Snap Back to (a sad) Reality

Well after all those happy posts about Karl in Korea I feel maybe it's about time we got back to reality. You know, life isn't all just vacations, parties, and holidays (even though I wish it was) there are some real issues too. Last night, on a regular Saturday I was hit by one of those issues. An issue I didn't see coming, maybe due to ignorance, maybe due to denial, or maybe just because I didn't know it could happen to me, but it did.

I grew up in a white, upper-middle class family, in a white town, with predominantly white friends. That isn't exactly the recipe for racial discrimination in America, it's quite the opposite actually. To be honest my background might be the anti-discrimination profile. So obviously I didn't know too much about the issue personally. You read about it, see it in movies, magazines, news papers, but nothing really rings the reality bell as loud as personal experience.

This past weekend I went out with my best and closest Korean friend, who also happens to be a woman. She took me out to Apgujeong, which is another hot spot in Seoul with a good nightlife scene. It's a nicer area than where I normally go out; places like Iteawon, Hongdae, or Sinchon. We had a meal and drinks surrounded by what seemed to be Seoul's exclusive swanky youth. Now while I'm used to being the only white person around my neighborhood, when I'm out on the town there are usually other foreigners around, but in Apgujeong I didn't see any other people who weren't Asian. It was just me, yet I didn't feel out of place. I was with a friend, out to dinner, just like I had been many times before, and it was really nice. But that wasn't where the night ended. We decided to go to Iteawon to meet up with some of our other friends.

We went to the only Irish pub I know in Seoul, Wolfhounds. I've been to Wolfhounds plenty of times but right as we sat down, meeting up with Jeff, Alex, Kyeonghe and Jinjew, it was impossible not to notice the drunk women sitting at the table next to us. They were just being obnoxious. You know when drunk people butt into other tables conversations, sing too loud, and dance in their seats? Yeah, you know what I'm talking about, That's what we were dealing with. But then they started taking pictures of us. Two drunk women were taking pictures of me and my friends and I found it quiet offensive for a flash to be going off every couple of moments, from a few feet away, during our conversations. When I asked her to stop she very maturely replied "No, who cares?". Obviously she had communication difficulties because she couldn't put together that someone who asks you to stop obviously cares about what you're doing. Either way, I hoped that would be the end of it but it wasn't.

She said she wanted the pictures for her blog (ironic huh?) to show how messed up it is to see white guys with Korean girls. Those words were my first actual taste of discrimination. I realize it doesn't sound like much now but it's such a hard feeling to describe how I felt when I heard it. I knew that those words hurt my friends, made us all feel uncomfortable, like we shouldn't be talking together, out together, seen together, or even friends just because our skin color was different. It instantly made my heart beat race. There wasn't a logical response that came to mind because it was clouded by anger, so I wanted to think of something witty to say, but nothing I could think of saying would change the color of our skin. It was a helpless feeling.

The only thing I was able to get out while I stared at this woman was "How old are you?" Her response made me wince on so many different levels. She paused, looked me square in the eye and said "I'm thirty" (My face: ohhhhhh :/ ). It just seemed unfortunate for so many reasons:
1 - because she didn't look a day under 40, and I felt bad that she felt she needed to lie about her age.
2 - then again, maybe she wasn't lying and she just looks horrifyingly old for her age.
3 - either way, a "thirty" year old woman out at a bar, drunk, with only a female friend as company on a Saturday night, in SOUTH KOREA no less, must have a ton of relationship issues.
4 - I also winced for myself. How could a woman who had expressed no signs of intellect thus far make me feel bad about myself?

I think I should be stronger than that, I thought I was, but I felt bad none the less. I couldn't take her words back, lord knows I tried to take her camera (but I can't really do much to a "thirty" year old woman when it all comes down to it, now can I). I had to give back her camera, I had to try and be amicable with her, and I had to endure her drunken justifications of her prejudiced point of view, in childlike English, and aided by body language because she thought our Korean friends, who speak English, couldn't understand her without it (which only angered me more).

By the end of it I felt bad for her because she was so ignorant, but she repeatedly protested how she was "not judgmental" through it all. Then again maybe I don't know what judgmental means (definition: having or displaying an excessively critical point of view). If sitting next to people you don't know and telling them they don't belong together while making them feel extremely uncomfortable isn't judgmental then maybe I should call it what it really is, racist.

I have some closing thoughts on this experience:

- I am well aware that what I went through is nothing, I repeat NOTHING, compared to what other people have endured, but maybe we all can learn a little something about tolerance, I did, and I feel it's a lesson always worth sharing.

- Her closing line to me was, "In 'the South' you couldn't get a woman." This statement made me wince once again (I was praying that she was Canadian). No, all jokes aside, I am worried for America when a person from "the South" can come all the way to South Korea and still carry such ingrained prejudices with them.

- Even when I did stand out as the only foreigner in an entire restaurant, on this night, I didn't feel out of place. It took an American to make me feel like I didn't belong.

- I'm sorry my friends had to go through that. I wish I could have done more.

New Years '08 'Korean Style'

Wow!!! What a New Year's celebration. Who would have ever seen this coming. If someone would have told me I'd be ringing in the '08 new year in Seoul, South Korea, a year and a half ago I would have thought they were crazy. But it's hard to think that I could have had a better 2007.

As far as 2007 goes, memorable moments were at a premium:

-Quiting my first job after college. A job that allowed me to work for a year in New York City, and in the entertainment industry; two things I had wanted to do since I was a little kid.

-Almost 2 job free months in NYC where I tutored people from Korea, Brazil, Mexico, and Columbia and met some truly wonderful people.

-Moving to the other side of the world.-Becoming a High School English teacher (who would have seen that coming?).

-Traveling to Thailand and Cambodia where I saw some of the most beautiful beaches on the planet and one of the seven wonders of the world, Angkor Wat.

-Going to France for a week with my family, seeing world famous sights, meeting some of my brothers wonderful friends, and seeing my brother getting married in one of the best and weddings I could ever imagine.

-Mud Fest! Need I say more?

-Making really close friends far from home.

-And last but not least, getting a big greasy Italian to come around the world and experience life "Korean Style" for a week. Thanks Karl.

Outside of that, I was also able to save a substantial amount of money and gather a whole slew of life experiences. I always love new years time because I'm totally sentimental and I can't get enough of all the "year in review" shows. For the world 2007 had some ups and downs, but for me, 2007 was a blast.

Now it all begins again. Can I make 2008 even better? It's not going to be an easy task but I'm up for the challenge.

Enjoy the slide show of New Year's Eve 2008 live from Seoul. There was supposed to be a larger group of us, but we had a lot of people back out at the last second due to the extreme cold and/or large crowd. Everyone we told that we were going to Jongak (like Time Square) said it would NOT be fun. "Too many people", "No room", "No move", "Fall and die, maybe", "Too cold", were all warnings that we heard from everyone, but today I can tell you, they didn't know what they were talking about.

It was cold but not too cold. It was crowded but not too crowded, and it was a ton of fun! It is something I'm so glad I did, and would suggest all others living in Seoul to give it a try at least once. Take a look for yourself.

No Trick But With Many Treats to Come

This is not a trick. My site is now an actual link on a travel site called TouristClick.com. It's partially hidden but only seconds after clicking the "Travel Blog" link, then clicking "Asia Travel", and lastly "South Korea"...Whop there it is! Rachel seems to think this is the beginning of something big for my blog, but I don't share the same enthusiasm for self(blog) growth. I do on the other hand know that TouristClick.com is going to blow up atfer catching some of this blogs traffic runoff. Go ahead check it out. It's fine with me, I won't be jealous.
Once your done with that I have some Halloween photos if you want to check them out. Halloween weekend was a really fun one because there wasn't just a Halloween celebration but Rachel's birthday, and Kristy's going away party celebrations too.



That's all for now but stay tuned because I've got a lot of interesting things planned coming up to blog about: Hot Karl (aka Cap'n Karl) will be visiting Seoul for New Years, footballs sent to Korea, the best bathroom in Seoul, corporal punishment, Jersey boys going "Down Under", etc...
I've also gone and added slide shows to old posts if your interested in looking back...but if you are, make sure you look at the last one and watch Zeitgeist.

Seoul Lotus Lantern Festival

In Seoul, much like in New York City, there are things going on all the time. This past weekend Rachel and I were lucky enough to attend one of those things that actually turned out to be cool, a "Lotus Lantern Festival".

Sunday morning we met a teacher of ours downtown so she could show us around, and tell us what the festival was all about. We got there and saw a very famous temple with the largest Buddhist statues I have ever seen. Lanterns were hanging everywhere. Parishioners of the temple pay to hang lanterns in their name, and families names, as to appease Buddha. They also hang white lanterns for the souls of family members that have passed on. Mrs. Lee explained it to me as "It's a good business move too." I really liked walking around at the festival because there was such an eclectic group of people there. First off, there were plenty of white people there, which was nice for a change, but there were also Russians, Europeans, Hindu's, Monks, and I'm sure many others. I saw two monks video taping the festival. Who thought there were "tourist monks"? Everything I know about monks, which isn't much, tells me that they don't have video camera's or go on vacations, but I guess I was wrong. After enjoying the different atmosphere we had other other things scheduled which we had to get to.

Mrs. Lee was also nice enough to make reservations for Rachel and I to join in the lotus lantern making competition. At first we just thought it was fun, but then when we heard there were going to be prizes, both of our competitive sides came out. They took almost 2 hours to complete, although Rachel did hers in much less time because she was anti-social during her creation process, but I was trying to meet people, so I took a little longer. But in the end we were both pretty happy with how ours turned out. But then something pretty crazy happened, a news crew came up, and out of all the people there, they interviewed Rachel. She thinks it was because her lantern was so good, I think it was because she was white, and finished while everyone else was still working. But whatever the reason that they chose her, it was pretty funny. Tons of people came over to take pictures, and a few days later she was on the 5 o'clock news...her and her lantern. My lantern was definitely not the best thing I've ever made, but after a rough start, I think it turned out pretty well. Neither of us won any awards, but making the 5 o'clock news has to be the best consolation prize possible.

A few days later Rachel recorded the news at my place. Here it is, enjoy her 5 seconds of fame, and do take notice that I am in the background of the first shot of her. Plus, get a look at the cool festivities from the festival:

First Night in Downtown Seoul

So it's almost Friday, and I have no idea what I'm going to do this weekend, but I'm sure I will come up with something while I'm at work tomorrow, teaching my one class. Last Friday night was my first visit to downtown Seoul's nightlife scene. I didn't know what to expect because around my house there are no clubs, no foreigners, no shirts, no shoes and no problems. It's just not the going out type of place. Apparently the area is a poorer part of Seoul; I've heard it referred to as "Old Seoul", and a blue-collar type of area. I'm not totally sure how true that is, but I think it seems to fit. It really is safe though, or seems that way. No one seems to break the law, and it is amazing how nice a feeling that is. Not having to worry about being pick-pocketed, or beaten up, or bombed by terrorist (if you wanna go extreme) it really is the way life is supposed to be.
So last Friday Rachel came over and we drank "Soju" while watching Borat on my computer. Soju is the national Korean drink, well I'm not sure they have that type of classification, but if they did it would be #1, #2, and #3 on the list. That is because there are three types of it, 19%, 20%, and 21% alcohol. It's basically a beer bottle sized bottle of weak vodka that sells for about one dollar, and they sell it everywhere. EVERYWHERE, like at 7-11, pizza shops, rice huts, E-Mart (the Korean Wal-Mart), candy stores and basically any place that sells stuff that you put in your mouth. Don't take that the wrong way, but yes I'm sure they sell it there too. So we pregammed here a lil, mixing our Soju with Fanta, yup you heard me right, Fanta... now don't YOU wanna Fanta? Don't you? That add is genius. I'm gonna drink a glass of Fanta right now. I just have to take it out of my fridge behind the purple stuff, and Sunny D (I watched too much TV as a child). Mmmm so sugary...Okay where was I, oh yes, going out.
It's only about a 5-minute walk to the subway, then about a half hour trip with one transfer on the subway to the place to be. I can honestly say that's exactly what it was...the place to be. There were a ton of foreigners, tons of young people, and tons of bars. Of course most of them are Karaoke bars, but they probably heard about my hot EMENEM renditions from the teachers party. Just kidding, they aren't mostly Karaoke bars, but they are mixed in there. We ended up going to a bar with a live band and it was a really good time. Nothing spectacular, but a good night out in a new area. It’s not too cheap, about $4 a beer (because I know that's what you all were really wondering), and the bands were okay. It was the first trip of many but it was a success. A cab ride back to my school cost about 7 bucks at 3:30 in the morning. I think this is going to work out just fine. P.S. - Yes, Karl there are strong bottles of alcohol here for less then a dollar, and Fanta, but it's not heaven. Please stop calling me, and no you can't crash here "indefinitely".

The Day After...

Okay so after getting the internet hooked up, and everything was working fine, I was told that I wasn't getting the fastest speed internet that I should be getting. I was nervous to change, nothing had gone wrong so far, why fix what isn't broken right? RIGHT!!! I should have not let them touch a thing. Another guy came to my house on Friday and installed a new internet system. It worked really fast friday night. I downloaded "V for Vendetta", and "Borat", both movies I really wanted to see, and they finished downloading within a few hours. It seemed great. That was until the next morning. After me and my computer both woke up on Saturday morning it seems the internet was lost. No surfing the web, no downloading movies, no uploading pictures to this Blog site, nothing. So I'm back in the stone-age again. No internet or cell phone again. It kind of sucks not to be able to talk to people and get this stuff taken care of. I need to talk to a fellow teacher, who speaks English, then ask them to go out of there way to help me. I don't like it. They are very nice about it though, but I just don't enjoy asking them to help me out. Thats probably why I still don't have these important items, but I need to get them soon. On another note, I went out in downtown Seoul this Friday night and it is a really good scene. Lots of young people, lots of foriegners, and lots of things to do. I will fill you in more later.
P.S. - trying to make a blog without the internet at home is annoying...I'm sorry