Hi dear friends back in the US of A and elsewhere. I have arrived safely in Seoul, and I'm becoming nice and cozy in my strange little apartment in Junggye-dong. It has a bunch of sliding doors, a shower sans curtain, and a washing machine with only Korean controls (fortunately the deputy principal of my school instructed me on how to operate it). Things are going quite smoothly here, even for a vegetarian!
How do I begin to describe this crazy world of neon crosses (yes, those are for churches)? Well, hardly anyone speaks English, and most of the menus have only Korean characters. Observe:
웹문서
I actually don't know what that means. I just copied and pasted it from Google's homepage. Every time I go to a Web site here, EVEN Google, these characters magically appear where I used to find English. I think 웹문서 might mean "search."
We're living on the third floor of a GINORMOUS apartment complex. I'll post pictures soon enough. My refrigerator smells like kimchi, the omnipresent Korean staple of spicy pickled cabbage.
People are exceedingly friendly here, even though no one can understand anything I say. Miming, my friends, is the new black.
I visited my school today, and the teachers and directors are all very kind. Apparently my Brown degree gives me serious street cred, and they believe that I can do anything. For real. I was talking with the deputy principal about what I will be doing at work, and she was explaining that we will be teaching and prepping for the TOEFL exam. She was like, "We'll train you, but I'm sure you know how to teach it better than me." This is a 30 something teacher with a master's degree FROM THE US. Here's to a crash course in TOEFL prep!
Anywho, jet lag is catching up to me, and I promised Sam a game of cribbage. So until my next post, I leave you with the Google Korea homepage.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Hello from Korea!
Friday, September 14, 2007
The sexy celebrity version of me!
Ahem, not that I'm into the CW or anything, but I found myself. Sort of. Really. Doesn't he sort of look like me back when I had better hair? Well, his name is Bret Harrison and he's the star of the new CW show "The Reaper." You can see his IMBD profile here. Sadly, I have to admit that our shared alikeness depends on the angle. But hey, maybe somebody will ask me for an autograph?
P.S. I'm leaving for Seoul on Sunday morning due to a slight scheduling problem with our flight. So until then, toodles!
Monday, September 10, 2007
The word on the street...
...is that I'm leaving on Friday. Call me or email if I owe you any money or if we have unfinished business. Otherwise, I'm outtie. Love you. Miss you. Wish you were here.
Last post until Seoul? I think so.
UPDATE:
We're now leaving on Saturday.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
He's so dreamy...
For all of you pervs who have crushes on Zac Efron, might I suggest you follow this link...
In case you don't know him:
He was in that thing called High School Musical. Don't know much else, except that he's the current "it" boy for tweeny girls. Teeheehee.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Korea? Is that you I hear calling my name...
Wow. What a summer. Let's summarize.
Twenty-five interviews later, I have a job in Korea. Start date: Sept. 15th (ish)
Went down south to the motherland. Spent time with family. Little Lily Love is doing beautifully. She's got big bug eyes and a jumping fetish. Mom's got a gambling habit. Teresa's my new favorite sister. Dad's mom is dying. Dad's sad, and in his own words, "She was the only woman I ever loved."
Morgan and Mandy smoked the oblivion out of me. And their donkeys.
Sam came down to the mountains for Emily's big 21. We had a raucous time which included: a bad attempt at Salvia, a thunderstorm at a waterfall, and Emily puking at just the right moment, all over the sidewalk, next to the smokers who have been shoved outside by an unconscionable ban.
Dropped Mandy off in NYC to begin her new life of glam journalism. She can't afford New York, yet.
(Left my laptop in NY. I'll be back soon, baby.)
Almost gave up on life in Asia. Promptly got excited about life in Asia.
Reconciled with a dear friend.
Preparing to say goodbyes all over again.
Lesson learned: Never say goodbye prematurely.
I am in fact moving to the Junggye-dong area of Seoul. Which is next to the Nowon area of Seoul, which in my mind is like the Brooklyn of Seoul. What I've figured out: THERE IS NO BROOKLYN IN SEOUL.
I'm going to be teaching at a school that focuses on writing and speech. I've been told it's a specialized school, but then it occurred to me, when teaching English, when DON'T you focus on writing and speech? I guess in other jobs I would have been singing camp songs and having silly conversations all day, which sounded fine to me.
More to come. Promise.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Let's get this blog rolling...
I'm back! It's been a hell of a busy time here in Providence. I sleep til noon, drink til 2, and lose my credit cards daily. All of that is true. But the good news is that this lazy little f*ck just received TWO job offers to work in Korea (the south side, if you really must ask). Looks like sometime between August/mid-August I'll be flying to the land of high-rise apartments and working my ass off for the big bucks. In case you're wondering, I should be working in Seoul, and more specifically, the "Brooklyn" (hell, maybe the "Queens") of Seoul. Right now the best job offer is in a neighborhood called Sanggye-dong in Nowon-gu in Seoul. Let me break that down for you. Seoul is divided into "gus" and "dongs." A "gu" is kind of like Brooklyn or Manhattan. A "dong" is like Chelsea or Astoria. Make sense? Well, think that over real hard and then look it up on wikipedia if you need to. Anywho, the two pictures I have posted are of my potential neighborhood. And just so you know, this blog is back for good.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Announcement
I have just spent the past month graduating, hence the hiatus from posting. Now that I am officially rested and free from academia (for at least a year), I promise a brand new blogger ethic, one might say a certain joie de blogging. In the days ahead, expect a serious layout overhaul and fancy new features to boot. Until then, one might go here to see what I've been up to. Peace and love. Jonc.
