Eeeeekkkk

Lightening, thunder and leaves of many colors. It really is a different world here compared to my little hometown of Los Angeles. I left for work in the morning and it was about 65 degrees outside and the sun was shining. As I came home for lunch it was starting to rain out of nowhere. While I was making lunch the rain picked up and the thunder and lightening started. Pretty awesome. It all happened in like a matter of 15 minutes.

I kind of want to just stay home now and watch the storm come through. Don't think that would go over well with the school, seeing as I have 2 more classes to go.



Listening to Karen O and the Kids Capsize.

Soccer Sundays

I've been up bright and early watching most of the World Cup qualifiers come to an end this morning. Italy, Germany, Denmark, Serbia, Chile, Brazil, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Australia, Japan, North and South Korea, Spain, England, Netherlands, and Paraguay have all qualified for 2010.

The game that I am waiting for is the US v. Honduras match. With a win we will seal our spot for the World Cup. The game will kickoff at 11 AM and hopefully I can find a feed. I've been looking forward to the qualifiers wrapping up all week.


Other then that things are pretty quiet in Korea. 2 of my good friends are flying in next week from the US, so it will be get to see them. Work is going well and the kids are getting very excited about Halloween. Also I'm working on booking a flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia for winter holiday. Flight prices are all over the place so I am working with a few travel agents to find the best deal.

Looking forward to the USMNT win over Honduras.



Listening to The Airborne Toxic EventMissy.

Hello October

Dear October-

How did you get here so fast? It feels like my plane just landed here in this place they call Korea. It has been an enjoyable few days with you here. The weather has been close to perfect, which made for a great long weekend. Feel free to stay for a bit. Please being Halloween in a timely manner.

Your friend-

Stuart

P.S. - Do you know if there is anywhere with awesome breadsticks? I've been missing them greatly.

Listening to The Decemberists California One/Youth And Beauty Brigade.

Laundry

Down here in the Rabbit Hole (Korea) dryers are not a standard appliance for people. For 2 months I have been washing my clothes and sheets and then hang drying them. Personally I feel clothes just don't feel the same without being dried. After the wash they don't retain their shape and they have a rough feel to them.

So to my delight I stumbled upon a cleaners right down the street from my apartment. A few days ago I dropped off some dry cleaning and noticed 3 super huge dryers in the back. The man explained to me in a combination of Korean and English that they will wash and dry items for a flat fee. It was a bit on the expensive side but it sounded amazing. So I dropped off a hobo bundle of clothes and sheets wrapped up in my comforter.

Today I went in to pick up my hobo bundle and it was no longer in a bundle. My comforter, sheets, and underwear were folded neatly. All of my shirts were hung on hangers. But most important everything had been dried.

There were about 12 hangers of stuff and a bag with my comforter and sheets in it. The owner of the store grabbed the hangers and shuffled me out of the store. She proceeded to lock her shop and help me carry everything right to my door step. This alone will being me back to Eco Cleaners often.

As we were walking down the street together I couldn't help but think of the scene in the movie Home Alone where Kevin is staying in a hotel and desk person brings up a pair of his dry cleaned underwear and he freaks out because someone might have seen them. Now I didn't freak out but it just reminded me of that scene.

The whole experience put a big smile on my face. Makes me think that humanity still really does exist.



Listening to Karen O and the Kids Heads Up.

Solid Weekend

This weekend I stayed in town but it was still awesome. Friday night I went out with a group of friends and hung for a bit at a place called Pub 210. It's a foreign hangout and the jukebox is actually a computer with youtube. About halfway through the evening Crystal and I commandeered the computer and played DJ for a bit. Pretty entertaining all around. After 210 I built a fort at home and was pretty impressed with my fort building skills.

Saturday afternoon we ventured out to Insadong and wandered there for a bit. There was a festival going on at the park, with tons of odd booths and things set up. The highlight of the afternoon was the free popcorn vendor that was situated just off the path. Popcorn and I have been good friends for sometime now, so the idea of popcorn for free was amazing.



Today I found a poker game in Gangnam and played at a full table. The game was at a casino where only foreigners could enter. At the table were 7 Japanese players, 1 Indian player, a Vietnamese player, and myself. I played for about 3 hours and made enough cash to probably pay for my trip to Cambodia during winter holiday.


Overall I must say it was a solid weekend.


Listening to Discovery Osaka Loop Line.

Field Trip

I went on my first field trip with LCI today. Students and staff piled onto buses and we took a 5 minute drive to Bundang Central Park. The park was pretty awesome and there was tons of space for the kids to spazz out and move around. We played a variety of games that included a mixture of teachers and students. Overall it was pretty entertaining.

Once we finished playing the organized games the kids were aloud to run around and be children. I was super pleased that the school was putting on an event that let the kids actually be kids. At one point there were a group of 15 children chasing pigeons and having an awesome time doing it.

Somehow a chase game started with the kids chasing a teacher. As the teacher got tired they would yell out another teachers name and suddenly 45 kids would stop in their tracks and book it to the next teacher. This proved to be entertaining for about 10 minutes, but the kids really enjoyed it.


                     Crystal turning the children on me....




                             My class getting ready for tug of war.



Listening to The Airborne Toxic Event The Girls in Their Summer Dresses.

LCI Field Trip

Busan and Haeundae Beach

Friday night we had a staff dinner, hosted by the school. The director Mr. Kim took everyone out for dinner at a Korean BBQ restaurant. There were about 25-30 people there and the plan afterwards was to rest up for a temple stay a few of us had planned. This plan took a very different turn in a matter of 5 minutes. Another group of coworkers were planning on heading to Busan which is a few hours south of Seoul.

We arrived at Seoul Station to purchase bus tickets for the 4 hour ride; we quickly came to realize that there were only 2 tickets left, but 5 of us who were going. We decided to split up and we would meet in Busan in the morning. Forrest and Olivia took the bus, while Jason, Crystal, and I tried to figure out a game plan to get to Busan. The final decision was to take the KTX, but it didn’t leave until 5:30 am on Saturday morning and it was 11:45 pm Friday. At most metropolitan bus/train depots late night patrons tend to be an interesting breed and Seoul Station did not disappoint. There were a variety of locals milling around the station but the three of us had the distinct pleasure of being the only foreigners until almost 4 am (we stuck out like a sore thumb).

When 5:30 am finally arrived the three of us boarded the train and set sail for clear skies, and warm weather. The train took a little less than 3 hours to travel 210 miles, but didn’t make much of an impression because I slept the ride there. We found a hotel in Haeundae , dropped off our bags, showered up and wandered down the street to the beach.



The beach was pretty awesome. The water was super clear, which is very different than the water at home. It’s usually in your best interest to not go in the water in Los Angeles, but in Busan it was encouraged. We hung at the beach for a few hours; dug in the sand, napped, played with the local wildlife, and then went back to the hotel to wash up for the evening.





That evening we went to the local live fish market that had just about every kind of seafood item you could think of. The way the market worked was you picked the live creature from one of the many vendors, they would cook it, and then you get to eat it. This was definitely an experience.



Now my eating repertoire only includes one kind of fish and that is a goldfish cracker. Outside of that; seafood and I don’t mix. Forrest picked out the lucky creatures that would be moving upstairs with us for dinner and we went and found our table. A few minutes later a king crab, live octopus, clams, and more were laid upon the table. Inside my head was a toddler throwing a pretty intense tantrum, but on the outside I held my composure, and actually tried the crab.

Thanks Crystal for the photo.



The next morning we went to the Busan aquarium before heading to the bus. There were a lot of awesome creatures. Overall it was a solid weekend.









Listening to Bright Eyes Lua.