little hobo in big korea

new blog

2008-09-27T12:48:00.001-07:00

hannarbot.blogspot.com

2008-08-24T00:25:00.001-07:00

I'm sitting here and flipping through the pictures from the past year.

And guess what? They're making me nostalgic. Really, really nostalgic.

So my eyes are misting over but it's a mixed bag of feelings. Of course I'm really sad on one hand because I miss you guys and I wish I could relive some of those amazing moments we shared, but I'm happy that I even got these pictures... the pictures of all of the once in a lifetime experiences that I would have never had and of all of the places I never would have been without my chingoos.

"Even if I never see him again, I'll have stories to tell about him forever." I remember someone said that about one of my old co-workers.. and shit, isn't that fitting now?

You guys pushed me to do things that I would have never even thought to do and some things that I never thought I could do. And that made me push myself to really live life and to become a better person. Now I have stories to tell, and hell yeh, I'm grateful.

Shit, that's inspiration.

It's like riding a bicycle..............

2008-08-23T01:19:00.000-07:00

Blah blah blah.
I'm typing in between sniffles. No, I'm not crying.. I happen to have caught a cold. 감기 not 강기... any other Korean kids made that mistake? I guess after a week or so of not enough rest and sleeping on couches, it takes a toll on you. I'm pretty sure I might've sent Jason and Elliot off with sore throats as well... er, that sounds really bad but yeh. Sorry guys.

Okay, that was a bad introductory paragraph into this brog.
Anyway, one of my friends from the first semester at Yonsei in Korea, Jason, came to visit me in San Jose/San Francisco for the past 5 days. He brought along one of his friends from high school, Elliot. Jason was the first Korean friend face I've seen since I've been back... I guess that was quick enough considering I made my return on the 3rd of August. But the timing was good and it was definitely great to see him. They stayed with me at my parents' house and Simba went crazy. I guess he never fully trusted them so any time they made a sudden movement(er... ok whenever they got up or ... uhm, laughed... yeh...Simba's crazy) he'd go into a barking fit. Yeh, so I basically got to show them how boring San Jose is. I took them to two bars only to find out that they had both closed for the night. I also took them to one of my favorite restaurants only to find out that that was closed as well. I guess the only place that I took them in San Jose that wasn't closed was the Egyptian Museum which was a big disappointment/embarrassment. We ended up wishing that that place were closed instead. For some reason, I thought that staring at a mummy would be cool but instead, it was actually a quite horrifying experience. I feared that if I breathed in too deeply or yawned or had any sort of intake of breath, the mummy's spirit would overtake my body. There was a small mummified baboon on display... and I envisioned a sort of "The Shaggy Dog" scenario where.... never mind, it's already dumb. (But basically it would have me as Tim Allen and the baboon as the sheepdog).

The highlight, as I'm sure they'd both agree, was going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I'd never been before so I was glad to go along for the ride. The only downside was that the place was an absolute clusterfuck. But I guess that can't be helped. I made my helpful comment on how I wished that we could've been there just by ourselves and wow, how cool would that have been? Yeh, no shit. Anyway, who wants to watch Jacques Cousteau movies with me?

Then for the remainder of the time, I dragged them here and there and everywhere and nowhere.
I seriously never know where to take anyone when they visit me places. It's also strange because I'm trying to find my footing in a place that I'm already supposed to know. The streets I used to have memorized have now been delegated to the back corners of my mind. The dark corners that never do and never will see the light of day... you know the saying that it's like riding a bicycle? Well, that's supposed to be a cliche because that's one of those things that you just never forget how to do. Now let me tell you a story in which I continue to defy all sorts of human rationale. Yes, I thought... it's like riding a bicycle.. when it came to well, riding a bicycle. I guess that doesn't apply to me or my life. When I tried riding a bicycle after a perhaps 7 or 8 year hiatus, I ate shit.. not once, not twice, but thrice. And it was all within one night. One hour, even...

The first time was my first attempt at riding a bike that was admittedly, too tall and too long for me. Whatever, I wanted to laugh in the face of danger and shun any sort of reason that could've helped save me from a bruise or two. I started gliding all wobbly-like down the sidewalk, thinking that yessss.. I'm doing it. I'm doing it! When I hear my friend shout out at me from the distance as I was approaching a hill going downwards, "If you're going to fall, fall towards the grass!" Upon hearing this, my bike stalled as if it had a mind of its own, and without further warning, I just plopped over. Physical comedy can be so fun.

We then decided that maybe the streets were too dangerous.. or maybe that I was too dangerous for the streets. Whichever.. but we then started riding around the empty tennis courts since it was too late in the night for anyone to be playing. It was by far safer choice but I still was prone to falling, running into shit and basically being unable to ride a freaking bicycle. For some reason, I actually thought to myself that if I was going to fall, it would hurt less to crash into a fence and catch myself than to just fall on the ground. Wrong wrong wrong. Actually, the bike was so large for me that I was only barely able to graze my feet against the ground, which is usually how people prevent themselves from falling after clamping down on the brakes. So instead of being able to stop like a normal person, I would just have to slow down and my friend would have to grab the bike for me and hold it steady while I would clamber down.

god sometimes my life can be such a disaster. But you know, even though I ate shit three times and had a new lovely set of bruises and cuts, I said fuck it and refused to give up. You know.. shit hurt, but still it ain't even that bad. Do you see where this is going and how it's going to be a metaphor for MY LIFE ? I actually just figured this out as I wrote this/am writing this. So whatever, I took that cliche, tweaked it, and now am appropriating it as my own. And yeh, I'm clumsy as shit but give me time and I'll be able to do it.

So I guess what it boils down to is this. I'm still trying to find my footing. But it's slowly getting better. And I'm finding the comfort of having friends I can safely crash into.

Yeh so I'm fucking riding it. I just have to see where it takes me.

Oy!

2008-08-14T13:04:00.000-07:00

So...

I haven't been getting much sleep since I've been back from Korea. I guess that I've never been fully used to sleeping in other peoples' homes. I mean, I'm sure everyone understands the satisfaction of sleeping in the comfort of their own bed. But I guess since I've been back, it just feels like I've been sleeping in other peoples' homes which for the most part, I guess I have been.

Even the house I grew up in, I feel like I'm just a temporary guest. My things are still packed and all of my old belongings are in boxes so even the outward appearance looks like everything is in transition. But the transition is weird and I don't know how to get from point A to point B or what point B is supposed to be. All the while, point A is still foggy and vague, and it's becoming harder to remember. It all comes in flashes.. nothing substantial, but enough to keep me from going crazy... for now. It's just all too surreal.

Wow, I'm so melodramatic. But I guess I've always appreciated the theatrics in everything otherwise I'd just be bored bored bored. I'm staying at the place I used to live in San Francisco and it's strange walking in here and looking at my room that's not my room anymore. Her room is much cleaner than mine had ever been, even on its better days. I've been sleeping on the couch. I've laid on this couch so many times before but it's weird how it feels different now. I couldn't sleep the other night so like a crazy person, I just started putting away the dishes and tried to wash the ones that were in the sink. I accidentally woke up the person in the room next door(sorry Mike) and after giving a panicky apology, I retreated back to the couch. I started reading a book of comic book shorts when I heard the doorbell ring. Instantly, I freak out and wake up my friend telling him that someone just rang the doorbell and I'm scared. For some reason, I've been more paranoid these days than ever. I'm just constantly thinking that someone is going to shoot or stab me. The comfort of living in America....

It ended up being my old roommate Ryne who was more than a little drunk. It was about 3 or 4 in the morning and we decided to play Rock Band...much to Anthony's dismay since he was attempting to sleep like a normal person. Sorry Anthony. This game is hilarious because we both blankly stared at the screens in wordless silence, only hearing the noise of us furiously jabbing away at buttons amongst the backdrop of Wave of Mutilation or another..

Gah, well back to the heft of the story..

So I guess right now I feel like I'm hanging out in the disconnect from what was to what is. Oh dear. My life is covered in cheese, isn't it?

I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm tired. But even though I'm tired, it's been hard to fall asleep.

My eyes are bleary right now. And that's not metaphorically speaking. I guess whenever I'm really tired, my vision becomes compromised and everything just looks hazy. So I'm just sitting here, squinting and peering at the screen like a dumbass while spewing out my overblown feelings all over the place.

My writing is so scattered and vague, I realize. But I'm working on trying to not be so obsessively private anymore and to make the things that were vague more concrete. And I guess this blog is a solid example of that.

I don't feel like finishing this entry but I guess it's good enough for now. I'll try to start processing my thoughts and put them into neat little paragraphs to make for better blog entries.

It seems as if I've just instantly jumped back into things so the thoughts are taking time. Mostly because I've been pushing them to the back of my mind, waiting for a better state of mind to make sense of anything.

But yeh... yeh... er... yeh.
I'll leave you with this for now. A video that seems to have made every single person who has watched it cry.... in a good way.

This is called the Transformation of Things...

2008-08-04T11:59:00.000-07:00

Yeh, I guess it's weird.

I just got home yesterday. It's been a weird transition so far... the airplane ride was annoying, as usual. I always just get so queasy and the man next to me smelled sour. There weren't any good movies except ones that I'd already seen so I just watched bits and pieces of Kung Fu Panda and Iron Man. Landing was strange.. there were American flags everywhere and a bunch of waegookins(foreigners)... I guess it's strange coming from being in a mostly racially homogenous society. Everyone kept greeting me with "welcome back" and I kept wondering, "How did they know I was gone?" and then I thought, "oh yeh, I'm at an airport duh"

Some guy helped me with my bag when the strap RIPPED.. how embarrassing. And I started thanking him profusely in Korean. Then I remembered that I wasn't in Korea.. when is this going to stop being weird?

One of the customs guys was a big jerk. I accidentally rolled my bag over a woman's foot but whatever, her foot had it coming! It was waiting underneath my bag. Just kidding. Sorry random lady. I just couldn't fit all of my luggage onto the cart since it required some tricky maneuvering because the bags were so freaking heavy. And the guy said, "Why didn't you just put all the bags in the cart?" and I said "Yeh, I tried but they didn't fit" and he was like "I bet they would've" in this super annoying mean tone.. and I just retorted "Cool, thanks for the tip" and as I walked away I just mumbled "you fucking asshole" ... geez, so snarky I know. Garr, thanks for the warm welcome U.S.A. Ugh, I'm so impatient.... gross

My friend Anthony came to pick me up from the airport and what was the first thing I ate? We went to La Victoria and ate nachos and I also ordered a super burrito with carnitas. My god, I've missed the food. We then watched Dark Knight which basically had me in panic mode the entire time. It was great though and I'll probably go see it again.

So, I'm not writing in detail. I'm not writing anything deep or introspective. I guess I'm writing this because I want you guys to know that I landed safely and that things are weird. My dog Simba is sitting next to me as I'm typing. I'm happy that he remembered me =) But it's weird because everything is feeling like a dream within a dream within a dream within a .... bLah blah. Being home doesn't feel real and thinking of Korea doesn't feel real either. But I don't even want to start trying to figure shit out. I think I need at least a week of just laying here and letting things just be whatever. I don't want to make sense of things yet.

It's good to see my parents, Simba, and my little brother of course. But everything is still strange because it doesn't feel completely natural yet. My mom made me breakfast today with hashbrowns, eggs, bacon, and sourdough bread. I've missed American breakfast so much. Shit, I'm sorry to say it but I love fat ass American food. But right now I feel like I could also go for some soondubu or samgyupsal with a bottle of soju and the company of some good friends/my best friends.

Fuck, what's going on? I am calling all of you soon. That's one thing that is keeping things in focus right now... I just entered all of your numbers into my phone.... gah

PS, No Peter.. I haven't cried yet. Right now I won't because everything is still too weird. I probably will though... just later.

My brain is so scattered right now. This blog entry sucks. Sorry guys.

an update of s(h)orts...

2008-07-16T08:18:00.000-07:00

So I guess these blog entries have been few and far between, huh. I guess that can be chalked up to a number of reasons: I'm too lazy(and the fucking hot ass humid weather has been making me more lethargic than ever), I've been busy, I don't know what to say, and I don't know how to say that I don't know what to say. Yikes. So every day is different and every day can be assigned one or all of those excuses... I'm guessing you guys are the same way.. yeh I'm looking at you!(except for Ryo and Anna.. you guys have updated recently) None of you guys have been writing on your blogs, and that saddens me greatly because it means that I can't stalk you guys online efficiently. Blarg. It's okay, once I head back to the states you better bet your asses that I'll be calling you day and night.. and yes... "just to say hi" (which used to drive me crazy.. now I'll pass it on)

Okay, well first things first.
I want to wish a happy birthday to one of my favorite people IN THE WORLD!! Miss Amy Delahanty, please raise your hand! You guys(except for the ones that also are lucky enough to know her) have no idea how much I adore this girl. I have so much love, respect, and admiration for you! I miss you lots but hopefully I will be able to see you within a few months! Amy, you're 23 today and don't worry, in a couple of months, I'll be right there with you! 1985 ROCK!

HEART

So, hmm.
What's worth saying? Well, Pat, Peter, Jungyun and I decided to go on a short 2 day trip to Yangpyung. What's in Yangpyung you ask? I asked the very same question to Pat who responded with this classic answer... "Uhm... (shrugs shoulders) beautiful stuff?" Jungyun(who is Korean) planned the whole thing, down to the train tickets and the accommodations. We stayed in this small loft house that was beyond amazing! There was even a porch outside where we drank beer and played hearts. Also, there weren't any nearby restaurants so we had to buy groceries and prepare our own meals. Thankfully we had an aspiring Top Chef with us(Pat) who knew how to cook. If it was left up to me, we would've been eating chips and cookies for breakfast, dinner, and lunch. Hell, I don't even know how to work an oven. I took home economics in middle school but unfortunately, the school was undergoing construction so we did all of our cooking on tiny propane burners and in microwave ovens! We even baked cakes in microwave ovens. Geez, one of our recipes was actually for POPCORN. Can you believe it? So... Kennedy Junior High.. I'm placing all of the blame on you for my lack of homemaking skills.

Yangpyunggggggg was awesome.
There were creeks and creeks.. and creeks... I don't know nature related words. So I guess Pat was right in saying that there was uhhhmmmm, beautiful stuff? I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. But we splashed, we swam, we took pictures... I threw giant rocks that landed with huge thuds into the water.. to my childish delight. And then at night, Pat prepared us a delicious curry. Don't worry. We did the dishes.... that's the usual trade-off right? Anyway, later that night we managed to split 6 bottles of soju and a 40 between us while we played ridiculous Korean drinking games including 3-6-9(sam yoo ku), jeehachul(where we have to take turns listing the different subway stations), baskin robbins 31, dalgi(this game is fucking absurd), and even guessing whether the next card from the stack was going to be black or red... oh, and this other ridiculous game called "bunny" where you had to do a lot of simultaneous chanting and crazy hand gestures. Pat and I took turns telling each other "YOU SUCK AT THESE GAMES!!" meaning.. shit, we had to drink a fuck ton of booze. Needless to say, we were the boozy woozy ones at the end of the night. It's weird how these games work though, usually you want to get drunk as fast as possible... so losing is actually winning.. because you win all the liquor. Anyway, I had an amazingly fun time.. especially because I got to travel with those two mofos again... we even met Jungyun in Laos! How awesome is that? It's weird thinking that pretty soon, I'm going to have to say goodbye to Pat and Peepers(my new nickname for Peter... Peeps for short).. who I've spent entirely too much time with(in the nicest way possible).. I mean, for the two months we went backpacking together, we spent every hour of every day together. That's an obscene amount. I don't know, I guess what I'm trying to say is.. I'm too used to their stupid faces now to not see them everyday.

Gah, I've been trying to tell myself that I won't allow the sadness to wash over me until I hit the 2 week mark.. and that day is quickly approaching. I don't even know what to do. It's weird planning every day as if.. you.. only have a few of them left.. I guess I'll still wait for that day to come to write all of my gushy feelings.

Pat and Jungyun

apparently this is what I look like when I play Mario Kart

Pat behind the glittery veil

canned salty pig bits... a wholehearted YUM!

The Sower

the two assholes

the fountain of life

(photo taken by Peter Kang)

Okay now some random bits....

Moa and I at the PIXAR EXHIBIT IN SEOUL! This exhibit was AMAZING! And Pixar is amazing.. so I don't care what any of you haters say. The level of creative genius and wit and focus that go into these movies is so beyond anything I could even imagine.

Jungyun's mom and Pat cooking... her mom taught us how to make soondubu(spicy soft tofu soup)! And kaeran jeem(steamed egg)... so awesome

I've also been watching a lot of movies.... here's some that I'd recommend.... which I'm sure most of you have seen already since you all are so much better than me about watching movies.. but in case you haven't...

I also read this yesterday...

Anyway, tis all for now... I'll talk to you all soon. Like usual, by the end.. I've run out of steam. I love you and miss you all.

...and that's when it hits you

2008-06-15T08:17:00.000-07:00

Gah, so the other day I was at Grand Mart shopping for this and that and whatevers.
And I stopped in front of the toilet paper selection and contemplated which pack I should buy... and usually the debate is between which one is both of reasonable quality and at the best price.. but I stopped myself and started to wonder.. do I really even need this much toilet paper? I only need enough to last me through the end of July.. and with that thought, it really hit me.. through the most mundane of activities.. it really signified the end to me. Gahhh, so what did I do? I didn't buy any toilet paper at all and have been buying individually packed rolls for the time being... only seemed sensible.. ugh.. who knew sensibility could be so depressing?

It's still too early to reflect on the entire year in Korea overall.. but I guess I do have some things to say until it comes to that time.. until I can make peace with it. So in lieu of dopey and cliche reflections(for now, I still have a lot up my sleeve..), I'll tell a story. I don't really know if this will be of interest to anyone since it's just regarding my Korean class but whatever, this is for my own personal reference first and foremost anyways.

If anyone can remember my blog entry from far back, it wasn't too long ago when I transferred into the class and instantly resented everyone. I resented Jessica for speaking Korean really well even though she claimed that she couldn't write or spell very well. Sorry Jess, but now I believe you.^^ I resented Mark for using a word that the teacher deemed difficult.. although I was slightly relieved and delighted when he didn't know the word for getting married.(Yeah yeah, I know I'm horrible) I resented everyone for knowing what the Korean words for trading company and stock exchange were. I was scared shitless of 선생님 and I remember taking notes with my head down with a certain amount of fervor, anything to keep him from calling on me during class... I almost had an aneurism when he decided to give us an impromptu speaking quiz in front of the entire class (!!).. I remember the cold sweat collecting on my forehead as I received the questions he asked in terror.... holy shit, how am I going to explain the plot of Old Boy?!

So, we've come a long way. Slowly we learned to be more comfortable around each other and my resentment subsided. 선생님 became less terrifying and I actually began to really like him despite his initial scary appearance. I don't exactly remember when but we started the tradition of bringing snacks every Friday... Snack Friday we called it.. original, I know. Everyone came to class on a pretty regular basis... especially Alisa who managed to make it every day!(Although some days she would be 20 minutes late.. and other days, she'd be sleeping throughout class)... anyway, fast forward to......

My class and I deciding that we wanted to chip in and get our 선생님 a present so that he would hopefully never forget us and more importantly, so that we could show our appreciation for him being such a great teacher. We all chipped in some money and decided to create a "fun bag" consisting mostly of items that were kind of inside jokes for us throughout the semester. Like an energy drink with all of the fruit in the world(stolen from our cheesy Korean reading book) or bananas for the oh-so-secret banana game... Alisa and I also went shopping for the perfect tie for him.. blue and with diagonal stripes(just like he mentioned to us one day in class).. we also printed out the only picture we had of all of us and put it in a frame. Fast forward again to the last day of class.

We sat in our regular seats and presented the fun bag to our teacher. He looked pretty shocked that we had gotten him so many presents. We forced him to take out each item one at a time so that we could "ooh" and "aww" and laugh at all of the appropriate places and times. Finally, he reached for the class picture which was wrapped... and as he slowly began to unwrap it, I began squealing at a ridiculously high pitch. It was really beyond any sort of control I had over my body... I just began squealing my head off in nervous anticipation. And I couldn't stop..... he finally saw the picture and took a long pause.. he looked down for a while and then looked up at us and told us that this was his favorite of the presents. It looked like he was going to cry.. Me being completely emotionally awkward and not being able to handle the tension, decided to attempt to cut through it with this little gem "What?? You like it better than the energy drink??" The class laughed uncomfortably as again, I was unable to have any sort of control over my bodily actions. Yes, I never take the high road.. because dignity is a concept that has always eluded me. The high road has always been blocked with too many road blocks and obstacles... ah, and here I am with cheesy ass metaphors again. I can never seem to banish them from my life.... I don't know. I don't know how to properly end this story.. so I guess I'll stick with simplicity. Alisa, Peter, Mark, Jessica, Zhiyuan, Yao Yao, Nicole, Nicole Marie, Angela, and 선생님... I'm going to miss you all so much. Korean class was certainly one of the highlights of this relatively quiet(in comparison with last semester) semester. Keep in touch 반친구들

So now here's where I've also been preparing for the way back home.
Sigur Ros is fucking coming to Berkeley!! I recently bought 3 tickets(one for me, my older brother Aaron, and the younger brother Joseph) and am fucking PSYCHED!! This is the concert I've been waiting entirely too long for... and I'm only all too certain that it will be one of the greatest days of my life. How's that for pressure? Fuck prom, fuck graduation, fuck the wedding day.. THIS is it. I've also got tickets to go see Mogwai, My Bloody Valentine, and Bonnie "Prince" Billy is set to headline the free annual bluegrass festival in Golden Gate Park(with a possible appearance by Robert Plant & Allison Krauss although they might've dropped out).. Additionally, my brother is going to be DJ-ing for an event held for Irvine Welsh(who wrote Trainspotting).. what the heck? So I'm giving myself things to look forward to... because I know I'm going to need a lot of positive things in my life to help adjust to being back in the states.

And last but not least, a fucking reunion is in the works for August. Ever see An American Tail: Fievel Goes West? Well, it's like... a fucking Korean Tale: Chingoos Go West... (btw, did anyone know that James Stewart was Wylie Burp in that movie? wild....) Any chingoos reading this, we really gotta start planning dates for this! Anna and I have a tentative road trip planned to go up the west coast through Portland(to see our friend Tom) and then finally up to Seattle to see James(b/c Ryo you'll be in DC.. booooo) Gelly and Amy and Jake, I'm hoping that you guys can make it out here. And Jason, who is the only one who seems to have finalized any sort of plans... I'm excited to see all of you!! Okay Okay Okay... this post ended up being a lot longer than anticipated.. but anyway, this was me just spewing out everything all over the place.. again. Take care everyone and love and talk to you all soon.

PS, Peter and I went to this pretty cool art store in Hongdae the other day and I ended up buying a book bag there. It's plain and meant to be designed by the person buying it so I decided to cut apart my previously bought Jay McCarroll bag(GASP, right?) and sew the patterns onto this bag. Don't make fun of me for buying the Jay bag.. Project Runway or no Project Runway, I am convinced that I would have bought the bag anyway as the patterns are really nifty. So I spent practically all night sewing these bitches onto the bag since apparently, I don't really know how to sew. Well, makeshift sewing turned out to be okay and I think the bag turned out pretty well.... if I do say so myself. What do you think? All this while marathon watching the Gilmore Girls... ah, life is good.

The Great Escape

2008-05-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

from Seoul... for.. the.. weekend...yes... !

Joseph graciously invited Pat, Peter, and I to come down to his hometown(Ulsan) for the weekend. It was Buddha's birthday on Monday so we had a 3 day weekend.. so it was perfect timing. Anyway, when we attempted to get bus tickets on Friday night, all of the tickets had been sold out so we opted to take the train last minute(not KTX though). Unfortunately, we were only able to get 3 sitting seats and 1 STANDING ticket. Mind you, this is a 6 hour ride... we actually ended up rotating turns of who had to stand. Since my shift was last, and everyone had fallen asleep.. I kept hopping from empty seat to empty seat until we arrived. I guess since this train has a gajillion stops, the train ride took about 6 hours as opposed to the 4 hour bus ride. Weird. We ended up arriving at 430 in the moooorning.. w00t! Hello Ulsan.

It was hilarious because as we were attempting to hail down a cab, Pat spotted one and made a mad dash for it.. little did he know that he would engage in a foot race against this crazy ahjuhshee. There wasn't really a clear winner as far as speed went, but we allowed the ahjuhshee to take the cab.. This time ahjuhshee... this time... *narrows eyes as a shadow slowly envelops my face....*

The next day, waking up around noon or so... Joseph drove us around Ulsan. This was the first time I had ridden in a friend's car in Korea, period. It was a really fun experience.. joyyyy ridddiiiiiing ! Joseph's parents were going down to Busan to visit his grandmother and eat at her restaurant so we tagged along as well. We visited Haeyundae Beach(revisited) but to our dismay, the weather was kind of shitty that day so it was pretty freaking cold. It ended up being the best day of Pat's life though.. as there was some random guy promoting SEGWAYS and was allowing free rides to all who were up to the challenge. Anyone that watches Arrested Development knows that that's Gob's sweet ass ride.

Oh yes, it was absolutely delightful. I snapped about six shots of Pat on his camera.. hopefully the pictures turn out well so that he can show you himself in all his segway riding glory. Afterwards, we headed over to Joseph's grandmother's seafood restaurant where there was a huge spread of food waiting for us when we got there. Oh man, we got fed soooo well. The food was awesome.. they kept giving us more and more.. yums. Plus, Joseph's family is totally adorable(as expected). When Joseph saw his grandma, he gave her a giant bear hug. It was too cute for words.. it's funny because Joseph brings all of this hilarious hyperactive energy to his family.. he's such a good filial son haha. I asked him, "Do you talk to your mom everyday?" and he said, "Yeh.. why?" So sweet. PS, Joseph also knows how to play guitar and has a really nice singing voice... geez, who knew??

After dinner, we walked around the city and then stopped for some soju, of course. It's cool because they serve it differently than in Seoul. They put green tea bags into the bottle.. so cool. When we went home, Pat, Peter, and I flipped on the television and of course Pat directly changes the channel to the Starcraft channel.. we actually watched some really intense games... including a crazy battle between Protoss and Terran.. where Protoss pretty much DESTROYED Terran. It was hard to know who to root for since I didn't want either player to be sad.... aw. This is why I can't watch competitive games.... except when the Giants play the Dodgers.. then I can say "Fuck you dodgers!! DIEEEEE BITCHES!" Oh boy. But yeh, shit. I can't believe I watched starcraft on television and was totally into it. And now I'm admitting it on my blog... shit.

So, yeh. It was a really great weekend and Joseph was an awesome host as I made sure to tell him you know.... 50 or 60 trillion times. My camera's busted so... hopefully Pat and Peeps were able to capture some nice shots.

Also, art class is going pretty well... I've gotten better acquainted with the kids there so it's a lot more fun now. Most of the kids had been gone for a while since they were busy with tests, but today they were all back and rowdy as usual... I missed that rowdiness. Peter and I enjoyed having them back, for sure. One of the boys was briefly telling us about his "first love".. it was so fucking sweet and adorable. I told him that he was a good guy, and he was like "Nooo.. I'm a bad boy" in "yo" form(the polite Korean way of speaking to older people haha) Oh man, I can't get over how much I'm in love with Korean people.

BTW, I just finished my drawing of an onion and paintbrush lying on top of a brick. Yes, it really is as interesting as it sounds........ Oh, but how I'm going to miss that yangpa(onion in Korean).. I loved to sigh and then mumble "Ah... yangpa" then have a fit of giggles all to myself... while I secretly loved that yangpa since it wasn't as hard to draw as I thought it would be. I think I am going to give this drawing to Anna. So, I get to draw cooler shit now.. my teacher thought it might be cool for me to do a portrait of some sort so I perused the internet for some time to try to find a cool portrait to do.. and this is what I decided on.

Bogey<3

But right now, it's kind of looking like this...

Ah well. I'm having a ton of fun drawing it so hopefully it will turn out pretty well. I tried to explain Mr. Potato head to my teacher and even said "kamja muhree"(a quite literal translation).. perhaps I should have said "kamja muhree ahjuhshee" for those of you who speak Korean.. but he had no idea what I was talking about, which usually happens when I try to speak Korean to people... haha. Anyway, gotta head off now and get to bed. Talk to you all soon.

late night samgyupsal

2008-05-12T06:10:00.000-07:00

So upon returning from our short trip to Ulsan/Busan for the weekend(which I will write about soon), Peter and I decided on eating what else but... LATE NIGHT SAMGYUPSAL! W00t. I mean, it seems as if our eating choices are somewhat limited now due to the frenzy behind the possible outbreaks of bird flu and mad cow disease in Korea.. Oh jebus.

<3

We ended up stuffing ourselves beyond capacity... Anyway, on the way to the restaurant, we saw many a drunkard as usual.. Oh Sinchon, how you gross me out yet I still love thee so dearly. We saw this girl being propped up by two friends on either side while she puked her brains out all over her shoes.. and her friends were sweet enough to wipe off the barf. So Peter and I got to talking about Korean comraderie in general, and how it is so awesome.. through the good and the bad. The sober moments and the wasted beyond belief moments... oh, love. We actually encountered a girl who was sitting on the sidewalk by herself, also puking her brains out.. and Peter and I were immediately saddened by the thought of her having no friends to take care of her.. but then saw this girl scurrying over clutching a giant wad of toilet paper in one hand.. I don't know. Sounds silly but it was kind of really endearing.

Later on throughout the dinner, we saw two Korean guys walking quickly alongside each other(although one seemed to just be trying to catch up with the other one) while seeming to quarrel a bit... For convenience's sake, I will assign them random names. John(Guy #1) had a cell phone pressed against his hear and was trying to push away George(Guy #2) while he was swiping at John's arm, trying to grab the phone away from him. John was yelling into the phone and looked pretty agitated.. he pushes George away pretty hard and then practically ran away from him. George looked at him and then started walking behind him slowly.. until John got really angry again so George just stayed back with his arms folded and just watched from a distance.... John ended up being on the phone a while, and the entire time George stayed back.. patiently watching and genuinely seemed really concerned for his friend. Meanwhile, Peter and I were following their every move.. completely sucked into their lives that we ended up just fabricating on the spot. The back story that we came up with is that John just had his heart completely shattered and trampled on by a girl, who perhaps even cheated on him. George would yell, "Fuck that bitch, bro! She's not worth it!" while John, rather defensively would retort "You don't know her like I do, man. You don't understand." John would keep calling her over and over, anything to try to win her back... but the girl wouldn't have it. She would coldly tell him that she just doesn't care for him anymore.. that it's over and there's nothing he can do to fix it...maybe even a "It's not you. It's me." You know, the same shit as always.

Finally, George turned his back and walked away... and I mumbled to myself, "Oh.. I guess he could only take so much shit..." but still disappointed that he would leave his friend alone in his moment of emotional anguish and despair. Even though John was throwing bitch fits, hell, just being a little bitch in general.. he still needed a friend... I mean, now more than ever. But about a few minutes later, George returned with reinforcement.. a little guy who seemed to mean business(said Peter after he had caught a glimpse of his face) They slowly approached John and tried to put their arms around him.. to comfort him.. but John wasn't having any of it and shoved the little guy away. They started to walk down the hill.. while John was still swatting their arms away... taking out all of his anger and aggression on his friends.. all of a sudden John erupts into tears.. Instantly, George takes John into his arms and pats him on the back, wordlessly telling him that everything was going to be alright. I silently cheered for George, who was displaying fucking true blue sincerity.

I wanted to walk up to John, give him a hug and tell him to stay strong. "Fighting!" in Korean.. 화이팅! Then, I wanted to extend my hand to George.. which on second thought, I would put away and bear hug him.. and commend him on a job well done. That he was a good guy.. and then wait.. snap back to reality.. they would look at me completely bewildered, probably thinking I was just another crazy drunken girl looking for some free hugs... but I mean, was the reality of the situation even better? Peter and I were pretty much stalking them.. watching from a distance.. complete voyeurs for sure. But we felt connected...and so invested in it all. oh dear, I suppose we have reduced this all to a matter of movie cliches.. but I kind of wanted it to be.. weirdly enough. I don't know.. even through the absurdity of it all, it was still incredibly heartwarming.. I mean, our constructed view of the story was still ours, right?... and now I just want to know how it ends.. but I suppose I can make up that part too. Ha.. ha... sigh.

Anyway, TANGENT... listen to this album if you haven't already. Beach House with another fucking SOLID album.

Kids on Holiday

2008-05-05T01:04:00.000-07:00

There's a boy who's a Krishna,
and he thinks you look pretty.

Yeh, that has nothing to do with this post. But right now, I don't actually really know what's going to or not going to do with this post... soooo.. whatever. O.k., yeh. So this weekend, I finally just got some time to myself to mellow the fuck out and do absolutely nothing. There's nothing quite as refreshing as some lazy-as-fuck-but-whateva-i-do-what-i-want time. Yeh. We had the day off today as it was Children's Day(I know, what the hell?) Children's Day here, Cinco De Mayo elsewhere.

So, April 29th marked the date of Jake's departure.
He's left us for a better place, a little somewhere he calls St. Paul. Well, fuck you St. Paul! I want my friend back! Blah, we're already so few in number and now we've been knocked down again. But I truly hope that somewhere in between those heavenly bites of blue cheese bacon cheeseburgers, he'll think of his small, but "devastatingly endearing" chingoos here in Korea. Blargh, miss you Jake. Zack Morris Phone is on repeat, fo sho. (a catchy ass song from his band, Look Down)

I guess with Jake leaving, it really signifies the beginning of the end. And I have major separation anxiety. Seriously, I don't know what I'm going to do. It's really troubling for me to come to grips with the fact that three months from now, I'll have to leave this beautiful place behind to return to my "real" life, whatever the hell that means. And. I. Don't. Know. If. I. Want. To. . and I feel like I won't even have much waiting back for me at home. 2 of my maybe... 4 or 5 friends back at home are going to be moving out of the city(Yeh seriously guys, what the fuck??) I don't know.. I know I was already a misanthropic, antisocial loser back at home, but I guess that now that I'm finally getting used to constantly being around people that I really like... ugh, I don't want to slip back.. and I know it'd be sooo easy to do just that. I'm just sick of having to constantly start over. I don't know.. I've also come to realize that I may not be happy with continuing with one of my majors back at home.. and have come to feel a bit disillusioned, to be completely dramatic. So I'm trying to re-map some parts of my school agenda, that may further prolong my path to reaching that elusive graduation date... I guess there's no need to get into the sticky icky details. I guess it'll be weird when I go back to San Francisco only to have awkward run-ins with former high school classmates who already have "real" jobs and what not. Ugghhh, fuck the small talk. You know I'll be sneaking through backdoors and climbing through windows to avoid these...

I slept over at Anna's house the other day and realized that my love can only grow more and more for this girl every time I see her(which sadly isn't often). Her parents are soooo sweet and give hospitality a new meaning.. now I see where someone like Anna could have came from. Anyways, on the way over, we were berated by a drunken ahjuhshee(old Korean guy) for speaking English.. or for whatever reason. It was actually a little frightening and really uncomfortable.. we didn't really know what to do except stare back at him in awe/horror that anybody could have that much hatred for strangers.. even in a drunken stage. I just wasn't sure what to do in case he decided he wanted to physically assault us or something.. hopefully the other people on the subway would jump to our defense.. yes.. we could only hope. Ooookay but anyways, we watched Say Anything which was awesome! Finally got to watch that iconic scene with John Cusack holding the boombox above his head and ugggh, heart melts. Anyone who hasn't seen this movie, I loved it and would recommend it. It's cheesy fantastic and witty at the same time. Way better than the other trashy 80s movies... which I know can be great but sometimes can leave you feeling kind of ".....really?"

I also watched Kim Ki-Duk's, Hwal

This movie was great in parts, okay in others. The ending was a real disappointment and just kind of... disgusting. I think the director was aiming towards something symbolic but in the end, it was entirely too literal. I don't want to give away any details.. what inspired me to watch this movie in the first place was that it features Korea's most prominent haegum(a traditional Korean instrument; the two stringed fiddle) player, Kang Eun-Il. She composed the soundtrack and it was one of the better parts of the film. I've been taking haegum lessons recently which has been really challenging but really fun. Right now it sounds like shit(somewhat akin to a velosorapter giving birth) but hopefully in time, it will be pretty okay.

Kang Eun-Il's HaegumPlus

Anyway, wow this was a long post.
But I guess in some ways, it was necessary. Either for me, or for you, or for me to get to you... eRr, yeh. Anyway, it'd do me well for yous guys to keep in touch. So do it. Miss you and love you all. Ain't nothin new.

Anything you can do, I can do better......

2008-04-20T07:02:00.000-07:00

Hey Ryo!(http://triviallyastute.vox.com)
I want to play! Here, let me try....

I guess I'll start with James too...

3 wet mofos
3 wet dogs

Except no giant ominous finger, I guess...

Ok now this one's kind of a stretch...

god this game is a lot harder than I thought.... perhaps I'll try to do a better job after midterms... shnarglebarg.......

And now, just because it's funny....
I present to you.... a dog in a wig.

2008-04-06T08:16:00.000-07:00

So the past few days have been pretty eventful..
April 3rd was Peter's 20th birthday so of course we had to celebrate it in a big way... twas funny because the original plan was just to have a chill dinner at my place with our close circle of friends.. but on the day of Peter's birthday, Anna told me that her church group actually made reservations at the mushroom place.. so then we both had to think of a way to come up with a new plan that would A) ensure that everyone could be involved and present at Peter's birthday celebration and B) that Peter wouldn't be mad at me for "cancelling" or sad.. haha. We decided that I should just invite everyone that was supposed to come over for dinner to the mushroom restaurant, meanwhile trying to make sure everything was very hush hush. So I was awaiting Peter's call after his fellowship so that I could tell him to meet me around the area.. and lead him into the restaurant.. but he ended up already being with some church friends who took him upstairs where he received his huge SURPRISE! The look on his face was truly truly truly heartwarming.. he actually genuinely looked really surprised.. ahhhh Peepers.. so many people love you =) After dinner, we had a snack... of LIVE OCTOPUS(sangnakjee)... oh dear. It's NOT like Old Boy, however.. we didn't stuff an entire octopus into our mouths. Instead, their tentacles are chopped into smaller pieces... and then they are individually wriggling... so weird yet soooo cool. You drop them into the sauce, where they pretty much move around so much that they cover themselves in sauce for you.. then you eat the creepy crawly motherfuckers. Jake recommended letting them play in your mouth for a bit before you chew... and it was definitely a weird sensation. I was relieved when they didn't cling to the side of my mouth... although I didn't let them hang out too long before I started chewing vigorously. We rounded the night out by heading to Sum.. where Cooper, Jake, and my brother had suddenly become very well acquainted with the owner of the place.. who actually ended up making us even MORE food.. providing about 3 huge plates of food. Awesome! Anyway, my camera's LCD screen broke for some reason.. so my pictures are now all blurry and shitty. Boo.

TRIPLE LOVE SHOT! That smile on Peter's face was pretty much the same expression he wore all night.. aww cute=)

Jake being a fucking badass, as usual. Cooper's in the background

Pat feeling inadequate next to Jake's masterful chopstick drumming skills

The next day was the date of Seyong & Inga's return from Japan.. and also Inga's last day before she returned to Germany. The night started at Ho Bar III (of course) where everyone got their fill of fairly cheap booze. We later headed over to Watts On Tap(which is apparently some foreigners bar...weird) back in Sinchon where we had heard about some electro dance party... we arrive around 230 am and this party is looking TORE UP... just fucking brutal... brutally bad, that is. On the flyer, it stated that whacky and colorful outfits were celebrated... and people took it seriously. There were about maybe.. 10 people still left? And the remaining people were sloshing around and not even really dancing. All of a sudden a bunch of waegooks decided it was a good idea to get into a fight... ugh, seems like whenever there are foreign guys + booze, there are inevitably fights. Some glasses were dropped and broken but it ultimately resulted in nothing.. this place is looking way pathetic and lame at this point.. Pat & I are just aching to leave... but Inga convinces us to stay.. and of course we felt obligated because it was her last night in Seoul. So we decide to hang out a bit longer and it was the best decision we ever made.. all thanks to Inga! At this point, Minna and Pete had found their way over.. hooray! So all in all, there was me, my brother, Pat, Minna, Pete, and Inga there.. and it ended up being all we needed... although of course, Jake's, Peter's, and Cooper's presences are always appreciated.. however, Peter went home.. and Jake & Cooper were on a weekend excursion to Gyeongju. The music was initially lame... Madonna and whatever the hell else bullshit.. then Daft Punk's Alive album came on.. and of course Pat is totally jazzed.. at that point, his bodily functions were completely involuntary... he just gets up and starts dancing. He is a total slave to the music... Mister Slave, to be exact. Just kidding... but yes. We all just decides to let loose and dance totally silly as fuck... and it's nice to just not give a shit and just have a fucking good time. The only strange thing is that everyone else at the dance party happened to be in Pat & I's classes... and were all completely sloppy and shitfaced. Weeeeird. We dance until about 5 am when they turned the lights back on.. much to everyone's disappointment... we all shouted "NoooooOooooooo....." because we totally could have kept dancing until daybreak. For some reason, I decided to just start singing Justice.. and yelled "because.. WE..ARE... YOUR FRIENDS!" and then of course Pat started singing along with me.. and then this French guy comes bounding over and says, "HOW ZOO YOU GUYZ KNOW ZEES SONG??" and then he pulls out his ipod, and apparently he knows the people at the bar... and we get to dance to about 3 or 4 more Justice songs. Awesome! Afterwards, we decided it would be an amazing idea to go grab some McDonalds breakfast... ohhhhh yehhhhhh. So yeh, whatever, ended up being an epic night. Although there was this really bizarre and somewhat frightening moment when the very Irish bartender had grabbed somebody by the scruff of their shirt, dragged him across the dance floor, and then had physically HEAVED him out the door. But I guess we were all too jazzed to really give it another moment's thought... yikes. This bar also serves poutine on their daily menu.. so Pat and I are going to check it out one day.. I am a fan of poutine. Even the name really tickles my fancy. He he he.

what what in the butt!

Pete and Minna

check out Pat in the background haha

My brother and Inga

Soooo, okay. My dear friend from back home, Kristina, sent me the awesomest video I will ever see in my entire life. I know I'm no stranger to hyperbole but no.. I'm fucking serious about the statement I just made. Watch it and tell me it didn't change your life.

clowny clown clown

2008-03-31T03:43:00.000-07:00

So, I suppose I haven't written in quite some time. I guess I've been up to a lot and not much, both at the same time. This is just going to be a quick update, to let you all know that I'm still here, still alive, and still well.. for the most part. No, actually things have been going pretty swimmingly.. classes are much better this semester. East Asian Philosophy in Literature still continues to blow my mind, in the best way imaginable. I'm still trying to find a way to get out of my Art History class which is a complete drag. Everything we learn in class is taken directly out of the book she assigned us... plus, she is super hardcore militant about attendance. Apparently if you miss more than 2 classes, you automatically get dropped down a letter grade. I've missed 3. Fuck. I love love LOVE my Korean class. Korean class always seems to be the funnest one... last semester, I also adored my class. Our teacher now is ridiculous.. he's so adorable and hilarious, and a great teacher to boot. Every Friday, we bring snacks... Snack Friday! Last Friday, we had such a wide array of snackage.. Krispy Kreme donuts, cookies, candy bars, dumplings, kimbab.... holy shit! And today was one of our classmates' birthdays so we each chipped in a few bucks to buy him a cake. Awwww. We're totally the new Gelly/James/Peter's class from last semester(except... dare I say it? EVEN BETTER!.. haha just kidding, wow now I am going to get hateful messages from the aforementioned friends). My Korean class rules. Fucking period.

My older brother Aaron is here visiting me and we are having a grand time. It's definitely nice being able to see him and hang out with him after having not for such a long period of time. CHOES BEFORE HOES ain't no joke. Cooper(Jake's best friend from back home) also arrived in Seoul a few days ago and he is awesome... as expected. The rapport they have with each other is actually quite adorable.. they're like an old married couple.. they even kind of look alike..... weird. Beards of a feather, they flock together.

Korea Round II has still been fun, but it's definitely different. We rolled with such a large crew last semester that we could pretty much form a crazy waegook dance party anytime and anywhere.. it was nice knowing that we were all we needed and... wait for it... MORE. I guess what I'm trying to say is... I miss you, you, you, you, and you (pointing fingers around worldwide) We need to start scheduling Skype dates soon, ok?

P.S. Pat showed me Crispin Glover's short film entitled "Clowny Clown Clown" which has basically confirmed my suspicions that Crispin Glover is fucking crazy insane... but also totally kind of awesome. I guess it didn't take much to figure that out. Anyways, check it. It's fucking twisted. Honestly, I am not a big fan of clowns.. but mostly, of things in disguises. Word.

Longer update soon. Promise.

first week of school

2008-03-10T14:10:00.000-07:00

I miss the smiles that Gelly gives me when I give her a snack she secretly wants but is too afraid/polite to ask for.
I miss touching Amy's face in hopes of creeping her out.. even though she says it doesn't work.. hmph.
I miss the magical hand hugs with Ryo.
I miss James' intensity when he talks about comic books.... or Indiana Jones.. haha
I miss pushing Angie over and her hysterical laughter in response to me doing so.
I miss going totally bonkers over cute shit with Jason(although he appears aloof on the exterior.. "pshyeh, panda sneeze?"
I miss going crazy over sigur ros with Katharina.
I miss Silvia's adorable and unique laugh.
I miss Seth's stories of how he's totally a minor celebrity in Korea.

Do you guys get it? I totally miss you all. Every single one of you. Even the person that I always saw on the way to class, in KLI sheekdang, in the study lounge, in the hallways of Korean.. but never even really knew the name of. Ughh.. why do I always fall victim to this stupid/great thing called nostalgia? I am not going to use the word reminisce.. I don't know why but I hate that word. I feel like it belongs in some Brian McKnight song or similar. But I digress..

So today was the first day of KLI. I haven't slept much at all in the days since I've been back from the trip.. I don't know why. I know it'll fall back into place sooner or later.. but sometimes I go into times when I can't sleep.. so I've been in this half-awake and super delirious zombie mode... already completely disoriented because hey it's weird to see that again or whoa can't process the fact that I'm actually back. Anyway.. I missed my first class .. completely. I didn't go and it was the first day. Can you believe it? I drink a small can of iced coffee and whenever I'm feeling stressed out, caffeine is NOT good for me. I was in a complete disarray, basically I'm just completely out of my mind. The chaos of it all.. the cyclical nature of that chaos.. and how it feels both gross and how it's kind of a relief at the same time... bizarrely enough. I remember that Pat's in a certain room and I'm looking for anyone familiar at this point. I see him and pretty much explode through the doorway completely bat shit crazy. I look at him and let out probably a barely discernable sentence to any normal person.. I'm sure it just sounded like a really shrill hodge podge. Pat could probably only figure out what I was saying because he's known me and my neurosis for a pretty ok amount of time now... I don't know. I guess I miss people that can understand, and even learn to love, my tendency to be a huge nut case.

O.k. now I'm continuing this blog.. no longer the first day of KLI.
The first week of school is over... somewhat successfully. I think I'll enjoy my classes this semester.. although it seems that I'll actually have to study and gasp, attend class! I think it will be gratifying though. Here's a quick run down on my classes..

-Art History: Well, yeh.. I missed the first day of it already.. and I hear you can only miss 2 days otherwise your grade will be lowered a whole letter grade. What the fuck? On Tuesday, it starts at 9am... and I am pretty notorious for missing my morning classes. No one thinks I can do it.. Hell, I don't even think I can do it. Ah well. We'll see. The teacher is kind of boring so far.. and right now we're discussing cave paintings...... ughh. She likes to call on random students with random ass questions... fine, I'll agree to being called on if no one is responding to your question... but nope. She just calls on people and then asks the question. Not fair. We'll see... Peter says it gets better. Hope so.

-North Korea and Modernity: On recommendation from Gelly. The teacher is really really cool... the class seems interesting so far although we haven't really gotten into anything heavy yet... still going through the introductory period where it's just a really broad overview and such... it's funny because he was asking some rhetorical questions in order to relay to the next broad overarching topic for discussion.. and people would answer with the obvious answers... to which the teacher responded, "Uh.. yes.. but it was more of a rhetorical question." Later on it happened again, and he just said "hm... yeh.. maybe I shouldn't ask these questions." Heh heh.

-East Asian Philosophy in Literature: Mind blowingly awesome. I don't have any background in philosophy so I expect my mind to get fucking WORKED.

-Korean: For everyone who was here last semester, the structure of the courses has been reworked.. there are all new books... much to my dismay since I have James' textbooks from last semester. Balls. So I had to purchase a whole new set which cost me a whopping 58,000 Won! Twice as much as last semester! At least it's not as bad as beginner 2 books.. they're 68,000. Total shit. I was actually in Beginning 2 initially since I didn't take the placement test.. but one day, I was sitting in class when my reading teacher from last semester walked in.. in tow was Kent Davies( "the old guy" from last semester).. apparently he tried to go into her class, and our teacher was like 'what the heck are you doing here?" since he took level 1.5 last semester and she is currently teaching Level 1. Then we find out that level 2.. actually, still no one is 100% certain of what level 2 is now.. we find out that MAYBE it's this semester's 1.5(although there is a current 1.5 in existence now)... I have no idea. So our teacher takes us into Beginning 3 instead.. I have Tiffany Ahn's teacher from last semester.. the guy teacher. Sitting in class, I realized that I was the worst one among all of them.. much to my embarrassment, all of the non-Korean people are better than me... AHH! (I realize that I already told a bajillion people this story.. but here's to the ones that I haven't told.. sorry for the repetitiveness)... The teacher tells us random words for stock exchange, or trading company.. and asks the class, 'You guys all know this.. right?"... to which everyone nods and the annoying ass cocky girl next to me is like "mmMm".. she says this after everything the teacher says, in order to make sure he knows that she knows... fucking kill me. I'm so stressed out that I can't pay attention and am praying that he won't call on me.. every time he even looks at me, I just scribble into my notebook at a furious pace to make it seem like i am yulsheemi kongbuheh-ing (studying earnestly).. he gives us our 10 minute break, and the annoying girl next to me goes, "Ugh.. this is all review to me. I already know all of this. I have to go up a level." to which I respond, "OH my god. You totally should.".. she tells me this is her 4th semester of Korean, so I tell her "Then yeh.. this is ridiculous.. you should definitely go up a level.".... who knows? I might be sending her to a grave, but who cares? She's out of my life! Nice!

Anyway, since so many people were trying to go up or down a level.. the teacher gave us an impromptu quiz to determine who really belonged in the class.. holy shit. Cold sweat. He gives us a writing test... I suck at spelling.. and then a speaking quiz in front of the entire class! Everyone before me gets easy questions like, "What's your favorite food?".. or "What do you like to do on the weekends?".. He tells me a word I don't know... so I have to tell him in front of everyone, that I don't know what he is saying. Next he asks me if I have seen any Korean movies.. I tell him "Yes.. Old Boy".. he asks me to explain the plot. What?? Now I'm kicking myself because I could've chosen a simpler movie.. even in English, Old Boy is pretty difficult to explain. I mean, god.. I don't even begin to know how to say "revenge" or "sex with your daughter" in Korean... now I'm panicking.. I probably look like a total asshole.. so I just say "have you seen the movie?? it's too difficult to explain!"(in Korean of course).. he responded, "Yeh.. you're right. It is too hard) Whew. Saved. Anyway, the class is getting easier now.. probably because I'm not in a constant panic mode. I still think the class is pretty hard but I think it'll force me to study.. so I don't have to be the class dumbass.

It's really weird being back at school.. walking through the halls of KLI. The place is so familiar but all of the new faces aren't. I used to enjoy the 10 minute breaks during Korean because I'd get to see all of my friends in the hallway... but now it's kind of terrifying.

O.k. so that's my first week of school... in a crazy ass nutshell from a crazy ass nutcase.
All 720 of my pictures from my trip are already up on my facebook.. enjoy!
Take care guys. Miss you all... as always.

Deportation is a funny thing...

2008-03-01T23:24:00.000-08:00

I want to preface this blog post by saying.. damnit James. I read your stupid blog all the time.. so I'm expecting a picture posted of the essence of my soul soon as well. And it better be fucking snappy.

Anyway..... sooooo... wow. I guess I'll start with the deportation... "deportation" story first since that seems to be the most interest provoking topic. I have to start off the story with first explaining that Peter, Pat, and I had been on a 20 hour train from Hong Kong to Shanghai... we were restless as all hell and had absolutely nothing to do. I had listened to my ipod for hours on end until it died... boo. Pat & Peter were in the dining car having a drink so I decided to go track them down since I had nothing else to do.. I'd been sitting in darkness for a few hours already, and in my haste, I forgot to put my glasses on before I left.. so my vision's just a blurry mess as I go stumbling and stomping through the hallways of the train. I'm pretty sure I looked cuh-RAZY. Anyway, I get there and apparently they're bored as all hell too.... so we just started to crush peanut shells much to the dismay of the train attendants. Don't worry.. we cleaned it all up. So we eventually head back to our beds still too bored to even fall asleep.. so we pretty much go completely ape shit and revert back to childhood. Or feisty toddlerhood. Feral ass motherfuckers. There is absolutely NOTHING to do so we just start beating the shit out of each other. I mean poking, prodding, punching, kicking... holy shit. We've gone absolutely bonkers. Finally we just exhausted ourselves from such activities and passed out.. I don't even remember doing so. We get into Shanghai pretty much all RUMPLEstiltskin-ed out and relieved to be experiencing fresh air again... ugggh it was total cabin fever. We go through immigration procedures when... wait.. no.... we're stopped and escorted into a small office... oh... shit.. what the hell is going on?

We get sat down while all these security guards are filing in and out of the room.. all the while casting sidelong glances at us. We get introduced to an extremely amiable fellow who quickly introduces himself as such... "Hi! I'm Alex Lau. But you can call me Alex... or Captain Lau." Turns out we need a multiple entry Chinese to go through Hong Kong.. ohhhhh myyyy gaaaaaaaaaaawd. Rewind to a day or some random amount of time before... Me: "hey.. do you think we need a multiple entry visa to get back into China?"... Pat: "No.. i don't think so"... although by the time I said it, it was pretty much already too late. We tried to reason with the guy.. explaining that we didn't know... and also, god damnit, wasn't Hong Kong a part of China? So we weren't going to be let into Shanghai at all.. not even for the day. We asked to be taken the airport and told them we'd fly out that day if we could.. but we were denied. They told us that they would be sending us back on the very next train which was in about 4 hours... but they were nice enough to buy us lunch and then a hotel room to wait in until we had to go. Still.. it was total fuck nuts. We are such dumbasses. We couldn't even get mad about it.. it was our own damn fault.

So we get escorted out of the Shanghai station followed by about 5 or 6 guards.. 2 in the front, the rest in the back. We totally looked like criminals. They took us to the restaurant in the hotel and we decided that we wanted to order the most expensive shit on the menu.. but boooooo.. we were denied again. The menu is completely in Chinese so we were helpless.. one of the female guards jumps in to order for us.. and she is just nooooot very nice. We asked for certain things to eat but didn't really get anything we asked for.. she wouldn't even let us drink any booze. Damnit lady. Wouldn't you need booze after a huge ordeal like that? What she ended up ordering for us was chicken.. which was pretty okay except that the face of the chicken was left on the plate. It was staring at me the entire meal.... except it was only half the head. If you flipped it over.. as Pat did.. it revealed a hodge-podge of brains, gooey gross shit, and whatever the hell else is inside a chicken head. We asked for duck... and we were brought these gray, cold, and verrrrry unappetizing pieces of chopped up duck neck. slkdfjsdkfjkldfskjsdfjsf!! We tried it but it was just kind of weird and bleh. There were mushrooms and baby bok choy in some sort of sauce that was alright.. we also had some bland noodle soup. Peter got up to go ask the lady for rice... they were sitting about 20 feet away from us at the "adult table" since we were apparently at the little kiddie table. In about 5-10 minutes, the surly waitress appears and plops down a giant bowl of god knows what soup. Seriously. Only god knew what. It was white, and thick, and filled with little rice cake(dduk) pieces. We tried it and BLEEECHHH!! It was sweet and ahhhhhhhh what the hell is this?? We wonder if we should ask for more food.. and we're all reluctant to get back up and ask scary lady for more food.. Peter retorts, "Well.. you saw what happened when I asked for something." which put a funny image in my head of Peter asking for more things.. like say.. where the bathroom is or what the capital of Ukraine is... and then the response every time would be a huge thud.. and then appears another bowl of yuck soup. Pretty soon our table would be creaking under the weight of like..... 10 bowls of it. Oh dear.

So every time we looked over at their table, they seemed to stare right back at us. We were pretty much being treated like children and instead of proving them wrong.. I guess we kind of just acted like some. It was hilarious because all of these movie cliches were occurring... and we were playing into them as much as they were playing out in front if us. We discussed the idea of a possible escape... to where it would lead to a wild chaotic chase scene where the mean lady would yell out, "CATCH THOSE KIDS!!" And then suddenly all of the adults in the room would join the chase as we just completely wreak havoc on the dining floor.. no table or chair goes unturned. And then there would be a giant ogre of a man, probably mustached, who would be blocking the doorway to freedom.. his arms outstretched... his only mistake, which would result in his failure.. would be having his legs opened.... as we slid underneath them and out the door out of his reach. Pat and I pretty much had the same idea... maybe because we grew up in the Home Alone generation or whatever. Plan B would be that I would throw the giant bowl of soup into the wall and it would melt the wall.. also resulting in our freedom to romp around Shanghai. Peter's plan was that he would slowly disappear from their line of vision.. by slowly backing away from the table.. by the end of the meal, he was about 1 1/2 - 2 feet away from the table... haha.. he also said he just wanted to throw his shoe at them.

We get left with tons of food that we just find unappealing.. and we just think to ourselves... damnit. We can't just leave all this here.. they will not be happy. So we agree that we will just dump whatever we didn't finish into the giant bowl of soup.. which is pretty much like sending things into oblivion. We plop the little duck neck pieces and then stir it a little bit in order to fully conceal the lumps. Success! We then decide that we want dessert... since none of us were really satisfied with the meal. Pat goes over to the table and asks mean lady if we can order dessert.. she responds by handing him a small bowl of some weird gelly substance(doesn't look too different from yuck soup) and says "Here.. you can have one". He comes back and we stare at the strange dessert before tasting it... uggghh! Gross! It's like the bastard son of the soup!! Guess what we did? Yeh.. uh huh.. we sent it back to the mothership... the giant bowl of yuck soup. Pat wonders if we should order any more food.. and I say, "I don't know.. we don't have much more room in this soup." which is pretty much about to brim over the bowl. Ohhhhh jebus. We are just bored bored bored... and we decide to let them finish their meal before we get sent off into our rooms... but ladkjfkjdsf damnit.. every time we look over at them, they have more and more food arriving! They just won't quit! And all of their food looked infinitely better than ours.. hmph.

We later get sent to our rooms.... heh. Then I find out that I had to be separate from the boys because as mean lady said, "Because you are a female and they are males".... what! No fun. The rooms are REALLY nice though... but when I get into the room, they immediately send me into the bedroom and close the door... while apparently they'd be camping out in the living room area. Bullocks. I ask to go to the bathroom and immediately steal the toiletries... then I go back into the room and try to find anything that I can successfully steal. I even contemplated taking the robe but then decided it was too big to pack into my already full backpack. I flip on the telly only to find Bono staring back at me. GRRRROOOOOOOAAAAANNN!(Hi RYO!) I finally settle on a soccer/football match between China and North Korea. god did it suck. The game was pretty much a joke as neither team was very good at all... the best part of the game was when some guy got a red card for pretty much kicking some guy.

Anyway, that's the story folks. Sorry I worried you folks with my facebook status update. Expect more updates to come... unfortunately for you guys, I'm not done talking about this trip just yet.

a shit ton

2008-02-09T22:48:00.000-08:00

So so so so so......
Yeh. Hanoi was a bit depressing since it was constantly gray, drizzly, and c-c-c-cold after we'd been enjoying such wonderful weather everywhere else.. and we had become such good friends w/ the sun.. so we decided to book it to Laos where we are right now.. and it was such a grreeeat decision. We've already had so many awesome experiences here thus far.. and guess who was on our bus to Laos? Nathan, David, and Mark.. who are a part of our Yonsei program.. yeh.. we've run into them about 3-4 times now.... weeeeird. Anyway, funny side story... when we were getting our Laos visas, there was this squirrely little d-bag guy who turned to point at something behind him and jabbed Pat in the face on accident.. meanwhile not apologizing nor even acknowledging it.. Pat and I were in the middle of WTFFFFFFF.. when he turned and hit me in the face too!! Yeh I know it wasn't intentional both times but at least pretend it happened!! So I didn't know what else to do except laugh hysterically because I found the situation so hilarious... it seemed like the guy had a vendetta against peeps with glasses.. or oops.. I mean us four-eyed freaks.

Ok ok another funny story.. so the guy sitting across the aisle from Peter on the bus to Laos, mentioned that he bought one of those pointy straw hats.. and it's annoying to carry around but he didn't want to constantly wear it since he'd feel like a big dork... then Nathan turns around and says, "yeh.. you'd have to wear it with one of those red t-shirts with the big yellow star on it" (chuckle chuckle).. the guy grins sheepishly and then slowly unzips his jacket.. and lo and behold! I almost died laughing.

We also met another traveller on this same bus... this bus was just filled with awesome people... we were walking along this road in Vientaine when we ran into him having a drink at this restaurant. So we pulled up a few chairs and grabbed a beer with him. He's a Kiwi(New Zealand... site of LOTR movies heh).. and he grew up in a small town.. and he goes hunting apparently.. anyways, he was telling us about some of his wild stories like how once he was walking through "the bush" and his dogs were going crazy at the site of this dead cow.. he walks up and then out pops a fucking wild pig!! HOLY SHIT BALLS !! APparently these little fuckers like to cut open a cow's stomach and then crawl in to eat the guts.. so I just imagined this pig popping out covered in blood and guts yelling "BOOGA BOOGA BOOGA!".. even minus the boogas(which are arguably the least scariest part), that is one scary as fuck image. UGGGHHhhh. He also told us that he managed to fall off a cliff.. about a 5m fall.. into all of these vines.. where he got stuck.. and then this wild pig who was one angry little mofo came charging him.. meanwhile he's stuck and can't move.. has no gun on him.. and he's just like "Oh shit, I'm going to get tore up".. he's hanging off a tiny little branch that can barely support his weight.. and meanwhile, he's trying to just kick the pig in the head.. luckily his dogs came and saved him. Cute, right? Heh. His "mate" came running to see what happened.. and upon hearing the story, he just uttered one word.. a word that perfectly described the situation... "fuck"

We've been meeting so many amazing people. We went to this little forested area to go to an herbal sauna and get a massage.. we met these two Korean girls there.. and we decided to meet for dinner later.. we found out that one of the girls goes to Ewha which is our neighoring university. Soooo cool. I found out the name to the movie "the 40 year old virgin" in Korean.. which is "40 sahl ga jee moht han boon".. which directly translated is something like "the man who hasn't been able to do it until he's 40"... haha it's funnier if you can understand Korean. It's just a funny translation.. anyways, we hung out with them the next day too just hanging out and checking out some temples.. they were leaving to Bangkok that day though.. so we exchanged numbers and vowed to hang out once we got back to Seoul.. I really hope we do!

Hmm.. so we've mostly been just hanging out doing not much of anything.. which has been really cool because I guess even by doing "nothing" here, it's still something since we get to soak in completely new environments and sights... Pat and I even shot guns! I know, right? It was so scary.. and I was so shaken up during and afterwards.. Pat managed to do really really well.. like CIA agent status.. he hit the target with all of his 10 bullets.. while I... managed... to hit... absolutely.. nothing. Hmm.... yeh. I'm sure no one is surprised haha. Later that night we decided to try to go clubbing.. which ended up being pretty unsuccessful. All the spots were either skeazy skeaze(IE, old white dudes with slutty ass Lao girls) or completely empty.. so we just decided to call it a night.

We're in Vien Vieng right now.. which is really beautiful and mellow. It's just a small town that's filled with travellers.. but not super trashy like Khao San Road in Thailand.. which was that super bro/ho-ville we encountered earlier. We rented motorbikes and went exploring which was much much fun. We explored some caves and traversed the side of a mountain with some slippery ass rocks.. it was a really cool sight but I was definitely glad to touch solid ground again.. everyone knows me and heights.. no bueno. Here's another funny little story.. Peter bought 4 hardboiled eggs.. well, what he thought were just harmless hardboiled eggs... we sat down in a little pagoda to just rest for a moment, when peter decides to eat one of his eggs.. He cracks it in his hand and it pretty much explodes all over his leg.. and he shouts, "UGGGHhHHH!!!! IT'S A BABYYYYY!!!!".. turns out it's a fucking chicken fetus. I looked over at the chicken and screamed it was so gross! It looked like a little puddle of baby chicken.. as if one had melted.. Pat says, "Ugh.. I'm so grossed out right now".. this is Peter's response "YOU'RE disgusted?! It's all over my leg!!"... oh man, fucking hilarious. I LOL-ed for a good while. Peter unloaded his eggs on this little kid passing by.. hopefully he enjoys those eggs .. that would suck otherwise. There might be another "UGGHHH IT"S A BABYYYY" scene

Anyway, Laos is amazing. Laos and Cambodia are definitely vying for the #1 spot for me on this trip so far.. yars. We've all been reading a ton.. I've read more during these 5 weeks than I did in the 4 months that I spent in Korea. Pretty crazy. So far I've read...
1)Lewis Carroll - Alice in Wonderland
2) Herman Hesse - Siddhartha
3) Alex Haley and Malcolm X - Autobiography of Malcolm X
4) John Steinbeck - Of Mice and Men
5) Ernest Hemingway - The Old Man and the Sea
6) Margaret Atwood - Oryx and Crake
7) Albert Camus - The Stranger(current)
It's been nice to get so much reading done fo shiz. It's pretty crazy to think that soon we'll be having to go back to Korea and get back to "normal" life.. which is still removed from our "normal" life.. if that makes sense at all. Shrug. Shit's weird.

P.S. everyone check out the "Yes we can" music video for Obama on youtube or similar. pretty cool shtuff.

Hoi An mixed up is Hanoi...!!

2008-01-27T22:06:00.000-08:00

Wow.
Food for thought. Or not really. Whatever. Shut the heck up! You talkin to me...? You talkin to me?? (creepy Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver.. heh)

O.k. o.k.
So I don't remember what I wrote about in my last update.. especially because stupid blogspot isn't letting me view it right now.. or anyone else's blog on blogspot for that matter. Fucking balls. So if I end up repeating myself, I'm sorry. I guess it's good because I've been writing in my journal everyday so that I can actually try to remember everything.. so here goes my attempt to pull things out of my diary entries and recap them to you.. yes

Cambodia was amazing.. we only stayed for about 4 days though unfortunately. We spent about 3 days in Siam Reap checking out Angkor Wat(Angkor WHAT!!).. According to wikipedia, it is... "a World Heritage Site, is a temple at Angkor, Cambodia, built for King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation—first Hindu, dedicated to Vishnu, then Buddhist. The temple is the epitome of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the country's prime attraction for visitors.".. Yeh.. we did that. It was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful and amazing.. I still can't even get over how cool of an experience it was.. but I guess that I'll have to wait to put up my photos until I can really show you guys.. and even still, my pictures are probably too shitty to really capture the true awesomeness of it all. We also rented bicycles so we explored the city a pretty good amount... oh, and side story.. while at Angkor Wat, I was riding my bike when apparently my ticket flew out of my front basket.. although unknowingly to me... so when we arrived at the gates, I realized my dumb ass lost it... and the thing cost 20 dollars... so.. fuck.. me.. seriously. I retraced my steps.. my loooong ass bicycle ride.. and holy shit. I managed to find it!! That was quite a bit of good luck.

We were at this really cool cafe in Siam Reap.. where the pastries and food are absolutely delicious. Our waiter was ridiculous as well... after he cleared our plates away, he looked at us with a deadpan expression and asked us, "Was that totally awesome? Super duper? Totally bitchin?".. except with his accent it sounded like To tuh lee Bitch un? I almost died laughing.. and later when we were leaving, he yelled after Pat.. "peace out dawg sir!".. That really warmed my heart haha

We're currently in a adorable little riverside town called Hoi An... it's really sweet and quaint and very comfortable. We spent about two days here... we've experienced some of the best food we've had on our trip thus far.. we ate these things.. I don't remember the name of it.. but basically you take rice papers, fill it with veggies, something that looked like sauerkraut, either your choice or egg grilled pork or chicken, and you can dip it in either this spicy peanutty ish sauce.. or chili sauce.. and later on the guy brought us out this egg pancake thingy filled with bean sprouts that we added into the mix. It was out of control. Also some dishes worthy to note that we ate later on.. Hoi An's specialty is called Cao Lau.. which are these noodles with sliced grilled pork, crispy pork rinds(I think), bean sprouts.. and it's all in this slightly spicy soy based broth(i think).. I don't know exactly but it was soooo delicious. We were all pretty much licking our plates.. mmm. We also tried this tiger fish cooked to perfection, that we dipped in a lemon ginger sauce and then we would heap it onto these rice crackers. Jebus, the food here is amazing. Just now we just experienced the best breakfast everrrr.. eggs benedict! I haven't had eggs benedict in such a long time.. and I've been jonesing. All of these meals have been less than $5 as well.. it's unbelievable.

Yesterday, we went on a little tour to My Son.. which are these ancient ruins from about the 4th century... the landscapes seemed straight out of a Miyazaki film.. in it's lush greens and everything was covered over in moss. It was really beautiful.. the only downside was that we signed up for a stupid tour where there were about a bajillion people.. and we were only given about an hour.. so stupid.

Anyway, have to run.
We're heading to Hanoi via a 19 hour long bus ride... wuhoo!
So yeh. I love you and miss you all.. as always.

-Hannars

crazy shit

2008-01-17T21:46:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,
We're in Siam Riep, Cambodia right now..
arrived here yesterday. So I'll just give a recap of what's been happening the past week...
When we were in Thailand, we were trying to make our way to Kotao.. and we were on a bus when we stopped somewhere where everyone else on the bus proceeded to get off.. so then some random dude came onto the bus and asked us where we were going.. we told him and he said to follow him, because we would be transferring. Anyways, this didn't seem so unusual to us since when we went to Bangkok to Phuket, we transferred about 4 times.. we went from a bus to a migrant worker truck to a minibus to another minibus.. so here we were again, starting our minibus adventures. So the guy takes us to this freaking HOUSE in the middle of seemingly nowhere.. where there is this crude office setup amidst children and women sittingly idly by watching some random Korean drama.. weird, right? Sitting at the plastic office chair, was some guy who thought he was the godfather or something... or the second coming of Christ.. whichever. I don't know, but he was a total asshole and a half. He was trying to sell us boat tickets, meanwhile having no signs or anything that would resemble something legitimate.. so we started freaking out because we were in some random dude's house without knowing where the hell we were. We started arguing with these guys because they were obviously scamming us, and the guy who drove us there decided to play the "nice guy" and take us to the pier(where we originally had wanted to go) for free. Yeh fucking right he was nice.. the asshole takes us to the pier we were fortunate to have been at 2 days prior.. so we knew it was closed. It was this creepy broken eerie pier.. and I started to get scared because it seemed like a)the guy was going to murder us... or b) we were going to get stranded at this creepy ghost town.. where creepy little ghost children would murder us... things weren't looking too good for us. We refused to get out of the car... and at this point we were just freaked out as well as a bit furious with both ourselves and the guy for so easily falling into a trap.. this was also in the middle of the night, mind you.. as it's so much easier to get scammed when you can't see shit. We finally get him to take us to a bus station where there are actual people around... "bus station" is where he took us.. we decided not to take anything the guy offered us, got a bit belligerent, and managed to not have to pay a cent... then it took forever to hail down a cab since we were in a random ass location..

We asked the cab driver to take us to the pier, and then he ended up taking us to some random hotel. Blaaargh! We had to argue again because everyone is just tryinz to soak upz our moneyz! I don't even have any moneys since I lost my stupid wallet.. the guy at the front desk tried to tell us that there was no night bus when we knew that there was.. and luckily there were some Swedish travellers behind us who had just been to the pier who confirmed this. I guess they were maybe trying to get us to stay at their hotel.. or whatever. UGgGGgghhh. Finally, the Swedish travellers, in an act of pure kindness, walked us to the pier where we were finally able to catch our boat.. wuhoo!

Anyway, Kotao was great. It was still touristy but a lot more quietly done.. without so many people harassing you.
So okay.. rewind a few days to when we were on our way to Phuket town.. Peters said next to this Japanese traveller named Toshi who told us about a place called Happy Days in Kotao.. which dealed marijuana.. when we got there, we asked around until someone was able to point it out to us.. we trekked up this big hill, and the area was a bit desolate, not much was going on there... I was just sincerely hoping that it was worth it, otherwise it'd be kind of a waste of time.. we get to this house... er, kind of house... that's just basically crudely constructed with logs.. it was basically just a balcony thingy.. er, I don' tknow how to explain it. We'll have pictures to show later.. Anyways, the view is amazing though... although the guy told us he didn't have any weed but allowed us to just hang out. Whatevers, he didn't speak much English. When we were about to leave, Peter decided to ask again.. and the guy gave us some! We tried to offer him money but he was just whateverrrr about it. So.. long story short, kind of sketch but awesomely serene and pretty place.. got free weed.. overlooked an amazing view.. fucking epic.

The beach was also quiet and nice.. although the sand was kind of rough. We were swimming when all of a sudden I hear Sigur Ros! Fucking what?! So I go up to the little kiosk hut thingiemuhjigger.. and see that there's an ipod that the guy told me belonged to someone who had just ran out to lunch. So of course I put on song #8 on the ( ) album...Pats and I looked at the ipod and the guy had a pretty awesome and eclectic taste in music... we envisioned that he'd be this hip young dude.. and when he came back he was this middle-aged unhip looking Aussie guy.. so weird and so cool haha. The dog at the hut was fucking the cutest thing ever(except for Simba.. don't worry Simba).. the guy told me that the dog just slept all the time to which I responded "He has a good life".. then I found out he was 15 years old, blind, and without teeth.... !!!!! The guy said that he'd been giving the dog eyedrops though.. so his vision was getting better.. oh.. my...god... that is the sweetest most heartwarming thing I've ever heard...

Anyway, more bad news.
So I had this yummy green curry soup with shrimps, right? The same night, I wake up at 2am in complete agony... my stomach was fucked up in pain. I can't sleep, lie down, sit up, stand up, do anything without my stomach feeling shitty.. so I try going to the front desk of the hotel to see if they could give me any medicine or anything to relieve the pain.. It was closed.. so I was like "fffffuck".. I knew there was a clinic down the street somewhere but the street was not well lit and kind of scary.. so I go back to the room miserable and upset... luckily Pat heard me stirring and was a total sweetheart and walked me to the clinic.. where I felt like an asshole because I woke up the nurse. We rang the doorbell and some white guy in only a towel came out... UHhhhhhh... what the hell? But the place actually looked pretty legit and the nurse was really nice. She diagnosed me with food poisoining and gave me a shot to help with some of the pain. This helped until I woke up about 4 hours later.. this time my stomach settled down a little but I had a fever and my entire body was aching. All of my muscles hurt.. so I spent most of the day/the entire day indoors deliriously crying and in pain in bed.. blah. I felt like an asshole for getting so sick.... because we ended up having to stay 2 more days.. and I missed out on snorkelling which was one of the things I was looking forward to the most..blah. I've never gotten food poisoning before so this really sucked.. a really sweet sidenote though.. while I was sleeping, I had a wet rag on my head to help break the fever.. when Peters had wrung out the towel with new water and was dabbing my face.. and then he placed the towel on my head.. all I could do was incoherently mumble "Thanks Peter"... aw, my friends are so sweet.

Anyway, we're in Cambodia now.. the roads aren't really paved in most parts of Cambodia.. so we endured an exceedingly bumpy ride ... so bumpy that one of the tires just completely blew out. But we survived.. and it wasn't actually that bad. The funny part was that towards the end I kept nodding off a little bit, and everytime we hit a big bump I was like "LAND MINE!!"... since Cambodia is one of the most heavily land mined places in the world.. there are still 4-6 million landmines around. Fucking scary. Anyways, I'm writing this without editing or even trying to sound.... educated. Wow, go me. Running out on time.. so, yeh. until the next episode! I'll write you guys back soon promise.. please keep writing me in the mean time. Love and miss you all.

quick update from SE Asia

2008-01-11T04:32:00.000-08:00

O.k. so this is going to be quick because internet where I am in Thailand is ass fuck expensive.. for Korean standards, for American standards, for anywhere in the fucking world standards.. it feels like I'm paying a brick of gold for this..

Anyways,
Our stop in Taiwan was awesome. We did shit like eat awesome food off the streets, went to the National Museum of Taiwan which is apparently one of the top 5 best museums in the world.. we checked out night markets which were crazy congested and had many interesting sights to see.. lots of pojang-machus(food carts).. yeh yeh. We also rented bicycles for about $2 and rode them around the Keelung River(I think?) for about 2 1/2 hours. It was pretty amazing.. I haven't ridden a bike in forever(I miss you Cornelius.. my old ass heavy fucking bike back at home ).. so that was definitely grrreat.

We arrived in Thailand.. and it's been pretty crazy. We're getting pulled this way and that way from people who are trying to get us to ride in their cab, eat at their restaurant, get a massage, whatever. People are just trying to sell us anything and everything.. while trying to rip us off of course. It's been frustrating getting lost anywhere because anyone you ask for directions on the street, will either try to direct you to do go to their guesthouse or whatever, or they'll not tell you where to go to spite you.. it's been kind of annoying. But yeh, it's definitely been interesting here.. the first few days we arrived at Kaesan Road(sp?) which was like fucking WAEGOOK-ville on crack(foreigners).. it was like.. bros and hos.. I saw a muscle tee here, a tribal tattoo there, and bleached blonde hair everywhere.. tons of Euro trash as well... we were walking through the streets embarrassed as fuck because we couldn't really say that we were different.. it was hard to fade into the background when we had our giant assbacks and our pale and yet to be tanned skin. We spent the next day looking around temples.. which were were really ornate and awesome.. we saw the giant reclining Buddha which was really cool to see upclose and in person. Afterwards, we made our way to Phuket town.. which took 4 bus transfers and about 22 hours.... then we rented motorbikes and rode around the city... but Pat and I accidentally lost Peters for a few hours.. and I thought I was going to have a panic attack.. luckily Peters found his way back to us and I almost cried in relief. Blah.. anyway, we're at some beachy place right now.. the beach was completely awesome and it was so fun to be in the waterrrr. We're also getting our tan on.. I haven't had a tan in like.. 5 years.. or .. more. We watched the sunset.. and any time you see a sunset on the beach, it's always pretty epic. Actually, at one point, I stopped watching the sunset and found myself absolutely entranced by this family playing nearby. I always go gushy at the sight of a happy family... their daughter was at most 2 years old, and their son was at most 4 years old.. and they were just throwing a little ball around and the kids were running around, giggling and chasing after the ball.. everyone looked like they were having a blast.. it was just a really sweet scene...

Blah. But bad news... I lost my fucking wallet...in....Thailand...
I don't know if it got lost or stolen.. or maybe lost and then stolen.. but either way, it's my own damn fault for not paying enough attention. And anyone who knows me, knows that I'm usually pretty good at not losing stuff.. I've NEVER lost a cell phone, or a wallet, or my keys before.. so this fucking sucks that the one time I do is in a foreign country.. so.. yeh. And anyone I try to call, such as the minibus companies that drove us.. and no one spoke English.. but pretended like they did.. so that was pretty frustrating. I finally just gave up and emailed my bank to cancel my cards.. I can't even find a phone card here so I haven't been able to phone my bank... ugggh. Anyway, I freaked out about it on and off for the past 2 days... but I guess I've decided that I have to just get over it because what else can I do? And I'm still here having a blast, so.. yeh.. everything in my wallet can get replaced.. so whatever. It'll just take time and money I guess... drivers license, alien reg, all bank cards including Korean and American, Yonsei ID.. blarg. I guess I just have to figure out a way to get money now... luckily Peters has a wells fargo account so I can transfer money to him to give to me.. so hopefully now Peters won't lose his card. O.k. well I have to go.. I know I have emails to write back to everyone so please don't think I'm not going to write back... I really want to write nice heartfelt messages when I have time to think about it.. and cheaper internets. O.k. well I hope everyone is doing well. Please keep writing me and I miss you all.

the final hurrah, for now at least

2008-01-03T21:25:00.000-08:00

So, I guess I already wrote an emotional enough blog entry for the goodbyes, and such.
Not many pictures were taken during this period.... I guess we waz unablez to take many picz, b/c we were soakinz upz sum tearz. Yeh.. fuck, sorry this isn't getting old for me.

Anyway, I'll make this brief..
On the afternoon of the 22nd, we had to bid James farewell. James was one of my first chingoos here and I had to say bye to him first. Yeh, that really wasn't fun. He had a pretty sizable entourage following/stalking him to the airport limousine: Ryo, Jake, Anna, Peter, Pat, Gelly, Seth, and myself. We gave him our final hugs and all, but for some reason it was still completely surreal. It was tough for me to register it in my head that James was leaving Korea. We watched him board the bus which took off shortly after.. to which Gelly responded, "Oh. The bus left." That pretty much summed up my feelings about it as well... I was just in complete disbelief. Especially because it seemed like he was leaving Korea on some random ass bus... we didn't see any airplane fly away or anything.. I don't know. It was just really weird. I started feeling sad later so I called James since I knew he had his phone on him.. fuck nuts.

Pat and I decided to stay with our remaining chingoos in I-house while they packed up their shit.
We also had to say goodbyes to the Austrians, who were also some of my first chingoos. This was starting to suck. A lot. That night, everyone was caught in some sort of foggy haze that they couldn't really escape or put their finger on exactly. I think the process of packing was so exhausting that it was hard to process that after that task was done, they'd be shipping off. It was a sleepless night as by the time everyone was done, we packed up some taxis and headed off to the airport limousine. Ryo and Gelly were the first to go through the gates pretty much directly after we arrived at the airport. One of the most endearing moments of the morning was when Ryo farted and with an anxious look on his face, stated, "I always get really gassy when I'm stressed out." UGHHHHH I can't take it. Ryo, I want to squeeze you at all times of the day. Of course, after they left... I couldn't take it so I called Gelly's phone as well. We all got to hear their voices again and it was nice, although it was still such a sad moment. Although I got to laugh quite a bit when Gelly told me that Ryo proposed that they get a drink because they just couldn't handle it. It was freaking 9 in the morning!! Oh, those two. That was really sweet.

And then there were three.
Ames didn't have to board until 2pm so we had quite a bit of time left. We decided to shack up in a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf for a total of five hours haha. I even slept for about 20 minutes. Yeh, we were bumming it. When we finally got up to go see Amy off, it was completely bizarre because here I had just spent 5 hours with her at the Coffee Bean and I couldn't really figure out where she was going. god, this day really really sucked. I had to wave her bye-bye and then I'd look up at Pat who had this really serious expression on his face, his eyes welling up with tears. That was tough. It pretty much took all I had in me to not begin to bawl. The bus ride was intense.. we were both in disbelief that we had to see off the vast majority of our best friends in Korea in such a short period of time. I played DJ on the ride back, and tried to play some happy music... but it's funny how when you're not feeling too hot, the happy music turns to sad music. And by sad, I really mean to say absolutely devastating. Blah.

Anyway, anyway, anyway.
I know I say "anyway" a lot. It's my favorite segway, that anyway. Rhymes. Busta Rhymes. Rimes comma Leann. O.k. I'll stop.

All of my chingoos are now in their respective homes: New Jersey/New York, Kentucky/Ohio, Austria, Seattle... and they all seem to be having a tough time coping. I mean I heard before that re-entry/re-culture shock was the toughest part, but I guess no one can ever be prepared enough for that. I'm in great fear of it myself. Some random guy I met before I came to Korea told me that he had studied abroad for a year, and that the hardest part for him was seeing his friends.. because he felt that he had changed so much and had seen so many amazing things and he came back, and all of his friends were living the same uninspired lives. You know, I don't even know what to say to that. So I'm sorry to my chingoos because I don't quite know what to say to make you feel better without having to feel like I'm having to lie to a certain extent. I know I'm going to have to face the same thing half a year from now and I'm not looking forward to it. Some of my good friends might even move out of the city because of graduation, and etcetera. Although I do like my friends back at home.. I don't have many of them, but I like the ones that I do have. But, yeh. I guess all I know is for now is that I think you're all amazing people and that wherever you go, greatness will follow as long as you put in the effort. I haven't figured out the rest yet. But I guess that's a work in progress, as usual. Gross.

For now, I'm still fighting to stay positive... which hasn't been as hard as I previously thought.
I have you guys in my life now, so I can't say I'm unlucky.. you know? Far from it. We were fortunate enough to have met one another, and we each had a major impact on each others lives. I don't know.. take from it what you will. Blah, geography can be a bitch sometimes. No one has invented teleportation as of yet, but for now we have SKYPE!!!!, email, aim, etc. That will keep us together.. until we meet again. Oy oy.

Continue to search for inspiration, and aspire to inspire others in return. It's all we can really hope for.

seeing James off(photo taken by James Fallisgaard with additional tweaking for the better or worse by yours truly)

comraderie

weeze in the robby, breakinz up ur heartz

One more time

2008-01-02T16:52:00.000-08:00

So, this was our final night together... which actually happened to coincide with James' 21st birthday!
Happy birthday James! I totally fucking hate you. Just kidding. I ruv James. Well, we started out by going to the Red Bar... or I forget its name... I spent the vast majority of my time there signing Angelica's book... which ended up being a gazillion and a half pages long in tiny ass script. It's funny because I could've easily written more... oh the love I hold for Gelly is immeasurable. Hopefully I did well with these books.. I really and truly hope I did well to make sure that everyone knows how much I love them. It was kind of difficult to be put on the spot to write so it was probably less than poetic. Ah well. Sucks to your ass-mars.

After the Red Bar, we headed over to HO BAR III, the very best of the Ho bars. We started off by doing a round of $1.50 tequila shots and we toasted to our dear friend James, who would soon have the longest birthday of his life. He flew out of Korea on his birthday, and landed in the states where it still happened to be his birthday. Must've been completely exhausting for him seeing how we did our very best to wear the hell out of the bastard. Anyway, I can't even put into words how amazing this night was. It was honestly the perfect capper for the awesome trip we all shared together. No tears were shed. It was just about sharing our final night together and making the absolute best of it. Yeh, it was perfect.

Afterwards, we linked arms and sprinted over to SKA2, which is a club with FREE ENTRY! Hells yes! We had a great time dancing along to some of the cheesiest songs most of us hoped to never hear again in our lifetimes... IE, "MAMBO #5" What the fuck?? The most epic event of the evening was when Daft Punk's "One More Time" came on. I know, I know. Usually no one really thinks twice about this song, especially the lyrics of the song because they're so simple. But, tonight it pretty much embodied all of our collective feelings. I mean, holy shit, it really is just ONE MORE TIME we gonna celebrate yeh oh yeh alright don't stop the dancing. Maybe I'm digging myself into a hole with people other than the ones who were there.. but what the fuck ever. It was a totally epic moment because we all just grabbed each other and sang our hearts out. It was completely surreal and I know everyone felt it. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures at SKA2.. I'm sure James did but my dumbass forgot to get his pictures from him before he left. BLARGh. Maybe some time next September, I'll be able to see them on his brog(har har, inside joke)

P.S. Brilliant little Ryo got everyone to sign a styrofoam ball for James... which he himself marked it with "HAPPY BALLS DAY!"... I proceeded to write "balls balls balls balls.. -signed balls"... Yeh, I know I'm a fucking literary genius. James managed to hold onto the ball all night. He toted it around proudly. 6, 7, BALLS! 10, 9, BALLS! I can still hear Ryo's voice saying it... haha

Jake... a picture taken by Gelly on my camera

Katharina and Silvia at Chobang

Peter, James, Pat, and Alex at HO BAR III

All aboard the crazy train!

Yeh? Fuck yeh!

yessss my preciousssss

the unlikely pair

my kind of sort of not really twin. can you tell the similarities/differences?

Patterbox and Jason

hardy har har hARrr

oh sweet jebus(photo by Katharina Nemec pre-Frida)

sweetness(photo by Katharina Nemec)

making our way to SKA2.. this was such a blur, literally(photo by Katharina Nemec)

Various pictures leading up to DOOMS DAY.... dun dun dun

2008-01-01T22:40:00.000-08:00

At our favorite hangout, in the back of a convenience store, Buy the Way

After the BOYsterous came stumbling into Annas, yeling out some incoherent nonsense... something about a bumblebee jingle? Haha...

Poor little sleeping Ryo's legs are in the picture

I finally managed to kill the bastard

On the last day of Korean class, I encountered this depressing sight..

Amy looking unbelievably adorable

Katharina, Silvia, and Angelica at a restaurant in Insa-dong

at the mogi jang

Katharina and Anna

Tempizzle stay weekend

2008-01-01T21:18:00.000-08:00

So the weekend of December 1st-2nd...
James, Silvia, Katharina, Angelica, and myself decided that we wanted to go away for a little weekend excursion so we all agreed upon doing a temple stay. Katharina + Silvia suggested that we go to a nearby temple located in Gwanghwa-Do which is a little island off Seoul..... I think. Anyway, it was about a 2 hour bus ride so we figured that'd be the best choice.... because our other option was a 5hour bus ride away. We traipsed about Sinchon in search of the mysterious and elusive Sinchon bus terminal.. say what? At one point, this little search had me stumbling into a police station on the verge of super giggle fitzgerald(our friend who is very near and dear to our hearts)... Anyway, the terminal was only about 50 meters away from the police station which the policemen pointed out to us, incredulous of the fact that we were too stupid to see it. As always, fucking wae-gooks. Hee hee.

At the terminal, we tried to figure out where exactly we had to go. Katharina had a few names written down on a piece of paper so I tried to ask some official looking passerbys about which bus we should take.... by a stroke of bad luck, we managed to bump into an irate middle-aged man who was content to be in contempt..... he was the type of ahjuhshee(old Korean man) that I've spent the vast majority of my trip in Korea trying to avoid.. He proceeded to yell at us... oops, I mean, speak at an unimaginably loud volume telling us that we were doing all of the wrong things, that we were little pieces of shit that should kill ourselves immediately.. o.k. maybe he wasn't saying all of this but I honestly couldn't even focus on trying to figure whatever the hell it was he WAS saying because I was too busy trying to pretend that I wasn't noticing that he was spitting all over my face with each of his seemingly disdainful and derisive words.... uggggggghhhhhhhh. Is it rude to attempt to wipe the spit off my face right in front of him? Better that than hold up an umbrella to shield myself, right? Fuck nuts. It's funny how despite the language barrier, someone is still able to berate you with such ease. Finally we decide that we didn't want to listen to that ogre and we went to buy our bus tickets. Luckily, that decision paid off as it was a pretty easy trip to our destination.

Sho nough, we made it without a hitch.
We were greeted by a little monk of Vietnamese descent who spoke absolutely no English or Korean... and Phillip.. who was our German friend for the weekend. Well, he was James' German friend since they were bunkmates. As soon as we got there, we put on some ridiculously cool monk clothes.. the clothes that we'd remain in all weekend... We looked silly and therefore, laughed ourselves silly... at the sight of each other and at the sight of ourselves... hells yes. Anyway, we were then introduced to the Russian monk who would end up being our mentor/guide throughout our stay. We spent most of the day(and all weekend) drinking various types of tea.. including dandelion, green tea, Vietnamese green tea... and I forget what else. Oh man, I'm attempting to write this at 5:30 in the am right now after a loooong night... so we'll see how this goes... so far, so not good. Yikes.

We ate in a tar pit... well, pretty much. The whole area was under construction.. it was pretty nauseating to eat right next to all of the tar... I couldn't stay in there for too long otherwise I'd get a headache..... boo. So we were exhausted by 7pm and couldn't wait to go to bed like the lamers we are.. we quickly fell asleep until we awoke 2 hours later because the undeulbang(heated floors) was roasting our asses. It was a hot shhhhweaty mess. We stayed awake for a bit, had a brief encounter with giggle fitzgerald, and then attempted to sleep again because we would have a 3am wake up call. Holy shit, I usually don't even sleep before then... anyway, we woke up, went to the temple and did the 108 prostrations. I have no idea how I completed them all.. it definitely got a bit painful after a while but I think that if I stopped, I wouldn't have been able to start again. anyway, I'm going to just add anecdotes to the pictures because I'm getting too lazy and forgetful... wuhoot!

apparently gollum is serving us up some tea....

I can has cheezburger?

Before she found out about the "no snacking" policy...

the assembly line

a quite literal interpretation of a lotus lantern..

mad chillin'

the meditation room.....

all we seemed to want to do is sleep....

the space between...

the little Vietnamese monk was extremely into composing family friendly/picture perfect shots for us.. so he plopped one of the German girls down on one of the statues and then stuck the muddy little beast into her hands.. which she held him at arms length away.. because he was so muddy and beastlike, of course.

the poor monk from Sri Lanka was freezing because he's not used to such cold weathers

So I was having a conversation with the Russian monk about how cute I thought the dog was.. and then he mentioned that there was also another doggy located on the premises. He also stated, in somewhat of a matter of fact way that this doggy refuses to listen to anyone, so he remains in prison.... the next morning when we were going on our morning walk, this adorable little wildebeest appeared...... In all his muddy glory, the fast and the furry-ous

Happy holidays!

2007-12-25T08:27:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to all !
I usually don't put much significance into holidays... I guess my family never really was into the holiday spirits and tradition... but I do agree that it is the usual time of year where all you wish to do is be in the presence of loved ones. I'm not all into the hype of all the Christmas music, consumerism, commercialism, and all that jazz... although I have been known to be a sucker for decorations and the smell of Christmas trees.. but I digress...

It's just weird because the timing is so weird right now...
The holidays should be spent with all of your loved ones and appreciating them all.. yet we've been consumed with missing everyone that's not here. I miss my family, Simba, and my friends(both the ones I've made in Korea and the ones back home) soooo much it is just absolutely ridiculous. We've all been dealing with the huge blow of losing the vast majority of our chingoos here in Korea.. as all of them return home.. "home"... wherever.. It's just been difficult to deal with, I guess. The remaining ones which include Pat, Jake, Peter, Alex(until the 30th), and I have been clinging onto each other, for sure. It's too hard to be alone now. The holiday setting sure doesn't help. It's almost like an added pressure on us... to be fucking merry and jolly and generally in the Christmas spirits and what not. Being here, it's a reminder that we're farther off from home than ever.

But, you know. We're trying. And slowly it's starting to get easier.. NOT to say that I'm forgetting or just simply getting over it. I'm just trying to suck-it-up and come to grips with this new reality because what else is there to do? It certainly was difficult the first few days.. where I couldn't talk to anyone because everyone was on their plane rides home... but I've been seeing a load of them online and we've been testing out skype and such. SKYPE SKYPE SKYPE SKYPE! I love this shit.

So, yeh. Here I go... I'm going to get sappy on you all but whatever.
I'm not used to posting intimate details of my life or emotional state on such public forums.. because I'm SUCH a privacy freak. ..but you know what? The friends I've made here have inspired me to believe that it's okay.. they're not going to judge me. If anything, they'll think I'm greater for it.. and I feel like I owe it to them to let them know how I feel. Anyway, here goes.

The first few days were incredibly rough.... of course I KNEW that it would be difficult.. I'd spent the last month or so psyching myself out on it in hopes that it would prepare me for this difficult period of time where everybody I hold so near to my fucking heart would leave me... I came into this KNOWing it would be hard but fuck. I didn't anticipate that it'd be this hard. I managed to keep my emotions in check whenever I was out and about with others, since it is a very rare occasion where anyone will see me cry in public... but every time I came back home, I'd turn into a fucking mess. I read and re-read my friends' messages to me over and over and relived all of our memories over and over.. and I couldn't get over how much I missed them and continue to miss them. Just walking through my neighborhood became this huge ordeal because I have a memory with at least one person in seemingly every fucking place in Sinchon.. so it's hard to try to not think about it too much. Even though the streets are littered with people, exceedingly congested even, I feel alone. Sinchon feels empty and deserted.

I mean, some of these people came to be some of my best friends.. and I don't necessarily know when the next time I'll see them may be. They were part of my EVERYDAY life.. and most people who know me pre-Korea know that I'm generally anti-social and can't stand being with people all of the time. I don't often become attached to people, if ever at all... So this was kind of a big deal. Pat & I have been Mopey Jones for the past few days... especially because we were extremely sleep deprived.. it became a total mind fuck explosion. Peter even said to us, "Man.. you guys are making this way too hard on yourselves." Haha.. Leave it to Peter. Pat & I couldn't even muster a response.. except "hmph".. haha. Anyway, I agreed with him but I also fully believe in feeling the extent of your emotions... at least for me. I mean, of course only for a short period of time.. living your life mourning is no way to live at all. But I do feel that feeling sad the past few days is the only way to get through this time period.. that it's the only way I'll learn to get over it. Otherwise all I'd be doing is blocking it out, denying my feelings... which in turn would result in dishonesty to myself.. also, every time I'd remember, it'd be like shock treatment.. I'd be hit with the blow each and every time and it would never get easier. So yeh.. but don't worry guys. I know I'm a strong person and I'm going to be o.k.

So this is the point where I'm turning... and I'm coming to realize all that I should be and am grateful for in my life. As Peter so eloquently said in his blog... we're lucky to feel the sadness of missing people... because not everyone in life has people that they love as much as we do.. and not everyone has that love in return. So, guys. I've said it to a couple people already but here it is again.. what we've lost is marginal to what we've gained.. it is only a winning game from here on out folks. Ryo said that it's not that we're best friends in Korea.. we're best friends that happened to meet in Korea. Shit, I'm just quoting other people now, right? But whatever, my friends are fucking brilliant. So be it. My friends have been coming online so it's been wonderful talking to them again. I'm excited to be able to maintain these relationships.. thanks to modern day technology! Haha. There is still so much to learn about and learn from these people. It's a beautiful thing. I'm also sure of the fact that I will see all these kids again.... so I'm definitely excited for that. HELLS YES!

Additionally, I'm glad that the people here still with me happen to be the people that I didn't get to know quite as well this past semester.. and they are all amazing people. So I hope to deepen my relationships with them. Pat, Peter, Anna, Joseph, and Jake.. I'm grateful that you guys are still here with me.. I know it's been nothing short of difficult lately.. but let's make our time together here continue to count. Yeh?

Whew, I didn't intend for this to be this long.
And keep watching, there's more to come... yikes? I'm just going to warn you in advance that there's going to be lapses of times, rewinds in time... just.. there's not going to be much congruity or coherence when it comes to time. It's going to go from here to there, to back then, to whenever. I still want to blog about some of the experiences that happened before.. such as temple stay, James' birthday, and such. O.k. so guys. Thanks for making it to this here end.. and I'll talk to you all soon. I love you and miss you all.

In the meantime, check out these images. I can't get over them.... thanks to Jason for introducing me to the greatness of lolcatz and i can haz cheezburger... I now feel more alive than I've ever felt before..... har har

JUICED up!

2007-12-08T20:15:00.001-08:00

No Jose Canseco, I'm not talking about you. Har har har hardy harRRrrRRr har. Speaking of that though, I thought of a movie concept that would be so super camp/super awesome... a zombie-esque horror flick chock full of 'roid raging, muscle popping, tiny-headed beefcakes.. perhaps starring California's very own governator, Arnold? Come on Arny, you said you'd be back. Now won't you? Pat and I were discussing what the possible weaknesses of these roid ragers would be... I suggested that perhaps they wouldn't be able to turn corners very quickly... Pat put in his bit about how maybe they can't fit so easily, if at all, through small places. All valid and completely fucking brilliant. And it's horribly relevant nowadays, don't you think? But don't knock Barry Bonds! SF Giants <3 No, but seriously.. if you want to talk shit about asterisks or what not.. Babe Ruth didn't even play with any players of color. How would he have done against Satchel Paige? Should we just assign asterisks all around? Oh man, let's see how many random tangents I can go off on.... yeh yeh, I have A.D.D. whatever.

Anyway, the next series of pictures are all lovingly stolen from Katharina and Pat.. since I neglected to bring my camera that night. D'oh! We went to a free event that was put on by HP.. here's a small little blurb about it from the website.

"Inter Action is a regional platform by HP to engage youths across Asia via a series of lifestyle artistry initiatives. From the inaugural Live in Transmission to the upcoming Art in Motion, Inter Action is a journey of electrifying experiences showcasing how computing technology can deliver a human experience and link people together through multi-sensorial delights that fuse the art of sight, sound and touch. It’s all about the interaction between trendsetters comprising musicians, DJs, designers and visual artists, technology and the audience."

Get it? Anyway, the show featured Tiger JK (Formerly known as Drunken Tiger) which is funny because I remember one of the guys in Drunken Tiger was our family friend's nephew.. and that my brother hung out with him when he was in Korea during his high school years. Although I can't be sure which one of the guys was the nephew... Oh well. They were followed up by DJ Nu-Mark of Jurassic 5 who played a really short but fun set... showing off his little gizmos and gadgets. Then came Coldcut featuring JUICE and Pfadfinderei who provided the a-mazing visuals. As usual, we were the crazy ass wae-gooks (foreigners) bringing the party...

Let's see. I'm going to provide a short list of highlights from the night:
-one Korean guy yelling out " I LUB HEEP-HOP!" and then later laughing hysterically when Pat shouted out, "YEH! I'm a corporate whore!"
-when they used CASABLANCA clips.... play it again Sam! You played it for her, you can play it for me! Sorry, I'm absolutely obsessed with this film.
-fuck HP interaction.. it's all about the JUICE interaction
-DJ Nu-Mark's little toys... especially the monkey with the cymbals!!
-hardcore shweaty dance fest

Anyway. I never know exactly what I'm writing anymore so I'm thinking that this is a good place to stop. Ugh, I hate concluding remarks.

I am simply appalled by this young man's behavior!

the ricockulous line

James, Pat, Ryo, Ames, and Anna.. super spastically jazzed

JUUUUUUUICE!

jump jump jump jump! ryo and pat super into it... and my scalp seems to be super into it as well.. notice how there are a few strands if hair flying up... make you wanna jump jump?

DJ Matt Black from Coldcut

shit getting out of control... somebody fix that ragamuffin's glasses immediately!

shit getting out of control

Barbarella! James has been trying to get us to watch this with him since he has it on his computer.. so upon seeing a scene from Barbarella on the screen, James promptly screamed out "YEH! Let's watch this! Wait... why haven't we watched this???" Aw James.

"A pig's gotta fly." - Porco Rosso

2007-12-05T08:37:00.000-08:00

So...
I guess it's been a while since I've updated... or perhaps it feels exceptionally longer because the last blog I posted was about an event that occurred on November 3rd... yars. Anyway, I guess I should be brogging at a more rapid pace considering that I have a tendency to forget things a short while after it happens. It's weird.. I have selective memory except I feel as if I don't get to select what I remember. Fucking bullocks. So... I try to take as many pictures as I can so I can use them as reference points because my memory sometimes fails me. So dear friends, if I happen to forget an event that you may consider to be of UTTER importance, and holy shit.. how the hell can I forget to mention that or even you for that matter? Forgive me! Despite my demigod-like appearance, I am also susceptible to human fallibility.

So, on with the show.
Joe came to visit me! He arrived November 16th... he had never left the country before so what better place to start than Seoul?! I took him to do random ass things... for instance, exploring neighborhoods such as Hongdae, Itaewon, and Insadong.. and then we basically just hung out a lot and woke up at ridiculously late hours of the day.. which will not be remain unnamed.. for the sake of saving face. Anyway, we did this and that.. were here and there. I won't bore you with the specifics. Joe seemed to take an extreme liking to the batting cages conveniently located right next to my humble abode... I'm making a promise to myself to go to the batting cages at least once before I go home... although I have a very rational fear(don't tell me it's not) of being barraged by a constant stream of baseballs hurled at ridiculous bruise inducing speeds.. perhaps even getting knocked in the face and having my glasses broken. Anywhere but the glasses!! Eep. Joseph and Jake taught us how to play Sa-gu (4-ball).... it's a pretty neat game. It's intensely fun! And addicting... Anyway... I'm going to allow the next line of pictures do the talking

Chungyeochung.... seemingly mild weather that soon turned into a "shit-storm" (a Gelly-ism, if you will).. we were pelted with massive amounts of what masqueraded itself as snow.. when it really was just piles and loads of sludgy rainy mess... Think of someone hurling tons of slurpy at you and maybe you'll get the idea.... and I got hit in the eye!! How that happens with a scarf wrapped completely around my head(Thanks Ames!) and glasses, I'll never know.. but it wasn't pleasant.. I'll tell you that much.

chud in the cable car! up to mount namsan to see seoul tower

Seoul Tower.. in all its shiny and phallic glory...

Big ups to San Francisco!

hyuk hyuk hyuk...

Anyway, I'm going to cut this one short... sorry that's become a bad habit of mine lately. Look here soon for posts to come.... the HP event + Temple stay.... yeh yeh.

the 38th parallel

2007-11-26T04:50:00.000-08:00

As part of our Korean War class, our professor took us on a little field trip to the 38th parallel which is the border separating North + South Korea. He is part of the United States Forces stationed here in Seoul, Korea so we were given a special tour of the place. Or so he told us.... Anyway, this is going to be a weak post. I'm not quite sure of what to write.. except to just let the pictures speak for themselves. Yeh yeh, sorry. Better post next time. Promise! Cross my heart and hope to die. Yerp.

On the set of the film J.S.A. + the Run DMZ music video...

they stand halfway behind the building in case anyone shoots at them.. then they can easily get coverage

KPA...

inside T2..

Yes, this guy is real.. and yes, he could kill me within a matter of a few seconds.. and yes, only using one hand.... and lastly..yes, I was fucking terrified

We're in North Korea!

Military Demarcation Line

The "bridge of no return"... after the Korean war, both sides returned the POWs across this bridge. The POWs were actually given the choice of which side they preferred to live on. But they were told that once they made the choice, they could never return. Hence the name...

NK's massive flag pole... Kijung-dong.. aka "Propaganda Village"(the name given by the US forces... guess what the little village on the SK side is called? You guessed it.. "Freedom Village".... yeh, can I get a side of freedom fries with my freedom burger?)

Sticks and stones may break your bones......

2007-11-16T02:59:00.000-08:00

.........but a 45 meter fall will kill y'all.
-lovingly stolen from the Fresh Prince of Belair with my own little twist.. heh.

Anyways.... I went on a blogging rampage where I was cranking out blogs at a crazy ridiculous speed. But I guess I "hit a wall" (as Gelly usually says) and it felt like too much of a task, rather than something fun. Although I did manage to write an 8 page, double spaced journal entry that won't be published on this site.. not any time soon anyways. It started out as just a regular blog, but then I decided that it became much too personal... so that is why I refrained from posting it on here. Yeh yeh. Only a select few get to read it.. but probably only these select few wanted to read it anyways.

Hmmm... so continuing this blog. I overheard Jake and Gelly tossing around the idea of going bungee jumping and that was something that I was definitely interested in... despite my horrible fear of heights. Yes, I was eavesdropping like an uber creepster and invited myself to come along.. haha. It seems like bungee jumping is on most people's checklists of "Things to do before you die".... or maybe it's on most people's checklists of "things to do if you want to die"... ha ha. Just kidding... bungee jumping is perfectly safe... or so they make you believe.......... well, our group survived so I guess it's okay. We managed to persuade Ryo + James to come(who suffered enormous amounts of peer pressure har harr... admittedly by my own hand.... or mouth) jump off the ledge with us.. My argument was, "If I can do it, you can too!" which really does ring true. we got a pretty sizable group.. although not large enough to get the group discount. Damnit, we were one short! The group consisted of Angelica, Pat, Jake, Ryo, James, Silvia, Peter, Katharina, and myself. The usual, I suppose. Hey Ames! You're going to do it!! I'm gunning for you.... Anyway, I managed to zen-out on the way there and didn't really feel as afraid as I should. But...

Oh boy. Was I in for it or what??

As we were all getting our harnesses on, someone said.. or maybe I said.. I don't remember who said..... "Oh, this doesn't seem like it's going to be that bad or scary." As soon as this sentence was uttered, we hear these god awful blood curdling screams as a girl is plunging and recoiling. Holy balls. The elevator ride up was exhilarating.... errr, euphemism for absolutely horrifying? The walls were transparent, so I guess with each foot we rose, we grew more and more terrified.. or well, maybe I grew more and more terrified. Whatever, I'm not embarrassed that I was scared. Before ascending, we decided the jumping order.. some of us even decided the night before which I was not aware of!! Anyway, Gelly decided to go first being the fucking badass warrior that she is. She peered over the ledge, looked back and uttered one word. "FFFFFFFUCK"
I'm pretty sure that was her word of choice all the way down. Perhaps a few "shits" were mixed in there as well. I don't quite remember what the order was before me.. but I went 7th, and was followed by Peter, and then Jake who wanted to be the anchor. That was a great idea because these two guys were calm as fuck... almost annoyingly so. Just kidding.... Whenever I asked Peter if he was afraid, he'd just shrug it off and go "Naw"... damnit, so I put my makeshift game face on... and..... o.k., I'm sure anyone who knows me knows that I don't have anything of that sort! So I went with the next best thing(actually, the only thing available to my disposal), my crazy scared dangerously close to tears face on..... and begrudglingly made my way over to the nerve-racking zone.

I don't exactly know what I expected.. but holy shit. When I got to the ledge, it was beyond terrifying! I peered down, and was overcome with a dizzying fear. My arm automatically wrapped around the pole next to me... the attendant was completely bored and was unabashed about showing it. He muttered, "5, 4, 3, 2, 1 bungee..." to which my body responded by freezing. I shot him a look of desparation and started going on with nonsensical bits of conversation, ANYTHING to forestall my seemingly imminent death. I asked him about the proper jumping techniques, which direction I should leap towards, his astrological sign, whether he was more of a Betty or Veronica type of guy. O.k. I lied about the last two, but I did give him an awkward high-five and had him repeat the word "FIGHTING!" back to me. I kept turning back to look at Jake and Peter who were shouting words of encouragement to me. It felt like I was up there forever. I shot Jake a left of anguish and yelled, "Oh my god I can't do this" to which Jake responded, "Let go of the pole!" All I could think in my head was, "Noooo.... it's the only thing that's keeping me from a 45m fall!" Uggggghhhhh... upon arriving at this ledge, I had all these visions/delusions of grandeur where I'd gracefully swan dive off of the ledge with a running start.. Nuh uh, no way. Apparently I didn't even jump. I just put my feet on the edge and just slumped off. Less than graceful, but whatever. At least I fucking did it! So I guess you guys are expecting me to tell you that it wasn't scary once I jumped, right? That it was only the convincing myself to jump off the ledge part that was scary, right? right?? Well, too fucking bad. The free fall was scary as all fucking hell! You don't feel as if you're harnessed until it catches you.. and even when it does, you recoil and pretty much drop from almost the same height again. I didn't even scream.. I was just absolutely petrified.. and the first words I managed to get out was "Ugggghh my god" according to Gelly. It's hard for me to remember everything.. I almost blacked out with fear. We jumped over a lake and there was a little man waiting underneath in a boat who kind of fished you down.... I couldn't even stand.. my legs were trembling so badly that my knees pretty much just collapsed underneath me. O.k. last thing I wanted to do was fall in the god damn lake.. so I just grabbed on for dear life while thinking to myself, "Holy fuck nuts! What the hell did I just do??"

But, shit. What an adrenaline rush. Nothing quite builds you up like jumping off a scary ass ledge. I can't even describe the mixture of emotions.. you honestly just come down to solid ground feeling a million times more empowered than you ever have before. I mean.. FUCK, if you can conquer as great a fear as this, what can't you do? Seriously, grab me an alligator to wrestle, a fucking bear to challenge to a hot dog eating contest, a shark to crawl into the mouth of... ANYTHING. I'll do it!! I honestly felt so proud of myself for sidestepping my fear just for a moment to laugh in it's face. Ha ..ha..... ha...... HA!! I think this helped me realize that I need to stop beating myself up over being afraid.. as long as it doesn't get in the way of me living my life. I know that this is cheesy poofs for everyone, but fuck. You experience something like that and tell me you don't think the same things. All in all, it was an awesome experience and I think I might be doing it again come Saturday. This time we're going to be taking along Ames and her little sister who will be visiting.. and my friend who will be visiting.. JOE!! I'm so excitedddddd. He's coming tomorrow night and I'm fucking jazzzzedd.

After the bungee jumping, we went to Anna's house to cook, hang out, and basically have an awesome mellow night. Pat, Ryo, and I collected some items from grand mart to cook in the evening. Well, they cooked. I folded a handful of mandus(Korean dumplings) and ate. We had mandus(some pork filled, while the others were tofu filled) and some curry.. those boys are awesome cooks! I'm jealous since I'm only able to manage the occasional egg fry. Anna and Ames finished off the night with some chocolate covered bananas and oranges. Why are my friends so awesome?? They feed my tummy and my SOUL. My SEOUL. SEEEEEEOUUUUULLL!! Wow, I'm fucking bonkers. As I said tonight to Ryo and Ames though, when you find out that your friends are also crazy.. it's so gratifying because the world becomes your own insane asylum. Word. Anyway, the night was greeeeeeeat. Anna's house has such an awesome vibe to it.. and we collected such a good hangout group.

P.S. I am signing up for classes with the lovely miss Anna Yi! You guys don't know Anna yet so I'm going to give a brief introduction. She's this totally awesome girl who might be the sweetest, kindest, warmest person you'll ever be fortunate enough to meet! She takes art classes at this really cool studio in Hongdae(the nearby cooler artsier neighborhood).. and she was gracious enough to let me accompany her to her sessions.. aka, I totally stalked her. Peter came along as well... and we just drew pictures of random ass shit we found in the room.. I totally suck at 3d drawings... so I thought it'd be easy to draw a stack of cups... Uhm, I'm not quite sure how I came to this conclusion seeing how it was incredibly difficult... but they managed to kind of sort of..... not really look like cups. Ugh. It was so much fun and the teacher was super chill.. so I decided that I wanted to sign up. I had an amazing time! The next day, I decided that I wanted to create some art projects... although I don't really know how... so I started taking images out of Anna's children's biblical storybook.. the only thing she had with 2d images... and I created my own sci-fi wonderworld out of those images. It's not quite finished yet but it's pretty hilarious if you see it.... haha. We'll see how it turns out with my very very very limited art skills.

if you look real closely, you can see my arm wrapped around the pole....

Now I am offering up to you a juxtaposition of Jake and I's photos.... in order to more clearly demonstrate his badass-ness and my terrifiedass-ness.

this is Jake's perfect swan dive bungee jumping...

now this is my dumbass.........such a graceful fall...... this is what I look like when I'm terrified out of my fucking mind

this is Jake totally fearless...

this is me still terrified out of my fucking mind....UGGGGHHHH MAAAAHHHHH GAAAAAHHHHDDDDD

GROUP PICTURE!

on the subway home...

Gels, me, James, and Peter tired as all hell... sitting on the floor of the train

Ryo, Gels, and I

folding some mandu....

cutest picture ever of Pat and Angie-kins

P.P.S.
So I was doing laundry tonight at the nearby laundromat.... when I saw a sign saying "Mo Jazzy" .... like the record label with a "y' added on the end. I dropped in and it looked super legit. They were even playing Nujabes!!! How fucking awesome is that? So I promptly called up Ames and Ryo... and then it was history.... in..the.. making. Heh, the table came equipped with a pack of markers.. so we sat down and started drawing. Well, Ames and Ryo came up with some awesome drawings as usual... I drew my usual crazy-ass shit that 5 year olds usually do. 'Twas fun. Anyhow, the guy that worked there was really cool and gave us "service" aka free shit, in the form of a cinnamon raisin bagel with butter and jam, and some chocolate cookies. YAY! I also bought a CD, and he gave me another one for free! The place is also open until midnight and it's RIGHT near my house.. so it sounds like I found a new home. There wasn't anyone else in there so it was like our own little safe haven.... sighhhh.

So "Happy Together"

2007-11-08T01:10:00.000-08:00

The night started with Akane, Jake, and I grabbing dinner together. We decided to eat fried chicken, french fries, and share a pitcher of beer among us. Oh man, so delicious/unhealthy/great/bad for you/AWESOME. I had oodles of fun talking to those two about the randomest shit ever. It was so gratifying, especially because I had never really hung out with Akane in a small setting before. Happy birthday to her by the way!

After dinner, Akane headed back to the I-house while Jake + I decided to join our other chingoos(James, Ryo, Gelly, Pat, Nina, Crystal) who were at a nearby Noraebang. We busted out some great renditions of some old time classics such as "Bohemiam Rhapsody" and "Happy Together." I was also able to sing about how I was going to get-get-get you drunk.. get you love drunk off my humps. Oh dear. Afterwards, Crystal and Nina decided to head home... while we......

headed to Pats to watch the last installment of the 3-part episode of Southpark where they go to Imagination Land. Oh man, so funny and so brilliant! After we watched South Park, we met up with more chingoos! Angie, Anna, Katharina, and Silvia. We decided to head over to the park nearby Pats and buy 40s. The park had all these awesome exercise equipment machine thingiemuhjiggers which actually appeared to be devices created solely for the purpose of entertaining us!! It was nice to have a mellow night outdoors with some good company. I'm starting to think I could do ANYTHING with my chingoos and have a great time. Sometimes the setting hardly matters.

I'm really surprised at how pleased I am with the friends I've gained here. I know that sometimes you have friends that only work within certain contexts, but I'd be friends with any of my friends here in my "home" setting. I'd actually beg some of them to please please please move to San Francisco to stay with me forever and ever. I was talking with Ryo and Pat the other day.. and I mentioned that it's great because normally when you hang out with a group of people, you only hang one-on-one with a few of the people within that group.. and you're friends with everyone else by default pretty much.. even if you enjoy their company or what have you. But it's great that I feel that I can call any one of these folks to grab lunch or coffee or whatevs and not really think twice about it. Ugh, it actually pains me to think that my time in Korea with these chingoos is about to end come late December. I honestly just can't register it in my head because really? I don't want to. I spend SO much time with them here that I just can't imagine being without them. It's sad, I know. I slowly let myself become attached to some certain people here even though I normally don't get attached at all. And through this, I realized how disgustingly easy it is to never have to change when you don't really let yourself become attached to any person, place, or thing. Wow, is this getting too personal? Probably. So I'm going to stop right here... YEH!

Til the next episode........

Pat balancing on a pole and Ryo looking like he got hit in the balls

Norae-BANGIN' !

Angie-kins!

Pat is CENTERED.

creepy ghost child boy Ryo

disgustingly cute..

Aww so happy together!

I LOVE HERRRRRR!

DEAD sexy

2007-11-05T23:12:00.000-08:00

I don't think that Halloween is widely celebrated in Korea but thanks to Mentor's Club which happens to cater to international students and to my awesome friends, this Halloween quickly became one of the highest ranked Halloweens in my book. This Halloween thing is starting to grow on me more and more with each passing year... and usually I hate holidays. But, I'll save that for another day.

I'm not quite sure who thought of the zombie mob idea but good job! I wanted to do something that took minimal effort and money on my part... so this worked out pretty nicely. We all decided to have a theme for our zombie costumes... or well, some of us did. Because of my love and admiration for Gelly (o.k. and to be frugal), I decided to be a Gelly-wannabe zombie! A show of adoration through mimicry. Love it. I have my Gelly impression down pretty well... although being a zombie took quite a bit of effort so I didn't actually resemble Gelly in the slightest... except for the shirt that I borrowed from her.. which probably no one noticed anyways. But after copious amounts of alcohol, I was able to conquer the greatest obstacle of all.... correctly and properly doing the Gelly-dance! Gelly proudly exclaimed throughout the night, "YOU'RE DOING IT!! YOU'RE DOING ITTTTT!!" Upon hearing this, I'd say "YESSSSS!!" and do the dance with extra vigor and at a more furious pace. Hells yes. Except it's funny now because I can't seem to do it anymore... because I seem to be putting in too much pelvic action?? Shrug, I guess I can only have one day in the sun. Actually, that's true in more ways than one... I burn easily since I'm so pale....... but I digress.

We first made our way to Festival, land of bad memories and TOO MUCH alcohol. And bad things happening because of TOO MUCH alcohol. Well, this time it was o.k. I suppose. We just went to do some "pre-funking." Afterwards we started walking to the subway station to head over to Catchlight in Hongdae where Mentor's Club was hosting a Halloween party. We decided to zombie-walk there, which is really similar to a drunk person's stagger. We freaked out some Koreans who were probably thinking and muttering to themselves, "Crazy Americans." Ah, such is life I suppose. We got to the club and there was some crazy strobelight action accompanied by some really shitty music. For instance, Britney Spears' "Gimme More".. NO. PLEASE DON'T GIMME MORE. O.k. that was unnecessarily cheesy but that pretty much wraps of my feelings towards the selection of music by the DJs. Oh well, we just wanted to get our dance on. At one point, we decided to jump on stage... I'm pretty much the shortest and most uncoordinated of the group, so James shouted out "Someone help Hannah!!".. but somehow, I managed to pull myself up on the stage where we had our moment of brilliance. We got kicked off but were able to return to the stage later to compete in the costume contest. Someone dressed up as Hardo Gay! Youtube it, it's fucking hilarious. When I saw him I shouted "HARDO GAY!!" and he was like "YEH!! HOW DO YOU KNOW??" and I replied, "I LOVE HARDO GAY!!" which could really be horible if it was taken out of context....... or maybe it's not even so great in context. Anyways, his costume was pretty spot-on and he even did the disgusting gyrating dance! Yeh YOU WORK IT HARDO GAY! When it was our turn to present our lovely zombie mob costumes, Nina accompanied us and shouted "AHH Zombies! Zombies everywhere!" when we all pounced on her and pretended to devour her brains. Awesome. O.k. even though I think we DEFINITELY should have won, we lost out to some girls dressed in the traditional Korean hanboks. Ugh. Biased much? Oh well, I got some free ugly shirt and a salad bar coupon. Good enough for me!

So the night was a blast. Man, I'm really on fire with these blog updates! The next ones are coming soon so stay tuned!

80s Basketball Zombie, Wannabe Gelly Zombie, James Dean Zombie, and then the 2 scary-as-fuck zombies

we want your brains.....

battle of the mustaches....
Katharina: Silvia's coming downstairs to work on her costume
James: Ohh, what is she?
Katharina: I don't know but she's bald and has a mustache

Cheonju excursion

2007-10-28T19:32:00.000-07:00

Sooooooo...
We decided to go on a semi-spontaneous trip to Cheonju. We'd been talking about getting away for the weekend for a while, to get some rest and relaxation after the excruciating pain of mid-terms, and such but we never really made any definite plans. The night before(Katharina's birthday), we decided to meet up at 3pm the next day and just get on a bus and LEEEEEEAVE. And that we did. What a great decision. We compiled pretty much the same group that we had before on our Gyeongju/Busan trip plus and minus a few. This time we took along Katharina, Silvia, James, Ryo, Gelly, Ames, Steve, Pat, and Jake. It was uber convenient having Pat along this time because I wouldn't have to be relied upon as the group's sole translater which can be pretty stressful considering that my Korean isn't that great.

We arrived in Cheonju and didn't yet have a place to stay for the weekend.. so we decided to just stroll around until we could find a place not completely sketch.. aka love motels, or at least not ones with crazy names to reveal themselves as such. For instance, Good Time Motel or Good Morning Motel. We stumbled upon a place where the owners gave us a great deal which was 2 rooms for 10 people at a grand total of... 70 dollars a night! They gave us pillows and blankets and we camped out 5 to a room, on the floor. It was actually a pretty neat set-up and definitely a lot more comfortable than expected. And plus, at 7 bucks a head, who is to complain? The owner was a tad bit strange.. and by a tad, I mean a bunch, and by a bunch I mean HOLY SHIT. O.k., I jest.. but he just made a few weird remarks such as "I heated the floor so it's going to pretty hot which means you all are going to have to take your clothes off." Yeh, exactly how should I respond to that? Plus, he pretty much swiped at Amy's ass... which sorry Ames, was hilarious. The look of alarm on your face was priiiiiiiceless. Oh well, he was friendly enough and hopefully trustworthy enough not to steal all of our shit so we let the borderline creepiness pass.

Anyway, the plan for the weekend was to go on awesome mountain hiking adventures!
Luckily, thanks to the worldly traveler, Katharina, and her handy dandy notebook(Lonely Planet).. we were able to find some pretty amazing sights. The first day we went to Mai-san. O.k. I don't know how to spell any of these so yeh. We first came across an abandoned amusement park... you know, the stuff that nightmares are made of. Nightmares/cool photo opportunities. So I tried to pretend that I knew how to take pictures and you'll see the results at the bottom. I really need to learn about cameras.... that might be useful in my quest to become a better photographer. We started blazing our own trail, partly because we're so badass and also partly because we weren't quite sure where we were. Since it's fall, we encountered some beautiful sights such as the Dan-Peung(autumnal tints) We walked around for quite some time and took in some bizarre scenes where there were really lovely picture-esque views.... that happened to be littered with tons of Korean tourists... and with Koreans eager to take advantage of the fact that there were tons of tourists. Who knew you could get softserve ice cream cones while getting acquainted with mother nature? Yeh, it was pretty strange and I didn't quite know what to make of it exactly. Luckily we managed to find our ways to an awesome path where we didn't have too many run-ins with much of anyone. Some of views we experienced were absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. I was definitely in awe. Especially of the fact that I somehow managed to not fall off the mountain tops. The most rewarding part of the day was our trek up the mountain to the tiny little pagoda in the distance. We had to climb some steeeeeeeeeep ass stairs where I thought that I was going to have a P A N I C A T T A C K which luckily I did not. I'm deathly afraid of heights.. and by deathly afraid, I mean.. afraid of death from falling from heights. With the help of my friends who are far braver and kinder than I could ever hope to aspire to be!!!!, and some hanging-on-for-dear-life handholding, I was able to gather enough courage and footwork(by this, I just mean tiny tiny steps that didn't result in my imminent death) to say I survived it all. Although I suffered some god-awful leg shakes, I was somehow able to convince them to shut-the-fuck-up and keep walking. The mountain-top pagoda experience was unbelievable. It was so peaceful and serene... It made it all worth it.

At night, we drank and hung out in the rooms, mostly. Kung-fu hustle was on but without English subtitles. Luckily, Gelly and I had each seen the movie enough times to pretty much act out the scenes ourselves. Some might call us pathetic, but I say we're fucking brilliant. And really, if you call us pathetic, we'll fuck you up. Seriously, don't mess.

camera wars

tiny little pagoda on top of the big mountain

view from the pagoda..

SHRIMP-ing!

The following day, we made our way to Daedun-san. Sadly, I didn't take many pictures there so I'm going to have to try my best to paint the pictures for you. But, you know what? It's probably going to suck. Why? Because I'm really tired and don't want to do a good job. YEH! So there. Hehhhh.......... this mountain was even more crowded than the last. There were HORDES of Korean hikers all decked out in expensive hiking gear with crazy walking sticks and all. I don't exactly know why some of them seemed to think that getting shitfaced on a mountain was a good idea, but that seemed to be the case...? This hike was definitely a lot more dangerous and difficult than the previous one.. and I did my best to not look down lest I suffer a heart attack. It was already a more difficult hike because it was steeper, and we had to pretty much rock climb up to the top. That part was actually pretty fun since I felt like we were kids again.. wheee! It was just ridiculous because we had to move at a pretty slow pace since there were LINES of Koreans ahead of us.. o.k., it's one thing being in an urban environment where you're bumped into on the subway or street without an apology or so much as even a hint of acknowledgement.. it's another to be on a fucking mountain top and have people knocking into you, pushing you, and have them be willing to shove you off the mountain in order to save themselves... with not a single apology uttered! Ugh, anyone who knows me that there are certain things that are sure-fire ways to irritate the shit out of me. Some of these include but are in no way limited to..... this isn't in any particular order either.. 1) strangers touching me... 2) people getting in my way... like MASSIVE amounts of people.. 3) rude people.. combined with me being scared shitless of heights.... I mean, what! Is Wayne Brady going to have to choke a bitch? Ahhhhh blarg. One guy even tripped, fell, and had his leg jam into the back of my knee where I couldn't help but fall.... jeepers. There were definitely some great people on the hike as well though, who helped me through certain difficult parts. Oh man, some of the parts during this hike definitely made me want to knock my mud-clad sneakers three times together and shout out to the skies, "THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME! OHHHHMYYYGAAAAAHDDDD THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME." Honestly, if my friends and these certain hikers didn't help me out, I wouldn't have been able to get through it without severe injury(s). FOR SERIOUS! When we arrived at the foot of the mountain FINALLY, we finished the day off with a rousing round of bumper cars. Nothing quite soothes the soul like 4-car pile-up surrounding Ryo. Ah, what a wonderful world.

So, yeh. I am so grateful for my friends who pretty much saved my life this weekend!
Not only did they help me to confront my fear of heights, they also didn't get frustrated with the fact that I was probably slowing all of them down. I felt incredibly guilty so I'm sorry guys! My eternal gratitude to all of you who held my hand(wow, I'm a baby), checked up on me to make sure I was ok, and provided some much-needed comic relief and generally just some good times. I had an A-MAZING time but I usually do when I'm with my chingoos, no matter what we do. OH MAN! Hearts-a-plenty! LOVE LOVE LOVE all around !

dae-doo san (sp?)

AHHHHHHH(credit: AMES)

THEY'RE COMING... IN SWARMS... AHHHHHHH!! (credit: AMES)

Aw, little Patty-whack sleeping on Katharina's shoulder

Katharina's birthday

2007-10-27T09:54:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've updated. My apologies to the small(albeit enthused and somewhat fanatic... jk) group of readers I've somehow collected over the past two months. It's with deep sadness that I must inform all 3 of you that this blog is going to be a short(but sweet!) one. I've just been too tired + too busy over the past couple of weeks due to mid-terms, bacation-ing, and just plain hanging out with the ching-a-lings(credit to James for this awesome-tastic word) I do promise that massive, and I mean GARGANTUAN, updates are on the way! This includes but is not necessarily limited to: semi-spontaneous trip to Cheonju, Halloweenies, and bungee jumping! So stay tuned kids. Better days are gonna come.

Anyhow, here's a brief synopsis of Miss Katharina's birthdayyyyyy
We decided to spend the night at a bar called SUM that is nearby our campus. I'm actually not quite sure which cluster of people were the first to stumble upon this hidden gem but give yourselves a pat on the back because this place pretty much rules my life......... The dots mean my voice is trailing off into a distance, only to be replaced by a creepy smile... The owner has an INSANE vinyl collection where he owns over 10,000 records! He actually allows us to make requests, no matter how ridiculous or silly. They even have the world's cutest bunny wabbit that occasionally is freed from his/her cage to hop around at his/her own will.. Too cute? The drinks are moderately priced and they have North Korean beer.. whatever that is. Jake attempted to order it, but we were told that they were currently out. BOO. Next time, I suppose... I wonder what kind of secret operation takes place where we could be so fortunate as to sample such things... it better not be O.B. with a fake label! That might warrant a laugh or two, but it would ultimately result in my fist leaving an imprint in someone's face. The night was really fun and I was excited to see that a pretty sizeable group made it out in order to celebrate Katharina's 22nd year of life. Woot! Another one joins the 22-group which pretty much consisted of just Ames and I. Is it just me or is the group of 22 year olds fucking LEGIT ? Well, I'm going to let these pictures do the talkin since I'm going to go on walkin..... to bed... errrrr, yeh? Take care kiddos.

P.S. Heard about the 5.6 earthquake near my house in San Jose! Pretty crazy shit.

SUM !

Pat, Ryo, Angie, James, Nina, Gelly, Crystal cute-ing out for the cam

the birthday girl Miss Katharina and Peter

Ames + I

photo credit to PATKWAK. A really cool shot of Jake and Silvia looking badass....

A blurred but adorable picture of Pat + Anna.. my soon-to-be travel partners!! <3

P.P.S. sticker pictures of Ryo, Maki, and myself

yonkojeong + maki + such + such

2007-10-09T09:07:00.000-07:00

Hmmmmmm....
So I've gotten into this blogging mode where I delay writing until I do a massive update where it's just a chain of "and then," "and then," and "and then."s.... which doesn't really make for the most interesting of reads. But, it's honestly the best way for me to reference this shiz-nits later.... Oh-ho-ho-kay now. Moving on to yet another seeeeeeeeequence of events! Wuhoooo! Chain-gang.. gang-bang.. chyeh.

So, it's been a crazy few.. days.. weeks... how long has it been since I've written in here? Forever and a half ago, I'm guessing. So what's been happening.. let's see. My memory's not the greatest.. but so far, this trip has been. It's going to sound incredibly cheesy but I really am having the time of my life! It's funny because before coming here, I heard stories from people who "had the time of their life." Sunshine, sparkles, jazz hands, and all that ish. But.. I guess I'm joining that group of sunshine super stars because I'm sharing that exact sentiment. I really adore all of my friends here.. I was genuinely concerned before coming here because I feel that I don't truly get along with most people in life.. so I thought that I'd pick up a bunch of default friends that I could put up with rather than have a grand master ball with.. but wow, I'm surprised at how well I've gelled with some people here.. borderline obsessed, for sure. Life is good.

On October 3rd, I went to the Korean War Memorial with my Korean War class. Our professor is a Lieutenant Colonel... or something something, so he has a shit ton of money and is incredibly generous. He paid for our admissions and then afterwards he bought us all lunch and booze! How amazing is that? We actually took shots with him... Cheers Professor Tharp! A little awkward, yes.. but totally awesome.

Elly + I in a tank... as usual.........

Maki came to visit me this weekend... all the way from Japan! What a sweetheart, that Mak Mak. Speaking of Mak Maki, we've known each other for about 9 years now! And we're still going strong =) Haha, how's that? Anyway, this weekend was one of the funnest weekends I've had in Korea thus far! Maybe in LIFE thus far. It was Yonkojeong.. which is this big event where Yonsei University(Yon-de for short) and Korea University(Ko-de for short) battle in some sporting events: baseball, basketball, ice hockey, rugy, soccer... and everyone does these intense cheers, songs, and dances. It was nothing like I've ever seen before! The first day, I went to go watch baseball with my language exchange buddy. It was crazy because there were just seas of blue(Yonsei) and red(Korea)... it was insane and really quite a sight to see. We were lead in song + dance by AKARAKA which is a cheer-squad-on-crack team consisting of people dressed up as Chairman Kaga(iron chef) wannabes / super flamboyant power rangers. In short, I fucking love them. It was insane because in the states, cheering normally occurs before and after the game, during half time, and maybe when something cool happens like a goal is scored or whatevers.. but Akaraka was banging it out throughout the ENTIRE game. It was exhausting but soooo much fun because the dances were so silly and everyone looked stupid doing it but no one cared. GO YONSEI ! I had so much Yonsei pride even though I don't really go here.. well, I kind of do.. okay wait, what the hell.. I love Yonsei. Wait, the highlight of the game was... if anyone knows me AT ALL, they know that I'm hardcore obsessed with baseball fights.. you know, I have no idea why.. and that's actually really strange if you thnk about it(and I have).... But some shoving between players occured, some trash talking was exchanged... and shit! benches cleared! FUCK YES! Nothing really serious happened and no one was ejected from the game... anyways, we lost.. although there were actually some great plays made.. after the game, I headed over to the airport to pick up the Mak-ster.

crazy crowd of blue(yonsei) and red(korea university)

AKARAKA!

The next day was the last day of Yonkojeong... sadness!
Ryo, James, Amy, Gelly, Maki, and I went to go eat before the game.. at this place that Gelly and I ate at before MT. Wow, I ate some galbi stew and it was one of the best things I've eaten here so far. So much yums that it kind of hurt. We headed over to watch soccer at the Olympic Stadium.. super neato. More cheering, more dancing, more blah blah. It was super fun because we just got as crazy as we could with the dances.. it was on the brink of being just plain dangerous.... So the Yon-de kids and the Ko-de kids created all these really awesome film clips where they were trash talking each other... for example, they took this commercial for frosted flakes where Tony the Tiger takes a bite of cereal and gets all electrically strong... and then they were like "WAIT! REWIND!" and then they zoomed in on the jug of milk and it was Yonsei milk! Yes, Yonsei has their own carton for milk.. that's fucking legit. It was really cool.. and there were even Korean celebrities that were cheering for certain schools.. perhaps they were alums? Shrug. Some of the clips were actually pretty clever.. well, the ones that I could kiiind of understand.

Anyhow. After the game, that's when even more craziness ensued. Sinchon(our neighborhood) was hosting the after-party for Yonkojeong this year... whew, it was amazing. We created trains of people and ran our school spirit all throughout the city. Also, apparently if you are with a large group of people and do the school chants and cheers, they give you free stuff! We got soju, bibimbap, hot dogs, ice cream, bread... sooooo cool. It was funny b/c we'd yell for the owner to come out, and then say either "Very good looking mister!" or "Very beautiful mrs!"... er, it sounds weird when translated to English... and there was a school song that goes, "Sarang ha neun yonsei" which means "yonsei that I love"... so when we were at the hot dog stand, we sang "sarang ha neun hot dog." ohhhhhhhhhh my god. I wanted to shoot myself in the face b/c it was so good! I was giddy with joy. All in all, we attached ourselves to perhaps 5 groups of random Korean kids.. not only were they okay with letting us hang out with them, they wanted us to! Man, when we were getting tired of the whole running around thing, we stuck with these Ko-de kids who were just going to sit down in formed circles and drink/chill in the park. But they were like, "Oh.. we're going to clean up the garbage up a little bit first."... and it's not even their neighborhood! That was so sweet. All of the students were so generous and kind... and patient with my shitty Korean.. it was really overwhelming how sweet they were and how welcome they made us feel! One of the greatest nights in Korea, for sure. Super warm and fuzzies!

Ahhhh O.k. now that this entry is sufficiently verbose....... off I go ! Class tomorrow at 9 am and it's 3 am now. Yikes! Until next time! Hey Yonsei--Ah!

soccer field

joseph + maki

all aboard the crazy train!

Maki + Ryo with some ko-de tigers...

gelly, james, and katharina

These guys were way into Peter.. one of them exclaimed, "I love Peter!".. and the other one was like "What?? Nooo I love Peter" and then they proceeded to play fight... this picture actually isn't posed.... and then I glance over at Peter who just smiles and shrugs..

peter + his fans

Maki, me, and Hongmo(random Ko-de guy we met who was super nice)

yonkojeong in a nutshell...

dvd room where we spend most of our time...... i'm sreeeeepy

P.S. Happy birthday to Maki! I look forward to another great year of friendship =) Friends since 8th grade at Kennedy! Wuhoo!

chuseok travels part deux

2007-09-30T07:10:00.001-07:00

The next day, we headed to Haeyonde Beach. The weather was fairly nice... and the beach was pretty great. I didn't have a bathing suit or a change of clothes, so I just hung out on the sand.. taking pictures and such. That probably doesn't sound very exciting, but I had fun heh. There were the cutest babies around me that I enjoyed staring at and squealing to myself, wishing that I could just squish one.. just for a second haha.

kung-fu hustle much ?

At night, Ryo, James, and I made the greatest decision ever when we agreed that we should try to hit up the food carts and just eat until we burst. Our first stop was one of the seafood carts. We weren't sure of what to order so thankfully the guys next to us were really helpful and ordered for us. We ate octopus, shrimp, barbequed eel, and some omelet. They were all pretty good. We also polished off two bottles of soju between us and offered some up to the gentlemen next to us since they were nice enough to order for us. Next up, we went to another cart and ate some kim mari(rice noodles wrapped in seaweed and then fried in some tempura like batter).. I think the kim mari in Sinchon beats theirs, for sure. We were also served up some soondae(pig intestines stuffed with rice noodles) and various other pig bits. The soondae was pretty good but the other pig bits were too much for me to handle.. they all had really weird textures and consistencies. To finish off the night, some of us bought hot dducs(rice cakes that are filled with brown sugar + nuts and then fried and flattened like a pancake) After the day of massive eating, we decided to get some alcohol and drink in the park near our motel. It was pretty fun except for the hords of mosquitos which are the biggest assholes in the world. Upon returning from the park, Angelica, James, and I were watching some television where some of the funniest shit ever was on. One channel had a boxing match where one of the boxers had an OBVIOUS advantage .. which was being Andre the Giant's Korean doppleganger with blue hair. The other guy was probably at most 5'10, 170 lbs. It was pretty amusing to watch the little guy try to pummel the blue haired giant, while the giant was laughing because the little guy's fists were tickling his belly. There was also a starcraft channel.. which Ryo and James apparently watched for a while the night before. Another channel had a strange movie where the final scene was two guys on a tight rope.. one had his eyes gauged out for some reason, and the other man looked like a woman for another mysterious reason.. it seemed really emotional.. when all of a sudden the two guys jumped in the air and landed on their balls on the tight rope?? Then I guess their balls propelled them into the air where the last shot was a freeze-frame and yeh, WHAT?? I have no idea.

So, after what seemed like a two week long vacation, it was nice to return "home." It's funny what we define as home and how quickly we've come to adopt Sinchon as our home. Home is where your heart is, right? Awww, *a single tear slowly trickles down the face of a clown...* After it all, I left satisfied albeit stinky after pretty much wearing the same thing every day and mosquito bite-ridden. Apparently my skin is not okay with mosquito bites.. I had a pretty crazy reaction to my bites.. and I got fucking THIRTY of them. Not all of them acted a fool though.. just the ones on my ankles and legs got super swollen.. and some of them got extremely red and bubbly looking. It was definitely pretty disgusting.. every time I showed someone my bites they'd jump back while screaming "UGHHH!!" Yeh, I gross people out THAT much. Some of my friends convinced me to go see a doctor... and they just prescribed me some antibiotic cream, steroid cream, and some calamine lotion which has been helping a lot actually. So, yeh. O.k. now I'm uber sreepy + tired so.. until next time... Peace, Love, and Fuck mogitoes.........!!

Chuseok Travels

2007-09-28T10:46:00.000-07:00

So, wow. I just went on a little trip to Gyeongju and Busan and it feels like I've been gone FOREVERS.
We took a huge ass group of us.. 11 people(Jennifer, James, Ryo, Gelly, Silvia, Katharina, Amy, Maricarmen, Max, Stephanie, and myself).. and took a bus that took about 5 hours to get to our first stop, Gyeongju. We were relieved because a professor of mine warned me that it might take up to 22 hours because of traffic.. HOLY SHITS! But luckily, we got there in 5 with very minimal traffic. My Korean grammar teacher had 14 hours of traffic on the way back to Seoul... wow, we were sooooo extremely lucky. Whew. I would NOT have been a happy camper. We left Friday night and got there at about 1am. We stayed at a hostel for about 3 days... which was pretty nice despite the borderline sketch bathrooms.

Waiting for the bus...

The first night we just decided to just pass out.. so we wake up the next morning and eat duck bbq for breakfast/lunch. That, and some chicken soup.. it was sooo dee-ricious. After that we decided to pay a visit to the Bulguksa temples and the Seokuram Grotto which were really lovely sights to see. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves... and I sure did take a shit ton of them... We found out that 10 other international students from Yonsei were going to be staying at our hostel.. Thanks to Lonely Planet, heh. Also, there were about 17 int'l kids from Ewha university, our neighboring university.. so we decided to make use of the roof access, bought a bunch of booze and had our own makeshift mingle fest. It was really fun and definitely a lot cheaper than hanging out at a bar.

rooftop chillin'.. top: Jesus, Angelica, Katharina, Silvia, me, James..Bottom: Sascha and Ryo

gangsta'

The next day was definitely looking like it was threatening rain.. but we decided to proceed with our plans for a 5 hour hike along Mount Namsam. We ventured out to see Chilburam Maaeseokbum(Reliefs of Buddha of Chilburam). It took us actually only about 1.5 hours to get there.. I was pretty pooped and was shweating like a crazy mofo.. When we finally got up there, I was looking around the mountain tops.. I stupidly exclaimed, "Wait, where are the Buddhas???" to which someone responded, "uh... Are you crazy?" I was looking across to the other mountain faces, but it was right in front of us.... Wow, sometimes I can be so smart.. it really kills me.. We were greeted by some monks who immediately brought us food(rice cakes and potatoes.. which were uber yums) and offered us coffee. They were super accomodating and let us sit out on their steps so that we could duck out from the rain a bit. The sight was so peaceful and serene... it was beautiful. On the way down, I was scared as hell because the rocks were super slippery and I'm afraid of heights.. and my shoes didn't have great traction so I was pretty much on the brink of a minor panic attack. Everyone took note of my extreme spazoidness and started shouting things at me.. such as "Give me your shit!!".. haha, actually no.. it was an extremely sweet gesture as Gelly carried my jacket, Ryo my bag, Amy my scarf, and Silvia offered to trade shoes with me.. and helped me get down the especially daunting rocks by holding my hand. They really are the greatest. <3 I was so grateful because I really was frrrreeeakin. We played a word game on the way down.. where you have to keep adding words to a sequence(but it only has to match the word ahead of it.. e.g., car-jack-hammer-head...) It was entirely too much fun.. and shit got crazy. Well, as crazy as word games can get haha.

Silvia really enjoying them potaters..

The next day, we rode a bus into Busan which is the second largest city in Korea. Our motel was a definite upgrade from the hostel we were at.. and it was cheaper too! Anyways, we were wandering around the Jaljiro markets when Ryo, Jennifer, and I stumbled into a small little pojang machuh(food stand) where they were serving eel. They had a tank full of live eels. Upon ordering, the little grandma stuck her hand in there and started grabbing up some eels. Cool. She then took a spike and pinned the eel's head to her cutting board and started hacking away. When we received our dish, it was a hot plate full of eels(with all their innards still intact..) in the traditional Korean spicy sauce with onions. Was it tasty delicious, you ask? Uhhhhhhhhmmm, after some thought.. I think the general consensus was .. no, not really. The eels looked like pale toes.. and had a really strange texture.. a little bit like cartilage in that it was pretty crunchy and chewy. Yeh........

After our eerie lunch, we walked around and perused the streets. It was a pretty neat sight. They had sooo many food carts. You could even build your own kimbap!

check out that huge line of food carts!

happy to be here

A soju juice box... or as we affectionally call it, the so-juice box. Does that trump Joe's Thaicetea(Thai + Iced + Tea.. which is also a play on tasty).. hmmm.. perhaps it does. Hi Joe. You are probably squirming in your seat right now coming up with reasons why Thaicetea still wins... haha

O.k. I'm going to continue the rest on another post....

rame rain go away.. come again some other day(not)

2007-09-21T00:57:00.000-07:00

So tonight some chingoos(friends in Korean) and I are taking a trip down to the southern parts of Korea. Gyeongju is our first stop and then after that we're making our way down to Busan. It's funny because we really wanted to go to Jeju island but now it's completely flooded so it's a good thing we didn't decide to do that. Anyway, apparently parts of Busan are flooded too.. so hopefully it's not too bad otherwise I'm not sure what we'll do. Damn typhoons. Mother nature is not very nice and that's for sure. We're taking a bus down since all the train tickets were booked up way in advance.. one of my teachers said that it might take us 22 hours to get down there with all the holiday traffic.. AGH! Plus, Korean bus drivers + rain = scary ass ride. Hopefully we'll all still be alive at the end of this.. Anyways, talk to everyone in 5 or 6 days.. KNOCK ON WOOD! Happy Chuseok

Time to get mofuggin' serious up in this bizZznatch

2007-09-19T11:20:00.000-07:00

Hrrrmm.... loads of thoughts.
It's kind of crazy and strange to think about exactly how fast I've become accustomed to my surroundings. I feel as if I've been here forever as I'm gaining familiarity.. with every day feeling like it's becoming part of the distant past. Some things that only happened a month ago almost feels like they didn't happen.. it just seems SO INCREDIBLY LONG AGO.

I was having a conversation about this exact thing with a friend here.. and he agreed that the transition was surprisingly a lot simpler and smoother than we would have ever anticipated. He also had the same fear that I did.. that maybe BECAUSE the transition was so easy, perhaps it meant that it was time to reevaluate our lives back at home.. maybe we're not heading in the direction that we need to be going in because.. shouldn't there be things that we just can't live without? I don't know.. but the more I think about it, the more I'm confirming the idea in my head that things were pretty great back at home. When people ask me about where I'm from, only good things spring to my mind. Maybe the reason why the transition was so smooth wasn't because things at home weren't great, but maybe it speaks volumes of us as people.. our inner strength and therefore, our ability to adapt to new situations and surroundings.

So, yeh. I have to get serious for a second. I promise this won't happen that often.. since for some of you, it may be out of character for me or whateverrrrs. I honestly feel so proud of myself and for all the numerous amounts of others who are studying abroad/have studied abroad/lived abroad/etc. To step out of your comfort zone and do something that you talked about always wanting to do, really is nothing short of an amazing feat. Most of us didn't come here to escape any horrible atrocities back at home, but rather to gain new perspectives and to ultimately try to better yourself as a person. Upon closer inspection, it seems like most people had it pretty good back at home as well... so to come out to a place where you're experiencing such a culture shock.. where you're facing all sorts of barriers: cultural, language, everything... it's really great to see ..and it creates an almost instant respect from me(which most people who know me know that it isn't easy to come by) So whatever crutch people think they might have come with(having family here, knowing the language, coming with a friend, whatever..), you still put yourself out there to confront who you are as a person and to really take a look at your life. Everyone should feel proud of themselves because hey.. we're freaking warriors. This isn't to say that anyone who hasn't done this is NOT a brave person or a warrior in their own right.

It's funny because some of the things I miss the most are also some of the things that I love the most about being in Korea. IE, familiarity and knowing what to do. It's almost as if every thing you do here, from the most mundane tasks such as ordering in a restauraunt or doing laundry, is an adventure. It's an obstacle to overcome, a mountain to climb, a bear to wrestle.. heh. And every day, things are getting that much easier so it's like instant gratification.

Another strange thing is how I feel as if I can do whatever I want, say whatever I want, wear whatever I want, act however I want... essentially BE whatever I want because no one can really think or say otherwise. O.k. well duh, I know there are certain ethical and moral parameters.. although what are ethics and morals really? (shit, that'll be a topic for later, or maybe on this blog.. never) But it's really weird and kind of fun.. It's refreshing to know that you can tweak your personality to your likings or perhaps even dislikings and nobody will really be able to tell the difference and say "No. This isn't you.. or well, not REALLY you." Insert obligatory friend remarks here, right? "Oh Hannah.. we love who you are.. don't change!", "Gee golly gosh, you sure are neat." But, yeh. I know what my core is like as a person but at the same time, it'll be interesting to see where I am in a year from now... because I truly believe that you learn and grow(or are stunted) by and from experience. Experience is the mother of all knowledge... errrr, forget who says that. O.k. well now it's 4 am and I really ought to get to bed so... take care everybody! E-hugs all around the world.

Ah Yonsei-----!

2007-09-17T10:10:00.000-07:00

Maaaan,
bug repellent smells soooooo baddddd ugggghhhhhh.
I feel that all this bug repellent flooding my lungs and nasal passages isn't the greatest thing in the word, but.. uggghh. Fucking mogis. Die mogis die! I honestly wish there were no mogis in existence, EVER. Do they have any special purpose for living?? Will it really affect the food chain if they all just up and disappeared one day? Are pandas going to become extinct because spiders eat mogis, and spiders help bamboo grow, and therefore the pandas will starve(o.k. i know for a fact that none of that is true but do you get the gist, no?)? Is anyone REALLY going to make a documentary called "A Day Without a Mogi" where upon watching it you'll realize.. "Gee, life sure is hard without them mogis" Cmon, REERY?? I'm sippin on mogi haterade, I guess. Woop.

This weekend was pretty crazy.
We went on an IYC(international yonsei club) sponsored trip to the outskirts of Seoul.. where we experienced nature. Real nature! Trees and plants in Seoul, WHAT?! The name of the place was Gapyeon and it was actually really nice.. Gelly + I decided to take the early bus and get our money's worth. The place we were staying at was really pretty and there was even a stream! I love love love love love the sound of moving water.. something about it is so soothing to my ears. So the first half of the day, we spent learning how to play these intense Korean games. Man, Koreans are fucking SERIOUS about their games. They don't take that shit lightly. It was cool because none of them were worried about looking stupid if they were too into it.. it was almost as if if you weren't completely into it, then you'd look stupid. Each song had its own chant with its accompanying hand motions.. and if you lost the games, you would have to take a shot.. and when that person would have to take a shot, they'd have even more accompanying songs. Crazy business. It almost felt like we were at camp, except with tons and tons of booze. Most of the day and night were taken up by playing such games...Ohhh but we had the greatest dinner ever. Our group had to buy supplies for dinner, and our group leader had the most brilliant idea which consisted of us going to a restaurant and getting our dinner from them.. where they individually packaged everything. Genius! We made "Bu de jjeegyeh".. which means, every-f.ing-thing-in-it-stew. We added ramen noodles to it and it was sooooo good. Gelly + I were sick(and still are sick) but this actually made us feel a whole lot better. Yums in my tums.

Later that night, we had a campfire where even more crazyness ensued.
Most people were sloshed at this point after copious amounts of soju + beer. I was pretty sober myself though. The Yonsei students were teaching us all of the school chants and what not that we'd have to know if we were going to attend this special event that's happening on October 5th. I'm not exactly sure of what the event is but from what I gathered, I think it's a baseball game against another school. I don't exactly remember the chants either, or the accompanying dances. Korea really likes their chants with accompanying dances if you haven't figured that part out. We had to do some RIDICULUOUS dances... it was funny and strange because all of the songs sounded like bastardized versions of American songs.. oy? Everyone was dancing their hearts out.. we got REALLY into it. It's actually a little ridiculous how much we got into it. So much that after thinking about it the next morning, it's slightly embarrassing. We were all shweaty mofos by the end of it. It was funny because some Korean girl was like, "You're really good at these dances!" Haha, WEIRD. After we learned all of the chants, we hooked up our own ipods and hardcore ghetto danced. It was a little scary though when this random old creepster dude came out and was taking pictures of us.... most of the international students thought that he was part of Yonsei and so we posed for the pictures.. until all of the Korean students started warning us that he was actually probably just some perv and who knows what he'd do with those pictures... AHHHHH. So hopefully my face won't be popping up on some gross website any time soon. Anyway, the noise got to be too much for the neighbors so we had to move our ghetto dance club indoors.

When we got inside, we plugged in our ipods again.. and we started to dance again.. except this time it was only a few of us Americans.. I bet all the Korean students were thinking to themselves, "stupid fucking americans".. but whatevers, it was a lot of fun. When it came time to go to sleep.. well, at least for some of us.. a lot of the Koreans were still going at it with those games. I told you, they don't fuck around when it comes to these games. Jennifer and I had to share a set of blankets since they ran out.. but as we were sleeping, I got stepped on TWICE. But nobody would even acknowledge that they stepped on me.. W T F ?! I got pissed the second time and I was like "holy shit. I am out of here" After I went outside, I found out that we could leave early if we just paid for the taxi ride to the train station. It was 6 am at this point.. A group of us were like "HELLS YES" because it was impossible to sleep... we were all feeling gross as hell from the night before.. and someone was persuading us to stay.. saying that if we waited 5 hours, we could get picked up in the shuttle bus that will go to the train station. We looked at each other with annoyed expressions that seemed to scream "Fuck NO" The cab ride was only 2 bucks each and it was worth it to get home early... everyone else that left later said that they had to sit on the floor of the trains.. so thank goodness we left early. CHYEH.

Ohhh.. so I met a really stupid guy at this event. At first, I thought he was kind of cute.. and then I found out when he was born (1989.. GROSS!) and then I talked to him(EVEN MORE GROSS!) He was talking about how much he hates gay people.. he actually had the audacity to say, "I don't know what it is but every time I see a gay guy, I just want to beat the shit out of him." WHAT THE HELL?! Upon hearing this, I say "Ohhh.. well I know why.. it's because you're ignorant!" I lay down some more insults except I think this guy is too stupid to even understand that I'm insulting him... and I'm being blatant. Another gem that came from this guy's mouth was, "Oh I used to be a Communist for about a year." What the fuck!? Who is this guy??? Ugh, some people really gross me out.

Anywayyyy.
A pretty large group of us made plans to leave Seoul for Chuseok break(Korean Thanksgiving) Pretty awesome!
We got bus tickets(since plane and train tickets are already all booked) to go to the southern cities of Korea (first stop, Gyeonju and then Busan) We're leaving Friday night and then coming back Wednesday afternoon. Hopefully it will be tons of fun! HAPPY SHIT!

i'm really bad with titles...

2007-09-13T10:44:00.000-07:00

So yeh.
Hmm... update time! I should update more frequently so that I actually remember everything I want to write down. And so that the posts won't be so horribly long... and don't worry. Now that I have the internet, there will be supplimentary pictures for your viewing pleasure! That way I won't just be posting long chunks of just woooords since I know that's not the funnest thing in the world.

little buddies just hanging out.. or they're just being forced to hang out. If this was a hollywood film, these dogs would have busted out of some prison together.. but they're coerced into tolerating each other because they're each other's keys to freedom. And one of the dogs happens to annoy the shit out of the other one(the small dog would probably be annoyed by the bigger dog... hey, i didn't make the rules. that's just usually how it goes)... and when they finally get free of each other, they go their separate ways.. until one day the small dog hears that the big dog is in trouble.. and against his/her better judgement or desires, he feels he has to save the big dog because he realizes how much he actually cares about him.. YEH. tearjerker or what! hooray for trite hollywood movie formulas. anthropomorphism <3

Anyways, what have I been doing the past few days? I have no idea... but.. since I've pretty much been taking pictures.. I'm going to try to piece it together since my memory's a little sketch right now. It's 3 in the mooooornin! James took me and Gelly to his favorite coffee shop which I have to admit.. was pretty great. And they don't blare kpop or any crappy ass American hot 100 shit. They were even screening The Snowman! An awesome movie from my childhood.. if anyone hasn't seen it, check it out! It's made in 1982 but the animation is pretty nifty.

James + Gelly

The Snowman!!

I also happened to grab lunch with my "buddy." I joined a program called language exchange through the yonsei global program, and they pair us up with a Korean buddy. It's nice because with Mentors Club, it was 1 buddy and 10 international buddies.. but with language exchange, it's a one-on-one thing. My buddy's name is Jae Hyun, and he seems to be a pretty neat guy. He's majoring in Korean literature.. how cool is that? He's also been playing this traditional Korean instrument(ah, the name has slipped my mind for the moment) since he was 12 years old! He says that the sound resembles that of a violin.. and he said that he'd teach me how to play. Fucking awesome!! I've wanted to learn to play the violin for a while now, but I think it' d be even cooler to learn to play this instrument.

Jae Hyun

Man, the 12th was Lissy's birthday so she had the greatest idea ever... or it pretty much turned out to be the greatest idea ever.. we compiled a pretty big group of people and headed over near Han River where we got the BEST MEAL I'VE HAD IN KOREA THUS FAR. It might have even been one of the greatest meals, ever. It was a pretty epic dinner.. I can't emphasize that enough. We ate sangyupsal which is where you wrap meat in lettuce with rice and other delicious veggies. Man, I wouldn't mind going back to eat there every day until the end of time. The service was great too and the guy who owned the place was so nice and accomodating. He was soo funny. At the end of the meal, we were trying to count out our money to pay.. and we were pulling out some change and he's peering over our shoulders, when he decides to throw in some money as well. He also had us give a round of applause for his wife who made the delicious kimchi. And get this.. he lined us all up at the end of the meal as we were leaving to give us all high-fives! I LOVE HIGH-FIVES! Haha.. ok I'm weird. Man, I love communal eating.. it's so much fun and creates such an awesome environment. Oh... funny story. We were walking out of the subway station, when a random guy comes up to Silvia and jabs his finger into her face.. and then has some crazy wide eyed expression(think evil wizard) and wriggles his fingers into her face. She starts laughing histerically when Katharina asks her what's so funny.. at that exact moment, before Silvia cold even answer, the guy poked Katharina in the face and did the same thing. What the fuck? I wish I could have seen it but I nearly died laughing after Katharina told me... whew

Check out those tubes. Seems straight out of the Terry Gilliam movie Brazil, riiiiight?

delicious slabs of meat...

happy pace!

After dinner, we headed over to a store to pick up some booooooze. Basically, some soju, orange juice, and some 40s. We walked over to the Han River where we just hung out and drank.. and ate the cake that we bought for Lissy. Lissy also happened to have a bag of tasty German sweets.. Haribo! The Germans + I also happened to discuss my .LOVE. for kinder hippos. Oh kinder hippos, how I love and miss you so. It was funny because where we were at Han River, felt like the scene where the monster is introduced in The Host. But luckily for us, the monster didn't come out and attack us.. hopefully we'll be as lucky the next time we visit as well. It was a really nice night and it was soo much fun just drinking and hanging out by the river. It was nice to just have a mellow night.

Nina at the tunnel leading to Han River

Ugh, my camera sucks at night time. The best picture I could manage at Han River

James + Jorn

Katharina + Amy

yayyy

Duuuuude. So mosquito bites here are KILLER. I haven't gotten bitten that much.. especially in comparison to other folks here but fuck. The ones I have are pretty insane. They've gotten UBER swollen and they're so uncomfortable. They're all on my feet too! Motherfucker! One is on the back of my foot.. right where my shoes would be touching if I put them on so I haven't been able to wear normal shoes since it hurts like a bitch. My bites are itchy and painful at the same time. Total fuck nuts. So I bought repellent and am trying to wear it all the time.. even though it smells pretty bad. Or I can just buy a biohazard suit... Shrug, whichever.

GROOOOOOOOSSSS! Check out how swollen it is... dis-gust-ing?

So today, Jennifer's buddy, Jee Eun, took us shopping in Myungdong today. It was pretty fun.. we ended up out there for about 4 hours! Even though we all didn't really take home that much stuff. I bought a scarf, Jennifer bought a skirt and a shirt, and Jee Eun bought some earrings. It was pretty fun though although Korean street vendors and mall workers are all really intense and aggressive. They'd try to speak English to us.. and one guy called out, "Where are you from?".. and I said, "San Francisco".. and he was like "What?! Why are you saying it like that?! You have to say it like San-pu-ran-sis-su-co".. which I guess is the Korean way to say it. I wasn't quite sure how to respond except with an uncomfortable face and a quicker speed of walking. The cool thing though is that you can haggle.. or at least I'm going to try to learn how to. I usually end up feeling really guilty and buying something that I'm so-so enthusiastic about at a HIGHER price than listed.. just so I can feel like I just fed that street vendor's kids some ice cream that they haven't ate in 5 years.... ugh. So yeh, Jee Eun is an expert at haggling apparently.. she'd put on a cute smile and be like "please cut the price".. and if something was 3,000 won she'd go "how about 2,000 won?" and would somehow get her way. I need to learn this.

Anyyyyyywayyyyyyyy...
The International Yonsei Club is having a trip this weekend to the outskirts of Seoul. For about $25 bucks, that includes all accomodations + transportation. HELLS YES! Hopefully that will be all sorts of fun. Also, Korean Thanksgiving(Chuseok) is coming up soon so we're trying to plan some vacationing.. although we wanted to go to either Jeju or Busan.. the tickets for transportation are already all taken.. ugh. Anyways, if anyone has any ideas please send them my way!

MUAH.

p.s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ponB8Hd_lG4

in case anyone wanted to watch The Snowman

pictures

2007-09-08T10:11:00.000-07:00

It seems that at this grand hour of 2am and beyond while walking through the streets of Seoul... it's inevitable that you'll come across several belligerent nerds engaging in a round of almost-fisticuffs. It never gets past the slurred trash talking, but I always watch with bated breath, wondering if anyone will be ballsy enough to throw a punch. I love love LOVE watching baseball fights but something about witnessing a fight in real life makes me really nervous. Anyways.. here's some pictures that you guys have been waiting for. Or.. as in guys, I mean.. the very very small group of people that reads this. I don't even know if it can be called a group.. I'm not exactly sure how many people I'd need for it to actually be a legitimate "group".. o.k. uhm, tangent much? here we goes

I guess smoking is ok but absolutely no smorking of any kind is allowed.

the death cell

shinchon!

amy and james at beer bar

Uhm, some useful things to say while you're in Korea I guess. This was from a book that was given to one of my friends by a Korean student.. apparently it also had some really vulgar expressions in there as well.. but we don't need to get into that.

Angelica, Jennifer, me, James, and Ryo at Doctor Fish Cafe

fishy feeding time! Bon appetit ... of feet!

Jason, Angelica, Jennifer, James, Ryo, me, Derek, and Jenny at "Happy Days"

BLOODS!

the cousins at the Hyundai mall food court

line em up! strawberry soju

birthday cakey!! <3

the random locals we met, Seulgi and Hwangshik

noraebang!

perhaps in the middle of singing mmbop... yeh..................... don't ask

David, Jake, Jennifer, James, and Derek doing cigarette smoking/winky pace

some super cool uber korean hipster-ish band

wasty pace

2007-09-07T10:33:00.000-07:00

Wasty pace = wasted face (Korean style)
Anyways, it's been a crazy past few days! I FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY have the internet at home.. so no more sneaking into the dorm's pooter bang(computer room.. bang is room in korean). It's actually pretty funny because when the internet guy came to my place today.. I was SO extremely tired that I slipped into bed and started to fall asleep without even a word to the internet guy. Then I realized (except only after probably about 5 minutes) that that was probably an extremely creepster move so I was like "sorry.. I'm really tired" and then proceeded to pass the fuck out again. This was a really stupid move on my part because who knows? I could've woken up with all my valuables gone... forevermore. I did wake up to say bye and thank you to him so I did mind my manners! Anyway, important thing is.. TIME TO BE A l337 n3rd again! w00tz0rz!

Jebus Christopher.
I've been so crazy tired lately because I've pretty much been going out EVERY DAY.. even with all of my classes(some being 9 am.. an ungodly hour if you ask me.. and this is my blog so yeh.. you ARE asking me) Hmm.. where do I begin? On September 5th, I went to go back to this bar called Festival.. which is where I had my first "wasty pace" experience in Korea. Holy shit.. I hope they don't remember us! Well, thank goodness they didn't.. because they probably would have barricaded the doors had they known. Anyways.. a bunch of peeps and I were at Festival and they surprised me with a birthday cake and a super neato card! Honestly, that was one of the sweetest gestures anyone has ever made for me.. ESPECIALLY because I've only known these people for about a week.. some for only a few days! So if any of you guys are reading this, thank you so much! It was truly a great experience... *happy tear* Anyway, the cake was deeee-lish and we got strawberry soju which was also quite tasty. Afterwards, James, Jennifer, Derek, and I were the only ones left so we decided to continue our fun night out. We were about to cross an intersection when this adorable little Korean girl shyly said hello to us(I was with 3 halfies so I think we stood out a little). Derek struck up a conversation with her and the guy she was with and then they asked us if we wanted to go hang out with them. HELLS YES! A golden opportunity to mingle with the locals! We head to this bar and hang out there until about 3 am.. having the freaking greatest time ever with these people. It was even educational because I learned all the names of my fingers in Korean. Awesome! Afterwards, we went to noraebang(karaoke) which was conveniently located in the same building. We then sang the night away with great hits such as Bohemiam Rhapsody, Y.M.C.A., Buddy Holly, No Scrubs, Candy by H.O.T!!!, Lovefool... jebus, I can't even remember all the songs. Fiiiinally, when the little Korean girl(Seulgi) fell asleep and Derek got super wasty pace and passed the fuckkkkk out we decided to leave. At the end, we all exchanged numbers and vowed to hang out soon again. Yeh... I got home at 5 in the morning. Woke up and went to class the next morning like a true soldier.

Man, today was fan-fucking-tastic as well because a couple of us decided that we wanted to check out the Korean indie rock scene. I know what you're thinking.. "Wait, does that even exist?" Apparently it does! We checked out some random clubs that had live bands... while we were searching for some places, this random old Korean hipster looking guy approaches us and tells us that he'll help us find a place. This guy speaks English and even some German(because he lived there for 11 years) Holy moly. Anyway, he takes us to this place called "Funky Funky" Great name, right? The price is about $12 but we were a bit hesitant so the guy offered tickets to us for $6. Could we really say no? We got to watch about 5 bands. The first band kind of sucked.. except they did this rocked out version of "Build me up buttercup" that was pretty entertaining. The second guy is apparently pretty famous but he was kind of weird and wasn't that great either. The third band was completely awesome! They were these uber Korean hipster kids.. I'm not even sure I remember what they sounded like but the lead singer was this super hot Korean girl who was really charismatic and soooo fun to watch. Later on during the other bands' sets, she danced with me and put her arm around me! Thumbs up!!! The 4th band was just all covers... they did stuff like "Placebo- Every me, and every you," "T-Rex-20th Century Boy," and then HOLY SHIT. They did "Pixies-Where is my mind?" HO-O-OOOLY SHIT. How completely mindfucking awesome is that?! It was a really good rendition too! It was like rummaging through a pair of pants you haven't worn for a while and stumbling across a $20 bill.. completely unexpected and totally fucking sweet. They closed out with "Kylie Minogue -Can't get you out of my head" which was actually really fun. i know a lot of you guys are groaning but shut up. If you were in that club, you would have been dancing and singing your ass off and basically having the time of your life. I struck up a conversation with the lead singer as well since he was super friendly.. and he told me that he was really into Brit pop. Aww, haha. The last band was pretty good too except that they sounded like every other popular garage rock band.. pretty much exactly like the strokes.

Anyway, what a fun night! Meanwhile the entire night, the guy that introduced us to the place is constantly getting us drinks. He bought us shots of tequila, some beer, and even some cocktails. He seemed super cool, albeit super eccentric.. after the band night was over, he suggested we go to another bar where he said he'd treat us out. Cool beans.. but when we got to that bar, it started to get kind of sketch. He bought us all Guiness which was a really nice gesture... but then he ordered a really expensive bottle of whiskey and then we all started feeling really strange. Lissy said it best when she said that she felt like she was a hostess, as if we were getting paid to sit with him. At this point, I know he's probably really drunk and.. ugh. I feel bad but we all decided that things were getting way too strange and some of us were getting some really bad vibes and feelings off of him so we thanked him, and peaced the fuck out. I'm probably not giving enough details... but I don't know. Maybe I've watched too many scary movies but something about this situation just really didn't feel right so I honestly truly felt that I had to get the heck out of there. I don't know... ahhh all of us left feeling extremely guilty because who knows.. maybe this WAS just a really nice old guy(let me just add eccentric again for the extra effect) who was a bit lonely and needed some company... but honestly, we didn't want to owe the guy anything... and it was just all too completely strange and foreign to us. I still don't really know what to think about the situation to be quite honest.. ugh.

Blah. So let's change the subject, shall we? Thank you to everyone who sent me the birthday comments, emails, and messages. I was really overwhelmed by all the kind words and I honestly do appreciate them all so much. I'll be sure to post pictures soon.. I'll probably make a post dedicated entirely to pictures. O.k. so take care guys! Talk to you soon. LOVE.

a quick update

2007-09-03T23:02:00.000-07:00

I was walking down the street today when I encountered two pigeons and I was instantly reminded of San Francisco. Sometimes it's the small things in life that really bring you back home. Albeit.. small disgusting little things, but small things nonetheless. I miss everyone at home but I'm honestly having such a blast right now. I wish you guys were here!

I went to a place called "Doctor Fish Cafe" yesterday where for 8 dollars, you get a drink, some food, and you get to stick your feet in a pond where these little fish eat all of the dead skin cells off of your feet. Or someone else said, "They eat all of the bad stuff off of your feet." I'm not sure how discriminating they are(I mean.. come on, they might only eat the crud off of our feet because they have no other choice for food) but the experience was weeeeeird. It felt so strange having all of these little fish come up to your feet and just feed off of them. When I started getting used to the small fish, I felt a bigger set of chompers on my foot.. looked down and sure enough, it was the friggin' Shaquille O'Neil of feet-feeding fish. Ughhhh don't touch me. It was definitely fun though and hopefully I'll go back again.. and hopefully this time I'll be a lot less squeamish. It sucks because if you move around too fast, they die. So there were some dead little feet eating fish floating up at the top. Gross.

After Dr. Fish, we went to a super ghetto looking hole-in-the-wall bar and I had honestly one of the funnest nights in Korea so far. I got pretty drunk but don't worry. I never get TOO drunk, mind you! I can hang.. haha. I got to meet some cool people and so it was fun to be in good company.

Anyways.. I have to head off to school! Most of my classes seem good so far.. I took a placement test for my Korean classes yesterday.. it was uber difficult. SO hard. It had a speaking portion + a written portion and I don't think I did that well on either. I actually quit midway through because it was getting way too strenuous. I think everyone except for one person in my class gave up on the test. UGH. After the test, I met a girl.. who upon first meeting me asked me "Do you know how to speak Korean?" And I had to think for a second before I replied, "You know... I really don't know. I just took a test that told me that I probably don't." Eep. Hopefully I won't be in too low of a level class.

Anyhow.. I'm finding it really strange that this is slowly becoming my reality..

many adventures

2007-09-02T01:58:00.000-07:00

I see someone's foot in there air and his toes are wiggling suggestively. Okay I don't know if toes can really wiggle suggestively but.. I thought that'd be cool to say.

Anyways. I'm at an internet cafe right now since I don't have the world wide web at my home yet... boooo. All around me are guys playing starcraft, or warcraft, or whatever it is that guys in Korea play. Internet is pretty cheap at these places.. only about $1/hr so it's nice. I tried to use the bathroom here though and I found out that it was one of those dingy little holes in the ground. Oh hells no(ghetto voice) I guess I'm way too used to the westernized world for my own good but honestly, I'm so clumsy that I'd probably end up slipping and falling into a puddle of my own feces. I KNOW, right? Then there you have it. You wouldn't do it either. Unless you're a guy since it wouldn't really make that big of a difference.. Fuck the cockocracy!

The past few days have been really fun. I joined some international clubs so I've been able to finally meet some people. It's a bit difficult to meet people since I don't live in the dorms, so I've had to force myself to be super outgoing and wow, wait for it... actually talk to people. Anyone who actually knows me is going to be so proud of me since I normally don't talk to people.. unless I have to(IE: waiting tables) It was kind of intimidating and frightening to say the least.. because everyone at the welcome parties seemed to hang out with the people they came with(ie, the people they first met) Okay come on.. no one really likes default friends. So I would just awkwardly trot up to each random little clique, thrust out my absurdly small little hand and would loudly ask, "HI!! Where are you from??" I might have even busted out into a song and dance with jazz hands and all.. and somehow I'd suddenly be wearing a sequined tuxedo.....Ok, I jest.. but anyways. I had to overcompensate is all I'm saying. It seemed to work somewhat.. haha.

The first two days I got immensely drunk. The first night, me + some other people went to a bar called Festival and got completely shitfaced. I think I had 2 beers + 12 shots of Soju total that night. For me, soju is really gross.. it tastes and smells like rubbing alcohol. But then again, I'm not really a fan of hard alcohol. Our table was a complete trainwreck. The table was drenched in soju and everyone had their Asian glow working overtime(even the ones that weren't Asian) I can't even remember a second where we weren't clinking our shot glasses in the air yelling "GANBE!!" which is apparently "cheers" in Korean? We also ordered pitchers of flavored soju which were actually quite tasty. So far I've tried three different flavors: pineapple, yogurt, and peach. I think peach is my favorite thus far.

The second night was a lot more mellow. The mentors club was a lot more fun than the IYC club. It's cool because they actually pair you up with a Korean buddy so you can meet some locals. However, I guess there aren't that many Korean students in the club so the international students to Korean buddy ratio was like 10:1. My buddy seems nice though.. I wonder if I will ever see him again. Anyway, the mentors club put on a hip-hop dance show that was super entertaining. They had on all the cheesy American TRL top 10 music and were trying to krump and such. It was awesome. Afterwards, most people went clubbing but a few people and I decided to save money and just go to bars. We first ended up at some sort of beer bar where the beer was all imported and put out in front of you. The set up was really cool but we found out that it was incredibly expensive.. something like 7 bucks a bottle.. but at that point we had already munched on their free snacks and we didn't want to be assholes.. so we got 3 bottles of beer to share for like.. 8 people. Haha, but then this creepy old Korean guy sends us over 3 more bottles for free! It was funny because one minute Felix(from Germany) was sitting with us, and the next he disappeared.. we looked up and he was sitting with creepy old Korean guy(cokg for short) Cokg pulls out some shot glasses and starts pouring Felix(who is shooting us looks of desparation) some Hennessey. James proceeds to join them and cokg propositions them into taking a cab out to another city. Uhm, holy crap? I ask Lissy(also from Germany) to say to Felix in German "Hurry up and drink the shot so we can go".. and Felix replies, "I can't. If I drink it, he just keeps pouring more" Finally we manage to wrestle Felix away from cokg and get the heck out of there. Haha.

Last night, we decided to take it easy and lay off the drinking. Two nights in a row of crazy alcohol seems to wear people out. We ended up going to a place that had frozen yogurt and coffee. James and I headed up to the counter to order some drinks.. the counter people stared at each other and then back at us in complete confusion. And then James and I proceeded to stare at each other and then back at them also in complete confusion. Let's just say that the proper word to describe the situation was.. UNCOMFORTABLE. We finally manage to get our drinks and we sit back at the table feeling somewhat dejected and still confused as to why ordering was so difficult.. hrm.

At the end of the night, a few of us went back to my place. I thought that my old laptop's battery was leaking so I begged Allen into looking at it. It doesn't look like battery acid and it actually smells like soy sauce.. Allen looks at it and confirms that it probably is soy sauce and that it's not even leaking where the battery is. WHAT THE HELL?? Why is there soy sauce in my computer?? I found a note in my luggage stating that my bag had been searched.. and all of a sudden, I got a mental picture of some crazy drunk Korean airport security guys using my laptop as a small table.. all the while slurping and spilling soy sauce all over my poor laptop. Yeh.. I have no idea.

Anyyyways. Korea has been pretty cool so far. Everyone I've met seems nice enough and I've actually been really interested in hearing why people decided to study abroad in Korea(ESPECIALLY non-Koreans) I've met people from all over the world: Austria, Germany, France, Sweden, Denmark... and the general consensus seems to be that they wanted to try something different other than the usual places that most other students go. That's super awesome. (Although I did encounter one strange annoying little French guy who said that he found Korean food to be absolutely disgusting and ate at McDonalds everyday. Uhm, hello?) I'm trying to get to know people from other countries so that I'll have a place to stay if I visit there haha. Score!

I moved into my new place and I absolutely love it. My neighorhood/city is cool since it's a college town so pretty much everyone I see on the street is a college student. But yeh.. seriously, anyone who wants to visit me.. consider this an open invitation. School starts tomorrow.. w00t! I'll put up pictures as soon as my internet is up and going.. promise! Hope everyone's doing well at home! love love love

compliments of the chef...

2007-08-29T19:08:00.000-07:00

So...
I had my first near meltdown yesterday.. although some may call it a complete meltdown. But who's here to judge? Ok put your hands down and your weapons away. Geez. Others had warned it would happen but whoa. I didn't anticipate this. It certainly didn't help that I'm trapped in a freaking "death box/cell" (like David affectionately calls it) A room like this would surely make any sane person go off the wall BONKERS.

**side story(suppliment): A guy I met from my program had already not slept for about two days.. he had to stay in a room like mine, but possibly even larger. He got extremely claustrophobic, grabbed his bags at 4 in the morning, and took off. He didn't know where the hell he was going and he only had a few words of Korean up his sleeve but he just had to get the hells on out of there. So YEH. That's pretty much my living situation right now. Except I'm a warrior.... with...the..occasional....freak out. But yeh, I endured, right?

But after it happened, I just thought to myself.. If this is the worst of it, then it's really not that bad. And honestly, it can only go up from here. Again, put your weapons away haha. Not to quote a Beatles song or anything.... but actually, the Joe Cocker rendition of the Beatles song which is also the theme song of an amazingly awesome show called The Wonder Years(hells yes!)... but "oh, I get by with a little help from my friends...[AND family]" and I did. I had to realize that although I can sometimes feel pretty isolated and ronrey(team america anyone?), friends and family and simba are never too far away(figuratively, of course. I DO realize that there is a vast ocean of separation) I downloaded Skype which may be the single most greatest invention EVER (sliced bread is highly overrated)... and it was so nice to have human contact with a familiar face. So anyone who has Skype, let's do it!! And anyone who doesn't have Skype, get a webcam + a microphone and download that shiznit.

Anyways, things have been looking up. I finally was able to find a power converter in the randomest of random places. A place that was an eye sore, chock full of neon lights and such. A little place I'd like to call OMG-YOU-SAVED-MY-LIFE. No exaggeration there. I even kind of made a friend. A girl randomly knocked on my door asking if she could take a look at my room(some people call it a room, I call it a box.. but whatever, to each his/her own) since she was moving in here. Upon first glance, she gasped, "It's so small!" Yeh... geez, I felt so awful for her because I get to move out after 5 days but she has to stay here. Oy, but she did speak a little bit of English.. and I do speak a little bit of Korean so I blurted out "LET'S BE FRIENDS!" We went out for dinner the other night and explored the neighborhood a little bit. I LOVE my neighborhood.. it pretty much has everything I'll ever need in it. And it's safe! Well, I feel pretty safe here.. and that's saying something considering the sunset(sunset represent heh) back in San Francisco freaked the crap out of me. No gang rape will happen here haha.

Hmmm.... also, I signed up for some clubs at school and there's a welcoming party tonight. Hopefully it's tons o' fun and maybe I'll be able to meet some chums. O.k. well that's it for now... another freakishly long post. I guess I'm a bit verbose but I'm sure most of you already knew that. It was written in fine print in the contract you signed to be my friend. You DID sign the contract, riiiiight? Heh, well 'tis all for now. Skype people! LONG LIVE SKYPE!

2007-08-28T19:44:00.000-07:00

Blah.

a safe but dizzy landing..

2007-08-27T22:51:00.001-07:00

Greetings from Korea!
South, mind you. Not north! I wouldn't really be too amped on going to live in an impoverished country with a totalitarian dictatorship. But anyways.

The plane ride wasn't as completely awful as I thought it would be. It was about an 11-12 hour flight... I took some dramamine(motion sickness medicine) I think it may have completely knocked me out. Maybe they haven't learned how to actually help motion sickness so they decided to just make a sleeping pill with a happier label. Whatever, I was a satisfied customer. I was hoping to sleep the entire plane ride anyways. I guess it also helped that I only slept about 45 minutes the night before. Hmmm.. all in all the plane ride was ok although I do have my suspicions that the man sitting next to me stole my peanuts. I'm not trying to point any fingers but all I know is that one minute those peanuts were sitting next to me, and the next.. .GONE. Was I going to eat the peanuts? Probably not but that's hardly the point.... urg.

So how's Korea you ask?
HOT! Absolutely mofo-ing hot. And humid at that. It seems pretty great so far though. I love the city life and it seems I've entered a much bigger city than my little home of San Francisco. The only thing that's a bit scary are all of the crazy cars cars with the crazy angry drivers inside of them. Usually when people are are driving and see pedestrians, they'll slow down at least a little bit.. seems that in Korea, if they see pedestrians, they'll slam down the gas pedal to try to move past you as quickly as possible. I'm also going to have to adjust to the fact that motorcycles and scooters are allowed to roam freely on the sidewalks. Geez, and I used to think that bicycles on sidewalks were annoying/dangerous. I guess I shouldn't wear on my ipod while walking haha... especially since I'm already a pretty oblivious pedestrian with a somewhat slow reaction time. It seems like any time a car honks at me, it takes me a while to realize what's going on and then instead of getting the heck out of the way, I usually respond with a confused look and awkward body movements. Yup, I'm normal.

I'm not moving into my place until September 1st so I've been put into a solitary confinement box.. or so it appears. It's just a bed.. and then my two huge bags of luggage take up the vast majority of the floor space.. and.. no window. I can't even open my luggage so I just unzip the bag and slide my arm into the suitcase. This is the point where I'm cursing that I had to zip up the underwear compartment. Don't worry though. With a little bit of finesse and some careful wriggling, I was successful in unzipping it and haven't had to wear the same pair for the past few days. Thank the stars! Haha, I'm trying to take the positive from this by thinking that this will just make me all the more appreciative of my new place. I've been trying to explore the city by walking around and not getting lost. I tried to find a restaurant where things were pretty familiar. I stepped into a place earlier today but didn't exactly know how the ordering process worked. So I walked up to the front and stared at people. No response. I looked around with utter confusion(usually the universal sign of "what the bleep is going on?" and then looked back at one of the ladies upfront and shot her a look of desperation. Success. I only saw 4 things on the overhead menu and ordered the familiar tonkatsu. Koreanized Japanese food. Alright!! It was pretty yummy though and only about $3.50.

O.k. so I've written a shit ton.
So I'm keeping this blog for my own personal reference as well as to keep all of you folks at home updated! So bear with me.. this is incredibly strange for me to have a public blog seeing that I'm a pretty private person. The blogs may be somewhat incoherent at times but hopefully they will at least be somewhat informative and entertaining. If not, sucks for you. Stop reading. Anyways, I miss all of you back at home and PLEASE email me! It seems like when you have no friends, you have all the time in the world. I've only been able to explore so far from my home because I don't want to get horribly lost. O.k. well take care! HEART <3

hy_c@hotmail.com