mike in korea

2007-06-13T10:19:00.000-07:00

TWO POSTS IN ONE DAY!?!

http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=22619

if you wanted to know about korean boy bands, here you go. i like it, i guess....

it is safe for work.

found the clip here: http://thecraptastics.wordpress.com/
credit where credit is due.

2007-06-13T09:13:00.001-07:00

BACK FROM WHERE-EVER I WAS

After much request I am back. Well not really much request, a few requests, as in countable on one hand, honestly three people. I really didn't think that I hadn't updated that thing almost three months. I guess I felt that the little stretch of time I was entering the mundane portion of the trip where everything becomes, well mundane. I was sort of the crossroads of blogging the more interesting portions of the trip while maintain the g-rated nature of the blog. Don't worry Mom, everything here really is g-rated, honest.......

So what has happened in the past several months, not too much until last month. It really was a routine, get up, work, sleep. Every time you're at a new place, at least I've found, you'll squeeze out the regular touristy stuff, then settle in, and then find a new place every now and then. As this is my first experience living abroad, I really thought I had done it all in the first three months I was here, settled into a routine and the days of exploring became few and far between. I blamed it on the language barrier, but that really isn't the case. Someone is willing to talk to you, even if it is a broken conversation, you just have to be willing to do so, 'break the ice'. I was at point when I would consistently think, we don't understand each other so why bother. That shouldn't be a traveller's mentality, or anyone's mentality regardless of situation. So I was more-or-less in that state of mind for a stretch. I really didn't break out of it on my own accord, my friend here, Matt, has been pushing me to explore more and take more risks. So all the credit goes to him. And that's when things got interesting again...

2007-05-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

CONGRATULATIONS KRIS!!!

To one of my favourite people in Van City, congrats and continued success.
Sorry I can't be there in person, but just to let you know I'm having a drink in your honour.

2007-03-20T09:08:00.000-07:00

The Weekend...continued...

So the previous post was about Friday. Naturally, Saturday is next. I'll save the details for now, but allow me to whet your appetite.

Here is the dancing man..
http://youtube.com/watch?v=eJyuM2loLKg

The video was shot and edited by one my fellow travellers, there is a small appearance by myself, so yes, I did see it first hand.

2007-03-18T23:41:00.000-07:00

Whirlwind Weekend/Weekend Update

Sorry about the lack of updates...nothing new happening for a while, but now something to write about.

This past weekend has been a blur. Sleepless nights. Drinks. It was rough. With the usual rotation of friends out on vacation, it was time to entertain myself for the weekend. It began on Friday night. After I had finished work, I went for drinks with my boss. The Korean culture is very different. A machismo atmosphere abounds, especially when it comes to drinking. Many Koreans work 12 hour plus days, so when they go out, they go out hard. Really hard. Most bars will continue serving until 6 am and you will find a healthy number of people still there. I haven't myself done a marathon session, really because I find that ridiculous. 3 am is enough. If you find yourself walking the streets of Seoul past 12am, the number of people you'll find walking about in a drunken stupor is quite high. What is really surprising are the age groups. The usual college students, elderly men and women, and everyone in between. Sometimes a group of ten people singing songs falling all over the place. A few people sitting on building steps or sleeping like a baby on the sidewalks. This is every night. Maybe because there is a population of 20 million, there is a rotation of people, or it could be the same people every night. At any rate, you'll always find it, starting at 11pm.

Luckily, I have not been among them. Though Friday night was close. For whatever reason I was listening to all of my boss' problems he's been facing for the past year over many drinks. I'm not quite sure why this is, but I usually find myself in these types of situations, the conduit for people to vent. Certainly I'm not the cause, but I do end up listening. He had a few things he wanted to talk about so we were drinking for sometime. The conversation had ended on its own, so it was time to go home. From where we were, it's a $30 cab ride to my residence. On the flip side there are saunas it Korea for $6 a night. Here you can sit in a whirlpool/sauna/steam room, then take a nap. A place where you can refresh yourself, and a place where you can recover from the activities of the previous night. So I availed myself of the sauna experience, though I just went to sleep. The following morning, I woke up and proceeded to head home. My boss had walked me to the sauna the night previous, so when exited the building I wasn't quite sure where I was. Needless to say, everything is in Korean, and my job is quite far from my apartment, so at this time I had no sense of direction. If you're able to find a subway station, getting anywhere in Seoul is very easy. Away from the subway, well, I hope you speak Korean. Where I work is 20 minutes by bus away from the subway. I haven't yet explored the area where I work, mostly because if I stray away too far I'd be hopelessly lost. When I woke up from the sauna, I found that I strayed too far. Getting my bearings was difficult as I still found myself under the effects of the previous night. So an hour or so later, I managed to get to a bus that goes directly to the subway. From there it was a breeze to my apartment, and my bed. So time-wise this was the itinerary:

8.30pm finished work
9pm-2am with boss
2.30am-11am sauna
11am-12pm finding subway
1.30pm- apartment/bed

So...that was Friday night. Saturday was St Patrick's day and was more eventful.

2007-03-05T20:17:00.000-08:00

How's the Snow?

hhahahahahahahahahahaahahhaahhhhhahahahahahahaahahahah.
I've been keeping up to date with the weather back home. You all have it rough. Yesterday was bitterly cold in Korea, 2 below zero. It also snowed for 4 hours straight. Well snowed for 4 hours is an exaggeration, more like snow was suspended in the air for hours, but there was no snow on the ground. This was the worst snow storm in my recent memory. To be honest, I can't even recall the last time I shovelled snow, used a snowbrush on my car, chipped ice off the windshield.

Nothing much to update, just wanted to rub it in.

2007-02-21T07:11:00.000-08:00

Another set of youtube videos....

Part 1:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NMvhJPIZezA
Part 2:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=G3Wkfk3nheA

The hair is ridiculous.

2007-02-20T18:46:00.000-08:00

The $10 Orange

No joke. This orange is $10. This past Saturday was Lunar New Year, or commonly known as Chinese New Year. As part of tradition, gift boxes of fruit are given. But the fruits are outrageously exepensive. A gift box of 5 oranges are $50. Now these oranges are supposed to be special oranges, they come from a special island in Korea called Jeju island. These oranges are picked specifically for New Year's and only the flawless make the grade. I got to tell you, it's beautiful. I am very interested to see how it tastes so I will make a companion video on youtube with me eating the orange. Yeah it's outrageous but still....

2007-02-10T10:57:00.000-08:00

EPISODE VI

No One is Safe

Forgive the Star Wars reference, korean tv has been playing phantom menace and clone wars on a rotational basis as of late. The title refers to the clubbing scene here in Korea, particularly in one area called Itaewon. Should you ever do a wikipedia search of Itaewon, it speaks of the closeness to the US army base. Itaewon is the "western town" of Korea, somewhat like chinatown back home. Here you'll find all the western restaurants, KFC, Mcdonalds, etc. as well as Americans, specifically GI's. Due to the proximity of the army base, you'll find quite a few army regulars perusing the local shops. It's when the clubbing scene starts things seem to get out of hand. Locally, night clubs will open around 10pm and close around 6am, liquor is served throughout the night. At most places the party heats up around 1am, after the American military curfew. Prior to that time, inside the clubs there exists a tense atmosphere, hence the title of this blog.

I have met a few military personnel, spoke at length while enjoying a hockey game at a local bar, nice conversations were had. However, at a club atmosphere, there's an incredible hulk type of vibe, Bruce Banner will morph into the hulk when crossed. The tension is thick, it feels that at any given moment some large brawl will break out. Additionally, military folk are huge comparative to local Koreans. I would say that the average Korean male is about 5'6, 150 lbs, while the average american military personnel, 6'0, 210lbs. They dwarf the local population. Several hours ago, I went to a night spot in Itaewon heavily frequented by the miltary. I did not feel comfortable. I felt as though if I stepped on someone shoes I'd be in a world of hurt. The tension was unmistakable until 1am when the curfew was in place. Even after that time, military police would come through the club to look for stragglers. These people look serious, ready to put the hurt on if someone so much as looked at them cross-eyed. For this reason, in most of Seoul, the military is not allowed entry at any time save for Itaewon. There have been many instances of fights breaking out and club owners do not want to have police come in during peak hours looking for rogue soldiers. For these reasons, I have placed a personal ban on night clubs, at least not attending one prior to 1am. I do not dislike the military, but this evening there were times when I was very worried. I'd like to think that I'm a tough guy and I'll hang in to the end, but if something happened here I'd probably bolt for the door. I don't want to find what military training looks like in practice, I'd rather read it in the newspaper the next day.

2007-02-08T01:32:00.001-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rddroFzg5o

First attempt at youtube

enjoy.

2007-02-04T19:57:00.000-08:00

SORRY

I apologize for the lack updates. It took a couple of days to figure out why I couldn't log in to the blog service to update. The site is all in Korean, I have to use google's language converter to help out, but all I get is broken English: "Touch button, impact better". Crazy.

So what has happened in the past two weeks? Currently I am employed via a recruiting service that has a stable of teachers. Last week, we had a grand party for all the employees. We were taken to an all you can eat/drink buffet. Now you may think that it's not a big deal, but a buffet in Korea is impossible to find. Not only was the place a buffet but it was all you can meat and liquor. At a grocery store, meat is sold at a premium. Ground beef would be $15/lb, chicken breast $12/lb, the prices are exorbitant, so finding a place that sells all you can eat was incredible. Needless to say, the meal was over the top. By the end, our party was suffering from "meat sweats". Personally, I had forgone the liquor to eat as much meat as possible. I apologize if you're reading this and you are a vegetarian, but it was delicious. By far one of the best meals I've had since I've arrived and it was free. Just can't beat that.

Also that night, my perception of Canadians in general had been greatly changed. The prevailing thought is that Canadians are reserved and polite. This could not have been further than the truth than what was witnessed that evening. While our party was given a private room, the main area was filled with Canadians. Rowdy Canadians. It was a college campus atmosphere dominated by Canadians. Songs were sung at the top of lungs, people were standing on tables spilling beer all over the place. It was interesting. I found it funny that the Korean servers at the restaurant covered their ears as the songs reached untold volumes. What also surprised me was that this is a common occurence, if Canadians were to fill a bar it would get ridiculous. The perception of westerners being loud and drunk was well earned that evening. I was tempted to join in but I had no idea what songs they were singing or the strength to fight the fullness of my stomach. One day perhaps....

On a side note, continued thanks for the emails. Keep'em coming. Now that I've found out how to upload pics, it'll make the blog a little more interesting.

2007-01-22T17:51:00.000-08:00

EARTHQUAKE!!

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/Engnews/20070120/610000000020070120225316E7.html

A small earthquake hit Seoul the other day. According to the site it was 4.8 on the richter scale. Never experienced an earthquake before, it was a strange experience. I was watching tv at a friend's house and I thought someone was lightly kicking the back of my chair. It went on for about 10 or so seconds, enough for me to turn around ask to stop kicking my chair. I realized then that no one was close to me. Fortunately, no damage was reported. And how was your day?

2007-01-21T23:38:00.001-08:00

10 days, 12 hours, 35 minutes

Updated the blog, and then accidentally deleted it. So here is an attempt at a repost.

Can't believe that it's been ten plus days so far. It really feels like I've been here for months. I have to say that I am feeling a little homesick right now. It's just the small things that I miss, but when the small things begin to add up it can become overwhelming. I wake up in the morning, and I think that I'm back home. I would go downstairs flip on the tv and catch up on last night's sports. None of that here. I'd turn on the the tv and I'd see a starcraft tournament going on. For those of you who don't know, starcraft is a computer that was released some ten years ago. The South Koreans regularly have tournments on television. There are two stations that run starcraft competitions 24 hours. In fact, on the weekend was the grand tournament. Team Sky defeated Team SKT 5 games to 4. It may have made front page on the papers. To the point though, it's just different around here. Not to say it negatively, just different. The food too. A lot of soups and bbq. Not bbq in the traditional sense. Steaks, ribs are a rarity. You would have to find a western style restaurant and then expect to pay a hefty premium for say an 8 ounce steak. There are many grill houses where you have a grill on each table and you grill up your own meat. The meat is cut very thinly, so an 8 ounce steaks is considered outrageous. On the other hand there thousands of outdoor food stands, sort of like hot dog vendors. Instead of hot dogs, they'd sell hamburgers, soup, grilled fish, etc. Usually a buck a piece, you could eat 3 burgers a day if you wanted to live on the cheap.

On a positive note, I am currently employed, working two days a week 4 hrs, teaching 6-15 years olds. There are 30 students in my charge at different levels of english. For the the older kids, I work on expanding their vocabulary, big->huge->enormous, etc. The younger ones, it's a little bit tougher. For example, they know what baseball is, but they don't know the word 'baseball'. I have to use pantomime to explain what the word is and then use it in sentence. It gets interesting to say the least. When I get back I'll be a pro at charades. I've got elephant nailed down. I have to say that is rewarding to teach since there is a tangible result, the following day I can recap what the learned previously and they'll remember.

I'll keep you posted on the next round of goings on. Haven't touched on the different areas I've visited so far, but I got to keep you all coming back. I think I'll be able to upload pics soon, so just keep checking the blog. Thanks to those of you who e-mailed me, I really appreciate it. Keep'em coming. If someone could fedex over a veal sandwich or a jerk chicken sandwich I'll be forever in your debt.

One more thing...I did cut my hair. No longer pony tail length. To give you an idea...

www.divideby0.com/cosplay/squall/images/Squall_close_up_.jpg

you may have to cut and paste the link in the address bar. I'm not as good looking but the hair is relatively close.

2007-01-15T16:04:00.000-08:00

It is official. The move to Korea is complete. I have an apartment, a cell phone, and an interview that's lined up within the next couple of days. Provided I get the position, I would be entirely self-sufficient. I didn't really expect everything to move this quickly, actually I thought that I wouldn't be able to find anything at all, live two months here and then head back to Canada with my tail between my legs, so to speak. I've been here only for four days now, so it still feels like a vacation. When I get a job, that's when I'll be in "regular life" mode.

It didn't start off well. The flight that took had one stop-over in Chicago, then off to Korea. The flight was to leave Pearson at 8.30, but due to a few delays, we didn't leave until 9.30. I was more than a little concerned, at first the announcement was that the pilots were delayed through customs, no big deal I thought. They finally arrived half an hour late, but then they experienced eletrical problems with the plane. I've ridden a few airplanes rides before this, and thankfully there haven't been any hitches. I guess the last thing anyone would want to hear while onboard a plane is that there are electrical problems. The crew depowered the plane and restarted. So for a couple of minutes there was no power except for emergency lighting, strips of light guiding towards the emergency exits. At that point, I was getting a little nervous. After that restart, we were off and running. Two hours later we arrive in Chicago. I grabbed a bite to eat, a Chicago style hot-dog, then went outside the terminal for fresh air before my connection to Korea. Then another odd thing. There was a few people outside, one man was unconscious on the side of the road, with a couple of people tending to him. I didn't recognize exactly what was happening. At first glance it looked like some people were going through their luggage looking for something. It turned out that someone had just passed out and was lying face down on the sidewalk. They were trying to wake him unsuccessfully. I came over and asked if they needed help, which they did. I went inside the terminal and brought out airport security to assist. It was very strange because there were a few bystanders already there but nobody had thought about calling for medical attention until I arrived. I wasn't able to stay to the see the outcome, I had left just as the ambulance arrived.

Finally, it was time for the connecting flight. Everything went smoothly, tried to sleep over the 14 hours in the air, somehow managed to sleep through take-off. Arrived safely, went though customs, and went to the baggage collection area. It took a while for customs, so all the baggage was already unloaded from the carousel. The kicker...no baggage. Half a world away from home, and I have nothing with me except a book, a digital camera with no more battery power, the clothes on my back, credit cards, and $200 cash. At least I was safe, have to be thankful for something. Filled out a report at the terminal and then took a bus to the city to meet my friend. Turns out, I boarded the wrong bus. Ended up who knows where. We get to the end of the line before the bus doubles back to the airport. At the last stop, it's just me and the driver. I guess he felt sorry for me because I absolutely had no clue where I was. Through a series of hand gestures and pointing at maps, he takes me back to a stop along his route relatively close to where I was supposed to be going. Close meaning, 40 minutes away by car. I call my friend user the driver's phone and he meets me at the spot. From there, it's been a breeze ever since. My baggage, still sitting Chicago, arrived the following day and I settle in an apartment in the city.

It hasn't been perfect, but it ended up working out anyway. I'm thankful that I didn't have to carry around the luggage halfway cross the city at least.
I haven't gone over the day to day life, just wanted to cover the beginning of the journey. Not quite figured out this blogging thing yet, as soon as I get a better handle hopefully I can show you some pictures. I'll try to add an entry as often as possible, and I definitely like to hear from you all so write me an email when you get the chance.