Kimchi News

After spending some time here in Korea, I've begun to notice some behavior patterns.  These behaviors may be humorous, irritating, slightly racist ("they're just curious" if you mention it to Koreans), or some combination of the three.  When I worked with my good American friend here, we would point out and vent to each other about these actions, as a sort of "buddy therapy" system.  These behaviors can become quite stressful.  Now that I don't work with him or see him as much, I needed to find a new avenue to express my stress in a healthy way.  I came up with two possible options: 1. punching faces or 2. creative writing.  With the possibility of deportation and/or getting my ass kicked, I decided option 2 was the much better route.  Inspired by The Onion, I came up with the idea of Kimchi* News.  Like The Onion, my news stories are fictional, names and places were made up by me, but the stories are inspired by actual observations I've made here.

*note: kimchi is a pickled/spiced cabbage side dish, and basically the national food here.  Koreans say it's not a meal without kimchi (and rice).  Well now it's not news without kimchi.  So without further ado here is the first edition of Kimchi News:

Layout by Eve Kim

Acting like a big shot

Since I've returned to Korea I've been fortunate to have some pretty cool opportunities come my way! It goes back to my first year here.  I was standing on the street near a university, when a woman approached me and asked if I've ever done any modeling (nice pick up line lady, like I haven't heard that before*... [*actually I haven't]).  I said no, and she asked if I'd like to.  I said yes; but with my previous schedule I never had time to do any of the jobs.  In the past month though I've been able to do three different jobs in the modeling/acting realm.  

Surprisingly they've been for some big companies too.  The first was a small part in a 30 minute promotional video for Hyundai Elevator company.  I had a non-speaking role as a body guard.  The second was a promotional video and brochure for LG and Ericsson phones.  I had a speaking part and some photos.  And the latest was a small non-speaking part on a TV show called Surprise.  It's based around historical world events (e.g. the Kennedy assassination was just on).  And they also do shorter stories with surprise endings, hence the title.  It's a poorly produced show, with outfits similar to those you'd see in a local high school theater production (and actually probably worse acting).  Most of the show is real historical footage, and little actual acting from the cast.  A note about the acting, we do just show up, with no idea of what the show, or our characters are about.  The crew gives us costumes and lines and we get to work.  The director encourages cheesy, over acting, so it's humorous in an unintentional sense.  However, it is a very popular show with Koreans, so it's cool to be apart of it.  It airs Sundays on MBC, one of the big 4 national networks.  My episode will air this Sunday, October 21.

Here are some examples of the work I've been able to do.  This video is at the Hyundai Elevator shoot:

Clockwise from top left: Hyundai Elevator crew; me and the other
bodyguard protecting the "CEO"; at the LG/Ericsson shoot

Surprise show, clockwise from top left:
18th century outfit (minus the nikes and smartphone);
the crew; as a cop; MBC logo 

Whoops! A little bit busy, a lot bit lazy.

So it's been months since the last post, so perhaps no one is checking here anymore.  But if there are any of you still checking, here is a new post.  I took a trip to Busan, which is located in the southern part of the country.  I visited Lotte World (their equivalent of Disney), been to another baseball game, a river cruise, and most importantly practicing golf.

Busan: we went to Gwangalli Beach and saw Diamond Bridge.
This  was also Buddah's birthday so we visited a local famous temple.

Went to a baseball game, Nexan Heroes, near my home.
Lotte World Castel, not ripping off Disney here.
Seoul Grand Park had some nice scenery.
The National Assembly Building from the Han River Cruise

Throwing some darts, can't distract me.
Coffee Bing Su: a summer treat of shaved ice.
Playing some screen golf.

A little bit of daily life

My neighborhood in Mokdong

Went ice skating with a couple students

Some boys I work with at their home

Those first set of pictures are a couple shots in my neighborhood.  The top one is some apartments and office buildings.  Those tall buildings really funnel the wind, making Mokdong one of the colder areas of Seoul during winter.  The bottom one is on my walk home from the institute; they've left the lights up from christmas time.

Korea just celebrated the Lunar New Year, or Chinese New Year you may know it as.  I got a long weekend, but stayed around Seoul as it is one of the busiest travel times in the country.  One day I went ice skating with a couple of my students, there's an indoor rink within a 10 minute walk from my home.  I skated pretty well (never falling being my standard of a good skater).  I was the only white guy there, so I didn't draw too much attention.  It's tough to convey sarcasm through written word, so I'll elaborate.  Foreigners are still a novelty here, so when I, or other foreigners go places it draws attention.

The bottom set of pictures are of two boys I work with.  The other two pictures are of his bedroom; those are just some of the books in the house for him. I go there Fridays, and another teacher goes Mondays and Wednesdays.  He also has an art teacher visit on Saturdays, and I'm sure his Tuesdays and Thursdays are booked too.  NO he's not home schooled, this is in addition to school.  This isn't an exception either, this is typically the norm.  Especially in the area of Seoul I live, and one other area; they go to extremes for education.  They work harder on English alone than I probably worked on all my subjects combined.

Something about your face...

This gym I've joined has been generating a lot of buzz here.  So I thought I'd share a quick anecdote about my motivation to lift once I get to the gym.  There's a guy that usually comes around the same time as me, and I don't know what it is, but something about his face really irks me.  He's a Korean guy, and I'm sure he's nice, and he's there lifting and making himself healthier.  It's not like this is the Catalina Wine Mixer, but if you're coming to my gym to lift during my time....
Well anyway, if I could say it better myself I would, but the link to this video pretty much sums up how I feel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3lGKMXYOG8

New Year's Resolution...blog more

"I'm Buff, and I'm the stuff"-Buff Bagwell

Seoul Lantern Festival 

Quick pose to show proper form to the kids

Christmas and New Years 

I joined a gym about two months ago.  I'm really trying to gain that weight back, but it's coming along really slowly.  My students, especially the females, are getting tired of me complaining about how I can't gain weight.  Notice in the top left picture all the Korean gym members are on the treadmills.  Muscles are not considered attractive here, so you rarely see people working with heavy weights.

The second set of pictures is from the Seoul Lantern Festival.  It was held during late fall.  They have themes each year, and this year was Korea.  They are paper lanterns constructed with fine detail, representing people or places, etc. from Korea's past and present.

Right before the new years I had a long weekend and a Korean ajumma (lady or housewife), Nira, invited me to go skiing with her and her son.  She has also volunteered to help teach me some Korean language on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  She has become like my "Korean mom" or older sister if she asks.  I hadn't skied in over 10 years, but picked it up like it had only been 10 days.  I guess it's that natural Murphy athleticism, though I think I'm the only family member to possess this gift.  Next time I go out I'll try to snowboard, but Nira and her son talked me out of it this time.

The last set of pictures is just some quick shots of Christmas and New Years.  Neither are very big holidays in Korea, so the season passed by rather uneventfully.  Christmas here is a time to celebrate with friends, and New Years eve and day are usually spent with family.  I went to a New Years Eve celebration in the Seoul equivalent of Times Square.  There were lots of people, but not worth going back to.  There are also two videos from New Years Eve: the first is of the crowd right after the countdown, and the second is of a group of traditional Korean drummers.