First (and perhaps only) post of 2011

Job searchin'!

Videos from Southeast Asia and Commentary on the States

First, some videos, memories and comments about Southeast Asia [Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam]:

This is from Escher Climbing Wall, Railay, Thailand:

This is from 1, 2, 3 Climbing Wall, Railay, Thailand. This climb was ~25-28 meters high. It was one of my favorites:

This is from Thaiwand Climbing Wall, Railay, Thailand. We went spelunking through a cave from Escher Wall, intentionally, to find the other side on Thaiwand Wall. When we got there, we had to abseil down about 15 meters. After I abseiled down, this was what the weather was like. When we entered the cave, it was sunny; when we left the cave, it was...:

This next video is from Ha Long Bay, Vietnam. There is a shop called Slopony on Cat Ba Island, Vietnam and they organize these amazing, awesome deep water soloing trips through Ha Long Bay. This is a view of the bay:

This next video is of our guide climbing. He is very, very good. Notice his bare feet. Unfortunately [or, fortunately considering my intermediate skill level], there are no videos of me climbing. I am no where near this good:

These last two videos are from Hanoi, Vietnam. This is from a cafe overlooking the main square in the Old Quarter. There was some kind of festival in the middle of the square and they had rotating performers. This caused a lot of motorbikes to stop and made the traffic pretty bad. Though, this kind of motorbike traffic is common. People kept telling me to, "Just walk through the traffic in Hanoi. Don't worry, they will stop or miss you." It really is true too, a bit unnerving as well:

This is me walking through traffic. Believe it or not, the traffic was actually sparse at this moment. Try to notice the motorbike taxis asking for business:

Those are all the videos worth posting from the trip.

Being that this is my blog and being that I use this to post my pictures, videos and general observations. I really want to post this one picture. It puts the deep water soloing into perspective:

That is about as high as I got on that climb. It is about 14 meters (46 feet) high.

Observations about Southeast Asia:

-Thailand was my favorite country, though it was probably the most expensive. A good meal cost about $5-7. But decent, survivable meals were anywhere from $3-5. Railay beach in Thailand was simply phenomenal. It was not as party-centric as some of the islands and offered you a lot of outdoorsy activities...or just a beach to lay on.

-Cambodia was really beautiful and I spent far too little time there. People who explored other areas than Angkor Wat said that the other areas were amazing.

-Laos was true to what people told me. After Cambodians begging you in Siam Reap, it felt like Laos people did not know I existed. You walk into a bungalow complex and no one comes to greet you. You stand aimlessly for 5, 10 minutes until the owner comes and negotiates a price with you. There was a curfew on Don Det at 11pm, everything turns off. Vang Vieng was nice and offers tons of alternative activities besides drinking and tubing. At least 50% of the people I met had pink eye at one time from tubing. I actually never went tubing.

-Vietnam was a surprise. I think I liked it more than I expected to. Cat Ba Island is gorgeous and offers a lot. Hanoi is a city that is on the rise and was safe to explore, at least during the day. Just ignore the motorbike taxis.

Second, being back in the United States of America:

Overall, it is weird being back. The welcome home sign was a pleasant and nice surprise.

I understand everything said and read.

I forgot to tip, though truthfully, the service did not warrant a tip. Unintended benefit.

Driving is like riding a bike; remembering how to use your lights, change the radio and move your car seat is not.

We eat a lot.

I had been accustomed to being of average weight in Korea. But, wow, I already feel small again.

There are a lot of things I have missed...family, friends, Dr. Pepper.....and a lot of things I have missed that I have not had yet...Chipotle, Dave's Cosmic Subs, some legit Mexican food.

Overall, it is a complete change in lifestyle. I have to remind myself to keep busy and find things to do.

Korea vs. Greece from Downtown Seoul

If you watch one video on this site ever, watch this one [especially if you are a soccer/football fan]:

Spring Was In The Air

As the title alludes to, it has been getting hot in Seoul recently. Also, I have been slightly [majorly] neglecting this during the Spring. My reason is that my camera broke back in April, thus there were no videos and thus there was nothing to write about!

Half out of curiosity to see how my new camera would work and half to show people back home a few random tidbits about Korea, I took two videos today after work: (((**The videos are a little wobbly, I apologize**)))

I.) The first is a typical subway experience:

II.) The second is me walking down the sidewalk, heading towards and through the special rock-climbing gear district in the Dongdaemun Market. Korea is amazing for their departmentalized areas; I have walked by different streets/areas where all the stores were focused on one thing....lights, porcelain bathroom items, rock-climbing gear, etc etc:

Off topic.

I arrived in Korea on Saturday, July 18th 2009...it is now June 8th, 2010. I only have about 6 more weeks of teaching left. I can't believe it....but what this all means is that I will have an opportunity to do some traveling around Asia before coming home. As of now, there are definite plans to be in Southeast Asia for a few weeks (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand) and there is a chance I may even catch a flight to Bali for a few days. We will see...when I have a set itinerary, I will make sure to write it here.

That is about all for now. I hope you are having a good day, wherever you are.

Alan

Kindergarten Graduation

I do not know what you will think of the following video, however, I can assure you that this is in fact normal in Korea:

Kindergarten Graduation was sad. Luckily, I will still be teaching a majority of my students next week, only in the afternoon. I will see them for about 3 hours a week compared with the 20 hours that I had spent with them. This is probably for the best in the long term.

I was more sad because our head teacher was leaving and she had connected greatly with the students and their parents. She was/IS a great teacher and will be missed.

The drama performance went as well as we could have expected. Of course, it could have been better, but we are talking about kindergarten-ers here...

I have a new class on Wednesday. Monday is a holiday and Tuesday is a weird work day for me which will mostly be spent arranging my classroom and preparing to teach the next class. My next class will be new English speakers. I will be teaching them basic phonics (ABCs...sounds, basic words). They are 7-year olds. I will also be teaching phonics to the 6-year old class, or the 'babies.' Korean age is different, too...long story short, essentially subtract one year from what they say and you have their American age. If you want to read more about it...go here.

That is it for now. Work is about to get a little more stressful with a lot of change next week, so I am spending some of my weekend mentally preparing for it. Do a little work early in effort to save your sanity at a later time.

Alan =)

Beijing, China for The Chinese New Year

Preface: If you read this in Google's Buzz, I do not think the videos show up properly. Check out the actual link (because I think the videos are worth seeing).

Friday evening: Try to get as much sleep as possible to hopefully limit the effects of what you feel is an oncoming sickness. Fail at it because you are anxiously excited about your trip to Beijing and catching a bus early Saturday morning. You will end up sick.

Saturday morning: Wake up at 6, eat a quick breakfast, shower and say goodbye to your room. Know that the next time you set foot in it, you will have traversed The Great Wall, The Forbidden City and The Bird's Nest...among other Beijing sites. Catch the bus on time...no problems at the airport...take your first flight since you landed in Korea almost seven months ago.

Land in Beijing an hour and a half later...wonder through immigration...and then customs...but you do not see your friend Siri, whom arrived a half hour earlier. You had arranged to meet him immediately outside of customs. Fuck. You remember that you (and Siri) are supposed to meet your couchsurfing host, Mattia, at 5pm at Andingmen subway stop, Exit A. You feel better. You wait at customs for ten minutes and then decide to ask the information desk for help. Mentioning that your friend is 'lost,' you want an announcement over the PA system. Quickly, you decide to ask the lady to see a list of the planes that arrived from Seoul. Forgetting which flight Siri was on, you realize that all flights around his arrival time are at Terminal 2. You are in Terminal 3 (which, an aside, is incredibly nice). Fuck. You ask how to get there ASAP...you run to the bus, but the bus has just arrived and you are the first one on. You wait. Wait. Wait. Finally, the bus leaves and you hope Siri is still there.

You arrive sprinting through Terminal 2...you find the Arrivals section...but it is for domestic flights. Of course it is. You turn around and sprint to the International section and see the lone red head standing there, bumping to some K-Pop. You punch him in the arm and tell him the story.

Saturday afternoon: You walk out onto Tiananmen Square and are speechlessly awed, remembering the NYTimes article your read in June about the 20th anniversary of 'Tank Man' and how you are standing a few hundred meters from that spot.

After wondering around Tiananmen, you head towards where you are supposed to meet your couchsurfing host. It looks like a decent walk, you decide to walk it. A half hour later, you ask a hotel bellman to tell you where in the world you are. They give you another map and you realize you are maybe halfway and you have fifteen minutes to get there. Fuck. You begin to run through the hutongs. All the way, scaring Chinese people and being scared by their random fireworks (more to come on that). You ask two different Chinese people where you are on a map, they tell you two different things. Trusting your own instincts is the only answer. You run and run and run and eventually, you find the subway stop...and Mattia is there waiting. Only ten minutes late. He takes you back to his place, which is also a hutong.

Big sighs of relief after relaxing and getting to know Mattia for a while. He gives you a key to his room and you are off to meet other CSers for dinner just one subway stop away. You arrive on time. Success, for once something has gone smoothly. Conversations ensue, you meet people from all over. Dinner is delicious but greasy. The feeling comes back. The feeling you get when you realize how you know one language and only one language by heart. A typical feeling for an American. People fluent in at least two languages, perhaps more, amaze you.

The next place is a neat little bar with places to sit that are quiet, that are loud and that have a view (roof). Feeling exhausted, you just cruise through the night...looking forward to sleeping that night. Midnight comes and you find yourself on the roof with everyone else, trying to take in the incredible amount of fireworks.

While this is all happening, you and Siri start conversing with a couple of German girls, Katrin and Lisa, who are also part of the CS group. Katrin is visiting Lisa from Taiwan. They are both studying Chinese. They become your fleeting friends for the weekend; without the Internet, you would probably never hear from them again. The night progresses and you find yourself leaving for the night. After saying goodbyes, Siri and you are running home, literally. The cold is bitter.

Sunday morning: After a cold night, you wake up at 8a.m. with entirely too little sleep. Surprisingly, you feel great. You remember you are a morning person. Siri is not. You wake him not for the next ten minutes. Big plans for today...hiking The Great Wall, but first you must get there. How? Good question. You take the subway and try to meet other foreigners who supposedly are leaving from that subway stop in a pseudo-taxi. You take Exit C from the station as instructed. No one there, of course there is not, why were you expecting it to work. You wonder around into a bus station, realizing the futility of taking a bus to The Great Wall. But an elderly Chinese lady asks where you are going (or so you think that is what she said). You charade The Great Wall and she directs you to the bus. Realizing that this is the most trustworthy information you have, you get on the bus and take it an hour and a half to the end. You get off. Taxi drivers are fighting for your attention, they were pointing at you while you were sitting on the bus. You (mostly Siri) negotiate a price with the driver. After ten minutes of hilarious negotiation, you agree to pay 210yuan. The price includes 85km to The Great Wall--Jianshinling--and 85km back to the bus station from a different section of The Great Wall--Simatai. You pay him at the end. After conversion, this is ~$15 per person for a 170km ride. You learn the driving laws of China on the way to the wall.

The Great Wall is what you expected. Where you are is not exactly the touristy part and you enjoy this. It is truly a hike up and down and down and up a ridge. It is quite peaceful. You maybe see eight people on the whole ~10km hike.

You meet the taxi driver at Simatai...he is happy...you are happy. You pass out on the ride back in both the taxi and the bus.

Sunday evening: Only ~24 hours left in Beijing. You realize you are having a blast.

You meet Katrin and Lisa at a subway stop near Tiananmen called Qianmen. Again you operate on your own schedule, ten minutes late. Maybe Beijing is ten minutes bigger than Seoul. You wonder around looking for a duck roast restaurant that a fellow CSer referred to Siri the night before. Futility ensues, to no one's fault. You hop in a cab and learn how much Chinese Katrin and Lisa know. Impressed. You arrive at a restaurant and eat...it is a bit citchy but delicious. Good conversation ensues and you enjoy the night, playing cards at the bar. You also show the Germans your card trick and Lisa clearly wants to figure it out.

Monday morning: You get up at 9a.m. not quite as refreshed as the previous morning. Your plans are to visit the Bird's Nest and the Forbidden City. You are ambitious. After waking Siri up for a few minutes, you are on your way.

After three transfers, you arrive at the station. Leaving the station, you see the Bird's Nest and the sport nerd inside of you is awoken. Excitement. You wonder to it, avoiding random marching communists and manage to wiggle your way into a student ticket for a 'snow festival' going on inside. You could not care less about the snow festival...you only want to run inside.

The inner sport's nerd spends way too much time at the Bird's Nest and for the third time, you will be late--this time on an epic scale--to a prearranged meeting. You have fifteen minutes to get from the Bird's Nest to the Forbidden City to meet Katrin and Lisa for the final time. You find yourself running again.

Forty-five minutes later, a half-hour late, you are exiting the station. Remembering you never set a meeting-point, you send the red-head to Exit A and leave to explore Exit B and C. No luck. Dissapointed you will not have a chance at a proper good-bye with your German friends, you return to Exit A depressed. As soon as you tell Siri, he sees Lisa meandering her way towards us. You cannot believe how everything has worked out this trip. Happily, you await Katrin's arrival.

Grabbing a quick bite to eat inside The Forbidden City, you plan the day's actions. You explore the city. The temples impress you, not because of their Buddhist influence but because of their genuineness. They have incredibly not been preserved to a near spotless appearance. This is appreciated. You explore the city way too quickly but enjoy it. Fun pictures and fun experiences. Afterwards, you wonder out of the city and up a hill behind it. It has a fantastic view of the city and you begin to feel the weekend closing.

Katrin and Lisa help you get a taxi to a subway station and you say your goodbyes. You reflect on the weekend and are incredibly happy.

The End.

Postscript: The 'you' in the story does not always refer to me, but to Siri and I, as it made the story easier to tell.

It is Fabruary

The title is in reference to a schedule at my school...the typo has become a joke to me.

The winter blues are in full swing...eagerly looking forward to spring; it will be here soon enough.

My boss wants me to switch work schedules...from kindergarten to after school kids. Therefore, no kindergarten. This bums me out and I am fighting a good fight, but I am not optimistic. The video below shows why I am so bummed out...this is how I get to spend parts of each day, each week. And I truly enjoy it. It would not totally suck to move...but I like my lifestyle now.

Preface to the video: The kids in the 'front row' (i.e. most visible, the four of them) are my kids, The Hedgehog Class (they named themselves). The kids in the back row are my team teacher's kids, The Flamingo Class. You can see my team teacher at the end. Anywho, the girl in the front/middle who barely moves or dances is Kitty. She has been gone for a solid ~4 months from school, so she is a little rusty. I am sure she will be dancing in no time. Other than that, enjoy...:

P.S. They are doing this because they will *perform* this at the Kindergarten Graduation at the end of the month. Practice makes perfect.

P.S.^2 The girl in the front right, Odette, is absolutely adorable in this video.

Monday, January 4th, 2010

A massive snow storm hits Seoul...one unseen in ~40 years. Seoulites have no idea what to do with all this snow; they respond by acting normal...driving normally...walking normally...trying to work normally. Alas, I believe the snow won.

A video on my walk to work, immediately after being told to go to work, but immediately before being told that work was cancelled. If you catch my drift, I was annoyed...:

A Buddhist Monk's Chant

It is a surprise that Buddha does not wake up.

This was on the way home from a snowboarding trip (my first time!). It was amazing.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Hey everybody,

So, it is that time of year. Time to stress out about Christmas cards and Christmas gifts. Except, imagine being half the world away from the people who are the most important to you. It kinda sucks...but, I will end the pity party here. I guess on the bright side, I had to get all my shopping and mail done really early!

I received one gift from home...from Emily Gorman, Amanda Foster, Matt Jolly, and Hannah Hergenrather(naught/y). Thank you again for the gift. My kids loved the Toy Story candy...and I love the Life Cereal. =)

I took a few videos today (Friday) of the Hedgehogs. I think they are adorable and hilarious, so I thought I would share. These are the kids/people I spend the majority of my time with here, in Korea.

First up, we have a video of Woody doing his story-telling contest speech...he wrote this story himself and was a little bit nervous in front of everyone, but he did a good job...and the story was fantastic (when he was not nervous):

Second, we have a video of Woody and Nancy going crazy and singing. This is the energy that us teachers at 2nd campus of S.E.A. have to deal with everyday...but we love it (forgive the awkward starting picture...I did not plan that):

Also, please notice how Odette is relatively unphased by everything...she just keeps coloring. She will never break a law in her life; whereas Nancy may cause some laws to be written.

Third, we have a video of the Hedgehogs just doing their thing...they love arts and crafts...and I delivered bigtime for them this week by finding a Christmas Tree craft. They loved it. Odette is a better drawer than I will ever be in my life, Woody just loves putting things together and Nancy can lose anything--any size or shape--it is like a magic trick, I swear to god:

That is all for now...happy holidays and I hope that you are happy with whatever you are doing. I am off to bed now to try and get some sleep...I hate being sick.

Alan

My (New) Apartment

So, long story short, I had to move apartments to accommodate a couple that my school hired. The couple is not getting here until later December, but once I knew I had to move...I wanted to move ASAP. Also, they told me that I had to move on my birthday. Thanks, school.

One and a half months later, I finally moved. I tried to find my own apartment, in some misguided sense of spite towards the school, but in the end, I moved to their last open apartment.

Overall, I really do like this apartment. I am spoiled with my appliances and the setup is pretty fantastic. The space is used perfectly for me, and this brings me joy like you would not believe. Check out the video below, it is long--I warn you. PLEASE PLEASE comment if you watch the video. Thanks.



Alan

Andong Folk Village and Banpo Bridge

Hey everyone,

Last week, a few co-workers and I headed towards the Banpo Bridge at night to drink some wine and watch the bridge's light and waterworks show. It was entertaining and it was good company. We have to enjoy some of the outdoors while we still can, before it gets too cold. Brrrrrrr.


This weekend, I went on a meet-up trip to a little man-made lake, a mountain with a decent hike and walk, a Korean folk village with some cool mask dances, a cave, and a place where you can choose your own meat and cook it in a restaurant above the ordering area.

The folk village was very cool. Here are two videos from the mask dance at the folk village.


A farmer is killing a cow/bull in this first video.


An Ajoma (wrong spelling) character is joined by an audience member. They dance together for a while before they try to get her off stage. It is quite hilarious.

Overall, it was a fantastic weekend. I met more nice people and I had a good time. I hope to meet-up with them again.

Adios for now.

Cheonggyecheon Stream Light Show

While walking with some friends down the Cheonggyecheon, we came across this light show. Good timing, I would say.

Busan Film Festival

Last weekend, I went to the Busan Film Festival with some friends. It was a lot of fun. I was able to see a lot of movies. Unfortunately though, I spent much of the weekend half-asleep...including a lot of the time I spent in the actual movies. It was OK though, I can say I have been to a movie festival and waited in line at 5am-9:30am for movie tickets.

So, I saw 5-ish movies on Saturday-Sunday morning, went to a jjimjilbong (spa/sauna with places to sleep as well) with Agne after our last movie (at like, 7am). We enjoyed the spas and slept there until noon. Then we went to see a famous temple called Beomeosa. It was a pretty fantastic site. Definitely my favorite temple in South Korea so far.

Later that night, we took a KTX home. We had standing seats, which saved us 5000won? We ended up sitting in an area between two trains the whole way. It was not bad at all. I was very excited to ride the KTX because the KTX is the fast train in South Korea. I can now cross the Eurostar from Brussels to London, the TGV from Luxembourg City to Paris, and the KTX from Seoul to Busan off of my list. I am a huge train and subway nerd, so of course, I had to take a video:

Tradtional Dance - Chuseok - National Museum of Korea

This video of a traditional dance was taken at the National Museum of Korea on Chuseok (October 3rd, 2009):

Seoraksan

This weekend, the climbing group and I went to Seoraksan, Mt. Seorak, here in South Korea. It is the third highest peak in South Korea--2nd largest on the peninsula as Jeju Island has the highest. For some wikimation (wikipedia information), check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seoraksan .

Before I get to any hiking stories, I have to mention a video from school this week. This is Woody's "Marble Maze" that he made at an art academy. I forgot how much I used to LOVE these things when I was younger. This is just another reason why I love Woody:


So, onto the hiking: When we got to Seoraksan (a 4 hour bus ride east from Seoul), it was about 1pm. We had some lunch and then took off. I volunteered to be part of the 'fast' group...which proved to be a very smart decision for me because a.) I love to be pushed physically, b.) we flew up the mountain and c.) I had already had enough nighttime hiking from the weekend before. The 'slow' group did not arrive to our shelter until ~9:00 and had been in the dark for an hour or more.

When we got to the shelter, it was a large group of Koreans cooking an eclectic gathering of food. Our group had some pork to grill, which was a shock to me. I did not know Alex was carrying a huge pack of frozen pork on his back for 5 hours. We also had some ramyeon noodles. It was a very delicious meal. Harald began making friends with some other foreigners outside the shelter and before long a grand ole time was being had.

For a while, we were not sure where we would be sleeping...to the point where we almost had to sleep outside. I do not think the second group fully understands how nerve-racking this was for about an hour as we scrambled to find a place to sleep. I was already a bit sick as it was...add in some frigid temperatures with wet conditions and a large group of Koreans and foreigners with minimal sleeping bags and blankets and you get a really bad situation. All worked out though.

Even in the shelter (we went to bed ~ 10:30pm), no one slept much. Except the Koreans, who snored like no tomorrow. Luckily, I learned in Europe to always bring earplugs whenever I do not sleep in my normal sleeping location. This kind of helped. However, there were other...events that equally led me to not sleep/want to get up as soon as friggin possible that I shall not mention here. I think I slept for a few hours...like 1-3. I do not really know. I do not look at my phone/watch in times like this because I do not want to know as it will only pysch me out.

We woke up at 3:30 am, went outside, helped clean up the prior night's festivities and got ready for the day in general. We hiked up to the peak of Seoraksan at 4:30 and prepared for the sunrise:


It was still pretty cloudy, but a LOT better than the night before. The most amazing part of the morning, to me, were the stars when we woke up. I do not think I have ever seen stars so clearly as that morning. We even saw a few shooting stars:


When we finally saw the sun, everyone was really excited. It made the whole trip even more worth it. The way down from the peak was pretty spectacular as well...as we could finally see more than 10 meters without seeing clouds/mist. The color is just beginning to change there, as well:


Eventually, though, we ran into some more clouds and mist. It was nice though, for me at least. The mist was light enough that we could see the rocks around us, or silhouettes of the rocks, and what we could see was pretty spectacular; it left the rest up to the imagination:


Overall, despite getting a little bit sick (which I am no fighting by trying to sleep for as much as possible every night), it was an amazing time. I want to go back whenever I can, as long as I have a somewhat more secure sleeping plan. Thanks to everyone who made it an amazing trip!

Alan

A Harrowing Weekend

Videos from this weekend:


I particularly like the end of the first video...because Martin yells my name and it just makes me laugh hearing his voice.


This repel was really scary for me at the time...but now seems very easy compared to what came after.


So, this was the view on the final rock. I was the third of sixteen climbers to the top of this rock...so I had a while to chill and hang out before the final repel. The final repel was ~55-60 meters. About 180 feet. About half of it, ~30 meters, was free-hanging. What that means is that I was just dangling off two ropes and my harness, slowly repelling down. It was so fantastic, but let me first explain the conditions:

So, as you can see in the third video above, it was beginning to get dark by the time we were on the final rock. By the time we got everybody down the final repel, it was ~9:30pm...and it was dark. I should add that we all repelled down in the dark...Seoul looked beautiful afar from the mountain. A memory I will never forget, that is for sure.

When everybody got up to the final rock, we had to hang those same ropes down for the repel...unfortunately they got tangled on our first attempt and we had to pull the lead climber back up. It took 6 men. We fixed the ropes and each went down one by one...about 5 minutes from hook-up/prep time to the ground. So it took a while for 16 climbers to get down.

Part of me wonders if it was more soothing at night, this repel. I do not think the full shock of how high and exposed to the open world I was hit me in the night. A blessing in disguise perhaps. Regardless, it was a very cool feeling at night. I wish I could post a video here to do it justice.

We still had to hike down a rocky, ridgy path for 2.5 hours after we finished the repel. We did not get off the mountain until 12:30am. I was on that mountain for about 15 hours. One of our organizers fell on the way down and got pretty hurt...but I believe he will be alright. I spent the final two hours just walking with him, trying in some way shape or form to show gratitude for the amazing events he has graciously assembled for all of us.

Alan

My Apartment

Also, on my way home from COEX mall tonight, I decided to stop at a Mr. Pizza to see how much a pizza would cost. I ended up getting a "Hawaiian Delight" pizza with ham and pineapple for about 13,500 won...or about 10 bucks. A good deal, I think. It was amazing...first pizza in two months for me. Here is a picture of the box, which took them about 5 minutes to wrap up in that ribbon:


Alan =)

Settling In

I have been in South Korea for eight weeks now (officially two months this Friday--the 18th). I have begun to find my rhythm, a rhythm that I like. It goes something like this:

Monday-Friday: Wake up ~7:30-7:45am. I make tea, I make some sort of breakfast--usually nothing more than cereal unless I have a lot of time--and some other small tasks for about an hour. I arrive at work around 9:00am. Depending on the day, I have things that I have to get done. The kids arrive by 9:40am and I have to formally begin teaching at 10:00am. The kids learn basic English...and there is a lot of coloring involved. I have 50 minutes for lunch, starting at 12:10pm. I usually make a quick run and get some gimbap:

The kindergarten-ers leave at 2:20pm. Then, I either teach elementary kids from 2:40-4:30 or 6:30, depending on the day or how much my schedule has randomly changed.
At night, I have a wide variety of options. On Wednesdays, I usually go out with my friends from home for some dinner or other random shenanigans. Other days of the week, I meet up with other friends from the hiking group or some of my Korean friends. Some days I do absolutely nothing and come back to my apartment.

Saturday: I enjoy spending my time with a group of rock climbers organized by a couple Koreans, Mr. Kim and Alex Lee. I owe so much to them. In the past few gatherings, I have met people from Lithuania, Mexico, Sweden, England, Canada, all over the United States and more Koreans. I really enjoy the people. The activities we do are very enjoyable as well. We have done rock climbing, hiking, rafting, bike riding, and yoga...all in the last 4 weeks! I plan to spend as many Saturdays as I can with this group.

Sunday: I am lazy. I try to do at least one thing on Sundays...something that will get me out of the house. Usually this involves shopping and spending money at some of my favorite stores here (read: Nike, Adidas, Uniqlo, Giordano, Xara, Puma). But sometimes, like today, it involves traveling to see something that is significant to the Korean culture. Today, I went to the Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon, a UNESCO Heritage Site, with Jessica (another rock climber/yoga enthusiast from Saturday) and her friend Brandon:
That is usually how my week goes...with slight deviations. This weekend has been a good weekend. It was needed.

Here are a couple videos from last week:

1.) Me explaining a bit of my work life as well as the area where I live.


2.) A video of the Banpo Bridge, which I live near, and the water fountains that are on it.


Alan =)

Bukhansan

Hey friends,

The last few weeks have flown by, but all is well. I have been teaching for five weeks. I have been here for seven. Wow. The kids are great. I have met a lot of cool people hiking...some of whom have found this blog! So here is my shoutout to the Climbing in Korea folk, you all rock =p.

Here are two videos from this weekends hike at Bukhansan. Watch them both!

I could not get YouTube to work for me in Korea (to upload) for some reason...some law, but props to Vimeo. It is pretty nice.

I am excited for Thursday...it is my payday. My first full payday. Some of it will be spent on some small expenditures that I want (an iron, some nice new pants, maybe a new fan, some random hiking gear) and some of it will be spent on a recordplayer because I am dying to get a chance to play my records. If I ever get to play my records, I will post a video up here. Hopefully, though, most of it will be saved. I think it will be easy to save a decent amount here...even with college loans.

Anywho, it is getting late. I hope all is well back home and keep in touch!

Alan =)