teens & tangs

deery-lou.
stalk /stawk/ v. 1. to pursue or approach stealthily 2. to hunt slowly and quietly 3. stride, walk in a stately or haughty manner 4. to move through or follow as if stalking prey

stalker /stawker/ n. 1. someone who walks with long stiff strides 2. someone who stalks game 3. someone who prowls or sneaks about; usually with unlawful intentions [syn: prowler, sneak]

it started with a song. a song that haunted every chamber of my mind whenever i heard it played. it became a quest. a quest to find our answers: what band is this? what are they saying? etc. band names were spinning around my head. an answer never came. it never failed that while out at the eagle kicking back a few the song would come on. the process would start again. i had almost given up on the quest. then one day after a trip to amoeba i got a call from d. he had found the song. it was on one of the cds he had just bought. after hanging up with him i raced back to amoeba for my own copy. the mystery was over, but the hunting just began.

from my first listen of imperial teen's "what is not to love" i was hooked. so was pevil and d. i had a band crush on one of the members. within months i had all of their cds. when the new one came out we went to the signing at amoeba records. by the time i got up there i was speechless. at the time they lived locally which was an added bonus. whenever i saw my bc [band crush] walking down the street i'd stop and stare. it resulted in me following bc for a few blocks then realizing what i was doing. i went to every show, or at least tried to. pevil, d, and i even drove to san jose's pride to see them play. wouldn't have been so bad had we not had to pay to enter a pride event. and the fact that it was san jose. pevil and i would drive around in her "geo" singing their songs. d and i would see the boys at the eagle. everything was grand. we joked about being obsessed fan. about my bc being my boyfriend. to an extent we had become stalkers. all in fun, though. we were like high school girls. eventually, like all things the band crush seemed to fade away. some of the members moved away and the band stopped playing around town so much. i would still see my bc walking around but the spark was gone. my stalker phase had ended. well that is until now...

imperial teen

last year jenny and i stumbled upon this k-band marihuana. instantly i liked want i heard. plus the visuals weren't so bad either. wink. wink. i was excited to have finally found an indie rock/experimental sounding k-band. especially since the majority of the k-music is all that k-pop. so sweet it makes your teeth hurt. after the gig the guys were hanging about. jenny went up to the lead singer and asked if they had a cd. with a little help from his friend, he told us it would be out in july. i was excited. from that point on i made it my mission to find out as much as i could about them. my attempts to find the cd proved fruitless. july came and went. still no cd to found. eventually i stumbled upon their website. unfortunately its all in korean so i really couldn't understand much of it. i had a friend translate the site. apparently there's was no cd yet. the band had gone through a line-up change and was in the midst of writing songs. plus they changed their name from marihuana to the mustangs. at least there was still hope to see them and for a cd to appear under the new name. while tooling around on the site i realized i could figure at least when they were playing next. afterall that is the most important thing. of course every time i remembered to check i had either missed them or there weren't any upcoming events. as time passed my daily visits to the site deteoriated. the mustangs were becoming a distant memory. i had mentioned them to my friends in hopes that maybe someone, somewhere would have some info. and then it happened. a few weeks ago chen told me they were playing at club aura on may 13. how excited was i--very. after nearly a year i'd be able to see them again. that night i went to their site and found out that they were playing on april 29 at liveclub ssam. SCORE! now i had two upcoming gigs to look forward too.

flyer for liveclub ssam gig

saturday. i ventured into seoul around 5ish. met up with chen and some other peeps for food at jenny's cafe. had myself a very yummy eggplant, brie, sun-dried tomatoes sandwichy. we wanted to hit the free market but by the time we got there it was closing down. chen wanted to buy a dress for the evening. so we did a bit of shopping. shopping with chen is like shopping with misty. good times! we stopped into the piercing store. while browsing the shop i kept thinking i needed to get something pierced. but what? i've had my ear pierced before and didn't like it too much. however, whenever i see guys with their ears pierced i want to do it again. maybe i'd like it better this time around. just not sure if i can pull it off. well i'll have to think about it some more. so finally with dress in hand, well actually we made a stop so she could change into it. we headed for liveclub ssam. when we got to the club it was fairly empty and very quiet. in between songs before the singer started talking you could literally hear a pin drop. i felt like i was in a library. shhh! no talking. it reminded me of a story misty told about talking at the catpower show and getting shushed by the people around her. the space was small but pretty cool. very inviting to see a band. though there was no smoking or drinking. hmmm. perhaps because its in an artist space. i'm still confused my koreans lack of enthusiasm though. everyone was sitting. at one point chen wanted to dance but decidced against it. a smart move. betsy/betsey/becky/betty joined us for the second act which the girls out front told us would be the mustangs. i got very excited. however when the band came out it didn't look like the same band i'd seen before. there was a girl in the group. i thought that maybe one of the guys looked familiar but wasn't sure. when they started to play the music was completely different than what i had remembered. i thought it was quite odd. perhaps they did a complete 360. although it was quite different i still enjoyed the music. we decided to stick around for the third band. it was a good thing we did too. betsy had stepped out and when she came back she told me that the last band was not the mustangs. they were coming on next. YEAH!!! which made complete sense since the last band sounded nothing like them. when the mustangs came out i knew it was them. the lead singer looked a little different with his long hair but i recognized the other guy. their set was amazing. i couldn't help but sit there with a giant grin on my face. oh how i miss seeing good live music. these guys definitely filled that need. now i have my new/old band crush for 2006. this time around i'll stay on top it. time to be a music stalker again. hehe.

the mustangs

after the set we went to club aura to meet a few peeps. while we were there the mustangs and some others from liveclub ssam arrived. this must be their hang out. guess where i'm going to be spending all my time. we stayed for a drink then left for the twain. club nana was hosting an animal benefits rock show. there were a few bands that chen wanted to see so off we went. the club was pack. pack with the kind of people i try so desperately to avoid. the rocktigers were playing when we arrived. they're a korean rockabilly band. they sounded pretty cool but i must confess that once i got my drink i went outside. couldn't really deal with the crowd. i went back in when the waking party started to play. thats one of the bands chen wanted to see. inside it was like a GIANT frat party. i looked around for the tri-deltas but couldn't find them. people were making out in the corner, high-fiving at the bar, and being plan old annoying. betsy got me a drink and off we went to hang outside. from club nana we went to j club to see yet more bands. by this time i was pretty much burned out on live music. seeing that everyone was taking off for hongdae i decided to stick it out with chen. while chen was watching jet echo i decidced to take a stroll through the twain. on my travels i got an invitation from a hooker to come inside the place she worked. i should have but didn't. i also had some random people tell me i should get a pita from the pita wagaon. i didn't. instead i meandered around, had a smoke, and watched peeps. a short time later i went back inside to meet up with chen who was rocking herself out. we stayed for a little longer to watch this country jamboree band that was playing next. seeing that their mixer or something blew all you could hear was the hobit [that's what chen called him] singing and the guitars. although they had a cello and other instruments you couldn't hear them. shortly after that we left to cab ourselves back to hongdae and to bed. before we were able to leave the twain a drunk whitey tried getting into our cab. i don't think he could find sorrity row.

sunday morning. i awoke feeling quite rested. when i looked at the clock i was surprised to see that it was already 11am. the blue windows definitely keep out the light. chen and i rallied and set out for some lunch. we made our way to choi's tacos. i had read about it in the korean herald. choi had spent some time in la so i figured if anyone could make a decent taco/burrito it had to be him. sure enough i was right. it was the most delicious burrito i had in some time. it even had sour cream and guacamole. i died and went to mexican heaven. the place was very tiny. it kind of reminded me of the taquerias in sf. right down to the mexican music they were playing. after our bellies were full we headed off for hongdae to check out the free market. we spent the rest of the day doing what i like to call "senseless" buying. we took a break from "senseless" buying and had some coffee at ordinary cafe. we spent a few hours there just chillin. then decided it was time to call it a day. which was good since i had zero money in my wallet. once again i bailed on going to the foreign market for tortillas. next time.

senseless purchases
1. white studded belt [white is the new black]
2. punk kitty pin
3. wrist band with picture and button attached [gift from chen. thanks babe]
4. handpainted t-shirt
5. handmade supper bunny cell phone charm
6. an evil taekwondo bear cell phone charm
7. stickers
8. no smoking matches

be well...

russian bride?

deery-lou.
so i got this email the other day. i love this shit. apparently this russian woman is looking for a husband and i make a good candidate? is she for real? if only she knew...

Hello!!!

How are you doing? My name is XXXXXXX. I am 25 years old. Live in Russia, city Bugulma. I am cheerful woman, and like to do many things as sport, camping, go to the cinema, theatre etc. In a word I like to do all what like all people. I work in marketing structure on sale of cosmetics. My dream this travel abroad. I know the english language well enough.I began to study english language approximately one year ago.I wish tell to you history which have pushed me write toyou. 7 months ago I have got acquainted with the man from other country by name XXXXX. During this time we had good relations. We have understood that our relations become serious and we have decided to meet in his country.I wrote the application for reception the visa. I waited reception of the visa approximately half of year. All time I kept in touch with XXXX through the internet and often called to each other. I and XXXXXXX waited reception of the visa to our meeting. I have received the invitation from the ambassador for reception of the visa.My director has given me long-term holiday from work and I have gone to Moscow to receive the visa. I informed good news to XXXXXX, but he has answered, that does not want our meeting.He played with me. He has informed that has the wife with two children and at all has no plans to meet me. I was not ready to such turn of events. I could not think what even after one year of acquaintance he can so unscrupulously act with me. Now I am in Moscow trip to Moscow and reception of visa. I do not want that all was gone for nothing and will be glad if my visa will be useful to our meeting.I could arrive already through 4-5 days, but a problem in that that now I have no man which would like my arrival. Probable it will silly sound but if you will be interested in a meeting with the good woman I shall like to meet you sometime soon! As XXXXX was dishonest with me I have decided to find the man which is interested to meet the woman from Russia. I do not know your ideas about my letter, but it would be fine if we could meet and have some weeks or months together. On my trip I want to receive rest from my work and a life in Russia. Also the basic purpose for the future it is search good men for serious attitudes which go to a marriage. I have no children, but I want to have children in the future.I am the mature woman and ready to creation of family with good man. I do not know what you really search in the future but if we could meet I shall be happy to discuss with you more about our meeting. What are you
going to do this time? It would be fine if we could meet, do friendship or more than simply friendship. I shall be happy if you also have a free time and we could meet soon. I do not know your interests,but anyhow write to me back and I shall tell to you more about myself. Write to me all that you want. Maybe we have similar plans and it will be interesting to us together.You can write all that you want. Ask any questions which interest you.Write to me back and I shall tell more about myself and send more my photos.

Have a good day,

XXXXXXXX

i hope you enjoy it as much as i did. i guess if my love life never pans out i could always contact her. at least i know i have options now.

be well…

…and the song remains the same

deery-lou.
i know i've probably said this a millions times but, my friends rock. i truly appreciate all the comments and e-mails i got in response to my last blog. i definitely needed the encouraging words. plus it helped to know you were there even though i'm on the side of the universe for now. with that said, when i woke up on monday all seemed to be back to normal. my gloomy, i hate everything attitude seemed to disappear like the ice cream in my freezer. my life was back to normal. smiling as i walked down the street, craving korean food, and simply enjoying the spring weather. i think it helped to be able to write it all down. my own therapy. well that and hours and hours of johnny cash. it seems that i can't get enough of the man in black these days. my father use to listen to johnny cash a lot when i was a youngster. but it was only until recently that i actually listened to his music. i think seeing the film helped. and perhaps i never really paid much attention to his music before becasue i associated it with my father. don't get me wrong, i have a good relationship with my father. i most likely assumed that i wouldn't like it. well, i was wrong. thats what i love about life. the ability to discover to new old things. so now that all is fine in my universe its time for me to get working on my photos for the exhibit. i haven't done anything yet.

be fresh, be well…

p.s. thanks adawg. told you i was gonna borrow it. smooches.

one is not a lonely word...

deery-lou.
usually thats how i feel about things. often i don't mind being by myself. there's something about it thats actually quite nice. however, this weekend i was hit with a new found depression. not really sure where it came from. on saturday i was out in jungang-dong searching for sheets for my new bed. YES!! i got a new double bed. no more twin for this boy. so i'm out shopping. something i usually quite enjoy here in korea. but this outing was much different. as i walked down the busy streets i felt so alien—so alone. everywhere i looked there were couples. couples holding hands, couples eating together, etc. then i realized everyone was asian. and again i felt very alone. i was hungry but yet i couldn't be bothered to go into a restaurant and deal with all the people and the language barrier. there are some days when i just don't want to be bothered. when i got to 2001 outlet it was packed with people. people bumping me, staring at me, and just annoying me for no apparent reason. i rode the escaltor up what felt like 20 floors until i finally found the bedding section. of course i couldn't find what i wanted. mostly because they don't have sheets and fitted sheets here. they have what you call mattress covers. most of which are padded. and then padded sheets. the whole process was pissing me off. it was taking far too much time. i spent 30 mins with the sales lady trying to converse with her. she kept trying to sell me some padded cover for w30,000. which i would never spend that much in the states for a damn fitted sheet. finally i left with no purchases. i decided to stop in at my two favorite stores in that area in hopes of picking up my spirits. my attempt was fruitless. i usually have so much fun in these stores but it felt like such a chore to be there. i did find a few things for friends. nothing for me though. i decided to walk to homeplus to search for lining there. on my way i was going to stop in this shop that ho mentioned awhile back. its in some big building and they are suppose to have a good stationary store. however when i got to the building i just didn't want to deal with searching for it so i left. at homeplus it took me awhile to find the bedding department. they had completely rearranged the store since the last time i was there. i ran into the same problem there. they just don't have bedding like we do in the states. i finally found a mattress cover that was like a fitted sheet. but no bed sheet. the woman told me they don't have them. which makes sense cuz when i got home i looked at my old bed sheet and it was actually a blanket cover. whatever! on my way out i grabbed a delicious chicken wrap and a mini pizza. although when i was trying to buy my wrap it was all in korean and the lady behind the counter had to call someone else over to help her out. these are the times that i get so mad at myself for not being able to read korean better. i couldn't wait to get home and lock myself in my apartment. everything felt like such a chore. i didn't want to see anyone or talk to anyone. i wanted was bad tv. this is the first time since being here that i've felt this blue. and it seems like its for no apparent reason. as much as i love living here there's a part of me that realizes i'll never really truly fit in. i noticed that the bar scene here is quite different than inthe states. when we go out with friends at a bar we generally talk to other people too. it not the case here. friends stick with friends. i'm sure alot of it too is that they are probably afraid to talk to foreigners but it would be cool to go out and meet locals. i just don't see it happening. and on top of everything else i have this cough that just won't go away. wow. its like bitch, bitch, bitch for me right now. sorry guys. i'm sure in a few days i'll be back to normal. whatever that is. there is some good news. i've recently discovered that i can't get enough of korean food. i've been going out to lunch and dinner with young alot lately. its like my body craves all the various sidedishes that are offered. and all i want to do is eat, eat, eat. even today i ran to the sidedish lady and got some kimchi radishes. on one hand there's a part of me thats glad i can't read korean cuz i'd probably be eating out so much. although eating by yourself is never really that fun. even now i can't stop thinking about side dishes. i think i'm going crazy. then there's the whole sex thing. i can't seem to get sex off my mind. everywhere i look i see a ck. its like i have a one track mind. am i destined for a life in sex. perhaps i should become the carrie bradshaw of the g-world. there is a silver lining though. the band that i saw with jenny last year is playing this saturday. they have a new name "the mustangs". its an indie-k band. so i'm quite excited about this. hopefully with their lineup/name change they haven't changed their sound. that would be sad. i believe my buddy chen is going with me. it'll be good to see her. i haven't seen her in a week and realized that i miss hanging with her. she always puts me in a good mood. perhaps its because we are both on the same wave length. all right my friends…

be well…

happy easter

deery-lou.
its easter sunday here. well…actually for only 30 more minutes. although one really wouldn't know it. shops are vacant of easter decorations and candy. there was no chocolate bunny waiting for me. no easter eggs to find. and no fresh jesus to prepare for. i'm most saddened by no fresh jesus. fresh jesus is held at pevils house. its became somewhat of a tradition amongst our misfit group of friends. the day is spent hanging out, drinking, chowing down on good food, sometimes playing games, and on occasions a visit to the eagle afterwards. one year i convinced pevil to glaze the ham in cherry coke. not really sure why. it was so delicious though. this will be the second fresh jesus i've missed. for some strange reason i'm more homesick this year than last. i'm missing the little everyday things about being in san francisco. the things you sometimes take advantage of. i'm heading to the states this summer for a family reunion. i decided to split the time between atlanta [where the reunion is being held] and san francisco. i'm really looking forward to being in sf if only for a short period of time. so to all my friends who are reading this i will be in town july 31 to aug 6. clear your calendars. and now back to our regularly scheduled program. yeah so its easter and i spent the day in bed eating chocolate turkish delights and fighting off a cold. yes once again i've seem to caught a cold that knocked me on my ass. i'm not sure if its the kids, the constant weather changing, the yellow dust or a combo of all three. but i'm stuffed up, coughing, and my body aches. i actually feel a little better today. i'm just really tired. so what does a boy do about it? watch movies. i watched two music documentaries: the nomi song and dig!. both were really good. i didn't really know much about klaus nomi. i do remember watching urgh! a music war back in the 80s. they had a segment with the nomi band but that was a far as i ever got. never really listened to his music or knew much about him. thats what made watching the documentary so interesting. now i'm completely fascinated by him and his music. hearing him sing is mezmorizing. its like a bizarre dream. in a good way. dig! is a documentary following the brian jonestown massacre and the dandy warhols over a period of 7 years. i've always liked the dandy warhols since seeing them live when i lived in baltimore. it was great to see footage about them. as far as the brian jonestown massacre i never listened to them. i remember hearing their name but never bothered to give them a try. my mistake. i really liked what i heard. they have a new album out which i need to check out. anyway… i started out this blog claiming i didn't get a chocolate bunny etc. however, when i managed to venture to the corner store for some supplies the shop keeper gave me the following easter creature with egg:

my korean easter creature

egg detail

googlely eyes

so i did get an easter basket of sorts. how sweet was that! she babbled to me in korean before handing it to me. i nodded and pretended i knew what she was saying. i like how on the egg all the people are reading the bible. this is going to be one blessed egg i eat. yum-yum.
saturday night was my friend jen's birthday. i managed to get out of bed and make a trek into seoul to help her celebrate. we had dinner at a mediterrian restaurant then headed to brick's bar in the twan. chen thought it would be a good idea to get jen the birthday cake bar special. which was five flaming shots. plus they brought her 3 extra ones on the side. i'm glad for my birthday i had a cake. not sure i could have handled 8 shots. on their shot menu they have a tag line that said something like this: "these are strong. don't punch the bartender". some of the names of the shots were pretty funny, too. the only one i can remember is "stretch your ass and DIE!" i meant to steal the menu but forgot. next time. since i wasn't feeling all that great i only stayed out til 11pm. on the subway home the man standing next to me was picking his nose the whole time. come on!!! do people think they are invisible on the subway. it is not ok to pick you nose. let me tell you, too, he was digging into it like noones business. i finally had to move away cuz it was making me ill.

happy fresh jesus every one!
be well…

p.s. thanks again to chen's mum for the chocolate turkish delights. although at the rate i keep stuffing them into my mouth i'm going to get fat fast.

goodbye to 35…

deery-lou.
i spent the weekend leading up to my birthday eating, drinking, and sleeping. on friday night we had a work dinner for all the april birthday's. there were three of us. we went to a kalbi restaurant where the meat is boiled instead of bbq. it actually tastes like a pot roast but much sweeter. it was extremely delicious. i could have kept eating it all night. i managed to keep the drinking to a minimum that night. although i had to do the soju shot in beer to appease the natives. to korean standards it was a early evening. i actually got home by 11 something and immediately went to sleep. i slept so good. it must have been the soju. on saturday i ventured into seoul. i had some errands to run before meeting up with friends. outside it was grossy-gross. the dust from china was thick. almost to the point where i could taste grit in my mouth. i should have bought a mask but i didn't. i went to the art store to pick up a few things then wondered around the underground mall from hell. that place to pure mayhem. i'm not sure why i even went there. it was packed with people and hotter than hell itself. i stayed 15 minutes. i met up with chen shortly after that in the twan. we hung out at a cafe until it was time to head out for dinner. i had a small dinner gathering at my favorite indian restaurant namaste. chen got me a cake. how sweet was that. and then came the embarrassing turn the lights out in the restaurant and sing. it was good times. the cake was like eating a slice of heaven. a chocolate mousse heaven. after dinner it was back to the twan and off to the hill. we hung out there chatting and enjoying ourselves. close to 1am jen and astrid heading off for home while becky, chen, and i went to ff club. i got a membership so i best put it to use. we spent the rest of the night drinking and dancing. by 5:40 am i found myself on the subway heading back to ansan. i got back to my apartment by 7:30 am and crashed until 1 pm. i had absolutely zero energy all day. my eyelids felt like they weighed a ton. i managed to get to the corner store for a 1.5 liter of pepsi. its only 900 won [$.90]. i love korea. spent the rest of the day in bed watching tv.
on monday most of my students wished me a happy birthday. how sweet was that. i even got presents from some of them. of course most of them will not be leaving korea with me. as i was opening them i thought back to all my grade school teachers and how their desks were covered with gifts that looked like they came from the 99 cent store. thats how my desk looks now. especially with the teddy bear in a dress holding a heart-shaped frame and my new love dog snow globe. aside from the dollar store gifts, i did manage to score some cool stuff:

1. fuzzy dalki angel frame [anyting fuzzy rocks]
2. palace story sharp [a sharp is what kids call mechanical pencils. who knows!]
3. a gold elephant [might be to hold jewerly or a very chic ash tray]
4. drinking panda journal [he's drinking alcohol]
5. epik high cd [have no idea what they sound like but liked the cover]
6. pencil chopstick [i really thought they were pencils at first. can u say dumb.]
7. a phone charm with the letters of my name. each letter has fake diamonds. [k-bling]
8. banana fish vol.8, 9, & 10
9. superhero action figures [only later i found out they were for my students. oops. thanks sis]
10. lots of emails + ecards from friends and family [thanks guys]
11. phone calls from the states [misty, mom, and kate. love ya]
12. a pencil case filled with lots of goodies. [i love lots of goodies]
13. a new outfit for amber
14. notes from my students
15. an anime toy i get to put together [it shoots marbles]

my birthday was also filled with one of the hardest workouts in my taekwondo history. kwanjangnim taught the class that night. i thought we'd never stop doing situps. he mentioned that we are going to have harder practices from here on out. can't wait. i finished off the evening meeting young and anna for spicy chicken. it was most delicious. and that wraps it up.

be well…

my friend

deery-lou.
it seems like the topic of friendship is on everyone's mind. at least in their journals. here is what jordan had to say on the subject. [i will copy it exactly as it's written].

my friend
today my firend ja-min was cover and sick and today i have no firend. Ja-min is jentle very much. Jamin belt is red black belt. Jamin is my best firend. Jamin is Littele beat fat and He don't like Ta-Konw-Do. He like compewter game and I love [heart]~Jamin.

to all my friends out there i miss you guys.

be well...

the korean wave

deery-lou.
the "korean wave" is at full force. and no i'm not talking about the popularity of korean dramas or musicians that are sweeping their way across the nation. instead i'm referring to the vast majority of korean men/boys who are getting perms or more percisely wavy perms. from my students to my sahbanim everyone is jumping aboard. what is this fascination for hair with texture? i don't know. i'm finding it quite amusing though. this is perhas why i'm asked on a daily basis if i have a perm. curly hair is just not the normal. but thats not stopping them. perhaps this "korean wave" is a way for them to stand out. to set them apart. or simply just wanting something they don't have. as a curly haired person i alway wanted straight hair. i even went as far as getting a "magic straight" last year. needless to say it was a disaster. one of my students, jordan, wrote about his experience with his perm. i believe he's 9 years old. i can never keep track of all their ages. anyway i leave you now with jordan's words:

I Don't like permanent because permanent is for long time.
But permanent is finished I and beautiful.
I like my hair designer.
[typed exactly as written]

be well…

a weekend of nothingness

deery-lou.
it rained all day saturday which prompted me to not go into seoul and to stay home. i napped, watched tv, and did some more napping. hehe! my life has become one giant routine. does this mean the mysteriousness of a new country has worn off? i hope not. i like to think of it as the last affects of a lingering winter. i have plenty of things to keep me busy these days. hopefully with the coming of spring my motivation will return as well. anyway…to continue with my oh so boring weekend. today i actually managed to finish scrapebook #2. please people hold the applause and the cheers. hehe. this is what happens when one spends the weekend inside. you start having conversations with people that aren't there. so now its on to scrapebook #3 since i still have loads of pictures and crap to put somewhere. its amazing all the little crap one saves but i'm sure in a few years i'll look at these books and be happy that i have them. thats my story for today and i'm sticking to it.

be well…

all we are is dust in the wind…

deery-lou.
well here it is friday morning, korea time. this week has definitely flown by. but they again they all seem these days. not much has happened this week hence the lack of posts. i seem to have been in this sleepy state all week. going to bed uber late. waking up even later. after months of having skype on my computer i finally used it last weekend. LOVE IT!! i got to chat with two of my peeps. one in washington, dc and the other in england. and it was all for free. got ot love that. to all my peeps out there. if you haven't downloaded skype yet do it. then send me an email and i'll give you my user name. it would be great to chat with some of you. now if i could only get my parents to download. but that would actually mean that they have to unpack and set up the computer. since they moved the computer has been sitting in a box. once again its that time of year: yellow dust. yes the yellow dust of china is blowing into korea at full force. outside cars are covered in its yellow mist. the people have busted out their masks to make their way down the street. i keep thinking i'm going to buy a mask but then i never do. i think i'd feel like a dork in a mask. the last couple of days have been extremely windy. it felt like winter decided to return. however, today it feels a bit warmer. lets keep our fingers crossed. i'm ready for spring. and a spring fling! tkd is going good. i feel like i'm making progress on my kicking. my sahbanim said that i have improved a lot since going to kukiwon. perhaps the black belt has brought with it a sense of confidence. meanwhile back at ils, i lost my kiddy class. that made me kind of sad cuz i liked those kids. now i picked up some new girl in a solo class and a class that use to be horace's. the new chelsea is way smart. i think it'll be a good class. the other class has two students that i taught before: jeff and isabella. its nice to have them back in my class again. there's a boy named peter in the class who likes to feel the hair on my arms and hop around like a frog. he is so cute. then there's james who is rockin a way cool mullet. i will definitely get a picture of that. the rest of the class includes michelle [sara's sister who was in my kiddy class], julie, and jenny. the boys in this class are going to be trouble. i can feel it already.

be well…

funky funky friday

deery-lou.
on friday night i found myself heading into seoul to met up with chen. tae kwon do class had been canceled so it seemed that all signs were pointing me to go. i got to her hotel around 10ish. yes those of us that don't live near seoul must either 1. get a hotel room 2. stay in a sauna or 3. stay up all night. luckily for me chen had a hotel room. we headed off to funky funky to go see this band that chen likes jet echo. when we got to the club we found out there was a $25 cover charge. um, hi deer caught in the headlights. the guy then told us that it was all you could drink all night. chen doesn't drink so we got him to drop her price down to $10. mine stayed at $25. he asked for our email addresses. having three of them i wasn't sure which one to give. especially since i'm thinking about getting rid of my sprintmail one. but thats another story. anyway…after writing down my email he handed me a membership card which grants me free entrance whenever i come in the future. i'm looking at the card now and on the back it says:

free entrance except on soundday
[every third friday]

upon first reading this i thought they spelled sunday wrong. i just realized that sound day is probably a special event. hence the every third friday. hehe! so i guess you can't really beat the price. inside i definitely drank my moneys worth and more so. at one point though the bartender gave me a vodka water instead of vodka tonic. hi. you in the hell drinks vodka water. i made chen take a sip to make sure i wasn't crazy. i wasn't. jet echo was actually pretty decent. the duo were a cross between my bloody valentine and sonic youth with a harder edge. it took me a while to get into cuz i prefer more vocals but they grew on me. the other two bands well lets just say it was like watching a lounge act in the holiday inn. enough said. when all the bands were finished the club started playing 80s tune. that made me happy. so i did what anyone boy would do and had one/two more drinks while i danced. we got back to the hotel around 3 and crashed.

chen had just gotten back from her visa run on friday. she went to japan. while she was there she got me a prezzie. it was a new outfit for amber. so of course when we got back to the hotel i had to put the new outfit on her. i can't believe my doll has an outfit. what's happening to me!!! saturday afternoon we headed into insadong. chen was meeting up with some folks to show two prospective galleries for the exhibit. it looks like they are going with vooks books. chen had an exhibit there before. the place is cool. i got a good vibe from it. its kind of a cross between an art bookstore/cafe/gallery. a majority of the books are in english, too. its going to be a good space. after that we grabbed some lunch and headed back to hongdae to go doll shopping. i ended up buying an asian blythe. so now i have two blythes and one extra outfit. i think i need one more. since three is a magic number.

amber's new outfit

suki

bff!

now for something totallly random. having become totally addicted to project runway i noticed the uk had their own version of the show called project catwalk. so i watched it. elizabeth hurley is the hostess. she sucks. here's what her catch phrase for the show was: "fashion has no mercy. you may leave the catwalk". so i'm now incorporating that into my speech. that was actually the best thing about the show. all right i should motor cuz my hands are cramping.

be well…

students!

valerie balancing pencil holder

deery-lou.
through out the year i took some photos of my students. most of these were taken last year. some of the students pictured have since left our school. also included in this set is the "shygirl" shirt. i can't remember if i uploaded those images to my blog. i searched on saturday but didn't see them. i know i talked about "shygirl" quite a bit. perhaps thats why i'm confused.

student pix

be well…

bali pez

deery-lou.
my trip to bali seemed like ages ago. in truth it has only been 3 months. time sure is flying. anyway while i was in bali i took some pez snapshots. which is what i usually do when i go on vacation. the pez snapshots all started when misty and i took our pez to hawaii. from then on anytime i go on vacation my green insect pez comes with me. so far he has seen hawaii, traveled down route 66, spent some time in thailand, and now bali. i forgot about the bali photos until this weekend. its a good thing i did some organizing.

bali pez pics

be well…

the way we eat

deery-lou.
i spent most of yesterday watching tv, chatting, and trying to organize files on my computer. that's when i realized i had all these photos from last year i never uploaded. oops. looks like i'll be doing that this week. i think i'm addicted to soda. my soda habbit has gotten worse since moving here. i'm drinking far too much. i went from a weekend soda drinker to every day. my body actually craves it in the morning. how sad is that. its like i'm doing all these things in excess, especiall when it comes to food. or have i always done these things this way and am only now becoming aware of them. for instance, when i see korean children eating snacks they put one in their mouth, chew, and swallow. then they grab another and so on and so on. when i eat chips i'm shovelling them in my mouth. often two or three at a time. and before i swallow what i have in my mouth i'm shovelling more in. is this something that all americans do. are we excessive eaters. piling chip after chip into our mouth. is that what we been conditioned to do. i've never really paid too much attention to how people eat back home. perhaps its being in a different culture that i'm now becoming aware of such actions. what is our compulsion to keep the food coming. its like we aren't really enjoying the food but simple eating to eat. i just don't know. although i am going to try to be conscious of how i eat. i don't want to look like a pig eating my chips now do i. oink. oink.

speaking of food, here are some photos from kevin's birthday party last year. cake and snacks were had by all. and yes that's a piece of tissue in his nose. he had a bloody nose. [footnote: i tried three times to upload a photo to my blog but for some reason its not working.] enjoy!
kevin's party pics

be well…

life as i know it

deery-lou.
yet another week has passed here in the land of the morning calm. it has now been 1 year 6 months and 17 days. in a strange way it feels like i've only just got here. this week was filled with hellos, good byes, and drinking. we had yet another farewell dinner for horace on monday. we also welcomed a new foreign teacher. this week at school felt uber hectic. a majority of my classes are started to get maxed out. where are all these kids coming from? i rearranged my classroom this week. it never fails that everytime i do the children freak out. they definitely don't like change. one of my classes wanted superhero names so on friday i put a bunch of super hero names in a hat and had them pick. they seemed to like that. i told them i'd find pictures of the hero they chose and print them out for them. it makes me so happy to see them interested in superheroes. perhaps i will leave a lasting impression on some of them. i saw my friend bill a few times this week. we only get to chat ever so briefly since he's always on his way out. however he always takes a few minutes to say "hi ethan" and tell me about his day. the whole time he's talking with me he's trying to put on his coat, which is almost as long as he is tall. bill method is quite simple. he doesn't believe in unzipping his coat all the way. he leaves it half zipped and puts it on by stepping into it. its quite a sight. this week i always found myself engaged in another "dialogue" with my buddy tae from taekwondo. its his mission to have dialogue with me at least twice a week. he wants to be my korean teacher and i'm happy to obligue. so far i've learned the korean words for train, airplane, ship, bread, and the currency. he would teach some words and then say quiz. he tried to teach me sentences but i told him words would be easier for now. it was quite charming. in tkd i started to learn a new form as well as back kicks and a turning kick. the turning kick is quite hard for me. i can't seem to make myself spin as fast as i need too. my sahbanim always makes it seem so easy. my fellow classmates are also started to notice that i have my black belt. i caught a few of them trying to read my name on it. one of them even pointed to it and then said something to the sahbanim. then they all started to sing the congratulations song. a few came up to me after class and said congratulations again. these kids are really great. my kwang gang nim wants me to help him with his english. i brought in a book the other day but when he looked at it he said "too much english" and got very animated. he then pulled a korean book off his self, opened it, and asked if i could read it. i said no. then he made a comment about feeling the same about the book i brought. i think he wants a book that has both english and korean in it. although i think he can actually do this book. he's just panicked. it was quite funny though. he kept saying over and over his english very bad. i don't think he's as bad as he thinks. i can tell he really wants to learn thought so i will do my best to find a book for him. i met up with young, anna, and christine last night after tkd. they were at our usual haunt: gas station. they have the best friend chicken there. we kicked back some beers and chanted the night away. every time we go we end up getting some free food. its a great little chill place. and now here i am. its almost 4pm on saturday and i've done nada. well actually i watched king kong, the amazing race, and managed to get some laundry done. my life feels like one giant routine these days.

be well…

turkish delight

deery-lou.
i'm not sure where the weekend went. it was one late night after another. friday night chen came into ansan to hang out. i was trying to leave tkd class on time when one of the students wanted to have a "dialogue" with me. it seems that all of a sudden i have sparked new interest with my taekwondo buddies. could it be because i'm now a black belt. i chatted with a group of them for a bit then made my way to met chen who was waiting at red mango, a yogurt shop, near my apartment. chen and i had a candy party. we ate twizzlers and turkish delight. we washed them down with coke. as a child i had fallen in love with the 70s animated movie "the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe" but had never had a turkish delight until now. chen's mom sent some for me to try. thanks chen's mom! as i stuffed myself with turkish delight after turkish delight i felt like edmund. i couldn't help but wonder if somehow chen had mysteriously transformed herself into the snow queen and was fattening me up to do her bidding. we were up until the wee hours chatting. it was a blast. i haven't had an evening like that in a long time. it reminded me of all those nights misty and i would watch bad tv, eat ice cream out of the carton, and talk. sigh… around mid-afternoon on saturday we finally motivated ourselves to head into hongdae. we stopped at an anime store where i found a small asian blythe. unfortunately i didn't buy her at the time. but it looks like i'll be heading back this weekend to purchase her. chen is organizing a group photo exhibit sometime in seoul. she asked me if i'd like to be a part of it. i had hestiations about it seeing that i don't consider myself a photographer but chen has inspired me to work on something. i haven't fully committed but i'm am going to work on a series of photos. mostly concerning toys since they are a big part of my life. that's why i'm going back for asian blythe. she'll be joining amber [surfer blythe] for the shoot. i am a geek. it was nice to hear from someone i respect and admire as a photographer to give me such encouragement. perhaps thats what i needed. thanks chen. you're a doll. around 8 pm we met up with some others and had dinner at an italian restaurant. it was actually quite good. after dinner i parted ways with the group and headed to hyehwa to meet up with horace and young. i spent the rest of the evening drinking at some irish pub. finally around 2am horace and i caught a cab back to ansan. that in itself was an experience. there was brief moment when the cab driver had gotten lost. it was a bit pricey but split between two it wasn't soo bad. don't think i'll be taking many cabs home from seoul. on the plus side chen did show me a inexpensive hotel to crash at if i wanted to stay the night in seoul. i think i'm going to do that next time.

sunday was butt ass cold. i spent the day inside my apartment watching tv shows and working on my scrapbook. scrapbooking is h.a.r.d. i actually made quite a dent in the scrapbook. hopefully it'll be finished soon seeing that i have a pile of crap to put into it. time to finish off the turkis delight.

be well…

p.s. horace left for america today. it's going to be strange not having him here. i wish him well and will definitely see him upon my return. whenever that is.

a work retreat

deery-lou.
three weeks ago we had an office retreat/farewell trip. we headed north to gwangwon-do. on the agenda was sokcho [a harbor town], naksan-sa [a buddhist temple set against the east sea], and seorak-san national park [a mountain area]. the trip there was quite long due to traffic. and the fact that i was nursing a cold didn't help much. i slept most of the way there. breakfast for me that morning consisted of cigs, pringles, coke, two oranges, and more pringles. quite healthy huh. we stopped for lunch around two for some much needed food. soon after that we arrived at the hotel, which was actually a guest house set out in a very rural area. on the road that lead to the hotel was a dog farm. i like to think that they are raising them for pets not food. but a sign said fresh dog, chicken, etc. so i might be foolish to do so. the guest house was quite nice. didn't get any pictures of it though. there were two large bedrooms, one small one with a bed, a living room, a kitchen, and a nice deck that looked out onto the valley. it was quite peaceful. after we unload the bus we set out for naksan-sa. naksan-sa is the only temple set against the east sea. it is dedicated to gwaneum, the goddess of mercy. here's a little history about naksan-sa taken from moons handbook south korea:

naksan-sa was founded in 671 by the traveling monk uisang. after his return from china, uisang came to this spot to try to meet gwaneum face to face. in a seacliff cave, high above the crashing waves he prayed and meditated for days, but she didn't show herself. in frustration , he threw himself into the ocean, whereupon gwaneum immediately appeared and saved him from death. in response, uisang established naksan-sa on this bluff and dedicated it to her.

unfortunately last year there was a huge fire there destroying most of the structures and trees. however what is still there is amazing. its such a beautiful place. standing on the cliffs overlooking the sea was breathtaking. you could feel the energy of the place. christine, young, and i stood there for quite awhile. it was just so peaceful. they are in the process of reconstructing the area. however, i'm sure it's going to be some time before the trees are fully restored.

from naksan-sa we walked down to the beach to regroup with the others who had left. jk told me that during the summer this is a very popular place to come. there were a few hotels along the beach. it seemed quite nice. jk stopped at the fish market to get some food. we were going to have a cookout back at the hotel. that night the owner of the hotel cooked all of our food. we had pork, steak, shellfish, etc. it was like a feast. the steak was like eating butter. so freakin good. once we finished eating we had a meeting to discuss school topics. i did my best to provide input but i felt so out of it that it was hard for me to concentrate. finally around midnight i told them i had to go to bed. i had asked christine and them where they were planning to sleep. they had taken the room with the adjoining bathroom. that left the big room and the small one with a bed. then i asked jk where he'd like to sleep. he said he was going to probably sleep on the couch since he was going to watch the olympics. i figured that it would be all right to take the room with the bed. well, obvisously i was wrong. before i could settle in horace came, jumped in the bed, and said he was taking this side. i told him that i didn't want to share a bed since i felt sick. he told me he didn't want to share a room with snoring koreans and the new teacher. then he threw it that this whole weekend was for him so he should have the room with the bed. not really wanting to argue i grabbed one of the pillows off the bed and said, "if i'm sleeping on the floor i'm making sure i have more than one pillow." and with my stuff i left for the other room. needless to say i was a little annoyed. christine and the others were a bit surprised by it too. when i awoke that morning no one had even slept in the room with me. when i say anna she told me that no one wanted to bother me since i was sick. meanwhile i heard horace come out and say how great he slept in the giant bed.

once everyone was rallied we packed up the car. it was time to leave the lovely guest house and head for seorak-san national park. i had been there last year around with my old taekwondo class so i wasn't really looking forward to it. the whole day was a giant deju-vu for me. the only difference was that there was no snow on the ground. i would like to visit the park again, just not during the winter. i'm sure its amazing in spring or fall. thats when i'd like to go back. we took the cable car to gwongeumseong. i decided not to take the hike to the top since i had done it the last time. while the others were on their way i went to check out the temple. it was a small temple down from where we got off the cable car. nothing to great but the views from it were nice. i meet back up with the others and we took the cable car back to the park. we walked around the park a bit then left. there was brief confrontation between me and a certain someone in the bus. won't go into the details but the gist of it is that someone told me to stop acting like a princess and share. i basically had to bite my tongue and did my best to ignore it. although i really wanted to lash out, i realized that doing so in front of co-workers wasn't cool. so i took the higher ground. the trip back seemed to take forever. i didn't think we would ever see ansan. there was so much traffic. we finally reached the apartment close to 11pm. overall the trip was pretty good. jk did say to me that the next retreat would be in a different country. i won't hold my breath for that to happen but who knows.

here are some pictures from the weekend retreat.
sokcho/naksan-sa/seorak-san photos

be well…

this just in…

deery-lou.
well its official…i'm now a BLACK BELT!!!! yippee!! i'm so excited. and i just can't hide it. i'm about to lose control and i think i like it, like it. how's that for a little song. i'm amazed that i actually stuck with something for so long and got a result. i still in shock. there's a part of me that can't believe its over and done with. it felt like an eternity. when i walked into class my kwangjanim presented the belt to me and said "congratulations". i felt very proud. to actually have the belt in my hands felt good. i had them sew my name in korean. it seemed more authentic that way. i'm such a geek. i would love to know how many points i scored. you needed 60 to pass. me thinks i got 61. hehe. i'm just hoping that now the i got the black belt i don't lose interest. i mentioned something to horace earlier in the day that i haven't been motivated lately. i think a lot of that had to do with the build up to taking the test. it was also before i knew that i got it. i did pay for one more month tonight so with any luck this lack of motivation will be a passing phase. who knows perhaps i'll get my second black belt before leaving korea. wouldn't that me cool. it feel cool to be walking around the gym in my brand spankin new black belt. as we were waiting for class to begin my sahbanim tugged on his belt smiled at me and gave me a thumbs up. these guys are great. i'm so glad i got my belt with them and not my first suck-ass master. i think they were just as happy as i was, especially since i'm the first foreigner they taught. the classtimes was spent mostly on kicking. i think i'm improving ever so slightly. i do know one thing. my legs are definitely going to be one lean mean fighting machines before i leave this country.

new banner of my master thats in the hallway

my black belt [thats my name on the left]

be well…

herb vs. erb

deery-lou.
a couple of weeks ago me amigo prattlepants blogged about the pronounciation of "herb". she had overheard two brits talking on a train about how americans don't pronounce the "h" sound. the bottom line being that as americans perhaps we were just being lazy. then on friday i had an arguement with one of my students over this same thing. as sue was reading she pronounced "herb" with the "h" sound. i immediately corrected her by saying its "erb". she felt the need to reply to this by saying, "no teacher there's an h. its "herb". to which i answered her by saying it was "erb". this went on for a couple of minutes. finally i told her that yes there is an "h" in herb but in america we say "erb". i could tell she looked a bit perplexed. she just looked at me and said, "ok, ok." then wanted to know why. and to be honest i really didn't have an answer. i wanted to say perhaps because we're lazy, but i didn't. while i'm on the topic of herb it makes me think of high school. in my circle of friends we often had code names for different things. the girls, who we called the cuntry, refered to pot as herb. not sure why i thought of that but i did. which in turn meant that i had to share it with you. i think i need sleep.

be well…

my baby

deery-lou.

my baby
my baby Now
a, b, c, d, E, F, g
my baby Now
nice sing
my baby is a nursery shool
a small consideration

poem by brent
[copied exactly from his journal]

be well…

pudding & more

deery-lou.
I LOVE PUDDING!!! both my mom and sister had sent me some boxed pudding. i'm going through it like water. just now i finished off the oreo cookie pudding. there was probably half of it left in the bowl. i even went as far as to run my finger inside the bowl so as to not waste any pudding. how sad is that? its ashame the koreans haven't embraced pudding. i must have more pudding…

now that that little rant is out of my system its time to move on. another weekend has flown by. on friday night horace and i sat in my apartment drinking and chatting. i asked horace to stop by cuz i wanted to see if he could help me with my computer. every since i added a whole bunch of new music itunes is not happy. if i have itunes, firefox, mail, etc all opened at once itunes eventually starts cutting in and out and freezes my computer. whats up with that, yo? we never really did solve the problem. it might be that i need more memory. all i do know is that i drank a lot of nasty k-wine that night. saturday was spent doing absolutely nothing. actually i watched a lot of tv. can i just say that oth was so freakin good. i love that show. the only thing that would have made watching it better was if misty was sitting next to me. sigh… i spent most of sunday cleaning my tiny apartment and removing songs from itunes. it amazes me how fast my apartment gets dirty. i feel like i have to clean every other day or something. around 4:15 i headed into seoul. i was meeting horace at 5:50 in itaewon. sal, a friend of horace's, had organized a gather at queens bar to listen to the complimation cd that he and horace had made. this was the second one that sal had made. anyway i met horace and we had some coffee [actually i had a frozen french vanilla drink] then made our way to queens. inside the bar there were some falafels and hummus to snack on. i forgot how good that stuff tasted. its been so long. in the short time we were there i managed to get slightly trashed off of 4 cocktails. um, hi light weight. it was a pretty good crowd. i met a few people but really couldn't tell you their names. at around 9 or maybe early [i have no clue] a group of us headed over to gecos to eat. i had a very pricey and dry pastrami sandwich. i vaguely remember eating it. i do remember thinking i wasn't going to make it through dinner. after i ate i felt completely fine. it was as if i had been reborn. by 10:30 ho and i caught the subway back to ansan. due to my not really paying attention we boarded the wrong train. we figured this out 5 stops later. we arrived back in foggy ansan around midnight. i came in and immediately crashed. i still feel like i haven't caught up on sleep. taekwondo was hard tonight. while waiting for one student to finish doing his pushups the sahbanim busted me with my eyes closed. oops. he made the sleepy notion toward me. as my kwanjanim about my black belt. didn't really get a straight answer. he did say that if you don't pass the people at kukkiwon call and if you do pass they don't call. he said that they didn't call today. then he went on to say something about a license and that takes two months but black belt should be here in a few days. i felt like saying "huh". i'm still not sure if that means i passed or not? i guess i'll just have to wait for the belt to show up. backtracking a little. while i was stretching i noticed my kwanjanim and some woman talking outside. the woman had her hand over her mouth as if she was laughing. then the door opens and its my friend bill who says "hi" and then leaves. so now i think that the woman was his mother. mfb went out of his way to say hello to me. he's great. ok. i feel the rambling coming on so i'm calling it quits and heading off to bed.

be well…

the great eye debate

deery-lou.
i'm not sure how we got on the topic but the other day i had a big debate about eye color with one of my classes. we were in class and i said something about harry having brown eyes. everyone in the class was like "no, teacher, no!" i looked more closely. yes, they were brown. again the students said no. then they said they all had black eyes. i told them no they didn't. their eyes were brown. this went on and on until i pulled christine in to settle the debate. when i asked her she immediately said black. all the the kids cheered. i looked at christine and said your eyes aren't black. she then corrected herself and told the students that yes their eyes were brown with black pupils. this made them all go "aaahhh!" then they all had to come look at my blue eyes. i told them about all the different colors of eyes back home. they giggled. at least the great brown debate has been solved. and hopefully they will stop saying they have black eyes.

be well...

the tae kwon do banner

deery-lou.
i finally got around to taking pictures of the banner and piecing them together in photoshop. however, i must admit its not the best photoshop work i've ever done. one would have thought that i just taught myself how to use the application. oh well, it serves its purpose. without any further ado i give you…

the tae kwon do banner

close up of my section

the following two pictures are flags of my master that hang in the gym. i want my picture on a flag. how cool would that be!





be well…

my friend bill, part 3

deery-lou.
this morning when i looked out the window i noticed that it was snowing. nothing major. just a few little flakes here and there. like a drizzle. i had overslept and my energy level when down. i didn't much feel like going to taekwondo but i did. my routine upon arriving at tkd is to do stretching while the rest of the kids are running around like wild chickens. they're throwing rubber balls, kicking rubber balls, and bouncing on giants balls. it never fails that a ball hits me quite often. it was during my stretching that my friend bill approached me as he always does. today he told me that he's seen me for 4 days now. being the very observant child that he is he then asked if i was stretching. and whether or not i was good at it. i told him that i was ok. somedays good, somedays not. again he told me that the blue belt was bad. "he's always bad", he said. he then asked if i liked kimchi. my reply was yes to which he said, "very good." he went to say how he wished he could speak english. i told him that he was speaking english. but he insisted it was good. i told him otherwise. class started and we took our places. for most of the class my sahbamnim had me jump roping until it was my turn to practice poomsaes. i swear he's trying to kill me with all the jump roping. i am getting much better though. while i was putting on my socks at the end of class bill came up to me again. "i hope to see you again," he said. i told him it probably wouldn't be for awhile since i going back to night class. he then asked if my parents were dead. i told him no. then he said that he was seven years old and wanted to know how old i was. i told him i was 35. he replied by saying i was "old". then said my parents must be very old. as we were leaving class he told me that was he just older he was to go to america. i know i've said it before but i love this kid. we walked down the stairs sharing idle chit-chat. on the second floor his grandfather was there and i bowed to him. i said good bye to bill and then they left. i went to change. i'm hoping that this is not the last time i'll see my friend bill. he definitely made these last 4 days quite memorable. i never did get that picture. but i won't give up. i'm sure i'll be seeing him again.

be well...

my friend bill, part 2

deery-lou.
today bill came up to me and said "i met you three days ago." techincally it was a week but i let that slide. he was bouncing around the gym on a giant green ball. he made his way to me and asked if i was stretching. i said yes. while i was stretching out my legs he told me it was time to sit down. at one point during class he was just standing there crying. or at least pretending to cry. not really sure what was up with that. periodically he just let out these wild cries. all the other kids seem to laugh at him but he just doesn't care. he does what he wants. i love him for that. while the kids in my class were playing a game, i had to practice my back kick. they were playing some sort of dodge ball game with 5 balls. one of the balls nailed me in the face. and i wasn't even playing. hehe. after class bill waited for me. he asked what we were going to do tomorrow. i told him i didn't know. he replied by saying, "me neither." as we walked down the stairs he pointed to the boy next to me and said he was the bad boy. he keeps hitting him, pinching him, etc. but the girl in front was good. i then told him i had to go get changed for work. he told me to be good and went on his way. this boy kills me. i need to get a photo of him.

be well...

lost or stolen

deery-lou.
i got a letter from my mom the other day. within her letter was a letter from bank of america. apparently they were concerned that a third party had gotten hold of my debt card and put a block on it. i called them to find out what was up. not sure why i did because you never get the information you want from these people. i spent 10 minutes on the phone and he kept repeating the same information over and over. i asked why it was blocked. he response was that it was called in lost or stolen. funny but i don't remember calling them. i asked who reported it stolen or lost. he had no answer. i guess anyone can report you card lost or stolen and they'll block it. hmmm. he told me that the old debt card was no longer valid. a new one was sent out. all i had to do was activate it. i told him i was living in another country. in which he responded by telling me to call the 1.800 number. i asked what part of living in another country he didn't understand. calling a 1.800 number from korea doesn't work that easily. he gave me a new number. it'll be quite interesting to see how this transpires. especially since i have no idea what my pin number is anymore. footnote: i was talking to him after i had polished off 7 glasses of korean wine. probably not a smart move. i'm sure i was being an uber b.i.t.c.h, too. also during this time i thought that my debt card was in my wallet. so after i hung up the phone with him i decided to get my debt card out of my wallet. well, much to my surprise it wasn't there. i checked the other place i usually keep it and it wasn't there either. oops! i guess i had lost it somewhere along the way. it seems odd to me though that someone from korea would call and report it. the good news is that no transactions were made. unlike poor misty who just got her wallet stolen and someone charge $800 dollars on it. so now i'm awaiting the arrival of my new card. hopefully they'll be able to give me a pin too.

tomorrow i'm heading off to the north to go to the mountains for an office retreat. good times.

be well...

my friend bill

deery-lou.
i made a new friend in my tae kwon do class. his name is bill. he is 8 years-old. he has a shaved head and his uniform is always messed up. i don't remember him from before. it could be that he was in another class. during class on monday he walked by me and i smiled. well, that was all it took. within seconds he came over to me and started talking english. he actually spoke very well. he was telling me that he was korean and that i am in korea now. which was good to know because i wasn't quite sure where i was. hehe. he then told me how this other kid in class was bad. it seems like a lot of kids pick on my friend bill. he's a tough one though. he keeps giving it back. bill started asking me all kinds of questions: age, am i married, can i speak korean, etc. on two different occasions i told him how he spoke english very well. the second time i mentioned it he called me on it by saying, "you told me that already." what a cutey! we spent the rest of class chatting here and there. while we were chatting about 6 other students circled around us. they wanted to be a part of it too. my friend bill played interpreter. it was actuall quite amazing. after class he asked me to wait for him so i did. he ran back to get his shoes then he and i made our way down the stairs. he paused at the poster for beauty and beast and asked if i had seen it. i told him no. he saw it though. he said that he enjoyed it. when we got to the ground level there were a couple of bubblegum toy machines. bill preceded to tell me which toys he got out of each of them. he opened his hands to show me the two toys. i pointed to the green one and asked him what it was. he told me it was a robot. it was. as we passed the two video games he pointed to the one and said, "it has monsters." once outside we said our goodbyes and parted ways.

on tuesday as i approached the top of the stairs to tae kwon do there was my friend bill. he turned to look at me and said, "i met you yesterday. it's nice to see you again." i told him it was nice to see him too and we headed for the gym. i spent a majority of the class watching my friend bill. he's a bit out there, but good for him. in a country where everyone seems to be a carbon copy of each other its nice to see someone stand out. watching him jump rope was a trip. the boy was all over the place. he made me laugh. he came up to me today and again told me that the same boy from monday was being bad. i just want to put him in my pocket. it's too bad i only have a few more days of the morning class. bill definitely makes it interesting. here's to bill, my new friend.

be well...

friends

deery-lou.
a journal entry by sue.

friends
I have a good friend.
He wears glasses.
He has a good heart.
I want to get along
well with him. [here she added hearts, stars, and triangles]

be well…

jordan's journal

deery-lou.
on monday i collected journals. if you recall from my earlier post on kukkiwon i saw one of my students there. here's what he had to say about it in his journal.


how cute is that! in class i often call him "jordan catalano". i actually gave all my students last names in that class: [benjamin grimm, alexander the great, ruby tuesday, isabella rossellini, erik estrada, kevin eubanks]. jordan is a great kid. cute, funny, and he is always smiling which puts me in a good mood. i most confess that their class is one of my favorites.

be well…

art by jordan

deery-lou.
art by jordan.
friday, february 17th. the day before kukkiwon. can you guess what he had on his mind?

anna teacher & ethan teacher about to spar.

j.k.

be well…

kukkiwon

deery-lou.
first let me thank all of you who sent me emails, called, or left comments wishing me luck. i really appreciated that. it felt like you all were with me on saturday. as you can probably tell i survived my test. my nervous engery didn't implode inside me. my morning started at 8:30am. i tried to sleep a little longer but couldn't. i was actually surprised i got any sleep. it took an episode of survivor and 3 project runways until i finally drifted off into the land of dreams. not really sure if i had to be at my tkd school at 11am or noon, i decided i'd shoot for 11:30am. of course when i arrived my sahbumnim looked at his watch then at me indicating i was early. i went into the gym and started stretching and practicing. at around 12:40 horace showed up. he was going to ride with me and my class to the testing center. we left around 1 pm. we arrived at kukkiwon at 2 pm. shortly upon arrival christine and anna showed up. then a few minutes later young arrived. yes, my co-workers came to cheer me on. the testing center was not how i imagined it. i was expecting a gym of sorts. instead it looked like a school theater right now to the wooden movie theater seats. apparently this was a second testing site since there were so many people. there were at least 300+ at this site. the program didn't start until 3 pm. there were three performances by a taekwondo troupe. its always interesting to watch them perform. following them was a magic act. yes, i said magic act. for a minute i thought i was actually in high school watching talent night. when the magic act ended, there was a brief introduction of the judges and then it began. the testing was arranged by groups. i was in the first adult group which meant we wouldn't take the stage until after all of the children were finished. talk about a long wait. jordan, one of my students, was actually there with his tkd school to take his test. it was pretty funny to see him. i learned from anna that i needed to score a total of 60 points to pass. she tried to explain to me how it was broken down but it didn't make any sense. the test was set up in three parts. in groups of 15 you enter the stage and face the judges. this meant your back was facing the audience. the first part was practicing kicks, punches, blocks, etc. you really didn't know what you were going to have to do until the announcer called it out. this had me a bit worried since i only understand a little bit of korean. my kwanjangnim told me when it was my turn to just look at the people around me and copy. the second part was the poomsaes. we had to do 2 different poomsaes. one of them was definitely paljang [8] and the other one was a random poomsae [1-7]. after the poomsaes were finished you bowed then headed to the back portion of the stage for fighting. there were three fighting sections going on at one time. after an hour of watching this over and over my nerves started to subside and i was actually getting bored. my group finally took the stage at 5 pm. i walked around to the side entrance where they had sheet of thin foam on the ground for us to sit on. we sat in numeric order. i was number 7. at first i was sitting in the wrong spot so they had to point to where i was suppose to sit. no one there spoke any english. i'm not sure if i mentioned this yet but i was the ONLY foreigner there. the man started speaking. i just stared. there was nothing else i could do. i did realize that he was taking roll. i wasn't sure how i was suppose to answer. when he got to me he looked muttered something and then moved on. my group of 15 included 6 ajummas, 8 college students, and me. let me just say that all of the college students were BIG. where were all the skinny, lanky ones. then i thought that perhaps i'd have to fight an ajumma. how funny would that be. before i realized what was happening we were motioned onto the stage. it was time to begin. the butterflies in my stomach picked up speed. we bow and then the test began. i feel pretty confident with the punching and kicking segment of the test. during my first poomsae sam jang [3] i messed up a little bit at the very end. i knew it at the time too because it felt wrong. there's a slight possiblity they didn't notice since my back was toward them. i'll have to wait and see. the next poomsae was pal jang [8]. once i finished the first poomsae i felt much more relaxed. i think i actually did fairly well on this one. no mistakes that i realized. when we had finished we bowed again to the judges and headed off stage and toward the last part of the test:fighting. unfortunately i didn't get to fight an ajumma. i got paired up with a college student. he was big, too. once we were suited up we headed over to our designated fighting spot. i'm not really sure how long the fighting actually lasted. it felt like forever. especially since i was getting the shit kick out of me. i did manage to get a few kicks in here and there but nothing major. this guy was fast. he nailed me once in the groin but i kept going. i was actually pretty proud of myself. after our fight i was completely exhausted and very thirsty. my opponent shook my hand and said something in korean. most likely it was "thanks for letting me kick your ass". i walked back up to the front where my kwanjangnim was and he gave me a thumbs up. i won't know for sure if i pass for two weeks.

the first part of my very long saturday was over. i felt relieved. i felt tired. however my night was just beginning. tonight was horace's farwell dinner in seoul with his friends. from the tkd test center we jumped on the subway and made our way to namaste for dinner. namaste is the very yummy nepali/indian food. once again i had the chicken butter curry and garlic nan. i could literally feel the fat growing on me. after dinner we hopped into cabs and headed for the comfort zone. the comfort zone was this really cool bar. its an area i had yet been too. but from the look of the shops its one i definitely need to check out. there's a university nearby so its kind of a young crowd. i love finding new areas. young went with me to the pharmacy so i could get some cream for my hand. it had been throbbing ever since i blocked a kick while fighting. we had one cocktail at the cz then headed off for "the hill" in itaewon. we hit two bars in "the hill" soho and queens. from queens we went to a dance club called del. it was in the basement of the hamilton hotel. the place was packed. we stayed there until 4 am. thats when young and i headed back to soho for one final drink and await the openning of the subway. at 5:20 am we head for the trains. i finally got home around 6:50 am. my day was finally over. it was time to get some much needed sleep. and thats what i did.

be well…

14 days and counting

mcdonalds, games, and a tkd test

deery-lou.
hi. i ate almost a whole baguette tonight. oink. oink. my nervous are completely shot for tomorrows big test. of course while sparring with my sabanim today i did something to my foot. it throbbed all day long. hopefully by tomorrow it'll be all right. on thursday i took a field trip with one of my classes. first we went to mcdonalds where all the kids wanted fries and coke. anna and i were the only ones eating burgers. the kids pretended their fries were fangs and acted like vampires. needless to say i joined in. then they kept giving me the coke they didn't want to finish. i did manage to score enough points on my mcdonalds card for a free order of 20 mcnuggets. lucky me!! after mcdonalds we headed over to the game room. fun. i played a fighting game. it took me a little while to realize i needed to be sitting on the other side to make my person move. hehe. i still haven't mastered the "selecting the players i want." the machine keeps picking them for me. one of these days i'll figure it out. so anyway now its friday. and i wishing it was monday. hehe. i need to be at my gym by noon tomorrow for some last minute practicing. let the good times roll. now if i can only get some sleep. i'm sure i'll be dreaming of visions of my doing taekwondo all night. i'll let you know how it goes.

be well…

14 hours and 15 minutes and counting!!!!!

saint valentine

deery-lou.

to all of you who take the time to stop by…



today was filled with lots and lots of chocolates from the girl students. in korean valentine's day is the the day where girls give boys chocolate. on march 14 [white day] its the boys turn to give the girls chocolates. i decided to make v-day cards for all of my students. after passing out cards to one of my classes they decided to make their own cards on ripped pieces of paper and hand them to be. it was too cute. yuni gave me a card with her box of chocolates. it said:

for Ethan.
you teach me not long
time. but you are nice
teacher. i will endeavor
study English! Happy
Valentine!!

2006.2.13

From Yuni

be well…

4 days and counting!

jump rope [poem]

deery-lou.
another poem by brent

jump rope [poem]
hand hand turn
faster turn foot
jump foot
foot foot jump
faster foot
turn hand exacting

be well…

what am i doin'?

deery-lou.
saturday i had a special taekwondo class. we practiced our forms for one hour. we went through all eight twice. rested. then did them again. rested. practiced kicking. and at the end my master called out three different forms for us to do. i felt pretty confident up until the the end. not sure if was because i was completely tired or hungry but during my last two forms i completely messed up. i started doing form 7 when i should have been doing form 6. then when i was doing form 8 i threw in some moves from form 7. i think my head was going through form overload or something. needless to say i left class feeling not so confident. am i really ready for saturday? i don't know at this point. its too late to turn back. i'm just going to have to try to do my best. its funny because i'm not so much worried about getting the belt as i am by embarrassing my masters. this is going to be the fastest week of my life.

be well…

6 days and counting!

i am ethan!

deery-lou.

here's a drawing that ruby did to accompany her five sentences. enjoy!



be well…

p.s. i attempted to take a picture of the banner. i need to do it in sections then place them together in photoshop. unfortunately only one was in focus. oops! i'll try again on saturday seeing that i have to go to class at 3pm. training, training, training…

so long and farewell…

deery-lou.
today was bittersweet. i had to say good bye to sally who is moving away. sally was my first student at ils. she hasn't been to class since last wednesday so it was a surprise when she showed up today. she came barring gifts: pizza. we had a little party in class. i gave her a pez dispenser as a parting gift. hopefully she'll use it well. i wish you well, sally. i'll miss seeing her little brother who was always so much fun to play with when he visited.

on a lighter note when i arrived to taekwondo class on monday i noticed a new banner that was hanging in the hallway. it's probably about 5 feet long and about 2 feet wide. the banner had five giant pictures on it. two on either end and one in the middle. the pictures on the end were group shots of the students and masters. then when my eyes got to the center picture i froze. it was as if i was a deer caught in headlights. it was the picture of me and my masters. could i be any whiter in that photo. i nearly died of laughter. i'm on a freakin banner for my taekwondo class. how funny is that. i'm not quite sure what they plan on using the banner for. hopefully its just for show in the school. i should feel honored that that chose to use it though. it as if i'm reallly part of the group. how sweet is that. perhaps i'm on my way to stardom. hehe.

be well…

10 days and counting…

i wonder…

deery-lou.

here's a journal entry from one of my students. her name is sue.

The Day Stuck in Traffic
I was in an automobile.
Cars were bumper-to-bumper.
I was too bored.
I wonder why there are so many cars.

be well…

24 [or more like 23:40]

deery-lou.
a question for you to ponder. if you've been out all night, by the time 5:30 am rolls around do you consider it super late or super early? and is it too much to be eating tuna-chikay [tuna fish soup]? on friday night [yes, can you believe i went out on a friday] i met up with jenny in seoul. she had a 1:30 pm flight on saturday so we figured we'd have one last blowout before her departure for mother england. here's a timeline of how my very long friday went [please note that i've been sick all week and have slept very little]:

8:30 am — showered and dressed

9:00 am — went with jk to fill out paperwork for a form of all my departures while in korea. i need this for my taekwondo black belt test

10:45 am – left to catch bus 55 for tkd class

11:20 am - 12:20 pm — spent most of class practicing kicking. YES! almost a full hour of kicking, kicking, kicking. i did manage to get in 2 minutes of poomsae practice. after class jk stopped by with my form. i then turned in all my paper work and money to my master. it looks like i'm really going. eeeeek!

12:30 pm — jk took me to lunch at lotteria. i got the new paprika burger, whatever that meant. we took the food back to school and ate there. the burger was actually quite tastey.

1:15 pm - 6:25 pm — these hours were spent in class. most of the classes had a speech test. after the test i played games with the children. [which translates to ethan teacher too tired to teach]

6:30 pm - 7:15 pm — i actually had a break from teaching. i surfed the net. hehe

7:15 pm - 7:55 pm — my last class of the day. it seemed to last forever

7:57 pm — i rushed out of school to catch the bus home. i needed to meet jenny by 10 pm in hongdae which meant i needed to be on the subway by 9 pm. got home at 8:10 pm. quickly checked my emails which was a good thing since jenny said she was running late. the new time to meet, 10:30 pm. i spent way too much time fussing with my hair. i was having a bad hair night. it at that stage where its too thick and heavy for wax to straighten it and not long enough to start curly. i'm so tempted to shave it all off once again. i think i had so much product in it that it was becoming a creature of its own.

8:45 pm — figured if i didn't leave my apartment now i'd end up messing with my hair some more. knowing that enough is enough i headed out for the subway. it was freezing outside. i think the temp was -15 c. burrrr! [could jenny have picked a colder night to out]

9:00 pm — i arrived at the station. shortly thereafter my train arrived. good thing i didn't have to wait too long.

9: 05 pm - 10:05 pm — my train karma was with my tonight. at the first transfer the train inbound was already there. yeah!!! i didn't even check if it was the right one. i just jumped on. there was no way i was going to wait in the cold. my second transfer was inside so i didn't really worry much about having to wait. although i was surprised that i was going to be super early. sometimes it takes an hour and forty minutes to get out there. not tonight though.

10:05 pm — i arrived at hongik station with plenty of time to wait. and that i did. wait. wait. wait. i did venture out to the freezing cold to get a hot coffee in a can. thank gawd for that. the man at the store even remarked about how cold it was.

10:45 pm — miss jenny finally showed up. of course she was standing near exit 6 when we had agreed on exit 2. i gave her a bit of a hard time.

10:45 pm - 11:05 pm — venturing out into the cold, we set out for our first stop on the evening: maryjane's. i got a little lost. sometimes things look so different depending on the hour you are there. it took us a bit longer than expected to get there. i seriously was beginning to lose all feelings in my toes. not fun.

11:05 pm - 2 something am — these hours were spent drinking two pitchers of long island ice teas and 2 shots of tequila each. we did a little bit of dancing, too. at one point we got busted while talking about someone at the bar. hehe so bad. mj's has got to be my favorite place. two of the workers there kept bustin a move all night long.

2 something am — we decided to move on. back out into the cold we went although we only got as far as across the street. there was a electronic club that jenny wanted to check out. she asked the guy if she could come in for only 10 minutes. she told him that she always wanted to come in and that she's leaving on saturday for good. the doorman ended up calling the manager. jenny told her the same story and after agreeing to buy a drink each she let us in. there were a total of 5 people in the place. we bought the drink special. i have no idea what it was. all i remember is that it was super tall, super strong, and super pricey. we did some dancing then jenny wanted to move on. since we weren't finished our drinks we decided to smuggle them out. [hi, are we in high school or something]. it was now 3 something am.

3 something am — as we were exited the bar we spotted a korean punk rock boy. he had a pink mohawk. jenny ran up to him and his friend and started chatting away. next thing i know we were following them into the f&f club. we got in for free since jenny said we were with them. the music was most awesome. all 80's. the good new wave stuff. it felt like i was back at e.a. [electric avenue, a club i went to in high school]. there were a few koreans but it was mostly filled with foreigners. we spent the next wee hours dancing and dancing and dancing. i did request a song "how soon is now" but it never played. the dj did play "this charming man" though. perhaps he didn't have the other. our dance cards full we opted to cruise. it was now 4 something am.

4 something am - 5:30 am — miss jenny had the munchies. she wanted to go into the plastic tent restaurant to eat. granted at this time i had no concept of time. i sat there and looked around the crowded restaurant and thought how cool it was to see two mom type women out and about eating and drinking soju. then it dawn on me the time. i looked around again and couldn't believe all the people out eating and drinking still. after several failed attempts of jenny trying to order food. they didn't have what she wanted. she settled for tuna chikay. which is basically canned tuna fish in a spicy soup with dumplings, rice cakes, and kimchi. not a big fan of the tuna fish but there i was at 5 o'clock in the morning eating TUNA FISH!!! the transformation is complete. i am now officailly korean. we finished our meal then made our way back out into the cold.

5:30 am — too cold to walk to the subway station we hopped into a cab. where the cab dropped us off didn't quite look like the station entrance. instead it look like a side entrance and the door was still bolted. we walked out and went into a nearby hotel. we told the person there that it was so cold outside and if we could sit in the lobby. they said yes.

5:50 am — we left the hotel, went back down the non-subway station entrance only to find it still closed. we headed back out to the street and hailed a cab. this driver actually took us to the subway station. jenny decided that she was going to take the cab all the way home. she asked him to wait as she went down to get her stuff out of the locker. it took a bit to figure out how to get the stuff out. apparently not only do you have to pay to put you stuff in it but you have to pay again to unlock it. go figure. then we said our good byes. i headed to the train and jenny to the cab.

6:00 am - 7:oo am — it was another 3 trains to get home. i slept most of the way. the heated seats felt soooo good. i'm always surprised that i end up waking up one stop before my actual stop. i'm waiting for the day that i completely sleep through my stop.

7:20 am — i made it back to my apartment. i felt like a walking zombie. i was never so happy to see my bed. i slept until 1 pm. my entire day was spent in bed watching tv. i forgot how good china beach was. i watched 4 episodes. there's nothing better than marathon tv. i am a tv junky...

be well…