Fall is here!!!
Like most things in Korea, the change in seasons here appears to be all or nothing. Koreans are strong believers in "go big or go home" on just about everything, from education to drinking soju, to sports. If they do something they are going to go all out, which probobly explains why I teach children until 10 pm after they have already spent all day at school. Maybe seeing Korean men go all out on shots of soju and then seeing them passed out in the street is simply them as a product of their surroundings. It seems as though it was summer and then BOOM, out of nowhere it became fall, just as intense as the poeple who live here. The leaves have gone from green to yellow, red and falling off in less than a week. I went out hiking last weekend and was able to enjoy fall to it's fullest. I got up early on Saturday morning and spent the day in the mountains. Going back to the all out thing, most Koreans work on Saturdays so it was relatively mellow. It was an amazing day of hiking, the colors were brilliant and at times I felt as though I was in NM on a fall day, except for the sounds of Buddhist chanting coming from the temples in the mountains. Sitting on a big rock looking at the mountains and listening to the chants was one of those "holy shit, I am in Asia" moments. Life here as become kind of normal, but whenever I have one of those moments in freaks me out a little.

The following day I witnessed somthing I have never seen before... and probably never will again, the filming of a Korean movie. This picture is of a very famous Korean actor, and this is an actaul scene from the movie. Our friends were sitting outside a restaurant drinking a few beers when the movie took over the street. We ended up having prime seating to witness a movie we didn't understand and close up views of famous people we have never heard of. We did watch the actor shake hands with a teenage girl who proceeded to scream and run away, with all her friends shrieking and following. When the boys first called us to tell us to come over I was a little upset because we were just about to "bake" cookies (or cook them on a grittle on the stove since there are no ovens in Korea) and watch The Office... but just as they told me "I would have been sorry if I had missed it".

Sketchy Climbing PIctures:



Koreans are amazing climbers. They climb very gracefully and are really strong. Unfortunately some of them seem to have a different idea of safety (not just safety meetings) than myself. Last weekend we saw these two things occur within in a couple hours. This draw which is left stuck open was the first bolt on a run-out route. The dude's belayer was watching him and did not bother mentioning that his first piece of protection was worthless. Rachel tried to communicate the problem, but without success...so she took a picture. The second picture speaks for itself, would you want this dude belaying you? I have noticed that lead belaying is pretty sketchy here. Many people stand about 12 feet away from the way and leave an extra 4 feet of slack in the rope....that adds a scary amount of extra rope into a whipper, transforming it into a potential mega whipper.
So thanks to all of you who I have climbed with in a safe manner, I am glad to have people who don't set me up for the mega whipper.

I miss my car, but at least I will never go bald!

This past weekend I had one of those moments of realization about how different my life is now. It all started when I was packing for a climbing trip and I was trying to fit everything into my pack and debating over what I was going to eat for dinner while camping. I decided I did not want to try and carry food and a pot and utensils in my pack on top of climbing and camping gear...so I figured I would just buy food there. (walking though the crowded subway with a huge pack intensifies the "get out of my way" phenomena by 20) For some reason all this reminded me of how easy it used to be to go do stuff. I always kept all my gear in the back of my car and leaving for the weekend was just a matter of throwing clean clothes and some grub up in the mix. Now it is a matter of packing as much as you can into a pack, catching the subway to the bus, and then a taxi to the crag. The feeling of nostalgia rang ever stronger when that evening the people we met there pulled a bbq grill, pork loin, wine, camp chairs ect. out of the back of their car. Meanwhile Rachel and I quietly ate our instant rice and mixed with tuna(which was only hot because teh woman at the store microwed it for us), because that was all we could find to eat. Public transport has been my life for the past year and in a lot of ways I really love it...like it being good for the enviroment, but sometimes I just really miss my car and being able to come and go as I please. I miss the road trips and adventures, the funky smell of my car after being full of stinky climbers. I guess it's just one of those things that I take for granted back home and will really appreciate when I get back.
I may not have a car and many of the other luxuries of being home, but at least in Korea I am learning really valuable life lessons, like all the things that could possibly kill you. The latest thing I have learned will protect me from something a little less serious than the fatal fan death: balding.
So I may have mentioned how anal Koreans are about getting wet...or rather the importance of staying dry when its raining. Now, I lived in rainy Oregon for quite a while, but before coming to Korea I had never owned an umbrella. In Korea it is unheard of to go out in the rain without your umbrella. Rachel and I were both curious about this, and when we are curious about something we look for an opportunity to bring it up in class and ask the kids. Rachel had her opportunity and found out the following: It is extremely important to carry an umbrella when it is raining because the dirty rain will make you go bald. Why, might you ask, is the rain so dirty? The response: dirty air from China makes acid rain which makes you go prematurely bald. (Everything here is the fault of China, usually it's dirty air). I re-affirmed this theory with my students, so there you have it, carry an umbrella if you like your full head of hair.
I posted links (on the side bar) to a half hour documentary I saw tonight about North Koreans escaping to South Korea. It was heart-breaking, and reminded me that I am living on a very fragile penninsula. The presidents from the two countries had a peace summit last week and are signing a peace agreement, although I am not sure how exactly that will work unless North Korea undergoes some major reforms. Hope for the best I guess.

The second Discover Korea day happened today. I am really behind in grading and Rach is a little sick so we decided to stay somewhere in our neighborhood. For the second week in a row we visited a Buddhist temple, this one is only a ten minute bus ride away from us (how we have never been there before, even on accident is beyond me). So in the past year I have visited quite a few Buddhist temples, but I have to say that this one might be my favorite so far. It is located right across the street from the chaotic COEX Mall, sits quaintly below skyscrapers. There was just something about it that made me feel relaxed though. There are about six different meditation halls, each one had a monk there chanting. There is also an outside meditation area, this part was my favorite. There is a ginormous statue of Buddah towering over a marble meditation area. They have meditation pillows there that you can use as well. rach and I decided to try out our quite rusty meditation skills. It was really nice, even if I am not a good meditator. Just being outside in a beautiful place listening to chanting. Sometimes I feel as though city life is so quick and easy to get lost in, so I think this is going to be my new sanctaury...since the "wilderness" in Korea seems to be opposite of a quiet sanctuary.

"Only in Korea"

There are some things that happen in this country that just don't occur in other places. I started to keep a list of events that I witness which make me think to myself "only in Korea":

+ Small children (age 7ish) walking or playing alone in a dark park in Seoul and no one sees reason fro concern.
+Complete strangers approaching you in the shower room (where we are all naked) offering to scrub your back for you because it's one of those hard-to-reach spots.
+ A woman passed out on a bench in the apartment lobby with one shoe on and her purse lying upside-down on the ground next to her (completely unbothered ofcourse)
+Employees try to quit their job and their boss simply tells them they can't....and they listen.
+It is ok for kids to take candy from a stranger on the subway.
+you can purchase designer wallets of the street.
+ Drunk men will pass out anywhere...even the middle of the road.
+ You can always count on someone trying to help you within 45 seconds of looking lost.
+Kids probobly work harder than their parents.
+You go in coffee shop planning to relax and read util you hear the latest dance mix blasting through the place.

Rachel and I started a weekly event call "Discover Korea Thursdays". On our first Thursday we went to a Buddhist temple called 조 게 사 (Jogyesa). It was like a sanctuary inside the city, with Buddhist chanting and the smell of incense. I actually felt as though I was back in Nepal or Thailand and not in Seoul. The locus picture is from that day.

A Very Happy Chusock in Seoul

The past week all of Korea has been celebrating the Chusock holiday, which is a little bit of a mixture between Thanksgivng and Day of the Dead. It's main purpose is to celebrate the harvest so people all go home to their parents/grandparents houses for a huge feast. Another part of the tradition is to bow to your ancestors to show respect.
Our original plan fro tehe week off of work was to go check out the national park North of here that we have been dying to see, but our school bribed us with a lot of money to stay and work over the break...and we gave in. It ended up workng out well though. Our classes were really great (other than starting at 7 am), some of the top students in Korea. They are all prepping to get into the very elite highschools. My job was basically to talk to them about writing and brainstorm possible essay questions about current global issues...I was in heaven. These kids blew my mind though. They are highschoolers who write better than most first year college students in the US do. It always does make a me a little sad though because I doubt they actually had a childhood outside of school.
Our Busan girls came up to Seoul for the holiday and we decided that we should have a practice run for real Thanksgiving in celebration of Chusock. We decided to boil chickens since there are no ovens or turkeys in Korea. At the store, the whole chickens were really whole, head and all. Rachel and I looked at each other and discussed what you do if the chicken still has a head and you don't have that sharp of knives. Luckily the butcher caught our look of concern and tried to point us to teh pre-cut breasts. We told him we wanted this and asked him to chop the head, he looked at us a little crazy, but chopped it for us. Headless chicken dinner went great and we had even found pumpkin pie at Costco! I had about 12 people in my studio apartment and I was feeling thankful and content for all of the wonderful people I have met here.
On the real Chusock which was Tuesday, our Korean mom's brought us over tons of tradition Korean Chusock foods. 상 평 (Songpyeon) is a rice cake stuffed either sweet bean, sesame or sweet potato. It is a Korean myth that if a woman can make pretty songpyeon she will have beautiful children. We also ate many fried pancake-like things with different things in them. It was so nice of them to come over, it really felt like family coming and making sure we were not celebrating the holiday alone. We decided to have them over for dinner the following night, so we cooked them pesto past with sundried tomatos and spinach. Mrs. Im brought over a 한 박 (Han-Bak) which is a Korean traditional outfit. She had me try it on since we are about the same size. She explained to me that it is a hanbak that you wear to bow to your husbands parents when you get married, which she taught Rachel and I how to properly do. I took it off before dinner and folded it up to give it back to her and she said "no, this is a gift". I did not really know what to do, I thought I might start tearing. She gave me one of her wedding dresses! So I promised if I do ever get married I will bow in the Korean dress. I just cannot get over how generous and friendly people in Korea are. They are also so proud of their culture and absolutly love to share it with us.
As the Chusock holiday comes to an end I sit in my apartment quite happy.

Have any of you ever seen the show The Office (American version)? I am not a TV watcher as most of you well know. The last time I actually had a TV in my house was when I lived with parents, but somehow I have become totally addicted to this show. I have realized it's because now that I work in a cubical-style office I can relate to this madness. The weird assortment of people, the pranks, the things done instead of work. We have ongoing pranks and games in the office, including fantasy football (which I am losing miserably at because I know nothing about football) and world geography challenge which I have been no champ at either. One would think that when there free time in the office I would be marking one of those 100 essays I get to read a week...but don't be fooled, I play games. My friend Jon and I spent about a week creating BANANZA, the best office game ever (argued by many). Basically you have a string of paperclips with a heavier paper clamp on the end. The object of the game is to hit the cardboard head as far as possible. You get three tries (like baseball). It's much harder then you may think which is why you have to say "bananza" before you take a swing so everyone knows you are actually going for it. Ah yeah...I could have graded about 25 essays in the time I wasted trying to break Jon's record.
It's time like these that I realize how different my life is here. Sometimes it really freaks me out that I live in a city and work in an office, but it is my life right now and if I have to do ridiculous things like play banaza in order to have a great time...well I have no problem with that.

Another Great Weekend
Last weekend I we went out climbing with the Korea on the Rocks crew. Unfortunatly Typhoon Nari decided to make an appearence as well. The weather was pretty insane, I have never seen rain in Korea like friday night. I got out of work at 10 and it was raining Korean style dogs (with pink ears and booties) and I decided I was tired to I would take a taxi instead of the subway. Well, I think everyone heading my direction must have had the same thought because it took forever to find one. When I finally found one and told the driver where I was going he gave me a big X with his arms. (I think people may get joy out of giving the X here) He told me he was going the other way and kicked me back out into the rain. When I did finally make it home there was pumpkin pie from Costco waiting for me which made it all ok. Wow that was kind of a tangant.
By Saturday morning it had stopped and we made our way down to the climbing area. By about 4 the rocks had dried off enough not to be soaking wet, but it was definitely not optimal climbing conditions. I didn't care though, I was happy to be out climbing with cool people and didn't mind getting wet and dirty. We had a potluck burrito bar for which explains the smirk on the new Mexican's face. Saturday we got a few routes in before it started coming down pretty hard again.

Life has been really good in Korea. I am feeling pretty stoaked to be here right now. Last week my friend AJ and i went out to smack the ol' tennis ball around a bit. Both times we went out we were challenged to doubles matches by older Korean couples, and both times we lost. In my defense, I have not played an actaul match in at least 5 years....but yes we lost of 50 year olds...all in good fun though. This is part of what I love about Korea though. The people are so outgoing and interested in doing things with forgeiners. The wierd thing is that my experience has been opposite of everything people complained about in Korea. I don't understand why this place has such a bad reputation. My only explanation is that a lot of the forgeiners here are a little strange and are just socially akward people. Poor Korea, their reputation has been resting upon all those people who were akward and unable to survive in their own countries.
Anyways I have been slacking on the blog, and all communication for that matter. I will try and "get my ass in gear" as my father would say.
Pictures include dark gloomy climbing, burrito eating and dorky posed pic.

Biking in Korea

When I was in Thailand I met a British boy who carried a picture of his friend in his wallet. I made the comment that if I carried a picture in my wallet it would probobly be of my bike. That said, it may not seem so weird that I knew that today was the 1 year anniversary of the last time a rode my bike. I decided that I would go on a bike ride to mark the day. So off I went on the river trail, where I experienced some interesting things in Korean biking culture. At the beginning of my ride there was quite a head wind, and that combined with my heavy bike (I think it may weigh half my body weight) and no clipless pedals made for a little bit of a work out. At one point I looked back to see a Korean man, on a nice road bike, decked out with bike racing attire and clipless pedals drafting me. At first I just found it a bit entertaining, but after 25 minutes of busting my ass, while he continued drafting I was a little thrown off. It's so bizzare to me that you can have all this hardcore gear and then draft off a white girl who has a $100 Chinese bike (that quite possisbly could fall apart at any time).
After riding for awhile I stopped to get some water at a park and just sat on the grass and observed for awhile. One of the best things I saw was a guy and a girl on a tandem bike. The guy was peddling his heart out while his girlfriend, wearing a dress and heels, sat with her legs up taking in the views. I guess if you are on the back you don't really have to do anything because the poor guy on the front will never know. (When am I ever going to learn that you shoudl never go anywhere in Korea without a camera...you always witness picture worthy events) After I drank my water I decided to use the porta potty before heading on my way. I was so confused when I walked into a porta potty cleaner than most public toilets, and used the toilet to the relaxing sounds of classical music. I am not even joking, the porta pottys in the park play classical music for your enjoyment. It was a really great day, not quite the same as a bike ride at home, but fun nonetheless.
These are just some random pictures from around the city.

New Ways to die in Korea:

So the time has come to update the list. A couple of months ago I wrote a blog about the dangers of living in Korea and I have recently been informed of a couple more things that just may kill you in this country. Before I inform you of my newest discoveries I will give you a quick briefing on updates from the last "killers' I wrote about.
1.The Red Pen: So, in our speaking classes we have to fill out score sheets about kids performanaces. As a teacher, I always seem to have a red pen on hand. Kids Freak out when you write ther name in red, it is pretty hilarious. They will rummage through their bag for a black pen and lunge towards you yelling "teacher, my name, this color, no red". I have one student who thinks the whole thing is looney, and she always tells me "Write my name in red...three times". (It seems as though that would be triple death, but she is miraculously resilient and is still alive and kickin').
2. Fan Death: the latest explanation is that fan death kills you by freezing you to death...hmmmm
3. Flower Death: Well I am pretty certain that I killed my orchid, so you can all stop losing sleep over it maybe killing me in my sleep.

OK so the newest: In Korea kids learn in their science books that it is very dangerous to sail to far out to sea, because if you end up on a ship in the middle of the ocean there is no oxygen. What is it with Koreans fear of lack of oxygen and suffocation? The only explanation I can think of for this phenomena is that there are no trees nearby to take up CO2, but really osmosis should take care of any unequal distribution, right? When my kids told me this I was not really sure how to respond other than, "huh, I have never heard of that before". So if you come to visit me in Korea be sure to splurge for a plane ticket, because you might suffocate if you try and take a boat here...
My second new discovery is also a way you suffocate in Korea, except this is something that actually does happen. People in Korea eat live octopus. I have never seen it with my own two eyes but it is rather common I hear, I know some people who have done it. It sounds a little creepy to me, apparently as you are eating it squirms around and tries to wiggle its way off the plate (I don't blame it). Personally I could never even be at the same table where it was happening. In any case, if you do choose to sample this meal you have to know what you are doing....or you may bite the dust. If you do not chew properly, or enough, the suction cups on the tenticals will stick to your throat and suffocate you. Who ever heard of such a thing? I can't imagine octopus (especially raw/live octopus) ever tasting good enough to risk your life in order to eat it!!! I prefer a safe burrito myself.

In other news, last night I had my first experience at a real Korean spa. What a crazy experience. Korean spas are famous for exfoliating scubs. After soaking in tubs, saunas and steam rooms (one was 92 degrees C) you lye down on a table and a mostly naked Korean woman gets to work on you, scrubbing off all your dead skin. Koreans are not shy at all. They have no shame in nakedness, which I have experienced in the shower room of my gym...but this was a whole new level. So there I lye for about 20 minutes while a complete stranger who was topless scrubbed every single part of my body, except my face. It actually felt really good though. I have never felt so clean and my skin has never been so smooth.
I posted some pics of my kiddos from last term. We got new schedules and I am teaching mostly older kids now, I think it will be a lot better.

My Korean Name: 제 나

In school all of the children have English names, which they get to choose themselves. We have some really good ones like Bush. (He didn't want to be George, but wanted to name himself after good ol' W) Some teachers have given kids really great names like Tyrone, and inevitably we have loads of Lisas, Sarahs and Alexs. Really, Engish speakers could not be more lingua-centric than making kids choose English names so we don't have to try and pronounce and remember their Korean ones. I am not sure if lingua-centric is a word, but if it's not it should be because it's a pretty good description of most individuals who speak English.
Yesterday some of my kids asked me what my Korean name was. I told them I didn't have one, and so they made it their duty to give me one. One of my favorite llittle kiddos deemed me 제 나, pronounced je na which is not really a Korean name I don't think, but whatever...they all call me teacher all the time anyways.

The Irony of Girls Climbing Weekend

Last weekend I had a fantastic and ironic weekend. Some girls from Korea on the rocks organized a "girls climbing weekend". This ofcourse caused some drama on the kotr forum because anytime girls try and do a girls climbing weekend it does for some reason. I am not sure why it is so hard to understand why girls would want to organize such a thing. First of all it encourages us to push ourselves harder and reminds us that we can do it on our own. Furthermore it's just really fun to hang out with all girls and climb...but we realized you can not take the guys you know with you, but others will inevitably be there.
We went down South to Busan and met up with everyone. On Saturday we made a delicious breakfast and then went out to climb. The crag was filled with Korean men, who insisted on trying to tell us what to do and how to climb. The irony was a little funny for awhile, but ended up getting just plain annoying when they would not leave us alone and then critisized the way some gilrs were belaying...mind you I have seen multiple Korean's deck at the climbing gym due to bad belaying technique.
Really all of that would have been fine and dandy, but it got a lot worse. During the last climb of the day a crazy drunk guy decided to make an appearance. I was climbing and I heard a lot of raquet below me. When I got down I found out that drunky McDrunkerson told the other girls he was a model and then pulled down his pants and asked for sex. We quickley packed up our stuff while the creepo continued to pull down his pants again. As we were leaving he reached out and touched one of the girls, she then preceeded to smack him across the face with her cooler causing him to fall to the ground. My first instinct was to make sure he stayed down so I wacked him with my full waterbottle and we all ran. Girls weekend quickly escalated from a pleasant day of climbing to beating up a drunk Korean man...huh that's funny.
Despite all this, it was a fantastic weekned. It was really great to meet people that I felt as though I really connected with and reminded me of my girl friends from home. I work with all guys and after awhile the testasterone overload becomes a little much to handle....
The pictures are some of the many Korean men we encountered who tried telling us how to climb.

For the love of god, get out of my way!!!!

I am going to preface this little rant with the following; I love Korean people, but some of the things they do make me CRAZY.
I think one of the most common phrases I mumble under my breathe here in Korea is "get out of my way!!!!" You know that car that pulls out right in front of you and then puts along at 10 mph below the speed limit? This feeling of irritation is how I feel in Korea except it is not a phenomena that occurs only in the car, but rather all the time. In the store, at the gym, on the subway, in the elevator, at the coffee shop...you name it and I promise you Koreans are in my way. It does not matter if no one else is on the sidewalk, a Korean will find a way to get in your way. Riding my bike makes me a little nuts, in the US when you ring your little bell people move out of your way, but not in Korea. They will remain in you path until you are about to run them over and then they give you a surprised, apoligetic look, even though they have been watching you approach for at least 15 seconds without moving. I am a bit befuddled as to why this is the way it is. I do know they learn it from a young age though, because I have definitely bumped a young child on rollerblades who disregarded my bell and stepped out in front of my bike. At the gym women will stand in a group chatting and completely block the exit, even if one looks up and sees me obviously trying to escape, they remain in my path. To make matters more frustrating I don't speak very much Korean and "get out of my way" (or a more polite equivalent) is not in my reservoir of basic conversation. I think that's one I should look up. Most of the time I can laugh at these moments of aggravation...but I have those days when I have to think back to what I learned in Buddhist meditation in order to restrain from yelling "get out of my way", and instead think to myself, "loving kindness".

A trip to the beach...

Last weekend Rachel, our friend Greg and I took a trip to Mangsang beach. I was so excited to get out in the sun and play in the ocean that I forgot to pack my umbrella. Low and behold, upon arrival it was definitely raining. One thing about Koreans and rain; they don't believe in getting wet from it. (I even saw a guy on a run carrying his umbrella the other day) So there we were standing outside a hotel in the rain trying to find our friend Greg who had arrived earlier. An old woman looked over at us, walked over and handed us a pink umbrella...god forbid we get a little damp. When we got in the taxi to leave we tried to give the umbrella back, but the woman said it was for us to keep...I am sure she thought we were crazy for not having one (maybe you melt if you are Korean). We found Greg and a hotel room which was Korean style, meaning there is no bed and you sleep on the floor....and it cost more than 10 nights in Southeast Asia. We ended up having lots of fun in the rain, and even got some sun the following day. We had a great time laughing at the Koreans running for cover everytime it started to rain. Another interesting thing about Koreans at the beach is that they all swim in their clothes. I could not imagine playing in the ocean all day in jeans and a t-shirt...it sounds downright miserable actually.
We did not see any other forgieners the entire time we were there, which turned us into a little bit of a spectical. Rachel and I were offered a spot on a a toy raft taking on the waves. All the Korean's fell off and we commandeered the thing, until we realized one of the commandees was a one-armed Korean. Stealing a one-armed man's flotation device could only result in bad karma, so we gave it back. Good times in Korea....

Constitution Day

Today was constitution day so we had a day off. Really we couldn't think of anything more enjoyable than putting on some creepy clothes and putting the ol' bike gang into action. There is a group of us from work who just bought bikes and we like to think of ourselves as a gang of sorts. Today we went on an exploratoy adventure of Seoul. This city is reallly awesome because the entire thing is connected by bike paths. Today we headed North and stoppped off at the climbing wall at the partk and did some barefoot bouldering. It did not work so well for me, but it was fun non the less. From there we continued on our way unril we found a different park to ride around, and this one had deer in it. It was a little strange to see deer in the city I must admit. Today made the city seem a whole lot smaller and it is really nice to know that there are endless biking possibilities.

Weird food...

Its strange how after you have been away from home for long enough eating weird food just becomes normal. I remember a distict moment in China when I was offered a fried worm, and without the slightest thought I grabbed one and popped it in my mouth. At that moment I knew I had changed a little bit since leaving home. Food is such a fascinating aspect of traveling and not sampling what seems weird would be a shame.
Saturday at our Korean language/cooking class we prepared these beautiful sesame leaf wraps...chalked full of fish eggs rice and different sauces. I had never eaten fish eggs before, but theres a first time for everything. I can't say they were my favorite, I didn't like the texture and how you could feel them breaking as you chewed. They looked very pretty though.
That night we went and had a drink in the jazz bar in our building. In Korea when you go out and have drinks you always get a little plate of munchy foods, and in this bar you get dog jerky, yep dog jerky. The first time we went there we asked what it was and the bartender said "dog, ruff ruff, very delicious" It is actually really good, tastes a lot like beef jerky. I finally brought a camera to document me eating dog (knowingly anyways, I am pretty sure dog was one of those mystery meats in China). So on Saturday I ate fish eggs and dog. It's weird to think that I used to be a really picky eater, I would have starved in Asia.
I changed the settings on my blog so now anyone can leave comments, my mom told me that poeple were unable to.

Today was a wonderful day (other than the fact that I was at work for 12 hours) because I bought a bike. It is called "The Typhoon" and says "blow away the fear" on it...sounds serious huh? I am so excited to have a bike, I have been missing mine a lot lately. Rachel and I found an outdoor climbing wall that we can bike to in 4 miles via the bike paths by our apartment as opposed to a 45 minute subway ride. Pictured above are all my latest purchases after my last paycheck...yes that is a tennis raquet. I am playing tomorrow after not really having picked up a raquet since highschool...should be interesting. Also me smashing the cake rachel got as a gift on my friend Mark.
In other news, Rachel, Mark and I decided to try and do a 1 week detox and cleanse to flush the old system. This consisted of eating only certain foods, no coffee, no alcohol ect. Basically it made us all feel like crap so we deemed it a bad idea on day 3, abandoned the plan and celebrated with a huge homecooked meal and a few bottles of wine, it was fantastic. I think I may really be a coffee addict...but what are you gonno do?

I am about half way there, almost 9 months under the belt and about 9 to go...wow it has been a long time. I have been in Korea for about three months and have started getting into the swing of things and really love it here. The other day I was walking to school and thinking, "man teaching English in Korea is a little bit like being back at university". Really it is, I am in a small community of people about my same age in a new place, I got the climbing forum to meet outdoorsy people. All my housing is taken care of, and everything I need is in my building including a gym. I have close to no responsabilities outside of work, and I go to bed really late. One of the most striking similarities I have noticed is that I always have money in my bank account, just like it magically used to appear when I was in college. Unfortunately that disappreared when I entered the "real world". Then I got to thinking that it has been quite a long time since I have been in the real world, and it will have been even longer in nine months when I have to go back to it. I am a bit freaked out about the whole transition already, especially since I am not too sure what I am going to do once back in the actual real world. I want to go to grad school but the timing is looking anything but impeckable at the moment. I would love to do some biking and climbing and hiking, but am reminded it's harder to avoid the real world in the US where things are expensive and you need to have some degree of responsability. So to 9 more months of avoiding the real world! Like my good friend Ian always said, "graduating in 4 years is like leaving the party at 10". Well, if you teach English in Korea you can still be partying at noon the next day...
These are just some random pictures from around the city. It is rainy season now though, so it hasn't looked like that in awhile.

This is Rain (or Bee in Korean). He is a famous pop singer from Korea who is quite famous all over Asia, even people in Cambodia were telling us about Rain. Stephen Colbert did a great piece about him on his show and it made me laugh a lot. I thought I would pass it along to you all thinking it may provide a little entertainment and insight into my life in Korea. So here's the link check it out if you have time and nothing better to do. Kieth and Mel I think you guys will really appreciate this...

http://quarterlifeparty.blogspot.com/2007/06/stephen-colbert-rain-parady.html

Some of favorite things in Korea....
Sometimes I feel as though I have been away from home for so long that life in Asia feels normal. I am not sure I remember what it is like to live in the States; be able to understand all the signs, understand what everyone around you is saying, and go to the grocery store and know what things are. However, whenever I start to get this feeling I see something strange, bizzare, or just downright illogical and am reminded that I have to be away from home a lot longer for some things to really be normal.

Ok first off, picture number 1 (sorry it would not rotate, not sure why). Walking to work the other day I noticed that all of the trees had IVs hanging from them. I am not really sure what the purpose of them is, but apparently all trees in Korea have full health insurance coverage...meanwhile back home most of my friends particpate in hazardous activites with no health insurance. If only we could all be a tree in Korea and not have to worry about healthcare.

Second picture: This is a fish truck comes out every night and parks about a block from my apartment. Unlike the trees in Korea, the fish don't have it so well. When someone orders some fishies, the man reaches into the fish tank that makes up the back of his pickup truck. He pulls out a handful of unfortunate victims and with scissors decapitates them right there. Thats right he uses scissors to cut off the heads of these live fish, and I get the joy of witnessing it every night when I walk home from work. I am not sure why it is only out at night, but apparently if you want decapitiated fish, that is the time to buy them.

Lastly, Koreans like to buy new things and throw their perfectly good old things away. They skip the whole Goodwill/second hand store step and put things directly in the garbage. I mentioned earlier about finding orchids in the garbage; throwing perfectly good things away is a totally normal thing to do, and I am a fan of it because I get to aquire lots of good free stuff . Outside of our friends apartment is a dump of sorts where people throw away the stuff they don't want anymore....and you can always find nice furniture there...like this chair in the picture (which I am currently sitting on). Unliike throwing things away, picking them out of the garbage, like we do, does not seem to be as socially acceptable...and even less so if you take your loot home in a taxi. Oh well, at least I am reminded that I have not become totally Asianised...even if I have started to dress like it.