korean folk village

deer-lou.

well another weekend has come and gone. is it just me or do they seem to fly by anymore? sometimes it feels like i blink and its over. this month has been quite busy and this weekend was no exception. there seems to be something going on all the time. i've yet to catch up on my sleep. plus i seem to have this lingering cold of sorts. stuffy nose, coughing, and the brenda vacarro voice. it probably didn't help that i had 4 soju cocktails friday night after taekwondo. i'm not sure what it is about that class but lately i've been wanting a drink afterwards. perhaps its because i'm getting a major workout. i've never sweated so much in my life the other night. of course it didn't help that the 4 kids in my class kept complaining about it being hot so the sabomnim kept shutting the windows. evil. somehow though i did manage to get to bed relatively early on friday night. although i had a restless sleep and was up at 7:30am. even getting up at that hour i still managed to end up running late. what's up with that? i went over to ho's apartment around 9:15am. i wanted to give him his birthday gifts before heading out for the day. we met up with christine and anna in suwan around 11am. at 11:30 we boarded the shuttle bus destined for the korean folk village. unfortunately instead of fun ajummas our bus was filled with children. it was like being on a school field trip. the folk village was quite interesting. kind of like going to epcot or a colonial village. when i was in middle school our class took a fieldtrip to a colonial village where we watched them make candles and cut the heads off of chickens. yes they actually did that. the best part of that school trip was when one kid got hold of the chicken feet and started to chase all the girls around. this is kind of what the folk village was like. without the killing of chickens. here's what the brochure has to say:

traditional houses and living culture
in a natural environment of 243 acres, more than 260 houses from the different regions and the living culture of the later joseon dynasty are revived lively. just feel the ancestral intelligence and wisdom with the various traditional experiences.

traditional gusto and enthusiasm
• exciting and cheerful farmers' music and dance
• breathtakin acrobatics on a tightrope and seesaw performance
• artless, affectionate and traditional wedding ceremony
why don't you indulge yourself in the joy and excitement that our performances give?

flavor of cultural art
korean folk museum and other collections where you can enjoy the lifestyles and the cultural arts of joseon dynasty. modern art museum and sculpture garden where you can enjoy the modern art pieces. experience the flavor of the impressive and cultural arts from the harmony of the traditional and the modern.

leave with precious recollections!
bazzar where you can enjoy the ancient of the traditional korean foods. souvenir shops full of the famous, beautiful and tradtional art products. keep you memories of the korean folk village with the old atmosphere in your heart forever.

that pretty much sums up the experience. i love brochures [but thats a whole post of it own]. what the fails to mention is that there's an amuzement park in the folk village too. it was a beautiful day to be outside. all around the village there are pagodas where people sit and relax or as some did sleep. shoes must be taken off to go into these pagodas. it was cool to see how they lived back then and the various different tools, etc that they used. although after awhile everything started to look the same. these kind of places hold my interest for about 2 hours then i'm all like whatever. the jail and all the torture defvices were cool to see. the best part of the trip was learning about togabes [spelling?] these are folklore monsters that come to get you at night. people use to hang these charm things over their door to keep the togabes away. christine was telling me a little about. i'm going to reach them and when i find out more i'll fill you in. i [heart] togabes. i was a little disappointed that they didn't have any kind of togabe merchandise for sale. hello!! there was a haunted house that had all sorts of mechanical togabes though. that was cool in its own cheesy way. for lunch has this acorn jelly bibamboop which was so good. who knew that acorns tasted so good. those squirrels are definitely onto something. i also had this cold rice drink that was very tastey. and i even found a place that was selling slurpees. i got a pineapple icey which was too good for words. for some odd reason pineapple has become my new thing. for about two weeks i've been hooked on pineapple sunny 10 which is a soft drink. i finally had to put a stop to it. i mean, seriously, how much pineapple soda can one drink? basically we walked around for 6 hours. we even managed to squeeze in a few rides in the amusement park. somehow they got me to go on the viking ship ride. I HATE THOSE THINGS! we had to take a city bus on the way home where this one boy kept insisting on talking to me. lucky me. by the time i reached my apartment i was exhausted. sunday was spent watching tv and cleaning.

here's a rundown of what i saw and did at the village:
1. yon-ja bang-a [mill stone
2. pottery workshop
3. farmer's house in the southern part
4. peasant's house in the southern part
5. house in the northern part
6. cotton weaving workshop
7. large landowner's house in the southern part
8. farmer's house in southern part [bamboo workshop]
9. korean herb shop
10. swing site
11. dutiful son's monument
12. farmer's house southern part [fortune tellers]
13. farmer's house central part
14. nobleman's mansion
15. city dweller's house central part
16. house in northern part
17. haunted house
18. provinical government office
19. inner three passage gate
20. water wheel mill
21. house in central part
22. bazzar
23. seesaw/tightrope performance
24. walked across a stone bridge
25. pharmacy
26. family coaster
27. viking
28. rail road train
29. boat ride
30. music express [a ride that goes around and around]
31. world folk museum [snore. it was like being in cost plus or pier 1]
32. historical drama exhibition [you know how i love my korean dramas]
33. traditional jail and flogging post
34. wild kittens!

i forgot to mention that the folk village is where all the television dramas about korean history are shot. hee hee!

best thing i saw:
little boy soaking wet walking up to his mom who completely freak. i think he took a dip in the murking river.

snaps from korean folk village…
Links

• korean folk village

rollercoaster…

deer-lou.
let me start off by saying TGIF. this week has definitely been a rollercoaster of sorts for me. lots of ups and downs. not really sure why i felt so down. i think alot of it has to do with feeling overwhelmed in taekwondo. for some reason i can't seem to memorize the poomses. i'm trying to do master 1-4 in such a short period of time that its all i think of anymore. there are times i think it would have been easier to start from the beginning instead of trying to fix what i already learned. monday's class was a flashback to middle school and the presidental fitness test. remember that. when you got tested on various p.e. things like: shuttle run, long jump, sit-ups, and push-ups. well that's what we had to do plus jump roping. i suck at the jump rope. after class my sabomnim told me we were going to have a test on all these things in a month. i believe i have to do better than what i did this time around. does someone hate me. i thought i left the presidental fitness test behind me long ago. obviously not! on tuesday we actually had the "bring it on" class. where taekwondo mets dance. i felt like a cheerleader doing all these different moves. of course my coordination was way off. i kept trying to hide behind the fat boy so noone could see me make a fool of myself. hee hee. on wednesday my boss wanted to talk to us about renewing our contracts where i decided to stay on for one more year. yes, as of now i'm officially staying in korea until september 2006. that night i was looking forward to doing absolutely nothing except writing on here. then my phone rang and it was christine from school. her and young were at a bbq place and asked if i wanted to join them. i wasn't really hungry but went anyway. when i got there jk was there too. we ate tons of food and drank soju. it was actually quite fun. this restaurant had a white kimchi which was very good. when we were leaving the owners gave me a giant bag of the delicious kimchi to take home. SCORE!! from there christine wanted to go to a noraebang. reluctantly i went along. of course more beer was consumed and i sang my heart out.

noraebang set
paint it black
the house of the rising sun
call me
zombie
song 2
summertime
without me

well so much for my relaxing wednesday. at school on thursday one of my students played the cello for us. she was amazing. very talented. that night at taekwondo while the other students were out inline skating i had one on one time with the kwanjangnim doing my poomses. i think i did all right. i've got one and two down. most of three is mastered and four is a bit shakey. he also showed me five. his plan for me is to have 1-8 mastered in three months. nothing like some pressure. i'll definitely do my best. i actually felt a little better after class.

i forget to mention. the big news on monday at school was the fact that i got a new hairstyle. all the kids were like "teacher, teacher, you're hair." i told one class that i was actually nathan, ethan's twin brother so they called me teacher nathan all day. overall i got the thumbs up and bravo from my students. my kwanjangnim even asked about my "changey hair" and said it was handsome. the best of all though was the cornerstore guy who gave me the big thumbs up. who knew that by straightening one's hair you'd get so many complements. i can only imagine what they thought of my old hairstyle.

news from home consisted of an email from my mom telling me they are moving to arkansas. apparently my dad was offered a job there. this will definitely make things interesting. especially since my sister had just moved back to florida. however, people have to do what they have to do and if my dad thinks this move is right then who am i to say anything. it'll be weird though not seeing my old house in florida again. this weekend is horace's birthday. on saturday we are going with the other teachers to a korean folk village in yongsin. i'm looking forward to that. should definitely be interesting. hope you all have a good friday.

be well…

cute moment of the week:
jordan writing "ethan, i love you" in his pencil case

weekend update

deer-lou.

friday night: taekwondo class consisted of aerobic style tkd. i literally thought i was going to die. we had to do these fast kicks 30 times. everytime the sabomnim looked at me he would say "no dancing. one foot. one foot." thats what i thought i was doing but apparently it wasn't. deep down inside i probably wanted to dance. after our dancing we had to run back and forth in the dojang. first it was there and back. then it was twice. and then three times. next came the same thing but this time the sabomnim blow a whistle. the first time we heard the whistle we ran. the next time we had to stop. we did this 3 different times too. as if all that running wasn't enought our next challenge was to move sideways back and forth. we did this 5 times, then 7, and then 10. i'm sure the other four boys that were in class that night thought i wasn't going to last. little did they know that i was determines. there was no way i was going to let the little chubby boy at last me. the contest was on. luckily for me the chubby kid didn't last. the sabomnim ended up pulling him back and forth. after all that i was completely exhausted. i envisioned my friday night with a beer in hand but by the time i got home all i wanted to go was sleep and thats what i did.

saturday: got up early around 8am to be exact. i wanted to make sure i had enough time to prepare for MAGIC STRAIGHT. i got to HAIRPICASSO a little before 10am. the manager who spoke english wasn't there. instead i had a very hip "designer" greet me. she couldn't really speak english. this was definitely going to be an adventure. she looked at me and said "magic straight". i nodded. then she rambled off in korean. i just stood there smiling. she gave me a robe to put on and then pointed to the hair washing station. the time had come. after my hair was washed she directed me over to her station. once i was seated she asked if i'd like a "cola". i said ney [yes]. with that she went to the register got out some money and then left the shop. i didn't realize she had to go to the corner store for it. oops. when she came back the process started. and let me tell you it was a process. by this time another worker came in and she helped my "designer" goop up my hair. with the solution covering my head she proceeded to wrap my hair in rollers. if only you could have seen that. it was definitely a site. after that i got a plastic cap placed on my head and she rolled over the revolving dryer. i felt like i was in a sci-fi salon with this moving dryer. as i sat there bookless and bored the aroma of the solution which smelled like rotten eggs was making me nauseous. all i kept thinking was please don't get sick. i'm really sure how long i sat there under the revolving dryer. it felt like ages. when she returned to me she adjusted some rollers and did something else and then i was back under the dryer. i almost wanted to give up. a few more years passed and she washed out round one. back in the chair they applied a different solution which looked like paste. more rollers were put in my hair and back under the dryer again. after that round they washed it out, blew dried my hair and then put a flat iron to it. then came more paste and a long piece of plastic attached to a roller was put in my hair. more drying time too. at this point i was getting restless and completely bored. i looked over at the clock and it was almost 1pm. i had been here 3 hours and it was still going on. finally it was back to getting the paste washed out. they blow dried my hair again, busted out the flat iron, and put yet another solution on it. someone should have warned me that it would take so long. another washing and blow dry and finally i was done. woo. can you say cousin it. the "designer" looked at me and said all done. i was like…"umm i think it needs to get cut". its way too long. i pointed to a picture of how i wanted it styled and she said "no". ok, i thought. then she went over to the phone and called the manager. i had to speak with the manager about what i wanted done. the phone was pased around between me, the manager, and the designer for several minutes until it was decided what was going to be done. the manager told me that the designer had a style in mind and if i didn't like it i could come back on sunday to go with the shorter style. i agreed figuring how bad could it be. basically what i wanted was going to be done but just in a longer style. when she was all finished she had brushed my hair back. i told her i wanted it to come forward. so she changed it and cut the front a little more. the final cut from the front was actually good. it was layered and kind of staggered about. the back i wasn't so sure of. reason being…i had a MULLET. yes, i wanted a korean mullet style but i didn't realize how long it was. i figured i'd give a try so i went up to pay. of course this too was not an easy task. the amount ended up being more than the manager originally told me. i didn't have enough with me to pay the full amount.so it was back on the phone to converse with the manager. we went back and forth about the conversation we had a few days ago. i wasn't really mad i was just trying to figure out the price jump. the conversation ended with them taking what i had and she apologized for the miscommunication. i thanked her and told her not to worry. next time i know. she asked me to stop in on sunday and i told her i would. now it was time to go out with my korean mullet. when i got home i stood in front of the mirror just staring. was that really me. every five minutes i kept going to the mirror. thank god it was fixed. i couldn't really decide if i like it or not. i figured it would be best to wait a few days before i made any drastic decisions. besides i had to start getting ready to go out. my friend heather was having a birthday gathering out in hongdae. i was suppose to meet them at 7pm at a club and it was already 5:30pm. i still had to eat, dress, and mess with my hair.

i was more than halfway into my trip to hongdae when i realized that the directions were at home. at least i read them a few times and knew what station and exit to take. once there however, i wasn't sure where to go. i called ryan to see if he was going. luckily enough he was and he was only one stop away. i waited for him at the exit and together we went in search of the family mart which was our landmark.
we found the club "rolling bar" at least i think that was the name. there was some korean singer performing and on the poster it said 22,000 won. neither ryan or i wanted to pay especially since it was almost over. ryan called the number that cp gave up. it was some guy who was a friend of cp and working the event. he came out and told us to walk in since there was no one around collecting money anymore. score! after hearing two minutes of this performer i was thinking "if i had to pay for this i would have shot myself." listening to a korean rock singer belt out cover tunes is not my thing. it was definitely entertaining but the twenty minutes i was there was definitely enough. if you could have only seen the people. at one point a group of them had a mosh pit going. yes, a mosh pit. not really something i expected to see. but the crowd definitely seemed to enjoy. i don't know if these people would know good music if it came up and slapped them in the face. granted the korean songs he sang weren't bad but radiohead's "creep" and then greenday followed by a melody of five songs. oh boy. finally the twenty minutes of hell was over. i was so ready to drink some beer. seeing that we were a large group it took us awhile to find a bar where we could all sit. standing is not permitted in alot of bars. we ended up at tin pan which was kind of cool. they had a lot of old rock albums on the wall. in front of me was a poster of mr. big. remember them. i barely do. we stayed for a few rounds and then went to a different bar where the korean portion of the group were at. it was actually another cave bar. not as cool as the one in jungangdong. there we had more pitchers, some food, and soju cocktails. after a few hours there a large portion of the group took off for home. thats what we should have done but instead we ended up in a noraebong drinking more beer. there were about 15 of us there. i did meet this cool girl ida. she's teaching in a small town where she is one of two foreigners. we left the noraebang around 4 jumped in a cab where ryan and chris sang the whole way home. i got to bed around 5am just as dawn was approaching. this is weekend of 3 of late nights. i gotta stop.

sunday: i managed to get out of bed around noon. i quickly showered and went to hairpicasso. i decided last night that i needed the back to get trimmed. my mullet was too long. while i was out last night both heather and ryan said it looked good. that made me happy cuz i felt strange the whole night. kind of like it was me but not really me. especially when i would look into the mirror. anyway but to the salon. the manager, michelle, was there. i told her that i wanted the back trimmed up a little. while i was in the chair she asked if i had some time today. she wanted to shampoo and style my hair. i told her sure. we had a nice little chat. she agained apologized and i again thanked her for giving me a discount. she was talking about my hair and stuff but i really couldn't figure out what she was trying to say. it went something like this: "hair flat face not match". i think she meant i needed to put some product in it. hello. i realize that. i really don't want to wear my hair flat. there was also the "weak hair something something". i just sat and nodded. as she style my hair i'm sitting there thinking "oh, no you're not." she was totally poofing out my hair. when she asked if i liked it i lied and said yes. all i wanted to do was go home and sleep. i thanked her again and ended up buying some really expensive shampoo. it makes my hair soft plus after having all those treatments i figured i should wash it with something good. the rest of my day was spent watching breakfast club. plus a whole and i mean whole lot of nothing.

be well…

highlights from the weekend:
amy [this korean girl i met on saturday night] telling me i looked like brad pitt
michelle telling me i had beautiful eyes
hearing koreans sing sweet child of mine in noraebong

p.s.
a picture of me with magic straight is below. enjoy!

the magic straight results

some random snaps

k-rocker who sang covers. they kids all loved him. go figure.

my lotus lantern

hard at work

korean movie that haunts me

my so called surreal life…

deery-lou.
sometimes i wonder if my life could get any stranger and it does. when i arrived at taekwondo class tonight, i'm still going early because i'm never sure if i'm supose to be teaching my sabom-nim english or not, the class before mine was still going on. the third instructor [i still can't remember his name or what they call him but i think its kyosahnim or training instructor] told me to come into the dojang [practice space] to watch. the students were all lined up waiting to begin. all of the sudden the sabom-nim hit play on the cassette player the music started and the students began to perform. yes, they were doing a taekwondo routine to music. "we will rock you" to be precise. as if life couldn't get any better. they did three different routines to different music. i didn't recognize the other songs although one definitely sounded like a korean pop song. it was as if i was watching "bring it on". the only thing missing was kirsten dunst and eliza dusku. after the routines the students would wrong to the side regroup and come back out. it was fantastic. after alll the movement routines were done they grabbed foamboards and started doing kicks. one student jumped over 4 other students to kick the board. then there was a move where one student got on the shoulders of other held the board and other came running down to kick it. the whole time i'm thinking, "am i going to have to do this?" it lasted for about 20 mins. or so. it was so great to watch. these students are so graceful. a couple of times some of the kids lost their grip of the board and it went flying into the air. all i could do was sit there in amazement and wish that i was that young and agile. around 9pm the sabom-nim called me and the other 3 students over to begin our class. the 3 kids left with the kyosahnim while i stayed behind. the sabom-nim called me over to talk about something. even now i'm kind of unsure as to what he was trying to say but i think it comes down to this. on june 4 the students have a taekwondo contest so we won't be studying english until after that. at least thats what i think he said. i'm going to see if i can go with them to the contest to watch. it would definitely be interesting. after that i once again practiced my poomses 1-4. the sabom-nim told me that i'm getting better. that was good to hear. i had a little difficulty with poomse 4. for some reason i can't get the knife hand attack down. i keep wanting to bend my arm and not keep it straight. the kwan-jang-nim came in to watch and i could they were talking about me. oh well. whats a boy to do. after doing the poomses several times i had a 3 min. break. during the break they were trying to ask me questions about friends and taekwondo. i think they wanted to know if i had any friends who wanted to join. i told them no. as i told them the one guy i know from my other class "is going bye-bye." yes those were my exact words. strangely enough they understood. that prompted them to ask me "when bye-bye to america". i replied by telling them i'd most likely be here until september 2006. yes i'm 95% sure i'll stay another year. the kyosahnim came back with the other students and we did poomse 4 and then ended class. can i just tell you how cute the kyosahnim is…very. he kind of looks like the korean guy from lost daniel dae kim. the kwanjangnim came in with some kimbab and the four of us sat on the floor eating it. they were asking me questions about if i can speak korean or not. very little i told them but i'm trying to motivate myself. sadly i haven't been that motivated but now i'm starting to feel the urge to learn. then they started to ask me about my other instructor. i tried to explain to them the best i could. they asked his name so i told them. i don't think they know him. they wanted to know the level i thought of him and i said very low. i tried to explain that i feel like i've learned more in the last three weeks than i did in my 7 months there. it was cool to hang out with them. even though i only understood a fourth of the conversation. this further comfirms that its going to be a good class.

at school today one of my students mother brought in snacks for my class so i got to have a party with them. these kids went to town on the snacks. it was like a group of sharks circling. every time i looked over they were stuffing something in their mouths. jordan took a long potato stick stuck a circle snack through it and kept saying its candy. then he added a corn chip to the top of the circle snack and called it a cowboy. kids are so great. another parent brought in homemade sushi, miso soup, and some kind of sweet potato thing with corn and raisins. it was like feast day. sometimes teaching has its rewards. especially when food is involved.

be well…

countdown to magic straight:
1 day, 11 hours

everyday living…

deery-lou.
so i got this email this week which i'm sure was junk but it made me laugh. especially since its written in broken english much like what i deal with on a regular basis when communcating with the locals. my communcations skills are going to be vastly improved once i return. now i'll understand everything. so here's the messages:

from: saturnina shizuko
thats disappoint not use music
he nothing fly friends
music nothing

tuesday's taekwondo was like a sweat house for me. the kwan-jang-nim and sabom-nim made me do poomses 1 and 2 over and over until i had them down. there was one part in poomse 2 that i could not remember. everytime i got there i just froze. the kwan-jang-nim kept laughing and told me to move my left foot. finally after two more tries i got it down. now if i can only remember the damn things. i'm sure they think i'm a "special needs" kind of guy. it was interesting to have them explain the movements to me. it actually makes a lot more sense then just doing the poomse. the whole movements are done the same way you'd write "king" in chinese. although seeing i don't know how to write chinese it doesn't do me that much good. then the kwan-jang-nim broke it down even simplier with a, b, c, d. i think i'm actually getting the hang of it. now i need to work on relaxing and hand/foot coordination. there's a dry cleaners in my taekwondo building. so the other day i went there to take in my wonderful white winter coat. it definitely needed a cleaning and i didn't want to take the change of washing it myself. so i walk into the dry cleaners and said annyong haseyo. there was a couple eating lunch in the back. the man came up and spoke a little english. thank god. we still had a bit of trouble understanding one another. he was asking me for my address which i don't know so i gave him my school one. if i understood correctly my coat should be done on friday after my taekwondo class. now lets see if i actually get it back. afterall i don't have a ticket or anything. as i was leaving i could the woman laughing. "was she laughing at me?" i thought. most likely yes. feeling good about accomplishing this task i decided to set out for task number two: finding somewhere to cut my hair. my hair has completely got out of control lately. as much as i like it long and curly its driving me crazy in tkd class. i decided that since i'm in korea i'd get magic straight done to my hair. hee hee. yes i'm going to get my hair straightened and see what happens. i passed this salon that had pictures of men's haircuts on the frontdoor and figured why not start here. i looked in and noticed that one of the women working there had green hair. they have to be semi-hip so why not. luckily one of the ladies there speaks a little english. i had her about getting the magic straight and a cut. she asked if my hair was natural and i said yes. she told me it'll take about 4 hours. 4 HOURS! yikes. i also told her i wanted it cut too. she replies with "oh, yes we design it too." notice she didn't say cut but design. i like this place. to make a long story short i'm going to hairpicasso [that the name hee hee] on saturday morning. wish me luck. thankfully i do have my clippers with me in case its a disaster. so now i need to find a picture of kind of cut i want. i have an idea in my head of what i want but trying to describe it to them might be difficult. i went to this new bookstore that opened and found this magazine called v-magazine. i can't read a damn thing in it but the photography is quite amazing. it kind of reminds me of a cross between details and flaunt. i haven't looked at a magazine in ages and it was so nice to do so. lots and lots of cks in it. i think i'm going to keep reading it. the list a lot of resources that have web sites so not all is lost on not reading it. still haven't found a picture of the "design" i want. i'm a little nervous about it. but what the hell its only hair right. right! i'll definitely let you all know how it turns out.

be well…

quote of the week from my students:
teacher babu [crazy]

pho jang ma cha

deery-lou.
well here it is monday night once again. what happened to my weekend? it seems like it was just monday. i had every intention of having a relaxing do nothing kind of weekend. unfortunately it wasn't. my need to catch up on sleep did happen. friday night after tawkwondo i once again got some beer and retired to the roof for a little relaxation. i love my rooftop. probably as much as hez loves her backyard. even more so. i needed to get some chairs or something though. sitting on the concrete gets kind of annoying after awhile. back inside i cranked up bagel radio and chatted with misty on yahoo. usually i'm not home on fridays to catch the live broadcast so i was kind of excited to be able to do that. especially since i got to requests played. YEAH!! before i knew it, it was 3am. right around then kate popped up on yahoo so i chatted with her for a bit and then realized i should get some sleep. which didn't really happen. i tossed and turned most of the night. at 8:30am my doorbell was ringing non-stop. it was the office managers who came to fixed my broken mirror and toilet seat. excuse me! don't you all know its 8:30am. the nerve of them to bother me on a saturday morning. seeing that i needed the things fixed i let them in. they were talking to me about something in korean. i stood there half asleep half awake nodding. it took them a totally of 10 minutes to fix them. seeing that i was already awake but not feeling too motivated i watched some tv shows i had downloaded. thats when i heard a big crash. i went down to check it out. fearing the worst. of course i was right. the mirror they put up had fallen down again and broke. obivously the mirror was too heavy for the glue and adhesive and slid off the wall. with a piece of mirror in hand i went downstairs to find the manager. i ran into as i was coming out of the elevator and showed him the broken mirror. he started rambling in korean so i need what i do best and nodded. the otehr guy came up and took the mirror away and cleaned the glue off the wall. well at least this time the toilet seat didn't break. so close. the rest of my morning/mid to late afternoon was spent watching tv. can i tell you how much i LOVE "oth". so much. i hope it gets renewed.

around 10pm i got a call from my friend jae hong asking if i wanted to go out and drink some soju. after some deliberation i figured why not. i got the 10:40pm subway and made my way into seoul. i've never been on the subway this late going into seoul and i kept thinking what if it shuts down. its weird what your mind thinks sometime. on my hour and a half trek into seoul i got to talk to my sister. it was her birthday so i wanted to make sure i talked to her. a friend of hers is visiting for memorial so i sent off a package of various snack foods so they can play fear factor korea. i can't wait to hear all about it. i met jae hong close to midnight at insadong and from there we went to a pho jang ma cha [its an outside tent type place where people drink soju and eat late night food]. i've seen pho jang ma chas several times but had never experienced one. it was blast. there we sat on plastic chairs by the roadside under a canopy drinking shots of soju. i felt so korean. the ajumma brought us a bowl of soup and a side dish of cucumbers and carrots. jae hong order a plate of dak kko chi. when i asked what it was he said "chicken". it looked like some kind of spicy thai beef dish. i ate a few pieces which were spicy and chewing. i asked what part of the chicken it was then told him not to tell. a few more shots of soju and a few more pieces of mystery chicken later. i asked if it was chicken ass. not sure what made me think of that but i did. and guess what…i was right. so there i am under a canopy, on a plastic chair, on the street, drinking soju, and eating chicken ass. i love me! we ordered another bottle of soju and then his friend joined us. a lot of the conversation between the two of them was done in korean. i kind of felt like i was in a b-movie. you know the kind where the characters are in a cafe smoking and drinking and talking french or german. it was like that. it made me think of a and how i knew she'd love it. its funny because she and i have this little scenario we came up with. after years of doing whatever we run into each other at a german cafe. all hard and rough around the edges we're smoking cigs, drinking, and speaking german. saturday was dedicated to you my friend.

i'm not sure how long we stayed at the pho jang ma cha. at one point i couldn't drink any more soju. it was time to leave. we ended up going to itaewon at found ourselves drinking at soho. deja vu anyone. it took about 20 minutes until i realized i knew the girl sitting next to me. her name was sheena and i met her at in jungang-dong a few months ago. what a small world. we decided to exchange numbers and go for a pint sometime in jungang-dong. it was cool running into someone i know. the bartender "cherry" also asked me if i was here last weekend. am i becoming a regular already. throughout the course of the very late evening cherry set us up with shots. at least the soju buzz had worn off a bit. jae hong's friend showed up too so for a while they were hanging out while i spoke with sheena and her friend teresa [at least i think that was her name]. sheena, teresa, and jae hong's friend all left so now it was jsut hte two of us and the bartenders. it seems like cherry likes practicing his english so i became the lucky target. he actually spoke pretty good english. he asked me my age and when i told him they didn't believe me. out came the license. everyone here is amazed when i tell them my age. they all say they think i'm 25. i wish. sheena even asked me what i use. the funny thing is that i really don't do anything. just lucky i guess. at 5am we headed for the subway station. the station opened at 5:30am and it was now time to go home. on the subway ride home i couldn't believe that it was starting to get light out. i don't think i've ever stayed out this late. at least now i know that if i don't want to go to the sauna there's always drinking to 5:30am. i was surpised to see so many people out doing the same thing. by the time i arrived in ansan it was 7am. now if only the management doesn't come a knocking i'll be fine. i eventually got out of bed around 4pm. grabbed some breakfast/lunch/dinner and then went back to bed and had a wonder woman marathon. around 8pm i heard some noise coming from the street. i went to look and saw a parade passing by. it was for buddha's birthday. i stood in the windowsill and watched. it was cool.

it was hard to get out of bed today. i procrastinated big time by watching dante's peak. it was on the tv. right before i was leaving the doorbell rang. it was the manager guy telling me they were coming to fix the mirror. i figured out that weren't coming until 2 so i gave them my key since i wasn't going to be here. sunday was also teacher's day so i thought today was going to be filled with presents from students. NO. so much for the big build up my boss gave us. i did get a box of candy and some after shave. oh the joy of it all. at taekwondo i gave my sabom-nim the dittos i printed out for him to learn english. he looked at them and said "very hard". we're going to start with the very basics: greetings and go from there. i found out that he's studying sports medicine and he told me that learning english was important. now that i know what he needs it for i'm going to try to curb the lessons to fit his needs. the class went all right. i'm still doing something wrong. old habits are hard to break. the sabom-nim told me with a years worth of training i should be ready for a black belt. at least he didn't tell me to pack it in.

be well…

favorite moment of the week:
zander telling me :ethan teacher i love you!

inline skating…what?

deery-lou.
last night i showed up at taekwondo early once again to see if the sabom-nim was ready to study. he wasn't. he was in the office with the kwan-jang-nim and the other instructor. the only one in their dobok [tkd uniform] was teh kwan-jang-nim. what's this about i thought. i greeted them all with a kyong-ye [bow] like i always do and the kwan-jang-nim told me that today was inline skate day. my imediate reaction was "uh, what?" i quickly replied with anyo [no] and the crossing of my arms to make a giant X. they all laughed. he told me instead i'd practice my poomse. i went into the dojang [gym] to do some warm-up exercises. one by one the kids starting coming in. the little girl who loves me gave me some paper about a movie. not really sure what it said but i thanked her. once everyone was inside one the students lead us in exercising. let me just say that the exercising so by so fast. its like speedy-cising. afterwards we headed outside. yes i had to go outside in my uniform with a bunch of children. i didn't have any sneakers with me so the kwan-jang-nim gave me a pair to wear. we walked over to the inline skate track. the sobam-nim line the students up and they were doing some kind of warm-up exercising on their skates. all i think was that if i was on skates doing this i'd probably have fallen at least 5 times by now. the kwan-jang-nim told me he wanted to observe the class for a bit then we were going to go inside to practice my poomse. on the way back to class the kwan-jang-nim told me that in the summer they practice outside. oh, great. more outside activities in my uniform to look forward to. he also mentioned something about walking around and doing some fast walking during the summer. at least i think thats what he said. i'm really not sure. i guess i'll just have to wait until summer to find out. practicing my poomses was quite embarassing. we started off with #1 and i couldn't even remember it. it was like that for all of them. after each one he said "remember". i told him i'm trying but its been awhile since i've done 1-4. i'm having the hardest time remembering them. i feel like i've taken a stupid pill or something. plus the whole time i'm doing them i'm trying to remember to use two hands. something i wasn't taught in my other class. go figure. after the poomse disaster we moved onto kicking. there's one kick they keep doing which i'm not really sure what it is. i keep leaning back and turning my body too much. everytime he's like "bad". i think out of 10 or so kicks i got 3 or 4 right. however, i'm determined to do this. and hopefully i'll get better. last night i went to my rooftop to have a beer. while i was looking out over ansan i notice that the building next to me had a swimming pool. actually it had a little patio set up. i think it might be a sauna. i noticed someone walking around and he had on the typical sauna outfit: khaki shorts and a t-shirt. i got all excited. how fun would it be to sit my a pool and enjoy the sunlight. i love korea. as i was staring off at the patio oasis i realized that i really like my tkd class. switching schools was probably the best thing i ever did. the instructors are super friendly and cool. i know i'm going to learn alot from them. especially if i put the effort into. it was really nice standing out on the roof. the sky was purplish-brown and the sliver moon had an orangish glow around it. drinking my cass i thought, "i'm in korea. life really can't get any better."

be well…

manji

deery-lou.
i've had a few comments recently about the "swastikas" in some the pictures. well i thought i'd clear the matter up a little. these "swastikas" are actually called manji and are symbols in buddhisms. The manji represents the fluidity of the universe and the foundation of life. you can often see them on temples, lanterns, statues of buddhas, and braclets. it funny how westerners look at this symbol and immediately associate it with the swastikas. after all its kind of hard not too. the symbol has actually been around longer than buddhism. its just unfortunate the hilter had to use the reverse symbol [swastika]. there's a lot of information out there if anyone is interested in reading more about. here's another link to check out: manji. that about does it for my history lesson.

in other exciting news we just had a brief thunder storm. how i miss the days of when i was little and living in florida. we use to have midafternoon thunderstorms on a regular basis. it was always great when the the power went go out. i'd lay in my bed listening to the rain fall and watching the lightning. it can be so peaceful. with my new found schedule of taekwondo four nights a week my apartment has become a total mess. i might have to hire an ajumma to do some light cleaning. i have a feeling i'm going to be a homebody this weekend. there are a couple projects i want to start working on. my tkd class is actually going pretty good. my sabom-nim [instructor above fouth degree black belt] the other night asked if i'd teach him english. i'm going to teach him for ten minutes a day before class. i was suppose to start yesterday but he was absent. there was another instructor there besides the kwan-jang-nim [master instructor above 5th degree black belt]. this other instructor taught our class. he seemed to be less nervous around me than the sabom-nim. he was really trying to speak english to me. instead he'd show me using his body where i was suppose to place my hands for punches and blocks. i don't as bad anymore cuz i'm not the only one getting singled out. it is still funny to watch all the kids stare at me. this one little girl is constanstly looking at me and when i look at her she turns quickly. we had a push-up test on monday. i think i did about 40. usually i only do 15 so i was impressed that i made it that far. of course three kids beat me. oh well there's always next time. be well…

clubbing and buddha…

deery-lou—
mid-afternoon on saturday i found myself on a train heading into itaewon. earlier in the week my friend dongbum had called asking if i'd model some clothes for a segment on kbs [korean broadcast station] about clubbing in hongdae. for some apparent reason i agreed. i met dongbum at 4:30 in front to the bk [burger king]. it felt like i was back in high school. bk parking lot was the hangout then. we headed to our place a restaurant/bar thats owned by hong seock-cheon, an openly out korean actor. when we got upstairs i met mo and john the two guys that operate 2metros.com an online clothing store for men and women. lately they've been sponsoring djs to wear their clothes and promote 2metros.com in the club. somehow kbs caught wind of this and wanted to film a segment on clubbing in hongdae. so here i am in "our place" looking through a bunch of clothes i'd never wear. the first thing i had on was a cameo shirt that was skin tight and barely covered my stomach. you could totally see my calvins sticking out. i think not. next i had on a three quarter sleeve cardigan with no shirt and a necklace. unfortunately this was the best of the best for me. well that is for the time being anyway. eventually the other models mitchell, christy, the dj and his girlfriend all showed up and they got fitted for there clothes. the whole time we were trying on clothes the producer/filmer [mr. kim] was shooting us. at one point i saw mo with a black shirt. it turned out to be a jacket. i asked if i could change into the jacket instead of the cardigan. they agree. so off went the cardigan and now i was wearing the jacket as a shirt. mr. kim filmed an interview segment asking me about the website [which i lied] and why i changed clothes so much. obviously he knows nothing about clubbing. one can't go out until they find that perfect outfit. during our various wardrobe changes hong seock-cheon came in and i got to meet him. my first korean celebrity. hee hee. they put him in some clothes and he got an mini interview too. after we were all dressed we had to have a group shot taken and then individual posing. i felt like a complete fool. after that was done we had food at "our place". i had the chicken kebab which came with torilla. it was eating a falafel minus the falafel and with chicken instead. it tasted so good. now it was time to get in a taxi and off to the club. we went to mwg
in hongdae. with our 10,000 won entrance fee we got a free t-shirt, cd, cassette, condom, and drink coupon. we waited outside for about 20 minutes until it was time to go in. the first thing on the agenda was drinks. we sat at a table drinking geting ready to get our groove on. mr. kim came by and wanted us to go out to the dance floor so we did. it was now time to bust a move. it's amazing how self-concious one gets when there is a camera in your face on the dance floor. it was definitely an experience. the filming lasted until about 11pm and then everyone in our group started to head out. i found out that the segment is going to air on may 13 at 9:50 on kbs. i'm not sure if i have that station or not. sadness. perhaps this will be my big break. what if i become an international film star. one can dream. we hung out at mwg for a bit then ended up at soho in itaewon. i haven't been out at night in itaewon too much and it was definitely interested to be around so many foreigners. for a minute i thought i was in the lexington bar with all the bridge and tunnel crew. it was definitely a mish mosh of lesbians there. i almost got to witness a girl fight between a korean and foreigner. unfortunately it didn't turn into a big brawl. i was trying to place this bar somewhere in sf but couldn't. there was no definite scene to it. a very eclectric crowd. before i realized it was 2 am and i had 10,000 won to my name. oops. seeing that a taxi was out of the question i decided to stay in sauna for the night. needless to say i couldn't sleep very well on the cement floor with all the people snoring around me. i might have gotten a total of an hour sleep. it definitely wasn't one of the cleanest saunas i've been too. especially when they hand me the two crispy towels. it was definitely an experience. in the early morning i did mangage to catch a few more winks. there were too many people walking and lurking about. it was kind of creepy. i left the sauna around 11ish after shower and cleaning up. it was now time to head to insadong where i was going to meet up with some friend to attend the lotus lantern festival.

i got a call from damion who was already in insadong with some of his university friends. we made a plan to meet up once i met horace. while waiting for horace i took a stroll along the main street of insadong. it amazing how different it is in the morning. i'm usually not here until mid-afternoon when its crowded as all hell. it was so calm and peaceful. a group of korean girls stopped me and asked if they could interview me. what a perfect day for me to be interviewed. i'm a walking zombie right now. here's a sample of the questions she asked:

interviewer: who's your favorite female musician?
me: kristin hersh [they just stared at me] from throwing muses and 50 foot wave. [still nothing].
interviewer: why?
me: cause she's a pioneer and an amazing artist. she's not a pop sell out.
interviewer: i only listen to pop stars like [fill in the blank]. her last album was really good.

interviewer: how do you keep in shape?
me: eat healthy, do taekwondo [they giggled and said taekwondo]
interviewer: i like to eat healthy, exercise, and not drink coke.
me: yes coke is bad!

interviewer: should a woman quit her job after having a baby?
me: its not my choice to make. its up to the woman
interviewer: i think a woman should keep her job and have people who she knows care for her baby.

interviewer: how do you keep cool on a sunny day?
me: by wearing cool and comfortable clothing. looking for shade to relax in.
interviewer: i recommend going to a bank because they always have air conditioning.

these questions went on for a little bit. all of her replies were totally scripted too. i could tell that they didn't understand half of the things i said. it was quite amusing to say the least.

now that my interview was over i got a pineapple poppy muffin thing, it wasn't really a muffin but something like a muffin and a coke. see what she did. she mentioned coke and now i had to have one. i still had an hour or so until horace arrived to i decided to stroll through the festival street. when i got there there was a little parade of dancers going down the street. there were all kinds of booths and crafts. who knew buddhism had so many arts and crafts to do. it was cool to see all the various kinds of buddhism present. in case your wondering the lotus lantern festival is part of buddha's birthday celebration. there's going to be another parade on may 15 which is buddha's actual bday. they have the lotus lanern festival the weekend before because most people will be in temple on the 15th. when horace arrived in insadong i went to meet him by the station. we had some time to kill until 1:30. that was when we needed to sign in for the lotus lantern making contest. yes we were going to make lanterns. as we were walking around we ran into damion and his friends. at 2pm the lantern making began. this was going to be a lot more time consuming then i thought. you had to make all the little petals ourselves. as i'm sitting in my chair twisting, gluing, and trying to make petals an ajumma appeared behind me. she started talking to me and then reached into my basket and started to help make petals. they really do love me. the two ladies working the lantern making booth tried to scare her off but she didn't leave. i told them its not my fault if she wants to help me. they didn't like that. i told them i really didn't care about the contest and if they were so upset about her helping me i wouldn't enter mine. the ajumma stayed for almost an hour and finally the ladies told her she could help me anymore. buzz kill. the ajumma leaned over, by this time she had a friend with her, and told me how pretty my lotus lantern was. love her. and then she was off. now i had to finish it myself. i barely made the cut off time and needless to say my lantern didn't win but i had good time making it. we had a couple of hours to kill before the actual parade was to begin. by this time i was completely exhausted. our group broke up with damion and his friends heading to get coffe and vickies group in search of food. we went with vickie until then decided to go to mcdonalds. horace and i took off and found this little coffee shop to sit in and rest. horace decided to leave but i wanted to tough it out and see at least part of the parade. i met back up with vickie and her group to watch the parade. the parade started at 7:30pm. it was actaully quite cool to watch all the people participating in it. by 8pm i had it. my eyes were barely staying open and i had so much crap to carry i just wanted to be home. so i left. on the train ride home there was an ajumma and her young daughter near me. the ajumma kept peeking into the lanterns i had. by this time beside the one i made i had acquired two more. you could tell her daughter was embarrassed. teh ajumma ended up sitting next to me and started talking to me. i couldn't really understand her. she pointed to my watch and i showed it to her. i guess its the biggest watch she's ever seen. when there stop came the ajumma waved goodbye. her daughter was basically pulling her off the train. the rest of my trip was pretty uneventful. i made it home at 10 something. grabbed some food, called my mom to wish her happy mother's day, and then passed out.

highlights from lotus lantern festival
1. ajumma helping me
2. recieving two lanterns on a stick at the temple
3. making a purple lotus with a dixie cup
4. doing some sand painting
5. vegetarian pad thai

be well…

snaps from lantern festival [these aren't the best pix i've taken]…
Links

• lantern festival

children's day = play day

dear diary–
thursday was children's day, a national holiday here in korea which meant no school. i love these random holidays. to celebrate our time off horace, young, and i booked a tour to see damyang and baengyang-sa. in damyang there's a bamboo forest plus it was the last day of the bamboo festival and baengyang-sa [white sheep temple] is in the naejang-san national park. the day started off at 5am. we needed to meet young at yeongdeungpo station by 7:30am. that's the one downer about living in ansan. it always takes at least an hour to get to seoul. of course horace had the wrong station and we we were walking around yongsan looking for young. by the time we figured it out it was already 7:40am. the train was scheduled to leave at 7:45am and we were 4 stops away. needless to say it felt like we were on the amazing race as we quickly made our way to the pit stop. luckily we made it with a few minutes to spare. for awhile there i didn't think we were going to. we sat in the first train with all the other tour members. there were a lot ajummas [korean for married woman, basically mom types] which was so cute to see. since there were three of us we were separated however on these trains you can move the seats so that they face each other. the trains in korean rock! one of the ajummas sat with us. we weren't even travelling for 10 minutes before the ajummas busted out the snacks. these ladies are prepared. and they were kind enough to share with us. we were given kimbap, cold bean noodles, cherry tomatoes, coffee, fruit, etc. i, too, had packed some snacks so i shared my cucumbers and corn crunkies with them. they gave me the big thumbs up for the corn crunkies. i love ajummas. the trip took about 3 hours to get to baengyang station and from there we had to board a tour bus to take us to damyang. our friendly ajummas were on our bus too. YEAH!!! we had three hours in damyang. to which we could tour the bamboo forest, check out the festival, and do whatever else we wanted. we headed for the bamboo forest first. as we started to approach our ascent up both horace and young wanted to eat before walking so much. seeing that i wasn't hungry from all the snacks i had on the bus i decided to venture through the bamboo forest on my own. here we parted ways and my solo adventure begin. it was actually quite nice to be on my own walking through this amazing forest. bamboo it cool! my main goal was to see the waterfall. they had a map but it was all in korean. it was time for my cub scout instincts to take over and figure out which path went where. at one point the wind picked up and listening to the bamboo blowing in the wind was so beautiful and peaceful. i could have layed on the ground and listened to it forever. very soothing. seeing that i always have a way of finding where the korean dramas or movies have been shot todays trip was no different. the movie r-point shot some scenes in the bamboo forest. photo op anyone. i love how the koreans are so into their dramas and movies. i think i am korean. as i continued my journey there was one area that had several different types of birds in cages hanging from the bamboo. not really sure what this was about. a mini-mini zoo perhaps? all the koreans loved it. they were taken pictures of every bird. a few minutes later i was standing my the waterfall. it was a man-made one but still enjoyable. i'm not sure what it is about me and waterfalls but i really like them. maybe its the inner dolphin in me wanting to be near water. i stood there for awhile just taking it in and watching all the families take their pictures in front of it. off to the side was a little drinking fountain where you drank out of bamboo cups. i continued along the path to see what else i could find. at the top of this one incline there was a grave site. i climbed over the bamboo fence to get a closer look. its so cool to see these giant mounds that are graves. even better that it was within the forest. it was now that the rain started to fall. i found a little pagoda covering to stand under for a bit. off in the bamboo were two ceramic pandas and one person dressed in a panda suit. a little random. the panda man scared a couple of little kids who were there. i guess they don't like seeing a 6 foot tall panda walking and waving. i hung out there for awhile and then continue on my way when the rain slowed down. now i was off to explore the bamboo festival in the rain. which had started to come down harder. i crossed the river by taking a bamboo bridge. on the other side were more vendors and food stuff. i walked to the end where there was a performance going on. it was a woman singing accompanied by a man on the drums. it was quite enjoyable to watch. by now i was completely soaked. i saw a woman selling ponchoes so i ran after her. not sure why i even bothered since i was completely drenched but i purchased on anyway. so here i stood in damyang in basically a white trash bag. the arms were a tad short and i had a hard time covering my bag too. i decided i'd head back to the bus. at least i would be able to dry off some. on my way there were a bunch of people in the river with bamboo baskets trying to catch fish. apparently it was some kind of contest. these kids were going crazy in there. its nice to see that the rain didn't put a damper on the days events. this time crossing the river i took a little rock bridge. as i made my way back i found a bamboo leaf with a poem on it lamented. lucky me finding presents. near the parking lot where the bus was park was a little covering. i stood under there since i wasn't sure which bus was mine. the tour guide who spoke very little english was there. he asked where my friends where and i replied with i don't know. an older couple from my bus were there too and when they headed for the bus they told me to follow them. the woman tried to speak to me but since she knew little english and i knew little korean we didn't get far. when we got to the bus it was literally rocking. the ajummas were have a dance party in the aisle. i made my way to the back, busted out my camera and starting shooting some video and photos. these ladies were busting a move. i loved it! one ajumma offered me a shot of soju which i took and then gave me a quail egg. so sweet. eventually the ajummas conveinced me to join to them and so i did. there i was dancing in the bus aisle with a group of wild and crazy ajummas. it kind of felt like i was back at the christmas party with p when i was dancing with the sequince lady. let the good times roll. i'm not sure how long the dancing went on. it felt like forever. everytime a new ajumma noticed i was dancing they got excited. they kept yelling out "woo". the ajumma i was near was a dancing queen. she could move. i threw the hula wave into my dancing and she copied me. cute. then they all started coming up to me giving me the big thumbs up. there's was a korean man who spoke english and he told me that they all thought i was very good and number 1. i think i made the ajummas happy. and then the music stopped. sadness. korean bus dance party 2005 had ended. it was time to leave for baengyang-sa. we seconds to spare horace and young made it back to the bus. they had missed the whole dance party.

at naejang-san national park is the baengyang-sa [white sheep temple]. the temple was established in 632 when is was called baengma-sa. the name changed in the late 1600s when a well known monk preached so well that a white sheep came down from the mountain to listen. [thats my little history tidbit for you]. the views around the temple are amazing. there's a coy pond, another pond with a bridge, and lots of mountains. watching the rain hit the water was so beautiful. the energy there was amazing. you felt so at peace. the temples themselves were amazing too. there was so much to look at. everything was so green and lush. there is nothing like looking at a temple and behind it stands this giant mountain reaking of spring. if only it had been sunny. seeing that i was still wet and very cold i decided to leave horace and young again and walked back to the bus. when i got to the parking lot i didn't see a bus. before completely freaking out i noticed the tour guide standing in the street. the bus had gone into town [about 100 km] so the ajummas could get some food. he asked where my friends were and i said at the temple. as we stood there the older couple from before approached. together the four of us walked toward town. the tg [tour guide] tried talking to me. we had very little luck with that. every time i said something he told me "no understand." he did ask if i was an outcast since i always seemed to be alone. i said yes. he said he was an outcast too. finally we made it to the bus. once aboard there was no dance party happening. oh well. apparently there are lots of hiking to be done here. it something i might look into doing especially since there are hotels right in the area. horace and young eventually made it back and we were off. back to the train station. the journey home was much like the journey there. the ajummas shared some snacks with us again. they are just too kind. i got back to my apartment around 11ish and was completely beat. what a great day.

be well…

souvenirs bought:
a gold pig for good fortune
a red towel with buddha picture and korean writing

snaps from damyang/baengyang-sa…
Links

• damyang/baengyang-sa

HIseoul…

dear diary–
on saturday we had to work for a few hours pimping ourselves out infront of e-mart. of course it had to be one of the hottest days ever. we were suppose to meet at the school at 12:30pm. at 12:33pm we got a phone call from one of the teachers asking us where we were. "getting in the elevator" horace replied. as we walked in i could only imagine that jane would be staying there waiting to scold us. she wasn't. in fact they weren't even ready to leave yet. um, hello. what's up with the phone call? finally a half hour later we ready to leave. while we were waiting i was playing with zander who was there getting extra help. within seconds he turned into a big sourpuss. when we tried to get onto the bus to go to e-mart he wouldn't get on. it took 20 mins. until he finally got onboard. still not really sure why he got upset all of the sudden but he was definitely mad at me. once we got to e-mart they decided we should have lunch first. ok. i had this cold-spicy noodle dishes which was quite difficult to eat with chopsticks. a couple of times i had to break the noodles with my fingers. eating noodles with chopsticks is hard! i was getting hand cramps. after lunch jk told us to sit and have a rest. at this point i started to get annoyed. we were suppose to be working from 12:30 to 2:30 and it was already 1:30. then jk had to take anna back to school. i seriously thought i was going to explode. this was getting completely out of hand. by the time we actually set up it was 2:20pm. yeah thanks for wasting my saturday. it literally took me a whole ten minutes until i started sweating. its was so hot. plus wearing a tie didn't help matters. jane showed up with her sourpuss on and didn't really say anything. she yelled at horace for giving out two notebooks to one students. at one point when i was walking by her and her friend who were standing under an umbrella she asked me if i was hot. i smiled and said "no i feel great. thanks." of course i'm hot bitch. i'm wearing a freakin tie because of you. back at home i got a ice coffee and spent the rest of the day just relaxing. actually i reallly don't know what i did. i can definitely tell you what i didn't do: study korean, work on my projects, etc.

on sunday i decided to head into seoul to attend the hiseoul friendship festival. it started on saturday and lasts until thursday which is children's day. yes they have a day for children here. the event was happening at city hall and seeing that it was such a nice day i figured why no spend it outside. to my surprise they weren't a whole lot of people there. i'm not really sure what i was picturing. they had a big stage where they did performances and people were sitting all around it. its kind of like being at a big street fair back at home. i walked around until i have the international food section. how happy was i to see both after both of wonderful eats from wonderful countries. here's what i ate:

1. samosa from india
2. potato pancake from czech republic
3. a beef fajita taco from mexico
4. a chicken tamale from guatemala
5. a plate of various yummies [eggplant, ground beef, etc] from sudan
6. and two cokes

after i finished gorging all that food i walked around some more. figured i should try to burn some of the calories off. i found the children's area where they had a bunch of art form the seoul internation school on display. there was also a mask painting station, and a place for people to put on costumes and take photos. by this time i was getting tired so i made my way back to the grassy stage area and planted myself there. as i sat i took everything in: the music, the people, the giant water fountain with kids running through it. it was great to just sit back and relax. i saw quite a few westerns out too.

after a few hours i decided to go over to hongdae to do some shopping. being the smarty that i am i got off at sinchon station. i had been there before and was pretty sure how to get to hongdae from there. needless to say i was wrong and i spent the next couple of hours wandering around seoul lost. i did manage to stumble upon a krispy kreme doughnut shop. now the real question is "will i be able to find it again?". eventually i ended up at ewha women's university area and from there i found my way to the subway. it was definitely an adventurous day.

notable fashions i saw:
1. rice hats
2. newspaper hats

be well…

snaps from hiseoul friendship festival…
Links

• hiseoul

the truth hurts…

dear diary–
last night i was basically told by my two new masters that my poomsae [forms] were awful. like i didn't see that coming. i left feeling somewhat discouraged. did i really just waste the last 6 months? it's almost as if i need to completely start over. i only hope that they don't give up on me because i am going to try my best. after class they were trying to teach me some korean words for the movements. its definitely going to be an interesting month. i'm going to have to put in some extra effort on the weekend. i really want to do good and i don't want them to kick me out. they were demonstrating for me how to do some of the movements. whenever they do a block you can hear their uniform swish due to the movement and power. when i do it there's silence. i want to make a swishy noise. master hur even pointed out there was no sound. "why don't i make any sound? all i want is to hear the swishy sound of my uniform?" they went over a few more things with me and then called it a night. there's no class for me on wednesday since its game day, and then thursday is a national holiday so i won't be attending again until friday. these little kids are having a field day with me. i can just hear them saying "look at crazy white boy. he can't do anything." that basically sums up how i feel. and to make things worse there's a chicken deli under my taekwondo class and their sign is the same as chick-fil-a's. could the knife get any deeper. now thats all i think about. hmmm chick-fil-a.

last thursday there was a new restaurant opening up in our building. that night they were giving free dinner to the residents of ansan. we were luck enough to get invited. it was buffet style. i ate so much food i though i was going to be sick. it seems that my stomach has shrank because i was full after my first plate. here's what i had to eat for FREE:
1. sweet and sour pork
2. some kind of pink fish
3. meatball things
4. kimbap
5. tempura onions, chiles
6. sushi
7. korean pancakes
8. mushroom salad
9. bread with ham and cheese
10. lots of beef
11. mussels, baby squids, octopus, and various other sea foods
12. pickled garlic

it was all so good. after the meal i went back home to meet up with jenny. when i got there she told me that the washing machine stopped working. unfortuniately we couldn't get it opened so the stuff that was in there she'd have to leave behind. needless to say i wasn't looking forward trying to get this fixed. it was definitely going to be a challenge especially since my boken mirror and toilet have still yet to be fixed. i messed around with the washer for a bit then gave up. by this time we were running late. we were suppose to be at the wa bar at 10pm. it was now 10:45. oops. at the wa bar the waitress there was trying to tell us something. all i got was that one girl here but gone. we assumed she was talking about heather who we were suppose to meet. while jenny was off to meet anna, ryan showed up. later megan and her boyfriend popped up and told us they had run into heather. mystery solved. we stayed there for a few hours drinking pitchers as if they were filled with water. afterwards jenny, ryan, anna, and i went to a noraebang.

my set included:
1. lovehurts
2. superstar
3. we got the beat
4. everybody hurts
5. white room
6. i will survive
7. gay bar [duet with jenny]

thats all i can remember. ryan got busted trying to get beer in. later on he tried again this time sitting the bottle down his pants. the mission was a success. we stayed out singing until 4am. jenny had to catch a bus for the airport at 5am so we figured it was time to go. back at my apartment sarah [she was sick so didn't go out with us] was up and ready to go. we hung out for a little and then they left. bye bye jenny. see you in a couple of months.

be well…

snaps from an evening in jungangdong with jenny…
Links

• a night in jungangdong

2 masters, 9 kids, and 1 american

dear diary–
to matter how much i try to keep up it seems like i'm constanstly falling behind lately. the sad thing is i'm not sure what i'm doing with my time. yes i do…a whole lot of nothing. i have a new goal. by wednesday, may 4, i'm going to be up-to-date. currrent and fresh. thats the only way to be. i know all of you are dying to hear about it. i can picture you all now sitting on the edge of your seats with anticipation. questions running through your head: did i run out crying? did i understand anything? did i knock a child on his ass? well i've got some answers for you. yes it was day one of the my new taekwondo class with master hur. all weekend i was kind of nervous about starting this class. i guess there are something in life you never outgrow and my shyness will be one of them. the first thing i noticed once in class was that the children were younger and smaller than i thought. i could have sworn they told me 13 year olds, these kids looked about 10. and i find like gulliver standing there. one of my fears did come true. that i'm not as good as i thought. apparently there's a bunch of things i haven't been taught yet. and there are some movements that i learned that they do differently. basically i kind of feel like i'm going to be relearning alot. on a postive note, since they don't have purple belts i'm now officially a red belt. that was easy. master hur also isn't teaching my class. he has another master who teaches. he mainly walks around the class and observes how we are doing. if we are doing something wrong he corrects us. of course tonight i felt like i was doing everything wrong. they both stopped the class a couple of times to help me out. nothing like having 9 pairs of eyes staring at you. "hey look at stupid". its amazing how there are so many minor moves i was taught differently. its going to be a challenge to reteach myself. both masters kept telling be "two hands" "two hands". overall the class went pretty well. that is until jump rope time. I SUCK AT JUMPROPE. and no matter how many times the master kept trying to tell me to relax i wasn't getting it. at one point the master was talking to master hur about me and my poor jump rope skills. i could tell they were laughing. hey i would be too. during the whole class the students are counting and yelling things that i have no idea. it looks like its going to be a sink and swim style in my learning korean. master hur did make me stand in front of class. not sure what he told the students but its definitely weird having something said about you and you have no clue what. afterward i bowed and the other students bowed back. master hur also told me i needed to change my uniform. thats fine with me. after class he called me into his office. this is it i thought. he probably thinks i'm a helpless case. i could tell he was a bit nervous because of the language barrier. basically it came down to i will be attending 4 days a week. on wednesday he plays games with the students. he also gave me 10,000 won discount. as we were talking i tried to explain about how i was taught some things differently. not really sure if he understood. i got a lot of "yeah. yeah." master hur did tell me that my kicking forms were pour but to believe in him and i would be better. he then should me some pictures of his father's students, he's also a taekwondo instructor, in russia and pointed out how many are masters now. i felt pretty good. at least he has some faith in me. hopefully i won't let me down. i'm actually kind of excited about the whole thing.

the cutest thing that happened today:
the one girl in my taekwondo class gave me some candy afterwards. i have a friend afterall.

a few weekends ago i went into insadong to do some shopping. while i was trying to find my way there i stumbled upon tapgol park. here are some pictures from the park and my journey down the streets of insadong. it just so happened that there was a children's art festival that day. there was lots of cool art to see. i wanted to buy some prints from this photographer but i didn't. i'm not really sure why except that nothing said "buy me" and i was too tired to look through all the stacks. hopefully there will be a next time.

be well…

snaps from tapgol park/insadong…
Links

• tapgol park/insadong