KLB - Facing the End of KLB


I am going to step away from the blog for awhile to consider whether or not I will continue to update it. Maintaining the blog used to be something I really enjoyed and, of course, I don't regret any of it. That it was able to inspire me enough to write a book and led me to meet a lot of good people has been well worth the price of admission. I've even been personally invited to see NANTA this weekend (and three friends!) by the tour manager!

These things, as well as other positive experiences, wouldn't have come to pass had it not been for KLB. It's been an important part of my life, almost a part of who I am, and I'll be sad to see it go.

I've always been surprised by the kindness and generosity of the majority of my readers, which is why I've kept updating as long as I have. It used to be quite a nice little community around here. Also surprising and touching has been the number of people who check my site daily and leave genuine comments and thoughtful opinions. Over the past few years, in addition to these comments, I've received hundreds of e-mails from people who have thanked me for writing and for inspiring them to come to Korea and give it a shot. (Wait a minute - now those people have taken all the good jobs! - oops!)

However, these days checking my site has become more of a source of dread than happiness. I continually wonder if I'm going to discover a bunch of nasty remarks in the comments section. Surprisingly, with the number of people viewing day to day, it took a long time before this happened. I don't think I had a single jerk for the first two years. However, over the past six months, it's gotten out of hand. People who don't know me continually put me down, put my friends down, and put my girlfriend down. This is something I can no longer ignore.

For awhile, I considered shutting down the comments all together, but what fun would that be? Reading comments and sharing thoughts is an integral part of the blogging process. Unfortunately, I now spend more time getting pissed off and deleting asinine comments from anonymous people and banning them than I do enjoying what others have to say.

I write honestly the way I feel about things, and I use my real name - much against the sound advice of people who know me. If I can't be honest and have to be careful about what I write, well, in my opinion, that makes anyone's writing stale and uninspiring, contrived, almost superficial.

Finally, unlike back when I started in 2002, there are tons of blogs about living and teaching in Korea these days. Many are fresh and exciting and already have quite a following. They offer new outlooks and points of view that I can't anymore now that I've been here for 4 long years. For example, I used to enjoy posting pictures of Korean food, but how many times can I do that? Fatman has all the food shots you could ever need now. James has all the pictures of getting plastered in the clubs that anyone could want. John (though I think he's already given up too) will have all the hooking-up stories one could wish for - I hope. Come to think of it, I'm not even much of a slacker anymore at my job - a topic I used to relish in!

I still have a wealth of material that I've never printed here, a trilogy of memories and future experiences to draw on, and I will continue to write honestly, as I always have in the past. Sorry to say it, but I may have to do so offline from now on.

The blog will stay online. As a matter of fact, I used to have a favorite blog of my own. Then one day, the guy just said goodbye and the next day the blog was gone period. That pissed me off, so I won't be doing that.

In a few weeks, unless by some chance I decide otherwise, I will shut off the comments and just leave the site here for memories and as a source of information for people who haven't read the blog. Perhaps I will stop by to post a few pictures from time to time or give an update about the next book I'm working on now. Until then, thanks for reading my blog for the past few years. I really mean that.


Shawn Matthews
Korea Life Blog

KLB - I Can't Think of a Title


Coincidentally, the internet was down in our apartment yesterday, but supposedly for just a short time. When we still couldn't connect today, Julie called Megapass back and it turns out we didn't pay the bill. Though we signed up at a 10% discount for using direct payment. Somehow they weren't taking the payment. So they've been charging us full price and since they didn't get a payment they disconnected our service, without even a phone call! Julie was furious and the explanation she got was that they changed computer systems or some BS and no longer had her account info. Now she has to go to the bank, take out the money, then go over to the post office to pay the bill. So, I'm back here at the PC bang for a bit until tomorrow.

I'm going to have to start a separate page for my assistant, like I did for Windy with the The Windy Times. Today she said the oddest things to me.

"Shawn! (She always starts a conversation by exclaiming my name. I continually think she's about to spring some awful news on me.) I heard something yesterday from other [Korean] teachers. I heard foreigners like I-dae [Ehwa Women's University] girls!" (For the love of all that's good and holy, it can't be true!)

Her face a contorted expression of shock and surprise: "Is it true?" she asked, as if I were to reply "Yes, we do," her opinion of foreigners would be reduced to an all new low.

"Well," I said, pondering my response. "Doesn't every guy like young pretty girls? I'm sure Korean guys do too..."

"Oh my god! Those girls so bad, you know?"

"What do you mean?"

"They date doctor. Then if lawyer comes along, they leave doctor and dating lawyer."

(It wouldn't surprise me with all the westernization going on here.)

"Sure, some, I guess. They're not all like that."

"And you know what?" Cathy continued. "Some of those girls so bad. They live with the man in same apartment - and they not married!" She said it implying those girls are out of their minds.

"Are you serious?" I said, playing along. It was obvious she hadn't made the connection that Julie and I live together without being married, which she knows.



I shook my head in disbelief, pretending to be just as outraged. I wasn't about to carry on the discussion or try to change the way she feels. Such an attempt would be fruitless and futile.

After work, Julie and I ordered a box of chicken. While we were waiting, a salesman rapped on our door again. As soon as Julie answered, the man started his routine about water purifiers. I pulled her aside and said, "Julie, try to sell him one of my books as a joke!" The box was sitting nearby. She wouldn't do it, though she thought it would be pretty funny and got a kick out of watching me hold a copy and impersonate the salesman out of his view. By the way, Julie hasn't purchased a copy of my book yet either! What, does she expect a freebie too? What is it around here? I ain't no charity! (better clarify that's a joke, for my literal and sensitive readers. I'm sure I'll give her one eventually, as long as she pays a few bucks for my John Hancock).

This PC bang is driving me nuts. Every 15 minutes the screen goes blank and a PC bang advertisement video starts playing for a Korean computer game.

For most of my readers, this concludes the update. If you're one of those angry people who are just fed up, sick and tired of hearing me talk about my book on my own blog, then click away immediately! Thank you for reading. Have a nice day.

I would like to say a special thank you to Dave Sperling from the famous ESL Cafe. After our last exchange on e-mail, in which he offered some marketing suggestions, Dave went ahead and took a banner ad for Island of Fantasy and put it on one of his pages. Truly a nice surprise. It's not very much of a thank you, but he will get a copy of the book in the mail this week from Lulu. (Yikes, maybe after he reads it, he'll remove the banner ad! Perhaps I'd better send a Harry Potter book with my cover pasted on top! Maybe stuff in a few random pages to make it more legit. I can see it now. One minute Harry Potter will be flying on a goblet of fire-or whatever it is he does-the next he'll be arguing with Brenda about his awful schedule at Wonder School! Dave'll never be the wiser!)

Well, I've had enough of this place. Seems when I update from the PC bang I end up writing more at least. This chair is much more comfortable than mine.

KLB - Hum Glum Hump Day


The day started pretty well. I stopped off at the post office and sent out 4 more copies of my book as well as one to the new Google Print program.

Then it started. I just missed the bus, and had to wait (yea, a whopping 5 minutes) for the next one which caused me to miss the express subway by seconds (usually have this down to a science). So I got the slow one and no seat as usual. I arrived to work 5 minutes late rather than 5 minutes early. No big deal. It takes 10 minutes before all the kids get there anyway.

Class A was just off the wall today. Not nosier than usual, just they wouldn't listen at all. I got kind of angry at Cathy because she just sits there watching them misbehave and doesn't do or say anything, even when I ask her directly. After class I said to her, "Cathy, when the kids are noisy and not paying attention, and when they don't know what's going on, why don't you do anything?" She told me that our boss doesn't want her to speak Korean in the class. I can understand that, sort-of, the parents may complain, but sometimes it's necessary and part of the reason she's there is to keep the kids in line. It's only with class A that I need her assistance. These are the youngest-mostly rotten little boys-and least inclined to learn. So then she said, "I can only speak Korean to translate for you." Well, I had been standing there telling the kids to be quiet and pay attention, trying to explain to them what I wanted them to do, and basically just getting frustrated yet she did nothing except sit there and doodle. I just may force her to fork up the moola for the book I gave her. (everyone calm down - that's a joke!)

When I do ask her to translate, she usually gets all flustered, then finally, if I can get her to understand what I want, she will do so, but very quickly and in a barely audible voice. On a side note, it's amazing how well the kids respond to anything said in Korean. I can understand why they get bored sometimes, usually on Mondays and Wednesdays when I'm required to teach them oddball conversations from English Time. (Today's lesson: "Achoo. Bless you. Thanks.") I can only imagine what it's like for them to sit there and listen to an alien speaking a different language every day for 40-50 minutes. Usually the worst day is on Thursday when I have to teach them their story books. They have to just "listen and repeat" a zillion times, and then I bite my cheek when they still are not able to remember "The man is nice" 5 seconds later. The other days aren't so bad as we do songs, games, and miscellaneous activities that keep their attention somewhat.

Anyway, enough about that. The next two classes were good as usual, especially Class B. Lovely little angels.

When I got home, it was hot and stuffy in our apartment, so I turned on the fan - broken! Then I sat down to check my e-mail. Julie told me the internet is down in our building until tomorrow. I don't like to watch TV much, so I figured I'd work on the cover of my next potential project, only to find that Adobe Photoshop wouldn't work. I uninstalled it and reinstalled it three times, shut down and restarted the computer 5 times, did a system restore, registry cleanup, etc, before I figured out that the problem was: one misplaced file that needed to be deleted. Computers are so fickle! By that time, I was sick of the damn thing and started to watch TV. But I soon got bored with that.

Now I'm sitting here at a PC bang surrounded by a throng of middle school kids playing games at full volume. I sure don't miss having to come to these places often.

I just checked my e-mail and found that Dave Sperling, the owner of the ESL Cafe website, sent me an e-mail with some suggestions on marketing my book, which I appreciated. Some things he mentioned were kind of a bummer. He said he never sold many of his own ESL books off his website, and he gets a zillion hits/day. Basically he said I need to find a publisher so they can market it. Maybe I'll send my book to some publishers in place of a manuscript and hope for the best, or perhaps toss everything in a big fire and laugh insanely as it all burns!

Thank you for reading. Have a nice day.

KLB - New Layout


I changed the layout a bit, including the flag. As for the homepage image - I just re-did the image that Hairy Chasms made for my blog. It's a symbolic image that some people will connect with.

In "reality," that's the dog that lived connected to that inhumanely short chain for the entire year that I lived in Nowhere-dong, the same dog that, strangely enough, appeared healthy and lived with a chicken. I miss coming home at night, after working out at the gym, and jumping over the concrete wall behind my place and hanging out with that dog, feeding her treats and petting her for awhile. I guess she probably misses me even more.

At the same time I don't miss seeing her suffer day-in and day-out. What a poor and pitiful existence. The owner came out once a day and threw chunks of leftovers at her. It took weeks of struggle before she pushed out that board and was able to see out the back just a bit. That's about as far as she could go out the front too.

Many nights I used to sit outside, in the late hours, and contemplate freeing her. I wish I did, looking back. I tried a few times, but the chain was so tightly attached, and when she realized what I was trying to do, she would get scared and retreat into her prison. Then again, thinking on it now, what would fate have broght if I did unhook the chain? Probably not a lot better. The whole affair - defintely not one of the highlights of my time in Korea.

KLB - Mundane Monday



It was a typical day today. Woke up, watched CNN for a bit, checked my e-mail, checked my comments, logged onto Yahoo messenger, read offline messages from my mother, took a shower, stopped at the post office to send out 11 copies of my book (one is going to the Korea Times for a review) and took a bus and a train to work. By now you must be thinking, "Wow! This is the best blog ever! I'm going to start my own blog this very minute!"


The kids have a test tomorrow based on the first two chapters of English Time, so I spent the day (3 hours) reviewing with each class and checking their workbooks and notebooks. My first class might not do well, the test is a lot of spelling, but the second two classes should shine. It's amazing the difference between classes. My first class is full of little boys who really aren't that bright, even if they are really young. I spend most of the class just trying to keep their attention.

The second class is completely opposite, full of little angelic girls who come in quietly, study their books before class begins, stare at me with their eager little bright eyes, do everything that I say, then thank me for teaching them before leaving.

The third class is a mix of pretty smart kids, mostly boys, with a couple of students that would be back in class A if they weren't too old. The smart kids are a little too full of energy. They raise their hands before I ask a question, often shout out the answers trying to out-do each other, sing the songs (English Time has really good ones and the kids love them) at ear screeching pitches, and are just overly excited in general. I changed their seats around today and they were much better, but I have to keep on them. Actually, I enjoy teaching all the classes, but class B is definitely my favorite. Up until middle school, girls are so quiet and polite.

It's amazing how much of a better teacher you can be when you only teach three classes. All teaching jobs should be like this. I don't think I've ever had a job I've enjoyed this much, one in which I have put forth such a genuine effort. Instead of counting down the seconds before the day is over, I enjoy being there. Today I felt a sense of pride when my students could recall almost everything I've taught them. I feel like I'm actually doing something worthwhile. I don't even need word-search puzzles anymore. What's happened to me?

After work, I stopped off to meet John in Yeokgok for a bit. I don't get all the hateful comments on his blog, because I've known him for a while now and he's an outgoing, good natured guy. We hung out all weekend and had a pretty good time including a delicious Mexican feast in Itaewon on Saturday. It was the first time I had anything Mexican in ages, since eating at Taco Hell a few years ago back home. We ate giant beef burritos and a plate of chicken enchiladas (sure wish I had my camera with me at the time). I don't like Itaewon that much, but I was there to drop off some copies of my book at the What the Book? store (which has a fantastic collection of cheap used English books) and John was in the area, so we met up. The best part about Itaweon is the great selection of foreign restaurants.

John's still staying in the cave-gwon, which is convenient for me as he's just four stops away on the subway, but he's found a job which starts November 1st in Kangnam. We had a beer and some dry squid, then John headed off to see a friend of his. I ate barbecued chicken-on-a-stick outside Songnae station, which was delicious, by the way. That has to be my favorite food-stall treat. I just got home a little while ago. And that concludes another action-packed update.

Korea Life Blog - The Delivery



Shipped on Thursday afternoon, the first box of 100 copies of my book arrived today, early Saturday morning. I had no idea how heavy 100 paperback books can be. Despite the weight, the shipping bills shows just 3,000 won ($2.65). I can't imagine how much something of this weight would cost to ship in America, even within the same state. I'm assuming a great deal more.




Here it is. I put the remote control on the box to give it some perspective.




I felt very happy opening this box. I've waited a long time for this moment.




I wasn't dissapointed. The press company made the adjustments I sent them since the proof copies and did a really good job. I haven't counted them, but it appears they've subtracted the "free" proof copies from the total here, but I'm not sure. The books look great anyway, actually much better than the Lulu version, though the Luly copy is nice too, bigger and the paper is a little thicker. Click on this photo for a full size view.

There is something on the back cover of the book that should have been fixed. It's not a big deal, though, and it's pretty funny if you ask me. I'll leave it up to you to figure out what I'm talking about.

Korea Life Blog - Women...


Can someone explain this to me? Julie and I are about equal at pool (we're both terrible, or at least less than so-so.) We like to play just to have fun. Usually we bet something like ice-cream at Baskin Robins. Tonight we bet a 20 minute massage. Whoever won 2 out of 3 games would get the massage. I won the first two games pretty quickly. Since we had more time, Julie upped the ante. She said, "If you win, you get a 40 minute massage, if I win, cancel the 20 you won, and I get a 20 minute massage." I agreed.

The last two games were very close. Julie won the first one with some good shots. Then, during the second game, while munching on free dried squid, it came down to the very last shot. Chewing a squid tentacle, I sunk the 8-ball and I won the hour long massage!

Now, I was pretty happy. Hey, fair is fair. But Julie started to blame me and give me a guilt trip saying I was supposed to let her win because we were so close and that I'm a terrible boyfriend. However, if she won, I'm sure she would have been jumping all over and waiting in anticipation for the reward. WTF?

Anyway, I'm about to log off again and collect on my prize. She's a sore loser, but she's got to accept the outcome. :D

Korea Life Blog - At the School


My A class is a little bad, not by much, but there's potential to be really bad unless I stay on top of them. Yesterday I held the five troublemaker boys after class. I gave them a lecture. I was never able to do this at any other school because I had no Korean assistant. Anyway, it went something like this:

Me: "OK, tell me what you learned today?"

Boys: (staring at the ground, one tries with "Is boy Jerry name!")

Me: (feigning anger) "I spent 40 minutes of class today teaching you two short sentences and you can't remember them?"

Boys: (getting really uneasy as Cathy translates)

Me: (pointing to Adam as an example) "I'm Adam. I'm a boy." That's it. I taught you that for 40 minutes. Is it THAT difficult? Why can't you remember that? Because you don't listen. You're rude and disrespectful, all of you. I came here from America, very far away, to teach you English. I can't see my Mom, I can't see my sister, I can't see my dog and cat - I can't even see my goldfish! My sister had a baby a few days ago, and I couldn't be there. Guess why? Because I care too much about Korea and your future. I love this country and I love my students. I came here to Korea to teach you (pointing at each one) boys. You have to speak English, and it's my job to teach you to do so. You have to listen to me and respect me..."

It went on like this for awhile. A couple of the boys started to cry and even Cathy looked a little choked up. Afterword, I made them write "I'm sorry Shawn teacher" 15 times while Cathy told me I have "Jung" (which means something like I have inner spirit and love). Before the kids left, they kept trying to hug me.


Today they were a little better than yesterday, but not by much.

I applied for my Alien Registration Card. I have to leave my passport with immigration until October 25 before it's ready. That's two weeks, just about. What are you supposed to do in the meantime if you need ID or if there's some kind of emergency? I think that's a warped system. Why can't they just look at the passport, then make two copies and sign them or something, then make the ID card later without it?


Cathy and I received a huge amount of new supplies from the school itself today (not the agency). Mountains of flashcards and games and other materials.

Cathy, however, kind of irked me later. A few weeks ago I showed her the copy of the Lulu version of my book and she was totally interested and surprised. Well, today she noticed the Korea copy I had on my desk and said, "Oh wow! Is Korea now? Can I read your book now it's Korea? Wow!"

"Well, sure. You can buy it tomorrow. It's only 10,000 won. Do you want me to bring you a copy?"

"What?" (probably didn't understand what I said)

"It's for sale. 10,000 won." (I said this in Korean).

"Oh, I see."

"So, you want one? I'll bring it tomorrow."

"Oh, yes, of course."

Later after classes are over:

"So, I'll bring you my book tomorrow, OK?"

(clearly uncomfortable) "Oh, um. I have to thinking first."

"Thinking what?"

"It's, well - it's expensive too much."

Now, I had been thinking 10,000 won (about $8) is a pretty decent price, so I was surprised. Also, she's a 26 year old single working woman who lives at home with her family, and she's my assisstant.

"Too expensive?" I asked. "Really?"

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah, me too," I said, now uncomfortable myself and a little annoyed. It wasn't that I was disappointed at losing a sale; I didn't even really want her to read it in the first place, since some of the parts are a little personal for my co-worker to be reading. But she'd been telling me how interested she is in my book off and on for the past week or two and seemed so excited by the copy I had today. I guess she was expecting me to just give it to her.

If she didn't want to pay for it, at least she could have made a better excuse, such as "I'm afraid I won't understand it," or "Can I buy it in a few weeks?" or whatever. Oh, well.

On the way home today, I started thinking about the prices of books in Korea. 10,000 won ($8) for a new book by anyone in America is a bargain, even for mass trade paperbacks. Books are really expensive there these days, especially for a decently printed one.

However, looking at the selection of Korean books at Walmart tonight, I kept seeing pretty nice looking books the size of mine for about 7,500 ($6) or 8,500 ($7). Korean books are so cheap. What gives? In America we have trillions of trees to make paper with. In Korea there aren't that many extra trees. What is it? The ink? Or just greedy book companies or what? Anyway, I wonder if my book really is too expensive, but I just want to keep it 10,000 won to make it nice and even and easy.


Maybe, for a joke, I'll tell Cathy tomorrow that I feel terrible about her money situation and offer to loan her, say, 20,000 won, since she is so broke. Maybe even bring her a sandwich, too. Hehe.


One other thing annoyed me today as well. I got a complaint from one of the parents who called the school. She reported to the principal that I said the word "babo" (which means something like "silly" or a light-tone "stupid") in class. Sometimes I use that word just out of habit. It's so common and makes the kids laugh too. It must have been the other day when I kept asking this one boy "Are you happy? Are you sad? Are you angry? Are you funny?" and he kept replying with the same answer "Yes, I am." So I asked him, "Are you babo?" And he answered the same way, "Yes, I am."

Needless to say, the other students burst out laughing. I can just see it now, the kid running home and telling his mother how the teacher called him stupid and everyone laughed at him. Meanwhile, down the hallway, the Korean teachers are screaming at their kids, cursing, hitting them, whatever, yet the foreigner gets in trouble for saying "babo." Aigoo!

Korea Life Blog - Squid Warrior



For over three years I've walked these streets without the urge or the need to chomp on dried squid, but that has all changed now. Thanks to John, I'm now a squid addict. He's a squid pusher and should be avoided at all costs.



I dragged Julie over to Walmart with the sole purpose of buying a big bag of squid. You can't eat dried squid without a beer, so I also picked up a small bottle of something German (brewed and shipped in the USA).



A close up shot of the squid. Actually, this kind isn't as good as it looks. I prefer the fresh kind that I can get at the nearby department stores.

Korea Life Blog - Island of Fantasy Korea Edition


To anyone who may still be interested: the book is ready for ordering in Korea. English only. It looks pretty good. The price is only 10,000 won which includes the shipping.

Click the picture below to find out how to order.

By the way, it turns out it will be cheaper for me to ship the book anywhere in the world besides America from Korea. This is because it's cheaper to print books here and, of course, there are no Lulu fees. Also, international shipping, even to Canada, is cheaper from here than from America.


If you live in America, just use the Lulu site. It's still a decent price and you can get it within days.



This is the Korea edition. The cover looks much better than in this photo, I just realized, but now I'm too lazy to take a new shot. Lots of wonderfully fascinating ordering information available by clicking the picture anyway.


If anyone would like to design the cover for the second printing later on, the dimensions should be 6X9 and set to 300-600 DPI. I'll give you credit in the book and on the back cover as well as a couple of free copies when it's printed. You can use any photo from my website or any that you have. Just e-mail me if you are interested. Kojebook@gmail.com

Come back tomorrow for an update on how I lectured my Class A students on paying attention and also for a few wonderful photos of squid. I'd do the post tonight, but Julie's going to ring my neck if I spend another minute on this computer.

Korea Life Blog - My Sister Had a Baby!


My sister had a baby boy, Michael Jacob, over the weekend. I found out about it on Sunday morning. I was hoping to get a few pictures before posting about it, but my sister's camera doesn't work. For now, I'll just post these old pics of me with her daughter, my niece, Sierra. These were taken about a year and a half ago when I was just about recovered from my broken right arm and about to return to Korea.



She knows she's not supposed to be anywhere near the computer, especially when she's eating cookies!



My grandfather feeding her his homeade blueberry pie. Hey, where's my piece?



Ouch, I remember how much this hurt picking her up while my right arm was still recovering. You can see how she's struggling to force a smile. She hates being held...by me anyway, the big scary looking guy with a deranged arm.

Korea Life Blog - Island of Fantasy Comes to Korea



My book will be available in Korea by the end of the week. I'm getting a proof copy in the mail tomorrow. It looks like it will cost just 10,000 won and you should be able to order it from me directly and/or pick it up at a few book stores to be announced. More details to come soon.


Work is going really well. I guess I've been doing a good job because we've attracted seven new students. Almost all of them seem to fit right in with one exception, an older elementary student who doesn't even know the alphabet well.

By the way, on the train on the way to work, I witnessed and ajusshi and I guess his wife having a huge argument that involved a lot of screaming and swearing in Korean. Unfortunately, I have no idea what they were fighting about. Times like that I really regret having such limited Korean skills. I wanted to know what all the fuss was over. It went on for 20 minutes until I got off the train.

Today, as I was teaching, Bonnie from the agency popped in. She was there to meet with the school and also to decorate the spare classroom. Then, all of a sudden, a little bit later, a Korean woman came into the classroom and sat down and started taking notes. I had no idea who she was. I thought she must be a parent, or someone else reviewing my teaching. So, I went up and beyond the call of duty and really did a good lesson, which isn't really hard since the kids are so good and since I have a lot of experience teaching now and tons of materials. However, I was jumping all over, making jokes, inspiring even the worst kids to take part - basically the performance of a lifetime. Then I found out after class that this woman is just a new Korean assistant for a foreigner who will be starting soon at a different school. Oh well, unbeknownst to him/her, that new foreigner has some expectations to live up to now.

That's about all. Here's a picture of me and James and John from this weekend. That's also Julie in the background giving the rabit ears. James already posted the pic on his site, too. We all went out to the clubs in Hongdae and had a blast over the weekend. Well, James was a little tired though. Click on the photo to go to his site.



Also be sure to check out John's site for more.

Korea Life Blog - A Short Trip to Fukuoka



Click on the picture to be magically transported to Fukuoka again. It took me a few hours to get all the pictures together and do the update. I haven't checked it over much yet, but wanted to get it up and posted. Hope you enjoy.

Korea Life Blog - Fukuoka Again


I had a couple of fun days hanging out with John and Julie and now I'm off to Fukuoka, Japan again in the morning. I'll be there overnight. See you when I return.

Korea Life Blog - Side Dishes!


You know those tasty side dishes you get in the restaurants here? The kinds you wish you could make yourself but can't? All the ones they don't seem to carry in any grocery store? Well, Julie and I discovered a side dish store nearby our home. It's been there for awhile but we never saw it until recently when returning a DVD rental to one of the LG25s. Needless to say were delighted. They have a massive selection of side dishes, and almost all of them are the ones we really enjoy. Finally, something to go with rice without having to labor over the stove.



Here's a sample of the delicious side dishes we bought tonight. Mmm...they all taste great. We got all of these, plus what we already snacked on earlier, for around 7,000 won (about $6.25). I love Korean food! You can store these in the fridge and have easy, nutritious meals all week long. Just cook up a quick batch of rice in you rice cooker and presto.

Korea Life Blog - Book Delivery


At 9:00 in the morning today the doorbell rang. My book arrived. I order it on 9/21. Exactly two weeks. That was faster than I expected for standard international mail. Here are a few quick shots:

Korea Life Blog - Goose Goose


Swiss James called up and ended up coming over to Songnae to meet Julie and I. We had sam gyeop sal marinated in wine sauce at a restaurant nearby then decided to visit the local foreigner bar, Goose Goose, which I had never been to. I had just assumed it would be nothing great, hence why I didn't bring my camera, but I was wrong. It's a very big bar, lots of Koreans and foreigners, great beer selection, great prices. After a few bottles of Sam Adams, we got the nerve up to play pool. It's a free table and the winners keep playing. James and I had a few spectacular shots, but we lost twice.

Afterward, at about 5AM, we had a craving for fried chicken. We were surprised to actually find a place still open, and the owner had studied English in America and we chatted for a bit. We took the fried chicken, which ended up being much too spicy, and ended up eating it back here just before the sun came up.



Here's James making himself comfortable on our spare "bed" after a long night of partying and losing at pool. He was distraught a bit that Julie and I would sleep upstairs. He's afraid of the dark, he confided.


James woke us up at 2:00PM banging around. I got up and made coffee and a couple of egg and cheese sandwiches; Julie slept until 3:30. Then we went shopping for a bit. Hopefully James will post some pics on his site of the few items he picked up: a portable DVD player from Walmart and a Giordana jacket from Hyundai Department store, as well as some teeth whitening strips, which I want to buy after James tests them out, from Homeplus.

We planned to get a few sub sandwiches at Subway, but ended up going to TGIFs instead. We were pretty disappointed with the service there. James' meal, chicken Alfredo, while good, came out a solid 10 minutes before the burgers that Julie and I ordered. Then, though she had ordered both well-done, mine was fine but Julie's was more like well-red. She had it sent back, and to my surprise, she didn't complain at all and we received no compensation for their crappy service. In the meantime we shared my burger. By the time hers came back out, we were full and now it's sitting in our fridge.

James just went home a while ago to meet his friend, Samantha, or Sam, as she is called. All in all we had a good weekend. John missed out, but he had a nice time of his own which I'm sure he'll write about.

Korea Life Blog - Mozilla's Firefox Browser


I love the Mozilla Firefox browser. Very sleek, simple and it's lightening fast. All I do is right click on my blog folder, which I've conveniently placed under the navigation bar, and choose "open in tabs," and all the blogs I read load up at once. Then I just click on the tabs to alternate between them. This sort of browsing has been around for awhile but Firefox has the nicest design and is simple to use.



I don't read all that many blogs actually. As a matter of fact, I went through the blog links I have listed and I was surprised to see how many people have stopped updating. I went ahead and deleted at least 10-15 links.

Korea Life Blog - Domino's Pizza


One of the only things I miss about Nowhere-dong is the pizza shop next to my old place. See somewhere in this post. They made a really great pizza for only 10,000 won. Julie and I have tried three or four places near our office-tel and they have all been terrible. The other day we tried Pizza Hut and though we had a good time and enjoyed the salad-bar, the pizza, while better than the local shops, was as you'd expect it to be: not that bad, not that good. The last two times I've had Pizza Hut pizza I've been pretty disappointed actually.


Tonight we found out there's a Domino's not too far away that delivers in our area. Here's what we got:




I was about ready to eat my backpack coming home from work today. While I was on the bus, Julie called me up and told me she ordered Domino's. It arrived shortly after I got home.



Here it is in all it's greasy glory. I love this pizza. I love pickles now and the hot sauce and especially the dipping sauce. Julie sometimes asks my why Americans and other western countries have so many fat people, and now she's starting to figure out why. What a concept. A slice of greasy, cheesy pizza with pepperoni dipped in garlic sauce. But it tastes so damn good. It cost us 16,000 won (around $14.50) and came with a 1.25 liter of Coke. That's pretty cheap considering there's no tax or tipping. I'm giving the prices for people back home who may be wondering.

I still have never had a pizza as good as I had in Ulsan. I never thought I'd come to Korea and find a truly great pizza, but there's an Italian restaurant down there that serves many different kinds of Italian pizzas. And they were cheap - around $10 each. Whenever we went we would get the mushroom pizza and also the bianco pizza which was topped with sun-dried tomatoes, artichokes, basil and Prosciutto ham with white sauce. They also served $5 pitchers of beer, which was nice. What could be better than delicious pizza and ice cold draft beer? Mmm...



After the pizza, Julie and I cuddled in front of the TV, watched a movie, and later we watched this spectacular sunset.