Happy 추석 Chu-seok Party People,
Chu-seok, for those of you who don't know, is the Korean Thanksgiving, celebrated this year on the 21st-23rd of September, and is a national holiday. Like our Thanksgiving, it was based of the historic moment when the Native Americans saved the Koreans from starvation with Stove Top stuffing and cranberry sauce and then passed out watching football. Or something like that.
Actually, they call it their Thanksgiving, but it's really more of a harvest celebration, where families gather and pay homage to their relatives who have passed on. It truly is a beautiful time for the Korean people. For the rest of us, it's a three day break in the middle of the week (that's right, I had to work Monday and Friday) and a time to travel. I chose to go to Seoul, the capital and the 2nd biggest city in the world. That's right, it beats out New York City's pathetic 19 million citizens with a whopping 24.5 million inhabitants.
My time their was spent staying at a hostel known as The Bong House, which, despite its name, featured no drugs. It was run by Mr. Bong, a feisty Chinese guy who also runs a bar next door known as, you guessed it, Bong Bar. It was a great meeting place for foreigners. I found myself spending a fair amount of time with an audacious Austrian girl and a Brit whose final thesis in college was to design a way to hack into a bank and steal all its money. I thought that was the coolest thing I'd ever heard.
The term megacity gets tossed around all too frequently these days, but Seoul truly fits the bill. To experience the utter mass of this city, we ventured to the top of Seoul Tower. It essentially looks like one of those circular revolving restaurants, except it's placed on top of a mountain. To access this mountain, you take a cable car. Upon leaving this cable car, you are met with the biggest tourist trap I've seen in Korea. It's like a county fair. There are corn dogs everywhere, little kids running aimlessly around with weird toys that break after the first time you use them, and, no lie, the official Teddy Bear Museum.
But the real attraction is the tower, which is about four hundred yards tall and on top of a mountain, so you get a stunning 360 degree view of Seoul. The city stretches on FOREVER. It's not big like New York, in the sense of tall, it's big in the sense of wide. You can see for miles and miles around you in all directions, and all you can see is city. However, the best part was not the view.
On the glass windows of Seoul Tower, their is white writing. Here are the names of cities and how far away they are if you were to start traveling in that direction. So it's like Sydney 4,120 km and Berlin 5,300 km. Now here comes the cheesy part. When I saw New York 11,063 km, like a child, I squinted my eyes and looked as hard as I could, hoping against hope I could see all the way home, to catch a glimpse of all you wonderful people who read my blog. Then it occurred to me, because our planet is round, I'd have a much better chance of looking in the general direction of Massachusetts if I just looked straight down.
But that still was not the coolest thing. The coolest thing was the bathroom of Seoul Tower. Urinals were parked up against the glass wall, so when you peed, it felt like you were peeing down all over fair Seoul City. I can't imagine anyone not enjoying that.
As for teaching, I am digging it, and I promise you, it's for all the wrong reasons. My favorite class is comprised of four twelve-year-old boys who are wicked cool. In a nerdy way. For instance, we start every class with a presentation. It can be on anything they want. School policy. And as there are no smelly girls in the class to spoil our fun, the presentations usually revolve around either video games or weapons and often times both. Which is swell. Besides, they're not slacking off. They do serious research and put up lots of pictures - they work hard and earn their grade. Besides, who's to say Starcraft and AK-47's shouldn't be discussed every day in school?
I've taken time each day to teach them American slang. Already, they are all too familiar with words and phrases such as "wicked cool," "sick," and "I can get down with that." I believe I'll teach them "pimped out" on Monday. I also have a class of nine-year-olds that can't stop saying "booya!" It's nice to know I'm making a difference.
It seems I can't do a blog entry without mentioning food, so here's today's Korean food factoid. Red meat is scarce out here, as opposed to octopus which is plentiful and actually pretty tasty, but when you find some cow meat, oh baby, it's the bee's knees. The Korean BBQ joints are where it's at. The set up is like so: there's a hole in the middle of the table where they stick a flaming circle of charcoal. Then they cover it up with a grill and give you the beef, thinly sliced and marinated, to grill yourself. Then you dip it in this tangy soy sauce, wrap it in lettuce, and enjoy. Damn good and it's probably the only restaurant you'll ever go to that doesn't have a chef.
But that's enough for now. I'm tired from all the Karaoke. As always, I miss you, I miss America, and as much as I love this place, I can't get used to guys calling me "handsome." I mean, it's clearly true, but still, I'd almost feel better if they were hitting on me. Peace and love,
Handsome Dan
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Entry #4
Hello American Consumer,
Being a teacher is full of surprises, especially when your students don't understand dirty things in English. One of my students, Jamie, responded to the question "What does the doctor tell Carol?" by writing "The doctor tells Carol her husband will do her on the plane."
When such a thing happens, you're faced with a moral dilemma: do you lie to a child?
Turns out, for me, it was "yes." I told Jamie that his answer didn't make sense (and it really didn't, the doctor didn't tell her anything like that). I said, "Jamie, people can't do each other. That doesn't make sense. How would that even work?" Lying to a child, wow. I'll make a fantastic Dad someday.
On the more wholesome side of things, I decided to check out a Korean church. While I didn't understand a single word said, the hunched over old lady next to me was nice enough to hold up the hymnal and point to the Korean characters while we were singing. I gotta give her credit, after hearing a baritone, tone-deaf 6'3" white guy butcher the first song, she kept with me to the end. Her kindness and patience was something else, let me tell you. The priest also spoke a little English, so I chatted it up with him afterwards.
Speaking of after church, anyone who knows me, knows that my favorite food is sandwiches. Little known fact, Korea doesn't really make bread and 8 ounce blocks of cheese go for a cool ten dollars American out here. But, on my way out of doing my holy thing, I found a shop that exclusively does sandwiches. Less than two bucks got me an egg, sausage and coleslaw sandwich with BBQ sauce and some other wacky things. But they make it in front of you and my God, it tasted like home (except for the coleslaw, but I dug that).
I spent the weekend in Busan, the second biggest city in Korea, and known for their beaches. I arrived at 4:00 Saturday morning with a fellow teacher. We found a Mexican place he liked and sat outside drinking beer and eating tacos until the sky began to lighten up. Then we walked to the beach, I laid down, and watch the sunrise over the distant mountains. The combination of mountains, city, beach, and sun all in one view was truly something special. The weekend was spent mostly dancing between sleeping in the hostel and walking the beaches. Especially when flying fish jump out of the water to greet you ever so often.
Speaking of Mexican food, last thing for this entry - "salsa" or 살사 is not, when said in Korea, a reference to either the spicy tomato concoction or the fiery Latin dance.
No, dear reader, salsa, in Korean, is their word for explosive diarrhea.
Now, I'd leave with just that, but I've started to ponder something. According to the Oxford English Dictionary (and they're always right), the English language has 171,476 words. I've been doing vocab quizzes here. We have like seven words for friendly, and not a single word for explosive diarrhea. That seems like a crime to me.
I miss and love you all, and have the sudden and strange craving for salsa.
-Daniel Joseph Foley
Being a teacher is full of surprises, especially when your students don't understand dirty things in English. One of my students, Jamie, responded to the question "What does the doctor tell Carol?" by writing "The doctor tells Carol her husband will do her on the plane."
When such a thing happens, you're faced with a moral dilemma: do you lie to a child?
Turns out, for me, it was "yes." I told Jamie that his answer didn't make sense (and it really didn't, the doctor didn't tell her anything like that). I said, "Jamie, people can't do each other. That doesn't make sense. How would that even work?" Lying to a child, wow. I'll make a fantastic Dad someday.
On the more wholesome side of things, I decided to check out a Korean church. While I didn't understand a single word said, the hunched over old lady next to me was nice enough to hold up the hymnal and point to the Korean characters while we were singing. I gotta give her credit, after hearing a baritone, tone-deaf 6'3" white guy butcher the first song, she kept with me to the end. Her kindness and patience was something else, let me tell you. The priest also spoke a little English, so I chatted it up with him afterwards.
Speaking of after church, anyone who knows me, knows that my favorite food is sandwiches. Little known fact, Korea doesn't really make bread and 8 ounce blocks of cheese go for a cool ten dollars American out here. But, on my way out of doing my holy thing, I found a shop that exclusively does sandwiches. Less than two bucks got me an egg, sausage and coleslaw sandwich with BBQ sauce and some other wacky things. But they make it in front of you and my God, it tasted like home (except for the coleslaw, but I dug that).
I spent the weekend in Busan, the second biggest city in Korea, and known for their beaches. I arrived at 4:00 Saturday morning with a fellow teacher. We found a Mexican place he liked and sat outside drinking beer and eating tacos until the sky began to lighten up. Then we walked to the beach, I laid down, and watch the sunrise over the distant mountains. The combination of mountains, city, beach, and sun all in one view was truly something special. The weekend was spent mostly dancing between sleeping in the hostel and walking the beaches. Especially when flying fish jump out of the water to greet you ever so often.
Speaking of Mexican food, last thing for this entry - "salsa" or 살사 is not, when said in Korea, a reference to either the spicy tomato concoction or the fiery Latin dance.
No, dear reader, salsa, in Korean, is their word for explosive diarrhea.
Now, I'd leave with just that, but I've started to ponder something. According to the Oxford English Dictionary (and they're always right), the English language has 171,476 words. I've been doing vocab quizzes here. We have like seven words for friendly, and not a single word for explosive diarrhea. That seems like a crime to me.
I miss and love you all, and have the sudden and strange craving for salsa.
-Daniel Joseph Foley
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Entry #3
Hello Blogfollowers,
There are four major topics that must be touched upon in this entry: my classes, cuisine, beer, and of course, Korean women. Let's start with my classes because it is the tamest of the four categories.
I work in what's called a hagwon 학원 - or English school (that's right, I'm learning Korean). The classes are small, about five kids per section, and then there is the private tutoring aspect. The kids, as all kids are, are relentlessly cute - but much moreso because of their names. It's impossible to get mad at little girls named Lala and little boys named Harry. And it's impossible not to respect a boy named Dragon. I've already decided that will be my first born's name. Boy or girl. Dragon Foley. Wow, what a name.
Food is something I think about quite often (as a matter of fact I'm thinking about it right now), but Koreans keep you guessing. There are delicious things like Korean BBQ,which you grill right in front of you with all sorts of vegetables, and Gim-Chi, which is rotted spicy pickled cabbage and is actually quite tasty, but then there are other things.
One of these things is pupa. If you don't remember pupa from third grade science class, it's the stage of life for a butterfly in between caterpiller and butterfly, where they form a cocoon. Koreans serve pupa cooked in a brown sauce. And not just like one or two. It's a big old pile of them, free (I wonder why), and served with beer. Pupa is bar food. How does it taste, you ask? Well, let me ask you a question. Have you ever had a Gusher?
If you don't know where I'm going with this or you have a weak stomach, I'd recommend you skip to the next paragraph. Once you have sunk your teeth into these shriveled brown pupa, you are greeted with an initial crunch followed by a warm goo that squirts into your mouth with a terrible jolt. The taste is a hybrid of dog food that's been dropped in the dirt and chocolate milk. Of course, at this point, you think it can't get any worse, and you should just finish it. But then you sink your teeth down deeper and you receive a second crunch, in which you realize you're breaking the exoskeleton (or perhaps one of the legs) of the potential butterfly. Then it's just a grudge match to see if you really can choke it down before chugging 멐주 Mekju (Korean beer) and Kiwi 소주Soju (Like a kiwi Pina Colada made with rice wine). And Koreans pop these bad boys like they're potato chips. Impressive.
And speaking of drinks, those are your major options - Mekju and Soju. The soju's not bad, especially the way they do it up. The mekju's another story. Far be it from me to take the route of a beer snob, but Korean beer really just isn't all that great. I don't mind drinking it, I mean, I am a fresh college graduate, but it all tastes like watered down Heineken. And I was jonesin to try some new exotic beer. Sure there were Western Bars, where you could grab some good drafts and hang out with white people, but I could do that in the States. I wanted something Korean and delicious. And then one night, when I was out with my fellow teachers, they showed me to German Bar.
Don't let the name deceive you. German Bar is owned and operated by a Korean man, who happened to be classically trained in Germany by German Brewmasters. He makes his own microbrews and serves them at his brewery. And my God they are good. Plus he speaks good English and likes to get loaded with his customers. Great guy.
Lastly, there's the disturbing fact of the girls here. So the girls here are mostly gorgeous. But not like regular gorgeous. Like they are perfect. You know how they say if something seems too good to be true, it probably is? Well they were right. If you do the research, you'll find something unsettling about my generation of Korean women. You know how girls in America have a Sweet 16 and they ask for a car or a dress or the first season of the Jersey Shore on DVD?
Here they ask for plastic surgery.
No, I'm not joking. Do the research. Conservative estimates gauge 50%, that's HALF, of Korean girls in their twenties have had plastic surgery. And many others want it. Don't get me wrong, they look fantastic, but I believe in being yourself, baby.
Everything else aside, I love the teaching. It's the best part about being here, hands down. It really is an awesome opportunity.
People Skype with me if you get the chance. I miss you all, take care.
-Danielteacher
There are four major topics that must be touched upon in this entry: my classes, cuisine, beer, and of course, Korean women. Let's start with my classes because it is the tamest of the four categories.
I work in what's called a hagwon 학원 - or English school (that's right, I'm learning Korean). The classes are small, about five kids per section, and then there is the private tutoring aspect. The kids, as all kids are, are relentlessly cute - but much moreso because of their names. It's impossible to get mad at little girls named Lala and little boys named Harry. And it's impossible not to respect a boy named Dragon. I've already decided that will be my first born's name. Boy or girl. Dragon Foley. Wow, what a name.
Food is something I think about quite often (as a matter of fact I'm thinking about it right now), but Koreans keep you guessing. There are delicious things like Korean BBQ,which you grill right in front of you with all sorts of vegetables, and Gim-Chi, which is rotted spicy pickled cabbage and is actually quite tasty, but then there are other things.
One of these things is pupa. If you don't remember pupa from third grade science class, it's the stage of life for a butterfly in between caterpiller and butterfly, where they form a cocoon. Koreans serve pupa cooked in a brown sauce. And not just like one or two. It's a big old pile of them, free (I wonder why), and served with beer. Pupa is bar food. How does it taste, you ask? Well, let me ask you a question. Have you ever had a Gusher?
If you don't know where I'm going with this or you have a weak stomach, I'd recommend you skip to the next paragraph. Once you have sunk your teeth into these shriveled brown pupa, you are greeted with an initial crunch followed by a warm goo that squirts into your mouth with a terrible jolt. The taste is a hybrid of dog food that's been dropped in the dirt and chocolate milk. Of course, at this point, you think it can't get any worse, and you should just finish it. But then you sink your teeth down deeper and you receive a second crunch, in which you realize you're breaking the exoskeleton (or perhaps one of the legs) of the potential butterfly. Then it's just a grudge match to see if you really can choke it down before chugging 멐주 Mekju (Korean beer) and Kiwi 소주Soju (Like a kiwi Pina Colada made with rice wine). And Koreans pop these bad boys like they're potato chips. Impressive.
And speaking of drinks, those are your major options - Mekju and Soju. The soju's not bad, especially the way they do it up. The mekju's another story. Far be it from me to take the route of a beer snob, but Korean beer really just isn't all that great. I don't mind drinking it, I mean, I am a fresh college graduate, but it all tastes like watered down Heineken. And I was jonesin to try some new exotic beer. Sure there were Western Bars, where you could grab some good drafts and hang out with white people, but I could do that in the States. I wanted something Korean and delicious. And then one night, when I was out with my fellow teachers, they showed me to German Bar.
Don't let the name deceive you. German Bar is owned and operated by a Korean man, who happened to be classically trained in Germany by German Brewmasters. He makes his own microbrews and serves them at his brewery. And my God they are good. Plus he speaks good English and likes to get loaded with his customers. Great guy.
Lastly, there's the disturbing fact of the girls here. So the girls here are mostly gorgeous. But not like regular gorgeous. Like they are perfect. You know how they say if something seems too good to be true, it probably is? Well they were right. If you do the research, you'll find something unsettling about my generation of Korean women. You know how girls in America have a Sweet 16 and they ask for a car or a dress or the first season of the Jersey Shore on DVD?
Here they ask for plastic surgery.
No, I'm not joking. Do the research. Conservative estimates gauge 50%, that's HALF, of Korean girls in their twenties have had plastic surgery. And many others want it. Don't get me wrong, they look fantastic, but I believe in being yourself, baby.
Everything else aside, I love the teaching. It's the best part about being here, hands down. It really is an awesome opportunity.
People Skype with me if you get the chance. I miss you all, take care.
-Danielteacher
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Entry #2
Hey party people,
So I'm now living in my apartment. The upside is I now get to watch Korean TV. The downside is - well, do you remember those hygiene videos they showed you in sixth grade health class? Where it would be like, "Tommy brushes his teeth every day and uses deodorant, but Billy hasn't bathed in four days." The guy who lived in the apartment before me, DEFINITELY a Billy.
Everything here is very different. Mushrooms here can cost upwards of two hundred dollars, but you can get a filling (and tasty) amount of Korean sushi (called kim-bob) for under two bucks. They actually love America here. One drunken guy couldn't stop shaking my hand and telling me how our countries were best friends. Also, You don't tip anyone for anything. If you do, they chase you down because they think you paid too much by accident.
They also have a nifty thing here called "Coffee Girls." They're girls who deliver coffee to your apartment. Convienent, huh? Turns out they also uh...are willing to do other things there for an added fee. And this isn't looked upon as shameful. I've seen them cruising around on their scooters in the city on on Wednesday afternoon.
Also - the country is completely homophobic but within that lies a striking dichotomy. Men here act gay. I don't mean that in a bad way. I mean actually gay, at least by American standards. Businessmen walk hand and hand with their friends. And I'm not talking touching hands. I'm talking full out, fingers in between each others, linked, big smiles on their faces. I couldn't stop laughing when I saw one businessman ruffle his "partner's" hair with his free hand. Again, totally not gay. Even when guy friends sit on each others laps.
Last thing - I'm completely against stereotypes. I think it's wrong to ever, ever judge someone based on their skin color or religion or where they're from, but I find it uncanny how crappy the driving is here. Red lights at major intersections are more of a suggestion, it seems, and cab drivers have no qualms going 100 kilometers (oh yeah, I know the metric system) or about 65mph down narrow and busy city roads. Parents seem to be the same way, the only difference is Koreans don't have child seats, or usually have anyone wear seatbelts.
But life is good here. My teacher friends are good people and Americans are like celebrities here. But, as always, I miss you all.
-Danielson
So I'm now living in my apartment. The upside is I now get to watch Korean TV. The downside is - well, do you remember those hygiene videos they showed you in sixth grade health class? Where it would be like, "Tommy brushes his teeth every day and uses deodorant, but Billy hasn't bathed in four days." The guy who lived in the apartment before me, DEFINITELY a Billy.
Everything here is very different. Mushrooms here can cost upwards of two hundred dollars, but you can get a filling (and tasty) amount of Korean sushi (called kim-bob) for under two bucks. They actually love America here. One drunken guy couldn't stop shaking my hand and telling me how our countries were best friends. Also, You don't tip anyone for anything. If you do, they chase you down because they think you paid too much by accident.
They also have a nifty thing here called "Coffee Girls." They're girls who deliver coffee to your apartment. Convienent, huh? Turns out they also uh...are willing to do other things there for an added fee. And this isn't looked upon as shameful. I've seen them cruising around on their scooters in the city on on Wednesday afternoon.
Also - the country is completely homophobic but within that lies a striking dichotomy. Men here act gay. I don't mean that in a bad way. I mean actually gay, at least by American standards. Businessmen walk hand and hand with their friends. And I'm not talking touching hands. I'm talking full out, fingers in between each others, linked, big smiles on their faces. I couldn't stop laughing when I saw one businessman ruffle his "partner's" hair with his free hand. Again, totally not gay. Even when guy friends sit on each others laps.
Last thing - I'm completely against stereotypes. I think it's wrong to ever, ever judge someone based on their skin color or religion or where they're from, but I find it uncanny how crappy the driving is here. Red lights at major intersections are more of a suggestion, it seems, and cab drivers have no qualms going 100 kilometers (oh yeah, I know the metric system) or about 65mph down narrow and busy city roads. Parents seem to be the same way, the only difference is Koreans don't have child seats, or usually have anyone wear seatbelts.
But life is good here. My teacher friends are good people and Americans are like celebrities here. But, as always, I miss you all.
-Danielson
Monday, September 6, 2010
Entry #1
Hello American Friends,
I arrived in Korea September 4th at 4:30PM. I took Korea Air - which is like Jet Blue except all the stewardesses are Korean and their outfits are straight out of the 1950's. I sat next to a guy from Senegal who told me about the plight of his country. Now he paints buses in America.
Arriving in Korea I was met with a picket reading "Daniel Foley" followed by a bunch of Korean characters. Why Korean characters? I have no idea. Rachel, the picket holder, took me to the bus, and then I was off to Gwang-ju.
First impressions:
Starting teaching soon, just observing now. Moving into my apartment and all that jazz happening now too. Next update, I will discuss the complexity of Korean television and the joys of teaching the Starcraft Nation.
I miss and love you all.
-Dan
I arrived in Korea September 4th at 4:30PM. I took Korea Air - which is like Jet Blue except all the stewardesses are Korean and their outfits are straight out of the 1950's. I sat next to a guy from Senegal who told me about the plight of his country. Now he paints buses in America.
Arriving in Korea I was met with a picket reading "Daniel Foley" followed by a bunch of Korean characters. Why Korean characters? I have no idea. Rachel, the picket holder, took me to the bus, and then I was off to Gwang-ju.
First impressions:
- Everyone speaks Korean but loves the English language. Case in point, many shops have English words tossed in like "Super" and "Hello." But then again, some of them don't make any sense, like "Pizza School" and "Happy Auto Lounge."
- Nothing tastes like it looks. Trust me, when you bite into what looks like a short cake with green frosting and you find out it's asparagus paste, or when you try something that looks like past in a spicy red sauce and it's sweet, it throws you off a bit.
- Very mountainous country. 70% is actually mountains. We visited a Buddhist Monastery my second day there, up in the hills. Then we hiked alongside the largest Korean nature preservation. Pictures will be up soon, but they will not do either justice.
- Koreans hate wearing shoes indoors. Several times I've been yelled at for walking into buildings, or, in some cases, Buddhist Temples, because I was wearing shoes. Old habits die hard.
- People love talking to the American dude. Before writing this I was stopped on the street for 20 minutes to hear a total stranger businessnman rant on his ideas for why the American economic system is in the gutter. At least, I think that's what he was talking about.
Starting teaching soon, just observing now. Moving into my apartment and all that jazz happening now too. Next update, I will discuss the complexity of Korean television and the joys of teaching the Starcraft Nation.
I miss and love you all.
-Dan
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