The End of a Journey (and the Beginning of Another)

So I realize I haven't updated this in months. And I believe I've already apologized for this in an earlier post so, whatever. I think I transitioned as a person while I was in Korea.
My initial blog posts were "Oh wow! Look at me! I'm on the outside looking in! This is so strange! I must document it!"
But then at some point...I just became a part of Korea.
And maybe part of it is just that...what happened to me here eventually became far too personal to write down. Nothing that happened to me after I stopped writing this seemed consequential enough to write down. I did plenty of interesting things (like how I visited the Tim Burton exhibit in Seoul and took tons of awesome illegal photos that I still haven't gotten off my ass and uploaded) but those didn't seem to be my priority for being in Korea anymore. And this blog has always been more for me than for you anyway. So I didn't write about it. I didn't have time to write about it. I became insanely busy building my life.
Packing my suitcases today, I came across trinkets and letters (as one often does) that became a sort of trail of breadcrumbs back through my memories of my time here in Korea. Some of them terrible, some of them euphoric, but all of them necessary. And while following this trail back, I slowly began to realize who I am now is not at all the same man who started this journey. And I think that's a good thing.
I have so many people to thank..people who influenced me, for better or for worse, and taught me so much about myself.
So first I suppose I should start with thanking the people, even if they may never read this:

Part 1 of 3 - The Year Book (Goodbyes I'll Never Be Brave Enough To Say):
Robin: You will always be first on this list. You can't even speak English, you asshole. You taught me how to DJ and..more than that...you pushed me to be a good DJ. You acted like an older brother to me. You pushed me out of the nest before I was ready, let me fall on my face, then pushed me out over and over again. You carried me so far and you never ever had to. You changed my life forever.

Chris: While I'm talking about mentors, I can't forget you. You've had so much patience with me and my utter lack of music production knowledge. You've helped me every step of the way (and fuck you if you think you're done teaching me yet) and never given up despite the insane learning curve. You really brought me back to music and made me realize how much I love it and want to marry it and should have never left it.

Vivian: You are my best friend in Korea...and probably one of the best friends I will ever have in the world. You taught me not all Korean girls are crazy and some even think like Western girls (but sometimes you need a "Korean girl" emotional handicap anyway ;P). I hate how you think that I will forget about you when I'm back in America. There aren't many people like you in the world, let alone in Korea.

Britta: The opposite of Vivian...you taught me not all foreigners in Korea are xenophobic, cultural isolationists. No one else likes to party with Koreans as much as you and I do and I hope you'll be around for a bit when I get back so we can watch one last drunken sunrise together.

Kyungnam: You and Hyejin are also my best friends in Korea and it's so weird that we met so randomly at Zedd's concert. Who knew we would be this close? World DJ Fest and Ultra were so much fun. I really hope some day we can DJ together on stage. Inch and Flo #1 DJ Duo. I'm really sad you're going to America when I'm going back to Korea. But it's selfish of me to make you stay for me =P I hope you go to Florida. I will make sure everyone there treats you really well and you'll have a great time.

Hyejin: You are so fucking adorable. It's king of amusing how we get along so well even though I barely speak Korean and you barely speak English. Usually that would be uncomfortable, but with you I'm always happy. I hope we still hang out a lot even after Kyungnam goes to America. You're my music festival buddy! And you till have to make my DJ logo!

Bora/Gina: You guys were my first real friends in Korea. I think, just like any first real relationship, we just made a mess of things and never really fixed it. I hope we can soon. I honestly would probably have left Korea after my first few months if it wasn't for you. You pushed me to chase my dreams and did everything you could to help me succeed. I hope some day I can replay that favor.

Naz: Just like with Bora and Gina...I'm not sure what went wrong between us or why we never bothered to fix it. We're stubborn assholes, I guess. Interestingly, I've never really seen the side of Naz that becomes the legends of foreigners across Gyeongsangnam-do, but I've seen a different side of you that many people don't typically get to see, I think. And we've been in some shit together ourselves. I hope everything goes well for you and I really have no doubt it will. You have an infectious quality about you I can only just marvel at.

Walker: I'm really stoked we're both moving to Daegu next year. I like your vibe and how you can just be yourself regardless of the company you're with. I don't think I ever told you that. Sometimes you're fucking awkward, but you're always yourself, always honest, and there's a lot the be said for that.

Bongsun: Fuck. We didn't hang out as much as I wanted to at all, but that's understandable because you are a university student and really busy. Your design work is amazing and you shouldn't worry so much about getting a job. I'm sure you will have no trouble. Be confident! I want to see you more when I come back!

DJ JunH/DJ EPIK/DJ Robby: I loved playing with you guys at Club MK and The Nin9. You are like brothers to me. I wish our lives weren't so crazy and we could have hung out more. Someday we will all DJ together again. I learn so much from each of you. Robby...keep practicing. You have a lot of talent and you will become a great DJ yourself someday if you just keep fighting. Always have confidence in yourself!

Casey: I've said this a thousand times, but fuck it I'll say it again. Fuck you. Come back to Korea. I miss you. Seriously. You're my other half. I'm going to be as gay about this as possible. It's kind of good you left, because I think I was so happy just chilling with you all the time, I don't think I would have had the drive to pursue DJing or anything if you were still here. But now that I've found myself, it's safe for you to come back, okay?

Caitlin: I think we've come to realize our personalities mix about as well as oil and water. I'm sorry for getting drunk and vomiting all over your bathroom on New Year's Eve. I don't usually throw up. It was one hell of a party. Regardless of how much stress we cause each other though, you're still an awesome person and also one of the reasons I survived Korea. If you hadn't found me, terrified and entrenched in my apartment, I would probably have bought the first ticket home after month 3.

Hyerim: My first Korean friend! You suck and moved to Australia before we could get really close, but next year in Daegu will be amazing! I hope you're as excited as I am.

All the great people I've met foreigner and native alike in Korea: Seriously wish I wasn't so anti-social/busy at times so I could have spent more time with you. There's so many great people in Changwon, each doing amazing things. I have no idea how people like Sunil can orchestrate a full theatrical production in a foreign country. Or how John, Heather and Tamas can organize these giant events and facebook groups and keep everyone in the know and really make Changwon's foreigner culture blossom. Or how James can join an intercity soccer league in Korea. Or how Conrad can race motorcycles competitively in Korea. All of you do such amazing things and were part of inspiring me to find myself, my niche, and you're all great drinking company besides!


Okay...now that that is done...for the rest of you out there...back in the states or elsewhere. Here are some things I've learned in Korea that I shouldn't have had to travel across the world to learn. So I'll present them to you here so you don't have to (even though you really should):

Part 2 of 3 - Advice From A Greenhorn Living Abroad:

1) Do what you really want to do...by any means necessary. This seems like a no-brainer...but seriously. I changed majors like 10 times in college and gave up doing many things I loved because someone along the way told me "these's no career in this" or "you'll never make money doing this". I gave up drawing, gave up writing...and worst of all..gave up my first love: music. But then i came to Korea and music found me again. And I kicked myself for having let someone talk me into giving it up in the first place. Who knows where I would be if I had never put down my violin, my drums, my guitar. Now I'm making up for lost years and I won't make that mistake twice. Fine. Maybe music wil never be my career. Maybe I'll DJ bars with 6 regular patrons for the rest of my life. Maybe no one will ever listen to my music. I don't care. It's what I want to do. Fuck you if you tell me I can't do it.

2) Learn a language. Seriously...I don't remember hardly any of the Spanish I took in high school or the Italian I took in college. But you are so much better off if you learn a language well. There are so many friends you're missing otu on making, opportunities you're missing out on taking, by refusing that skill.

3) Don't judge someone because their culture is different than your. You're more alike than you think. Yes...Korean relationships are crazy, juvenile roller-coaster rides. But just because their standards for relationships are different, doesn't mean they think differently...or even want different things ultimately. I rememver one conversation with Vivian when I explained the word "Ephemeral" came from the Ephemera fly and she told me they had that same word association in Korean...and it blew my mind in that moment. It clicked with me that languages develop differently but our mental processes are the same. Every human being reaches the same conclusions and perceives the world exactly the same. Again..this seems obvious, but sometimes the face of culture is so different than the mind.

4) Try everything. Try it. Food. Adventures. Whatever. Try it. I'm an atheist, so I believe this chance is our only chance at live. But even if you believe otherwise, you still owe it to yourself to try as mucha s you can in the lifetime. Experience everything. Why not? Try some disgusting food. What's the worst that will happen? Try some feat you never thought you could accomplish before. You might surprise yourself. This has easily become the mantra for my life. I've done things in Korea that I never would have tried in America...and I'm not really sure why location had any bearing on it.

5) Live lightly. This is just a note from a traveller's perspective...but the more things you accumulate, the more they seem to tie you down to a place. Take some time and go through everything you own. Divide it into essential and non-essential. What can you live without? What do you need? You'll find you have a lot of bullshit. Cut it out. I can carry 90% of my life in a suitcase and a bag. This feels really...freeing. Yeah...I have some collector's items at home. But all that nostalgic stuff...it's nice. But I don't need it. The people who gave me that stuff will always be in my hearts. The only reason we keep it is to honor them. Show them you love them regularly and you don't need that.

Part 3 of 3 - Advice To Those Who Wish To Follow My Footsteps (And Learn From My Mistakes):

1) Learn about the culture in advance. Wherever you go..do yourself a favor. Learn some basic phrases, some of the geography, and a bit of the culture before you go. I set myself back two months by knowing jack-shit about Korea before I came.

2) Network before you get there. Have people in place to help you get situation. There's tons of Facebook groups and websites these days that will help you. I wish I had done this.

2) Don't waste suitcase space. I seriously overpacked for Korea. I brought like three suits. Why did I think I would need three suits? I wore one of them. Once. Huge waste of space. Research where you're going...but chances are most places have the things you need. I packed tons of razors and deodorant...come to find out that it's easy to find and regularly priced in Korea. Fuck packing your favorite snacks or whatever you want but they don't have in Korea. You'll run out of it soon anyway. Accept you're in a foreign country. Eat their food. Adapt.

3) What you should pack:
a) Extension cords with multiple sockets for your electronic devices so you don't have to buy a ton of adapters.
b) A sturdy travel pack that has lots of compartments. Spend good money on it. It'll need to last you.
c) An American toothbrush.
d) pillowcases/sheets (that stuff is expensive here)
e) Some clothes (and maybe shoes) for all weather. I'm from Florida. I brought a year supply of summer clothes. Winter almost killed me.

4) What you should buy/do immediately when you get there:
a) Buy a wifi router for your house or have someone set one up for you.
b) Get a cell phone/cell phone plan. I tried going 6 months without one and my life was infinitely better after I caved.
c) Get some mode of transportation whether that is a bus pass, bicycle, subway pass, Something. Make it a priority. And get an English map if you can.
d) Cleaning supplies/household amenities: It'll put you out a couple hundred bucks initially and may seem daunting, but you want your place to feel like home. The more you do that, the less homesick and uncomfortable you'll be.
e) Get to know shop owners and people in your general vicinity. I wish I had talked it up with my landlord when I moved in. Took me ten months. He's a really nice guy. I also befriended some local restaurants and sometimes get free food.

- End of Series - 

So that's it. My life has changed a lot. I've begun DJing, producing music, learning Korean. And I really love Korea. Coming back next year, my plan is to drastically improve my Korean and begin making a name for myself as a DJ in Korea. I also want to become a better teacher and I know working at a public school will push me to do that. I have this feeling that next year is going to be a big year for me. The dominoes are set...I only need to put them in motion.

I now have my life neatly packed away in four massive suitcases. Two are staying here because I have every intention of coming back to finish what I started.

Chapter 1 is finished. Chapter 2 has yet to begin.

Birthday Postmortem

Just so no one thinks everything is so peachy wonderful here all the time, I'll admit that certain times are ridiculously rough. My birthday was a prime example of this. I started off the day in a phenomenal mood because my fraternity brothers Skyped me and I got a video call from my parents as well, so getting to talk to them put an immediate spring in my step.

Bored and sad at work        

I got to school and started off by teasing my students about the date. Normally   I ask them how the weather is, what today's date is, etc. But today I stopped and asked "why is September 12th special?" and they would get all flustered and inevitably baffled until I told them that it was birthday and I received a round of "happy birthdays" from all the students. Then I would ask "what do people do to celebrate their birthdays in Korea?" and without fail every class said "have a party with friends and family" and the reality of that impossibility for me slow sank deeper into my mind as the day progressed. I started getting a little choked up toward the end of the day until one of my co-teachers asked "what's wrong?" I couldn't even get out the entire phrase and ended up saying "It's my birth-" before having to stop cuz I legitimately thought I was going to cry. 

I was just thinking of all the craziness that would be going on back home for my birthday. A nice dinner with my parents and maybe a day out fishing followed by a party at the fraternity house with all my brothers and a trip to a bar with some of the ones I'm closer to. Instead I'm sitting at a desk grading papers. I think my co-teachers felt bad, because they didn't call me into my later classes and let me just chill in the office, but that was even worse because it was like 6am in America so no one was on Facebook and I was just left alone with my depressing thoughts. 

Solidly Western meal

Luckily, I do have good friends here in Korea and they helped cheer me up a lot. After work we went to Masan (my first trip to Masan!) to get some Pizza da Gennero, which is the legit Italian pizza joint here. We got some phenomenal pizza (some kinds I've never even tried before) and beer before heading over to Baskin Robbins and grabbing an ice cream cake from a wall of masterfully sculpted cakes. They put it in cool insulated styrofoam box with dry ice and then we headed to Palyong to try and find some alleged pirate ship playground. After walking all over the damn place, we found it and it was a pretty awesome pirate ship, I won't lie. We sat in the pirate ship, lit some candles and had our own little party up there in our birthday-pirate-ship-fort. I couldn't help but feel like I was in that movie "16 Candles"...which I've never seen except for that birthday cake scene but it reminded me a lot of that. I'm really lucky to have met such thoughtful and cool people.

I don't think my birthday had anything to do with it, but ever since then (it's only been like 5 days, mind you) I've just been agreeing to the most ridiculous things that I would have never done in the states. So Friday, Casey, Caitlin, Naz and I meet up with a few people in Sangnam who were trying to start up a "bike party" in SoKo (Erin has coined this term and I love it, so I will now always refer to Korea as SoKo). Apparently this is a big think they do in California? And it gets up to 4000 people in attendance. Obviously we probably won't get 4000 bikers in SoKo, but Changwon has a bike rental system calle Nubija, so it actually makes it pretty easy to obtain a bike. So this group wanted to bike 15 miles through Korea....which normally I would NEVER do...but..what the hell, right?

Those are some
pretty cool cakes.

So we meet in Sangnam, unfortunately I don't have a Nubija because I don't yet have a Korean phone (I'm learning this is more akin to having a SSID in America than your actual SSID in SoKo. They use it to verify your ID for practically everything). The leader of the event, Coby, thankfully had a bike of his own that he lent me. It was one of those collapsable bicycles that look absolutely ridiculous but ride really well. And I'm about to ride it all the way to Jinhae.

                       Peak of my birthday                       

We set off, alcohol in hand, ringing bells and screaming "Bike Party!" like complete assholes, but it was a lot of fun. Not too far into our trip, we pass a Korean man and do the usual: ring bells, chug, scream "bikeparty!". But then, right after we pass him, we stop at a Nubija rental to renew our bike passes. While I'm waiting for everyone to rescan their bikes, he catches up to us and walks up to me saying "so beautiful!" I think it's safe to assume he was drunk. He begins to reach into his pocket and Casey thinks that he is taking out a camera/phone because Koreans are always asking to take pictures with me. Instead, he takes out his wallet and pulls out a 5,000 Won bill and tries to hand it to me. I think he is trying to tell me to rent a Nubija since I'm the only one without one so I say "Ken-cha-na-yo. No, thank you. I'm fine." because I already have a bike! 

He then pulls out a peach bill and holds it up to my face. I'm thinking "What? Is my skin the same color as the bill? Does my face look like the guy on the bill?" Casey is equally as puzzled and everyone else has rode ahead. Next thing I know, the Korean man sloppily kisses his bill and smacks it onto my forehead. I bow slightly and say "kam-sa-ham-ni-da! (thank you!)" and he starts to walk away, so we start peddling away as well. Caey turns to me and says "Did that guy just stick 50 bucks on your forehead?" I pull it off and, sure enough, it's a 50,000 Won note. Only 10 minutes into the night and I already made 50 bucks. Put me in a pretty good mood.

We're about to descend into the tunnel...

We then eventually reach this tunnel...which turns out to be the most magically awesome tunnel ever. It's like a mile long and on a slight downhill slope, so the we just speed down this tunnel-hill and it feels like a rollar coaster. It probably sounds stupid in a blog, but there really is no way to adequately explain how it felt. Probably one of the most fun things I've ever done. The rest of the trip down to the Dream Bay was downhill as well, so it was smooth sailing the whole way. We get to the bay and I spend the 50 on booze and fireworks and we shot Roman candles out into the bay. We then proceeded to drink heavily into the night and were either assholes who scared away all the Koreans, or we were just there until very late. Eventually, we started biking back and it started raining ever so slightly. I obviously couldn't go the night uninjured so, at a downhill portion, I squeezed the brakes on the collapsable bike really hard because I forgot how quickly it stopped. I flew over the handlebars and into the street. Bled quite a bit. The people at GS25 were super nice and helped clean me up, but I was not up for the bars at 330am when we got back like everyone else was. I was out for the night.

Yes, I realize I'm wearing the same thing Saturday
as I did Wednesday...I don't have a lot of fall clothes =P

The next day Casey and I went to Lotte Mart to buy taco fixings for a potluck that night. The potluck ended up being really cool and I met a lot of awesome people. One guy, Sunil, got me to agree to audition for a play he was directing and another group got me to agree to go to a cultural festival the next day. See? Literally just up for anything. It's not like I have a lot to do otherwise, so in that sense SoKo is really liberating. The food was outrageously delicious too. I probably overate.

The next day I met up with Brittany, Suzie, and bunch of other new acquaintances to check out the cultural Airang (I think I spelled that correctly?) It was raining all day, which sucked, but ponchos were free and there was a ton of food to try. SoKo has taught me I am a complete sucker for good curry. I don't think I'd ever had Indian food before coming here, but damn....I don't think I've tried a curry I didn't like. That may have to be a main staple of my diet in Korea. There were also a bunch of musical performances by international pop artists from many different countries. It was cool to see people go wild with such cultural enthusiasm. I feel like my American enthusiasm is so much more lackluster than other people's, but my enthusiasm for things in general is significantly less I think.

A Philippino artist performing at the Airang

Not sure what will come next, but maybe it's better that way! I'll keep you posted!

Birthday Prelude

I won't lie...that days leading up to my birthday have been kind of foreboding. It's just me being too much inside my head, but it sucks knowing I'll be celebrating my birthday without my fraternity brothers, or my girlfriend, or my family. But, that's really being a bit too negative. After the days/hours leading up to my birthday, and those that followed shortly thereafter, I felt the necessity to blog about this moment in time.

First, I should mention that I feel particularly lucky that I've gotten accustomed to Korea so quickly. I've probably said this before, but without people like Caitlin pulling me out into the world, or people like Casey willingly building me a social network (when it really doesn't benefit either of them at all), I would still probably be sitting at home feeling sorry for myself, or just calling it quits and hopping the next flight home and really never self-actualizing the way I am now. I honestly don't even know what self-actualizing means right now...it just feels right. I'm 알딸딸 (tipsy) on makgeoli right now, but whatever. Blog when the good mood strikes, right?

I'm really lucky as shit. I work at a great school. It can be frustrating at times but other times the kids are really awesome and we just connect and it feels really cool breaking down language barriers and sharing our cultures. My directors are nice and my co-teachers are even better. I can't praise them enough for how genuinely awesome they are. They're always so nice and helpful and welcoming.

Boram's going-away dinner =[

My director loved having me take shots of soju with him.

I got to have Korean BBQ TWO days in a row!! Once for Boram's going away party and once at school...for dinner at work! It was the best week ever =]. But I really will miss Boram...she always helped me so much with my Korean and was pretty much the coolest person. Plus her mom makes the best eel I have ever had. I hope we can hang out when her mom gets better. I wen to visit her mom in the hospital and it was super awkward because none of them really spoke English. When I feel pressured to speak Korean, I just freeze up and can't remember anything. I'm sure I'll get better with practice.

My Dogye coteachers always cook the most delicious food,
but Samgyeopsal? At work? The most amazing day ever.

I've been introduced to a cool group of people that's constantly expanding the more I put myself out there.  Naz, David, and Catherine are super cool and chilling with them feels kind of natural. I hate when people have expectations for an evening and then you have to spend all night trying to fulfill those expectations. It's exhausting. These are people who go with the flow and you kind of have to in Korea.

We went to a crazy Japanese photobooth...
my students later thought I was really in prison.

Friday night, we went out and met up with Andrew, Myeongwon, and Andrew's girlfriend (who I apologize for her name escaping me at the moment)....we also ran into a bunch of really cool people who I ALSO don't remember the names of, but I'm sure I'll see them again. One guy made tacos. He had a red beard. I definitely won't forget him.

The reason I'm blanking on everyone, is because Casey and I are sufficiently awesome at beer pong and couldn't stop winning. Which you think is good, except we didn't like DOMINATE win....we just kind of...won. So we drank a LOT. This was already after a ton of beer and makgeoli. I'm pretty sure at some point I took my shirt off, stole an American girls umbrella (to be fair...she did accost me in the elevator and then claim I was trying to kiss her = crazy), Casey made me give it back, we walked home half naked in the POURING rain, I got home, passed out, woke up in a pool of my own vomit like a college freshman. At some point David and I won at pool. And then we lost at pool to Naz...or no...we lost at beerpong to Naz and lost at pool to some Korean guy who looked like a member of the Japanese Yakuza.

This kid is like 10...and much better at saxaphone
than I will ever be at anything.

That was a decent Friday night. Saturday, we took it a bit easier and went to Sangnam for the laser light show at the lake. I don't know what I was expecting, but it was actually pretty freakin cool. There was even one part where the projected scenes from the Lion King? Idk how this is free every weekend when I have to pay 80 bucks to see it at Epcot. And some little 12 year old was solo rocking a saxaphone not giving a fuck...so good for you little saxaphonist...but maybe head across the street to the record store and pick up some American jazz. Oh...and I discovered for 3 bucks a street vender will give me a giant bag of THREE different kinds of hodugwaja (walnut-shaped cakes)...literal heaven right now. We also grabbed the most delicious Indian food and hit up a plethora of other little joints for food and makgeoli and all sorts of hedonistic pleasures (wait...that sounded wrong...).

Sunday was meh, because it was pouring rain all day so I just stayed inside and played video games like a dork. Should have studied Korean, but really had no motivation. I finally got my motivation about fifteen minutes after my birthday in the Eastern Hemisphere. Casey took me out to a coffee shop to meet some cool people who invited me to their potluck this weekend, and afterwards we headed back to his place so he could check me out a bike to ride home. What ACTUALLY happened, was that we went into Family Mart and got some alcohol and proceeded to sit outside and talk about future-type boring shit that you as a general audience don't care about, but there were two Korean guys sitting next to us (presumably doing the same thing) and all I kept thinking was...at some point we're going to start talking. I don't even remember what triggered it, but soon enough we had all scooted our chairs together and were introducing ourselves to one another. Can you believe for all the Korean I've bothered to learn, I still don't know how to introduce myself or ask someone their name? It's kind of stupid.

Some board game I don't even know...
But I'm pretty sure we did more talking than playing

So there we were...1:00 am...sitting around on some plastic patio furniture. Casey and I doing our best to fumble through some broken Korean that we knew and these two men doing their best to fumble through some basic English...and we happened to reach a middle ground that was enough for us both to understand one another. They asked us about our homes and jobs, we asked them about their families, we talked about booze. We boisterously shouted for people to take pictures of us together, and they did, then they told us to shut up because we were being very loud, so we said our good nights and scurried
off.

These guys made my night

Because..you know...Gangnam Style...

But that ride home was just like... "I want to do this forever. This is the coolest thing that has ever happened to me." I love communicating with people and sharing cultures and languages. There is no feeling like this anywhere. I'm really finding a hard time coming up with a reason to go back to America for grad school to have my head buried in a book forever. Experiential learning is just... irreplaceable. It's definitely making me want to study harder.

I think Caitlin has birthday plans for me tomorrow and they some cool stuff planned this weekend. We'll see what happens, stay tuned!!!

Epic Weekend Act 1: Sangnam-dong

This weekend was amazing! I finally had my first real exciting weekend of excursions in Korea, and it really was all thanks to the great friends I've managed to make here. It honestly didn't even start with the weekend. Thanks to Katie and Casey being on vacation while I still had work, we went out Thursday night in downtown Changwon (Sangnam-dong) to get an early start on the weekend.

Now I know why Koreans are obsessed with chicken.

As I'm coming to learn, Korean nights out typically involve 3+ venues of varying grades. Most involve food and booze and they almost always end at a noraebang (karaoke bar). Our first restaurant was a chicken and beer kind of place where we met up with Casey and Katie's Korean co-workers, Jessie and Sophie. They surprised us by pulling out a big bottle of pomegranate juice and immediately ordering some chicken and a bottle of soju.

They had an established set of soju drinking games that I had never played before, so obviously by the time I picked up on the rules and such, I was already a solid five or so shots in. Lucky I was really good at some cap flicking game and spared myself some unnecessary drinking through that, but Casey should have warned me sooner that Katie has a sneaky way of constantly refilling your glass without you noticing. I was getting a good buzz going after being there for only about 20 minutes. The chicken was also the most phenomenal chicken I have ever had in my life.

I call top bunk!

Next, we headed to a restaurant that served different food and makgali in big wooden bowls. Makgali is kind of like sake, but sweeter and smoother. I imagine makgali's only reason for existing is the same reason Smirnoff Ice exists: to get girls wildly inebriated with minimum discomfort. But by no means is it a girly drink. It's just absolutely delicious. The restaurant we were in was also really really cool. It had a sort of treehouse-y, Swiss Family Robinson vibe. You sat on padded mats on the ground at a low table and it was multi-leveled like bunkbeds. We obviously chose to sit on the top bunk.

Caitlin always steals the spotlight.

This is what you drink makgali out of.
Like a soup...that gets you hammered.

I don't remember what the thing we ate was called...Casey/Katie will have to remind me and I'll edit this later. It was really, really delicious. It kind of reminded me of a better, more family style version of a latke? I was so full from the chicken. but I just kept eating anyway. We were downing makgali, and I felt pretty good so I started looking around and noticed the hostess at the door. Casey and I started making guesses as to her age. I said 19, I think he guessed slightly older. I asked the hostess if she spoke any English when she walked by and she said no, so we got Jessie to ask her how old she was in Korean. Turns out she was THIRTY-FOUR. I wish I took a picture of this girl. I mean...she was a Korean 34 which means she was 32-33 in America, but still...unbelievable. We started realizing that Korean's hit a temporal break when they hit 16 and they just stop aging until they get to their 40s. Anyone in that range is nearly impossible for us to guess their age correctly.

Casey demonstrating how to get soup-hammered

The delicious thing we ate called
kimchi jeon (thank you Caitlin).

I think I promised to sing Big Bang's "Monster" with Jessie
...but I only could sing the one English line in the chorus.

We got pretty solidly drunk off that makgali, even though no one realized it at the time. After food, we soon decided to head off to our final destination: the noraebang of course! Katie took some rather embarrassing videos of Casey and I drunkenly singing and hoarse and...it's just awful. She's taking them to her grave. But I think Jessie and Sophie were extremely tired, drunk, and feeling a little left out since we were all drunk and speaking English very rapidly. They ordered some pork or chicken or something (it was really good) and a bunch of beer, but Sophie soon began falling asleep and they left shortly after leaving three drunken Americans alone in a noraebong. What did we do? We got drunker. And then we started singing the anthems of our homeland, like Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" and Tenacious D's "Tribute". It was hella fun.

Out like a light!

Casey and I singing Tribute

We fuckin' love Tribute.

No no no no...actually...fuck YOU!

 After the noraebang, we decided "Hey...JD has work tomorrow...we've been drinking soju and makgali all night..but let's go for the trifecta." So we hit up some beer place I was just way to drunk to even bother remembering, but it's kind of like World of Beer, I guess...if the world was only full of overpriced Hoegaarden and Stella. But it was still nice to have familiar beers again. Casey and I ended up in our usual drunken conversations about things we both only have a very limited knowledge on. This topic of conversation was the eventual fallout that would result from North Korea attacking South Korea/China telling America it wanted all its debts repaid/Communism vs Democracy in general. Pretty sure I won like always.

Oh hey! LEt's drunkenly play some sports I suck at!

Of course, we had to eventually leave...so we wandered back through Sangnam-dong and found some familiar batting cages we passed on a previous night. We were inebriated enough to wander right on in, pick up a bat and let fly a few balls. Except Casey was the only one who did that. Turns out, I'm just as bad at baseball when I'm drunk as when I'm sober. I probably hit like 2 out of 18 balls? Whatevz. I beat Casey at the punching bag, which is all that really matters. But then I almost missed the bag entirely the second time, so I would get a solid first hit in and then totally get my ass kicked in whatever drunken brawl I managed to get myself into. Going through this pictures, I learned Katie is a phenomenal paparazzo, because as I got drunker and drunker, I took less and less pictures. She, however, was goddamn dedicated to documenting this shit..and I am glad of that. Because I literally have zero pictures after the makgali restaurant. They are all hers.

Obviously venting my
frustration over the batting cages.

So after that we all grab a cab home and Casey checks out a public bike for me. I really can't wait to get my ARC (Alien Registration Card) so I can get my own bike pass. They're way more convenient than I ever considered. I go home, pass out, and SURPRISE! Wake up the next day with the worst hangover in recorded history from slamming soju, makgali, and beer all night. Luckily it was only 10am and I had 3 hours to recover before class. I still felt like Jack Black from School of Rock...

Omg, this food is so good, even the onions want in!

Friday was supposed to be our rager day, but we went so hard on Thursday, the club we had intended on going to had a $15 cover and we were like "fuck that, we're foreign" and just ended up grabbing some Korean BBQ which was fine by me. Casey did all the cooking while Caitlin and I solely participated in the eating, but it was some of the most tender meat I've ever had. I also learned that I love onions raw, I do NOT love cloves of garlic raw. New things learned every day. Also, I should mention it's rude to wait for your waiter at a Korean restaurant and whenever you need anything you push this little button on your table. However, here, it's sort of like a buffet of side dishes that you go and help yourself to to cook with your meat. Caitlin even grilled some kimchi, but I'm still learning to love it. It's a hit or miss flavor with me because it really actually varies a lot. I'm sure with time I'll master it..just like the general spicy-ness of Korean food.

This is really anyone's guess...

After BBQ we hit up O'Brien's for some beers and darts. Oh wow! Look! Another recreational game that involves hand-eye coordination that I suck at! Fun! -_-; But it really was fun. I didn't think we got that drunk, but we obviously were buzzed enough to try this...

I was going to do this whole weekend as one post, but it's super late and I have so much more to talk about and post pictures of, it'll just have to wait until tomorrow I guess! 

Fake It 'til You Make It

Finishing up my third week in Korea feels like a solid dent in my time here. It's kind of scary that I've already almost been here a month. It doesn't feel that way. I'm still just constantly bumbling around, but every now and then there is that day where I feel on top of the world and it propels me just a little bit further.

A present from Jack

There were a few days I went to work and was like "I have no idea what the fuck I am doing." I have no idea how to teach kids who know so little of our language that I have to use all kinds of circumlocution to explain rudimentary American concepts we take for granted. Example: I had to give a lesson on The Mayflower and the First Thanksgiving to a class one day. Now mind you, I work at four different campuses, which means I don't even get the luxury of creating a lesson plan. Sometimes thats a blessing (no work to do to prepare for classes) and sometimes thats a curse (walking into every class I teach with only about an hour of prep time for 6-7 classes a day...not an hour each...an hour for all classes). This was one of those accursed times.

Some of the vocabulary for the lesson were phrases like "religious freedom" and the topical content was obviously about Pilgrims and Indians and leaving England and such. Now, to put this in context, these kids come from a rather homogenous society. There is religious diversity to be sure, but it certainly isn't the huge issue it is in America. So to teach a unit on religious oppression and colonization to bunch of 10 year olds with a beginner grasp on the English language was an almost impossible task. I basically had to call in one of the Korean teachers to interpret for me. The closest the kids got to Thansgiving was "a big dinner" and I was over the moon in ecstasy that they at least got that.

Students actually learning! Yay!

So yeah. There are those "I have no right to be teaching these kids anything" days. But then there are also those "fuck yeah, I am so awesome at this!" days. I definitely had one of those days at my Shinchon campus this week when Jack, my favorite student ever ran into the teacher's office and gave me an ice cream cone and ran off and I was like "Awwhhhhh!" He is absolutely the most adorable kid ever. His class is a 1-on-1 class and so we do lots of random fun stuff to kill time because his English is already phenomenal even though he's only like 9 (7 in America) and we fly through the text book. He taught me the Korean version of rock, paper, scissors and I taught him how to make snowflakes and masks.

Then I was grading papers for random students and I stumbled upon a batch of papers about me and they were adorable to read. They were from an all girl class I teach at Shinchon and they didn't have a lesson plan so I decided just to get them interested by teaching them about what all teenage girls are interested - music. So I taught them about American music genres and they taught me about Korean genres (significantly fewer Korean genres), and then I read their papers and it was like "oh my god! They remember what I taught them!" It was a really good day.

Korea has mochi. I think I'll be okay.

But you never know with this job. It's so heavily based off how your students are feeling that day. Some days they come in eager to learn and laugh and want to have fun. Other days they don't want to do anything and it's like pulling teeth. This is good and bad because it means I never know what to expect and can't just expect "Oh no! I have to go to my least favorite campus to day!" Some days my least favorite campus becomes my favoirte and vice-versa. Some days I know what I'm doing, other days I panic and have no idea. This is definitely a job where you have to be extremely adaptable and can't take anything too personally.

This sort of "I have no idea, I want to go home"/"This life is amazing and I am king!" dichotomy ends up playing out the same when I'm off the clock as well. Last weekend I felt so lost and confused and alone, but this weekend I actually felt like I was living in Korea. Like this was my home now. I got up Saturday morning, cleaned my apartment, did my laundry, went and refilled my MyB tron-looking thing so I can ride the bus, went to KS mart and picked up some bread, eggs, jelly, and crab snacks, went to Daego and bought some bowls, plates, silverware and a bathmat, and even had time to stroll through Dogye market and properly ask for some mochi in Korean ("Dduk, ju se yo?).

This is what you get for sixty cents an hour.

I was planning on just relaxing at home and reading all night or something, but then Caitlin texts me and asks me if I want to go to a PC bang, which is...kind of the Korean equivalent of a LAN party place? Idk..never did LAN parties, but I'm assuming it's similar. We went and she showed me how to play Starcraft for the first time. Dude, I know Eric Elzy is going to be disappointed, but I suck at Starcraft. I may try and go on my own and play through the campaign when no one is busy so Caitlin doesn't have to be so ashamed of me anymore. lol. It's super cheap...like 700 Won an hour, which is like sixty cents. And they've got nice reclining chairs, good sound systems with headphones (if you want to use headphones...I didn't. you can still use the speakers without them.), fast gaming PCs, large monitors, and snacks! Caitlin got me a soda drink called Milkis which is like a milkshake soda and it is absolutely delicious.

Beer by the gallon  =3

After playing for two hours, we paid our buck-fifty and went to meet up with Casey (someone Caitlin works with) and grab dinner. We ended up going downtown to Sangnam and I immediately got this feeling like "okay...this is what Korea is supposed to feel like." Cute Korean girls walking everywhere, drunk guys stumbling through the streets attempting to speak English to us, lights and sounds and music everywhere. It was awesome. Someone was handing out flyers for DJ Shannel at Club Eden and I recognized her from being an act at Ultra or something this year? So I made a mental note to check her out. We went to this restaurant on the top floor where we bought a gallon of beer and a seafood stew of some sorts. Made me miss gumbo, but was pretty delicious in it's own right. Everything in Korea is just so damn spicy.

I do enjoy how centralized eating is in Korea.

After killing that, we went to the only American bar I had yet to go to: O'Briens. It was pretty cool. Bunch of guy playing pool and it felt authentically Irish-American, minus the asian bartenders. Casey ended up being really cool and we did a carbomb together (forcing Caitlin to try one as well) and I was feeling more at home by the minute. We talked about everything from lives back home to God and the Universe (or maybe the "universe"...I'll let Casey explain that one). I definitely finally had that feeling of fitting in. I know it'll probably be fleeting and next week is just as likely to be rough as it is to be easy, but these moments definitely make being here worth it.

We finally left the bar and rode a taxi back to Caitlin's apartment where Casey swiped me into a bike (Changwon has a thing where you can pay 20 bucks a year and borrow a bike from any location in the city to ride to any other location. It's pretty awesome) and I said my farewells and took off. Riding through Changwon at 3am on a bike definitely felt good and it was a pretty solid end to a feel-good weekend. We'll see what next weekend holds...

Looking Toward The Future

Before I left for Korea, some summer evenings, Alexis and I would grab a random recipe from Publix and prepare a delicious meal for my family simply following the recipe step by step and making more missteps than anything.

But, one time in particular, I remember a recipe called for us to blanch some broccoli, which neither of us had ever heard of, even less knew how to do. After some brief googling, we figured it out and the broccoli turned out delicious.

Blanching is a cooking process wherein the food substance, usually a vegetable or fruit, is plunged into boiling water, removed after a brief, timed interval, and finally plunged into iced water or placed under cold running water (shocked) to halt the cooking process.

This memory comes to mind, because I sort of feel like that broccoli right now. It sounds weird, but its the best way to describe moving to Korea. In America, I would have simmered and probably come out limp and soggy broccoli, but moving to Korea was a blanching process. I was plunged into an ice bath and was cooked immediately, brightening my color and solidifying my flavor.

I now have some sort of perspective on the world and know what I have to do. I don't know exactly what I want to do, but I need to start moving forward. Korea was that sudden moment of "Hey! You aren't a kid any more!"

I'm going to start studying for my GRE's and reapply to the JET Program. I want to be in Japan next year while Alexis is going to school at TUJ. Hopefully, after experiencing teaching a year in Korea I'll be more prepared for my interview (although I'm not sure how I'll get to it if I'm in Korea...).

Will I want to come back to Korea after that? I don't know. Maybe. It's certainly far too early to tell. I'm learning Korean anyway, because I really love the language. I really love the people too, but there's plenty of things I think I'll always miss about America. I already miss bath tubs, steaks, fast food, America pizza, and hot tubs.

Korea has plenty of things that beat out America, to be sure, but I'm starting to realize that it doesn't really matter where I go in the world. There's no magical place that can make you happy. It's the people that you surround yourself with that make you happy. I feel like a baby for being so homesick already, but family life was never the most stable...and now that it's sort of solidifying, it's hard to finally leave. I miss golfing with my family and going on boat trips or just hanging out in the back yard and talking. I never got to go deep sea fishing in America, and I definitely miss those stupid little things I forgot to take advantage of. I'm going to make sure to take advantage of every opportunity in Korea so I don't feel the same regret when I leave here.

I definitely needed to leave, but I don't really want to drift anymore. The guy I took over for has been moving from foreign school to foreign school for 8 years and has yet to call anywhere home. I find that kind of sad. I thought I was that kind of person for the longest time, but now I'm realizing I was just scared of finality. I still am. Moving into my apartment was the slowest process ever. I'm still honestly not 100% done with unpacking. Every time I get more settled in, it just feels that much more definitive. But at the same time, not being able to call anything or anyone home is more terrifying. Especially right now, I feel like a leaf in the middle of a pond.

I'm not trying to brood, but I'm definitely understanding that I want to put down roots at some point. Everyone says Korea is a great place to save up money, and that's true, but that's also because you don't put money into anything. I thought I hated Cocoa Beach, but now that I'm here....the grass is always greener right?

Definitely at an emotional low today, but it's positive as well because I'm setting goals. I'm getting a taste of a little bit of everything here, lifestyle-wise. In the end, this will be a great experience for me and I can walk away knowing a lot more about who I am and what I really want out of life.

The First Weekend - Seoulsearching (Part 1: Friday-Saturday)

Peeking in on classwork.

Finished my first week of teaching at a Hagwon on Friday. These kids are so damn cute. I actually had to kick one kid out for being insanely uncooperative, but everything after that was smooth sailing. They are generally eager learners and I'm loving my job more every day. My co-teachers invited me out for drinks after work to celebrate my first full week in Korea. I told them I would go, but I would have to meet up with them later. I had promised a random Korean man dinner and I wasn't about to bail on that drunken promise. We had agreed to meet at 9:00pm in front of 7-11. I even emailed him earlier to remind him (I don't know how much he was able to read since it was all in English). So, I show up at 7-11 a few minutes early and I wait...and I wait...and I wait..until past 9:30pm. It was beginning to look like I was the only one of us who had remembered this drunken conversation. I wait another 10 minutes before giving up and heading to meet up with my co-teachers.

We grabbed drinks and dinner at a local bar/restaurant? It's kind of hard to tell the difference sometimes in Korea because you can buy alcohol at most restaurants, and eating is a big deal in Korea so food is always a given. Whenever you buy alcohol, they typically bring out a tray full of snacks to eat with it at minimum. Honestly, the main thing that unnerves me about Korea is how everything is paid "Korean style." Splitting checks is not only unheard of, it's probably impossible for Korean cash registers. It simply just isn't done, so I felt bad that I was basically riding around on someone else's dime all night, but I suppose one weekend will be my turn and my wallet will be the one crying then.

So we had dinner and drinks at this bar/restaurant for a few hours. Many chicken dishes came and went (Koreans LOVE chicken, if I haven't mentioned that yet.) and it was all 맛있어요 (delicious). We also had what I would consider the Korean version of a sake bomb...ish. It's 맥주 (beer) mixed with 소주 (soju [a bit like sake]) and my co-teacher called it 폭탄주(pok-tan-ju), which is pretty much just the Korean word for a boilermaker. It's really delicious because of how sweet and floral the soju is (not to mention the added alcohol content).

After dinner, we headed off to a karaoke bar. I learned very quickly that Koreans have NO idea what the word karaoke means, despite the fact that it's practically their cultural pastime. They call it 노래방 (no-rae-bang) which roughly translates to the same thing. It was pretty cool. I still was floating on my co-teachers dime, but I didn't really know what else to do, so I kept drinking. We then went to a second karaoke bar (why, I cannot remember...I was pretty drunk.) and I sang a few songs, all of which my co-teachers were quick to praise and claim I had a wonderful voice. I'm pretty sure they just don't know what American songs are supposed to sound like... lol. I took some pictures at dinner, but I feel like it would be rude to post pictures of people without their permission? So I'll leave them off.

We are practically dragged out of the "song bar" at 6am and I felt terrible for keeping the staff up all night so I bowed quickly with an apologetic "미안합니다" (mi-an-ham-ni-da), to which my co-teachers drunkenly yelled "no!" at me, so I don't know if I said it wrong, or I'm not supposed to apologize to waitstaff, or I'm just not supposed to apologize for partying hard? lol. Not sure.

I had promised my friend Lais that I would meet her in Seoul tomorrow and I quickly realized tomorrow had already come. The train system is still alien to me and I was too uncomfortable to try that journey while intoxicated, so I asked my co-teachers when the first bus left for Seoul and they said seven. Realizing that was only an hour away, I called a cab, took it to the bus terminal, and purchased a ticket for the 7:30am bus to Seoul. I was hoping I could just sleep on the ~4hr (people say 5-5:30 but both ways to Seoul were 4 hours each so...lucky bus?) bus ride there, but I still needed to stay awake for the next hour in the terminal. I couldn't even ask someone to wake me up if I fell asleep, because no one spoke English -_-; So I powered though and crashed as soon as I boarded the bus.

Some points of Seoul are just sheer cliffs.

Waking up in Seoul, I let Lais know I had arrived and she told me she would be there in an hour (I had estimated my bus arriving at 1 and it arrived at 11:30) so I tried sleeping some more in the terminal, but with little success. Still, by the time Lais called me again, I was pretty alert and we started trying to locate each other using Korean signs, directions, and landmarks we couldn't understand. The problem was, we soon discovered, that the train station was not even remotely in the same area as the express bus station. I attempted to take a taxi to "Seoul Station" and was promptly told "no" by the cab driver and forced out of the cab. I will apparently learn that Seoul is nothing like Changwon and some Koreans there aren't all too fond of foreigners.

Don't let this picture fool you,
it gets ridiculously steep on the hike up to Seoul Tower.

Lais took the subway to me, but we still probably wasted a good hour just trying to find each other. Apparently she had walked into the wrong building and it took forever to realize we weren't even in the same building. Luckily, we found each other and didn't waste any time grabbing a subway train to a tourist section of Seoul with plans to go to Seoul Tower. We walked around a bit to grab lunch, and I soon got this vibe that I didn't like Seoul as much as Changwon. There was certainly much more to do, but there was also this strong foreigner presence that kind of trampled the cultural ambiance of Korea. Everyone was military, military families, or teachers from America and the U.K., and no one really had any intention of trying to fit into Korea. Quite the contrary, they all seemed to be forcing Korea to fit them. Walking down the street, I felt more like I was in a New York City street market than in a foreign country.

Benches at Seoul Tower force you to like the people you sit with.

We ate at a Subway (because nearly every restaurant was American), and this English lady had the most complicated order for a 6-inch sub ever. I swear the employee was looking for his protractor to get some of her specifications right. I made the comment to Lais about how expensive subway is here (6 bucks for a 6-inch sub that's mostly bread) and the lady turns and tells me "I know, isn't everything?" My jaw dropped and I swear I thought about hitting her. Everything is expensive because you demand culinary consistency in a foreign country. I've been eating for maybe a 3-8 dollars A DAY in Korea just by eating Korean food. So we sit down and then I have to listen to her daughter (or whatever) drone on about how cultured she is because she taught in China for awhile before teaching here, even though she's eating at Subway with a bunch of Americans right now in Korea and I suddenly start understanding why that cab driver wanted me the hell out of his cab. I don't like these people either. "Cultured" apparently now means taking your culture wherever you go and remaining wholly ignorant of the beautiful culture permeating the air around you.

Trees covered in "Locks of Love"

Luckily, we soon leave and grab a bus to Seoul Tower which....I can barely find the words to explain. I want to just leave it at "Awesome." Basically, the bus stops 3/4ths of the way up the mountain at a 7-11 type convenience store (where we ran in to get some drinks and ice cream) and you have to walk the rest of the way on foot. This doesn't seem to be a big deal except for the fact that the road slopes up at at least a 40 degree incline (That's a low estimate because I don't want to be hyperbolic....it felt like walking up a wall) and girls were walking up in 4 inch heels! Korean girls are really committed to looking good always. We get to the top and (ironically) there is a mariachi band playing in the square -_-; We take some pictures with the tower and the surrounding area, but what really catches our eyes are trees and fences 100% covered in what seem to be gym locker locks.

People lock everything from phone cases to toys
covered in messages to loved ones

We get closer and find out that is exactly what they are. Seoul Tower has a superstition associated with is that if you write a message to your loved ones and lock it to the area around the tower, you'll have eternal love and happiness (I guess because it's at such a high point...like a beacon? Not really sure how it got started). Lais and I cannot resist taking part in this cultural phenomenon, so we get our own lock and write secret messages to our loved ones. We thought about locking it to a tree, but the trees were so covered in locks, we would never find ours again. Then we tried the fence, but our lock chain wasn't big enough. We finally decided to lock our "Locks of Love"to a giant heart statue erected on the terrace that was impossible to miss. The whole terrace area was cute, with benches built so you slide toward the middle and have to sit extremely close to whoever you are sitting with =3

We picked the perfect spot to put our notes.

We then rode to the top of the tower and committed more acts of cultural love graffiti wherever possible (like everyone else at Seoul Tower), and the view from the top was breathe-taking. It's not even something worth describing, you just have to go. I was not a fan, however, of the digital floor panels that pretended to fall away when you stepped them. Children were obsessed with them, however.

Realizing I didn't bring anything with me to stay overnight anywhere, Lais took me to the bus station and I boarded the last train to Changwon going out the same way I came in - sleeping.

View from the top.