Archive for the ‘korea’ Category
Noribong superstar
Sunday, February 1st, 2009
Last night I was out with my Korean friend Hwan when he gets a call from a mutual friend of ours Milan. She says she’s at a noribong(karioke room) with a bunch of her girlfriends and invited us to join them. You didn’t have to ask us twice. When we get to the room it’s full of about ten very beautiful girls. All of them are like, “Wow, an American!” They are all asking me a million questions and were very friendly. Koreans are very interested in westerners, and I often feel like a a guest of honor in social situations.
So of course they want me to sing a song. There was no way I could do that, I don’t even like talking to large groups of people. I tried to say no, but they forced the song book into my hands and I started flipping pages. I was scared shitless as I looked for a song. I felt like I was choosing my own casket. I went with “One” by U2.
I remember doing that song before and it came out pretty good, but now it seemed to sound really good! Maybe it was the effect on the mic or some kind of pitch correction, I don’t know. Everyone was clappinng and oooooing and ahhhhing. I think that is the closest I will ever get to becoming a rock star.
Tags: noribong
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Skiing in Vivaldi
Tuesday, January 13th, 2009
I went skiing for the first time about a couple of week ago. I went with a friend that had about as much experience as I did. We were not very familiar with the difficulty ratings or where exactly the ski lifts would take us, so the first time up we found ourselves on a slope that we should not have been on. I basically crashed my way down the mountain. It seemed as though as soon as I stood up I was moving 50 miles an hour. Many people were retrieving my skis and poles. My friend had to walk most of the way down the mountain. After shaking the snow out of my jacket I gave it another try and was moving pretty quick. I found that most of the time when I fell was when turning or stopping, so I decided no to slow or stop as much, instead I made large sweeping turns and held on for dear life.
A week later I went skiing again with about 10 co-workers. I was glad I got broken in the previous week. Half the people I had skied with had never been. My stopping got better this time but I was still going quite fast. I am not sure if I should blame my speed on my desire to go fast or my inability to stop . (more…)
Tags: alice park, fast, korea, ski, snow, vivaldi
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Seafood in Incheon
Monday, September 1st, 2008
The teaching staff and I went to a Korean seafood restaurant near the ocean in Incheon. Incheon is like a slightly nasty port for hauling in sea creatures. It was also a very important city during the Korean war. Korean restaurants have lots of side dishes but this is ridiculous. I would say that for 6 people about 130 small plates or dishes where brought out with little samples of vegetables and sea life. I could only recognize about 10% of the food. The Koreans would find translations for the food names on their cell phones, but that didn’t help in my identification. As for the snails and shell fish they went down pretty easy with some hot sauce. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed what I think were sea cucumbers and a few other cut up pieces of raw something. The dolphin was pretty good. Tuna was good also but I don’t think it was dolphin safe tuna. The octopus legs(or arms) that had just been chopped off and continued squirming on the table were the most interesting. When you tried to pull them off the plater they grab hold with great strength. You have to snatch them quickly off the plate. Their fight for survival doesn’t stop once you put them in your mouth. They attached to my lips, teeth, and roof of my mouth with their tiny suction cups, causing a painful ticklish sensation.
Tags: incheon, korea, octopus, raw fish, seafood, seoul
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Korea in a nutshell
Friday, April 25th, 2008
Korea has been wonderful so far. Everyone, not just the students are very friendly and eager to learn english. My job was a little difficult at first, but after learning how to talk to the kids and realizing that just having fun with them is a big part of making class fun for everyone, I now feel like a natural.
My jet lag was horrible, it lasted about 2 weeks. I always had trouble sleeping at night. The food here is not what I expected. I was thinking it would be more like Chinese food, but it is not. It is very spicy with lots of uncooked vegetables. Meals are often cooked on the table with many side dishes and soups are very common. Meals are very healthy, spicy and inexpensive.
My apartment is nice. Most all the heating in Korea is done by heating water in the floor. It takes longer to heat up, but once it does you can turn it off and it last all night. Next door to me lives Mike, one of my American co-workers. The only thing between my apartment and my school is a beautiful park that is quite a pleasure to ride my bike through.
I have enjoyed not having a car for once in my life. Public transportation is very inexpensive and well organized. I have become quite the city boy!
Tags: bike, heating, korea, seoul, teach english
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