Yeong Jong Do

As promised, here are pictures from my trip to 영종도.


Yunha tried to book us a room with a view and when we arrived managed to trade up to a Honeymoon suite. My favorite thing about this photo is Yunha's leaning reflection in the mirror.


Here I am, 10 minutes into arrival, leaning out the window for a cigarette.


We had two beds. I'm not sure why a Honeymoon suite requires two beds but whatever.


A really nice room.


Yunha looking really cute framed in the doorway.


Next to the hotel was a log cabin restaurant that had a small animal pen outside. Here Yunha feeds a horse.


Here is one of several large white dogs they had. On the first day we saw three or four really cute puppies, but since it was raining so hard we didn't stop to take pictures.


Yunha convinced me to try the local delicacy 조개구이. Fortunately, I agreed. It was delicious. Eating this food requires wearing one glove, ala Michael Jackson.


Here is the dinner we enjoyed. On this trip we opted for the half-shellfish half-shrimp option.


Little did I know that the shrimp came with heads and eyes and all the other stuff that turns me off from eating something. I did try one and it was good. However, Yunha not only ate ALL the remaining shrimp but also the majority of the shellfish. That girl can eat.


I took this photo because I wanted to show we were eating on the beach. However, the weather was not so cooperative.


A shaggy and wet dog that Yunha somehow thought was really cute.


The weather was not nice, but at least it stopped raining for awhile.


Here an old bald man poses for a picture on the beach.


We took many shots of ourselves setting off fireworks on the beach. Unfortunately, this is the only one that came out. If you look in the background you can see signs advertising the food we ate earlier.


On the last day it cleared up enough to take some pictures of the surrounding area. These are from the hotel window.


This is clearly an area under development and will probably be a popular tourist destination in the future.


Here is the little restaurant outside our hotel. It was a very cozy place.


Finally, Yunha napping on the couch.

Water

This time of year Korea enters what is known alternately as Monsoon Season or just Rainy Season. By either name it is wet. It has rained nearly everyday for the past two to three weeks. The rain is constant. In the morning when you wake up it is raining. When you go to bed at night it is raining.

Over this last weekend I went away on a small trip to 영종도 (Yeong Jong Do), which is an island off the western coast of Korea and home to Incheon International Airport, Korea's main airport. As is usual for any trip I take it rained non-stop (photos coming soon). Nevertheless, I had a good time and stayed in a great hotel. I ate some delicious 조개구이 (fresh shellfish cooked over an open flame) and discovered a tiny crab inside one of the shells.

Aside from the weather my apartment has also been inundated with water as of late. My washing machine periodically chooses to leak water across the floor of my kitchen/laundry room. In addition, it seems the heavy rain has sprung a small leak in the roof of said room so anytime I venture to the refrigerator I must first wade through a shallow swamp. I'm not interested in fixing it since I have only a few months left in this apartment.

A couple quick updates: I purchased a replacement for my camera that was stolen >_<. So, I'll be able to post new photos soon. Also, summer intensive classes begin next week so I'll be very busy in the coming month.


Here is the first picture to be posted with my new camera and features a co-worker's oft-worn t-shirt. Koreans tend to make and purchase t-shirts with seemingly nonsensical English printed on them, such a my girlfriends shirt that largely states "NO WAG AT IOWA". This particular t-shirt, however, clearly has an English meaning. The only thing less embarrassing than asking my co-worker if I could take a picture of her shirt was trying not to explain to a group of curious Korean female co-workers why I found it so amusing.

As a last note I just want to wish the best to my aunt Cathy who was just diagnosed with Leukemia. For the sake of her, her children and her grandchildren I wish her a speedy recovery.

World Cup

Like most Americans I have very little interest in soccer. If I weren't living in a soccer-rabid country I most likely would not know that the World Cup of soccer is taking place. For those who don't know (I didn't) the World Cup takes place every four years. This year it is being held in Germany and teams around the globe compete for the title.

Koreans are especially patriotic in regards to their soccer team. A lot of ths has to due with the fact that the previous World Cup in 2002 was held in Korea and Japan. In that contest the Korean team made the quarterfinals and there were huge celebrations all over the country. The videos of those celebrations are still regularly shown on Korean TV with massive crowds of red-clad Koreans cheering every move. So, I was excited to head down to city hall recently and watch Korea play Switzerland. Some friends took some photos.


Since the games are played in Germany the Korea game started at 4a.m. Korean time, yet the crowd was still huge.


Right before the game started the police came through and made everyone sit down and to my shock everyone did. You could never get people at home to do that.


These two guys rode around on Segways dressed in masks. We took some pictures with them and I begged them to let me ride the Segway to no avail.


Even us foreigners got into the act and dressed in red. I even wore some red horns as the Korean team is called the Red Devils.


Even the Korean police sat down to enjoy the game.


The sun started coming up. Not sure how many people were there, but I heard people saying millions.


More of the crowd. Unfortunatley, Korea lost to Switzerland 2-0 thus eliminating them from the World Cup. I was looking forward to more of these events.

I'm back

I had basically abandonded this blog. Mostly due to laziness, lack of interest and nothing new to report. However, I've decided to continue to update it. Maybe not frequently, but I will.

The bad news is I am once again camera-less as my camera, along with my iPod and electronic dictionary were recently stole from my bag. This is the second time I've had an iPod stolen in Korea, both because I left my bag unattended. And seeing as I went right out and bought another, it is my fourth iPod to date.

I'd like to buy another camera soon, but not sure I can afford it just yet. Regardless, I'll keep things updated around here again.

Family (Posting Frenzy)

I been on a posting frenzy the last couple of days. What can I say. I've only seen my girlfriend for two and a half hours in the past week. I need some place to put my energy.

Anyway, I should have said this before, but I'm glad I didn't because now I have the pictures. I'd like to welcome to the world the newest member of my family. Nathan Nicholas Stoff was born March 21st.







Congratulations to my sister and her family. I can't wait to come and spoil Nate like I have Abs.

Crazy bitch

I work with a guy who I'll call 'Jeff'. Jeff is a Korean who spent his high school and college years in the States and speaks perfect English. He is an attractive guy who, by the look in his eyes, you can tell is not very confident. Nevertheless, he's a great guy and we've developed a friendship both at work and over numerous shots of tequila at Gold Bar in Hongdae.

But, he has a girlfriend. Jeff is 26 years old. The first story he every told me about this girl is how when he met her she told him she was 23, but several weeks later he discovered she was actually 34. This should have been the first sign the girl was psychotic. However, and I've seen her in pictures and in person, she's really hot, so he let it slide.

Over time he'd tell me stories how she called him hundreds of times a day demanding to know where he was and who he was with. He told me she'd show up at his apartment at all hours of the night expecting to find him with other girls. She even called our school numerous times a day wanting to speak to him when he was in class, suspecting he was off in a private room with one of our female co-workers. This continued to the point that she was told not to call again.

Things reached the boiling point for me, however, two weeks ago when Jeff showed up to work on a Monday looking dejected. After asking him what the problem was he informed me that over the weekend his girlfriend's jealousy had reached such a level that she'd driven her car into his in a fit of rage. I was flabbergasted. I told him this was way out of line and it was time to break it off for good. He agreed.

The following Monday I arrived at work to find Jeff, yet again, dejected. He'd taken the girl, over the weekend, to an amusement park. I was outrage. I asked him very sternly how he could do such a thing after what she'd done. I also commented that I'd noticed his car in the parking lot and it seemed to be back in working order.

"She's coming here now." he said. A little confused, I asked him to clarify. He wasn't sure if she was bluffing, but had threatened to come to his work. I, assuming she was bluffing, went down to the computer room. Fifteen minutes later and the whole ordeal out of my head I was interrupted in the computer room buy someone looking for Jeff. Reminded I headed upstairs to see if anything had developed.

When I stepped outside I heard the distinct screaming of a Korean girl. I looked over just in time to see Jeff's girlfriend pick up a large piece of concrete and hurl it into his driver's side window. By this time a crowd of co-workers and pedestrians had gathered to watch as she took out her keys and scratched them all across the hood of Jeff's car, still screaming. I watched for a few minutes as she hurled rocks at the windows and scratched the paint.

Feeling a bit excited and disgusted by the event I called a friend to give the play-by-play. As I'm telling my friend what is going on and laughing out loud I turn to see Jeff returning to the scene. A little embarrassed about laughing at my friend's misfortune, I was happy to see the police come and take her off to jail.

Now, however, she had pressed some sort of charges against Jeff and he has been in jail for two days. I don't know the exact details of the charges are, but I hope he is released soon.

Sick Update

I returned to teaching today and my concerns about the doctor's notice were completely useless. I should have expected it considering my past experiences in Korea in these situations. The director's assistant only asked me how I was feeling and relayed to me the reasons for calling. I told her she woke me up after I had fought to fall asleep and she apologized.

Later, my manager told me she had heard I needed a doctor's note. However, once I told her it was not in my contract she dropped it and also apologized.

See, Korean people aren't so bad.

Sick part 2

Aside from being physically sick I'm beginning to get sick of Korea. I've been here almost two and half years and it's starting to lose its appeal. I think back to the days when I first arrived in Korea and the first year or so of living here and I remember an excitement, a newness to it. I felt as if I was doing something interesting, something most people will never get a chance to do. I was exploring, having adventures, meeting new people from all over the world and generally just having a really great time. In fact, it was one of the best times of my life.

That feeling, however, has gone away. As I mentioned in a previous post Korea now feels like a place where I live rather than an exotic place to explore. Now, I'm starting to resent Korea as a result. I'm sick of the blandness of the food. I'm sick of the rudeness of the people. The drunk ajjossis harassing you or wanting to practice English. The way too cute, princess-disease laden young girls. The deceptiveness that is so rampant here. The young men who are either intimidated because I'm a western person or, alternatively, want to be my friend for the same reason. The lack of anything beautiful or even mildly visually interesting. In general, I'm sick of Korea and Koreans and everything associated with them.

However, I say that to say this. I know these things that I point to as being annoying or the cause of my bitterness aren't really the cause at all. All, of the things that I listed and numerous others have, at one time or another, been part of what I loved so much about Korea. I can remember enjoying the drunken old men and their screaming at each other over countless bottles of soju. I remember finally giving in to "cuteness" of Asia and putting a Winnie the Pooh charm on my cell phone (I know. Forgive me.).

I know the problem isn't Korea or Korean people. The problem is that I'm bored. I've always had to do new things, go to new places, try things I'd never tried before. And frankly, I've sampled most of what Korea has to offer. The first year or so I spent a lot of time partying and meeting new people and I loved it. But, even that has lost it's appeal to me because it's the same thing rehashed continuously.

I don't know what the solution is and I don't mean to come off as whinny. These are just the thoughts that have been running through my head lately. I've thought that maybe, once this contract is finished, it's time to head for a different country and try teaching there, but I can't decide on a location and I am not entirely sure it won't just be same shit-different country.

There was a lot more I wanted to put in this post, but being as I'm sick and on very little sleep I'm having a hard time putting the words together. So, I'll leave it at that for now.

Sick

I stayed home from work today because I'm sick and, as a result, couldn't get any sleep last night. My work day begins at one o'clock in the afternoon, so I sent my manager a text message at 8:30a.m. and followed up with a phone call an hour later. "No problem." she said, "Take a rest."

So I did. After being up the entire night I was finally able to fall asleep around 10:30. Two hours later my phone rings, waking me up. It's my director's assistant (I essentially have three bosses: manager, director's assistant and director) telling me that the director says I'll need a doctors notice for taking the day off. I'm annoyed because after fighting all night I'd finally managed to fall asleep. She insists to me that it's in my contract that I have to supply a doctor's notice. So, I tell her I'll take care of it and begrudgingly get out of bed.

The first thing I do is go to my computer, open my copy of the contract and read through it. No mention of needing a doctor's note, only that I am entitled three sick days. This being the first. So, now I'm more annoyed because I know they didn't bother to look at the contract and check for this. They just assumed the threat of it would be enough to motivate me. Also, I'm angry because, clearly, they don't trust me.

Anyway, I decide I might as well just go to the doctor and avoid any problems. Again, I sit down to the computer to find English-speaking doctors in Seoul. Then I remember that last week my laptop died and I'd been forced to buy a new computer over the weekend. Needless to say, the unexpected expenditure left me with very little money. W50,000 ($50) for a week to be exact. Doctors in Korea are relatively cheap and I do have insurance provided through my work. Nevertheless, the fee would be at least W30,000 ($30), leaving me with next to nothing.

So, I'm angry, annoyed, sick and broke. I think about calling the school and telling them, but decided I'll just deal with it tomorrow. After all, it's not in the contract.

Kimchi

Kimchi and rice are the two staples of the Korean diet. While rice, of course, is eaten throughout Asia, kimchi is pretty Korean-specific. Koreans, rightly so, are quite proud of kimchi and I've heard claims that it prevents bird flu, cures cancer, slows aging, etc. Well, now it's been named one of the five healiest foods in the world. I realy like this quote from the article. It's 100% true: "natives say “kimchi” instead of “cheese” when getting their pictures taken".

Bucheon

Here are a few pictures from Bucheon, the area where Yunha lives. It's a suburban area just outside of Seoul.


We went to a big mall with the intention of seeing a movie, but there was only one English movie playing and it didn't seem interesting.


So, we wandered around the mall so I could take pictures.


We ran across these two people dressed up as cartoon characters. Scenes like this are quite common in Korea. I really can't explain how strange this place seems sometimes. I stopped these guys and got some pictures with them and Yunha, but she'd rather I didn't put her picture on the internet.


A shot inside the mall. The woman in the picture was putting her hands over her face because she saw me with the camera.


This picture was taken just outside the entrance to the mall.

I didn't take many pictures because I always feel a bit uncomfortable taking pictures in public. Koreans stare at foreigners enough already and if you take out a camera you get a lot of looks. This is pretty surprising since Koreans, like the Asian stereotype, love to take pictures, though mostly they take them of themselves. I suppose they find it a little strange to take pics of mundane things like movie signs and grown men dressed as cartoon chickens.

[EDIT]

This photo of a Japanese toy was also taken at the mall, so I decided to throw it in the mix.

Children

I know it's wrong to mock young children who are learning a second language, but sometimes the things that come across my desk make me laugh out loud.


This is not so bad, but with the proper frame of mind can be misinterpreted.


There are times when what a student means to say come out all wrong.


Sometimes spaces are very important.


Other times, students just give up.


And of course there are the times that no matter how hard you try you just can't understand what they are trying to say.


But, simple spelling mistakes are always the funniest.

Setting

Before I moved to Korea one of the things I found most useful and most intriguing was looking at photos of Seoul on the internet. Not only did I have no idea what I was getting myself into, but I also have an impossible time making decisions. Had I not been able to get a view of my future home I'm not sure I would have had the guts to get on that first flight.

So, I took some picture near my home and hopefully they will show my friends and family where I live and also provide some insight for people interested in coming overseas to teach.


This is the street I live on. If you look closely, you can just make out my apartment. It's the fourth building on the right, on the top floor. It kind of looks like a sunroom if you look near the center of the photo.


This is a street perpendicular to mine. Notice the building on the right draped in what appears to be hundreds of blankets. This building has been under construction since I moved in and I'm certain, by the looks of the workers, it will collapse upon completion.


Here is a shot from outside of my school. It is not much to look at since my school is on a quiet street, but I love that green banner. My Korean is not perfect, but from my interpretation it says either "Big Love School" or "Big Love Church". Though I think it is the latter. Is it any wonder why Asian cultures constantly promote products and programs like "Super Happy Fun Time!"


In this photo I simply turned 180 degrees from the previous picture. I do not have much to say here except I buy a lot of cigarettes and ramyeon at the Family Mart (think 7-11) on the corner there. What a healthy lifestyle I lead.


Now we move to the rooftop of my school. I was forced to relocate here for smoking after students discovered our secret alleyway and shouted "Teacher! Smoking!" repeatedly. This picture shows the two sides of this great city. IN the foreground you see the old thatched (is that what it is called?) roof style buildings and in the background the omnipresent high-rise apartment buildings that litter Seoul, and all of Korea, like a cancer.

Notice the massive Samsung sign. That's where I bought the camera this picture was taken with.


This picture is interesting because of the buildings that tower in the background. I've said before that the area I live in is quite posh, and though these photos might not illustrate that, I've been told that those buildings are the most expensive place to live in Seoul. That is saying a lot considering Seoul has one of the highest real estate markets in the world.


I mentioned the buildings in the last picture only to point out the contrast with this. Witness Eunma Apart (Koreans call apartments 'apart' which always makes me think of the old Stephen Wright joke "Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?"). This place is an eye-sore and many people call for it to be demolished. However, as a poor man living amongst wealth, I tend to side with the less fortunate. Viva Eunma Apart!


This picture, again, illustrates the omnipresent high-rise apartments in Korea. No photograph can do this phenomenon justice. These are everywhere and most Koreans live in one.


I posted some pictures of my apartment before, but since it is on-topic I thought I'd update them. Though it is the biggest apartment I have had in Korea it is arguably in the worst condition. The first year or so living abroad squalid conditions are expected and even a little appreciated. However, things have hit their stride and Korea no longer feels like a place I am visiting, but a place where I live. For this reason I've put a little effort into making my home more comfortable this year. It is certainly not a palace, but I'm proud of what I have done with it.


Someone somewhere said something about geniuses stealing everything. Well, maybe I'm not a genius, but almost everything here is a stolen idea. The hanging ratan picture hanger came from Jennifer and the wine bottle candle-holder came from Ciaran. I still really like the way it looks.


The only thing even remotely interesting I have to say about this picture is that I never see this view of my apartment anymore. I turn on my TV maybe once a month. However, this isn't meant to sound elitist or arrogant because most of the time I'm on my computer reading stupid shit.