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31 May 2005
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KLB - Gangnam (3)


Well, here are the last of the pics I took the other day. I'll have to get some shots of the nice modern buildings around the area soon. All of these shots of the immediate area. For some reason, of all the places I've lived in Korea, Gangnam has proven to be my least favorite - though that may be just because I'm not an upper class Korean to which the place is suited.



I told you these vendors get busy at night. This is the only area in the country where the street food is priced in a league of its own. O-daeng will set you back 700 won for one compared to 300-500 elsewhere, for example.



Here's a corner down the street from John's house. Surprise, McDonald's and Baskin Robbins!




Here's one of the only shots I managed to get of the modern architecture around here. One of the only good things about living in this area is that it's fairly clean and modern.



This is John's street. It's weird as you're in a quiet residential area like this one minute, then in the thick of the night life the next, all within a three minute walk.



This just pissed me off. Keeping a pig as a pet outside of your pork restaurant is tasteless and cruel.



I told you there are a lot of hip, trendy places to eat around here. Here's a restaurant selling post-modern egg dinners. Which set should I try...



Is it this one? Hmm...that mayonaise looks tastey....



No, no, it has to be one of these. I'm not sure who came up with the idea for this place but do people really find these appetizing? I didn't see anybody eating there when I passed, actually.


Well, that's it for now. I'll get back out there with John's camera to get some better pics than these...

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KLB - The Catcher in the Gangnam


Living in Gangnam has gotten me thinking about The Catcher in the Rye, one of my favorite books from my university days.

During his psychological battle, life continues on around Holden as it always had, with the majority of people ignoring the 'madman stuff' that is happening to him - until it begins to encroach on their well defined social codes. Progressively we are challenged to think about society's attitude to the human condition - does society have an 'ostrich in the sand' mentality, a deliberate ignorance of the emptiness that can characterise human existence? And if so, when Caulfield begins to probe and investigate his own sense of emptiness and isolation, before finally declaring that he world is full of 'phonies' with each one out for their own phony gain, is Holden actually the one who is going insane, or is it society which has lost it's mind for failing to see the hopelessness of their own lives?
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KLB - Gangnam (2)




A nice little place to eat a freshly made donut on the way to work.




I can't remember the last time I had a coffee at this place. While I prefer The Coffee Bean, I usually just have a free cup of Korean coffee at my school.



Here I am at Gangnam Station finally. It's about a 10 minute walk from John's pad.














I took these pics after work that day. These are kids playing outside the school. Almost all schools in Korea have a dirt playing field for soccer. I don't know why us Americans don't play soccer more in public schools. It beats standing in the outfield chasing foul balls for exercise.



A shot of the school. My classroom is on the second floor in the front.



Ally's been working hard on preparing for our "open class" so I treated her to a quick dinner at a "bun shik jeom" (Korean fast food joint). I got mandu (dumpling) soup and she got some kind of bibim bap (mixed vegetables and rice) minus the rice. I get along with her much better than Cathy, but I still would prefer not having an assistant.



At night Gangnam speeds up. You can see the crowds of people on the street.
All of those vendors get really busy when the sun goes down.



Just thought I'd throw in this shot of the Samsung 1GB "Yepp" player I picked up tonight in Yongsan for 250,000 won. I almost went with an iPod Mini, but the harddrive MP3 players are just too big for my taste. Also, I prefer a simple drag-and-drop interface rather than having to use iTunes. This thing also sounds much better, in my opinion, louder with more bass, and comes with a rechargeable AAA battery and charger and a case. I can't put the thing down, to be honest.
29 May 2005
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KLB - Gangnam (1)



Here is the first post of three from my second day in Gangnam. I took all these while I was walking to work.




Some nicer cars in this area...here's some kind of roadster BMW thats always parked here...looks like that "sports" massage place is doing quite well.



Or maybe he's the owner of this octopus restaurant next door. Restaurants always have cutesy cartoon characters of the specialty on display. Awe, it's so cute that I just have eat it.



One thing about this area, there are lots and lots of hip new restaurants to try out. Here's a Japanese style place. I love Korean-Japanese food.



I'm not sure about this soup restaurant. Look at the first picture on top. There's a big fish head with the eyes still in it. Mmm...



This Irish bar down the street serves Guiness, as you can see. Too bad it's 12,000 won ($12) per pint. I like Guiness and all, but that's ridiculous.




It's been over 6 months since I've eaten fast food (besides Subway). Up until a few years ago, I used to be a junkie - especially when I lived on my own in America. Even in Korea I ate it a lot. Even though it never made me fat, it's still unhealthy. And after reading Fast Food Nation and watching Supersize Me, I made a vow to stop eating it for one year and to tell you the truth I haven't missed it at all. In America, part of the problem is that besides fast food, there are not many things to eat on the go that are cheap and healthy. In Korea you can eat so many healthy foods under $5. Still, whenever I see this strategically placed banner for a $3 lunchtime Big Mac set, the old craving comes back.



The street vendors are setting up for a long day selling o-daeng and deokbokki.



It looks like Manhatten in this area. Even the brainwashing is westernized...



A business man checks the newspapers at a kiosk...



And another, less fortunate soul, crawls down the road begging for change. I've never understood this style of begging. It's weird and creepy, but it's better than someone walking up to you and harrassing you as they often do in NY.


25 May 2005
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KLB - I Miss Julie



I miss Julie. There, I said it. I miss my best friend. This has not been easy.

You can't imagine unless you were there. On that elevator. Trying not to look at each other. Down, down, in awkward silence to the basement where the moving van ajushi was waiting. There, in the cold sterile parking garage, we loaded my old bags into the van. Everything happened so quickly. I sat in the back seat, closed the door and looked at Julie through the window. There was no time to be sad - until the driver went up to use the bathroom, thereby leaving us alone together. I opened the door and we hugged, both of us shaking and crying. No matter how much you realize you're not meant to be with each other, when it comes time, it's still damn hard to say goodbye to a relationship. I haven't felt that sad in a long, long time.

The poor ajushi - during the trip, he kept looking in the rearview mirror as I sobbed and handed me tissues. At one point, perhaps to console me, he put in a CD. Some old sappy love song started to play and I went from sobbing to howling. He turned it off and handed me more tissues.

Dammit, she was my best friend. She believed in me and took care of me and made me dwen jang chigae once, and, well, I guess I'm rambling now...

Over the past year I haven't spent more than a day or two away from her, and it's been hard getting adjusted to my new life. If you haven't guessed already I'm staying here in Gangnam with my friend John for a bit. He has a really big pad, lots of space and a cranking air conditioner. He hasn't cooked me dwen jang yet, but he's making me feel much better by drinking a lot with me, at least. Poor guy had to go to work today at 11:00 AM for a meeting with a bad hangover. I didn't feel too bad, but I haven't been sleeping well lately, either. Still, had a decent day with the kids. I'm gonna miss them a lot.

Don't get the wrong idea. I still feel all this is for the best, and I'm getting a little excited about my trip, which I will talk more about soon. You can't expect a guy to just snap back to life, though I admit a twinkle is flitting about in my subconscious...

Stay tuned. I got John's camera to use, and will take some pictures around Gangnam in the near future. There's a lot to photograph in this part of the city. But for now it's back to listening to sappy songs, drinking Cass beer and dreaming of a better day, a better life, the new Xbox 360, a world where all cats have a home, that episode of The Smurfs when Gargamel caught all the smurfs but set them free when he realized he wouldn't have a purpose in life without trying to capture them, a flower in the spring...

22 May 2005
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KLB - Moving On


After two years, Julie and I have decided to go our seperate ways. We made the decision a few weeks ago. It's time for us to move on.

I also put in my notice two weeks ago at work, and I will finish my job June 3rd. I need a break from Korea and I've made a plan to leave the country for at least a month. In the meantime I will be staying with my friend.

You can check in here from time to time for an update on my status, but it may be awhile before I update regularly again.

As for my book: I suggest picking up a copy if you haven't yet. It won't be available in Korea once I leave and I'm not sure when I'll be back. Thanks to everyone who has supported my writing and to all my readers. Keep checking in to see what I'm up to.


[Update]: I think I'll start updating soon after all. Now that I'm in a different environment I may have new things to talk about.
8 May 2005
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KLB - 4 Days of Nothing


Spent the last four days doing pretty much nothing. We were going to rent a car and go camping again, but the weather was rainy and then it was cold. So, we basically hung around and just relaxed.

John came out again for a day. His IBM notebook crashed and then he messed it up doing something with Partition Magic. He has no CD-drive so he came out to use mine (I bought an external DVD burner a ways back) and my XP disk. We were going to meet him in Itaewon and then go to Yongsan together to shop for a camera, but Julie made me clean the apartment with her for John's arrival as it was a mess. That took us longer than we expected. Meanwhile John had already made his way to Itaewon. So, instead of waiting another hour for us to get out there, he went to Hannam market for us and picked up some Hungarian salami, cheese and German dill pickles. Nice! So we cancelled on Yongsan and waited for him instead. "Hurry up with that salami, man!"

I just downloaded Forza for the Xbox, a new racing game. After John fixed his computer we ended up playing that most of the night. Fun stuff. Julie hung out upstairs using the wireless connection to browse the net and she also watched a movie, The Day After Tomorrow. Playing the Xbox causes you to lose track of time. Before we knew it, it was 4:30 in the morning and we were hungry. We headed out to see what we could find. Sure enough, a fried chicken restaurant was still open - several groups of people eating. Only in Korea can you sit outside at 5:00 AM, drink a beer and eat piping hot fried chicken.

So we didn't get to sleep until around 5:30. At about 8:00 AM, poor John woke up to the sound of throngs of screaming girls outside the school down below our place. I heard it too, but it wasn't so bad upstairs. I fell back alseep. John tossed and turned before finally getting so pissed off he got up and left for home, leaving behind a note:

Sorry, Bro. Couldn't stand another second or 200 screaming middle school girls. Went to get some shut eye.

I'm not sure what the event was, something to do with church, I think, but it was pretty damn annoying, especially downstairs for John. He has no luck sleeping here. Plus he has a blind date set up for 10:00 AM, which I guess he was forced to postpone until later. I hope that goes OK for him. He hasn't had a date in months. He basically sits around his dark, empty apartment in Gangnam using the computer. He has no TV, even.

Well, as you can tell it wasn't too exciting a break, but still better than working.
I never did get out to Yongsan. I thought I might buy something at the Sony electronics shop down the road. When we went to check it out today, a 1,000 won shop was moving in. I'm no detective, but it seems the Sony shop went under.
4 May 2005
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KLB - Weird Wednesday


Yesterday, Ally suggested we should have class today after all, thinking most of the kids would be too tired after their "sports day" events to come and we'd have an easy day and also get paid. I agreed, since we already have two days off for Children's Day of all things.

Well, it turned out to be a weird day. It started on the train. I knew it was too good to be true to get a seat so easily. Some creepy Korean guy came over and stood in front of me and tried to speak English. Every once in awhile this happens, but usually the people are nice and it's not too bad. Mostly it's just embarrassing because everyone watches. With this guy, I couldn't understand what he was saying. He was obviously a little demented, drinking a cup of coffee and chattering to himself in Korean. His teeth were dark yellow, some rotting.

The train was quiet and everyone was staring at us. Hoping he'd leave me alone, I pulled out the only thing I had in my bag - a brand new copy of my book. I pretended to be deeply absorbed in my reading. The weird man bent down and stared at the cover.

"Ireand ubuh Panties? Is it English book?"

"Yes," I said, sinking in my seat.

"Oh, English book! Wow! Good! Fantastic! Mumble, mumble, mumble."

I smiled and returned to my book, reading the same line over and over again, hoping this guy would take the hint and leave me be."

"Can I read your book?" he asked, smiling.

"I guess so," I said, trying to avoid a scene. Reluctantly, I handed him the book. A big mistake. He fumbled around with it leaving the cover full of dirty finger prints, wrinkles and creases. There goes another copy, I frowned. He pretended to read, mumbling incoherently. The whole situation made me frustrated. I took the book from him and said, "Bang hae hajimaseyo," (please don't bother me). That didn't work either. He kept talking. I got up and walked away, down 4 cars of the train thinking that was the end of it. Out of sheer luck, an ajumma stood up to get off the train and I got another seat. A few minutes later the creep walked in, now in a rage. Nobody knew the situation so it must have appeared bizarre to see this Korean man suddenly yelling at me in incoherent English: "Why you angry? Why you angry? Why? Why? Why? I didn't mean you angry! I didn't want angry!" His face turned fiery red.

The train fell silent, everyone gaped in awe. I pretended the guy was off his rocker by looking around and shrugging. That didn't work. He started yelling in Korean about what I did, probably making me look like a jerk. One guy across from me started laughing. Yeah, I guess it was pretty funny.

Now the creep was back in my face, pointing his finger and yelling curses at me in Korean, how foreigners are all sons of bitches and worse. I wasn't sure what to do. Was this it? Do I have to flatten the guy (it wouldn't have taken much) and jump off the train at the next stop? What can I do? Fortunately, sitting next to me was a very strong looking ajushi. He told the creep to stop making a scene and go away. When that didn't work he took hold of his arm and pushed him down the aisle. Finally the creep got the message and kept going, leaving me sitting there amongst stares and quiet murmuring, completely red with embarrassment, pretending to read a beat-up copy of my book.

When I got off the train I bowed to the guy that saved me from a possible fight. I told him in Korean I was sorry, that I didn't know that strange man. He said he understood, smiled and bowed as I exited.

As I said, it was a weird day and it didn't end there. Bad as the situation was, once off the train I felt better. It occurred to me that far worse things could happen in one's own backyard in America. I'm lucky something like this is the worst I have to deal with.

While waiting for my coffee latte at a little cafe in Geongdeok station, I struck up a conversation with a foreigner ordering a fried-egg sandwich.

"So, where you from?" I asked after a bit.

"New York."

"Oh, yeah? Me, too. Syracuse."

"Get out of here," he said, shocked. "I'm from Liverpool."

"Are you kidding? I'm from Liverpool!" (In addition to being a city in England where the Beatles came from, Liverpool is also a small suburb of Syracuse, NY.)

"I live on Bear Road!"

"I live on Taft road!"

So, on a day I wasn't even supposed to work, after being accosted on the train by a weirdo, I meet a guy who lives almost next door to me on the other side of the planet. All the way here in the middle of some obscure subway station in Seoul, Korea. What are the chances! His name is Steve and, as it turns out, he graduated from Liverpool High School just two years before me.

I was so shocked by all this that I lost track of the time. Steve, too. He almost forgot to pay for his food. We quickly exchanged numbers and I ran off to work.

On the way I called Ally and asked her to start class. I expected only a few students to be there. I arrived a few minutes late to find 25 of my students, kids from A, B and C class, singing "Hickory Dickory Dock," in horrible chorus. Since all other extra curricular activities at the school were cancelled, all the kids wound up in my class, some of them staying for 3 hours. Fortunately for me, Ally had prepared an activity: singing nursery rhymes and making pretty cards for Parents' Day which falls on Sunday, so it wasn't all bad. Still, by the end of the day I couldn't wait to get away from the noise.

No hassles on the way home, luckily. I'll have to give that Steve guy a call. I can't get over that.
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KLB - A B C D Class


A lot of my kids were absent that day, but here are pictures from April's "birthday party" last Thursday. As you know, my birthday was in April, so that's why I'm wearing that hat, in case you were wondering.



This is my A class. Half of them weren't there that day, good thing. They're mostly new students, with a few exceptions, and together they drive me crazy most days. Ally can't control them either and she's Korean. However, they're not the worst kids I've every taught, certainly better than a lot of the kids I used to teach in hagwons. I love that little girl with glasses and wearing a pink shirt. She's so smart, polite and cute. She's the teacher's pet.



I used to like this B Class but nowadays new kids have been thrown in and all the levels are mixed up. Some kids are much too smart, so they're bored and cause trouble. Two of them get into a fight every day. Ugh. As usual, all the girls are perfect angels - I kid you not. It's amazing.



This is C-class, my best kids. Notice the proud expression on my face. They're pretty much what you'd call honor students back home. It's amazing how fast they learn and how much they remember. Perfect students.



D-Class. As you can probably tell, there are all different age groups, from 8 years old to 12. There's the Fan Club-5 at the bottom. A bunch of cute girls. My favorite, Sarah, who's drawing is pictured on the homepage here, is, well, my favorite (note to self: reword sentences so they sound better than this!). She's sitting on the far left flashing the obligatory V sign. They are very cute, the lot of them, but sometimes they drive me batty with their constant need for attention. They swarm my desk and follow me around chattering and giggling non-stop before and after class.
3 May 2005
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KLB - Finally


I finally got to Itaewon and dropped off the books and stopped by the small black market run by that nice little old lady. There were a bunch of things I wanted to get, but the prices are a put off and she only takes cash, of course. While I wanted a can of chili, a box of Captain Crunch, stuff to make tacos with, French Onion dip, etc., I only bought deoderant, which was 6,000 won, about $6.00, and a nice jar of Heinz Dill Pickles for a pricey 6,800 won, about $6.80. That's almost $13.00 for a stick of deoderant and a jar of pickles, but I was happy. It's next to impossible to find non-sweet pickles in Korea, though I heard you can get them at the Costco chain, but I live nowhere near one. And, finally I won't smell bad anymore when I sweat - I hope.

I'm saving up anyway for a trip to the Hannam Mart everyone keeps telling me about. I guess it's right in Itaeweon, but I had no time to try and find it today. I heard you can get real cheese, salami and pepporoni there. I'm guessing since the place is legit everything is even more expensive then the little old lady's shop because of taxes, but dammit! she ain't got no salami! She's got a surprising amount of goods, though including a variety of skin care products and medicines. Something for every foreigner, I guess.
2 May 2005
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KLB - No Fan for You!


The weather is getting hot already. After the long trek to work, I arrived dripping with sweat. It's too early to use the air conditioning so I got the fan out from the back of the room. As I was attempting to plug it in, Ally yelled, "No, don't use that fan!"

"Why not?"

"It's dusty."

That's funny because for one, the last few weeks the air was full of dust from China. CNN kept showing the dust storm engulfing the peninsula on the radar. It was pretty bad for a few days there. For another reason, the gigantic dirt playground for the kids is right outside the classroom window and, with all the windows open, it's always dusty, especially on a breezy day. And finally, the fan wasn't all THAT dirty anyway. It looked fine to me.

Well, it was hot and the kids were also sweaty from playing outside so I continued to plug in the fan.

"Shawn, please don't use the fan."

"I'm sorry, but I'm going to use the fan. I'm hot. The kids are hot."

"Shawn, please don't. We don't have time to clean it."

This time I simply ignored her and turned on the fan. As I expected, it worked fine. Barely any dust blew out. I don't get what all the fuss was about, but I obviously pissed her off. She barely spoke to me for the rest of the day. Not that she really says much anyway. We have a lot of kids this semester who come in at different times because of schedule conflicts, so I have her teach them privately in the back of the room since they are in the wrong class and have no books. The rest of the time she just watches me and writes down everything I do - something I find annoying. I guess it's better than having a camera on you all day long as most hagwons have nowadays, but still, it's just weird.

At least she's given up on the whole "co-teacher" bit. I didn't mention it before, but I got into a heated argument with her about that one her third day. She kept telling me exactly what to teach, and in an ever irksome tone, "Please, understand our agency's policy, Shawn," over and over when she just started that week! I basically told her I've been there 8 months now and I know what I'm doing. I couldn't let it go on as long as I did with Cathy. And, since then, Ally has been pretty quiet, thankfully. I think I just don't like having an assistant. It's not nearly as nice having one as it sounds, at least not when they take their job too damn seriously. We have 64 students, up from 20 when I first started so relax a little - I'm doing fine.

Later in the day she told me we might have Wednesday off too, in addition to Thursday and Friday. I guess the school is holding some sports day activities and the kids will probably be too tired to study. That'll be nice. Three days off for Children's Day. God bless children!

Back home, I had a quick dinner and went to the health club for an hour. Chest and 20 minutes of jump roping. Tomorrow I will swing by What the Book? in Itaewon after work and drop off some copies of my book there. I also desperately need deoderant. I still can't believe you can't buy that in any store here. Koreans don't have body odor like we do, lucky dawgs, but still - they must stink sometimes in the humidity or after a workout.
1 May 2005
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KLB - Weekend Fun


John came up again for the weekend. That's three weekends in a row in case you're counting. He likes hanging out with us and we like having him here.

Last night Julie went with her co-worker, Jen, from Canada, to see Paul Van Dyk, a famous German DJ. I guess he's famous anyway. Personally I've never heard of him, but it seems everyone else has. Then again, I'm usually out of touch with what's hip and hot, so that's no surprise. Since John and I aren't really into the dance scene (I dance like a deformed duck) we elected to go to a popular bar in Bupyeong. Alex, a Canadian guy I met at the health club, came along too. It was pretty quiet there - I assume everyone was worn out from "Club Day," the ever popular, once-a-month nightclub party in Hongdae (you pay about $15 to get a bracelet that gets you into all the clubs) on Friday, but we still had a decent time. We ate fried chicken outdoors on the deck of a packed restaurant at 3:30 in the morning then got a taxi home and had more drinks at a local bar until around 5:00. Alex took off, but me and John weren't finished yet. We got a bunch of lousy sandwhiches from a convenient market and a couple of beers and sat across from the police station behind my building eating, drinking and carrying on. It was a nice night to be outside and a perfect temperature. A lot of fun.

When we finally returned home, I was a bit sad to see Julie hadn't returned yet. I handed John the Xbox controller and went upstairs to crash. The sun was just about to rise. When I woke up, at around 10:00 this morning, I found Julie snuggled against me. Turns out she had a great time too. "The best DJ ever," she kept saying in her sleep. Squinting and rubbing my face, I looked downstairs to see poor John sleeping on the hard floor, soring loudly, sprawled out with no blanket or cushion, not even a pillow. Julie made my laugh, telling me how when she came home, John scared her a bit because he was sleeping with his eyes open, or at least with one eye open, and snoring like "an elephant," she said. His left eye was bloodshot and irritated all day long.

Anyway, after Julie made sure we were both awake, she went back to sleep upstairs. John and I stayed up and watched Roger and Me, Michael Moore's first documentary about GM's plant closings in Flint Michigan and how they basically destroyed the city. John kept having to go to the bathroom. He was suffering from the "fire chicken" he ate last night. Before we even went out yesterday, he picked up a package of pre-cooked chicken from Walmart. Turns out it was fiery hot, but John was so hungry at the time he ate it all. It basically sat like a lump of hot coals in his stomach until tonight. He went to the bathroom 5 times today. Of course, that couldn't have anything to do with the 5 shots of Tequilla he ordered at 4 in the morning...

Welp, despite our hangovers we still had a pretty good day. It was hot outside. Around 4:00 we sweated our way to Subway and picked up three subs. When we returned with the food, Julie was finally awake and showered. We feasted on the subs then I fell asleep watching John play a video game. Julie, too, claiming she was hungover (she had one shot of Tequilla last night) went back to bed yet again. John woke us up around 7:00, saying he wanted to go home. Then we all started talking and watching TV. About two hours later the group of us went shopping at Homeplus where we ate huge, delicious mandu dumplings. John finally got the bus back to Gangnam around 11:00 and was home by 11:45. Nice. The train would take forever.

I was supposed to do a few things today, drop of copies of my book at What the Book? in Itaewon, pick up some deoderant at the black market there, buy a camera in Yongsan etc., but, as you can see, I failed. I should be able to get all that done this week anyway, since I have Thursday and Friday off for Children's Day.