Road Trip To Deok Jeok Island

This past weekend Saejin, Heidi, Rachel Lynn and I met for our last collective road trip in Korea. We've been to most of the major holidays areas and have hit Suncheon more times than necessary but as a foursome we've never made it out to any islands. This is why we choose Deok Jeok Island as our destination.
Our ferry was supposed to leave at 9:30 am but because of a thick cloud of fog hanging off the coast we had to wait for the sun to do it's magic and burn it off. Saejin and Rachel Lynn worked their magic at getting beer out of a can while we waited. I had the decency to wait until on the boat and an hour later before I started in on the beer.
A fisherman holding his fish is a perfect way to greet tourists to the island as proof of a humble people but to Satanist it could be seen another way.
More fisherman tools to lure a landlocked tourist's attention.
The building in the back is the pension we stayed in. Our room was in the middle of the second floor (details I know you're dying to know)
The view from the pension. One of the buildings is a training centre that companies will rent out for bonding weekends (read booze fest, where managers hit on their underlings.)
The gang as we walk to the beach. The sun finally won its battle versus the evil clouds that mark this time of year.
Rice paddy and farmers house (another distractions for a city slicker to absorb.)
Posing in the "forest" that separates the town and the beach. Try to guess what's in the cooler.
When we first arrived there were maybe 10 other people on the beach. Koreans are creatures of habit and will go swimming in July and August, seeing as it was the 30th of June we were officially a day too early but there wasn't a single complaint from us.

Enjoying the sun and surf.
The lifeguard post was being painted when we arrived, more evidence we were a week too soon for the price gouging and crowds.

More posing and showing off our sunburns. A few days later I was in pain and itched like crazy from the sunburn but today have a decent tan (no pain no gain).
Final shot of the weekend is of the dinner that we ploughed though almost as quickly as the beer.

More Than Meets the Eye

A lot of times it takes months for English movies to come to Korea (I blame the translators taking too many smoke breaks). Once in awhile the stars line up perfectly and movies will premiere here as a testing ground. We were lucky to have the Transformers Movie open here a whole week before it will in America. This past Sunday Saejin and I went to watch it. Because I used to let the cartoon keep me company after school, I had high expectations for the movie. It didn't disappoint. It's a summer blockbuster that nicely fits the mold and gives exactly what you expect of it. I completely recommend it to anyone who likes mindless big budgeted films.

Weekend Plans

This weekend Saejin, Heidi, Rachel Lynn and I are heading off to Dok Juk Island for some fun. By boat, it's about an hour off the coast of Incheon. I first went there a couple of years ago with Saejin, Heidi and James and loved the place despite sleeping in the dirtiest, most barren Min Bok (a room in some one's home). We've often talked about returning but never found the time. With Heidi and Rachel Lynn almost finished their Tour of Duty here we scheduled this weekend long in advance.

The only problem with long term planning made during the warm sunny months of Spring we forgot that the end of June is the start of the rainy season. We aren't going to let this bother us and I am determined to hit the beach with a beer in hand (it's legal mom don't worry) and go for a dip. Even if it rains the whole time the company I'm heading off with will make it fun. These pictures below can attest to that:

Back to Suji

My school computer is acting like it's better than my camera and refuses to communicate. It's too bad it wants to be so snotty because this past weekend I actually went out and had some fun. Friday night was a casual dinner and drinks sort of night but on Saturday I went with Saejin out to Suji. This is the suburb south of Seoul I used to live in and loved. The air is clean and the school I worked for is my favorite school I've been at.

Saejin and I went out there to check out my friend J's language school. Her place is in an area that was just starting to fill in when I lived there but is now a proper second downtown area for Suji. We were the last to arrive at her school for the tour but this had it's advantage because we could eat as much food as we wanted and J was able to go home to get a wine opener to crack open some wine that had been dropped off. Here we learnt it was J's birthday a couple of days ago and she asked us to join her and her friend's for some sushi.

The sushi restaurant did not belong in Suji. It was huge, with the longest sushi track running along the oversized tables and single bar seating area. If it were in Seoul the plates would of been a couple of dollars more each and there would of been a longer line of hungry tummies clogging the doorway. Too bad we'd filled up on food and wine before the dinner because I could have 20 more pieces of the delicious salmon slabs racing past our table.

After dinner we went to a quiet pub for some beer. Here, Saejin and I outlasted all the others so we moved on to the original downtown of Suji where I used to live. As many of the places changed we were lucky to find Mad Dog's Pub exactly as we'd left it. It did feel odd to be there but also very comforting. It was the taxi back into Seoul at three am that was out of place.

A Near Nightmare Scenario

This morning I arrived at school to find my stuff piled up in the hall covered in a thick blanket of dust from the construction taking place. The "uncle" of the school (we'd call him a janitor but a janitor who doesn't clean- the kids do that) used the fifth grade students as mules to transport my stuff down to the first floor. I'm now taking up space in the far corner of the Special Ed class. It's a whole lot quieter here as there are only three kids in the program (I'd like to add a fourth but his mom won't let me). The kids were surprised to see my desk there and Song Lee was her usual self peppering me with questions, most coming while her teacher was teaching.

I spent the bulk of my time reorganized my stuff into manageable places all the while thinking about my computer. Until three thirty today I had a computer that held no power and worse no Internet connection. I was forced to read all morning between class and this lead me to silently cursing in my head as I imagining a whole month of this. Admittedly I wasn't seeing any positives in being computer less and may or may not of been snappy with some students. After my final class of the day I came into the Special Ed room and my computer was alive with Yahoo.com begging me to log in. It was a beautiful sight.

The new Computer/Language Lab

A few months ago our school learnt that it was getting some money from the school board and City Hall to build a new computer/language lab. Since then I've heard everyday quoted as being the starting date. I once had a teacher actually insist the work had already begun. She said this as we were standing in the room.

From the sketchy information leaked my way I've learnt the starting date is now next Wednesday and they will finish up just in time for summer vacation a month later. Confused? Me too. But I did see the sixth graders empty out their room so I'm confident work will star this time. Tomorrow (kids come to school every 2nd Saturday - I don't work Saturdays) all the computers are leaving this room and heading into the now empty sixth grade room while my shelving of books and flashcards will receive refuge status in the music room. I spent all morning ripping down posters and packing them away so that I'll have them once things return to normal. I then went through my computer and transfer files and website information I wanted to keep because this old heap of junk is headed to China to be dismantled and or pollute.

It will be an interesting month as I teach out of different classrooms and have no real home base at school. But I just need to keep reminding myself that the new room is worth the wait and a month's vacation home in Canada will cure me of any left over discomfort.

C.R.A.Z.Y.

Wednesday's are always a slow day at school but yesterday was especially slow because the fifth and sixth graders were off at camp. I brought in a movie to help pass the time. I first heard about C.R.A.Z.Y. when it won the Genie Award as Canada's top movie in 2005. Eventually I was able to track it down and I recommend others do it too. This French Canadian film is great example of a Canadian movie that deserves to be seen.

Because I can't be bothered to write my own, here's the plot outline from imdb.com:

It's a story of two love affairs. A father's love for his five sons. And one son's love for his father, a love so strong it compels him to live a lie. That son is Zac Beaulieu, born on the 25th of December 1960, different from all his brothers, but desperate to fit in. During the next 20 years, life takes Zac on a surprising and unexpected journey that ultimately leads him to accept his true nature and, even more importantly, leads his father to love him for who he really is. A mystical fable about a modern-day Christ-like figure, "C.R.A.Z.Y" exudes the beauty, the poetry and the madness of the human spirit in all its contradictions. Written by Jean-Marc Vallée

I read on-line that an American studio is thinking about remaking it in English which would be a huge mistake. I understand it's in a different language and general Americans movie goers aren't the brightest but this movie isn't made for them. It's made for people who like a strong storyline and the differing relations at work within it.

Facebook

The last few weeks work has been "busy". I use that term loosely as admitidly I have a lot of free time but lately that slice of pie has been gobbled up by camps, open classes, TV/movies and a website called Facebook. My initial reaction to facebook was one of utter disgust. Collecting "friends" and using a website to manage them sounded like a horrible invention. I snubbed it for as long as I could but curiosity did win me over.

One early morning I made up an alias (Joel Otto - my favorite Flame player from the late 80s) and went out to see what was out there. At first it was a little scary seeing the names and pictures of people I want nothing to do with. But eventually I found more people I used to be friends with and simple moved on from that I'd love to hear from again. I rejoined the website with my real name but working under two strict conditions. 1- I'd never join a facebook group and 2- I'd never request a friend, people will have to find me. So far it's worked out nicely but it leaves updating my blog as a secondary thing.

The Curious Incident of the Drunks in the Night-time

It's cooled down the last few nights so I gave the air conditioner the night off and slept with the windows open. That was until four young guys chose to drink outside in the little park that makes up a portion of my buildings' property. They started off quietly sipping beer but soon enough they started to one up each other with their wit. It was a collision of words that ran up the building seeping into all the open windows. I woke up to someone's cackle and tried to let sleep suck me in, but it wouldn't. Laying there wide awake I wanted something to happen and knowing Koreans quick tempers I didn't have long to wait.

Somebody seven floors up from me decided their sleep was more precious than the noise makers below and started chucking full water bottles out their window. The first one was the most shocking as it made a huge splash rightly startling the revelers. They scattered and started using a collection of off colour language to describe their feelings. The four of them then worked on their counting skills trying to find which floor they saw the object thrown from. They weren't so good at this. It took them a good five minutes to work out the water bottle came from the fourteenth floor. By this time I was up on my bed peering down on them and saw them bolt into the building to start presumably slamming on somebodies locked apartment door.

As quiet descended the gang of drunks were back outside to recount the floors. They must of been confused because the only consensus they could come to was to drink more. They tried to be quiet but once the second water bottle crashed at their feet they were off again. This time they were more certain in their counting skills and ran back into the building. These events repeated themselves at least five times between 2:00 and 3:30. This was when I finally closed my windows and cranked up the air con for sleep to drag me away.

Busy Week

This week I'll hardly be at school. I'll still be "working" but just from other places. Today at lunch I'm off to another school to take part in a camp there. This school is also in the boondocks but has a special wing to it where students from other schools in the city come to "camp". On the second day of camp the afternoon is the English time and I just have to lead them through some games. It's easy work and I get extra days off this summer by working it.

On Thursday and Friday I'm also off campus but this time to watch other foreign teachers teaching. Open classes are awkward to teach and to watch. The kids act way better than normal putting on a big show for the supervisors, principal and other English teachers. The object of these classes are to share ideas and feedback. Most of the teachers watching are nice about it and try to take away some good ideas then we pass on suggestions in a positive way. This year there is a meat head teaching in the system and he uses this time to talk about himself. Last time his partner teacher (a Korean) was trying to hide under the table each and every time he talked. As I love watching dumb people talk I'm looking forward to the classes. They will end off the week nicely.

Roadtrip....Gwangju

Two weeks ago I went down to Gwangju to visit my friend Martin and his girlfriend Priya. They met me at Gwangju Station and we headed straight to the nearest information booth. We knew there was a museum dedicated to the Gwangju massacre but didn't know it's name in Korean. Turns out neither did this worker. She did have some places that were dedicated to the events of 1980 and the biggest was the Cemetery on the edge of town honouring the dead.

Once we arrived the first thing you see is a huge tower that looked a lot like something from the Lord of the Rings. Behind this were the cemetery plots of the dead. I never know if I should be taking pictures here and the place was barren of people so it was hard to gage what other people were doing.

From this tower we went into a silent room where pictures of the dead sat along the tiers of stairs that made up the wall. In the centre of the room, most of the faces were of young men who were killed or died of their injuries after the protests (the government forbade the hospitals from treating the wounded). I liked that this tomb had room in it where those lucky enough to have lived past the uprising but did take part can also be honoured.

After we silently absorbed all this we made our way to the museum. I didn't take any pictures inside there but highly recommend the place. It had news footage of the events and lots of information for those who haven't heard about this before. The part I liked best was that the government had given itself medals over their handling of the protests. Not thinking ahead, when the military government fell the next government used this list of winners to track down all those responsible.

Memorial Day Shopping

Yesterday, the God of public holidays broke up the week by making June 6th Memorial Day. To honour the deaths of veterans I spent the afternoon watching Saejin keep capitalism alive by shopping. Now, his normal shopping style is to head directly into any brand named store and let the price dictate his taste. The more expensive the product the more he likes it. If a shirt had three sleeves but sold for the price of five nights out on the town, he would buy it.

When he suggested we go shopping in Dongdaemun I was shocked. Dongdaemun is a 24 hour shopping area that's pushed heavily in the Japanese tour guides where countless stalls all sell the same knock off clothes. You're expected to barter with the sellers to try and get the clothes for the cheapest price. At nights it's rumoured that the prices go down and this is when the place gets packed. As long as you're no bigger than a large size in Western clothes you'll be able to find something to wear at a decent price. Saejin worked his magic and was able to get some good deals on clothes he insists are only for his office. They all look alright but because of the prices he's too ashamed to wear them in public. He's extremely vain that way.

Playing Pool with the Principal

Last week during a random "chicken" party, the Principal asked me to join him and a couple of other teachers to play pool. I committed with a weak maybe but he smelt the waffling of my words as they left my mouth. He called me on it, first with a disgusted, "Maybe?" and then a stronger I'm your boss tone of, "Yes!" So tonight (on the eve of a mid week holiday) we are off to play a game of pool I've never played. There are no pockets and yet it's not a billiards table and there are only four balls. Koreans love this game and I've watched others play but never figured out all the rules. I'm sure at some point they will vaguely get passed on to me but it won't matter. I'm shit at any sport requiring a stick.

KTXing it South

The week that never ends is three hours away where a fresh, crisp beer and the unashamed watching of Big Brother UK are waiting. Those are my only plans I have for tonight because tomorrow morning I'm taking the bullet train to Gwangju to see my friend Martin and his fiancee...(name to be added later but I think it's Pria).

Gwangju is the biggest city near Suncheon and a place I'm familiar with. I like this place as it has a strong arts community but more because it's the birthplace of modern democratic Korea. In 1980 this city's students protested against the then military government in power and the government spazzed the way dictators do and ended up killing hundreds of protesters. They were mowed down in what has come to be known as the Gwangju Massacre . In all my visits to the city I've seen where it all took place but have yet to make it out to the museum remembering this huge moment in Korea's history.

Once that box gets ticked then I'm sure Martin and I will head to a pub somewhere and catch up. I haven't seen him in over four years (he left Korea but like many, came back) and I'm looking forward to hanging out again.

Korean Idol

James, a fine lad from the wilds of Doncaster, flew in from Shanghai just in time for the finals of Korean Idol. The champion for the last three years has been Heidi (not from the Alps) whose unique style always goes unopposed. This year would prove to be different. It was an ugly battle that took place over dinner.

1st up: Heidi and drumming talents.




2nd up: James and his equally talented girls Rachel Lynn and Jes.




Many apologies to Mr. Jon Bon Jovi and to those of you who willingly watched these clips. You will never have that time back again and for that, I'm sorry.

5 Straight? Are you mad?

Tuesday. It's only Tuesday and the steepest part of the climb to hump day. This week has just started and already it feels like it could be a candidate for the longest one of the year. Last week was only a three day week and the one before that was a zippy four days. Expecting me to make it a full five days straight is a tad unreal and frankly cruel. I'm not alone in thinking this way either.

So tomorrow after lunch all the teachers are off to the movie theatre in Gwang Myeong to take in an afternoon flick. This may ease some of the pain but if I'm forced to watch Pirates of the Caribbean (I watched it opening night)I'm sure I'll break under the pressure of this exaggeratedly slow motioned week.

Happy Birthday Buddha

Tomorrow is Buddha's birthday and old people all around the country will flock to temples to drink rice wine and soju all day long. For me it means a four day weekend. I stole this picture from a friend's website and if you look closely you can find an impostor among the Buddha's.

Mandatory Art Class

About once a week one of the mom's puts on an art class for some of the other desperate housewives in the area. Today's class was to create a scene out of dried flowers. Seeing as she had a lot of left overs she asked if the teachers would like to take part in what turned out to be a mandatory art session. (Be Creative Damn you!)

I got to the class a tad late and found the other teachers blending in shavings of blue pastels for the sky and green for the ground. As I started up mine I envisaged a mountain in the corner so I held back on colouring the sky on one side of the mat. This caught the attention of the teacher who frantically came and tried to fix my ways. She then pointed to all the others who followed the directions perfectly. I pretended to understand but continued working at building up a green mound.

The teacher tried her best to make me stop but soon gave up when she saw the creative juices flowing out of the other male teachers. They dared to make the sky blood red and the ground as purple as an eggplant. Here is my creation now available on E-Bay under the Cheesy Art Section:

Nin Jit Jan Jerry Kan

My friend Rachel Lynn is almost done her contract and will do the unthinkable and head home. Her plans on getting there are complex and involve multiple Visa's. She hates to fly and so is trying her best to make it back to Vancouver without being airborne. She will take a ferry to China and then take multiple trains until Europe and hopefully a cruise to New York or Montreal where she can catch a bus out West. It sounds like an amazing adventure and one she isn't shy about talking about.

A couple of weeks ago Saejin , Rachel Lynn and I went for a Friday beer. We spent most of the time looking through Rachel Lynn's Russian phrase book trying our best to pick up the language (or annoy others around us). Unfortunately for Rachel after hours of goofing around, her book now only opens to the chapter on "Making Love In Russian." By the end of the night we had only one sentence stuck in our heads, "Nin Jit Jan Jerry Kan" but we each think it means something different. What's worse is we can't find it in the book anymore and still insist it's Russian. This brings us to last Friday where we all joined Heidi for dinner in Itaewon. As dinner morphed into drinks our Russian phrase soon cropped up and the only way to find out what it meant would be to ask a pro.

So we walked over to the bar we've so insensitively labeled the "Russian Whore Bar." We don't venture in often but when we do we have a blast. It's a bar firmly stuck in the eighties and Russian pop songs are played in a high rotation. Once we were comfortable in the bar I made friends with a couple of Mongolians who knew Russian but failed in understanding me. (It must of been the Western Russian dialect I choose to use that screwed them up.) We spent a good chuck of the night dancing and sampling Vodka and all I can say is I'm glad Rachel Lynn is the one off to Russia. The way I felt on Saturday makes me never want another vodka anything again and you can "nin jit jan jerry kan" that!

Spam

The lunch lady at school has nicknamed me "No Thank You" because I'm constantly turning down any sea food based slop she or her crew serve. On fish days she comes over and inspects the empty sections of my tin tray carrying a long face. She then tells the other teachers how guilty she feels that I'll be hungry. Again this month she's taken it upon herself to fry up thick slices of canned Spam just for me. I have no heart to tell her Spam is 100 times worse a fate than any fish she could send my way.

I use every ounce of energy to not show my disgust as I chew away on the spam. It works out best if I can eat it all down in less than three bites. Anymore and the texture and salty taste of the stuff reminds me of what I'm eating setting off my gag reflexes. I also let my mom's voice take over in my head counting out the total number of bites it will take to work my way through the pile of spam. If I'm lucky there is a sauce I can dip the stuff in but this is rare. Why people choose to eat this stuff is beyond me.

Subways

My first ride on the subway alone many moons ago was one that left me lost. Twice. Rumbling along underground now it's hard to see where I went wrong that day. Seoul's subway is laid out in eight different lines and unlike Tokyo, if you can't read the language, English signs are everywhere. While getting to my destination has become easier I'm still working on remembering the most important rule to proper Korean subway etiquette:No talking.

Ninety percent of travelers are either trying to sleep (Koreans can sleep anywhere) or are engaged to the electronic device of their choice (cellphone, MP3, video game, portable TV or the truly perverse all in one).

If you are caught talking, chances are you are trying to sell something. Most of the stuff targets the ample supply of old people who, as it turns out, will buy anything on sale. The range of products is unlimited. As long as it fits in a box and costs at most ten bucks then it can be hawked.

A second group of reliable noisemakers are the religious ones praising GOD. They confidently board the cars and start marching from one end to the next spilling out recycled words. The truly good ones are the ones who throw in English when they pass by, "Hallelujah, God Loves You."

Another group of chatterboxes ride the subway late at night and have just finished up the compulsory drinking session for work. The red faces and smell of soju hanging out around their mouths are their giveaway. But you want these people to talk, it's when they are silent you need to be worried. This means their livers have had enough and are busily sending out signals to the stomach to send what's left on a wild ride. You don't want to be caught next to this person.

The final group who constantly break the silence of the subway are us foreigners and our voices seem to ride above any other noise. Honestly it's not our fault.

A Well Earned Beer

The sun was standing clear in the sky showing off all day and with skin pastier than toothpaste I needed to enjoy as much of it's glow as I could. To start off I joined my students and a couple of the teachers for a 5 km run in the Gwang Myeong City Marathon.

After this I joined Saejin and headed off to meet his friend Myoung Soo and his latest (and hopefully last) girlfriend Ji Young. We decided to set off for Namsan Tower as it was one of the few clear days that Seoul gets (hence the Gothic look of my skin) and take in the views of Seoul. The original plan called for a cable car ride to the top but once we saw the line of people we chose to walk our way up. It's a nice little hike and to avoid unsightly sweat marks we took our time.


Both Saejin and I rolled our eyes when we were greeted with the sight of the happy couple. Matching outfits may be popular with old people back home but they're old and tend to look the same anyway. Koreans take it to another level with trendy young couples strutting down the street in "couple T's" bragging about their love and depressing all the singles out there.




As for the beer, it was magical.

Phallic Friday

A picture of a nice little park near my place to end the week on.

Nanta: Cookin'

Heidi continues her run of visiting guests and this time she's on a mission to hit something touristy everyday. Last night Saejin and I joined her and Tanya to watch the Nanta: Cookin' performance. Both Heidi and I had seen it before so we knew the show has two parts in it where audience members are asked/persuaded/knocked on the head and drug up onto the stage. This is why we sat well inside the aisle leaving both Saejin and Tanya vulnerable to being plucked from their seats (we're nice like that).

Turns out we needed a better plan. Anyone who knows me, knows I hate attention so when the performer onstage made her way near our seats I started to look elsewhere starting first with my left shoe, then the right one before checking out the opposite side of the theatre. There I followed the other performer in his search for a woman when curiosity got the best of me. I looked back to the girl near us and suddenly I was caught in a stare down.

I did my best to ignore her but then I saw her going for an audience peer pressure moment (an even worse fate) and thought it better to get the event over with. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought but definitely worth more than the lousy hand phone accessory I got. Below is a link to the exact part of the show that I had to do, I would of been the one on the left.

Joel's House Warming Party

It's been a long month since we all got together for a binge drinking session. This month it was a new venue, Joel's new place, and we were lucky to have special guest in Min. Of course we tried to hide the drinking session behind a potluck dinner but with only finger foods present the drinking ended up being the main event.

These are the only nice pictures on my camera from that night. The smaller ones are the ones when the booze started taking over. 1st: Heidi has a hard time telling jokes so to help distract herself from laughing way before the punchline she has decided to tell jokes via shadow puppets. 2nd: Shelly's first hot look of the night. 3rd: Joel and RL having a romantic moment. 4th: Shelly's second hot look attracting Jamie Lee. 5th: Jamie Lee and I doing our best to scare anyone not with us out of the bar.

Friday's Fry Up

Wearing a suit with the legs quietly tucked into rubber boots and your tie secured in the breast pocket all under a Tillie hat may not be orthodox gardening gear but it works for our school's principal. Since the weather turned nice the garden has become his main office and the teacher's have to chase him here to get their paperwork signed.
Friday afternoon we got to sample the first of his efforts with some nice leafy lettuce to wrap barbecued pork in.It was a good way to end a lazy Friday that involved zero teaching and just a lot of games to celebrate Children's Day.

Why I Love Korea # 73

Personally I find autumn to be the greatest season of all time but the springs in Korea are a close second. Sometime in the past the plants here all got together and created a time line for when they would bloom. They mastered it so well that from the start of April to the end of May there will always be colour around. Instead of jogging yesterday I went for a hike and took some pictures of what I usual struggle past. Here they are:

HiSeoul Festival

Each spring shortly after the cherry blossoms turn to green and just before the other flowers blow away, posters start popping up around the city. They invite everyone down to the City Hall for the HiSeoul Festival. Here the main stage is set up and have a whole whack of different performers from around the world try their best to entertain.

On Sunday, Saejin and I made our way here to take in whatever was going on. We then spent the next half hour completely absorbed in the Russian rockers and the dance troupe commanding the stage. The main singer was a plump full bodied woman who could of sang without a microphone and still been heard. The dancers jumped, turned and flipped one another to help translate the songs into an understandable story. This was all nice and dandy but my eyes were locked elsewhere. I loved the band and their ultra hip blue and white space age/70's glam rock outfits. I wish my camera could of zoomed in that extra bit to capture them better but here they are anyway.



Check out the high heels and blue capes. Next years Halloween outfit is planned if I can track down their tailor.


After our ears began to ring in Russian we moved to the side of the stage where we caught a better glimpse of Freddy Mercury part two rocking out on the accordion.

Know Your Cuts of Meat

It was a quiet weekend that wasn't supposed to be. Saejin and I had planned to join our friends in Suncheon on Saturday but the last flight out of Seoul left at 6:30 and Saejin was still stuck at work. To make up for it, we treated ourselves to a good meal and wine at a French Restaurant in Itaewon.

Later on in the night we met up with Yun Jeong for some beer before we deciding to see a movie. Time problems continued to follow us as the last showing was at 12:30 and we got there at 1:00 am. To make up for it, we went to find some street food. There were three tents lined up on the street and we gambled on the empty tent being the best. Not a wise pick as the hammered server struggling to keep her eyes open cooked up some awful grub. To fill in the uncomfortable silences the bad food and drunk lady brought on we tried to identify all the meat on the table.

Can you guess these yummy bits of animal? If you get it right I'll buy you a drink.