holiday dinner

deery-lou.

merry christmas to all and a happy new year!

last night was our holiday dinner at ils. we went to a beef restuarant and had yummy steak. there's something to say about eating steak with chopsticks. they actually cut it into pieces as its cooking on the grill in front of us. when we left the restaurant it started to snow. seeing that neither anna nor jk could drive we had to wait for a driver to come to drive their cars. our next stop was to sangokson for more needless drinking. i think i finally made it home around 2am. at school today it was party day. we made christmas cards and snowflakes. one of my classes had a gift exchange however, none of them reallly got the concept since they wanted to keep the gifts they brought. whatever! it got to the point where i wasn't going to force them to do it.

i'm off to bali today. once again i need to get up at 4am to catch the bus. i feel like a jet setter these days. i'm actually quite proud of myself because all i'm taking is a carry on. and no big shoes!! i know! its a first but figured do i really need big shoes while on the beach. probably yes but it not sensible. its the year of minimal packing for me. especially since i'll be in a bathing suit most of the time. i hope everyone has a great holiday. i probably won't be writing until i get back. try not to miss me.

today's tips
on dating
the best way to lose a boy is to chase him.
— the clue of the dancing puppet, nancy drew

on manners
never turn down a party invitation when your favorite date is going to be there.
— while the clock ticked, the hardy boys

be well…

hong kong adventure

hong kong photo booth madness

deery-lou.
like a blink of an eye my hong kong trip came and went. i arrived at the marco polo hong kong hotel mid-afternoon. while misty was at work i walked around the waterfront and surrounding area. in the late afternoon i met up with misty briefly. we were going to try to get a photo taken so we could go into china but were too late. oh well. she went back to work and i ventured around the giant mall. yes, hong kong is like one giant mall after another. its definitely a place for those who like to shop. after cruising around the mall for over an hour i made my way back to the hotel. i needed a rest. i felt completely overwhelmed. the night before i only got two hours of sleep, if that. my plane left for hong kong at 9am which meant i had to leave by 5am. it takes two hours by bus to get to the airport and then i had to go to imigration to get a visa stamp. the joys of traveling. misty met me back at the hotel where we had christmas. YEAH!! how fun is that! christmas in a hotel in hong kong. love it. misty brought some macau pies back to the hotel. they were the yummiest pies ever! we then rallied and went down to the hotel bar for some cocktails with her co-workers. misty wanted me to met kitty. she works at the bar there and has been serving them every night. what i thought was going to be one drink turned into two plus a shot. kitty just wouldn't let us leave. love her. misty and i headed out after the second drink. we took a train into hong kong. destination lan kwai fong. we were in search of this "cool indie bar" that was in her book. unfortunately we found out later after much walking around that the bar was no longer there. we grabbed some dinner in this tiny little restaurant that was really good. we continued our exploring and found the area where all the foreigners hung out. the street was literally filled with foreigners drinking. not wanting to hang out there we found a little bar off an alley to grab a drink. we stayed there until we were annoyed by the foreigner sitting next to us. he was trying so hard to pick up on these two asian girls that it was embarrassing. misty and i realized that we are snots and thats why we love each other so much. hee hee. we set out to look for another bar i found in the book. unfortunately like the other place this bar was gone too. sadness. we spent the rest of the evening just walking around. we found a lot of cool alleyways with stairs. misty befriended a cat. around 1am we headed back to the hotel.

on saturday morning we met her co-workers for breakfast and then headed out via the train to the new territories near the chinese border. we spent most of the day exploring various little neighbors from different stops. at one stop we found a temple to tour. most of the stops had little markets to walk around. we also managed to hit every chinese bakery in search of macau pies. we didn't find them but we did find some delicious egg custard pies. we parted ways with her co-workers late afternoon and decided to explore the university stop. we thought there might be some cool shops there. nope. it was just a university. oh well. we jumped back on the train and headed to mong kok where there were all these markets. that's where misty, bless her soul, looked up and found TOY MART. how happy was i! it was four floors filled with toy shop after toy shop. i thought i'd died and gone to heaven. with newly purchased toys in hand we made our way back to the hotel for a quick rest. we sat on the hotel beds with our pile of toys laughing. how are we? here we are in our thirties sitting in a hotel with toys all around us. i love us! misty then took me to this nearby local bar. we were the only foreigners in the place which made it great. i love experiencing things like that. they were all playing some drinking game with dice. that night the vt's were going down like water.

sundy morning we went to some market area near the hotel in search of touristy gifts. nope. most of the shops were closed. i was in search of the olympic mascot toys. seeing that the olympics are going to be in bejing i thought that hong kong would be flooded with merchandise. sadly i was mistaken. we jumped on the train and headed to sik sik yuen wong tai sin temple. misty and i had our fortune told. we actually did the shaking stick fortune. we're so down with the culture. from the temple it was back to toy mart. yeah i know, but its been ages since i bought toys and i needed more. we strolled through the market again. this time i actually bought stuff. went to temple street market which was just opening then headed back to the hotel. we had another toy session then took a walk along the waterfront. i wanted to see the city lights. we got back to the hotel around 8:30pm then i headed out for the airport. i arrived in korea at 5am to freshly fallen snow. it was 16 degrees F. my bus ride home took 3 hours because of traffic. it was a tough day.

it was so great to be able to see misty. it made me realize how important she is to my life. and to be able to experience a new place with such a great friend is wonderful. she's such an amazing person. so full of life, a great sense of humor, and appreciates the simple things out of life. in a sense she's alot like me. more than i realized before. thats probably why we get along so well. seeing her in hong kong was as if no time had past. thats what makes the friendship so amazing. it was definitely sad to say goodbye so soon. it was kind of like a tease but definitely worth it. i'm so happy i made the trip. and even happier to have been able to spend it with her.

here are some highlights from hong kong tour o5
1. MISTY!
2. macau pies
3. avenue of the stars
4. the crazy christmas is everywhere in hong kong
5. the childrens christmas pagent
6. the sweet potato lady
7. the kiss store front window
8. egg custard pies
9. little birds in cages hanging outside of stores
10. good chinese food
11. the chinese bakery
12. bbq pork buns
13. the chinese pub
14. hearing cheesy pick up lines like: "you shouldn't teach. instead you should dye your hair and join a rock band"
15. man in subway carrying olympic mascot toys telling misty that you can find them everywhere
16. being asked if i wanted to buy a suit every 5 minutes
17. snake and turtle restaurant
18. eating strange sausage
19. misty buying doll clothes for her newly purchased giant blythe doll
20. graduation pictures at the university
21. random shrines all over the city
22. from outer space toys
23. fortune telling sticks
24. random carnival minus the rides outside of temple
25. woman telling me i should stay in hong kong for 3 months
26. wearing fur coats in the vodka bar
27. christmas in hotel room
28. finding a super hero t-shirt and misty telling me i so needed it
29. toymart
30. finding a 7-11 that had fountain drinks
31. crunchy bread with a 2 inch slab of butter in it
32. bartering with the market people
33. chanderliers hanging above plants
34. hip asians
35. not hearing misty ringing the hotel room doorbell cuz i had cartoons cranked up
36. finding random temples
37. the giant meat market
38. view of the city from the 6th floor
39. shitfighters
40. secret doors
41. photo booth

be well…

click here for my hong kong photos!

off to hong kong

deery-lou.
haven't had much time to write this week. my nights have been spent trying to get ready for my trip. i can't believe i'm leaving in nine hours. i have to get up at 4am to catch a bus to the airport. that should be fun! hopefully i won't oversleep. could you imagine that. on wednesday night i had my end of the year dinner with my ansan city friends. they took me to a most excellent bulgoggi restaurant. we drank soju and ate yummy sidedishes. what more could one ask for. anyway…its 1am and i should probably get some sleep. so i'm gonna cut this post way short. by this time tomorrow i'll be hong kong. so excited!!!!

today's tips
on sleuthing
being able to throw your voice can get your unskilled assistants out of tight jams.
— the ringmaster's secret, nancy drew

catch phrases
boy, i thought my number was up!
– the melted coins, the hardy boys

be well…

a sapho night

deery-lou.
the weekend completely flew by. i 'm not really sure what happened to sunday. did i spend it all day sleeping? watching tv? eating junkfood? all of the above? i know what i didn't do and that was clean my apartment. on saturday i meet up with chen and patrick at the coex. we were going to see harry potter but it was sold out until 8pm. i was suppose to meet them at 4pm. however, i was running late as usual. it seems that ever since moving to korea the once 10 minutes early jethan has turned into the 10-20 minutes late jethan. its like i've been sucked into the slow motivation vortex. i always seem to have everything planned out but then...POOF! the next thing i know i'm late. so the movie was a bust. we went to the blue nile for coffee. we sat there a while chatting, drinking, and smoking. it was chilly outside. we then headed over to it-no-fun [itaewon] to meet up with jen and astrid for dinner. as we were running to try to catch the train, chen got her elbow caught in the door. unlike most train doors these don't manage to reopen on impact. as i stood there on the other side i thought the train was going to take off with her arm stuck. the doors managed to open and when they did i squeezed into the already packed car to join chen and patrick. the second mishap with the trains came when we almost missed our stop. patrick and i jumped off but chen was still aboard. i grabbed the door with my hand and luckily instead of closing shut on my fingers i was able to open the doors. we ate dinner at thai orchid which was very good. they invited me to go to a party so i did. with alcohol in hand we got in a cab and made our way. they lived up on a giant hill in a neighborhood close to itaewon. of course the cab didn't take us to the top nor did we ask it too. instead we walked. we were the first to arrive. it was 8pm. i ended up being the sole boy at this party. most of the ladies there were of the unstraight variety. AWWW! i had found my people. i felt like i was kicking back at the lexington club. it was great meeting all of these fabulous people. alicia and wendy, the hostesses, had made a mexican dip which i could not stop eating because of the sour cream. it could have been a bowl of just sour cream and i would have been happy. they had a very cute apartment with an awesome view of the city. its great to know that there are places like this to rent. the evening consisted of lots of drinking, great conversation, tv trivia, karaoke, neighbors complaining, and a sing in. no party would be complete without the guitar coming out and listening to the ladies sing indio girls and 4 nonblondes. those gals sure do love their linda perry. i love when unexpected things happen. i wasn't even planing on going to a party and here i was having a good old time. we stayed until 2 or 3 am. not sure which. then chen, jen, astrid, and i cabbed it to their neck of the woods. chen was gracious enough to let me crash at her pad. we stayed up for a few more hours talking and talking. finally we got some sleep around 5 or so.

on sunday i did a little shopping with chen in her neighborhood. we hit up a couple of department stores and looked at all their christmas decorations. i found some tiny lights to put up in my apartment. hee hee. i got home around 5pm and spent the rest of the day eating and watching tv.

today's tips
on dating
a young lady with some judo skills can take care of unwanted advances in short order.
— the whispering statue, nancy drew

on manners
take the girls with you. mix dancing with detective work.
— the flickering torch mystery, the hardy boys

be well…

4 days and counting…

snowflakes and hongkong

deery-lou.
TGIF. this week went by super fast. in fact this month seems to be flying by at ultra speed. this time [its midnight on friday] next week guess where i'll be…HONGKONG drinking coctails with misty. YEAH!!! i can't wait. my work is actually letting me take friday off. how cool is that. misty and i will be able to celebrate an early christmas together. hee hee. its going to be a great trip. not sure what we are going to do but that doesn't really matter. i just hope hongkong has some good toy stores. i'm jonesing for cool toys! how sad is that. anyway we are going to rock the kong like its never been rocked before. my friend jean just got back from there. she said it was awesome. not really sure what to expect. which is good than i won't have any expectations and can be surprised by it all. i like surprises!! it'll be really funny if i show up in hongkong and derek and kate are there too. how great would that be. an asian reunion!!!

tonight in taekwon do i had to practice fighting with kim jung-ho. i think he was a little nervous at first. there nothing like a 35 year old fighting a 13 year old. if he's even that. my sabanim kept telling me to kick hard. as he put it "kill, kill, kill." i couldn't do it though. i didn't want to hurt him. even though i'm sure jung-ho could have kicked my ass if he tried. he kept laughing which made me laugh. i was also told to kick higher. so what else is new there. its always about kicking higher. during warmup stretches my sabahnium decided to help me out with my split by pushing my legs farther out. it hurt so damn bad that i was laughing to keep myself from crying. all i could think of was that my legs were going to tear out of my body like a barbie. pain is not fun.

peter came to class today with his "shygirl" again. the other day his sister wasing wearing a "shygirl" shirt. at first i though it was the same shirt but hers was in a different color. now if they'd only wear them on the same day. i didn't have my camera with me today. hopefully he'll wear it again cuz i got to have a picture of that. i got a new class this week. its a "kiddy" class. which means that they are in grade k. at first i was dreading this class after my last grade k experience. there are four of them in the class: sara, tracy, luke, and leia. three of them are siblings of other students at our school. it took them 30 seconds before they won me over. they are so cute and very smart. today was craft day. we made snowflakes. leia kept calling me sonsaengnim [korean for teacher] and wanted my help. when i handed her the paper back ready to cut she would start gabbing in korean to me. i just nodded and said yes cut. she did this about 3 different times. there snowflakes were something else. sara opened up one of hers and it was basically a giant hole. she kept calling it a grandma snowflake. i'm going to really enjoy this class. before leaving for the day anna told me that the kiddy-kids keep calling me blue-eyes teacher. they are so cute…

todays tips
useful catch phrases
after those fakers!
— the mystery of the chinese junk, the hardy boys

powers of observation
a strange tattoo might be a means of identifying long-lost royality.
— the clue in the jewel box, nancy drew

be well…

shygirl

deery-lou.
shygirl, shygirl, your nothing but a shygirl. thats my new song. it was inspired by of all things a t-shirt that one of my students had on. peter came to school yesterday wearing a grey turtleneckish kind of shirt. i say turtleneckish because although it looked like one from the front, the collar was actually split in the back. as he was running around the halls i noticed the black "sh" and the glitter on the front. when he came to my class i got a closer look. thats when i noticed that it said "shygirl". obviously a hand-me-down from his older sister yuni who i also teach. i'm not sure he really understood what the shirt said. and for that innocence i'm truly jealous. if a boy in the states wore a "shygirl" shirt to school it would be all over for him. forever being teased. however, thats not the case here. because like peter no one gets what the shirt shirt says. and besides the guys shirts are so feminine looking its hard to determine what is guys and what is girls sometimes. there's been a couple of times i was in a shop and couldn't tell if i was looking at boy shirts are not. all during class when peter misbehaved i kept calling him "shygirl". everytime i did he smiled really big. that class is definitely the "giggle" class. all him and chris do is laugh. it reallly puts you in a good mood. we were reading a story yesterday and the word "sax" was in there. of course both of them kept saying "sex" and laughing. then peter pointed to the old man in the book and called him chris. that seemed to make him laugh even more. i'm reallly glad i got this class back. i missed them.

as i climbed the stairs to taekwondo i kept hearing a "santa song" over and over again. when i rounded the corner i noticed that the lights were dimmed and the music was getting louder. i saw my kwanganim standing in front of christmas. next to the tree was a 3 foot singing/dancing santa. please save me! i must have heard the song 5 times within 10 minutes. it was great to see them getting ready for the holidays but the thought of having to listen to it everyday makes me want to scream. one student came into the practice space humming the song and imitating the dancing santa.

so a few weeks ago i was surfing the web and came upon this site music gorilla vs. bear. i think i actually found it either via misty or bagelradio. anyway this site contains lots of indie band info, reviews, ramblings, and samples. i felt like i struck gold. having been in korean for the past year finding new music has been almost impossible. thank gawd i had bagelradio to get me through lonely nights. now i have this new site where i can find new music to enjoy, too. and i did just that. i now have a new favorite band smoosh. they are merely young girls 9 and 11 from seattle. i love this album so much. i can't stop listening to it. they are the indie band version of hanson but a hell of a lot better. i highly recommend that you all check them out. i might start the offical smoosh fan club. hee hee.

today tips
on sleuthing
convertibles are swell but they sure do call attention to your comings and goings.
— the haunted showboat, nancy drew

survival tactics
always pack two overnight bags in case you have to stay over until the next day.
— the bombay boomerang, the hardy boys

be well…

first snowfall of winter

geumchong subway staion

deery-lou.
it doesn't matter how many times you've seen it or experienced it. the first snow of the year always feels so magical. last night it snowed. it felt like i had just stepped into the scene of edward scissorhands when winona ryder was dancing under the falling snow. the first snow brings out the best in people. everyone seemed so happy last night. grownups giddy as school children. there were snowball fights all along the streets of hongdae. the pinkish-black hue of the night sky was perfect. i remember standing outside letting the snow hit my face. it felt so good. nothing could have been better. walking down the snowy streets was like being in my own movie. a few koreans carried umbrellas as they made their way through falling flakes. nothing could have been better. i felt so alive. it was an explosion of innocence throughout the city. snow rules!!

earlier in the day i met up with my friend jean. we went to see a fortune teller in insadong. before actually going to see the fortune teller we had tea and korean rice cakes. they were quite tastey. the fortune teller we wanted to see wasn't there today. the man at the office recommended another one. he, too, was not there. both of these places were like stepping into your neighborhood bar. nothing fancy about them. merely a tiny office in a building. but with both of these options being shot we decided to go to this other place we saw. it seemed like the "mcdonalds" of the fortune telling world. there were all these ads, write ups, etc. on the walls that lend down to the entrance. unlike the small dingyness of the other places, this one was quite spacious and cozy. they even had two candles burning. sometimes atmosphere does help. the particular "fortune telling" we were getting is a method of divination called saju. saju means the "four pillars". it is composed of the year, month, date, and hour of one's birth which are supposed to influence one's fate. unfortunately i was lacking my hour of birth but i had him do it anyway. plus since i was born in the states he changed my date of birth to april 9 which would have been april 10 in korea. thinking about it now it would have made more sense for him to have made it april 11. so my fortune is only 70% acurate. fyi: my friend jean translated since he didn't speak english. some things might have been lost in translation. anyway here are the highlights…

saju highlights:
1. i'm not good at studying
2. unlucky in love
3. don't have any luck
4. the year of the dog, which i am, is currently going through 3 years of bad luck. it ends in 2006
5. my relationships don't work cuz i'm cold and keep things to myself
6. i'm a warm and nice person
7. will be married at 39
8. should not invest money
9. won't have a lot of money
10. haves lots of ambitions but poor follow through [i'm lazy]
11. am creative but have a tendenacy to go from one thing to another
12. get bored easily
13. haven't had a job that i've truely liked yet. that will change in 2007
14. have better luck in eastern countries than western
15. will have a big move in 2007 or when i'm 39. [i forgot what he said]
16. sees my job as a researcher or teaching
17. as for relationships girls don't like me
18. need to add more humor to my life
19. should avoid sweets
20. i'll prosper later in my life
21. blue is my color

there you have it. i'm actually going to get it done again when i have my exact time of birth. then i can see how different it is from this prediction. i'll keep you posted.

after the saju experience i looked for a nearby bridge to jump off but couldn't find one. just kidding. we then headed over to hongdae. my friend chen and some other artists were having an opening at a gallery. there's was a reallly great turn out for the exhibit. jean and i walked around for a bit then left to get food. when we stepped out of the restaurant it was snowing. jean headed home and i went back to the exhibit. hung out there for most of the night until we got kicked out. a group of us walked around hongdae and when they finally decided on a place to go to i headed out. i wanted to make sure i caught the last train home. the subway ride home for the most part was uber crowded. it was great riding the train watching the snow fall. i walked the home feeling completely happy.

now's probably a good time to briefly mention the craziness that was friday night. it was anna's birthday so we went out to dinner and then for drinks. i bagged on tkd [so bad]. towards the end of the evening our boss got a bit drunk. of course when he does he starts talking. a lot of it was "i believe in you" over and over and over again. he told me that he had a friend that worked in television. then mentioned that if i wanted to get on television i probably could. although i'd have to lose some weight. he brought up some things that "evil sammy" said before leaving our school. its been a year since she left and still she haunts this place. the cab ride home got even more interesting with his babbling of sex and saying that "people are wondering. ansan is a small community. they are telling me things". we tried to ask some questions about you the "them" were. but he never did have an answer. when we asked if it were parents he said no. who knows. once we got out of the cab the whole "i believe in you no matter what" came up again. this time he added the "i don't care what you are". and then more babbling to which i have no idea what he was talking about. i can only assume he was talking about our sexuality once again. bored now. we headed off to our apartment while he went on to the korean drinking house. as if he need anymore. so that was my friday night. after a night of several haunting random nightmares i woke up in the morning wishing i had gone to taekwondo instead. go figure.

today's tips:
the powers of observation
if you see a downed pigeon, check to see if it's a ferrying any messages. it might be a carrier pigeon.
— password to larkspur lane, nancy drew

all in a sleuth's day
horseplay can lift your spirits.
— the mark on the door, the hardy boys

here are some photos i took last night in the snow.

snowy tree

snow falling from sky

snowy pine

banana peels

my feet

camouflaged

my mini-faceless snowman

wonderland

footprint

be well…

roboraptor video

deery-lou.
look! up in the sky! it's a bird! it's a plane! it's a roboraptor…

click here for video

today's tips:
out-of-doors hints
if you step on something squishy, shine your light on the ground and pick up the creature. if it is about three inches long, and has pointed ears and a horrid-looking face…it's a vampire bat.
— danger on the vampire trail, the hardy boys

wilderness tips
adventure can make you hungry! pack a hearty snack.
— the moonstone castle mystery, nancy drew

be well…

moms

deery-lou.
today i had to teach a special class of moms. my orange b class is moving up to green a and their moms were all worried. jk thought it would be a good idea to have the moms come in and show them what i would be teaching. sounded like a good idea. as i started to explain my lesson plan to them i realized that maybe one or two out of five actually understood what i was saying. thankfully ruby's mom who understood what i was saying acted as the translator. the class soon turned into a question and answer period. whereas each mom wanted to know how their child was doing. kevin's mom was first. i really wanted to say that her child was a follower but managed to find some encouraging words for her instead. i'm not really sure if the fully grasped all that what said but hopefully they'll feel at little more at ease with their children advancing. its funny because they all wanted to know if the children spoke english in my class. and they do. they are actually one of my better classes. always speaking english and always asking questions. i told the moms that most likely they are not speaking at home cuz there is no one to communicate with. its like when i studied spanish and russian. i didn't run home and start talking with my parents in either of these languages. i probably should have. it would have been a whole hell of a lot funnier. as i sit here and type the students from my orange b class are running around the halls acting like maniacs. their moms are now in class with anna. the moms were a trip. all decked out in their finest dudes. one had a fur lined vest on. its definitely safe to assume that these kids all come from some money. now if only one of these moms would adopt me...

today's tips:
on manners
a true hardy says good-bye in person.
— mystery of the whale tattoo, the hardy boys

on being a lady
if you can at all prevent it, do not chase after thieves when you are clad only in a leotard. it's unseemly.
— the secret slipper mystery, nancy drew

be well…