This is long overdue.

I'm back in the States. This blog is extinct. Blame the Chuck Norrisaurus.

Thank you and Good night.

Up close and personal.

What are you thankful for? (Korean adolescent edition)

Young Hoon

I asked my students to write 3 things they are thankful for and why. Here were some of their answers:

I'm thankful for my mom because her give me a money.

I'm thankful for teacher information give.

I'm thankful for my body.

I'm thankful for friend because they funny with we.

I'm thankful for parents because they always love me.

I'm thankful for my friend, Song Chang Won, is gave me a candy.

I'm thankful for the earth because it give all people food, drink, air and live.

I'm thankful for computer because it give funny.

I'm thankful for my friends because they are give me a food.

I'm thankful for my friends. They are very handsome.

I'm thankful for having parents.

I'm thankful for glasses because it is see.

I'm thankful for my parents. My love my parents. Very very thank you. 사랑해.

And then, my favorite, said by Young Hoon:

I'm thankful for my mom is many delicious pood cook and kind. (Actually spelled "pood.")



Awesome.

Tantrums and Temples and Totally Ignoring the Obvious.

Poker night yesterday. I lost big time. I lost my money and my ability to walk. Galloping down the stairs, I rolled my ankle heard a few pops. I’d done this before, but not for ten or so years. Ugh. It would be simpler if I didn’t have a job that required pacing around large rooms and stage acrobatics. But now I'm confined to my corner desk, yelling at kids from across the room, getting unwanted sympathy from strangers and doubling my travel-time to get anywhere. I know what you're thinking, "Wow, Andrew, you're life is so tough. What about all the AIDS babies in Africa or the single-mothers working 100-hour weeks to keep food on the table?" Okay, okay. You've pinned me down and slapped my senseless. I am a spoiled infant who didn't get his favorite kind of Gerber. Ignore my tantrum. Pop in your AIDS baby pacifier. I get it.

I went to Gyeongju last weekend and had a blast. Gyeongju is know as the "museum without walls" and I think it lived up to it's name. Museums are normally sardined with smelly tourists, right? I walked through fields of tombs from the old, dead kings of the Shilla dynasty (see right). I forget the dynasty order, but I'm pretty sure these guys are at least 800 years old. We also hit some temples. I think temples and gaudy Buddhas were the real reason I came to Korea. It's just something we don't see at home. Bulguksa (temple ["sa" is the Korean suffix for temple, so to avoid redundancy, I'll just use its Korean name.]) was a theme park. Theme park parking, lines at entrances, crying babies and theme park food and theme park trinkets. My travel buddy, Gray and I searched for ages to find a place to park and finally made our own un-demarcated parking space. We walked in and there was an old pagoda, some gold statues, but, being a temple tourism veteran, I didn't see anything more than typical temple fare. Underwhelmed, we drove through the mountains to the next temple about 30 miles away.


Golgulsa is an operational temple, rather than a theme park, with monks who have a martial arts compound and temple stayers/tourists who want to dip their pinky toe into enlightenment. This temple was a build out of caves and was over 1500 years old. Having a standing temple that old is truly significant in Korea; the Japanese burned down most of the historical sites during their long occupations here. Most temples (like Bulguksa) were burned down and reconstructed as recently as the 1990's. Anyway, the temple was stunning and its entirety was literally carved out of the side of a mountain. (The Buddha to the left is at the top of the mountain and was carved in 500(?) A.D.) Gray and I walked up steep cliffs and sometimes climbed to see little shrines cut out of the face of the stone mountain. During fall, the views were breathtaking. The leaves were starting to change and, growing up in San Diego, I had never seen anything like that before.That night, we drank with these guys from Paris who were studying for their MBAs at a university in Seoul. We had a great time and jawed about off-color topics with off-color humor for hours on end. This is the virtue of living abroad: Everyone's from somewhere else and you never know what you might learn. I learned that the French can be down-to-earth and amicable. I also learned that I have a place to stay in Paris when I visit in a few months. The power of Facebook.

It's been a fun couple of weeks. But, I'm just highlighting the highlights and obscuring the lowlights. I plan on traveling more when my ankle heals up. You'll hear more from me then. Cheers.

I went paragliding this weekend. Here's a video.

Mmmhmm.

If we've learned anything, I think we've learned that I suck at correspondence. I heard this joke the other day about a blogger who rarely blogs and finally, when he does blog, it's only to apologize for not blogging more. I am this man. Stone me.

Things have been really placid recently. I feel like I just found my rhythm living in Korea. I'm content with staying at home, doing homey things. I don't need to be occupying my thoughts with my next weekend trip to remain happy. I think Myonghwa plays a significant role here. Also, NFL Gamepass plays a significant role here, along with online poker (Reader's note: There is no real money involved.) and bad Korean dramas. I've become content, or maybe complacent, with staying in my little town, spending time with Myonghwa and living in cyberspace. This hibernation sounds like a bout of depression or laziness, and I might grant you the latter, but I actually just feel at home in Boryeong now. I feel excited to excited to come home after a trip and I feel excited to stay at home on the weekends. I feel at ease in my apartment, safe within it's concrete womb. I borrowed this from Paul Simon.

Yesterday, I went to Myonghwa's town, Jupo, and was shocked to see an old school house that was erected in 1715. It had the typical traditional Korean architecture and paint designs and it was literally a stone's throw from Myonghwa's house. She used to walk by a building 300 years old everyday on her way to school. And this is a young building, by Korean standards. She suspected that her town had been around since about 1000 AD. Then, in front of her old middle school, we walked by a pagoda (that had been transported there) from about 500 AD. These are things that seem insignificant and normal to her. My neighborhood was built in 1969.

I can't believe I didn't post this before.

If you want a shockingly accurate depiction of the life of a foreign English teacher in Korea, this video is spot on.



Enjoy.