Entry: 16: My Sassy Girl

Let me stop your train of thought, before it even leaves the station. This post is not about any particular girl. This post is about one of the most horribly and poorly made films that I have seen to date.

On your left you will see a very unique Korean film that was adapted from this Korean guys blog entries, about his girlfriend who pretty much changed his life. I have had people tell me that the blogs are hysterical and heartfelt. You see, it was a movie made from a blog. The movie is very entertaining. Now lets move to figure 2, the piece of work those foolish American's decided to produce.

To give a little background, the reason why I even watched this straight-to-DVD piece of 똥 is because I thought I was downloading the Korean version, and watch it in only Korean without the subtitles just to gauge my Korean. I opened the file, and to my horror, this started to play. I had already made my 라면 and I was so glad to have finally gotten my desk and bed, that I said "what the heck, why not watch this". Just as a disclaimer, I fast forwarded a good 1/2 of the movie, so this review is based on the beginning and end of the film. Let's just say I know why it was a straight-to-DVD kind of movie.

I think the only way that I will be able to explain to you why the American version is bad, is for me to explain how the Korean version did it first, and then to elaborate how the Americans went and threw up all over it. List format.

1. Korean- The main character was shy, somewhat soft spoken, easily flustered, polite, and had great facial expressions, especially in regards to what his love interest was doing. When he gave that rose to her during her piano recital, you were embarrassed for him, and at the same time, you were glad that he did it. American- He was a complete nerd. Raised by Midwestern farmers whose ONLY goal for their son was to become a mid level manager for some tractor company (no joke). He has a friend who is only interested in getting him some "action", and his innocence was pretty much out the window when his friend reveals that the main character has ONLY had sex with 3 women in the past 4 months. Oh, how terrible his life must be for only having 3 in the last 4 months. Near the end of the movie, he tells his parents "I got the job at the tractor company, but I'm not going to take it." "Why the crap not?" "Because I'm going to LIVE." implying that his time with this girl has made him want to live? I wasn't too sure what he was thinking either... Idiot.
2. Korean- She was rough around the edges, but characteristic of a mean Korean girl. Sassy. She was sassy. American- She was a rich, spoiled, self centered, you know. How can you love someone who acts like a spoiled rich kid who gets wasted all the time? The Korean version was much more lovable, and her drinking problem paralleled closely to the loss of her fiance. The American version quickly portrays the beautiful Elisha Cuthbert as some blonde bimbo who just likes to get wasted.
3. Korean- The write each other letters and vow to meet in one year. The guy comes one year later, finds her letter, but no girl. Years pass, the girl and guy are reunited by chance. But in fact, in real life, the guy who wrote the blog never met his sassy girl again, the whole "years later they met again" was a simply way to end the story on a happy ending. American- They write each other letters and vow to meet in one year. He comes, finds her letter, but no girl. NEXT DAY, she comes she finds the letter, says that because she was not ready to see him A DAY AGO, it was not destiny that they should be together, some old man tells her she is an idiot but she leaves it to destiny. They reunite soon there after, and tada! End of crappy movie.

America royally screwed with this one. They copied all the major scenes, but placed it in New York rather than in Korea, which really detracted from a lot of the meaning of the whole thing. For example, instead of shouting her love for him while he was on the adjacent mountain, the American movie chose to have the same scene in some city park, where they were both surrounded by people but separated by a few hundred yards.

This might sound like a biased review, and in that case, go rent the movie. Just remember. I warned you.

The movie did make me want to write someone a letter and not give it to them for a year or so... I always thought that was a fun idea. Just because so many things change in a year, but sadly this movie will still be 똥 in one year.

Sorry this post was a bit off topic of the whole "Jeremy is in Korea, lets read his blog to find out what he is doing" theme. I really am just sitting in my room watching movies and talking to people on AIM and skype. Things are super chill on my side of the Pacific.

Entry 15: Home Sweet Home?

The five teachers stood waiting for the me to enter. Once the I entered the meeting, all found a seat in a plush leather recliner. The meeting was commencing, as the principal looked toward me and introduced himself in English. That was the last word of English spoken in that room. The meeting consisted mainly of my working schedule, which turns out to be quite agreeable in which I arrive at school at 1 and leave by 4 Monday through Friday. After the business of talking about work hours, what was expected from my teaching, and some things that the principal wanted me to teach to the students, the topic of my living arrangements came into topic. They passed him a list of necessarily items that was compiled to give me a comfortable day-to-day lifestyle here in Korea. It was a strange situation, being in a room where the sole purpose of the other's attendance was me. Having a group of adults discuss with one another what I am to do, where I am to be, and the focus of their attention all on me, was quite uncomfortable. After the necessities were taken care of, most of the teachers looked satisfied that they provided me with what I needed and everything else could be taken under my own responsibility and money. I was in agreement. I was ready to pay for my own comforts. Surprisingly, the person I least expected to speak-up spoke.
"We are going to get him a TV." The principal said in a calm and direct voice.
I could see the other teachers look at one another in a kind of amazement.
So later that day, the administrator took me shopping at EMart, a ridiculously overpriced department store. We spent close to 600,000 won. Take into consideration, this grand total is excluding the bed, the desk, the refrigerator, the TV, the dresser. I am guessing that my overly generous elementary school is going to spend close to 1,300,000 won, simply to move me in. Not that I want to make my focus seem to be all about money, but this is not including the 300,000 won settlement fee that they wired to my bank account. I will take this as a kind gesture from my school, and gladly accept their hospitality.
For those of you who would like to know, I was placed in the city of 춘천 and thankfully I was not placed in the country side, but the school that I am to be teaching at is placed in the country side. Adjacent to the elementary school there is a beautiful mountain, straight up legit mountain, not one of those fake Texas mountains also known as hills. A legitimate mountain, that one of my teachers said that we would one day hike up. This is a great contrast, the fact that my home is in an urban setting and my work place is in rural Korea.
It was a strange feeling unpacking my belongings in this place. This will be my new home. This is my residence. My apartment.
In the morning, the internet was installed connecting me to the world and further making this place feel like a home. Soon after the technician left my home, I strolled down the street to a restaurant that I have decided to become a "regular".
Last night, I met up with Grace to figure out how to travel in between our apartments and figure out the approximate time it would take to travel.My home is located 20 minutes walking distance from Grace.  Grace's apartment is about the same size, the same style, the same kind of apartment, but thankfully her place has flair. The wallpaper is colorful, the room is not a simple square like mine, but rather there are interesting angles and nooks in her place. I stayed at her apartment for a few hours, I took a nap on her bed, then trekked my way back to my unfurnished apartment.
On my walk back to my apartment, I thought back to the fond memories of orientation, the trips we took, the food we ate together, the people that I had met. It was all a distant memory now. Reality had sunken in, and although we were all on the same peninsula, we were definitely separated.

I also hear stories of back home. I hear how school is starting up, how people are buying their textbooks, how they are finding out what their professors are like, they see who is in their classes. Lunch groups are formed, ACF starts up, routine kicks in. Late night basketball, going to lift weights, late night movies. These seem even more vague and distant in my memory. I can almost not distinguish what was my Sophomore year, and my Freshman year. Strange how our memories work.

Things are going well. Korea is wonderful. After doing my first set of laundry, I understand better why Korean people do not normally use dryers. Although it may not be the same for all Koreans, the heat from my air conditioning unit drys the room in which my damp clothes are placed. I do not understand on the other hand, why Korean toilets are not made to take toilet paper. It is something that boggles my mind. I am a rebellious one and still flush it down. I also prefer to sit in chairs rather than sitting on the floor, but sometimes it is nice just to lay down and relax on the floor.

Things have been incredibly hectic, but hopefully Grace and I will be able to go to Seoul at least just for Sunday, so that we might be able to go to church. I'm sure that now things have settled I will be able to further elaborate on the various things that I have gone through my time here in Korea. I would expect lots of posts, but most likely much shorter then the one you just read. I miss you. I really do miss you. I miss playing basketball with you. I miss watching movies with you. I miss eating dinner with you. I miss just chilling with you. I miss walking by you at school and stopping to say hi. (btw, you, in this case is a very general you. You means YOU!)

Entry 14: 1박 2일

The ball soared through the air. The wind propelled it farther than I had expected. It had been a while since I had played catch. It had been a while since I had played catch at the beach. The sound of the wind and the feel of the sand between my toes as I dug my feet into the sand reminded me so much of California. The ball suddenly flew back my direction.
"Feels like home" I shouted.
"Yeah. We really should get a game going."

The football had become a magnet to the people from the US. In a matter of moments, we were able to start a 7 on 7 game. Beach football. We played until it was too dark to see the ball zip across the sky. The sweat dripped from my forehead and the sand stuck to my legs and found its way in all the nooks and crannies on my person. It made me homesick, playing football with friends, having a laugh after the game. Just the general atmosphere made me want to hop on the next flight for Austin. Then it hit me that I am in Korea, and I am a man on a mission. Learn Korean. The homesickness still lingers.

After the intense game, we stopped by one of the convenient stores, bought some ice cream, and headed inside once the storm rolled in.

What a relief after a tedious day of classes that we had ALREADY ENDURED THROUGH FOR THE PAST THREE WEEKS. Our group even got a lecture from the coordinator for the numerous people falling asleep and skipping lectures. No one really blamed people for being bored out of their minds, we had already done all of this. We even received a certificate for it. It is somewhat frustrating when we are the only province that has to go through this second training session with Epik, the other English teaching program. Thankfully our accommodations and the food they serve us make up for this slight annoyance, and also the fact that there is wireless internet in all the lecture halls.

I took a shower and headed over to Grace and Aileens room, where we watched 1박 2일. Aileen was craving 라면, so we boiled the water, put in the dehydrated noodles, and feasted as we watched Korean television.

Tomorrow, sadly, there are more classes. Its fine, they still are taking us to fun places, like a fish market and Seoraksan. So all is well. I just need to find something to do while I'm those lectures.

Entry 13: The Horror! The Horror!

They make us do things. Terrible things. Horrible things. It's torture I tell you! Its a travesty. The things that they make us do. No matter how much we protest. They force us. We are punished if we disobey. The horror. The horror!

With all seriousness, the Korean government is making certain things mandatory. They made us go to Lotte World. They made us go to visit a North Korean village in Sokcho. They made us go watch musical shows such as Nanta. They force us to make friends with random strangers. They made me take 847 pictures in the past 3 weeks. They made me do it, I promise.

They put us in our cells. It's called Freya. Freya Resortel (resort + hotel). They put me in solitude. A room three times as big as the dorm room, with a bedroom, a kitchen, and a living room. Terrible. A travesty.

We pass the unlimited time by learning things like how to play traditional Korean drums, similar to the Taekwondo classes and K-pop classes they made us endure in the previous weeks. We huddle together and play poker, perhaps finding better luck in the cards than in our current situation, but fail to find the luck we need to endure.

They feed us, no, rather they put us to a point of starvation where we do not feed but we devour meals that make gruel and the slop that swines dine on look appeasing. Smoked salmon, spaghetti, buttered dinner rolls, pineapple, watermelon, and traditional korean food! I feel nauseous as type the very words. How do they expect us to eat such things? Bulgogi? Kimchi? RICE?! What do they take me for? Apparently, nothing more than a piece of cattle that they are herding to further the exploits of the government.

As I sit in my cell, I play the guitar, lamenting over the memories of days where I was in the sweltering Texas sun, where my world was small, safe, and limited. They have changed my mind! Brainwashing. My world is enlarged, exciting, limitless. They have changed me for the worst.

I have not yet met the little gremlins that are about to be forced upon me, but just imagine, and I'm sure that you will be able to forsee what one of these gremlins will look and act like. Sitting quietly, perhaps giving out a giggle, dressed in their uniforms or perhaps the clothes that their parents had bought for them. Ready, to learn. Disgusting.

What good is there in Korea? Am I blind?

[ by some insane chance that you misread this post as a cry out for help, please read it again. did you catch the sarcasm? no? read again. Yeah? You got it? No? seriously? In that case, you are right, I hate Korea. :D ]

Entry 12: Last Day of Class

A strange feeling came over me after the last group presented their demonstration lesson. I felt free from the constant stress of having to sit mindlessly in the chairs that are attached to the desk, free from listening to lecturers sing songs to me, free from the thirty minute breaks in between classes that was too short to actually do something significant and too long to wait inside for the next class to start, free from training. Also, I felt as if I had been in this place, Kyung Hee University, for months. The routine had started to take a toll on my sanity. If it wasn't for our trips to Seoul, our late night ddukbokgi raids, and Red Mango, I might have blown a fuse.

As for Korea, I cannot even believe that it has been two and half weeks. Paradoxically, it feels like I've been at Kyung Hee for far too long, but a mere days in Korea. Tomorrow, we have a field trip to a temple and lotte world (most likely, this is the second time they have changed the trip). It also marks our relative freedom from TaLK, as we embark on our journey in Korea, teaching English in the most rural areas of the motherland. Expect my posts to become more vivid, expect my adventures to be more exciting, expect something. My time here in Suwon was good to offset the honeymoon stage of going to a new place. I'm ready to taste Korea.

Not to make it sound as if training has been utterly useless, I must admit that I have found a comfort zone with people. I might not experience the loneliness that I was bracing myself for thanks to the fact that we had to brace together as the training become more and more unbearable. I feel as if, they have equipped us with relationships, with material, with confidence through this training.

Thankfully, they have kept us thoroughly entertained in all matters other than lectures. For example, today we were apart of a radio show broadcast. It was professionally done and mildly entertaining. Tomorrow we get to take cooking classes, someone said we are learning how to make authentic bulgogi, and then we go to lotte world.

Korea has been fun. I have so many stories to tell. It's only been two and a half weeks.

Entry 11: Whirlwind Weekend

The wind came out of the tunnel at a refreshing pace. The sound of the subway crescendoing through the entire station. It was the first subway of the day. Five forty one in the morning. As we stepped onto the subway train, Cici looked at me and said "Did that really just happen?"
"I think so. It is really all a blur." I said, as I lazily held on the handle to keep my balance as the train started to gain momentum.
Cici, Grace, and I started to chuckle a bit, but were far too tired to give out a boisterous laugh similar to the ones that we bellowed during the previous hours. The train bulleted away, but even the journey home is simply, a blur.

The previous night had been a chain of accidental events, with nothing going according to plan, but not with the connotation of misfortune and disaster, but simply things did not go how we thought they were going to go, but they we still had an unforgettable night. A night full of one thing, shopping.

On the ride back to Kyung Hee University, I reminiced and tried to somewhat coherently place together the jumbled pieces of memories that made our trip to 동대문 unforgettable. It started with the boosting of my pride.

Our trip to Seoul was a bit different simply due to the increase in the size of our group. "This group is too big." Cici whispered to me as the bus jerked forward, "and I don't even like all of these people."
"I'm sure everything will work out. I'm really hungry. Let's just go eat instead." I said, while rubbing my stomach, as if it would subside the hunger. We all got off of the bus, and headed to the subway station.
"So, let's take line 2 to line 3 then go to line 4" I said.
"No. That is not the right way. It's line 2 to line 4." an unfamiliar voice belted my way.
"I'm pretty sure that this way is faster." I replied.
"No. That is not better. That is not faster. We are going my way." She said with a stony face.
"I think you should listen to her, she is from Korea.", a third party had interjected to decrease the amount of rising tension between us.

The subway arrived, we all got on. "Let's get off at this next stop. Alright?" I said quickly to Cici and Grace. As we got off at the next station, I shouted to Tiffany "Hey! We are going to Line 3, we will meet you there!" as I was being pushed out of the car. We made our transfers, and arrived at our destination. We were 10 min ahead of the other group. Victory. My heart threw a fist in the air, as if I got first place in the 100 meter dash. My pride inflamed.

The other group reached us and we started to go up the stairs to reach the ground level. My stomach was eating itself and I'm pretty sure that I could hear the stomachs of the others.
"Hey, I think we are going to go eat...." I said with a bit of reluctance to show that I was sad that I was changing the plan. The others became aware of their hunger. So we parted ways. Interestingly enough, no one else joined our small group of three. Which was fine, but it was a bit sad leaving Tiffany, but I was sure that she was going to be just fine in the bigger group.

We were the victorious ones. We had food in our stomachs (ddukbokgi, fried octopus, and korean style fried chicken) and we were ready to shop. So we hopped on the subway to dongdaemun. The now infamous dongdaemun, where the shop vendors had called me overweight, but this time I was going to come out victorious. It was a goal. I would conquer dongdaemun; it was not going to conquer me. How foolish I had been to let my hubris get in the way.

After having the feeling of victory of getting to our destination more efficiently than the "native" and having eaten quality food instead of trekking up a large hill, I was ready to tackle anything. In the first 30 minutes of shopping, I had been able to buy two quality t-shirts for 5,000 won. I was on a roll. Then time started to move in a very peculiar way. Hours passed seemingly slowly. One hour had felt like two. Ironically, this change in the time continuum, had effected my differently than it had the girls. The girls had forgotten about time itself. They were entranced by the clothes, the bags, the earrings, oh goodness the earrings had killed me on this night. I kept my mouth closed about the fact that we had been shopping for 4 hours straight. I wanted to conquer dongdaemun. I waited until the girls said "We should start heading back" at 11:40.

This is where things start to get blurry.

We started to walk towards the subway station. I would begin walking, the girls would get distracted by a random shopping stall. I heard them call my name, so I had to continuously walk back and forth for close to a mile. I think at this point I had walked close to 10 miles. We were stopped from proceeding forward by: shoes, shirts, skirts, bags, watches, sunglasses, PUPPIES, necklaces, and EARRINGS. We were feet from the subway station when the girls stop again, at a store that sold accessories.

"Look at these earrings! They are so cute! And only 1,000 won!" Grace exclaimed.
"Are you going to buy any of these?" I said, extremely patiently.
"No. They aren't my style, but look how cute they are. :D" She said while in her trance.

By the time we reached, I was walking closer to a jog than a walk. Once I was in that station, I walked a few meters ahead of the girls, not worrying about how much distance was between us. I was then stopped by an older man, who regretfully told me "the last train has left".

"NO TRAIN?" I said using disrespectful sentence structure. I turned around and started to mumble to myself the different ways that we could have gotten back to our dorms. Sadly, there was no viable option. Taxis would cost double at night, there were no more buses.

It was 12:45. How the. What the. Huh?!?!?

We left the shopping center at 11:45. How did it take us an hour to walk less than a mile? What the heck happened? I was left utterly confused.

We went to a Coffee Bean, got a few coffees, and laughed. We literally laughed for a whole hour. We were drugged on the fact that we missed the subway/train/any way to the dorms. We laughed till our sides burned. It was a laughter of exhaustion and utter surprise from the fact that we shopped close to 5 hours, and took an hour to get to the subway station that should have taken closer to 10 minutes.

The events that unfolded after coffee bean are incoherent. I think we shopped some more. I think. I really was on zombie mode.

As the sun was rising, we walked for a second time to the subway station. We conquered dongdaemun, but dongdaemun had definitely put up a much larger fight that I could have ever imagined.

Once it was time for me to hit the sack, I literally collapsed and was instantly knocked out.

I woke up from my slumber, went out to eat with my roommate and his group for the first time, and had a good time. I just realize why I hadn't done it in the past. It was a bit awkward for me to split the check differently since I didn't order any alcohol. They were a fun bunch and I wouldn't mind to eat with them more, but I think the whole drinking scene is not for me.

I met up with Clara on Sunday after church. She helped me get a phone, we got coffee and talked about the good ole days when we were like 10 and then we went to the mall where we played Korean arcade games and took sticker pictures. (BTW, the Korean English sermons I have heard so far are of such high quality. My notes are actually substantial. I feel convicted and victorious after each service. Refreshing.)

This weekend did not disappoint. Sadly, I have very few pictures to prove it. Nevertheless, Korea and I are doing well, we wish that you would enjoy yourself too.

Entry 10: Dinner with the Ladies

I was in a deep sleep, the kind of sleep that only comes after pure exhaustion, when my alarm woke me up. It was 7:15. In the afternoon. I had experienced such exhaustion after the day that I was starting to act funny. I would start to do things like forget who was in my class, say random things while the teacher was giving his or her lecture, make awkward and inappropriate remarks at people, so on and so forth. Sleep deprivation had altered my state of mind. But back to the original point, I was awoken from my deep slumber because it was Cici's birthday!

Grace had told me to be in front of the girls dorm by 7:20, so that we could head out to go eat at a Korean Bar-b-que place and eat as much meat as possible. As Cici, Grace, Aileen and I started to walk towards the restaurant, it hit me quite suddenly that, I was the only dude there. Not that this had been something unusual, as most people know here at TaLK, I am usually with girls more frequently than I am with dudes (the reasons as to my tendency to gravitate towards girls is in correlation to the amount of alcohol, cigarettes, and "guy talk" that is around the guys here. It's true that some guys just think about sex all day, or at least, they think of hot girls all day, which is normal, but I can only take so much). Today, walking with them towards the restaurant, the lack of Y chromosomes came more to my attention because at the restaurant, Tiffany, Lisa, Gina, Jessica, and Charline were waiting for us. It was going to be 8 girls and 1 dude. Oh dear.

At the restaurant, it was quite apparent that I was the only boy in the group, but thankfully we just laughed about it, they told me that I was like their "little brother" and we moved on. As our stomachs were getting satisfied, we all somewhat went around and said how old we were. Interestingly enough, Cici said somewhat surprised "Grace you are the same age as Jeremy? I thought you were at least 2 years older than him." Grace let out one of her infamous laugh/giggles. I just wanted to go "-_______-----" but sadly, my face cannot make that expression.

Suddenly, someone starts to bang on the window. It was a few of our friends from our classes. "OHHHHHH JEREMY!!!! NIIIIIIICEEEEEE" one of the guys shouted at me.

I felt like I had been caught red handed. Like I had done something wrong. It was quite embarrassing, being found in a restaurant with 8 girls, most of them older than I was. I was the little brother for the night.

This will only last through training. Once we are sent off to our respective locations, I will be on my own, which can be seen as both a blessing and a curse. It could get mad lonely being in the middle of the forest, but at the same time, I might actually enjoy some time to myself.

Anyways, tonight, I was the little brother. I'm comfortable with that.

Entry 9: Fricatives

Today. Class. Fun. Learn. Teaching.

Today, I class. It fun. Learn about teaching.

Today, I had class as usual. It was a lot more fun than I thought it would have been. I learned a lot about teaching kids that don't speak English.

There are several techniques when teaching English to Korean kids, but today in our ""How to Approach Pronunciation for Korean Elementary School Students" class, the instructor, Mr. Ko, explained how Korean kids have a hard time understanding teachers because of intonation. Understandably, when a kid is trying to comprehend what is coming out of my mouth all he really needs to hear and comprehend are the words in the first sentence. Today. Class. Fun. He further explained how he builds off of the kids comprehension. He speaks clearly and with fervor. So after saying sentences like sentence one, he moves on to sentence two, then to sentence three. If you could just step into the kids perspective for one moment, you would understand how hearing a sentence with all the fluff words (descriptive words) it could become quite a daunting task for 2nd graders.

There was much more to his lecture, to teach us proper techniques when dealing with children. It was quite the useful lecture, and most definitely, I will have to remember to to speak SLOWLY and clearly, I think the "speak with expression" part is going to be simple for me. I'm excited to read children stories to my kids. I think I'm going to download a bunch and then read them the stories that I read when I was a kid. Strange, how I feel like this job is going to teach me a lot about being a father. Teaching and parenting are so similar; I've always seen my parents as my best teachers.

Made plans with an old friend who lives in Korea for this sunday. Hopefully she can help me get a cell phone and we can catch up on the good ole days when her mom wanted me to be her son-in-law.

Things are super slow here in Korea. So don't be jealous, at least not yet. Going to class from 9-5 is a drag and definitely not conducive to experiencing what Korea has to offer. I really want some nice jjajjangmyun right about now.

word of the day: fricatives. thats right, fricatives. (interestingly, this wasn't the first time I came across this word, lol @ phonetics majors)

Entry 8: School Visit

The alarm went off at 6:45am. It was time to go to visit a school that was 2.5 hours away. The previous night I had spent talking to my drunken roommate about various things, including how someone stole his umbrella. As we went to bed that night, he said in a very serious tone "I love you, man. I'm serious. We are roommates, you can tell me anything".
When we both woke up from my alarm, he said "Dude, someone stole my umbrella last night"
"Yeah, you told me this last night" I said in a somewhat confused tone.
"What? You weren't asleep when I came in?" He said in a similarly confused tone.
"Dude, we had a 30 min conversation about a lot of different things" I said, and then continued to give him a play by play of our entire conversation, with him saying things like "OH yeah!", and "yeah dude.."

I got on the bus, sat next to Aileen, and soon passed out during the 3 hour bus ride. Once we reached the school we observed the 6th grade class, attempting english. It was really cute. They were really cute. We had the honor of eating the most AMAZING kimbab with the kids. We played games, talked to them in English about a variety of topics. Then left.

I passed out the entire way back to Suwon. They dropped us off at a movie theater where I watched 국가대표. Thankfully, I understood the majority of the movie, and it was quite entertaining.

I'm sorry that I am losing things to talk about these days, honestly, things are becoming much more routine. I'm no longer homesick, but rather, there is this emptiness inside of me, but who knows what that could be. I wish I could just sit at one of the gazillion coffee shops in seoul, and talk with you, YEAH YOU (I mean, if you read my blog, I'm sure that we have SOMETHING to talk about).

I promise to write about something more interesting in the future. Just bear with me.

Entry 7: Breaking Curfew

"GRACE! Your feet! They are bleeding!", I exclaimed as Grace took off her flip-flops to examine her feet. The fact that her feet were raw wasn't the biggest surprise, since we had been walking around Dongdaemoon and Insadong all day, but the fact that she had barely noticed made me think "what a trooper". Thankfully Grace owns a purse. The magical bag that disguises itself as a fashion accessory, but in fact holds more than physically possible. She busted out a package of what looked like 40 bandaids, put two on her feet and we continued on our way.

Dongdaemoon, how I hate you so much because of your crowds and crazy shop vendors, but how I love you for your hidden beauty. As we walked in the clothing market, the shop vendors would holler at me, saying things like "I have your size! Extra Large!", "You got a big belly", "Your thighs are huge, and your waist.. wow". I pretty much ignored all of the vendors, until one showed me a nice pair of jeans and a decent polo. I ended up buying the clothes for 50% of what he originally told me. I'm sure I could have gotten a better price, but the fact was, I had spent a good 20 minutes with the man, explaining to him that I did not want to buy a pair of skinny jeans, a t-shirt that said something in incoherent English, or something that showed off my apparently oversized body. I never thought I was overweight, but I guess Korea does that to people. It gives me motivation to run that extra mile, I'm being very serious about the extra mile thing, and the motivation to really watch what I put in my mouth and how much I put in it. Nevertheless, Dongdaemoon, you showed me a side of Korea that I must say, was not the best light, but I still was able to find the beauty eating Coffee Patbingsoo, while people watching.

(side note, for those of you who have seen my pictures on facebook, the pictures of the guys in red was in Dongdaemoon, and they were dancing to "I'm a Single Lady" and this one other song. I was laughing such an awkward laugh the entire time)

Sadly, because I needed to get the pants altered a bit since they were slightly too long, Grace and I were not going to be able to go back to the dorms, since we would miss the 11pm curfew if we chose to go to sleep there. Grace called up Dae and her sister, and subsequently found both of us places to crash for the night.

After sleeping on Dae's floor after talking to him about Acts and other stuff for a couple of hours, I woke up early Sunday morning and did my devotionals and played his Wii. Dae and I went to A Twosome place and got some coffee as we waited for Grace and Jessica. Once we met up with Grace and Jessica Lee, we ate some ddak galbi. It was glorious.

We then trekked to Jubilee Church. It was such a refreshing message. I actually wrote notes, which is amazing, and it was also refreshing to see other TaLK scholars at church. Korean people go to church, no matter where they are, its pretty beautiful when you think about it. We got some mad devotion to church, I hope that translates to devotion to Christ, but that is another story.

After church, Grace and I watched UP with Grace's sister Joy, her boyfriend, and roommate. We were cutting it close, since we had to get back to the dorm at 9pm. After a trip on the subway, which I have become quite comfortable with, and a short walk to the bus stop, we stood there waiting for the 5100 bus to show up. We were going to be late, and suffer the consequences, a demerit.

Thankfully, we weren't late. We actually had about 10 minutes to spare even though we left about 10 minutes later than we thought we needed to.

My first weekend in Seoul, was a mix of embarrassment, excitement, and enjoyment. Korea is pretty much what I thought it would be, except when I visualized Korea I really didn't take in to account how many people actually live in Seoul. It is mind boggling.

Entry 6: The 1st Weekend - Friday

5:30pm. The last training class of the week. It was officially the weekend. Grace, Cici, and I hopped on the 5100 bus in hopes to find some grub in 강남. We sat in the last row, squished from shoulder to shoulder, as the bus was at maximum capacity, or what I thought was maximum capacity. We made another stop, and more people crammed their way into the bus, including Mr. Creepy. Mr. Creepy stood a few feet away from us, holding on to a rail for balance. He wore thin, round glasses and had a New York Yankee's baseball cap on. We started heading closer to Seoul, a 50 min bus ride, that would end in complete awkwardness.

At the middle of our bus ride, Mr. Creepy decided that Grace was someone that he was going to stare at. Not only was he going to stare, but he was also going to completely ignore my attempt to give him the "stop freaking starring at my friend, you freaking creeper". Sadly, Grace did not notice either, as she just sat there playing with her phone. Later Cici and I would somewhat reprimand Grace for not having noticed Mr. Creepy being kind of creepy.
As we neared our stop, Grace wanted to make sure that we were getting off at the right place, and ironically, she asks Mr. Creepy, (in korean) "When is the Gangnam station coming up?"

"It's the next stop" he said, startled by her voice.
"Thank you. :)"
"Are you from Suwon?"
"We are English Teachers"
"Ahhh,"

The bus nears our stop, and we start to shuffle together towards the exit of the bus, and then

"Can we talk outside?", Mr. Creepy says in almost incoherent English.
"Get the crap out of our way, you flamer, and you better leave us the crap alone" I thought in my head...
"Oh, ok...?" Grace politely answered.

We exited the bus and then a 7 min conversation ensued. Ending with:

"So what's your phone number?"
Grace then hands him her phone so that he can get her digits.
"How old are you?"
"We are all 18" Cici said in a confident voice so that he would not suspect the lie.
"Do you have any friends?"
"We have to go" I said before the conversation could get any more awkward.
"If you want to find our friends, go outside of Kyung Hee University, but we have to go, bye" I said in a more firm voice so that we would leave Mr. Creepy.

Cici and I shot a glance at each other basically saying "WTF! Grace just got hit on by a 29 year old dude."

She then passes me her phone so that I could translate/read a text that she just got.

"I was so nervous talking to you. I think we should meet up and get dinner sometime."

We laughed all the way to dinner. We were never going to let Grace forget that one time that she got hit on my a dude on the bus.

After dinner we went to this cute coffee shop that Grace recommended because it had the famous fish that ate the dead skin on your toes. That was an experience that I wont forget. The three of us screamed and giggled like little girls (including me), until I just dunked my feet in and took it like a man. It felt like my feet were asleep. Every kiss felt like a tingle I could see the fish sucking at my toes and my feet.

We left the coffee shop at 9:30. We didn't get on the bus back to Kyung Hee till 9:45. We were a bit worried that we would be late for curfew, but it all worked out ok in the end. All in all, we felt much less homesick, and much more excited that we were not stuck in the University, opening the door to the numerous possibilities we had in Korea, more specifically, Saturday and Sunday. More on that later.

Entry 5: Rise of Cobra

Seat C9.
I found out today that Korean movie theaters, or at least the one that Grace and I went to last night, have assigned seating. The more I thought about it, the cooler it was.

We got the the movie theater around 7:45, called up our friends to see if they were going to meet up with us, but soon found out that they had not wanted to go to the movies but rather wanted to sing their Korean hearts out at a 노래방. Since Grace and I weren't up for the singing, we ended up watching GI JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA.

The movie seemed to be out for a while, since it was a Thursday night, but the theater was pretty much full. I think I enjoyed the previews before the movie and the commercials as much, or even more than the actual movie.

The movie started, the screen was exceptionally clear, the sound was not too loud (the movie was an orgy of explosions and car crashes), and it was nice being in a semi-air-conditioned room even though my butt was getting all kinds of sweaty from the extra cushioned movie seat.

GI JOE: the rise of Cobra, was fairly entertaining and for someone who didn't even really play with GI JOE's when I was a kid, since they were an 80's toy, I still found the movie to have very entertaining qualities. To be honest, I think that this movie held my attention much better than Transformers II had done. It was also a lot more coherent, although there were one too many flashbacks and side arcs. The action itself felt a bit cheap, but then again, I didn't have the same expectations for amazing special effects as I did for Transformers. I thought that they casted the actors well, and I almost giggled like Steven Hyon when I noticed that the main character from 500 days of summer was in the movie.

By the time the movie was over, and my mind had been completely numbed with explosions and gunfire, I was ready to hit the sack. Grace and I squeezed with about 25 other Korean people in an elevator, and found that while we were enjoying GI JOE, Korea was enjoying RAIN (rain as in water rain, not the guy who has the retarded smile). It was nice walked back to the dorm after it had just rained. There was something about the streets being covered in water, the lights of the buildings, and just the general atmosphere of Korea at night, that just made me really calm and happy at the same time. Content, I suppose is the feeling.

Entry 4: Making Friends

As I sat there, I wondered how this happened. How did a bunch of strangers eventually form to make a group? How did this group decide that they should hang out for long extended periods of time? Why am I even contemplating the reasons why this group formed? It was during the last lecture class of the day, thankfully a lecture that was both insightful and useful, where four of us sat in the second row talking about our plans for the next six months, together.

"They pay for us to travel?"
"Yeah, as long as we have a plan"
"Jeremy, you want to plan it?"
"Yeah, I love doing that kind of stuff"
"Then we just submit it?"
"Yeah, and if they approve it, we get to spend a week in Jeju for free."
"God, that sounds amazing."

Grace, Andy, Aileen, and I just sat there imagining what was to come for the next six months.

"Hey, write your name down and your email address, and skype name. Lets make sure we have each other's information" Andy said Aileen who then turned to me asking the same thing.
"Yeah dude, this sounds freaking awesome."

It's been less than three days and yet, somehow the group had been formed, and somewhat set in stone.

"By the way, lets not make this group to big, I hate big groups" Andy added as we were walking to the dining hall.

To say that I was excited would be an understatement. I was jumping for joy on the inside. I was ready to experience Korea, and I had friends to do it with. It wasn't going to be alone. It also has been pretty nice being able to get to know Grace a little more. The way that the orientation is worked out is that you take all the same classes with the people in your province, which meant that Grace and I would have someone to sit by in all our classes. Naturally Andy and Aileen joined into the mix and the four of us hit it off. I leaned over to Grace during one of the more useless lectures and whispered "The best part of this orientation is meeting people to hang out with during our time here."

I stopped to really think about what was going through my mind, and a very sad and somber thought popped into my head. I wish, I just wish that there were more people from UT here. How great it would be to go through this time, laughing and joking with people that I really shared common interests and beliefs with; how refreshing it would be to really interact with the people that I had chosen to be friends with.

Although the thought still lingers, I now realize that I am doubly blessed. I am able to really be thankful that I am taken care of here in Korea, and that I miss and am missed by the people back home. This trip so far has been far from what I had expected, and yet, it is definitely not in a bad way, just in a way that is forcing me to really grow up. I know that my friendships made here in Korea will be long term ones (at least hopefully) and that my time here, will make me grow more than I could have ever imagined. I'm going to grow up through this trip.

Growing up... something that I didn't realize was this painful. Something that is a mixture of moving on, picking yourself up, and just being flexible with whatever the world throws at you.

"I'm homesick." I told Grace as we were cleaning off our plates.
It was the truth.

Entry 3: Defeating Jet Lag

I was conscious. How I dreaded knowing that I had woken up at an ungodly hour. The sun had not yet risen and I was sure that there were people that had not yet gone to bed. 2am. I had gone to bed the previous night around 7:30 by accident (and by accident I mean, I took out my contacts, I brushed my teeth, and collapsed on my bed, but it just happened to still be light outside kind of accident)so the fact that I woke up at 2am, isn't completely insane. So got out of bed, turned on my computer and watched Office Space. I then proceeded to watch a few episodes of How I Met Your Mother and talked to some people back in the States.

Around 5am, I went out for a run with my new nike+ shoes. I ran about 3 miles into the little area that surrounds the Kyung Hee University campus. I subsequently found this sweet little park that had pull-up bars, crazy exercise machines, and old grandmothers who were up around 6am. What a long and drawn out morning. Beautiful in so many ways, but by the time it had hit breakfast time I had already been up for 6 hours. Today was bound to be a long and drawn out day.

After breakfast, my roommate who by the way is a fitness freak (freaking ripped), wanted to check out the gym. As we start doing a workout, he gives me some tips on my form and helps me with some exercises. Knowing that I'm not exactly an expert on fitness, I gladly took the advice. It was a great work out, both tiring and interesting. After we work out, he explains that he had worked at Lifetime fitness as a trainer for a couple of years and that he majored in Kinesiology at school. "So you want to work out again tomorrow?"
"Heck yeah" I quickly replied. For the next three weeks, I basically am working out with a trainer. He really does help me with my form, its extremely useful having a knowledgeable workout partner.

Fun fact: 경희 University is known for Taekwondo. We were able to watch a full performance today during the opening ceremony. I was blown away by the sheer number of boards broken in ONE LEAP. It is somewhat hard to explain what kind of things they did but just think, backflips, kicks, roundhouse kicks, boards, apples, jumping off of other people, breaking boards 15 ft in the air, BLINDFOLDED BACKFLIP APPLE SMASHING KICKS. The guy that I sat next to explained to me how he was a black-belt in taekwondo, but had never seen anything like this performance. These college students perform for like foreign dignitaries that come to Korea. I'm sure they instill fear of going to war with Korea (I'm only half kidding, Korean people are freaking fierce).

The opening cermony was long but somewhat entertaining. The buffet that they served to us afterwards was ridiculously amazing, they had all kinds of sashimi, and other asian goodness.

Went out afterwards with Andy, Grace, and Tiffany. Went to Home Plus and got some stuff we needed and then went to Paris Bagguete and talked about a plethora of things. Relationships being one of them.

It is 11pm. I've been up since 2am. You do the math. Jeremy=tired. I don't even know if this post is coherent, but I guess this is the cost of being able to wake up at a normal time. Like 8am.

(drunk Aussie Koreans are lots of fun.)

Entry 2: Early Bird Gets Really Tired Around 6pm

The tour coordinator took the microphone from the tour bus driver. He tapped the microphone twice to make sure that it was on.

"This tour will not teach you anything about the real Korea. This tour is bullsh*t. The real Korea comes out at night. Let's try to have some fun."

The entire bus was laughing, obviously. Woon, as he told us to call him, was a pretty awesome tour coordinator. We went to this lame amusement park that just had miniature sized buildings, such as the Taj Mahal and the Sistine Chapel. It was pretty lame, considering the fact that, Legoland was cooler. After Ainns World, our tour bus was then taken to Wolmido, pretty much a oceanside pier. It was much more interesting than the amusement park, since this place actually had rides and some pretty awesome stand food. This was Korea, I'm sure that people would love to have had gone to a bar instead of going to Wolmido (people drink like fish here... well I guess everywhere, but its more exacerbated here since we are in Korea, and the culture does not have that much stigma against drinking), but nevertheless this was Korea.

Rewind 13 hours:
4am. I can't sleep. After talking to some people online, I went to explore the campus and the city. Two hours of walking around in the serene morning calm was a very soothing experience. No one was out, no one was even awake, the streets were empty allowing me to take pictures in the middle of roads. It was a side of Korea that I did not expect to see. One of the shop workers was opening his store and tried to start a conversation with me in Korea. Thankfully, I didn't make a fool of myself. I explained to him that I was staying at the university and was going to teach english. I left before the store worker decided to use words I didn't know or expect me to say something that I didn't know how to articulate. It was a good morning.

Fast forward 14 hours:
"GRACE!!!!!"
Grace made it safely to the campus. Training starts tomorrow. Pictures are posted on facebook. I need to stay awake for another three hours, and maybe this jet-lag wont pwn me.

Entry 1: The Start of Something New

“That will be $130” the Korean Air employee said to me after inquiring about my guitar.

“Oh, what the...” I said as I handed my guitar over to my parents, “I guess I’ll just have to do without the guitar for 6 months, I’m sure that I’ll be just fine. I thought that it was just $50 for an extra bag, I must have been mistaken”

The idea of having a guitar in Korea wasn’t the most important thing, I was sure that there would have been plenty of other things to do, but I must admit that it was a disappointment to hear that it would cost $260 dollars just to take my guitar to and from Korea. That was money that could go towards more traveling and food in Korea.

The flight attendant, who shockingly wasn’t Korean like all the other Korean Air, looked at me for a moment and had a thoughtful expression on her face. She seemed to be sympathizing with me, at least that’s what I assumed as she said, almost in a whisper “I’m going to print out three tags for you. Two for your bags and one for your guitar. Free of charge. Just know that I’m not supposed to do this, which means there is no insurance on your guitar and the company is not responsible if it is lost, but if you want, you can take it for free. You just look so disappointed.”

My face lit up, as I sheepishly placed my guitar on the conveyor belt.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah.”

I walked to the security checkpoint victorious with passport and ticket in hand. I had never expected and air line worker to be so… to be so thoughtful.

“You are going to have a great time in Korea. Just see how blessed you are from the get-go”, my mom said to me as she pat me on the back. “Just remember to skype when you get there” my dad interjected.

After the hugs and goodbyes, I walked through the metal detector and to my gate.

My flight had been delayed. 3 hours, which interestingly wasn’t that dreadful, as I was able to strike up a conversation and get on friendly terms with the other English teachers that were on my flight. Then the flight was delayed another hour.

The airline passed out lunches and drinks to the people who were waiting since, the 11am flight was now departing closer to 3:00 pm. So we sat there, the 6 of us, getting to know each other with small talk about home towns and majors as we waiting 4 hours for a 14 hours flight.

The flight itself was not the most comfortable, as I sat in the second to last row of the plane, and it had not been one of the planes where you get your own personal tv screen, as it is more common these days in bigger jet liners, but instead I had to squint (due to the distance and the poor quality of the prescription on my glasses) in order to see the movie screen. Instead, I used my laptop to watch The Wrestler, a movie that Harrison had said was a good movie which it was, and slept for most of the time.

The cabin started to shake and one of the white men in front of my lifted his hands and said "touchdown!" in a playful tone. I was here. Korea.

I gathered my things, found all my bags and my guitar at the baggage claim, took the hour and 15 min bus ride to Suwon, and went to my dorm room. I still don't think it has hit me, that I will be in this country, where it seems as if every single car has a gps system, for 6 months, or possibly even a year if things go well.

I am meeting people at a rapid pace, including my new roommate, Brent.

More on that later. It is muggy, and I need to shower.