Me and the World

Kim Jang! (Making Kimchi)

2010-11-16T23:24:00.000-08:00

Well, I went to meet the GF's family this weekend. I suppose you're suppose to be nervous in these situations... but whateves-- I'm Mr. Beissinger. Ain't no thang.
In addition to meeting Eunhye's family, we also made Kimchi. Now this is a pretty historical tradition for Koreans. Kimchi, being the country's national food, is bound to have a pretty cool method of being manufactured.

It starts out with taking cabbage, cleaning it, then soaking it in salt water. You let the salt seep into the cabbage, so it's got a decent flavor to begin with.

Following this, you start making some stuff with sauces. Thing is though, the sauces are kind of special. See, they've got to be stored in stuff like this:

The sauces mostly need to ferment, and therefore they sit in these fermentation jugs that let the process happen. Basically they're good until you eat them.

The specific stuff you end up using for making kimchi though, mainly comes from the guy below. It's called Gochu jang, which translates into "red pepper paste". It's the stuff that makes kimchi red, allows it to be preserved for a long time while letting the cabbage leaves stay crunchy, and it's what makes it spicy! Pretty cool stuff, and you can even eat the on the top! Just make sure to mix it all up real good.

The next one is used for meat and other stuff. If you combine it with red pepper paste, you get a gooooood sauce that is delicious for mixing.

But anyway, I got caught up with my love for sauces, and I digressed from the main event: THE MAKING OF THE KIMCHI!!!!

So after you go and soak that cabbage in salt water, you make your sauces. You combine the guys above with some fishy stuff, some salt, some pepper, and some other vegetables. Eunhye said one of the veggies you use a lot of is something called Ook. Buuuuut, sorry ya'll I didn't get the translated version. It's kind of crunchy though.

So after you're done mixing everything up, you go and throw it all in a MASSIVE bathtub of sauce! (my dream come true!) and then you take cabbages, and just throw them in the vat.

See all them cabbages chilling in the sauce? mmmmmm....

But anyway, following the dumping of the cabbage into the sauce, you go and start stuffing the cabbage with the stuff! The goal is to coat the cabbage completely, so that when it sits in holding jugs, the cabbage doesn't spoil. Also that sauce is what gives the kimchi it's flavor, so it's best to be liberal in the applications~

See that cabbage in my hands? THAT'S RIGHT! YOU CAN'T!

That's because that "cabbage in my hands" has been transformed into..... KIMCHI!

So after the Kimchi gets made, it's time to do something with it. Afterall, you can't just leave it out in a bowl for a year, waiting to eat it!

Check out those boxes behind me. That's where the kimchi get's stored. You have to pack it down real good, with the hopes that you get almost all the air out. This makes the following fermentation process go niiiice and smooth.

And let's be honest: who doesn't just love a nice and smooth fermentation process?

So that's me buried up to the tips of my pink gloves in Kimchi! Pretty freaking awesome.

Possibly the coolest part about the whole ordeal though, was the fact that as a tradition, when Koreans make kimchi, they also serve this steamed port belly meat called "Bo-ssam" which you just take and throw it on a cabbage leaf, drop some of that sauce on it, and gobble the whole thing while you're working! Perhaps the best way to eat Korean food that I've experienced so far.

All in all though it was an awesome experience, and I'm really happy I got the chance to do it.

P.S. Fun (albeit arrogant) fact: When I was making the kimchi, Eunhye's dad said this directly translated quote: "Danny, you are great at making kimchi! You're even better than our women at making kimchi!"

Awesome ^__^

My Helicopter

2010-11-07T19:41:00.000-08:00

So, as has been discussed before, I when and hit me some dieting recently. The result is two things.

1.) A slimmer, trimmer, Mr. Beissinger
2.) (As a result of my awesome girlfriend) A TOTALLY FREAKING SWEET HELICOPTER!! For the record, this is actually a quadracopter... But without further adu... the video!

Lots has happened.

2010-10-25T21:24:00.000-07:00

Well. Lots has happened in the last month. For starters, I decided I was tubby. Not like, obese or anything, but definitely all the korean cuisine I've been enjoying had caught up with me. So. What's a fat, ex-highschool wrestler to do? Simple--CRASH DIET!!
Enter good old affectionately named Danorexia, fast forward 1 month, and I'm down 20 lbs. Mission accomplished.

I also decided it was high time I started taking active steps to further my skills in martial arts, and so I took the time to enroll in a Hapkido class. This is similar to taekwondo, but it is less focused on competition, and more focused on self defense, and actually being useful in real life situations. The prices aren't bad at all either: foreigners get a sweet 1/2 price discount, and what that means is that I'm rocking some quality training for only 50,000 KRW (about $40) a month! Not too shabby. Here's a video of what this stuff looks like when performed by someone who knows what they're doing. Fast forward to like 2 minutes in if you wanna see them doing cool things:

Also, fall has fully hit korea in full force. It's really pretty here, and it's got me excited for SNOWBOARDING. Being from Chicago, I never really lived near mountains (dont count montana... I was dumb and never utilized that), and I'm gonna take full advantage of it this winter! It's gonna be AWESOME!

But anyway, life's still rockin out, and I'll be sure to continue writing things down here, hopefully a little more frequently. Til next time~

Seoraksan and Chewsok!

2010-09-28T23:38:00.000-07:00

Well, the past few weeks have been pretty sweet! I decided to go and do some treking with my girlfriend in the wonderland known as Seoraksan National Park. It was pretty sweet, but there is one thing I don't think I can stress enough.

THE TRAILS HERE LITERALLY GO STRAIT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!

Koreans do not seem to A.) be aware of and B.) Care about switchbacks in their hiking trails. And so what this means, is that we summited the third highest point in Korea, just shy of 6000 feet of vertical elevation gain, in under 6 miles!! What kind of person would make a trail like that?!?!
But actually though it was really fun! We spent two nights on the trail, and luckily the weather had just decided to turn crispy cool here, so the many layers I had packed were not just extra weight in our packs. It was EunHye's first time backpacking and she really liked it. Hoping to do some more soon, but more importantly... Snowboarding!!!!!!!!! It's almost the season for that, and I'm mega excited!

On a totally unrelated note, anyone have any idea what I could be for Haloween?

Teaching anectdote

2010-09-13T20:00:00.000-07:00

Another funny moment in teaching... One of my favorite students is a class clown. He's also pretty smart, but sometimes he talks too much~

My solution? Using a combination of broken Korean, English, and a graph, I demonstrated/explained the bell shaped correlation between the amount of talking someone does versus the level of funniness they are. Man, teaching's fun

Santa Claus?

2010-09-09T00:39:00.000-07:00

A funny point to my day, I just had to explain to a 3rd grader in 100% Korean how of course Santa Clause exists! Then following that, I had to explain how telling people he's not real isn't a very nice thing to do. And that doing that causes a loss of innocence prematurely.

...I used smaller words though.

Korean Healthcare!

2010-09-06T22:45:00.000-07:00

Well... the title says it all. I've been pretty sick for the past 4ish days now, but I think things are finally starting to get better. I've been working half days, and then going home after my classes are finished, but even that's been pretty rough. The main reason for posting this though, is to talk about Korean healthcare!!

So I went to the doctor's twice in the last 5 days. I got some tests, a bunch of different medications (I'm not sure what they all do, but I hope they're helping.), a shot, and a thorough ear cleaning. Guess how much it all was, including the cost of the medications?

6 dollars. Six freaking dollars!

With my Korean listening skills slightly "flu-impaired" I thought I initially heard $60, so I handed over my card thinking... hmmm that's not too bad. Then I get the receipt and I realize I just got excellent health care for the cost of a tasty lunch! Korea wins again!!

My mom's trip to Korea!

2010-09-03T03:56:00.000-07:00

Well, lots of stuff happened to round out the tail end of my summer. Mainly, that lots of stuff was that my mom came to korea to visit!!!

It was pretty sweet, and we spent the two weeks she was here going all over the place! We initially hit up Seoul, and looked at Insadong which is a big traditional korean center in the city. Then Eunhye and my mom and I went to a JimJilBang, which is like a combination of a spa and a sleepover, all wrapped up in one big package! Pretty sweet, however I definitely don't enjoy the bouncy machine that is suppose to make you lose weight... It felt more like a brain scrambler.

Following our time in Seoul, we decided to go out to do some mountain climbing!!! We went out to Seoraksan National Park, and decided to hit up some white water rafting on the way! It was a blast, and aside from the mothership being a little scared, it was really a good time and we both had fun! Following this we went to the Park, where we got a hotel, and started hiking. The first thing we saw was....

Yes... a giant Budda! It was really really cool actually. Following this, we hit the mountain and quickly realized it was harder than either of us had predicted. For the mama Beis's credit, she definitely outperformed the stereotypical 58 year old American expectations for athleticism and conquered the mountain, named Ulsanbowi. The especially rewarding part, was seeing the view from the top.

See, this specific moment when we summited the peak, was also the same time when the sun had decided to finish burning throught the clouds, giving this amazing view of basically the cloud castle from Super Mario Brothers 3, world 5.

So following this, we decided to go to Jeju-do. Before we go any further... just where is Jeju-do? Well I found this map to help orient you...

Bam! There it is! and again, just for reference, remember that the Korean peninsula is only about the size of Illinois. So Jeju isn't really all that big. But regardless of it's small size, its actually home to 3 of the 166 UNESCO world heritage sites for geological importance. Pretty sweeeet~

Now I know if you read my last post, you'd know that I'd just got done going to Jeju with my girlfriend! But, let's not pretend like that matters... I'm sure no one I know would pass up a second chance to go to Hawaii... So anyway, we hit up Jeju, and I decided we should make it an effort to see everything I missed the last time I was there (ahem... just 1.5 weeks ago)
The first stop, was scuba diving, and snorkeling on the southern shore of Jeju. My mom hasn't been certified for 30 years, and I'd never gotten certified myself, so I opted for the "discover verson" where they sort of take you on a guided tour of the ocean floor. Think of what it would be like to take a dog for a walk, and you'd get a pretty good idea of what it's like. Pretty awesome though, and following that my mom and I went snorkeling in the tide pools around the area. Really neat!
The next day, we decided to hit up one of the wonders of the island, a place that all koreans know because it famously appears on so many soju advertisements...

...Ok, so maybe I didn't take this specific picture. But it still gives the perfect perspective of where we went! The trail up the to the massive cone wasn't exactly the longest, or the hardest (they had the whole thing paved in very tasteful lava stone steps) but it was definitely the most crowded one I'd been on in Korea! Yikes!

But wait... these clothes... the lack of popped collars on the guys or high heels on the girls... these aren't koreans at all!!! THESE ARE CHINESE!!!! That's right, we hiked this thing, surrounded completely by Chinese people! (Not that that is bad at all, just surprising!) But it really was worth it, and when we got to the top, the view was pretty cool! Coming down, we also had another opportunity for a photo...

Following the hike up the cone, we decided to go to the smaller still island of U-do! it's just a day trip thing, and the island is only like 3km x 4km but it had one of the prettiest beaches I've ever been to! We also made it a point to do some snorkeling there, and found a zillion sand dollars. Really pretty big sand dollars, which we collected, and are now the things I'm giving to my coworkers as souvenirs from my trip!
After this, we decided to go to the Lava Tubes. Another one of the UNESCO herretige sites, which I actually took a lot of pictures in, however my computer seems to have decided to eat them. I don't know if it'll like the taste of lava tunnel pictures enough to keep them, or give them back. But for now, I ain't got em. So here's a stock pic or 3...

So like I said, none of the pics of the tunnels are actually ones I shot, but they're all places in the tunnel I did take pictures of (before they turned into computer food...). The point, is that this is pretty freakin incredible. It sorta reminds me of ghost busters 2 with the river of slime flowing through new york's sewer system... Except it's not slime, it was lava, and it really happened!

The final thing we wanted to do, was hit up the last UNESCO site of the island before we left-- Hallasan Mountain. A dormant volcano, rising 6400 feet strait out of the ocean! Although, given it's shape as a shield volcano, the hike would have been relatively easy and pretty fun. Hallasan also holds the title as Korea's tallest mountian! So, needless to say (if only to rub it in my brother in law's face) I wanted to "High Point" South Korea!!

Unfortunately, as pure as my motives were... It was not to be. There was a ton of rain on the mountain before we went to ascent it, and we were told it would be impossible to climb that day. If you recall, this marks the second time I literally stood at the foot of this peak and turned back. The previous time I wasn't able to climb it due to lack of time. But the bottom line is... Hallasan: 2, Danny: 0

Following this, we hopped on a plane the next morning (at 7AM!!) and were back in Gwangju (my home town) in time for the Mumsatron to get to the international airport in time to make her flight back to the US of A! All in all, a freaking amazing way to spend two weeks, and I'm real excited to get back to the swing of things in school!

My vacation, and my mom's here!

2010-08-16T03:04:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been on vacation for a couple weeks now, and it is greeeeat! Seriously, what job other than a teacher gets the summers off? Maybe the only problem with the Korean summers, is that they are hot and humid, but after a little getting use to it, it's really not all that bad.

My first week of vacation consisted of a big trip with my girlfriend from
Seoul---(via train)-->Geongju--(via train)-->Busan--(via BOAT!)-->Jeju Island---(via BIG BOAT)-->Seoul

It was really pretty spectacular, and if you check out the pictures I loaded onto facebook, you'll be able to see aaaaalll about it!

Geongju-- This is a really historic part of southeastern Korea, where lots of Kings use to live. Theres a lot of temples and it was really pretty sweet. Especially the big mound tombs! Picture 4 story mounds of dirt that are stacked on top of kings' tombs. We rented bikes and went all around the main city, and it was really fun.

Busan--
I'd been to Busan once before with my friend Mark when he came to visit. So this time I wanted to make sure we hit the things I forgot to do before. Namely going to the huuuuuge fish market! It goes on for like a mile, and you can just walk up to some of the vendors and say, "I want that one!" and they'll chop it's head off, cook it for you, and then you eat it! Pretty sweet.
Also, I attempted to teach my girlfriend how to swim. There aren't that many swimming pools in Korea, so not that many people know how to swim. It went pretty well, and now she is sort of able to swim 10 or 15 meters totally by herself!

Jeju--
Jeju Island is really pretty! It's sort of like Korea's version of Hawaii. They have lots of stuff to do there, but it is really hot. Like, around 100+ degrees, and the worst humidity I've ever felt :-( It was alright though, because the first thing we did was rent a scooter and start touring the island next to the ocean! It was pretty much like driving through paradise, and the wind from the scooter kept us cool. Unfortunately, the wind from the scooter kept us too cool to realize we were developing nasty sunburns, so the next day I looked kind of like a lobster, and Eunhye looked like an Indian person. After riding the scooter 1/2 way around the island (100ish km) we went to the beach, swam a bit, and then I went surfing! I've been wanting to surf for the better part of 10 years, but whenever I've been at the beach, the conditions have always sucked. Finally they cooperated, and I was able to use my windsurfing experience to actually get out and ride a bunch of waves! It's really fun!

On the Ferry Boats--
So I'd never taken any boat trip before, but on this vacation, I took two! And we're talking really big, 1000 passenger boats! These things are great! They have a restaurant, a bar, a convenience store, and then different types of rooms. The rooms we stayed in, were really just a massive room where 100 people would sleep on the floor together. No beds, but they did provide blankets and pillows! It's actually much more comfortable than it sounds!
The first night on the boat (there were 2 nights spent on the boat all together) we met these really drunk old guys who only spoke Korean (really difficult accented korean too... ) and wouldn't stop talking for 3 hours! It worked out though, because after the conversation, they decided to give us their room in 1st class! It was like a 200 dollar bump up in accomidations! Yes!!

So all in all we had a really awesome weeklong trip! It was fun to only speak Korean for an entire week (because Eunhye doesn't speak english), and I can't wait to go out on other trips in Korea!

Right now, my mom just flew in from Chicago for two weeks, so I think we're going to go on some more trips soon. Word.

I got a girlfriend

2010-07-31T00:00:00.000-07:00

Well, I'll be brief, but I got a girlfriend. She's nice, can't really speak much english, and we get along really well! Even with the language barrier, we communicate pretty well (we sorta only speak korean)

But yeah, here's a picture!

Summer in Korea

2010-07-26T18:33:00.000-07:00

Well... the weather here is ...Hot. Hot and humid, and the occasional rain storm. Actually the occasional rain storm happens quite a lot. But for the most part, the weather is nice and good for doing outdoor things! I just got back from the Boryang Mud Festival. Something really cool that involves a TON of mud coming from the mud flats in Boryang and then people painting themselves with said mud. And of course the obvious mud wrestling, mud slides, mud body art, and other mud related activities! After we all got cleaned up, there was a pretty sweet hiphop concert with korean rappers and it was really awesome. The next day we sat on the beach for like 4 hours doing nothing but relaxing and drinking rum out of coconuts... Talk about the life!!

I'm also pleased to say my korean is finally starting to allow me to have conversations with people! Sure sure, they're limited conversations, but they are a lot of fun! In one week, I will be going on a trip with a friend who doesn't speak any english! We'll be touring all over Korea for a whole week!

Right now we're teaching summercamp, and what that means is that I only have to work for 1/2 days, and then they let me go home, so I've been filling the time with lots of bike riding, hiking, and meeting friends. I think it'd be pretty easy for me to say that life is good right now!

I definitely miss everything that's happening at home these days, so if anything sweet's been going on since I left, someone let me know in a comment!

It has been a long time without a post...

2010-07-14T22:46:00.000-07:00

Well what can I say... I have been busy!

My good friend Mark Stickler came to visit and for the past 10 days we have been doing things! I took him all over Seoul, and then we checked out all of Gwangju and the surrounding areas. Then we went to BUSAN!! In my mind, I always think of busan as this little resort town, but the fact of the matter is that it's got 3 million people, making it bigger than chicago.... Freaking huge! But the place looked really really cool! We did a TON of stuff too! The only thing I didn't end up doing was go surfing. I really wanted too, but there was no waves... Bah, maybe some day I will get to do that. But either way, it was great having him come to visit. It was nice too, because my korean ability is finally starting to get to a level where I can communicate with people a little bit! Its nice to have those classes start paying off a little bit!

I'm a bad blogger

2010-07-01T19:19:00.000-07:00

So, sorry for not posting much recently... I sort of am bad at this thing I guess.

But anyway, some pretty cool things have happened recently! First off, my school kind of gave me 2 extra weeks of vacation, and second... I'm trying to see if I can turn those two extra weeks into trips to China and Japan! Stupid china though... They require a visa to visit anywhere on the mainland, and it just so happens that that visa is $120 USD to all American citizens... Damn. But since I'll have some extra time, maybe I'll take the 24 hour ferry to China, instead of hopping a plane! I have a feeling it might be cheaper but I'm not sure. I've never really been on a ship for any extended period of time so that might be pretty fun.

The idea of going to Japan is still a rough plan... But it might be a good one? I know I want to check it out some time, but it might be really expensive... Maybe not something I should do back to back with china traveling. But then again... I do have a month of vacation...

Also happening this summer, my Mom is coming to visit and I'm really excited to show her the country! Also, in 5 days, my really good friend Mark Stickler is coming for a visit so I'm more than a little pumped to see him! The guy's been dreaming of Asia, specifically Korea and Japan, for like 10 years. So I'm sure his visit will be a blast!

Quickie

2010-06-21T21:58:00.001-07:00

Really quick note: I'm going to visit china. Details are pending, but comment if you have any suggestions.

Korea is still beautiful

2010-06-21T19:15:00.000-07:00

Man, every time I go for a bike ride here, I always love how beautiful the scenery is. Yesterday I went for another ride, and decided to stop and take a picture. Then I decided that a picture would suck for demonstrating what the place looked like, so I changed my mind and took a video! It's real short, but I hope it gives you an idea of what the scenery is like. PS: the ENTIRE COUNTRY looks like this... and lots of places are better!!!

LangDetectko>en YahooC

ENTIRE country loo

English Festival!!!

2010-06-20T23:04:00.000-07:00

Well, this past week, my school had an english festival!! It was essentially just a bunch of english performances where every kid sang songs, made speeches, or answered trivia questions. Some of the performances were really awesome though. I figure that it would be better to just upload all the stuff I saw, rather than explain it. It might be better this way, because I just know I can't give it justice...

This is a science poster that one of the grade 5 students made. Chemically speaking, as well as english wise, this thing is perfect. I have a feeling he will cure cancer...

These kids have serious skills! Unfortunately...it's only memorized.

My birthday, hiking, and summer weather...

2010-06-15T17:36:00.000-07:00

So, It's been a long time since I posted much here. Sorry bout that, I've been pretty busy. On June 1st, I had my birthday! It was nice and Koreans celebrate birthdays in the same way we do in America. Nice! My teachers got me a cake, and we ate it together. It was tasty. Then, my friends got me another cake later and I ate that too! It was also delicious!
The day after my birthday, I did a pretty epic hike over like 5-6 mountains, that covered 25km and took 8 hours! This country is really beautiful.

Following the birthday, I had a party a few days later where we tried to barbecue with a grill I have. At first, we tried to do this in the park, but I found out that no fires are allowed ANYWHERE IN KOREA!!! So we went back to my apartment and had a party in my house. It got kind of noisy and my landlord came and asked us to be quiet, but it wasnt that bad. I had a korean friend talk with her!

Since then, I've been riding my bike, riding my scooter, going to korean class, and really not all that much else that is significantly different than the past 3 months... At the same time, everything is so significantly different from my life 4 months ago, that it might be an understatment to say things have been normal...Either way, the weather is getting hot~ I hear korea's temperatures in the summer are similar to chicago, but that they have MUCH more humidity... Damn. At least my apartment has AC!

Delivery scooter!!

2010-06-11T01:54:00.001-07:00

This definitely makes my bike look stereotypical... That's chicken in the back! ^^

- Posted from my iPhone

I bought a motorcycle

2010-06-02T21:49:00.000-07:00

I decided all this walking and bus taking was getting old. So I bought a Daelim Citi Ace 110 motorcycle.

Now, calling it a motorcycle is kind of a stretch... but it's got gears and rides like a motorcycle, and is really fun! As an added plus (maybe a minus) it's the exact same scooter used by ALL the delivery men!! It tops out at around 120km/h which is plenty fast for me, and lets me get out of the city into some really pretty areas of the country! Sweeeet

Apartment Video

2010-05-26T17:41:00.000-07:00

Here's the link to my new apartment! I told you I'd get it up eventually.

Stuffed animals make great teaching tools!

2010-05-24T16:49:00.000-07:00

I remember back in high school when my foreign language teacher, a lovely woman named "Frau Ewald" use to use a stuffed animal she called Ralf der Rat! He helped with dialogs and answered questions in a funny voice and what not. Now at the time, I thought she was an idiot and it was just a dumb idea and a gimmick. Man oh man was I wrong!

Now I personally have 3 stuffed animals that I use to teach with! They're AWESOME! They all have different voices, different personalities, and they keep the kids focused. Perhaps the best use of them though, is as a projectile to throw at an unsuspecting sleeping child =D See, their soft fluffy exterior makes them the perfect weapon to ward off "english class bordem!"

Listed from left to right, we have...

MIGHTY MOUSE!!! Dwegi Tokki Montgomery!!!
(Pig Rabbit in Korean)

Basically... I couldn't teach without them!!

Sushi is delicious

2010-05-23T01:35:00.001-07:00

So I went to a sushi place with a friend and it was aaaaamazing! I mean, like realy really tastey! It's similar to japan, where they have sushi that goes around in a loop on this conveyer belt. Mega cool:

The sushi wasn't prepared in roll form, but instead it was a mix of sashimi, sushi pieces, and even cooked rice and fish.

It almost all came with topings and other things to make it better!

This one looks like a monster ^^

Those things on the top are salmon eggs! And they are deeelicious!

I told the sushi chef how good everything was, and he made me this for free!!! Heck yes!!

So, how much did this feast cost? Well, if we were in America, the amount and quality of sushi my friend and I ate would probably come out to something like 40-50 bucks. Ouch! But in korea? A mere 10 bucks each!! That's what I'm talkin about!!

Just had my first science class

2010-05-13T01:09:00.000-07:00

So I should be going home now, but I'm pretty pumped. I just had my first science class, and it was awesome! Like, it was really really cool. I taught the kids about the science of trees and plants. I totally had to change my lesson plan on the fly though because of the following...

My original lesson plan was to teach what kinds of trees are where. Then I ask a basic intro question, "what do trees do." I was hoping to get a response like, "they grow!" buuuut everyone started explaining in broken english how they breath CO2!!! Waaaa! I guess they were a little smarter than my initial lesson plan had been created for.

So we went more indepth into how the tree actually functions, then we went outside for some good old "observational science"!! We drew pictures of plants and leaves, ect... and came back and talked about stuff. All in all, it was waaaaaaaaaaaaay more fun than teaching english! Maybe the coolest part, is that when I accidentally became reeally enthusiastic about the scientific method (haha, I swear I couldn't help it--it's just so cool!), the kids got really excited about it too! Teaching is fun.

Korean bike riding is awesome

2010-05-08T01:41:00.001-07:00

So I went for a bike ride today. All in all, it was 60km, and had a bunch of really hard climbs but it was really awesome! The riding here again, is great! I was talking with my friend Derek last night, (he's teaching here too and is a real strong rider) and we both agree that the kind of bike riding here is the kind of riding we would acually drive hours to get to in America! It's pretty sweet. As a plus too, I stopped at a fruit stand and asked for some fruit and because I asked in Korean, he gave me some for free! Yes!

Even if you're not into cycling, the scenery here is beautiful. Even when captured on a crappy phone camera:

At the top of a killer climb.

Gwangju is Awesome!

2010-05-04T23:49:00.000-07:00

So for ya'll who haven't been keeping tabs, I first got to Korea 2 months ago, and lived in an urban area named Bundang. It was ok, but 90 minutes from my job. Lame. Just on Saturday, I moved to a place 5 minutes away from my school in the town I work in named Gwangju. Sweet. I also really like it in gwangju cause it's much quieter and i feel like a part of the community. Now you're caught up.

So I went biking today. It was freaking amazing! For all the cyclists reading this blog right now, this is for you: The roads around my town are almost exactly like the spring training camp area in the North Georgia mountains. Maybe just a hair more cars, but it's not bad at all. Seriously--it's AWESOME riding! The weather was really great today, and I think I started my "cyclist's tan"

I moved, and got my computer back!

2010-05-03T23:38:00.001-07:00

Word. So lots of stuff has happened in the last 4 or so days. I'm in a bit of a hurry, so I'm not going to write too much, but...

I MOVED! Now instead of being 90 minutes away from my school, I'm only a 5 minute walk! SWEET! It's also nice for several other reasons--For starters, now everything I want to buy is muuuuch cheaper. My normal breakfest is Kimbap (like sushi, but no raw fish) and in my old house, it was 3 dollars. In my new place, it's only 1!! Also, I get to see my students. Maybe some people would think this isn't a good thing, but I really enjoy it. I feel like I'm more a part of the community this way. My new house is also much better. There's only one floor, and I think it's a little bigger too. Plus, they're literally finishing it as we speak. So it's braaaaand new! It's also in a nice, quiet area. Next post I will upload photos, I promise.

Also, I made an expedition into Seoul to get my computer back. Fiiiinally I can type things more easily (like this blog post).

So yeah. I'll catch ya'll up on the rest of things, but I should have more time now that I don't need to have 3 hours of commuting every day.

I'm fiiinally moving!

2010-04-27T19:27:00.000-07:00

So. The time has come for me to leave my appartment. I'm moving into a better one that is not 90 minutes away from my school. This one is only a 5 or 10 minute walk! Ohhh Yeah! Also this one will only be one floor. Which I think is a good thing. Also, it will have some of those traditional sliding oriental doors, and a bedroom, a big bathroom, and a living room/kitchen. It's also got a sweet spot I can keep my bikes that is part of the closet and washing machine room. All together, it looks like it'll be awesome! It's also not even finished being built yet! But they will finish in 3 days I think, so I will move in then! Exciting! I promise I will upload pictures when they're done too! Maybe another video? =D

But. Also, MY COMPUTER IS FIXED!! Good god it's been annoying. Seriously, I've done all my online things either at school, or on my phone. It gets reeeeally irritating to browse the internet on a 3.5" screen... Blech. But the only problem is that I now need to pick the computer up. And that's faaaar away. Oh well. I'll take the bus for 2 hours I guess...

Which brings me to my next point. Maybe I will buy a car? I can get one for like 1000 bucks, and insurance is only 300 dollars for the whole year. So maaaaybe I could snag one for my trips into seoul? I'm not sure yet if I'm going to, but I do know that I'm pretty bored of the whole bus situation here. There's just too much time wasted doing nothing but sitting--and when there's so much to do in Korea, that's the last thing I wanna be doing.

I Made Business Cards! ...And I went to teacher training finally!

2010-04-22T21:13:00.000-07:00

So How many jobs demand the best performance from you for a whole month and a half, and THEN send you to orientation and training?

TEACHING IN KOREA!

Actually it's not that bad a system, because you sort of learn the ropes, and find out what to expect before going. Then you can have a whole slew of questions by the time you show up. And so that's what it was like for me. I didn't really learn too much more about how to be a successful teacher I thought....... but it definitely seems like the kids are better behaved now, when compared to before I went. So maybe it helped?

Another pretty freaking--no, REALLY awesome thing has happened. I MADE BUSINESS CARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So now, not only am I a legitimate professional, but I have a card to give to drunk salary men that proves it! The style in korea is to have your card be two sided, with the english version on one side, and the korean version on the other. All in all, I think it's pretty sweet looking, but why don't YOU be the judge and leave a comment about it?

Click on my ads!

2010-04-13T18:50:00.000-07:00

So I have these annoying ads on my blog, but they make a surprising amount of money for me if you just click on them! Like seriously, that's it!

If everyone who looks at the blog clicks one ad, I'm not kidding, I'll have beer money for a month!

So... click the ads?

Well um finally fixing my computer

2010-04-09T21:35:00.001-07:00

So I can't promise anything, but I will try to get my computer fixed today. I'm venturing into Seoul as I type this on my phone, and I currently don't have any Korean friend comig with me... Hope the apple store speaks some English!
But anyway, this weeks been prett crazy! I sorta had gotten behind a work the first month cause of being new and not habit a solid grasp of how everything worked. So this week had been dedicated to catching up!! It worked, but boy was it busy! Also all that socalizing has finally started to be paying off, and I had dinner with dates and friends EVERY night last week! I'm pretty happy forthe weekend to be able to catch up on some rest.
I think I'm going to post my one month impressions of living inthe culture here when I have a bit more time, and when I can type with more than just my thumbs...(it's surprisingly tiring for them!!). It's almost all good impressions, and will perhaps do a better job of explaining why I like it here so much!

Went for another bike ride

2010-04-04T07:23:00.000-07:00

Well, I went for more bike riding today! It was a shorter ride because I'm not really sure where to go in this country yet... But still fun! The weather was freaking awesome! I actually ended up at an army base somehow and saw all these official looking Koreans standing guard. Pretty cool.

Well one more week went by with my computer still sick. I really should stop being a dummy and get it fixed... It's just that Seoul is sooo far away! (only like an hour; but there's so many funner things to do besides getting a computer fixed on a Saturday...). So again this is coming from my phone. Bah.

Hopefully everyone's Easter went well!

Portible bike shops!!

2010-04-03T01:21:00.001-07:00

So I'm currently out doing a bike ride, and what do I see? A portable bike shop!! Waaaa!!! Korea's awesome! They sell ramen and a ton of other stuff too! EVEN KOREAN WINE!!!!! Waaaa!

- Posted from my iPhone

Screw Korea. I hate it here

2010-03-31T22:41:00.000-07:00

Screw Korea. Everyone's mean. I hate teaching and I'm bored of everything. The food sucks and honestly, I flat out hate teaching. Like seriously parents--raise your own kids.

I'm going to be scheduling a plane home in the next week or two, so you can all see me sooner than you thought.

Oh, and by the way--April fools from Korea! They celebrate it here too!!

I love Korea!

2010-03-29T06:38:00.001-07:00

I saw this ad in a subway station. Have I mentioned I love Korea yet?

My appartment video!

2010-03-28T21:59:00.000-07:00

So my computer's sick. Like really sick. I tried to fix him, but whatever's wrong is more than I'm able to handle myself. Oh well, it's got applecare on it and there's an apple store in Seoul, so next weekend I'll fix it. It's really not that bad either, because the iphone's practically it's own minicomputer. Seriously.

For example--I shot a video of my apartment and then uploaded it to youtube using the thing! Which brings me to my next point--I took a video of my apartment! It's below, and hopefully ya'll enjoy seeing what a korean apartment looks like. For the record, I usually make my bed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omSZDpOFwqc

Another morning post

2010-03-24T15:38:00.001-07:00

Well, another quick post this morning. I'll post a bigger one after the weekend but for now this is just me checking in.
So basically, the fact is that due to my schedule and the time change here versus the US, it's really hard to call people. So what that means, is that if anyone wants to talk to me over the phone, you better make an appointment! It's really cheap, but just kind of hard to find the time. So let me know when we should talk, I want to catch up with everyone!

- Posted from my iPhone

Location:Bus to work

iPhone acquired.

2010-03-22T16:02:00.001-07:00

So here's the deal. This is the first post coming off my brand new iPhone! Pretty sweet. The funny thing is that even with all the sweet tech stuff korea's got, the iPhone is still hands down the best phone out anywhere. Gotta freaking love apple! Anyway, this is coming from my morning commute on the bus, and here's a picture to prove it.

Word.

- Posted from my iPhone

MORE Pictures! Hiking and teacher party

2010-03-20T19:56:00.001-07:00

Last weekend I went out hiking with my friend Derek, and a korean guy named Peter. Peter speaks really good english and we've been hanging out a lot. Plus he's using his connections here to get me an Iphone, which is pretty cool!

The mountains in korea are a lot smaller than the rockies or sierras in america, but things are still really pretty. Here's the proof...

So there's like a zillion people who hike in Korea. These people are ALL going to the mountain... Good thing we decided to go to the less crowded one.

Korea's pretty.

Thats my friend, Derek. He's the one who got me the job, and a frequent hiking partner.

So this weekend has been pretty sweet too! Friday night we had a big dinner for school because there are like 10 new teachers, including ...me! So we all went out to dinner, which consisted of the usual "old people get drunk and try to get the young people drunk too" thing. I managed to avoid the old teachers enough to avoid getting completely drunk =)
Following the dinner, we all definitely went to a Kareoke room. All 50 of us. For the record, I'm the 2nd youngest teacher at the school, and almost everyone is at least 40. In korea it's a little different though, and partying with older coworkers is pretty freakin awesome. They definitely got more into the singing than anyone else I've been with, and reeally loved it when I busted out Help! by the beatles.

For the record, the principal definitely made me dance with him. Haha, I mean like swing dance style. I love my job!

Honestly tell me you don't want to get to know a guy with a face like that?

Yup--like I said--they reeeeeally get into the singing. It's pretty hardcore.

But anyway, things continue to go very well here! The school has finally accepted me as a "good" foreigner, which means things are a lot more relaxed and have a better flow at work now. Life is pretty sweet at the moment, and I'm expecting things to keep up like this.

Word.

I'm getting a new phone!

2010-03-20T08:59:00.001-07:00

So a short update tonight, and a longer one will come tomorrow. I'm getting a phone finally! Sure sure, I've had a cheapo pay as you go thing that is rediculiously expensive, but now I'm getting a nicer one. I'm thinking... IPhone? I debated for a while, cause Korea's got some pretty sweet technology in the phone department... but seriously. It's a freakin Iphone!

I'm a Science Teacher!

2010-03-15T22:15:00.000-07:00

So I've been forgetting to mention this for like 2 weeks now-- I'm also a science teacher!

When I first got to the school, my principal really liked the fact that I have a degree in environmental chemistry, so he asked me to start teaching grade 4, 5, and 6 science! It'll be a supplemental science course in addition to the normal curriculum, and I'm teaching it in english.

The best part is that I get to make my own lesson plans, and so I'm going to be teaching the science of nature! I'm thinking of structuring it kind of like how I would teach an outdoor education class, but from the perspective of indoors. Koreans really love nature and hiking and all that, so I think it will be really well recieved.

But... here's to actually using my college degree!!

Bargaining and shopping

2010-03-15T20:51:00.000-07:00

Just a short post before classes start again.

Things are still going pretty solid here! Classes are smooth, and the kids are good. I've been doing some shopping for clothes the past few days, and I've learned that Korea's interesting. They're kind of a mixed country, with some people being really rich and some people not so much. So depending on where I go to buy my clothes makes a BIG difference in price! I'm currently wearing a pretty nice dress shirt I bought for 5 bucks, but if I went to a department store, I'd be spending about 50 bucks for the same thing. It's all about the bargaining too! People tend to see a westerner and try to charge me more money sometimes... but almost always I can get a (sometimes significant) discount if I offer a lower price in Korean. I looove bargaining, so it's fine! It actually makes shopping fun!

Over the weekend I hit up a big mountain near Seoul National University. All of the mountains here are smaller than america--the biggest one is like 1600 meters (around 5000 feet) but they've still got some exposed rock, and are a blast to climb!
We also went to a Noribang (kareoke room) again with like 10 people so it was an adventure in itself.

Later today, all the male teachers are going out for dinner (probably drinking too) and it should be fun. Since they're older then me, they'll probably only speak in Korean, so it should be good practice to get some listening skills down!

Let me know if you've got specific questions about life here too! I'll be quite happy to fill ya in on anything! Catch ya'll later!

PICTURES!!!

2010-03-12T09:20:00.001-08:00

Well, I promised...and here they are! See... my internet has sorta been slow coming, but it's here now! (Temporarially anyway =) )

Maybe some news before the pictures though... and I can't remember if I said this or not, but whatevers. I think I'm going to move to the smaller town of Gwangju, which is the same place that I actually teach. It's a less populated city than my current Bundang, but the fact is that everything is MUCH less expensive. MUCH MUCH MUCH less expensive! Like, seriously. Also, the pace of life moves slower there, and there are less foreigners there to interact with. (I really only try to hang out with koreans. Helps learn the language much quicker I've been told. Thanks Uncle Johnny =) ) But anyway, Gwangju is a town of around 40-60,000 people so it's really got everything I'd need. Plus, it's an easy busu (korean for bus) ride into Seoul, and there are MOUNTAINS EVERYWHERE!! Like, Gwangju is in a valley and there's monster hiking everywhere!

But perhaps the most important reason for the move? I've got a freaking 1.5 HOUR COMMUTE BY BUS!!! BAAAAH!! As you can tell, I really hate the commute. It's unpredictible, and I keep ending up almost late for work--no matter when I leave. Weird. But yeah, the fact that I'd be essentially 5 minutes away from school via a nice walk through town is quite appealing!

I've also been studying korean like a madman! I can now have conversations with people! ...weeelll... they're very short, broken, and require the occasional use of a pocket dictionary, but hey man--it's still a conversation in Korean! Heck Yes! Along this line, I also started going to Korean classes every tuesday and thursday nights. That, plus a "total immersion" style of living where I either try to be:

Going to Korean class

Listening to Korean music

Watching something in Korean on TV

having a conversation with Korean people

reading like every sign I see (to increase my written korean reading speed...)

and I think I'll learn this language pretty fast! ...well, that's the hope anyway. I guess we'll have to wait and see. OK--on to the pictures!

So it's really Hard to explain jsut what the streets here look like. Most Koreans live in an appartment complex that's got like 5000 people in it. For all you nerds who would remember this--think like a simcity 2000 "arcology". But because of this, you've got the residential areas built strait up, and away from the ground level. This leaves almost all buildings on street level, and sometimes up to like the 10th floor FULL of shops! Check out these pictures! IT'S ALL LIKE THIS HERE!!!!!!! No Joke!!

I tried to do a good job here of showing just what this JAMMED IN shopping is like. Hmmm... Perhaps if you think of shopping for ADD kids, you'd get a good idea of what it's like =)

OK. So 3 things here to notice that are pretty freakin awesome.

1.) That is DEFINITELY the beissinger family calander that is in my classroom! I totally use it for english lessons on family.

2.) I am wearing crocs at work! Korean culture dictates that you have indoor and outdoor shoes, and these are considered very professional for school. Talk about living the freaking life! I walk around in maximum comfort, aaaaaall day long. You can start being envious.... now.

3.) THERE IS A JACKALOPE IN MY CLASSROOM!!!!! His name is Montgomery.

...Oh yeah. You can call me Mr. Beissinger. I'm a freakin teacher!

Is there anywhere this hasn't gotten too yet?

During a hike up a mountain, we found an old military bunker. I decided to explore!

At the top of the mountain, we got a big view of Seoul. Remember, this is the world's 2nd or 3rd largest city, depending on who's counting. Only Tokyo's bigger. We're talking a city of 25 MILLION PEOPLE!!!

AKA, Seoul is big.

Really Big...

Really freakin holy shit big. It's pretty unbelievible.

Some of my new friends! The tall guy's my friend Derek Laan who got me the job teaching. We met through Bike Racing.

So I'm totally drinking out of a communal watering hole with a water pail. They have this stuff aaall over the mountian! Plus workout equipment, benches, and really well maintained stuff. (Like bunkers =) )

Wait a minute... are those Microphones? Koreans...? A small room and song books? Ohhh no...

OH HELL YES! We're in a singing room (Noribang in korean)!! It's pretty much a private Kareoke room!! WAAA AWESOME!! These are EVERYWHERE in Korea! The best part, is that the place we were at is actually spelled in the korean alphabet to sound like "Shitty Noribang"! Coincidence? I'm not so sure...

Ooooh yeah, Korean students!! I have yet to find out the reason for the facemasks. I'd assume something about Hygiene, but I'll get back to ya'll with the details on that in a little bit. This is one of my 10 6th grade classes. You better believe they love english!

Yup. You guessed it--MORE KOREANS!!

Yup, I'm as suprised as you. I'm an actual professional!

For the record, I like going to work in a tie, and I am in some hardcore need of some "asian skinny ties!" They're more fasionable you see.

Waaaah. Loooong post. But a good one! Hope this gives ya'll some insight into my life here! If you're real anxious for a phonecall, I can try to find out a way to make some time, but no promises, ya know? Either way, I hope life is going well for everyone, and I'll shoot out another update after the weekend! Saturday, I'm going with my co-teacher to the famous Korean electronics market, "Yungsan market" to get a charger for my smaller camera and look at stuff. It's suppose to be pretty hardcore! The later a friend has a big birthday party I'm gonna go too, and then sunday we're going to go climb a bigger and badder mountain! Exciting!

Pictures will come soon...

2010-03-07T22:51:00.000-08:00

Well, I did take a bunch of pictures...
And I did upload them to my computer...
But I don't have the internet on that computer to do anything with them! So I promise they'll come soon.

I've been busy though! Life here does move fast! There's a Korean word, "Pallae" that means "hurry!" and it kinda describes the flow of things here! It's alright though cause I'm just fine with moving quickly!
I've been teaching for 3-4 days now, and the kids are awesome. The only difference here versus the US is that before I'd use sarcasm and jokes to get them to laugh and convey humor but now I gotta use grunts and body language. It works pretty well =) You'd be surprised by how much you can get across to someone with just a few grunts and points and actions! For the record I'm gonna be pretty fantastic at sharades when I get back home! I've also started working in some broken korean when I'm teaching. This also goes super far in helping teach!

Anyway, I met up with my friend Derek Laan from Purdue, Indiana this weekend! He's the one who suggested I come out here to teach, and it was nice to finally catch up with him! He's been learning Korean like it's going outta style, so it was good hanging out with him because he can communicate with people waaay better than I can! I met a bunch of his friends too, and we all had fun! Friday night I went north of Seoul and stayed with one of Derek's friends where we went out and ate barbecue, then went to a "shooting room" which was like a arcade room where you shoot at ping pong balls with a BB gun. Pretty crazy man. We drank some soju after that with his friends and ended up going to sleep pretty late!

The next day we went to buy some supplies for me, and I GOT A PHONE!! This is a big deal, because before that, I'd just been living off a piece of paper and email. I know, I know--I'm a nerd and I feel naked without a phone. Derek's friend Peter gave it to me, and it's really old and may break soon, but until I get my Alien Registration Card, It's all I got! It's kinda cool though, because it's got this "Cow" skin on it, and the korean word for cow sounds like "so". So I tell people it's my "so phone" =D It takes them a sec to realize I'm speaking korean, and not misspeaking "cell phone"!

After I got the phone, we met up with two of Derek's friends who are Canadian english teachers, and went up and climbed a big mountain in Seoul! It was probably about 300M tall, and gave a fantastic view of Seoul from the top. I'll include the pictures when I post next. (Seoul is pretty freakin huge)

After that we met up with like 6 other people (all korean, except for one girl named Sophia from Katar!) and then went out to dinner. As always it was mega tasty, but after that the fun really started! I had my virgin trip to a "Noribang" which is VERY popular in Korea! It's directly translated into a "singing room" and it's pretty much a collection of 5 or 6 private karaoke rooms you go in with your friends and sing in! Ours was (seriously) called "Shitty Noribang!" It could have been a coincidence that its korean name just sounded like the english "shitty" ...but then again... =D

Anyway, I'm actually going to be moving to Gwangju after all. The lease is up in Pundang in a month, and I could stay there, but the commute is sometimes 1.5 hours!!! Way too Long!!! It's also SUPER EXPENSIVE in Bundang. So I'm gonna move to Gwangju where my school is. There's a ton of direct buses to Seoul, and pretty much anywhere I want to go. Anywhere I can't get to by bus, I'm planning on getting a motorcycle too--so that should cover my bases.

So next post, I'll upload the pictures. They're pretty sweet I think =)

I'm here. And it's fantastic.

2010-03-03T23:46:00.001-08:00

Aie Aie Aie.

No Phone for a couple weeks (until I get my alien registration card). No internet for a couple more days... I pretty much can't have a conversation with ANYONE I see... I feel like I'm disconnected from the world, even though I'm in one of the most tech'd out cities with the 2nd biggest population in the world!

Now don't get me wrong--it's still freaking amazing! I'm having a blast, the kids are great (not much difference between Korean, and American children. Except the whole language thing... but whateves) and I feel like a celebrity everywhere I go!

Most people are surprised at how "good" my Korean is... But I have no idea why they think it's good... I'm able to get around with some survival stuff. And say "sorry", "excuse me", "hello", and "thankyou" a whole bunch. However I've found that if you add a bunch of bowing to that mix, people seem to warm up to you pretty quickly =D

But either way, I gotta work on my Korean! I wanna be able to communicate with everyone! They seem cool!

Packing!

2010-02-28T13:12:00.001-08:00

Aieeeee!

I'm leaving the country for a freakin YEAR tomorrow!  Packing sure is tiring.  It's pretty fun at the same time though.

Seriously though--it's a big resolution of mine to live minimalistically!  The goal is NOT to bring everything and the kitchen sink along with me. Haha, for everyone who knows me well in the states, you're reading right--I'm trying not to "aquire a ton of crap" anymore!  I'll tell ya'll how that works out in a year I suppose!

My last week in AMERICA!!!

2010-02-22T14:18:00.001-08:00

Well, as per the title of the post, I've just entered the last week of my life in the US of A! Talk about exciting! If all continues to go as planned, I'll be flying out of the country some time, Friday evening! I'm now currently well into the stage of packing, tying up loose ends, and officially saying goodbye to some really great people in my life. Hmm--"goodbye" seems rather dramatic, now that I look at it. Perhaps it's not goodbye, it's just good night. (props to anyone who catches the quote there) For all you guys who constantly keep demanding me to email/write to ya, follow the freakin blog! Plus, if you leave a comment on here...I'll probably respond to that too!

Either way, I'd like to use this post as sort of a sort of fairwell to everyone here in the states. I'll be back soon, but I will definitely miss all you guys. Most importantly, it's because of all your connections, friendships, and support that I'm able to follow this path in life. I am well aware of this, and I'll always remember it.

So word! The next post ya'll read will most likely be typed from the other side of the world! All the best, and until then, be keepin it real!

A little change of plans, and progress!

2010-01-27T21:02:00.001-08:00

Well, a couple things happened. First, I got a call from my recruiter today (the person who got me the job). She explained that the school had to change the location of where I'm going to live. Instead of being in the small rural city of Gwangju, I'll have an appartment in the larger city of Bundang. It's got nearly 500,000 people in it as opposed to Gwangju's 30,000 however it's still only considered one of Seoul's suburbs. You see, Seoul's just really freakin big. Anyway, this means I'll have roughly a 20-25 mile commute between my home and school. I was kind of worried about this at first, but I've been told that Bundang's way more hoppin' than Gwangju, so I'm sure it'll be awesome! I'm still trying to find out if it'd be close enough for me to get to work via motorcycle. That'd be pretty cool. Descriptions of Bundang say it's got a really pretty river running through the middle of town, so I'm pretty pumped to check that out! Maybe...swimming? Hopefully it'll be cleaner than the old Chicago River...

Second, I just sent all my documents to Korea! If you're wondering how to say that in the native tongue... 나는 서류을 Fedex으로 송신했다! FYI--that sentence was brought to you without the help of translators. All these hours of studying the language are starting to pay off maybe.
But what this means, is that now I just need to apply for a visa, and I'll be totally good to go! Wooo boy am I getting excited.

K-Pop

2010-01-25T13:20:00.000-08:00

Holy mackeral! I've been checking out Korean culture the past few days, and I've come to one conclusion:

Koreans know how do make pop music. Check this out:

Just another cliche travel blog...

2010-01-19T21:15:00.001-08:00

So I graduated from college in December. I got a job teaching English over in Korea, and that means I'm leaving the country and probably doing some additional traveling. Obviously, that means I need to make one of those "travel blogs" that seem to be all the rage these days. Sure sure, I know it's been done like a million times already, but whatever--I'm fine following the norm sometimes. Plus, let's be realistic: The travel blog is a good idea! This way, the next time you're grinding out the old 9-to-5, you've got someone to live vicariously through. Plus, ya'll know I talk a lot. Seems like a win-win, eh?

But moving along, let's get serious: Why Korea? (Specifically South Korea. I hear it's the friendlier of the two..) Well honestly, after I graduated, I only knew two things. First, I wanted the get the hell outta America. Sure sure, it's a nice country, but I want to see what's out there. I also really want to dive into another culture and be a total stranger that has to work to fit in. Second, I wanted to teach something. See, I'm a big fan of exploring the world, but I also want to try to make it a better place, and teaching kids is my preferred method.

With these two requirements in mind, I really didn't care where I went, cause everywhere I looked seemed cool. One of my friends from the Purdue Cycling Team suggested I go teach in Korea, since he was doing the same thing a semester before me. It sounded good, and he gave me the contact information of the recruiter for the job, and bam! Just like that, I got a job teaching elementary school in a small town called Gwangju about an hour and a half south-east of Seoul. Sometimes life just falls into place like that, and it's always a beautiful thing.

Anyway, the Korean term doesn't start until March 2nd, so until then I'm getting ready to go abroad for a year or two (we'll see I suppose), and performing a self taught crash course in the Korean language. Things are going well, and with some luck, I'll be decent enough at the language to have broken conversation with my students (boy I hope so anyway!). A huge goal of mine is to become fluent/conversational in Korean by the end of all this!

I guess I'll be updating this thing sometimes, probably more and more when it gets closer to when I leave, but until then--anyiang! (good bye)