Redwood National Forest

Back on the road again! This time headed to multiple destinations with one other traveler, who has a car and is willing to drive me! I was lucky enough to meet Elizabeth who also wanted to see Redwood National Park, Napa Valley and Yosemite. She was a blessing from above and even picked me up at my Aunt and Uncles house...an hour EARLY! I'm not sure if it was her kind smile, jovial demeanor, or her friendly dog, Willow, that she brought along, but my family and I were pretty confident right off the bat that this was going to work out well.

Elizabeth enjoyed talking just as much as I do, if not more, so we got along well, and had very little moments of silence. But when there was silence I would just turn around and pet Willow who was an extra special bonus traveler for me because, as we all know, I love dogs.

Our drive down to Redwood National Forrest went as well as I could have hoped for. Being the navigator, the fact that I didn't get us lost made it a success, but we made it down there without any unnecessary excitement, well, that was until we got close. We were just one turn away from the Youth Hostel we looking for when something unexpected happened. Being from New Jersey it's nothing special to see an animal run across the street right in front of your car, but it's usually a deer or a squirrel. But from the size of the paws on this cat that swiftly bolted across the street directly in front of our car, I was instantly cognizant that I was not in New Jersey anymore...and I liked it.

After discussing with some locals, what we saw was either a young mountain lion or bobcat, but we had an instant conversation starter for when we got to the hostel.

The frail, rail thin, dread locked, white, 20 something behind the hostel check in counter was exactly what I expected to see and worked with the slow pace you can only chalk up to a hippie in his absolute prime. While checking us in, after minutes of long silences that he didn't seem to notice, he mentioned that the hostel, with a whopping 8 people staying at it, was going to be performing a "concert" soon after we checked in. I chuckled at the idea of what might pass as a "concert" to a hippie living at a youth hostel, and completely disregarded his invitation right then and there. I was VERY HUNGRY though, and I had a Subway "5 dollar footlong" (great buy) that needed to be eaten quickly so I could get a short hike in before the sun went down. I hurried to put my bags down in my room that could fit 10 people, but I only shared it with one middle aged man who resembled a hippie Santa Clause.

I initially entered the kitchen to eat my sub, but was alone at a table that could have seated 30, so I decided to take it into the more cozy family room where some other people were sitting around. Little did I know, I had just unwittingly upped the attendance at tonights "concert" I had only minutes earlier swore off. Only 5 people were sitting around. I'm happy I took the open seat on the couch because it would have been really awkward if I sat in the open seat that was now obviously set for the performer. But once he did sit down I was almost trapped into staying and listening. Yet, I'm a fan of music, and who turns down live entertainment while eating unless you're alone at a Mexican restaurant with a large Mariachi band walking around? So I sat, and ate, and listened...

Wow! The performers name was Jim Page and I was hooked as soon as he started strumming his guitar. Honestly, it was like I was in a trance, hanging on every word, every chorus, listening for the rhymes, trying to predict the next word, but being pleasantly surprised when the lyrics were better than my own. This was a true American experience, sitting around in a small group listening to an old man sing about the problems of the government, the religious extremists, the struggles of day to day life, and the hidden beauty behind it all. He might as well have been singing around a campfire.

Living outside of America for a year really made this a much fuller experience for me. Instead of being a tourist who couldn't understand a word of what what monks, native, or local people were singing about while I was on my travels, this was something completely different. I was part of the experience, not watching from the outside, staring at something so alien to me it's entertaining, but actually connecting with the performers words, sounds, and spirit. There was something great about hearing his thoughts, dreams, fears, and desires. There was something uniquely American about it all.

After living in Korea, making friends there, being accepted into families there, and enjoying their culture I felt an unusual connection to the place. Like I've said before, I now, as oddly as it sounds, see Seoul as a second home. Much the way I looked at college while I was attending Penn State. It's a place where I've proved that I can live a great life. But while I was in Korea my admiration of and connection to America weakened. I was hoping, but not too confident that this trip might rekindle the strong connection I had once felt for my own country. This wonderful concert was a big step forward in doing that. I would have never expected it, but there are little, seemingly insignificant experiences that can have a great impact on our lives, and how we live them. This concert was something I could have easily walked away from without giving it a chance, but instead I sat, listened, and ate it all up...every last word.

Of course then the next few days I went out and hiked through amazing forests with enormous trees older than dirt. My new mindset just made it all that much more enjoyable.

Next stop, the wine regions of Sonoma and Napa Valley! Ready or not, here I come with a new CD in hand, haha, I had to support a musician who stays at hostels.

Ladies and Gentelmen, I Give You... KONG!!!

So no, I didn't travel to a mysterious far off island with a giant ape on it in the efforts to bring it back so you could pay to see with your own eyes. But I did bring you pictures from my travels to another far off island, Hong Kong, and you don't have to spend a dime to see them on your computer screen. King Kong may have been the either wonder of the world and while Hong Kong can't claim that, it did have its up sides.

My most memorable moments in Hong Kong were mostly surrounding great meals with awesome people that I had only met once before at Kevin and Susie's wedding in France. During my visit I had great company, and great meals, sometimes with great views (sorry no pictures of that night skyline dinner) and it was a nice place to visit. It seemed to remind me a lot of Beijing and Shanghai and possibly even a little like Seoul (on drugs). Yet there was one thing that stood out, and made it seem different from those other cities. In Beijing and Shanghai you have Chinese people everywhere yelling at you to buy a shirt, a hat, a picture, or something or other. However, in Hong Kong, it's not the same at all. There it's Indian people who are pushing you to buy a watch, a cheap suit, or a souvenir. I don't know quite how the good people from India moved onto Chinese turf and started peddling cheaper goods, but it all seems ironically funny to me.

I did get to see some cool stuff though, check out the pictures.

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.

Merry Christmas Partay

A few weeks ago Mr. Kim talked Rachel into having a Christmas party at my house (thanks Rachel). Well, on the last Friday before Christmas I threw what was supposed to be a huge Christmas celebration with all of our teacher friends in Korea. But apparently Rachel and I don't have that many friends.

We had the bright idea of making special holiday invitations. Rachel drew them up, and had a fellow teacher translate them into Korean; we were making every effort to have this party be a blast. I did most of the handing out at school and teachers faces just light up like they were getting asked out to Prom by the quarterback of the football team (or the head cheerleader, depending upon who I was giving them too). Nearly everyone I handed them out to said yes on the spot. But because I'm super anal I still had Rachel add on a tear off portion of the invitation that said "yes" I will be coming, or "no" I will not be coming. This was to try and avoid getting too much food, or having no one show up. Well after all of our precautions, that's exactly what happened.

We bought a ton of food, planning for over thirty people to show up, in the end we barely got to twenty, and that was with a few people who responded "no" coming. Tons of food went bad. My principal regifted the present I gave to him from my trip to France, people showed up late, and left early.

Now, with all of those "less-than-spectacular" events going down, you would think the whole event was a wash, but it wasn't. Somehow, with the help of Alex and Jeff, we salvaged the night and gave some people a night they would never forget.

First off, for example, my mother. This night in Korea happened to also be the birthday morning of my mother in Tennessee. Almost 10 Koreans, 2 Iowa boys, a Bostonian and myself sang Happy Birthday to my mom over webcam. It was a surprise to her, and I think it went over well. It made everyone's night at the party too. Honestly without this webcam call, the night would have never gotten to its feet. My coworkers loved seeing my parents, and everyone kind of fell in love with the idea when I told them about it.

Two other young Korean ladies, Jinjew, and Jenny will also always remember this night because it was their first "house party" (or apartment party, whatever) that they ever went to. Apparently in Korea this type of thing isn't that common among young people. I'm guessing it's because young people usually live with there parents until they're married, and places in Korea are usually quite small for parties, but either way they had a new and fun experience.

Overall, I'm really, REALLY thankful for all the people who did come. Honestly, I just hope everyone had a good time and I think most of us did. To those that couldn't make it, I keep hearing that it's just "Korean culture" to say "yes" when invited, but it was a bitter pill to swallow when you didn't show up. I guess it's the thought that counts though. Either way, I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Birthday (mom), and last but not least, a Happy Festivus.

BREAKING NEWS: Korean Doctors Study Shows "Kimchi Cures Death"

Unbelievable as it may seem, Korea has been sitting on the answer to life's nagging little problem, death, for thousands of years, but has shared their secret with no one outside of this little peninsula. Today I will break the silence and divulge to the rest of the world what Korea knows to be true.

The secret to immortality isn't found in some fantastical, story book fountain or potion, it doesn't come from the bite of your everyday vampire, and it certainly doesn't come from some outlandish story about drinking from a "holy grail" (where do we come up with this stuff?). Nope, while those crazy ideas have absolutely no basis in reality, science, or fact, Korea knows what truly brings eternal life... 3 daily servings of Kimchi.

Right about now you're probably scratching your head thinking "what's this crazy concoction called Kimchi?". Or if your Korean, and powers of English alliteration lag slightly, your probably just nodding your head with agreement and pride, while gulping down some homemade Kimchi. Kimchi is fermented cabbage (sometimes radish or other vegetables) made with a mix of garlic, salt, vinegar, chili peppers, and spices. It is a reddish color but countless different types exist because of the varying choices of vegetable, and amounts of seasonings that can be added. However, this accepted definition of Kimchi doesn't even come close to telling the whole truth (and nothing but the truth so help me Kimchi) about this ancient culinary delight.

Where do I start? First, some ideology:

A few posts back I commented about American life being one in the same with American Football, you can not tell the two apart. Well, in Korea they don't have football, they have Kimchi. In one of my Korean history books page one starts with Kimchi, and pictures of Kimchi appear on pages 1 through 3. Korea has a Kimchi museum (see the picture).It has been around for nearly 3000 years, eaten and written about in ancient scribes (probably at the same time). Some stories tell of it parting the Yellow sea so Koreans could leave China, while other stories have it at the center of the big bang theory. It is so ingrained with Korean lifestyle that when posing for pictures they say "Kimchi" to get themselves to smile.

Now some facts:

Kimchi is served with every meal. That's right, breakfast, lunch and dinner; Kimchi, Kimchi, Ka-ka-Kimchi, Yum! So if your from America, we can compare it to eating, well, nothing. Nobody eats something for nearly every meal of their entire life, in America. But imagine McDonald's fries had health benefits, there, it's something like that. Most Korean families make their own Kimchi. Koreans consume on average about 40lbs of Kimchi a year, and after some research I found that the average Korean weighs 40 pounds, making them not entirely carbon based life forms but partially Kimchi based side dishes.

Health Benefits:

After living in Korea for over 8 months now, I've come to realize that nearly all Korean foods are "good for stamina", so says Korean men. But Kimchi isn't like other foods, while being good for stamina, bragging about that would be like Micheal Jordan bragging that he can dunk on one of those little plastic children's basketball hoops. More impressively, it's loaded with vitamins A, B, and C, fibers and minerals such as calcium, thiamine, riboflavin and iron, it helps digestion, may delay the skin aging process, prevents yeast infections, retards cancer growth, protects against SARS, and most recently, DEATH.

All jokes aside, Kimchi is has been voted as one of the top 5 healthiest foods on the planet. I copied and pasted almost all of those health benefit facts above from reputable health websites. All Koreans and most ex-pats living in Korea end up loving it, and can't live without it. I'm sure Kimchi is a main reason why Koreans are so thin and healthy. That being said, I still can't stomach the stuff... but I didn't want to live forever anyway.
Don't wish me dead like Rachel is in this picture. I'm happy to make jokes about a healthy Korean habit, if I was commenting on the average American diet it most likely wouldn't be as innocent.

P.S. - If you like the "Evolution of Revolution" posting you should go back and check out the reader comments.

From Me to You

Since I was elated with the number of responses to my last posting I thought I'd treat you all. I know, I know, I shouldn't, it was your pleasure, but your kind actions compel me to return the favor.
This past weekend was the lone long weekend of the Korean school year calendar, it was for "Chusok" or Korea's equivalent to Thanksgiving. In the spirit of Chusok I got a gift from the school and I wanted to share it with you. That is my gift to you, "showing you my Chusok gift." Yea, it doesn't sound like much, but what were you expecting? An official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle? No way... You'd shoot your eye out. And being that you need your eyes to read this blog, I thought I'd spare you.
Now feast your eyes upon this, safe, extraordinary gift:
Yeah, if you're like me you might be thinking something like "They gave me a briefcase? Why would I want a huge briefcase like that?"
Then I picked it up and realized the case wasn't the present, there was something inside. But what was it?

Now I don't know what the heck it is. What can be in this huge box?

I finally open it and think, "Oh, they got me a coffee table. That's so weird but really nice." Now I'm not nervous anymore, but exited to see what's inside.

Upon closer inspection it was not a briefcase, or a coffee table, it was instead...Spam. Spam and tuna, and some cooking oil too. Every teacher in the school got Spam as a gift for Chusok. Not exactly what we give out on Thanksgiving, but it was still a nice gesture.
I hope you all enjoyed the gift, and can all give thanks to everything and everyone you have. I'll have more on the weekend coming up soon.

"I'm Kind of a Big Deal"

It's crazy to think how things can change in a few short months. Just before I left The Big Apple I was jobless, my lease was running out and it seemed like I couldn't get a freelance gig if my life depended on it. Who turns down free help, I mean really? Maybe the world didn't think I was ready, it wasn't my time, I was too young, too green, but just look at me now. I'm on the other side of the world and I've become the face of Shinjin High School. Ummhmmm, yours truly has become the new face of Shinjin. I guess it's slightly less prestigious than being the face of the McDonald's or Nike like Kobe Bryant, or even the faces of Bojangles 'Famous Chicken and Buscuits' like Jake Delhomme and Steve Smith...

Actually, when the dust settles from that barn I might have them both beat. It took them years to become viable advertising leads in such breathtaking commercials that leave the industry standard in the dust. But me on the other hand, it took me only 6 months, if that. I walked into school a month late, but someone there saw the twinkle in my eye. They saw that one thing, that thing you can't put your finger on, but you know it when you see it. Well, apparently I've got it...at least in Korea I do.
Well, there is enough of my "down on his luck model" shtick. The sad thing is that a lot of people actually come to Asia to feel more important. It's easy to get caught up feeling special over here because a lot of Koreans treat you as if you are a big deal, just for being white, or American. Little do they know how many of us are actually over because we can't cut it in our own countries. From bosses, to coworkers, friends, to friends family members, it always seems to be a more special occasion when the white person is around. People want to make the more expensive dinner when you're coming over, and drink a few more bottles of suju once you're there.
I'm definitely not saying that my situation is a bad one, but it is interesting. When the Shinjin website needed a makeover did they turn to the teachers who had been there for 20 years to project the wisdom of Shinjin? Or teachers who had been there for 10 years? Or even the good looking, young, first year Korean teachers? Nope, they picked me (and Rachel, but mainly me ;)
A white, English speaking, American who can't correctly pronounce the name of the school in it's native tongue is now the vision of:
I think it's awesome but I'm not about to get a big head about all of this and end up staying here forever. I'm pretty sure there's a lot more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good looking. And I plan on finding out what that is. Just like I said, it's amazing how things can change, but while I'm here, "as a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, so must I become Derelicte!"



Shinjin Photo Shoot

A Wedding to Remember

Hello, I'm back in Korea (for better or worse). Things are good and I'm doing fine. I hope you are doing well too. It has been a while since we've spoken. I've been out of the country for a while now, and my trip to France was the longest I was away from a computer during this experience. I'll try to catch you up on what you've missed.

It seems like a really daunting task to describe my trip to France in a blog post. As I sit here my mind is running wild with images of museums, women, castles, boat rides, round-a-bouts, art, food, wine, cheese, family, friends, women, and more food, wine and cheese. And while I'm sure everyone who went to my brothers wedding has similar memories to mine, I think mine might be a bit more intense. Not just because it was my first time in Europe, or because I love to travel, but because I was coming and going from Korea. Have you ever left for vacation from another country? Or returned from vacation to another country? I'm sure that sounds like a small thing to you, but hey, you don't live in Korea...I do. Trust me, it's a weird experience.
Before I left, my well traveled coworker, Rachel, described France to me like this, "It's the opposite of Korea, you couldn't go anywhere in the universe more different than Korea, than France." After a lengthy discussion about the composition of Uranus, its atmosphere, and gaseous environment she still would not back down from her bold statement. At that time I looked at her kindly, smiled, and agreed, but in my mind I was thinking all the kimchi was going to her head, and she needed serious help. Well, a few weeks older and a tad bit wiser, I can honestly tell you, from the bottom of my heart, "SHE WAS RIGHT".

Differences, hmmmm where do I start? I guess I should start right from when I got there. I was on the subway, or Metro, leaving the Paris airport literally 10 minutes after arriving there (always avoid checking bags whenever possible), and at the first stop a nice young couple came on and sat directly across from me. That in itself has happened many times to me in Korea, but now lets take a closer look at the glaring differences in a seemingly all too common occurrence:
1. Neither the man nor the woman was Korean...(that's not like Korea at all)
2. The man and the woman were of different ethnic backgrounds...EXTREMELY rare to find that in Korea, but obese white men and small Korean women is the one minor exception to that rule.
3. The girl was showing cleavage. That was startling for me on two accounts; one, women in Korea do not show much skin around the chest or shoulders. And two, Korean women generally do not have cleavage to show.
4. They were all over each other, kissing, touching, fondling, groping, it was like I should have payed money for my seat. While in Korea, public displays of affection are strictly frowned upon. A good way to understand this is that in France when you say hello to someone you give them kisses on both cheeks, but in Korea you bow, no contact at all. It's an overly physical culture compared to a non-physical culture.
5. Lastly, and maybe the most interesting to me was...they didn't even look at me, not once. I was just a fly on the wall, even though we were face to face separated by only a few feet, my presence went unnoticed. In Korea, eyes almost always wander in the Wagooks (foreigners) direction, if not stares.

As if that wasn't enough of a rude awakening, it was barely 10 minutes after that when I nearly got caught up in a fight between about 15 black males of questionable character. I don't know if I've ever seen 15 black people together in Korea, and they definitely don't yell at each other in French and then try to beat the hell out of each other. I ended up hopping over nearly an entire subway car full of seats to escape the melee. I'm sorry I don't have a picture of it, but I'm happier being alive to share the story with you.
As a kicker to my first subway ride in Paris, the next people to sit next to me were two cute girls...who decided to make out next to me. I'm all for gay rights, but Korea is not, and I was taken by surprise seeing something that I hadn't seen in a long time. Crazy how that can happen, to see same sex kissing in New York is common place, but a few months in Korea and I was amazed.

I've written plenty and we're only about 25 minutes into my trip to France. If I stay on this pace I'll never finish, so I won't, but trust me, I could. Instead, I will try and skim through the rest.

Paris was a beautiful place. It's exactly how I pictured it, only bigger, and with even more of the things I expected than I thought; more statues, more old buildings, more museums, more parks, more tourists, and most of all more wine and cheese. I was totally amazed at how their culture seems entirely focused around art, creativity, relaxation, and enjoying life. Everywhere you look they are celebrating some one or something creative, and nearby people are relaxing and talking about it. It seemed awesome. It was like a HUGE college campus, and we all know I love them. While Korea feels almost entirely focused upon work, and America is caught somewhere in the middle, France has this one right. Enjoy life, be creative, relax, eat good food, drink good wine, and stop worrying.

After about 4 days in Paris I flew down to Bordeaux for the wedding. It's safe to say, things were not the same. The house we stayed at was built in the 15th century, the church was built in the 12th, and the entire town had only 80 people. So even while the small towns were hard to find, and caused for a lot of arguments in our car, they were secluded, peaceful, and beautiful. There were tons of grape fields, sunflower fields, rolling hills, huge castles, and again wine and cheese.

Some of the meals we ate were of epic proportions. About 40 people who threw caution to the wind in the name of Kevin and Susie's wedding prepared meals fit for kings and queens. Blocks of cheese the size of a small elephants, enough wine to get the mother and father of that elephant to fail sobriety tests; steak, chicken, sausage, duck, soup, strawberries, whipped cream, and of course chocolate. Not just a little chocolate, but like all of the other foods, loads of it, enough chocolate to have a full fledged chocolate fight, enough chocolate for there to be collateral damage in that chocolate fight. As the large French Man put it "Zay boght zee whole SUPERMARKET".

All of that fun, night after night in a castle that was haunted with the ghosts of 30 generations of French family members, and 100 generations of French rats. It was equal parts exciting, and scary, but that just made it more of an experience. This was still just leading up to the wedding.

The wedding was beautiful, all be it in French, but beautiful none-the-less. If there was one language to listen to but not understand, it's French. It was in a church built in the 12th century, that could probably only fit about 50 people. Nice and cozy for us, but perfect for Kev and Susie. After just a couple (trillion) photos, then the real party began. Back to the house for more food, drink, and festivities.

That is where the story ends for most of us. Some people getting tossed in the pool, then passing out, and then back to our normal lives in the states, Hong Kong, or Korea. Even though my story goes a little further which includes missing my flight, meeting ladies on my new flight, and teaching a class on no sleep for 36 hours, I will always love Kevin for having his wedding in France.

It takes a special person to realize when a once in a lifetime opportunity is starring them right in the face, and while most people look down and avoid it's gaze, Kevin grabs it, and gives it a big fat kiss.

Who has no relation to France what so ever, but still has their wedding there? I'll tell you who does, Kevin does. He allowed for a bunch of people from different parts of the world to gather in France and have an experience they will never forget. My Grandmother, for example, Gramma Kroll at 83 years young enjoyed her first time out of the country, and after her break dancing lesson to "I like to Move It, Move It" there wasn't a person around who could contain there gratefulness for being able to be there.

Thanks Kevin. From everyone. We all had a great time. This is just the beginning for you and Susie but I hope you can always look back and think about how wonderfully it all began because we always will.

More pics can be seen at these links:
The Wedding Photographer's pictures
My pictures
Megan's pictures
Jen and Terrance's pictures #1 and Jen and Terrance's pictures #2
Kim's pictures
Chris's pictures

Fun Fact #2

Interestingly enough, I thought this fun fact, while partly inappropriate, needed to be shared with the rest of the world. It deals with Korean body odor. They don't have any. Their food can smell like a month old corpse, their streets can (and commonly do) smell like sewers, but their bodies don't seem to smell at all. I don't know how it's done, but from my experience it seems to be true. Mindy swears to me that some people on the subway stink like feces, well that's how I described the people who smelt on New York subways, and she concurred with my assessment. But that only goes to show you that you cannot make broad sweeping comments about a group of people, but that's exactly what I'm doing. Heck, they don't even sell deodorant at supermarkets, but they really don't need to. It's not a problem.

I believe it is due to the healthiness of the Korean diet. But what scares me is how bad Americans can smell when we go for a 10 minute jog. How gross must our diets be for us, when even after putting on plenty of deodorant, we still stink when we're done. As much as a good diet is important in America, who ever thinks about a diet that might make you smell better? No one, but apparently it's out there.

With all that being said, you can see the western foods creeping in on Korean society. McDonald's is always filled with young children and I fear that in the years to come, the good smelling Korean will become a thing of the past. But if that is true, we will always have it down in writing here, that at one point, this was the way it was.

Sweet, Sweet Exams Week

Last week of school was the type of week you dream of as a teacher. It was exams week. On exams week there is no EBS (English Broadcast System) period, so I got to go in 45 minutes later too school (or more importantly, sleep 45 minutes longer). Then during school there are no classes to teach (YAHOOOOOOOO!). There are only 3 periods of test taking. Usually I had to proctor about one test a day. All that intailed was standing around looking at kids take tests. But I like to walk around to make them nervous, and mess up. Haha, just kidding, but I do. Then after the three periods you eat lunch, and the rest of the day is yours to do as you please. And yes, I pleased to do a lot.
Okay, Monday was the badminton tournament. I had been looking forward to it for over a week, I had big plans. But the head of the English department planned a special lunch with the foreign teachers after school, so I wasn't sure I was going to be able to make it to the tourney. After airing my greivences with my badminton club (it helps to have friends in high places), they told me they would push off my games, and it would all work out. So "Big" Paul, Rachel and I went out to eat with the head of the English departement around noon on Monday. Up until that point I thought this man was just a normal quiet guy. After he slammed two bottles of Soju, smoked a cigaret, cigar, and pipe at the tabe in about an hours time, lets just say my view of him changed, just slightly. And anyone who knows someone who likes to drink, you know they make sure they're not drinking alone, so I had to join. A few beers later I was off to the Badminton tourney. Being a little tipsy made me nervous that I would make a fool of myself in front of all my new badminton friends. Well, that fear was quickly dissolved when I walked into the gym full of flying shuttle-cocks and saw the table of food, and yes, DRINKS. Since I was late I was thrown right into the action. 5 games later I was the undefeated champion. I'd like to say I'm proud of that, but it was in group B. Due to some scheduling problems I was not placed in group A. The problem being that there were only 6 people in group A, that makes three teams. 7 people doesn't work, and I think if I was going to take someone's place in group A it might have been the principals spot, and NO ONE is going to do that. So it was awesome plowing through group B, but everyone agreed that next time I would be a group A player. That was Monday.
Tuesday was my second mountain climbing experience. We went to Boo-kan-san mountain, one of the most famous mountains in South Korea. It was a much bigger mountiain then the one we hiked on our first trip, and much harder too. There was no Snickers break on this hike, no Soju on the backside of the mountain, no easy way out. It was a good tiring hike up, but to be honest, the hike down that kicked my butt. It was like an hour straight of stepping down at a 45 degree angle, onto large, sharp, rocks. And while everyone else there is wearing big thick hiking shoes, of course, I am wearing an old worn out pare of Addidas. It was an hour of thinking "don't get hurt", "don't fall", "don't die", or something of that sort with every step. But I made it down, and I'm happy I did it (yet, also glad it's behind me though too). Wednesday was spent allowing my feet to recover from the climb.
Thrusday, I took my first trip to Cosco. It was amazing. It was like a western culture oasis in the middle of Seoul. There were muffins, ground beef, steak, forks, large towels, and much more. My head was spinning, it was like I wanted everything. Inside people even said "excuse me" to me when they wanted to get by (usually because I was druling over some food). Can you believe that? Well, I bought plenty of stuff, but I will be back again sometime soon.
The trip to Cosco on Thursday was needed because Friday I threw a housewarming party. An event I think all teachers were secretly looking forward too. I had pleny of food and drinks for everyone. In all I think around 15 teachers came, although there were never 15 people there at one time. But it is a Korean custom to bring a gift to someone's house when they invite you, so take a look at this gift list: A large knife, a cutting board, a pot, a pan, plates, cups, spices, a trash can, chocolate, tissues, toilet paper, and a stand-alone clothes hanger, with hangers. Besides all of the gifts, it was a huge success as a party. I think everyone had a really good time. It was a great ending to Exams week.

Friends of a Friends Friend

Thanks to a friend I made back at Penn State, Karen, I have been emailing with another English teacher out here in Korea for about two months now, Amanda. She seemed like an extremely nice girl in here emails. You know, the type of girl who writes novels when all you ask is "how's the food?". She'd give you a detailed breackdown of the Korean food pyramid, serving size, price, and last but not least, taste. Well, we finally got to meet when she visited Seoul a little over a week ago. She brought another friend, and her Korean cousin. It is always a nice little treat to be able to talk freely in English with people, without repeating yourself, or having to dumb down your speach like you're talking to a 5 year old. Especially new, fun people, and it doesn't hurt that they were girls either. We met in downtown Seoul and I think it was pretty much fun at first sight. It only took minutes for us to be making fun of each other. Them making fun of New Jersey, and me making fun of wherever they were from, they are places not worth mention on a classy blog site like this. We walked around a little, shared some laughs, saw some sights, went to dinner, got ice cream, and then went out for drinks. Thats basically the night in a nutshell. The highlights were pretty good though:
-Cold Stone Creamery: Yes, after dinner we didn't get just any ice cream, we got Birthday Cake remix's, Berry Berry Good's, and Korea's favorite, Green-Tea Bagger's. First off, you have to understand that Korean food is not sweet, I'm not sure they even knew what sugar was before the white man came. All of there "desserts" taste more like flavorless gum, that was dropped in the dirt, then actual desserts. So visiting the most overly indulgent ice cream chain on the planet over here, was not so much a "kid in a candy store" type scenario for me, but more like a "fat kid who has been starved down to skin and bones allowed into Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory" type of scenario. Their ice cream concoctions are so delectable I actaully felt like I had gotten the golden ticket. In the words of Ferris Beuller, "It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up."
While ordering Amanda tried to be a "friendly American" (I want to say ignorant, but I like her) by leaning over the counter and saying "In America they sing for us when we leave a tip" (but there is no tipping in Korea, so she didn't know what to do). The eyes of the high school aged girl lit up behind the counter, "Sing? Song!" Then her and her coworkers bursted into song (Amazingly in English) about Cold Stone Cremery sung to the tune of "Meet the Flinstones". Because we all started laughing so hard I didn't catch too much of it but for the final line, instead of "We're a modern stone-age familyyy" it was "While you eat we sing in harmonyyy". We were the only people there who could understand it, but we got a big enough kick out of it for the entire line of Korean people there. Only later did we realize we could laugh even harder while still eating our ice cream.
We sat on a bench, on the piano street when a group of college aged girls sat on a bench across from us. Well there was one too many for the bench and the one that got stuck squating showed her crack to roughly 1000 passer-bye's in the 10 minutes she didn't hear us laughing at her. Our stomachs hurt by the end of the night, and not from the ice-cream. Who knew half of a Korean butt, shown in an extremely public place, could have been so funny. I joked about taking a picture at the time, but now I really wish I would have.
This was a nice day with some good old American fun.

Racap

Okay, so with a little free time today because the gym was closed for some reason or another (there was a paper taped to the window but it was in Korean, however I gather it said "Closed"), I was able to put up some pictures of things I talked about in earlier posts. So if you’re interested check them out. Otherwise I kinda just wanna catch you all up on some of the events that have gone on in the 3 weeks I've been here. The biggest event so far was on my second day in Korea. It was the schools annual teachers party. It is basically an eating, drinking, Karaoke feast, and it was a lot of fun. At the time I barely knew anyone, but that didn't stop people from being really nice to me. That has to be the best picture of the night...can no one say "Paul YOUR IN THE DAMN PICTURE!!! SIT DOWN" nope, not when they don't speak your language, they just take your camera and then make you look like a fool. It was an awesome night. There was some rookie teacher hazing where we had to sing in front of a schools worth of teachers into a spoon, during dinner. But it was all in good humor. It was my first real taste of the culture. You had to take your shoes off at the door, sit on the floor, and they cooked the food right in front of you. I couldn't sit indian style for more then 10 minutes at a time though, who sits Indian style anyway? I thought that was just for little kids, but that brings me to my first goal to accomplish in my year here in Korea: Get in better shape, strength & flexibility. I felt like a moron not being able to sit the way everyone else was, not like they cared, but I did. When I went to my knees the woman next to me laughed and told me that’s how kids sit at the table in Korea when they're getting punished. So before this trip I always said I was unflexible, like it was a disease I caught, but it's not, it's something I can change so I'm going to change it. Here are some more pics of the night: Me with Mr. Jong
Me with Rachel (another English teacher) and Mr. Kim (the principal) who is a really nice guy, funny, and one of the best English speakers in the school, thank god.


Here is just one table of the 3 that the school was taking up:



Can you see the one white guy in the picture?
That's another foreigner, his name is Paul and he's from Canada. Yup that's right. 3 white people in a school of over a thousand and we have two Paul's. Not cool. Because of this confusion they have made up nicknames for us. His include 'Big Paul" and 'Superman" while mine are 'handsome Paul', 'small Paul', and apparently they kids have some Korean nickname that translates to 'skinhead'. I found a ton of irony in all of this for a number of reasons. They said having two Paul's was too confusing for them, but I teach classes with 12 Mr. Kim’s, 9 Mr. Lee's, and 5 Mr. Pak's. What's so hard about 2 Paul's? Also when anyone referred to me as small Paul...I was bigger then them. It wasn't very PC but it was pretty funny. As for the kids referring to me as skinhead. Everyone here seemed to love to talk about my bald head when I got here. I would say nearly all of my first conversations where about it. I'm not really sure what they thought about it, but they loved saying "so you're going bald, huh?" Or something close to that like "no hair?", "Him hair, you no" all prodding at the same idea. There is even a teacher who is an acupuncturist who wants to give me treatment to help me grow my hair. And yes of course, he's not only the president, he's also a client, he showed me before and after pictures. Alright, well this recap has gone on long enough. You can check out the rest of the pictures from the teachers party night on my Picasa page. I was really dragging today, if I bored you I hope I can cheer you up with a short video from Big Paul: