Dinner Party at Clark's

I <3 SuJung. She has the most amazing laugh.




Brandon. He hates having his picture made.

Sunday Sauna Funday

While I don't have photos of the Jimjilbang for obvious reasons, I still think it necessary to tell you about it. Alyna and I went to a famous sauna in Itaewon. For 5,000 won (roughly $4.20), we had the truly unique experience of a Korean bathhouse. To give you a decent mental image of the place, imagine a room with 30-40 butt naked Korean women (aged 3 to 75) half of which are scrubbing themselves raw with loofah mits on 8-inch tall stools (spread eagle!) while the other half are bathing in one of seven whirlpools each equipped with a 3-foot tall penis fountain. We saw a human tail. I shit you not. The bathhouse also has massage tables/chairs, a restaurant, tv lounge (you can sleep there!), and giant human pizza ovens where you sweat sweat sweat. At first it was a little strange to be naked in front of 40 complete strangers, but after a few minutes, you begin to relax in a bath made of green tea and can't believe you ever really lived before going to a jimjilbang.


Alyna. The better half. (Just kidding. Sort of...)


No Wankers.


my BT, finally.

A Hard Day's Night.

Franklin, Kristine, Jon, Jasmine and Tina

Low Tide or Mud Flats

Low tide + wowow sunset + good subjects made for incredible shadow play.

Muido Island

damn Koreans and their 2% body fat.


Ronald Fairmont

Getting there is half the fun...

This weekend was Chossock (Korean Thanksgiving). We had Friday off from work and while most of Seoul shuts down (many Koreans leave the city for a weekend at grandma's), the foreigners play. We skeet skeeted to Muido, an island roughly 5 hours from my part of town by way of subway, bus and ferry. Our crew of nine had no idea what to expect and no plan, just a destination (we didn't even know the official name of the island until we arrived). Apparently a few other foreigners had similar notions, and we ended up at an all-out wayguk beach party. We rented huts for $40/night (they each slept four) and spent Friday lounging around drinking, laughing, swimming, eating and meeting new people. Plenty of totally heinous American/Canadian guys whom we avoided like the plague, but an all-in-all great two days, the group we had was so fun - made some new friends out of it too.


Duggie Stars


Jon, Kristine, Tina and Amy

Dave

불암산 (Buramsan)

I've been doing a lot of hiking lately. Its therapeutic to get into nature when you live in a city of 11 million people (not to mention I have yet to join a gym). I'm the only wayguk (foreigner) up there and definitely get some funny stares. Koreans are INTENSE about hiking - boots, poles, gloves, full regalia. Drinking soju (rice whiskey), Korea's favorite pastime, also takes place while hiking. Sounds like trouble if you ask me. My mountain, Buramsan, is the one I see from my window (see apartment video) and there are many trails on it. If you visit me, I'll take you :)






HoJin's house.

Noraebang with the Co-Workers

The school had a "welcome" dinner for me (one month after I arrived) this past Friday night. We went out for chicken and beer, then to the Noraebang (karaoke). Needless to say, seeing my Korean co-workers and bosses let loose singing K-Pop hits and N*SYNC and pounding the soju was enough entertainment to last the weekend.  (p.s. I really need a faster lens...)


Brandon, Annie and Cecile

Hojin + Boom Bar

Our good friend Hojin. He is awesome.

Don't Let Them Fool You...

This is one of my favorite classes. They are also the youngest with the least knowledge of English, so they don't know how to mouth off yet ;)


Nick and Alex


Lio


Sophia, Sarah and Diana :)


All the students think that Eby Teacher and Clark Teacher are dating.


Nick, Alex, Emily, Sally, Benjamin


David

동대문시장 (Dongdaemun Market)

Sean, Scott and I went to Dongdaemun (neighborhood of Seoul) on Sunday not knowing what to expect. What we found were more bargains than you could imagine and more useless crap than anyone would ever know what to do with. (I talked a woman down from $7 for a pair of amazing kelly green velcro sneaks to $4.) We were the only foreigners. Needless to say, I was in heaven.




"Caca jusayo?" (Sean's a haggling wizard)


Becky this sooooo reminded me of you :)




so not organic don't panic...I almost bought it, rationalizing that though its fur, it's second hand so the animals weren't killed for ME. ha. yeah right.






I liked how Barack Obama, Black and White Michael Jackson, a gorilla and some Chinese dictator were sold next to each other.






(Sean made this guy sooooooo angry because he touched his stuff without asking and didn't put it back in the right place... hahahah.)

Global Gathering

I found out about Global Gathering the week I arrived in Korea. An electronic festival with not one but two of my favorite electronic bands when I was told I would see no decent live acts for a year!? You better believe I was excited. Clark, Scott and I went out Saturday night to Han River Nanji Park. The festival didn't fall short; we danced for eight straight hours to the incredible Underworld, MSTRKRFT, Royksopp and we even got a little K-POP action with 2ne1 and G-Dragon. While there were more non-Koreans than I ever hope to see in Korea again (a few who really lived up to the label "Ugly Americans" and Canadians, British, etc.) we met some cool people and had a blast.

2ne1




Röyksopp










Underworld




MSTRKRFT