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)

Christmas and New Year's.

The days and weeks just keep getting busier and busier. Christmas and New Year's both came and went, and now January 2011 is about to join them in history. Our work Christmas Party (on Christmas Day) was an extravagant one to say the least. Apparently, it was held in the most expensive reception hall in all of Daegu at the Interburgo Hotel in Manchon. The party included a terribly sub-par buffet, a talent show with pyrotechnics and lighting effects, irrelevant power-point presentations and ₩600,000,000 in bonuses. We would say that it's about $600,000, but the actual conversion is more like $540,000.

The buffet looked like it had solid potential, but it turned out to be nothing but 50 feet of table space covered by a variety of pastas and Korean dishes that had gone cold sans a flame below them. It wasn't until about 45 minutes into the meal that we noticed another table that has some cold turkey and mashed potatoes as well as a person making made-to-order stir-fry. Still, I'd rate the meal a 5. Not too great for the priciest ticket in town.

The talent show had some high points and low points. There were some acts that I could not make any sense of - for example, one that was a 10 minute skit in Korean that half the room didn't understand, followed by 5 minutes of them passing chewed gum from mouth to floor to mouth,  and finally into the boss-man's mouth. They won second place bringing in ₩4,000,000. I'm still confused. There were other notable acts, like my co-worker who sang and played an acoustic version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" and a couple that did a salsa dance. I, of course, played piano as my fingers nearly shook right off my hands from nerves. I have never played in front of so many people. I was on stage, front and center, and then they felt it necessary to point a spot light right in my eyes, blinding me and leaving the piano keys in the shadows; not a good combination. I didn't place in the top 5 out of 18, but I still got a ₩500,000 prize, as all participants did. It was definitely the fastest 500 bucks I've ever made, but can't say it was completely painless. 

Following the party, which lasted from 5pm to close to 11pm, everyone fought over cabs at the hotel to get downtown as soon as possible and join our non-co-workers. It was a pretty fun night as everyone was out and looking to have a good time. I sensed that some people were a bit nostalgic and missed Christmas with their friends and families at home, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves quite a bit. 

The next day, apparently known as "Boxing Day," some friends had another Christmas dinner party. This meal was delightful with a scrumptious turkey, delicious and healthful salads, pesto pasta, endless vino, and of course, the mash. We finished off the the night with apple pie and too many rounds of Apples-to-Apples. That meal trumped the Interburgo.

The following weekend was obviously New Year's. Most of Daegu went on a ski/snowboarding trip a few hours outside of Daegu. They stayed local for the countdown to midnight and were all on a bus by 1am. I heard some pretty eventful stories from their weekend in the mountains, but Daegu was a lovely weekend as well; when in good company. We celebrated with some champagne and other cocktails. All was good until I realized my wallet had been stolen before 3am. The night took a small dive as I rushed home to call 4 credit/debit card companies. Nothing was charged, but that wasn't going to bring back my $100+ that was stolen. I ended up getting my wallet back a couple days later with everything as it was, minus the cash. Oh well, 2011 - at least you redeemed yourself a bit. What else do you have for me?

 I leave you with Nathan Paagard's acoustic version of "Bohemian Rhapsody"

Sick-mas.

It's Christmas Eve in America and Christmas Day in Korea, but really the day is just another day. It's doesn't exactly feel like Christmas in this part of the world. Although I don't celebrate it, the last 6 Christmases have been nice spending it with my observing friends' and boyfriends' families, and I miss it a bit this year. However, our school is throwing us a Christmas party in the evening: food, drinks, alcohol, talent show (which I am partaking in...). More to come on that one later.

I have seen some small Christmas trees around town, and some stores have been playing American Christmas songs, which is always fun, but that's about as far as it goes. At school, our manager ordered us a big feast for lunch: sushi, some Korean fried pork things, some sort of soup, green tea pizza and some breaded chicken breasts. One of the foreign teachers dressed up as Santa and gave all the students in the school some candy - well, except for the middle schoolers, we don't like them. Other than that, just another day at school with fascinating writing (see example photo), and at least one student per class demanding, "Teacher! Give me candy!"

On a less-than-thrilling note, the winter season has brought sickness with it in full force! The students act as disease-carrying parasites that attack when least expected. They may look cute in these pictures, but don't be fooled. School is essentially a place to unavoidably contract illnesses. I thought I had trained the little rats to cover their mouths just in time for the cold and sick season, but wow, was I mistaken. Three weeks ago, I came down with tonsillitis and paid a visit to the doctor. It was pretty miserable being sick, but after a shot of who-knows-what in my behind, I was feeling a lot better. The doc also gave me a bunch of unmarked pills to take 5 pills, 3 times a day for 3 days. Perhaps needless to say, I was feeling almost 100% by the end of all that. I thought I was done with sickness for a while, but again was mistaken.

Perhaps there are a few different strings of viruses going around, and my immunity to the others has not yet built itself up. After feeling healthy for a solid two weeks, the ever-so-lovely children continued with their coughing down my throat. Last Friday night, I contracted some sort of cough which would soon become bronchitis. I spent the entire weekend in bed, had to take a sick day on Monday, and finally made it back to the doc for Wednesday after our work meeting. Bronchitis - another shot in the bum, a bunch of unmarked pills for 3 days and some "frog" syrup that's supposed to help with coughing and sore throat. Now, it's been a solid week of this illness and it's still not exactly close to gone. The rounds of medication didn't seem to work the magic this time.

Earlier today, I had my last piano practice session before the talent show tomorrow. The piano teacher made me some sort of hot beverage full of honey - it wasn't too bad. She then tried to explain a home remedy, something about pears, ginger and honey. She wrote me a note in Korean of what to do - my Korean coworker told me to that it said to mix those ingredients in a bowl of water and put that bowl inside another bowl of boiling water and do something. I don't know. But it sounded complicated.

I'll be going back to the doc in the morning for a follow-up, and I'm crossing my fingers that she can do something magical. I really hope my immune system is as tough as Stone Cold Steve Austin after all this. I will continue to take vitamins and eat an apple a day to keep the doctor away, and all that other healthy stuff. Please do your job, immune system. At below zero-degree Fahrenheit temperatures and sick, coughing kids that won't stay home from school, I will need all the strength I can get!

Merry Christmas, world!

                                     Bibio - Lover's Carvings (vocals kick in around 2:00)

On the Border at the DMZ

The last several weeks have been insanely busy and have flown by. December is already well on its way, not sure how that even happened.

Towards the end of November, I was able to make a trip to the Demilitarized Zone between North Korea and South Korea. Good thing we went when we did, because a few days later, the tension shot up between NK and SK and things are still not exactly stable.

I probably should have posted about the DMZ closer to when it happened because I can't remember many of the facts anymore. It was a very interesting trip, worth one trek, but not a second. After teaching on Friday night, we took the KTX fast train to Seoul and finally settled into a seedy love motel around 2:30am - wake up call 7:00am. After Dunkin' Donuts coffee and a bagel, we headed for our tour bus with a bunch of other foreigners.

The DMZ goes 2km into North Korea and 2km into South Korea and is supposedly the most heavily militarized border in the world. Our first stop was Imjingak and the Bridge of Freedom at the edge of the DMZ, 2km from the actual North Korean border. Close to 13,000 prisoners crossed the bridge to "freedom" in 1953. They also had part of an old train with more than 1,000 bullets that was derailed in the war. There were some good touristy photo opps there and a small amusement park that I thought was abandoned until I saw the "Super Viking" swinging across the sky.

Next, we went to the Third Tunnel - North Korea had dug many tunnels with the plan of secretly attacking Seoul at some point. We weren't allowed to take photos in the tunnel area, but we did have some great hard-hats that we were required to wear. We looked unfathomably awesome. Some parts of the tunnel got pretty low, and the foreigners tend to be taller than 5 feet tall. I could hardly contain my laughter when every 3 seconds, on beat like a metronome, hard-hats would clink on the tunnel ceiling followed by a slight groan. I enjoyed it.

This full day tour was a long one! Next, we went to an observation point of North Korea that we weren't allowed to take photos at once you stepped foot over this line. It made no sense whatsoever, but I did, however, break the rules.  I accidentally took a picture on the wrong side of the line of someone getting busted for taking a picture on the wrong side of the line. We also stopped at Dorasan station, which is the last train stop in South Korea. They built it hoping that it would open up some railways into North Korea, but that didn't work out.

Finally, we made it to the actual border of North and South Korea - Panmunjom, or sometimes known as JSA (Joint Security Area). At that point, the tour was led by the US Army. We were able to cross the actual border within a building that was being guarded by ROK (Republic of Korea) soldiers. They just stood there with Ray-Ban-like aviator sunglasses on and did not move an inch, much like the guards outside Buckingham Palace.

It was a good trip, a long day and glad I did it once, but wouldn't sign up for it again. To keep things in the theme of "borders," we went to On The Border for dinner in Sincheon, near Hongdae - a good place to go out for a night in Seoul. Some of my other friends from Daegu had been in the area for The Flaming Lips show and we met up later on. The band turned up at the bar we were at, and I had a few words and a hand shake with the lead singer, Wayne Coyne. The rest of the night turned out to be one to remember forever. Thank you, Seoul. See you soon.

And for your ears: Lemon Jelly - "Spacewalk"


LEMON JELLY Spacewalk from Mario Cavalli on Vimeo.

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