90) Eric Fantastic Habermeyer

Tomorrow (Monday) Eric is coming to Korea. I am excited about this because he is a good friend, and so far my only visitor. About a year ago his brother (Nate) spent a year here in Korea, and I am pretty sure his sister was adopted from Korea (I hope I didn’t just make that up).

But anyways, for almost the last year, Eric has been in India doing missions work. He left for India shortly after I got back from there (and incidentally we were in a lot of the same areas of India). He will be here for about three weeks, so we will have plenty of time to catch up and have fun.

If you want to read about some of his time in India (or just look at some great pictures), you can visit the link on the right that says “Eric’s Blog” and Nate’s is right below it. The pictures on this post came from Eric's blog.

89) Funk at 50

On Thursday night Kevin and I got off a little early and headed into Hongdae to one of our favorite jazz clubs, Club Evans. We got a front row table, and really enjoyed the show. Most of the time the music is really good there, and Thursday nights show was a great. The band played a great selection of funky older music, and some disco stuff funked up, along with their own music.

88) Island Life

Last weekend Billy and I went down to an island way in the south to meet one of his friends, Jeff. Jeff used to work at Swaton with Billy before I got there, so we had a common bond that united us- our horrible experiences at that school. Another fella named Will also met us down there.



I have to admit the climbs were a little nerve-racking, and brought back some memories of being at Devils Lake with my buddy Willy. I remember climbing on a sandstone wall (which is a horrible idea) and having my last hand hold come loose, and almost falling the 30 or 40 feet back down. In the shots above, I would guess it was about a 40 foot climb up, and pretty sketch ball, to Billy and myself atleast. (The two shots above are of the same wall, just a different angle and the same with the two below).




Billy had told me a lot about the island after his visit there a couple weeks ago, so I was pretty excited to get there and check it out. It was really beautiful, and lived up to my expectations. In many ways it did not even feel like Korea- and at times I was in another world completely.









I regret not having been able to have done the cliff jumping, but I still think it was the best move for me at the time, being pretty sick. Billy, Will, and Jeff went for some pretty great looking jumps- and Jeff doing some that made Billy and I nervous for his life.




It was a really nice two-day vacation from Korea, while still being in Korea. It was great to escape from the constants in Seoul- the never-ending traffic, the lack of any real nature, the constant sound of something man made, and it was nice to be with three other foreigners and not have to worry about speaking slowly.

87) Jazz at 50

The past few weekends I have been able to get to quite a few great live jazz shows. Hongdae (an area of Seoul with lots of clubs and bars) has three places that Kevin introduced me to. Great music, and great atmospheres. My favorite place is called Moon Glow. We are pretty sure it is owned by a man named Shin Kwan Woong, who is a well-known pianist in Korea. He is always on the piano, and it appears that the band changes from show to show.



^ Mr. Shin playing the recorder with his nose!



I had been meaning to take my camera and get some shots for quite some time now, but didn’t because of rain or the prospect of drinking (ironically the one time I did bring my camera, yesterday, I drank the most).



Last night Chip, Janis, and I went to Moon Glow to catch the show. Every time I have gone Mr. Shin has put on a great performance, and of course there were no exceptions last night. What was even better is I got to talk with him during and after the show- although it was mostly through Janis translating.

^ Janis
^ Chip
^ Me, Shin Kwan Woong and Chip

86) Flowers at 50

I went to an awesome park today. I have been meaning to go back to it for a couple weekends now, but was stopped by the rain, laziness, or some other problem. But today I made it. My buddy Kevin showed me the park a while ago. He told me it was a very famous place for photographers, and he was right- there are tons of people with cameras there. Both times I have seen models there, and today I was temped to jump in the shoot and show them a couple looks that would make the photographer famous… but I refrained.





As a side note about the title: I know most of the pictures are of bamboo and not flowers, but I wanted the alliteration.

85) Faces at 50: Sepia

84) Faces at 50 II

^ Sylvia, Jessie, and Betty- these girls are a lot of fun.

Today I taught at a public elementary school. It was a surprise to me, as I found out 30 minutes before I was to teach, but it was only one class, and very near my private school. Many of the students from my school attend this public school, and two were in the class I was teaching. The elementary school has never had a foreign teacher before, so they are just trying me out, as far as I understand. It was pretty obvious they had never had a foreign teacher before. I had kids crowding around my room, trying to get a look at me. The class happened to be the last class of the day, so as I was leaving, the entire school saw me, and I had a hard time getting out of the school grounds and even a large crowd following me down the street. It was pretty funny, and slightly embarrassing- some kids took pictures of me, and others shouted things like “hello, waygookin” (waygookin means foreigner in Korean).

^ Ali, she is in a class with just one other student named Justin (pictured below). They are great kids.

^ Justin

83) Faces at 50

I recently bought a 50mm lens. I have been meaning to do so for a while, but just never got around to it. The pics are from the new 50, and were taken in some of my classes today.



I have also been meaning to tell this little story, but never got around to it. The other day while Kevin (one of my friends and co-workers) and I were out for dinner, we saw the cutest little girl. We were at a pretty big sit-on-the-floor restaurant, and shortly after we sat down I noticed the little girl. She kept looking over at us, and sort of crawling towards us. She was two or three years old- and still figuring out how walk. Eventually her parents let her come over by us, and first she just waved, and said “hello” in Korean. Then she ran away, and eventually came back again. This time she came equipped with an adorable little surprise for us- a song. It took her about 15 minutes of starting, then falling over in laughter, and then standing back up, and starting again, only to fall back down after the first two words, to finally finish the song. When she finished she bowed, and then ran back to her parents, falling along the way. It was really funny and so sweet.