JVT

Busan

2010-06-16T09:27:00.004+09:00

I went to Busan a few weeks ago. It was pretty fun, but it rained most of the weekend, which put a damper on things. Here are some photos.

One of the first things we did when we got into Busan was grab some lunch. We found this area full of street food.

Obama socks.

I don't know if you can see it too well, but this man was holding hands with a statue.

Next, we went down to the ocean for a boat ride.

While we were on the boat, the battery on my camera died. Fortunately, all my friends have cameras, so I've still got a few pictures I can post.

After the boat ride, we went to huge fish market. We picked out our live fish and watched the monger kill and clean them. Because we were foreigners (maybe), the venders kept offering us free fish to go along with the ones we bought, so we ended up with a small free shark. Immediately after hacking the shark to bits, the monger handed my friend, Stephen, and I its penises. Yeah, it had two. So, we had to eat those raw. They were a little slimy on the outside but really crunchy inside. I guess they're just made of cartilage like the rest of the shark. Anyway, fortunately, they didn't have much flavor (kind of like the rest of the shark).

After dinner, we were about to take the subway to meet some friends, when we saw really cheap "ajosshi shirts" for sale. Ajosshi basically means "married man," in Korean, I think, but it can be used to describe any man over about 40. Anyway, they all wear shirts like this.

So, we got matching shirts.

We went to the beach that night and drank. Then, on to various bars. Nothing too special. By around 4 o'clock, we were ready to get some sleep, but all the motels were full. Even the saunas (which have sleeping rooms) were full, so we just made little beds out of sand and plopped down on the beach. However, by then, it was pretty damn cold, and my friend Go Geon was shivering because he had no jacket. So, after a while, he disappeared. A few hours later, Stephen and I stumbled to a sauna nearby to see if the sleeping room had cleared out. Luckily, it had, although the guy at the front desk didn't seem too pleased about letting us in. I don't know if it was because we were white or if he just had a wild hair up his ass. Anyway, I slept for a few more hours, took a dip in the communal hot tubs, and showered.

Stephen had already left sometime before me and met up with Go Geon. So, around noon, we all got together again. It turned out, Go Geon had found a massage parlor to pass out in. Supposedly, a proper massage parlor, not the kind that offers special services, although he did say he just lied down and passed out immediately and doesn't really remember anything.

We decided we didn't want to sleep on the beach again, especially since it had started lightly raining, so we found a cheap motel with this classy poster on the wall.

By evening, the rain was really pouring down. I had planned on bringing an umbrella because I knew it was going to rain, but I stupidly forgot it. Luckily for me, I found an abandoned umbrella on the subway. It was actually kind of broken, but it worked well enough for me to keep mostly dry. Without that umbrella, the rest of my weekend would have been really miserable.

For dinner, we met up with some pals at TGIFriday's. It was my first time ever eating there. I got a hamburger that was actually pretty delicious. Sometimes, you need to feel like you're home.

Go Geon ate celery for the first time and was not impressed.

After dinner, we sang some songs at a noraebang (karaoke room).

We looked like a Diversity Club meeting - white, black, Asian, Muslim. We had it all.

Later, we went to a bar in a cave.

We went to a couple more bars, but honestly, it was kind of boring. Plus, we were tired from lack of sleep, so we went back to our motel pretty early. And the next morning, we went back to Daejeon.

In unrelated news, I finally found out about my vacation. I'll be off from July 28th to August 3rd, which gives me a week. I'm planning on going to Vietnam, but I have to get my traveler's visa ahead of time, and it takes about a week, so I need to get on that since I have less than a month and a half to prepare.

Also, I found out that I'm going to have six days off for Chuseok ("Korean Thanksgiving") in September, so I think I'll try to take a short trip somewhere then too. Maaaybe China, but I don't know. I heard the visa process is kind of a pain because it takes a month and costs about $100. Maybe I'll go to Taiwan.

Anyway, I've got a lot of planning ahead of me.

Children's Day

2010-05-06T10:25:00.005+09:00

I just had a nightmare that I visited America with my boss, and for some reason I had to stay with him at all times. But he only wanted to eat Korean food, so I had to sneak away for a hamburger.

Yesterday was Children's Day, so I had no school. I spent the day hiking with some friends, and it was a lot of fun. Then, we ate a ton of shabu shabu. It was great to have a day that felt like the weekend in the middle of the week. But then I didn't wake up until 10:30 today. I think I'd forgotten that I still have to teach for two more days this week.

April

2010-04-30T20:17:00.002+09:00

I realized why I never post. It's either because there's nothing going on, or there are so many things going on that I feel like making a post is such a huge undertaking that I don't have time to write everything. I don't want to sit here and write for two hours, so I'm just going to post some pictures to appease my parents.

I'll try to start writing more frequent, short updates.

I went to a "bubble show."

In the same building, there was a "Body World" exhibit. These are real dead bodies.

The hands are the creepiest part for some reason.

The displays were pretty tasteless (and hideous), with all those plastic gems. Anyway, here's the Eraserhead baby.

This is around the Expo Park, which is full of science museums and stuff. This is Archimedes emerging from the bath.

Some pals and I discovered a bar that looks like a cave.

They serve quail eggs and snails.

Pile of trash in Expo Park.

Cold

2010-03-25T20:45:00.004+09:00

I just got back from the most miserable bike ride of my life. According to Google, it's 40 degrees out, which is already fairly cold, but the worst part was the wind. There were points when I was peddling against the wind as hard as I could just to feel like I was moving at all. And I was only wearing a sweater because it was warmer this afternoon. I know I should stop bitching about the weather, but it's really getting me down. I think the weather has a pretty big influence over my general disposition, and lately the weather's been shit.

Also, I've been a little sick all week, which ain't fun. It's nothing serious. Just a cold, I think. I noticed that a bunch of my students were sick today too, so something must be going around.

Speaking of illness, yesterday, I got some pretty shocking news. One of the teachers at my school has had to leave and possibly quit teaching for good because of "health problems." It's especially strange because she's not much older than me. Mid-to-late twenties. Initially, my director said she wasn't coming in because she was sick. I assumed he meant she just had a cold, like me, but I guess I should have known better since Koreans never call in sick unless they're on their death beds. When I pressed him further about the nature of her illness (because I wondered if maybe she had the same thing I have - runny nose, sore throat, etc.), he gravely said she had something "very rare." Then he said that she wouldn't be returning. He didn't explain any more, and although I was pretty curious, I thought it best to leave it at that. It's really a shame because she's such a sweet, genuinely nice person. It's also a pretty big blow to our staff because we only have five teachers, including me.

Anyway, in slightly less depressing news, I've hooked up with some nerds in my new town, and we're gonna play Dungeons and Dragons and worship the Devil tomorrow night.

And on Saturday, there's some sort of festival going on. I'll probably end up going on my own, but I think there will be all kinds of "activities" going on where I can meet people.

One of my new pals invited me out to play soccer last night. I declined because I already had plans to watch a shitty horror movie and drink wine alone in my apartment, but I'm glad I know some people who play "friendly" soccer matches here. Hopefully that means I can put the soccer shoes I bought last year to use. I've never worn them because I hurt my leg in Thailand immediately after buying them.

Oh, also, I bought a guitar.

Grad School and Other Things

2010-03-18T12:01:00.003+09:00

I woke up this morning to snow, and it's pissing me off. I want to move to a tropical climate. Yesterday, I had the day off because the Korean teachers had to attend a seminar. I had planned on running some errands, but it was too toasty inside and too miserable outside for me to leave the apartment.

Nothing special has been going on lately, but my mama asked me to update this thing, so I figured I'd post something short and sweet. Work is okay. When I first started my new job, I was filled with feelings of dread every morning. I didn't want to go to work. But it's slowly getting better. The kids are fine and my co-workers are fine, but teaching just ain't my thing. Fortunately, this has forced me to think a lot about what I really do want to do with my life. I've decided that I almost certainly want to go to grad school. I had never really considered it until a few days ago, but now I'm pretty dead-set on it. Lately, I've got the film bug bad, and I've decided that I definitely want to pursue a career in that field. I've also been writing a lot lately. Mostly just ideas and scenes and dialogue, nothing very cohesive, but it feels good being creative.

Regarding grad school, originally, I was thinking about trying for a program in Europe because I'd really like to live there for a couple years, but after doing some research, I realized that it's not really feasible. For one thing, most universities don't even offer film programs, and the ones that do don't offer them in English for international students. I guess most international programs are related to business or language. I'll still probably apply for some programs in the UK and other English-speaking countries like Australia, New Zealand, and maybe South Africa. But it's likely that I'll end up going somewhere in the U.S. A lot of it depends on whether or not I can get scholarships.

I need to bulk up my portfolio, but it's so hard to make films in a country where no one speaks English. I'm supposed to meet some guy who is also a filmmaker at the end of the month. I'm pretty sure he's Korean-American, so I really hope he speaks Korean. That would make things infinitely easier. The frustrating thing is that I have all these ideas for films that I just can't use until I go back to America.

Today is Thursday. Thursday is a kind of difficult day for me because I have to teach alone, with no co-teachers. It's fine for the older kids because we just sit around and shoot the shit, but the babies are real terrors. They give up on listening after about ten minutes, and I don't blame them. People naturally tune out a foreign language after a while. Besides, they're like 5 years old, and their attention span is only about ten minutes anyway.

Time to ride my bike through the snow.

Manila

2010-03-06T17:35:00.006+09:00

Well, it's been rainy out, so I didn't get to do as much exploring as I wanted. I did walk around the park next to my apartment a little, but it's starting to get dark, so I came home. I promised a post about Manila, so here it is.

First, I'd like to mention that I broke the LDC screen on my camera while ice skating in Korea, so I was blindly snapping all of the photos you see here. That's why some of them are oddly framed or blurry (also because my camera is a piece of shit).

Day 1

When my plane arrived in Manila, there was a slight delay because, according to one of the stewardesses, "Someone on board committed a crime." Once she said that, everyone who could understand was looking toward the back of the plane to figure out what the hell had happened. Soon, a couple of police officers boarded the plane and, predictably, escorted two drunk Korean men off the plane. They looked pretty disheveled, so they must have been fighting or something. It's really a wonder that Koreans don't have worse reputations around the world as drunken idiots.

Once I got into the airport, I was ready to exchange money, so I went to some sort of desk that had a sign for a bank behind it, so I figured that was the place. First, I asked if I could exchange money there, and they said yes. Then, they asked me if I needed a taxi, and I said yes. Then, some Australian guy came out of nowhere and advised me to get a metered taxi elsewhere. I figured he knew what he was talking about, so I told them I had changed my mind. When I asked about exchanging money, they said, "We have no money for you." What? I asked again, and he repeated that they had no money for me, so I went along to a metered taxi. The driver said he could take me to place to exchange cash. Along the way, I noticed that his meter was acting funky, but I thought that maybe I just confused. Anyway, when I got to my hotel, he charged me 500 pesos (about 10 bucks; it should have cost maybe 200 pesos), which was obviously a number that he had just pulled out of his ass since it was nowhere to be found on the meter, but it was 1:30 AM, and I really had no choice but to pay him.

My hotel was called Royal Isabelle Suites or some shit, but it was a dump. It didn't matter, though, because I only stayed there one night.

Day 2

One strange thing about the Philippines is that you can't call cell phones from regular land lines (at least, as far as I could tell), and they're much more expensive to call from pay phones. So, after some confusion, I found a pay phone and called the guy I had planned to couch surf with. I can't remember the last time I had used a pay phone. So, I talked to him for one minute, and we made plans to meet, but then the call got cut off because I wasn't ready in time to put in more money. Anyway, I figured I had all the information I needed, and it wasn't really necessary to call him back to confirm.

We were supposed to meet at a McDonalds, and I had a little time to kill, so I walked around and picked up some breakfast (pork and stuff in a plastic bag). It was damn good.

Finally, I made my way to McDonalds and waited a bit. About 30 minutes later, he still wasn't there, so I started to worry. I began trekking around, looking for another pay phone but was unable to find one, so I had to walk 10 minutes back to the one I had originally used. When I got ahold of him, I explained where I was, and he said that he was at a different McDonalds, so he would go to that one to meet me. Okay. So, I went back to the Mickey D's and waited. Still, no show. So, I went back to the pay phone. This happened about half a dozen times. And it was hot. Plus, I was carrying my big ol' backpack with everything I needed to live for the next few weeks. Eventually, I realized that he was in a completely different part of town. So, I took a taxi there and everything was fine. But, god, what a way to start a trip. I guess we should have thought about the fact that there are literally hundreds of McDonalds in Manila.

My couch surfing buddy was named Mark, and it's really thanks to him that I had such a good time in Manila. He's a very talented full-time artist who knows Manila inside and out. So, if you're reading this, thanks again, Mark!

One thing I really like about Manila is that public transportation is very cheap and convenient. I mostly traveled around the city on jeepneys, which are old American military jeeps that have been decorated and converted for public use. They follow regular routes and are generally easy to use as long as you know where they're going or are with someone who does.

In the afternoon, we just walked around town a bit.

That night, Mark and I attended his friend's art opening. There was free booze and food, so that was awesome.

After quaffing a few San Miguels, we made our way to the next destination - some more art openings and a "hipster party" inside a kind of shopping center.

But first, we stopped so I could be initiated with the Philippines' most notorious food: balut. Balut is a fertilized duck egg, complete with feathers. You eat it with vinegar and salt.

Mark's friend (whose name I cant remember) showed me the proper procedure. First, you've got to drink the juice.

I honestly thought it was delicious. Imagine a combination of a hard boiled egg and a roasted chicken.

The "hipster party" ended up being a lot of fun. I met lots of cool people (mostly artists) and drank a boatload, including a Filipino liquor made from coconut called lambanog.

Toward the end of the night, a local Filipino "indie" band called Meiday played. They were pretty good, as far as I can remember.

Day 3

Mark and I went to a cock fight. I guess it was interesting but ultimately pretty stupid and cruel. However, the room certainly had a pretty intense energy about it, and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't at least a little exciting.

This is the station where the injured but still living roosters were sewn up.

This is the station where the losers were prepared for the kitchen. Nearby, you could buy lunch. Guess what was on the menu.

That night, Mark and I went to a bar called "Hobbit House" where all the servers are midgets. It was gimmicky and really expensive, but they had cool Tolkien-inspired paintings on the wall. We had one beer.

We went to Chinatown and ate frog legs at some point. I think it was around this time.

Then we spent the night in, drinking beer and watching American Idol and The Merriam Story, which was a really horrible made-for-TV movie about a Filipino politician. It was corny as hell and good to watch while you're slugging down a Red Horse beer.

Day 4

Mark took me to the lechon (whole roasted pig) district, where we ate a really delicious lunch.

I liked that every component of the meal except the rice involved pig - lechon, pork liver gravy, pork broth, and veggies cooked in pork fat.

As we were eating, we could hear pigs squealing as they were slaughtered, so once we finished, Mark (being the exceptional guide he is) asked the owner if we could check out the area where the pigs are prepared. The owner graciously agreed.

After pigging out (sorry), we sauntered over to a strip of secondhand stores. The first place was an American surplus store, which was basically the same as any thrift store in the states.

I rummaged through the picture frame section and came across some strange pictures. I wonder how one's middle school yearbook photo ends up in a secondhand store in Manila.

Next, we went to a Japanese surplus store, which was really cool, and if I hadn't intended on traveling so lightly, I probably would have bought a lot of junk.

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to take any decent pictures there.

Then, Mark and I walked around the old Spanish district. I guess there was some cool buildings, but I don't really understand or care about architecture. Here's an old cathedral that's famous, I think.

We did a lot of walking.

I ate some cheese and mango "dirty ice cream" that was surprisingly really good.

We walked to the "Little India" area of Manila and decided to check out the Sikh temple, which turned out to be a very cool experience. We had to take off our shoes and wrap our heads (they provided the cloths). Then, we got a free dinner of lentils, naan, yogurt, and some really tasty spiced tea. I felt like the other people in the temple were giving us dirty looks (especially after I dripped yogurt on the floor), but maybe I was just being paranoid.

That night, Mark and I met his friend, Mimi, for some drinks and a snack of pig ears and chicken asses. These chicken asses were grilled, though, and much better than the ones I ate in Korea. Mimi is a film programmer at a theater in Manila. Obviously, she's really cool.

After our initial round of drinks, we ended up in a videoke bar. Mark and Mimi kept pressuring me to sing, but it was really crowded, and all of the other people performing were really good! Finally, we decided to back to a different place that we had seen earlier that was empty. By the time we got there, it wasn't empty anymore, but there were only a handful of people, and they were horrible singers. We'd found our kind of crowd.

Day 5

I actually got these mosquito bites at the art opening, several days before, but they just kept getting bigger and darker. Actually, I had bites all over, and I realized that I had never done any research about malaria in the Philippines. Turns out malaria is only a risk in rural areas in the Philippines, not Manila. Phew!

My friend, James, who I met in Korea, also happened to be in the Philippines, so we made plans to meet up. This is kind of strange because we did the same thing in Thailand. Anyway, we got together and went to a mini-casino (or something) where we played Texas Hold 'Em. That was my first time ever gambling with complete strangers. It was fun, though, because the people were all friendly, and the stakes were low. In the end, I won $10!

Another kind of bizarre food: one-day-old-chick. This is exactly what it sounds like. This chick was born and then immediately killed and deep fried. Pretty evil, huh?

Anyway, you eat the thing whole - head, innards, bones, and all. It tastes okay, but the innards are sort of bitter.

That night, I met up with Mark again, and we went back to the location of the "hipster party." There's a bar/movie theater there called Mogwai (after the gremlin, not the band). They were showing "Hump Day," which I enjoyed.

After a few brews, we stopped at a little street-side stand for some rice gruel.

Cool folks: Nii, Con, and Mark.

Day 6

The next day, I did a little shopping and ate at a Filipino fast-food chain called Jollibee. I can't remember what else. It was a pretty uneventful day because we'd already been pretty much every where in Manila.

That night, we met up with Mimi again, had a few drinks, and then called it an early night. I had to be at the airport at around 4 the next morning.

I got ripped off again on my way to the airport because the taxi driver had no change (at least he told me this as soon as I got in; I was his first client of the day, supposedly), and the smallest bill I had on me was 500 pesos. No big deal. In all, I only spent about $100 in the Philippines.

Then I spent a whole day traveling and missed my plane in Chicago. It was a nightmare, but I'm not going to go into it.

In Texas, I ate delicious food, saw amazing friends, and spent time with my wonderful family. Now I'm back in Korea writing this bullshit.

THE END.

Back in the ROK

2010-03-06T13:36:00.006+09:00

I haven't updated in a while because I've been traveling and getting settled into my new apartment. I've finally got pretty much everything unpacked. I also spent a couple days cleaning this place because it looked like a real dump when I first moved in. The guy who lived here before me hadn't bothered to clean up the baby powder and "ethnic hair products" that he had squirted all over the floor. He also left behind an entire suitcase full of clothes and GOLD SILK BED SHEETS. Now I gotta figure out what to do with his junk.

So far, I really like my new school. The kids have been, for the most part, pretty great. However, it's only been one week. They'll probably turn into monsters once they get used to me. I also feel, for the first time, like I'm actually teaching and not babysitting. Unlike the boys at my old middle school, these kids listen to me. Also, my new bosses and co-teachers keep heaping praise on me (I think it's because the previous foreign teacher was a real putz). Anyway, it's the weekend, and I really don't feel like thinking or writing about work, so I'm gonna leave it at that.

I like Daejeon all right so far. It's definitely much more convenient than Chuncheon. My apartment is in a good location with lots of stuff nearby, including a big park, which I'm going to check out this afternoon. I need to make some friends, though. On Friday night, I sat at home eating pound cake and reading Charlotte's Web. I need to find people to eat "some pig" with me.

Here's the view from my window.

I bought a bicycle, but I've only ridden it a couple times because the weather's been shitty lately.

On Monday, I went to Seoul to see Mount Eerie. Phil Elvrum was pretty much perfect, and he played a lot of my favorite songs.

Before him, some weirdo Korean guy played. His guitar sounded like rubber bands stretched over a punch bowl, but I enjoyed it because he was so goofy. He sang a song about "people searching the Google" or something like that. And he had another one about communism. He kept saying "fuck the capitalism!" He was obviously trying pretty hard to be silly, and I think if I'd seen an American trying to pull the shit he was doing, I would have been really annoyed, but I guess I'm more lenient with Koreans. At least he was doing something somewhat unique, rather than trying to be another Rain/Big Bang/2 PM clone.

Then, some white girl played, but it wasn't interesting enough for me to take a picture.

Next was a singer called Itta. Here's her MySpace page. The songs she played at the show were completely different than the stuff on her MySpace, but I really liked her.

Lately, I can't get enough of the new Joanna Newsom album. I wasn't sure what to expect since I wasn't crazy about Ys, but god damn, this album is amazing. Here are a couple of my favorite tracks.

There's probably a ton more for me to write about, but I haven't really had a chance to explore my new neighborhood, so I'm going to go do that now.

I'll make a detailed post about my trip to Manila soon, maybe tonight.

Back in Daejeon

2010-02-03T18:39:00.003+09:00

Hey, y'all. I'm updating from Daejeon. I moved all my crap from Chuncheon yesterday, and I'm just hanging around here until Friday, when I leave for the Philippines. I went to the immigration office today and got my visa extended. Those bastards told me that I don't actually need to wait two days for processing, so I could have flown to Manila today. There was no reason for me to change my flight and spend and extra $100. Oh well. Too late now. At least it's all settled and I officially have a job now. I'm supposed to come back to Korea on the 22nd, which doesn't give me much time at home. Only about ten days. I think I need those ten days pretty badly, though.

Tonight, I'm going to a Moroccan restaurant called "Ali Baba's Treasure."

Guess what? Chicken butt.

2010-01-31T17:58:00.003+09:00

Somehow, last night, I chipped my tooth on a chicken's asshole. There's a Korean dish called ddong jip, which literally translates to "shit house." I'm not sure exactly which part of the chicken's rectum it is, but it's just little bits of chewy innards. It was my first time trying it, and I don't think I'll have it again. It wasn't horrible, but it was a little shitty. Anyway, one of my chicken assholes had something hard in it, and I chipped my tooth on it! It's not bad, but I can definitely feel a little chunk missing.

I also learned last night a little about something called ddong chim, which translates to "shit needle." Basically, this is where someone puts their hands together with their two index fingers sticking out, and they poke their fingers into someone's ass. I already knew about it and had a student try to do it to me the other day (can you imagine a kid doing that to a teacher in America?), but I had no idea that chim means needle. That makes it a little more disgusting, somehow. Here's a good blog entry that goes in depth about Korea's shit culture.

I ended up staying out until past 6:00 AM last night. I hadn't done that in a while. We started out at a makoli (Korean rice wine) restaurant, where we ate the chicken ass and drank. Then, we roamed around to various bars, and I somehow managed to drink for free all night. I guess people were feeling generous. Also, some greasy Scotsman was trying to get a local girl all boozed up, so he kept ordering jug after jug of soju-pomegranate cocktails, which I took advantage of. Fortunately, the girl escaped unbesmirched.

This afternoon, I met up with some pals, and we played "pocketball." It's kind of funny how some of the English words that Koreans adopt aren't really correct, but the foreigners often use them anyway. "Pocketball" just means pool, and at one point, I couldn't help but laugh because my friends and I were all just calling it pocketball. Also, at the pool hall, my friend asked the owner of the coffee was "service," which is Konglish for "free." Except, Koreans can't really say Vs, so they pronounce it "suh-bi-suh."

At the pool hall, I met a Korean woman who lives in Texas. She's just visiting. Then, her nephew came in, and he was one of my students! Small world, huh?

Frownland

2010-01-30T17:45:00.004+09:00

Feeling much better today. I've really been fiending for coffee lately, which is a problem because my coffee maker is in Daejeon. I've bought $4 coffees from Starbucks the last two days. This must stop. Anyway, I was thinking about lounging around my apartment all day, but my craving for coffee got the best of me, so I walked to Starbucks, and I'm really glad I did. The weather is beautiful! I guess I've gotten used to the cold weather, because I just checked, and the high today was 43 degrees. But it was nice and sunny, and my mood improved about 100%. Add to that the caffeine coursing through my veins, and now I'm feeling "on top of the world."

Also, I've really been "rocking out" to this album lately:

I'm also feeling very "inspired." Sometimes I'll watch a movie that really makes me want to want to make a movie. Today, I watched a movie called Frownland. It actually wasn't very good, but it was really low-budget and seemed like something I would be capable of making. Except, you know, mine would be better.

This trailer isn't really a good representation of the movie. The trailer shows pretty much all of the frantic moments of the movie. For the most part, it's really boring. Not much happens, and the lead actor spends most of the movie rubbing his face, stuttering, and opening his mouth like he's about to say something but then deciding not to.

Even if they're not very entertaining, I'm glad that some of these kinds of low/no-budget movies are available for people to watch (even if only 0.0001% of the population would ever care about watching them). I've been scribbling down ideas all afternoon. Most of them are probably shit, but that's okay. I wish I were in a position to make the kinds of movies I want to make right now, but I guess it's not so bad for me to wait. No one really makes any great art (especially films) until they're in their 30s or 40s (of course there are exceptions).

I feel like my writing skills have really gone to shit since high school. Even in college, most of the stuff I wrote was pretty bad. I just figured out the formula for writing a "good" essay. But I guess a blog is supposed to be kind of stream-of-consciousness anyway. I just feel like this is hardly readable sometimes.

Drank a couple beers (on an empty stomach) in the course of writing this and doing other miscellaneous internet things. Now I'm feeling this kind of strange caffeine/alcohol buzz. I don't know what to do with myself these days. I have so much free time, and I spend almost all of it alone. I think that's why I've been drinking so much coffee lately. I want these substances to relieve my boredom. I guess they do, but it's ultimately not a very satisfying way to live one's life. Oh well. I'll be busy again soon.

Last week

2010-01-29T14:17:00.003+09:00

I've got two days of camp left. Today, we played Monopoly, and I kicked all those 10-year-olds' asses! There's a pair of really cute twins in my class, and when one of them landed on my hotel, she put her hands on her head and screamed as loud as she could. It was hilarious and adorable. There's also this obnoxious kid, and whenever he had to pay me $1000 I laughed in his face and showed no mercy.

The kids really like me because all we do is play games. At first, during break time, they went off and did their own things, but now they climb all over me and ask me questions.

Although camp's going well, I've been feeling kind of down this week. It's been really boring finishing work at 12:30, coming home to an empty apartment, and not speaking to anyone else for the rest of the day. I know it may seem like it's really exciting here to some of my friends back home, but in reality, it's pretty lonely and alienating a lot of the time. I'm definitely looking forward to going back to an Anglophone country.

This is my last weekend in Chuncheon. Next Tuesday, I'm going back to Daejeon to sort out my visa stuff. Then, I'm going to Manila on Friday. I'm getting excited.

Seoul

2010-01-25T13:57:00.008+09:00

Seoul last weekend was a lot of fun. I met up with my friend, Michelle, from Daejeon. We had some Mexican food, which is something I'm always craving. I think I'm gonna have to eat about five full meals a day when I visit home to make up for all the stuff I've been craving.

After dinner, we went to a soju bar where we met some really friendly Koreans who were having a birthday party. They shared some cake and soju with us. It was a lot of fun chatting with them. One of them looked like Harry Potter. It was adorable. Another said that her uncle produces Kim Ki-duk (a really good Korean director) movies, which would be a pretty random lie, so I guess it's true. But damn. If I spoke Korean, I would have asked for a hookup. Working in the Korean film industry would be pretty bad ass.

Then, we went to my friend Mike's party, which was held in a funk/soul bar called "Diggin." They had little dancing James Brown dolls on the bar.

After Diggin, we went to some other place just down the street. Even though the music was much worse, I had a better time dancing there. I went pretty "nuts."

Some other people moved on to another bar, but by this time, it was about 3:30 AM, so Michelle and I decided to split. We tried to find a nearby jim-jil-bang, which is like a bathhouse with hot and cold pools, saunas, and rooms for sleeping, but we ended up kind of lost. Then it started snowing! So, we finally found a different jim-jil-bang and went in for the night. I took a little dip in a hot tub before I hit the hay, which was nice.

By the time I made it up to the sleeping room, all the mats were taken, so I had to sleep on the floor in a corner. Korean men are absolutely disgusting. There was such a symphony of snoring, farting, belching, hacking, and grunting going on in that room that it's a miracle I fell asleep at all. Also, starting at 6 AM, someone's cell phone alarm started ringing and kept ringing and ringing and ringing. Jesus Christ, this is one of the most obnoxious Korean habits I've witnessed. People just leave their phones around, and then, either their alarms continually ring, or someone calls them repeatedly. I know all the horrible ring tones of the people in my office at school by heart because they all get no less than ten phone calls a day while they're in class. And all ten of those are probably by the same person. If a Korean person calls and you don't answer, they inevitably call back another time or two (and let it ring for a whole minute). If you didn't answer the first time, is it really likely that you'll answer the next time, or the next? AAAAAH!

Sorry, kinda got off on a tangent there. But Koreans and cell phones. Ugggh. Anyway, I maybe got a couple hours of sleep, total, but in the morning, I showered and lounged around in the scalding hot pools, which was nice. There's nothing quite like being the only white guy in a room of 50 naked Korean men.

Last night, when I got back into Chuncheon, I was feeling pretty beat, so I went to bed at 6 PM. I woke up this morning at 7:45 feeling like a million bucks (about 1.1 billion won).

Camp was good today. We played board games with the first class, and the second class did other various activities. I was a little worried that the kids would be bored with the game I had planned since they're older than the first group, but they really loved it, and one girl even asked if we could play it again tomorrow.

Often, Korean students choose English names for themselves. One of my kids is named "Micolfepus." The first time I saw it on his nametag, I wasn't really sure what to make of it, so I asked him. It's basically the Korean version of "Michael Phelps." Yeah.

Anyway, that's all for now. So long.

Barf Day

2010-01-22T13:41:00.003+09:00

Yesterday was my birthday. I turned 23. I went out for dinner and a few drinks with friends, and it was really pleasant. They even bought me a cake.

My first (half) week of camp is over. Things are still going well. Yesterday, a newspaper photographer came in to take pictures of me while I was teaching. I don't understand the newspaper's affinity for me. I'm only doing my job. They should leave me alone.

I'm going to play screen golf in about an hour.

Tomorrow, I'm going to Seoul because a pal from Austin is having a birthday party. Should be fun.

I got nothing to say.

Camp

2010-01-20T14:12:00.006+09:00

Today was my first day of elementary camp. After having a week and a half off of work, I was really dreading going back. Plus, I was a little nervous because I've never taught elementary kids before, and I had to go to a new school. It always takes a little time to get adjusted. But my worries were unfounded. Things went swimmingly. The kids were amazing and totally adorable. They were so enthusiastic about everything! It made me excited about teaching younger kids next year. I don't know why people become horrible when they enter middle school.

After class, I walked and talked with a group of the students, and it was really sweet. There was a fair amount of "BYYYYEEEE," and then, once I was half-a-block away, "JUSTIN!!! BYE, TEACHER!!!!" but it wasn't as obnoxious as when the middle schoolers do it.

On Sunday, I went to Daejeon because I had to meet up with the director of my new school so we could renew my visa. Well, it turned out to be a big waste of time because once we got to the immigration office, we found out that since I'm still working under my old contract, I can't transfer the visa yet. So, I have to go back in two weeks after I finish the camp. This turns out to be a real pain in the balls because I had planned on flying to Manila the day after camp ended. Supposedly, it'll take two days for my visa to "process," so I have to reschedule my flight. It's gonna cost me an extra $100 or so, but I guess I have no choice.

The trip to Daejeon wasn't a complete waste, though. I had a good time "chilling" with my friend, Michelle. We ate some three-year-old kimchi, which is like regular kimchi but three times funkier. We also had some delicious Indian food. I find detailing what I eat is the easiest way to chronicle my life.

I spent most of the afternoon on Monday walking around town. I think I'll be quite happy in Daejeon. It's no Seoul or Busan (for better or worse), but compared to Chuncheon, there are so many things.

Oh yeah, also, my new boss seems like a really sweet guy. He was mild mannered and wore a floral button-up shirt. He bought me breakfast too. When the people at immigration told us we were wasting our time, he was like, "w/e." However, he owns the hagwon with his wife, and since he seems like such a pushover, I hope that doesn't mean that his wife is one bad bitch.

I left some stuff with my friend in Daejeon for "storage." I'm kinda regretting leaving my coffee maker. I've got a hankering.

Job Update

2010-01-15T16:13:00.005+09:00

So, I think I've got a new job. After slogging through dozens of e-mails from scummy recruiters and seeing several phone interviews never materialize, I've found what seems like a pretty decent job. I had an interview the the director today. He seemed like an all right guy. He said that his hagwon has been voted one of the top 30 hagwons in the country. I don't know how to verify that, so I'm just gonna assume he was telling the truth. I also talked to the current foreign teacher there, and he had only good things to say. He said this is the best school - public or private - that he's worked in, and that the apartment is nice. However, I'm pretty sure the director was hovering over him the entire time we were on the phone, so it's hard to know whether or not he was telling the truth.

One good thing about the job is that it's an after-school program that is tied to one particular public elementary school, and the principal of that school is also the director of the hagwon. So, I don't think I should have to worry about getting stiffed on my pay. Seems pretty up-and-up, but, again, it's hard to know for sure.

I'm supposed to visit the school and fill out all my paperwork on Tuesday.

This week has been pretty great. I'm sad that it's already Friday. I've spent most days sitting around in my underwear, drinking coffee and eating bananas. You better believe that my digestive tract has had a proper cleansing. You can't really buy bananas in small bunches at E-Mart, so I got a big ol family size bunch, and I've been eating two a day. I've got bananas coming out the wazoo, quite literally. I wish I could be on vacation forever.

On Tuesday, I went out with some of my "bros" for dakgalbi and beers. It was a lot of fun just sitting around and chatting. Around 3 AM, we tried to visit a "hostess bar," which is just a regular bar except that cute girls are paid to talk to you. I've never been to one. Each place we tried to enter turned us away because it was 3 in the damn morning on Tuesday, and they were closing. So, we went to a convenience store and drank some beers there. I recently learned that there's actually a phrase in Korean for drinking in or outside of convenience stores (they often have chairs and tables set up outside). It's called "nanjang." One of my friends bought a Sam Adams, and I had a few sips and realized just how shitty Korean beer is. After a year of drinking Hite and Cass, I'd forgotten what a real beer tastes like. It was heavenly.

Anyway, it's Friday, and all I've eaten today is a couple of bananas and a peanut butter sandwich, so I'm ready to go out and stuff myself full of meat. I might eat a whole pig.

That's all for now. Ta-ta.

Ice

2010-01-11T20:22:00.004+09:00

On Saturday, a couple pals and I went to the Hwacheon Ice Festival. Hwacheon is just outside of Chuncheon. It was pretty fun. I was excited to ice skate because I'd never done it before. It got kind of boring after about 10 minutes, though.

I also fell on the ice with my camera in my pocket and screwed up the LCD screen. It still takes pictures okay, but I can't see the screen at all. For a while after I broke it, half of the screen worked, but now it's all dead. I was planning on buying a new camera soon anyway because this one takes lots of fuzzy pictures, but I wish I hadn't destroyed it. That's the second one in six months. I gotta be more careful. I especially wish it were working at full capacity because I'm going to the Philippines in about three weeks.

These little robotic bears were pulling carts full of people, and I couldn't stop laughing. It looked so bizarre. I took some video that I wish I could post, but I screwed up when I transferred the files to my computer. Oh well. Just imagine that thing goose-stepping like a robot.

We went ice fishing with these rods that look like fly swatters but didn't catch anything. I saw a few fish swim by my hole, but they didn't take the bait. I learned the art of ice fishing. You've got to flick the fly swatter up and down so that your shiny bait looks like a swimming fish. Pretty fascinating, huh?

I stole this picture (as well as some others - the ones that actually look good) from my friend, Sarah. She's a master photographer.

After fishing, we were hungry, cold, and a little annoyed that we didn't catch any dinner. So, we ate some tasty pork instead.

Then, we walked to the bus station. Across the street, there was a PC room called "KILL PC," so we made fools of ourselves and posed for pictures. There ended up being a big line for the bus back to Chuncheon, and we missed the first one. So, seeing as how we had some time to kill, we bought some beer and soju from the convenience store across the street.

I actually had a lot of fun sitting outside the bus terminal, drinking and taking photos. I could've stayed there all night.

Once we got back to Chuncheon, we were feeling a little well-sauced, so we decided to continue the festivities and head to a bar. We sat around and chatted with each other and the bartenders, and it was really pleasant. But then I had a little too much to drink and began to act like an asshole. I'm not at all a violent person, but I started pestering my friend to fight with me. Pretty stupid, but I just wanted a friendly boxing match. Especially stupid because he's really strong, and I'm a weakling. Anyway, we left the bar, and he got sick of me pretending I wanted to "kick his ass," so he socked me and I hit the ground hard. I don't know exactly how it happened, but he punched me in the back of the head (maybe I turned?), and I got a little cut. So, we went to the pool hall where he works, and we performed some first aid. I felt like a real sack of shit because he was so upset. I wasn't angry with him. I ASKED him to do it! But he took it very harshly.

Anyway, I spent most of the day at home today, and I'm already recovering. The bump on my head is shrinking.

Tomorrow, I'm supposed to have a phone interview for a new job. I don't know, though. It seems kind of sketchy, because the first guy I talked to said I'd have my interview on "Monday or Tuesday between 1 and 2." Well, they didn't call today, so I hope they call tomorrow. Seems like they should have set a definite time. Eh, we'll see. I hope I get the job, though. I'm sick of searching.

Yesterday, I started reading The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. I'm surprised how much I'm loving it. I haven't read a book this good in a long time.

2010-01-10T01:11:00.008+09:00

*Post deleted due to stupidity*

He's Resting

2010-01-07T14:13:00.008+09:00

Today was the last day of my middle school camp. Thank god. The first week was okay, but this week, I had no internet. Not to mention, there was no running water, the printers didn't work, my classroom was freezing, and my co-teachers were usually nowhere to be found. Fortunately, the boys behaved like princes. A lot of my plans involved the internet (including a project the kids were supposed to do in the computer lab, which went surprisingly well the first week but had to be scrapped this week). So, finally, I gave up and started watching movies with them. If the school doesn't care enough to provide basics like running water, then I don't care either. Of course, the kids didn't mind watching movies and playing board games all day.

I just had another bowl of swine spine stew (I love that stuff), and now I'm sitting in my toasty apartment. I took all my stuff from my school. I didn't bother saying goodbye to anyone. I'm feeling pretty resentful toward the whole Korean public school system. I think this camp was pretty indicative of how schools set up foreign teachers for failure. They put too much faith in us. They don't realize that we have no idea what the fuck is going on most of the time.

Basically, I'm glad to be getting out of the system. I know private schools have their own share of problems, but I'm willing to take the risk.

Speaking of which, the job hunt ain't going so well. I may have to settle of a job somewhere other than Busan. Actually, I just got an e-mail about a position in Ulsan as I was writing this, but I don't think I'm ready to concede and move somewhere I don't want to just yet.

I think I'll become a hermit next week. I've got the whole week off, so I'm gonna try to stay home and out of the cold as much as possible. I'm a little anxious about my elementary school camp. For one thing, I'll be with a co-teacher at all times, which is kind of a good thing, but it also gives me less of a chance to goof off (why do I still feel like I'm a school kid?).

I found a couch surfer for my first few days in Manila. He seems like a really cool guy. He's an artist, and he said he's gonna show me how to eat balut (fertilized duck eggs) and all kinds of other crazy shit.

Thanks to my friend who recommended this delightful song without even realizing it.

One last thing: Yesterday afternoon, I took a nap and had a lucid dream that I was driving a "bad ass" car. Like, I knew I was dreaming, and for some reason, out of all the cool things I could have dreamed of, I chose to dream that I was driving a bad ass car. I was driving like a madman. This is strange because I don't know or care about cars. Hmm.

Another meandering organ-based ditty:

Snow

2010-01-04T16:59:00.007+09:00

Last weekend, I visited to Daejeon. I attended a "masquerade" party, which was a little awkward at first because I didn't know anyone, but it ended up being pretty fun. It was nice meeting a whole new group of foreigners, some of whom were pretty cool, and others who were at least interesting (fun to laugh at).

I made some crappy cat mask with googly eyes all over it.

A few of us limbo-ed.

I went into a bar with a giant cock hanging from the ceiling. Actually, I only went in there for long enough to take a picture because it was really crowded.

I feel like this picture really speaks to me. If I were really planning on getting a tattoo, I'd probably get this.

It's pretty cool that you can buy packs of sparklers at grocery stores in Korea for 50 cents.

Overall, the trip was a lot of fun, and it made me really glad I'm getting out of Chuncheon and moving onto a bigger city. Don't get me wrong, Chuncheon is a nice, quaint place, but it's kind of stifling. Maybe it was just because there were so many foreigners around that it felt more "real" and less like "being in Korea." I guess "being in Korea" is okay, but I'm kinda over it.

Anyway, it's been snowing like a mother fucker. I've never seen snow like this. Here are some pictures I took on Saturday. The snow is actually higher now because it's been snowing all day, but I don't want to go back outside to take pictures.

I took these from my apartment.

I think I need to buy a new camera, which is a real bummer because I just got this one four or five months ago. But I screwed up by buying the cheapest one available. Half of my pictures are blurry. It's frustrating.

I started my second week of winter camp today. The boys are real angels.

I've got next week off. Originally, I was supposed to teach some teachers' classes, but no one signed up (thank god). Officially, all foreign teachers should come in to sit on their asses for 8 hours a day if they're not teaching camp, but I've saved up several (10, actually) sick days, and my co-teacher said it would be okay for me to stay home. Assa!

New year, same shit.

2010-01-01T12:22:00.003+09:00

Well, it's 2010. Nothing has changed.

Last night, I ate some delicious Korean beef. Then, I went to a New Year's "shindig" where I was awarded a can of tuna. Then, I went to the same boring ass bar I always go to. What a life I lead.

This year, I've decided to get a tattoo to express my individuality and my dedication to subverting the status quo. I've narrowed my options down to two. Let me know which one you like best.

Camp

2009-12-28T14:40:00.006+09:00

Today was the first day of winter camp. I arrived at school about an hour early because I had to prepare some stuff. Of course, when I got there, the electricity was out in half of the teachers' office, so my computer (which had all of the files I need for the camp) wouldn't turn on. Also, the heating was off, and the internet didn't work in my classroom. Eventually, most of those problems were solved, but it's still freezing in school.

I can't imagine what kind of sick parents sends their kids to school during vacation to take extra English classes. Koreans are insane.

Fortunately, most of the kids who come to extra classes like this are fairly upper-level. Also, there were only about 16 students today, which is a real treat compared to my usual 40.

I just ate a big ol bowl of gamjatang (pork spine soup). Now I'm stuffed, and all I want to do is sleep. I think I may do that. It's snowy out, and this kind of weather really zaps all my motivation. I ain't cut out for it. Hello, bed.

I'm Watching Gumby on YouTube

2009-12-26T13:20:00.003+09:00

Yesterday was my first Christmas away from home. It was fine and actually didn't feel strange. Christmas isn't a big deal in Korea, so I didn't feel like I was missing out on much. Besides, I spent most of the day with friends, eating and drinking way too much. My body was fighting me all day, but I kept forcing food and drink down my gullet.

I bought a bunch of books and Jenga from some of my friends who are leaving the country, so I'm pretty excited about that. I miss obsessively reading and having ten books out from the library at once like I did last year.

Today, I think I'll start one of those books and play Jenga by myself all day.

Or maybe I'll watch Gumby.

Mah pitchure

2009-12-25T10:28:00.004+09:00

I already posted this on Facebook, but this is for Ma and Pa. Did you know that I'm famous?

Hohoho

2009-12-25T10:06:00.002+09:00

Merry Christmas, y'all. I promised I'd start posting on this damn thing, so here it is. This is my third post in the last 24 hours. I feel rotten. I shouldn't have drunk a bath tub full of beer last night. Anyway, here are some of my favorite Christmas videos of all time.

MARY KRISTMUSS

2009-12-25T03:56:00.006+09:00

I promised I'd post more on this rag, so here goes. To tell you the truth, I've been drinking for more than 10 hours, so I'm not so good at typing.

At 7 PM today, I went to a pro hockey game. The game was Korea vs. China. No shit. The game was seriously uri-nara versus the Ching-chong-china men. The funny thing was that no one gave a shit, and the game was free. I prepared a bottle and a half of soju to sneak into the stadium, but it was 100% open, and no one stopped me.

After the game, I went to a 'bar,' to drink more. I met some kool people. Some girl wanted me to speak Spanish, but I kept saying 'No comprendo.' I tried to talk to some Korean broad, but all I could say was, "What's your name? What do you do for a living? Etc?" She said she did "nails" and showed me these horrible things on her fingers. What the hell?

I'm gonna make a tuna melt tomorrow. BTW: Merry Christmas.

GOOD THINGS

2009-12-24T14:20:00.003+09:00

I know I haven't updated in a really long time. Sometimes I feel like I should start writing in this thing. Sometimes I want to update about the minutiae of my boring life, but I figure that no one would want to read that.

However, I feel like I've reached a creative standstill, so I'm gonna start updating regularly so I can feel like I'm accomplishing something. Actually, I haven't been completely useless lately. I've completed a short screenplay, and I've been working on a few other projects, but they're the kind of projects that I'm in no position to complete. I need to write a script that I can actually make right now or in the near future. In fact, I'd like to make some sort of short film when I go home to visit, but I haven't thought of anything yet. The problem is that I need to find actors, and I don't really like using my friends because I don't like writing stories about twenty-somethings.

Anyhow, I've just purchased a coffee maker, after living here for eleven months. So, I'm all hopped up on caffeine right now, which is why I'm rambling on here.

I used to really like writing, and people used to tell me that I was good at it, but I kinda don't care anymore. I feel like everyone wants to be a writer, so it's no use. Besides, I feel like I need a real kick in the pants to get myself to start writing anything. I don't have the innate motivation that I used to have. I guess it's a struggle for most people to create things. It's certainly easier to do nothing, but I'm semi-serious about forcing myself to work. Otherwise, all I do is go to work and get drunk, which feels pretty pathetic.

So, since nothing especially exciting has happened around here lately, I'm going to post my "Best of 2009" lists. I didn't really listen to enough new music or watch enough new movies to properly do this, but I'm gonna do it anyway.

I hate reading music reviews, so I won't say much. In the days of instant streaming, there's really no reason to read a review of a song when you can just listen to it.

TOP 5 ALBUMS OF 2009

1. Kumisolo - My Love For You is a Cheap Pop Song

I just like cutesy Japanese/French dance music.

2. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - S/T

Damn catchy pop music. I can't tell if these songs make me happy or sad.

3. Phosphorescent - To Willie

A cover album of Willie Nelson tunes. I like these better than the originals.

4. Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career

I was kinda into this band in high school, but then I forgot about them because I mostly considered them a "lesser Belle & Sebastian," but I think they're proving to be more than that with each new album.

5. Dan Deacon - Bromst

I made the mistake of seeing pictures of Dan Deacon before I ever heard his music. He looks like the kind of obese ironic sweatshirt-wearing hipster that I hated in Austin, so I didn't give him a chance for a long time, which is a shame because he makes some truly amazing electronic music.

Honorable Mention:

Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle

This album has a few really great songs ("Jim Cain", "Eid Ma Clack Shaw," and "Too Many Birds") but it's mostly mediocre. I don't think Bill Callahan (or any other artist) will ever surpass A River Ain't Too Much to Love.

Girls - Album

The name of this band and the title of this album made it really hard to pirate. The first few times I heard this band, I hated them. I hated the singer's voice, and I hated the way they looked. But I kept reading about them everywhere (and I don't even really seek out stuff about new bands), and I kept giving them another chance for some reason. I guess they grew on me. I used to sing "Hellhole Ratrace" to myself in the shower every morning.

NOW, onto the best movies of the year. There's a lot of stuff I haven't seen yet, but whatever.

TOP 9 MOVIES OF 2009

1. Antichrist

This movie is so supremely "fucked up" and retarded that I can't help but love it. The fox saying "CHAOS REIGNS" is one of the greatest moments in film history. I knew it was coming, but I still nearly shit myself. I admire Lars von Trier not because he always makes great movies (he's made some real stinkers), but because he always does something new. Like, he used a robot/computer program for the cinematographer on the movie he did before this one. Who else would even think to do something so ridiculous? Anyway, Antichrist has pretty much everything I could ever want in a movie.

2. Mammoth

This movie has a pretty polished aesthetic for Lukas Moodysson, but I don't think it detracts from its grittiness. Moodysson packs a real emotional punch with this one.

3. Orphan

A great Hollywood horror flick with perfect tone and pacing and a nice surprise ending.

4. I Am Not Your Friend

Gyorgy Palfi is another director who does something wildly different with each new feature. His first film, Hukkle, doesn't use a single word of dialogue. His second film, Taxidermia, is a technically impressive movie despite the complete insanity of the storyline (competitive eaters, enormous mutant cats, and a guy who shoots fire out of his dick). And his most recent film, I Am Not Your Friend, is a real low-budget shot-on-digital movie about horrible people doing horrible things to each other. Somehow, that seems to be the basic plot of almost every single Eastern European movie ever made.

5. Nymph

Pen-Ek Ratanaruang is one of my new favorite directors. His films are reeeally slow, but I find myself really liking "boring" movies these days. I wish I could understand what makes some slow movies effective (stuff by Hong Sang-soo, Bruno Dumont, and Zhang Ke Jia for example) and others completely boring (stuff by Ming-liang Tsai and Yasujiro Ozu). It's a really enigmatic quality. Nymph mostly takes place in the woods and shares a few of the same thematic elements as Antichrist.

6. Crank: High Voltage

This movie is nuts.

7. Tyson

Mike Tyson's story is really compelling, and I love the fact that Tyson speaks so openly. Occasionally, he says something poignant. Often, he says something hilarious.

8. Treeless Mountain

A good Korean movie about cute little girls.

9. Mother

A pretty good Korean movie about a semi-retard.

Holy cow, that took me a long time. I don't feel like proof-reading all that, so I hope it doesn't sound too stupid.

Since I'm considering posting more regularly, let me know if you read this. I want to see if it's worth it.

Monster Mash

2009-11-03T17:23:00.005+09:00

October was a really relaxing month with great weather and lots of time off work. A few weeks ago, I went to the Jarasum Jazz Festival in Gapyeong, which is just outside of Chuncheon. I like jazz, but I'm pretty picky, and I didn't really like most of the music at the festival, but it was still a lot of fun to go hang out with my friends.

The festival began with a really nice firework show, but I didn't manage to get any decent pictures.

My friends Soo-yeon and Areum whom I met at the festival.

This Japanese band was definitely not jazz, but they had matching red pants.

I think I had too much fun at the jazz fest to take many pictures. Sorry.

Last weekend was Halloween, so I went to Seoul and met up with a bunch of people from Chuncheon. My friend, Jean-Paul, and I shared a motel room. The place was surprisingly nice.

The throne even had heated seats and a bidet.

My costume was kind of a generic green guy/monster. I don't really understand it either. And as if I don't already get enough stares walking around Korea, the green head had people going wild and children screaming.

In da club.

I managed to get some free Pakistani food that night (actually, around 6:30 AM, I think) because I happened to see some of my friends eating through the window, and I got their leftovers. In all, on Halloween (counting early Sunday morning), I ate a hamburger, a hot dog, chips and salsa, a meal of tacos with beans and rice, and a bunch of Paki slop. My digestive system has only now forgiven me.

It's been horribly cold these last couple days, and it even snowed a little bit yesterday. I think this is going to be a miserable winter. Anyway, I've only got about two months of teaching left. Then, I'm planning on visiting the Philippines for a couple weeks and then going back home for a while. Next month, I'll start looking for a private school gig in Busan so I can be back in Korea by late February or early March.

I took this on the train back from Seoul about a month ago. It says "I Suck Fuckin' Asshole." I'm pretty sure he has no idea what it means.

Seoraksan

2009-10-05T09:56:00.006+09:00

I hiked Seoraksan about a week ago. It was pretty fun despite the rain and fog.

I ate some bugs.

And here's a video from my friend's Chuseok party.

Chuseok Fireworks from Justin Taylor on Vimeo.

Thailand pictures

2009-09-18T09:33:00.004+09:00

I finally bought a new camera yesterday, and I managed to salvage my pictures from the first few days in Thailand. I also saved some videos I recorded with my camera, so here's something I put together last night.

And here are the photos.

The room I stayed in the first few nights.

Our bungalow by the beach.

Now that I'm sober and looking at these pictures, I'm remembering why I didn't have fun at the Full Moon Party. These people are awful.

One of the last pictures I took before my camera was smashed to bits.

Also, I took this picture of some clever graffiti last night after I bought my camera.

Thailand

2009-09-04T13:44:00.003+09:00

I've been back from Thailand for almost three weeks now, but I haven't written anything about it because I've been waiting for my photos. While on the trip, I broke my camera (which I'll explain later), so I haven't been able to retrieve them. A friend lent me her memory card reader so I could upload the pictures, but either the card reader is broken, or my memory card got broken as well. Anyway, I was in Thailand for two weeks, so I figure I'd better write something on here about it.

We left Incheon International Airport on the morning of August 1st, stopped over in Hong Kong for a few hours, and finally arrived in Bangkok just after midnight. Immediately, we met several other more experienced travelers who gave us advice on how to get around Thailand without getting ripped off too badly. Not getting ripped off at all is practically impossible, so your only hope is to be on guard at all times. The locals, just as many other places around the world experiencing a glut of white tourists (so I've heard), have learned to shake your hand while they piss in your pocket. Hardly anyone leaves Thailand unscammed, it seems. At the airport, we met up with a French-Canadian/Cambodian girl who showed us the ropes the first night and took us to some decent places to stay. I spent the first night in a closet-sized room on a bed about as stiff as the wooden floors and only managed to sleep for an hour or two. No matter. I was in fucking Thailand, so my excitement cancelled out most of my sleepiness.

We hung out around Bangkok for a few days, not doing anything particularly special. We ate a lot of street food and drank Chang and Singha beer all day to beat the heat.

One of the best parts of the trip was meeting all of the other travelers from around the world. I met people from Holland, Spain, Yukoslavia, Australia, England, Ireland, Mexico, Canada, etc. Actually, I only met a handful of Americans the whole time I was there, but I met a lot of Koreans. One afternoon, my friends and I sat along the side of Khao San Road (the destination for backpackers in Bangkok), drinking and talking to my aforementioned Yukoslavian friend and a Thai woman. The Yukoslavian guy was drunk and hilarious, and he kept harrassing people on the street and making them stop to talk to us. I met a couple of Korean girls that I'm supposed to meet up with sometime soon. That was actually one of the best times I had in Thailand.

After Bangkok, we went to Kho Pha Ngan, which is an island to the south. Thailand is deceptively large, and it took us about eighteen hours to get there. We stupidly didn't buy sunscreen in Bangkok because we thought it would be better to wait until we got the to island. Well, we had to ride a ferry from the mainland, and I thought it would only take thirty minutes or so, but it took about two and a half hours. We were on the deck of the boat with our legs dangling over the edge the whole way, and by the time we got to our destination, I noticed that we had turned a little red. Little did I know that that sunburn would turn out to be the most excruciating of my life. Since my bare legs were hanging out in direct sunlight, they got the worst of it. If you've never had a sunburn on your shins and ankles, consider yourself lucky. Every time you take a step, your skin stretches, resulting in agonizing pain. My friend, Alejandro, got it even worse and spent most of the rest of the trip laid up in various hotel rooms.

Koh Pha Ngan was a drunken muscle boy's paradise. Unfortunately, that ain't me. The island, like the rest of Thailand, was quite beautiful, but the tourists and locals, alike, really began to annoy the shit out of me. The reason we went to Koh Pha Ngan was for the world-renowned "Full Moon Party," which happens every month during the, you guessed it, full moon. It's basically an overblown frat party, so I didn't stay out very late.

The island was surprisingly big, and the best way to get around to see the sights is to rent a scooter. I had never driven a scooter before, so I was a little apprehensive, but I figured since I ride a bike, it couldn't be that different. Well, it actually wasn't. It took a little time, but I soon got the hang of it. After we'd driven around for thirty minutes or so, we saw a sign for a waterfall, so we turned down the path. The road led us into the jungle in the island's interior, and eventually the paved roads turned to dirt. Finally, my inexperience bit me in the ass as I approached a pot hole in the road, and since the whole accellerating and braking system was still quite new and not intuative for me yet, I just held on as tight as I could. Unfortunately, holding on as tight as I could meant squeezing the gas, so I hit the pot hole, popped a wheelie, and obviously did not land it. Thankfully, I wasn't going very fast. I was trying to be cautious because the road was so dangerous, but it didn't do me any good. I got up, rode on for a bit until I came to a little shop where I stopped and asked for assistance. The people were really nice and treated my wounds. The accident could have been a lot worse. I read that several tourists have died in recent years from scooter accidents. Basically, I only had a few scrapes on my arms and legs, so the lady at the store poured some alcohol on them and wrapped them up. An old woman sitting by a basket of durian kept laughing at me, but I don't think it was out of malice. I didn't think my injuries were that bad. I had sloughed off some of the sunburned skin on my ankle, which was painful and disgusting, but I didn't think much of it. The bike had a few minor scratches on it, but it was still in good condition. The waterfall was unspectacular, and after my spill, I wasn't too keen on riding around, so we went back to our bungalo on the beach (which was awesome, by the way, except for when they stole $100 from my friend).

The next day, we had to return the bikes. I was a little worried about the scratches, so I cleaned off all the dirt and tried to make it look as good as I could. No use. When I took the bike back, the lender inspected the bike and then turned to me with a big grin, "You had accident?" "Yeah," I said, thinking, "well, at least he's not upset." I guess I should have realized that his grin meant that not only was he not upset, he was quite happy. He took out a piece of paper and began to calculate just how much they could make off of me. On the paper was a diagram of the bike, and each piece of the bike had a price attached to it. He circled the corresponding price for each part of the bike with even a miniscule scratch. I knew I was fucked. He typed out the total on a calculator and showed me. Close to 10,000 baht, which is $300. I tried to reason with him that they were only tiny scratches and it couldn't possibly cost that much, but when I rented the bike, I had to let him hold onto my passport as collateral, so my hands were tied. One thing I had learned was that most prices in Thailand are negotiable, so I tried to talk him down. Finally, I got down to about $200, which was still an unreasonable amount, but I had no choice.

I almost forgot, back to why I have no pictures. My camera was in my pocket when I crashed, and it broke. It's not completely smashed, but the front is scraped, and every time I turn it on, I get a "lens error" message. There's another $150 or $200.

Finally, we got off of that garbage dump of an island (which is run by the Thai mafia and severely fucked up in innumerable ways) and returned to Bangkok. We hung around for a day, drinking and chatting with strangers. We found that the best way to prepare for a 12+ hour bus ride was to get smashed before we got on so we could sleep the whole way there. This plan actually worked out pretty well.

We took a bus up north to Chiang Mai, which is another tourist hell hole. By this point, my ankle was hurting pretty badly, and because all of the sunburned skin around the wound was peeling, the bleeding, pussing area grew larger and nastier. I wanted nothing more than to go home and lie in bed for a couple weeks, but I was in Thailand, damn it, and even though I was severely disappointed with the country, I was determined to make the most of my time there. So, in Chiang Mai, we signed up for a jungle trek. Initially, we signed up for a two day trek to a little town called Pai, which I had heard many good things about. However, I had also heard many good things about other aspects of Thailand that were not so great. Anyway, Alejandro was still in a lot of pain from his sunburn, which was now beginning to blister, and he decided he couldn't make it, so we changed our plans and signed up for a one day trek, hoping another day would be enough for him to be capable of walking. We were staying in a guest house/travel agency called "Nice Place," and it actually was the nicest place we stayed in Thailand. The staff was really friendly, the prices were reasonable, and they even gave us a refund when we changed our plans.

Alejandro was still unable to go on the trek by the next day, so we had to leave him behind. The trek was pretty fun, despite the pain shooting up my leg with every step. We rode elephants, which was a little fun but mostly sad because the elephants were chained up and wearing uncomfortable looking harnesses. Also, the handlers used sharp, hooked spikes to dig into their foreheads when the elephants began to act up (i.e. doing what was in their nature). The tour guide told us about all the laws in place to make sure that the elephants are kept in good conditions, and that they used to be horribly abused when the Thais used them to transport lumber. I don't doubt that things are better now, but I'd rather see an elephant living naturally in the wild than ride one, knowing the conditions it's forced to endure every day.

After the elephants, we went to a really beautiful waterfall. I wanted to swim badly, but I didn't want to get my bandages wet, so I sat on a rock and watched. Lastly, we rode a bamboo raft down a river, which was a lot of fun. I tried wrapping my bandages in cling wrap so that it wouldn't get wet, but it didn't work. Oh well.

One night, we saw a Muay Thai (Thai kickboxing) fight in Chiang Mai, which was pretty cool but too long. The best fight was an American guy against a Thai guy. It was the American's first fight, and he started out really strong. I felt certain he would win, but after a couple rounds his feet really began to drag. He had worn himself out too quickly while the Thai fought conservatively. By the third round, the American was dead on his feet as the Thai danced circles around him. Eventually, the referee called an end to the match because he decided that the American, though still on his feet, was unable to go on. There was also a fight between two girls that was pretty ferocious, and there was a goofy blindfolded threeway fight where I think the fighters were more interested in hitting the referee than each other.

After Chaing Mai, we went back to Bangkok (another 12+ hour bus ride) where we waited around for a day before our flight back to Korea.

Strangely, my time in Thailand had me feeling really homesick, which I hadn't felt in my entire time in Korea. I still haven't quite recovered from it. It also had me reflecting on Korea, and although I wished I could go home to America, I felt like going back to Korea wasn't a bad alternative. The people and culture definitely have their faults, but I mostly feel like I'm welcome there as a human being and not just as a source of income. I'm not propositioned by prostitutes or harrassed on the street to buy shit everywhere I go. I don't fear having my things stolen or worry about getting ripped off on every deal.

Honestly, Thailand was a little shitty, but I'm glad I went. I learned a lot about traveling, and I learned about what I want from a trip and how to get it next time. I've decided not to take any more big trips while I'm in Korea so I can save enough money to go on an extended trip at the end of my second year.

It's been hard coming back to work after over a month off of teaching, and I feel like I still haven't quite gotten back into "the swing of things." I'm considering making some major changes next year, but I won't reveal them here until I know anything for sure. Thanks for reading if you actually made it this far. So long.

Mega Update

2009-07-20T19:41:00.007+09:00

It's been over a month since I've posted anything, so here goes.

Today marks the five month anniversary of my arrival in Korea. Today was also my last day of regular school for the semester, but I've still got two weeks of summer camps ahead of me. Fortunately, summer camp is more of a time to have a good time with the kids than to actually make them study or learn anything new. So, I've got some fun activities planned. We're designing t-shirts, making pinatas, playing ultimate frisbee, and a bunch of other stuff.

The day after camp finishes, I'm going to Thailand and Cambodia with a couple friends. We're stopping over in Hong Kong for about five hours between flights, but I doubt that will give us enough time to do anything. Anyway, I've heard it's nice to fly over and look at the city. Thailand is a really popular vacation spot, so lots of my friends have already been, and they've been giving me a little advice about where to go and what to do. We've only made a few general plans, but we're mostly going to play it by ear, go with the flow, and fly by the seats of our pants. We'll be there for two weeks. I am going to gain at least ten pounds.

A few weeks ago, I got out of school early (for some reason I can't think of) and took the opportunity to go into Seoul for the night. A friend and I spent a few hours in the afternoon at an amusement park called Lotteworld. Lotte is a really huge corporation in Korea that owns basically everything that doesn't belong to Hyundai. The atmosphere was a little obnoxious and kiddie (understandably so), but there were a few fun rides. I hadn't been on a roller coaster in ages.

The rest of the night in Seoul was pretty standard, and I ended up catching the first bus back to Chuncheon. Korean kids have school every other Saturday, and this just so happened to be one of those Saturday mornings, so as I was walking home from the bus station, stinking of sweat and booze, I got to say hello to all my students as they walked to school.

EPIK paid for me to go to a concert in Seoul, and even though I wasn't very interested in the artist, I figured it would be a fun trip nonetheless. Well, the trip ended up being pretty boring. We saw a Korean/American singer named Lena Park, and although she's a fairly talented singer, the music really bored me. Every song sounded basically the same, and the concert lasted for two and a half hours. Plus, the people in the theater were total fascists who made us spit out our gum (???) and put away our cameras. I only managed to snap this one photo before the show started.

Last weekend, I went to the Boryeong Mud Festival, which is a huge gathering that takes place on the west coast every year. It's really popular with foreigners, so there was no shortage of drunk assholes in attendance (myself, I'm a friendly drunkard). By the time we got there, late Saturday afternoon, almost all of the mud was gone (the mud is actually imported), but my pals and I smeared on whatever grotty leftovers we could scrape up off of the ground. One of my friends found a mud-caked cigarette butt stuck to his body. How sanitary. Anyway, we ate Korean style barbecue and clams and quaffed enormous amounts of makkoli (Korean rice wine) and soju (Korean nail polish remover). Over the weekend, one of my friends lost his cell phone and wallet, another friend fell down a flight of stairs, and another friend went other emergency room because he stepped on a shard of broken glass. All in all, I'd say we had a great time. The weather was pretty nasty, and it rained some on Saturday and all day Sunday, but we made the best of it regardless.

There was a mini-noraebang on the train.

There were also a few elephants on the side of the road. Four bucks to ride.

Above, Kenny G playing amongst the crashing waves. Below, a tiny man.

I found the visor in the mud.

Looking tough at the beach.

On Friday, my school held its annual (or bi-annual, maybe) festival. A couple weeks ago, some kids asked me to act in a commercial they were putting together, and I agreed. I only had two lines - one in Korean and one in English - and when I said my Korean line, the audience of impressionable teenage boys broke out in a mixture of gasps and chatter (even though I'm sure they've all heard me speak a little Korean before). I'm glad it was dark in there because I'm sure I turned beet red. Then, after the performances (which were surprisingly great), the kids kept repeating my line and complimenting me as I tried to hurry home! At least they have the whole summer to forget about it.

The kid who dances to "Mambo No. 5" totally reminds me of Daniel at that age (and even sort of now).

I got my new Canon Vixia HV40 HDV video camera in today! It's an updated version of the camera I shot Polecats with. Since I got out of school early today, I went for a jaunt on the hiking trail near my apartment and shot some footage. It's nothing especially exciting. I mostly just wanted to test it out. Take a look.

A Stroll from Justin Taylor on Vimeo.

At the end of my walk, I came upon a house where an old woman was performing a pansori song (actually, it was just her singing and playing the drum, so maybe it's not considered pansori) in full traditional Korean garb. She was sitting in her living room with the doors wide open (old Korean houses have sliding doors that open up an entire wall of the house), playing this beautiful song. I stopped in and said hello and asked, in broken Korean, if I could film her. She looked embarrassed and said no, but I have a feeling that if I had known enough Korean to talk a while I could have convinced her. She was really friendly. It would have made for some really great footage, but oh well. Only my first day with the new camera!

Sokcho

2009-06-15T17:00:00.005+09:00

Last weekend, I went to a beach party in Sokcho, which is on the east coast. I didn't take many pictures, and the ones I did take turned out pretty lousy, but here are a few anyway.

Near downtown, Sokcho.

When we left Chuncheon, the weather was beautiful, but when we rolled into Sokcho two hours later, things had turned nasty. It was cold and misty. Fortunately, I brought along a sweater and pants in my backpack.

There were fireworks and sparklers.

The next morning, we found some leftover sparklers.

Then, at 7 AM, I decided to go for a dip in the ocean. If I had gotten more than an hour of sleep, and if I weren't still drunk (though I didn't quite realize it) from the night before, I would have realized that that was a bad idea. A really big wave punched me in the face and swallowed up my glasses. I was pretty helpless after that, but luckily, I had some friends around to get me back to the bus terminal. Once back in Chuncheon, I walked home Mr. Magoo-style, narrowly missing speeding cars and open manholes. Then, I slept for about 20 hours.

2009-06-02T18:52:00.005+09:00

I shoved a half-eaten package of raw shrimp to the back of my refrigerator a couple months ago. Here's what it turned into.

A couple weeks ago, I went on a field trip to Hedgehog Island with my third graders. It was a lot of fun. We just played sports, ate fried chicken and kimbap, and drank beer (yeah, some of the teachers brought beer). I learned how to play chokoo, which is like a combination of volleyball and soccer. You can see a picture of some of my co-teachers playing below. I was too scared to play with them because they looked really good, so I waited and played with the students later.

Last weekend was the mime festival that happens every year in Chuncheon. South Korea's ex-president bit the dust last week, so some of the festivities got cancelled out of respect. I was disappointed because there was supposed to be an all-night party on Friday, but they called it off. It was okay, though, because I went to a dance club called Arabian Night Club and had a blast. The Korean girls loved my waygook dance moves. As usual, I was a little shocked to walk outside and see daylight. I love that bars and clubs and noraebangs (karaoke rooms) here stay open until the owners get fed up with you and kick you out on the street, which usually happens around 5 AM.

Fortunately, all the mime festival activities picked back up on Saturday, so I pulled another all-nighter out at the park and had another wonderful night. The performances ranged from amazing to painfully boring, but there was plenty of good company and good (well, cheap) drinks to keep things entertaining. I never got a good seat, so most of my performance photos aren't too great.

Some of my students wrote down these answers earlier this week. The first one is vaguely on topic (we were talking about social problems around the world), although I'm not sure how Michael Jordan fits in. The other one is mostly incomprehensible. Hopefully you can read them.

I just looked up "Operation CWAL" and found this.

EDIT: Okay, I think most of the things on that paper are just Starcraft cheat codes.

Sports Day

2009-05-18T20:27:00.004+09:00

In case you haven't noticed, these things I keep posting at the top are uploaded songs that I like. You can press the play arrow and listen to them.

Things are still going well. School has been really nice this month because of the constant holidays, exams, and other events that give me a break from teaching. Last week, we had a sports day all day. For eight hours, the kids got all hot and sweaty outside while I stayed in the office and read. Actually, I walked around and watched the activities for maybe an hour, in all, throughout the day.

A look at my school.

My boys are constantly holding hands, sitting in each other's laps, and groping each other. It's kinda weird.

Tug-of-war.

Jump rope.

One of my co-teachers asked me and the boys to demonstrate our squat toilet technique.

Friday was Teachers' Day. I got a piece of cake and a cute note from one of my students. I also got some flowers and rice cake.

I bought a bicycle a couple weeks ago, and I think it's one of the best investments I've made since I've been here. It's a great way to get around and it's also a really fun way to go out with friends and explore the city.

A few weeks ago, as I was walking home from E-Mart, a Korean guy approached me, and we started chatting. He told me that he was an English teacher. He was pretty nice, so when he asked me for my phone number, I gave it to him. Turns out he's a Jehovah's Witness, so I was really hesitant about actually hanging out with him. Besides, I'm almost always busy as it is, and I didn't feel like making time for him. I ignored his calls a couple times (and felt really bad about it) but eventually decided that I'd just bite the bullet and meet up with him. I had told him the first night that we met that I'm an agnostic (but basically atheist), so I was really dreading the God talk. Anyway, I finally met up with him last night. We went out for tea and just chatted for a while. Inevitably, he brought up religion. I told him straight up that I don't believe in God or the Bible or anything and that I base my beliefs on science, reason, etc. And he was totally cool about it and didn't try to push any beliefs on me. He did tell me some stuff about Jehovah's Witnesses but only because I was genuinely interested. Like, I had no idea that they don't believe in Hell. It was nice to learn a few things without being preached to, and likewise, I had no desire to argue about why I thought he was wrong.

He said that he's met several other foreigners (most of whom I know, this being a pretty small town), so I guess he just strikes up conversations with every whitey he sees. He said he wants to hang out again. I'm not especially anxious about it, but as long as it isn't really soon, I don't see why not.

Well, that's it for now. In a couple days, I'm going on a field trip with the third graders to an island in the middle of the lake in Chuncheon. I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures.

DMZ & Seoul

2009-05-03T14:43:00.007+09:00

I haven't updated in a while because I've been too lazy. Also, I've been sort of busy all week. I spent last Monday and Tuesday at the DMZ. I went with a bunch of other English teachers from Chuncheon. We rode around in a bus and saw some sights. Really, there's not a lot to see there. Some derelict buildings, a bunch of farms, some fences, and a lot of soldiers. The soldiers were actually really friendly, and they smiled and waved at us.

We weren't allowed to take photos of the actual DMZ, so I didn't get many pictures.

We went to a few museums, but they were all kind of dull. Mostly just trash from North Korea or artifacts from the war. We went to some random bird museum that was pretty cool.

We stayed the night in a "Reunification Education" school, where kids come and stay for a few days and learn about why it's better to be one country than two. I'm not sure what to make of this kind of rhetoric. It seems extremely idealistic, and I don't believe that most South Koreans agree with it. The tour guide said he wanted us to understand the pain that Koreans experience because of the separation of North and South, and I realize that it's part of their heritage, but I'm sure most Koreans realize that reunification just isn't feasible now, and it probably never will be.

A few weeks ago, during the North Korean "satellite" crisis, I taught a lesson on travel, asking my students to make plans for a vacation anywhere in the world. One group said that they wanted to travel to North Korea ten years ago so they could assassinate Kim Jong Il and create one Korea. Obviously, they were kind of joking, but it gave me a little insight into how South Koreans perceive the north. It's a touchy subject, and as a foreigner, I don't really feel comfortable asking natives about it.

Anyway, on the night that we stayed in the school, we ate a big dinner with beer and soju (I love EPIK sponsered events). I (kind of) learned how to play a Korean card game called Go-Stop (dunno what it's called in Korean). It was so confusing that it took me like an hour to get it (maybe partially due to the soju), but I finally played a few games and won big. Actually, I got a lot of points, but the stakes were so small that I only won like fifty cents.

When I got back to school on Wednesday, I got to sit around all day and do nothing because my kids were all taking midterms. On Thursday night, after Korean class, I went out "for a few beers" and ended up singing in the noraebang until 3:30 AM. I only let myself do it because I knew that I wouldn't have to teach the next day, but it was still not too pleasant going to school on three hours of sleep. Luckily, I didn't have a hangover.

On Friday, I took a 5 o'clock train to Seoul and arrived a little before 7. I went with my friend, Anka, who used to live in Seoul.

Here are some pictures of the city.

I wasn't impressed. The first thing I noticed was the putrid quality of the air. Then, of course, I noticed the crowds and the noise and the filth. If anything, it made me appreciate Chuncheon a little more.

We ate some pretty good street food. It basically tasted like funnel cake in pancake form, and it cost less than fifty cents.

We went to a part of town called Itaewon, which is where all the foreigners go. It was kind of a tourist hell hole, but at least it was full of ethnic restaurants, which can't be found in Chuncheon. I finally got to eat some Mexican food with a bottle of Corona, and it was damn good. We ate at a place called Los Amigos, and it almost felt like an authentic Tex Mex place.

Then, we went to Hongdae, the university area, for some drinks. I was kind of surprised to see how popular American black culture is in Seoul. Every bar we went to was blasting shit like Soulja Boy and 50 Cent. I also saw lots of Koreans dressed in "gangsta" style clothes. You don't see much of that in Chuncheon.

We ended up in some retardedly crowded club, and we had to pay 10,000 won just to get in (it was free before 1:00, and we arrived at 1:15), so we kind of felt obligated to stay. We wanted to dance, but it was almost impossible because we were so tightly crammed in there. Well, we tried anyway.

Gaaaay.

After several hours of dancing, we made our way over to a Burger King, where we found half of the customers passed out.

More sleeping people on the subway. I have to admit that I dozed off a few times, myself.

Finally, we made it back to the train station and took the 7 AM train, arriving back in Chuncheon around 9. I went home and slept until 6 PM.

Things

2009-04-20T18:32:00.004+09:00

After a two month hiatus, I've finally begun reading again. Mostly just comics and manga, but I guess it's a start.

Here are two of the worst songs/videos ever. One is Korean. One is not.

Embedding was disabled on the second video so here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JnV-6a-xds

Apparently, it's really cool for kids to "smoke" Smarties. Here are some instructional videos.

Sorry. That's all I got. Next week, I'm going to the DMZ.

A friendly co-worker gave me this "rape" soap.

The Freakin' Weekend

2009-04-06T16:16:00.005+09:00

I've had a wonderful three-day weekend. On Saturday, I attended the "Second Annual Chuncheon Pub Crawl," which lasted from 5 PM to 5 AM and spanned 5 different bars. I must admit, I drank a few beers. There were several games throughout the night (trivia, beer pong, scavenger hunt), and my team lost each one miserably.

Here we are, still mostly sober: Les Test Ecoles.

A whole bunch of white people. The girl with the megaphone is Gretchen. She and I work at the same school, and we're BFFs.

Then we drew vulgar things on each others' shirts. I, however, kept mine clean.

This picture was taken toward the end of the night, during the scavenger hunt. Several people had puked or passed out by this point. In fact, I think the guy with the sparkler had just barfed like two minutes before I took this. I handled my booze pretty well, though. Somehow, photos always get mysteriously blurry somewhere around 3 AM.

I spent most of Sunday recovering, so I was back to 100% by Monday morning. I still really felt like I needed another day, though. Thankfully, today was my school's foundation day (birthday), so classes were canceled. But I woke up early anyway because some of the teachers and I had made plans to go hiking. We climbed a nearby mountain called Samaksan (I think), which is supposedly the largest mountain in the area. It took us about two hours to get to the top.

At the bottom of the mountain. Can you guess which one is me?

Someone left their socks out to dry on the mountain.

These flower leaves tasted like Sour Patch Kids.

Dinner.

The summit. I had the settings wrong on my camera, so it's way overexposed.

We visited this temple on the way down.

Then, we all went out for a dish made with buckwheat noodles called makooksu.

I feel like I learned a lot of Korean today. I hope I can remember at least some of it.

Garbage

2009-03-24T16:55:00.003+09:00

Here's some obnoxious Korean popular culture that I like.

These songs are just catchy. They're also some of the most unapologetically vapid pop songs I've ever heard, and I like that.

This is the opening sequence of a really cute kids' show called Pororo. It's actually good (it reminds me of Animal Crossing), and I watched several episodes while I was staying in the love motel.

2009-03-23T21:19:00.007+09:00

The gym teachers invited me out for dinner and drinking tonight. At first, I was a little scared, because none of them speak very good English. But fortunately, Harry the science teacher came along, and it ended up being lots of fun. We ate cow's intestines and congealed blood (GOOD FOR MAN, they said). With kimchi, of course. Actually, the intestines were kind of gross - chewy and flavorless, but the blood was good. Also, we drank plenty of soju and beer. I think we're supposed to go out like that once or twice a month, which is fine by me. I just don't understand why they think that Monday is a good night for drinking.

One of the gym teachers kept telling me (in extremely broken English) that his wife hates his drinking, and when he comes home drunk, she attacks him like a tiger. I thought he was saying that she gets drunk on soju and acts like a tiger. But his kids love when he comes home drunk because he gives them money.

I wonder if the gym teachers in my middle school were actually cool guys or if they were just assholes like I thought at the time.

Day Tripper

2009-03-22T11:50:00.006+09:00

Some of my friends and I went out to Nami Island yesterday, and despite the kind of cheap tourist feeling in some parts of the island, it was really awesome.

Lining up to board the ferry.

From the ferry.

Awesome sculpture.

Flattened frog.

Wall of cans.

Just a bathroom with some art on the walls.

There were ostriches just running around. Sorry for the crappy photo quality. These birds seemed pretty tame, but I was afraid to get too close.

The ferry at night.

Dakgalbi for dinner.

At E-Mart.

2009-03-20T18:58:00.004+09:00

I can't believe I've already been in South Korea for a whole month. Time is flying. Today also marks the end of my first week of teaching. So far, things are going well. I teach 22 classes a week with somewhere between 36 and 40 kids in each class. That comes out to over 800 students. I teach the entire second grade and all but two third grade classes (remember, this is middle school, so the kids are like 14-15). It kind of sucks because I won't get to see the kids often enough to really get to know many of them. Also, I live right by the school, and with 800 students, they can be hard to avoid. I seriously can't leave my apartment without hearing, "HI, JUSTIN!" everywhere I go.

The good thing is that the kids are awesome, and they keep me entertained. For some reason, I've been called "handsome" by someone in almost every class (mind you, this is an all-boys school). And another boy told me that he loves me. There are a few troublemakers in most classes, but I'm not worried. Most of them actually seem to be pretty good kids who are just starved for attention.

I think some of my fellow foreign teachers and I are going to watch Polecats tonight. I mentioned it last weekend, and they all decided that they had to see it. Hopefully they will still want to be my friends tomorrow.

2009-03-15T19:55:00.001+09:00

I played soccer for four hours this afternoon. I'm so exhausted that I can hardly move.

Things To Come

2009-03-11T18:41:00.003+09:00

Just now, as I was taking out my garbage, I had a conversation with an eight year old kid whose English was better than most of the students in my middle school.

Some things I'm looking forward to:

1. The weekend.

2. Teaching. I've spent the last week and a half at school doing very little work. Today, I browsed the internet for at least six hours. Although I'm not super excited about teaching, I'll be glad to actually earn my salary. Also, two teachers told me that their kids were on the verge of rioting when they found out that I won't start teaching until next week. Strangely, the kids seem to really like me. I hope I can live up to their expectations. It's also kind of weird because I live right by the school, and I see them all over the neighborhood. I still haven't gotten used to them bowing to me on the street.

3. Hapkido. Some of the other foreign teachers and I are going to start taking classes on Monday. I think we may begin on Monday. It should be fun to kick some ass, and I'm sure it'll make my dad proud.

4. One of the science teachers at my school is organizing some clubs for the teachers. We're going to play ping-pong on Wednesday, and I think we may start going out for dinner once a month because he wants to introduce me to more Korean food. This teacher is hilarious. When we first met, he introduced himself as, "Harry...Harry Potter," because he wanted to give himself a Western name. So, I just call him Harry. He's never even told me what his real name is. His English isn't that great, but we can usually communicate okay. He's always learning hilarious phrases and saying things like, "Juh-suh-tun teachuh, do you know 'hair of the dog?'" Today, he said, "Juh-suh-tun teachuh, butt out!"

5. The district coordinator is planning some "cultural tours" for the foreign teachers. In April or May, we're supposed to go camping at the DMZ. Maybe we can watch our country turn to rubble when North Korea launches its "test missile."

Sunday

2009-03-08T16:37:00.007+09:00

This is why...

I went out for a walk today and discovered this amazing hiking trail that's like three minutes from my apartment. I promise to take more pictures in a few months when things are actually green.

Oh yeah, there were also goats.

There were old ladies hoola-hooping at the top of the little mountain I hiked, but I didn't take any pictures for fear of their ajumma wrath.

I found this amazing picture by the dumpster outside of my apartment. I desperately wanted to take it, but I think it may have been set out for charity or something. I still don't completely understand the garbage situation here. Recycling is mandatory, and you have to separate all of your trash (plastic, paper, glass, food, and everything else). So, maybe people also can set out charitable items? There's also a pair of boots above the picture if you look closely. It just seemed strange that someone had left out something so nice. Anyway, I figured that if someone saw me carrying that huge picture into my apartment, I would have no way to explain myself. I do, however, know how to say, "I don't understand," and "I didn't know."

2009-03-07T17:55:00.003+09:00

Last night, I went to a "wine buffet" with a bunch of other foreign teachers. Basically, it's like a regular buffet, except they also have all you can drink wine. Needless to say, everyone had a good time. We eventually stumbled across the street to a noraebang (karaoke room) and didn't leave until they kicked us out at 4:30. Fun days and nights in Chuncheon, ROK.

Homemade Bibimbap

2009-03-05T18:17:00.004+09:00

This is the first decent meal I've made in Korea. I know it just looks like a pile of mush, but that's what's good about it.

The cafeteria lunches at work are good too. So far they've just been traditional Korean food like kimchi, dakgalbi, rice, and other things that I don't know the name of. My co-teacher said that the school has a nutritionist that looks over all the lunches to make sure they're healthy and tasty. It really puts American school lunches to shame.

I haven't eaten anything very unusual since I've been here because I have little idea what the menus say, so I generally just randomly point to something or read it out slowly and poorly. The only really new thing for me was sea cucumber, which didn't taste like much because the sauce it was in was so strong.

Day One

2009-03-02T21:02:00.005+09:00

The first day of school was totally awesome. I won't start teaching for another two weeks, but I got to observe a couple classes today. It was surprisingly not intimidating, and the boys (did I mention I work at an all-boys middle school?) are hilarious. I went out to lunch and dinner with the other teachers, and dinner, in particular, was a blast. I got to meet a lot of the teachers (the English-speaking ones, at least), and everyone was incredibly nice. That may have been partially due to the fact that everyone was pouring soju down everyone else's throats all night. The gym teachers and science teachers were especially drunk and friendly. And one of my co-teachers said that she was going to set me up with her cousin who is my age. Also, the principal kept hugging me and holding my hand. I'm told that this is normal friendly drunk behavior in Korea. So, I hate to sound like a complete honeymooner, but everything is wonderful right now.

Super Update

2009-03-01T19:27:00.008+09:00

I've finally settled down into my apartment, so I think it's about time for a legitimate update. I arrived in South Korea a little over a week ago. Here is a brief overview of what's been going on.

- I left San Angelo, TX on February 18th.

Here is a view of the outskirts of my lovely hometown.

- I arrived at Incheon International Airport on February 20th. As it was my first time on an airplane, I was a little nervous about the luggage situation. So, of course, they lost my bags. Well, they weren't really lost. Just misplaced. I got them a few days later. Driving through South Korea was amazing despite the fact that every Korean driver is certifiably insane. Coming from West Texas, I've become accustomed to flat stretches of dirt. It was exciting to see SNOW and MOUNTAINS. Yeah, I took pictures of a lot of mountains.

- I went to the EPIK (English Program in Korea) orientation in Yangyang, South Korea. We were really out in the middle of nowhere, but it was a lot of fun and surprisingly informative. As it is also my very first time teaching, I had asked myself a few questions, such as, "What the hell is a lesson plan, and how do I make one?" Well, they told me. Also, they put us up in a fancy hotel with a badass jim-jim-bang (basically a mini-bathhouse with saunas, hot tubs filled with pine needles and shit, and showers).

View from the hotel:

We went out to a fish market and a mountain too.

- I got placed in Chuncheon, which was one of my top picks. It's the capital of Gangwon Province, and it has a population of around 300,000. The city is famous for its beautiful lakes and its dakgalbi (translates to "chicken ribs," but it's actually just regular chicken meat and veggies; really tasty, though!).

- They put me in a "love motel" for a few days because the old EPIK teacher was still living in MY apartment. There was a vending machine right by my room with vibrators and condoms and I think some other things. I didn't look too closely. Mostly, though, it was just like a regular hotel, and the owners were very nice. In fact, their daughter called me up one day and invited me to lunch. She was in high school, and I think she mostly just wanted to practice her English, but it was still nice to make a friend. How come girls don't randomly call me up to invite me to lunch in America?

Notice the curtain over the parking garage. That keeps women from recognizing their cheating husbands' cars:

- I spent most of my first days in Chuncheon just wandering around the city. Somehow, despite my notoriously bad sense of direction, I never once got lost. I even managed to bump into a few other EPIK teachers (the only other palefaces I've seen since I've been here). It's strange how exciting it can be just to find someone who speaks your language and to hold a normal conversation.

- Today, I moved into my apartment. I had heard horror stories from some of the other teachers about their apartments (no bed, no microwave, no closet, etc.), so I was a little worried, but things have worked out wonderfully. It's a huge complex, and I live on the 12th floor, but the actual apartment is just fine. Also, it came with almost everything I could need (furniture, microwave, TV, dishes, etc.), and the ex-teacher left behind a ton of great stuff too, like a brand new cell phone! My place is a five minute walk from my school, a ten minute walk from E-Mart (like the Korean Walmart, but better), a 30 minute walk from the lake, and I think about a 45 minute walk from downtown.

The guy who lived here before me was, like, a Alexander Supertramp style poet, dude. But isn't the view from my apartment great?

- Everyone here has been so incredibly nice to me since I've been here. Restaurant owners are sometimes so glad or surprised to see foreigners in their restaurants that they bring out free drinks. Also, some Koreans are really excited about the chance to use English, so people are always saying "hello" to me on the streets or in the grocery store. It's mostly either little kids or crazy, toothless old men, for some reason. And, today, my co-teacher's husband bought me a pizza for lunch for no damn reason. The Korean people have been nothing but wonderful to me so far.

- I had planned out a grand dinner for tonight, but I couldn't figure out how to use my goddamn gas stove, so I just ate brown rice (I bought a rice cooker) and raw carrots. I've only used electric stoves before, so I wasn't really sure what to do. It's the kind where you push a button, and it makes a little spark. So, I turned on the gas and pushed the button, and the spark came, but no flame. Also, everything on it is in Korean, to make things doubly difficult for me. I think I know how it should work, but I'm not having any luck.

- Tomorrow is my first day of school. Fortunately, I will only be observing classes for the first week or two.

- There is a crying baby next door. I hope this will not be a problem.

View more photos and become my friend on Flickr here.

Snake Wrangler

2009-02-15T07:40:00.001+09:00

Snake Wrangler
Originally uploaded by justinvtaylor

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