I Hate to Learn the English

I’m moving back to Korea after a 3-month visit in Detroit. I’m really excited to start Korean language school at Kyung Hee University and then international graduate school at Yonsei University in the Fall. I am not excited about going back to work again. But for a temporary job, teaching English isn’t so terrible and the kids really do make it all worth while.

Second Place CDI Bucheon Expression Contest for higher levels

These 5th graders are brilliant and are years ahead of even American middle school students.

Low level English Chip 4, 3-4th grade

Koreans photograph so well. I told them it was time for a class picture, and this out-of-countrol group of elementary students instantly straightened up, posed and set themselves up perfectly.

6th grade evening class, Eagle Listening.

This is the upper-level class that I had a lot of fun with. They all worked hard and I was pretty straight-forward with them and didn’t put on the slave-driver act I usually like to do. This is also the class I accidentally said “fuck” in front of while telling them about the Columbine shootings.

Elementary school mid-level class, one of my last at CDI Bucheon

I forgot about this Cliche Skateboards re-edit “Deja Vu” DVD until I found it unpacking my things from Korea. Without a doubt one of my favorite skaters of all time is Lucas Puig from Toulouse, France, a veteran on the Cliche team. I wanted to post his part out of spite because apparently most people hate it. But I like it. So fuck them.  The rumor is that the director, Ty Evans, who re-cut the part, sent it to the Cliche team in an odd format and they couldn’t convert it for the DVD so they filmed it off a TV.  It’s possibly true since Ty Evans has a huge budget for top-end equipment and the vagabond Cliche’ team never really seems to have it all together. Except for their stellar team of riders. The opening seems like a hint, too. Also, due out this year is a new Chocolate & Girl video, which get better and better every time.

I Think I’m Ugly

I haven’t always liked K-pop.  I learned to appreciate it for what it is and keep your expectations low. But one of my friends is a fan of the 4-girl group, 2NE1and I’ve grown to like them, too. That’s “twenty-one.” Or “To anyone” or “21st Century New Evolution.” They started out under the YG Entertainment label and were branded as a blindingly poppy, semi-reggae/rap female counterpart to Big Bang.  As an example of how creatively vapid the K-pop industry is check out “Lollipop” the first hit for 2NE1 featuring Big Bang.  It was a cross-marketed commercial for a new cell phone model. These CFs, or commercial films, are very common.  Even Kim Yuna, an Olympic gold medalist national hero, was a celebrity sponsor for LG refrigerators. Despite whatever you think about the mainstream Korean music industry, the second mini-album from 2NE1 is great.  Fans of 2NE1 are labeled “Blackjacks”  as in the “21″ in the game of the same name. I’m into it.

The last 0:20 are amazing.

Busan 부산

Busan is a large port city in the south of Korea. We went down for one of the last warm weekends of summer to a friend’s wedding.  It was beautiful. There was crying and vomiting and one person went to the hospital.  That’s about par for these kinds of trips. Also, I didn’t take any pictures of the wedding itself because of distractions like the Joseph Challenge.  The Joseph Challenge is to drink 1 bottle of soju and 1000ccs of beer in under 10 minutes.  It is named at after Joseph, the first to complete the challenge. I personally love going down to Busan.

Bridge over the bay

The "Joseph Challenge"

Busan Shinsegae, Asia's largest department store

The most time we spent on the beach all weekend

Hong Kong Trip 홍콩 여행

I just got back from a short 4-night trip to Hong Kong with my friend Joseph. It was hard not to make comparisons to Seoul, another Asian mega city, but Hong Kong is equally impressive. We started off staying at the notorious Chung King Mansion, the same as in the Wong Kar Wai movie “Chung King Express” where we were sure we’d return to the room to our bags stolen. For most of the time we ran around the crowded city shopping and touring everything at street level. We found some interesting and sometimes not so delicious food and met up with a friend for a Hong Kong style wedding. A trip to Macau and the brand new Galaxy casino rounded everything out.

그저께  내친구 구요셉이랑 재미있는 홍콩 여행한 후에 서울에 도착했어요. 홍콩 하고 서울 비슷한 도시들 이에요. 하지만  홍콩이 서울보다 아마 더 재미있어요. 유명한 호스텔 “청킹 만션”에서 잤지만 그호스텔 너무 무서워요. 여행하는 동안 우리가 샤핑하고 구경 많이 했어요. 이상하고 맛있는 음식먹고 맛없는 음식 먹었어요. 그리고 결혼식의친구 출석했어요. 또 마카우에서 카지노 갔어요

Chung King Mansion

Korea Fighting!

Korea played pretty well in the 2010 World Cup and the whole country stopped to watch the games at any hour of the day. This is a shot from a downtown plaza where thousands of people gathered at times as late as 5am to watch the games live on a huge television screen.

Chuseok 2010

We celebrated the Korean Thanksgiving by taking a road trip to the West Sea with two cars and eight friends. We stayed in Anmyeon, a city in Hongseong-gun, Chungcheonnam-do. There is an amazing beach resort at 꽃지해변 with water activities, cheap pension housings and fresh seafood.

Kkotji Beach