Ham, Hamburgers and hot dogs...

In Korea any kind of amalgamated meat is called "Ham". This can include hotdogs, spam, or actual ham. A hot dog in Korea must be served in a bun. If there is no bun, it is usually just refered to as ham 햄. However, a hamuburger is a hamburger. So, I was surprised when I when I went into a convienece store and found this.


The packaging clearly promises a fresh and delicious hamburger. However...


It was horrible by the way.

Grafitti

Here are some pictures of a small alley I found. It is covered with graffitti.


One of my favorite pictures ever. I love the terrible English, the perverion and the Korean. The Korean characters underneath the writing are ㅋㅋ. That character is the sound of a 'k' and it is used in Korea much the way we use "haha" or "lol". It signifies a laughing sound.


I'm guessing this was written by SeJong A.


This image is a little hard to read. However it says something about a guy having a big dick. I know I've been in Korea too long becasue the missuse of "to" bothers me.


Don't really understand this one, but like that SEX is written in the middle.

Strange English

Sitting in my classroom recently, I noticed this strange English written on my coffee cup.


This got me thinking about all of the unusual English printed on goods in Korea. So, I started taking pictures of things around my school. There will be more soon.


A child's notebook. I particularly like "You're no match for me"


Here's a shirt a student was wearing. I had toy explain to her why it was funny and who Buddy Holly is.


One of my boys was wearing this shirt. I didn't explain the humor to him.


Another notebook.

I'll have more later, including a special on pencil cases.

Time Lapse From My Apartment

I set up my computer to record a time-lapse video while I was at work one day. Here are the results. It was very cloudy this day. I'll try and get a clearer video soon.

School Pictures

I took my camera into work this week to take some pictures.




A couple pictures of my classroom before the day I started. I start working at two in the afternoon, but classes get under way at four. I spend the two hours grading essays, preparing for classes, eating lunch and doing the daily crossword puzzle.


Here's a close-up of a calendar I had the class make while studying months and holidays in English.



Before and after shots of the hallway outside my class.


Kids playing at breaktime.


While the kids took a test I snapped some more pictures.


I just happened to snap a picture while this student was peeking at his neighbor's paper.


Here's the view from the window of my classroom.




I went up to the roof of our building to shoot the area around my school.


And finally, the sun setting from the roof.

White Day

Korea, like most countries, has adopted many western traditions and habits. Once filtered through Korean culture, however, these practices are often drastically modified. Consider the time when I had had my fill of Korean food and craved nothing more than a nice big steak.

A friend had spotted a restaurant with a sign, printed in English, proudly promising steak. This was my first year in Korea and I had not indulged in a steak since my arrival. Nor did I speak or read Korean well enough to properly decipher a menu. So, we waited with anticipation, and when payday arrived we sauntered in to celebrate. The menu lacked pictures but mercifully provided English descriptions of the fare. I ordered the most expensive steak on the menu. As did my friend. Twenty minutes later the kindest little 아줌마 appeared clutching two plates of food. What she set before us, however, were two well-done hamburger patties drizzled with a dark gravy and sides of mashed potatoes. Obviously disappointed, we ate our dinner without complaint. However, I realized then the obvious lesson that I was no longer in Kansas, as it were.

This Korean tradition of bastardizing western traditions does not end with food. Take Valentine's Day for example. It seems the western idea of having a day to celebrate affection for a significant other falls short. Korea (though I believe this practice originated in Japan) has turned it into a three month ordeal. Valentine's Day is February 14th as usual with the noted exception that only girls give gifts of chocolate and candy to boys. White Day, March 14th is the day designated for boys to reciprocate. A month later is possibly my favorite of all holidays, western or Korean, Black Day. On this day all single people are encouraged to celebrate their loneliness by eating a bowl of black noodles called 짜장면

Today is White Day and every corner store hoped to cash in on the craze.


A couple of pictures do not tell the whole story. As with most of the "invented" holidays in Korea the retail market works itself into a frenzy pawning off candy and other niceties.

Robinhood of South Korea

Korean television is fantastically entertaining, even if you can't understand what is being said. So, here is a video for my dad who is an archer and always asks me about hunting in Korea. There is no hunting in this video but pretty impressive nonetheless.

Back in Korea

Two weeks ago, and nearly three years to the day of my initial arrival, I returned to Korea for another go-round. At the end of my new contract I will have spent four years of my adult life living in this often crazy country. I have said numerous times and to numerous people that this will be my final stay here, but I'm not making any promises.

The past two weeks have been the typical readjustment period, both personally and at work. At school I have been working hard to learn the curriculum, the students and all of the other odds and ends that come with starting a new job. Outside of work I have been working to get my living situation arranged. Retrieving previously stored luggage from friends, stocking up on food, buying furniture, getting cable and internet hooked up, etc.

So far, I am really pleased with the situation. The job requires long hours of work, but the curriculum is well developed and clear and the students are typical of any Korean 학원. Also, my new apartment is without question the nicest, newest and biggest of all the apartments I have lived in in Seoul. Of course, these are Korean standards, so it is still quite small.


One of the first things I did after moving in to my apartment was to go in search of furniture. The apartment came with the bed, a kitchen table, a couple of chairs, a TV and a dresser. I was able to purchase the couch, armchair, ottoman and coffee table for $200US. Quite a steal considering it was delivered to my apartment on the 11th floor.


Of course, the apartment is one room with a bathroom. This is typical of Korean Officetels and perfectly ok with me as I live alone and don't need much else. One of the luxaries included in this apartment is visable in this picture and it's the combination clothes washer/dryer. Most people in Korea hang their clothes to dry and a dryer is hard to come by. Having one in my apartment is something I am very grateful for. Seoul summers are very muggy and it can sometimes takes days for hanging clothes to dry.


One of the things I love about the apartment is the view. Sure the ocean would be better, but for Seoul I'll take endless rows of apartment buildings if I can get them. Also, great about the building I live in is the Little Jakob's Coffee on the first floor. It really makes me feel at home. If only they could spell my name correctly.



I love this. I am not sure why, but having my fridge look like a closet makes me feel like James Bond.


Another shot of the room. There is a domestic airport nearby, so there are often planes flying by my window. Fortunately, they are faroff enough to not bother me with noise, but close enough to enjoy watching.



It would not be complete without a shot of the bathroom. This is also a luxury for me. It is the first bathroom I have had in Korea where the shower is separate from the rest of the bathroom. Now the toilet seat does not get wet whenever I take a shower.

That's all for today. I got lots of feedback from people in the States about the infrequent lack of updating. It seems some people actually read this blog. So, I promise to be better.

Vietnam Pictures

Merry Christmas everyone! I have put up a sampling of pictures from my trip to Vietnam. There are only about one hundred pictures up now with about four hundred more to come. Take a look.

Vietnam

For those who don't know, I will be in Vietnam for the next month. I arrived in Hanoi last night and spent the day exploring Hanoi's Old Quarter. I am hoping to start bloggin about my travels here, but at the moment I'm having trouble transferring images from my camera to the computer. I will work on it and hopefully update soon.

Basketball

It has been a long time once again since I updated. I've had some pictures sitting around for awhile waiting to be posted, but never got around to it. So here they are.

These are from the World Basketball Challenge. I don't understand it completely, but it is an international basketball contest with teams representing each country. My friend Alex and I were able to get tickets to the final game of U.S.A. v. Korea. The US team was really good with some big stars from the NBA (don't ask me who).


Here is a view from our seats as the teams warmed up. The stadium is really near my house and Korea's professional basketball league plays here. I have been to a game yet, however.


Anyone who is a bigger NBA fan than me may be able to tell who some of these players are. I can only remember Dwayne Wade was there.


Oh! And cheerleaders! It was funny seeing the difference between the Korean cheerleaders and the Americans. The Americans performed quite a showy routine with pyramids and backflips, etc. Meanwhile, this line of Korean girl just shook their pompons and walked off the court.


And the game begins. As for the play of the game, let's just say it was not the most compelling thing to watch. But, more on that in a bit.


One of the advantages of being a foreigner in Korea is that people rarely question what you do, mostly from their lack of English. Knowing this, Alex and I decided to try and sneak a better seat. We went down a level and saw a few people walking through a doorway with yellow tape in a big X clearly reading "Do Not Enter". We decided to follow. Once inside the door we walked down some stairs only to see the people we followed being chased by a large security guard. Hiding in the stairwell, we waited until he had escorted them back to the security office when, with his back turned, we proceeded forward. We stepped out of the tunnel, surrounded by guys typing feverishly on laptops. Yes, the press booth. We hung around there for awhile and no one said a word to us.


We left the press box because we wanted a better angle to get shots of the US bench. We got to a great location right behind the basket. Unfortunately, most of my pictures came out very blurry.


And the game is over. 116-63. I told you it was not compelling. You can see a list of players names there, if they mean anything to you.


When the game was over we headed out onto the court hoping to get a photo of Alex grabbing the rim of the basket. Unfortunately, the security guards were trying to rush us out so all of those pictures came out blurry as well.

That's all for now. I'll be back soon with photos of Sokcho.

Random

Summer intensive classes are here and I'm working non-stop. Fortunately, I have a vacation in two weeks and will spend it on the beach. Hopefully the weather cooperates this time.

Yunha and I went to the Bucheon Film Festival again this year. We were only able to see one film called Adam's Apples that was pretty good. They also had a special effects exhibit that was interesting but they didn't allow pictures. Yunha managed to sneak a couple and when she sends them I'll put them up here.


The special effects workshop and exhibition was housed in a massive department store. Outside, children played in the water fountain.


Meanwhile, inside the department store I found this children's hair shop where kids can sit in miniature sports cars while getting a haircut.


After the exhibition we walked down to a pedestrian shopping area to Yunha's favorite restaurant.


감자탕 (Gamja Tang) is a spicy potato and beef stew. This was definitely the best 감자탕 I've had, though it strangely lacked potatoes. This was especially strange considering that the 감자 part of 감자탕 means potato. Nevertheless, it was very good and I can see why it's Yunha's favorite place to eat.



After lunch we chose to walk the 20 minutes across Bucheon to the theater. Along the way I snapped some pictures of the never ending rows of apartments throughout Korea.


This is the entrance to the theater where we watched Adam's Apples. In the film Adam, a recently released prisoner, moves to a country church and at the urging of questionably sane priest decides to bake an apple pie for his redemption. The premise is a little goofy, but Adam and the film both know this. It's worth a watch if you ever stumble upon it. I can't remember where it is from, but it's some cold European country.


At a park near my house we took some pictures. I was experimenting with the different setting on my camera.