Hello

I noticed I haven't posted anything in 4 months, so I felt like uploading some stuff before I go to Japan next week. The only exciting trip I've taken since Bali is down to Mudfest, a huge festival a couple hours south. I didn't bring my camera, which was probably a good idea. It was raining the whole time and the pictures would unlikely be family friendly. Here are just a couple favorites of the past few months.

Hongdae, a college district in Seoul, always attracts a lively crowd. It's one of the only places to hear good live music in Seoul, so a good percentage of my time spent in Seoul has been here. Like many clubs, Club FF stays open until the sun rises. These guys are probably just taking a quick snooze before taking the bus back home. You can be sure to find some stragglers left behind whenever you head home. This is the only picture I've taken of some of these unfortunate souls. My friend has dedicated a website to much better pictures at www.blackoutkorea.com

During our English Festival, some of the students had to give a speech in front of parents and teachers. Phillip here forgot the words, and made this face for a while until we helped him out. Way to go, Phillip!
This kid is ridiculous. Don't be fooled, he has more Spongebob clothing than he does school supplies. He kind of resembles Spongebob, too. His English name is, of course...Toby.

Cheeka Cheeka Time:

Every day before class, the phonics kids used to gather to watch me brush my teeth. Korean children say "Cheeka Cheeka" when they brush their teeth. One day my coteacher told them to knock it off. They were having too much fun, which is frowned upon in Korea.

This is Seat Swap, a game I play with larger classes. For my phonics class, the student who is standing must say a word on the tv screen. The two students sitting down holding the word must stand up and switch seats with each other, while the student standing tries to sit in an open seat. The player left standing must continue the game and choose another word. I use this game for many different classes, depending on their level. For my advanced students, they have to make sentences with the words on the screen. Watch Monica take out Ricky towards the end of the video.

Caribou was the first band I've seen in Korea that I actually cared to see. For one reason or another, it seems many good bands skip Korea altogether on their Asian tours, and only hit Japan and China. I hope more bands realize the potential in playing in Korea with the sizable young foreign teacher crowd here.

Round Two

Well, I'm back for one more year. Couldn't get away from the kimchi.

Apart from Bali, my effort in updating the blog has been very poor. I've procrastinated long enough. Forgive me for the random assortment of pictures, but I couldn't choose which events to blog about and which to leave out. I decided I would pick my favorites over the past few months. Enjoy.

Here are a couple pics of some of the students at my school. A few of them are in the after school program that I teach, but most aren't. For one week I taught regular school classes. They were pretty pumped because we played games the whole time. This guy started jumping up and down when he noticed my camera, so I obliged and caught him at the perfect time.

Lauren and Sasha.
Julia Goolia.
Korean birthdays are very formulaic, at least the ones I've attended. First, you go to a restaurant, eat and drink soju. Then, you go to a bar, eat again, and drink more soju. And then more soju, and so on. This is one of my girlfriend's best friends' birthday, before the soju marathon...

And after.
It's very common to see couples wearing the same clothes in public. You'd get beat up in the US if you were caught doing that nonsense.
At the Noraebang (Singing Room) These karaoke rooms are open 24 hours, and they are surprisingly fun, especially when trying to sing in Korean.

Some take it very seriously.
Raw beef. Delicious.
Another friend of my girlfriend, Wonkyeong.
The Sasha.


Wonkyeong brought her daughter, Hannah, (her English name because her Korean name sounds the same) to my place one afternoon. I've never seen a kid so excited to just look over the loft and laugh and hide. Easily the cutest kid ever.



I think the only reason she always wants to go to "Casey Uncle's house" is to use her tent we set up in the loft.
The top dart players from Japan went on a tour in Korea and visited my favorite bar, US 66 for a publicity stunt.
I was chosen to play in a doubles match with the dude against the girl and another guy. We won, of course, after I closed out the final shot.
All the guys wanted to see the girl after seeing her pictures everywhere. She was damn good, too.

At the Jimjilbang. It means public bath house, or something like that. There are two separate saunas, one for men and one for women, with several different types of pools and hot tubs. The pools are usually different temperatures, and contain different types of soaps or herbal remedies. After soaking in the sauna, there is a common area for families where you can relax, watch tv, get a massage, eat, workout, sleep, sweat some more in a sauna, or enter an ice-packed igloo room. It's difficult to explain without being there in person. Anyways, here are some pics of the common area.

The Princess Leia Hat is the traditional way to wear a towel in a Jimjilbang.

These three rooms all different temperatures. The one on the far left is like an igloo, with ice covering the inside. The second is about 67C, with a TV and padded floor, and the one on the right is the hottest, about 72C.

Since jimjilbangs are open 24 hours and extremely cheap (this one varied between $5 and $10), many people who are too drunk to go home sleep in these little caves on the weekends. Apparently one must get a spot early in the night as the entire floor is packed with passed out Koreans on Friday and Saturday night.
After just a few minutes in one of the sauna rooms, I was drenched in sweat. Since Koreans don't sweat very much, the sight of me must have shocked them. They looked at me like I belonged in the circus or something, I felt like I had just taken a shower. My girldfriend insisted on taking a picture of this hairy beast.
Massage chairs for under $1.


These little areas to lay down had little heaters that lit up every couple of seconds.

View from outside looking in one of the sauna rooms.
My birthday. Same story, went to a restaurant, ate and drank a ridiculous amount of food and soju, and followed with a bar and repeated.
Me and the other birthday boy.
My friends Sammy and Tim were popular among the ladies in the group.

Oh god, the birthday shot. The birthday person has to drink a beer filled with whatever the other people at the table wish to add. After participating in the previous birthday shots by throwing some disgusting things in the beers, I knew I was in trouble. Here's Timchi adding some good ole nacho cheese.
The finished product. I think the ingredients were: rice cake, hot sauce, pre-swallowed ice cubes, tater tots, kimchi, nachos, and nacho cheese. Delicious.
Me and the other birthday boy. Down the hatch.

An election poster across the street from my apartment.