Creijing Part 1

Hello family and friends,

Long time no post.  This week I just started my teaching again.  The great thing about teaching in the public schools in Korea as opposed to the private institutes is that you get great vacations.  I was able to use my vacation to go and visit a couple who had recently gotten married and moved to China.  In contrast to my ample vacation time, my girlfriend only had 4 vacation days for the whole year, but she seemed to really enjoy it.

One of the things that Young and I were most excited about before arriving in Beijing was the food.  Korea has it's own version of Chinese food which was made by Chinese immigrants in Korea, but they do not have many restaurants which serve Szechuwan and other Chinese styles which are popular in the US.  Dishes such as Kung Pao, Brocolli Beef, Chau Fun, and almond chicken are rarely seen here.  One of the great parts of China was being able to see dishes like these ones as well as others such as ...

Next post will be the Great Wall

Return of the King

This weekend I got to go back to a place that is special to me and some of my friends, Muuido.  Many Koreans don't know about Muuido, because it is not one of the famous islands like Jeju-do,  but it offers a simple weekend getaway for people living around the Seoul area.

Although it is a simple place with only several restaurants on the whole island, it is not boring at all.  There is good hiking, ATV riding, and you can stay on the beach for as low as thirty dollars a night.

If you wake up early enough, you can cross the land bridge in between Muui Island and Silmi Island, where a bunch of prisoners where trained to attack the North.

People came from all over Seoul Area and met up at Incheon airport

Then we had to go on a local bus that took us to this road

which took us to a boat

By the time we reached the island, the sun was coming down

 You can see that in the low tide, the water recedes about 500 yards so in order to reach shore, the 

police use a hovercraft

For some reason, the king is unhappy

Inside the beach huts

Unfortunately there is wind in the background 

Animal coats are a part of Korean style

Goodbye Muuido!

Birthday Weekend

This past weekend, I decided to have a bigger birthday party than last years.  I chose to go to Hongdae with some friends.  I wanted to have some Shabu Shabu at a nice Chinese restaurant, but some of my guests were complaining about the price, so we left and went to a Korean place that was a little bit cheaper and didn't look as nice. 

I wanted to go to see a band play some jazz or rock music, but I wasn't familiar with the area and settled for a music bar instead.  I was able to request songs on the books they passed to each table, but they were not willing to play "Dazed and Confused".  But they played a song which wasn't half an hour long.

Then on Sunday night, one of my new Korean friends took me to a Japanese ramen restaurant.  The place is a real hole in the wall.  All I could see was a group of people huddled outside near a heat lamp.  I had not idea that there was a restaurant right a few feet away. 

Once we finished waiting, we had some delicious ramen with fresh crushed garlic. 

Young adds sesame seeds to her ramen

Second Year Begins

Hello everyone.  It's taken me forever to get around to updating this.  I am about twice as busy with the new job, so I that's why.

Although my time was short in Japan I had an awesome time.  Seeing just part of how unique the Japanese are and meeting a few of them made me realize how much I still love Japan.

First of all, I had some problems with my ATM card, so my budget was pretty thin, so I ended up staying in a 24 hour internet cafe.  It was a decent setup.  For less than $30 I was able to get a cubicle that had internet access and a TV for about 10 hours.  This came with as many as you  like non-alcoholic drinks.  Also many DVDs and comic books (probably some computer games) were available for entertainment.  It was kind of noisy though, so before I went to bed, I went out to explore and get my drink on.

It looked like I would be alone that night, so I tried to find a place where Westerners hang out.  I asked a couple girls, but they couldn't help, but someone noticed that I was lost and he came to see if he could help, his name was Kenji Hara.  He totally went out of his way to help me for no apearant reason except he noticed that I needed help.  At first I was suspicious of him because he seemed so eager to help.  He called up some of his friends and got directions and actually walked me to a hangout, but it would not open until later, so he asked me if I would like to hang out with his friends.  So suddenly, I had a group of Fukuoka University students to hang out with, which was awesome.

It turns out his friends recognized me from earlier in the night when I tried to order food at a restaurant, but I couldn't because the restaurant didn't accept American Express, and they said to Kenji that my Japanese was good based on the way I handled the situation with the restaurant staff.  So I had a great time with them that night. Kenji was the hero that night, so I bought him a drink.

                                                              Kenji (Ken), Keiko, Chinatsu

                               Kosei (Casey), Kobayashi Tsuyoshi, Keiko, Chinatsu, Kenji (Ken)

   One thing we did that night was give each other names from our home countries.  I told them my English name meant powerful leader, so they named me Kobayashi (strong) Tsuyoshi (REALLY REALLY REALLY STRONG....hahhaaha).  Then I told Chinatsu she should go home because it was getting too late and she agreed because  she lived an hour away, but before she left, she took this paper with her and hugged me which is rare for both Korean and Japanese people, but I guess she tried to act like an American around me since she had spent six months in Australia and was aware of Western customs.

The next day I went to Ohiri Park and saw some people dancing to a popular song.  They became shy, but they did the dance one more time and they were friendly.

New Job/Trip to Japan

Hello everyone.  How are you?  I am in a new home, in a new city, and getting ready for a new job.  After my last contract finished, I looked at a few options for where to work next.  I had a couple of offers to go to work in Taiwan, one in a small town called Yongin, Korea, and one in Seoul.

Seoul is a cool place to live because it has some areas made for the American army base and there is even a Subway deli which I have not tried yet.  So I asked the owner of the school if I could stay the night in the area to see what it is like at night.   I didn't want to be in an area like my last one where I heard a lot drunk people at night.  He was okay with the idea, so I moved a lot of my stuff from my old apartment via a taxi.

However, that night I heard that the owner was having some problems meeting payroll, so I decided I didn't want to work and not get paid, so I made up my mind to accept the position in Yongin instead.  Then when I was on my way to meet with the people in Yongin, my recruiter tried to convince me that the boss at the school in Seoul had reduced his rent expense by combining the school from four floors to two floors, but that was my last day to get my visa renewed, so I didn't have any time to think about it, so I just went ahead and met with the academy in Yongin, and transferred my visa to them.

That night I had to pay for a hotel around Bucheon, because I wasn't allowed to stay at my old place.  Fortunately I was able to keep my stuff at the apartment provided by the school in Seoul.  I couldn't stay in Yongin because the school was giving housing to the person that I would be replacing, so they didn't have any place available for me.  I thought that this would be better than working for a boss with some maybe some financial blemishes, but after staying in the hotel and realizing I would have to pay for around six more nights I decided to take the risk with the academy in Seoul.

So I called the recruiter for the academy in Seoul, and told him that I decided to work for his client and I wanted to know if I would have to leave the country to get a new visa, and he said no.  Well it turns out I do, but at least my new employer is paying for the trip, so I will go tomorrow morning and spend a couple of days  getting my new visa in Fukuoka, Japan.  I'm really looking forward to having some more Japanese ramen (although I can get some in Seoul). I will put some pictures on here later.

Mudfest

This last weekend I went to the most insanely fun party I have ever been to.  Korea wanted to increase tourism and capitalize on the fact that they can market the mud as a beauty product and decided to import a bunch of it from Boryeong to Daechon Beach and have a humongous party.  In 2006, it was rated the worlds best festival by some tourism board, and it attracts people from different Asian countries as well as many Westerners.  I signed up for it a month in advance, so I was excited about this vacation after the end of the regular school year.

I left with a group of foreigners around 11:30 PM on Friday night, and didn't get there until 2:00AM.  But Kyu, the owner of one of the foreigner bars in Bucheon, decided that he would fire up the BBQ and he cooked some pork and scallops for us.

I didn't make any plans to come down with anyone, but I ended up going to the beach with these four people on the first night.

The next day, I got some coffee at Lotteria, which is a Korean fast food chain like McDonalds, and there were tons of foreigners eating that junk.  It was silly because they could have had some decent Korean food, given that they were at a beach with many foreigner friendly restaurants.

                                                                Some even serve fresh shark.

Then it was time to get muddy.  

                                                                       Mud Wrestling

    The DJ played some house music after a concert at the stage nearby, while the staff sprayed water into the   dancing crowd

                                                         Usually she wears a lot of makeup

                                                                          Mudfested

                                                                                 

  There were also three slides, a giant kiddie pool, and mud jail where the staff throws mud on you while you're inside the jail cell.  I'm really impressed with how well it is put together especially for a free festival.  I believe that it is intended to promote tourism in Korea.

                                                           

I'm really glad I brought my ukulele too.  Even though I just started playing last week, I am still able to have some fun.  

Graham is the first person I met outside of work over here. He teaches at the Gyeonggi Arts School for 

the gifted.

♫"TV party tonight!"♫

Tim plays for one of the favorite local English teacher bands, The Noise.  The previous day they rocked the festival so much that they were banned from playing.  I can't wait to find out the details.  He liked

my ukulele so much, that he said he should buy one.  Score! Ukes are popular in Japan but not so much in Korea.

It's Jessicat!

Some of Jessica Kim's friends came from France for a vacation.

Chinese couple

Asia's bathrooms sure are different.