Jeff's Blog

Back in Brussels

2015-08-16T18:22:00.001+09:00

What can I say?
I was here in Brussels a little less than 7 years ago and it was the spark that changed the direction my life was heading in more ways than I can ever imagine.
Yoonah and I had flown into Frankfurt, Germany a few days ago because that was the cheapest ticket to Europe and because, well... why not? I had not been to Germany before. Our whole plan on this trip was to explore places and have fun. Frankfurt didn't actually impress me all that much. The food was good and the German guys working at the restaurants and shops were very funny and cheerful. But something about the city just didn't seem to be all that impressive to either of us, so we decided to take a 6 hour bus ride to visit Virginia in Brussels since she said she is only working part time now.

After a long day of waiting for the bus then what ended up being 8 hours in transit we arrived to Avenue du Roi in Brussels where I had to wait a whole 2 minutes before Virginia and Alexis were waiting coming up to us from the tram station. It was amazing how quickly I was transported back to the amazing warm feelings from 7 years ago. We sat and talked in her living room eating fine cheese and sausage from the south of France and drinking Jupiler beer. We reminisced and talked about how long ago that was but it really doesn't seem like any time has passed at all.

I told Virginia about how she sparked a butterfly effect with me, a story which I also told my 5th grade debate boys during my last week at Poly School in Anyang. The whole reason for me going to Europe was a series of minor events and a couple short emails without much planning at all. Without those emails I would not have learned the things that I know now about the world and myself. It would have not lead me to the wonderful friends I have met all over the world and taught my the patience and love that can only be acquired from being around kids. My life was already set on a great path since I was born and I am very grateful to have had all the wonderful opportunities that I have had this far. I am also very happy to have taken these roads that I have because it has been a truly incredible journey.

Today's agenda: maybe going to the market.... seeing Virginia's sister Florence..... maybe watching Alexis play some game with some steel balls?

A New Hope

2013-03-21T23:59:00.001+09:00

Ok, my friends - I have updates since I haven't really posted a lot and a lot has been happening.

Back in Korea, a different city this time called Bucheon which is a close suburb of Seoul. I work at a private Kindergarten and afterschool for grades 1, 2 and 3 in the afternoons. The new job has been extremely challenging for me since I am not used to teaching kindergarten kids... like at all. And I have always had the most respect for the people that teach the youngest grades since those involve the most attention AT ALL TIMES. You cannot just tell the kids to write an essay and sit at your desk or put on a movie and expect them to just sit and watch it. You have to be at full alert all the time. This is course is a big change from my last school. At times I do miss the ease of my old school and the fact the kids had more life experience and aptitude to be left on their own for more than two minutes.. And also, I have to help my kids zip up their jackets and put on their shoes.... This is new to me. But my new school has some MAJOR differences in the other way and that is the Korean staff that works there. Let me go back a week to St Paddy's day.

I got in touch with my friends from my old city so meet in Seoul for a St Paddy's festival and shenanigans to follow. I meet my Irish friends Grainne, Finbar, and Patrice and it was so good talking about the good old days in Ansan and all the great people that have come to teach and have since left, and met a bunch more. Then we headed to my friend Miranda's apartment and had several more hours of fun and meeting new people and playing guitar and other games. It is truly amazing to know so many wonderful people. The next day I wasn't feeling so well so I just took it easy and rested in my apartment and tried preppy for my classes. Then my birthday came and I was absolutely ill. Just the normal cold/flu crap most everyone gets when they travel and/or work with small children. But it was even worse since it was only my third week in and I felt like I was just overloaded with work I didn't understand what the staff wanted from me and I kept getting conflicting answers to prefer methods on doing something. I also could tell in my first couple weeks working here that I was getting short tempered a lot here because I felt like the staff and fellow teachers were talking down to me and saying things like "I told you that on your first day, don't you remember?" and I wanted to scream "You told me a hundred things my first day!! Give me a break!?!" But I recently realized the hazard of teaching small children, especially when you work with a large staff that doesn't speak English that well in a lot of cases; you speak to EVERYONE like they are children.

I digress. This last birthday pretty much took the cake for worst birthday I have ever had, after 11 hours at the school I trudged the 15 minute walk to my apartment but first got some udong soup to go from the local shop across from my building and ate it while feeling so exhausted it hurt and watched The Office on my laptop. Bummer right? And Tuesday started out the same way. But then one of the Korean staff saw I was sick and took me to the hospital (which is really just the doctor, no one freak out.... *mom*) and not only were we in and out and back in school within 25 minutes the whole thing only cost $7 and that is after the prescription meds. I went home not feeling like the pills had worked their voodoo yet, but I got on facebook and saw all the birthday comments and messages from all my friends and it really did make me feel a lot better. It was in a really strange way that is hard to describe, because every time someone wished me happy bday, all of the good memories with that person rushed back to me and made me feel so lucky to have done what I have done, gone to the places I have, and to have met all those wonderful people.

The next day (yesterday) I was feeling a thousand times better. I really should have just called in sick but felt like that would appear bad being so new and all. So mad props to my Korean staffer who took me to the hospital (though the doctor spoke perfect English and no translating was needed, he still knew where to take me). But wait, the goodness doesn't end there. We had planned for the March birthdays party (another new teacher's bday was the 12th) to be celebrated today. I didn't expect much but when they called us into the cafeteria there was an awesome spread of pizza, chicken wings, and fresh fried potato chips sitting on the tables. There were about 12-15 staff members there including the directors and the school and we all had a great time just talking about our kids and telling funny stories. It was so nice to be able to communicate with all of them and not having the typical odd "all white people sit over here and speak English and all Koreans over on this side" segregation.

In sum, this new job is going to be a challenge for me, but you all know that I can use a challenge like this to keep me from being so lazy. Nine months of bouncing around Washington, Oregon, Canada, Alaska, Costa Rica, Panama, Mexico, and Hawaii, have made me ready to put some real effort into something. Thank you friends and family for being there to support me, no matter how many thousands of miles away you may be.

robbed...

2012-11-24T11:55:00.001+09:00

So I have been staying on a small island (Bastimento) in Bocas del Toro, Panama and meeting some super awesome people and having a great time going to the beaches and swimming in the Caribbean. I have done an awesome cave expedition, snorkeled (a bit), and have been going to wonderful beaches with wild coconuts that was just crack open and eat.

I got here from Boquete, Panama with a great american couple Jason and Ann who had rented a car and Matthias, the best Belgian I have ever met (since Virginia Petranto of course) who had stayed here just a couple weeks prior.

Last night Jason and Ann had to move hostels closer to the mainland so they can drive to Panama city, and Matthias and I were out of cash so we needed to hit the mainland up for the ATM's. So off we went with two other Peace Corps volunteers to have some good food and then go to Jason and Ann's hostel for some swimming and drinks at the bar area. I had my wallet plus $500 i just withdrew (this is the most i have ever taken out but I planned on just staying here for another week on the small island with Mathias so i was wanted to make sure I had enough for chilling and maybe getting some food to cook an American Thanksgiving.

By the time with got to their hostel it was much more of a club than a bar, and for those of you who don't know me, I am not a club kind of guy. I am a "enjoy beers at the local dive bar or anywhere where they have a pool table, or better yet, let's just have some beer on someone's couch while playing Rock Band/Halo/Borderlands etc." But we are here and there is some cool swimming around there - I started hunting sea urchins for Thanksgiving feast and leaving them in our water taxi. But before I went swimming what was I to do with my camera and wallet, especially with all this cash? Never fear, you can pay $1 for the man to "lock it up" for the night.... well it was just a cupboard but he said he would sit there all night and only I could retrieve it. Good plan. So 2 Germans that we had meet in Boquete were also there, plus Jason and Ann, plus the American Peace Corps girls. We threw all of our stuff (just wallets and cameras) into one bag and checked it in. about 2-3 hours later after we were all ready to go and the bar area was closing we got the bag. We were all saying our goodbyes and thought 'Let's get one last picture' so Jason got his camera out but his memory card was full so I fished mine out and we started posing for a few shots, then some guy jumped in and started photo-bombing us and then the flash wasnt set so about 45 seconds later we were good to go. I asked the German girl for the bag but my wallet wasn't there..... Panic time. How did this happen? The bag was never unattended? and also Jason's camera was stolen! I think he had set his on the counter for the brief 45 seconds, but I hadn't seen my wallet since check in. In an instant both things missing.

I came back to the hostel and Matthias paid for my share of the water taxi (he had also owed me some because I paid for our deepboarding earlier in the day, and the deepboarding story is a whole other adventure, but let's stay focused), I came back to the hostel and tried looking up Bank of America's numbers to cancel my cards, but the internet is so slow here and cuts our every five minutes that I didnt think it would work. The hostel owner heard me thanking the American girls for all their help in searching for the thief and leaving a description of the photobomber because we think he was the one and just generally being so kind in my weak moment. Anyway, Enrigues (the hostel owner, said I could use his phone no problem and when i was finished just put it in the kitchen area of the hostel inside the dart board dart box. I called BoA and cancelled one card (but then got disconnected so I had to call back and verify) then she transferred me to the credit card side which is a completely different entity altogether and they have NO communication between the two of them, and yes got disconnected again but cancelled both of my cards.

So now I lay in my bunk, a little sad but glad I have Matthias here to cheer me up and I still want to show him a good American style Thanksgiving today although he will have to pay for the both of us :-( We were supposed to go spearfishing today but I knew from last night I would be feeling this way and not up for an adventure just yet.

Then I wake up and talked to Enrigues and he asked me if I have the phone, I told him I put it in the bin and he said it wasn't there.... Great now I lost a super nice guys phone, and I don't have the money to pay him for the weeks stay I have already been here (Lucky it is just $6 a night). I hope we find it soon somewhere. I said goodbye to the American girls, then goodbye to an awesome Austrian couple that have been staying here, but then the Austrians come back 2 minutes later and gave me a $20 bill- Which honestly if you can't tell by this post already- There are still many many MANY more good people in this world than the bad ones. It hasn't put me off to traveling the world and I believe that meeting all these wonderful people that I have met is world having a bad day like today.... and maybe tomorrow. I learned my lesson about not keeping your eye on your things (4 years ago in Barcelona when my attention was lost in Las Ramblas and I lost the DSLR, iPod, glasses, and the list goes on) and I swore I wouldn't be that careless again. And I don't believe I was careless. I didn't drink too much, and my stuff was in the 'locker' The German girl didn't set the bag down for even a minute I don't think. C'est la vie.

So now my task is to try to find a way to get money from my accounts without having the cards so I can get to San Jose by Dec 3rd to get to Mexico City for a week, then home for a few days then Hawaii.... Although now I may have to change these plans and just head home shortly, and maybe from Panama..... I will see how I feel in a day or two.

Today being Thanksgiving, I will say I am very thankful for all the wonderful people I have met in my life, the kindness of strangers, my wonderful family who has always made me feel like I have a home to come back to and always supported me in my travels.... even when I scare them by being so far from home... and English speaking doctors. I am thankful for my health as I know it could always be much much worse (and again mom, I am still healthy). And I am thankful for all of you that read this INCREDIBLY long post, my blog site was not allowing me to publish it today. So it goes, stayed tuned for more updates.

Update: Feeling a lot better today. Yesterday was just a day being up and down and laying in bed watching movies on my laptop. Today,Matthias and I went into the main island to file a police report, talked with the owner of the lounge where the money was stolen SUPER nice lady who felt really bad and helped me get arrangements to go with them tomorrow morning to Western Union to get money sent by my pare

nts. She also offered me some free breakfast and free drinks and free use of their safe for some of the days i will remain here. Talked with my insurance company and bank again today and there is no chance of getting any of the money returned or anything, but again - this is life. Bad things happened but my faith in humanity is unshaken. Still sad about losing $500 and all of my cards but I do have sometimes where I can look back and laugh at it.

— at Isla Colón, Bocas Del Toro.

Should I stay or should I go now.

2012-11-05T23:37:00.001+09:00

So I lost Anne the Quebec but found two other really cool Americans on the way to the Tarzan Swing, I still didn't find my underwater camera there but c'est la vie. After the swing we took a long hike to a huge waterfall then the long hike back to eat some delicious food at a restaurant here called Just Good Foods. Rick the tour guide and the owner Mike were there and telling us about fun things to do today; $10 for a boat trip to an island for some good times, then later the two cool Americans I met will join us for a trip to the free natural hot springs 8 km away. When we came back to my hostel the Quebec girls were there (3 of them all traveling together and staying in the same room as me) and we talked and laughed until midnight. They have rented a car and invited me to go with them to a city called Monteverde (Green Mountain) but I already made the plans to enjoy one final day in La Fortuna and don't feel like need to travel 3+ hours to do more zip lining although a bungee jump there does entice me a bit.... We will see what the girls decide on doing and I will hopefully meet them in a beach city tomorrow!

But then again, I am from WA and am quite used to the green, I am wanting more of the white sand beaches. And maybe some large turtles!

Costa Rica

2012-11-05T00:31:00.000+09:00

And the journeys continue. I left Spokane for Costa Rica last Monday, November 28th and will travel around this country (and maybe Panama and Nicaragua) until December 3rd when I fly to Mexico City for a week to visit my friend Amber from college who is teaching English there. Then a few days back in Washington followed by a week in Hawaii with the whole family, then back to Korea for another year or two of teaching. Good, now we are up to speed:

I was supposed to be coming here with my friend John that I met while traveling in Europe four years ago. He has lived in Costa Rica as a SCUBA instructor but after some delays in the US before our trip he ended up getting his dream job working for the Dept of Defense. So now I keep calm and carry on alone. I booked four nights in San Jose and per usual didn't do a ton of research about what it is like but rather like finding it out for myself first-hand. And what I found out is that San Jose can be a dangerous place, it is as you would imagine most capital cities in the US: just a big big city where life carries on as usual, not too many amazing cultural tourist sites but the usual stuff (I went to a bank museum which talked about the history of Costa Rican currency). It was on the second day there I met two new backpackers from North Carolina and they convinced me in taking the city buses to La Fortuna. Since this was city buses it took a very long time on twisting and turning roads through a very very pretty countryside. We were the other foreigners on the bus full of schoolkids, farmers, and other various local Ticos (Costa Ricans).

By the time we got to the city we were all a little road-weary and happened across Rick, an American who has made Costa Rica his home for the past 7 years who showed us some good places to eat and signed us up for a river rafting trip/organic farm tour, as well as helping us plan our journeys around the country.

Rafting was awesome, class 4+ and 5. Definitely worth every penny. After rafting we headed to one of 11 hot springs/resorts in the city and had some AWESOME buffet and relaxed in the hot springs and rode some pretty insane speed slides. Then the day before yesterday I took a semi lazy day and went to a tarzan swing over a river with a kid in the hostel names Cam. I had my recently purchased underwater camera with me ($100 from Huppins on N. Division, Spokane) and had wanted some pics so i should "Hey Cam, toss me the camera but make sure you throw it ahead of me so it doesn't get lost in the fast moving current". And it was a great toss, just a few feet ahead of me........ and that was the last I ever saw of that camera..... Why I thought it would float is beyond me. I wasn't even mad when it happened, I just kinda laughed and said "Oh well, this is life, and I still have my better point and shoot with me, there just won't be any underwater pictures from the rest of my trip." It wasn't Cams fault and maybe a should have thought it through more but c'est la vie.

Yesterday I went ziplining which was a whole other experience with much fun to be had. Check out the video on my facebook as well as all the other pictures thus far.

I will head off now and do some laundry and get some food. Then maybe back to the tarzan swing with a friend i just met in the hostel (Anne from Quebec).

Hasta Luego,
Pura Vida.

waiting....

2011-12-03T19:41:00.001+09:00

Check this link for pictures from Siem Reap.

So im at the same hotel ive been all week but i just checked out this afternoon. paid my bill for 6 nights of stay, 2 drinks at the bar, laundry service, and a bus ticket to Sihanoukville.$134.25. No complaints whatsoever. I really like the feel of Siem Reap but its time that i move along and my mind has been wondering, i feel the need to do some wandering. I have already met some great people but have done most everything i want to do in this city and want to go meet some other people that are hopefully going to stick around the beaches a bit longer. I might even make my way to Thailand now, though im not sure. Its incredibly easy to find cheap travel around here by bus.

So quick update about what i got up to here was visiting an orphanage a short distance from the town center (this town is quite small). I went in and helped teach some of the English classes and absolutely fell in love with the students. They were all so eager to learn and very playful. There was one girl in a very low level class that was working on her ABC's in a book and would not follow the rules to making her R's and just dray the leg of all the R's on the page first and then make a straight line like an l on all of them and then finish them all off with a half circle. I played with her and told her to not do it that way and instead to follow the picture given and she was getting it and i was cheering her and smiling really big and she would giggle at my show, but then she would start to do it the other way again, i think the first couple times were an accident but then she just loved to see my "no, no, no! do it the correct way" reaction. I went to the hotel after classes ended to get some food and came back at night to see all the kids put on a traditional Khmer dance. IT WAS AMAZING! young young kids that you would imagine would be cute if they were making cute mistakes, but it was incredible. After it was after my moto-bike driver was waiting for me so i started walking to the gate but the girl who i was helping with her letters ran in front of me and starting writing letters in the dirt in front of me the wrong way and i started yelling at her and freaking out in my funny way and she wouldn't stop laughing. I stayed for another 30 minutes playing with a bunch of the kids.

As you can see, cute kids. I may come back here and teach again for a while when my contract is up.

I like my way of travel, without making any plans, without reading hardly any reviews of places to stay or booking anything in advance. It is really freeing, and i always end of having a good time. I would want to come back here again with a travel partner to get more off the beaten path of things.

Oh geez, i forgot to mention the airplane ride.... anyway, it was awesome as well. i did go for the hour and it was more expensive than i thought, but still very good. check out the pictures at the link at the top.

I am very anxious for tomorrow to get here.... I am ready for the new scenery and beaches, and i am also waiting to hear from a friend of mine in Korea (hint hint)....

i love vacation

2011-11-29T17:01:00.000+09:00

i know, i know. i have been posting more in the past two days than i have in the past two months. I am sitting in beautiful cambodia meeting wonderful people. I had a a 5 hour layover in china, it gave me some time to read some of the stuff i had printed out about Siem Reap, Phnom Pehn, and Sinoukville: three cities i plan on visiting. As we got on the connection to Siem Reap there was a white guy sitting in front of me at the emergency exit and the flight attendant came up to him and say "sir, sir, do not pull this" indicating to the lever to release the door. The white guys face was priceless as it was a very dumb thing to have to tell an adult and i started laughing out loud, the white guy looks at me and says "yeah, that was a pretty f&$*ing stupid thing to say wasn't it?" I chatted with him for a bit, he was from New Zealand but lives here in Cambodia with his wife who works for a NGO. When we got off I asked him where was the best place to get a tuk-tuk(the motorcycle rick-shaws and Cambodia), and if he knew of a good place to stay he called his Cambodian co-worker and started to look at his iphone for info and the Cambodian just said after a bit of trouble with the 3G, 'oh, just come with us'.
So they drove me into town and took me to a hotel where i got to check out the room before i took it. there were two options $22 and $25, oh and btw, they use the US dollar here in Cambodia since the Cambodian Reil is a closed currency and cannot be bought or exchanged outside the borders, so $20 is on the steeper side here in Cambodia, but it was late and in all honesty, really? just $25? its vacation, i have a good(ish) job. The room was the best in the place, balcony and a view of the city, A/C and two beds (not that i needed two). I took it, took a shower and headed to the lobby to use the wifi (there is wifi in the rooms too, but the real reason was to meet people). I met two Brits, Jenny and Ash, who were travelling all over Asia. They were trying to book flights and i offered my advice with a couple websites they hadnt heard of and ended up going for dinner and drinks with them later. The next morning they had a pre-arranged tuktuk to take them all over Angkor ruins to see the old temples and invited me along. so i woke up at 6 and we went all over taking pictures and having good chats. then i enjoyed the city for a couple hours while they took a siesta and i got a haircut and bought some stuff from the markets. I don't want to bore you with all the mundane details, but we went for dinner last night, saw a traditional Khmer dance, got a full body massage for $4, and had a great time around the city. They left this afternoon after i got done talking with my friends John and Anne (co-workers/best friends in Korea), my mom, and my favorite cousin via Skype, poolside.
omg, i forgot to tell you about the one armed Austrian.....
first night i was here after i met the two brits, and they went to go get ready for the night, i met a one armed austrian who was an older guy, 40's or 50's who was also trying to use the computer to book flights.... but he didnt know much about computers, so i helped him for a bit and yesterday got him squared away. Next time i am in Europe i will be sure to look him up as he said i am always welcome to stay with him and his family. In an hour he will come down to meet his tuktuk driver to take him to an airfield where he will take a light-plane to view angkor ruins for $120. i am thinking about doing it as well another day but a half hour one for $80. time will tell.

I will go now and enjoy the 85 degree weather poolside and get ready for a tuktuk around the city.
again i apologize for the stream-of-thought writing, but i am in too good of a mood and enjoying my vacation too much to go back and read my own boring writing to fix it!

vacation hooray!

2011-11-26T17:22:00.000+09:00

So after much debate and persuasion i have managed to capture 3 weeks vacation which starts...... NOW! My co-teacher Hlee has decided to stay an extra three weeks now that her contract is done which will allow me to go to (drum roll) Cambodia. I was thinking of Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, or somewhere close to those in Southeast Asia. I settled on Cambodia because I have heard great things about the beaches. All I want to do is go somewhere warm and relaxing. The backpacking travel bug I had gotten from Europe has faded (though not gone and I assure you it will come back) and I just want to rest and eat good food and meet some cool people. I booked a one way ticket to Siem Reap and plan to see Angkor Wat and other ruins in the area, then head south to the beaches after a quick stop in Phnom Pehn. This plan is all very tentative and subject to change depending on the cool people I meet. I might go by land over the border and head somewhere else but I dont really know and dont really care at this point. I am just excited to be somewhere new.

I am already sad that I will not get to see my students. Remember I have not had a single break other than a couple long weekends, and the 3 weeks of pain in the hospital and recovering at home. All the while i would go into school just to say hi to my students.

Another fun thing i did this last week just on a random Monday night was to try 보신탕 (boshingtang) also known as dog stew. ^^

I might not post on this blog until after i get back from cambodia but i will keep people up to date about my journey via facebook.

Taxicab confessions: Ansan

2011-11-26T17:01:00.000+09:00

So two months ago I decided to hold one of my impromptu BBQ parties at my apartment. I went with Muney to Homeplus to buy hotdogs, beer, and a BBQ to cook them on. It was nice, I bought a little bucket BBQ for $10 that worked out quite nice. There ended up being about 15 people over which meant my apartment was packed but we were all having a great time.

Later we went out on the town and had more fun playing pool.

That was just a fun story that I needed to share. The real big story came two days later on Sunday when I rode my bike out to the University to have dinner with my two friends Peter and Rory at a Chinese place. It was a good meal and we had a great time. At about 9:30 PM I hopped on my bike to head back the 10 minute ride to my apt. The next thing I remember was being in a CT scanner and feeling intense pain. Muney was there as was my friend and coworker Will. Apparently I called Muney to translate for me and take care of hospital stuff. The hospital was busy and there wasn't a bed for the night, they did x-rays of my entire body to see what else was wrong but could see I wasn't in any immediate danger. I was in a lot of pain and there was discussion of me going home since there were no beds. Muney came back and said we had to wait for the doctor's ok, I couldn't wait so I pulled out my IV and said let's go. I don't remember how I got home but I know I did at about 8 or 9 AM. I called home and and let my parents know what happened, then went to sleep.
I didn't sleep well and was still in a lot of pain, I was bleeding from my right ear, my face and legs were scratched up, ribs were hurting and just generally felt awful. I don't know who I called first when i woke up at 2 but I think it was my friends Rachel and Ben that got me set up in a new hospital since I was still in so much pain. I brought my ipod and cell phone with me to keep me occupied while I was there. I get checked in and they go through all the x-rays and CT scanning again. At about 6 my korean coworker came to help with translation, they told me i would have to spend the night in the ICU.... scary right? yeah, i wasn't too scared at first, i just kinda laughed. CH left and i was all checked in at about 7PM which is when visiting time is over in the ICU. The first thing i did was pull out my ipod and cellphone to update everyone. Then the on-call nurse came over and told me in very poor English "no cell phones or electronics"..... fantastic...
I handed them over and he locked them away. Now im sitting here bored looking at the other 12 ICU patients, 5 of them on the opposite wall from all hooked up to respirators, one of whom had it in his trachea. The patient to my left was in bad shape and kept defecating himself, the one to the right had said mental issues and was rubber band tied to her bed and she never blinked. after a couple hours I had to go to the bathroom so I lowered the cage door of my bed and the attending nurse rushed over and said 'no no no' and put the panel back up, retreated for a moment and came back with a jug.....
Not a great night to say the least.

In the morning i found out that i could leave the ICU but was to stay in the hospital for 3 weeks for observation.... fantastic. after a week of hell, where no one could speak english, i finally convinced them to let let me go home so i could be more comfortable. Another thing i hated about this was that i didnt exactly know what was even wrong with me, nor did I even know what happened at this point for certain, i heard a car hit me, but that was it. Also, i was completely deaf in my right ear.

On the way back from the hospital we had to since some paperwork at the police station. On the way i learned it was a taxi who hit me. The cabs here in Korea are equipped with black box cctv's that record in and outside. I was riding my bike down a hill going fairly fast and my light across the walk was green but turned red just moments before i came to it, so the cabs light turned green (immediately in Korea not like the couple second delay in the states). And he just hit my back tire and sent me flying. I was in extreme pain still and signed the paper whatever it said.

I went home and felt only slightly better to be in my own place. My friend Ellen came over and took care of me during the first two nights i was here as i was still in a lot of pain. On Sunday i talked with my mom and thats when the wheels really started to move. She had gotten a hold of my cousin Bill, who married a Korean girl whose father works in Seoul and knows several high people in some high places. she told me to expect a call, which came just moments later. Mr Kim came down and made a couple phones calls to several people and got some information from me. He decided to take me to Seoul to Samsung Hospital, we went to dinner first, then got to the ER by 9PM. during check-in i got morphine (btw i found out later that the only painkillers i was getting at the first two hospitals was Tylonel) so i started feeling better, then i got a CT scan and MRI again and my own bed in the 'foreigner section' of the ER. It was a room with just two beds, a japanese girl was asleep in the other. We went to the Ear Nose and Throat section and talked with a doctor who took pictures of my ear drums and i could definitely see the burst.

This was the first time that could actually know and see what was going on. My ear still leaked cerebrospinal fluid for a couple weeks but finally stopped last month. I still have problems hearing from the right ear but i hope it will continue to improve. It was good to finally get some answers. In the morning i met with the dr who told me that i had two skull fractures along my temporal and parietal bones, along with some contusions on my brain which i got to see in detail via the MRI.

Mr Kim has helped me so much in getting things arranged with money from the cab company. They are going to cover me for 100% of medical costs and 80% of the lost wages from the 3 weeks i was not working. Yay!

Anyway, im doing much better now. sorry this blog came so late after it happened. Been busy is all i will post another much sooner than you would expect.

Ch-ch-ch-Changes.....

2011-09-16T21:53:00.000+09:00

So as it has been a while since my last one and there have been a significant number of changes in my life I will post again.

The biggest change for me is that my two best friends John and Anne left for a three month tour of South East Asia, came back for 10 days, then left again and are now back him in the good ol' US of A. This has been the biggest change for me since John and I spent more than half of our free time together and always went biking/adventuring on the weekends. We have many traditions that we do together including Sunday bike and hike and Wednesday game nights. You can see some of the amazing pictures in my albums.

After John and Anne left I moved into their apartment which is nicer than my old one. It is just up the street but more friendly and homey so I have been able to have people over more.

The best part of the recent changes is what I did last weekend; my first real vacation since I came to Korea! Working at my academy we do not get many vacations. In fact only two per year where we get Monday and Tuesday off for the Lunar New Year and Korean Thanksgiving (Chuseok 추석). Last Lunar New Year I did go snowboarding which was surprisingly empty and awesome, and last Chuseok I went to Busan to see my friend Amber. Both were very lazy restful weekends.

This Chuseok I decided to go to the Hawaii of Korean; Jeju-do (A Korean island to the south of the mainland). It was incredible! We friend Peter and I left after work on Friday and took the subway to Seoul to meet up with 75 other foreigners and a couple of Koreans and took three all night charter buses down to the southern tip of Korea (Mokpo) then we took a ferry to the Jeju. We arrived Saturday evening and Peter and I went for a swim in the Sea. We swam out to an island, felt how awesome we were then swam back to find the tide had come in and washed away our shirts and sandals.

Day 2 It was a loud night as we had a Tropical Storm Kulap and well as a lot of thunder in the 6 person room with 2 people (Peter including) snoring quite loudly. We woke up early to board the bus to hike through a lava tube. It was cold and wet and the power went out briefly leaving us in the dark in a cave full of girlish screams (also Peter). Then back to the bus to head to a trick art musuem (meh) and then off to another ferry to see Udo Island; a very tiny island off of Jeju. Luckily the weather cleared by this point because one of the main purposes of this island is to take ATV's all over the island, riding along the beach and then hiking into some massive caves (which it is now be goal for Korea to go back and spend the weekend camping in the caves). Then we got back on the ferry and hiked up Crater Mountain on Jeju which gives get another glorious view of the islands and the sea. After that we headed back to our hotel/beach area (oh btw, the hotel was right on the beach) and

Day 3. It was a lazy day were Peter and I got up and walked barefoot to the minimart down the street to buy new sandals. Then we rented some kayaks for the day (for about $15) and spent the afternoon with an American couple just soaking up the sun and yes having some seaside beers. Once we were finished for the evening we bought some Roman Candle fireworks and had a good ol fashioned Roman Candle fight. Much fun had by all.

Day 4 Woke up at 6 got and the bus and headed home. We got back to Seoul around 9 PM and Peter and I took a cab back to Ansan, then went to the jimjilbang (Korean sauna) for a good soak to wash out all the sand from our places.

And that was my awesome vacation! I look forward to doing more very soon. And one thing I didn't mention was the absolutely enormous amount of wonderful people from all over the world that I met. Peter called me a jabber-jaw because I was talking with everyone. He has only been here a couple months. I'm not accustomed to speaking to new English-speakers.

Well if you are still reading now I applaud to your-stick-to-it-iveness. The next thing in live for me is to keep on working. my contract is up in June still but after this sweet taste of vacation awesomeness I feel like I might need to take a quarter sabbatical and visit some beautiful beaches somewhere. A month would be awesome. It has been difficult to meet so many great people only to have them leave and go back home or even just leave and go on amazing vacations to Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, China, Japan etc..

Oh, man?!?! I just checked my last post and I haven't posted since some of the most spectacular news:
I PAID OFF ALL OF MY STUDENT LOANS!!!!

Part of the reason why I haven't taken any trips till now is because I have been so crazy about saving money to pay off all of my student loans as being in debt is a terrible feeling for me. I paid them off a good 9 years in advance. I RULE! So now all the money I am saving here will go to savings as well as an awesome several month vacation around the world.

Sorry if there are grammar/spelling mistakes. This was written during classes as a stream of consciousness and i want to go home now.

Another Year

2011-05-06T21:18:00.000+09:00

The title of this blog (Another Year) is for two reasons. The first reason, if you haven't heard via the grapevine or from this horse's mouth. I have decided to stay in Korea for at least one more year. I resigned my contract about a month ago. I enjoy teaching and have become quite attached to my friends and students here.

The second reason is because of my birthday I celebrated back in March. It was an interesting birthday. One of my coworkers came to my room at noon to drop off some pictures of Ethan's wedding and to give me a bottle of soju as a b-day present. She also dropped the news that she was leaving Chungdahm.... The next day! She didn't tell anyone, I was the first to know. Apparently she had been planning it for several weeks. This put me in a sticky situation, our boss needed to know so we could get a replacement. I called Ethan up to my room to have a chat with him. Luckily he had gotten back from his honeymoon and was just enjoying unemployed life so he was able to cover all of her classes (something that no other teacher could have done). Still, bolting in the night is not a great thing to do to people.

That night a few of us went out to dinner and then I played videogames with John.

The next day I went to pick my friend Joe up from the airport in lieu of going to a St Patrick's Day Festival. Joe was planning on joining me in my adventure here in Korea and working for the same company just at a different branch. For reasons unclear to me Joe decided that Korea was not the right place for him and left approx 36 hours after he landed. This has taught me two things:

1. Korea is not the right place for everyone.
2. "Never a lender nor a borrower be"

At any rate, what is done is done. I am still enjoying it here and can't wait to see Mandy and Ethan's baby this fall! I am sad to see John and Anne leaving at the end of this month. My gaming partner will be heading to Thailand and around Malaysia to do some exploring and also going to be learning about some Eco-friendly sustainable living type stuff. Pretty interesting.

Since Thomas and Kristin left (two teachers that came here after me and stayed 8 months) we have been getting new teachers. The newest teacher to come to ChungDahm: Emily from Chicago. She is pretty entertaining and I have enjoyed showing off my mad Korean restaurant skills and tricks of Korea. Dan from the UK will be here in a week. Then 2 more next month when John and Anne leave and another teacher is breaking contract and leaving in July, so we will be getting another one then. The one more when another teacher leaves. The moral of this is that in about 3 months, Ethan and I will be the only teachers here for longer than 3 months. Good luck to us all.

In more recent news. I spent the day before class yesterday with Rachel, her brother, and her mom. It was the first day of the Annual Ansan Street Festival. The weather was amazing food was amazing and playing in the park was amazing. Check out pictures here.

Well that is about it for now. As always I will make the promise to be more diligent in my writings....

pictures and videos.

2011-02-17T21:49:00.000+09:00

Check out this link for pictures of February

Click here for pictures of the wedding!

Be sure to also check out the video I have posted on the video page.

Updates

2011-02-11T21:50:00.000+09:00

So here we are; a new year and more than 8 months into my 12 month contract.
Classes are still going extremely well. The students are still making me laugh and providing me with good reasons to come in and work.

This past month has been a busy one for me as in addition to my normal class hours I have been teaching a 3 hour debate class at 10 AM Tuesdays and Thursdays. It has been a challenge being at the school from nearly 10 AM to 10 PM. The students are incredibly smart but the topics are tough even for history majors. For example, last week we debated whether or not non-violent actions are the most effective ways to incite change. Using examples like Gandhi and MLK as examples.

Tomorrow is an exciting day as my good friend Ethan is getting married tomorrow to another good friend of mine Mandy. In case I haven't explained it before but Mandy is born and raised in Korea (Ansan, to be exact) and Ethan was born here but moved to America when he was about 7. The wedding is in Seoul at SeoulLand which is an amusement park that the students always talk about. I am going to be one of the photographers and will have plenty of pictures to post.

We just celebrated the Lunar New Year last week. As I have been saving money quite diligently I didn't want to spoil that with a lavish 5 day trip (we only got Wed-Sunday off) anywhere. I was toying with the idea of going to Jeju Island on the south end of the country. But as I get carsick a 8 hour bus ride plus some ferry rides didn't seem to be in the cards. I ended up going into Seoul one day for some good food, light shopping and good times. Then I went with Carly, a coworker of mine, to Pyeongchang, a city a couple hours away that hosts an ice fishing festival and also has a several mountains for skiing and snowboarding. I have been hesitant to go snowboarding here in Korea because I have been spoiled with all the mountains so close to Spokane. It was a very good trip though, the mountain was surprisingly not crowded and the mountain had a couple inches of powder to play on. The only downside was the hotel Carly's friend booked was a good 30-45 minutes from the mountain which made it a $30 cab ride each way.

There is a ton more that I can write about and loads more pictures and videos to post but I will try to write more often now that things are starting to slow down (only to speed back up again in 2 weeks when we have a new term).

My contract here is over June 1, however, I like it here. I like it quite a lot. The children are amazing and a huge part of my life. The thought of leaving them after only one more quarter is very saddening. It is because of this that, and a couple of other reasons, such as the familiarity of things here and the good pay; I want to stay here for a second year. I have only mentioned this briefly to my boss but I would like to stay here at Chungdahm in Ansan for one more full year. I do not think it will be possible to go home for a break first, if I did it would only be for a week or maybe two at the most but in all reality, I will probably just keep on teaching without a break. Which is fine for me. There are several things I miss about America, like being able to chat with random people on the street and read menus and street signs places. Having a car is always nice and other things like campfires and my good friends back in Washington. But most of my friends are spread out all over the world as well. I would hate to end such a great job and life here only to go back to living in Fishtrap for another year subbing in Sprague and the odd tech job (no offense to Sprague or Fishtrapians, but one year there has taught me a lot about where I want to be in the world right now, and although Korea was not on my list before, it does have a place in my heart now).

I have thought about staying now for quite some time and am 99% sure I am going to sign a one year contract and 85% sure I will stay the entire year. I can always leave early with only minor consequences. After another 6 months here I will have the funds I want to travel. It is still too far away to know if I will go to Thailand straight away or come home before traveling.

Relieved

2010-12-22T12:04:00.000+09:00

So the biggest day of worry had passed on Monday and everyone has breathed a sigh of relief. Then the North opened their mouths and threatened a 'Sacred Nuclear War'.

There were live fire practice drills going on on the island of Yeonpyeong (the one that has been disputed over since the ceasefire in 1953) and the North said that they would retaliate swiftly if the South went through with their show of military strength. However, all went well. Again, I don't want to go into the details about the history of reasons why these things are happening now but they are.

Instead I would like to take a moment to talk about my friends here. I have no idea why I encounter such wonderful people in this world but my friends are some of the finest people I know. A dozen of us just got together for a Secret Santa gift exchange. Of course this is nothing like the Whitle elephant/ dirty santa/ etc games that others play (including the Miller fam). Last week we all chose names and got a gift for the chosen person less than 20,000 Won. ($20 if you haven't been paying attention). So we all met tonight at the "all you can eat meat buffet bbq) where you get you grill your own food. All for under $10. It is a truly Korean experience and i hope pictures to follow soon. So we exchanged presents, I got a bottle of California wine (good), a pair of underwear that has no description suitable for the internet (think childrens Batman), and a box of chocolates. Most people know their secret Santa's but i think the world may be safer if mine remains a secret.

This week we still had class. The hagwon (academy) I work for as well as every other academy in Korea doesn't close for Xmas. If Xmas day was on a weekday we would still have school.

And now since I am talking about favorite students I have to mention my favorites Rachel and Emily.
OK, so they arent my students anymore. I have taught them for 6 months and now Anne teaches them, i still make it a point to say HI to them every monday and friday. Please check out the videos of them trying to teach me "I am very angry" (na jjin ja hwan na so). They are sure to make you laugh.

This quarter I have equally cute students.

Two if by sea....

2010-12-01T20:38:00.001+09:00

So, I'm feeling much better now that my throat sickness has passed me. But now there is a new worry; North Korea. In case you haven't heard North Korea attacked the island of Yeonpyong 8 days ago killing four people and forcing the evacuation of nearly all 1500 residents.

I don't wont to write a complete summary of the situation or go into too much details of the long history of the Korean War which has technically never ended. But I will say this; there are many factors that are at play here, a regime change as Kim Jong-Il is sick and his son Kim Jong-Un is about to take over. There is the fact that N Korea relies on aid from all over the world just to survive and that aid has been drying up. China's relationship with the North has been slowing decaying over the past years and even they do not seem to be backing their neighbor anymore, and that is just to start with. Many people are angry here, even more are scared. I fall into neither category.

I think the kids summed it up best during the World Cup this year as well as during the Asia Games these past few weeks. I asked a student why they cheered for N. Korea to win a game (not against the south), their response "We are still all Koreans. Even if we are separated by two governments." It was a very touching moment. A lot of my students have talked about wanting Korea to be one again. As the pacifist that I am, I hope for this, too. There is a lot of hatred and anger but this is not the thinking of the entire N. Korean population. Most are malnourished and living in bad conditions, brainwashed to believe in the Eternal President (Kim Il Sung) and the Korean Worker's Party.

Anyway, as I mentioned, most of my co-workers are scared. I am not however. I fear more about getting hit by one of the crazy cab drivers here than the chance of Ansan being attacked by the North. I still believe that an attack might happen, but I believe it will be swift and retaliation by the USS George Washington even more so. I still plan on transferring my money back home when I get paid on Friday just in case the attack will make the Korean Won less than it already is.

Class is over now. BTW new classes are working out pretty good. about 8 kids per class is pretty awesome and I haven't had any rotten children yet. My favorite students are in Anne's class now and I do miss them. In other news it also snowed on Sunday. Not a lot but it did stick on the ground for a little bit. Made everything white for a while, but gone in the morning.

Your homework assignment for the next couple weeks is to pay attention to the news and listen for sounds of attacking. Also, do some research on what WikiLeaks is and how it is affecting international relations worldwide.

Peace (I hope)

Back in the swing of things

2010-11-16T18:16:00.000+09:00

So let me just start with a quick re-cap of the everything since last post.
I went to Busan for Chuseok, had a great 4 days there seeing the sights and playing on the beaches with Amber my college friend. It was a nice relaxing week.

I came back to Ansan to start the new quarter and was very lucky to have a class with only 3 students in it, and the best part is the 2 of them were my best students from Summer quarter; Emily and Rachel. So for the past two months I have been getting to play with them for 6 hours a week as I teach them English (and Rachel some Spanish) as they try teaching me Korean.

Which leads me to another endeavor: I have been meeting with Ethan's fiancé's sister (Yes one more bit of news Ethan and Mandy are getting married in February and I am going to be their photographer!) to attempt learning Korean. I have gotten farther than I thought and quicker, too. I am now able to sound out most of the things I see even if i do not understand their meaning at all. It mainly helps me when trying to order food and even being able to pronounce the names of food and the names of people in Korean. I now form them in my mind in Korean rather than trying to write them down in English.

This quarter I had the pleasure of teaching one of our highest level classes here (Albatross Plus). 7 kids in the class of 6th 7th and 8th graders. And all of them are so fricken intelligent. We discussed in depth Plato's Allegory of the Cave (one of my favorites from college philosophy), Racism, Truth, Morality and Ethics, Gaining Knowledge etc. The textbook we use for this class is a college textbook called Critical Thinking which is not intended for use as an English textbook for second language students, it is simply a book for a critical thinking class. This means it is full of idioms that I teach the class daily and full of tough real world topics like terrorism, torture, rape, abortion, gun control, birth control, etc. pretty intense stuff especially for the sixth grade girls in my class. Usually it is not so bad though, I enjoy just talking to them about normal everyday stuff and we always get sidetracked on other topics in class. I can speak as fast as I want with these kids and use whatever words I want, they will either know the words or easily be able to learn them in context. They do a lot better job on a lot of the tests than I think I could at times.

As far as this week goes its been a little stressful. I got sick with the normal throat, cough, runny nose crud, and school testing just got over and the new quarter will start here in just a couple more weeks. I am sad to see the kids go but I have great faith in what the new quarter will bring. I'm sure I will be seeing some of the kids I taught from the first term again, too!

I feel like there is more to tell about the people here in Ansan, I am still hanging out with John quite a bit and have gotten into Korean's national pastime of Starcraft. I've also been hanging out with one of the new Korean counselors. He is really cool and has been showing me some of the more traditional Korean hangouts. There are also a couple other new teachers here in the past two weeks. Jay and Carly; Carly is the new teacher and her boyfriend Jay who is looking for work and without a college degree is having a bit of a hard time. Both are extremely cool and fun to hang out with. Also Anna Lei who I only met once for about three minutes but she will be coming to work on our floor at the new term.

More later, I will try to be more regular.

shortest blog yet.

2010-09-07T16:53:00.000+09:00

So there is a holiday here much similar to our Thanksgiving called Chuseok. I get Sunday, September 19, to Thursday the 23 off from work. My other co-workers are going to Thailand, China, or Japan. I am still determined to be saving money for Jeff's Trip to Europe: The Sequel, but also feel like I may be left out of the holiday fun. I will get one week off in another 3-6 months to do some traveling and I feel like I can do a bit more once my contract is up next June (Thailand is sounding pretty awesome via cousin Bill).

My thoughts now are either go to Busan to hang out with Amber for the week before she heads back to Washington next month, or go to Busan then take a boat to Japan with Ethan and Mandy. Decisions decisions.

I will be writing more of food and maybe do some interviews with my students in the next post.

2010-09-04T21:56:00.000+09:00

Well it has been far too long since my last blog so here are the highlights:
I got my TV!! A nice 42 inch plasma, and we've already broken it in with a couple good nights of New Super Mario Bros on the Wii and some fantastic programming (we put together the old ABC TGIF Line-up, Boy Meets World, Family Matters, Saved by the Bell, etc).

So last month Jonathan, Anne, and I went to a deserted island on the Yellow Sea: Sa Seong Bong Do through a group of fellow expats and adventurous Koreans.

After a long day at work we jumped on the subway and head to Incheon to stay at a jimjilbong for the night. What's a jimjilbong right? its a Korean sauna/bathhouse. A good place to spend the night for around $6. The one in Incheon was good, not too crowded at all as John and I went au naturel in the guy's area where they have many different kinds of hot-tubs whirlpools jets and saunas. We got there at about 2 AM and left at around 7 where we more people who were going to the island. We took a crazy bus ride to the ferry in Incheon and took a crowded ferry ride to Seong Bong Do, where we got on a smaller boat (25 people max) and headed to a smaller island.

I was very tired but managed to set up a tent with my tent-mates (two Koreans whom I was able to pronounce their names by the end of the weekend but have since forgot) Then went on a walk down the very empty beach. I swam in the Ocean for a bit and played around with the sea creatures that the tide brought in and made it back to the tents for a nap. However my two new room-mates were already there and I didn't want to wake them by walking all over them so I took a quick nap on the beach.....

An unknown amount of time later I woke up and realized that I'm a pasty white kid and should have applied sunscreen.

That night we made a campfire and had a great time cooking food that people caught and brought and telling stories. People from all over the world were there. Teachers, students, locals and just travelers. It is the people that i meet that make me love traveling so much! This is key.

So the next morning I woke up feeling quite burned and sandy and spent the rest of the day, still tired so i sat in the yellow sea for about an hour just bobbing around trying to stay chilled.

So after that adventure I have kept it fairly low-key on the weekends. Biking around with John to Ansan Station, the international area or Ansan where they have really good Indian and other non-Korean-Foreign food, and a fun place to bike to.

The other weekend we went to another jimjilbong and got to spend more time just relaxing and chilling in the co-ed part of the complex with John, Anne, Ethan (a fellow co-worker who is Korean-American and is fluent in both English and Korean, he is also my after work food buddy, he stopped asking me if I want to get food after work and now just comes to my classroom and asks where I want to go) and Ethan's girlfriend Mandy. It was very good and relaxing.

Well that's all for now, I will write about my first week of the new quarter sometime soon.

July thus far...

2010-07-23T14:58:00.003+09:00

for all the pictures of July look at my Picasa site.

So as always, I've been meaning to write for a while not but haven't gotten all of my thoughts in one place yet. So I will break it down.

My students

They make my classes. They are so intelligent, so funny and creative and they all work too damn hard! Most of them are always tired and go straight from school to hagwon to hagwon (hagwon is a private academy that they go to to learn anything from cooking, tae kwon doe, english, science, piano, etc.). Some of the sixth graders I teach here blow the sixth graders back at Sprague out of the water. Their comprehension and understanding of the English language is simply amazing. I remember teaching the sixth grade class in Lamont about impromptu speeches and most of the boys especially couldn't come up with something that didn't include saying 'fart' a bunch of times.

First off is Konglish
Konglish is Korean and English spliced together (think Spanglish but for Korea). And in Korea they do not ever end words in soft sounds.
-So the favorite place to shop here: Home Plus, becomes the four syllable "Home-ah Plush-ah"
And if a student wants to tell me they want to go outside: "Teacher-ah. I want-ah –to go-ah out-side-ah."
At which to I respond. "Oh'ah Yeah'ah?! You-ah Do-ah?" Then they all giggle and the student must repeat is one more time with proper pronunciation.
I have this one student named Hong which speaks his own crazy version of English, Korean and Honglish, so now there is a new rule; No Konglish and No Honglish.

Another interesting quirk of Korean culture is writing names in red on the board. Apparently when you write someones name on the board it means that they died. Well as part of my lesson last week I started to show the 4th graders how to write in cursive and I was writing my name and they all screamed at once "TEACHER, NO!!!"

The weather...
It is a little too hot for my taste, and much more humid that the Pacific Northwest. The school has good AC as does my apartment, which I usually leave running throughout the night. So the humidity usually keeps me indoors during most daylight hours. And now monsoon season is upon us. Lots of rain, thunder and lightning.

After Class gets out at 10 PM my fellow workers and I usually go to eat at a restaurant by our school or to a local pizza place. The pizza place is fun because the guy knows us (although he does not speak any English) and we never seem to get what we order (we just look at the pictures on a takeout menu and then hold up how many pizzas we want on our fingers then "Pojang" means "to go" if we are going to take it back to John and Anne's to Play Wii or watch a movie on their 42 inch plasma.

Buying a bike and tv. Haggling
So here haggling is an art form. As for me, who can only order 3 different things off of the menu, the art of negotiation is lost. The other teachers at my school, 2 of which are Korean-American who speak Korean very well, and another two who are restaurant Koreans who can order food and haggle a bit say "oh yeah, just go to this place and tell them blah blah blah." To which i respond with a dumbfounded look...... "that's OK, i will just wait until a Korean takes me." The next few purchases I want to make are
1.) A Nice big flatscreen TV (at least as big as John's, I mean, honestly).
2.) A Bike
3.) a guitar

There are of course the usual places with which you cannot haggle. Like the aforementioned Home-Plus. Think of it as a Wal-Mart of Korea, but without the stigma. I pack of Ramen will still cost 1,900 Won no matter how much you try to say otherwise. But, i am ok with this fact. it is still dirt cheap. however as i go to check out the teller asks me a question, to which i have only a hope that she asks "do you want a plastic bag?"
I have become Pavlovianly trained that if I nod my head I will get the plastic bag and she will continue to ring the rest of my food up.

As for travel to Seoul.I have been a couple times but its kind of a pain in the heat and humidity especially if it rains to get around. I went on a River Cruise in Seoul for the Fourth of July which was really fun. It was nice to be able to eavesdrop on a conversation and understand what they were saying! It was about 200 Americans and Canadians on a barge boat for 4 hours drinking beer and listening to America themed cover songs. That night we went out to a casino. Funny thing about the casinos here. Only foreigners are allowed to gamble. It is kind of weird you either have to be white or if you look Asian you have to show them your foreigner Visa or Alien Registration Card. Someone asked me why and i told them i thought it was because that gambling can be a bit of a generative addiction, and then i asked them when the last time they saw a native american in a casino?

Lack of ranch dressing and dill pickles.

Well, most of you who read my blog know my few true food passions. And they are that anything can be saved with the right amount of Ranch dressing (a lot) and that dill pickles count as enough food groups to serve as a full meal. Unfortunately, Koreans think that sweet pickles (the arch-nemisis of Dill) serve as topping for everything from burgers to pizza (yes, with every pizza you order you get a side of sweet pickles). I miss dill pickles and ranch.

Last weekend I did go with a group of white people (plus Hlee our Asian teacher from North Carolina (it's funny because all the Koreans look to her when we want to order food thinking she might be able to speak Korean)), we went to Ansan Station. two metro stops away from where we live (but the taxi was quicker) to get some good foreign food. I was also able to see a Korean food here known as dog. yep. Lassie. (Picture on the picasa site)

Ansan station is known for is foreign population from all over Asia as well as a considerable Turkish population. We went to a Kebab shop where the worker spoke no Korean and a very limited amount of English. It was nice to speak to someone who was just as lost as I am in this country.

Anyway, I don't want to jinx it but I have been getting some pretty good compliments from my boss lately. He tells me the kids say they really enjoy me and they call me a "kind teacher". I enjoy teaching a lot and I cannot say enough good things about the kids here. I still am enjoying Korea very much and have very very little bad things to say about it. And the bad things i have to say about it are the same type of bad things I would say about working at a job in America.

Updates

2010-06-17T17:39:00.000+09:00

Ok gang, done a bit of revamping. Pictures can be located under the photo tab. It's a link to the Google Web albums I started back in Europe.

I also have the ability to add people to an e-mail list, it will send an e-mail everytime I post a new blog. If you want to be on this list to avoid checking back often and wondering if I have posted something new just let me know. Send me an e-mail at jeff@eagles.ewu.edu

I got a new phone yesterday and my bank account is all set up. So now I can call and text people here in Korea and meet up with them easier. Last night John, Anne, Lee and I went out to eat at a restaurant. We took a cab to get to the part of town that we wanted saying "Junang -bowling alley?" Since that is where we wanted to go after food. After sitting down I asked for a "menu" while opening my hands and pretending to read them as to pantomime what I wanted. They gave me a small sheet all in Korean of what they served and the prices. I used my phone to call one of the Korean-Americans we work with "Hey Ethan. I got a favor to ask. The four of us are really hungry and we don't really care what we get we just want a lot of it." He laughed and said that I need to carry around flash cards with pictures of a pig or cow on them to better navigate the restaurants. I told him this would probably be a good thing. He talked directly to the waiter and they started bringing us plate after plate of salads, kimchi, peppers, and meat which is cooked on coals in a pot that sits directly in the center of the table with a large ventilation hood that comes down. We ate until we were stuffed and then took off to go bowling.

Anyway, Its almost 6 and I have class at from 7-10 tonight, which is sad because Korea is playing their second game in the World Cup tonight at 8:30. Hopefully I will be able to catch the last few minutes.

Seoul, FIFA, Noribong, Costco and More.

2010-06-15T02:07:00.005+09:00

So week two of teaching is down. I feel extremelly good about it. So let's break down what has happened.
I moved from the previous apartment I posted about due to the comically small loft area.
I now am a short three minute walk from the school in a place that has a bigger liveable loft. I helped out one of the teachers I am replacing and got a ton of stuff from her including a couch, stereo, food, towels, blankets, books etc., so big score there. That and the teacher whose apt i moved into had a couple of other things like internet already setup with a wifi router, and a queen size bed and office setup.

So, now on to the classes. I teach 24 hours a week MWF from 4-10 PM and Tues/Thur 7-10 PM (classes are 3 hour blocks with 5 minute breaks every hour). Let me break down even more what happens here. These kids study way way way more than American kids. After they get out of school at around 3 they go to academies like the one I teach at. These academies are called Hagwons. They can go to English Hagwon, Tae Kwon Doe hagwons, cooking hagwon, etc. You want to learn it, you can do it. It costs around 300 american dollars a month to send their kids to school at our hagwon. Now, you may say 24 hours a week ain't nothin. But keep in mind that is not including the hours i take to prep. I usually get to school at about noon - 2 to start prepping for the day but as I get more in the rhythm that time should be decreased dramatically.

So now the kids. The kids I teach are awesome. The classes range from 4-9th grade and vary depending on english level. Some of them I have to speak much slower and definitely watch my vocab. But the highest level I teach understand me very well, although I have to get them definitions for words a lot more often, but it is all really good and fun. I will speak more of the kids later once I can get some pictures or some videos of them.

Service
So they have this thing here in Korea called service. No I'm not just being funny. When you order food or drinks they come and will every so often bring a plate of snacks. Last week we went out and they first brought a plate of hotwings. Then later a plate of watermelon and bananas covered in syrup, followed by more wings. Every time they say 'service' or 'free'. Their way of trying to get you to come back for more. Really good stuff.

So what next? Well let me tell you about last weekend. I went out to the local foreigner bar The Manhattan. from there i met some awesome girls from Indiana who took me out with some local Koreans to enjoy some Noribong. Noribong is karaoke but with a bit of a twist. they building consists only of private rooms where you sing with just you and your friends. There were about 8 of us there Friday night.

So now Saturday rolls around and John, Anne, Hlee and I (the four new teachers that went through training together) all decide to make a trip into Seoul. We took the subway which was took about an hour and made our way through the rain trying to find another friend of ours that went through training with us. I learned an amazing thing. Not have a cell phone is like being blind when trying to find a friend in the 21st century. We did actually run into him on the street about an hour after we were supposed to have met him and had some good Vietnamese food. From there we made our way to a large bookstore after stopping several times for directions and stopping to admire how wet we were all getting. After looking around Kyobo Books for about an hour we got some hot coffee in us and decided to call it a day, that is right after we went to Costco for a quick grocery run. We asked one of the people at a concierge desk if he knew where Costco was. We did this by looking very wet and holding up my Costco card with a confused look on our faces. He printed out a Metro map (with all the stops in Korean) and circled the one where we needed to go. Well after a week of taking the subway during training and the fact i had a seoul subway map in english on my ipod we felt fairly confident in getting there ourselves. We stopped by the Apple store to pick up a new set up earphones for me and then we were off. We arrived at the station and were approached by a guide who offered to help, we asked which exit costco was. He told us Exit 7 and then take bus 4422......

So now we are outside looking this proverbial needle of a bus and sorry for John and Anne (Lee left us after coffee) I inherited one of my father's quirks involving hunger and temper. we ended up just taking a cab the rest of the way to costco and braved the sea of people that shop there at 5 PM on a saturday. Which seems to be the majority of Seoul. Costco was a trip unto itself, it was the closest to home that I have seen since i was here. So many brand names and just everything that was the EXACT same exept everyone was Asian.

So after John and Anne loaded up (i didnt want to carry anything back as we had no idea how we were to get home, and it was still raining A LOT) we made our way back home and very very wearily we started walking through Ansan back to our apartments. Then the entire city erupted in cheering. I cannot stress to you enough the amount the ANSAN WAS CHEERING! The FIFA world cup had started and Korea scored the first goal right off the bat. We all immediately looked at each and found our second wind. We all went home and changed into dry clothes and met up and went out looking for a good place to watch.

We found on open table on the city street in front of a restaurant with a bigscreen tv wheeled out. immediately the Koreans started talking to us in their broken English and we were bonded as friends straight away. They kept on bringing us food (see the pictures of Chicken's feet and Pig's Blood sausage) and asking us questions about where we were from and how old we were. They also brought this Korean rum, a white coconut-milk looking substance that i think was called Mokolee? Anyway, we stayed and finished out the game with our new friends having an absolute blast.

Well its 2 AM here which means i need to watch some more tv and then turn in. I got my Alien Registration Card which means I can now open up a bank account which in turn allows me to buy a cell phone! Go me! Tomorrow one of the teachers who speaks Korean is going to take the newbies out and help get us started. I hope you enjoyed the blog and I apologize for the delay!

apt number 1

2010-06-02T00:19:00.000+09:00

So here is the first try with an apartment. I may be moving from here in the next couple days as other teachers are moving out. This one is a bit of a walk away from the school, not too bad, but all the other teachers are located soooo much closer and i would like to be closer to more westerners.

Which does lead me to my next thought. When i was getting prepared to come to Korea i thought that there would be a lot more people who speak english. My preconception of this stems from my trip to Europe where sooo many people spoke english, and not just a little english. but a lot of english. It is very common to go to many different restaurants here and not have any of the staff speak english... hilarity ensues.

The other factor in me thinking more people would speak english is because of how many teachers are over here doing the exact same thing i am. And the kids that we are teaching are soo incredibly good at it. We all have the policy where no one is to speak Korean or any other language while they are in the classroom. The classes are three hour blocks with 5 minute breaks every hour where they cannot speak Korean. These classes all take place after they get done with their normal school day and any other academy classes they are scheduled for. I ran through the typical day of an american kid and they could not believe it.

Anyway, enjoy the video. Classes went good yesterday and today. i will write more on all that later.

Seoul Man

2010-05-23T11:34:00.000+09:00

Touched down last night. Didn't sleep the night before i left, a whole lot due to last minute packing and cleaning up the apartment at Fishtrap. It was good though, Jared came out and we reminisced and talked about how this really does feel like the end of our college era. He is going to be the last one in the Spokane area and everyone is graduated or close to it.

In SeaTac I met two other teachers going into the same program as me. Which was awesome because that means we found the right bus together and got a cab together to our hotel. We were all so tired and wanting a shower so badly from the plane ride, I got to the hotel around 8:00 PM last night, showered and passed out for 3 hours and woke up when my roommates came back from the bar. Pretty cool people. One was from Snohomish, WA, the other two from California. We talked for a few hours and I made use of the hotels high speed internet and got caught up on my episodes of the Office and Doctor Who.

A quick story from the plane ride. We were served two meals on the plane along with several drinks, and everytime they asked me what i wanted i always opted for the Korean food or drink. The two koreans on either side of me enjoyed this and when I got the lunch special the stewardess asked if i knew how to eat it.....
It's food right? been doing it for 24 years now, most of those years on my own. But the lady next to me told her not to worry and she would show me how. The gentlemen on my other side kept telling me to put more and more hot sauce on it and i was like, maybe i'll put more on later. So she showed me how to mix all the stuff together and what NOT to mix in with the main meal. And i finished everything on my tray which apparently means i want more because everyone all three of these people in my story kept asking me if i had enough to eat and if it was "sufficient". I laughed and said yes, not all americans need to eat multiple helpings (it was true i did eat a cheeseburger right before i got on the plane)

But it was a good, if not sleepless, plane right with plenty of head-rest movies to watch.

That's all the blogging time for now. My roommates are getting up and i think we are going to venture out for some food.

More on the Korea situation later.

Chase WaMa, Columbus, Ohio

2009-07-03T10:52:00.001+09:00

Well the first day is over. It's been a very long two days. seems more like a week. Flew from Spokane to St Paul to Columbus. Met a couple of other techs from Spokane about 10 minutes into the flight out of spokane sitting right behind me. Oh yeah, for those of you who don't know whats going on with me....

About two months ago i responded to a job post on Craigslist for a spokane tech needed just for one weekend for the Chase-Washington Mutual Conversion. After a bit of paperwork and phone interviews i had it all set up. One day of going to a WaMu branch on Division to sit on my hands for 9 hours and work for 20 minutes.

They pay was pretty good and a job is a job.

A couple weeks later the same recruitment company e-mailed me to see if i was interested in being a lead tech and working for a longer term. After several phone interviews and planning and coordinating and confirming many things I got the job (which i still didnt really know what it was.... or for how long....) in Columbus, Ohio. So Tuesday i got my flight information, Wednesday I flew out. We all caught up now?

So the first day is over and i learned a lot more about what is going on. I am going to be working in one of the main Chase offices here in Columbus with as a help desk technician. The main job is the one weekend changeover July 24, 25, and 26. I will be in charge of 3-5 branches, communicating with the lead technicians and managers there if any problems arise and to monitor their status for my higher-ups. So yeah, im that cool....

Which leads me to my next point... Being cool.

I've always kinda prided myself on being nerdy, well, not so much nerdy but just good at what i do. Dave is knowledgeable as well, and so is Jared and Jerrod. But They are also proper human beings, you know, with people skills. My fellows here are somewhat lacking in the social skills department. Out of 149 people in training today, 2 were female. And the rest just seemed to all have that certain 'Trekiness' about them.

Anyway, i havent gotten much sleep lately and its almost 11 here. got to be up early to catch the shuttle into work.

Out for now,

Jeff

Back home, a journey's end?

2008-11-30T05:42:00.000+09:00

So im back now. no worse for the wear i suppose. I miss all of the amazing people i met along the way and cannot wait to be able to meet up with them somewhere in the world sometime soon.

Being back is still a bit surreal to me. I am sitting in the Pub on campus just using the internet here at high speed, and as people walk by its still a little weird to hear their american accents. not changing, no different from one person to the next. Im sad but a little grateful that my irish twang has left me as much as it did. i still picked up a lot of irish and australian inflections and words like heaps and ages. and some foreign sayings like 'ca va?'.

It has been great being back the two weeks i have been back though. Seeing all my friends again and being able to drive to places and actually knowing where things are and how they work. My travels have given me a greater appreciating for everything that is here. That is not to say that it is the best place in the world, merely different, there are so many different things that i have experienced and so many more things i want to.

Right now i am living in the apartment/shop that is near my parents house in Sprague, just applied to Best Buy for a job as a Geek Squad and hope that i get some sort of tech job anyway. Still one college class away from becoming a actual grad, a class i plan to take online in January.

In the long term i do not know yet what i want to do. Peace Corps still looks appealing though in my travels i found out that there are other volunteer organizations that i would like to do a bit more research on.

One thing that i can say is that i am very content with the world. I feel as though i am heading somewhere good in the world, that i am now better able to make a difference and have gained useful tools in this quest.

im ready to keep exploring.