa??) the sun yelled, "haha, just kidding!" and flew up behind the clouds and grey skies and cold temperature ensued. Not cool. If it had stayed at a constant cold spell, I would have just sucked it up, but the teasing bits of sun giving me false hope is just rude. Two days ago we had a mini snow storm. As you know, because you know me, I'm from California and we don't do snowstorms so guess my surprise when I was caught outside during the worst of it.
Tyler and I were coming back from work and he decided to stop at the health antonym, the root of obesity, the shrine of regret... okay, maybe I got a McDonald's dinner too... don't judge me! I've already judged myself enough. Anyway, after we left McFatty's, the snow was still falling and I had my handy umbrella out. We carefully walked up the street to avoid repeat falls while the wind started to pick up. Great. We started walking faster when all of a sudden multiple, unmerciless gusts of wind beat us from every direction. My umbrella fought a short, pitiful fight before crumpling under the wind's strength. The snow was coming down too hard and too fast so I couldn't see and I just continued to blindly move forward, with people and wind bumping me from every side.
Then another gust of wind hit down like a tidal wave and women started screaming! I had no perception of where Tyler was and the limp skirt that was formally my umbrella directed me right into (like, inside) of a tent! Oops.
Luckily, this was only about fifteen seconds, but boy... those were a long fifteen seconds. After the winds subsided and the people started to move I heard Tyler calling my name and we made it home safe and sound. The Micky Ds was cold when we ate it, but I deserved it after that scary walk!
Tyler and I were coming back from work and he decided to stop at the health antonym, the root of obesity, the shrine of regret... okay, maybe I got a McDonald's dinner too... don't judge me! I've already judged myself enough. Anyway, after we left McFatty's, the snow was still falling and I had my handy umbrella out. We carefully walked up the street to avoid repeat falls while the wind started to pick up. Great. We started walking faster when all of a sudden multiple, unmerciless gusts of wind beat us from every direction. My umbrella fought a short, pitiful fight before crumpling under the wind's strength. The snow was coming down too hard and too fast so I couldn't see and I just continued to blindly move forward, with people and wind bumping me from every side.
Then another gust of wind hit down like a tidal wave and women started screaming! I had no perception of where Tyler was and the limp skirt that was formally my umbrella directed me right into (like, inside) of a tent! Oops.
Luckily, this was only about fifteen seconds, but boy... those were a long fifteen seconds. After the winds subsided and the people started to move I heard Tyler calling my name and we made it home safe and sound. The Micky Ds was cold when we ate it, but I deserved it after that scary walk!
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Seoul Microbrewery Challenge
Sitting in my new office with the sunshine pouring in my window and some free time inspired me to do some further research on the Seoul microbrewery quest. I've been eagerly awaiting the Korean Herald's follow up article on microbreweries north of the Han river ever since I read the first one about the southern microbreweries. http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2010/01/29/201001290056.asp I've already knocked two of the breweries off my list, Platinum and Castle Praha. I liked Castle Praha a lot, the atmosphere was nice, the beer was good and the staff was great and spoke perfect english. They only had three beers on tap, but all three of them were good and their flight deal is pretty good: 10 beers for 35,000 won, which can be split among multiple people or not shared for the more ambitious types. Platinum had a bigger selection but the beers just weren't good. I prefer quality to quantity. While I was researching, combing through the dismal web results for "seoul microbreweries" I was surprised to find review after review praising Platinum. The brewery has two locations and I've only been to one, but I would be pretty shocked if the quality of beer differed that drastically from one restaurant to the next. I'm determined that there is a better brewery out there and I'm going to find it.
Since I have 40 weeks to go before the end of my contract I want to try all the microbreweries on the Korean Herald list, as well as hopefully finding a couple gems of my own to contribute to the tiresome search for a perfect pint in Seoul. I'm tired of settling for Cass and I'm not willing to pay 13,ooo won for a pint of Guiness so I'll search, sample and update whenever I find something good and if anyone else knows a good direction to point me in, let me know. Cheers.
Since I have 40 weeks to go before the end of my contract I want to try all the microbreweries on the Korean Herald list, as well as hopefully finding a couple gems of my own to contribute to the tiresome search for a perfect pint in Seoul. I'm tired of settling for Cass and I'm not willing to pay 13,ooo won for a pint of Guiness so I'll search, sample and update whenever I find something good and if anyone else knows a good direction to point me in, let me know. Cheers.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
A girl could get used to these 3 day weekends
I'm spending my monday afternoon lazing about my apartment and feeling quite content with the past 72 hours. This weekend was another glorious three day weekend and I had a wonderful time.
Friday was Tyler's birthday so as I eagerly watched the clock tick until I got off work and I was pleasantly surprised by a last minute cancelation that freed me an hour and a half earlier than usual. We started the night at a nearby bar called Spicybees that has a decently priced house beer (4,000 won for a large skooner). Tyler and two of our coworkers went there as we waited for everyone else to get off at their usual time. Daeji bulgogi was the dinner plan for the night and we squeezed a good ten people at the restaurant. Another korean restaurant where you get to cook the food at the table, yummy.
After the food, a couple of us headed back to Sinchon to surprise surprise... beer o clock, where a few more people bought tyler birthday shots and then Sean, our designated walker, walked young Tyler home.
At Tyler's b-day lunch, Tyler and one of the Matt's (I now hangout with three Matts here, most popular boy's name of 1985) and I got to watch the live olympic figure skating of Yuna Kim. It was pretty amazing. I remember watching the figure skating when I was really young and loving it. Tyler and Matt oogled the skaters and I laughed at the outfits. Yuna Kim was so talented and it was quite the experience to watch her because the restauarant fell silent as soon as she started. The servers stopped working and all noise ceased as we all watched in awe as she performed perfectly. I was a little nervous for her as I watched because there was so much pressure on her to do well, some of my students have said things that implied that she wouldn't be welcome back without a gold medal. But she was great, and did significantly better than the silver medalist from Japan.
On saturday I met some people from the site meetup.com to go to a microbrewery called Castle Praha in Hongdae. I was a little nervous before I went, it seems like there is an endless supply of crazy people on the internet, but I hoped for the best. They were awesome. We walked around slightly lost for about 45 minutes trying to find castle praha, which looks like a castle but it didn't matter because we all got along. I had a really nice time talking with the three of them and I was really glad I went. Castle Praha was 100 times better than Platinum Brewery beer-wise. The place is a converted church with a castle theme (knights in the hallway) and the inside is quite cave like (I'm noticing the cave thing is quite popular over here). They had three beers on tap, the pilsner, an amber and a dunkle. My favorite was the dunkle, but the pilsner was probably the best pilsner I've ever had (I'm not a pilsner fan and this didn't really taste like a pilsner, which is probably why i liked it). the deal was 10 beers for 35,000 won so I was WASTED when we left! No, just kidding, I split it with two of the guys. And they even had an old fashioned popcorn machine, which reminded me of the Albatross (nostalgic sigh).
On Saturday night I got a call from a friend of mine from high school who is also living in Seoul, which was a pleasant surprise because I didn't think she was back yet. My coworkers and I met up with her and her friends at a cool bar called OI Club in Hongdae. At the door you take off your shoes and receive a feather headband (which I wore!) and then you walk along a narrow corridor that looks like a cave. The bar itself was so cool, the interior looked like an ice cave with small enclaves to sit with your friends, and a dance floor that was covered in balloons and a dj, and the drinks weren't too pricey, I can see myself going back there in the future. We all chatted and laughed and a good time was had by all.
On Sunday a couple of friends and I went to the N. Seoul Tower on Namsan Mt. Tyler, Matt and I were running a little late to meet everyone so we were disappointed to find a mile long line to take to cable car up the moutain... since they are strapping Canadian boys who probably hiked ten miles to school everyday and wrestled moose for fun, they thought we could just power walk up the mountain and get there faster... I could do that too! Right...?
Team Canada set an alarmingly impressive pace up the steep steps as Queen Amerifat huffed and puffed quite a few paces behind. I got to the point where I couldn;t even talk because I was so tired and out of breath. and get this, those unchivalrous hosers wouldn't even carry me! Can you believe that? After about twenty minutes of me seeing my life flash before my eyes and a strange stabbing sensation in my lungs we finally made it to the top of the steps.
We met our friends and went up to the tower. The tower is circular and you can get a 360 view of the city. Unfortunately it was a tad overcast that day so the view wasn't as grand as usual. tha bathrooms have floor to ceiling windows so you can enjoy the view even as you pee! And, like everything else in Seoul, the tower caters to couples. Couple go there will locks that they write notes on and lock them to the railing. I took pictures and will post them.
In the evening we went to a Sinchon guy's bachelor party (coed) and enjoyed drinks in Gangnam. All in all it was a grrrreat weekend.
Friday was Tyler's birthday so as I eagerly watched the clock tick until I got off work and I was pleasantly surprised by a last minute cancelation that freed me an hour and a half earlier than usual. We started the night at a nearby bar called Spicybees that has a decently priced house beer (4,000 won for a large skooner). Tyler and two of our coworkers went there as we waited for everyone else to get off at their usual time. Daeji bulgogi was the dinner plan for the night and we squeezed a good ten people at the restaurant. Another korean restaurant where you get to cook the food at the table, yummy.
After the food, a couple of us headed back to Sinchon to surprise surprise... beer o clock, where a few more people bought tyler birthday shots and then Sean, our designated walker, walked young Tyler home.
At Tyler's b-day lunch, Tyler and one of the Matt's (I now hangout with three Matts here, most popular boy's name of 1985) and I got to watch the live olympic figure skating of Yuna Kim. It was pretty amazing. I remember watching the figure skating when I was really young and loving it. Tyler and Matt oogled the skaters and I laughed at the outfits. Yuna Kim was so talented and it was quite the experience to watch her because the restauarant fell silent as soon as she started. The servers stopped working and all noise ceased as we all watched in awe as she performed perfectly. I was a little nervous for her as I watched because there was so much pressure on her to do well, some of my students have said things that implied that she wouldn't be welcome back without a gold medal. But she was great, and did significantly better than the silver medalist from Japan.
On saturday I met some people from the site meetup.com to go to a microbrewery called Castle Praha in Hongdae. I was a little nervous before I went, it seems like there is an endless supply of crazy people on the internet, but I hoped for the best. They were awesome. We walked around slightly lost for about 45 minutes trying to find castle praha, which looks like a castle but it didn't matter because we all got along. I had a really nice time talking with the three of them and I was really glad I went. Castle Praha was 100 times better than Platinum Brewery beer-wise. The place is a converted church with a castle theme (knights in the hallway) and the inside is quite cave like (I'm noticing the cave thing is quite popular over here). They had three beers on tap, the pilsner, an amber and a dunkle. My favorite was the dunkle, but the pilsner was probably the best pilsner I've ever had (I'm not a pilsner fan and this didn't really taste like a pilsner, which is probably why i liked it). the deal was 10 beers for 35,000 won so I was WASTED when we left! No, just kidding, I split it with two of the guys. And they even had an old fashioned popcorn machine, which reminded me of the Albatross (nostalgic sigh).
On Saturday night I got a call from a friend of mine from high school who is also living in Seoul, which was a pleasant surprise because I didn't think she was back yet. My coworkers and I met up with her and her friends at a cool bar called OI Club in Hongdae. At the door you take off your shoes and receive a feather headband (which I wore!) and then you walk along a narrow corridor that looks like a cave. The bar itself was so cool, the interior looked like an ice cave with small enclaves to sit with your friends, and a dance floor that was covered in balloons and a dj, and the drinks weren't too pricey, I can see myself going back there in the future. We all chatted and laughed and a good time was had by all.
On Sunday a couple of friends and I went to the N. Seoul Tower on Namsan Mt. Tyler, Matt and I were running a little late to meet everyone so we were disappointed to find a mile long line to take to cable car up the moutain... since they are strapping Canadian boys who probably hiked ten miles to school everyday and wrestled moose for fun, they thought we could just power walk up the mountain and get there faster... I could do that too! Right...?
Team Canada set an alarmingly impressive pace up the steep steps as Queen Amerifat huffed and puffed quite a few paces behind. I got to the point where I couldn;t even talk because I was so tired and out of breath. and get this, those unchivalrous hosers wouldn't even carry me! Can you believe that? After about twenty minutes of me seeing my life flash before my eyes and a strange stabbing sensation in my lungs we finally made it to the top of the steps.
We met our friends and went up to the tower. The tower is circular and you can get a 360 view of the city. Unfortunately it was a tad overcast that day so the view wasn't as grand as usual. tha bathrooms have floor to ceiling windows so you can enjoy the view even as you pee! And, like everything else in Seoul, the tower caters to couples. Couple go there will locks that they write notes on and lock them to the railing. I took pictures and will post them.
In the evening we went to a Sinchon guy's bachelor party (coed) and enjoyed drinks in Gangnam. All in all it was a grrrreat weekend.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
A slice of pizza but hold the sugar please
There are starting to be bigger gaps in between my posts which means I'm starting to have more of a life over here. As I had mentioned in my last post, my friends and I went to the Platinum Brewery in Apgudong, but unfortunately it did not meet my standard of beer (damn you Trappist for spoiling me). When we got to Platinum we had spent the day in a recreated traditional villiage where we listened to traditional Korean singing, made wishes for the new year (not telling what I wished for), and waited to see an exorcism. We would have stayed to see the exorcism but... it was so cold! Now before you start judging me for being a wimp from California, let me assure you I was wearing two sweatshirts and a jacket, boots, a scarf and I was still freezing. My friends from the east coast (where it gets quite cold) we also shaking in their respective boots. We shivered through the songs and opening scenes, lots of fruit and a dead tatooed pig (..?)
The villiage itself was pretty neat, all the houses had been moved from their original locations to recreate an old village. Once the cold had gotten to us we retreated to the metro to go to Apgudong to have some quality beer. After some unsure wanderings we were thrilled when we finally found the place and snatched the best booth in the joint (so.. the biggest). Tyler and some more sinchon people met up with us and also one of my friends from Gangnam that I trained with joined us as well. The company was great, the beer... not so much. I was pretty disappointed that the top ranked microbrewery served crap beer. I was so excited to try the belgium white beer, waiting in giddy anticipation as the server brought it over to our booth, and what did I taste? Hmm how to describe the horror? Maybe imagine what a budweiser would taste like after it was a year old from sitting in a hot garage. It was skunky, gross, cardboard-y, yeah basically any flavor that has a correlation with old beer. It was so gross. I couldn't even finish it. Ron was nice enough to drink it for me so I could get another beer. Since it was unlimited beer from 5:30-8:30 you would get one glass and it was refilled whenever you finished one.
Since we had a three day weekend the following week flew by. Another sickness is floating around the office and I'm a little worried about it. I'm going to take it easy this week. This last week I watched the entire first and second season of True Blood, I recommend that show to anyone that has free time it's really good. It's about vampires in the south. Anna Paquin stars in it and I've always liked her, anyone rememeber Fly Away Home?
This weekend was pretty short because I had another Saturday work day but I did go to the War Museum near Itaewon with Tyler, David and Sean. It seems like most of the museums in Seoul are free which is really nice. We walked around all the old planes and tanks that decorate the exterior of the museum like huge lawn ornaments. The museum was really nice, one of the nicest museums I've ever been to. After the museum Tyler, David and I headed to Beer O Clock to have some western style grub. I was really torn between a burger and pizza and I ended up settling for pizza, not a wise choice. The tomato products overhere ain't what they is back home friends. They are very sugary, the ketchup tastes so sweet... but the pizaa sauce wouldn't be like that right? RIGHT? Wrong... the pizza was sweet. Well at least I know now what korean pizza tastes like and I'm over it. The worst part was David ordered a burger and I had to jealously watch him eat a delicious burger while I ate my sweet pizza (shuddering at the memory).
So in conclusion:
Korea is superior in their metro system (yeah you heard me AC Transit) and their public free museums, but back home we have non-sweet tomato sauce and REAL begium beer.
The villiage itself was pretty neat, all the houses had been moved from their original locations to recreate an old village. Once the cold had gotten to us we retreated to the metro to go to Apgudong to have some quality beer. After some unsure wanderings we were thrilled when we finally found the place and snatched the best booth in the joint (so.. the biggest). Tyler and some more sinchon people met up with us and also one of my friends from Gangnam that I trained with joined us as well. The company was great, the beer... not so much. I was pretty disappointed that the top ranked microbrewery served crap beer. I was so excited to try the belgium white beer, waiting in giddy anticipation as the server brought it over to our booth, and what did I taste? Hmm how to describe the horror? Maybe imagine what a budweiser would taste like after it was a year old from sitting in a hot garage. It was skunky, gross, cardboard-y, yeah basically any flavor that has a correlation with old beer. It was so gross. I couldn't even finish it. Ron was nice enough to drink it for me so I could get another beer. Since it was unlimited beer from 5:30-8:30 you would get one glass and it was refilled whenever you finished one.
Since we had a three day weekend the following week flew by. Another sickness is floating around the office and I'm a little worried about it. I'm going to take it easy this week. This last week I watched the entire first and second season of True Blood, I recommend that show to anyone that has free time it's really good. It's about vampires in the south. Anna Paquin stars in it and I've always liked her, anyone rememeber Fly Away Home?
This weekend was pretty short because I had another Saturday work day but I did go to the War Museum near Itaewon with Tyler, David and Sean. It seems like most of the museums in Seoul are free which is really nice. We walked around all the old planes and tanks that decorate the exterior of the museum like huge lawn ornaments. The museum was really nice, one of the nicest museums I've ever been to. After the museum Tyler, David and I headed to Beer O Clock to have some western style grub. I was really torn between a burger and pizza and I ended up settling for pizza, not a wise choice. The tomato products overhere ain't what they is back home friends. They are very sugary, the ketchup tastes so sweet... but the pizaa sauce wouldn't be like that right? RIGHT? Wrong... the pizza was sweet. Well at least I know now what korean pizza tastes like and I'm over it. The worst part was David ordered a burger and I had to jealously watch him eat a delicious burger while I ate my sweet pizza (shuddering at the memory).
So in conclusion:
Korea is superior in their metro system (yeah you heard me AC Transit) and their public free museums, but back home we have non-sweet tomato sauce and REAL begium beer.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Snow, Cookies, Seoul
This morning I woke up wishing it was an hour earlier as I peeled myself out of bed. Thursday mornings are always a little rougher than the rest because it's the morning after Humpday Beers, as dubbed by Tyler. The Sinchon crew and some Jongno coworkers went to HotSun, the chicken and beer place and had our usual beers and midweek catch-up.
I learned some interesting things last night, besides Kathy and myself, it sounded like everyone had been to their fair share of stripclubs and the comparisons between American and Canadian stipclubs were pretty ridiculous. Apparently Canadian strippers are mean, like, whip-you-with-a-belt mean. My friends recounted their experiences at Canadian stripclubs where they were either humiliated or beaten, that doesn't sound too appealing to me, but I guess whatever floats your boat. One of their friends was tied to a chair and then a stipper poured ice cold water down his shorts, and one of my friends said that at his going away party he specifically didn't wear a belt as a precautionary measure but he still got hit with a belt a couple times regardless.
Since today is Thursday I've been asking a lot of my students what their plans for the long weekend are. This weekend, February 14th is Valentine's Day AND lunar new year. Lunar new year is a very important holiday in Korea and people are expected to spend it with their families. One of my students told me that families make a big feast and spend time together kind of like Christmas for me.
i'm really looking forward to Valentine's Day this year, some of my friends and I are going to Olympic Park and then to Platinum Brewery. The Korean Herald is doing a two week piece on microbreweries in Seoul and needless to say, I'm pretty excited. It'll be nice to drink decent beer again, I miss it so! On Valentine's Day women are expected to give chocolate to men, and since I'm single I'm going to give chocolate to my friends, who all conveniently are guys. A student gave me some homemade chocolate hearts in a cute gold wrapped box yesterday and it was so sweet I took a picture, my first present! (** A lot of students give presents to their teachers here, it's not weird)
Since it's snowing today I opted to go to the grocery store and buy some milk and cookies to go with my coffee and then curl up in my warm apartment and listen to Christmas music (it's really hard to not think of Christmas songs in the snow)
I learned some interesting things last night, besides Kathy and myself, it sounded like everyone had been to their fair share of stripclubs and the comparisons between American and Canadian stipclubs were pretty ridiculous. Apparently Canadian strippers are mean, like, whip-you-with-a-belt mean. My friends recounted their experiences at Canadian stripclubs where they were either humiliated or beaten, that doesn't sound too appealing to me, but I guess whatever floats your boat. One of their friends was tied to a chair and then a stipper poured ice cold water down his shorts, and one of my friends said that at his going away party he specifically didn't wear a belt as a precautionary measure but he still got hit with a belt a couple times regardless.
Since today is Thursday I've been asking a lot of my students what their plans for the long weekend are. This weekend, February 14th is Valentine's Day AND lunar new year. Lunar new year is a very important holiday in Korea and people are expected to spend it with their families. One of my students told me that families make a big feast and spend time together kind of like Christmas for me.
i'm really looking forward to Valentine's Day this year, some of my friends and I are going to Olympic Park and then to Platinum Brewery. The Korean Herald is doing a two week piece on microbreweries in Seoul and needless to say, I'm pretty excited. It'll be nice to drink decent beer again, I miss it so! On Valentine's Day women are expected to give chocolate to men, and since I'm single I'm going to give chocolate to my friends, who all conveniently are guys. A student gave me some homemade chocolate hearts in a cute gold wrapped box yesterday and it was so sweet I took a picture, my first present! (** A lot of students give presents to their teachers here, it's not weird)
Since it's snowing today I opted to go to the grocery store and buy some milk and cookies to go with my coffee and then curl up in my warm apartment and listen to Christmas music (it's really hard to not think of Christmas songs in the snow)
Monday, February 8, 2010
Cool places around every corner
For all of you back in the states it's Superbowl Sunday, but here in Korea it is Superbowl Monday, we are fascinating creatures of the future, more amazing than Avatars.. yeah I saw Avatar yesterday.
Today was pretty good so far, I had the internet installed in my house (FINALLY), but not without a comical round two of "Nadja's Adventures in Miscommunication". The landlord came today with the internet guy, who as opposed to my landlord who knows about ten english words, knows none.
I just pulled out my "teach yourself korean" book and stayed out of his way as he fiddled with his tools, until he starting talking at me in korean and pointing to the spot on the floor next to him. So I scooted closer and he pointed at the screen to a page entirely in korean. I recognized the page from Tyler's computer and gathered that I needed to pick a username and password. After three failed attempts to pick a password (I still don't know why it wasn't working) the internet man became fed up and pulled the computer away, typed something in and said, "this your password!" so he picked it for me.
While he continued to work I got up to make myself some coffee that my wonderful parents sent me. My stove is really finicky (remember I live in a less than stellar place) so you have to attempt to light the gas 2-3 times before it actually works. Well as I was on my third attempt to light it the man ran over and brushed me aside and turned it on, giving me a worried look. At moments like this the whole language barrier is quite frustrating, if I had the ability to talk to him I could calmly say, "sir, thank you for your concern but I'm not a total idiot, I know how to turn my stove on. Clearly I have lived here for a month and the place has not burnt down nor have I died in a gas den!" But since I only know a few words and none of them convey the above message I had to accept the fact that I would probably be the dinner story later... "this american girl today, what a dim dilly.."
Now that the internet is up and running I feel like my home is really my home. No more listening to my same old music day in and day out.
This past weekend my coworkers and I went out to Hongdae to celebrate the departure of one of the tutors. It was a celebration because he is not so fond of being here and is very excited about going home. We went to three places, the first one was just an average bar and everyone was taking tequila shots. I'm not a fan of tequila so I stuck to beer.
The next place we went to was awesome, it was called 500. The interior is designed, floor to ceiling, like a cave. There are smaller cave rooms that you can sit with your friends in, and a big long tables in the larger room. The snacks they provide with the drinks are better than most places, caramel corn and tangerines. (** All bars provide carbolicious snacks with drinks, usually fruity puffs or pretzels) I will definitely go back there and next time I'll bring a camera.
We ended the night at a korean hiphop club, which was quite the experience. Back home I'm used to a little law called Maximun capacity, over here that doesn't seem to exist. I was okay with that because I had my coat checked and a small purse, but a couple of my coworkers had some claustrophic freakouts and needed to leave.
People were really nice in the club, a lot of people asked me where I was from and got super excited when I said I was from California (thanks mom for raising me in a top tourist state and not in Delaware), and they are really big on high fives over here, because it's considered an American thing to do. A couple people tapped me and then put their hands up for me to highfive, sure, why not?
The only thing that was creepy, but not as bad as clubs in SF, were the anonymous grabbers. Some things are the same everywhere: creepers. This one guy was being extra creepy, so my friend Sean came over and started being creepy to him and he lurked away. Yeah awesome coworkers!
I really wish I had a nice camera because looking out into the club was quite a sight, so many people dancing to the music, it looked like the crowd was a living organ. Green lights flashing and the dj playing korean and american hiphop and you can dance however you want because there are enough people that no one will notice your dorky moves.
Tyler found a local Canadian sports bar called Beer-O-Clock and for all you Davis people, it really reminds me of a nicer version of G Street. It's right around the corner from our apartments, but here's the best best best part.....they have western style brunch on sundays! That is quite difficult to find over here. I had my first tatse of bacon in over a month and a half and it was even better than I remembered. Bacon, scrambled eggs, potatoes, toast and coffee for 9,000, I was very happy.
Today was pretty good so far, I had the internet installed in my house (FINALLY), but not without a comical round two of "Nadja's Adventures in Miscommunication". The landlord came today with the internet guy, who as opposed to my landlord who knows about ten english words, knows none.
I just pulled out my "teach yourself korean" book and stayed out of his way as he fiddled with his tools, until he starting talking at me in korean and pointing to the spot on the floor next to him. So I scooted closer and he pointed at the screen to a page entirely in korean. I recognized the page from Tyler's computer and gathered that I needed to pick a username and password. After three failed attempts to pick a password (I still don't know why it wasn't working) the internet man became fed up and pulled the computer away, typed something in and said, "this your password!" so he picked it for me.
While he continued to work I got up to make myself some coffee that my wonderful parents sent me. My stove is really finicky (remember I live in a less than stellar place) so you have to attempt to light the gas 2-3 times before it actually works. Well as I was on my third attempt to light it the man ran over and brushed me aside and turned it on, giving me a worried look. At moments like this the whole language barrier is quite frustrating, if I had the ability to talk to him I could calmly say, "sir, thank you for your concern but I'm not a total idiot, I know how to turn my stove on. Clearly I have lived here for a month and the place has not burnt down nor have I died in a gas den!" But since I only know a few words and none of them convey the above message I had to accept the fact that I would probably be the dinner story later... "this american girl today, what a dim dilly.."
Now that the internet is up and running I feel like my home is really my home. No more listening to my same old music day in and day out.
This past weekend my coworkers and I went out to Hongdae to celebrate the departure of one of the tutors. It was a celebration because he is not so fond of being here and is very excited about going home. We went to three places, the first one was just an average bar and everyone was taking tequila shots. I'm not a fan of tequila so I stuck to beer.
The next place we went to was awesome, it was called 500. The interior is designed, floor to ceiling, like a cave. There are smaller cave rooms that you can sit with your friends in, and a big long tables in the larger room. The snacks they provide with the drinks are better than most places, caramel corn and tangerines. (** All bars provide carbolicious snacks with drinks, usually fruity puffs or pretzels) I will definitely go back there and next time I'll bring a camera.
We ended the night at a korean hiphop club, which was quite the experience. Back home I'm used to a little law called Maximun capacity, over here that doesn't seem to exist. I was okay with that because I had my coat checked and a small purse, but a couple of my coworkers had some claustrophic freakouts and needed to leave.
People were really nice in the club, a lot of people asked me where I was from and got super excited when I said I was from California (thanks mom for raising me in a top tourist state and not in Delaware), and they are really big on high fives over here, because it's considered an American thing to do. A couple people tapped me and then put their hands up for me to highfive, sure, why not?
The only thing that was creepy, but not as bad as clubs in SF, were the anonymous grabbers. Some things are the same everywhere: creepers. This one guy was being extra creepy, so my friend Sean came over and started being creepy to him and he lurked away. Yeah awesome coworkers!
I really wish I had a nice camera because looking out into the club was quite a sight, so many people dancing to the music, it looked like the crowd was a living organ. Green lights flashing and the dj playing korean and american hiphop and you can dance however you want because there are enough people that no one will notice your dorky moves.
Tyler found a local Canadian sports bar called Beer-O-Clock and for all you Davis people, it really reminds me of a nicer version of G Street. It's right around the corner from our apartments, but here's the best best best part.....they have western style brunch on sundays! That is quite difficult to find over here. I had my first tatse of bacon in over a month and a half and it was even better than I remembered. Bacon, scrambled eggs, potatoes, toast and coffee for 9,000, I was very happy.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Anyang Halla
It's a tuesday morning and I have a gap between classes, so I thought it would be a good time to update my blog. Last weekend I started Friday night by going out with a couple coworkers and grabbing some bbq pork. Most restaurants in Korea don't have private bathrooms, and the public ones are usually in the staircase, they are cold, dirty, and normally out of toilet paper so I was ecstatic when I found a clean private bathroom in the bbq pork place. Score!
On Saturday I woke up not feeling that great (understatement) and when I was abruptly woken up by my cell I was irrationally mad "Whose calling me at this ungodly hour?!" I flipped my phone open to the unfamiliar voice of my landlord. Through broken english I got the gist of what he was trying to convey to me: stay at home. repair men are coming. five minutes. I then looked at the time, 1:20pm, ok fine, not exactly the "morning" but I felt awful.
I unlocked my door and waited for my landlord. When he came in we exchanged a series of points and gestures. I pointed at the broken light and the dripping faucet in my bathroom and he tried speaking Korean at me while I stared at him blankly.
"You stay, STAY." He said.
"Um, ok.."
"Stay home. Repair men... today, tomorrow, monday... okay?"
"What?"
At this point I had already spent two afternoons waiting for these repair men when they were actually scheduled to show up and now he wanted me to wait in my apartment on a Saturday?
"I have to leave at 4." I said, and held up four fingers and then pointed at the door.
"4?"
"Yes, I (point at myself) have to leave (point a door and make korean crossed arm symbol for "no" or "stop") at 4 (hold up four fingers)"
He nodded and left, and I hoped he had understood me. After he left it occurred to me that I had no food, no water and I really wanted to take a shower but I could not do or get any of these things while I waited for the repair men. I snuggled back into my bed and watched the Simpson's while I waited.
Luckily I have nice friends in Korea so Tyler brought me some Chois Tacos (delicious) while I waited for the repair men.
After the repair men finally came it was almost time to go to the Hockey game. Our friend Jae was bringing us to the Korea Halla game vs the Japan Eagles. *** Jae also informed me that people cannot get into the SKY universities with a hockey scholarship so I retract my previous statement.
When I first got to Korea one of the recruiters for my company gave me the english magazine Seoul and there had been an article about Kim Ki-sung, one of the Halla players, he's possibly going to go play for the NHL and he's the top player on Halla. I had mentioned this to Jae, so on the ride to Anyang Jae told me that if Halla won, Kim Ki-sung said I could take a picture with him. (Jae went to university with Kim Ki-sung) I got really excited and nervous and then my "dear" friends Matt and Tyler started calling me a Puck Bunny. I didn't know what it meant but I knew it couldn't be good.
Me (on the defense) "What is a puck bunny?"
Matt, "It's a girl that has a thing for hockey players."
Me, "I don't have a 'thing' for hockey players!"
Matt, "uh, you dated one, you're a puck bunny."
I grumbled to myself while I waited for a retort that never came. This is what happens when I am the only girl. Then Jae asked what a puck bunny was and Matt described it as the equivalent of a groupie and that's when my purse came in quite handy as a weapon.
The game was great, and there was a huge Canadian turn out, in our section there must have been about 35% westerners and all the guys that were sitting behind us were Canadian. In Korea the liquor laws are different so people can bring their own booze to the game, so the guys behind us were chugging vodka out of the most conspicuous bottle they could have brought.
Halla won and we went downstairs to meet Kim Ki-sung. I'm not sure if people take pictures with athletes in Korea because the whole situation felt very awkward. Everyone shuffled me over to Kim Ki-sung and I just sort of stood next to him until Jae started chanting "put your arm around her!" No sooner had he done so did I hear his girlfriend (who was standing behind us) say something in Korean and he whipped his arm away. Awkward. In the final picture I have a goofy smile and he had his hands conservatively at his sides.
In Korean hockey they don't play by the violent north american rules, so there were no fights. But I kept subconsciously expecting a fight the entire time. Tyler noted, quite accurately I think, that Hockey makes you blood thirsty. The guys behind us kept yelling "FIIIIIGHT!!!" To no avail. The closest the game came to a fight was when one of the foreign players, Brock Radunske #25, got annoyed and shoved one of the Japan players. Maybe he forgot what country he was playing in, he IS Canadian.
Then I ended the weekend quite pleasantly but going to a spa with Kathy, we went to "Sinchon Rest" where we paid 6,000 won and got to enjoy hot tubs and saunas for as long as we pleased. They even have napping rooms at spas if you want to take a break. I left with my skin feeling so soft and nice, I will definitely go back there.
On Saturday I woke up not feeling that great (understatement) and when I was abruptly woken up by my cell I was irrationally mad "Whose calling me at this ungodly hour?!" I flipped my phone open to the unfamiliar voice of my landlord. Through broken english I got the gist of what he was trying to convey to me: stay at home. repair men are coming. five minutes. I then looked at the time, 1:20pm, ok fine, not exactly the "morning" but I felt awful.
I unlocked my door and waited for my landlord. When he came in we exchanged a series of points and gestures. I pointed at the broken light and the dripping faucet in my bathroom and he tried speaking Korean at me while I stared at him blankly.
"You stay, STAY." He said.
"Um, ok.."
"Stay home. Repair men... today, tomorrow, monday... okay?"
"What?"
At this point I had already spent two afternoons waiting for these repair men when they were actually scheduled to show up and now he wanted me to wait in my apartment on a Saturday?
"I have to leave at 4." I said, and held up four fingers and then pointed at the door.
"4?"
"Yes, I (point at myself) have to leave (point a door and make korean crossed arm symbol for "no" or "stop") at 4 (hold up four fingers)"
He nodded and left, and I hoped he had understood me. After he left it occurred to me that I had no food, no water and I really wanted to take a shower but I could not do or get any of these things while I waited for the repair men. I snuggled back into my bed and watched the Simpson's while I waited.
Luckily I have nice friends in Korea so Tyler brought me some Chois Tacos (delicious) while I waited for the repair men.
After the repair men finally came it was almost time to go to the Hockey game. Our friend Jae was bringing us to the Korea Halla game vs the Japan Eagles. *** Jae also informed me that people cannot get into the SKY universities with a hockey scholarship so I retract my previous statement.
When I first got to Korea one of the recruiters for my company gave me the english magazine Seoul and there had been an article about Kim Ki-sung, one of the Halla players, he's possibly going to go play for the NHL and he's the top player on Halla. I had mentioned this to Jae, so on the ride to Anyang Jae told me that if Halla won, Kim Ki-sung said I could take a picture with him. (Jae went to university with Kim Ki-sung) I got really excited and nervous and then my "dear" friends Matt and Tyler started calling me a Puck Bunny. I didn't know what it meant but I knew it couldn't be good.
Me (on the defense) "What is a puck bunny?"
Matt, "It's a girl that has a thing for hockey players."
Me, "I don't have a 'thing' for hockey players!"
Matt, "uh, you dated one, you're a puck bunny."
I grumbled to myself while I waited for a retort that never came. This is what happens when I am the only girl. Then Jae asked what a puck bunny was and Matt described it as the equivalent of a groupie and that's when my purse came in quite handy as a weapon.
The game was great, and there was a huge Canadian turn out, in our section there must have been about 35% westerners and all the guys that were sitting behind us were Canadian. In Korea the liquor laws are different so people can bring their own booze to the game, so the guys behind us were chugging vodka out of the most conspicuous bottle they could have brought.
Halla won and we went downstairs to meet Kim Ki-sung. I'm not sure if people take pictures with athletes in Korea because the whole situation felt very awkward. Everyone shuffled me over to Kim Ki-sung and I just sort of stood next to him until Jae started chanting "put your arm around her!" No sooner had he done so did I hear his girlfriend (who was standing behind us) say something in Korean and he whipped his arm away. Awkward. In the final picture I have a goofy smile and he had his hands conservatively at his sides.
In Korean hockey they don't play by the violent north american rules, so there were no fights. But I kept subconsciously expecting a fight the entire time. Tyler noted, quite accurately I think, that Hockey makes you blood thirsty. The guys behind us kept yelling "FIIIIIGHT!!!" To no avail. The closest the game came to a fight was when one of the foreign players, Brock Radunske #25, got annoyed and shoved one of the Japan players. Maybe he forgot what country he was playing in, he IS Canadian.
Then I ended the weekend quite pleasantly but going to a spa with Kathy, we went to "Sinchon Rest" where we paid 6,000 won and got to enjoy hot tubs and saunas for as long as we pleased. They even have napping rooms at spas if you want to take a break. I left with my skin feeling so soft and nice, I will definitely go back there.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
and so it is
Well it's time for an "I spoke too soon" post. I'm not moving. I'm staying at my apartment. Before you start to worry about me, let me assure you that I'm okay..now. I've already gone through the full fives stages of grief according to the Kubler-Ross model. Denial (It's okay, I can move out of here... it's not permanent... they said I can move!... any day now... any day...) Anger (I can't move? They LIED to me!) Bargaining (it's okay, I'll just pay double rent on both places, someone will eventually move in, right?) Depression (Nope, I'm stuck here... I'm in a glass case of emotion) and finally I've settled at Acceptance (Well if I have to live here, I might as well make the most of it).
Honestly, I was angry, very angry a couple of days ago but at this point I've come to terms with the fact that I have to stay at blessed 302 and being mad about it won't change that fact. What happened was the hosuing manager started listing all these fees that I would be required to pay if I moved that hadn't been mentioned before; realtor's fee, moving fee, paying double rent until someone moves into my place, but where is the incentive to get a new person in if they have a paying tenant. I should have figured something was fishy when my conversations with the housing manager went along the lines of:
HM: So... do you still want to move?
Me: Yes.
HM: You sure?
Me: Yes.
(2 days later)
HM: So, do you want to stay at your apartment or move?
Me: Move. Definitely move.
HM: Okay.
(3 days later)
HM: I just wanted to clarify, do you want to move to the new place or stay at yours?
I think he was hoping I would randomly change my mind, then when I didn't all these fees were mentioned and realistically I cannot afford to pay for two apartments, and I don't really want to give the realtor anymore money when I feel that she lured me into an apartment and was dishonest about the construction site.
So now I'm going to start putting my energy into sprucing up my place and making it feel like a home more than a temporary situation. I cleaned the bathroom and put up some pictures that Vicki had given me as a going away present. Now my door has pictures of my birthday and friends and I like the place better already.
Yesterday was Wednesday and that means "Hump Day Beers". Tyler, a couple coworkers, the Sinchon crew and myself have decided to get together for a beer on Wednesday nights to have a nice little social gathering half way through the week. Last night Kathy and her boyfriend suggested that we check out a Chicken and Beer place, which are widely popular in Korea. We went searching for one after we all got off work and we had the choice of four separate Chicken and Beer places in one alley!
I had a really nice time talking with everyone while enjoying some fried and sauced chicken. I felt like I was going through an American rite of passage but in the wrong country. Doesn't chicken and beer make you think of the quintessential American stereotype, like Homer Simpson or Peter Griffin? It was my first chicken and beer experience but definitely not my last. It was tasty, fun and quite cheap.
This weekend Jae has invited Tyler, Matt, Mark and I to the Korean Halla hockey game and I'm soooooo (I could keep going) excited! Korea doesn't have their own league, but is part of the Asia League Ice Hockey (ALH) which has seven teams in Japan, China and South Korea. The game is going to be really exciting because the two top teams are playing each other, so it'll be a close game. We will be rooting for Halla, and I will try my best to resist the urge to throw in the Californian "Holla!" Must not say it..... Holll.....must not......llll....ahhh
I also have a three day weekend coming up in the second week of February, it's the lunar new year and we get friday off. I want to take advantage of my three day weekend, because that'll be the last one that I get until September.
Today I'm going to the immigration office to pick up my Alien Registration Card, and I will finally be legit. I'll update more when there's more to tell.
Honestly, I was angry, very angry a couple of days ago but at this point I've come to terms with the fact that I have to stay at blessed 302 and being mad about it won't change that fact. What happened was the hosuing manager started listing all these fees that I would be required to pay if I moved that hadn't been mentioned before; realtor's fee, moving fee, paying double rent until someone moves into my place, but where is the incentive to get a new person in if they have a paying tenant. I should have figured something was fishy when my conversations with the housing manager went along the lines of:
HM: So... do you still want to move?
Me: Yes.
HM: You sure?
Me: Yes.
(2 days later)
HM: So, do you want to stay at your apartment or move?
Me: Move. Definitely move.
HM: Okay.
(3 days later)
HM: I just wanted to clarify, do you want to move to the new place or stay at yours?
I think he was hoping I would randomly change my mind, then when I didn't all these fees were mentioned and realistically I cannot afford to pay for two apartments, and I don't really want to give the realtor anymore money when I feel that she lured me into an apartment and was dishonest about the construction site.
So now I'm going to start putting my energy into sprucing up my place and making it feel like a home more than a temporary situation. I cleaned the bathroom and put up some pictures that Vicki had given me as a going away present. Now my door has pictures of my birthday and friends and I like the place better already.
Yesterday was Wednesday and that means "Hump Day Beers". Tyler, a couple coworkers, the Sinchon crew and myself have decided to get together for a beer on Wednesday nights to have a nice little social gathering half way through the week. Last night Kathy and her boyfriend suggested that we check out a Chicken and Beer place, which are widely popular in Korea. We went searching for one after we all got off work and we had the choice of four separate Chicken and Beer places in one alley!
I had a really nice time talking with everyone while enjoying some fried and sauced chicken. I felt like I was going through an American rite of passage but in the wrong country. Doesn't chicken and beer make you think of the quintessential American stereotype, like Homer Simpson or Peter Griffin? It was my first chicken and beer experience but definitely not my last. It was tasty, fun and quite cheap.
This weekend Jae has invited Tyler, Matt, Mark and I to the Korean Halla hockey game and I'm soooooo (I could keep going) excited! Korea doesn't have their own league, but is part of the Asia League Ice Hockey (ALH) which has seven teams in Japan, China and South Korea. The game is going to be really exciting because the two top teams are playing each other, so it'll be a close game. We will be rooting for Halla, and I will try my best to resist the urge to throw in the Californian "Holla!" Must not say it..... Holll.....must not......llll....ahhh
I also have a three day weekend coming up in the second week of February, it's the lunar new year and we get friday off. I want to take advantage of my three day weekend, because that'll be the last one that I get until September.
Today I'm going to the immigration office to pick up my Alien Registration Card, and I will finally be legit. I'll update more when there's more to tell.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Welcome to Casa de Gross
I apologise in advance, this blog is going to be a tad ranty, I really cannot wait until I can move out of my apartment.
Yesterday, after a nice day at work, my final student canceled and I was able to get off an entire hour early. Tyler also had a cancelation so we celebrated by enjoying his nice, new internet at his place. We watched a couple episodes of Family Guy, including my favorite epsiode "mother tucker" and ate tangerines (2,000 won for a small bag, cheap and healthy). I called it a night at 10:30ish and scurried up the dark street to my apartment. I know that Korea is 1,000 times safer than the U.S. but being a female walking up a dark street will never feel quite right to me, so I shall continue to run that half block after dark.
Once in my building I was hit with a wall of freezing stale air, how is it colder in my hallway than it is on the street? The lights in the hallway are motion sensitive, but they don't activate until you are directly under the motion sensor which are located at the far end of each hall, so at each new floor I have to wade into the darkness and thoughts of the Grudge and the Ring always make cameos in my head at these vulnerable moments. I was relieved that Mr. Loud-Across-The-Hall guy was not home, and stepped inside my apartment.
When I entered my apartment I learned two things; my bathroom light switch was broken (peculiar because it was not broken when I left in the morning and my paranoid self is wondering if someone was in my apartment when I wasn't there) and my refridgerator that I unplugged because of the ridiculous noise it was making, has a dairy drink in it. Well, the second one is entirely my fault, I absentmindedly thought (swore even) that I had thrown that drink away, alas no, I did not.
So, I cannot move into the new apartment until someone agrees to move into my current apartment, but my housing manager has not taken anyone to see it yet, and now my bathroom light switch is broken and the fridge door smells like something that should be administered as a punishment. Yay me?
This morning I was awaken suddenly by Mr. Loud-Drunk-Jerk-Across-the-Hall, in my disoriented state I looked at my clock, 1:30am, great. I jammed by earplugs in my ear to muffle his drunken yells and by some miracle was able to fall back asleep.
On my way to work this morning I started listing everything wrong with my apartment in my head, and for the sake of my own sanity I really need to get out of there. I hope everything works out okay, my alleged move out day is Feb 8th, but today I am going to be scrubbing that fridge out and buying some heavy duty fabreeze!
Yesterday, after a nice day at work, my final student canceled and I was able to get off an entire hour early. Tyler also had a cancelation so we celebrated by enjoying his nice, new internet at his place. We watched a couple episodes of Family Guy, including my favorite epsiode "mother tucker" and ate tangerines (2,000 won for a small bag, cheap and healthy). I called it a night at 10:30ish and scurried up the dark street to my apartment. I know that Korea is 1,000 times safer than the U.S. but being a female walking up a dark street will never feel quite right to me, so I shall continue to run that half block after dark.
Once in my building I was hit with a wall of freezing stale air, how is it colder in my hallway than it is on the street? The lights in the hallway are motion sensitive, but they don't activate until you are directly under the motion sensor which are located at the far end of each hall, so at each new floor I have to wade into the darkness and thoughts of the Grudge and the Ring always make cameos in my head at these vulnerable moments. I was relieved that Mr. Loud-Across-The-Hall guy was not home, and stepped inside my apartment.
When I entered my apartment I learned two things; my bathroom light switch was broken (peculiar because it was not broken when I left in the morning and my paranoid self is wondering if someone was in my apartment when I wasn't there) and my refridgerator that I unplugged because of the ridiculous noise it was making, has a dairy drink in it. Well, the second one is entirely my fault, I absentmindedly thought (swore even) that I had thrown that drink away, alas no, I did not.
So, I cannot move into the new apartment until someone agrees to move into my current apartment, but my housing manager has not taken anyone to see it yet, and now my bathroom light switch is broken and the fridge door smells like something that should be administered as a punishment. Yay me?
This morning I was awaken suddenly by Mr. Loud-Drunk-Jerk-Across-the-Hall, in my disoriented state I looked at my clock, 1:30am, great. I jammed by earplugs in my ear to muffle his drunken yells and by some miracle was able to fall back asleep.
On my way to work this morning I started listing everything wrong with my apartment in my head, and for the sake of my own sanity I really need to get out of there. I hope everything works out okay, my alleged move out day is Feb 8th, but today I am going to be scrubbing that fridge out and buying some heavy duty fabreeze!
Sunday, January 24, 2010
It's sunday afternoon and I'm once again at One Tree Hill, but this might be one of my last visits because Tyler is getting internet at his place on Monday, woot. I'm gonna miss paying 3,000 won for watered down coffee and listening to "I believe I can fly" while I rudely talk on skype while people study around me, yeah... gonna miss this place *wipes away nostalgic tear.
I had a good week, I love learning random trivia about Korea through my students during our lessons. One student told me that hockey is the crew of Korea. It's a sport that no one really plays except super rich people, and the SKY colleges (Korea's ivy league schools, Seoul University, Korea University and Yonsei University, yeah it spells SKY) all have hockey teams, and rich guys that aren't that smart can get in with a ..... hockey scholarship!
I have a couple students that I really like and the lessons just fly by and my coworkers are all cool people.
On friday it was another coworkers last day so we went to the same BBQ place (delicious but pricey) and had some soju and beef, then a group of us went back to Sinchon to have another beer at this bar called The Doors, the closest bar to my apartment so I'm gonna push for going there, it's nice to have a quick walk home.
Saturday I had to work, but it wasn't so bad. On saturdays we get to wear casual clothes and we don't start until 10:30. After work I sprinted home so that I could take a power nap before going to Hongdae (which is the night club area). I was excited to be going somewhere new so I pretended that the weather wasn't freezing and got all gussied up. I did my hair, my makeup, and even put on a dress and then headed over to Tyler's to have a few beers before going out.
After everyone else got to Tyler's we settled on the warm floors (all floors in Korea are heated btw) and ate some strange chips and drank some beer. We never left. We just sat around talking and drinking and never left for Hongdae, and it didn't even matter. I really like the people I've been hanging out with over here, everyone is so interesting and different.
The only awkward moment of the night was when Tyler and Matt were talking about Canadian politics, and our Australian coworker Sean was piping in, while Ms. Ignant America had to sit silently and curse herself for not knowing anything about any other countries, note to self: look up Canadian history, politics etc, etc. At least I know that by the end of the year I'll be more educated about the goings on of other places. I even watch the BBC news everyday now.
Sean took Tyler and I to a burrito place today that was quite tasty but the burritos don't quite taste like Guads back at home.
The guys at the office have been passing books around and I'm next in line to read The Road, it sounds good, creepy, and a quick read. I'll just have to make sure to not read it at night cause I live alone and get scared easily. I remember my first year at Davis I got in a bad habit of watching Cold Case Files while I was home alone and the sun would set as the epiosde ended and then I'd get really freaked out and eagerly await my roommates return.
That's all for now,
Nadja
I had a good week, I love learning random trivia about Korea through my students during our lessons. One student told me that hockey is the crew of Korea. It's a sport that no one really plays except super rich people, and the SKY colleges (Korea's ivy league schools, Seoul University, Korea University and Yonsei University, yeah it spells SKY) all have hockey teams, and rich guys that aren't that smart can get in with a ..... hockey scholarship!
I have a couple students that I really like and the lessons just fly by and my coworkers are all cool people.
On friday it was another coworkers last day so we went to the same BBQ place (delicious but pricey) and had some soju and beef, then a group of us went back to Sinchon to have another beer at this bar called The Doors, the closest bar to my apartment so I'm gonna push for going there, it's nice to have a quick walk home.
Saturday I had to work, but it wasn't so bad. On saturdays we get to wear casual clothes and we don't start until 10:30. After work I sprinted home so that I could take a power nap before going to Hongdae (which is the night club area). I was excited to be going somewhere new so I pretended that the weather wasn't freezing and got all gussied up. I did my hair, my makeup, and even put on a dress and then headed over to Tyler's to have a few beers before going out.
After everyone else got to Tyler's we settled on the warm floors (all floors in Korea are heated btw) and ate some strange chips and drank some beer. We never left. We just sat around talking and drinking and never left for Hongdae, and it didn't even matter. I really like the people I've been hanging out with over here, everyone is so interesting and different.
The only awkward moment of the night was when Tyler and Matt were talking about Canadian politics, and our Australian coworker Sean was piping in, while Ms. Ignant America had to sit silently and curse herself for not knowing anything about any other countries, note to self: look up Canadian history, politics etc, etc. At least I know that by the end of the year I'll be more educated about the goings on of other places. I even watch the BBC news everyday now.
Sean took Tyler and I to a burrito place today that was quite tasty but the burritos don't quite taste like Guads back at home.
The guys at the office have been passing books around and I'm next in line to read The Road, it sounds good, creepy, and a quick read. I'll just have to make sure to not read it at night cause I live alone and get scared easily. I remember my first year at Davis I got in a bad habit of watching Cold Case Files while I was home alone and the sun would set as the epiosde ended and then I'd get really freaked out and eagerly await my roommates return.
That's all for now,
Nadja
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Korean basketball, Cass, and Shabu Shabu, oh my!
It's Sunday evening and I'm back at One Tree Hill. It's such a tease to have skype but not be able to use it here. I've considered it, but I feel a little too rude talking on skype while students are trying to study all around me.
This weekend was really fun. After work on Friday we went out to the same restaurant from last week to have a goodbye dinner for one of the guys at the office. After dinner Tyler and I headed back to Sinchon to meet up with some of our friends. We went to a smokey little bar that was located in a basement, and to get to the bathroom you had to walk up a steep staircase and then bathroom was a squat bathroom, ew. My friend Kathy said that in the Philippines (where she did peace corps for two years) all the bathrooms are sqautties (haha, potty but squatty), and let me tell you, they are naaasty. The floor is just covered in piss. Not going back ther e!
On Saturday, Tyler, Matt, Mark and I were invited to a professional Korean basketball game by one of Mark's students. It was awesome. His student gets free tickets through his company. But this is crazy: The student Jae has a girlfriend named Jessica, who lived in California for a couple years, turns out she lived in Albany (the same city I lived in), so I asked where she went to school. She not only went to my elementary school, but she was in my fifth grade class. Miss Wiley! Jessica even still has her old class roster, so Jae was like, "you used to live on Jackson street!" What a small world! I still can't believe that.
The game was pretty cool, we went to Inchoen, which is a city outside of Seoul, probably an hour drive with traffic. We were rooting for the Inchoen Land Elephants. They were playing the Hundai Egis (the top ranked team in Korea) and the poor elephants got slaughtered in the fourth quarter, but in their defense the Egis are like the Yankees or the Lakers. Each team has two foreigners, so there were four really tall african american guys and everyone else was korean and shorter. The players moved so gracefully though, this one guy looked like he floated up to the basket. One of the Elephants is called the Living Legend (I'm assuming their star player) and he was playing really badly, and he finally made a basket but it didn't count cause of a penalty, and he almost lost it. He started pounding his fists on the foam fence around the court, and then burried his face like he was crying. Then at another point in the game, the Living Legend fell down and just laid there, but the ball ricochetted off the net and hit him in the face! He was not having a good day.
After the game Jae and Jessica took us to a Shabu Shabu restaurant that was delicious. We sat on the floor, and there is a big bowl of broth that cooks at the table, and then the staff brings you dumplings, beef strips, veggies, and noodles, all uncooked. then you cook the meat and veggies and they cook really quickly in the broth and are delicious. After the meat,veggies and dumplings are gone, you put the noodles in and eat the soup, and then after the noodles are gone, you add the rice and it turns into a porridge. It's great, not too expensive, and very filling, and I like that there is a special process that you have to follow.
After dinner I took a twenty minute power nap before heading back over to Tyler's to have beer and soju. Matt and Tyler told me about Canada and the importance of patios in bars, and Jae and Jessica taught us Korean drinking games. One game is rock, paper, scissors, and the loser gets flicked in the forehead by the winner, unfortunately for Tyler, Jae was really good at flicking. I declined the offer to play.
This morning I peeled myself out of bed and went to Kathy's for brunch. I brought coffee and milk, but other people brought legitimate food so I enjoyed quite the feast. Bacon, scrambled eggs, french toast, coffee cake, yum! It was a good weekend. Next weekend will be rough because I have to work on Saturday. I'm sleeping early tonight because I didn't sleep much in the past two days.
Over and out, the weekend warrior.
This weekend was really fun. After work on Friday we went out to the same restaurant from last week to have a goodbye dinner for one of the guys at the office. After dinner Tyler and I headed back to Sinchon to meet up with some of our friends. We went to a smokey little bar that was located in a basement, and to get to the bathroom you had to walk up a steep staircase and then bathroom was a squat bathroom, ew. My friend Kathy said that in the Philippines (where she did peace corps for two years) all the bathrooms are sqautties (haha, potty but squatty), and let me tell you, they are naaasty. The floor is just covered in piss. Not going back ther e!
On Saturday, Tyler, Matt, Mark and I were invited to a professional Korean basketball game by one of Mark's students. It was awesome. His student gets free tickets through his company. But this is crazy: The student Jae has a girlfriend named Jessica, who lived in California for a couple years, turns out she lived in Albany (the same city I lived in), so I asked where she went to school. She not only went to my elementary school, but she was in my fifth grade class. Miss Wiley! Jessica even still has her old class roster, so Jae was like, "you used to live on Jackson street!" What a small world! I still can't believe that.
The game was pretty cool, we went to Inchoen, which is a city outside of Seoul, probably an hour drive with traffic. We were rooting for the Inchoen Land Elephants. They were playing the Hundai Egis (the top ranked team in Korea) and the poor elephants got slaughtered in the fourth quarter, but in their defense the Egis are like the Yankees or the Lakers. Each team has two foreigners, so there were four really tall african american guys and everyone else was korean and shorter. The players moved so gracefully though, this one guy looked like he floated up to the basket. One of the Elephants is called the Living Legend (I'm assuming their star player) and he was playing really badly, and he finally made a basket but it didn't count cause of a penalty, and he almost lost it. He started pounding his fists on the foam fence around the court, and then burried his face like he was crying. Then at another point in the game, the Living Legend fell down and just laid there, but the ball ricochetted off the net and hit him in the face! He was not having a good day.
After the game Jae and Jessica took us to a Shabu Shabu restaurant that was delicious. We sat on the floor, and there is a big bowl of broth that cooks at the table, and then the staff brings you dumplings, beef strips, veggies, and noodles, all uncooked. then you cook the meat and veggies and they cook really quickly in the broth and are delicious. After the meat,veggies and dumplings are gone, you put the noodles in and eat the soup, and then after the noodles are gone, you add the rice and it turns into a porridge. It's great, not too expensive, and very filling, and I like that there is a special process that you have to follow.
After dinner I took a twenty minute power nap before heading back over to Tyler's to have beer and soju. Matt and Tyler told me about Canada and the importance of patios in bars, and Jae and Jessica taught us Korean drinking games. One game is rock, paper, scissors, and the loser gets flicked in the forehead by the winner, unfortunately for Tyler, Jae was really good at flicking. I declined the offer to play.
This morning I peeled myself out of bed and went to Kathy's for brunch. I brought coffee and milk, but other people brought legitimate food so I enjoyed quite the feast. Bacon, scrambled eggs, french toast, coffee cake, yum! It was a good weekend. Next weekend will be rough because I have to work on Saturday. I'm sleeping early tonight because I didn't sleep much in the past two days.
Over and out, the weekend warrior.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Enjoying some coffee and free wifi
I'm sitting in a One Tree Hill cafe, sipping my "americano" coffee with a side of milk. I felt overly satisfied with myself when I was able to ask for milk "uyu" with my coffee, the little things that are slowly making my life easier are so gratifying. Obviously, the cafe has internet access which is a huge plus, it almost makes up for the fact that a weak cup of coffee costs 3,000 won ($3). The cheapest place I have so thus far to get coffee is McDonald's, at 2,000 won a cup with unlimited cream that does not taste like the cream back home, but tasty none the less.
It's Friday over here and I'm enjoying some time to myself inbetween my morning and evening shifts. I think I might try to do this once a week, come to a cafe and slowly drink my cup of coffee as I take full advantage of the free wifi.
I don't have internet at my apartment yet, and I won't have it for a while. This has been difficult because it hit me how much time I spend on the internet, I use it for communication, information, entertainment and now I feel at a loss of what to do with myself when I have free time that I feel like mindlessly wasting. So naturally, I borrowed Tyler's Simpson's collection and have been filling my spare time with the adventures of Lisa, Bart, Homer, and Marge.
My housing situation is still not completely settled yet. I won't be staying in my current apartment for very long, in a little less than a month I will be moving into Tyler's building which is way nicer than mine and a little closer than mine (okay one half block, but still... it adds up at night and there are no lights! it's creepy). My new building will have heated hallways (fist pump) more privacy (double fist pump) and I'll be living in the same building as two of my coworkers (breakdance).
Last weekend I had just finished my fist full week of work and I started my first night of freedom with a dinner next to work with quite a few of my coworkers. I wish I could remember the name of the dish, but i can't at the moment so I'll just describe it. The tables are big and round with a BBQ in the middle. Each table gets a plate of small cube sized pieces of uncokked steak and cooking utensils. With the meat comes an assortment of "side dishes", noodles, rice, kimchi (duh), vegetables, pickled radishes, sauces, a korean style coleslaw and a bowl of redleaf lettuce slices.
After you cook the beef to your desired char, you place it in the lettuce wrap and then you can add whatever else you want from the side dishes. SO delicious. I was marinating my beef cubes in one of the sauces before cooking them (hopefully that is not some sort of dinner etiquette fauxpaux). It was great, but the bill did end up coming out to 20,000 a person and on my budget, I won't be going there often, maybe a special occasion kind of place.
After that, Tyler, a few coworkers and I took the bus back in Sinchon. [*Bus fares are cheap over here, around 90 cents a ride, which is good bc I take the bus four times a day] We met up with our friends that live in Sinchon at a bar called Ipub, it was Western-ish. The beer was not too expensive, but it's really hard for me to get used to people smoking everywhere. All my clothes reek when I get home. I have a side room in my house that doesn't get heating and whenever I've been around a lot of smoke, I put my clothes in that room for 48 hours. I'm so happy that people cannot smoke in my office.
Saturday we went out in Sinchon again, first to the same bar, and I saw some sleazy American girls being ridiculous, wearing really short dresses (it's freezing over here) and one of them just pulled her dress up over her head. At the bar! Trust me, this place is not like Cancun on spring break, that is very uncommon, do I have to be in the same category a them? Then we went to a Rock bar, which looked like a small guitar hero themed bar. There was a huge projector that played the music video of whatever song you selected with the lyrics displayed on the bottom, with all the korean styled fruity pebbles we wanted (free with beer).
On Sunday I woke up with a sore throat, of course from the weather and not because I went out two nights in a row. I still went against the better judgment I should have had and went to the Seoul National Museum with some coworkers, the museum is free this month. The museum is massive, and we didn't get through the entire place, I might go back some day. But unfortunately, but the end of the day my head was throbbing and my throat was screaming.
My friends Kathy and Tyler were both really nice and helpful about me being sickish this week, which was comforting, and I'm almost back to normal now. i've been popping vitamin C like its no ones business.
I'm looking forward to this weekend, it's a coworkers last day today so we're all going out after work, and on Sunday my friend Kathy is having people over for brunch. I'm sure I'll have many exciting things to report back to you on Sunday evening, I'll possibly make a date with the One Tree Hill cafe again.
It's Friday over here and I'm enjoying some time to myself inbetween my morning and evening shifts. I think I might try to do this once a week, come to a cafe and slowly drink my cup of coffee as I take full advantage of the free wifi.
I don't have internet at my apartment yet, and I won't have it for a while. This has been difficult because it hit me how much time I spend on the internet, I use it for communication, information, entertainment and now I feel at a loss of what to do with myself when I have free time that I feel like mindlessly wasting. So naturally, I borrowed Tyler's Simpson's collection and have been filling my spare time with the adventures of Lisa, Bart, Homer, and Marge.
My housing situation is still not completely settled yet. I won't be staying in my current apartment for very long, in a little less than a month I will be moving into Tyler's building which is way nicer than mine and a little closer than mine (okay one half block, but still... it adds up at night and there are no lights! it's creepy). My new building will have heated hallways (fist pump) more privacy (double fist pump) and I'll be living in the same building as two of my coworkers (breakdance).
Last weekend I had just finished my fist full week of work and I started my first night of freedom with a dinner next to work with quite a few of my coworkers. I wish I could remember the name of the dish, but i can't at the moment so I'll just describe it. The tables are big and round with a BBQ in the middle. Each table gets a plate of small cube sized pieces of uncokked steak and cooking utensils. With the meat comes an assortment of "side dishes", noodles, rice, kimchi (duh), vegetables, pickled radishes, sauces, a korean style coleslaw and a bowl of redleaf lettuce slices.
After you cook the beef to your desired char, you place it in the lettuce wrap and then you can add whatever else you want from the side dishes. SO delicious. I was marinating my beef cubes in one of the sauces before cooking them (hopefully that is not some sort of dinner etiquette fauxpaux). It was great, but the bill did end up coming out to 20,000 a person and on my budget, I won't be going there often, maybe a special occasion kind of place.
After that, Tyler, a few coworkers and I took the bus back in Sinchon. [*Bus fares are cheap over here, around 90 cents a ride, which is good bc I take the bus four times a day] We met up with our friends that live in Sinchon at a bar called Ipub, it was Western-ish. The beer was not too expensive, but it's really hard for me to get used to people smoking everywhere. All my clothes reek when I get home. I have a side room in my house that doesn't get heating and whenever I've been around a lot of smoke, I put my clothes in that room for 48 hours. I'm so happy that people cannot smoke in my office.
Saturday we went out in Sinchon again, first to the same bar, and I saw some sleazy American girls being ridiculous, wearing really short dresses (it's freezing over here) and one of them just pulled her dress up over her head. At the bar! Trust me, this place is not like Cancun on spring break, that is very uncommon, do I have to be in the same category a them? Then we went to a Rock bar, which looked like a small guitar hero themed bar. There was a huge projector that played the music video of whatever song you selected with the lyrics displayed on the bottom, with all the korean styled fruity pebbles we wanted (free with beer).
On Sunday I woke up with a sore throat, of course from the weather and not because I went out two nights in a row. I still went against the better judgment I should have had and went to the Seoul National Museum with some coworkers, the museum is free this month. The museum is massive, and we didn't get through the entire place, I might go back some day. But unfortunately, but the end of the day my head was throbbing and my throat was screaming.
My friends Kathy and Tyler were both really nice and helpful about me being sickish this week, which was comforting, and I'm almost back to normal now. i've been popping vitamin C like its no ones business.
I'm looking forward to this weekend, it's a coworkers last day today so we're all going out after work, and on Sunday my friend Kathy is having people over for brunch. I'm sure I'll have many exciting things to report back to you on Sunday evening, I'll possibly make a date with the One Tree Hill cafe again.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
My first week in Korea, in a nutshell
At the moment I'm sitting on my bed at the love motel in my jimjams and mukluks trying to regain the feeling in my feet. It snowed the first night I got here, but only for a few minutes, whereas today it's been snowing all day, some people even had a snow day today. I was unaware of the multitude of snow that would be gracing Seoul today when I set out for my first day of work this morning in my work clothes and shoes, stockings no socks, sorry mom.
This has been a whirlwind week, so much has happened that I feel like I've been here a month already. I'll attempt to describe it without writing a ten page entry, here goes nothing...
On new years eve my coworker Tyler and I met up with one of his friends from another branch of our company, they went to college together and he is quite new to Korea as well. First we stopped in at a bar in Sinchon (which is where I'm going to be living soon!) called Mint, it was located above a restaurant, up a windy staircase that makes you wonder how someone even happened upon it. It was a nice warm room that was quieter and more laidback than most bars here are, but the coolest part about it is that behind the bar there is floor to ceiling CDs and you can request any song you want (and these places tend to be emptier so you could listen to your favorite songs all night), and there are a lot of bars like this is Korea.
After Mint we went to a place called Itaewon, which is where all the foreingers hangout, and it was quite surreal. I went from seeing less than twenty westerners in three days to walking into a bar that was packed with over a hundred of them. The bar was a Canadian bar and they had a 90s cover band (swoon). They even played Weezer. We met more of Tyler's friend's friends and had some Cass (beer) for the equivalent of $3.
Interesting fact: Hite, which is another Korean beer, has formaldehyde in it, so yeah... not gonna be drinking that one. It gets you messed up! and kills you?
Housing: I hit a little bump in the road with housing, but it's all worked out now. Tyler and I both decided to get apartments in Sinchon, which is a college area and a quick commute to work, right across the street from each other. It'll be nice to have someone nearby in case of emergencies, or if life gets lonely over here. I've been talking to other people at the office and quite a few of them live in the same area so I'm looking forward to that. My apartment is small, but really homey, pretty much exactly what I wanted. I will have a Korean style shower though, which will take a little getting used to. (The snake-like shower heads that just hang on the wall, with no distinct shower area, I'll just be spraying myself, the mirror, the toilet, pretty much everything in the room will get soaked..)
I'm getting a phone tomorrow, which will be nice since I'm moving out of the motel soon and then it will no longer be as easy to get ahold of people as walking down the hall is.
I'm disappointed that hulu doesn't work here, but mtv.com does, so guess what I did yesterday? If you guessed that I watched Jwoow and Snooki getting in a fight another at the Jersey Shore then you're right. ding ding. You can move me across the world, but I'll still watch trashy television.
A lot more has happened but I have to go back to work, I have a split shift so I work in the morning, have a break, and then work in the evening. I'm doing well and looking forward to moving into my cute little studio apartment, I miss everyone back home! :)
This has been a whirlwind week, so much has happened that I feel like I've been here a month already. I'll attempt to describe it without writing a ten page entry, here goes nothing...
On new years eve my coworker Tyler and I met up with one of his friends from another branch of our company, they went to college together and he is quite new to Korea as well. First we stopped in at a bar in Sinchon (which is where I'm going to be living soon!) called Mint, it was located above a restaurant, up a windy staircase that makes you wonder how someone even happened upon it. It was a nice warm room that was quieter and more laidback than most bars here are, but the coolest part about it is that behind the bar there is floor to ceiling CDs and you can request any song you want (and these places tend to be emptier so you could listen to your favorite songs all night), and there are a lot of bars like this is Korea.
After Mint we went to a place called Itaewon, which is where all the foreingers hangout, and it was quite surreal. I went from seeing less than twenty westerners in three days to walking into a bar that was packed with over a hundred of them. The bar was a Canadian bar and they had a 90s cover band (swoon). They even played Weezer. We met more of Tyler's friend's friends and had some Cass (beer) for the equivalent of $3.
Interesting fact: Hite, which is another Korean beer, has formaldehyde in it, so yeah... not gonna be drinking that one. It gets you messed up! and kills you?
Housing: I hit a little bump in the road with housing, but it's all worked out now. Tyler and I both decided to get apartments in Sinchon, which is a college area and a quick commute to work, right across the street from each other. It'll be nice to have someone nearby in case of emergencies, or if life gets lonely over here. I've been talking to other people at the office and quite a few of them live in the same area so I'm looking forward to that. My apartment is small, but really homey, pretty much exactly what I wanted. I will have a Korean style shower though, which will take a little getting used to. (The snake-like shower heads that just hang on the wall, with no distinct shower area, I'll just be spraying myself, the mirror, the toilet, pretty much everything in the room will get soaked..)
I'm getting a phone tomorrow, which will be nice since I'm moving out of the motel soon and then it will no longer be as easy to get ahold of people as walking down the hall is.
I'm disappointed that hulu doesn't work here, but mtv.com does, so guess what I did yesterday? If you guessed that I watched Jwoow and Snooki getting in a fight another at the Jersey Shore then you're right. ding ding. You can move me across the world, but I'll still watch trashy television.
A lot more has happened but I have to go back to work, I have a split shift so I work in the morning, have a break, and then work in the evening. I'm doing well and looking forward to moving into my cute little studio apartment, I miss everyone back home! :)
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