This is Blogaween, pumpkins scream in the dead of night!!

Onto more things. I am sure everyone is curious about if Halloween was cool here...long story short it wasn't that great. There are three days out of my year here that are incredibly hard for me to get through and Halloween is and was the hardest of the three. As most of you already know Halloween is my favorite holiday and I usually pull out the stops for it. Here I could not do that. I was working all day of the 30th and there was no where to get a costume. Fortunately Leanne and Andy had found a place in Suwon that looked promising so they decided to go there Friday evening. Paul tagged along with them and I asked him to snag me a costume if he could find one. The last "costume" I actually bought was about 5 years ago and that was a weird Dark Prince costume that I tore apart to make my Edward Scissorhands costume. Nonetheless, Paul picked me up something so that I could go to the Halloween party at Exit and we could have a grand old time. Also we had intentions on going out Saturday for actual Halloween and finding places to be in costume.
Anyway Paul got me a "Spider-hero" costume, which is a Korean rip off of Spider-man. It didn't even have his logo on the chest so I drew it on with a paint sharpie. Paul was a luchador so we went as Spider-man and Diablo Pablo. I came up with Paul's luchador name and it worked perfectly. We had lots of fun at the Exit Halloween party but that was because we were dressed funkily. Leanne was in a very weird outfit with a cape and a giant red wig and ended up reminding me of Katy Segal's Peg Bundy character on Married with Children. Andy went as some kind of roman warrior angel character and you could see his groin so he rigged his shield to be in front of it. We had great fun talking to people and dancing with them and drinking with them. It was a pretty kickass time at Exit for once. I even met some Korean girls and got a number all while I was in the world's crappiest spider-man costume. Hilarity continued to ensue as the night wore on because after we left Exit we decided to go to Nori Bahng, karaoke place, and sing til our hearts were content. We must have looked hilarious roaming down the street in full costume going to sing in a little room. We had Leanne, Andy, Jessica, Calvin, Paul, Alivia, and I so it was a pretty sizable group to go there. That proved to be pretty fun and then we went home for the evening.
Saturday (Halloween) was interesting because Paul and I got up and went into Suji and didn't come back for hours when we sort of meant only to be there for just a little while. We headed into town for some Kimchi Chigae, which is a pretty spicy kimchi soup, and is totally my favorite dish here. After sitting down to eat that we met up with Alivia and her coworker. We hung around there for a little and then we met up with Leanne at Coffee Bake. We hung at Coffee Bake for about two hours just shooting the shit so that was pretty relaxing. We then proceeded to Leanne's to see a guide book of Korea that she had, some pictures she wanted to show us of the previous evening, and some cool videos of her Nanas saying hello. I was pretty struck by her videos of her grandmothers because it made me wish mine could have been around longer. I feel a bit shortchanged by not getting to know all of my grandparents that well but at the same time I cannot feel too bad because I have led a really privileged and blessed life. I will never say I don't miss them but who knows who I would be or where I would be if they had still been here to see me grow up. Sorry for the tangent folks now back to the real story... After being at Leanne's for a while we went to Andy's to unleash the beast or rather to wake the hibernating bear. We decided that it would be a prudent idea to watch DVDs at my place for the evening and maybe go out after. Andy being the bear he is needed to get some eats in his system, so we headed back into town to get ice cream, subway, and soda as snacks for our miniature silver screen experience. As we were in Subway we met up with Peter who was going to come with us and watch a flick. We took the long walk back to my place and set up for the movie. Peter then left us prematurely because he opted to go into the city for a Halloween party. Not sure how that turned out but I am sure he had fun. We agreed upon watching the Hangover, and so we indulged in this new comedy and our food. After feasting our eyes on the hilarious inebriated glory of Las Vegas everyone left and headed for home except for Paul. He stuck around and we played video games for hours to come, but not before we went to the Family Mart and got snacky snacks. We then played NHL2K8 on my new Japanese PS2 that I bought off of Calvin just last week. That was fun because we learned how to play video game hockey and Paul proved to be pretty damn kickass at it. I sucked puck royally at that game, but oh well it isn't about winning. After PS2 we switched sports gears and headed into Nintendo land and played some Smash Bros. on my Wii. Paul claimed he isn't any good but he proved to be pretty good at that too. We definitely had fun. Evidently we had decided not to go into the city for a party and we spent all of Halloween in Suji doing nothing besides eating, watching movies, and playing video games. All in all Halloween wasn't a total bust but I completely miss the ones at home and I hope all of you had an extra special one in honor of me.

Today we got up, went into Suji to eat and meet up with the crew. Then we went into Myeongdong, that is in Seoul, and we went BOWLING!! It was pretty awesome because that was loads of fun as everything else has been. We played a couple games and the scores didn't really matter but it was just good old fashioned fun. In bowling alleys here in Korea it is undeniably true that the Koreans only have small balls. It was a bit of a challenge to bowl well as the finger holes were not the right sizes for any of us, and then there were extra holes drilled into the sides of most of the balls that we did not know what they were for. Post bowling we wandered around Myeongdong to do a little light shopping. Paul wanted to find glasses with the fake lenses and so we did and not only did he buy a pair but I did as well. Wearing these glasses makes me look like an honorary member of Weezer. We also stopped into a clothing shop and Paul got some new pants while I got a cool blue plaid shirt that fits me really well and looks pretty "hipster couture" as I said while Paul's new pants were "hipster chic." Sorry you kind of had to be there for that moment but it sure was stupid funny. Amongst the wandering we had tummy rumbling and headed to a CPK here and enjoyed some lovely pizza with some Sangria of all things. I of course had my usual Hawaiian pizza, with a glass of Sangria. The meal was delicious and I do believe we were all thoroughly contented with our cuisine choice for the evening. Then there was more wandering and then the bus home. Now I am typing this blog and there should be more to come in the week. If any of you out there have any specific questions about Korea or life here, please, do not hesitate to ask me. Also I welcome comments at they do make me oh so happy. To me they are like finding an Easter egg filled with little candies but only three or four months after Easter and realizing that you must have missed said egg and now you relish in the glory of finding it and you eat the stale candy.

Blog Shout out: This shout out is not to a person but instead to a holiday: Halloween. To Halloween you are my favorite and although you have been warped through the many years you still represent the idea of the inevitable to me and you are a great day to reminisce in the years of candy headaches as a child. To those of you who got the pleasure of celebrating it this year I do so hope you had a great one.

Slow blog...take it easy...

I wouldn't say that there has been too much happening here as of late besides the constant thoughts running through my head about life, what it means, and where mine is going.

The weeks are all pretty much the same nowadays and are chock full of the same school crap. I don't mean that to sound like I think teaching is crap but there is always some baggage that comes with everything and after a while it can start to wear on you. Every so often there are complaints about how things are going at school which means that we have to continue to change how things are handled. I cannot be too sure but it seems like us foreign teachers a picked on a little bit. Maybe the parents expect more out of us for some reason but really they shouldn't since most if not all of the Westerners have never taught before. Mostly the issues are trying to find the happy medium between the extremes in teaching. You can't do too much of one thing because then it seems you are neglecting something else and vice versa. This means that there is a natural fluctuation here at least until we or the Korean teachers figure out the key to making this teaching experience easier for all parties. I think that point will finally be figured out by each teacher on their own pace while being here but knowing Murphy's Law it will not solve itself for me until I am about to leave. Nonetheless, I am just venting a little because I am sort of frustrated with a few things here but it is nothing too big.

Last weekend the adventures started out by us going out and meeting Leanne's parents. They were here for a couple week visit and it was a night they had to enjoy in Suji so we all go to meet them. Leanne's parents are very nice, and cool and I can see where Leanne gets a lot of her personality from. It is always interesting to meet peoples' parents since we get to see more into their history and why they are the way they are. Anyway we chilled out at a bar/restaurant with them and enjoyed a nice conversation with them. Leanne and her parents then needed to go, and Alivia, Paul and I went to Exit for the usual Friday night festivities. We stayed there for a while and enjoyed some drinking and dancing. Paul and I decided to leave and then we got a little sidetracked and Paul almost got involved in a fight. Long story short some Korean guys were hassling Paul for his good intentions and the communication barrier made it seem as though emotions were running high. Paul and I got outta there before anything happened. As we wandered back to my place we found some fun smashable trash, and since Paul was pissed about the random scenario that just happened, we decided to smash things. This means we made a mess of smashing things. We killed a dirty used humidifier, a printer, and a sink. There can be glory and beauty in destruction. This was a perfect ending to that evening.

Saturday I had a private lesson which was pretty cool. I had to help this kid polish up his speech so he could enter a speech contest. He had written a really good and inspirational speech about being a global eco activist. After the private lesson I went home and grabbed some movies, hopped on the subway, and headed into the city for a date. Here a quick update so you can catch up...a couple weeks ago I met a nice girl outside of a bar in Itaewon and we were talking and then after a couple weeks of talking online and on the phone we decided to go out. We went out for galbi and ice cream, and then watched movies and TV into the wee hours.

Sunday I met up with Paul in Hongdae to see if we could find some Halloween costumes, but no such luck. Instead we found some presents for some of our families members. After wandering in and out of stores there we finally went to a Mexican restaurant we have been aiming to try for a while, Dos Tacos. This place was actually pretty damn good. It was by far the best Mexican food that Paul and I have had while being here and boy do we miss it. We left Hongdae after enjoying our gourmet meal and we headed home. I hadn't been feeling well so I went home and slept. Apparently I had a bit of a throat cold but I am over it now. That is literally it for this past weekend. As I said it really was nothing to report. More to come soon after this next weekend.
Halloween is this weekend and it is the hardest of the three super hard days for me to miss from my regular life throughout the course of this year. They really don't celebrate Halloween here so I am a little sad. Oh well.

Your attention please. Please blog if you are paying attention.

Hello all you lovelies out there in non-TVland. We shall begin in the logical place of the last place I left off. No?

Last week Monday lots of us had off of school still from Chuseok break. Leanne, Alivia, Paul and I went to this Korean folk village and theme park in Suwon. There was a lot to be seen there and lots to do. We saw a traditional Korean wedding, a tightrope walker, a harvest dance with these dancers with long fancy ribbon hats, a korean folk village, the worlds second worst haunted house, and much much more. All of it was hella interesting and fantastic. My favorite was the haunted house because we went in there hoping to find something good but came out laughing. The haunted house was this dark twisting nether of little rooms with animatronic monsters. We went in the entrance to find an old korean man directly ahead of us. He kept shuffling into walls since it was difficult to see. I still think he went in there looking for the bathroom. We then made our way over to the traditional village museum and learned about many fun korean things. After that we went to the worlds worst theme park. Alivia and I rode the carousel while Paul and Leanne rode the Viking which looked like a pirate ship. I wanted to ride the horse backwards but they wouldn't let me. That and I had to buckle up...on the carousel. Then we rode the bumper cars and Paul got on his cellphone while driving. After our bumpy illegal ride we went on the worlds worst rollercoaster and it was so lame and short that we couldn't believe it. All in all it was great fun because we got to see a lot of things and experience funtacular ancient theme park rides.

This past week went by fast as usual and was the same as usual. The weekend came in another torrent of strange. I went to meet Paul friday night at a bar just outside his place and when I got there he and crew had left so we just ended up drinking at his place, listening to Ryans mix, and passing out. Saturday I remember we had lots of fun because we went on another Paul and Joel adventure. A few weeks ago Paul and I were in the neighborhood Jeongja Kraze Burger and we had magazines that we were looking through. We noticed an ad for these shoes that intrigued me. This was the MLB concept shoe. Apparently the MLB must use Korea as a test market for some things and as a good place ot ver merchandise themselves. I did some digging and found out where there is an MLB store here in Korea. Apparently the store is in Apgujeong, which is a place Paul and I have ventured to once before. We set out for these shoes. We got to Apgujeong and started walking when finally I stopped in the movie theater and asked the ticket office lady. She said Hyundai department mall and pointed. We walked back towards the train stop and found said mall. Upon entering this mall we were pretty blown away. This was high class fashion central as in you can find any and every desinger name in here. There were level upon level of uber expensive goodies in here. There was even a golden crocodile and a pepto bismol colored suit of armor. Anyway long story short we went up and down these levels looking for the MLB store and we kept getting different directions. Until finally we asked a guy in the adidas store and he pulled out a map and showed us that it was on the only floor we hadn't combed the surface of. We went down there and found the store and I wet my pants the first time. Once in the store we were helped by a korean woman in purple who had purple contacts in, thus making her eye color purple. She said they only had the white and brown versions of the shoe I wanted, but just then another clerk woman in there over heard and went to the back and brought me my shoes in the black color that I wanted. I tried them on, fell in love, and left happy. These are the shoes...





Those are my new incredible shoes and I love them. Post buying these shoes Paul and I went for a celebratory McDonalds meal. Then we headed to Gangnam to try out the shoes in the batting cages and boy was that weird. These batting cages are pretty awful because the ball is never pitched in the strike zone. All the pitches were either too high or too low. Even Paul thought so and he doesn't play baseball. In other words collectively we amassed about five hits on six or seven turns in the cages. I felt pretty pathetic but then I looked down at my feet and was reminded again of my love for baseball. Criticize me all you want about these shoes but the fact that the represent in my eyes how I feel about baseball and how it makes me feel is something that I thought could never be captured in an article of clothing or a material possesion besides a photograph. There is only one other thing in this world that makes me feel the same way about baseball as these shoes and that is the picture my father has on his desk. I will tell you about that sometime.

After striking out in Gangnam we met up with the crew in Itaewon for some fun adventures in alcohol. We hit a few bars and wandered the area. We ended up going through an area called hooker hill and I really don't want to talk about it because the whole thing made me very uncomfortable. I saw somethings there that I had hoped to never even see in my nightmares. We finally found the bar/club we were trying to go to and they had some crazy 3D event that was going on that proved to not be that 3D. Nonetheless I scored about 7 or 8 pairs of 3D glasses from that bar and so I am happy. We then ended up at another bar where I got bored and left. The next day, being sunday, we did a lot of nothing, played a short round of pathetic ping pong, and got some dinner at this crazy awesome buffet and steak restaurant called VIPS. That was it for the past couple weekends and now lets see what the next one brings...

Special blog shout out: This one goes to my Father for getting me into baseball. I love baseball more than I love most things and I miss it a lot. This makes me miss my father too. In other words Dad if you are reading this this baseball adventure and blog were for you. You can put it on the board...yes!!

A note to any of my readers...

I was told through the grapevine that some people think my blog is too long. Whether that is true or not is not the case here. Hearing that people are bothering to follow my blog and then stop because it is too long is pretty offensive. If you think my blog is too long then go ahead and stop reading it. Instead do this just send me an email or message once in a while asking "How are you" and I will give you the simple answer, so you don't need any of this complex BS, of "Fine." I apologize if this has offended you but if you really don't want to hear every detail then do not read my blog because that is what it is hear for. I structured this blog to not only inform all about my adventures here, so they worry less, but also to teach my friends and family what South Korea is actually like and what is has to offer. I also have this blog as a place where I can write thoughts I have about life in general so that I can gather my own thoughts in an organized manner and come to some new realization. If all this is too much for you, then please I ask you to send me emails or messages asking me about my life here. I cannot promise I will respond to them right away but they will be responded to nonetheless. Thank you for reading this and considering your options. Please leave comments on my blogs as I find them fun and I would like to know who some of you are that are commenting on my blog. A new blog is on its way soon.

Choking smoker, don't you think the blogger laughs at you?

Here is the Chuseok blog and boy howdy is it full of good'ns....

Okay let us begin at the most appropriate place that I can; the beginning. Wednesday night I was finishing classes and about to go home when my director handed out Chuseok gifts. I got exactly what I had asked for, which was of course a case of 12 cans of Tuna!! I never thought I would be happier to get tuna. I have eaten a few cans of it already but my cupboards still look pretty full of tuna so I am a happy camper.
Thursday proved to be interesting because it started the Chuseok events off with a bang...sort of. I do not remember what I did most of the day but Paul appeared in the area around 6 and we went to meet up with some of our friends here in Suji so we could leave for Incheon. We were going to stay with about 12-14 people in a big hotel condo sort of place on the beaches in Incheon. Paul and I got to Leanne's apt. to find out that our friend Alivia had gone to a hospital for emergency surgery. Now this sounds worse than it was but it was necessary. Alivia had had an ear infection for a few days and it just kept getting worse until she decided to go find out what the real deal was. Long story short she had some sort of abscess at the back of her throat and they needed to cut it open and drain the puss inside. Alivia was going through the surgery as Paul and I arrived at Leanne's, so evidently we didn't leave on schedule because we wanted to find out if Alivia was okay. She came out of it alright and happy that it was all over with but she had to stay in the hospital for a few days so they could make sure everything was healing properly. This meant that Alivia was going to miss out on our Chuseok adventure/s. While waiting for Alivia to come out we all went and got some food and hung out for a while. After food Leanne decided she wanted to go to Alivia and wanted all of us to go to Incheon and she would meet us there the next day. Andy, Carl, Paul and I headed to the bus stop to catch the "Airport Limousine" which really is just a fancy bus that takes us to the airport. We waited for an hour and ten minutes and saw at least five buses go the other direction before we called it quits for the night. We then called Leanne and told her what happened and we headed to Exit to drink and worry about going the next day.
Friday morning Leanne, Andy, and Carl got up and started to get ready to go while Paul and I opted for sleep and leaving later. Paul and I ended up leaving Suji around 3pm and got to where we needed to be by maybe around 6ish. This was no problem since we were being pretty laid back about the whole thing but we had fun on the bus. We played an alphabet game where you say "I went to the supermarket/store and I bought (something/s that start with the assigned letter)" we only got to V before the ride was over.
Here is what we came up with:
I went to the supermarket and bought...
Alligators
Boner Popsicles
Catatonic cab drivers
Donkey Diarrhea
Eccentric Egomaniacal Elephants
Flatulent Flatwas (Paul said that is the Iranian air force or something I don't remember)
Gaggle of Gigantors
Hyper-inflated poop tubes
Immaculate Institutionalized Inuits
Jaguar Jacking off to Jumping Jack Flash
Killer Kangaroos from Krusty Burger
Leaping Lepers
Melted Masticating Mandibles
Narcoleptic Nachos
Oprah's Ornery Osteoporosis
Pangolin cleaning itself with a Penal Douche
Quarrel of Quintessential Queer Queens
Rowdy Rotunda of Robust Rabid Rabbits
Smelly Sacrilegious Systematic Somalian Sunnites
Terrific Trundle of Terrorist Tacos playing Tic Tac Toe
Ungodly Ugly Uruguayan Ungulates that are Uninfluenced by Ugandan Underwear
Ventriloquist that Vies to be Victorious over his Viscous Villainous Varicose Veins

And....you're there!!
We were there and we walked up to our ginormous hotel. We checked in and went to the room and waited for our friends to appear. Then we left with them to get some eats and drinks. We met up with the rest of the people staying with us once we were done with dinner and we went to the beach, drank, and lit off fireworks...a lot of fireworks. Paul and I then bought more fireworks to launch off. This was truly great as I love fireworks and Paul missed the fourth of July this year as I will next year. We then proceeded back to the room briefly until we figured out that some of us wanted to continue drinking and go to a Noribang (karaoke place). Leanne, Andy, Carl, Paul, Peter, and I went to the singing place and started to sing our brains out. Leanne and I did the most singing but Leanne did the best. I performed such lyrical stylings as Pardon Me, Run to the Hills, Californication, I am the Walrus, Hotel California, Paranoid Android, Hey Jude, Bohemian Rhapsody, Purple Haze, Stairway to Heaven, and some other awesome songs. We were there until the place closed at 3am. After stretching our vocal chords we decided to hang out on the beach. The tide there had come in a great distance and the evening scenery was amazing. Peter had left us by this time and everyone else was asleep in the hotel room. Leanne, Carl, Andy, and Paul all pranced on the beach and I sat back on the cement and listened to the harmony of the waves. After a few minutes of this Leanne and Carl lay down on the beach and Andy and Paul continued to prance. Then Andy jumped over that pair and Paul decided to as well. This proved to be a poor idea because Andy stopped just after the jump and went to turn around. Crack!! They smacked heads together and Paul went down for the count for a minute. Everyone was okay for the moment. We found an open convenience store and went in for edible goodies. I indulged in a can of tuna with some chopsticks and ended up feeding a good portion of it to the stray kitties in the area. As we wandered back to the hotel Paul's nose began to bleed. This was now at least a good half hour after the incident and his nose thought it to be a prudent time to have some human bean juice leakage. After a while Paul was fine and we made it back to the hotel alright. We spread our little beds out on the floor and called it a night although it proved to be a short night. Hitting the hay at 5 am made us barely get any rest as all the other people got up between 8-9 and we had to be out of that room by 11. We got up, gathered our things, kissed the beach goodbye and headed for the bus back home. We got back right around 3 pm which was exactly 24hrs after Paul and I had left, so that was kind of interesting.
Saturday was actually Chuseok so we really did nothing for it when we got back. Leanne decided that since all places were closed for food she would hold an impromptu cooking session and made us these odd and delicious sandwiches. We continued to hang out and bum around Suji for the next little while until Paul and I split from the crew and went off to meet up with some Korean friends. For the past week Paul has been sort of seeing a Korean girl who barely speaks any English. She is friends with one of Leanne and Andy's co-teachers who speaks both languages very well so we were invited out with them. Paul and I saw this as a good opportunity to have the bilingual friend of ours help translate between him and his new lady friend. We also decided since we had been drinking and having too much fun the past two nights to not spend any money or drink at all. We met up with them and then headed to this very westerny sports bar here in Suji. Once we were there more of their friends appeared and now Paul and I were the only two U.S. kiddies amongst at most ten Koreans, and that was really cool. We ended up having a lot of fun with them, learning some Korean (I can now count to ten), not drinking and not spending a cent. We were pretty proud of ourselves for exercising restraint while completely having temptation cast in front of us. Then we had to go back to my place to get all of Paul's things so he could go home. There were a few fireworks still left over so we turned towards the basketball courts near my place to set them off. When who should we encounter but a very strange, friendly, singing, dancing, and awesome Asian lady. I say Asian because we are not sure if she was Korean or not for reasons you will understand momentarily. We had run into her in the street earlier in the day and she screamed hello in Korean and Hello in English to us in a very friendly manner, so we found it odd to run into her again. She came over to us as we lit the five last fireworks so we let her light one too. Then she sang for us in Chinese, Mandarin I believe because she said "Ni hao" and then she grabbed our hands and danced with us for a minute or two. She was sooooo nice and friendly and completely off her rocker but in a great way. Then we parted ways from her and from each other. It appeared as though my night was over but it wasn't for Paul. He walked all the way back to his place to find out that he thought he forgot his keys. If you want to hear the rest of Paul's fun key story you are going to have to ask him yourself as it is not my story.

The past couple nights I hadn't gotten any sleep but on this particular night I got the best sleep I have had in Korea. I woke up Sunday morning to find myself with essentially nothing to do and it felt great. I have needed a new pair of jeans for a few weeks so I decided to head East and North towards Jukjeon/Ori because there are strings of high end fashion outlet shops there. I went to the Levi's shop to find things to be tooooooooooo expensive for my tastes. I poked around the area for a while longer until I decided to just go into the E-mart that is there. E-mart is like Target x 10 because it is way bigger and sells way more of the everyday necessities. I walked in and found the clothing section right away and found a nice pair of 36 size jeans that I tried on and they were too big. I next tried a 34 and they fit perfectly so I bought them. Yes they were designer too. I bought Calvin Klein jeans everyone. Next to the 34 tight black jeans I bought at the alley these are the smallest pair of jeans, regular fit, that I have bought in at least ten years!! I last fit into a 34 when I was in 8th grade!! I am for sure losing weight again here but it is also because I am working out again and walking everywhere. These jeans still have room in them too so it is really great. I then met up with Paul and Andy for a nonexistent game of basketball. After hanging out for twenty minutes Paul had to leave us to go on a date and Andy and I went and got some dinner. I now am thinking of bed and of tomorrow where I will apparently venture to a traditional Korean village and to Everland!! Everland is South Korea's major theme park!

Blog shout out: This one goes to Sarah and Jesse for being strong in their move away from Chicago. Thank you two for the great memories there, and for reading my blog. One day we will meet again and pick up where we left off. Keep on rockin you two.

Blog without pain isn't really romance.

Yet another week or so goes by and they donate more tales for my big book of adventure while over here. Last weekend Paul and I started off our weekend the way we usually do. That is of course by going to the local Westerner bar here in Suji called Exit. There were many hours of drinking and dancing but not too many. We proceeded back to my place to crash since the next day we wanted to make sure we were up at a reasonable hour to head to the Global Gathering.

The global gathering is a large concert that spans two days. It really is like a mini Lollapalooza. There were two stages, a DJ booth, a smoking area, a rest area, and lots of merch booths. Paul and I got up around noon and headed into Suji for a nice breakfast with Leanne, Alivia, and Becca. We then proceeded to Pauls place to grab what he needed and get our asses to the show. You see we thought that the first group we wanted to see was on at 2pm, but we were wrong. Paul had read the times incorrectly because he thought it was the twelve hour clock and not the twenty four. This meant that we did not need to leave for a good long while because the first band we wanted to see wasn't on until 10pm. No big deal we all make mistakes. We hung around Pauls for a while and watched Die Hard 4 on tv as we tried to take cat naps before we had to leave. We then went to one of our favorite restaurants in Jeongja called Iron Chef. There we always get this crazy Japanese pancake dish thingy. We got it again but this time the octopus came included in it. We did not mind. Sometimes the language barrier is tough to get around but ya gotta take the punches that are thrown in those cases.

We left Jeongja in a cab since we naturally left uber late to get there on time. We got to the show about a half hour before Royksopp went on. Royksopp proved to be as amazing as we had imagined. One of the two main members came out in this outfit that looked like Mysterio from Spider-man but with tubes running up the side of his goldfish bowl. They played an amazing set that was full of flashing lights and fog machines. The girl who sings for them in some songs was there, although we were skeptical if it was the real lady, and she was singing and dancing and was in this awesome owl like costume at one point. They had their bassist with them as well and he was wearing this gigantic overcoat that I could not tell the pattern of but it was cool. During the song "The Girl and The Robot" one of the two main DJs wore a costume that looked a bit like a robot. All in all Royksopp was nothing short of amazing. You can see pictures and videos on my facebook. We were dancing like maniacs during all of this so we were sort of pooped when Royksopp was finished. We then grabbed some beer and Korean hotdogs and relaxed while Underworld came on. After the gorging we got back into the crowd to dance for a few songs of Underworld. Paul thoroughly enjoyed Underworld because they are a group he has listened to for many years. I hadn't heard of Underworld until we were going to this, but they are pretty good so I was pleased. We then went towards the smaller of the two stages to go see MSTRKRFT who were simply amazing. They didn't put on some spectacular aesthetic show but there music was way better live. Paul and I danced and danced and danced and then we left for home. We got ripped off by a cab driver on the way back but its no big deal anymore, it was just rude that we were severely overcharged. We more or less dropped dead in Paul's place...and night turned back into day.

Last Sunday Paul and I hung around his place trying to recover a little bit from the previous night of shanty shenanigans. We tried this "American" diner near his place too that wasn't too bad but they think serving moldy bread is acceptable. Then we sat at his place and drew for a while. That was the end of last weekend.

Now this weekend was a different story. We naturally started out at Exit on Friday night. I brought our new desk assistant to Exit because she wanted to see what it was like, and she to a liking to it. There was a lot of dancing and drinking as usual. Paul made a new ladyfriend there who he is hopefully out with as I type this. I hung around there until 4am only to witness senseless punching and awkward moments. Sigh...

Saturday was an explosion of crazy though only because I went to Paul's and I drew for a while as he messed around with music. A pretty common thing for the two of us to do. We then met up with Alivia and Andy to go to a bar and see an Indie band play one song because we got there at the end of their gig. We then hung around a bar in Jeongja while we waited for Leanne to join us. After she got there we made way for Hongdae. By this time I had already had a few beers in me and was feeling fairly normal. We entered Ho Bar 3 and decided to get a "Set" of liquor, which had a bottle of Absolut, a jar of orange juice, a jar of cranberry juice, lots of fruit, some ice, shot glasses, regular glasses, and some little bar snacks. I ended up drinking the most out of the five of us. At the time I did not feel anything but as the night wore on the vodka made its way through my system. Long story short; I was drunk, like really drunk. I have not been drunk like that for ages and ages. Nonetheless, it was fun for a while then I started to feel really gross. I passed out on a couch in another bar and Paul took care of me from there until I was well enough for us to snag a taxi and head home. I don't remember much of my drunken adventure but Paul tells me it was like me being sober but with more energy and I babbled a lot of complete gibberish. I do not really think I will be having a night like that again anytime soon. I am still kinda feeling sick from it now.

Today Paul and I got up, got some eats, and made our way back to Suji to play some basketball. I was completely unsuccessful at getting the ball into the hoop and that isn't too different from my normal bball skills. Post hoops we chilled at my place and I showed Paul The 6th Day. He agreed with me that the movie is crappy and pointless but it is truly hilarious because of the Arnold quotes in it. Then Paul left to go get ready for the final adventure he will have this weekend, and I was left here to my empty apartment to ponder life and see if I could get any of the stuff I want to get done done. Now I sit here typing this and listening to the musical stylings of Radiohead and wonder about this korean adventure of mine. Also in my reflections I continue to miss home and friends. Please if you are reading this leave me some comments. I really want to know all of your thoughts on my blog of craziness. Other than that not too much is new or going on. The next blog will be all about Chuseok which is Korea's Thanksgiving. I hope everyone out there is doing well.

Blog shout out: This goes to Mel for her birthday since it was Friday. I hope it was a rockin bday!!

If blogs could talk, what would they say?

By request I am making a blog about my day to day schedule with work at my Hogwan (Private school) J Language. I have been reminded at the fact that most if not all of you are interested in how I spend my days here besides what ventures the weekend may bestow upon me.

Monday/Wednesday/Friday are all the same schedule. I start out with a class of 4 seven/eight year olds. They are all boys and they are really silly and energetic as I am sure I was at the same age. I teach them very basic stuff from a book called English Land that was made by none other than the Disney corporation. Even here in Korea I cannot get away from Disney invading my life. I proceed to teach this book two more times throughout the day to two more classes. I also teach another English Land book to two different classes of students who are only a couple years older than the first group. Each of these classes are only 40 minutes long so it is not hard. I only start work at 2:10 and end at 10. These are just the grade school classes. Each day I teach about two pages out of the book per lesson. It sounds a lot harder than it actually is only because two pages does not present a lot of content to work with. Once you get the hang of it it can actually be quite easy and sometimes fun. After the five English Land classes I move on to a class full of ten year olds and we use a really ridiculous book called Superkids. This book is not that great and offers less content than the English Land books. As long as you look at what you are supposed to be teaching for the day before you teach it you can usually improvise a great lesson. Seeing as I love improvisation this is truly up my alley. After the Superkids class I get a forty minute break to regain my posture and to plan for the next classes. After the break I proceed to a class full of eleven/twelve year olds and this class is structured to be mostly a speaking class but has proven to have a fair bit of writing in it as well. The book I teach out of for this class is called Boost! and out of the three books mentioned thus far it has the highest content making for super easy lessons. Also the two higher level English Land classes and the Superkids class get vocabulary tests each day. These vocab tests I only have to proctor. All the kids have to do is fill in as much vocab as they know from Korean to English in these premade booklets provided by the school. After about five minutes of the vocab tests I collect them and bring them back to the secretary. This makes those lessons even shorter and makes my day pretty easy. The hardest part of any of these days is just dealing with the kids. Getting them to pay attention, not speak Korean, do their homework, and just be good students is a task sometimes. After these elementary level classes I then have two junior high classes where I teach them out of a book that is just a listening book. I make them vocab sheets to study and then I put on the CD that they listen to as they answer multiple choice questions. Then when they have completed one section we go over the answers and I explain the English behind it. Those are my Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays.

Tuesdays/Thursdays are different. I have to be at school by 1:30 to do a private lesson for a guy that works with J Language. Then we usually have a teachers meeting from 2:30 until 3:30. Classes start at 4 pm and I teach three classes right away from different levels of the same series of books called Listening Juice. I start with a bunch of ten/eleven year olds who do not like to pay that much attention but its no big deal. These classes I usually teach three to four pages and the classes are each an hour long. After the ten/11 year olds I move on to the higher level with eleven/twelve year olds. They are the class that pays the most attention but needs the most work. After them I teach my favorite group of students with the cutest little girl in the class. They are great and granted we all goof off a little in the class the lesson always get finished and they absorb what they need to learn. Not only are they my favorite bunch but I think they are the smartest. After all the Listening Juice classes I teach two junior high classes but with an hour break between. These are just two more listening classes where we listen to a CD, answer questions, and I go over the answers. I make them vocab sheets as well to look up on their own.

That is pretty much my day to day schedule here at the ranch but it can change once every few months. There were the summer courses that were a month long and soon there will be the winter program that is five weeks. We also change books when we finish books. This means that every time a new book or class starts we have to make lesson plans and homework plans. This can take a lot of effort because we have to individually go through each book and then figure out how to separate everything to the allotted amount of lessons for that class. Also the homework can be very hard when their book does not have a work book associated with it. Then we have to come up with writing homework. All of this may sound harder than it is, so no worries. One thing is for sure it really has helped me with time management and so on. If you want to know any more details about my day to day school schedule then ask me. Please leave me some comments. I really do love them like a fat man loves cake.

Cause Blog in my mouth is better than Blog on the ground!!

My most sincere apologies to my avid readers out there for I have done a pretty horrible job on keeping you updated on my actual going-ons instead of just my mentality fluctuations here.

Alas lots has been afoot here in the South of Korea...at least in my realm. Where to start?
Hmm...
Well we had to say goodbye to Heidi and that was pretty sad, but she was nice enough to donate a few things to the Help Joel Survive Korea with Great Ease fund. For example I got some batteries, a toothbrush holder that has an anime panda head, a lamp, and a rice cooker!! I was super excited to receive such treats but I was saddened by the cost of not getting to know my new friend a little better before she left at the end of her year. Oh well...I am sure we will meet again someday.

The weekend that Heidi left we had gone to the 63 Building, which is the tallest building in SK. It has color changing glass elevators. Yes, I did feel a bit like Charlie Bucket in them. It also has an aquarium in the basement of it and a wax museum where every famous figure looks like a korean version of themselves and this includes such notorious folks as Obama, Che, this Jesus guy, and Gigantor. Me thinks Paul and I may venture back there once more to gawk at the funny wax folk, and of course take pictures to document it for those of you who are more visual out there. Also on the top floor of the 63 Building, yes it was the 63rd floor, there was an art gallery that house works from such artists as the renowned Warhol, and there was also a vista of the city that would take one's breath away. Unless you live in what is deemed as an overpopulated city, you may not understand what I am talking about, but to look out upon this asian metropolis and see city in every direction as far as my eyes could see was pretty astonishing. Not only was there city everywhere, but within the boundless concrete jungle there was a sea of perpetual life. This means that you could not look anywhere without seeing some kind of action going on, whether it was cars, trains, or boats or whether it was lights or fireworks, it was an incredible sight that there was life everywhere. There was also a room with a glass floor so you could look down 63 floors, but the floor was only translucent so it was tough to get a feel for one of my biggest fears. They even had a hallway that looked like a cross between something in Alice in Wonderland and Yellow Submarine because it was huge and rectangular and changed colors. In case you haven't picked up on it; there are a lot of color changing things here in Korea. After this enchanting edifice we went to Gangnam for some eats. We got there a little late only to find most restaurants closing. We finally found a chicken place so we were all excited since we were famished, but then we found out they were essentially out of chicken. WTF? We more or less ordered what we could of what they had, ate ourselves silly, and then headed home.

I may be wrong but I believe the next day Paul and I dove headfirst back into Seoul to go to Itaewon for yet another Paul and Joel experience. We went to an English bookstore that came highly recommended by another Chicago native. Paul and I found a few books that interested us. He and I tend to be bookworms so we were in literary heaven to find a bookstore full of a plethora of tomes in our native tongue. I got a really cool antique map and a book to help teach me korean. We then walked a couple doors down to the foreign food store where Paul and I wanted to buy everything in the store, but as usual came out with nothing. At least it was an educational experience seeing as a lady told me where I could find some freshly ground dill for my culinary experiments. Paul and I directed ourselves towards an Indian restaurant we had seen back deep in the heart of Itaewon, when we only ended up another couple doors down from where we started at a different Indian restaurant named Foreign Restaurant. My favorite foods there were the french fries and spring rolls, which I kept calling tacquitos just to be stupid, and evidently none of those are Indian. We did have a lot of the actual Indian cuisine there, but it sure was strange. We enjoyed ourselves but ended up missing the Indian restaurants back home. All in all it was a really good find because it cured us a little of our minor homesick ailment. We then wandered around a little, found a coffee shop, relaxed and let a little of the night slip by.

The next weekend (this now being last weekend) Paul and I went with Leanne, Andy, Alivia, and Ken into Itaewon to meet up with Andy and Paul's mutual friend Mike, who had just moved into Itaewon. We hung out there and got fairly plastered then proceeded to a bar in the heart of Itaewon called Cheers. Nobody there knew our names so don't ask. It was a unique little bar with the most awkward bathroom that one could ever eliminate his liquid waste in, and there were off color pool balls; pink being one of those off colors. Paul and I got merrily smashed and then called it a night and hopped into a cab back to his place to crash harder than James Dean. Oops too soon?
The next day, this being Saturday, we had plans to go to COEX. COEX is the major exhibition hall and mall that is here in Seoul. We were going to go there because I was constantly reminded by a website that robot world was to be there from Sept.2 to the 5th. We went and it was not there...it was in Busan, which is the Southeastern most city in SK. I have yet to write a deliciously evil email to the folks that gave me foul information. Hanging around COEX mall ensued for a while where we found a model store, an amazing music store, a video game arcade, another movie theater, and we saw people gathering at the Nike store to take pictures of a celebrity or so we thought. Seeing as Paul and I do not know the pop culture faces here in Korea there was really no telling who was there. After our robotic malfunction we proceeded back to Suji to hang with the crew. There we indulged in the gourmet food that is Subway and McDonalds. We were going to go to a DVD room and watch one of my movies on a big screen but our efforts were yet again thwarted by non-existence. The committee then came to a democratic decision to gather some goodies, head to Alivia's place, and make bread pudding while attempting to watch something. This happened, and it was good...and there was much rejoicing.

Sunday everyone went to a soccer match and tailgating but I stayed in to get a load of school work done so that I can free up my minimal weeknights in the hopes that with that new found free time I can be more creative and get back into my artwork. That almost completely brings you up to speed. Oh! Except for one thing...I finally got paid!! I am via technicalities fully functional here in Korea now. I have officially done work in another country! How cool is that?
Anyway that is it...I guess. Once more please excuse me if I forgot anyone or anything but memory gets a little fuzzy right around the euphoria of living life.

Blog Shout Out: Dunno if I will blog again before this weekend so this one is to the Grand Parkour Vault Thompson! P.V.T. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

It's just a blog...

I wonder if part of my inner issues in life have to do with the fact that I have been trying to solve life's infinite riddles since I first drew breath?

Human life has begun to remind me of a rock being cast into a stagnant pool of water. There is usually a sizable splash and then ripples that follow. Now this splash and the aftermath ripples depend upon the size of the rock and how hard it was thrown. I have begun to see the correlation between the impact a human life can have and the ripples from a stone's throw. If a human can impact a million lives will it continue to impact after that, i.e. ripples of influence? If a human impacts more lives is the splash bigger and are there more ripples? How far do the ripples go? How many ripples are there? How long do the ripples last? Is there a difference between a human life that affects millions of lives slightly or a human life that deeply affects another single human life? How can we measure this? Does this matter? Should this matter?

Let's take Abraham Lincoln as an example. He did many great things in his life and changed the way people thought and the way lives were lead. Lincoln has to this day continued to influence and inspire Americans and even others greatly, but how much influence has he caused nowadays and for how much longer will his influence last? I have a feeling that, Abe, being a leader of the great magnitude that he was will continue to influence many for hundreds of years to come, but I do not think if humanity continues to survive past another few thousand that his legacy will thrive. Imagine that humans colonize other worlds; what will the words and teachings of Abraham Lincoln or any other influential figure matter then?

I think my perpetual questioning of this is actually coming to a stand still because I have come to a bit of a realization. It does not, and should not, matter how many peoples' lives you affect but instead how you affect them. If I end up changing one person's life for the better instead of many peoples' then I will feel satisfied that I have done my job here in this thing called life. However, if I end up not influencing a single soul to better themselves in any manner then I feel I should accept that failure and wander in to the dark bowels of ruin. In other words I don't think it is the mark you leave on many but the thought you leave in one. Who is more important: the revolutionary or the person that influenced that revolutionary into thinking that way and doing what he/she did? Who knows, maybe you or I could be the next person to influence the next true revolutionary that creates the necessary paradigm shift that this world needs to see so humans can continue on eternally.

Please excuse some of my dark or harsh thoughts here but it is a rare occasion that I am actually sitting in front of my computer when I am truly feeling a wee bit philosophical. To completely understand my thinking and where I am coming from you need to do a few things and those are see the movie Cashback (2006), read or see Into The Wild, and read Ender's Game. These things will hopefully help to open your mind a little into a different way of thinking, but before you do those, you, yourself, must be willing to open the floodgates of free thinking.

Once I blogged an early grave to find a better land.

"So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. . . We just have to have the courage to turn against our habitual lifestyle and engage in unconventional living." Alexander Supertramp

Personal growth has been a large part and motivator for me along this journey that I am currently on. I think I have started to reach the full potential of this adventure in the sense that it has already taught me so much that my personal growth that I had gone on this quest for has already begun happening. It is amazing to learn what life truly has to offer and how to harness those fruits that we have been given. Welcome to life; the next exit is birth also known as the point of no return.

I have started to miss home...a lot, and I am not gonna lie; it hurts. It isn't necessarily "home" that I miss though, it is more the atmosphere there and the idea of the security it offers me (as Paul so elegantly put it). I miss the comforts that were offered to me there. The friends I have there, the regularity, the safety are all the major things that burden me over here. Granted I have made lots of friends here and they are all great but they don't fully understand me, they have grown a bit tired of me already, and I don't feel the same with them as I do with my friends at home. I would never trade these friends here since they are so cool but I know that the year that I have with them here will be the only major time that I have with them. I must cherish it and appreciate it now for its full worth. I know that the friends at home will always be there and I don't need to worry, but that does not stop me from missing them and what they offer to my psyche.

This brings me to my next point. Those of you who have made some kind of effort to stay in touch and ask me how I am or just pop me a message to say hey all is well; I want to thank you. I am not writing/saying this to reprimand anyone who has not but what I am trying to say is that I have been feeling a little on the lonely side of things these days and especially out of the loop (no pun intended). Please do me a favor and just leave me comments here, hit me up on skype, send me an IM, write on my wall on facebook, or send me an actual email. I don't need any of these to be long or anything I just would love to feel as though I am not already being forgotten and phased out of your lives. I am damn sure I am totally overreacting and being silly but I just want to make sure everyone is still there for me. I sure could use a little nudge of support out here.

While I may miss home and my friends you will not get me to say I hate it here and I wish I could come home, yet at the same time you will not get me to say that life is 100% perfect here and that I don't want to return. I am here to spend a year doing a good deed, getting a life experience, see the world, earn some money to make myself secure, and to just have an adventure. I did also take this opportunity to prove to some of you that I am just as adventurous as I talk about. I am not that little shithead that sits around and waits for life anymore. Whoever said "good things come to those who wait" was really screwy. If you don't get off your tush and do something yourself then nothing will ever come your way that you want. In other words stop reading this blog right now and go do something that you wouldn't normally do. I am not saying to do something bad, and I am not not saying that either, but just go think outside your comfort zone and do something a little crazy. Who knows? You might find yourself some place new and liking it a lot. With all this being said, and probably not well, I bid you adieu.

Uh-oh Bloggi-O's

Alas it is time for a bit of an epic blog. Be prepared those who are not for long-windedness I recommend not continuing reading unless you truly care. I will try my best to split this into sections so to make the reading stream a little faster and easier but no promises shall be made.

Last week was a fun adventure with the complaints and the solving of issues nonsensical. It was also the last week of the summer classes so we have now officially begun the normal schedule again. I am back to working around 1 to 10 M-F which is no big deal. I am an early bird so that makes life easy for me.
This past Thursday evening we held another potluck in the pagoda and it was as successful as the last if not more so. There were more people, including Paul and his new coworker Sara, and more food than we knew what to do with. Ken naturally made a soju cocktail for all to enjoy. Pretty much everyone brought something great. A good time was had by all and there was much rejoicing.

The next night was another hanging out session at Exit and that was all fine and dandy again.

Saturday was the day or rather night to remember. I proceeded with the suji posse to a chain Italian restaurant here called "Mad for Garlic" I wasn't sure what was funniest about this place; but it might have been the silly name or the fact that the logo for this Italian restaurant was written in an Old English font that made it look as though it were an inn from Medieval times. Nonetheless we ate lots and lots. I tried a mussel for the first time and it was okay but they aren't things that I am going to go out of my way to eat. Paul met up with us as we finished dinner and we headed towards the docks on the banks of the Han river for an evening river cruise. This cruise set me a little at ease, since I have been experiencing minor homesickness, because it was a cruise through a big city at night on a river, thus, it reminded me of home. Being on boats always sets me at ease as is due to my love for water, I think. After stretching our sea legs we headed to Gangnam to tie one on in a fancy and fun bar called MTL Modern Bar. It was quite the elegant place. Sean, Andy, Paul and I tricked the girls into going to see the washroom because we told them that it was the most amazing place in the bar, when in fact it was a sub par lavatory. After we had a few drinks we met up with Bill and the girls decided to call it a night. It was only around 1am I think so that was fine be us guys were aching for more. We headed to another bar in Gangnam, kicked back a few more brews, and told old war stories to one another. Oh I almost forgot! On the way to this second bar in Gangnam I proceeded to play this funny vending machine game where you direct a rod to a box to push a prize out and I won!! What did I win you ask? Well what else but Sexy Panties!! I gave them to Bill for shits and giggles, that and he asked for them anyways. What the hell was I going to do with sexy panties? Come to think of it...what is he gonna do with them?
After we knocked some frosty glasses we were all feeling a little toastie and headed into Itaewon for some reason that no one knows. We went with Bill into Seoul Pub where we met his friend, and his name escapes me, that was wearing a WWCND shirt (What Would Chuck Norris Do?). By this time it was nearing 5 am and Paul and I were pretty sloshed. I had already stopped drinking so some kind of headache was forming and we were both wiped from the adventures we had been having thus far. In other words Paul and I grabbed a cab and headed for the sunset. In turn it ended up being the sunrise...guess we went the wrong direction, but now Paul and I have seen a sunrise in Seoul, drunkenly from a cab, I might add. We got out at Paul's place and I made sure he could hobble home while I tried to find another cab that would take me back to my apt. One of the convenient store bum cab drivers spotted me and insisted on me taking his cab. This was not a good choice for he only took me to downtown Suji and basically forced me to get out there. I live about ten/fifteen minutes walking distance out of downtown Suji and this was now 6am and I was still drunk. Any of the other cabs I have been in have plugged my address into their GPS and taken me to just about my front door, but this cabby was being an ass. It seemed as though he just wanted to head back to the convenience store and resume his lethargic lifestyle with his fellow lazy cronies. I have a feeling, and this may be an over reaction, but it might have been some discrimination in the sense that he just wanted to make a quick couple bucks and drop me wherever he could that was closest to where I asked. To make a long story short I wandered home drunk at 6am through Suji as the sun rose, no biggie.

Sunday proved to be mildly entertaining as well. I got up and cleaned basically most of the day, which was productive and good. Later on I was going to meet up with some of the suji crew but that didn't happen because the movie we wanted to see was not being shown any longer at the theater nearest us. Paul and I decided "Who cares?" and hung around Shinsegae mall right at the subway station near my place. We ended up finding a grocery store in the basement of it and buying a lot of goodies. We even found real cheese and Gorilla Munch cereal. This grocery store was small but it was reminiscent of a Whole Foods, just Korean. It even had the green and gold look going for it. After that we ate some food and went our separate ways.

That brings me to today which was just another day in the mines. Now I sit here blogging to you. In the next few days I hope to get another blog in to you about my homesickness and my general thoughts on life. Keep your eyes peeled.

Blog Shout Out: Heidi for having to leave us and continue on her own life adventure. In the short time of getting to know her she has become in my eyes a good friend and I look forward to meeting her again someday in the future.

Bloggin round in the river Styx

I believe I last left off in the midst of my break.
After getting back from my venture to heaven a.k.a. Yongsan I wandered into Suji. Upon my walk to downtown Suji I stumbled across some other westerners. One is from the motherland and the other is from the land of Scots. I found them trying to ford the river when their oxen died. No, seriously they were in this underground walkway that crosses the street and it was flooded with some water. After we crossed the Delaware we got to introductions and they proceeded to find me on ye olde FB and invite me to a pot luck dinner in a day or two so I could meet the rest of the Suji-gu crew. It was really cool to meet Leanne and Andy because they have quickly worked their ways into being really good friends. I don't really remember the next day or two as it was spent more than likely loafing around my apartment, watching DVDs, talking on skype, and doing purely humongous amounts of nothing. Long story short a day or two passed and I went to the pot luck. This pot luck was amazing because there was good food and good people. I met lovely folks like Ken, Sarah, Heidi, James, Abi, Bill, Becca, Alivia, and me thinks another one or two. There were also two Korean girls that invaded our party, made fun of us in Korean, threatened us for no reason, farted obnoxiously, and attracted and fed Korean raccoons. A great time was had by all and there was much rejoicing. The next night I went with this crew to Exit, the local yokel bar here in Suji, and another great time was had by all. I did not go to Exit without first having some crazy fun beforehand. I went with Jessica, Calvin, James, and Abi to Gangnam to an all you can eat steak place. We ate a lot of steak. Don't take me to all you can eat places... its dangerous not mention disgusting. Then we hopped a bus back to Suji and we stood the whole way in the aisle of the bus which ended up being entertaining because there was a drunken Korean business man next to me in the aisle and we can to a stop at one point and he tumbled head first in to my glutes. I know my ass is attractive but seriously you don't have to fall over in a bus to make a pass at me while making an idiot out of yourself.
Anyway we went to exit and got drunk or at least tried to. I was not drunk in the least but that was due to the numerous steaks I ate. Another long story short and the next day came when I met up with Alivia, Leanne and Andy to go around to wherever we were going. We ended up in Myongdong and I went to a Korea Forever 21 since we were with ladies. I also found a place to buy shoes so I did. I got these rockin old school vans and it made me happy. We also stopped over in Yongsan and then back to Myongdong for ice cream. Since we were all still a little hazy from the previous night we called it an early night.
The next day we gathered to go to the Seoul Zoo. It took us a good long while to go there but in the end it was worth it. We saw some killer animals among other things. There were kangaroos having sex, mischievous turtles, and suspicious statues. Please view my pictures of this leg of the adventure here. This was the last day of my break before returning to school but alas it was not over. We cabbed it back to Jeongja to meet up with Paul and get some eats with him and so he could meet some of my new friends as well. They all took to each other like...well you know.
An evil week of school went by and keep in mind this was only my third week teaching. Then last Friday mr. Paul came to Suji and we went and met up with the crew at Exit and got a lot of drinking in. Paul and I got uber smashed and danced the night away. I danced harder and better than I ever have in my life and the only one who can testify to that is Paul. If you think you have seen me drunk or dancing well you were wrong. This is a once in a lifetime event and I told Paul really no one has ever seen that dancing from me and virtually no one will ever see it again. I told Paul it was part of his birthday present. We were wasted and then we finally left Exit at like 4:30 and went to Andy's to play video games while wasted. That was fun except for the fact that I was too far gone to move enough to play games.
Paul crashed on my couch and then got up the next day to help a new teacher move in next to his place. I stayed and slept most of the day. We met up at Paul's later on and then eventually headed into Itaewon for some gallivanting. We met up with one of Paul fellow teachers and one of his former coworkers from Chicago and we went around Itaewon. We went up one street and I got whispers in my ears from tranny Korean hookers. BLEGH!! Then we ended up chillin in this bar that looked like it belonged in Lakeview except for the fact that it was playing 90's music videos on the screens. We then left there and proceeded to Hongdae to meet up with Leanne, Andy, and Ken. Hongdae is a more artsy area and has bars and clubs that are open until 8 am.
We spent our time at Oi bar and that was hella cool. This bar had you remove your shoes right away because it was themed as though it were under the sea. There were cemented sandbars everywhere with water flowing between them. Then there were structures similar to that of a sand castle that you would gather your crew and sit in. There was also a dance floor/puddle/pool with a few inches of water and complete with inflatable sea critters. We sat around a driftwood log table and smoked a hookah while listening to swizz beats coming from behind a giant plastic curtain that sort of resembled a jellyfish. I was in serious heaven since the sea beckons me everyday. There was also a really gorgeous Korean girl who was a waitress/hostess and I learned how to say goddess in Korean just so I could go tell her...and I did. After along time of hanging around there we were pretty spent and departed from the awesomeness that was this nautical fantasmagoriffic paradise. I crashed at Paulie's and then we got up and got haircuts. Yes, Paul and I got matching haircuts. We are so gonna grow up to be the brothers from Night at the Roxbury. Baby don't hurt me!! I then introduced Paul to Yongsan and he instantly required a change of clothing. I also introduced him to Shabu Shabu which is a style of Japanese food goodies. We wasted time in Yongsan just DJing and foolin around with loads of different electronics and then we went back to Jeongja, grabbed some eats, and went our separate ways. I slept and then worked another day at school and now here I am bloggin to you. I do not think I left anything out but if I did it will appear in one of the next blogs. Hello to all my friends out there in the vast reaches of the world. I would love to hear from you. I miss you all. Comment please!!

Blog shout outs: Elizabeth for her birthday! Paul for his birthday! Karen for her birthday! I hope that you all had awesome birthdays!!

If we had met earlier in my blogtime, do you think we might have been friends?

This is a self discovery blog more or less, so those with weak stomachs should leave now.
Also this is just me writing my thoughts and not an update blog. I just needed to type stuff out to clear up some of my thoughts.

Korea. I have been here nigh a month now and it has already taught me a handful. As we have read from my blogs thus far I have had many an adventure, which is in itself one of the things that I had set out to do.

I have learned better how to deal with living on my own and I am that much better at it because I am successfully managing to do it in a foreign country. From teaching I have been able to see what my teachers had been going through when I was a student. It really has been an enlightening experience but these things I have already mentioned are not what this blog is about.

The things I have learned the most from have been from my friends both old and new. I have been going through some withdrawal from my friends at home and while it is painful it was a necessary evil that I knew of ahead of time. I miss everyone there immensely and it makes me appreciate each one of you to the fullest that I can. Every one of my friends, you, has been there for me at one time or another and has helped me through some rotten experience in my life. Granted I do over dramatize things in my life...a lot, but it is not as though the support was never needed nor appreciated.
I have made lots of new friends here in Suji and they are all fantastic and I believe will prove to be quite a great bunch to be surrounded by. I have already helped to fix two computers, been to a pot luck dinner with them all, drank at a bar with them, got all you can eat steak, got yelled at on the bus, went shopping, and went to the zoo with them. Paul even came and hung out with all of us at one point. These new friends have taught me a fair amount as well but the most that I learned came from one friend in particular.
I was put into a bit of a realization mode when I found out that my friendship was teetering on the edge of peril and I am not one who can deal well with that. Family and friends are the most important things to me in life, always have been and should always be. This realization caused me to change a few things and get a few things in order about myself. I had wanted to grow up a little and alter the way I do things and this is helping to do just that. We shall see how it all turns out when I finally go home and all my friends and family there can judge for themselves.

I am working to better myself while here and hopefully the beginning of that self polishing will be from this friendship growth experience. This blog is entirely dedicated to that person that is helping me to realize who I am, who I should be and how I should get there.

Blog shout out: To the friend who has brought me to these new found conclusions of enlightenment, you know who you are.

Please no comments necessary for this blog. There is a new update blog coming soon so keep your hosiery on while I get it out of the cooker.

The blog that almost got away,

Alright everyone here is the one we have been waiting for. This is the one that documents my ventures through my last fantastical week in the Chi.
Monday the 6th of July.
This was just a day where I finished some packing and sorting and stuff. What was special was what came that night. I went over to Lauren's to hang out with her, Kelsey, and Lauren's boyfriend, Ryan. We went over to the bar called Streetside for some eats and drinks and had a merry olde time. Whilst there I noticed a chap that looked familiar. I was indeed correct for it was my friend and former coworker Ruben. We chatted for a few moments and went our seperate ways. This evening had been quite the nice and relaxing one to just chill with a few friends. Special thanks to Lauren, Kelsey, and Ryan.
Tuesday July 7th.
I woke up and headed downtown to get my watch repaired, get my bank numbers, and do a lot of other stuff. After the first two I met up with my sister at her work downtown just to say hello. I then proceeded to Marshall Fields to meet my Aunt for lunch. We decided to go to the Walnut room and have a fancy and relaxing lunch where we had a waiter who talked to himself and a hermaphroditic busser. After being treated to lunch I left my Aunt and headed to meet the lovely Ms. Byrnes at the Field Museum for an adventure with real Pirates! We went through the exhibit which proved to be quite entertaining and less fact filled than I expected. The whole thing was worth it though. I highly recommend going if you have not. It is there until late October. We got to the end of it and found a gift shop where I, the Captain, bartered for a new tricorn hat. I proceeded to wear the hat the rest of the day around the city and was asked numerous times if I worked for the museum. Hah! I wish. Kristin and I then went up towards the fountain and then in to the south loop. She needed to buy some new shoes and we still had some time before we were to head to Bar Louie. We went to foot locker and criticized shoes and then stopped at Barnes and Noble for a couple things. Kristin wanted to look for a book for a friend and for the Stephen Colbert totebag that we had spotted a girl with at the pirates exhibit. While we were there I picked up an early birthday gift for the lass and she was quite pleased. We then went to her place to drop stuff off and then to burger night. Burger night was a lot of fun as it pretty much always was. Thank you to all of you who constantly tried to make it. You presence there was always appreciated and enjoyed. We had a great last burger night with most of the regular folks and some new faces. We even had a few drinks after the burgers just for kicks. That night I had also proven my abilities as a charming young man by recieving a number ;)
Wednesday July 8th.
This day was quite superb as well. I used most of it for more packing and getting ready until my father and I went to the last sox game that we could get to before I flew the coop. We had an easy trip on the train to the game and then we got there, got some great junk food, and relaxed to an excellent game. The game was made even better because just an inning or two in there arose a rainbow over the park perfectly from one foulpost to the other. This was truly a magical moment for all to behold. Being in the upperdeck behind homeplate we had a prime view of this optic spectacle. I took a couple pics of this which you can find on my facebook. At the end of this blog I have provided a link to the facebook photo album of this last week. On top of the rainbow we had some great food, good laughs, and the Sox won the game. Wednesday proved to be a good one in my book. Thanks again Dad.
Thursday July 9th.
I do not remember much of this day but I think I ended up running errands with my sister, and that was good because we wanted to make sure to spend a fair amount of time together before leaving.
Friday July 10th
This day was not particularly amazing either. There was more errand running with my sister. I remember going to Jewel to get groceries and Mandi and I saw an amazingly gorgeous goth girl. I really could not tear my eyes away she truly was that beautiful and she wasn't of illogical and highly unattainable proportions either. I mentioned this to my sister and she agreed that the girl was gorgeous and if I thought so much so that I should go tell her...I did just that. Had I been here for longer I would have tried to get her number but instead I just told her what I thought and left her to shop. Mandi said it was nice of me to give the girl a confidence boost. Nonetheless we shopped and then we chilled out for a while. We waited for Mario to get back and then we headed to Sarah and Jesse's to hang out with them one last time since they thought they would not make it to the party. That was pretty cool because we played Apples to Apples and then watched some crazy videos.
Saturday July 11th
This was the day of my party. I helped Mandi and Mario clean their now old place, and then went shopping for goodies for the party. I then brought things over to Mandi's, went home and showered, and then came back and made cookies for the party. A lot of people showed up to my Mad Hatter Tea Party and I was excited about that. There were a few people that I was insulted by for them not showing up when they either told me they would or had not responded at all but no biggie. We had special guests at my party as well. It is known that in the story of Alice in Wonderland that a cat, or rather the cheshire cat, appears out of nowhere numerous times. Well next door we had five kittens that had appeared out of nowhere. They we all quite lovely little kittens at most three months old. We loved them sooooo much that Mel and Ben adopted one and have named is Cheshire Rye but I am sure they are only calling it Rye. Speaking of Mel and Ben they gave me the coolest damned thing ever at my party. They gave me a replica pistol that has three barrels and the handle is shaped like an eagle. It is such a pretty gun and it is made to not work so no worries people I will not hurt myself or anyone else. Thank you again Mel and Ben for that gift. One of my newer friends, Jill, was at the party and she had said she may leave early due to an opportunity to see a DJ spin at Crobar. I asked who, since I have recently gotten into the electronica DJ scene. She told me it was Steve Aoki and I instantly required a change of clothing. Steve Aoki is one of my favorites and I wanted to see him really bad. He wasn't going on until midnight so Jill called her boyfriend Li and he got me and a few others onto the V.I.P. list at Crobar to see Steve Aoki. I cannot thank them enough for that because it was a truly amazing show. Documented in my pictures again. All in all this party then DJ show was another amazing night in my last week. Thank you to all who came to my party and helped show your support of my departure.
Sunday July 12th.
I got up, put on all my pirate gear and picked up Mel and Ben to go to the ren. fair. We drove up to Bristol for a fun and relaxing day at the greatest ren. fair. I have gone to this ren. fair for years and none of the others that I have been to hold a candle to it. I do truly love it. Mel, Ben, and I had a lot of fun there seeing the sights, meeting fun people, seeing firewhip performances, and eating great fair food. I even went there with my new pirate pistol. After the fair I went home and ate one last meal with my family. My parents were leaving for Alaska about half a day before I was leaving for Korea so that is why it was our last meal together.
Monday July 13th.
I got up earlier than dawn and drove my parents to the airport for their flight. There were some tears shed and some great heartfelt goodbyes and then I left my parents for a year. I went home and finished all my packing, cleaning, and last minute taking care of things. I figured out that I could not take my bass with me because it would have been way too heavy. Oh well. Sacrifices needed to be made for this trip to be possible. I had lots of friends calling me throughout the day and even a few stopped over. Thank you to Lauren and Molly for stopping by to say bye. I then had time to hang out with my sister until it was time to head to the airport. We had a last meal and then we were about to head out when Ryan and Chris appeared on my doorstep to wish me well on my adventure. I then headed to the airport and the rest is in one of the earlier blogs.

Pictures from my last week.

Special Blog Shout outs: My father for taking me to the baseball game. My mother for being brave and caring. My sister and Mario for letting me have the party there and for all their help. All the people who came to the party and even the ones who did not but I saw them during that week. My Aunt for that awesome lunch. Ms. Byrnes for the amazing last Tuesday that we had. Mel and Ben for the gun and the fun. Jill and Li for taking me into Crobar V.I.P. to see Steve Aoki. In other words everyone mentioned in this blog gets a special shout out from me. You are all in my thoughts constantly. I cannot thank a single one of you enough for making my last week at home the greatest week at home that I have ever had.