to Blog or Not to Blog?

I have to choose between going to have more experiences to blog about and or blogging about the ones I've already have....there's no time for both.

I just posted about my first trip to Seoul....... I've been back since then and Im going there to celebrate New Year's for vacation tomorrow. I've been here in Korea for five months now. Life is getting to be pretty standard.

Im looking forward  to getting my haircut in the foreigner part of Seoul tomorrow by someone who doesn't think my hair is so different it's "like sheep's wool".

I missed blogging about Thanksgiving. I went to a foreigner church service where they were serving Thanksgiving dinner. My Korean friends called the turkey bland and cringed at the cranberry sauce...........Im not gonna lie I was a little offended. After all, not everyone can be skinny and avoid the all the carbs in stuffing. And after all the new Asian food I've tried!!!..............anywho

They had never heard a turkey gobble. After much coaxing...I finally obliged and joined the gobbling contest in front of two hundred strangers at dinner. I ran into the same people at the bar later that week who saw me make an ass of myself and they bought me a drink for my efforts....winning.

I just celebrated Christmas with a bunch of Brits, a Newfie (Newfoundlander), some Americans, and three Koreans who were Western-Christmas party first-timers. These were different Koreans than the Thanksgiving  ones and they actually liked the food. It was so strange to see them poking at it like it was alien. They asked me what turkey and cranberry sauce tasted like before eating it...

The things you don't think about until you do............

I couldn't help but laugh out loud when they thought Christmas ornaments from the ceiling of the host-friend's apartment was "over-the-top"!!

.........needless to say we showed them the Trans-Siberian Orchestra light show houses on Youtube.

Apparently getting gifts on Christmas is only for young kids here. Usually only couples go out to celebrate Christmas while the rest go to church or stay home cause they're Buddhist and enjoy the day off (if it's in the middle of the week that is). It's like celebrating Valentine's Day.......gross

Fa-Ra-Ra-Ra-Ra-Ra-ing in the Subway Station downtown

 

All I have to say is: "Face in the CAKE!!!!" ....what a celebration....

OH! Its been a while since I've blogged: THERE'S A NEW GIRL IN TOWN!

We got a new girl at work who will probably read this. She's out of control and I love every minute of it. I've already been to two Karaoke sessions with her and our Korean friends and it has barely been a month. Here are some quotes of ours just for my memory more so than your understanding. Basically we could be a sit-com:

--I ain't got my cell-phone light!

--Me: "Cara, c'mon don't act crazy we like this place and wanna come back!"
Cara "Stop it Seth, you only live once. See, done"

What the hell does that little Asian girl sing in "Rush Hour"?

--Me  "Does that really come up in conversation every time I'm drunk"
--Cara  "No worries. Only for like 5 minutes."

"KEEEEEEEYYYYYYY"

And Cara if you're reading, I'm sure I haven't heard "Man in the Mirror" followed by the sound of glass shattering in that order for the last time..............Cara, un-phased by the broken glass says, "shit--well--we're outta beer"

The first time I met this uncharacteristically warm-weather-loving-Minnesotan-Moose, I was still hungover--why would you think any different of someone who's only gift for Christmas was a Soju bottle phone-charm???

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Do you know what happens when you reach the end of the subway line?
I do....

I remember what felt like blinking and realizing that I was the only one in my halogen-white subway car. It was like something outta the Matrix. I couldn't see anything out of  the windows and we weren't moving. I say "we" assuming that there was a person on the train with me. Then I heard the door beside me rattle and a man carrying a shiny work vest and a black box came out, mumbled something to me in Korean that must have been something to the effect of "just sit tight", and ambled off down the train only to get smaller and smaller with each door her went through. Then a little old lady appeared....I recognized her as the lady who was sitting directly across from me dozing before I had blinked to this moment. She was diligently, efficiently, yet apathetically, and unhurriedly cleaning the train. After about 7 minutes she was satisfied and went back to dozing....then the train started moving again....that's when I feel asleep ............again.........

What was supposed to be a 25 minute train ride had turned into a 4 hour odyssey;blinking my way from one side of the hour-long red-line route to the other. I hit my pillow at 10 am the next morning, but it's cool, I had napped at a 24-hour coffee shop after double-decker bus drunchies with Camille as the sun came up hours earlier.

15 minutes in bed and I got a text saying that the new girl "Cara" has just arrived and wanted to get lunch......I said I was feeling sick and would meet her later......what a first impression.....way to go Seth........I bought her dinner anywho.

RANDOM THOUGHTS FOR THE CAUSE THAT AREN'T BIG ENOUGH FOR THEIR OWN POST!

1. Coming home from Busan one weekend I saw a little boy climbing the subway chairs and mumbling a boy band song.....was that me when I was little??? K-POP IDOL IN TRAINING

2. I DISCOVERED A KRISPY KREME here....my student and I often have debates on which is better, Dunkin Donuts or Krispy Kreme........horray for free-talking time in ESL speaking classes!

3.  There is skin bleach in most of the make-up here because a whiter face is more beautiful........and westerners want to be tan........wow.........the grass really is always greener.

4. Just saw a Chinese woman cut paper by whippin' her hair..............SUCK ON THAT WILLOW SMITH

5. My boss is an ex-PE teacher/sports science major. he gave me boiled red-ginseng to drink for my cold because he's into Chinese medicine (even though ginseng is Korean)......nasty...but a cure all.......sold

6. Some Koreans  STILL refer to China as the orient, or Oriental Medicine or history.....so....are you the pot or the kettle?  EVERYONE'S A RITTLE BIT LASCIST!

7. There really is a Diagon Alley in real life (other than in Orlando now)......it's the Oriental Medicine Market that wafts it's bizarre smells from exotic fare like bull horn powder into the windows of my YMCA Korean class......

8. I am learning some contemporary worship songs in Korean. Same tune, different language. The university youth group is singing one of the staples and I picked up the syllables fast. Next thing you no I was teaching them the music and they were teaching me the words. It's fun to say that I can sing it in Korean! PS. I heard  "This is the Air I Breathe"  in Korean at a street-food stop last week. GLOBAL

9. New Favorite Drink name: "Black Mexican", a spin off of a Black Russian just with Jose

10. Koreans being short is a myth. They actually have been making their kids take supplements to grow taller and look less stereotypically Asian.......its China and Japan that are still shorter apparently

**BONUS FUN FACT or FICTION** I've been told that Japanese people get surgery to make their teeth crooked because they think it's more beautiful.  ........Well, the Japanese do have the British teeth of Asia, so I'd believe that.

My First Seoul Train

 

Magician in the museum

 

Going up to the War Memorial there were hundreds of volunteers lining the path to meet you. When the realized me and my other co-worker Seth were American the decibles doubled and the "Kamsahamnida"s changed to "Thank You"........Thank You for what? I would soon recognize the US' role in the Korean role was huge.....but I had been ignorant to the fact....thanks for nothin' junior year US History. Truly moving experience

The festival was a unity celebrate for those who want unification with North Korea. There's a song that goes with it (first video). The most memorable moment was singing the New Year's Eve song in English while a little girl next to me sang the words in Korean. She looked up and smiled, as if to to say "I understand". I almost started to cry. Who needs words when you have music????

Music nerd moment----annnnd we're back

These are the long lost Seoul videos that I've finally downloaded after my second weekend here.....wow....can't believe it was four months ago. So many people have come and gone by then. Korea is not the place to get attached....again.

 My second weekend in Korea happened to be a three day weekend...so what else do you do? GO TO SEOUL DUH.

I went there and met up with a friend of a friend (thats how you meet the most interesting people in life) that I know from Blue Lake in Europe just this summer! Talk about connections....and that my friends is why I love facebook.

Anywho, we clicked right away. Her name is Jin and she is a student at William and Mary if I have my facts right. she went back there last week to start up her last year there. She is studying to be a CPA, I hope she did well on the test she was taking a study break from just to come meet us. It took her an hour to get to us because she lives on the opposite side of Seoul....again...one of the biggest cities in the world.

We ended up heading up to the Hongik Univ. Museum of art...which was overpriced. So as we were mosying around the park and touring the campus we heard plain old English (Jin's English is SPECTACULAR! She even says things like "alrighty") so of course we were nosy newbies and butted in. Turns out they were from from Alexandria/Springfield VA. Close to William and Mary where Jin goes to school and in the same town that my dad and stepmom live in. SMALL WORLD. We went on down to this Optical Illusion museum thanks to Seth C's travel guide. It was a blast. Pictures on FB! (sorry, I dont have time to post in two places).
The pics tell the story.

Needless to say we were all great new friends by the end of our happen-stance day!

And then that night....

Seth C wanted to go to sleep early after a long day of being a tourist. I HOWEVER, would be damned if I payed 100 bucks to get to Seoul and didn't party my behind off. Besides, I had only been up and into my Taco-searching hangover for 6 hours and wasn't about to go to sleep!

(For info on that night, see the previous post about the Bar Crawling with the German guy!)

I wandered the streets near the university. Determined to do SOMETHING in one of the biggest cities in the world......and just as I said that aloud to myself amidst the crowds. I bumped into none other than the German guy who helped me stumble the night before!

I ended up going to a posh karaoke spot with a Korean girl 3 Parisians, and a guy from Lubeck Germany. They all new a little Japanese except for me. They procceeded to scream broken Japanese into the microphone in a room that was stone and echoed (if I hadn't had known we were in Korea I would have guessed we were in the middle east by the way the room was deocrated) while flailing around and air-humping the poor Korean girl. She didn't hate it. Although the guys from France were total assholes....even if they were funny. They're French......... They kept mocking the Korean accent but in a way that helped the girl understand what we were saying. Needless to say Im staying in that hostel another night this month!

The German, The Parisians, even the Korean had been studying Japanese! This is a J-POP (Japanse-pop as opposed to Korean K-POP group)

Here's what they were screaming........:

Kara- "Mister"

Rainbow- "To Me"

(you can actually hear the lyrics "fancy car" if you listen close)

I only wish I could figure out how to upload my cellphone vids of the inside of the karaoke room!

IF I ONLY KNEW.....US SOLDIERS CAUSE FIGHTS.....DUH....so some places straight up just wont let you in......After a 20 min jog back to the hostel to get my passport to get into the club I was finally in.

This is where it gets to be like a movie. I can remember Shaggy's "Fuck the Recession I'm Spendin' " song came on.....and thats what I did.

I made my way to the lighted dance floor and got on stage, naturally. I had a great view of the crowd and could map out the whole in one glance, although I couldn't distinguish faces  through the fog machines and body heat. Then I make eye contact with a guy across the crowd....he throws his head-back as if to say "what's up"....I throw up my best thugged-out peace sign....and if you know me...it ain't nothin' to brag about....and he smiles and starts gettin' his friends to "waddup" me back....wait.....was I a novelty?????


...........that's when I realized I was black..........


The guys from Paris I came with were tryin' real hard to get laid that night. But nobody other than them was trynna grind up on people. Looking around I realized that this club.....and all of the ones I would go to.......weren't really for hookin' up....just ...well.......dancing.

.................I was in a new world

Soon after that I ended up getting tapped on the shoulder by a Korean girl. I screamed over the music, and  had barely introduced myself when she screamed back at my "jennuntahnix!".......................'scuse?

"johnnuhntonex!!!"

I went to the bar and came back with a drink for myself (little did I realize no one dances with a drink in their hand here--the Korean mating dance is to fast and jerky to much to avoid spilling anything you might be nursin') only to be confronted again with the Kimcheezyest smile

"Where's mine?"...she croaked

Oh snap

"I'm Michelle!".......I put 2 and 2 together and translated her slurred robotic English to = Gin & Tonic....OH!!


.....................since then I've had lots of broken-drunken-robotic-scream-over-the-music-or-too-soft-because-Im-scared-to-use-the-alien-language-the-mass-media-drilled-into-me-for-my-whole-life" translation practice with my Korean friends now.

I brought her her drink and from the corner of my eye I saw a guy nod/bow to his dance partner before leaving her, thanking her for the failed opportunity to woo her.......SO THATS HOW THEY DO HERE???

I'm down for new dance moves....but bowing to dance partners??? Don't worry, I haven't seen it since.

Let's end this "Michelle" bit with the fact that she said "you're tight" with a fake "did you think that was cool?" grin of hers.......


......I bowed and left.