towns, temples and tests

so i guess it's been two weeks or so since i've last had a personal internet connection or cell phone. there were darks nights. days when i did nothing but sat and stared at the wall. i walked around in a constant stupor. i was a junkie cutoff from his junk (which just sounds weird now that i've typed it out and read it). but now i'm back! hello free internet in room! you're so lovely. soon i will have a cellphone. or handphone as they call them in korea. isn't that adorable? but anyways...there is serious catching up to do. first up on the docket: korean cultural experience tours!

for the first leg of the tour we visited a traditional korean village in jeonju. i'm not sure if the village had a name...oh wait, the rock in the first picture says jeonju hanok village. it was what you might expect of a traditional asian village - plenty of cool architecture (i'm not sure what that roofing structure is called but you probably know what i'm talking about), people doing crafts by hand, automatic sliding glass doors...you know, real traditional things. we also made fans. a group of us decided to start the "epik drinking club" so we decorated our fans to signify membership. we asked the staff how to write that in hangul, but apparently what ended up on my fan (something like sul-kun or maybe sul-gun) is more closely translated as "someone who is a heavy drinker." at least they got the spirit of the club right.

jeonju is known for their bibimbap.

this is a traditional korean drum and dance performance.

they invited us to join in.

the second leg of our cultural experience was a visit to the geumsan-sa temple, a massive buddhist temple founded in 599 AD. it was basically one of the most picturesque places i've ever been. if only all those damn foreigners weren't there ruining my pictures (and my immersion!). there was a good 10 minute walk up to the temple from the parking area that followed a winding path next to a stream. all along the path, families were camping and bbqing. many were swimming in the stream. some people set up a table and chairs right in the middle of the stream and were having lunch there. it was a great idea. i mean really, kudos to those people, i'm doing that the next chance i get.

after we were all sick and tired of the beautiful scenery, we took a dip in the stream ourselves.

the rest of orientation was a series of lectures and survival korean courses. all good and useful things. at the end of the week, we were put in 2-3 person groups and had to give a 15 minute sample lecture. of course my group (myself and the lovely ms. joyce kim) had to go first, but out of the 10 groups in my class, our lesson was voted 3rd. not bad for someone with no experience, right?

the orientation wrapped up with a farewell dinner and talent show. each class had to be represented, so someone from our class decided to sing beyonce's "single ladies" while a group of signed up as background dancers. yes, i did sign up to be a background dancer. yes, i was pressured into doing so. yes, i was awkward. but yes, it was a lot of fun. the next day we said our goodbyes, were shipped off to our different locations, and started our new lives in korea. wow.

this post is dedicated to the epik drinking team founders: max, sean, josh, melinda and, of course, gollum, who is sadly no longer with us (he was shipped home due to anxiety issues - true story and totally bizarre, maybe some other time).

song and dance

they put on a show for us as a bit of a welcome. there were some women who banged on drums and danced around, some college kids who did flips and kicked things (taekwondo), and some more women who danced around with fans. my camera ran out of batteries about half way through but here's some of the action:

afterwards there was dinner and after that there were drinks. plenty of drinks.

landed

landed in incheon around 6pm KST, waited for luggage, exchanged some currency, took a four hour bus ride, dragged about 125lbs of luggage through a college campus, and then i went to sleep. it was a long day but, uh...i'm in south korea?

pictures of our accommodations:

a quick overview of how i got here

one does not simply walk into south korea. annnd i'm done. lord of the rings reference tossed about like a plastic bag in the wind. where is my shame? but then, the past six months have been nothing short of hollywood magic. the espionage, the mystery, the fast cars and the faster women...but where to start? where does it always start? with a girl...

i'll call this girl jen, because that's what she said her name was. jen's a recruiter for an agency based out of canada called footprints. they connect silly americans like myself with earnest asian peoples looking to push their children so that they might one day take over the world. after an initial phone interview, where i gracefully played up my minimal interaction with the rest of the world and my equally non-existent teaching experience, i was added into their roster of hopeful english-speaking emigrants. from there it was a mad dash of paperwork.

had i been unemployed, or even a part-time employee, this would have been easy enough - collect transcripts, write essays, acquire signatures, seals and stamps. but as a full-time employee, an employee who valued their job and didn't want their employers finding out one of their own was potentially flying the coop, i had to do all the paper chasing after hours and on the hush-hush. i felt like i was living two lives: one, the diligent and faithful 9 to 5er, and two, the man with something to hide. it's no way for a man to live! how does don drapper do it...WWDDD? unfortunately, this caused a bit of rushing and sloppy work on my part, which in turn caused some of the papers to be returned to me due to not following the guidelines (missing signatures, papers, dots on i's, crosses on t's, etc), which in turn made everything take longer...

then i had an interview with someone from the korean office at EPIK (the english program in korea - try to guess what they are). it can be difficult understanding non-native speakers of english as is, but i'm fairly certain my interviewer had a nasty cold, so most of her sentences sounded as if mashed together into unintelligible blobs of letters. like she just drank a glass of milk and ate some peanut butter crackers and decided to have a phone conversation. i guess my point is that a good amount of the interview was her repeating herself and me answering questions that were not being asked. still, somehow i passed the review and was even complemented on my application essay. how this happens, i don't know, but it was yet another person made to believe my farts smell like roses.

then, just as one pile of paperwork was wrapping up, a new one began. i had to file for a visa. which meant background checks and notaries and something called an apostille. even more sneaking around. even more deceit. even more lies! meanwhile positions were filling up. there went busan and ulsan and jeju. there went dreams of the coast. and just when i thought a new york background check was going to ruin it all, everything fell into place. i sent my papers in and i secured my position. after a month or two of waiting around to hear where i would be placed i finally found out i would be heading to daegu, the fourth largest city in south korea.

that was about a month ago. since then i've been slowly making final preparations: informing work that i would be leaving them, sending more papers out to the korean consulate, completing my teaching certification, and so on. work was busy but the days still seemed to crawl along at a snail-like pace, as if time knew i was trying to cram in as much as possible in the remaining days. and then all of the sudden it was my last week at work. and then it was my last week, period. and now it's my last day. i'm flying out tomorrow. i've been to parties with family and friends and everyone asks the same question: are you nervous? well hell yeah i'm nervous. how can you not be? i've read books and watched videos but nothing will be like actually landing and walking out into a world where everything is foreign to me. i've never done anything like this, so there's plenty to be nervous about. but then they also ask me, "are you excited?" well hell yeah, i'm that too. like i just said, i've never done anything like this, so there's plenty to be exited about as well.

the next post you read (it might be awhile, since i might be busy, you know, adjusting) will be from south korea. guh, how weird is that?

change of format: if its the land of the morning calm then why do i feel so nervous?

so i haven't made a new post since april. that's what...like 4 months ago? a long time. despite what the lull might suggest, i have been watching movies and listening to music, but things have been happening dear readers. big things. things so big that they will most likely hijack the format of this collection of thoughts.

it's time to come clean. i have decided to leave the comforts of the united states of america - the fast food, the interstate highways, down pillows, the shitty broadband internet - and head to the deep jungles of south korea. concrete jungles, friends. as of august 17th i will be off to the land of the morning calm to teach it's ambitious youth the wonders of the english language. "but why? they're at a dangerous precipice with north korea and you lack any basic understanding of the english language," you might be saying to yourself. and it's true, any instruction i provide is bound to create nothing more than a legion of jeff boomhauer's. but it's out of my hands! i've already been accepted. the paperwork has already been signed. i bought a passport wallet for god sakes. a wallet specifically design with a passport in mind! its so international it makes me want to puke. but it's true. your intrepid reporter, your friend, your fantasy lover is off to the opposite side of the globe, and thanks to my selflessness - this curse that is journalism! - you'll be right there with me every step of the way.

that doesn't mean i will no longer comment on movies and/or music. expect more of that! but also expect snapshots of me face down in a plate of bulgogi at 3am. expect letters mashed frantically, even angrily, after a long day of frustration and miscommunication. expect funny signs translated terribly into english. yes, it's a scary time for making up syllables, but its also an exciting time. especially for you, dear readers. you who will reap the fruits of this endeavor.

expect more in the coming days, including details on the program and the interview process as well as pre-trip thoughts and concerns.

the t.a.m.i. show (1964)

once again! a triumphant return! back in action! at least for now. i saw a movie recently that perfectly embodies the marriage of movie and music that has of late (yet not that late) been the focus of this blogosite. the year is 1964, and a young james brown stars in a concert documentary called the t.a.m.i. show. aanndd i guess there were a couple of other bands there as well...actually, the t.a.m.i. show (aka. teenage music international show) was a joint performance with some of the top acts of the time, including chuck berry, marvin gaye, the supremes, the beach boys, and the rolling stones. but by the time james brown takes the stage (a good hour into the show), you've already forgotten everybody else (including/especially the incredibly jilted barbarians who got about 2 minutes of screen time). anyways, the man kills. absolutely. totally. kills it. the act on please, please, please is iconic james brown at his best. he glides and falls and shakes and the girls all scream, oh do they scream...they never stop screaming the entire run of the show. the rolling stones take the stage afterward and...but seriously folks, james brown is what the show is all about. according to wikipedia, keith richards stated in an interview that choosing to follow james brown and the famous flames was the biggest mistake of their careers, because no matter how well they performed, they could not top him. no joke idiot. who do you think you are? the beatles? but that bassist of yours is pretty cool. i mean look how he handles that bass guitar. stylisimo.





















bonus:: they put the best part on youtube. still, you should rent this for the full effect.

get ready for adventure

oh god its been a hot minute since i've last updated this thing. speaking of which there needs to be a new phrase to replace hot minute. i feel its run its course. i tried bringing back "a dog's age" but it doesn't have the same sparkle that comes with hot minute. lets get working on it people. its 2010 for pete & pete's sake.

anyways, i wanted to take a break from our music and movie discussion to marvel at a new show coming to cartoon network april 5th. it's called adventure time and if you are not down i do not want to know you. check out this pilot from youtubes.



check it, i just downloaded this sentence from the internet: this show is the fucking bee's knees. i have to give props to cartoon network for picking this up (nice going nickelodeon, to make it up you can bring back all of the following: ahh! real monsters, ren and stimpy, rocko's modern life, hey arnold, are you afraid of the dark, doug - none of that new school shit though!, pete & pete, guts, wild and crazy kids, salute your shorts, tiny toons, secret world of alex mack, and even the angry beavers) and their latest crop of shows. if you haven't seen the misadventures of flapjack you owe it to yourself to watch the complete first season. get excited, it's adventure time.