Oh, right!

I almost forgot. I wasn't going to post anything today. But then I remembered yesterday was prettty cool, so here's a little update:
My friend and co-worker, Lee, Yun-Woo moved in to my apartment yesterday. I'm pretty happy about that. He's a cool guy, and we've always gotten along splendidly. And we have some experience living together for brief periods during department trips. I think it'll be great.
He moved all his things in and we talked about conveniences and habits and roommatey stuff. (lol, room-matey, I sound like a pirate.) It sounds like we have more in common than I thought. And not just the living style but attitudes and stuff too. It should be a good arrangement.
But at one point, at about 5:30AM (after waking up suddenly to write a poem) I realized that he being incredibly like me could potentially be a bad thing. I'm a pretty independent guy nowadays, and I've always been kind of both self-centered and self-loathing. So, suddenly I wondered: Is there room for another me in my life? Maybe not. lol. We'll see. We can both be pretty carefree guys, so I don't imagine many conflicts or anything will come up.
It's nice to have a friend just a few feet away again.

*Sigh* The end of summer.

And how do I know it's the end of summer? The last of the parade of visitors that came here has left. It was: (in order of appearance) Deanna (big sis), Nate+Laura+Maren(big bro & fam), Mom, Ross, Carl. Not sure if I should count Ross, since he didn't explicitly come here to see me, but he left yesterday. So, now I have a little over one week left to relax before classes start.
It's been an intense summer. In retrospect, there were only a few weeks, I think, in which I was not hosting or entertaining someone. And that's way more intense than it sounds. Korean people on average, don't speak English. I mean, there are a lot of catchphrases from English that are well-known or words taken from English, but that doesn't mean a lot. Getting around and staying well-fed are ok, but the best sightseeing, foods, and situations require quite a bit of Korean. (That is, unless you live in Itaewon, in Seoul, where all the foreigners live.) So, just having a parade of people relying on me to basically be a tour guide for them almost every day for several months has taken its toll on me. And then I remember how it was with my Korean friend/roomate the first few months I was here. And then I feel really bad.
I did a lot of travelling around Korea this summer for everyone. And I saw and did a lot of really cool things. And my bank account only suffered a little bit for it. That's pretty awesome. Lots of good pictures and awesome memories.

(following pictures credit to Carl and Ross)

So, it's been a long, crazy week. Got Carl from Gimpo airport, we hung out in Seoul with Ross and Hee Jeong, and Eun Ji. We went to 63 building on the South Side of the river, and drank some beer before Eun Ji had to leave.

The crew parting ways in the Subway. -_-

Then we went to eat dinner and such. Samgyeop-Ssal ftw. I was really surprised at the end of the night when Ross and Carl both agreed to go to a public bathhouse/sauna (찜질방) to stay the night. It's a wonderfully relaxing and cheap way to spend the night. The next day, we went to COEX (largest underground shopping center in Asia) and its aquarium. I like COEX. We then parted ways to head back to Daejeon. Carl and I just hung out and met my friends in Daejeon.

My sexy dinner pose in Daejeon.

He also saw 2 english classes and 2 taekwondo classes. I gave carl some "free-talking" time alone with them so he could see their English ability. I made my students try teaching him taekwondo as a test of their english ability and patience. We also obtained my Foreign Registration card for the coming year.

That's it, folks, it's official, down to the contract and the Visa....... I'm staying.

Carl did not tell me he'd shortened his stay to a week until we went back to Daejeon. Bad huubae. (junior) I was a little pissed about not being able to do much, but I was more sad than anything. oh well. So we went back up to Seoul for a day and a half, stayed in a hotel this time. We went shopping in the super-fashionable Dongdaemun market (where Carl bought possibly the pimpinest polo tee I've ever seen.)


We then failed to make it to the palace (Kyeongbokgung) on time, but we saw lots of cool things along the way. Like Gwanghwamun Plaza:

The recently opened Gwanghwamun plaza.

Then Carl and I went to Jogyesa temple, where we learned that the former president Kim Dae-Jung had died. We also met a very interesting woman who was researching the bronze bells of Korea, and because of her and a very friendly temple attendant we got to walk right up to the 4 sacred intruments at the temple. Pretty cool. I find those instruments fascinating.

Carl in front of the Dharma Drum and the Brahma? Bell

That night we met Ross and Hee jeong again for a bit of shopping in Insa-dong (Carl and I bought awsome hats) and then "The Ice Bar" near Honggik University.

It was so cool, cooler than cool....

"An' what's cooler than bein cool? ICE COLD!"

Hilarious. Once I took a couple basic pictures with Ross' and Carl's cameras, I got excited about the photo opportunities. So I spent most of the rest of the time arranging "glamour shots" like that one. lmao Here's mine:

Yes, that's a glass made of ice. And a fur hood.
And that makes me a total b-a.

Deep thoughts.
Manly deep thoughts.
And Ice.
Sub-Zero, for Men

Then Ross went totally crazy.
And killed Carl.
While Heejeong and I stood aside and laughed and took pictures.

And then we went to another place to play darts and so on.

The next morning, Carl and I failed again to see the palace, this time on account of sleeping too late+rain. But we saw the palace museum instead, and then I bid Carl farewell at Gimpo.

It's been a damn good summer, everyone. To those of you that visited, I worked damn hard for you, and some things failed, (I'm not a perfect tour guide yet,) but I'll remember those golden times in Korea with you all for the rest of my life. It was beautiful. And I was really happy. ^^,
To those of you that didn't come, I thought about you a lot. You know, I love the people in my life back there in NC and here in Korea. To be honest, my people are the only reason I even want to come back to NC. So even if you didn't come to visit, and even if I hardly ever talk to you...... Well, when I look at the sky, I think of you, and smile.
*LOVES*

I'm a terrorist!

Apparently I'm a mean senpai. Carl says that's how he remembers me in high school. lolz
Outside perspective, anyone? I probably do hit my juniors too much, though. But Carl's kindof a beast..... Why does he let me hit him so much?
Seoul is great fun.
Carl and I have basically been partying since he arrived here. Hope we can meet Ross one more time. It'll be fun!
Oh! And I've had like 4 long, in-depth conversations entirely in Korean recently, and people understand what I'm saying! Korean level up!^_^

keepin it korean, son!

Yesterday, I taught the last of 3 classes for a group of about 21 chinese college students. They learned tae kwon do from me for 3 weeks, once a week. They were pretty funny. This last class was hilarious. I'd been doing my best to teach in Korean since they're only here on a one month experience sort of trip. You know, I wanted to keep it Korean for them. The last class they begged me to just teach in English. I guess even though they had a translator with them, who did a pretty good job, it seemed, translating from my korean to chinese, they were still getting confused because of the 0% korean they all understood. It was hilarious. I wish my korean students would beg me to teach them in english, but they wouldn't understand if I did. Korea's a little behind on the english.
Oh! And a couple of girls from the chinese college kids group turned fangirl on me. It's been happening quite a bit recently. Fangirls just pop up everywhere. lol But I'm so not used to it. I'm not a movie star or any other sort of star for that matter, and fan-girls still really catch me off guard, and make me shy. I mean, these couple girls in this college group saying they loved me and that I was handsome and stuff. They were so proud of their ability to say it in korean, too! hahahahaha except that their pronunciation was bad and I didn't get it until the 3rd time around. Then one girl told me I was pretty. Big laugh at that one. It's ok in korean language to use the word pretty for a man, but I'm still not used to it.
Gonna try again to go get my foreigner card renewed, this time with (hopefully) all the right documents.
I hate it when people cancel classes with me. I mean, I could have planned something else for that time. Or when students just don't come to my morning class during the vacation? Oh ho ho, that really pisses me off. I could've slept or eaten a decent breakfast or what, but no~~~~ooo, I had to come in to the University and no one shows up? And they all know my cell number, but do they show me that courtesy? No. Eezel. I almost cancelled class this morning just out of spite.
Oh, and one of the students in the running for the internship just got cut out, and so did Burlington. I'm only sending 2 students to Washington, now. One of them's name is literally the same as the way you say America in Korean. Mi Guk, which means beautiful country. I find that hilarious. But it's confusing as hell when I'm teaching and I have to talk about something in the US. So I started calling him America. lol
New nickname for today: Lu-"Cass" because someone spelled my name wrong in korean, and "Cass" is a popular brand of korean beer. So I'm beer. This beer also comes in 'Red' and 'Light' varieties, which is pretty damn hilarious. Blushing? Cass Red. Lose some weight? Cass Light. Come to think of it, I feel pretty bad for any girl named Cass or Cassie who comes to Korea. lol
I still want a camera.

Weekend!

Alright, so it was a weekend. And I had quite a few plans! One friend came into town after another.
The first was Bae, Jun Ho. (Family names are first) He and I usually just get together and talk over a few drinks. Honestly, it's not that exciting, and we often have a bit of trouble communicating, but not too bad. Just the occasional lookup of a word like "stubborn" is all we need for small talk. My korean knowledge carries the conversation these days, though I understand the broken english he tries. Not many friends I just talk to like him, though. It's nice. Oddly, though, I don't like a lot of things about his demeanor. But we stay in touch, and he's considering going to America, so he asks me a lot about it.

Nextly, Ross came to Daejeon!! With his korean girlfriend, Kim Hee Jeong. They're great, and Hee Jeong and I have good conversations due to our shared foreign living experience. She lived in Australia for a while, and also spent 3 months in the US with Ross. She's a cool and funny chick, and a bit shy. Very proper korean woman. ^_^ It seems the way that she and Ross met is like they were just pushed together by fate, and fell for each other. It's a great story, even if Ross isn't that good at telling it. (Sorry, Ross.) I'm happy for them, and wish them the best.
Anyhow, Ross coming to Daejeon was a pretty big deal. I invited as many of the previous Lee Brothers interns as I could. After some complications for some friends, the resulting crowd was Me, Lee Yujin, Choi Chang Un, Kim Se Young, and Kim Borami + Borami's friend. All meeting at seperate times and places, but we were all together in the end for dinner and games and drinks. POJANG MAJCHA! We watched G.I. Joe, went to the university, and played all over town. A great time was had by all.
Think I'll go to Incheon with Ross on Wednesday or Thursday. I'm excited because it's the beach and it's a festival. Hopefully awesome. Definitely awesome, if our plans come together well and we can stay overnight.

I was supposed to work over the weekend. I did, a little bit. Saturday mornings I'm practicing english as a favor to a friend with a group of 4 elementary school kids. They love me, but still almost treat me like a teacher. It's cool. Very comfortable there. All we do is play. I mean, we sit down and talk about a certain topic for a little while, but it quickly regresses to word/english games, and then to some other more active game. Free coffee and snacks, and a lot of fun. Their favorite game is hide-and seek.
Another thing I was supposed to do over the weekend, workwise, was proofread some very important and urgent letters. I have no internet access at home, and maintenance this weekend at the university meant I couldn't check from the office, either. I could've walked to the top of the hill beside my apartment, paid a few bucks worth at a PC room to check my e-mail and have it all done by this morning, but I opted to just chill at home. It's ok, I finished them before the end of business today, anyways. ^^

Hopefully, I can get a camera sometime soon, but until then, I'll have to rely on friends with cameras and a willingness to share. Should be some pics coming to supplement this post soon.

Time to go get medieval on some japanese and chinese historical figures, with some demons thrown in for good measure. That's right, I'm going to play "Orochi Warriors."

now THat's what's Up.

Srsly. For Rls

Ok, so I just signed a new contract to stay for another year in Korea. I love it here, miss people immensely, and continue back and forth. A little recycling:
"I almost just signed it without a second thought or glance, I've been thinking about staying for so long. But I made myself pause. Then I signed. My students cheered.......................
That pause when I was signing the contract last week brought it all back. Suddenly, I miss everyone again. And suddenly, a year feels like a very long time all over again.
Back and forth, back and forth.
My american life is like, all of my history so far. I grew up there. All my closest oldest friends are there. My memories are there. My family is there. Opportunities and dreams. The people I love.
Back and forth, back and forth.
All the lame stuff is there, too. All the mistakes, all the people I left behind for a reason. All the failures, all the boring day-to-day crap. All the bad attitudes. All the emo. The culture I hate.
Back and forth.
I ran away. That's exactly what I did. If I ran away, I should never look back, right?
Back
I never wanted to run away. It was just another experience, an unimaginable opportunity to learn, to help. A foreign experience period.
Forth"

And in other news: Official processes and red tape never cease to thwart me. I can't yet change my foreign registration card because they didn't tell me one of the forms I needed until I got there. Why? No one seems to know. I'll try again next week.

I've met some new people recently. 2 Complete strangers, who are just friendly enough not to scare me away. But I feel amazingly connected to these people. The things we've talked about just keep revealing commonalities. And both of them are considerably older than me and married, oddly enough. One speaks english quite well. The other doesn't. And yet, I've found in these two people a depth and a substance in conversation that I've lacked for a long time. And I just couldn't help but feel close to these people almost immediately, like we were old friends who go way back just after a couple of hours each. Good feeling.

I read the New York Times, or listen to BBC world news, and it just tells me the same kind of things, over and over. The world is fighting with itself, in a new place this time. Culture advances and mixes. There's a lot I'm not hearing about because it's always the same countries, and the same people on the headlines. Getting sick of the news.

This weekend should be hectic and fun. 2 private lessons, each followed by 2 parties. One party is for Ross and as many interns as I could round up! His girlfriend is great, I really wish them the best. It's just amazing the way they met. "첫눈에 반했다" my latest korean phrase ("Fell in love at first sight") I remember because of them.

My world is bombarding me at the moment, and in a moment of pause, I thought of another way to put that:
"The whole 'reap what you sow' analogy is a bit too shallow, because most people forget that when you harvest, you harvest EVERYTHING at once."

I'm starting this

Because basically I enjoy reading about other people's lives.
And I thought, "Maybe someone will get a kick out of this."

So here's a chronicle
It's not an exciting thing
But I'll make something up if it gets boring.

I always wanted an audience.
But I've not often much to say.
There's always plenty to write about, though. ^^,