Busan pics are up: http://s390.photobucket.com/albums/oo343/Ncalverley2/?start=0
All of the new pictures are on the first page. The last ones are from the dance, which didn't come out at all (and which I am very upset about). I decided to upload of best of the crap pictures just for some evidence of what this event was like.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Monday, October 6, 2008
A Night on the Town
Today was our school's festival. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I thought the event was going to be outside. As it turns out, "school festival" is just a key word for multi-disciplinary concert. It was basically 3 hours of performances by bands, dance groups, and singers. It was actually really cool and a lot of fun.
When it came time for us teachers to do our routine, we were announced before coming onto the stage, and when we were announced, there was an enormous roar from the crowd. Apparently this was a highly anticipated performance. And so we walked out from stage right, carrying signs that were to be used about halfway through the song. Myself and one of the other guy teachers were wearing white tank-tops, black pants, and a red bowtie adorned with red sequins. The ladies were wearing black tights with black mini-skirts and black blouses. I was the last of our group to walk out onto the stage, and when I did, I was almost deafened by the further eruption of screaming.
The kids (actually it was almost entirely the girls) were screaming throughout the whole routine. It may has well have been N'Sync concert...you know, the kind of pointless concerts where any music is drowned out by the incessant screaming of teenage girls. We did our routine, and it went very smoothly. It was a huge hit, and I have to admit, it was a lot of fun. I'll be a celebrity at school for the next week or so.
Following the concert, most of the teachers went out for a nice lunch at a restaurant. The main course was a very delicious type of fish in a slightly spicy stew. For some reason, I had a reputation (which I did not know about) among the teachers as being a "heavy drinker". Because of this, various older teachers (all guys) kept filling two glasses with beer and handing me one while they take the other. They would then say "no break-ee" and proceed to chug the beer, expecting me to do the same. I happily obliged them but couldn't help but feel that my coworkers were trying to get me drunk...
Following lunch, me and several of the younger teachers went out for bowling. We had 6 people who were divided into 2 teams of 3. We played three games and my team won every single game, riding mostly on my dominating performances of 178, 182, and 140. This won the three of us free drinks and food for the rest of the night.
Following bowling we stopped at our homes to change, and then headed out to a seafood restaurant (the same group of 6.) We had grilled clams and a variety of side-dishes, all of which were very delicious. We downed 5 bottles of soju (for anyone who doesn't know, Soju is a Korean liquor that most resembles vodka, but it is only about 20% alchohol, not 40%). We spent a good amount of time just talking. They tried to teach me a lot of Korean.
Following that, we capped off the night with some Noraebang ("Song Room" - Karaoke) and beer. We were all sufficiently smashed at this point, and that's when Noraebang is the most fun. They did some Korean songs while I played tambourine drank beer, and then we all did some American songs. My favorites were "Johnny B. Goode" and "Bad Case of Loving You".
All in all, it was probably my best day in Korea so far. I had about a dozen pictures taken of us dancing which I will be getting developed today, so once I have them I will post them on photobucket or whatever crazy site I used last time. Also, there's a new article up from the NYTimes on the right side of the blog for anyone who has been following the Fan Death saga.
When it came time for us teachers to do our routine, we were announced before coming onto the stage, and when we were announced, there was an enormous roar from the crowd. Apparently this was a highly anticipated performance. And so we walked out from stage right, carrying signs that were to be used about halfway through the song. Myself and one of the other guy teachers were wearing white tank-tops, black pants, and a red bowtie adorned with red sequins. The ladies were wearing black tights with black mini-skirts and black blouses. I was the last of our group to walk out onto the stage, and when I did, I was almost deafened by the further eruption of screaming.
The kids (actually it was almost entirely the girls) were screaming throughout the whole routine. It may has well have been N'Sync concert...you know, the kind of pointless concerts where any music is drowned out by the incessant screaming of teenage girls. We did our routine, and it went very smoothly. It was a huge hit, and I have to admit, it was a lot of fun. I'll be a celebrity at school for the next week or so.
Following the concert, most of the teachers went out for a nice lunch at a restaurant. The main course was a very delicious type of fish in a slightly spicy stew. For some reason, I had a reputation (which I did not know about) among the teachers as being a "heavy drinker". Because of this, various older teachers (all guys) kept filling two glasses with beer and handing me one while they take the other. They would then say "no break-ee" and proceed to chug the beer, expecting me to do the same. I happily obliged them but couldn't help but feel that my coworkers were trying to get me drunk...
Following lunch, me and several of the younger teachers went out for bowling. We had 6 people who were divided into 2 teams of 3. We played three games and my team won every single game, riding mostly on my dominating performances of 178, 182, and 140. This won the three of us free drinks and food for the rest of the night.
Following bowling we stopped at our homes to change, and then headed out to a seafood restaurant (the same group of 6.) We had grilled clams and a variety of side-dishes, all of which were very delicious. We downed 5 bottles of soju (for anyone who doesn't know, Soju is a Korean liquor that most resembles vodka, but it is only about 20% alchohol, not 40%). We spent a good amount of time just talking. They tried to teach me a lot of Korean.
Following that, we capped off the night with some Noraebang ("Song Room" - Karaoke) and beer. We were all sufficiently smashed at this point, and that's when Noraebang is the most fun. They did some Korean songs while I played tambourine drank beer, and then we all did some American songs. My favorites were "Johnny B. Goode" and "Bad Case of Loving You".
All in all, it was probably my best day in Korea so far. I had about a dozen pictures taken of us dancing which I will be getting developed today, so once I have them I will post them on photobucket or whatever crazy site I used last time. Also, there's a new article up from the NYTimes on the right side of the blog for anyone who has been following the Fan Death saga.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Pusan...Finally
So we had another long holiday weekend this weekend, and some of us decided to go check out the Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF). It is the largest film festival in Asia, and one of the largest in the world. Filmmakers from all over the world submit their films to be seen by millions of people. The city itself is already the second largest in Korea, but this weekend it saw way more traffic than normal. I have to admit, I was expecting to see some of those crappy super-independent "artsy" films, the ones that are black and white and have no sound. But I was pleasantly surprised by a couple of very professional films that were highly entertaining. More on those in a minute.
We got to Pusan around noon, and spent the first couple of hours running around looking for a hotel for the night, and a box office where we could buy tickets to the films later that night. After checking at a couple of regular motels (which were all sold out of rooms for the weekend) we managed to find a shady "love motel". The prices were low and the rooms were clean enough, so we said whatever and got some rooms for the night (there were about ten of us). After that, we spent a good 90 minutes or so running around looking for a box office before we finally found one. You really can't beat a two-film double feature for 5 dollars.
To kill time before showtime, we went to the Pusan Aquarium, which is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the city. To be honest, I was a little disappointed, but it was still a really great aquarium. I took some nice pictures, and as soon as I get them developed I will post them. It could be a little while though since I didn't yet finish the roll of film.
Showtime was at 7:30. The first film we saw was a German drama about mountain climbing. It was kind of long and drawn out near the end, but the quality was phenomenal and the story was compelling. The film was in German but had English and Korean subtitles. The second film we saw was a Scottish film, but it was all in English, so that was nice. It was a sort of comedic story about Scottish aspirations of Independence from Britain, and it was a really great film. Pusan is a coastal city, the second largest in Korea next to Seoul, and the venue was an outdoor theater on one of the city's beaches. We spent most of the night watching a couple of movies under the stars, and then went out to a bar for a nightcap.
Overall it was a nice experience, though it didn't really come close to touching the Gyeongju trip. A big problem was that our group was way too big; anything above 6 people is just a bad idea, as decision-making becomes exponentially more difficult once that 6 person limit is surpassed. I'll have to be sure to protest against a large group the next time I go anywhere with this particular group of friends.
We got to Pusan around noon, and spent the first couple of hours running around looking for a hotel for the night, and a box office where we could buy tickets to the films later that night. After checking at a couple of regular motels (which were all sold out of rooms for the weekend) we managed to find a shady "love motel". The prices were low and the rooms were clean enough, so we said whatever and got some rooms for the night (there were about ten of us). After that, we spent a good 90 minutes or so running around looking for a box office before we finally found one. You really can't beat a two-film double feature for 5 dollars.
To kill time before showtime, we went to the Pusan Aquarium, which is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the city. To be honest, I was a little disappointed, but it was still a really great aquarium. I took some nice pictures, and as soon as I get them developed I will post them. It could be a little while though since I didn't yet finish the roll of film.
Showtime was at 7:30. The first film we saw was a German drama about mountain climbing. It was kind of long and drawn out near the end, but the quality was phenomenal and the story was compelling. The film was in German but had English and Korean subtitles. The second film we saw was a Scottish film, but it was all in English, so that was nice. It was a sort of comedic story about Scottish aspirations of Independence from Britain, and it was a really great film. Pusan is a coastal city, the second largest in Korea next to Seoul, and the venue was an outdoor theater on one of the city's beaches. We spent most of the night watching a couple of movies under the stars, and then went out to a bar for a nightcap.
Overall it was a nice experience, though it didn't really come close to touching the Gyeongju trip. A big problem was that our group was way too big; anything above 6 people is just a bad idea, as decision-making becomes exponentially more difficult once that 6 person limit is surpassed. I'll have to be sure to protest against a large group the next time I go anywhere with this particular group of friends.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Fall Is Coming
The weather today has been amazing: sunny, in the low to mid sixties, and a slight breeze blowing in. The weather is changing here in Korea. Summer is giving way to fall, a season which actually exists here but remains a mystery to Michigan.
Things are going well at school, and this past Thursday marked our first payday. Unfortunately, the U.S. markets are still busy falling all over themselves, so the exchange rate at the moment sucks. At the moment that is not a huge problem for me, but if the rate has not improved by the end of October, I am going to take some hits in transferring money back to the U.S.
This past Wednesday I found a really amazing place called Club THAT. It's a jazz club that used to be a love motel, but it has been cleaned up and now has 4 levels of entertainment. All this weekend the club is hosting a large Art exhibition for local amateur artists, many of them foreigners, to display their works. Since I have really taken an interest in photography over the past couple years, I am really excited to have found this, and I plan on having a picture or two displayed at the next exhibit, which will likely be in 4-6 months.
This weekend is going to be very busy. Tonight I am heading out with a large group of friends to an all-you-can-eat-and-drink buffet at a popular hotel. After that we are all heading over to Club THAT for the main night of the Art Exhibition, which will include a live band and some other activities. Tomorrow is going to include dinner and a movie with a co-worker, as well as scouring the department stores for some costumes for the dance that her and I we are performing at the festival. If you didn't already know, I was talked into doing a dance with 4 other teachers at a school festival that is coming up this week. We have been practicing for about a month. Apparently I am going to receive a CD with a video of the performance on it, so I will look into uploading it online for you all to watch whenever I get a chance.
Lastly, I want to give a shout-out to my boy Javon Ringer. The number two rusher in the nation looks to go for 3 straight games of 200+ yards rushing as Michigan State takes on Indiana this weekend. GO GREEN
Things are going well at school, and this past Thursday marked our first payday. Unfortunately, the U.S. markets are still busy falling all over themselves, so the exchange rate at the moment sucks. At the moment that is not a huge problem for me, but if the rate has not improved by the end of October, I am going to take some hits in transferring money back to the U.S.
This past Wednesday I found a really amazing place called Club THAT. It's a jazz club that used to be a love motel, but it has been cleaned up and now has 4 levels of entertainment. All this weekend the club is hosting a large Art exhibition for local amateur artists, many of them foreigners, to display their works. Since I have really taken an interest in photography over the past couple years, I am really excited to have found this, and I plan on having a picture or two displayed at the next exhibit, which will likely be in 4-6 months.
This weekend is going to be very busy. Tonight I am heading out with a large group of friends to an all-you-can-eat-and-drink buffet at a popular hotel. After that we are all heading over to Club THAT for the main night of the Art Exhibition, which will include a live band and some other activities. Tomorrow is going to include dinner and a movie with a co-worker, as well as scouring the department stores for some costumes for the dance that her and I we are performing at the festival. If you didn't already know, I was talked into doing a dance with 4 other teachers at a school festival that is coming up this week. We have been practicing for about a month. Apparently I am going to receive a CD with a video of the performance on it, so I will look into uploading it online for you all to watch whenever I get a chance.
Lastly, I want to give a shout-out to my boy Javon Ringer. The number two rusher in the nation looks to go for 3 straight games of 200+ yards rushing as Michigan State takes on Indiana this weekend. GO GREEN
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
A Typical Day
It just occurred to me that I really haven't given anyone a good description of a typical day for me. My day usually starts at 7am, which is when I wake up. I jump in the shower, iron my clothes (I have to do this every day since I have no dryer, everything is air-dried) and maybe make something to eat. This usually isn't necessary since I get fed by one of the other teachers almost every day. Today was peanuts and some dak (pressed rice dumplings).
I arrive to school around 8:15am, and first period starts at 9:10am. I teach anywhere from 2-4 classes per day, along with after-school classes for 1.5-2 hours on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. For the past week, and continuing for the next couple of weeks, I also meet with some of the other teachers to practice a dance that we are going to perform for the students at an upcoming school festival. This is not a traditional dance, but a modern pop dance to a very popular song by a group called the Wonder Girls (sort of like a Korean Spice Girls).
This means I am at the school until about 6pm everyday, even though I am only obligated to be there until 4:30. I enjoy the extra things that keep me busy. Around 6:30-ish I get home and change, then make dinner. On Wednesdays there is a large group of other foreign teachers that go out for dinner in the downtown area. We go to a place called The Holy Grill (awesome name, I know) that has great Mexican food and burgers. After dinner, which is usually around 7:30, we head over to a nearby foreigner bar, where we have a few drinks and listen to some live music, since it's open mic night every Wednesday.
I have only been to this once, and only plan on going once or twice per month since I will end up dropping at least $30 each time, but it's a nice way to meet up with people I don't see often and have some good western food.
On the nights I don't go out I usually work on my laptop, catch up on news, update my fantasy football teams, or just watch a movie or some episodes of Family Guy that I downloaded. Sometimes I might browse the tube but I only have like 3 English channels, so I rarely watch TV. But I have to be honest, I have yet to feel bored while here, my days keep me pretty busy.
The weather here is great, in my opinion. Daegu is the hottest city in Korea, since it sits in between a bunch of mountains which essentially form a bowl around the city, and heat and humidity all sit like a cloud on it. But at night, when the sun goes down, it is REALLY nice. The temperature is around 70 degrees and the humidity is a lot less. I only have to walk for 5 minutes to reach a park with a great view of the mountains and lake to the south of the city (pictures of which are in my album, look for the dark brown bridge.) Every store I could want is within walking distance, and there are tons of street vendors that sell bulk vegetables and snacks for dirt cheap. A 1-dollar bag of bean sprouts will last me at least a month, and a 2-dollar bag of mushrooms will last me a couple of weeks. I bought a bag of 6 HUGE onions for 2 dollars, and a 2-week supply of green onions for 1 dollar. I just hope there are indoor markets where I can get this stuff during winter.
I hope that gives you some idea of how I spend my days. If you have other questions, just post a comment or email me. And don't forget, look at pics if you haven't already. The link is in my last blog post.
I arrive to school around 8:15am, and first period starts at 9:10am. I teach anywhere from 2-4 classes per day, along with after-school classes for 1.5-2 hours on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. For the past week, and continuing for the next couple of weeks, I also meet with some of the other teachers to practice a dance that we are going to perform for the students at an upcoming school festival. This is not a traditional dance, but a modern pop dance to a very popular song by a group called the Wonder Girls (sort of like a Korean Spice Girls).
This means I am at the school until about 6pm everyday, even though I am only obligated to be there until 4:30. I enjoy the extra things that keep me busy. Around 6:30-ish I get home and change, then make dinner. On Wednesdays there is a large group of other foreign teachers that go out for dinner in the downtown area. We go to a place called The Holy Grill (awesome name, I know) that has great Mexican food and burgers. After dinner, which is usually around 7:30, we head over to a nearby foreigner bar, where we have a few drinks and listen to some live music, since it's open mic night every Wednesday.
I have only been to this once, and only plan on going once or twice per month since I will end up dropping at least $30 each time, but it's a nice way to meet up with people I don't see often and have some good western food.
On the nights I don't go out I usually work on my laptop, catch up on news, update my fantasy football teams, or just watch a movie or some episodes of Family Guy that I downloaded. Sometimes I might browse the tube but I only have like 3 English channels, so I rarely watch TV. But I have to be honest, I have yet to feel bored while here, my days keep me pretty busy.
The weather here is great, in my opinion. Daegu is the hottest city in Korea, since it sits in between a bunch of mountains which essentially form a bowl around the city, and heat and humidity all sit like a cloud on it. But at night, when the sun goes down, it is REALLY nice. The temperature is around 70 degrees and the humidity is a lot less. I only have to walk for 5 minutes to reach a park with a great view of the mountains and lake to the south of the city (pictures of which are in my album, look for the dark brown bridge.) Every store I could want is within walking distance, and there are tons of street vendors that sell bulk vegetables and snacks for dirt cheap. A 1-dollar bag of bean sprouts will last me at least a month, and a 2-dollar bag of mushrooms will last me a couple of weeks. I bought a bag of 6 HUGE onions for 2 dollars, and a 2-week supply of green onions for 1 dollar. I just hope there are indoor markets where I can get this stuff during winter.
I hope that gives you some idea of how I spend my days. If you have other questions, just post a comment or email me. And don't forget, look at pics if you haven't already. The link is in my last blog post.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Pictures!
Pictures are up, you can access them by copying this URL into the address bar:
http://s390.photobucket.com/albums/oo343/Ncalverley2/
From there you can do all kinds of neat things like turn them into a slideshow and such. There are 120 pictures, and they are presented in backwards order for some reason. So the most recent pictures (I think the first is a large building with a hole in it) are from our trip to Gyeongju, then pictures of the traditional Korean village in Seoul, then pictures of Seoul itself.
http://s390.photobucket.com/albums/oo343/Ncalverley2/
From there you can do all kinds of neat things like turn them into a slideshow and such. There are 120 pictures, and they are presented in backwards order for some reason. So the most recent pictures (I think the first is a large building with a hole in it) are from our trip to Gyeongju, then pictures of the traditional Korean village in Seoul, then pictures of Seoul itself.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Gyeongju
So Gyeongju was really great. It's a fairly small city, only a couple hundred thousand people, and the downtown area is actually kind of dirty, but the surrounding areas were really nice. We stayed in a famous youth hostel in the downtown area, run by a man named Mr. Kwon. He actually spoke very good English, and was really nice. The hostel had a lot of visitors from all over the world, and each night we spent outside on the roof drinking soju and beer, passing around an acoustic guitar and singing songs, and just talking with everyone. One night we went to a karaoke bar for a couple of hours and then went back to the roof.
On Saturday we went to a very famous temple located on the side of a mountain, and then over to a place called Millennium Park where we did some riding on ATVs through a gorge in a valley surrounded by mountains. Later that night there was supposed to be a concert at a nearby Lake resort area, but it was apparently canceled for Chusok, which was unfortunate.
On Sunday (Chusok day), we went to the coast to hit the beach. The water was nice but there was pollution all along most of the beach, a really disgusting amount of it too. It was really unfortunate because there were a lot of really neat rock formations that you could climb and look out into the ocean, but even most of those had some really nasty stuff on and around them. There were many fishermen casting their lines into the water from on the rocks, but we didn't see anybody catch anything. My friend Laura and I did some body surfing for awhile, so at least we got to do that.
After the beach we went to visit a hotel that had a Spa and Sauna room built around some natural hot springs. This was really great, because the Koreans refer to these as Bath Houses, and it's a really refreshing way to get very clean and exfoliate and... all that crazy spa stuff. The facility was VERY clean and well maintained. The only kicker was that in Korea, you go into these places completely nude. They are obviously segregated by gender, but it still really takes some time to get used to walking around what is essentially a huge bath tub completely naked with 50-100 other people. It wasn't just one pool though, there were maybe 10 different pools that were at different temperatures and had different jets and waterfalls and such designed to massage different areas of the body. There were also saunas and an outdoor hot tub. And after getting out, there was a fancy changing area where you could put in hair gel and body lotion and cologne and such. And to top it all off, all this unlimited amount of spa time came at a cost of a mere seven dollars.
We left Monday around noon after picking up gifts (Gyeongju Barley Bread) for our co-workers, which is also Korean tradition. We got to and from Gyeongju via the train, a ticket for which costs around seven dollars one way. The trip from Gyeongju was uneventful, but on the train ride TO Gyeongju, the Korean man I sat next to spoke pretty good English and invited me (for no other reason than that I was an interesting foreigner) to the beverage car to have a few beers with him and his friend that he was traveling with.
And after a long day of traveling with a huge load of luggage and gifts, I am finally home. I dropped off all my rolls of film to be developed and will be picking them up tomorrow: 120 pictures to be developed and put on CD for a cost of $28. In America it would cost around twice that much. I love this country =)
On Saturday we went to a very famous temple located on the side of a mountain, and then over to a place called Millennium Park where we did some riding on ATVs through a gorge in a valley surrounded by mountains. Later that night there was supposed to be a concert at a nearby Lake resort area, but it was apparently canceled for Chusok, which was unfortunate.
On Sunday (Chusok day), we went to the coast to hit the beach. The water was nice but there was pollution all along most of the beach, a really disgusting amount of it too. It was really unfortunate because there were a lot of really neat rock formations that you could climb and look out into the ocean, but even most of those had some really nasty stuff on and around them. There were many fishermen casting their lines into the water from on the rocks, but we didn't see anybody catch anything. My friend Laura and I did some body surfing for awhile, so at least we got to do that.
After the beach we went to visit a hotel that had a Spa and Sauna room built around some natural hot springs. This was really great, because the Koreans refer to these as Bath Houses, and it's a really refreshing way to get very clean and exfoliate and... all that crazy spa stuff. The facility was VERY clean and well maintained. The only kicker was that in Korea, you go into these places completely nude. They are obviously segregated by gender, but it still really takes some time to get used to walking around what is essentially a huge bath tub completely naked with 50-100 other people. It wasn't just one pool though, there were maybe 10 different pools that were at different temperatures and had different jets and waterfalls and such designed to massage different areas of the body. There were also saunas and an outdoor hot tub. And after getting out, there was a fancy changing area where you could put in hair gel and body lotion and cologne and such. And to top it all off, all this unlimited amount of spa time came at a cost of a mere seven dollars.
We left Monday around noon after picking up gifts (Gyeongju Barley Bread) for our co-workers, which is also Korean tradition. We got to and from Gyeongju via the train, a ticket for which costs around seven dollars one way. The trip from Gyeongju was uneventful, but on the train ride TO Gyeongju, the Korean man I sat next to spoke pretty good English and invited me (for no other reason than that I was an interesting foreigner) to the beverage car to have a few beers with him and his friend that he was traveling with.
And after a long day of traveling with a huge load of luggage and gifts, I am finally home. I dropped off all my rolls of film to be developed and will be picking them up tomorrow: 120 pictures to be developed and put on CD for a cost of $28. In America it would cost around twice that much. I love this country =)
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