Posts Tagged ‘korea’
Almost decapitated
Monday, February 2nd, 2009
I was at Gagnam station at the back of the line. Everyone was pooring into the subway. Just as it starts to fill up all the doors slide shut. Normally they don’t just shut the doors as people are trying to enter. The guy to the right gets sandwiched right down the middle but squeezes out pretty easily. The girl to the left wasn’t so lucky. The doors shut right on her neck, and her head was stuck inside the subway. She couldn’t get out, so a few people pulled the doors open. Pretty funny I must admit, but wouldn’t have been so funny if that train had moved about 5 feet. Guard rail would have taken her head off.
Tags: gagnam, head, korea, seoul, subway, train
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
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
Posted in korea | 1 Comment »
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
Posted in korea | No Comments »
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
Posted in korea | No Comments »
