Utilities

June has come and gone and I am left with memories of having some of the worst mosquito bites I’ve ever received. However, that was last post, this is a new one. Today, like any other Wednesday, upon finishing work I return home to change clothes and head off for the gym and I am hit with an extraordinarily great feeling of relief. In fact, each and every time I’ve entered my room for the past 2 months I get to enjoy that feeling of relief. Why, you ask? My air conditioner.

The only difference between today and other days is it is June 30^th. Also known as: Utility bill day. Last month I had quite a cheap utility bill, which I believe to be around $25. This month was a bit different. I’ve had my air conditioner on 24/7 set at a wintery 21° Centigrade (69° F), so I expected a significant increase in cost. Boy was I wrong.

I received my MONTHLY bill and thought that my eyes were playing tricks on me. “6,600 won, that can’t be right,” I thought to myself. Now for everyone who is unsure of the exchange rate between KRW (won) and USD (US Dollar), it is approximately 1USD = 1150 KRW. And recently it’s been a bit more skewed at around 1200 KRW to the dollar.

6,600 KRW = $5.40 USD

Now realize, $5.40 pays for my entire months heating/electric/water supply only. Unfortunately, I can’t include internet and phone utilities which are significantly higher. Regardless, raise your hand if you would like to pay $5.40 a month to keep your house cool and energized for the summer.

Check it:

Warning!!! Graphic Content!!!

I can understand that when I say, “Hey everybody! The mosquitoes here are vicious!” people obviously will think that they have experienced such carnivorous insects at some point in their life. I would have definitely had similar thoughts if I was reading this blog in New York. However, I can assure you, that if you do live in New York, you have no idea. I am sure everyone at this moment has begun to roll your eyes and began to chuckle. Maybe even a few of you have thought that I am overreacting to a situation that really isn’t that bad. Everybody has had it bad, I know. I think the picture below speaks for itself.

At this moment, I count 30 bites on my right foot alone.

Every day for the past month, I’ve woken up in the morning with my legs on fire. Even at this very moment I have about 15 places that I would like to simultaneously scratch. The craziest part of what I am experiencing is that the mosquitoes here are no bigger than a penny (including the legs). Which somewhat explains how they have been entering my seemingly airtight room. I’ve already had bites between my fingers, on my palms, my elbow (there’s no meat there) and even my forehead.

And Then There Were Two

And then there were two. Today marks the first Rick-less day I will experience in South Korea since I first met him 6 months ago. We definitely had some outrageously fun times together, almost all of which I can’t comment on this ‘family friendly’ blog. Out of all the people that I’ve met since arriving here, I can easily say that Rick was the most unique. With a seemingly unlimited supply of jokes and stories (favorite: the kangaroo story) there wasn’t a minute of boredom, regardless of location. Rick, you’ll be missed.

On a more awesome note, next month I will be going on a cruise for 7 days/6 nights with the girlfriend. Departing on the 17^th of July (the day after my birthday) from Busan, S.Korea, our itinerary is as follows:

1. Departing from Busan, S. Korea

2. Fukuoka, Japan

3. Kagoshima, Japan

4. Water

5. Shanghai, China

6. Water

7. Final Destination Busan, S. Korea

Upon arriving in Japan, I’ll be sure to catch as many Pokemon as possible. My real plan is to try and trade up for the largest Yen and Yuan note possible. I think that those would be pretty cool souvenirs. Actually, as I am writing this I am having second thoughts about that because anybody in any country can simply go to a bank and just exchange currency. So, I will be taking any suggestions for the coolest souvenir to bring back with me. We all know that having a Pikachu would definitely be the coolest thing to get.

On to the topic of experiencing the World Cup in a country that actually likes soccer is immense amounts of fun. The whole city gathers at the amphitheatre near the river to watch the game on a jumbo-tron. It’s the equivalent of tail gating the entire game. And because drinking outside is legal, there are no worries about getting in trouble for public drunkenness. I actually poured myself a Jack and Coke not 1 meter from an officer during the first game. Epic win.

Temperature Update: It’s getting hot. Like 95 degrees plus 75% humidity everyday hot. Although my school does have a central air conditioning system, they are very reluctant to turn it on. Only when beads of sweat start pouring down my face do they seem nice enough to provide some relief.

Cinco de Mayo

So how has everyone been? I am looking at my blog now and it seems that it’s been a month since my last post. What a month it has been. Finally after a particularly arduous Korean winter, from what I’ve been told, the cherry blossoms have come and gone and the sun is beating this little peninsula pretty hard. With temperatures averaging in the 70’s and 80’s and humidity at a consistent 80%, it’s hot. As if someone flipped a light switch, the temperature changed. Frankly, I haven’t waited a month to talk about the temperature, who cares anyway. I could have told you this from back in New York.

Here are a few things that you may not know, unless you have lived in South Korea. The bugs: they are giant. Mothra, the popular oversized insect villain in the Godzilla movies, was not the result of a failed nuclear test. They just took any common moth and took pictures of it. They are that big. Birds: they exist, but in far fewer quantities than I thought possible for the amount of insects (and spiders) that exist. For every 200 birds I would see in New York, I see 1-2 here. Why? This would be a bird utopia. They would probably eat so well they would be too fat to fly. Celebrity status: It doesn’t go away. I lived in quite a small city for 6 months now (half a contract), and in comparison to what I’ve seen by actually visiting surrounding cities, it is quite small. Yet, somehow, my constant presence is still somehow a novelty to literally everybody (this includes other teachers I work with). I really don’t know why. I guess it’s a pitfall of growing up in the most diverse place in the world.

Anyway, the other day I was having a couple drinks* with Simon and Rick and they told me that they had read my blog and were upset that, although they were mentioned, they didn’t have a picture. So I decided to oblige and find the most embarrassing photos of them. This is what I came up with:

Simon – You can randomly encounter this wild animal if you are very quiet while creeping in tall grass. He can commonly be found next to areas with an ample supply of food and water such as riverbanks or marshes. Be wary, if approaching this massive beast while performing a mating ritual, like the one seen here, back away slowly. Do not run, for the wild Simon is nearly blind and will charge at random.

Rick – This mystifying creature, known scientifically as the ‘Enrico smashedicus’, is as elusive as he is dangerous. Get too close to him and he is likely to drool on you. In this photo, he is using a very unique ability gained through years of focused training and wisdom passed down through generations of Ricks before him. It is called ‘black out’.

To be serious for a moment, these guys are awesome. Rick leaves for Seoul in a month and a half to start another job and it will definitely not be the same without him. In fact, this experience, as amazing as it has been so far, would only be a fraction as awesome had these two dudes not rolled through this city. Sorry for the embarrassing pictures. Actually, no I’m not, that was really fun to write.

Unfortunately I still have more to talk about, but it’s Friday, I have two classes before the weekend and I need to get back to my job. I’ll try and get back to the updating on a more frequent basis. In fact, I might even bring my camera everywhere I go for the next couple days and take an obscene amount of photos. At this point I only have a couple hundred, but I’ll try and double that in 2 days. Why not?

*getting bombed

My New Girlfriend

So, I would like to take a brief moment and introduce the rest of the world to my new girlfriend. Her name is Jung Mi and, yes, she is Korean. In fact, she is a native to Sangju. Unfortunately the only pictures I have of her were taken with my phone. I sent them to my email so I could post a photo of her with this post. However, the quality of the picture is slightly diminished. I will try my best and get a picture of her with better resolution. Here she is:

Over the past couple weeks, we’ve been doing pretty much the same things that you would expect to do in America. We’ve seen movies (Shutter Island and Clash of the Titans), gone out to dinner (T.G.I.F and Outback) and played video games (she’s pretty good at Cruisin’ World). Really, this is nothing out of the ordinary. I’ve even figured out how to put Korean subtitles on the movies I download.

I guess that reminds me to mention that she doesn’t speak English fluently (keyword: fluently). She speaks well, but it definitely helps that I’ve been learning Korean for the past 5 months. To be completely honest, I haven’t found a topic that we cannot yet discuss. That even includes astronomy (thank you Google Earth) and even politics/news. I expect eventually something may be too difficult to discuss, but I haven’t encountered it yet. I’ll let you all know what it is when it happens.

It also should be mentioned that she has a car. Meaning, I am now semi-mobile. Awesome.

The picture actually does have pretty poor resolution on it. Sorry.

Yellow Wind

So to be completely honest, I didn't even know that this existed a month ago. I had heard people talking about something called Yellow Wind and didn't have any idea what they were talking about. Apparently, sand from the Gobi Desert in China is picked up by the wind and carried over all of Eastern Asia.

Until recently, this wasn't considered an issue. However, because of the ever growing pollutants being released by major Chinese cities, the sand carries pollutants into the breathing air of Korea, Japan, Russia and in some cases The US. Thanks China.

A few days ago I started to feel a little sick. Nothing too serious, just a sore throat and a minor cough. As a person who rarely gets sick from anything, I was very curious as to what I was exposed to. Low and behold, the most common side effects from inhalation of the Yellow Wind are: sore throat and a minor cough. Again, thank you China.

The only positive thing that comes from this Yellow Wind, is the warning sign it issues before an outbreak. The sky turns a very odd color of yellow, like someone is holding a color filter in front of your face. It gives you enough time to either throw on a face mask or get indoors. I've heard that, under normal circumstances, the Yellow Wind only lasts through the spring in Korea and then the air current shifts giving a three season reprieve.

You have anything like this Johnny??

Update

Here is a quick update to let you all know that a real update will be coming soon. Sorry for the delay. If you can imagine it, I've been quite busy lately. Sangju just recently recycled their EPIK (public school) teachers, so a new rush of foreigners has been coming through the city. I've met a ton of new Westerners and, although, I haven't been on any new crazy and wild adventures, I'll bore you with the mundane experiences of my everyday life. I might even mention that there is a new lady that I am currently seeing. Maybe.

Zach Does Korea

Hanging out with Zach in Korea for the New Years was a really great time. We did so many things that it’s going to be difficult to not only recount the events in writing, but actually remember them myself. Luckily, I snapped over 160 pictures to help jog my memory. I would expect nothing less from Mrs. Woods, even on vacation.

I arrived at about midnight on Friday to a very impatient Zach. We quickly decided it was time to have a celebratory beer out at any random bar. Unfortunately, I was very unfamiliar with the area of Seoul that our hotel was located. It didn’t matter, as any bar would do. After a few rounds and a quick catch up conversation, we headed back to the hotel to sleep. Little did I know, if I had I stayed out any longer I would have died from exhaustion to following day.

Our wake-up calls over the weekend from Mrs. Woods occurred around 8:15am and we had 10 minutes to get ready. Awesome. Awesome to the max. We had found out about a city tour bus that would leave us at the hotspots for us to do a ‘self tour’. A new bus was scheduled to arrive in 25 minute intervals. Rarely did we spend more than 50 minutes at any location. I think maybe once out of the twelve hotspots we stayed for more than two bus intervals and even that was probably an accident. We spent both Saturday and Sunday experiencing nearly everything the tour had to offer. I think the only thing that we didn’t do was visit the agricultural museum. Sorry kimchi, nobody cares about cabbage.

The most impressive hotspot was easily owned by Seoul Tower. Not only is Seoul Tower close to 800 ft high, it is located on top of a mountain. I would guess that if you added the total elevation from bottom of the mountain to the top of the spire Seoul tower would be much larger than the Empire State Building or even Taipei 101. The pictures were absolutely amazing. Here are a few:

The distant mountains on the right are in North Korea

That is actually how far away we were from New York and D.C.

For dinner on Saturday, I took everyone out to a traditional Korean style meal. Although it was a little mundane for me, as I do this literally every day, I enjoyed teaching a different culture to everybody. Although Zach definitely had a leg up from the ‘off the plane’ Americans, he still had a few Chinese hitches in his step. Honestly though, he understood and was able to adapt almost instantly.

After dinner it was time to paint the town. Because Zach and I only had a few days to see each other we certainly weren’t going to spend it in the hotel. While living in Korea I’ve become an expert at burning the candle at both ends. So that’s just what we did. I took him to Hongdae, where most bars were closed for the holiday, but this didn’t stop us. We both shared our feelings toward the Asian way of life and what it has to offer; how long we planned on staying abroad and where else we wanted to travel; things the United States should adopt from Asia. One thing that we agreed upon easily was the rapid assimilation of the major Asian cities to the Western world. It seemed that soon (as in 15-20 years) a visit to Seoul would be too similar to visiting NYC.

Overall, it was a really awesome weekend. It was a real eye opener which reflected just exactly how much I have been affected by Korean culture. Which is a lot, by the way. I am really looking forward to taking a trip to go see Zach sometime over the summer. I think after nearly 4 months I am finally ready to start taking a tour of other Asian nations. To get a closer view as to what Zach and I toured over the weekend, take a look at the photo album. Like I said, I took over 170 pictures. I won’t put captions on all of them, but I’ll try and separate them into categories for easy viewing.

The Bird

Today, I saw a bird. This may seem like a totally ridiculous statement, which may even provoke you to ask the question, “Adam, what is a bird?” My response would include a description of a normal, average, run-of-the-mill, feathery, flying and standard bird. So why would I waste my time and write about such a perfectly normal sighting? Because it’s not a perfectly normal sighting. Because I’ve been in Korea for 3 months now and I’ve never seen or even heard a bird.

The effect the lack of birds has on the surrounding ecosystem is massive. I’ve heard stories, tales and near legends of the largest insects you could imagine (well, maybe a bit smaller) appearing during the summer months to take advantage of the predator-less area. Rick has told me that the mosquitoes are all the size of your index finger and, additionally, show no mercy for places to feed. He told me a story, which to sum up, sounded as if a small helicopter landed on his forehead during the middle of the night and implanted a golf ball sized lump underneath his skin. Foreheads don’t even have any meat on them.

To quote Bill Watterson (if you don’t know who he is, I don’t know you): “Good ol’ itchy island! Home of the nuclear mosquitoes!” Although this wasn’t in reference to Korea, I think the obvious message still rings true. Hopefully I see more birds outside as the weather continues to warm up. As for now, the 1 bird will probably die from obesity.

O's

Just spotted a rare shipment of Oreo O's at my local super market. I am going to buy them all, because I can't let a rarity like this escape me again. The first escape was a shipment of jumbo sized Hershey bars. I then quickly learned that, unlike America, not all things are available all the time. Let the feasting begin...

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10,000 Won Challenge

Yesterday, I was thinking to myself that, sometimes, 10,000 won (about $8.50) can get you a ridiculous amount of food; so, I decided to put it to the test. I left in the morning with only a single 10,000 won bill in my wallet, determined to get the most out of it. My purchases were as follows:

1.5 liter Gatorade ~ 1,500 won

1 large ramen noodle ~ 800 won

1 large pepperoni pizza ~ 6,000 won

1.5 liter Coca-Cola ~ 1,200 won

1 Duk-bok-e ~ 500 won

Duk-bok-e is a type of spicy rice dish, except it looks nothing like rice. Let me explain. The rice is mashed up and rolled into a cylinder then boiled in water. It is seamlessly held together so it looks as if it was grown as an extremely large rice kernel. Here is an example of what one piece looks like:

Honestly, I was hungry for pizza yesterday, which means that if I wanted to really stretch the 10,000 I could have opted for something cheaper, larger and still more filling. To tell you the truth, I have no idea how some restaurants make their money.

Steve Visits Sangju

So Steven finally decided to come and visit me in my smaller and more country city. In fact, I just returned from dropping him off at the bus terminal and I believe his final words were, “Dude, I had a great time. Sangju kicked my ass.” So long, until next time Steven. Indeed, it was wicked fun. But the beginning is normally a better place to start recounting the weekend antics, rather the end.

*Cue wavy outro signaling dream-like sequence*

Friday – In preparation for the arrival of Steve, I first needed to arrange his sleeping quarters aka on the floor next to my bed. So, I took a solo trip to E-Mart to find a floor cushion, blanket and pillow. Mission Complete. Preparation Complete. I got Steve off the bus at around 10pm after he took a 3.5 hour bus ride from Incheon and he looked pretty tired. Our first order of business was to drop some stuff off in my apartment and then immediately hit the town. We met up with Rick, Simon and a few Korean people at a popular Western style restaurant, named Suyouki (pronounced: So-yoo-gi). Literally, it was nothing out of the ordinary. Afterwards things started to get a little interesting.

We decided that we were going to try and summon our inner Justin Timberlake, Eminem, Billy Joel (thanks Johnny) and Lady Gaga (if you’re Steve) at a Karaoke bar, literally on the opposite corner from Suyouki. In the three minutes it should take to wait for the crosswalks and lights, we somehow managed to coerce a group of girls to come sing with us. Under normal circumstances, this sounds fantastic; however, we soon learned that they were not of legal drinking ages. Therefore, due to the gossipy nature of our small city and the fact that we are foreigners, we had to try and get them to leave. This was no easy task. I am pretty sure, if my memory serves me well, that Steve actually picked a girl up and pushed her out of the door.

Our next location in attempt to achieve Nirvana was at a restaurant/bar known as Fish and Grill. It was at this point that we all ‘cut the film’. ‘Cut the film’ is a Konglish (similar to Spanglish) phrase that is slang for blacked out. If you think of your memory as a movie projector and you cut it…I shouldn’t have to spell it out for you. What I was told is that Steve was legless and sleeping. In a comedic attempt to find out how serious Steve’s condition was, on the way out of the bar, Rick gave Steve a swift kick in the bum. Steve’s reaction: wake up and chase Rick down a side street. I guess his hypothesis was thusly proved shortly after the 100 meter dash.

Saturday – Waking up literally at 1pm can sometimes make you feel as though the day had been slightly wasted, however, in our case it was equivalent to morning time. Slowly we got up and prepared for a day of excitement. I showed Steve a few of the more popular locations around the city. We went to a pizza joint, arcade and a coffee shop. Soon the night rolled in and we were already looking for a place to eat dinner.

We called Rick and proceeded to meet up at a restaurant named Olkeume. I had attempted to eat there once before, but it was closed, so we were back for round 2. We ordered a certain type of chicken called ‘Bul Dak’. ‘Bul’ means ‘fire’ and ‘Dak’ means ‘chicken’. Put them both together and you get the hottest thing I’ve ever attempted to eat. I use the word attempt, because I could only stomach a couple pieces. It was hot enough to instantly put chest hair on a woman. The only way I can properly explain exactly how hot the food was, is, pardon me, fucking hot. Rick and Steve persevered a bit longer than I could handle and, all the while, sweating uncontrollably. I was actually impressed that they could handle such intense pain for so long, but the jokes on them. On Sunday it’s going to be just as spicy in the other direction.

After dinner, we decided to pretty much have a repeat of Friday night. We bar hopped and hopped some more to a bunch of different places. This time, we stayed away from the soju as long as possible. Unfortunately, it’s probably not possible to drink and at the same time avoid soju consumption. It’s the equivalent of trying to play baseball without a glove. The only thing that was different was that our group was only the 4 Westerners. Surprisingly, for probably the first time ever, there were no Korean’s present. The abridged version of Saturday night was that it was a good time and nobody cut the film.

Sunday – If you open an English phrase book and turn to the definition of ‘Lazy Sunday’ you may find a picture of Steve and I. Aside from leaving my apartment to go and grab some Chinese noodles in the morning for breakfast, we did nothing more than relax. T’was a good day. I helped Steve find his bus to Incheon at 7:10pm, which means his ETA is about 10:30pm. Not bad at all.

All in all, the weekend was awesome. I was able to prove to Steve that my city exists and is quite ‘country style’. It absolutely kicked his ass (and mine as well), but in a way that I am sure Steve will want to come visit again. I’ll leave everybody with a funny observation I made about Koreans on Saturday night. We were at VIPS drinking and eating a fruit platter that had grapes the size of golf balls on it. I noticed that the owner was eating the grapes in such a way that she was spitting out the skin. I turned to Steve and said, “They eat live octopus, any fish, squid, cows, pigs, chickens, silkworms and they draw the line at grape skin. Something seems amiss.”

Waning Winter

It seems as though winter is already coming to a close, because as I walk outside the temperature is averaging a temperate 50°F. Although I have nothing to compare this with, because I’ve never experienced a Korean winter before, it could just be unseasonably warm for this time of year. Regardless, it’s still nice to have a shortened winter. I am still looking forward to experiencing the spring and summer. They say that those months are the best times of year around here.

Smug Alert!!!

Smug [smuhg]

-Adjective, smug-ger, smug-gest

1. Contentedly confident of one’s ability, superiority or correctness.

2. Exhibiting or feeling great offensive satisfaction.

I first noticed this particular characteristic while working out at the gym Rick and I have been frequenting for the past few weeks. In fact, the gym, in general, brings out the smug in most people. Everybody knows exactly the best way to either lose weight or ‘get big’. I too am guilty of feeling a sense of superiority over the others training, however, I try hard not to exhibit such behavior on the surface.

I began noticing the exhibition of such concentrated smugness, when I began to watch the other people train. The older gentlemen will offer advice regarding the best possible chest workout, in their opinion, and the younger guys do it without question. I will give you an example: Remember those ‘shaking machines’ that people would use in the 1940’s to lose weight. Yeah, they still use those here. And not just the women, but the men will too.

It is also very important to remember that the men giving the advice on producing a larger chest seem to always be the smallest guy at the gym, without fail. For some reason the people procuring such blasphemy, seem to not even follow their own advice. It’s like going to the dentist and him telling you this great new way to get whiter teeth, while his are full of coffee stains. Nobody would listen to him. He’s a quack. Well, so are the smug older gentlemen with small muscles who are more willing to give advice than put in the work themselves.

January Update

You know, it’s strange, I’ve been so unbelievably busy lately, and yet, I’ve done almost nothing ‘blog worthy’. I’ve fallen into a daily routine, save the weekends, where nothing extraordinary seems to happen. I wake up early in the morning and walk 20 minutes to Taekwondo class. Afterwards, I hustle back to my apartment to get ready to go directly to work. I have about 45 minutes from the end of Taekwondo until I need to be in class and half of it is the walk back to my place. After school, I normally have an hour or so before I meet up with Rick (my Ausie mate) to go to the gym. From there, is dinner and then back to my house to unwind before I do it again the following day.

Having adapted in the past two weeks to this seemingly grueling schedule, my weekdays are too rigid to attempt something a little more interesting. The weekends, however, can be a little bit more unpredictable. With the addition of a Brit to our crowd of two, things are starting to fall into the ‘boys will be boys’ category. His name is Simon. He’s about 6 foot 3, a big 230 lbs (at least), blonde hair, blue eyes and about as thick of an accent as England could produce. Although, Rick and I hang out together literally every day, Simon fits into our wolf pack quite nicely. His work schedule doesn’t exactly allow the same freedoms that Rick and I have been granted as far as spare time goes, but he definitely makes the most of the weekends.

Moving onto a more relevant topic:

During the week, my Taekwondo classes are going very well. In fact, the only way Taekwondo could be made better, would be to shift the classes to not so early in the morning. I would much rather sleep until 10 than 8. The extra couple hours would go a long way.

Regardless, I am a lowly white belt and yet I could beat up all the black belted children in my class. Thus, proving that a belt color only represents having completed form training and not that you can beat up someone at least twice your size. Rick on the other hand is a fully fledged black belt, who also is my size. I don’t think I could beat him up. Consequently disproving people who think belt color only represents Taekwondo form training, and no fighting experience.

Any who, sorry for neglecting my blog for the past couple weeks. Believe it or not it was actually unintentional. I began a separate post about a week ago, titled: 5 things [I miss most from home]. I couldn’t exactly think of five things as fast as I thought I would be able to, but the list is coming along. Hopefully within the next few days I’ll bring myself to finish it.

Have a good weekend!

Winter Vacation

So my winter break is over and I am getting back into the swing of things. Fortunately, we are on a winter schedule for the month of January and part of February, which means that I work about 3 hours a day. This leaves me with plenty of time to begin private Taekwondo lessons with Rick at a friend’s Dojang (a Korean Dojo) free of charge. So the next time any of you see me, watch your step!

But to just rewind for a moment, my winter break was quite eventful. It began when I was introduced to a Korean named Owen, a 21 year old in the ROK Air Force home for the holidays, who had previously been an English teacher at Rick’s hogwan. His English is nearly flawless, not to mention that he’s about 6 foot 4. That’s pretty tall for a Westerner and mammoth for a Korean. Overall, he’s a really cool guy.

Every day over the break mimicked what I am about to describe. That’s right, we pretty much did the same thing every day and it was still a ton of fun. After sleeping in, Rick and I would find a cheap place to eat. Now we are talking about all you can eat for between 4 and 7 bucks a person. We would get noodles, wontons, sausage, soup, kimchi (of course) and fried pork loin. And I am not saying 4 or 5 wontons, but 15 of them. Same goes with everything else. I actually don’t recall us every finished all of the food we got.

Our next stop was a famous coffee house in Sangju. The barista imports his own beans from all over the world and blends his own flavors. It’s much better than anything Dunkin’ Donuts could offer, however, the prices, although not crazy, were a bit more expensive (4 bucks for a coffee, all one size). At this point we would normally meet up with Owen and go to either a pool hall or arcade. Both are insanely cheap activities. At the pool hall, it costs 1,000 won (80 cents) for 10 minutes. Meaning that for 2 hours at a table, with 3 people, it would cost 4 bucks a person. Similarly, the arcade is 1 play for a 100 won (8 cents). 3,000 won lasted me nearly 2 hours at the arcade.

We are getting to the part of the night were I must censor most, if not all of the material. Bar hopping and drinking at local hotspots until the wee hours of the morning is about all I care to say. Just understand that we had a very, good time.

I am actually quite sad that the short holiday is over already. I could probably have gone another week without work. But, alas, it’s back to the ‘grind’ for me. Hope everyone else had as much fun as I did on their vacation. Happy New Year!

The Problem

The problem’s a teacher faces sometimes does not end with student’s unwillingness to learn or participate, but with how the student’s unwillingness affects the teacher’s attitude. I’ve come to realize how easily my mood can shift when a class or single student “doesn’t feel” like doing what I have planned for them. It can easily ruin my day. Consequently, my attitude toward the class begins shift toward apathy; mostly because it is very difficult to continue preaching to uninterested and bored students. Unfortunately for the children, I can’t play games every single day. Sometimes, straight book work is required to understand meanings and pronunciation of the language.

However, this is not where the main focus of my difficulties lies. I can completely understand that some days, school is not the place to be. Moreover, it is when I have to move on to the next class that I start feeling the distinction between the titles: teacher and great teacher. A teacher will let the previous class linger in their mind, effectively destroying the opportunities of any subsequent student. A great teacher can withhold their emotions of prior classes in order to give the students an optimal learning environment. I believe that this is what begins to define the characteristics of great teachers (aside from the preparation).

It is very difficult to shut out emotional responses and bottle them up for hours possibly days. I can now honestly say to all my past teachers: I feel your pain. And maybe I am a tiny bit sorry being the main source of your anguish…sometimes…maybe…

Sore Thumb

Things have certainly started to slow down a bit, here in Sangju, South Korea. Experiences that were once culturally shocking are now becoming normal everyday occurrences. Supermarket, restaurants and bars were all things that were once considered an adventure and a true test of character are now too common to be considered extraordinary. I do, however, want to make it very clear that in no way am I bored; I am getting used to my surroundings.

Unfortunately, it is still impossible for me to blend in. Rick, an Australian who has lived in Korea for 7 years and speaks Korean very, very well, explained this to me in a very basic manner. He said, “How many Westerners do you know that live in Sangju?”

I replied, “Give or take 15 people.”

Rick responded, “Of those 15 people, how many of them hang out with Koreans like we do.”

I said, “Only three people.” I was talking about Rick, Kelsey and myself.

“Right, so out of the entire population of Sangju, only 3 Westerners are seen in public. In a larger city, like Seoul, there are too many Westerners to count. They can blend in. Here, it is very easy to gain a reputation (good or bad). And when you do something, everybody is going to find out about it.”

I completely understood what he meant; and yet, I was slightly skeptical. This was until I finally had a firsthand experience to explain what he meant. I walked into a bar that Rick had taken me too only once when I first arrived. The owner/bartender immediately walked over to where Rick and I sat down and she said, “Rick, Adam, it’s good to see you again!”

I had no memory of ever meeting her. I barely remembered the interior of the bar, let alone any names or faces.

Rick turned to me and said, “See man, you just stick out. They don’t forget what the Westerners do around here.”

It was certainly some good advice from someone who knows the ropes around here. No matter what, I am going to be the center of attention...awesome!!!

Balls

“Balls.”

“Ballsh.”

“Ball’S’.”

“Ballsh.”

“ssss.”

“ssshhhh.”

“ssss.”

“sssshhh.”

This went back and forth for five minutes before I decided too much time had been spent trying to procure the ‘s’ sound from a little boy who was at the mercy of a speech impediment. I knew it wasn’t his fault that the sound the letter ‘s’ makes is sometimes too difficult for someone with a dinner plate for a tongue, but he was frustrated that all of his classmates had successful pronunciations.

“Teacher, teacher! ‘sshhhh’.”

All I could say was, “It’s getting better, keep trying.” Adding to the situation was the fact that he was trying to say the word ‘balls’. Which, being an immature person, I found funny after constant repetition. It also didn’t help that he understood he was at a disadvantage and was trying to compensate by contorting his face to try and make the sound differently. The little engine that could (or couldn’t) must have said ‘balls’ nearly a hundred times with a different hysterical face each time. He was completely aware that he looked ridiculous and laughed along with everyone else in the class. I am sure he was making some of the faces for the pleasure of his classmates, but, by and large he was trying and failing.

Poor guy. At least he wasn’t trying to say ‘nutsh’ or ‘teshticlesh’.

Dr. Fish

Time is certainly relative; I’ve been here in Korea for five weeks now. Slightly over a month has gone by and, already, I feel as though I have assimilated into the culture with ease. I’ve learned to read Hangul (the written form of Korean), I can navigate the bus and subway system with ease, I can order food and a beer, I can eat food and drink a beer, I have made a countless number of new friends and yet, everyday still is packed with new adventures.

Life in Sangju is far from what I would consider a city lifestyle. It is a little more relaxed than the fast paced life of a Seoulite, however, it still contains the necessary requirements to be fun and exciting. There are plenty of people, enough restaurants to keep a man full and a 24 hour public transportation system. Although, some things that make Korea such a cultural hotspot can only be experienced in the cities.

This particular experience occurred in a part of Incheon called the Art Center, accompanied by Steve and Ferrin. However, don’t let the name Art Center fool you; it’s as much of a city as Greenwich Village is a city. It is here a café called Dr. Fish exists. Upon entering Dr. Fish, the first appearance is of a very normal coffee shop. Some people sat at tables, others sat on couches, all sipping their vanilla lattes or lavender teas. What makes Dr. Fish different from a hometown coffee shop is the ‘fish’ in Dr. Fish. No, we did not eat fish or consume them in any form. In fact, they kind of ate us.

At the rear of the shop is a fish tank sunken into the floor. Inside, dozens of small fish, the size of my index finger, swim about looking hungry for human flesh. What we did next what quite new to me. Steve, Ferrin and I removed our shoes and, on the count of 3, placed our feet firmly at the bottom of the tank and let the fish, how shall I say, have at us. The fish began to nip at our feet with great fervor. At first, I couldn’t keep my feet in the tank for more than a few seconds or nips…whichever came first. However, after getting used to the feeling, I was able to allow up to 20 fish to simultaneously bite my feet.

I don’t want to give any wrong impressions here. The ‘bites’ or ‘nips’ tickled more than anything, but because it was such a new, interesting and extremely strange feeling, it was slightly uncomfortable. After 15 minutes of hysterical laughing and a few zen like trances, we removed our feet from the tank, replaced our shoes and left Dr. Fish. I will say, due to the 15 minutes of constant tension in our legs from the strange feeling of fish, afterwards we all felt very relaxed and mellow.

I would absolutely do it again, it was a lot of fun. The laughter from the faces made during the nip session made it all well worth the 2000 won it cost to have the experience. Plus, the Korean’s watching us seemed to love our crazy expressions and uncomfortable faces. It was total enjoyment for all.

This is a squid who has only a few more hours to live. Poor guy. You're fried.