34) ..Bishop the third

In all likelihood my friend Chip is going to be coming out to Korea in a month or two. Chip is a college friend of mine, has red hair, has an awesome name, and is just a great guy in virtually every capacity. We traveled to India together in May, and had a great time, and now the prospect of him coming out here has really excited me.

We have been emailing each other about five times a day for the past two weeks or so. I don’t want him to end up in Korea just to find he made the same mistakes I did. Especially when I have some “insider knowledge” of the place now, and have the ability to visit schools and neighborhoods on his behalf.


This is a story Chip sent me the other day in an email, I thought it was funny and worth posting.
“I wanted to add a few memories from our trip. I started thinking about them the other day and I started laughing. Ok, picture this... two red-headed pure-breeds are walking down a dark, back alley in Delhi, hidden behind a backdrop of three
story shacks just outside the major industrial complex of the main Delhi plaza, and a crowd begins to form, not necessarily around the two, but watching them as two young ladies make an advance, and begin mentioning words in Hindi to the two vanilla brothers, mumbling what the two knew had to be sexual comments, but could not understand. Utterly oblivious to the situation until that point, the two hombres begin to look around and survey the goings-on... Dark alley, prostitutes, gathering crowds, no way out, no other foreigners... kind of a Black Hawk Down situation seems to be brewing. With that in mind the two begin a hasty, but generally calm stroll toward the nearest, more populated street. Having emerged from what could have been an otherwise dreadful experience, the two blokes reminisce of what it would have been like to lay rotting in that back alley, smothered by rats and countless diseases, at which point they would have exclaimed "and these were the same people who paid me illegal booze just to watch us dance in the streets of that avalanche highway!" With that thought fresh on their mind, the two plan their next adventure and
wonder... what will the Koreans do?!”


At our friends wedding. ^

“PS, you might want to start practicing getting freak-nasty regarding
the club/night life scene... 'cause don't forget, the Royal Red
Rendezvous is coming soon to a Seoul near you...”

^ This is Chip dancing in the street in India- the road got blocked by a landslide earlier that morning.

By the way- the “pure breeds” comments are references to Zoolander, and all the red-head talk is an inside joke of sorts. You can see his website by clicking on the link on the left.

33) Mass transit

The other day I was going to meet a friend, and was running a bit late. I needed to take both the bus and the subway to meet him. So when I stepped on the bus I caught a weird vibe from the driver, and didn’t quite know how to read it. So I just sat down in one of the only available seats, which was right across the isle from a guy carrying on a loud conversation. And then I realized this guy is what the look from the driver was about. The guy was carrying on a very load and animated conversation, and when I look to see whom he was talking to, I realized that it was no one; he was having this conversation with just himself or the person he imagined. It was pretty weird because he went through the full range of emotions- he was happy, annoyed, angry, sad and etc. and he wouldn’t stop talking. Eventually I had to look around and see what other people’s reactions were, and everybody just tried to ignore this obnoxiousness. I then realized why the kids at my school get a little offended when they are called crazy- because I think this is the image they have in their minds.

Then when I got on the subway, it sat for an unusually long period of time, which felt even longer because I was already late. When I finally got to my destination I couldn’t get out of the gates. Apparently something was wrong with my card. So after repeatedly swiping my card to no avail, a janitor let me through and told me (presumably) to go to the ticket counter. Once I got to the counter I realized how impossible it was going to be for me to explain the predicament I was in. So as I stepped back to think about the best way to explain this to the worker, I saw that the little boy (who I would guess was between 7 and 8) who was watching me fail to make it through the gate followed me over to the ticket counter. He could plainly see that I was again in a predicament. So he took my card, gave it to the worker and explained in Korean what had happened, and what the janitor had told me to do. What an awesome little boy! After thanking him he quickly disappeared. And then the worker fixed the card and tried to explain to me what to do next- but I really had no idea what he was talking about. At about this time a crowd started to form. My face probably explained to the crowd that I had no idea what he was talking about, and when I looked at them with desperate confusion they laughed, and then about 5 of them came and helped me out, translating what he had said, and showing me where to go and what to do next. I was so thankful for their kindness, and willingness to help me out.

Yesterday I was running all over Seoul and became a bit confused in a subway station, and pulled out my map. I just needed to figure out which direction I should be going in, and really just needed to double-check the station names. Right away an older man saw this and tried to ask me where I was going. Quickly realizing he couldn’t help me he yells at some girl (about my age) to come over and help me. So he makes her help me (which I felt bad about, because he was pretty abrasive towards her), and then he disagreed with what she told me. But she was right, and I knew she must have been. So I just told the old man thank you, and I understand, then thanked the girl, let her know I understood she was right, and went on my way.

32) “I dig the bungee, I mean for me it’s just the way that I live my life…

...I grip it and I rip it. I live with a lot of flair, I live it on the edge, it’s how I gotta be.”


Today my friend Ryoni took me bungee jumping- one of the craziest feelings I have ever had in my life. But it is odd that I knew almost exactly what it would feel like from dreams I had when I was younger. The dreams were of me free falling, and so real. Today brought back vivid memories from those dreams.


I was not at all nervous until I got to the edge and the guy started to count down. He didn’t even try to prepare me, he just said “jump out that way. 5, 4, 3,” “Wait!” I said “Can I yell something?” His reply was “I don’t really understand. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…” and then I yelled out “Zeppelin Ruuuullles!!!” and took the jump. I heard the crowd of onlookers gasp as I almost broke the surface of the water, and then again as I got close to the jump platform on my rebound. But it was too much of a rush for me to care at the moment. The guy who jumped right before me hit the water and was all wet- so I knew it was a possibility before I jumped, and had me thinking about sitting on a bus soaked for the ride back home.

31) Black and Whites From a Field Trip

30) Doing the tuff stuff

Yesterday I turned in my six weeks notice at my school. Defiantly not an easy thing to do, and the director and owner tried to make it even harder. I suppose I don’t blame them. But in the end I think we understand each other, at least to a certain degree. I have had several conversations and meetings with the director about this in the past few weeks, so it was no real surprise when I turned in the piece of paper. I tried to make sure that she was clear it has nothing to do with anyone at work- and I have no problems or quarrels with anyone- it is a move I have to make for me. I really thought she understood me, but I think she is suspicious of Billy influencing me. Perhaps because our reasons for not liking the school have been very similar, and we are the only ones to really take any action on it.

I was warned by a friend that they would tell me things to try to make me stay, at least for a little bit- and actually they said word for word some of the lines she mentioned they would, it was pretty funny. Some requests were reasonably and some things were just from left field- for instance they told me they had one of the best schedules available. Needless to say that is blatantly not true- not even close.

So my plans now are to finish out the six weeks I have left, then visit my friend Hiro in Thailand (and hopefully visit Cambodia) then after about a month come back and start a new job in Seoul. I have not yet accepted any offers, and I have decided I am going to wait for a job that can satisfy all of the important things I am looking for: location, schedule, positive work environment, and salary. I know every job will have its little problems, and I can handle that. But the problems I was experience were more serious than little problems, and it just stopped being fun, rewarding, and worth it. And that was the sign that I needed to move on. Like I mentioned, I think that I am understood for the most part, they may not like it, but at least they understand. And in the end I think it is the right decision- I wouldn’t have done it otherwise.

29) Pictures

Here are some more pics with the new camera.

28) New Camera

Yesterday Dan and I went to Yongsan to check out cameras at the digital market there (it is in Seoul). I wrote about this place in a previous post (post # 11), and have some pictures of it there too. After some research and discussion with friends I decided it was time to get a DSLR. I ended up buying a Canon EOS 400D. I went out last night and took some shots with it, and took it to school with me this morning and disrupted Dan's class with it. I love his class, and taught them one day. They started off calling me Kyle teacher, and that quickly turned into Kylie teacher, which some how got turned into Kolie teacher- it is so cute I don't even bother trying to correct them.

27) Friday

Well, what a Friday… it starts off with me making one of my co-workers cry, and ends with Billy having to walk me home after a good night of food, alcohol, and good company.

So who, and how did I make someone cry at work? It was actually my partner for my kindi class. She can be a nice person when she wants to, but is actually quite known for being cold, especially towards foreigners. Sometimes she is nice, most of the time she is just sort of just there- not really a problem- but not really a joy, and sometimes she can just be a bitch (harsh, I know, but I think it is true). So today as I was about to leave class when she came in and told me I had to stay, which wasn’t a good start (but no fault of her own). So after that, as I was just about to walk out the door with Dan, and she tells me I need to fill out two more report cards, immediately. Dan took one look at me and just said “see ya later”. Now I reached the point of not being too happy with her. So I told her, in a normal tone, that I have done the report cards 5 of the last 6 weeks, which she didn’t believe. So she tries to prove me wrong by showing me with the one she has in her hand- what a mistake that was. She chose one that I had done all of the last 6 weeks in. Now she is embarrassed and pissed, and said that she would do it (and she was really not happy about it). But in the end I took them when she had gone back to class and just finished it- realizing that the dispute was stupid and pointless. Later that night, once the alcohol started flowing through people, my director informed me that the co-worker mentioned above came to her about the dispute, and even started to cry. I felt bad, but also thought it is a stupid thing to cry about.


Tonight was the first night that everyone at my school (almost everyone) went out as a big group for dinner and drinks since I have been there. Billy even met us during dinner (he worked at my school last year, so he knew a lot of the people). We went to a “sit on the floor” restaurant, had a whole bunch of pork galbie (sp?) and probably too much soju. It was really nice to be able to hang out and talk with many of the people from work that I have not seen outside of the office. Things got pretty entertaining, and occasionally a little weird once the alcohol took its affect on people. When drinking soju with others, the way it seems to work is you have to pour each others drinks, and drink together- so it is more of a social thing. But tonight I took a lot of shots with just one or two people at a time, on top of taking the shots with the group. I didn’t realize how much I had actually had, but started to realize it was probably over my limit when a couple people made the following comments: “Jennifer and I had no idea you could drink so much” or “you must have a high tolerance for alcohol” or “you must really like soju”. Once all of that got computed in my head, I knew I was going to be in some trouble in about an hour. But after about two minutes I wasn’t thinking about that any more, and instead was taking the new shot that my director just poured for me. After the restaurant we went to a bar, and things started to become a bit more calm, although the drinking continued. Eventually I found out just how drunk I was, when I found myself vomiting in the bathroom toilet. That is the first time I have ever thrown up from too much alcohol. After that I knew it was about time for me to head home. Billy, seeing the condition that I was in, walked me to Family Mart, got me some water and Amino Ups, and walked me home. The weird thing is I was up and started to write this blog at 5:30 am.

26) Colors of the Seoul

Here are some pictures from a recent visit to the Seoul Tower. Pretty great views of the city from up there....