Spring Forward...

I've been living in Korea for just over seven months now, and I know I've said it before, but every month gets busier than the last! To be honest, January didn't have too much excitement going on. Most everybody had "intensives," which is essentially a second job - winter camp classes every morning before going to our regular jobs. It is easy extra money though, and that's hard for most people to turn down.

I'm pleased to say I eased through the frigid winter, which in retrospect doesn't seem that bad, but who am I kidding? It was beyond frigid, not to mention it also came with bronchitis, tonsillitis, 21 pills a day for 7 days at a time, 2 shots in my ass, a sick day and at least 10 rough days at work. But, spring, I can feel you creeping up already.

February brought a lot excitement but took a lot of sleeping hours. The beginning of February was Lunar New Year, and an abnormally large group of us went to Hong Kong together. I really, really loved Hong Kong. I thought it was an amazing city with a ton of diversity. It was so refreshing to get out of Korea and see so many different faces and different foods from all over the world. It was also nice to get some familiar snacks and a lot of British snacks that my friends had been raving about. Korea can really start to feel like a little bubble world sometimes. I can hardly go anywhere without hearing someone uttering "wae-gukan" (Korean word for "foreigner") while pointing in my general direction. I definitely started to consider the potential of living in Hong Kong for a bit.

Lunar New Year there was also pretty cool. I did have a lot of friends that made it to China, which clearly can't be beaten, but I'd say Hong Kong must have been a good second - not close. There were thousands of people crowding around Nathan Road to watch the big parade. It was impossible to get a view without camping out there for hours, which we weren't going to waste. Luckily, one of our friends had a hostel room overlooking a great part of Nathan Road. We watched the whole parade from the comfort of their beds. The next night, there was a big fireworks show over the harbour. During the days, we made it to Stanley Market and Victoria's Peak. We didn't have enough days there, really.

One of the days, we also took a one-hour ferry ride over to Macau - basically Vegas hotels without the club scene. We did some gambling, partying, gambling, eating and I made $2000 HKD playing roulette. Then, unfortunately, we couldn't get a ferry back to Hong Kong until 7am the next morning, day of our flight. We had to take a nap at the ferry terminal, rush back to our hostels, take a quick power nap and head to the airport to come back to Korea. The trip had its drawbacks being there with so many friends and wanting to be a tourist while being with everyone and waiting for moves to be made... but it was nice, nonetheless. See some of the pictures from the trip. 

Next came Red Day, also known as Valentine's Day, where in Korean tradition, girls give boys chocolates. Somehow, I still got a good amount of chocolates from my students, which definitely made up for Pepero Day (11/11)! That weekend, we went on a snowboarding trip to High 1 Ski Resort - a mere 3 or 4 hours on a coach bus. We lucked out with gorgeous weather as the weekend before brought fresh powder. However, one of my friends had to show off his snowboarding skills, or lack thereof, and ended up in the hospital with a broken collar bone, or something worse. After being taken down the mountain zipped up in a body-bag, He then spent 3 nights in the hospital in Daegu after having surgery with an expected 6-month recovery.

That weekend was also my birthday weekend... nothing too crazy, but some friends did help make it a memorable one. After a couple frisbee games the morning after a night out, we had a chance to make it to the last few hours of a Trick Art Gallery that had been in Daegu for a few months. I thought it had also been gone for months! Check out some of those pictures as well.  It was pretty awesome!

There's too much  to catch up on now, but I'll do my best to keep up with it. I've also got a trip to Israel to post about!

I have way too many photos to choose from as is.... and this layout will never seem to do what it's supposed to do.

Machu Picchu - The Strokes (new album Angles)

Halloween 2010.

Halloween in Daegu was exactly what I had anticipated. The substantial number of foreigners made themselves seen and heard in "fancy dresses" (apparently the British term for 'costume') and some typical borderline behaviors.


Virtually all of the foreigners I've met were out downtown, unless they vacationed out of the city. Everyone was in some form of costume from a simple witch hat to full-effort attire. You could find the usual Green Man of 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia,' Alan and Baby Carlos from 'The Hangover,' Where's Waldo, etc. Then there were some others that took a bit of actual planning like The Harlem Globetrotters and LEGO Man. The current event costume for the season turned out to be the Chilean Miner.  There were also some nice tributes to pop culture like the news report made famous on YouTube regarding  "The Bed Intruder" - check out 0:30. I, however, am not so savvy when it comes to clever costume ideas, so I keep it simple and stress-free.


The foreigners definitely took over Downtown on Saturday night and managed to get some curious looks from Korean passer-bys. Other Koreans are one of us and joined in the celebrations. There was also a pub crawl organized by the infamous foreign pub-crawl planners, so that mob must have been even more overwhelming to the natives. See the collection of various foreigners' photos on the left. 


All in all, Halloween weekend was a great time, but a tiny drop of me longed for Halloween in the good ol' USA. We finished off the weekend at our local pub with a Sunday night football game of Sunderland vs. Newcastle. Needless to say, my friend from Sunderland was less than thrilled by the 5-1 loss. Better luck next time!

Favorite tune this week: Sun Airway - Waiting on You

Last of Frisbee. I Promise.

Fall '10 Frisbee season is over. No more frisbee talk - until the Spring '11 season! And... I'm keeping it brief in this post.

The playoffs and finals commenced this past weekend in Daegu. The Busan Heat and Daejon Pandemic made their last trek to Daegu for the season, and I think it's safe to say that everyone enjoyed themselves all weekend. Team Busan was the number 1 seed, and therefore was granted a bye in the first round. After winning our first-round game, we were up against Busan next. We started the game with a 4-1 lead, but somehow, that quickly became something like a 5-12 loss. Defending champs, Busan, went on to lose in the championship game to Daejon by one point in the last few minutes. Everyone was happy to see a different team win. There's hope for a Daegu Team win next season - maybe.

The celebrations continued with drinks and specials starting off at URBAN bar - a big sponsor of DUFL. Daejon made sure to have their golden calf trophy seen at every possible moment - we weren't jealous. Really. It was a super fun night and a nice continuation of partying in Daejon with these people last weekend. Was that just a week ago? Also, for the first time, I stayed out late enough to take the subway home from downtown - maybe never again. And no, McDonald's didn't even give me a free cup of coffee for this ad.

Tune of the week:

James Blake - Limit to Your Love (Feist Cover)

Watch the video below the pics.

Strange Times in Korea

Sometimes, I have a hard time understanding the logic of the Koreans, or lack thereof. After living in Daegu for about 10 weeks now, I've encountered some frustrating experiences. It's hard to remember specific instances, but I'm trying to document these cultural differences before I forget because they continue to amaze me day after day. Let me just start by saying that I really do love Korea and love being here, and I am not saying that these behaviors are an accurate portrayal of everyone, but it's a large majority of the people that I have encountered.

One phenomenon that has consistently occurred since my first week here is just when walking around. The Koreans will not move over in the slightest if they are in the path of a head-on collision with you. It could be a wide open space with no obstructions in sight, and I could be walking inches from a wall with nowhere to move over, and still they will crash right into me, body-check. There really is no consideration for others, no sense of appropriateness. It happens on a daily basis, multiple times a day, no matter where I am, where I'm walking, what I'm doing - Koreans will collide. And it doesn't stop there.

I do a 40-minute bike ride down to my Hapkido (martial arts) class, and I've never seen anything like this. Again, the sidewalks are fairly wide on this journey, many with a specially marked bike lane - yes, on the sidewalk, not on the street. If you attempt biking on the street, you will probably get run over. It's a complete miracle how a 4'10 and 90 pound, old, Korean lady can swerve all over, taking up the full 8 foot sidewalk and will not move no matter how loud and how long my bike bell is ringing. I basically have to wobble around avoiding crashing into the "Ajema" (polite word for old lady) that will never move over. It's not just the ajema's that do this either - it's everyone, all ages, male and female, from toddlers to senile people - no one will move over when I'm biking. One morning, an Ajema was sitting down on the sidewalk and had a dog on a leash that took up the rest of it. I'm sure you can guess what happened. This is a major frustration.

Another thing that blew my mind is that the Koreans never cover their mouths when sneezing or coughing. It's completely unbelievable. I cannot make any sense of this. In my classes, my students do it all the time as well. It has been 10 weeks now of me constantly scolding them and instructing them never to cough or sneeze without covering their mouths - so they are getting better. I'm glad they are just about trained as the "cold" season is just around the corner. But it's amazing how anywhere you are, close quarters or not, beware of being coughed and sneezed on.

There are dozens of little things that happen where I just cant understand if this is real or if someone is seriously playing a joke on me. The most basic, common sense and common knowledge is just not there - it has to be a joke. I must be on Punk'd some of these times. Last week, I walked into Pizza Hut with a friend and looked through the English menu at the entrance/host stand. The Pizza Hut's here are like restaurants, like back in the old days, at least in Kansas, where Pizza Hut had a salad bar and seating, etc. They had a lunch menu on the stand that's from 12 noon until 5pm - it was 2pm. The hostess finally came up and grabbed two regular menus and I inquired about the lunch menu, and she said yes it's lunch menu time but didn't take those menus. I started pointing at them asking if we can have those menus. She nodded but still seated us and didn't bring them. Then again, I asked for the lunch menus, and she returned to the host stand and brought them. Why she didn't bring them with us when I asked for them by the stand, I may never know.

Last weekend, we were in Seoul at a strange Dutch-themed restaurant with a menu of mostly Italian food. The waitress stood hovering over us for 5 minutes as we struggled to make out the pictures since the entire menu was in Korean. Usually you find a few English words next to each menu description but not here. As I was pulling out my cellphone dictionary, the waitress asked in perfect English if we had dined there before. Clearly a logical question and puzzling that she spoke English this whole time. I asked if a picture of a normal, plain-looking spaghetti had any meat in it - she said no. The dish came out and it was beyond full of bacon - I mean FULL of bacon. Then we ask if they have Coke Zero, she says yes, of course but never came back with any drinks. She comes over and tells us to grab a cup and the beverages are self-serve. I do as I was told, grab two cups, head over to the machine which was around the corner in their working area, and she tells me to go back around to the other side of the counter. I hand her the two cups and since there were 7 fountains of Cider and 1 fountain of Pepsi (no Coke Zero in this place), I ask for Pepsis. She takes the two cups, fills up one, puts it on the counter for me and just stares at me like I should be on my way. I put two cups on the counter, she took both cups, but she only filled one. Someone please explain. I asked her for the other one and finally got it, but it was such a challenge for her.


In downtown Daegu, there are blocks and blocks of stores and pedestrians absolutely everywhere. It's a little similar to Third Street Promenade in LA where it's a brick-layed road but it's not for driving, just for pedestrians. Downtown Daegu has stores set up in a similar fashion but it's more of a grid rather than one straight street. Anyway, point is, there's hundreds of pedestrians, it's basically an outdoor mall, and one would think that these "roads" are not for cars. Only here, these cars drive all through downtown - down streets of stores and restaurants that are only the width of a small alley. Clearly, cars should not be driving down here. It takes them 10 minutes to drive down one block. It's literally mobs of people with cars inching through huge crowds and honking here and there for the pedestrians to move. There is no way I can ever come up with a logical reason why a car would ever need to drive on these "sidewalks."

Also, apparently it's been concluded that Korea as a country is one of the least efficient countries in the world. They take twice as long to complete tasks, they are overworked because they don't use their time well so it takes them 12 hours to do a job that should take 6. The lack of efficiency and logic in this country is beyond me.

I will never understand you, Korea.

Cults - Oh My God

Colorful Daegu

Every city in Korea has a little motto, usually an adjective + city name. So far, the only exception I've seen is "Hi Seoul," but I'm sure there are others. 

Every Wednesday, a group of us active, Daegu ladies get together and play soccer in Siji at Gosan field. Last week, the moon was stunning. I love the moon every day, but this one was on my list of favorites - low and golden. Oh my moon.

There's always random English text out and about, on signs, in shops, restaurants, etc. The hedgehog appeared at a burger joint about a 5 minute bike ride from my apartment.

After an absolutely delightful sol galbi dinner (beef rib slices, perhaps... with amazing sides) in Wolbae last week, we stumbled over to a bar next door. This was my first experience being served larvae - beondegi. Of course, I didn't try it. But I had to take a picture, which never fails to disgust me every time I look at it.

Next up, tandem toilets: mother/child. The restrooms in the subway in Siji was again a first sight for me. In one stall, there's a regular toilet, and directly in front it is another toilet - only it's a third of the size. An actual toilet for a toddler. You can "sit" and watch your child "sit" in front of you. Enjoy.

3 + Pub Golf

This weekend, some people put on a pub crawl with a golf theme - pub golf. Basically, nine different bars turned into nine different "holes" with a pre-determined alcoholic beverage to be consumed at each location. Each beverage was assigned a "par" - number of sips - and individuals and teams with the lowest scores would be crowned winners. Apparently, this round - round 3 - was made easier than previous rounds, and all of the competitive players, or drinkers rather, finished something like 14 below par. Also, golf attire was a requirement. I, of course, did not play competitively since it would take me 2 days and 65 above par to finish. It was a fun event though. The guys made two trophies for the winners - a smaller one made of Hite beer cans for the lady champ, and a tower of Hite 40s for gents champ.

First Bang at the Noraebang!

About the pics:

Rice wine with cider - you drink this from a bowl. I almost wanted to reach for a spoon thinking it was a cold soup. They usually use spoons for soup here.

Noraebang (karaoke room) fully equipped with disco ball and surround-sound along with a bar host right outside the door.

Our sad attempt at karaoke.

The worse you are, the better your score. We did, however, get a few scores in the 50s, so you can imagine how amazing those sounded.

Beth and Chase doing a duet perhaps.


Last night, Beth took me out with her friends from last year. We went to a restaurant in Wolbae (one subway stop over from SangIn, where I live) where the group of friends frequents - I would say they are definitely friends with the owner now. They continued serving us endless kettles of rice wine mixed with cider. It was a bit of a strange taste at first, but I fared alright. I'm not a big drinker as is so it was a bit more challenging with this beverage. We had a couple spicy dishes (of course): veggies with rice cakes that have a similar consistency to a penne noodle, but solid all the way through, and a soup with tofu, tuna and kimchi. I wasn't crazy about either, but it was alright. I'm still most fond of Korean BBQ of chicken (dak) or beef (sogogi) with veggies and rice.

After hours of socializing and having drinks at the restaurant, the group stumbled next door to a noraebang - private karaoke room. Korea is absolutely full of these places. I have no idea how much it costs, but it must have been very cheap. They also just add on more time to the machine timers when it runs out and apparently don't charge extra. There's a disco ball, big "u-shaped" seating, two microphones and surround sound, and you can get alcohol there as well. Some Korean guys that we met at the restaurant joined us for a few songs. We have similar places in the states, but this was a totally different level. It was definitely a fun and interesting night. We must have spent two hours there, and let me tell you - these places don't fill up until 3am or so. It's not exactly a place where you start your night... I'm sure I'll spend some future nights in one of these again.