Oh, the holidays

     Since my head is all over the place these days, I mistakenly thought that the Thanksgiving lunch I signed up to go to was on Sunday when in fact it was on Saturday.  Damn, Life-1 John-0.  To add insult to injury, all my Craigs are back home for the holidays and instead of going out with them, I'm by myself in this damn coffee shop again.  Maybe I should stop using the internet and seeing whatever everyone else is doing, maybe that'll help with me wanting to be back home for the holidays.  Probably not.  Technology-1 John-0.  As I have found out, it's kind of hard trying to make friends at my age here unless you're introduced by someone.  Thankfully I have my extended family to break the monotonous routine I've developed here but I need some social interaction.  I'm not much of a club guy, in fact I don't really like going to clubs.  I'd rather sit down with people and have beers.  Good luck with that John, most places here are clubs.  Korea-1 John-0.  Do you see a trend here?  I'd love to be in Brewskis or Smoke & Barrel right about now.
     If anyone's wanting to come see me, July is the month to come and here's why.  I met a German pastor through one of my aunts.  He's going to be back in Germany to visit his family in July and offered to let me use his house for the entire month and said it was ok if I had company over.  The government provided the house so it's nice and spacious with multiple levels and it's in one of the busy districts in Seoul so it's really close to a lot of places that people my age enjoy going to.  It also happens to be one of the areas that is densely populated by foreigners.  So yes, come visit your favorite Gyopo (Korean foreigner) in Korea and you'll have free housing in July.
     Aside from my complaining about being bored and lonely, it's really not that bad.  I'm enjoying taking the subway and wandering around the city, headphones blasting.  It would just be nice if I could have someone to share it with.  I started working out since my military stuff is resolved so that should help pass the time.  Work at the hagwon has picked up this next month since all the kids are out for winter break.  Instead of playing and enjoying their break, kids here study over the break.  WTF.  Whatever, it's more money for me.  12 hour days, here I come.  I was offered another part-time position, which will be my 3rd job.  I reluctantly accepted and was before I knew that I was going to be working all day at the hagwon.  I'm thinking about calling and backing out.  Although it's nice to work and the money isn't bad either, I'll be working 6 days/week.  I didn't come to Korea to work, I came back to make a little money before I start my military duty, in addition to soaking in my surroundings.  Would it be shady for me to back out after I took the job already?  I haven't had a problem finding a job thus far due to my Engrish skrillz but because of my personality I consider other people's needs before mine.  I've been told that I need to change that train of thinking because people here are a little more selfish.  Some people have even gone as far as to call me naive lol.  Screw it, I'm quitting.  Another thing, I feel like I'm wasting my engineering degree just sitting here for 2 years and not being able to practice anything.  To be honest, if you gave me a chemical engineering problem right now to solve, I guarantee you I won't be able to solve it.  Well, not really, but you get the idea.  I need something that's more intellectually stimulating, teaching English is almost mindless work for me.  I've been keeping up with advances in the field that I'll be pursuing when I get back to the states, but man, guess I need another hobby?  I might post on a forum or craigslist looking for musicians to play with.  Fun, right?  Let's hope it works.
    The subways here are pretty interesting.  Some days I find myself falling in love multiple times within minutes just from the sheer amount of pretty girls here.  That's pretty shallow, I know, but can you blame me?  You have to be here to believe it.  Aside from pretty girls, there are really loud foreigners that make scenes, people stinking of garlic or kimchi, and old people that just fart indiscriminately.  Man, I can't wait to be old so I can fart whenever I wanted.  I digress.  I've lost sight of what I wanted to say in this post.  I fail.  Blog-1 John-0  I like kimchi? -_-
    Oh yeah, the title of this post is the holidays.  Blog-2 John-0.  Dad is going back to Arkansas sometime near Christmas time so that leaves me with my grandparents here.  Boo.  I would come back with him but I can't since I've committed to the military duty already.  They'll think I'm trying to avoid duty by leaving the country so it's impossible for me to leave now.  FML.  Hopefully I get my vacation days soon after I start my government work.  When it happens, plan on seeing this beautiful, Korean man back in the states, OK?  Miss and love y'all, stay lovely.
~JK outskis

P.S. Thank you for putting up with my bitchassness, it is appreciated ^_^

I'll be home for Christmas...

     NOT... :(  I miss the lights up on Fayetteville Square but I'll survive.  What have I been up to lately?  Well...I'm currently working 2 part-time jobs teaching the beautiful Engrish language and possibly picking up a 3rd to fill in the extra days I'm not working, but probably not.  Commuting 1.5 hours to work and back gets a little tiring after a full day.  I recently picked up a private student who happens to be 37 years old (it's true when they say that Asians look younger than they are, I thought she was around her late 20's, early 30's when I first met her) on Mon/Wed.  She also happens to be the person I bought my hipster canvas bag from lol.  I've been enjoying our sessions, which we have at this neat little 4 story coffee shop.  Since we've gotten to know each other better, I feel more comfortable talking with her.  She's quite hilarious and helps me with my horrible Korean.  She teased me about how funny it is to read my texts and told me it was cute lol.  My other student that I teach on Fridays is leaving for Canada in January.  He's going to have a pretty rough time living there, especially at his level of English.  He's a good kid, but he tends to slack a little bit when it comes to English, haha.  Last week we went to eat dinner in the Gangnam area of Seoul at a sushi restaurant.  It was so cool because they had a conveyor belt with plates of sushi so that you could pick what you wanted to eat.  When you were done, they count up the plates you ate and calculate the price based on the color of the plates.  Derrrrricious.  The total only came out to only a little under $30 each, which is retarded cheap compared to sushi back in the states.  We had 16 plates total and I was completely stuffed.  Other than that, I've been drowning my boredom in music and TV shows.
     I visited my uncle in the southern part of Seoul and got to see his photography studio.  He does baby photos, starting from when the mother has the preggers tummy all the way through a year after birth.  The studio had lots of natural lighting and the props and backdrops they had setup for photo shoots were really relaxing.  I'd almost live there if I could pay rent, haha.  Nothing too exciting has happened yet but Jeff is coming to Seoul in December so I'm going to meet up and finally have some proper drinks.  It's crazy since I've known him since 2nd grade and now we're living in the same foreign country.
     In other news, Razorbacks are #3 baby!  Damn sad that I'm not in Fayetteville to revel in the joy with the rest of Hog nation but I'm doing my part by spreading the word here in Seoul whenever people ask me where I'm from!  I've been missing that good ol' Southern cooking, especially Penguin Ed's...geeez, though I've had lots of good Korean food so I can't complain.  I haven't been able to cook much since it's kind of hard to find the ingredients that are readily accessible back in the states so that'll have to wait until my mom gets here so I can make her go find them for me ^_^  Not much else to talk about at the moment.  I'm sitting in the same coffee place where I teach noona (means older sister, term of endearment) and enjoying a nice iced coffee.  As usual, enjoy the photos below.  I miss and love y'all, don't forget about me ;)
~JK

P.S Almost forgot, my last physical for the military is tomorrow and I'm more than certain that I'll be placed in a government job, starting sometime in March or April after I go through basic training, yeeee!

Kalgooksoo with clams with grandparents, uncle, and pops.

Sushi with my student.  I'm still in awe of the conveyor belt lol.

French toast squares and coffee during my last session with noona.

She bought me dinner after our lesson.  Spicy seafood soup and octopus lettuce wraps, yummy.

Goodbye officer, hello government dog

    So yesterday I did my 2nd physical exam and failed as expected, so I'm going to be placed in a government position instead of going to the military, but I'll still have to go through boot camp which will be fun.  I have to go back for a 3rd exam just as formality but I'm pretty much set for the rest of my stay here in ze motherland.  Work-wise, I'm applying to other hagwons as the place I'm currently teaching at has a deficiency in student count...aka less money for me to make.  I'll still teach there since the director is a good guy, but I need more things to do to fill in my time the rest of the week.  I'm still waiting for my cousin to take her college entrance exam, which is in about 10 days.  I've been staying out and wandering the city by my lonesome for the majority of the days I'm not working.  There's something tranquil about wandering even though you're blasting music through your headphones and the surroundings are so hectic.  Thank you Blackmill, I'm glad I found your music ^_^.  Oh, I got some good news from Pittsburgh about my deferment.  They said that they could keep my case open until Fall 2013 but I won't be back until 2014.  I asked if I needed to retake the GRE but I don't and in the worse case scenario, I would just have to reapply and I'm pretty much back into the program.  That's one load off my mind, WIN.
    So my only student at the hagwon, Sung Min Kim, is a fun kid to be around.  To start our little sessions, I always find a friend on Skype to call so that he can practice his conversational skills.  It's quite a sight to watch because he's so nervous and awkward about talking to strangers.  I tell him that he needs to get used to it because that's what he'll have to do once he gets to Canada.  I do understand it is a little awkward talking to someone through video chatting if you don't know them but it's all in good fun :)  Anyway, recently he told the director that coming to the hagwon was getting too tiring for him and he never feels up to learning when he gets there (he has a 2 hour commute from his house) so he proposed a different way to conduct our sessions.  He would take me to fun places all over Seoul every time we would meet and just hang out and speak in English the whole time.  I definitely agreed because I don't have a travel partner and this would be a good way for me to see parts of the city I wouldn't normally have a chance to.  We had our first outing last Friday and it was fun.  We went to a ward called "Gyeong Buk Gung," which is an area known for the palace and museum where kings used to live.  As you might have guessed, such an area is usually populated heavily by tourists.  There weren't too many people from the US but a ton from different parts of Asia and Europe.  After seeing the sights there, we headed off to "Insa dong" (dong is Korean for district).  It was filled with foreigners and lots of restaurants and street vendors.  Sung Min and I stopped for lunch in a dumpling house, yummmm.  We walked some more around the city and just chatted until our time was up.
    That's about how I've been spending my time here so far.  Drinking with my uncle, teaching kids, touring, eating, and working out.  I can't wait for some friends to come visit me so I can show them around.  WinCraig is coming in the summer for a month and by then I'll be living in the house my parents would've built this upcoming winter.  We apparently own a lot of land here so we'll be moving out from my grandparent's house as soon as my mom gets here, sometime in January at the earliest.  I can't take the confrontations my grandma and dad have with the tenants that live below us.  I'm telling you angry, old Korean women scare me more than angry black girls (NO RACIAL).  For serial.  Also the little punks that come around the house at night and are rowdy as hell, one of these nights I'm going to go down there and give a major ass whoopin' to those kids.  They said they come here because they didn't want to bother their sleeping parents.  Are you serious, kid?  So you're going to come around my house and act like jackasses?  Don't think so scooter, get the hell out.  Anyway, I'm out, love you and miss you guys.  Pics from my trip with my student are down below.

Art gallery at the Gyeong Buk Gung palace subway exit.

National Folk Museum by the palace

The courtyard of Gyeong Buk Gung palace

Just inside the entrance to the palace

Yeeee, I R AZN

2 story pavilion in the middle of what used to be a lake.  It was used to entertain foreign dignitaries.

This made me want to go fishing.  I miss Beaver Dam.

View of the palace from the outside

King Se Jong, the man who invented Hangul(written Korean)

Some baller with a big sword.

Insa dong

Food

I forgot what this was called but these guys stretch hardened honey into 16,000 strips using the same method as making handmade noodles.  They use cornstarch to prevent the honey from sticking.  I bought the one with the walnut and chocolate filling.  Derrrrricious and it used to be what the kings used to have for dessert.

A month in...

It’s been about a month now since I’ve been in Korea and I can say it’s been surreal.  I’ve acclimated quite well into society but I still feel as though I’m an outsider.  I look the same and I speak the language but man, I still feel like an American lol.  I’ve limited my English speaking to just Skype sessions, Facebook, and my occasional phone calls (yay international calling plans).  Work is going well, although I just lost one student because he wasn't improving fast enough for his mother's taste.  The director of the hagwon told me that the mother thought I had no business teaching English writing to her child, haha!  For one, he never came to class having completed the assignments I gave him and there is only so much I can teach him, after that, it's all up to him to practice on his own time for better results.  The director said not to worry and that most parents act that way.  He's been so understanding of my situation and has tried to accommodate me by creating classes that I would be able to teach comfortably, even with my Korean deficiency.  

            In other news, I won’t be going into the military as an officer anymore.  I found out that an officer serves an extra year in the military so I see no point in me staying here any longer than I have to just to have that on my resume or having a nice fat paycheck.  Instead, I’m going to fail my physical for the 2^nd time (I’ve been working out still but I haven’t changed my diet up at all) and as a result will be placed in a boring government desk job that counts as my 2-year military duty.  The best thing about this is that I will have plenty of time to make a decision about what I’m going to pursue when I get back to the states (engineering or medical school).  I’ll also be able to study at my leisure and take all the tests I want to prepare as well as getting paid by the government, of course.  I should be going in to have my follow up physical in a week or two.  

            I have yet to make any new friends but hopefully I won’t have to wait much longer.  My mom is trying to get a hold of one of my old classmates from when I went to school here back in 3^rd and 4^th grade.  Her name is Seon Young Ahn, she grew up in Guam so she speaks plenty of English and I’m anxious to see her again.  We were pretty good friends back then.  Also, my cousin, Hee Jung (Angela), is about to take her college entrance exam for a performing arts school in two and a half weeks.  After that, she promised to hang out and take me around the city.  Until then, I’m left to my own devices.  My guitar numbs the boredom, for the most part, and thank the Lord that Sidereel.com updates shows right after they’re aired.  I’m typing this entry in Microsoft Word in a bakery/café in Apgujeong, a ward in Seoul that is known for its’ affluent residents and trends in fashion.  Bunch of bourgeois people strutting their money around, pffffft.  Anyway, I think I’ve outstayed my welcome in the shop, been here almost 2 hours lol.  By the way, if you have the new updated iOS5 for your iPhone and have my new Korean number (01054606806), you should text me (iMessage is free international texts if the person you're texting has the latest update too.  Instead of the phone number you can also use their apple id email to text) if you get bored because...I'm bored ^-^  As for pictures, I've posted an album of pics from when I went to the Korean War Memorial on Facebook as well as some other random ones I've taken since then.  As always, miss and love y'all like this much <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> x 1 billion.  

P.S. I've started to look for neat little souvenir/gifts for all of you so if you want, send me your address by text/email/facebook and maybe you'll find a little JK love in the mailbox one of these days.  I've already sent out my first one to BockelCraig today.  Enjoy!

~JK