New Favorite

Kimchi

Why would anyone eat kimchi? Check out the picture, it explains everything.

On Topic

I thought I show some of my favorite K-Pop around.  Thank you Kara, WonderGirls, Big Bang, Seo In Young, Lee Hyo Ri, Brown Eyed Girl, Shiny, G-Dragon, and others who have made me so extremely  happy when I hear one of your songs!

Kara – Rock U Body

Lee Hyo Ri - U Go Girl (my favorite)

Big Bang – Haru Haru

Seo In Young - Cinderella (another favorite)

You cant tell me its because of the pretty girls (I threw male artists in there as well!).  K-pop is so dancable its rediculous.

Updates

I just added a subscription to an RSS feed as well as a subscription to email.  Im fairly new at this, but I would like to be prepared for a job I am hopefully going to be doing.  I have a TON of great ideas as to help promote San Juan Safe Communities Initiative.  I am excited about the opportunity and hopefully I will be able to bring alot to the table.  I won’t get ahead of myself, if I do get the job there will be a much longer post about what I will be doing, how you can help, and what SJSCI is exactly.  For now, take a look at the website.

Some recent thoughts Pt. 2

I want to find a life of meaning. It has probably been here all along. At first, I thoughtI had wanted to be a minister or possibly a teacher, maybe something else. What I have realized, is I want to make an impact on people’s lives and help shape a positive future. I would like to create a Boy’s and Girl’s-esque place for kids and families. I want to have a positive impact on my community, wherever that may be. I remember hearing stories of my grandfather at the Boy’s and Girl’s Club in Pittsburg, CA, and how he has changed the lives of people who have grown up and started their own families. I want to have a continuous impact, a generational impact, one which will surely outlast myself, but will never die as an idea or positive way of life.
I think the main difference between what I want to do and the Boy’s club is the involvement of families within the facility and operation. I want to create a tight knit community and tight knit families, which would in turn change people and communities, as well as make where you and I live much safer and better for our family.

Some recent thoughts Pt. 1

How can a person feel so undoubtedly certain about things in their life, while at the same time being so hopelessly lost about others? I find myself shaking and scared about the future; I am restless.  I do not know what I should do.  I cannot decide, and I am inconsolable.  There are too many options, yet none present themselves as the correct option or course of action.  Should I look towards more schooling and education?  Should I look for a career?  Should I continue wasting away making others nights enjoyable while I find no joy and even loathe their company?  Or should I wait another 4 years for my love to complete her education and then see what options arise for the two of us?  I feel I am wasting precious time in my indecision.

Of the careers I have looked in to, they all share one kind of strict authority and conformity.  However, they offer regularity, safety, predictability, and the ability to provide.  I cannot say why I have only looked into these options; however, if I were to take a guess, I believe it is because I have wandered thoughout the world without a clear sense of direction.  In these careers, I can predict what will happen in the future.  And in this predictability there is comfort.  I have an idea of where my family and I would be in the future, and I like this idea much more than blowing throughout the world with nowhere to put down roots.

Even now there is a delicate and fragile compromise which I find myself in.  I want to marry an amazing girl.  Surprisingly, I found her in the least expected place: my hometown, Farmington, NM.  She’s the love of my life and who I have searched the world for.  I cannot say what she means to me, how much comfort she brings, or how much I love her and visa versa, because there are no words.  It is impossible to describe my feelings, but she knows and experiences those feelings as well.  There is great excitement in this.  She sometimes feels that she cannot compete with what I have done in my life, but as you can see, I am still lost and feel like we are more or less equal.  Better yet, we are both halves to a whole.  There are many number of things she excells at much more than I.  I do not want to hinder her in anything but only help in everything.  I want to support and help her grow; she wants to do the same for me.  She is an awe inspiring girl.  There is no one better than her in the world, trust me I’ve looked.

However, how can there be so much comprimise  in a relationship?  How can a marriage come together when both parties do not know what the future holds?  There are so many questions which come with a relationship, especially one which points towards marriage.  Which option is best and what will be the most fruitfull outcome?  I feel it may be best to wait and see what presents itself in a year or so.  Perhaps we will see the future more clearly.  Maybe the looking glass will be less cloudy, the crystal ball a little more clear.  Patience is a virtue.  They saying didn’t come out of nowhere.  It takes awhile to grow anything.  Thank our friend Jesse Lacey for that.  Thank him for this too:  She left the color in my black and white field, I feel condemned for just being here.  Be my breath; there’s nothing I wouldn’t give.  Right now you’re paying for my wanderlust.  I’ll be in your debt forever, I cannot pay back the time I’ve stolen from us, but I will try.

This is the way to lose friends and alienate people (Goyang Art Festival T-Shirt)

I will update this more later, this is a random festival Cody and I ran into on our way to the park.  Its Generik Vapeur on the video…

Hosun Fashion Show

Randomly, I think it was Wednsday, one of the Korean teachers finds me and says that my boss wants to take Jami and I to a fashion show. My boss had tickets to go since her friend’s mom is the owner of the university.  Not the dean, but the OWNER.  She’s 85 or something like that.  The show itself was amazing.  I had never been to one before.  I was very impressed.  I even bought a magazine the university produced for the show, but it is lost somewhere in my school.  I let one of the teachers borrow it because she really wanted to go to the show, but wasn’t able to. So the mag got passed around, hopefully I find it sometime soon so Chloe can look at it whenever she comes to Korea.  After the show, my boss took us to Outback.  That restaraunt is crazy expensive in Korea, and American portions are unreasonably big.  People in America eat too much, thats a fact.  But here are some pics from the show…

Beondegi 번데기

Happy Chuseok everyone!  One of the craziest nights I have had in awhile, and it was completely unintentional.  My friend Cody came down from outside Seoul for the long weekend. I had three days off and he had four.  The first night, Saturday, was very fun.  We went to the foreign bar, SpeakEasy, hung out, walked around, got a good buzz, and went to one of the many clubs here in Gwangju, Vanilla.  They had a “Sexy Party” so we had to go.  Ok…back up.

Sexy Party, Club Vanilla

Walking the streets, one of us decides to break bricks.  We get three chances, two for the girl, one for me.  Jami pretty much does the job for me, and I finish it off.  We win a stuffed baseball player, with a “K” sewn onto its shirt.  I assume its for the Kia Tigers, the local baseball team, but I was informed it is an anime character or something like that.  We stop for more soju.  Now its time for the sexy party.

We talk to the bouncers outside the club, and they tell our group that it is now 15,000 won to get in.  It is normally 10,000 to get in, so they are trying to screw the foreigners.  We argue and get it back down to 10,000 won, which is very reasonable since you get all the tap beer you want.  Booya.  We put the stuffed toy in a locker with our other belongings and head inside.  The place is fairly dead.  A couple refills later we head to the dance floor.  Everyone is standing around, there is no dancing being partaken in.  NONE.  We are feeling good and the music is jiggy, so we break it out.  It takes a second, but then the whole club is involved.  We brought the party.  The strange thing is that there are some girls who just stand around until a song comes on they know.  Then they perform a completely coreographed dance, that they either practiced, or they have seen in a video.  I’m not sure.  Its good either way. We dance and drink, then around 130 the DJ starts spinning electro, for Techtonic.  He throws out glowsticks that everyone puts around their wrists, and they begin dancing.  These Koreans can dance, it was amazing.  We continue to drink and dance until 4 or so.

Bringing Sexy Back at Club Vanilla

Leaving the club, we are really wanting a Noribang, a private kerioke room in Korea.  First we go back to the brick breaking man and win a Hello Kitty stuffed toy.  I’m awesome.  We are walking to the noribang, and we are all yelling, “NORIBANG!!!!”  A Korean and his friend look at us and say, “Noribang? LET’S GO!!!” So we go get a room and rock out all night.  We blew up some balloons we stole from Vanilla and have a Noribang Balloon party.  Billie Jean, Backtreet Boys, Elton John, KPop, JT, Ursher, the hits just kept coming. YEAH! We go home around 6, and wake up about 12 hours later.

Our reward for breaking bricks

When's the last time you heard it like this

Balloon Party

Bring em to the chorus

Not knowing what is going on in Korea for Choseok, and everything in my neighborhood being closed, we decide to go downtown and see what is happening; hoping something will be open.  When we get downtown, we see that it is hopping.  There are people all over and almost everything is open.  Good sign.  We still did not have any major plans other than get something to eat and go watch Bangkok Dangerous.  Bad movie by the way, but entertaining enough to sit through.  Nick Cage is not a good actor.

After the movie we head back to SpeakEasy and stay until they close.  We gathered a group of people to come out with us, including one of the guys who works at Speakeasy, Tony.  We want to find a Noribang, we need to.  Everywhere is closed or full, which prompts us to drink more poju (soju and Powerade).  Side note: there are many combinations of soju, some of which I am sure to have never heard of.

1. Poju – Powerade and soju – My favorite is the blue
2. Coju – Coke and soju
3. Foju – Fanta and soju
4. Yogloo – Yogurt mix and soju
5. Poktanju – Litterally means “bomb drink.”  A mug of beer with a soju shot dropped in like a Jagerbomb.
6. Goju – Ginsing and soju
7. Any mix of soju and fruit juice…or almost anything.

We give soju shots to anyone and everyone on the street telling them, “Very Handome!” or “Happy Choseok!”  This lasts for a long while, then we meet with the owner of a restaraunt nearby.  It doesn’t take too much convincing for us to go with him; of course we are giving shots/buying more soju all the way.  At the restaraunt, beer and soju show up at out table (as you can see it is a soju filled night) as well as fried chicken, which was delicious.  We close the restaraunt down, but before this we yell over to two Koreans and have them join us.  It turns out that one is a Korean police officer (he showed us pictures of him in his uniform).  We drink a bit more and then go.

Giving soju to the street sweeper

Giving soju to strangers

FINISHEE

We want to go somewhere, but everyone is so disorganized from drinking all night.  We wander the streets for a good 2 hours before ending up at a restaraunt who knows where.  In the restaraunt, we have more soju and beer (take into account this is around 7 or 8 in the morning).  The Koreans are drinking, spilling drinks (2 or 3 on me, several on Jami as well), breaking glasses (most of us had sandals on), and feeding me Beondegi.  Use that link, beondegi are silkworm pupae.  They are gross.  I feed it back to the Koreans.  The Korean Policeman (who put that as his name into Cody’s phone) keeps making sniping poses and tells me, “Call tomorrow, I shoot for you.”  I am assuming he will snipe someone if I just make a call, kinda strange but highly entertaining.  I hope he doesnt get in trouble for those pictures.

Yea its morning and we are still drinking

Beondegi

OK!

Stop!

Eating Beondegi

We end up leaving the restaraunt, I dont know at what time.  Its daytime and its raining.  Cody hopped into a cab.  I got home around 10 or 1030 am, I didnt hear from Cody until midnight that night.  Happy Choseok everyone, Very Handsome and Very Sexy Party.

And I Think I Have Pink Eye

I wake up this morning with gunk covering my left eye.  Strange, this never happens.  What is this…I have no idea.  I should have because we were talking about how often the kids get pink eye.  Apparently it is very easy to get pinkeye here, everyone gets it.  The kids don’t share or use towels because it is so easy to get.  They never dry their hands, etc.

I clean up…pretty much thinking nothing is happening.  Later in the day, Sunny Teacher asks what is going on with my eye, its kinda red.  I say I don’t know, but I point at the one that was sealed this morning.  Of course she says yes.  I don’t know…then, oh crap I have the pinkeye.  I look in the mirror, and it really isn’t that bad.  I ask Sunny Teacher to write me a note so I can go to the pharmacy and get something for it.  More than likely I didn’t get the right thing, because it only cost me about 6 bucks and Sunny Teacher didn’t think I had anything besides allergies.  They don’t have a word for Pink Eye, or Conjunctivitis in Korean I guess.  Even after explaining what happened this morning she still thought it was allergies.  I just looked up one of the things the pharmacy gave me, and of course it is an antihistamine.  The other thing, the eyedrops, I don’t know what they are.  There is nothing on the box identifying them as anything in English.  I just hope I have the viral type so

1)  I can give pinkeye to the kids who always act up in class and never listen, and

2)  It should go away in about ten days