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.

Bored???

Even while I made this blog so that people I know can keep up to date with what I'm doing in Korea, I've started to hope that maybe anyone might check out my blog when they have some spare time. Obviously, that is wishful thinking, but after almost 3 full months of blogging, you have to lie to yourself and tell yourself that people ARE READING what you write. Otherwise, I'd be writing for nothing, or no one, and that wouldn't last long.

So if you do come to this blog because you know me, or like what I write or whatever, maybe you will like similar things that I do. I came across three video's recently that I thought were good enough to share on my blog. If you have some time to kill, which I know a lot of you do, I'm suggesting that you check them out.

Video #1:
Out of all of these videos, I think this one is the MUST SEE of the bunch. For all of you native English speakers out there, who don't realize the rest of the world is dying to learn our language, this should open your eyes a little. It opened my eyes, and made my jaw hit the floor. I can't even believe it was made on this planet. But either way TAKE A LOOK! It's an English lesson / Exercise video for Japanese speakers.
If you laughed as hard as I did at that video, please check out a related one that comes up after the video finishes (YouTube is getting pretty high tech). It's called "Learn English Korean Style".

Video #2:
If you know me, you know I'm kind of a softy sometimes. This is just a heartwarming clip. I don't really watch shows like American Idol, but I came across this clip and it blew me away. It starts of slow, but I thought there was a good enough pay off in the end to put it on my blog.


Video #3:
If you're not in the serious mood, skip this one for now. It is a one man rant on global warming, but an educated rant. When I first watched this video, as the video starts I wanted to hate the guy speaking. Then he started to get pretty interesting, but I still didn't want to like him. Thennnn, he won me over, and I liked him. But in the end he was really lame, and I just thought he was a loser. However, he did bring up some good points, and this topic is somthing we all need to think about, dispite his lack of charisma. If you're up to it, and got 10 minutes, give it a look.



If after all that you are still bored, and still have more time to kill, try finding your house on my map at the bottom of the page. It sounds lame but when you zoom it as far as it goes, for some reason it's intersting. I found my school in Korea, my home in New Jersey, my high school, Giant Stadium, and I can't explain it but it's fun. Take my word for it and give it a try. If you don't like it you just burned some more boring time anyway.