KLB - Skin Rash


Today was the first time in about three years that I've eaten at Lotteria, the Korean or Japanese owned (nobody seems to know) franchise. I don't really like fast food much anymore and I never liked this chain, but I arrived to work an hour early and there are no decent places to eat around the school.





I ended up getting a cheese burger set, which wasn't as bad as I remembered but still nothing too great. The place was dead and the fries had been sitting there all day, judging by the taste.

Several hours later, I started feeling a little itchy here and there. I didn't think much of it when I was teaching, but when I got home from work, I discovered a light rash spread over on my body, little itchy dots all over my ankles, legs, stomach, and especially arms and hands:


Not the best shot but you can see the redness around my knuckles, just one of many areas the rash has spread.

I didn't freak out, as I normally might, because I have sensitive skin and sometimes get rashes from the sun in the summer, but with all this "mad cow" talk in newspaper from time to time, there was a brief moment of panic...





I took a shower - a really dumb move that made it worse - then went to the pharmacy and got some cream and the rash seems to be getting better, at least not spreading any further. If it doesn't clear up by tomorrow, I may have to go and get an injection (they give you an injection no matter what ailment you have here).


Other than this excitement, it's been a boring week so far. I've been trying to teach the young kids how to write neatly. As you can see, this is not going very well:





[Update] The annoying hamburger rash seems to have subsided almost completely, thanks to the cream. To celebrate, I bought a few ice cold beers, some Italian bread, olives and miniature tuna sandwiches from the bakery. All this to be enjoyed while watching Fahrenheit 9/11, which I rented from LG25.

Just to say it again, I'm not blaming the rash on Lotteria (after all, who wants to be sued, deported and/or ground into hamburger for making groundless accusations?)...so don't be afraid to try one of their delicious set items on your way to work tomorrow.

KLB - IOF Review


The Korea Times review of IOF has been delayed until next Saturday's edition. Apparently there was a little mix-up this week over who was actually doing the review and when it would appear.

KLB - Only in Korea



It's 12:34 AM on Friday night and Julie is at a job interview for a teaching position at a nearby hagwon.

Even though she makes pretty good money for a relatively easy job now, she wants to make more (who doesn't?) and work closer to our apartment. So she applied to 5 places and within a day had 5 interviews set up. In Korea, there is a shortage of jobs...unless you can teach English. She narrowed that down to one, a school which is literally across the street, one that pays very well - as much as an experienced foreigner would get. Apparently she is taking some kind of writing test because every once in a while my phone rings and Julie whispers: "Shawn...what does predicate mean?" then hangs up as if someone caught her. Being alert, I just plugged the word into a Korean - English translator and sent her back the Korean in a text message. Hope she does well.

[Update] She came back home, pissed off a little. Not really a surprise, but the job advertisement was much different than the actual job. Somehow, the salary was 1/4 less, and the schedule 2 hours longer. Instead of 2-9, as stated in the ad, it's actually 3-11. The owner raved about how his teachers are so diligent, that they never go home at 11, usually they stay until 12, sometimes later. He said this in such a way that implied these teachers are just that dedicated, that enthusiastic about their work. I find that pretty hard to believe. I imagine they stay that late because they don't want to leave before the boss goes home.

Anyway, subjecting Julie to a two hour interview full of questions like "describe your personality," she has realized that her job is pretty damn good, even if it does pay a little less (she only works 3-4 hours/day - like me.) She has one more interview lined up for tomorrow but is now incredulous about it.

At first I started to think how unfortunate those teachers who work at this hagwon are to have to work from 3 to 11 (and later). But then I thought about the poor students. These are middle school kids that are studying there that late. Can you imagine being 13 or 14 years old and going to school early in the morning and coming home finally at 11 or 12 at night? What a colossal waste of youth. I am very glad and lucky about for the freedom I had as a kid.

KLB - Brilliant


Check again now for a larger sample of KLB - Special Edition:


KLB - Special Edition Preview.


I kept the first few chapters in this preview for those who never read IOF and added a bunch of pages from the rest of the book.


Link to book:

KLB - Thanksgiving Day


After a nice day off (the kids were on feild trip) it was back to "work" today. I feel kind of odd calling it work as I'm only there three hours. I had been feeling bad about my pay, as it is a wee bit less than others make working their butts off at hagwons (I can say this because I did that myself for years)...but with the strengthening won I'm actually making more than I used to, at least in US dollars, which has been a real bonus.

Something semi-eventful happened today. I have a student in my A class, let's call him Mixedupkid, who never does anything in class except roam around the back of the room and play with toys. He's usually pretty quiet about it and doesn't bother me. I often wonder about the runt as he has partially crossed eyes and appears a little off-balance. I've been told that he has some problems at home and his parents don't really care how he acts at school. In fact, we think they make him take my class as a cheap sort of baby-sitting, since it requires he be at the school a few hours more than usual (waiting for class and then the actual class). Cathy said he is like that in every class, and they punish him all the time to no avail.

Then, during open-house, his mother came to the school. She seemed perfectly normal to me, but who can tell. The fact that she actually came into the open-house was a surprise and got me thinking that I've been too lenient on him. She even scolded him when he didn't know any answers.

So today, as usual he did nothing again, flitting about the back of the room, playing with a toy when he was supposed to be copying words in his notebook. I walked over to him and decided I would take his toy. Bad move. He hid it under his shirt and started to act like a twerp. That made me angry, so I grabbed his arm and pulled out the toy. Another bad move. He flipped out of his mind, screaming and crying, stamping his foot and throwing things, then stormed out of the room and slammed the door. If this was America, I'd be worried he went to find his father's machine gun.

He never came back and Cathy told me not to worry about it. As it turns out, the principal found him and gave him some kind of punishment (this was a relief as I thought for sure I'd be the one blamed) then made him come back later in the day to apologize to me, which he did in tears. I told Cathy I feel really bad for the kid. I really do. It is obvious he either has a few mental problems or something bad is happening to him at home, or both. But what am I supposed to do as he roams around and plays with toys it distracts the other kids and makes them think they can do the same thing. Cathy said we just have to let him do what he wants. I suggested we refuse to keep him in the class and have the agency refund the money. Hahah, she scoffed at the absolute absurdity of the idea. Not in Korea - never.

I also got a little ticked off today about something else. Cathy, on her day off, called all the parents who came to the open-house. Fortunately, they all liked me and the class, BUT - of course there would be a BUT! - they complained that the students (A class especially - the youngest kids) spoke Korean in the classroom. Oh my God! It can't be! Little kids speaking their native tongue during the course of a 50 minute class! It never ceases to amaze me the naivete of some parents. Can you imagine how hard it would be as a little kid to not to speak naturally, especially when confused or unsure how to do something and have no idea how to ask in English?

It didn't surprise me though. It's pretty much par for the course when you teach in Korea that parents will complain about this. They must think their children know a lot more than they do. Instead of speaking Korean, I've been told to use body language and drawings to explain things. OK, sure..."Kids, what's this?" (now I magically use body language and drawings to show "this" is a verb). Now imagine how easy it would be for Cathy to tell the kids in Korean what verbs are, or what "ing" means at the end of one, or whatever.

Like I said, this was no real shocker and I kind of laughed it off. What did bother me about it is the effect it's having on Cathy. She's a nervous wreck now about the kids speaking Korean. She said "No Korean!" so many times today I thought I would strangle her if I heard it one more time! Now she writes all the students names on the board before class and says, for example, "Joe speaking Korean! No Korean! Minus one point!" and then puts a "-1" next to the name. This system, of course, was doomed to fail as there was no consequence other than the kind of comical "-1" next to their name and a little attention (laughter from the other kids). She has done this "minus one point" routine in the past, so the kids don't pay attention to it anymore, if they ever did - until now! I decided to make kids with minus points stay after class and write "I will never speak Korean again!" 20 times. Heheh. We'll see if this works.

Now for other things:

I realize I have been here much too long when I completely forgot today is Thanksgiving in America. It took an e-mail from my aunt to remind me. That e-mail got me thinking about Thanksgiving dinner. Oh, man...that is one thing I really miss. My grandfather always makes a HUGE dinner with all the works. I'm sure I'll hear all about it on Yahoo messenger later.

Here's what Julie and I had for Thanksgiving:


I'm sure some people, especially those back in America, are thinking how pathetic this looks - especially today. When I first saw Julie eat a meal like this at my apartment in Nowhere-dong, I also thought it was pitiful. Sure enough, as with most things in Korea, I tried it and I liked it. It's actually a very easy and healthy dinner. You just pop open a can of tuna, grab a few leaves (there are several kinds there) put some tuna on them, some garlic, onion, and kochujang (red pepper paste) sauce, roll up the leaves and chomp away - I put olives in with mine, which freaked Julie out.

I guess that's about it. Back to packaging up these books. Had quite a few orders today, which I was happy to find. I also spoke to the person at the Korea Times who has written the IOF book review already (not bad since I just gave it to him in person last weekend). He said the review will appear in this Saturday's edition (he hopes)...we'll see.

KLB - Special Edition



I wanted to hold off on doing this until closer to Christmas, but several things changed my mind:


1. Island of Fantasy will be live on Google within the next few days. Therefore, more people should come across the book while searching about Korea and be directed to the ordering page. It will be nice if people have a couple of options to choose from.


2. The Korea Times - and I'm biting my nails here - will be publishing a review of the book very soon (had a request for an image of the book by the reviewer today). Hopefully this will spark some more interest in the site/book.


3. The holiday season is approaching and shipping times may start to slow down. Perhaps I'm out of my mind, but a couple of people may want to order the book as a Christmas gift.


4. I'm really excited about this edition and I have no patience. When I received the first copy a few weeks ago I was overwhelmed by the quality of the printing.


So here it is: Korea Life Blog - Special Edition. It's over 300 pages and contains the complete Island of Fantasy (which will still be available separately) and over 100 pages of material from the blog, reader comments and bonus material.



............



It's a little more expensive than I hoped it would be, but it's big and I elected to have the photos printed in color. However, there is a cheaper black and white edition available at my store on the Lulu.com site in America. I also lowered the price there for Island of Fantasy (cutting my commission to next-to-zilch) for the holidays.



I'm hope you enjoy the book and thank you as always for your support.

KLB - Open-House


Well, I dreaded it, but it turned out a great success. I made it to work 30 minutes early and I didn't wear a gym suit, though ironically the principal, a woman, was wearing Puma-like jogging attire and her hair was wet and tightly curled as if she just got a perm. She only stayed in the room for the first few minutes of class, too. The vice principal never showed up. Only about 6-10 parents came for each class, and most of them came late. With only one exception (Adam!) the kids were just perfect. I basically taught like I usually do, played a few games, sang songs, a few minutes of writing, and in the end the parents, "Bonnie" and Cathy were all very happy. I was also happy when it was over, knowing I had the following day (today) off.

I woke up with Julie around 9:30 and have been just hanging around and chatting to James, who is obviously working very hard at the airport as usual. Made a quick run to the post office - didn't see the kitten - but I did see a few empty tuna cans. Looks like the cat is getting pretty popular.

KLB - Scamming the Scammer


I'll have an update about the "open-house" tomorrow, as I have the day off! For now, check out this funny story about a guy who pulled a great prank on a scammer.

KLB - MSN Search


I tested the new MSN Google copycat search engine beta again today and this is what I got:

"We couldn't find any sites containing korealife.blogspot.com. Consider: korea life blogspot"

This is a week after I manually submitted my site here. Not a big deal, and it's still in the Beta phase, but obviously they have a long way to go if it can't even find blogspot blogs.

KLB - Sam Gye Tang



Look at what Julie is making for me now to help me feel better for tomorrow. It's sam gye tang, or sam gae tang, however you spell it. Korean ginseng chicken soup, the best chicken soup in the world.

KLB - Google Image Search


I was looking through my referral log for the first time in awhile and found that a great deal of hits are coming from Google image searches.

If only I actually named all my pictures something relevant, I'd probably be contending with the likes of Yahoo and MSN and making billions...something to keep in mind when uploading pictures to a blog.

Google image search for Korea Life Blog.

Note to self: rename all pictures things like "sexykoreangirl.jpg, asianporn.gif, swissjamesinthebuff.jpg, etc..."

KLB - Sick

One of the joys of teaching children is that you get sick easily. I had a cold all last week. Then suddenly this morning I woke up and was sick to my stomach. Ugh. Julie ran down to the store and bought me soup and some healthy side dishes and gave me medicine...all before she ran off to work. That was nice of her.

Tomorrow is "open-house" day at work. All the parents (probably all the mothers), the principal, vice principal, agency boss, will stand in the back of the room and watch my classes all day. I hope I feel better by then, otherwise they'll be watching me blowing my nose all day, coughing and running to the bathroom repeatedly.

"Bonnie" came in on Friday last week by surprise for the birthday party routine. The surprise was on her because most of the kids were away on another field trip that day, so it was a big waste of cake. She also wanted to make sure I was ready for open-house and she advised me to be a little early and dress nicely (I was planning on showing up late wearing gym clothes).

She told me she was also going to video tape me so that I can review how effective my teaching is. Yeah whatever. That's where I drew the line. As if it's not going to be enough pressure with all the people there. I flatly refused and, eventually, she conceded. I won't be surprised to see a camera there tomorrow though.

I can't wait for this whole open-house thing to be over. Cathy has been obsessing and frantic about it for weeks now. Every day it's, "We have to ready for open-house! All the parents gonna be here, Shawn!" And every time I tell her, "Don't worry, I'm all ready." Then she replies, "But we have to practice the students," (which I've already done 3 times now. I snapped on her last week when she said, "Let's practice again Friday exactly open-house," And I said, "I've already done that three times now, the same lesson! The kids are going to start saying, 'no! not this again!' during the open house!"

"But Bonnie said..."

"I don't care what Bonnie said."

Her face flush. "What? Rearry?"

I apologized to her later. I think we're both stressed out about it. The whole affair is just another distraction from teaching and designed to make the agency more money with more students - which will mean nothing for me and Cathy except more kids to worry about and more noise. If they really want to attract more kids, they should provide an incentive for the teachers. More students = more pay. Then we'll all be jumping up and down to impress everyone. Pretty simple concept.

Tonight I stopped down to the post office again and on the way out heard the kitten meowing from the same spot. A moment later some little twerps stuck their heads in the bushes and then chased it off. Julie and I bought more o-daeng and waited, but the cat didn't come back, so we left it in the bushes.

KLB - Guitar





I recorded this last week using my cheap, 90,000 won ($80) Korean fender imitation guitar and some bootlegged software. I put it on the discussion forum, but I don't think anyone actually downloaded it. If you want to hear me playing the guitar, check it out.

There must be more to it than this.

(right click and "save target as" for best result.)

By the way, I'm trying out the blog without comments for awhile. I kind of like the idea of writing whatever I want without worrying about who will say what. Stay tuned.

KLB - Kimchi Chigae Dinner




I made this Kimchi Chigae dinner for me and Julie. We got the side dishes at a local family-run shop. They make all of the side dishes you normally get a restaurants but can't seem to find at the regular marts. Delicious.

KLB - Spin Game


Turns out the "spin game" was not what I thought. Cathy put the kids in my chair and spun them until they were dizzy, then had them try to spell words on the board. Needless to say most kids just fell down and didn't know what to do. The rest of the kids seemed unable to control themselves, started imitating the dizzy students and raising hell in general.

So, I interupted, stopped the game, made all the kids sit down and be quiet. Then I changed the game so it would be like I thought. They had to spell the word first, or they couldn't spin. Wow! I never seen kids study so hard. Most of them could spell all the animals I taught by the end of the game. Hmph...

KLB - Weird Game and Post Office Kitten



Today, while the A (youngest) class kids were busy making pictures of dogs and rabbits and listening to animal songs, Cathy came up to me and said, "Shawn! I have good idea for game for kids."

Me: (sitting at my desk) "Well, that's great, Cathy. Go right ahead."

Cathy: (flustered) "What? No, you have to play. You're the teacher."

Me: "The kids are busy, and quiet for once. What game?"

Cathy: "The students spin in chair and spell the word game? Let's play." (she then held her hands together against her chest as if she couldn't contain her excitement)

Me: "Um, what? I don't understand."

Cathy: "You're chair. The kids spell word and spin you chair. They don't spell, they can't spin."

Now, as I write this it finally dawned on me what she must have meant - I think. The kids would go to the board and try to spell animals such as cow and chicken. If they spelled a word right, they would sit in my chair and I'd spin them. Whoo hoo! Not a bad idea, I guess - but at the time, I had no idea what she was talking about and assumed she was out of her mind from too much decorating. So I said to her, "Cathy, I don't understand what you're talking about. The kids are spelling the animals above their drawings. We can put these on the wall for open-house day. They are quiet for once. Let's let them be."

"But it's game. The children love game."

"Yes, I know. That's why Friday is "game day." I don't understand the game you're talking about and the kids are working on something."

"Oh, OK." (dejected face)

"Why don't we play the game tomorrow. You can explain what you mean to them and I'll help."

"Oh, I don't know. You should with them."

"OK, sure, great. Sounds wonderful."

"Really? (face lit up again) "OK, the kids will game tomorrow!"


Cathy does have some good ideas, but half the time I don't know what's she's telling me and she doesn't seem too keen on explaining things to the kids, especially since she's not supposed to speak Korean anymore. Even when she does, she stands there like she has stage-fright and speaks in a barely audible voice.


I forgot to mention, and I should bring my camera tomorrow, that me and Julie walked down by the post office last night to look for the kitten. I walked around like a lunatic making cat noises and Julie and everybody looked at me like I was nuts. As we were about to give up, we heard it: "meowowk quakameow." It really sounds like a dying duck. We lured it out with more o-daeng and tried a few times to grab it, but to no avail.

Again today: I met Julie after work and had to run to the post-office again to send books (a few in Korea, another to Australia, and one to a hermit who lives in a hut in the middle the Boreal forest) and as soon as we walked by, the kitten meow-quacked. It (I say "it" because I still don't know the gender) must just hang out in the bushes in front of the post-office all the time. Another piece of o-daeng and a couple of mild attempts to snatch it. We probably could have today. It came right up to us and I was able to pet it a little. However, the reality started to set in: will it pee all over our apartment? Better yet, will it pee all over me as I carry it home? Do we really want to start buying kitty litter (which is expensive in Korea) and cat food all the time? Does it have a mother? Is the mother just out finding tender vitals? Also, the weather was nice today and the kitten had another good meal to hold her over while we think about it.

She looks a little plump actually. Maybe I'll just look for it whenever I go to the post office and give it more o-daeng if it's hungry. What a win-win situation. The o-daeng ajumma gets some money, the kitten gets some food, and I get a big warm happy feeling in my stomach knowing I've contributed to the welfare of a homeless kitten. I think I'll celebrate by writing a poem and painting a picture of happy trees and flowers.

KLB - Open House


You know the expression: Too many chefs spoil the soup. That's how it feels at my job sometimes. I work at a public school that sponsors my visa, but I actually work for a placement agency. That means I have to deal with my agency boss, an assistant, a woman at the school in charge of our program, and her boss, the vice principal and then the principal.

At first I had a few grievances with all of this. For example, I was required to fill out daily and monthly lesson plans for each class: first for the school, then again, the same damn thing on a slightly different form for the agency. Now schools are responsible for a colossal waste of trees in general, but this was ridiculous. For the first week, I didn't say anything. Then I told my agency boss. To my surprise, she said, "don't do it anymore, no problem." I was elated, until I realized my assistant now does all the daily/monthly plans herself, which takes away her time to help me teach the kids. All I have to do is jot down on this small form brief details of my lessons. Before you jump all over me, realize my assistant's job is to assist me. Since she's not even allowed to speak Korean in the classroom anymore (what a stupid new rule) and the kids don't need discipline usually, she really can't help me in many other ways besides doing paperwork.

Now my agency boss, let's call her Bonnie, comes in from time to time to see what's up. The second time she came she and my assistant stayed after and decorated the classroom. It looked great. Then the principal stopped in a few days later and decided to make the room bigger by knocking out the middle wall and combing our playroom and the classroom. I actually felt bad for my assistant, Cathy. She spent a lot of time making the room pretty. And in Korean schools there are no janitors (something I can't comprehend) and the teachers are required to clean the rooms. The construction workers who enlarged the room left a whopping mess (not to mention ate all our candy and drank all the pricey drink-packs the parents had given me) and poor Cathy had to go in two Saturdays on her days off to clean it. They also ripped everything off the walls, leaving them bare. Anyway, so now, instead of having a classroom and a playroom where the kids used to hang out in before class, I have a giant room and the kids raise hell in the hall before class and barge in the middle of classes to drop off their bags.

Still, I can't complain. At most other schools in this program, the teachers don't have their own room and have to shuffle around the school all day. Not to mention they teach 6 classes (full-time) for not much more pay than I get for 3 (technically part time). Still, why did they make this room so big and then not provide anything to fill it such as more desks, etc? There are 6 tables for the kids, and about 15 kids per class. These tables, even spread out, take up about 1/3 of the room. The room is huge and now Cathy spends her time making silly decorations to fill the barren spaces (I've helped by making the kids draw and color pretty pictures based on their story books) and cleaning.

OK, so this was a few weeks ago and now we are settled back in our new room after having to use the computer room as a makeshift classroom and the room is decorated somewhat - but it's still vastly unfilled. The kids are great and I am making progress with them more than I ever have at any other school in Korea.

Then comes the vice-principal. Apparently in a rotten mood one day, he had a fit over my daily lesson details and reamed out somebody or other. He went through and marked every place I made a smudge or cross-out or used the bottom of the form to write the details in. I was doing this because for some odd reason each page has spaces for 4 days of plans instead of 5 and 1/3 of the page at the bottom is blank, which I decided to use for Fridays. Anyway, as if anyone cares what my notes say since Cathy does all the plans herself nice and neatly on long forms for both the school and agency in English and Korean.

So, that put me in a bad mood that day, because of how pointless it was. I spent 15 minutes of each class erasing and rewriting things nobody reads anyway rather than teaching the kids, because he wanted it done immediately and I have to leave right after school for certain reasons.

Next, now that we have a big classroom, the principal decided last week without asking me, that we would have an "open house" this Friday. This means the principal, vice-principal, head teacher, agency boss, and all the parents will come in and stand in the back of the room (there sure is plenty of space!) and watch my classes all day. Hurray! Imagine having all these Korean people staring at you as you teach kids to sing "Do you want Pasta? Yes I do!" songs. So I had to come up with "perfect lessons" to impress everyone with. Since my classes are normally pretty good, lots of songs, games, books, etc, I decided this won't be so bad, I guess. Maybe I'll make some connections or something. So I spent half an hour before classes writing highly detailed lessons for the principal based on where we would be in the book that day. Great. No problem.

Then I was telling my Class C students (smart kids) about the open house and one kid shoots up and says, "but students not here that day!" It turns out a lot of the kids have a field trip in Friday. Good news, I thought - that many less parents to have to "impress." My wonderful assistant then goes down and talks this over with the principal and convinces her to change the open house to Tuesday next week so all the parents can come! Wow! Thanks, Cathy! So now my original plans are useless.

Anyway, I got to thinking about teaching. Not just here but anywhere, especially in America or for a regular public school teacher here. What a lot of wasted time and paper is involved. Imagine a school where all the time and energy writing lesson plans (how can you really plan a month ahead of time) and doing this and that for whoever is in a bad mood that day, was spent teaching the kids. Most of the useless crap they make you do (and I guess this is true at most jobs) has little real purpose other than to make you busy and hate your life more than they hate theirs, I guess. I am lucky because I have an assistant, but most teachers don't, of course. When I was teaching in New York State, I spent 2-3 hours a day just doing paperwork, reports, plans, making tests and getting pissed off when all I wanted to do was teach kids to enjoy reading and writing. I spent so much time worrying about such things as keeping my attendance records perfect, checking off assignments in my book, making lengthy tests, documenting when I shouted at little Bobby Hellboy to shut the hell up, filling out report card sheets, lesson plans, weekly plans, monthly plans (that you never stick to) volunteering for non-related extra-curricular duties to impress the principal, etc than teaching.

As far as my job goes, it's really not bad at all. But I just think there's too many people involved in the program, a lot of stupid ideas and rules. It seems the main goal is to ensure the principals, bosses and parents are happy. Unfortunately this distracts from the real objective, teaching kids English.

KLB - Fast Shipping!


I was amazed to get this e-mail tonight:


Hey,

I just want to let you know that I got the book today. That's really
fast shipping. I'm still waiting for a prize from Arirang to come and they
said they sent it on the 1st of November. Came at just the right time too,
when I don't have much to do.

J. Amzar
Sydney, New South Wales

The amazing part is that I sent this book on Thursday of last week (Nov 11) at 5:00 PM. This is Monday, November 15. I hope all orders ship that quickly.

KLB - Dwen Jang and Kamja


Julie's cooking up dinner and I'm starving. It was a long day teaching three classes, and I've worked up quite an appetite.




This is one of my favorite pan chan (sideshes). It's basically just fried potatos (kamja), carrots, onions and, of course, garlic.



Mmm. Sometimes I get on Julie's nerves looking over her shoulder, drooling, taking pictures, etc., while she's cooking.



And here's the main dish tonight: dwen jang chigae made from her mother's homeade, aged dwen jang (bean) paste. Mmm.


I almost had me a new kitten tonight. On the way home from work, I swung off at the post office to send out IOF books, and I heard, meow! meow! Actually it sounded more like, "mwack! meowack! moewooowo!" I wasn't sure if it was a cat or a dying bird. I poked my head in the bushes and saw the cutest little kitten shivering and meowing at me, its voice obviously worn out from crying. It was gray and black striped like a, well, like a minature gray and black tiger, I guess. As I was looking at it, a Korean guy came by, stuck his head in the bushes, then pulled out his phone and took a cam-phone picture, shrugged at me, then hustled off. I stood there for about 10 minutes trying to capture the little critter, but to no avail. Though it was just aboout a foot away, it wouldn't let me close enough to make the snatch.

It's damn cold and windy out there tonight and I felt bad, as I usually do when I see helpless animals cold and without food. So, I walked over to the nearby o-daeng-stall, and paid 500 won for a stick of o-daeng (boiled fish cake) for the cat. This seemed like a good idea, except you can't walk off with the stick because I'm assuming they wash and reuse them. So I stood there half eating the o-daeng imagining what an idiot I would look like to take half off the stick and walk away. On top of that, there were no other customers and the ajumma asked me a hundred questions in Korean about my job, where I live, what Korean foods I like, etc.

Well, finally, I bit off the last big chunk of o-daeng, thanked the woman, and scuttled off with the slimy chunk in my mouth. Back near kitten, I spit it out and set it on the stone wall in front of the bushes. The kitten practically screamed in delight at the smell, inched out, and chomped on its surprise dinner. Still, I was unable to get my hand on the cat and, after standing there for ages pretending to talk on my cell-phone while people looked at me oddly, I had to give up. At least the kitty had a little something to eat and maybe its mother will be back for it later. Or me and Julie!

KLB - Julie Cheated on Me!



I came home last night and found Julie in bed with another man! I have the evidence right here. It's just too painful for me to look at, so you'll have to click on the link to see the proof:


Shocking Evidence!

KLB - Praying Mantis



Yikes! Take a look at this praying mantis that was hanging around outside our building on a discarded burlap bag. It's hard to see in the photo how big it really was, but it was as big as my middle finger. I wanted to keep it as a pet, but Julie had another idea: run away and fast.


Information about praying mantises


I've seen a bunch of these since I've been in Korea, but according to this information, they are common in southern parts of Asia.

"Praying mantids can resemble flowers and can catch small, unknowing hummingbirds. Praying mantids also eat other nesting birds."

KLB - 안녕 다음 카페 국커 친구들


나는 션입니다.
내 블로그에 놀룰와서 고마우요
comments 많이 남겨요오 ㅎㅎㅎ
나 한국말 잘 못해요
그러지만 영심히 공부하고 있다
줄리 사랑해요

Your friend,

Shawn (션)

KLB - Hot Roasted Squid


You know you've lived too long in Korea when...


You enjoy the fine taste of Hot Roasted Squid!



I really have become quite a dried squid connoisseur these days. This is one of my favorite kinds. It goes well with a bottle of ice cold beer.

You know you haven't lived in Korea long enough when...

You still think pastries stuffed with tomato, kiwi, pineapple and thick cream look very unappetizing. Julie ate that. Yuck!

The other item in the photo is a DVD rental from LG25, which is the most popular convenient mart in Korea (there's 6 within a 5 minute walking radius of our home). Some of them are carrying DVDs now. In Korea, you can rent a DVD for 2,000 won, about $1.80. We pretty much ran out of new ones to watch, so we picked up this copy of What's Eating Gilbert Grape? Remember that one? It has Johny Depp in it. His mother weighs 1000 pounds. His brother, Leonardo Deshouldbecapitated, in his greatest role, is mentally handicapped. It's a pretty decent movie, though awfully depressing.

KLB - Pepero Day!


It's 11/11 and that means it's Pepero Day in Korea. This is a day when people give each other copious amounts of Pepero, which are chocolate covered cookie sticks. You can read more about the holiday here.



This is part of what I scored today, mostly from the cute little girls who turned bright red as I thanked them. I already ate a bunch with the kids. Julie came home from her Kindergarten with just two measly sticks. I felt kind of bad for her so I gave her some of mine.

KLB - Credit Cards Accepted


You can now order my book from me directly by credit card. The price is only $10 each. In Korea you get free shipping, no matter how many copies you order. The rest of the world pays $5 shipping, or more based on quantity. (The total price will be adjusted in the check-out cart.) Click here for more details.

All books will be signed on the inside cover unless otherwise requested.

KLB - Namsan Park and Shawn in NANTA!


After seeing my pictures of Incheon Park, the touring manager of NANTA, Mr. Kim, who has been a major part of the NANTA team since it's conception, sent me these nice pictures of Namsan Park nearby the theater area.











Actually, while I was walking to the NANTA theater, which is located in central Seoul (Jung-dong) I was very surprised by the surrounding area. It is a very natural, peaceful place. You walk down a sidewalk bordered by colorful trees along the stone wall of Duk Su Palace to get to the theater:







Here's the Nanta Theater Building. Yes, it's so good it has its own theater. Mr. Kim said there are other theaters for it in Korea too. The show is also performed on Broadway in NYC. Mr. Kim spent a year there himself.




You're not allowed to take pictures inside the theater, so I only have a few shots of the entranceway to the building. It was crowded with foreigners. A lot of western people were there and also Japanese. The show is performed regularly in Japan.


You can see some pics of the performance by doing a Google image search:

NANTA Google Search



Some souvenirs and the performance program. After the show I bought a T-shirt and a Chef's hat, which I had signed by the cast. I believe we saw the White Team perform. There are a number of different teams.



Another shot of inside the entranceway. I love the interior design.



Here's Julie waiting for me to stop taking pictures and go inside for the show.



One of the most embarrassing (yet memorable) moments of my life. About halfway into the performance some of the cast came down and dragged me and another "victim" (as Mr. Kim called us) onto the stage to take part in the show. Though I definitely experiencing severe stage fright, I managed to improvise a little and get a few laughs. The place was packed and I felt pretty nervous. However, it was very funny, especially for Julie, who was watching safely from her seat. At the very end of the show, long after I had gone off stage, there was a scene about a wedding and they put his photo blown up on the huge screen. That poor girl. I think she was Japanese. "Nihongo ga scoshi wakarimasu. Konbanwa. Mata raishuu. Blah blah blah."



After the exciting, energetic, dazzling, electrifying show, Mr Kim introduced Julie and I to the cast and someone took a few pics for me with my camera. These poor guys must have been tired after all that banging away on pots and pans all night. You don't realize how much the sweat up there on stage until you get up there and see them up close. Even I started to sweat just standing there.





I don't want to give away anything about the actual performance, but I definitely recommend seeing the show. It's highly entertaining and not very expensive. It would be a great place to take your special somebody, or even just a friend. If you want to know more about the show, times and ticket prices, etc., goto the NANTA site:

NANTA Homepage and click on the English link.

I took this sumary from the webpage:

We give a title as "COOKIN" to approach the show to the audience easily and quick to understand it abroad which is called "NANTA" in Korea.
'NANTA' means figuratively reckless punching as in a slugfest at a boxing match. Our 'NANTA' is a non-verbal performance of reckless rhythms that dramatize customary Korean percussion in a strikingly comedic stage show. Integrating uniquely Korean traditional tempos with a western performance style, NANTA storms on stage into a huge kitchen where four capricious cooks are preparing a wedding banquet. While COOKIN', they turn all kinds of kitchen items - pots, pans, dishes, knives, chopping board, water bottles, even brooms and each other- into percussion instruments. Rhythm rules and audiences are swept along in the primitive sound explosion and actions on stage. Though the performance is built primarily on captivating rhythms and has very few spoken words, audiences of all ages and nationalities can easily enjoy the plot and dramas.

(Non-Verbal Performance is a genre without words but consists of only rhythm and beat)


I would also like to thank Mr. Kim for buying my book, for one, and also for inviting us as his special guests to the performance. Not only that, but he took Julie and I out for beer and anju after the show and told us all about the history of NANTA and a lot of other things about the performing arts in Korea. I'm looking forward to enjoying more shows in the future.