The worst day I have ever had in Korea?

Tuesday, March 29 started like any other. I woke up, watched some news and went to school. There was nothing out of the ordinary, except for the fact that I was trying something new in my lessons: I was incorporating music. I am more of a visual learner and I tend to teach lessons the same way. I decided to reach out to the students who I had been boring with my classes and start things off with something fun and active: I chose to play I Gotta Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas. It's a "party anthem" type song that I got pretty tired of quickly, but I wasn't playing it for me. The students seemed to enjoy it. We did a listening activity where students stand and sit depending on the lyric that is sung. Thanks to deft autotuning and clear annunciation the students can hear and comprehend what is being sung. Everything was going great and we did the "American Breakfast" lesson that I had been gushing about to my friends for the past few days.

My most troublesome class are a group of the oldest middle schoolers who are normally too cool to participate in anything. Somehow the magic of Fergie singing compelled them to stand, sit and dance. They were angels. We went through a quick lesson in the book and I finished with a game that they participated in enthusiastically. As I was stamping the record sheet of the winning team, one of the students decided to take my lifeline: They removed my and my coteacher's USB drive from her laptop and took them. I was without a way to bring my lessons, pictures and songs to my classes. Additionally, I was presenting my lesson tonight to the 3 week long after school training that all guest English teachers get to attend that night. So the timing was less than perfect, to say the least.

If this happened in the states I would have taken it in stride and shrugged it off. But before coming here I was regaled of Pat's tales of seat-saving in a restaurant using nothing more than a full wallet or a cell phone while teaching in Japan. I had unrealistically high expectations of my students, and maybe the society as a whole. Perhaps I was still viewing Korea through rose colored glasses. Yes even in this country which is on the brink of near-utopia petty theft by teenage boys is a problem.

I figured out how to get my files to the training center via the interwebs in time for my presentation that evening and as luck would have it, I was the sole presenter. I'll be honest, I was way nervous going into the lesson. I actually woke up around 3am the night before stressed out about what I needed to do. As I walked into the training building, I saw another teacher walking in the hall. He told me that I was the only person presenting that evening so I would be going on first, not second.

Walking into the classroom felt like deciding to cliff dive on the count of three and jumping on two. I didn't give myself a chance to think about it and I immediately went into teacher mode. I got on the PC, told the class trainer to act as my co-teacher and I was off.

I skipped the "lesson" format that I was going to do and instead talked to the "students" (aka the other teachers) about their torturous rides to get there that evening and I said that since they had been so good about coming to training for nearly 3 weeks we were going to play a game. I went from teacher to sarcastic talk show host as we played scattegories and Jeopardy. My 20 minute lesson stretched to 45 minutes as the class got a much deserved break and had some fun.

By that point I was de-stressed about the day. Class was fun and people responded positively. We got out early and I met my friend Dale for a trip to the jimjilbang. He had been to one before, but not this one. As per usual we were the only westerners there. I haven't decided yet if the Koreans are happy that we are embracing their traditions or if they feel like we are encroaching on them.

Either way, Dale enjoyed himself and it was good man time. Dale has an incredibly positive attitude and is way into rock climbing. We discussed plans to check out the surrounding mountains, go climbing and see more of the country as soon as the weather and time permits.

We got street food for dinner and the night's tally for nearly 2 hours of soaking in various hot tubs, cold tubs and sitting in incredibly hot saunas plus dinner and transportation: about $8 each.

So that was my worst day. I got my USB stolen, my head got ripped from the clouds and I was forced to face the reality that sometimes kids take stuff, even in Korea. As far as bad days go, it wasn't too terrible. It ended really well, so maybe I should just call it a bad 3 hours.

Oh, I bought a new USB stick, so everything is good now.

Here are some pictures from around my neighborhood...

I see this little dude walking to taekwondo every day.

This bar is across the street from my apartment.

Here is an old guy taking a rest. Head first.

In my neighborhood

These are the front gates to houses on my street.

Some quick pictures of my hood

I was hoping to wait until spring had sprung and the green came out before I took pictures of where I live. Some of you have been curious about my neighborhood and want to see it now. Here is a fast overview. I will add more detailed pictures in the future that focus on specific things like street food, PC bangs, or other cool things that I don't know exist yet.

3 new apartment buildings that are going up near my home.

This store only sells dried tiger penis. Way tastier than it sounds.

This is a rotisserie chicken place on my street. One major difference: the chickens are 2/3 the size of American chickens.

Typical street in my hood. Notice the mass of telephone, internet and clothes lines strung above the street.

The famous bridge near Daejeon's Expo Park. After missing a cab last night I had the pleasure of walking past it.
This is the "indoor" driving range a few blocks from my house. Golf is mega expensive here and only the rich seem to do it, as evidenced by the luxury cars in the parking lot.

Farm, high rises, mountains: Korea.

I finally got a phone

The past few weeks have been pretty busy. I am finding a routine that I can stick to and it seems to be working. I go to bed too late, wake up groggy, walk to school and sometimes see my students on the way, make it to my shared office, make a pot of coffee, drink said coffee, wake up and by 9:00am I am ready to teach 4 to 5 classes a day. I do this Monday through Thursday and on Friday the only thing that is different is that I go to the sports academy and I need to take a cab to get there.

I try to meet up with friends in the evenings which has been anything from meeting for dinner out, staying in to cook at someone's house or having guests over to play with my new Wii. I am terrible at the Wii, but like most things in life I enjoy it more than I should. I go out and before I know it I have to go home so I can sleep.

Wait...what I am doing going on and on about the banality of my everyday life for? I got a future phone! OK...so I wanted to get a "smartphone". It turns out that the one I wanted (and as it turned out due to my status as an alien with a one year visa the only smartphone I could get) was about $850. So I didn't get that one. I decided to go way cheaper but still go for a totally adequate (aka not the smartest) phone. I got an LG Cyon. This phone is nuts. It has a typical graphical user interface like most touch screens in the US as well as some other fun features. I can send text messages in Korean or English, it has a 3 mega pixel camera, fast internet browsing, and it has HD tv. My phone has an antenna that extends for television, My Favorite Martian-style.

What else have I been doing? Like I said before, I got a Nintendo Wii. My school picked out and was responsible for furnishing my apartment. Before I came to Korea I watched several of the the infamously bad "my Korean apartment" youtube videos. I got an idea of what apartments were like here and on my first day in Daejeon when I was being driven to my new home I already had lots of ideas of what it would look like. When I opened the front door and looked around I was admittedly (and in hindsight, embarrassingly) a little disappointed. We drove past lots of high rise apartment buildings on the way there only to stop at a building in a slightly more run-down neighborhood. It wasn't like the places I had seen in the videos and . It took me a little while to realize what a great place I actually had. My school furnished me with a fantastic Samsung plasma tv and all new Samsung appliances. Only after seeing other teacher's places did I realize what a fantastic place I actually had. It turns out that no one else got a nice TV. I did what I thought was the best thing I could to assuage my guilt: I bought a Wii so people could come over to play video games on my sweet TV.

I was also a little disappointed about my neighborhood the first week I was there. A few regrettable words got thrown around...ghetto, third world, and dangerous were used to describe my neighborhood. After hanging out there for 2 weeks I have come to love where I live. I am surrounded by 2 and 3 story buildings and there are no sidewalks. At first this was a bit off-putting but now I love it. Yes I walk in the street, but so does everyone else. It is an intimate setting. There are restaurants all around my home. I see street-food vendors that say hello to me when I walk past and have taken pity on me for my almost total lack ability to speak in Korean. They seem happy that I love to eat whatever they are selling and I will keep buying what they make.

The more I explore my surroundings the more I absolutely adore it. I would say that my neighborhood is "charming" but unlike two weeks ago I would be saying it without any irony. I think that this is an authentic Korean neighborhood that is much less westernized than other places I have seen in town. Sure I can't get a burger or pizza anywhere near me, but with all the great Korean food around me, who wants American food anyway?

So this is my life so far:

• I live near enough my school in the same lower-middle class neighborhood that my students live in that I walk to school every morning. I feel totally safe at night walking down the street.
• I am near 2 subway stops and I walk to them daily.
• I have an apartment that I am incredibly grateful for and is just big enough to entertain in.
• I am surrounded by amazing restaurants that I am eagerly anticipating exploring over the next year or longer.
• I can see mountains on the edge of town that are begging to be climbed as soon as the weather gets better.
• My classes get easier to teach every day as I fumble my way to becoming a real teacher.
• I have an awesome group of friends who I see all the time and who have helped me out in more ways than I can post here.

I am happy, life is good. Spring is around the corner and I am about to embark on adventures that I haven't even imagined yet. I'll keep you posted but hopefully I will be away from my computer and out enjoying this amazing place.

Oh yeah...and here is a peek at the apartment.

Jesus stopped by, made waffles.

I am finally an alien!

Sure I feel like I am on another world sometimes, but that is not what I mean. I finally received my Alien Registration Card. So now I can join the ranks of South Koreans everywhere and buy a cell phone. Before you deride my decision as sheer frivolity, I want you to think back to a time before cell phones. How did you communicate? How did you meet people out? How did you navigate a new city in a foreign land? How did you video chat? How did you watch Korean dramas in HD in the palm of your hand? (And before you ask me about the land line option, I want you to congratulate you for finding this blog using your computer and mouse-thingy, welcome you to the internet and the 2000's.)

I have the benefit of living in a time where we decided what to do in the pre-cell phone era and had to actually make a plan and stick to it as well as living now when the ubiquity of a mobile device has made solid planning a thing of the past. My friends and I have done quite well without phones, but as teachers here are slowly getting phones, I find myself in need of one, whether I am lost in a land without street signs, if people aren't where they said they'd be or if I need to send a text that I've jumped on an earlier train and will be there 10 before we'd arranged.

I have been without a cell phone since I cancelled my US contract at the end of January. As much as I thought it would be liberating and freeing for me to be without a phone, it has not been. I feel more naked now than I did at the jimjilbang. Being without internet and a cell put me into a state of panic...clearly Korea is not my Walden Pond.

So I have decided on getting a smart phone. In the US I got a regular cell phone, one that could barely take pictures. Here the smart phones are actually smart. The internet on the phones blows the fastest US home internet lines out of the water. I can text in 2 languages and there are more apps than I know what to do with. Here is a dirty little secret: While the US is excited for the latest iteration of the iphone, Korea has a few phones that are better and cheaper and faster. They work on the subway, and in the elevator. They have GPS for me to show cab drivers who don't know where I live. They make toast and shoot lasers. The only thing they don't do is dry your clothes. That is all Korea is lacking: a decent clothes dryer.

Besides being able to get a cell phone, I don't know what benefits I get by being an official Alien Resident of Korea. I will keep you posted...

First week of teaching

I just finished my first week of teaching. OK, I'll be honest. Because of a Korean holiday I didn't have to teach on Monday so my first week was only 4 days long. In my defense, I did teach 18 classes and worked roughly 8am to 4:30pm. I teach middle school and the level of English speaking proficiency varies dramatically. I teach at 2 schools: the first is a school in my neighborhood where I work Monday-Thursday. The second is a sports training academy for Korea's future Olympic hopefuls where I go on Fridays.

The first day of school was a bit of a rush for me. In case I haven't made this clear, I am the lone white guy in my neighborhood. I stick out. People stare. People aren't being rude, they are just curious. Classes are hushed when I walk in. Oh, also there are teenage girls in my classes. They aren't hushed...they are teenage girls. During my introduction to the school I felt like a rock star standing on the stage in front of a screaming audience (it wasn't like Led Zeppelin, I think more like Hanna Montana).

Despite buying new dress shoes before I came to Korea, I have taught all of my classes in Adidas soccer sandals. In Korean schools everyone wears "slippers" and leaves their shoes in darling little shoe lockers by the door. No slipper fits my gargantuan American foot and I squeeze in the largest thing Korea has to offer. Thankfully the other men do the same thing and the suit/soccer sandal combo no longer looks strange to me.

My first classes were brief intros about me, making name tags, hilarious mispronunciations of Korean names by me and some simple English-level assessment game playing. Part of the games included asking about music and I now know the names of several Korean pop bands (k-pop from here on out). A word to the wise: "Big Bang" is the latest hot boy band and "Bang Bang" is a brand of jeans. If you mix these up or even fail to properly annunciate the words you will be ridiculed and lose all credibility in the k-pop arena. Don't mix them up.

This stuff is serious. If you don't believe me, check it out:

Other highlights from my school include:

• Lunches. I ate octopus twice last week at my school lunch. All the teachers eat together the lunch room. Because I don't fumble with my chopsticks I am considered impressive. A big thank you to all the teachers who came here before me for setting the eating bar so low.
• Cleaning. There are no janitors in my school, or at any school. One hour a day the kids clean the school. And they take it seriously. Let that sink in for a minute...middle schoolers cleaning and doing a good job the whole time. It still looks weird to me.
• Fan clubs. In the teachers office I have two couches that face each other near my desk. As we speak there are currently 8 girls sitting on them. I don't know what they want but they have 10 minutes between classes and the couches see lots of attentive visitors during those times. If I turn around they all giggle. I hope they don't have actual English questions because I haven't said a word to any of them all week.
• Teachers dinner. After my first day we all went out for dinner. It was Korean style, where we all sat on the floor at low tables and shared dishes. We drank soju and raspberry wine. My principal thinks I am incredibly qualified to teach at his school because I look like Jewel Low (Jude Law).
• Weddings. I got married last week. Not really. Last week a teacher told me about a wedding that he was going to. It took about 10 minutes of conversation to understand that he wasn't just going to the wedding, he was in the wedding...as the groom. I think he invited me to it. Thankfully we know that the groom spot has been filled so I won't be in for any surprises.
• Oral hygiene. After lunch all the teachers brush their teeth in the teachers office. Together. We are Korea's gleaming white teeth.
• Lessons. It's not all fan clubs and teeth brushing. I do teach here, and my lessons are flexible. I can make a powerpoint based on what I want to teach. There is a framework that I need to follow but I have the freedom to choose what goes into each lesson.
• Technology. My classrooms have insanely fast internet, a/v hookups and plasma TV's. I will repeat that: my classes have plasmas. Big ones. 50" televisions that we turn on sometimes. The kids know how to connect my computer to it and don't seem to think it is special. God bless you, Samsung.

That is a cross section of my week. There was a lot that happened, and a lot of it was a blur. I will continue to post highlights. For now I am happy, optimistic and enthusiastic about the future. I teach with 4 different teachers and they are all great so far. I am still in love with this place and it only gets better...

찜질방 (aka the jimjilbang)

(I wrote this at the end of February, towards the end of my orientation near Seoul before I moved to my current home in Daejeon. Now that I have internet access I can finally post this)

First, I want to say that translating things from Korean to into pronounceable English doesn't work that well most of the time. As I romanized 찜질방 I was forced to come to terms (again) with the fact that English and Korean don't have a 1:1 correlation between consonant sounds. I wrote "jimjilbang" but that could have easily been "chimjilbang" or "chimchilbang" and none of them are 100% correct. The trick is to practice saying it the way you are supposed to say it and not to try to mash it into the constraints of English and also to have people who will tirelessly help you to speak correctly (thanks T/C crew!)

So last night I decided to take it easy and not go out. We've been starting our day with breakfast around 7:30 and taking classes that end at 8:00pm. We go into town and experience Korean culture and practice our Korean in the wild. Last night was different, though. After my friend Edward and I squeezed in the line and finished doing laundry he suggested that we go to the 찜질방. To preface this, I had read about going to the 찜질방 and it was something that I wanted to try. I never thought that I would be going within my first week in Korea. This was something that I hoped to be able to go to after a few months.

As Edward and I set off I was full of nervous anticipation. The irony is that going to the 찜질방 is a relaxing event. It is about as tranquil an activity as I have ever known. OK...so what is a 찜질방? Here is my explanation*: Korean homes didn't always have showers or bathtubs...in fact many of them didn't. So what's a country based on collective culture and community to do? They make communal bath houses in every town! Now remove those images of 1970's San Fransisco 'bath houses" that just popped into your head. Good. This a purely relaxing non-sexual atmosphere. Men down one hallway and women down the other. It's a really communal experience that I understand on the surface, and I hope to keep going so that I understand it more fully.

Edward and I removed our shoes upon entering, paid a nominal fee and got a locker for our shoes as well as a "robe" (comfy shorts and shirt). We took that key to the next room where we swapped it for another key to a locker where we would put our clothes. We put our robes and clothes in the locker and walked to the room with the hot baths. We soaked in a pleasantly hot bath for a while then Edward wanted to go to the hotter tub.

Korea is a technologically advanced country and they are as equally adept at making flat screen TV's as they are at making incredible hot water. Edward, being of Korean decent and from Texas (read: heat has no effect on him) went in right away. I put in my feet and s-l-o-w-l-y lowered my body into the inferno. After a bit of hot soaking Edward took us to the sauna. We sat in dry heat for a bit before plunging into a long, frigid tub of chilled water. My body started buzzing from the shock of the temperature changes and we left for the showers.

As Edward and I showered, a friendly Korean man came up us and started talking to Edward about Korea's amazing Olympic performance. No big deal at this point and we continued showering as the old man left. Then the man returned and started talking about his puppies. I was so happy to not speak any Korean at that point so I could look on in total ignorant bliss as Edward became creeped out for the both of us. He signaled for us to finish and we left.

We put on our robes and moved to the relaxation room. This is where clothed men and women can meet back up again. We got a soy milk and a hard boiled egg and sat on the heated floor on a mat. Edward showed me the Korean way of cracking an egg at the 찜질방: by smashing it on my forehead. The egg white was a smoky golden brown and the whole egg was creamy and delicious.

We laid on the heated floor, grabbed a pillow and watched some Korean Olympic action on an unbelievably huge plasma TV. Before I knew it, Edward was waking me up. I had drifted off to sleep and he was trying to get us out of there before the 12:30 curfew.

While reflecting on these events it has occurred to me that in the US something like this would never fly. It is something that is intrinsic to Korean communal culture and seems to just make sense here. Like most traditions across every culture, it was born out of necessity and has become ritualized and part of everyday life. It was a fantastic experience that I feel lucky to have been a part of. Not speaking Korean limits what you can do here and I am incredibly grateful to Edward for taking me along with him. I can't wait to go back.

*(the accuracy of these statements have not been verified and I am not an authority on anything Korean so take this with a grain of salt. If you know a better description, feel free to put it in the comments.)

I have a huge crush on Korea

So what's up Korea? Are you seeing anyone? I was thinking we could hang out sometime...

Quick impression: Medical privacy

Today was our medical checkup. Get rid of that image in your head of me going into a room by myself with a nurse taking my vitals and a doctor doing a followup after the nurse is done. That is what they do in America, land of medical privacy. This is Korea.

We got with our subgroup and lined up and moved through various stations. First blood pressure, then height/weight, color blindness, vision, and next was a blood draw. So far so good. Oh I also forgot to mention that this was in one room where there were 60 people in one massive line, right on top of other people. It didn't really bother me until I took the vision test and realized that I could use some glasses. I took the test in front of everyone else. Next we got a blood draw and then we went to the water bottle substation. This is where you drink a whole bottle of water because we'd been forbidden to consume anything since the previous midnight and they wanted to make sure that we could pee for them. Into a paper cup. That had no lid. After filling the cup with the appropriate amount, I carried it back to the nurse, careful not to bump my open topped cup and splash any of the 100 people all around me lest I spill my pee. The nurse took my cup, did a quick test by dipping a stick to test for sugar, protein, etc. and threw the stick into the garbage. Well she tried to at least. The dipstick stuck to her glove and landed on the papers that I had been carrying to every station and now my medical documents had a big spot of pee on them. She smiled and I was on my way to the next station, soiled papers in hand.

Next I went to the doctor which was thankfully in a different room. He spoke no English and his translator was sitting there with perhaps another friend of hers. She told me to tell the doctor if I had any issues that I wanted to discuss...I didn't, and I was on the the final station: The chest x-ray. I got to the bus parked outside and got to the x-ray as soon as I could. I wanted to finish because after fasting I was famished. As soon as the tests were over, we got a snack and then went to eat lunch.

There is no way this would fly in the states. People freak out about medical issues. We've got HIPPA laws and ridiculous lawsuits in the US. I was put off at first when I got into the long line of people getting medical exams out in the open, but something about the communal experience was oddly comforting.

I am still loving this place. I have had a perpetual smile on my face and whenever I go out I still get giddy with excitement thinking about the prospect of finding something new and tasting a food I have never experienced before. I don't know if they are drugging the food I am eating or if the kimchi is just that good...

Korea Day 2: It turns out I love food

Growing up I used to be a picky eater. Ridiculously picky. Embarrassingly picky. Before I left I talked to my family about my excitement to try new and interesting foods. My mom wasn't convinced that I would try or like new foods. Maybe it was more along the lines of her not thinking that I was ready to eat those foods. Her reasoning was that if I didn't like something basic like mushrooms or tomatoes, how could I even begin to try something Korean? (As if I needed to try everything in my home country before moving on to a different cuisine...)

Today I had kimchi for breakfast again. And twice as much at lunch. I am pretty sure enough of it will either make learning Korean easier or turn me into one of the X-Men. (Hopefully one who's power is speaking Korean.) I don't love it yet, but I do like it. I think it would go really well in place of sour kraut on a brat. Its still cabbage and instead of a mild sweetness and mild tangyness, it has spice and sour. It is a bold mix of flavors. Please, someone go to opening day and eat a kimchi brat. Or send me some brats. I'll tailgate at a korean baseball game and eat like a king.

Our opening ceremony dinner was held in the gymnasium of the university where we are staying. There were two 100 buffets set up filled with food. I decided to try as much as I could fit on my plate.

The other challenge that I have been working through is the korean chopsticks. I am used to wooden or plastic sticks, but these are different. They are made of stainless steel and are flattened at the end so the surface that goes in your hand is thinner and rectangular. They have a bit of a heft to them and get slippery quickly. I decided that I wanted to master them (well at least become proficient) before my orientation was over. I am 60% where I want to be with them. I can get food into my mouth, it just isn't as graceful as I would like.

Here is dinner. What is this stuff? I don't really know...At this point I am optimistic and excited about what I am about to eat. There is so much possibility for the future. There are foods I have never seen before. There are foods I saw last night for the first time. The most shocking food from the whole meal? The broccoli. I love steamed broccoli but this was steamed then put into an ice bath. Maybe it was just not finding the familiarity that I was looking for as soon as I put it in my mouth.

I ate everything. Snail and all. It was delicious and filling. OK. It wasn't all delicious...I think I will have to give some of the food another go. It doesn't matter though. I am having a great time exploring this culture. I hope to eat my way through the entire animal kingdom by the time I return to the states. Let me know if you are interested in an African safari.

My first day in Korea

My first day in Korea has been a long one. I arrived just after 5:30 and was in the program's shuttle and on my way to the orientation site by 8:10. We unloaded the bus, checked in and found our rooms. I am rooming with Trevor a Canadian with actual teacher training who is going to be living in Daejeon, the city I have been assigned to, as well.

We got along from the start and after lunch decided to explore the town. We met up with Barry from Sligo, Ireland and Jay who has resided all over the place but called Santa Cruz his last home. Additionally, Jay is a native Korean speaker who is teaching English in our program.

Barry needed a converter for his Euro style plug so we set off to get cash at an ATM, buy a converter and have a look around. We decided to hit the subway and head into Seoul, at least the outskirts of it. There was a sweet, rich smell that enveloped the station similar to walking into kitchen with someone baking fresh pies and cookies. We stopped and Jay bought us all a bag of the treats. They are a soft, pancake-y morsel filled with a sweet vanilla-ish custard. I still have no idea what they are called.

Jay with our tasty treats

Trevor, his tuque and whatever it was that we were eating in the subway station

15 minutes later we got off the train and had a look around. We ended up walking into the Lotte department store: a massive 9 story store filled with clean, shiny gadgets, clothes and just about anything else you could imagine. Everything, that is, but Barry's plug. That was found at a nearby Apple store and we were on our way back to Eulji.

I had been in contact with my friend Sun Hwa who I had met a few months back and serendipitously works 3 train stops from my orientation site. We met up and went to dinner at a Korean place. I was the only non-Korean in the immediate area all evening. Sun Hwa ordered so much food...the table was covered with things that were completely foreign to me.

(click image to embiggen)

The meal was delicious and the flavors were a mix of new and familiar. I didn't bring my camera with because I knew I would ruin the nice meal with geeky gushing photography if I did. I will be around this type of food a lot more very soon, so I will make sure to document it better for you in the future.

After dinner we got coffee and practiced more Korean (hangul, is the name of the language). We jumped back on the subway, said good bye at my stop and I got in before the 12:30 curfew with half an hour to spare and went to sleep after a long first day in Korea. If this day is any sign of things to come, I have a feeling Korea is going to far exceed my expectations. I am confident that the adventures I will have here are going to surpass what I have been imagining they will be. I'll keep an open mind and see what happens...so far so good.

Seoul street food.

Only part of subway map. The part I traveled yesterday is in the far right bottom corner. It took about 20 minutes. Calling Seoul a big city is a severe understatement.

People here have robots that help them do simple tasks, like riding a bike. In America, I had a coffee grinder.

Jive talkin' Korean barbers

Now I live in Korea.

(click image to embiggen)

Macau: turbojets, dumplings and the Venetian

Before we realized it, Pat and I pulled another all-nighter after watching the fireworks. We managed to stay up until 5am and to make matters worse, the Falafel place down the hill and around the corner that never closes was closed by 4am. Pat knew what to do though: we went straight to the restaurant that actually doesn't close and even at 4am in ghost town New Years Hong Kong, it was packed. The food was filling and unremarkable. It tasted great, but at this point my standards are so high from being totally spoiled by amazing food that is everywhere here.

Pat and I got to sleep as soon as we got back because we need to leave for the Venetian in Macau the next day (ie 6 hours from now). Predictably, waking up was tough, but we managed to pull ourselves together, dapper up and throw on suits. We raced to the turbo jet station only to see where all the missing people in town were! They were standing in line waiting to go to Macau! Pat, with turbo jet passes in hand went to the ticket counter, explained that we needed to get on the next departure even though they were booked solid for 5 hours at this point...and it worked. We sprinted through the station, somehow got through immigration in 2 minutes and sat down in our seats.

The turbo jet is a cool sounding name for a hydrofoil that takes tourists from Hong Kong to Macau. The way I like to explain Macau to people is that Hong Kong is an island that the British controlled and turned into a banking center of Asia.

Macau's story is that the Portuguese controlled the island of Macau and instead of banks they built casinos. Street signs are a mix of Portuguese and Chinese and thankfully some English as well.

The seating on the turbo jet is similar to that of a 747, only it is about 3 times as wide. There are monitors playing adds for the casinos and upcoming events in Macau.

One ad that was especially interesting was for Brian Berg, the current (and continuous since 1992) world record holder in building towers out of playing cards. Normally I wouldn't care, but this is the guy that Pat was interviewing for his magazine and I was going along.

The seas were a bit rough and we got to Macau a little later that we'd hoped so when we docked we ran to immigration to enter Macau. I am used to being tall while I am here, but I am only a little taller than the Hong Kong population. The other tourists in Macau were from all over the region so Pat and I towered over everyone. This was a plus, since it meant that it would be impossible for me to lose him in a crowd.

Pat had and awesome interview and I will see if I can get a link to Pat's story when it prints.

After the interview was over, food was on our minds. We walked through to casino to leave which was easier said than done because it was packed with people.

It seemed as if the rest of the missing Hong Kong population was on the casino floor. Mable Wu, the PR director explained that this holiday there would be up to 100,000 people passing through the Venetian. Gambling is a huge part of Chinese New Years celebration, and Macau is the Las Vegas of Asia. We maneuvered through the teeming masses of people around the craps, roulette and bic bo tables. Outside wasn't much better. Pat and I had to be vigilant to get a taxi since they were all in service most likely because the weather was terrible and no one wanted to walk in the cold.

Pat and I knew what we wanted: The elusive Shanghai baozi soup dumpling. We headed right for a restaurant we had been to last time I was here and like every place else, it was packed.

We managed to score a table and ordered as quickly as we could. Pat and I were wiped out from the night before and needed something to bring our vitality back. I have never felt the rejuvenating effect of food before like I have with these dumplings. In case you have never had them, they are a seasoned, finely ground sausage meat wrapped in a dumpling with broth and then steamed. They are served on a flat bottomed bamboo bowl that is also used for steaming. The trick is to grasp the dumpling with your chopstick and put it in your spoon to while taking a bite to release the hot broth and let it cool down in the spoon. You can eat it once its cooled a bit. We ordered 8 of them...each. By the time we were done with them I was stuffed and feeling nearly 100% myself again.

We walked around a bit in the old square downtown and checked out the New Years celebrations. The square always looks interesting with its Portuguese colonial buildings mixed with east asian architecture but today it was lit up with lanterns strung across the streets and giant illuminated tigers. People were crowded around a stage watching a dance. Pat and I navigated the sea of happy revelers and walked down narrow streets. There was a conglomeration of smells from all the shops cooking food to order. I wished I wasn't so full from the dumplings.

Pat and I walked around town some more and eventually made our way back to the turbojet station. Unsurprisingly, the line was massive. Pat went to the ticket counter and explained that we had to get back immediately and the guy at the counter was moved by Pat's urgency enough to grant us passage on the boat leaving in 2 minutes. We sprinted to and through customs since we were pros at filling out our immigration cards and got to our seats just as the boat was ready to leave.

We got back to Hong Kong just in time for Pat to meet Youyi as she came back from New Years with her family in Shanghai and a quick trip with friends to Korea. She brought cake back with her from her mom and we had a slice before passing out from another exhausting day.

Happy Chinese New Year!

I have never told anyone "Happy American New Year!" and I'm sure I'm not alone. When I am in Hong Kong, people will say "Happy Chinese New Year" all the time. It's as if they don't realize that I can see all the red and the tiger decorations, or the festive kumquat trees displayed all over town. It's as if I have completely forgotten that 6 weeks ago I celebrated New Years in the states and I need to be reminded that this is the Chinese New Year we are celebrating here. In China. In February.

I do try to wish as many people a Happy New Year as I can. It is met with surprise that I would offer such a well wish as well as what looks like genuine appreciation that I am wishing them happiness in the upcoming year. I even got a partial smile out of the surly immigration officer who resented working at 6am on Sunday morning (and all the folks who were coming home to Hong Kong from a night of debauchery in Macau).

In case you've missed it, this weekend marked the start of the year of the Tiger. There are regal images of tigers, cartoon drawings of tigers and large crimson tapestries with gold lame embossed tigers all over town. Today we went out to get Shanghainese dumplings for breakfast and the shop was closed. In a town that never closes! So we went to the #2 dumpling shop in town and it was closed as well. It turns out that 90% of the restaurants were closed today as Hong Kong took a holiday from work to spend time with their families and gamble at home with them (yes really. This is something confirmed during a conversation I had with a Hong Kong local at a party tonight). It also turns out that 100% of the restaurants we wanted to go to were closed today as well. Dumplings would have to wait.

We met up with some friends and all went to a party to watch tonight's fireworks from the balcony of an apartment on the 13th floor of a building perched on the hills overlooking town. This was another mix of ex-pats but tonight I was much more intrigued by the Hong Kong locals at the party. They seemed to want to talk about the US with me and I had plenty of questions for them so we had lots to talk about. To get to the apartment on the hill we had to dart through traffic in our fantastically underpowered and tight taxi. I wanted to capture some of the movement in pictures below.

After a great fireworks display, unparalleled hospitality and skillfully DJ'd dance music the original crew of 4 we arrived with (Paul, Mary, Pat and I) all left together and went to Paul's place to hang out on his roof. His rooftop is a horizontal oasis amidst the tall buildings that surrounded us. We could lay on our backs and look up without having to crane our necks in this vertical city.

Today was full of unexpected surprises: The city I know only as packed and bustling was a virtual ghost town during the one day a year it happens; we got invited to a party to watch the fireworks and met more really cool people, and had a relaxing post party on the best secret rooftop in Hong Kong. I feel like I am getting to see a side of Hong Kong that most tourists who are here for a short spell don't get to see. I can't begin to express how lucky I feel that I am able to do all of this.

Daft Punk Robot Rock Towers

On the way to the fireworks party.

Going faster...

Light speed!

Top secret pool-side rooftop retreat.