The End(?)

I'm back in the U.S! Maybe I should explain.

One of the things I've tried to do in this blog is remain positive. Which is honestly pretty easy, as there's a lot of stuff to be positive about in Korea (the food, the good times, etc).

BUT.

A big part of living in Korea is, well, working in Korea. And honestly? I'm just not cut out to be a Kindergarten ESL teacher- it's just that this was the position I fell into. So when the opportunity to teach older students at the school in Incheon came up, I was quite excited.

Unfortunately, the school in Incheon wasn't very good. In Ilsan, I just had a bad fit at a good school- Ilsan wasn't the case. The building was cold and drafty, the curriculum was unorganized, and the teacher morale was really low. Furthermore, in the last couple of months, they'd gone through like four or five ESL teachers- a ridiculously high turnover rate. Heck, while I was there, one foreign teacher got fired and another quit.

Things were going bad, and I could see the writing on the wall they were going to get worse. Long shifts with no lunchbreaks, more classes, unpaid overtime. Now, I COULD have just toughed it out for a little while longer until my visa expired...but, after thinking about it, I didn't want to, especially with Christmas coming up.

And so, I caught a plane on Sunday, and now I'm back in St. Louis! Crazy stuff, I know. It's going to take some time to get used to life in the States again, but I'll manage. Ultimately, my Korean adventure is over. Would I go back? Maybe- but only if I could find a really good school (something that's becoming harder and harder to do these days).

Still, keep an eye on this blog! I'll be posting one or two retrospectives as I get ambitious, and I'll probably use this blog to post about other adventures down the line- I'm eyeballing Australia for another jaunt next, but we'll just have to see how things go back here, first!

I think I've fallen into a bit of a pattern. Namely, spend one weekend in Icheon, and then head into Seoul for the next. It's alright, I suppose- if anything, it's cheaper than heading into Seoul EVERY weekend, or something. However, my Cousin's leaving Korea soon, so I won't have her couch to crash on, so my Seoul adventures may be slightly curtailed. That, and it's getting colder, so roaming around the streets has less of an appeal.

Anyway! The Icheon part! On the 20th or so, I hit up Icheon's 'cerapia-' basically, it's a city park/museum/mall thing, devoted to ceramics. It's sort of the town's gimmick, I guess. I went around a little bit, took some pictures. There were some big ceramic sculptures, a thing made to look like a giant kiln, and a little shopping store where one could buy said ceramic stuff- most of which was fairly pricey, as one would expect. I'm sure if I was more interested in ceramics, I'd be fascinated.

There was also a big ceramics museum thing, where, from what I gathered, they actually had people making ceramics or something- but, they were charging admission...and again, I'm not that interested in pottery. Instead, I wandered down the hill to the Icheon city museum. Nothing like the City Museum in St. Louis, of course.

The Icheon museum was small, but kind of interesting. There's some fortress ruins dating back to the three kingdoms period up in the mountains...and other than that, well, it seemed Icheon wasn't a particularly important locale since then. It's developing quickly, though, with a bunch of agriculture and other industry popping up.

Including an OB brewery. I don't think they give tours.

Aaaaanyway, let's move on to the more interesting stuff!

Namely, I spent last Saturday night bouncing from place to place in Hongdae. Again. It was actually a little warmer than I'd expected. I caught the tail end of a flea market, where I picked up a pretty neat handcrafted, leatherbound notebook. I'm almost a little afraid to write in it, as it's fairly nice. Maybe if I go charging off on some quest for the holy grail or something, I'll be able to make use of it. Heh.

Dunkel! That's thick enough it counts as dinner, right?

Also, while wandering about in search of food, I happened on the Queen's Head brewpub. Neat! This was the last of Seoul's microbreweries I hadn't dropped into (yet, at least). All I had time to try was the Dunkel, but it was the perfect beer to have on a cool night like that.

Other Hongdae highlights include seeing some Korean musicians jamming out in the park, with each taking their turn at the spotlight. For example, one woman in the group was a really good tap-dancer, and the drummer was pretty good at freestyle beatboxing. I snapped a few pictures, but it was one of those 'you had to be there' moments.

There's also the Silent Disco, which I didn't go to (I'm not a big fan of dance music to begin with), but I can't help but find it to be a cool concept. Basically, you get a pair of headphones and a balloon, and the music is broadcasted through short-band radio. If you have headphones, you know what's going on- if not, you just see...this.

Kind of a neat concept, really! Finally, I spent most of my evening in Club Spot, which is the best place to see live indie music in Korea. They had a whole mess of bands from all over Korea (and a few from Japan) for what they called an Oi! Festival, despite only having one Oi band on the bill. Even still, that was fine with me, as that left room for everything from 70's style punk (The Swindlers) to Flogging Molly-esque Celtic Rock (Nacho Pupa) to Ska (Rollings & Skasucks) and probably a bunch of other genres that I'm forgetting. It was loud and rowdy and otherwise a good time. I'll spare you my crappy, quicky-snapped pictures I took that night, except for one.

Y'see, at Club Spot, it's okay to jump up on the stage while a band's playing, so long as you fill at least one of two criteria: 1) Know the words to the song, 2) Dance really, really hard. (There might be a third option of 'being a cute girl' as well). So, during Skasucks' last song, I made it a point to do number two- whereupon I managed to snap this picture. Good times!

Icheon is quiet. Music is not.

Again, I'm overdue for an update. Oops.

Icheon! The whole place doesn't look like this, honestly, but I liked the picture.

In any case, I've been keeping busy. I've gotten settled in (mostly) in my new apartment and at my new school. The kids are older, and therefore easier to manage- but at the same time, they're also a lot harder to get engaged. The kindergarteners I taught before were ridiculously enthusiastic, practically climbing over each other to answer questions. Here, I get elementary/middle schoolers who are decidedly 'whatever' about everything.

What hit me hardest was a lesson I did for some 12 year olds. They're a high level class, and pretty good kids, really. The music lesson was about music genres- rock, classical, country, reggae, etc. So naturally, I burned a CD full of examples for them to listen to. And almost universally, no matter what the song, they were like "What is this? I don't like." I'm not even talking about the obscure stuff on my itunes, either! I mean, who can hate on straight up reggae? Pretty much the only reply I could coax out of them was "I like K-pop. Only K-pop." Ah well. They're young. Perhaps they'll branch out once they get older.

Though that did lead to a pretty amusing interchange.

Me: "What's your favorite band?"

Student: "Bestuu."

Me: "Bestooh?"

Student: "No, Bestuu. B-E-A-S-T."

Me: "Beast?"

Student: "No, Bestuu!"

Ah well.

So school is different, but it's alright. Icheon itself is kind of a quiet town, though. On the first weekend in November, I didn't get up to too much- went bowling with some of the other expats, and hit up the expat bar (which is a fairly decent-ish joint, I guess). Went to E-mart on Sunday to get tortillas and imported beer- nothing warranting its own blog post. Took a few pictures, of course.

I'm pretty sure I saw this in a Resident Evil game once.

RX, the local Expat bar.

A traditional Korean gravesite.

While wandering around, however, I came to a realization. Namely, Icheon reminds me a lot of Jefferson City, MO. It's rural-ish, but still developed. Kind of hilly. And...boring. Now, there may be some awesome places to go in Jefferson City (or Icheon!) but I'm afraid I'm unaware of them.

This was thrown into stark relief LAST weekend, in which I went to Seoul! The bus ride's honestly not too long. It's a little over an hour, which is about how long it takes to take the subway from Ilsan to Itaewon. It's certainly less crowded, at least.

My reason for hitting up Seoul was to catch Club Spot's Second Saturday punk rock show- it was Whatever That Means' last show in Korea, so I figured I'd hit it up. They were one of the first bands I saw in Korea, so, y'know, bookending.

In any case, I rolled in, and soon a Korean band, The Attacking Forces, did an Oi-punk cover of "A Message to You Rudy." The evening only got better from there.

Skasucks' frontman, in his element. Not pictured: EVERYONE SKANKING.

Skasucks once again proved they didn't suck, and they really got the crowd (including myself) moving. The frontman really knows how to work a crowd, and it helps that a lot of their songs are really catchy and easy to sing (well, yell) along to.

In between sets, I would exit the club to get some fresh air and roam around Hongdae a bit to take it all in. Club Spot is right by the Park- which is a little playground that is nightly overrun and turned into a street party thing. It was particularly bustling that Saturday night- at one time, there was a breakdancing competition (there's ALWAYS breakdancing competitions in korea), a pole dancing performance, and some indie band playing, all in different corners of the park. Unfortunately, given that I'm pretty short, I wasn't able to get a very good look of any of the acts. Pity!

So yeah. Whatever That Means did a great set- their last in Korea for some time. But! If any of you readers happen to be on the west coast, they're doing a tour in the States, so you should check it out. Google is your friend, and all that. I also picked up a compilation CD of a bunch of Korean punk bands- it's really interesting, as each band on it does a cover of a more well-known song, and then one of their own. I've given it a few listens so far, and there's some really good stuff on here. If nothing else, it lifts my spirits that not EVERYTHING here is saturated in K-pop glitz. Just, uh, a lot of it.

...Whatever That Means.

In any case, I'm just hanging out for now, taking it easy. I'm sure I'll find some more stuff to post about soon! If nothing else, there's another concert I wanna see at Club Spot in two weeks or so. Bunch of Japanese bands will be playing, as well as Nacho Pupa, who I really wanna see again. Should be a good time!

Impressions of Icheon

So! I've been in Icheon for a whopping 48 hours now. The move went rather smoothly- the new school sent a driver to get me, we loaded my stuff up, and off I went. Was about a 90 minute drive from Ilsan, which wasn't too bad.

Even though I've only been here a short time, I already know Icheon's going to be very different from Ilsan. It's a smaller, older city- it's not quite 'middle of nowhere,' but it's nowhere near as big and flashy as Ilsan. I think I'm living in one of the quieter neighborhoods too. There also seems to be far more mom & pop style stores, instead of the big chains one tends to see in Seoul- or if they're chains here, they're far different ones. Furthermore, the recruiter (an American, for the record) told me he thought there was about 60-something expats here, as compared to the at least a few hundred living in Ilsan. Suppose going to LePub every week spoiled me.

I'm not too far from Icheon's strip, which is a shopping plaza sort of thing. It kind of reminds me of Myeong-Dong, only, y'know, smaller and far less crowded. There's a farmer's market at one end, so I imagine I'll at least do well when I want fresh produce. I also saw a store that had a bootleg Superion set to match the bootleg Defensor I got a bit ago- I'm definitely gonna pick that up soon enough. Yay nerdery.

My apartment came pre-furnished, along with a lot of stuff the previous owner (the teacher I'm replacing) left behind. Books, shelves, cooking utensils, computer speakers, dishes- I was quite excited to dig through the stuff to see what was being left behind. There's even a 'Learn Korean' workbook which I should probably start working on soon, too!

On the cons side, the apartment doesn't have a dishwasher, and the bathroom is against an exterior wall so it tends to get kind of cold, and I haven't figured out how to use the washing machine yet. Even still, it's a nice little place, and I've lived in rougher conditions.

In any case, I start work at the new school tomorrow! Exciting times.

Another quickie! I honestly don't think anyone's gonna read this entry 'til the World Series is over, though. :)

Yes, I did a lot this past weekend. In fact, I've been busy this whole week, which as made me either too busy/too tired to put in a blog post.

In any case, I have BIG NEWS. Namely, I'm moving!

Long and short of it is, I'm not that good at teaching Kindergarten- so I wound up finding another job where I'd work with older students, for less hours, for more money. Slick!

The rub, however, is this job is in Icheon, which is something like 50 minutes southeast of Seoul. I've heard it's nice, however- and it's honestly not TOO far fro me to make a weekend trip to the big city whenever the coolest stuff is happening.

The Ilsan school was very accommodating, too, and honestly things went off in the best possible way. I'll miss the kids (some of them, at least), but so things go. It's funny, however- yesterday, when I told the kids goodbye, all the kindergarteners went "NoooOOooo!" and were sad. The elementary school kids, on the other hand, were more like 'So?'

So yeah. Moving! Crazy. My ride should theoretically be here in an hour or so, and the teacher they got to replace me in Ilsan will be moving in around the same timeish, I think? I've spent the last while cleaning up my apartment- right now, it's still a bit dusty and such, but it's no longer something that will terribly horrify my successor. It's unfortunate, though, as we all went and hung out a little bit at the other American teacher's pad on Wednesday, and his pad is MUCH nicer than mine, so we kept on telling my replacement that his apartment is the exception, not the rule.

So yeah. Expect reports to come about the city of Icheon, my new apartment, and even a brief report on nerdery in Korea. Woo!

A quickie!

Yes, I've been tardy in blog posts. But here's an update nonetheless.

Last weekend was fairly low key- it rained a ton on Saturday, so I stayed in. Sunday was gorgeous, however. I traded in some books at What the Book (Seoul's leading English language bookstore) for new ones, and then I met up with my Cousin and our friend T at a big flea market thing at Seoul World Cup stadium. I didn't get anything at the market, however- mostly because the books were in Korean, and the clothes were in Korean sizes. It was still fun going, nonetheless! I also saw a bootleg Bruticus- which I didn't get, as I have the actual mold back home in the states.

Afterward, we took a walk along the river and had some galbi in T's old neighborhood. T's been in Korea for a long while, and she had some really interesting stuff to say about the rapid growth and gentrification of that part of Seoul.

And, uh, that's it. Work's been going fairly well. It helps that I get to teach a Halloween-based unit. "Freddy Kreuger" is one of the vocabulary words. I've gotten a lot of mileage out of showing them random clips from Abbot & Costello Meet Frankenstein (a movie I'd like to see in its entirety, come to think of it).

Went out boozing last night- LePub's a little different under the new management, but I'm sure it'll be fine. Seemed fairly busyish. Ambled home around 2am, and now I'm awake! Mostly.

This weekend's gonna be a bit more eventful, however- in a few minutes, I'm going out on a work-picnic thing with the other teachers, which should be fun. And after that, there's apparently some sort of comics festival thingamajig going on here in Ilsan, which I'm rather excited about. I'm hoping to get a glimpse at a Korean-nerdy subculture, but it may just be a bunch of bookstores hawking manhwa. Either way, expect overthinking analysis to come!

And because it's a short entry, have some pictures of my beer shelf. I like to keep track of what kinds of beers you can get over here. This isn't ALL of what's available- but it's a good part of it. I'd say at least 75% of these were bought at the same homeplus, too. 

That's all I've got for now. Stay tuned!

Man, you were really drunk on Friday night." The Welshman told me.

"I was?" I said. I then took a tally of the previous evening's imbibements. This...was somewhat of a long list. Really, the part where I'd gone awry was having scotch early on in the evening, mostly because whiskey tends to make me a bit...ah, rowdy. And then Gundam Guy started playing lots of Electric Six on the bar's speaker system, which also tends to make me a bit rowdy.

Not that there wasn't occasion to booze it up, though- y'see, LePub, my primary expat hangout, is being sold to a new owner. Who, admittedly, I hear is pretty cool, but it'll be a change in the bartending staff, at the very least. So it goes!

I made it home safely, though- I may have had quite a bit, but I certainly know when it's time to pack it in. Saturday was fairly quiet. I briefly stopped by the makkoli festival that was going on, but I didn't have anything to drink while I was there- didn't feel like boozing it up, y'see.

I had originally meant to swing by Hongdae for a punk rock show at Club Spot, but I was feeling vaguely sick-ish, so I didn't bother. Nothing too bad, but I just didn't want to pull another all-nighter. Instead, I went...to LePub! Again, as Saturday was the last night it was under the current ownership. I took it much easier this time around. Which was funny, as I ran into The Welshman and Co at LePub, and the lot of them had been partying hard since lunch on account of the Rugby World Cup. I'm actually a bit jealous of their enthusiasm, but what can you do?

Sunday, again, started quiet. Had lunch with some friends of mine, and (after a bit of hemming and hawing on my part) I DID wind up going to Hongdae, whereupon I went to two places I should've visited a long while earlier.

The first was Castle Praha! Yay microbreweries! The decor of the place is certainly neat. Service was a little slowish, though, and the beer was a bit pricey...but I will say their witbier is deliiiicious. Though it's hard not to be when you're up against Korean beer. Heh.

The second place was DGBD, one of Hongdae's leading music venues. Or...something. They were having the 24th Kimchiabilly Night there, and I am very, very glad I went. It's been awhile since I've seen a live show, and it just reminded me how much I love seeing obscure live music while drinking crappy beer. It's the little things, y'know. The place had a fairly neat space going on- you actually entered via the balcony and had to take a stairwell down to the floor. I guess the cool kids hung out up top, but the joke's on them, as the bar's down below!

The crowd was mostly Korean, and a bit thin-ish, being a Sunday night- but I've seen some DAMN good shows on Sundays, too. I think it's got to do with the really enthusiastic fans being the ones who bother to get up to stuff on a weeknight, y'know?

Playing that evening was...

The Strikers, a pretty straightforward punk-rock trio. Good energy, though!

Copy Machine- you can tell they're a ska band 'cause the singer's wearing a neat hat. These guys were GREAT- they had a really peppy, fun, third-wave sort of sound. On the one hand, they kind of cheated, as they didn't have a horn section- the keyboardist just had a Korg set on 'horns.' On the other hand, the keyboardist was playing both sections, so that's pretty impressive anyway.

Peppermint Jam- the only non-Korean band on the list, they were Japanese Rockabilly (which made me kind of wish I'd worn my Guitar Wolf shirt, but eh). Was funny, being an American seeing a Japanese band in Seoul- I think the guys from Peppermint Jam knew about as much Korean as I do- which is to say, not much.

And finally, the Rocktigers! This was my second time seeing them, and they're no less kickass after the first go-round. Velvet Geena is still tiny and full of swagger. Honestly, any one of the bands I saw that evening would've been worth it, but the Rocktigers set was damned solid. What's more impressive is that, according to the Korea gig guide website, the Rocktigers & Peppermint Jam packed their gear up and took it to a different club for a 10:30 gig. That's hustle! I s'pose if I wanted to, I could've checked that out as well for a double dose of radness, but I decided against it, opting to get home at a halfway decent hour. Fancy that!

In any case, I managed to survive yet another Monday. Though with Halloween fast approaching, I really need to get a costume put together. Right now, I'm kind of leaning towards 'cardboard robot' or, if I'm REALLY ambitious, 'cardboard Optimus Prime...because if you're gonna go for something, why not go big, right?

I don't care what you say, I'm not calling it 'football.'

I've pretty much given up on a regular update schedule, I think. Still! Obligatory update to let you know I'm still alive!

Things at my hagwon have been pretty damn crazy for the last week or so- the last week of the month is always a bit nuts. But it's Friday now- and a Friday leading into a three day weekend! As per the usual, I'm not entirely certain what I'll be up to, aside from 'something.'

But enough about THIS weekend- it's time to tell you about what I did last weekend! So apparently, it was foreigner night at the World Cup Stadium for a K-league soccer game. Neat!

So tickets were under 10 bucks, and you got a free (warm) beer and a (cold) hot dog. Neat! My Cousin went as well, but she got there before I did and likely got better seats. In any case, I went with some of my Ilsan-based friends (namely, The Welshman, Gundam Guy, Mr. Gyopo, and the Vegan Canadian Girls- all of whom I have arbitrarily given codenames to), and had a good time of it. I'm not really much of a sports fan in general, but I always enjoy going out to watch a game. And really, Soccer's a pretty fun game to watch.

Unfortunately, I wasn't sitting in the super-hardcore fan section- and I kind of wish I had. There was a big mass of black & red (badass team colors, I must admit) where people had flags and drums and all kinds of crazy stuff.

The game itself was kind of a beat-down- Seoul FC beat Daejon 4 - 1. Still, I guess I was rooting for Seoul, as I live closer to them. And, of course, they have the rad team colors. Makes me kinda wish someone was tooling around in a Harley Quinn getup, but I fear most Koreans wouldn't get it. Pity!

In any case, after the game, we puttered around- and wound up meeting up with some other friends of The Welshman's. Neat folks, really! One of them happened to be Iron Maiden Guy from awhile back, which just shows how incestuous the expat community over here is. Worse than living in a small town, really.

By this point, there's like a dozen of us. And we take the subway a few stops over to Hongdae. Unfortunately, this was one of those situations where there were too many people and not enough initiative- personally, I could've taken more of a leadership role, but I really didn't know them that well, and just busting out with 'FOLLOW ME, LADS!' wouldn't have gone over that well. I need to work on my charisma.

In any case, the lot of us wind up at some seafood place in Hongdae, which was actually pretty tasty. Now, my original plan was to eat dinner, then catch the subway home at a halfway decent hour.

...This didn't happen.

As The Welshman, Mr. Gyopo, and Gundam Guy said 'No! We'll hang together! We'll all just pitch in ten bucks and take the taxi home!'

...This didn't happen either.

Again, the lack of initiative in our big mass of people hurt us, as we spent a good while kicking around The Park in Hongdae. Which, admittedly, is kind of a neat place to be- there was some band rocking it pretty hard, but I'm afraid I only caught the end of their set. Not to mention it was hella crowded, so I didn't get a very good view.

By the time the band wrapped up their set, I'd lost track of my little Ilsan crew. I wound up tagging along with the remnants of The Welshman's friend's group, and hit up some club called 'Freebird' where his friend's band was playing. They were called something like 'The Scott Logan Experience' or...something. They were just a cover band...but at least they were a GOOD cover band. Eventually, they wrapped up their set with a pretty good C-Lo Green cover, and that was about that.

There also was a ninja. That happens sometimes.

In any case, around, uh...2:30 AM, I decided to call it a night, 'cause I'm an old man like that. So I meander out of the bar to get some fresh air, give some directions to a be-kilted scotsman, and I wrapped up the rest of the night by holing up in a PC Bang, where I watched random youtube crap in varying states of consciousness 'til the subways opened up again.

Sunday, obviously, was a recovery day.

So yeah. As I mentioned before, the week's been busy, but I survived! Weather's also gotten a bit cooler- some of the Korean folks are bundling up in fancy pants windbreakers and scarves and such. I might even go for the fleece myself tonight. Just a reminder of the impending bitterly cold Korea winter, I guess!

At least I've got good socks.

Two weekends of hijinks!

First, Chuseok! Or, to put it more simply, 'Korean Thanksgiving.' For those who don't feel like hitting up google or wikipedia, it's a typical harvest festival. Lots of family, lots of food, and so on. One of the particular things is that EVERYBODY heads out of Seoul to visit their grandparents in the the countryside. Given how I'm not, well, Korean, I was left to roam a quiet and mostly empty Ilsan (and Seoul, later). It wasn't quite 'I am Legend' empty, but it was far quieter than what I'm used to.

Despite being a four day weekend, I honestly didn't get up to all that much. Which was kind of nice anyway- I'm a big fan of being able to just take it easy. I did do a little bit of exploring anyway. I meandered through Itaewon a bit (because where else will things be open?) and I'm rather glad I did, as I managed to find myself a bootleg Defensor. Yay knockoff transformers! The plastic is pretty flimsy, and I can spot at least a half dozen places where corners have been cut- but at least when you put him together, he looks pretty cool. Funny that it's taken me 7 months in Asia to find good bootleg transformers- guess I'm just not looking hard enough. 

Chuseok itself fell on a Monday. I took the opportunity to meander by Gyeongbokgung palace again, as it was free to the public that day, and they were having some sort of cultural folk festival or something. Unfortunately, the festival itself wasn't too noteworthy (at least the stuff I saw), but it was kind of neat to poke around the museum parts I hadn't seen before. In particular, there's a 'folk village' that's set up to reflect what stuff looked like during different decades. One touch I really liked was that they had a 1970's-ish era comic book shop as one of the exhibits. Neat! Once again, I manage to find the nerdiest thing in any given area. It's a talent.

Perhaps to make up for my boringness on Chuseok weekend, I actually went out and about this previous weekend. More specifically, I went on a big expedition with my Cousin and a bunch of our friends to a little town called Sokcho, out on the east coast.

The bus ride was pleasant- though one of the things I've found in my (admittedly limited) travels in Korea is, well...a lot of it looks the same. Heavily forested mountains, and little towns tucked into the valleys. Sometimes picturesque, but a little repetitive.

In any case, the bus went through a couple of tunnels on its trip...and when we went through the last tunnel...it was raining on the other side. Not...exactly the best beach weather, but what else can you do? Thankfully, I remembered to bring my gore-tex jacket. Be prepared, and all that.

Despite the rain, this didn't stop us from having a good time! It was a little chill, and perhaps a little crowded, but there's something to be said for sitting around, watching TV (SWAMP SHARK), and of course, drinking. Many boozes. We found a new use for the rice cooker, as you can see.

When it got later, we hit up a rather tasty galbi resturant (as we usually do), then we hit up the local Norebang (as we usually do). Really, add in coffee shops, mini-marts, and PC bangs, and you've got the most common buisnesses to be found in Korea. Norebang's by far the most entertaining option. I think it's the required way to end an evening whenever you get a certain number of expats together. Or maybe it's just OUR required way to end an evening whenever you get a bunch of us together.

I guess that's kind of rad, right?

Sunday was a little more low key- we lazed around, slept off our hangovers- and even if it was still raining, we played around in the big-ass waves anyway (I even went sans-gore-tex that time) and finally cleaned up and made the trip back to Seoul. Not much to say there (though I did spy another, smaller bootleg Defensor set at a rest stop on the way back. Who knew?).

I'm not sure what I'm getting up to this weekend, but I'm gonna make it a point to do something interesting. Stay tuned!

Also, it's kinda cold all of a sudden. Ridiculously abruptly so. It's like someone realized 'Oh, it's September!' and flicked on the 'cold' switch. I think that's how things work here.

Beach party!

Yes, I skipped a week. But mostly 'cause "I had to spend most of the last Saturday in August in a training seminar of dubious usefulness" would make for a pretty short (and dull) blog post.

Meh. Work progresses as it shall. Just yesterday, one of the Korean teachers asked me to use smaller words so the students would understand me easier. I thusly jotted "use less extensive vocabulary" in my notebook. This...might be part of the problem. Eheh.

Thankfully, I've been up to more interesting things since then! Namely, this past Saturday, I got together with My Cousin and her friends J and New K (I've decided people get rad codenames on this blog now) to hit up the beach. More specifically, we went to a beach on a little island called Muuido- it's really close to the Incheon Airport.

Unfortunately, despite being close to the airport, it was somewhat difficult in getting there. Mostly because there were two buses that headed in completely opposite directions...despite having the same number. Seriously, it wasn't even a matter of doing opposite directions of the same loop- one of the buses went to where we wanted to go...and the other didn't.

We wound up on the wrong bus. It was a bit unpleasant (if hilarious in hindsight). For the record, this was not my fault.

In any case! We finally did make it to Muuido! (It's the little island to the south, on that map) As far as beaches go, it was alright. I may be a little spoiled, having gone to Hawaii so recently. Still, the weather was nice, and the beach wasn't even that crowded. Though one of the real kickers was the fact that, when we got there, the tide was out. Way out. Ten minute walk across some mudflats out. Huh. 

And so, we were left with little else to do but sprawl out, make idle conversation...and drink crappy beer. There are worse ways to spend a Saturday afternoon, I would note.

Oh, and there was a hovercraft parked on the beach. Rad as hell. I would not object to being able to put 'hovercraft driver' on my resume.

There were a bunch of other expats on the beach as well, and thus it was fun to make some idle conversation with them. A good number of them had arrived for the first annual 'Burning Man Korea.'

For anyone familliar with both Burning Man and Korea, the concept of such a thing is both amusing and somewhat confusing. Mostly because Korean culture is so buckled down, the general craziness expected from Burning Man just couldn't go down.

I'd like to note that our beach trip coincided with the whole Burning Man thing entirely by accident. I didn't know about it 'til the night before, wherein my friend the Welshman said 'oh, going to that Burning Man thing?' and my natural answer was 'Wait, what?'

In any case, I happened to know some of the folks AT said mini-burn (because the expat community is a bit incestuous like that- you'll almost always know somebody, wherever you go), so I steered by to catch up. I will say that the burners were having a good time, so good for them! Sure, there weren't truckasauruses or flamethrowers or naked people painted green, but again, it was the first year (and it was early, too).

For all I know, things may have gotten crazier once it got dark (as things tend to do). But we wound up packing it in around 7pm. Perfectly understandable, given that we'd been there since noon. I could have stayed overnight if I'd really wanted to. I'd taken the precaution of packing the survival essentials: knife, nalgene, matches, towel, etc. Ultimately, I didn't feel like going all Les Stroud, so I didn't. Probably for the best, given how much sand I've got in everything as-is. 

I think this was an important Hite, because I took a picture of it.

Sunday was, as the best Sundays are, 'laze around and work off that hangover' day. And back into the workaday schedule and all that. Though this next weekend is Chuseok- essentially, 'Korean Thanksgiving.' I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do during the holiday, but you can rest assured I will keep you posted on these misadventures.

...once the hangover's passed.

Bar Crawling in Ilsan!

Hump day!

As of today, I've been in Korea for six months. Halfway point! Or, well, at least halfway through this contract. There are times when I have trouble determining what I'm doing on the weekend, much less months or years in advance. Crazy.

In any case, I've gotten back into the swing of things here. Though the sweet 'summer intensive' schedule I've had for the last month ends on Friday, so it'll be back to full workdays afterwards. There are worse things to complain about, I know. Things are getting a little crazy busy, as we have a seminar on Saturay (boo!) so everyone's beginning to scramble to get their presentations together. On the bright side, it's here in Ilsan, so I won't have to drive for hours and hours to get there and back.

But let's talk about something more interesting! Something with booze involved! As last Saturday, I went on a pub crawl- someone the Ilsan expat facebook group (of COURSE there's one of those) organized it as a charity thing. So heck, beer and philanthropy? I can get behind that! Also, it gave me impetus to hit up some other bars here in Ilsan, so yay for that.

As I've mentioned before, there's a lot of bars in Ilsan- and in Korea in general, but not too many 'western' style ones. Korean bars are geared more towards communal drinking- which is fine...but at the same time, it can be a little annoying when all you want to do is sidle up onto a barstool and have a pint.

In any case, here's some arbitrary reviews of a couple of Ilsan's finest pubs!

First on the list was a joint called Into's. Into's is, quite simply, a sports bar. Big TVs, various jerseys and banners and other stuff on the walls, foosball (which may be the only foosball table I've seen in Korea, come to think of it), air hockey, and so on. The Korean couple that run it are really nice, too- I imagine if I were more of a sports fan, I'd be hanging out there all the time. 

 

So I met up with some friends of mine at the first bar, had two or three beers, and then it came time to head to the best-named bar in Ilsan (if not in South Korea), The Whiskey Weasel.

The Whiskey Weasel just opened like two weeks ago, and I dunno if it's really 'broken in' as a bar yet. Feels too new, I guess. It's all sleek lines and movie posters. Lots of black and red, which is trendy, I guess. The bartenders were American (at least, they SOUNDED American, as best I could figure in a really loud bar), which was a plus...but the one I talked to had to ask instructions on how to mix a White Russian. Then again, he might not've been a 'bartender' so much as 'the owner's friend who got roped in on a crazy night.'

So I hung out at the Whiskey Weasel for awhile, having beers- and in an odd turn of fate, nearly every girl I talked to that night (even in passing conversation) was Canadian. The only exception was a girl who looked vaguely like Emma Watson (or maybe Helena Bonham Carter, depending on the light), who was from Maine (which is close enough).

Next, we all geared up and went to Le Pub, which is my typical expat hangout. Le Pub was the first expat bar I learned about, and it's since become my typical hangout when I'm in the mood to go out. Now, the decor's a bit sparse (those big blank concrete walls make me think I'm drinking in a prison cell, sometimes), but other than that, it's a nice place with friendly bartenders. That, and they'll play just about any music you'll request, a fact that I haven't abused as much as I should.

Le Pub has a slightly more laid-back atmosphere...at least, whenever I go there. As the place can be pretty slow some nights. This is especially true, earlier in the evening, which is when I tend to go there, as I eventually get bored of staying in my apartment and want to go out...but then things are slow and kinda dull at the bar, so I head home before they get bumping again.

This...wasn't the case on that evening, as the joint was PACKED due to the bar crawl. And while it was good to see a bar I like doing well...it was also a pain to muscle up to the bar and get a beer from the overworked bartenders. Ah well!

In the crowded mess of things, I lost track of my friends, and therefore I decided to set out. There was one more bar on the list, an LP bar called Old Rock. I...didn't make it there.

Y'see, I got on the elevator with a couple of other expats, at which point a cute girl in a rad hat started talking to me in that wonderful 'invite random people along on your hijinks' sort of way. So I fell in with a new little group of people (neat folks, I will say) and we wound up going to this place called Bar Boom. Hat girl (who was from Canada, natch), had a slightly more discerning friend who out and asked me "Who the hell are you?" (a justified question, I will say). To which, hat girl said "This guy is awesome," so good for her.

Anyway, Bar Boom's a Korean dance club. And...honestly? The place kinda sucked. And I don't just say this as a guy who doesn't care much for mainstream dance clubs. Don't get me wrong, the music was fine enough (if you like top 40 hip hop), and the laser light rig was kind of cool, but...well, I'll be honest.

Too many dudes.

I heard someone describe the dance floor at Bar Boom as a meat market- though I'd say the term 'sausage fest' was a little more accurate. "But Mark," you say, "What about the rad hat girl who lured you there in the first place?" A good question! More idle conversation was had, but there was this guy with said gal who kept in swooping in to kiss her at random times. So, y'know, I decided to let that slide. Next time I want to pick up girls at a club, I should just go to a gay bar instead. (Though I understand the only gay bars in Korea are in Itaewon).

Ultimately, rather than continuing to dance awkwardly upon a gender imbalanced dance floor, I finished my beer and made my way home, entirely intact. Walked back into my apartment 'bout 2am, which is pretty early by Korea standards. And heck, I wasn't even that hungover on Sunday morning, either! Score. 

So stay tuned, friends! More hijinks are bound to ensue.

Does the 'X-patriate' name still count when you're back in the U.S.?

Well!

Been a bit, hasn't it? I should get back into the rhythm of posting here. Of course, in order to do so, I'm going to have to do more blogworthy things. So yay on that!

Regardless, a lot has gone on since my previous posting. Namely, I had a week of vacation! And on that week of vacation, I got to see my family in Hawaii. Wonderful, wonderful trip, it was. So wonderful, it's...taken me a couple of days to really get re-acclimated to living in Korea. Culture (after)shock, maybe? Of course, going to the workaday grind anywhere after a vacation in Hawaii will seem a bit droll in comparison.

I'm honestly not sure just how much to write here! As I'm pretty sure 25% of my readers were on the trip in question. Still, some highlights include:

Visiting a crazy little town called Pa'ia. It's basically a miniature, tropical Austin (read: weird). Neat times! We hit up a really delicious little restaurant, I picked up a rad blue Hawaiian shirt (which you'll see later), and we even found a Tibetan Buddhist shrine. Neat stuff! Though I think visiting there around lunchtime on a Monday may have muted the craziness. Pity!

Driving all the way up to the top of Mt. Halekala. It's a domant volcano so tall that it pokes up above the clouds. Neat stuff! Apparently the sunsets/sunrises here are ridiculously gorgeous...and rather touristy, as a result. We wound up not re-visiting in the dusk/dawn-ish hours.

Travelling to the Iao Valley. Y'see, Maui's got a 'wet' side (which is Jurassic Park level tropical) and a 'Dry' side (which is sort of like Utah with a view of the beach). Iao Valley is on the wet side, and it's absolutely GORGEOUS.

Maui Brewing Company! You didn't think I'd go someplace and not drink the local microbrew, did you? They're kind of unique, in that all of their beers are canned. Their coconut porter is absolutely delicious. I made it a point to hit up the liquor store to get a bunch of other beers I couldn't drink in Korea- Chimay, Hitachino (seriously, it's Japanese but I haven't seen it ANYWHERE here), Rogue, and even a tallboy of PBR (don't hate! It's better than Cass). This also served to spoil me, as I'm still not used to drinking crappy Korean beers. Shoot.

Bookstores! I made it a point to hit up Barnes & Noble -AND- the closing Borders, in order to boost my bookshelf. I came home with seven new books in my suitcase, including the new Dresden Files novel. Woo! I'm a little less than halfway through said Dresden Files novel- and I'm torn between rationing myself, or tearing through the book over the course of the weekend so I can finally jump into various internet discussion without having to worry about spoilers. Hm!

A luau! We did this on the second to last night on Maui, and I really, really wish we'd done it earlier. It was touristy as all get out...but still wonderful. Rum cocktails! Coconuts! Pig buried in the sand! Poi! (which is actually not that bad if you mix it with something else) and, of course, Hula Girls!

The last day, we took a snorkeling/sailing cruise to a tiny islet called Molokini. I'm afraid I didn't take many pictures, due to the non-waterproofness of my camera, but damn if it wasn't GORGEOUS. The place is a wildlife preserve, so it's pristine and untouched. I'd done a little bit of snorkeling on the beaches, but poking around Molokini was far, far better than that. As soon as I stuck my head in the water, I couldn't help but sputter a bit at how gorgeous the reef was. Very Jacques Cousteau. I wound up swallowing a bit of seawater while puttering around, which made me a bit queasy once I pulled myself onto the catamaran...but then I cracked open a Corona (the boat had a stocked cooler) which did wonders for me.

And, sadly, the trip eventually came to an end. And now I'm back in Korea. But it's not all tragedy, as I'm looking at a three day weekend, which is always quite nice. Rest assured, I've got some more Korea-centric blog posts in mind. In particular, you can expect some reviews of the major expat bars here in Ilsan. Which will be of use to someone, I'm sure!