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about 16 days late but better than never. aight so lets see where I left off…
Christmas! Well on the sunday before Christmas, we had a gift exchange at the North Korean Hanaro church:
Afterwards i went to see my church Jubilee put on a great Charlie Brown Christmas play. It was quite amusing and entertaining as the setting was changed to Seoul; Charlie was a hakwan teacher going nowhere. The cast also did a good job in portraying the nuances of living here including loud and annoying sales girls doing the Wonder Girls song, not being able to catch a cab if your Korean pronunciation sucks, girls who takes pictures of themselves at cafes and on the subways, etc. The props and the music were impressive too..
Charlie trying to catch a cab to Kangnam…
버스
This guy Lucas was incredible with the guitar…
Actual Christmas Day was good, busy and a bit lonely as it is every now and then. Sometimes I feel so busy and pulled in different directions or dying for some alone time and then there will be times when no one can have dinner with you.. haha. But Christmas service was really good nonetheless. I went to a joint English service with about 30+ English-speaking churches in Seoul. It was exciting to see such a large and diverse congregation meet together to sing and worship in one heart. People from different churches came up on stage to rap, perform body worship or do skits but the main feature was a choir that came from Indonesia; they were awesome. One guy I used to go to church with more than 10 years ago played the guitar…such a small world after all.
죽 (juk or rice porridge) in Myungdong. It was at one of those franchises that I was curious about and it exceeded my expectations. I had the seafood type; I’ll have to try their other varieties later on.
Afterwards I fought through the ridiculous crowds in Myungdong to get to the train station to go to the NK prayer meeting. The way it can be crowded here is way busier than the way it can ever be at Rockefeller the week before Christmas. I learned a long time ago just to shove back, even if they’re like 80 years old because no one will fight back or even say anything; they just yelp at the most.
Christmas was nice with Tim Peters & gang. I met some interesting gals…a law student at American U. who’s here on vacation, a government employee, and an English teacher who asked me if my teeth were real and told me I should be a teeth model. That made my day. We shared stories about damaging our teeth and getting root canals.
New years day was also fun; couldn’t have been better actually. I stuffed myself on BBQ at the North Korean pastor’s house. Pastor Yoon had people over for dinner. Afterwards I went to Kelly’s where Kelly, Adrianne and I talked over wine and cake. I was dead tired and went in and out of sleep…then they decided to get samgyupsal (pork bbq) at 3am in the restaurant downstairs. I went with them although I didn’t have a bite since I was still stuffed from dinner. They both cracked me up; but then again, I’m easily amused at anything, especially when I’m half asleep. We went back up to the apartment where we tried to watch Guys and Dolls but ended up konking out. In the AM I went home after some coffee and toast…
My work schedule became crazy for the first two weeks in January since a lot of students go to 학관 (hakwon or private academy) when they are on vacation from school. The education and competition here is so ridiculous. A lot of teachers are working without breaks and so are the students, and half of them don’t want to be there. I had to teach history on the fly as well as anthropology. I lost it one time I started laughing during anthropology because my student and I were both exhausted and hungry. I was trying to stuff dumplings down my throat because I was starving by the time 3:00 came around and he looked miserable and sleepy. We were both haplessly in this unwanted ridiculous situation because of Korea’s competitive culture of studying…
The crazy hours are over now; I’m only teaching English from 9-1 now although I do have my private lessons too. This doesn’t leave me with a lot of spare time; esp. with all the preparing I have to do for teaching. I definitely have to continue my Korean studies when I go back home, which might be in a month or so. I enjoy it here and I know once I’m back in the US, I will miss the reliable and speedy transportation, the food, the shopping, and the people here but there is a time for everything.
Have to leave a sampling of what I’m eating here:
i went to one of those ghetto cheap restaurants with the plastic chairs and plastic store front and you put your jackets in plastic bags cause there’s no room for it elsewhere and it will reek. But the food was so good…the LA style kalbi was so good.
soondooboo near my 학관;so lovely…
This spicy chicken killed me last night but it was still addicting and good.I must have gone through 100 tissues to wipe the sauce off my fingers and lips and to blow my nose that was running like a faucet; I also sweated a lot and teared….it was such a workout.
And for some dang good gelato in apgujung:
p.s. So what are your thoughts on the taiwan’s parliamentary elections?
Posted 4 years ago. 1 comment
It’s nice to be able to meet up with an old acquaintance and talk hours over korean bbq, gelato and whiskey+coke+lots of ice =). I feel stuffed, tired and content.
On another note, my skin has been flaking like mad over here. I guess it has to do with the korean floor heating. While it makes the room nice and toasty, I guess it dries up your skin a lot faster so there are dried skin cells and dandruff everywhere on my desk and all over my clothes. TMI but we all do it.
Sean told me to put a damp towel on the floor to put more moisture in the air. I might try that tonight…
Posted 4 years, 1 month ago. 2 comments
Went out with a friend to see the Christmas tree and skating rink at city hall. Little did I know the newly elected president would give a victory speech there. It was so packed but felt festive with Christmas around the corner and with knowing who would win the presidential elections in the next couple of hours. (ì´ëª…ë°• Lee, Myung-bak)
We walked over to ì²ê³„천 (chung-geh-chun), a man-made stream with nice walkways which (as sunjun said) was nicely lit with so many lights and decorations. ì²ê³„천 was actually commissioned by the newly elected president when he was mayor of Seoul. Unfortunately he is being prosecuted for fraud but I doubt he will be convicted.
We also stopped by the Christmas decorations by Lotte Dept. store in Euljiro. Not Saks 5th Avenute but still very nice & heart-warming.
p.s. merry Christmas from Heinekin
Posted 4 years, 1 month ago. 4 comments
I finally went to the Catacombs prayer meeting for North Korea that my friend Cara kept talking about. It was either that or go to a housewarming party, but Joe insisted that I go to the meeting because he wanted to give me a history book about a famous Korean nationalist during the Japanese occupation and it was also going to be his last day here in Seoul before visiting his fiancé in the States.
Little did I know that these NK activists were going to be at the prayer meeting. When I saw a man with a mop of blonde hair and tall stature, I instantly knew it was  N o r b e r t V o l l e r t s e n, the German doctor and NK rights activist who I always read about in the news. I didn’t know that the prayer meeting was run by T i m Peters, who founded http://www.helpinghandskorea.org . I first saw him in the Seoul Train documentary and he was widely profiled by many publications including Time.
In a way I felt completely out of place at the meeting in the presence of former NK refugees and these activists who have sacrificed a lot for the NK humanitarian cause. Today’s meeting was more of a celebration for the recent release of a former North Korean refugee who was jailed in China for helping other North Koreans escape to South Korea. I was really humbled by his presence and all that he had to go through; yet he seemed strong and unwavering in his faith. There was so much to learn and ask but so little time.
I still don’t know if there’s any specific purpose in my life to help NK refugees in the long run. Honestly I wasn’t looking to do anything for the cause when I came here; I was learning to adjust myself, get situated with work, learn Korean and hang out with my family.  But one thing led to another and I found myself wondering how I got to this point of landing in tim peters meeting, of being asked to play piano and teach piano at Hanaro, the North Korean congregation, etc.
In hindsight, I’m really glad I came to Seoul without signing any contracts to work here. Working part-time allows me to experience and be involved in so many different things. I cherish my spare time to do things like study Korean, see my cousin’s kid in a taekwondo competition this weekend, and definitely spend more time at Hanaro or at Tim’s organization.  If I worked full-time, I know this would all be impossible to go to.
As it is I still find myself short on time blogging until 4:30 am….
Posted 4 years, 1 month ago. Add a comment
I love my little place. I think it’s definitely a lot more affordable and easier to live in Seoul more comfortably than New York. (Ironically Seoul dropped from 2nd to 3rd most expensive city to live according to a study done by Mercer this year. New York is in 15th place…)
Sometimes i think it’s ridiculous how much money you can make here just because you have a bachelor’s degree and can speak English. There is still so much demand here but it is competitive…I don’t have a teaching certificate or experience so I’m sure I’m not making as much as others.
Of course as vibrant as the economy feels here, there are many homeless in the subway stations as it is in other metropolitan cities. Once I found this man who painted for a living. I took such a long time in selecting what I wanted to buy that he told me he would just give me another one for free which was very sweet of him.
So here is what speaking English can afford me:
It’s not big but it’s comfortable and I bet it would be twice as more expensive in NY for this space. So what you can’t see is the bathroom and little door room for the washer on the left. To the right you can see a little bit of the blue sofa and next to it are my closets, which you can’t see either. And yeah, that’s my 360. I’ve been playing a lot last week because the new maps came out. ã…‹ã…‹ã…‹ã…‹ Because I’ve been playing at night, I’ve been playing with people from Guam, Japan and Australia. In the morning, I’ll play with the US gamers and the usual gang.
Bungie also added a soccer ball in customizing your maps. It’s pretty awesome…you can play soccer in halo. Who would’ve thunk =)
aight i’m done blogging. peace.
*throws laptop out of window
Posted 4 years, 1 month ago. Add a comment
Part of the most fun experience here is just eating new dishes every week when I’m hanging out with my family and friends. For instance, Chungja brought me dukbread which was this really soft bread with rice cake in it. It was sooooo good. I never really went to the bakery shops as i try to avoid carbs but I’m going next time. The baked goods even at Dunkin Donuts or Krispy Kreme look so exquisite….I’m going to be disappointed going back home.
Two weeks ago I hung out with my aunts watching them make kimchi which was fun to see. (and yes, it was good) I finally got to see my mom’s oldest sister then too which was nice. Below are my youngest and second oldest aunt; my mom was in the middle of five sisters.
I went out with my cousin, chungja and her husband last week and we had pig’s feet. i was squeamish at first but it’s just like regular meat and you can wrap it in lettuce with garlic and fermented soybean sauce.
We also went to another place to have sashimi afterwards. It came with a lot of side dishes and hot spicy soup. After we ate, my cousin and I slept over Chungja’s house where we had icecream lol.
You work hard, you play, eat and drink hard. I asked my cousin what his colleagues will think if they see him come into work in the same clothes. he said it’s understood and accepted to do that since people work long hours; if they were only as forgiving as in the States.
One other dish I tried was ë‹ê°ˆë¹„ or chicken kalbi. It’s really just spicy hot chicken bbq mixed with potato and other vegetables with your choice of rice or noodles. It was so good; esp in the winter when it’s so cold. It’s guaranteed that you’ll sweat and have a runny nose, esp. if the restaurant has ondol heating and you’re sitting on the floor.
This past weekend I slept oer my mom’s youngest sister’s house where she fed me to death and sent me home with even more food. lol. Strangely I find my stomach shrinking. I don’t know what’s going on. Anyway I also made Christmas cookies at my friend’s in Itaewon afterwards. Some girls from the N. Korean church came along and they did such a good job for their first time making cookies. It was funny trying to communicate through hand motions at times when our vocabulary was lacking and it was interesting to see our differences. For instance they never saw a roller before and told us that they use bottles as rollers when they’re making bread. They were also dying for some kimchi even though we were having spagehtti and garlic bread for dinner. I did teach them how to eat a baguette with honey and butter which they seemed to love =)
Posted 4 years, 1 month ago. Add a comment
As in LG’s motto, life is good; great actually. I’ve been hanging out with friends and family, still discovering and experiencing different things in Seoul. Since every little thing is different, I’m finding there is too much going on too quickly for me to blog about which is why I’m probably going to blog about once a month at this rate.
For instance I’ll go on a mundane jog but find myself lost in a gargantuan wholesale clothing market nearby dongdehmoon. I went inside one of the many buildings there and it had floors and floors of little stalls selling so much clothes; finding your way out was like being in a maze.
The city is also changing with the season. Right now Seoul is full of Christmas lights and decorations which is pretty and festive. I’ll randomly get off a different stop and find a beautiful skating rink which literally took my breath away. I love getting ‘lost’ here because I find so many new things. On a whim I’ll cross the street and find a new bookstore with nice cafes that I didn’t realize was so close by and while I was trying to find the closest subway stop to go home I discovered a huge luxurious department store and hotel showcasing a heartwarming Christmas wonderland display.
(click for more pics)
I’m amazed by the vibrant economy here. Construction is constantly going on with new roads, trains, bridges, apartments and buildings popping up everywhere. Of course shopping is another indicator of the economy and I feel the quality and wide variety of Korean and international produce is overwhelming when I go food shopping at the dept. stores or other supermarkets. (Yes you can go food shopping at the dept. stores) I feel like they have much better goods than friggin Stop N’ Shop or Whole Foods and the service is better. In terms of luxury goods, you can find every name brand here but i feel like the prices are more outrageous. (esp. the shoes!) Thankfully the bargain shopping is just as good here…
I feel a strong sense of national pride and hard work ethic here in people’s conversations, TV shows, the news, the commercials, people’s lifestyles etc. They study and work so much and play twice as hard; often ending sleeping the work night at a friend’s or a sauna when the last train or bus left. I feel like Koreans constantly compare themselves to foreigners and are often conscious of where they stand in the world. It’s an exciting time here; moreso with the upcoming elections tomorrow. (it’d be nice if we can get the day off for voting in the US too) I’d be surprised if anyone other than Lee Myungbak wins.
In other news I have a new part-time gig with my cousin’s friend. He is a professional pool player who owns a couple pool halls and wants to improve his English because he hopes to compete in the US. Too bad my pool vocabulary is a little lacking. I’ll be starting my new schedule at the hakwon next week. It’ll actually mean that i have to wake up earlier than 10. =P
Posted 4 years, 1 month ago. Add a comment
A bit belated but here are glimpses of Art’s visit during the week of Thanksgiving which came and went by so quickly. = I picked him at Incheon airport. I don’t think you can appreciate its architecture until you take the KTX train there. I’ve been to the airport a few times but never saw the area where you get off the train. (empty at the time but it was nice)
So it was nice to see him again, walking around shopping, eating cheap but good food, and going sight seeing together. We went around everywhere from Myungdong, Apgujung, Dongdehmoon, Namdehmoon, Chungechun, the Coex etc.
We also went to the National Museum Of Korea which had really interesting artifacts; I especially liked the jewelry…
The changing of the guards at Duksoo Palace (across from City hall)
Namdehmoon Gate
Namdehmoon Market
Namdehmoon at night…
At Chung-geh-chun
Around City Hall:
In chongno:
Town bell. Heard there might be new year celebrations here?
They need to rethink some names over…
Dongdehmoon
Matching couples underwear seems to be the rage here:
puppies…(to play with, not eat)
Dongdehmoon gate
Sampling of what we ate
Course nothing we ate was foul.
though i love it here, can’t wait to go home again too
Posted 4 years, 1 month ago. 2 comments
So I moved out to my own little officetel in ì‹ ìŠ¬ë™ (shinseuldong) and I am loving it. It’s not a happening place but everything I need is closeby in the neighborhood…my bank, the post office, restaurants and convenient stores. I’m just a couple stops from City hall, Dongdehmoon and I think I can even jog to chungehchun. (the small artificial river with nice walkways) The subway station is literally just a minute away which is also convenient. The officetel comes with everything i need, a washer, cable, internet, kitchen, microwave, and floor heating =)
I feel really bad that my aunts are really sad that I moved out but I just feel more comfortable on my own; I dont feel as much as a burden even though they keep asking me to move in with any of them. My aunts stocked me with food, utensils, cooking tools, etc. I feel so undeserving of their love cause they love so much. I learn a lot from them and cherish the time I do spend with them and their families.
So a lot has happened. Sunday before thanksgiving, I went to celebrate my aunt’s birthday and finally got to see all my relatives on my dad’s side who lives in Korea…
My great aunt and uncle…
Their daughter Amy with her family…
Amy’s brother Eddie with his family…
Amy and Eddie’s cousin on their mom’s side
Played with Annabelle at my aunt’s house before going to the thanksgiving banquet
My cousin dropped me off at the thanksgiving banquet at the Yongsan US army base which is close by their place. Â The food was ok; had a good time hanging out with my friends and seeing some shows which included a hip hop routine, a couple songs by a choir, and body worship. I participated in a karoake game where you had to sing the rest of the words of the song that was played. (No one else from my table would go up.) Needless to say, I didn’t do so well; it was pretty hard actually. Not a lot of people could finish singing random songs that were played…
kelly…whose blouse i’m sportin….
Minjung…
food was as good as it looked?
my table
hip hop group…
More pics to come from actual thanksgiving day…
Posted 4 years, 2 months ago. 2 comments
and yes, I’m still up.
For someone who works 8 hours per WEEK, I feel COMPLETELY BUSY! Actually this week I worked only 3 hours and I still felt I didn’t have enough time to do everything I wanted. I’m finding it hard to even keep up with blogging, but I feel like i should in order to keep people updated but more importantly, to remind myself of all that I’m experiencing here…
so here’s verbal vomit of everything that needs to be updated:
I think i am going to quit my job. The reason why my hours dropped is because the students canceled the classes as my tutoring school or hagwon, is moving to a farther location next month. So I am down to one student but he is going finish through this month and will stop coming when we move on 12/15.
I couldn’t have been happier that my classes are canceled because art is coming to visit me next week =) So…i was a bit stressed out trying to scheme and see if i can take a day off or two but now the classes are canceled. It couldn’t have been more perfect timing…
I’m also happy classes are canceled because I’m too lazy to do the preparation work. =P I hate lesson planning in my spare time on English grammar when i came here to learn Korean. So I am going to try to find a part-time job that is one-on-one and not at a tutoring school because I think it’ll be less prep work. (and there are a lot of these type of part-time openings)
I’m also thinking of moving out of my aunt’s place and being on my own. They’ve been so nice to me and I like being here so i can practice Korean with them and I’m well fed here but I feel like I’m another kid to worry about in a way. I dont want them to worry about me if i have a late night out with friends so I think it might be comfy if I lived elsewhere. I think it’d be a good experience to live out here on my own instead of being dependent on them.
It’ll be exhilarating like getting paid today =)
I have yet to post about the Suwon cultural parade I went to last month and about all the food I had this week but I need to get some ZzzZzz’s as it’s 3:47!
Posted 4 years, 2 months ago. 1 comment
