Korean Spring: The Tease

Hey all,

I apologize for the lack of pictures in the last few posts, I haven't really taken any new photos recently.  It's a product of hanging out with a group of people where at least one person always has their camera and will take pictures over the course of the weekend.  But, don't get discouraged, for there will be new pictures in the next post and here's why:  this weekend Dave and I are traveling to Jeju-do (affectionately known as Korea's Hawaii) for a frisbee tournament, so I will have my camera prepped and ready to go when we're not playing.  Referring back to the title of this post, the weather continues to be up and down, but we haven't been able to string together a solid week of nice weather yet.  This past weekend was great, mid-60s F and sunny during the day, but cooler at night.  The brief glimpse of nice weather inspired Dave and myself to venture out to frisbee, which was pretty good.  I hadn't played since last September and for Dave it was even longer, but it was enjoyable and we're both really excited for the tournament this coming weekend.  We spent the majority of last weekend in Seoul and it was another successful weekend. 

In other news, not too much else has changed.  School is still going well and my students seem to be improving, so that is always encouraging.  Last Friday night, I finally gave in and saw The Blind Side.  It was a pretty good movie, not quite up there with Mighty Ducks or The Sandlot or Remember the Titans, in terms of awesome sports movies, but it was well done and the story was pretty remarkable.  Last Friday the whole school went on field trips, but since my co-teacher and I don't have a homeroom class, we stayed behind.  This was great for me because it meant I got to watch the 1st round of the NFL draft, only to see the Vikings trade out of the 1st round.  We also had an awesome 삼겹살  (samgyeopsal) barbeque for lunch with tons of side dishes as well.  It was a great end to last week. 

I'm still waiting to here back on my official vacation days in August, but like I said before, once I know for sure, I'll let everyone know what my game plan is.  That's all from this end. 

Book recommendation:  I picked up this book about a month ago on a recommendation from a friend.  Some of you may know that my senior history seminar last year focused on Caligula and, while this novel takes place a little later in Roman history, it has definitiely re-peaked my interest in the aforementioned subject.  It is a very good work of historical fiction and a definite page turner.  A good combination of facts, details, and an intricate and exciting plot.









What I'm listening to: "Love Like a Sunset Pts. I and II" by Phoenix

Links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5sks4wK4Lc&playnext_from=TL&videos=t-1ZqK9Cnzo&feature=grec

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJYUSdX-Rps&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_pvpjAM0FA

Where Are You Spring?

Hi all,

As you can guess by the title, or even by looking at the little weather tool I have on the side of the blog, the weather here hasn't quite reached or maintained the normal, comfortable levels that I've been used to.  Slowly but surely we're getting there, although the weather dropped down over the weekend, today was warmer and tomorrow (fingers crossed) the forecast is for a high of 71 F, which would be amazing.  Good enough for me to check out the rooftop garden on my building and get some quality tennis in.  Speaking of which, last Thursday Alex Mory and I played tennis against the same Korean Army guys that we usually play against in Bugok (where Alex lives, roughly 10 min from me on the subway).  Afterwards, they wanted to take us for dinner, which we went to, and then afterwards they took us to the basement of this building, which was home to an underground ping pong society.  We played a few games ( I was extremely rusty), but I thought it was great, the place seemed right out of a movie.  In other news, not too much excitement over the weekend.  Friday night I hung out with some friends in Suwon.  The birthday plans for Alex (Samel) on Saturday had to be postponed due to some food poisoning, courtesy of some oysters, that hit both Dave and Alex.  So, instead of celebrating with them, we decided to celebrate in honor of them.  Saturday afternoon we met up in Hongdae, which if I haven't mentioned it before, is a university area in west Seoul, that is very artsy and has an Uptown or State St. (in Madison) feel to it.  Lots of cool little boutiques and vintage places and coffee shops/cafes/restaurants galore.  We partook in all the aforementioned and had a delicious dinner before the real night events began.  In short, it was a great night and great weekend overall and there was plenty of noraebang.  My highlights were "Maggie May," "Under Pressure," "More Than a Feeling," and "Back in the USSR."  Yesterday I got to catch some NHL playoff action, as well as NBA playoffs via the Slingbox, which was nice.

Today, I bought my ticket to the World DJ Fest, which is happening in Seoul on May 8th.  It sounds pretty interesting and is an all day and night affair, which should be a lot of fun.  There is also a summer music festival here at the end of July called the Jisan Valley Rock Festival.  The full lineup hasn't been released yet, but it's basically Korea's Bonnaroo or Lollapalooza.  The headliners are Muse, Massive Attack, and Belle and Sebastian (very excited to see).  While the lineup isn't as strong as the other festivals I've been to in the past, I think it will still be fun, so hopefully I end up going.  I also want to catch a Korean baseball game soon, I'm definitely missing some live baseball, can't wait to go to Target Field when I'm home, which brings me to my last point.  I'm tentatively looking at being home in North America for most of the first three weeks in August.  I'll obviously let everyone know the exact dates when I get them, but that's the plan for now and I am definitley planning on heading to Toronto (and possibly Madison) when I'm home.

Top 5 things I'm currently craving:
1.  Lox and cream cheese with capers on an everything bagel
There is sashimi-grade salmon in Korea, but it isn't even comparable to good gravalox (I hope you're taking notes Mom, I guarantee I'll still be craving these things in 4 months).
2.  Pastrami on rye with good dill pickles and brown mustard
No real delis in Korea (maybe I'll change that...).
3.  Chipotle burrito
4.  Punch pizza (sad, but true)
5.  Trader Joe's
Definitely going to make a trip there when I get home, probably just straight from the airport.  But, last summer I basically lived off their food.  It's sooooooo good.

Ok, that's all from here.

What I'm listening to: "Sometimes" by Rhett Miller

Links:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFcVlQPx11w

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O4GagrfqO8

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeFlPxMTP24

Birthdays Galore (Soccer too!)

Hey all,

Back with a new post.  The past weekend was pretty good, although it wasn't as active as the one before.  Friday night a large group of English teachers, mostly from Pyeongtaek (roughly 30 min south of Suwon by subway), plus a few others, met up to celebrate a birthday and the festivities started at the Suwon Samsung BlueWings game.  I knew a few of the teachers from orientation, but I hadn't seen them since December, so this was good opportunity for everyone to meet up again.  The game was pretty lackluster, definitely not a full capacity crowd (much different than the FC Seoul game I went to in the fall), but the diehard home fans were fun to watch and it was good to finally get out to a game.  The stadium is pretty awesome, it was built for the World Cup back in 2002, when Japan and South Korea co-hosted.  After the game we headed back towards the Station (my neck of the woods) to have ourselves a good time and a good time was definitely had by all.  On Saturday I headed north to Ilsan to meet up with Dave and Alex, who I hadn't seen in a lititle while.  We saw Green Zone, which was just released here a few weeks ago.  I thought it was a decent but definitely not a great movie.  It had its moments, but it didn't stand out as a whole like some other similar movies.  Saturday night we headed into Seoul to celebrate another birthday and as most of you can guess by now, we used Sunday to relax and unwind.

In other news, I've been trying to catch up on some new TV programs from back home.  I've started watching The Pacific, the new miniseries by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, basically Band of Brothers set in the Pacific instead of Europe during WWII.  I thoroughly enjoyed BOB and so far (I'm only a few episodes in), I really like The Pacific as well.  I also caught the premiere episode of Treme, a new series by the creator of The Wire (possibly my favorite drama ever).  Treme follows the life of the citizens of New Orleans post-Katrina and seems like it's going to be a very good show.  It has a very interesting cast and even had a special cameo in the first episode (I won't tell you who, but you'll know if you watch).  Dave also turned me on to a new cartoon on FX called Archer.  I will warn you before I continue, Archer is extremely hilarious, but most of the humor is extremely crude so watch at your own risk.  For people like me, who have a sense of humor that can drift towards the gutter from time to time, it is almost the perfect show.  The show is basically James Bond + Mad Men + cartoon + a huge adrenaline kick.  Also, a few of the character voices come from the cast of Arrested Development (probably my favorite comedy show), so Archer is pretty much a natural fit.  In music news, I just got the new Dr. Dog album as well as the new Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, and both are very good.  I'll link from both at the end of the post.  That's all from this end, Alex's birthday is this weekend, which should be a fun celebration for all.

What I'm listening to: "Shame, Shame" by Dr. Dog

Book recommendation:  Evening's Empire by Bill Flanagan
Dad sent me this book a little over a month ago and it was a very good read from cover to cover.  For anyone that is remotely close to as big a music fan as myself or Dad, I think you'll really enjoy this.  It basically details the career of a band's manager and the band over four decades, beginning in 1965 in London and ending roughly around present day.
















Dr. Dog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyobxZmLG2g

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ouI5KcyHfE

Weekend Camping Excursion

Hi all,

As promised, I'm back with a second post this evening about my camping trip to Songnisan National Park in Chungcheongbuk-do, about 2 1/2 hours southeast of Seoul.  The weather finally started to warm up a little bit last week, enough that a few of us decided to go and hit up some early season camping.  You could definitely tell it was the beginning of the camping season once we arrived at the park; there were only a few tents set up and not many more were put up as the day went on.  Anyways, I'm getting ahead of myself.  Much thanks to Sara and Rebecca, who did most of the planning for the trip.  We all met up Saturday early morning (9:30, but it's the weekend, definitely a few hours earlier than the usual awakening hour) at the bus terminal in Seoul.  On our way there from Suwon we passed a Land O'Lakes delivery truck on the highway headed towards Seoul, but unfortunately, I was waking up from a little nap and wasn't quick enough with my camera to get a picture.  Note to Dad: you'll have to make sure Randy lets whoever's in charge of distribution out here that they are getting noticed, even if it's just me.  Back to the camping trip, the bus ride took a little over 2 1/2 hours and I used the time to get more rest in before we officially started our day.  Once we reached Songnisan (pronounced Son-ri-san) we made our way to the pretty vacant campsite and set up shop.  We had 2 tents for the 6 of us, so there was a decent amount of room to sleep.  We had plenty of food to get us through the rest of the day and the next morning.  After we declared ourselves sufficiently set up, we set out towards the Buddhist temple at the foot of the hiking trails, which is where the huge golden Buddha below is located.

The temple grounds were pretty cool, similar to other Buddhist temples that I've been to in Korea.  After exploring in and around the temple we made our way back to camp where we tried to start a campfire.  Unfortunately, most of the wood around the campgrounds was very wet still and was useless.  We also had a hard time finding logs to build our fire around.  So, we made do with kindling and pine needles until we found some halfway decent wood, which we eventually did find.  We also bought some split logs later in the evening to make sure our fire kept going strong until we were ready to call it quits for the night.  While the weather was pretty nice during the day (it got up to roughly 14-15 degrees Celsius or mid-50s F), the temperature dropped pretty quickly at night.  Even though we were all bundled up in the tents, in our sleeping bags, sweatshirts and sweatpants, I was still pretty cold.  I'm guessing it got close to freezing overnight and most of us woke up the next morning shivering.  But, once we got the fire started again, it was fine.  We had a great tripper breakfast of eggs and veggies, matzah (for some), toast (for others), tea and coffee.  After breakfast we decided that most of us were ready to head back to Seoul, so we did just that.  I had a really great time camping, even if the weather was still a little cooler than I'd like it to be.  As most of you know, I generally enjoy being outdoors and my years at camp have made me appreciate the canoe trips and camping experiences that are a part of every summer.  It was nice to get away from the city for a weekend and I'm hoping that as the weather continues to get nicer, we can get more camping trips in on the weekends.

As I said in the last post, the weather this week has been pretty nice in the afternoons.  Not very warm compared to home, but warm enough for some tennis after school.  In other exciting news, I finally got a new pair of shoes.  I've been searching here for a few months now, but the highest size most shoe stores here carry is US size 12, so I just miss the cut off.  I resorted to ordering a new pair online from Simple Shoes and they came in 2-3 business days, which was awesome, even if shipping cost as much as the shoes themselves.  Not sure what's on tap for this coming weekend, the plans are still in the works.  That's all from this end, hope all is well with everyone reading.

What I'm listening to: "Brackett, WI" by Bon Iver

Enjoy the pics:

Seder/Bob Dylan Concert

Hi all,

Sorry for the long break in between posts.  I haven't really been home much, between camping last weekend and playing tennis the last few days after school.  Anyways, here is the first of two posts to go up today (hopefully!). 

Last Monday night, Rebecca and I went to seder at the Air Force base in Osan (roughly 20 minutes on the subway from Suwon).  Much thanks to Andrew Gruen who put me in touch with the rabbi at the Army base at Yongsan in Seoul, who in turn put me in contact with the people leading seder in Osan.  It was definitely much more convenient to attend rather than rushing from school to Seoul and it was a very nice and homey atmosphere.  We got to seder a little late, but still in time to enjoy some matzah and bitter herbs, as well as the Hillel sandwich (my favorite).  Dinner was great, I hadn't been that full in a long while.  We had roasted chicken and herbs, gefiltte fish, green beans, corn, roasted potatoes, some more veggies and salad.  They also had plenty of macaroons and chocolate covered matzah.  Overall it was a really nice meal and a good seder.  Being on base was like apperating back to the U.S.  The base in Osan is set up like a real town, which is nothing like I imagined.  When I think of a base, even a modern base, I think of something out of M.A.S.H. or another war movie.  This base had a full school system for family members (elementary, middle, and high schools), a Chili's, Taco Bell, Subway, Long John Silver's, a movie theater, supermarket, and other common places you would find in any American town.  Definitely a weird but interesting experience and now that Rebecca and I have a contact who can get us on base, we might venture back in the future.  At school the next day I introduced the students in my special class to chocolate covered matzah, which they couldn't get enough of (not surprising, anything that remotely resembles chocolate or candy is like gold to them). 

The week kept on rolling on and finally the Bob Dylan concert came around on Wednesday evening.  We swiftly made our way from our respective schools out to Olympic Park on the southeast end of Seoul.  The set was pretty good, basically what we expected given that it was Bob's first time playing in South Korea, but there were still a few welcomed surprises.  Here it is:
1. Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35
2. Lay Lady Lay
3. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
4. Stuck Inside of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
5. The Levee's Gonna Break
6. Just Like A Woman
7. Honest With Me
8. Sugar Baby
9. High Water (For Charley Patton)
10. Desolation Row
11. Highway 61 Revisted
12. Shelter From The Storm
13. Thunder On The Mountain
14. Ballad Of A Thin Man

1st Encore:
15. Like A Rolling Stone
16. Jolene
17. All Along The Watchtower

2nd encore:
18. Blowin' In the Wind

It was a good show, although you could tell that this is probably close to the last hurrah for Bob.  I don't think voice, even as it is today, can hold up on tour for much longer.  It was a good mix of classics and songs from his more recent albums.  All in all, it made for a very enjoyable evening and a good midweek break.  That's all from here for now, expect a new post about the weekend camping excursion after dinner later tonight (or Wed. morning for most of you).  Oh, and how could I forget, congrats to the Twins on a big win last night.  So happy baseball season has started, now I get questions from some of my students like "Do you know Choo Shin Soo?" or "Kim Byung-Hyung played for Arizona teacher."  Puts a smile on my face for sure.

What I'm listening to: "Our Faces Split the Coast in Half" by Broken Social Scene