So just because it is February doesn't mean the weather all around the world has to bounce from hot to cold like it does back home. This week we dealt with the uncertainty of the temperature as it bounced from -2 to 15 throughout the week. But, I guess it is to be expected this time of year. We had a rather slow week at school. I was doing speaking presentations with my kids, and you think I could get them to talk. It was like pulling teeth to get my basics to say 5 sentences about a picture I gave to them and I even buttered them up by giving them Valentine's chocolate. But they all learned quickly hat if you don't want to speak English, to can learn to write it because I made all the non-talkers write lines about how wonderful the gift of speech is.
The weekend came and that's when it always gets good. For this weekends cultural indulgence we went with my tutee and a couple of her friends to The National Museum of Korea to see an exhibit that is only on until the end of the month. The exhibit was called 'Echoes of Life, the Enduring Tradition of Unified Silla', and was about the time between the mid seventh to early ninth century when the three kingdoms of Korea were united after the kingdom of Silla defeated both the kingdom of Baekje in 660, and Goguryeo in 668 with the help of Tang China. It was full of religious artifacts such as Buddha and Bodhisattva statues, and other heavenly figures and sculptures. After the exhibit the girls had signed us up for a guided tour, in English, of the rest of the museum that covers the vast majority of Korea's history. It was a good tour but it skimmed over the whole museum so that we will have to go back to take a good look around.
After the museum everyone went their separate ways, but Blake, Brian, Jameson and I reconvened at 9 to go out with some of the people from our elementary campus who are leaving next week. We had a good time meeting some new people and hanging out with some that we already knew, but could only stay for a bit because we had promised Junk that we would meet up with him and Gina and her friends for some Valentine's drinks. We met them in Kondae and proceeded to have a few beers before moving to a club around 130 am. The girls who weren't a lot of fun went home sometime around 3 but Brian, Blake, Jameson, and I stayed and partied until 4. I was dancing up a storm and may or may not have broke out the highfive in all its glory. I was highfiving everybody.....even if they didn't want to.
Blake stayed at my place Saturday night and when we got up Sunday we got some lunch and hungout until 830 when we met Brian for dinner. Jameson didn't come because he was busy visiting pukeville all day.
Anyhow, I'm doing good, making the most of what time I have on the weekends, and getting to the gym regularly. I am at an all time weight high of 75.5 kg right now and am shooting for 80 by May, so we'll see what happens. I hope everyone is doing good and isn't letting the remainder of the cold get them down.
Talk to you soon.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Monday, February 9, 2009
WTF is up with "Interprative Dance"
Well it's Tuesday again, and I am blogging late.....again.
This week was another simple week. Since we have gone back to the afternoon schedule, things have calmed down on the night life side of things during the week. We still try to get out on Thursday nights for a bit and to plan our weekends. This Thursday we went to a new station along the subway line called Yeoksam. It was a smaller area, which was nice because we always seem to end up in the bigger bar and restaurant districts. We met up with a few friends and drank Dong Dong Ju, rice beer. It is super sweet and if you aren't careful can leave you with a nasty hangover. We had a rather calm night and headed home around 1 am.
Friday night however, was a different story. Brian, Jameson and I went to Apgujeong (usually pronounced Apujong) to meet Junk for a few beers at a bar called Crazy W.C. Bar, its a flare bar. We had all the intentions of keeping it low key until Blake the Destroyer showed up a while later. When Blake showed up we were all just having beers, talking, and watching the flare show. Well Blake noticed Junk wasn't having such a good time and asked him "what was up". Junk answered "I don't really like beer so I'm not drinking much", and we were off. Blake decided we should get a bottle of whiskey, since Junk likes it, under the ridiculous assumption that we could drink some and save the rest for later. As a side note, they do allow to to recap bottles and leave them at bars for the next time you go there. To this we all said you are crazy, you know if we open it we will finish it. And the rest of the story writes itself. We finished the bottle, along with half a bottle of tequila that the people beside us won in a contest and shared with us. We never left the bar until 430 and I never got home until 530. Ridiculous, but awesome at the same time.
That was enough partying for me for the weekend. Saturday I woke up feeling not too bad, but really late, and I had to meet the lady I tutor at 430 with Blake and Brian because she invited us to a modern dance performance titled 'Several Questions'. Now let me tell you a little something about how that went. NOT COOL!!!!!
Hey don't get me wrong, I like the arts. I enjoy the theater, and ballet, I would go see just about anything. But, to call this stuff modern dance was a huge mistake, when in fact what it was, was interpretive dance. For almost the entire show, we were looking at each other and saying "what the hell is going on here". There was hardly any dancing as much as there was just random movements that I could probably see in an Asylum, or by video taping myself doing it. I appreciate the arts, especially the things that I can't do like tap dancing, ballet, break dancing, singing etc., but when it is just a bunch of people running and flailing around on stage (things I could do) I have a hard time seeing the beauty in it. That being said, it was really nice of Sung Eun to take us and we took her out for dinner afterwards, then went on a walk up a nearby small mountain called Naksan, that has the same wall running over it that encircles the original city of Seoul.
Saturday night I stayed in and got some rest so that maybe we could do something worth wild on Sunday. So on Sunday I got up and went to the gym in the morning then came home and rallied the troops for a trip to somewhere. Brian came up with the idea of going to the Bongeunsa temple complex. It is one of the largest Buddhist temple complexes in Seoul and maybe even Korea, I'm not sure. There were multiple temples from different eras, some original, some reconstructions, since over the years many temples were burnt down during Japanese and Chinese occupation attempts. It was great to get a chance to see it during the day light and we even got there on time to see the ritual music ceremony the monks hold before their morning and nightly prayer. There was a large drum, bell, symbol, and wooden dragon that were played one after the other to offer blessings to different creatures. It lasted about 15-20 minutes and was really neat to see. When it was over the monks returned to the prayer temple and began praying with many Koreans following.
After the temple tour we went and got some dinner and went our separate ways. I went back to the gym to meet the girl who works at the front desk. Jameson and I have become friends with her and we hang out now and then. We went around the corner for some beer and to hang out, and we called it a night around 11 so we could both get home on the subway.
Well one more week down.
This week was another simple week. Since we have gone back to the afternoon schedule, things have calmed down on the night life side of things during the week. We still try to get out on Thursday nights for a bit and to plan our weekends. This Thursday we went to a new station along the subway line called Yeoksam. It was a smaller area, which was nice because we always seem to end up in the bigger bar and restaurant districts. We met up with a few friends and drank Dong Dong Ju, rice beer. It is super sweet and if you aren't careful can leave you with a nasty hangover. We had a rather calm night and headed home around 1 am.
Friday night however, was a different story. Brian, Jameson and I went to Apgujeong (usually pronounced Apujong) to meet Junk for a few beers at a bar called Crazy W.C. Bar, its a flare bar. We had all the intentions of keeping it low key until Blake the Destroyer showed up a while later. When Blake showed up we were all just having beers, talking, and watching the flare show. Well Blake noticed Junk wasn't having such a good time and asked him "what was up". Junk answered "I don't really like beer so I'm not drinking much", and we were off. Blake decided we should get a bottle of whiskey, since Junk likes it, under the ridiculous assumption that we could drink some and save the rest for later. As a side note, they do allow to to recap bottles and leave them at bars for the next time you go there. To this we all said you are crazy, you know if we open it we will finish it. And the rest of the story writes itself. We finished the bottle, along with half a bottle of tequila that the people beside us won in a contest and shared with us. We never left the bar until 430 and I never got home until 530. Ridiculous, but awesome at the same time.
That was enough partying for me for the weekend. Saturday I woke up feeling not too bad, but really late, and I had to meet the lady I tutor at 430 with Blake and Brian because she invited us to a modern dance performance titled 'Several Questions'. Now let me tell you a little something about how that went. NOT COOL!!!!!
Hey don't get me wrong, I like the arts. I enjoy the theater, and ballet, I would go see just about anything. But, to call this stuff modern dance was a huge mistake, when in fact what it was, was interpretive dance. For almost the entire show, we were looking at each other and saying "what the hell is going on here". There was hardly any dancing as much as there was just random movements that I could probably see in an Asylum, or by video taping myself doing it. I appreciate the arts, especially the things that I can't do like tap dancing, ballet, break dancing, singing etc., but when it is just a bunch of people running and flailing around on stage (things I could do) I have a hard time seeing the beauty in it. That being said, it was really nice of Sung Eun to take us and we took her out for dinner afterwards, then went on a walk up a nearby small mountain called Naksan, that has the same wall running over it that encircles the original city of Seoul.
Saturday night I stayed in and got some rest so that maybe we could do something worth wild on Sunday. So on Sunday I got up and went to the gym in the morning then came home and rallied the troops for a trip to somewhere. Brian came up with the idea of going to the Bongeunsa temple complex. It is one of the largest Buddhist temple complexes in Seoul and maybe even Korea, I'm not sure. There were multiple temples from different eras, some original, some reconstructions, since over the years many temples were burnt down during Japanese and Chinese occupation attempts. It was great to get a chance to see it during the day light and we even got there on time to see the ritual music ceremony the monks hold before their morning and nightly prayer. There was a large drum, bell, symbol, and wooden dragon that were played one after the other to offer blessings to different creatures. It lasted about 15-20 minutes and was really neat to see. When it was over the monks returned to the prayer temple and began praying with many Koreans following.
After the temple tour we went and got some dinner and went our separate ways. I went back to the gym to meet the girl who works at the front desk. Jameson and I have become friends with her and we hang out now and then. We went around the corner for some beer and to hang out, and we called it a night around 11 so we could both get home on the subway.
Well one more week down.
Monday, February 2, 2009
And they say bugs taste bad.
Well since my last post was in the middle of the week, this weeks will be a bit shorter. After returning from Ulsan the rest of the week leading up to the weekend just went along slowly and painfully. It is hard after such a long weekend to go back to only three days of work. Nonetheless, we got through it and on Friday treated ourselves to Dos Tacos a Mexican joint in Gangnam after which we went out for a few drinks.
On Saturday I got up rather early and got a hold of Brian by noon hour so that we could go move a couch. The story goes, that Lindsey our current head foreign teacher is leaving at the end of February and had a couch she want to pawn off on one of us. So, since Brian has a rather large place (much bigger than mine) he asked if he could have it. Lindsey said sure and we so we had to move it. But.........how do you move a couch without vehicles you might ask! Easy! You take it on the subway. It turned out to be a light couch, more of a futon, so we carried it down two blocks to the subway, carried it down into the subway and onto the subway without anyone saying a word. They were however looking at us rather strange, but wouldn't dare say a word to the foreigners. So we went two Brians stop, which is two away from mine, and carried up the stairs and one block to his place. Mission accomplished.
That night Brain, Blake and I went to Itaewon to meet one of the girls I tutor for dinner then met up with her friends for a few drinks. It was really nice and we were at a really nice sit-down bar for a while until one of the girls decided we should go some place else. So following her we ended up across the street at a Salsa bar, where all they play is Latin Salsa music. It wasn't quite my scene since I can't Salsa (not that I didn't give it a shot) and neither could anyone else except Brian because he spent a semester in El Salvador a while back. So Blake decided to head out and shortly after that the rest of us did too.
Since we didn't stay out too late Saturday, Brian and I got up Sunday and went to Amsa, a 30 minute walk from where we live, to see a prehistoric settlement village. It was pretty small and lame, with a few thatch houses and a small museum. We stayed long enough to take a few photos and then headed out to get some lunch.
Here's where it got a little exotic. We went back to Brian's area and found a fried chicken place. Now as some background information, at the restaurants around here you always get little appetizers and stuff for free with your meal. Usually in the form of salad, small sides of various things, or soup. We ended up with some of each which is normal. However, the soup was different than any we had had yet. In it were pieces of pepper, rice cakes and brown over sized things that looked like raisins. I recognized what the brown things were right away, from past experiences, but let Brian try some before I said anything. After he had his first bite, I asked him if he knew what he just ate. He replied "no, why?". And I said those are bugs, to be more precise they were pupa. We confirmed this with the lady working at the shop and she told us that yes they were bugs and that it was a Korean specialty. So what did we do? We dug in. It was very good and the bugs were more like kidney beans in texture than anything.
After that we killed some time waiting for Blake to get home from Junks cousins wedding he was invited to (at the last minute for no other reason than Koreans like to include people in their activities), than we met up and had some dinner and beers.
This morning (so Monday) we all met up to watch the Superbowl at a Hooters in Gangnam. It was a good game between the Steelers and the Cardinals and we were glad to see the Steelers win because there were a few assholes there cheering for the Cardinals.
I hope you are all doing well and will talk to you soon.
Until next time.
On Saturday I got up rather early and got a hold of Brian by noon hour so that we could go move a couch. The story goes, that Lindsey our current head foreign teacher is leaving at the end of February and had a couch she want to pawn off on one of us. So, since Brian has a rather large place (much bigger than mine) he asked if he could have it. Lindsey said sure and we so we had to move it. But.........how do you move a couch without vehicles you might ask! Easy! You take it on the subway. It turned out to be a light couch, more of a futon, so we carried it down two blocks to the subway, carried it down into the subway and onto the subway without anyone saying a word. They were however looking at us rather strange, but wouldn't dare say a word to the foreigners. So we went two Brians stop, which is two away from mine, and carried up the stairs and one block to his place. Mission accomplished.
That night Brain, Blake and I went to Itaewon to meet one of the girls I tutor for dinner then met up with her friends for a few drinks. It was really nice and we were at a really nice sit-down bar for a while until one of the girls decided we should go some place else. So following her we ended up across the street at a Salsa bar, where all they play is Latin Salsa music. It wasn't quite my scene since I can't Salsa (not that I didn't give it a shot) and neither could anyone else except Brian because he spent a semester in El Salvador a while back. So Blake decided to head out and shortly after that the rest of us did too.
Since we didn't stay out too late Saturday, Brian and I got up Sunday and went to Amsa, a 30 minute walk from where we live, to see a prehistoric settlement village. It was pretty small and lame, with a few thatch houses and a small museum. We stayed long enough to take a few photos and then headed out to get some lunch.
Here's where it got a little exotic. We went back to Brian's area and found a fried chicken place. Now as some background information, at the restaurants around here you always get little appetizers and stuff for free with your meal. Usually in the form of salad, small sides of various things, or soup. We ended up with some of each which is normal. However, the soup was different than any we had had yet. In it were pieces of pepper, rice cakes and brown over sized things that looked like raisins. I recognized what the brown things were right away, from past experiences, but let Brian try some before I said anything. After he had his first bite, I asked him if he knew what he just ate. He replied "no, why?". And I said those are bugs, to be more precise they were pupa. We confirmed this with the lady working at the shop and she told us that yes they were bugs and that it was a Korean specialty. So what did we do? We dug in. It was very good and the bugs were more like kidney beans in texture than anything.
After that we killed some time waiting for Blake to get home from Junks cousins wedding he was invited to (at the last minute for no other reason than Koreans like to include people in their activities), than we met up and had some dinner and beers.
This morning (so Monday) we all met up to watch the Superbowl at a Hooters in Gangnam. It was a good game between the Steelers and the Cardinals and we were glad to see the Steelers win because there were a few assholes there cheering for the Cardinals.
I hope you are all doing well and will talk to you soon.
Until next time.
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