Am I evil or lovable?

It's all fun and games until your students replace the villian's name with your in the story book that you are reading. I tried not to "read into this" too much.

BBQ time!

Last weekend there was a 10th anniversery party at a famous Western bar
in town. For the special occasion they had a free BBQ and all of the
foreigners came from around town to collect. It was so much fun. There
was a point where I almost forgot that I was living in a foreign
country. There was a live band playing Foo Fighters, Kings of Leon,
and all of the classics. The foreign communtiy here is lovely, just as
I guessed. ;)

Korean Class

I am now in my 3rd week of Korean class taught by the sweetest Korean
man known....to Korea. The class is specifally offered to foreigner
teachers in hagwons, the type of Korean private school that I teach
in). We are learning the Korean alphabet at the moment. The people in
my class are pretty rad. I know that it sounds pretty lame to think
that hanging out in a tiny room with a bunch of foreiners learning to
speak Korean sounds like pretty lame way to spend the morning but I
love being in the learning atmosphere again. And we go out to lunch
afterwards. Food makes everything better where we say things in
Korean....APPLICATION! The second best part about my class is that its
free!

Busan

Carlo and I went to Busan for a day trip to see some of his friends from S. Africa. Busan is this beautiful coastal town where Korean flock to from all over the country to soak up the sun...ironically they lay on the beach covered from head to toe so they dont actually get a sun tan (Korean people think that the whiter they are the more beautiful they are). It is said that if you go to this beach during the summer, you dont even see an open area of sand because every inch of it is covered by blankets and umbrellas. The beach was beautiful and to top it off they had a culture festival complete with traditional dances, traditional dances including sticking a bunch of children in a pool full of fish and having them race to see who can catch the most. There were beach side restaurants and fire works and korean kites. It was beautiful.

But the beach side festivities were only the opening act for the real reason we came to Busan.....the Lotte Giants Baseball game. A Korean baseball game is something you truly have to experience for yourself. It is hard for me to describe it to you but I will try. The level of crowd involvement is incredible. The chants are Western songs that have been transformed into Korean. Everyone has homemade pom-poms and/or a foam finger. The food is cheap the fans are loud. Obviously not being about to speak Korean, I had no idea what they were chanting but I chanted it with them anyways. The Koreans thought that this was hilarious seeing the "foreigners" try to yell at the opposing team in broken Korean. Ahhhhh dreams came true that day at the baseball field

Moonsusong

On the outskirts of Ulsan there is this path up the mountain that leads to this temple called Monsusong. Easter Sunday, after Carlo and I left church, we took a motorccle ride through the mountains, through a bamboo forest and he brought me to the base of this trail. It was a surprise. He choose wisely seeing as how I love to hike and everything nature. We hiked up the mountain to the top where there was a beautiful temple, Buddist monks roaming around, trees in full bloom. It was amazing. Unfortunately I forgot my camera at home but this one picture did come from this hike.

Noribong

Noribong
A Noribong is the korean twist on karoking, but instead of doing it in
front of a big crowd you get your own room. This room could be big
enough for 10 people or only big enough for one. A noribong can be a
great place to finish an evening out with your friends when you are
feeling more willing to sing along to your favorite tunes. The
Noribong can be a great place to take your secret crush on a date
aswell. Carlo decided to take me to a noribong on our third date. It
was very entertaining and memorable, not for the faint at heart but
great for romancing an American girl. Then you stumble upon people who
go to a noribong by themself. Carlo and I saw many Korean children in
an arcade singing in a noribong room all by themselves. Which is weird
for me because I would never want to do karoke by myself.....too
awkward. Especially when there is a clear window where everyone else
can see inside... singing

This is an essential part of the Korean experience though. I recommend highly

Cat Brothel

There's this infamous Cat Cafe in Ulsan where you can go to get a
quick bit to eat and cup of coffee and a furry companion. You can
selection one of the many cats roaming the building to accompany for
your time. I like to think of this place as a "cat brothel" if you
will. The idea is a good concept but once put into practice it doesnt
really work. First of all, the whole place smells like cat pee. Not
great for the restaurant aspect, the real money maker. Secondly, the
cats like hang out in the kitchen....and that just ain't kosher with
me, unless you are parshal to having a side of cat hair with your
pancakes. If this went down in the States, the board of health would
be all over that like white on rice....(they eat a lot of rice
here...hehe)

I guess the plus side about all of these "rented cats" are that they have some kind of a union, because they are rarely open we finally got into the cat brothel after trying to get in three times. So these cats got rights too!

so this is kinda awkward

My appolgies for not writing about my first month in Korea. My time in
Korea has been greatly added to by the influence of one individual.
This individual as you may have guessed is a man. Not just any man, a
South African man. From the moment he started pursuing me we have been
on an adventure...together in Korea. I guess the reason I have not
shared my stories with you world is because the majority of them
involve this man. But enough time has passed that I feel like
including you in my life world.
So here we go, the cat is out of the bag. We have some catching up to do.