From Sewell to Seoul

대한민국 (Dae Han Min Guk!)

2006-06-06T12:29:00.000+09:00

What’s HOT in

Korea

FOOTBALL (SOCCER): After Korea’s top four finish in the 2002 World Cup, which they co-hosted with Japan, South Korea has made a religion out of Soccer. Jesus Christ, take a seat, the holy Dae-Han-Min-Guk mantra is recited more enthusiastically and frequently than the Lord’s Prayer. To be fair, even I am getting quite excited over the World Cup, however, I have not so disillusioned myself into thinking Korea has even the slightest chance of winning (or even make it to the semifinals). With South Korea playing France and Switzerland in the opening round, they have quite a mountain to climb should they even hope to advance further. Again, to be fair, I’d say the United States (who is a much better team this year than Korea) has an even smaller chance of advancing past the first round with both Italy and Czech Republic scheduled against them. Besides inundating the entire country with Korean Soccer related advertising and propaganda, the media has managed to deify the entire team, including the coaches. Needless to say, I do not feel safe, let alone comfortable, speaking ill of South Korea’s chances this summer. I’m sure the government has put into place some system whereby it revokes tourist visas and can reject foreigners who have not accepted The Korean Soccer Team as their true savior.

Sure, many folks would rebuttal that in countries like Germany or Brazil the soccer hype is just as big, if not bigger. However, I think what differentiates the two situations is the fact that those countries have a chance of progressing past the first round. In Korea, however, it’s pretty obvious that they simply don’t have any chance at all. So, upon a second analysis, I’m really looking forward to two things with the World Cup: first, the endless soccer games; second, to see the super-inflated ego and confidence of average Korean soccer fan come crashing down.

At the Rally. They gave out the cool armbands after we left.

Out for a walk.

Getting Screwed and Teaching English

2006-06-05T00:00:00.000+09:00

Where have you been?! Well, I apologize. So much has happened to me recently and I have not had consistent access to the internet over the last week.

Where to start?

So I arrive in Incheon, South Korea and my Rutgers friend Vic and two Korean friends Eunbi and Kyungmi are there to meet me. I was really happy that my friends came to greet me at the airport. We got back pretty late, met up with my friends Marten and Jessica, and I dropped my stuff off at their place. Immediately thereafter, we proceeded to an all-you-can eat Korean barbeque place… the love of my life.

I spent the first three days and nights living out of my bags at my friend’s place, a nice-sized hasuk. Hasuks are basically like boarding houses. My thanks go out to them for having me for so long and being so hospitable. Unfortunately, during my brief stay there I ran into one of the biggest problems I’ve ever had to deal with. After being asked by the professor who ran the lab I was going to work what kind of schedule I wanted, I responded with what I thought to be reasonable hours, given what I had experienced in American labs. His immediate reply was that all of his workers spent AT LEAST 12 hours a day, 6 days a week in the lab and that he could no longer hire me because he believed I was not interested in his research or working in his lab. I believe there to be some cultural differences at work as well, as he sounded thoroughly offended by my suggested work hours and further implied he was disappointed that I had only requested his invitation as a way to enter the country. He said he had no positions available anymore either. The entire situation is rather complicated, but in the end, I lost my job in South Korea 10 days before I started it.

Time to rebuild.

I searched around for a couple days for jobs in the engineering field but quickly came to the realization that it would be virtually impossible to find a job in Seoul, on such short notice, that could hire an English-speaking undergraduate. Even after having emphasized the fact that I could work for virtually nothing I received no return contacts.

As a positive, I found a really great one-room apartment at the VERY TOP OF SINCHON. This means that I have to bring an oxygen pack every time I walk up to my place because the air gets so thin. I’ve included some pictures of my place and it’s view at the end of the post.

I’ve decided to stay in Korea and make as much money as possible teaching English. Therefore I can still feed, house, and care for myself… and should I need to refund any of the people who gave me money to do research abroad, I can do that too. I’ve essentially become the type or person I’ve always hated: The white dude living in Asia to teach English because he’s really not qualified to do anything else with his life. Of course, I take solace in the fact that this is only short term for me since I will return to the States to finish my engineering degree while these other guys just stay here and waste away for unknown periods of time.

I’ve got about four separate tutoring jobs. The first is with two girls (sisters): Cindy and Jenny (English names). They are 8 and 10 years old, respectively. They are absolutely adorable and know a surprising amount of English. I meet them every day, for two hours a day.

My next student is on the complete opposite side of the spectrum of Cindy and Jenny. His English name is Frank and he is a 34 year old married man with a kid. He loves to go out and eat and go to bars…presumably because his work is so demanding. Thus, our English lessons usually consist of conversational English at restaurants, which he pays for. Also, because he is older than me and has a good job, he pays for pretty much everything... It’s absurd. As an added bonus, I think he’s a pretty cool guy. I usually meet him once a week for two hours, since he is so busy with his IT job.

My third student’s name is Yeon Ju. She is a freshman at Ewha University. What makes her really cool is that her major is chemistry, and she is learning how to play classical guitar. It’s really great because we have a lot to talk about. Also, her English is very good, even though she is very shy with it sometimes. She has been studying for about 10 or 11 years. Thus, she is primarily interested in English conversation and phrases. I hope we can become good friends, because we have a lot of common interests.

My fourth English appointment actually consists of two friends who want to study English Conversation. Their names are Jeong Min and Yeong Ye. Both are Ewha students, and old students of my friend Jessica. Another thanks to Jessica to hooking me up with Frank, Yeon Ju, and these two girls.

I’m also going to work closely with my really good friend Eunbi. I sincerely hope that by the end of the summer her English is as fantastic as I know it can be. It’d make me happy to have a friend reach an entirely new level of English and be able to have a great time studying abroad just like I did last semester.

My hope is to make as much money as possible this summer for when I return to America. This way I can pay back any grants that Rutgers wants returned because I didn’t pursue undergraduate research abroad as planned. Also, any other left over money will go to my winter trip in Europe.

Well, this is probably the last entirely news-related update I’ll be making on this blog. From now on: satirical, sarcastic… and I’m sure I’ll even regress into some sophomoric comedy.

The bedroom. Comes with everything you could need to be an authentic Korean. A small bed, awkward clothes drying rack, and television to watch the most horrid programming known to man.

My kitchen. Le Gourmet Chef.

The view from teh roof. Mind you... my building is the same height as the bulidings you see below. It's just... on a mountain.

Summer 2006

2006-05-21T19:01:00.000+09:00

Before I begin, I'd like to note two things in order to personally remind myself why it is I keep this blog and what it means to me. First, I am very happy with the quality of my blog's prior entries, and I should realize that this blog, first and foremost, should be a recording of my life and adventures so that in the future I can look back and be reminded of all the wonderful memories. Secondly, and following on the aforementioned note, because this blog is intended to serve as a memory repository, I should always consider that I am only doing a disservice to myself through negligence. Thus, it is important that I continue to update as thoughtfully as before, yet quite a bit more frequently.

With this said, I’d like to begin what will be a second installment of my adventures abroad. Late last semester, while I was studying at Ewha University, I contacted several professors in a couple Korean and Japanese universities. Ironically, the best lab, and the only lab that offered to meet with me was a lab at Ewha University. After having met with Professor Jin-Ho Choy, he indicated there would be room in his lab for me to help and learn along the way. Thus, this summer I will be working in the Center for Intelligent Nano Bio Materials at Ewha University. More precisely, I will be working for a lab group called NanoHybrid (www.nanohybrid.com) that is world famous for their implementation of nanotechnology in everyday products. Besides being the representative lab in South Korea for nanomaterial research, it is also probably one of the most famous in the world. As for my personal research, I am not completely sure as I have not been given a formal project statement from my superiors; however, I will probably be researching drug and DNA stabilization through nanomaterial coatings/barriers.

I am very excited for this trip for several reasons (besides the interesting research). First, I will be living on my own in a foreign city. This is quite different than the situation I faced last semester, where I operated under the watchful eye of an international studies department. Besides being completely on my own, I am trying to finance this entire trip, from the airfare to the food with scholarship and grant money. Thus, this will be the first time I will provide entirely for myself (shelter, food, etc) and will do it while living in a foreign country to boot. Finally, I am quite happy to be able to see my friends again in Korea, and perhaps make even more foreign connections. Because of the friends I made last semester, I have a trip to Europe planned for Winter 06/07. Likewise, I hope that this summer will be fruitful not only in friendships, but possibly also in research/business connections.

…

After having read the prior three paragraphs I’ve been left with this distaste for the matter-of-fact style that appears to have been adopted. Thus, I will try my best to avoid such bland discourse. Perhaps I can find some optimal blend between the cynicism I vomited out during my DMZ entry and satire I often use in personal dialogue (while of course staying true to the facts).

Some notes: I will be adding additional picture sites as need arises, I will be updating at least once a week (so check back often), and the music freaking stays. I like it.

DMZ

2005-12-05T00:29:00.000+09:00

Warning: Satire abounds.

So I went to the “De”militarized Zone with some Ewha students and faculty. It was a trip arranged by the International office, which left at around 10 am in the morning from the back gate. We were herded onto a bus complete with a tour guide who gave us information for a good portion of the trip to the DMZ (which is located about an hour and a half north of Seoul). It’s actually very close…but the heavy city traffic is responsible for the extended transit time. Also, we had to go through a checkpoint or two to get near the border. At one point we had to have our passports checked by a soldier who came onto the bus. For those who are unaware, the DMZ is a band of ground, about 4-6 km wide, and stretching the entire peninsula, which South Koreans and North Koreans are generally supposed to leave alone, save for large south Korean chaebols who build factories there…via government corruption played off as friendly economic cooperation between north and south. First we stopped off at a checkpoint for tourists about 1 km from the DMZ band. There was food, memorials, postcards, and temples…everything a historic site needs to be legitimate. After precisely 30 minutes…our tour guide was an itinerary martinet…we departed and headed to one of the secret tunnels that South Korean soldiers found a number of years ago, after the division of the country, which was intended to be used for an armed surprise assault. The tunnel was about 70 meters underground and was capable of transporting up to something like 20,000 soldiers in one hour. Of course, through the tour, there was obvious South Korean propaganda and biasing. This is not to say that I think North Korea was right in any instance, but to say that it looks bad if you constantly preface the two words “North Koreans” with several undesirable adjectives. It was like kindergarten, where you call one kid a “poopy head” or “stupid face”…except with less childish words…and more broken English. The tunnel was actually really cool though. It was amazing to see all the digging the North Koreans had done. I even took a rock from the tunnel as a souvenir, but managed to lose it…probably accidentally dropping it on South Korean soil…how symbolic. After exiting the tunnel we went into a museum, saw a cheesy movie, and looked at some exhibits. I personally found it very interesting because I had read about many of the confrontations in several history books before I arrived in Korea…and I got to see some artifacts from several accounts. After the tunnel/museum stop we went to an observatory on top of a mountain in the DMZ. Basically, you went there to look at North Korea through binoculars or a big viewing room. The funny part was…outside, on the observation deck, you could walk up to the rail and look through binoculars but if you wanted to take a picture you had to do so behind a yellow line; a yellow line that was set back about 20 feet such that you couldn’t shoot pictures over the rail or get a view of anything interesting except the tops of people’s heads as they used the binoculars. I made Nico, who subsequently lost all his pictures, take a picture of the yellow line…as it was the most interested attraction on the observation deck. After the mountain observation center we went to a railroad station that was being built in the DMZ for future use between Pyongyang and Seoul. I am not sure when it will be completed…but what is important is that Hyundai is making trillions of won constructing and maintaining the facility. On a side note, I got my passport stamped there with some sort of DMZ symbol thing. It looks pretty cool. After the railway station we went back to the tourist place for lunch. I ate blood sausage, liver, whole shrimp, and spicy red food. After my normal lunch we went to some village located near the DMZ in South Korea. I don’t know what it had to do with the DMZ at all, but it is a famous art village and I got to see some modern art and meet some famous artists. It was cool, and then we left. I slept on the ride home on the bus. Afterwards, Nico and I took out some IEI faculty to a bar and then returned home. It was a good day, and I slept very well that night.

And sorry about the lack of cool pictures…we kind of weren’t allowed to take pictures in many places…because you know…it was illegal and they had guns.

A Bridge for Hyundai trucks to carry supplies into the DMZ with. Also for soldiers. And tour buses.

A very good picture, actually. Thanks to Jess for the pictures, and a "Damn you Nico for
messing up your memory card" goes out to Nico.

Japan and Korea, working together since...2005.

White picket fence.

The DMZ is famous for two things: Being some of the most dangerous and contested
land on earth, and rice. Natural good rice. The barbed wire helps digestion.

Rock Concert and a Wedding

2005-12-02T01:59:00.000+09:00

Probably the most exciting and memorable weekend in Korea: the Rock Concert/Wedding weekend. That’s right, I was in a rock band, and I got married. Don’t tell my girlfriend! On Friday, the club we are in at Ewha, Release, rented out a live music hall in Sinchon. All five bands from release played there. Our band (Lauri singer/rhythm guitar, Nico drums, Kyungmi bass, me lead guitar) played third between two fantastic bands. I could just talk about the performance right now, but that would be neglecting description of the most stressful week I’ve ever had in my life. For about a week prior to the concert we were stressing over what songs to play, if we were good enough, and more importantly…who would play bass for us. Thankfully, Sohee (the awesome club president) found us Kyungmi, our bass player. We were relieved to solve the most pressing matter, however we still had not picked out songs. We practiced almost everyday that week. Generally, we practiced in the Release club room, but one night a guard came into the room and started to drop some K-bombs on us…which we could not understand because Kyungmi was not with us yet. Apparently, men were not allowed in the Student Union building after 10:00. I use ‘were’ because that is no longer a rule strictly enforced at Ewha anymore. Thank you Ewha male exchange students for making groundbreaking changes…namely, Lauri, Nico, and me…and of course with help from Sohee and the international office. So…Wednesday night we finally picked the songs we would play. They were: Weezer ~ Island in the Sun, Del Shannon ~ Runaway, Queen ~ Crazy Little Thing Called Love, and Muse version ~ Can’t Take my Eyes off of You. Also, we practiced to play Everly Brothers ~ All I have to do is Dream…which we played as an encore song. Wednesday night we rented out a recording studio to practice in, and on Thursday night we had our final rehearsal with the entire club at a different recording studio in Hongdae. After Thursday night, Nico and Lauri were at odds with each other and things were looking pretty bad. Nobody was happy with how we sounded and we were all upset with our rehearsal. Thankfully, by Friday, we had resolved the issue and decided to just have fun.

Practicing in the Release Room

Kyung Mi, our lovely bass player.

On the way to the final rehearsal by taxi.

Ticket to the concert

I don’t think I have ever been so nervous in my life as I was the night before the concert. The only thing that kept me going the whole time was the fact that I would never have the same opportunity again. No other person I know, maybe no other person in my entire state has ever traveled abroad, started an international rock band, and played a gig in front of hundreds of Korean high school and college students (primarily women). When I grow up and have a family and kids, I can say that I went to another country where I didn’t speak the language, and did all these things…and I don’t think any level of stress is worth denying me that chance. It is not that I’m blessed…It is that I had the balls to do it. The same goes with coming to Korea. It didn’t fall into my lap, and I’m not more privileged than anyone else. I just grabbed it, and I will carry this attitude with me until the day I die.

Teaser Picture for future update: I'm pretty sure
this is a picture of me cooking and eating dog.

Enough preaching…so about the concert. We went to Queen Live Hall around 2:00 and started our rehearsal sound check. Afterwards, we had what was pessimistically named “The Last Supper” at a nearby Kimbap place. Then we returned to an already filling up music hall. I took some pictures with friends and then went backstage to prepare. After the first two bands played…both of which were very good…we went on stage. When we went on stage, there was a giant screen pulled down in front of us, so nobody knew. Sohee, the president of the club had made short photo slide shows of each band and its members. We were very touched by the slideshow…and I will try to put it online for everyone to see. As it played, we could hear many friends and Korean girls screaming. It was mind boggling. The second the screen started to move I lost all nervousness. I have never had so much fun in my life….and even though Lauri broke a string halfway into the first song, everything went well. We played and people sang along….at one point I even got the crowd clapping. I will never forget that concert, and I will never forget my friends who made it possible.

Backstage during the concert...Sohee being cool, as usual.

One of the bands before us...I really like this band a lot because
all of the members are my friends

And the curtain raises...

Our beautiful Finnish singer, Lauri Mikael Uusi-Hakala

Some guy playing a mediocre lead guitar

After the concert was the traditional Release party. This is off the record, but I am going to explain why Release is the coolest club ever. The Release club, full of the coolest Ewha girls who like rock and heavy metal music, uses its club fees and dues in three main ways: to pay for concerts, to pay for bars, and to pay for membership training trips (the next post) where you hang out all night camping in the woods. Basically, the night after the concert was one crazy party. Before I came to Korea, everyone used to tell me that Koreans can drink so much alcohol…this is not necessarily true. Koreans do drink a lot of soju and beer…but that doesn’t mean they have anything near what we would consider a respectable tolerance. Long story short…by the end of the concert night I was carrying three guitars and a bag full of wires and pedals while the girls were struggling to carry themselves. Most of us got home around 5:00 or 6:00.

Exhibit A: Korean response to liquor...man crippled down before God
asking forgiveness for drinking one beer.

Three hours later “the next morning.” I woke up at 10:00 to get ready to go to Insadong for my traditional wedding. My wonderful buddy Sora had taken care of all of the arrangements and all I had to do was show up, put on clothes, and learned how to get married. I met my future wife in the subway. She was an exchange student from China. She was studying at Yonsei language school at the time. I still do not know her name (I forgot) and still do not know if she speaks English at all…so basically I knew nothing and still don’t know anything about her...a very traditional arranged marriage. When I arrived I was immediately taken into a tent to receive some makeup…I’m not really sure what it was, but it was not very visible either. After that I went into the second tent to get dressed. I was the groom, so I had the most elaborate Hanbok, besides my wife. We then learned all the proper movements and bows during the ceremony, and how to hold ourselves with the Hanbok on. There were several times, during practice, when I almost tripped on my clothing and ate concrete.

Waiting oustide the tent with the ultracool Soomin

After getting ready with the super fantastic Sora

Then the public display began. Yes, my wedding was in the middle of a town square in Insadong with maybe…100 onlookers. The reason they have these mock weddings every so often there is because Insadong is a famous place for tourists to go because it is a very traditional town. It sells traditional goods and is near Gyeongbokgung so one can always find many foreigners there. After the public wedding, I then got to ride on a horse through the entire town and be the main spectacle in a large parade. I was the only one allowed to ride on a horse because I was the husband, and of course this got me thousands of stares. More often, however, people smiled or waved. It was also fun to shoot peace signs to high school girls on the side of the road and make them giggle. It was like money in the bank. One peace sign = one shy giggle. Definitely one of the coolest cultural events I have ever had the chance to take part in. Thanks go out to Sora, my friends who came to watch, and also my wife…where she is. Also, thanks to the town of Insadong for covering the bill J and not charging me! After the wedding, my friends and I went out for some very good Korean food. We got a 산낙지 (sannakchi) dish. Basically, they bring a stew to a boil, and dump in a couple live octopi. It was really good. Also, it was fun to watch them cook the octopi while the still moved around.

Something about a wooden duck and me bowing

My wife and I bowing to each other at the 'alter'

Symbolic of my wife and I at a young age

I mount the horse...incorrectly of course.

You know its for real because there is an umbrella over my head

Squid, tortured, boiled, cut up, and eaten...all while alive...just how I like it.

Halloween

2005-11-26T16:17:00.000+09:00

So generally, Halloween is a holiday not celebrated in Korea…however because of the large number of international students from America, the international program at Ewha hosts a large Halloween party for us. Other clubs and bars across Seoul also capitalize on this western tradition by throwing similarly themed parties. However, I think our party was one of the most exciting in the region. I had worked on my costume for nearly a day. I decided, several weeks in advance to be the large green “L” shaped tetris block….but had done nothing towards accomplishing such a goal until the last minute. A day before the party my friends Katie and Meghan brought me several huge boxes for transporting instant noodles from the student hall. I promptly began to cut, plan, shape, and paint the boxes. Two bad things happened. One, I had to stay up late to paint half of the costume and was very tired during class on Friday…second, while spray painting out on my balcony I did not think about what might happen should some spray hit the floor…thus as you will see…as a permanent testament to my stupidity: there are several green squares outside on my balcony floor. Friday, after class, I continued to paint and construct my costume. Around 4:00 I brought it over my friends Jessica and Marten’s apartment because they live right next to Cass City…the location of the party. I completed my costume there and eventually made my way to the party. And yes, I did walk through a major intersection and about 200 meters of city sidewalk with my costume on. The expressions of onlookers were priceless. When I arrived at the party, everyone went crazy. I had one of the best costumes, by far. I got in hundreds of pictures with people I did not know, and also, met many new friends. At the end of the party they gave awards to the costumes and I received best costume! My prize, which I have used frequently since acquisition, was mango scented body wash. Fantastic. At the end of the party all of my friends ceremonially jumped into me and smashed my costume. TETRIS!

Eternal testament to my stupidity

James Dean, Me, some hot Finnish girl

Korea folk, Cuban cigar entrepreneur, tetris block

Team Hong Kong, Tetris block

Taking a breather

Look at all the korean people! What a packed house.

Busan

2005-11-26T15:13:00.000+09:00

BUSAN MAP

Finally, we visited Busan. It was the week after the International Film Festival, but nevertheless the city was fantastic. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Busan, it is the second largest city in Korea and is located on the Southeastern tip of the country. We took the cheap train from Seoul, thus it was nearly a 6 hour transit. Of course nothing in Korea is complete without alcohol…and the train was no exception. About every 30 minutes a man would walk down the aisle with food and drinks, and our group of international students would faithfully drain his supply of the latter. As I do not agree with drinking on public transportation, I refrained…and slept for much of the trip.

On train...forever

After arriving in Busan station, we moved out to find a place to eat and sleep. We broke into two groups; one charged with finding cheap accommodations and the other with finding a place to eat. My group, the housing regiment, quickly found a cheap motel near the train station which could house all 8 of us for 70,000 won a night. That’s about 9 USD a person/night. Our group did awesome. When we met up again we decided to go to Jagalchi Fish market…the largest fish market in South Korea. It’s specialty is hwe, or sashimi as westerners often call it. We walked around and looked at all the live fish and eventually picked out our lunch. The way it works is there are 40 or 50 fish vendors in the main fish market building and they all have these stands set up with fish. You look around and pick a vendor with the fish you like and then start to point out the things you want to eat. They pull the fish out of the buckets or baskets and cut them up for you to eat raw. It was fantastic. We have raw flounder, sea urchin, abalone, and squid. Also, we had live shrimp and octopus. I really liked eating the live food because they were still moving around as we chewed it. Most of the folks hated it…however my Japanese friend Erika and I were delighted. Apparently the live octopus, known as san nakchi, can be dangerous because it can stick to your throat as you swallow. There are stories of people choking and dying. Pretty exciting J

Fish Market

Matti waiting like 20 minutes to eat this live shrimp

Sea Urchin

Live Octopus

After the fish market, many people were still hungry. Namely, the Finnish guys: Lauri and Matti; the Dutch guys: Marten and Nico; my other Japanese friend Mari; and my American cohort Jessica. We went to a Lotteria near the market and Erika and I sat around while they ate. Afterwards we split up into two groups. One group went back to the motel to sleep (because they had not slept on the train), and the other group (my group) went shopping in a nearby market district. We didn’t buy anything, but we had a fun time looking around. The only real difference between Seoul markets and Busan markets is that Busan markets smell like fish from the sea, and Seoul markets smell like a bathroom.

Market Photos

We met up again later that night and went for some non-sea food at a restaurant near our living quarters. After dinner we tried to find a bar or some place to go to and ended up at this restaurant that was rented out by some Korean company for an annual party. Normally we would not be allowed in, but they asked us to join them. They gave us free drinks and food and we danced and sang Karaoke with about 20 middle-aged Korean businessmen and women. Afterwards we eventually made our way back to the motel and slept.

View from window of motel

View of Mari, inside of motel

The next morning we decided to go to the beautiful Songdo beach along the eastern coast in Busan. It is the closest beach to the inner city and was about a 10 minute Taxi drive from our living quarters. The weather was a bit cool, so we did not go in the water much. However the beach was very peaceful and it was nice to finally see ocean again. As you’ll see in the pictures, Songdo beach is nothing like the Jersey Shore so save your mental images until later. While at Songdo beach we also had a great seafood lunch while overlooking the ocean. It was extremely good…and very traditional. Eventually, we left the beach and headed towards Busan tower. It is the largest building in the city and overlooks much of Busan, in every direction.

Songdo Coast

Songdo Beach

View of Busan at dawn from Busan Tower

View of Busan at night from Busan Tower

After Busan tower, we walked around Nampodong and went to eat dinner. We had a great time that night, and eventually ended up in a noraebang…and as usual I was made to sing Born in the USA for my foreign friends. Nothing is better than singing the line “…kill the yellow man” at the top of your lungs in a Noraebang with many Asians...and having them sing with you!

Nico sleeping, and Mari singing

The next morning we made our way to the train station early to buy our tickets. Unfortunately they were sold out of return tickets to Seoul at all the reasonable hours…so we had to buy tickets that left at 9:00 pm and returned to Seoul around 3:00 am… -_- After buying our tickets our group boarded a bus for Taejongdae…one of the southernmost points in all of South Korea. Thanks to a friendly taxi cab driver we found a bay where we could ride on a boat and see the shoreline. Afterwards, Nico and Marten had to leave to attend a Dutch conference at their embassy. After walking around Taejongdae for a place to eat we concluded that maybe it wasn’t the best town to get a good meal, so we took the bus back to the mainland area and ate there. Afterwards we walked to the train station, met Nico and Marten, and then returned home. I got back to my dorm at 3:30 Monday morning. Needless to say, I skipped class that day.

Out on the boat - outdoor restaurant on an outcropping

Taejongdae before sunset

Me at Taejongdae shore at sunset

The road back towards the train station...70 km/h of course

Lists

2005-10-18T17:19:00.000+09:00

Things one may see in Korea and not the US.

Women holding hands everywhere
Men who look uncompromisingly gay (possibly the majority)
Cars that park or drive on sidewalks
Hard liquor in 7-eleven
Girls constantly taking pictures of themselves with their cell phones
Under-priced everything, except pizza, antiperspirant, and peanut butter.
No trash cans, anywhere.
Women climbing mountains in high heels.
Refrigerators specifically for kimchi.
Affordable medical care.

Differences between Korean Americans and Native Koreans. (Warning, broad generalizations and jokes)

Korean American women dye their hair. Girls here tend towards black hair.
Korean American men dress like thugs, native Korean men dress like flamboyant homosexuals.
American Koreans rarely talk to you, and if they do, they are usually only talking Korean around you. Native Koreans like to talk Korean and English (if they know it) with you.
Korean American women shave their legs. Native Korean women often do not.
Korean Americans are Christian, native Koreans are Buddhist or Catholic.
Native Korean women tolerate latent and blatant sexism that Korean American women generally would not.
Most mentioned individual by Korean Americans: Jesus Christ.
Most mentioned individual by Native Koreans: Current pop star
Most college aged Native Korean women live with their parents and have strict curfews.
Native Korean men treat women like dirt, as compared to Korean American men who treat women like larger stones or rocks.

Things I dislike

Lack of trash cans
A male image of beauty that makes Oscar Wilde look like a monk.
Girls constantly giggling or saying “Chincha?!” all the time
How the tap water is poisonous
The lack of paved roads around Ewha.
The mountain that my dorm is located on.
The smell of feces that permeates the streets in Sincheon.
The lack of unhealthy food.
The omniscience of Kimchi.
Mustard, mayonnaise, pickled seaweed, and those yellow radish banchan.

Things I have planned for the remainder of my stay

Trip to Japan.
Trip to Pusan. (going Oct 21 – 23)
Trip to DMZ. (going Oct 29)
Trip to Thailand
Watch Nanta.
Go out on the Han River on a pleasure boat.
Go to Itaewon.
Go to Namdaemun market (going tonight)
Purchase a lot of crap in Insadong.
Find some method to make Δbank account positive.

Everyday Life

2005-10-12T17:02:00.000+09:00

My normal day

So what is my normal day like? Well, if one were to try to envision my average day based on prior entries they would probably conjure up an arousing tale of enterprise and adventure. This however, is far from the truth. My normal day starts off at 7:30 AM, when I wake up to go to my FOUR hour long Korean class. Class lasts from 8:30 and goes until 12:30. It is a nine credit monster-course that covers reading, writing, speaking, and listening. While I have learned a great deal in this course I have also found that because I spend so much time in a classroom speaking Korean, I no longer want to practice my Korean after leaving class. How ironic.

In the beginning of the year I also ventured to take three additional courses. They were Political Economy of East Asia, Introduction to Society and Literature, and Introduction to Women’s Studies in East Asia. After discovering the sheer about of work and energy my Korean class required I decided to drop Political Economy of East Asia. My remaining two classes were ICU classes, meaning they are internet cyber university classes. I was not very keen on this in the beginning of the year because I felt as though I really wanted to be in a classroom with native Korean students. However, I then found this to be a very simplistic view….considering that I don’t really talk with them during class and that I am surrounded by Korean students and citizens for 80% of my day anyway. What eventually ended up happening was that my Society and Literature course had readings that I was unable to obtain. They were ‘located’ in the library or some other ‘ambiguous’ book stores. The last thing I need to do is to spend just as much time pursuing the resources as I do studying them. Thus, I decided to drop that course as well. I am very content, and occupied, with my two courses right now. Of course I would like to take more credits, however I do not think this is something I can seriously do if I want to learn the Korean language as best I can.

In order to fill some of the gaps in my schedule I have started a study group that I meet with once or twice a week to discuss topics from my Women’s Studies class. More importantly, I have made two very good friends from there as well, so my concerns over internet courses have proven to be unfounded. Additionally, some international students and I have also formed a school rock band and practice twice a week. Our singer is from Finland, our drummer from the Netherlands, and the bassist is American. I really enjoy playing with them, and feel that I will improve my lead guitar skills greatly in order to play at their level. Finally, I am advertising for mathematics and English conversation tutoring soon. I also meet with a language exchange partner once a week who helps me with my spoken and grammatical Korean. Finally, I am attempting to start my own tutoring services in mathematics and English conversation. I expect to start tutoring within a week or two.

In addition to all of the school activities listed above, I still have to deal with navigating everyday life. When people ask me what it is like to live in Korea the best answer I can give is “Energy consuming.” Doing absolutely anything requires a great deal of energy and focus. Whether it is buying food or finding a bathroom at a women’s university. There have been several occasions when taxi cab drivers try to rip me off by charging me extra and not expecting me to realize….or I have been given the wrong directions by some local people [And let me tell you how bad it sucks to get lost in a traditional village where many signs are in Chinese characters]. Despite all of that I still love to travel around the city, and also the country. I am planning to visit Pusan and the DMZ soon, and am starting to consider visiting either Tokyo or Bangkok. One day soon I will have to sit down and really start to plan…but for now, I just have my homework to worry about…which brings me back to my original reason for posting:

…so after class I generally go to eat in the cafeteria with some international and Ewha students. I usually get Dolsotbap, which is rice served in a scalding hot bowl, topped with vegetables and meat or fish eggs and of course spicy red sauce. After eating, if I don’t have any club or school activities to go to, I head to the international student’s lounge on the seventh floor of the IEI (international education institute) building. This is generally where I nap on a couch or do some class readings. Afterwards, we usually go out for dinner in the city. I think it is safe to say that I have to eat out for dinner about 95% of the time. I believe there are two driving forces behind this: 1) I love to go out and try new places and new foods (plus it’s cheap) and 2) I HATE climbing up the hill to my dorm to eat in the cafeteria. After eating I generally return to the dorm and do my homework…which takes quite some time…and then to bed, thus completing a normal day.

Sitting in Korean Class. From left to right: Rick (Oregon), Matti (Finland), Lauri (Finland), Ceci (Hong Kong).

Dolsotbap, my favorite dish at the cafeteria costs W2400. This is about $2.30 USD. So good.

Hanging out in the international lounge. Christina snapping some photos and Nico talking on Skype.

Going out for dinner in Sincheon.

And here are some random pictures from around campus:

Student Union Building...empty because this was taken before school started.

Student Union Building, as usual.

One of the Adminstrative Buildings on campus.

Centennial Library. One of the largest in Korea. Fives stories high and comparable to Alexander Library at Rutgers.

Big Update, Part 2

2005-10-01T16:53:00.000+09:00

Bukhansan hiking and Yonsei/Koryo Partying: The weekend after the Gyeongbokgung and Namsan visits was probably the most engaging since I’ve been here. On Friday night we began to celebrate my friend Jessica’s birthday by going to some bar and turning it into a dance club. We like to think that we are taking in as much culture as we’re putting out…so we always get Koreans to dance in bars and we always get the DJ to play classic American music. From there we split up. I went to a club called M2 with Soomin and Haeyun (two awesome buddies) and then went home around 4…everyone else stayed at the bar until around 5 or 6 in the morning. Now, the only reason I point out the times is because we had to wake up at 8:00 am for our International Student Hiking Trip at Bukhansan. Needless to say, we all looked like crap on the bus ride over. A side note: our bus had a Karaoke machine built into it…proving that my genius idea for in-car karaoke was not a first.

Yes, there's Karaoke microphones attached to the bus, and a huge LCD in the front.

Upon arriving we grabbed some food (kimbap rolls or hoagies) and started up the mountain in one huge group. There were many areas that were extremely dangerous…and I get the feeling in America would have been off limits. I do not exaggerate when I say I could have died very easily several times. It wasn’t so much a hike as a climb…now that I think about it in hindsight. It was worth it though…the view was absolutely spectacular. From my understanding, the city of Seoul is nestled between the Han River and Four outer mountains. Bukan-san (mountain) is the northern limit of Seoul. While we did not get to the highest peak (there are three) we did get to the second highest which was probably about 650 meters up. After reaching this peak there was some confusion as to where to head next…so what ended up happening was that we lost 8 international students and the Dean of the International Education Institute on the hill. They continued towards the top while the rest of our group took pictures and relaxed at a mountain spring rest stop….and as you all know, the first thing you do when given a seemingly endless supply of real, pure, mountain spring water is get into a water fight. We had a lot of fun on the mountain, except for one or two minor injuries. It was so beautiful though. My pictures cannot do justice to the view we had. From several points I could see nearly all of the major city of Seoul. One note, for my own future reference: Walking down a hill is much more difficult than walking up…take this into consideration before zealously scaling any future mountains.

Our group walking up the mountain.

A picture I took from halfway up the mountain.

First view of the city of Seoul.

Second view of the city of Seoul.

At least the mountains in the background look good.

All of my friends are a great deal more photogenic than I...exhibit A.

Of course, my eyes are closed... -_-

An outcropping some friends and I went out on for the view...the IEI staff quickly dropped a K-bomb because it was to dangerous. Note: Dropping a K-bomb is whining about something excessively until you get it your way.

Let the water fight begin.

Mari's (pink shirt) face is aboslutely priceless.

Nico offering me a 'drink' of water.

Yep. Good old-fashioned cultural misinterpretations.

After making our way down the mountain, we took the bus back to Ewha and promptly went to eat. The combination of bokkum bap (fried rice) with having not slept more than 3 hours in the past two days resulted in my sleeping during most of the day Saturday. Later that night we had planned to go out and eat, party, and go to the banks of the Han River and relax to celebrate Jessica’s birthday, however we began and ended the evening in Sincheon. What we had failed to realize was that this weekend was the big Yonsei/Koryo Rivalry period. During the weekend assorted sports teams from both schools had played each other. Following the sport, the party culminated in a 10+ block party that engulfed most of Sincheon. There were thousands of students everywhere. The students wearing blue are Yonsei students or fans, and those wearing red are for Koryo. We first stopped at a big free concert being held in the heart of Sincheon and watched a couple of acts…then we decided to move along. Along the way to whatever destination we had decided upon we encountered long lines of blue and red students cheering and screaming their school chants. Also, they would go into convenience stores and beg the owner for beer and soju. This apparently, is one of the biggest parts of the tradition. Outside many of the shops there were tables thrown together with huge punch bowls of soju and makolli (traditional Korean rice wine). There were also restaurants setting up free food for the students. We decided to cheer not only for both schools, but also for Ewha. Never in my life have I been so revered and respected as I was that night. When I started chanting for Yonsei a sea of blue would rush over to me and either pick me up or slap high fives. Likewise it was the same with Kodae (Yodae and Kodae are abbreviated names). When we tried to start Ewha chants, at first we got some weird looks…but after showing the crowds our ID cards they went crazy and we had hundreds of red and blue students circling around us and cheering for Edae. In addition to learning many school chants, I also had a good chance to take a look at the average Korean college student…and let me tell you, they are a hell of a lot nicer and more respectful than most of the garbage I’ve seen in the states. Even the ones that are hopelessly drunk apologize for knocking into you, or pick up your ID card for you when you drop it. By the end of the night, I was convinced that Korean colleges could show American colleges more than a thing or two about having an awesome time.

Some famous woman singing on stage.

Yonsei people milling about...in huge lines.

Kodae corner.

Which one doesn't belong? Hint...he's a blonde finnish guy.

High Fives were the trademark of the party.

Big Update, Part 1

2005-10-01T14:42:00.000+09:00

In an attempt to excuse myself for negligence I offer the following excuse: I have been doing so much recently that by the time I finish doing said ambiguous things I do not have time to post on my blog…and then, when I wake up the next day I have so many more experiences which I should be posting that the sheer amount of required postage is overwhelming and sometimes I shy away from the duty. I guess that last part sort of nullifies my excuse…but nonetheless I will now attempt to summarize my last two (or three weeks) so far by highlighting the big events and quickly summarizing everyday activities.

Big Event 1:

My Chuseok: Chuseok, the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving, is one of the biggest and most important holidays of year. Millions of Koreans travel back to their homes and have large parties with their extended families. The mass migration and evacuation of citizens from the cities to the rural areas creates two negative results for international students abroad. Number one, you cannot travel anywhere on the Korean Peninsula because all of the bus, train, and planes are booked months in advance. Thus, our plan to travel to Pusan was promptly thwarted. Second, all of the shops in Seoul close and there really isn’t much to do besides sit around in one’s dorm and sleep.
I however, had other plans... I figured all of the historical sites in Seoul must be open and hosting many ceremonies, so some international students and I decided to visit Gyeongbokgung palace on Saturday of the Chuseok weekend. The weather was horrible, but the palace was gorgeous. Interestingly the palace was nearly desolate on Friday (probably because most folks transiting to their homes). My group, which consisted of about 8 international students and 2 buddies walked around for a bit while I ran away and snapped photos of the entire palace. I get the feeling they were a bit frustrated by the end of the day because they had to keep waiting up for me to return from wherever I had gone. After the palace, we went to a traditional style Korean restaurant…traditional in the sense that you sit on the floor…and ordered sam gyeop sal and seol long tang…barbeque pork (like bacon) and boiled beef bone soup, respectively.

The front gate of Gyeongbokgung.

A small pavilion on a lake. I had to run away from the group to get this photo since this was located about 300 meters away from the main temple.

Sam gyeop sal...cooking in the background.

The next day (Sunday) I had heard from my friends Nico, Marten, and Jessica that there were going to be martial arts demonstrations at Gyeongbokgung. I decided to go back because the palace was gorgeous and also because this was one of my only chances to see the 18 styles of martial arts practiced by Joseon dynasty warriors. When we arrived (it takes about 30 minutes by subway) the martial arts were already underway. It was a brief demonstration of different armed skills. Afterwards there was a traditional drum/dance group. Saturday was also different in the sense that there were thousands of people milling about the palace. It was great because many were dressed in their traditional Hanbok attire. We walked around and I took more pictures and got some personal shots (which you can see on my picture site).

Some sort of guard changing ceremony at the entrance gate.

Two men sparring with two different weapons.

Jessica, sparring dude, and I...post performance.

An adorable little kid in his Hanbok.

Traditional Drum/Dance

On Monday I had plans to meet up with some international student organization from Seoul National University. I learned that we would be going to Namsan traditional folk village. I bravely navigated the subway system alone and arrived at Chungmuro sam (3) early. While I waited to meet the students outside of the subway stop, I saw a food stand selling silk worm grubs for school children. They had a horrific sweet smell and they looked as bad as I’m sure you’re imaging. After a good ten minutes of feeling sick to my stomach the international students arrived. Well, I had thought they were all international students. For an excellent example of cultural differences: At one point I started to talk to one of the individuals who was with us. I asked her what year she was in college, or if she was a graduate student. Apparently, she was one of the advisors of the club, in her mid thirties, and was very offended by my question. Of course, in America this would have been considered a slick complement…but here, well…let’s just say her and I did not talk much afterwards. And another thing about age here…Did you know that when Koreans are born, they are one year old? Furthermore, they get a year older at every new years…not on their birthday. So, just to show an extreme example how of this can manifest itself into something ridiculous: If you are born on December 31, you come out and are one year old…however, the next day (January 1) you then turn two. Yes folks, it’s stupid and makes no sense…and I advise you to never trust or give weight to what a Korean person says their age is. Nowadays I just ask what year somebody is born in. But anyways, Namsan was great. I got to see a fusion traditional and modern band play Korean songs. They used modern instruments as well as traditional ones…so I’m glad I got to hear them play because I’m sure I’ll never hear it again. Then I got to play several children’s games. There was one where you attempt to throw a stick into a hoop, and one where you jump on a seesaw like board and shoot somebody else in the air, and finally a Korean version of hackysack (which I must say that I owned in). Afterwards, our international group went to Insadong, which is a very traditional part of Seoul. They sell all sorts of traditional crafts and goods there. It was very nice to meet and eat with new people from all over the world and be forced to practice some of my Korean and Japanese. I really hope I can see them again.

A Korean see-saw game at Namsan village...which I must say I did a good job at. Although, I guess I have an advantage since I weight 100 kg.

So all in all, my Chuseok was pretty rocking.

The ever-popular juxtaposition picture, part 1.

The ever-popular juxtaposition picture, part 2.

Picture Site

2005-09-26T19:58:00.000+09:00

Because of the time and effort it takes to post pictures on my blog I have decided to create a picture site. I have not put any commentary with the pictures yet, but there are hundreds of photographs from temples, traditional villages, Yonsei/Koryo street parties, and other places. Please check it out -> Seweoul Picture Site

The Dorm

2005-09-19T18:20:00.000+09:00

Welcome to the Heart of Conservative Korea: The Ewha Woman's University Dormitory

Hanwoori Hall

Above is a picture of my dorm from my balcony. What I've failed to show you is that off to the left a bit is the city of Seoul...hundreds of feet below.

Here is a picture of my dorm hall. The building is in the shape of a slightly bending H. All of the international students live in the lower left leg, the Soseul residents (graduate students) live in the upper left part, and ewha girls live in both the upper and lower right side.

Here is a picture of the entrance to my room. I should note that the lower area in the foreground is for shoes. You should note how this picture symbolizes my fitting in with Korean culture.

Thank goodness they had the foresight to provide foreign students with adequatly sized bathroom shoes.

So here is a sign on the door that connects the Ewha woman's dorm to the International House. This is the most straightforward and comprensible sign in all of Seoul.

The traditional tea room on my floor...

...complete with a large LCD screen and surround sound.

Of course, in a women's school that focuses on equal rights, men are not allowed to use the elevators. Our elevators are right next to the elevators for coloured people (or folk as they are called back home).

Even basic necessities of men's lives have been taken and stripped from them...These women have german aggression...

Night Life

2005-09-06T21:44:00.000+09:00

I will now feebly attempt to describe the night life that is Seoul, Korea. I begin writing this as I prepare for an all out party at Seoul Hilton. So far, in five days we have had two major parties with some bar stops in between. The first party, at Vivaldi Park has been covered in an earlier post…so I will now describe some of the streets of Seoul, the bars, restaurants, and clubs around the campus and Sincheon area. Right outside of Ewha is a huge shopping district made up of a couple of roads. One actually leads right up to the main gate of the campus. As you might have guessed, they sell primarily shoes and women’s clothes…although there are some very nice men’s accessory stores. The open air markets and street vendors are extremely cheap, especially after you haggle down a price. The department stores are in line with what you might expect at an upscale mall in the US. You can haggle at some of these departments stores, but most times it is considered offensive if you try. Here are some pictures of the immediate shopping area (I will take more later, since these are pretty unexciting):

First is a picture from the Edae (short for Ewha Daehakkyo) subway station. The next picture is of the shopping street right outside Ewha campus...which leads to the main gate.

Here is a picture of the more rural part of Seoul. As you can see, the buildings are all very low and tightly packed. The more impressive part of the city is to the right of the picture…however, I rarely go there anyway so this gives a good idea of my local surroundings.

We now more down to the Sincheon area. Several of the guys in my program could not get housing on Ewha campus and are living in a boarding house here. If you ignore the fact that a huge part of Sincheon is a red light district, this place has a very cool vibe. Above is a picture of the major road running through Sincheon at night.

Of course, no trip to Sincheon is complete without first visit the Red Light District. Ironically, these pictures take on a literal interpretation of such an area. The first is from an alley in the sex district (sorry about the blurriness), and the second is of Angie (my good friend from Rutgers) standing in front of a love motel.

Before I move onto the clubs and bars…here I am: the King of all that is tall, white, and misunderstood in the heart of Sincheon.

My German friends, who are fantastic drinkers, brought us to this German-style bar near their place in Sincheon. They said the beer was cheaper, and it actually ended up being a very good place to relax for a little. The name Seoul, in English, translates to ‘walk until you’re dehydrated and irritable’.

Now to the club pictures. This particular bar-turned-club was called Fusion, and it was directly outside of the campus. It was on the 7^th floor of a building and had mostly glass walls so you could see the city. This party was called the opening year party for international students and buddies. The school paid to rent out the entire bar/club for the night. Everyone in the following pictures is either an international student or a PEACE buddy (descriptions are left to right, top to bottom):

Sun Joo/me, friend/me, Soo min/me, Buddy/Hiroki/Me

Some ladies/me, Masashi/Mari/Me, Me/Mari/friend, Olivia/me

At the Noraebang (Karaoke): Nico/Angie/Me, Frederik/Christopher/Mark/Mari, Jan/Me, Friend/Nico/Frederik

Coming up (so I remember):

Pictures of shopping districts, my room, Ewha campus, and funny signs/shirts.

Visit to Techno Mart and immigration office.

Orientation

2005-09-02T01:49:00.000+09:00

So upon arriving at the airport, I was graciously picked up by my Ewha PEACE buddy (their official names). Her name is Sora Choi, and she is totally rock.

We waited a bit for some other students to arrive from Hong Kong and Mexico, and then took a bus from Incheon to Seoul. The bus ride was about an hour long, and the taxi which we took to the dorm was very nice inside. Just to set this down in black and white: my dorm, Hanwoori House, is on top of a mountain. I exaggerated, but it is much higher than a hill (maybe 700 feet up). That night we went out to eat with the buddies at a local Korean restaurant which was really good. Additionally, and I know my mother would be proud, it was extremely cheap. The total, for the eight of us, came to 30 dollars. Needless to say, I covered the entire bill in a show of gratitude to the buddies. Note: there is no tipping in Korea. I then returned back to the main gate of Ewha. This gate, which opens up to a huge shopping district is at the bottom of the hilltain (my new word) so we walked for about 30 minutes and by the top we had not only burned off hundreds of calories, but also managed to sweat ourselves to dehydration. I called it an early night in disgust at the fact that my internet was not working and looked forward the next day to orientation.

Orientation began with an abbreviated tour of the campus from my lovely buddy Sora and then shortly after we were herded onto buses to head out to Vivaldi Park. During the drip we passed through the rural Kwangju province which is very lovely. It looks like all the misty mountains you see in traditional style Chinese movies. I couldn’t get a good picture to do them justice, but I did manage a photo from the bus of a small village in Kwangju.

We then arrived at Vivaldi Park Resort and started the international student/buddy orientation.

First, we sat through about an hour of technical information regarding classes and housing. Then, the fun began. Unfortunately, I had decided to put my bag in my room for safe keeping during orientation so I could not take any pictures with my camera. I will try to describe the ensuing chaos here:

First we broke into four teams and sat in lines. The girls then had to choose “the most handsome man in the group” to be the team captain. I use quotations to express some doubt as to what kind of male captains they were supposed to choose. I say this because one of the really good-looking German guys was in my group and he didn’t get picked. Anyway, the captains were then forced to go up on stage in this huge conference room and dance. What I did looked more like a seizure, but it got the girls laughing, so that was good. It was very embarrassing at first because everyone there is at least mediocre at dancing, but after some time I just found that they enjoyed my attempt. Then we started to play games. We played a game where we had to walk around while music played and when it stopped they would call numbers and we’d have to pile into corresponding groups. The people who couldn’t form groups of the right numbers were out. This was pretty chaotic because there were about 280 girls and 20 guys in the room. We then played other games which got increasingly more embarrassing for the team captains…like charades that were rigged so that I had to start crawling around on stage and clawing at people to get them to guess grizzly bear. Another game we played, which very well describes Korean society was called “Guess who drank the soju.” I found this to be very surprising since all the teachers were there and this was paid for by the school. Basically, ten people from each team went on stage and there were ten cups. Only one had soju. So for example, when the ten people from blue team (my team) went up and drank, all the other teams had to try and guess who drank the soju. Of course, I HAD to go according to the rules the buddies had made because I was a guy and also the captain. Luckily, my cup had water, but my friend Hiroki was not so fortunate! Apparently he had tasted soju before so he could disguise the fact that he drank soju…thus the other teams guessed wrong and received no points. After several games, and tallying up the points, Blue team won. Of course, the captain had to go up on stage to receive the reward of chips and junk food. The almost made me dance and sing again, but I jumped off the stage and threw the bags of food into the crowd.

After the buddy-prepared game night we went back to our Korean style room. I was with a bunch of German guys, so of course they decided to go buy TONS of soju and beer and throw a party. We all went down to the local market and bought soju and beer, which is interestingly cheaper than bottled water (1000 won, or about a dollar). I tried the soju and found it to be a mix between rubbing alcohol and turpentine.

Now, every guide book I had read prior to Korea had made bold mention of the fact that drinking is part of Korean life. I found this to be undeniably TRUE. At first our room of men went back to the public lounge and started to drink…it took about 15 to 20 seconds for about 20 of the Korean peace buddies and other Japanese people to come out and teach us drinking games. My research shows that although Korean women love to drink, they cannot drink very much without completely losing their wits. After some time, a hotel manager came up and told us we couldn’t hang out in the lounge…so of course the only next logical movement was to our room. I had a great time without getting drunk (see kids, drinking is unnecessary). The Japanese and Korean girls were lots of fun and we hung out, took pictures, and practiced Japanese and Korean with each other. I think a huge reason all the girls came to our room was because of the Swedish, Finnish, and German guys who are very attractive. One actually models for Pepsi in Asia. On a down note, we got a warning from the hotel and the dean of Ewha international department came up to scold us all for disturbing other rooms. The following pictures sum up the party that went from 11 until 4 in our room:

Some girl and my friend Hiroki

Buddy Hyo Jin and another friend on the right.

Hyo Jin and I!

The crazy Su Min next to some of my roommates (the only other white guys at Ewha).

Some girl, japanese friend, me, model guy from Sweden, Angie.
As you can see, I'm terrible with names.

The next morning...I'm very friendly with most of these guys now. The shirtless guy is Nico from Holland.

Fact: Although Koreans like to think they are super trendy and materialistic...the only drive shitty Hyundais or Kias...and they only buy them in black, white, or some gradient combination thereof.

The lovely Rutgers Folks before leaving...

Christina and I

Olivia and Angie

Some stuff from the ride home:

Plane Ride

2005-08-31T17:05:00.000+09:00

Some things I’ve learned thus far:

~It is okay to butt in front of somebody in line (in the airport boarding queue for example) if they are younger than you.

~9/10 women who work for KAL are incredibly good looking. +/- 1 woman deviation

~nodding one’s head can serve as the following on an airplane: thank you, here you go, can you turn off your incredibly bright light that is aimed more into my face than your book.

~It is important to practice restraint and know when to let go. For instance: when you fall asleep with your pillow on your lap, and wake up with no pillow present. Of course, your neighbor’s Δpillow now has a positive value.

~The word pineapple translates into orange when ordering juice.

~Wine is standard fare with dinner on the plane.

~It is not a good idea to suddenly decide to open up your window to take in the beautiful Alaskan landscape after having sat in a dimly lit airplane fuselage for more than 6 hours. One should also take into consideration that snow is highly reflective and can cause similar eye damage as when staring into the sun or poking yourself in the eye with a fork.

~In all seriousness, KAL has been awesome, and I have really enjoyed my flight thus far (I’m writing this as I approach 10 hours of constant sitting)

~It is wrong to jump to conclusions when one sees two large, well-bearded Arab men boarding a KAL flight with large square boxes in their hands accompanied by 5 foot long cylindrical cases with locks. In hindsight I suppose they were thrilled with America’s choice of curtains and decided to bring some back home…to Korea?

~It is a good idea to get a hold of headphones that plug into the seat (free if you ask)…that way you can watch the in-flight movies. The only American movie thus far has been Ms. Congeniality 2, which was subbed in Korean, and dubbed in Japanese. Good thing I can’t read lips or I may have been subjected to yet another sub par American sequel.

~In order to work for KAL you do not need to pass a spoken English proficiency test. Instead, you must have signed up for, and completed a series of classes in hand-motionography as well as universal facial expressions.

~When heading west at 500 mph one should take into consideration that the lighting situation does not change. Thus, it has been sunlight for the past 10 hours, and will be day time when I arrive in Incheon. This appears to be the ‘chink in the armor’ of my plan to get onto a Korean schedule, as outlined in my previous post.

~Rule of Korean movies: somebody must die. If somebody does not die, it is either not a Korean film or you’ve just witnessed an edited-for-tv version. Try looking for the director’s cut.

~Korea is a very far away place (hour 13).

~I have confirmed the foundation of Relativity. That is, the laws of physics apply identically in all inertial frames and it is impossible to prove motion in an inertial frame. For example, if one were to accidentally spill his/her juice out in front of their tray while in an airplane that is traveling at a constant speed of 500 mph, the juice will not have an angled displacement vector such that it will splatter safely on the tray. Instead, it will fall directly onto his/her knees.

Pictures that sum up my flight.

JFK airport with my brother

For all you Risk players out there. Ever wondered what Yakutsk and Kamchatka were like? Well, here's your answer.

Incheon Airport.

*Korea is amazingly beautiful. I will post several more times to add pictures of the city of Seoul, Ewha campus, Kwangju countryside, and Vivaldi Ski resort. I will also update again to talk all about my early trials. Previews: Being forced to dance on stage in front of 300 women after being voted most handsome (complete crap, there are way cuter Swedish guys here...they just picked on me), crazy Korean parties in the traditional style room, and eating eating eating! Patience Please!*

Four hours

2005-08-28T16:41:00.000+09:00

I leave for the airport in about four hours. The reason I'm not sleeping is because of my ingenious plan to shift onto Seoul time during the transport. I figure that the flight is 14 hours, and when I arrive it will be around 4:00 PM (Seoul time). If I sleep on the plane for nine hours (starting in the beginning of the flight), and then wake up and am awake for the rest of the flight, I will have effectively shifted onto Seoul time. Seoul is 13 hours ahead of us, for anyone who is interested. Thus, if I wake up nine hours into the flight, that's the same as waking up around 11:30 AM in Korea. I guarantee this plan will not work and will most likely result in horrible jet lag...but I figure I probably won't be able to sleep tonight anyway, and this looks good on paper.

My best wishes to all of my great friends who go back to school and begin a new year. Best of luck in your classes and have a great semester! I can't wait to see everyone during winter break. Be sure to keep in touch. I use the handle Spatocks on AIM, MSN, and Skype.

Pride

2005-08-27T15:34:00.000+09:00

Today was filled with packing, relaxing, and eating. I made sure to take in all the foods I probably won't be able to obtain for the next five months. This includes, but is not exclusive to: Taco Hot Pockets, Bagel with Peanut Butter and Jelly (two birds, one stone), chips and salsa, lamb, root beer, and a trip to Don Pablo's. Never before have I been so proud a glutton.

Tomorrow is the last day I will see people (other than family) and I still do not have a set departure time from my house. Hopefully I can finish up 'packing' and just hang around at home for the rest of the day. I want to be as unproductive as feasibly possible.

Two days left

2005-08-26T15:35:00.000+09:00

Two days left until I am whisked away to the land of the morning calm. I'm arriving in the evening. Needless to say, I expect to be greeted by the incessant whining of obnoxious young women on cell phones...thus leading me to believe that Korea is only 'calm' in the morning because everyone is still asleep or hungover.

Test

2005-08-24T04:11:00.000+09:00

Test entry.