SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER, SCHOOL'S OUT FOREVER!!

Okay, so the last day of elementary school in South Korea isn't quite like the last day of middle school/high school in 1976 Texas, but it's close.  Right now I'm still kind of in disbelief at how quickly two years has flown by.  Technically I have two days of "goodbye" classes when I get back from vacation in August, but for all intents and  purposes, today was the last day regular classes for me.  I have two weeks of English summer camp coming up to close out July and that's pretty much it.  I apologize for the long time in between blog posts the last few months.  I want to make the content I put up on this blog as interesting as possible, which is why I have kept from posting some of the more mundane experiences that I've had here.  That being said, this blog post is gonna be pretty long because a lot of funny and interesting things have happened in the last few weeks.

I'll start with a little school story that happened a few weeks ago.  Back in February my school had a decent amount of changeover in the teaching and administrative staff.  One of the new administrative staff, a man named Mr. Song, joined our school.  His main duties, as I understand them, are to stock the cafeteria with the necessary food and cooking supplies and to also help out in the administrative office with paperwork, etc...the normal school bureaucracy routine.  Anyways, Mr. Song has a real passion for learning English, which naturally led him to me.  So, back in February, when we had a lot of free time and no classes, he would drop by and ask me some questions and I would try and help him understand the answers to his questions.  Obviously once school started up again in March, neither of us had the free time we had before, so we couldn't meet up and chat as often.  But, now that the spring semester was coming to a close, we had some more free time again.  As it so happens, Mr. Song found out that I really like music (he's heard me playing piano from time to time), and as it turns out, he has been practicing/learning guitar and is pretty good.  He started up a band with a few other teachers from my school and another elementary school nearby.  They have been learning a few Korean songs, but a few weeks ago, he came to me with a question about an English song.  He had come across the song "Come on Feel the Noise," by Quiet Riot, an 80's hair metal band.  He had a question about the spelling, because the version he came across was spelled differently (I'll let you use your imagination to figure out what was misspelled).  I had to explain to him the difference in spelling without revealing too much or cracking up in hysterical laughter.  Well, it turns out, the reason he wanted to know about the song is because he wanted me to sing LEAD VOCALS on the song with his band.  I put this off for a few weeks because a. I don't really know the song all that well and b. I didn't really want to do it all.  Finally, last week I gave in and tried to channel my inner Roger Daltrey/Eddie Vedder (I think that's what I sounded like, but I can't be too certain) and gave it the old college try.  Apparently I wasn't too bad and now they want me to perform the song for all the teachers on my last day (I'm not so sure about this, lyrical content aside), so we'll see if this actually happens.  Anyways, here's what I'll look and sound like if we do end up going through and performing for everyone.

The last two weeks of school have pretty much been a joke.  Last week the students had final exams on Tuesday and then we went on a field trip to a water park on Thursday.  Originally my plan was to just hang out with the other teachers indoors or out by the pools, but I still brought my swimsuit just in case.  Two of the younger male teachers decided they were going to go swimming as well and I decided that I probably should join them or fear the wrath of the entire student body.  So I went in and almost instantly I had ten students dangling off of each of my arms.  Swimming at a water park in Korea is a different experience than it is back home.  In Korea, everybody needs to wear a life jacket and a bathing cap.  I didn't have a bathing cap, so I lasted in the water as long as I could before any of the lifeguards noticed.  I remember going swimming with my cabin at camp but that was tame compared to swimming with all of my students.  It was so crazy, I'm glad I'm a pretty good swimmer, otherwise I might've been in trouble.  

Then, last weekend, all the teachers from my school went on a teachers trip to Seonyudo, an island on the west coast of Korea, about 2 1/2 hours south of Suwon.  I didn't know what to expect from the trip, other than some awesome seafood meals and a decent amount of alcohol consumption to celebrate the end of the semester.  We took a bus from school down to Gunsan, where we hopped on boats to cruise over to the island.  Seonyudo is part of an island chain and we were able to check out the other islands by boat before landing at Seonyudo.  Our approach to Seonyudo reminded me of the scene in Shutter Island when Leo and Mark Ruffalo are approaching, the combination of fog and rain set the mood.  That night after we settled into our pension, we had an incredible seafood dinner, complete with many varieties of raw fish and spicy fish stew.  After dinner, the restaurant brought over buckets, literally buckets!!, of shellfish that we grilled and ate outside our pension.  The next activity was a trip to the local noraebang to belt out some classics and standards.  I am proud to say I rocked the Temptations,"My Girl," for a 100%.  It was definitely a fun night and Saturday also proved to be a fun day.  Originally we were supposed to bike around the island, but it was pretty wet so we took golf carts instead.  Afterwards, it had cleared up a bit and we were able to bike around for a little while before we had to depart.  We stopped for lunch in Gunsan afterwards and had a great crab meal.  We got back to school Saturday afternoon and then I headed in to Seoul to celebrate Judy's birthday.

Sunday was also a pretty eventful day.  The spring league Frisbee playoffs had been postponed due to the monsoons that have dropped down on Korea the last few weeks.  If you haven't seen in the weather, it's been pretty wet here since July began.  Anyways, Sunday was the new designated day, but the field was so soft and muddy that cleats weren't allowed, so we played barefoot (getting back to our roots!).  My team finished 2nd in the league, so we had a bye into the semifinals.  We ended up winning in semifinals 13-9 and got to watch the other semifinal to see who our finals opponent would be.  The finals was close to start, but my team went on a pretty long run and ended up winning the final.  It was a little anticlimactic, but it still felt good.  This was the first tournament that I had won in quite some time.  

So, that's about all from here.  This weekend is Mudfest down in Boryeong, which if you don't know about or don't remember, you can check out my blog post about the event last year.  http://wolfishinkorea.blogspot.com/2010/07/wethotmuddy-fun.html

Otherwise, I'm cashing in on all the Harry Potter hysteria and made a Harry Potter themed summer camp, hopefully the students enjoy it.

Here are some pics:

Some of the teachers and myself on the boat over to Seonyudo.

CHAMPIONS with our PIG OF GLORY!!

What I'm listening to: "Jemimah Surrender" by The Band

Toro y Moi concert

It's been a pretty busy couple of weeks here as I was in final preparations for the GRE and getting through the day to day of teaching school through the recent warm weather.  Luckily, I had a chance to catch the Toro y Moi concert last Thursday as a brief respite from my studying and the mundane work week.  The concert was good while it lasted, but unfortunately, it only lasted for 45 minutes.  It seems that the venue where the concert was held (V-Hall in Hongdae) must have some new deal or new management because they have been cutting sets short at pretty much every concert held there since the start of the new year.  They are definitely pushing people to go to an after party at another club, which is pretty lame, given that I spent 1,000 won for each minute of music I heard last Thursday night.  Again, I don't have anything against the musicians, I doubt it's their fault and I heard that they were pretty friendly with the audience at the after party.  Unfortunately, I couldn't go because I wanted to get a good night's rest back in Suwon.  It's sad to think that this was potentially my last concert experience in Korea, especially given how successful the rest of the concerts I've gone to have been in comparison to the Toro y Moi concert.  The music was great though, and definitely got my mind off of the test, if only for a few brief hours.

It's hard to believe that in a month I'm pretty much finished with teaching in South Korea.  I'll have more to reflect on then I'm sure, but my immediate thoughts right now are that it has definitely been a very valuable experience that I'll remember for the rest of my life.  The frisbee season has a few weeks left as well and then that will come to a close.  In my head I've tried to come up with a short bucket list of things or places I'd like to see that I haven't been to or done yet.  So far not too much comes to mind, but I'm still working on it.  I figured I'd drop in and give everyone a brief update while I had the time this afternoon.  Hope everyone is well wherever you may be!

What I'm listening to: "Wordless Chorus" by My Morning Jacket featuring Erykah Badu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUWBOdK7h1w

Also if you want to check out Toro y Moi:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Gqh4e1S6j0

Beijing Bonanza!

Hey all,

As it turns out, I'm still really good at procrastinating.  Now, all joking aside (at least for now) here is my write up of Beijing that most of you have been anxiously waiting for.  I apologize for making you wait so long, just know that the anticipation was definitely worth it.

I suppose I should start at the beginning; I arrived in Beijing on Friday evening after a nice, short week of work thanks in part to Children's Day and Sports Day (I love school holidays!).  Getting to and from the airport in Beijing is pretty pain-free.  They built a fast train into the heart of the city in preparation for the 2008 Olympics and it was definitely a good decision.  The train took roughly 30 minutes to get into the heart of Beijing and it was another 30 minutes on the subway to reach my hostel.  I chose to stay at a hostel called the Chinese Box Hostel (http://www.boxhostel.com/tour.html#p1), which is located in a hutong, an traditional Chinese neighborhood, of which there are still several all around Beijing.  It was also pretty close to the metro, which made traveling around Beijing pretty easy and accessible.  By the time I got to my hostel, I was pretty hungry and tired, so I dropped my things off and went exploring around the neighborhood for some food.  I ended up at a Muslim Chinese restaurant that had some pretty good Chinese cuisine and some excellent bread that was similar to naan.  Afterwards I hung around the hostel and met some of the people there and called it a night.

When I woke up on Saturday I wasn't sure what I was going to do.  I had a general idea of what I wanted to see, but I wasn't sure in what order I should do everything.  One of my roommates had decided that he wanted to go cycling around Beijing and stop at a few different destinations along the way.  I figured that this would be a pretty interesting way to explore Beijing, especially since it was my first full day in the city, what better way to see Beijing then by bike, just like the locals do everyday!  We were able to rent bikes from our hostel and then we were off, cruising around the city.  The weather was perfect for a long day of cycling around the city, as would be the case almost every day of the trip, with the exception of a downpour on Sunday night.  The first stop on our bike tour of Beijing was Beihai Park, which was pretty close to our hostel (maybe a 20 minute bike ride).  It is a huge park and is famous for the White Dagoba it houses.  Check it out:

White Dagoba at Beihai Park

While we were at the park, we also stumbled upon a traditional Chinese wedding, full of traditional garb and dragons!

The wedding attracted quite a crowd and after we took our pictures, we moved on.  From Beihai Park, we cycled our way to another group of parks that were along a lake.  This area was pretty nice; there were plenty of cafes lining the streets and it seemed very European, almost reminiscent of being in Amsterdam, minus the bridges.  We also went and checked out the Bell and Drum Tower, which are both centuries old.  Here's  a pic of me on my bike in front of the Bell Tower:

After a little more biking around, we were getting ready for a meal.  My hostel buddy had read about this amazing burger place in Beijing and had been craving it ever since.  I thought the idea of a really good burger joint in Beijing was pretty interesting and so we ended up biking out to Sanlitun, which is an area of Beijing that has been recently given a major face lift both before the 2008 Olympics and afterwards as well.  There is a very large outdoor mall there called the West Village, which could be anywhere in the western world.  Conveniently enough, this is where our burger restaurant was located.  Let's Burger was in very few words, simply delightful.  I ordered an Australian Double (two Australian Angus beef patties, cheese, a fried egg, bacon, and the usual toppings) and my friend ordered the Let's Burger special (one Angus beef patty, cheese, avocado spread, smoked salmon, and a tiger shrimp on top).  Check these bad boys out!

My delicious Australian Double

The Let's Burger Special

In addition to amazing burgers, Let's Burger also has delectable fries and a plethora of different sauces, ranging from the traditional (ketchup, mustard, mayo, Tabasco sauce) to the more unique (curry mayonnaise and chocolate mayonnaise).  If you are ever in Beijing and craving a burger, this is definitely the place.  Please, I beg you, don't waste your time on McDonalds.

After eating, we worked hard to keep biking around the city.  We checked out the Workers' Stadium area and then made our way back to our hostel after accomplishing all that we had set out to do.  I had found out earlier Saturday morning that a friend of a friend from Suwon was traveling in Beijing at the same time I was and coincidentally, was staying at the same hostel that I was.  I met him shortly after I got back to the hostel and it turned out that Joe and I were staying in the same room.  We went and met up with a friend of mine, Rob, from Ultimate, who lives in Beijing.  He took us for some awesome lamb skewers for dinner and then out to meet some of his friends.  We went to one bar that night that had an incredible selection of micro-brews from the Eastern USA, which are impossible to find in Korea.  Needless to say that this was a treat.  It was definitely a good decision to meet up with Rob and his friends; they showed us a great time around Beijing's nightlife.

That being said, Joe and I were ready to go do some more exploring on Sunday.  The first place headed to was the Beijing Zoo to check out the the famous pandas and some other crazy creatures.  

The pandas were the most interesting part of the zoo, but it was definitely nice to see some of the different monkeys and apes that I had learned about a few years ago back at Madison.  After the zoo we headed for the Summer Palace.  Unfortunately, this is when it started to rain, but that was okay with us, we just brought out our rain gear and went on our way.  The Summer Palace is a beautiful area filled with different buildings and the main palace and it's built around a lake.  Many of the buildings are well restored and the forest area provides for many scenic walks around the grounds.  Here are a few pics of the Summer Palace.

After making our way through the Summer Palace, we took the metro back to our hostel to get out of the rain.  We were hoping the weather would die down so we could go get some authentic Peking duck for dinner, but that wasn't the case, so we popped in to a local restaurant around the corner that had delicious dumplings.  We ordered maybe 6 different kinds of dumplings and all of them were amazing.  I can't get over how, no matter what ethnic cuisine they originate from, dumplings are always delicious.

Joe and I decided that Monday was going to be the day we went to check out the Great Wall.  I don't think you could ask for a better day, especially given the rain that Beijing received the night before.  The weather was definitely in our favor; sunny and between 20-24 Celsius all day.  We chose to go to the Jinshanling section of the Wall, which is a little more remote and less crowded.  We had to wake up at 6 am to catch our shuttle to another shuttle which drove us three hours into the northern Chinese countryside to Jinshanling.  When we arrived at Jinshanling, there was literally no one there.  We took the cable car to the top and then we had pretty much an entire section of the Great Wall to roam around for a few hours.  It is truly an impressive sight and definitely a wonder.  I feel like the pictures do it must more justice than any amount of words will, so here you are:

Joe and I at the Great Wall

We walked on the Wall for a few hours before we were worn out enough to start heading down the mountain.  At the bottom, we had a buffet lunch waiting for us, unfortunately it wasn't that great, but that's besides the point, the Great Wall experience was everything I could've hoped it would be.  When we got back to our hostel, we were pretty exhausted and had a pretty relaxed night.

Tuesday was the last day in Beijing for Joe and myself, but thankfully, we both booked evening flights to give ourselves enough time to have at least a half day of sightseeing.  We started off by heading out to the Olympic area to check out the Water Cube and the Bird's Nest Stadium.  Both are pretty cool architectural feats up close.  Take a look for yourself:

From the Olympic area, we made our way over to the Temple of Heaven, basically traversing across the city. The Temple of Heaven was also very interesting.  The area includes a large park and many historical temples and other buildings.  We went through there a little quickly because we wanted to fit in everything we had left to do.  Across the street from the Temple of Heaven is the Pearl Market, which we went to check out next.  In addition to pearls, the merchants also sell knockoff clothes, shoes, silks, and other accessories.  I was able to find a few nice polo shirts and only paid $12, so I was pretty happy about that.  At this point, Joe and I split up, because he wanted to do some more shopping and I still had to get to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City and also eat Peking duck.  I'm not quite sure how I did this, but in under four hours, I was able to check all of these things off my Beijing to-do checklist.  

I arrived at the airport safe and sound and returned back to Korea on Tuesday night.  The past two weeks have been pretty good for me.  The weather has gotten really nice, although you can feel that summer is definitely on its way soon.  Last weekend we had a frisbee tournament in Busan.  But, this was a little different, we played on the beach.  The weather was great again (although it was raining in Seoul) and it was an excellent weekend, although my feet and legs were pretty sore at the beginning of this week.  I can't believe how quickly time has been going by lately, so hard to believe that it's going to be June next week.  I've been prepping pretty hard for the GREs and feel prepared to take them in two weeks.  After that, it's all summer time mode with some extensive trip planning thrown in as well.

That's all from here, hope everybody and everything is well wherever my readers may be.

What I'm listening to: "Deep Blue Sea" by Grizzly Bear

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEDqk67AhsE

    

Passover and Jeju Dirty Dozens Tournament 2011

Hey all,

I apologize again for another long overdue blog post.  I got caught up doing some other things (frisbee practices, dinners, GRE study, watching NHL and NBA playoffs, etc...) and ended up forgetting to put something new up. But, the good news is that now I have some free time to get a few new posts up on the blog.  As some of you know, I just got back from a trip to Beijing over the long weekend that we had in South Korea, so I'll have another new post up, hopefully in a day or two, about that trip.  For now, I'll just stick with the month of April (Passover and the Jeju frisbee tournament).

I know some of my dedicated readers were concerned about how I was going to celebrate Passover in Korea this year.  Last year, as some of you might remember, I went to the Air Force base in Osan for Seder.  Unfortunately, this year, Seder was being held on a Friday, instead of Monday or Tuesday, so I couldn't make it down to the base, because I was flying out to Jeju that night.  Instead, on Tuesday night, we had a mini-Seder at my friend Raef's apartment.  For the first time in a few years, I actually made something to bring to Seder.  I found a pretty easy charoset recipe (which is pretty easy to make in general) and made a pretty solid batch.  We also had some chicken, delicious potatoes, some great vegetables, and of course, matzo ball soup.  Seder was very enjoyable and I wish I had taken some pictures so you could see how we celebrated.  Alas, you'll just have to use your imaginations.  The best part about Seder was probably the great leftovers I got to take home with me.  It was a full week's worth of good food.

In the middle of Passover, we had the Jeju Dirty Dozens Frisbee Tournament (April 22-24).  I left for Jeju Friday after school and got in at a decent time Friday night, enough time to have a little fun at the registration party and catch up with some friends who I hadn't seen in a little while.  The whole weekend was pretty windy, which as you can imagine, plays a huge factor at a frisbee tournament.  Luckily for my team, it was a positive factor for most of the weekend.  Our team was seeded 8th at the tournament and we lucked out in being able to sleep in Saturday morning, because our first game wasn't until the second round of games.  Our first game on Saturday was against Huwa (from Shanghai).  We came out pretty strong, thanks to the hard work of our zone defense and took half time 6-4 and continued our strong play in the second half to win our first game.  The second game of Saturday was against Shiok (from Singapore).  They were a little tougher of an opponent, but again, the zone defense played a huge role in our team's success on the field.  We took half time again and eventually won our second game as well.  Next up for us was the #1 seed in the tournament and the top team in our pool, Iku (from Japan).  We started the game trading points to 2-2, but then Iku got out on a run and took half 3-6.  We came out flat in the second half and Iku ended up winning 5-9.  After completing pool play, we had a cross-over game (played for Sunday's seeding) against Whisby Nation, who had already won their pool.  We started off trading points with them as well, up to 4-4, but then Whisby started pulling away.  They took half 4-6 and in the second half, we ran out of steam and lost.  Yet, we were pretty happy with our overall play on Saturday, going 2-2, meaning we had already beaten our seed and were now seeded 4th going into Sunday.

There was a tournament dinner and party on Saturday night, as per usual at frisbee gatherings, and the theme this year was mustaches.  Here is just a sample of how people incorporated the theme.

The party didn't last too long on Saturday night, mostly because people were tired out from a day of Ultimate and were gearing up for a big day on Sunday.

Sunday was a big day for all teams, including ours.  We weren't just content with beating our seed at the tournament; now that we had accomplished that goal, we looked to contend for finals on Sunday.  Our first game Sunday was the quarter-finals against SARS (a mix of players from Beijing and Hong Kong).  This game was super close the entire way through and after going down 5-7, we scored two points in a row to take the game to universe point (sudden death).  We ended up winning the game on universe point 8-7, which was huge for our team.  Here's a pic of me actually jumping for a "d;" don't let the picture fool you, I actually got the "d," just with my right hand.

It may appear like I lost the "d" here,
but I actually hit the disc with my right hand.

After beating SARS, we had another shot at Iku, who we had lost to on Saturday.  We started this game very strong, playing very aggressive offense and defense and went up 6-4, before letting up three points in a row to give up half time 6-7.  The second half was a determined battle between both sides, who traded points until Iku got a second upwind break point, which was just enough for them to pull away from our team.  In the end, we lost 9-10, but it was a very hard fought game for both teams.  A loss in the semis meant that we had finished tied for 3rd place with the Seoul A team.  Overall, Jeju was a pretty awesome experience for our team, who finally came together after a month or so of indifferent practices and played one full and exciting weekend of Ultimate.

Since Jeju, life has been pretty good.  Spring has definitely sprung here in Korea, although the last few days have been a bit wet.  Last week was a pretty easy week for teaching.  My school had Sports Day practices almost everyday, which meant that on Wednesday and Friday, my classes were cancelled.  In addition, last Thursday was Children's Day, so we didn't have school.  Just by luck, Children's Day coincided with Cinco de Mayo and one of the Mexican restaurants in Seoul held an outdoor music and food celebration for the holiday.  The weather was really nice and it ended up being a great way to spend the day off.  That's all from here for now, a full write-up of the Beijing trip will be up in the next few days, so stay tuned.

All April's Fools

Again another long time in between posts, I apologize for that again.  I've been caught up between frisbee and GRE studying and haven't had a good opportunity to sit down and collect all my thoughts until right now.  Anyways, the guys on the left are MGMT and I saw them in concert on April 1st in Seoul.  Another good concert, but probably not worth the 100,000 won it cost to see them live.  I'd already seen them before at Bonaroo in 2009 and that was a much better show than this last one, but maybe that was partly due to them being at the end of a long tour this time around.  Overall still enjoyable, just probably would've been much more enjoyable for say 30,000 won.  In addition to seeing another concert, it seems late March/April is prime birthday time.  Nate's birthday was March 25th and we celebrated that weekend by going to a authentic Memphis BBQ restaurant for some ribs and a night out in Gangnam.  Needless to say a good time was had by all.  The following weekend was Keith's birthday and this time we went to a Brazilian steakhouse in Gangnam area (actually closer to Apgujeong) called Mercado for some meat and then some more meat followed by another serving of you guessed it, meat.  This meat was extraordinary.  I think the last time I went to a Brazilian steakhouse was November 2008, Thanksgiving break at Fogo de Chao with the family.  I had meat overkill that night and I literally couldn't eat meat for a few weeks afterwards.  Even the smell of meat cooking was enough to set me off.  Luckily that didn't happen this time, just enjoyed the high quality beef without overdoing it. 

Meanwhile, frisbee has been picking up a lot as we edge closer to the Jeju tournament and coincidentally, the weather has also begun to be spring like, with temperatures in the low 60s recently which is great!  I'm really looking forward to the tournament; we just got our jerseys in and they look great. 

School wise not too much is going on, just making it through week to week.  Last Friday afternoon, most of the teachers took a little hiking trip to a mountain on the border between Suwon and Yongin, which was enjoyable.  Afterwards we had a great dinner, also always enjoyable. 

Not quite sure what's on tap for this weekend.  Potentially seeing the Suwon Bluewings play some soccer on Friday or maybe an LG Twins baseball game.  Also more birthdays, really it's out of control how many April birthdays there are!  Oh, and how could I forget the most important news of all.  Most of you remember the fiasco I wrote about in dealing with getting a Chinese travel visa in Korea.  Well, at least I'm putting it to good use.  I'm heading to China for a quick trip the first weekend in May (May 6-10).  We have a long weekend because of Buddha's birthday (see, even more birthdays!) so I have the following Monday and Tuesday off of school.  Unfortunately I can't go for longer, but I'm going to get in 4 days in Beijing, which I heard is plenty of time.  I'm planning on going to Great Wall one day and figure out the rest in the next few weeks.  I also found a pretty cool hostel located in one of the older neighborhoods that is surrounded with little tea houses and markets, so that should be pretty interesting.

That's pretty much all from this end right now.  I have to get my racquet restrung, but then I'll try and get out and play some tennis, hopefully soon.

What I'm listening to: "The Plains/Bitter Dancer" by Fleet Foxes (really really good, the entire album is!  Thanks Yoda!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jbXOz7PXEg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwXsvwklvfA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puqnxPGwpo4

March Madness!!: It's Been A Long Long Long Time

Wow!  I bet some of you thought I might have given this blogging idea up, due to the long periods without any new posts.  The truth is nothing quite as awesome as a trip to Hong Kong and Macau or Thailand has happened recently.  Believe it or not, the winter vacation has ended and it's back to reality for me.  I know it was quite the shocker for me as well that I had to go back to work and do what I came here to do: teach English to elementary school students.  Yet here I am, 3 weeks into the new school year.  So again, I apologize for my prolonged absence on the world wide web, I am alive and well, just busier than I was the last few months.  So let me start with news from the new semester.

This year our school got eight new teachers because of the contract restrictions they have for teachers in Korea.  I think I explained this last year when I got my new co-teacher, but I'll go over it again.  Teachers can only work at one school for five years at a time, and as it turns out, after last year, our school had a few more teachers at the end of their terms than the year before.  One of the 6th grade teachers became a vice-principal (a situation sort of like in checkers when you make it to the other end of the board and get "kinged") and per tradition, we went to go visit her at her new school and got fed delicious fruits and rice cakes (a good use of a free afternoon if you ask me).  Another great tradition here is the goodbye dinner to wish all the departing teachers good luck and well wishes at their new schools, which is followed up by the welcome dinner the next week for the new teachers.  Both dinners were great, we went to the same place both times, which was fine with me, just lots of sushi.  I found out at the welcome dinner that most of the new male teachers were in their younger 30s and could speak pretty good English.  We bonded pretty well over dinner.  I now have a teacher who I can talk sports with at lunch, which is great.  We both love baseball and I can't wait to discuss the finer points of Choo Shin Soo's hitting abilities over some kimchi jjigae.  Another new male teacher graduated from Seoul National U. of Education a.k.a. Korea's Harvard so all the other teachers have been in awe of him since he started.  He's actually a really nice guy and speaks really good English, which is great because we're able to have some real conversations at lunch.  All in all, it's shaping up to be a good final 6 months at work.  Badminton has also started up again, which is good, although I've been quite rusty so far.  Hopefully I can get my swing mechanics back. 

In other news, the competitive frisbee season has taken off and we now have only a month to go until the Jeju tournament, so we're working hard to get in as many practices as we can before that date.  I've also been able to catch up on all the Oscar buzz worthy movies, which made it to Korea post-Oscars just like last year.  I've seen Black Swan, The Fighter, 127 Hours, and just saw The King's Speech this afternoon.  I enjoyed them all but I didn't think The King's Speech should have won Best Picture.  Don't get me wrong, it was very good, a little slow in the beginning, but it wasn't quite as good or different as Social Network or Black Swan.  I've been busy studying for the 2nd part of the GRE's, 3 months to go, and working hard to expand my vocabulary.  I forgot how hard it is to learn new words, but I'm back to making note cards and making good headway.  On the concert front, the MGMT concert is coming up soon, April 1st, and March was packed with quite the variety of shows in Korea, the Eagles, Santana, and Iron Maiden (I didn't see any, too expensive). 

And how could I forget March Madness?  Robyn-  So sorry your Trojans had to bow out in the play-in round (you can't win them all, right?).  I woke up a little early this morning to catch the Badgers second round game against Kansas State and what a game it was.  I personally didn't expect them to make it to the Sweet 16, but here they are and I hope they win what should be a tough game against the Butler Bulldogs.  Also very excited for the baseball season to start, happy to hear that Mauer caught his first game yesterday.  We have our Korea crew fantasy baseball league all set to go, and the league drafts next Sunday night, which should be a lot of fun. 

I've also been busy reading the last month and a half, flying through Keith Richards' autobiography, a Mickey Mantle biography, and now I'm currently reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, the final book in the Millennium trilogy and it has been even more of a page turner than the first two books. 

Finally I want to give an enormous shout out to ma maman, mi madre, my mom Randi, who completed her radiation treatments last week and has done an incredible job persevering through many tough months.  Mom, we all love you and are extremely happy to know that you've made it this far with only minor discomforts. 

That's all from this end, GO BADGERS!!

What I'm listening to: "Let It Down" by George Harrison
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6sPkLm0pWU
Other good music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yvbrw_RjwI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX1PwkgwsG0

Clapton Comes to Korea!!

Hello blogosphere!!

It's been a little over a week since the last mega-post about the Hong Kong and Macau trip, but I'm back with a new and most likely shorter post.  The past few weeks in Korea have gone off without a hitch.  We wrapped up the last two weeks of the school year and had graduation last Friday.  I got suited up for the occasion and was getting compliments left and right, which was an added bonus!  Some of the teachers commented on how I looked like a soon to be groom (very premature, might I add).  I don't think that's in the cards anytime soon, but I'll take the compliments, however they come.  This year's graduation definitely meant a little more to me than last year's because I actually knew the students, as opposed to last year, where I had only taught them for half a year.  The 6th graders that graduated had been my students for 1 1/2 years and I got to know most of them pretty well, especially the students who were also in my advanced class.  I even got a bouquet of flowers from a few of my students and took the requisite pictures with them.  Last week I was also busy signing yearbooks, which was kind of funny for me.  Elementary schools go all out for 6th grade graduation, including the yearbooks, which are nothing like my elementary school yearbooks from glory years past.  Ours were very flimsy collections of class and individual pictures with a few pages for comments.  The yearbooks that my 6th graders had this year were top notch (think high school yearbook, except just for 6th graders).  All the students had individual pictures taken a la senior photos and many of them were hilarious and ridiculous.  There were boys wearing sun hats and girls throwing footballs, both of which are obviously commonplace at school.  I guess it ends up being a pretty nice memento.  If I recall correctly, if I still have my elementary school yearbooks, they are probably shoved away on a bookshelf somewhere in my bedroom.

Outside of school, life is settling back into a routine of sorts.  As I wrote in the last blog post, the competitive ultimate frisbee season is underway, which means practice once or twice a weekend in addition to conditioning during the week.  January and February have flown by and it looks and feels like winter is fading into spring, which is great!  The weather for practice on Sunday was awesome, in the high 40s F and no follow up blizzard, like back home (sorry to rub it in).  The first big tournament is in Jeju during the third weekend in April, which everyone is looking forward to.

This past weekend, in addition to frisbee, I also went to my second hockey game in Korea.  I saw the same two teams play, the Anyang Halla and High One (both Korean teams in the Asia League).  Once again, the Halla were victorious in front of the home crowd and it was a sloppy but enjoyable game.  I went as part of a birthday group for a few friends and after the game, we ventured into Seoul, where I broke off to meet up with frisbee people for a going away celebration.  We started off at a concert for friends of friends, which was actually really good.  The band we went to see, Hit the 9, was an interesting mix of musical influences, probably not something that would work necessarily in America, but it worked here.  The instrumentation and sound was closest to hard rock, but then there were three singers, like the Ronettes or the Supremes (or more modern version: Destiny's Child), and they had choreographed dance moves.  Sunday after frisbee was the day I'd been waiting for for a while:  Eric Clapton in Korea!  The show was amazing!  It definitely helped that there were huge HD screens up on either side of the stage so that people sitting in the 2nd level (us) could see everything; these screens weren't there for Dylan last year and probably would've helped at least a little.  Clapton played a good mix of classics and new songs and went from electric to acoustic back to electric on the guitar.  I think my favorite song of the evening was "Badge," a song that's always been near the top of my list.  He played it right after the acoustic version of "Layla" and in my opinion, it brought the crowd fully into the concert.  I'll post the setlist at the end of this paragraph.  All in all, it was another good weekend and I can't believe I'm at the 1 1/2 year mark teaching here in Korea.  Later this afternoon I'm going to get a travel visa for China, which you need to do at least 6 months ahead of time, so this is the first step in the post-Korea travels and the first stop.  Nate and I haven't decided how long we want to be there for, but my guess is 1-2 weeks then onto Southeast Asia.  Here's the setlist and a video of "Cocaine" from the show.
http://www.ericclaptonmusicnews.com/eric-clapton-tour-2011-olympic-park-gymnastic-arena-seoul-sunday-february-20-2011/

Also, new Radiohead album came out digitally last Friday and that's what I've been listening to.

What I'm listening to: "Lotus Flower" by Radiohead
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfOa1a8hYP8

Death by Dim Sum: Lunar New Year 2011

Where to begin, where to begin?  There truly is no better place I can think of to bring in the Lunar New Year (aka Chinese New Year) than in China.  Well, as my luck would have it, I was able to do just that, even if Hong Kong doesn't really feel like China, we'll still count it.  Last week really was an incredible vacation.  I know it probably feels like you've been reading that last sentence a lot lately, but it's the truth.  Everything seemed to work out perfectly for us leading up to the trip and especially while we were in Hong Kong and Macao.  Let me rewind back to last Monday (January 31st).  I had just found out that I didn't have a plane ticket for Hong Kong yet, but somehow, I was able to find one for pretty much the same price as the other guys on Orbitz.  Going through that experience isn't something I'd try and repeat in the future, but it was reassuring to know that less than 24 hours before our expected departure time I was able to find a ticket.  Call it luck or fortune, the ticket situation set a tone for the rest of the week.  So with the ticket situation solved, 3/4 of our group arrived in Hong Kong last Tuesday (February 1st) evening and within an hour of arriving at our hostel in Mong Kong (an older area of Kowloon), we sat down for dim sum meal #1.  For the Wolfish family reading this, the dim sum references may be excessively mouth-watering so make sure you don't drool too much on your keyboards.  Having access to late night dim sum, within walking distance from our hostel, was a dream come true.  Nate and I got to introduce Keith to dim sum and set him off on a week of culinary exploration.  There was plenty of shrimp chun fun, hargao, shumai, cha shu bao, ham su gok, and other delicious plates eaten over the course of the week.

Sufficiently rested and satiated from our first late night dim sum run, we awoke to a great day of weather on Wednesday and after some dim sum for brunch, we made our way to the market.  Going to a market in Hong Kong on New Year's Eve is quite the experience!  People were definitely stocking up on all sorts of goodies (fruits, meats, candies, etc...).  Check it out!

After touring the market place sufficiently, we made our way down to Tsim Sha Tsui, which is the area down by Victoria Harbour.  We took a walk down the Avenue of the Stars and got to look out on a pretty smoggy Hong Kong skyline, but the area was definitely very cool to explore and after walking along the waterfront we moved up to Kowloon Park, which is an awesome urban park.  I've slowly become a huge fan of big spaces of urban greenery, probably because there isn't much of that in Korea.  Anyways here are some more pics of that area, which is where we returned to take in the New Year's Parade on Thursday.

Wednesday evening the last member of our team arrived and we took him out for the requisite dim sum meal, where we had an order specially made for us and a dim sum item I've never had before: a special ham and cheese crepe, which was delicious!  After dinner we went to scope out the local flower market, which was bustling with people, even as late as 1 am!  On Thursday we went to go explore Hong Kong Island during the day and took a very touristy double decker bus ride around the island, but honestly, it was probably the best way to see the area.  The contrast between Kowloon and Hong Kong is vast but also pretty interesting to see.  Kowloon is definitely the older, more traditionally Chinese area and Hong Kong Island is a modern metropolis.  Both offer very unique experiences and I'm glad we got to stay in both areas.  After the parade on Thursday night we went back down to the harbourfront and headed to the Intercontinental for a drink (a recommendation from our good family friend Mike Eisenstein).  What a view of the skyline!  From there we headed back over to Hong Kong Island to check Lan Kwai Fong, a pretty interesting area where many foreigners go out.  It was definitely a good time.  Friday it was time to get suited up and make our way from hostel #1 in Kowloon (Geo Home Hostel if you were wondering) to hostel #2 in Hong Kong Island (Yesinn).  We were quite the ridiculous sight, all four of us in our suits carrying our travel bags.  Here's us with the first hostel owners:

After another awesome dim sum lunch (see photo above), we made our way to the ferry terminal to catch the ferry from Hong Kong to Macao, the beginning of what can only be described as an incredible Friday all-nighter.  We arrived in Macao around dinner time and after exploring the Grand Lisboa (the oldest casino on Macao, but too rich for our blood) we sat down for a nice Macanese meal that included duck, African baked chicken, and other delicious local goodies.  Apres le diner, we went for a nice walk around the city, which was very interesting.  Macao is a former Portuguese colony (until 1999) and the Mediterranean/European influence is evident everywhere, but especially in the unique architecture of the city.  It has a town plaza that if you didn't know any better, could be in Lisbon or Madrid instead of Macao.  Take a look at the New Year's decorations in the square:

 

After a nice walk around Macao, we made our way back towards the casinos to begin the rest our night.  We started off at the Wynn for a drink and some great Cuban cigars, here's a picture of the boys living the high life:

We roamed around the casino looking for the cheap tables, but the Wynn wasn't looking good (at least for our wallets) so we continued onward to the MGM Grand, which is where we found a home for the next 5 hours.  The tables all over Macao are a little more expensive than what all of us were used to back in the U.S.  Usually we can find the $3 or $5 dollar blackjack tables, but the least expensive tables in Macao were 100 Hong Kong Dollars (HKD) or roughly $12-13.  Our first go around at the blackjack table went all right then we moved on to craps, which didn't end well.  But, the night was still relatively young and after clearing our heads we went back to blackjack (except for Keith who learned how to play baccarat).  I've never gone to the casino and have everyone come out winning, but that's exactly what happened for us, which was amazing.  It meant we were able to enjoy an incredible 5:30 am dim sum meal as evidenced below:

Quite the successful evening!  We caught the first ferry home on Saturday, but we couldn't check into our hostel until 2 pm, so we wandered around downtown Hong Kong for a few hours, still looking great in our suits.  We were able to grab a good brunch in Soho, another cool foreign area on Hong Kong Island, and finally we arrived back to our hostel where we proceeded to crash for a few hours.  Saturday night, seeing as it was our last night, we went back to Kowloon and Victoria Harbour to check out the very cool Symphony of Lights display that goes on every night at 8 pm over the harbour.  After that we grabbed a pretty delicious Mexican dinner and enjoyed one last night in Lan Kwai Fong, which included checking out the view of the harbour and the Hong Kong skyline from a club located on the 29th floor of a hotel.  We all made our flights back home on Sunday, so no worries there.  We even indulged in some massages during our layover in Shanghai.  The aftermath of this trip is that now my passport is currently at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul getting an extra book of pages put in because I've filled mine up!  It's pretty cool to say you've filled up a passport!

This week is the last week of classes for the semester.  6th grade graduation is on Friday and then I have a week off (well technically desk-warming and prepping for spring semester).  I take the first half of the GRE a week from Friday and I've been studying hard in preparation, but this first part should go just fine.  It's all essay writing, which I'd like to think I'm pretty good at by now.  In other local news, the frisbee season has started up, even though the weather is not the best.  It's finally warmer at home than it is here in Korea, which says a lot about how chilly practice this past weekend was.  It was good to get back out there and I'm pretty excited for frisbee becoming a part of my weekly schedule again.  Also, concerts galore are coming to Korea, which is super exciting!  This Sunday, Mr. Clapton is playing at Olympic Stadium, which should be a great concert!  The following week, Elvis Costello is playing a more intimate show in Seoul, which I'll hopefully be able to go to.  Santana comes here in late March (undecided whether I'll go) and MGMT arrives here April 1st (and yes, I triple-checked, the concert is for real, already have tickets).  So, good work Korea and musicians worldwide for getting this done, up the music profile of the country.  Lastly, congrats to the Badgers men's basketball team for knocking off #1 Ohio St. again, I love it!  That's all from here, I hope everyone enjoys the pictures!

What I'm listening to: "Southbound Train" by CSNY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4880aISQYc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4hv_8TXFWg

 

Thailand Pt. 3: Back in Bangkok

Inside the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew

Ok, we're back with the final post of the Thailand travels trilogy.  After spending the better part of a week down south in Phuket and Ko Phi Phi, Judy and I arrived back in Bangkok, where we spent the last few days of our trip.  Since our flight back was in the evening, we didn't do much our first night other than check-in and grab a quick dinner.  We started off the next day with the always enjoyable breakfast buffet and a few hours of relaxation by the pool, which had great views of the city.  In the afternoon we went out and explored the neighborhood around our hotel.  The area is called Bo Bae and there are little markets pretty much everywhere you walk nearby.  Eventually we made our way to the Golden Mount, which is a temple/shrine semi-close to where we were.  There were bells lining the stairs up and down to the top of mount and we were told that it was good luck to ring the bells so that is exactly what we proceeded to do.  That evening we decided to get dinner in Patpong and explore the surrounding area.  Patpong is famous for its night markets, which we scoped out after another great Thai meal.  The great thing about these night markets is that it seems like every place sells the same goods and I suppose that makes sense, and like all markets, the price depends entirely on how well you can haggle.  I was tempted to get something, but in the end, I was able to walk away empty handed.  Patpong is also a pretty Western-friendly area and there are many restaurants and bars/clubs, but we decided to forgo those evening activities and made our way back to the hotel to rest up for a big day on Friday.

Friday was our big sight-seeing day in Bangkok.  We decided that this was the day we would go see the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew.  When we got to the palace gates, we found out that there was a special ceremony taking place in the morning and we would have to come back in the afternoon if we wanted to go inside.  We had a couple of hours to kill before we could go back and see the palace so after a little bit of haggling, we hired a tuk tuk driver to take us around on a mini tour of some temples/shrines relatively close to the Grand Palace.  Basically this meant more Buddhas and extremely ornate and colorful temples and now you can have a look at them as well.

 

Wasn't sure whether we could try this

After hitting our first three destinations our driver took us to his friends "the tailors."  As is the case in most countries in Southeast Asia, the tuk-tuk drivers get certain perks, like gas stamps, for bringing in customers to different businesses, like the tailor, etc...  So we ended up at two different tailors, staying the agreed-upon 10 minutes and doing our best to act like interested customers.  In the end, I'm pretty sure our driver didn't get his stamp and tried to change our agreed upon fare, but when we got back to the palace, I gave him the 40 baht we had originally agreed upon and said "Thanks" and that was that.  Just outside the palace we grabbed some excellent pad thai for lunch, definitely the best pad thai I had during the entire trip.  One of the rules for entering the temple is mandatory pants.  Friday was another 90F+ degree day so we decided we would just rent pants outside the temple.  These pants were amazing!  Very light and breathable, and pretty much parachute pants a la M.C. Hammer or Aladdin.

Can't Touch This!

 The Palace and the adjoining temple, Wat Phra Kaew, were very impressive and I'm glad we were able to get in to see them.  Check them out here:

Saturday was another day full of sightseeing adventures.  We made our way to Wat Arun, on the other side of the river, and Wat Pho (home of the massive reclining Buddha, man did he look comfortable).  Saturday was also another example of just how small the world is.  I found out about a week before we left for Thailand that one of my teammates from frisbee back in Madison had a roommate, Dan, who I had met many times before, that was teaching in Bangkok.  I let him know I was going to be in town, but we didn't really make any plans, because it was going to be a little difficult without a phone (crazy to think that 40 years ago people were able to meet up without any problems without using a cell phone or the Internet; also, scary to think how much we rely on technology now).  Wat Pho is in the same area as the Grand Palace, which is where Dan and his girlfriend were.  I was wearing one of my Madison Ultimate Summer League jerseys and as we crossed the street I was spotted by Dan.  Judy and I lucked out and we spent the afternoon with Dan and his girlfriend, who gave us a mini-tour of Khao San Road and the surrounding streets.  Khao San is pretty much foreigner/backpacker central and we just picked out a good bar where we could people watch.  It was a great way to spend our last day in Bangkok and it was wonderful to see Dan, who I hadn't seen in a few years, as well.  Eventually we arrived back at the airport to catch our 1:55 am red-eye flight back home.  Unfortunately our flight was delayed and the departure time was pushed back to 3:20 am, awesome :(.  We also ran into some other friends from Korea that were flying back on the same flight as well.  Finally we touched down back in Incheon at noon on Sunday.  All in all, a great vacation and I'm super excited to take off again tomorrow afternoon for Hong Kong!  Dragon parades and dim-sum here I come!

If you haven't seen them yet, my Thailand photos are posted on Picasa online.  The link for the album is on the right side of this blog under the "Links" section.  That's all from this end, hope everyone has a wonderful Lunar New Year, looking forward to bringing in the Year of the Rabbit (it's my year!).

What I'm listening to: "Come Running" by Van Morrison

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAsxK7JOs74

Another great Van performance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIiUwZfqMSU&playnext=1&list=PLAC8A93F365644289