I've moved to http://dreemwhrld.wordpress.com
If you were on my mailing list, you should have received an email asking you to confirm your subscription to the new site. If not, you can just enter your email on the right side of the main page and you'll receive a confirmation email. This site will be left up for a while, for link purposes, as well as a just-in-case, however, the new site will be where all my new (and old) posts will be, including my biking trip in the islands. Stay tuned!
Monday, April 19, 2010
Moving Soon
I've been toying with the idea for a while of moving my blog to a different hosting site. I haven't because I was afraid I'd lose my comments and my content in the process. I think I've found a way to move all my information, so as soon as I'm ready, I'll be moving. If you receive updates, I'm pretty sure that I'll be able to save that information as well. If not, I'll post information here on how you can re-register. The look of the blog will be changing a bit as well, and hopefully it'll be a little closer to what I want. Thanks in advance for your patience while I figure out the new site.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Han River Biking
So my best friend James left almost a month ago. It doesn't seem like it's been that long, but life goes on, as it must. The silver lining to that rather large cloud was that I got his bike, which was mine to begin with anyways, but that's another story. I've only taken it on two trips, because the rear wheel has a slow but steady leak, and I haven't had time to bring it down to the shop for them to fix it. I actually tried today, but they were closed, which is surprising, as many places around me are open on Sundays.
Anyways, I've gone on two rides so far. One on my own at sunset, and one a week later with my friend Amy. Amy doesn't get off work until 9pm, so we did a night ride of about 5 miles total - 2.5 east and then 2.5 back.
Even though there's another bridge with access to the Han River Park that's closer to me, I use the Hannam Bridge to get to the Park. This is because there's a ramp and an elevator to get down to the park, rather than the maze of stairs with a small ramp for your bike to navigate through.
The first time I went by myself was at sunset, which was chilly, but beautiful. There's something very calming about a large body of water with the sun low in the sky. Especially if you're riding around near it on a bike.
There was one part of the river where it looked like a building had sunk into the water, and a large crane on a boat was pulling pieces out. I don't think I've ever seen a spiral staircase coming out of the water like this before. It had attracted a small crowd of onlookers, mostly ajushis, or old men, walking on their own.
The bridges themselves are interesting, and I plan on going to try to see the Banpo Bridge Light Show, though it's been difficult to find out when it's scheduled. It's in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest bridge fountain.
When I went riding with Amy, we went a bit farther than I had by myself, and discovered this giant tunnel full of graffiti. Apparently you can come down on the weekends and see the artists at work remaking different sections of it. It actually looks really cool, and as graffiti is very rare in Korea it made it feel slightly more like home.
Anyways, I've gone on two rides so far. One on my own at sunset, and one a week later with my friend Amy. Amy doesn't get off work until 9pm, so we did a night ride of about 5 miles total - 2.5 east and then 2.5 back.
Even though there's another bridge with access to the Han River Park that's closer to me, I use the Hannam Bridge to get to the Park. This is because there's a ramp and an elevator to get down to the park, rather than the maze of stairs with a small ramp for your bike to navigate through.
The first time I went by myself was at sunset, which was chilly, but beautiful. There's something very calming about a large body of water with the sun low in the sky. Especially if you're riding around near it on a bike.
There was one part of the river where it looked like a building had sunk into the water, and a large crane on a boat was pulling pieces out. I don't think I've ever seen a spiral staircase coming out of the water like this before. It had attracted a small crowd of onlookers, mostly ajushis, or old men, walking on their own.
The bridges themselves are interesting, and I plan on going to try to see the Banpo Bridge Light Show, though it's been difficult to find out when it's scheduled. It's in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest bridge fountain.
When I went riding with Amy, we went a bit farther than I had by myself, and discovered this giant tunnel full of graffiti. Apparently you can come down on the weekends and see the artists at work remaking different sections of it. It actually looks really cool, and as graffiti is very rare in Korea it made it feel slightly more like home.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Europe-bound!
This is my map. This is my map of Europe. Specifically, I have labeled it with the places I will be going this summer on my first ever trip to Europe. And I am SO EXCITED! You may have noticed that I did not opt for the more common Western Europe trip, including France, Spain, England, Italy, etc. I have instead, opted for Eastern Europe, planning on Poland, Ukraine, Czech Republic, and Germany. There are several reasons for this:
1) My friend Steph lives in the Czech Republic. She is the main reason I am going to Europe, instead of the closer, and cheaper, Southeast Asia or IndoChina. I haven't seen her since she left Uijeongbu, and not only is this a great excuse to see her, but it means I have a travel buddy in Europe.
2) I have some family history in a tiny little town called Bolekhiv. My dad's side of the family was part of a large Jewish population in that town before the war. So I'm going to try to find anyone that may be related to me, though I'm assuming that the only way to do that is by looking through the cemetery for headstones with my last name in Hebrew on it.
3) I love travel of any kind. I've only been to two continents (Asia and North America), and Europe would make my third. Only four more to go after that...
4) Why not???
So the plan is:
Fly into Warsaw on July 24th. Get a place and stay the night, since my plane lands late. Wander around Warsaw for the day and see what there is to see. Get a train ticket to Lviv, Ukraine, or even possibly straight to Bolekhiv. If I go through Lviv, spend a day there, then go to Bolekhiv. If I don't have to go through Lviv, I'll spend an extra day in Bolekhiv. Try to find anything/everything related to my family history.
On or about the 29th (Thurs), go to Prague. Meet up with Steph, and spend a day or two in Prague.
Then together, head to southwest Germany. Nuremberg, Munich, and any/everything in between. Take our time, and do what we want, for however long we want. Fly out of Munich on August 12th, back in Seoul Friday morning.
Can't wait!!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
I need a personal assistant
I've been struggling to keep up with my blogging recently, and it's been both an internal and external struggle. I've had a lot on my plate the last few months, and trying to find the time and energy to sit down and invest a few hours in 1) finishing my winter trip blog, 2) upload and organize my pictures from all the other things I've been doing so I could blog about them later, and 3) not run out of disk space in the process, has been rather difficult. But. I finally finished my winter trip. I only have about three other events I need to post and then I'll be all caught up. What is all this other stuff I've been doing, you might ask? Well,
I've started another photo project which you may have heard of, called the 365 project. You're basically supposed to take one photo per day and then upload it to this site, which organizes it rather nicely for you. I take photos all the time anyways, and I thought this would be a nice way to not only organize my photos, but improve my photography and force me to try and look around me for what I saw when I first came to Korea that I now take for granted.
My three closest friends all left at the end of February/beginning of March. Which meant I was spending as much time with them as I could before they left, and doing leaving parties and events with them.
Saint Patrick's Day passed with little fanfare, barring a green shirt worn to work and a can of Guinness consumed that evening while preparing for the upcoming weekend, which consisted of a trip down to the south of the country to see a Bull Fighting Festival (separate post on all these events to come soon).
I've started a weekly tradition with Amy during which we meet at a truck that parks near my school at night. We order a freshly made pizza from the truck, and then go back to mine to watch a movie.
This weekend was a booze cruise, where for a small fee I got to board a boat on the Han River and drink all the decent draft beer (Alley Kat brew, not Hite or Cass) I wanted and help a friend celebrate her birthday.
This weekend I'm going to attend International Pillow Fight Day at City Hall, so I've been trying to convince my friends from everywhere to join me.
Every Saturday morning I have Korean language classes, and starting this Friday I'll have an extra three classes during the week. I've also gotten a bike from my friend who's left, so now I have an excuse/reason to exercise and get out a bit more, especially now that the weather's changing for the better.
And between all this, I've been looking for flights to Europe in August, planning a trip to Kyoto in May, and trying to figure out if I want to stay with my current job or look for another one, and making plans for both eventualities (looking for other open positions if I go, and negotiating days off/other perks if I stay). Not to mention, of course, the day-to-day niceties of teaching small children.
I've started another photo project which you may have heard of, called the 365 project. You're basically supposed to take one photo per day and then upload it to this site, which organizes it rather nicely for you. I take photos all the time anyways, and I thought this would be a nice way to not only organize my photos, but improve my photography and force me to try and look around me for what I saw when I first came to Korea that I now take for granted.
My three closest friends all left at the end of February/beginning of March. Which meant I was spending as much time with them as I could before they left, and doing leaving parties and events with them.
Saint Patrick's Day passed with little fanfare, barring a green shirt worn to work and a can of Guinness consumed that evening while preparing for the upcoming weekend, which consisted of a trip down to the south of the country to see a Bull Fighting Festival (separate post on all these events to come soon).
I've started a weekly tradition with Amy during which we meet at a truck that parks near my school at night. We order a freshly made pizza from the truck, and then go back to mine to watch a movie.
This weekend was a booze cruise, where for a small fee I got to board a boat on the Han River and drink all the decent draft beer (Alley Kat brew, not Hite or Cass) I wanted and help a friend celebrate her birthday.
This weekend I'm going to attend International Pillow Fight Day at City Hall, so I've been trying to convince my friends from everywhere to join me.
Every Saturday morning I have Korean language classes, and starting this Friday I'll have an extra three classes during the week. I've also gotten a bike from my friend who's left, so now I have an excuse/reason to exercise and get out a bit more, especially now that the weather's changing for the better.
And between all this, I've been looking for flights to Europe in August, planning a trip to Kyoto in May, and trying to figure out if I want to stay with my current job or look for another one, and making plans for both eventualities (looking for other open positions if I go, and negotiating days off/other perks if I stay). Not to mention, of course, the day-to-day niceties of teaching small children.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Shipwrecked
A friend of mine decided to start her birthday celebration by encouraging everyone to get tickets to Shipwrecked. This is a once-a-month-or-so event, where 40,000won (~$40) gets you all you can drink draft beer on a boat that floats down the Han River at night for three hours.
Since I'd never been on the Booze Cruise (as it's otherwise known as), I'd never been on the water of the Han, and it was Fiona's birthday, I decided to sign up. The tickets sold out more than a week before the event, even though the boat had a 500 person capacity.
Amy and I got to the boat just after 6, and were on board around 6:30. We took off right around 7, and spent the rest of the evening enjoying the company of friends and the 'free' beer on the boat.
A view of the 63 building at night.
One of the many bridges we went under
The captain of the boat was watching tv while driving.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Running, or rather pushing, of the Bulls
A friend of mine, Jess, suggested that a bunch of us go down south for this little festival called the Bull Fighting Festival. Jess is great at organizing trips, and she had been to the festival several years before, so I enthusiastically gave her my $38 for a round-trip train ticket to Daegu for the weekend. On St. Patrick's Day, a few of us went over to Jess' house and attempted to make paper-mache horns in preparation for the upcoming weekend. It was much more difficult than we anticipated, and rather took the spirit out of St. Patty's day as we struggled with wire, paper, and flourwater.
We took the train down to Daegu after work on Friday without incident. We arrived near midnight, and walked around for almost an hour looking for a place to stay that would hold 8 people. This was partially because the FIRST place we looked told us that the rooms would be ready in 10 minutes, and this was incorrectly told to the rest of us as the room wasn't available. So instead of waiting for 10 minutes, we wandered the streets of Daegu.
When we finally got back to the original hotel, the rooms were now taken (though by whom, we have no idea - what other group of 8 people had all of a sudden wandered in??). So we found a place right next door. Everyone except for myself and Laura decided to go out into town for "one drink". I knew this would mean they weren't going to get back until 5am, so the two of us went to sleep, and sure enough, they all straggled in sometime around/after dawn.
The hotel we stayed at was at the end of a suspicious-at-night, but character-filled-during-the-day alley. Because I got a good-night's sleep, I woke up early the next morning (7ish or so) and went off in search of coffee, which was only yo be found at that hour back by the train station. I got back to the hotel, and we all headed back to the station to get to the town of Cheong-do, which is where the festival actually was. On the way we took a different route than I had taken, and passed by this lovely sight:
A cramped and sweaty 20-minute bus ride after the pleasant 20 minute train ride got us to the festival area. We saw the standard festival fare, including bondegi, which I have yet to try (I'm sorry, does boiled silk worm larvae sound appetizing to you??). Rob decided to get some, though. Props to him.
The entrance fee was about $5, and even though the website said you didn't have to pay if you were born in the year of the ox, this sign dispelled that myth.
After wandering around the stadium area for a while we headed into the area to see what was what. Several people commented on our horns, and wanted to know where we bought them. I think if it hadn't taken the better part of 5 hours to make them, we'd have considered making extras to bring with us next year.
We took the train down to Daegu after work on Friday without incident. We arrived near midnight, and walked around for almost an hour looking for a place to stay that would hold 8 people. This was partially because the FIRST place we looked told us that the rooms would be ready in 10 minutes, and this was incorrectly told to the rest of us as the room wasn't available. So instead of waiting for 10 minutes, we wandered the streets of Daegu.
When we finally got back to the original hotel, the rooms were now taken (though by whom, we have no idea - what other group of 8 people had all of a sudden wandered in??). So we found a place right next door. Everyone except for myself and Laura decided to go out into town for "one drink". I knew this would mean they weren't going to get back until 5am, so the two of us went to sleep, and sure enough, they all straggled in sometime around/after dawn.
The hotel we stayed at was at the end of a suspicious-at-night, but character-filled-during-the-day alley. Because I got a good-night's sleep, I woke up early the next morning (7ish or so) and went off in search of coffee, which was only yo be found at that hour back by the train station. I got back to the hotel, and we all headed back to the station to get to the town of Cheong-do, which is where the festival actually was. On the way we took a different route than I had taken, and passed by this lovely sight:
A cramped and sweaty 20-minute bus ride after the pleasant 20 minute train ride got us to the festival area. We saw the standard festival fare, including bondegi, which I have yet to try (I'm sorry, does boiled silk worm larvae sound appetizing to you??). Rob decided to get some, though. Props to him.
The entrance fee was about $5, and even though the website said you didn't have to pay if you were born in the year of the ox, this sign dispelled that myth.
After wandering around the stadium area for a while we headed into the area to see what was what. Several people commented on our horns, and wanted to know where we bought them. I think if it hadn't taken the better part of 5 hours to make them, we'd have considered making extras to bring with us next year.
The actual bull-fighting was pretty self-explanatory. Two bulls were brought out into the ring and pulled head-to-head by their 'owners'. Then they just pushed at each other's heads until one tuned his head and ran away. This could take anywhere from 5 minutes to 25 minutes, depending on the bulls.
We made it more interesting by betting on which bull we thought would win (I won 1,000 won on the only bet I made), standing up and talking to the massive amount of foreigners in our area of the stadium, and drinking incessantly.
After watching the fighting for a few hours, we headed back to Daegu. Amy decided to borrow my horns for a while.
Since we ended up with about 20 people who all knew each other, we decided to split up for dinner. I went with my friends from Gueryong to a place called Gorilla Burger, which was supposed to be amazing. I thought it was decent. We had a bit of a time finding it because Chris was in the bathroom when the train stopped at our stop so he had to wait until the next stop 20 minutes away, and then buy another ticket and wait for the train to come back down to Daegu.
We stayed out for most of the evening in Daegu, with different people going to different bars and switching back and forth. I stayed out till about 2 or so, and then headed back to the hotel with Hannah, since she didn't know how to get back. I was surprised that I made a straight shot back to the hotel, seeing as how it was the first time I'd ever been to Daegu. But once I got my bearings on the main streets it was relatively easy to navigate.
The next day we got tickets back to Seoul around 1, so we headed back into town for breakfast of bi-bim-mandu, which I'd never had. Amy, Hannah and I went to a coffee shop called Amoeba, and then we all took the train back to Seoul.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day
I've actually had nothing of the kind. I just like that book.
I've started taking Korean lessons with someone I met through ATEK on Saturday mornings. At first I was reticent to give up one of my few days sleeping in, as well as the possibility of going out on Friday nights, but so far it's been worth it. The first lesson was way above my level, but after talking to the guy who's giving the lessons to myself and another foreigner, it's been changed to something that's much more on my level. I thought at first that I wouldn't go to the lessons if they were free - that paying for lessons would be more of a motivation to go. But since the person is doing it for me as a personal favor, it's almost like I'm being guilted into attending. Not that I mind that much, as I'm learning quite a bit. It also gets me up and going on a Saturday morning instead of laying in bed and wasting the day.
This Saturday, I met a friend of mine in Anguk after my lesson. I had heard of a place in the area where you could go to see an ice carving gallery, and you could carve your own ice. We decided to find somewhere to grab a bite to eat while on our way to the gallery. We tried to follow the directions Amy had written down, but we weren't able to find one of the big landmarks that the directions were dependent on. So we ended up wandering aimlessly around Jongno, which since it was a nice day neither of us minded. We found a strange little coffee shop called Yellow Bricks. We stopped and shared a real Belgian waffle for lunch, and then tried again to find the ice gallery.
We finally managed to find the Ice Gallery. We headed in, steps ahead of a Chinese tour group. The tour started out in the ice carving area, so we decided to go into the gallery first. For lack of a better word, and pun intended, it was really cool. There was a small group of young girls in there who seemed to be just as interested in watching us as they were in looking at the ice carvings.
After wandering through an igloo, an ice pension, ice palace, and even and ice bathroom, we went back to the carving area, just as the tourists were coming down.
We watched an 'ice expert' carve a block of ice first into a beer stein, then a wine chalice, then a coffee mug. And then she handed us two ice picks and Amy and I had a ball hacking away at the ice.
After we left the ice gallery, we wandered around Jongno a little bit, deciding to stop at Jogyesa. The last time I'd been there was at Buddha's birthday last year, when I went to the Lotus Lantern Festival. There was some ceremony going on inside the temple, and while we walked around, Amy told me about some of the different symbolism in Buddhism. I can't wait to go to Japan with her - she's gonna be like my own private tour guide!
We then headed back to Apgujeong, where we killed time in a Tom n Tom's coffee shop, until we met up with Leah for dinner at an Italian restaurant right across the street at a place I'd been meaning to try, called Pizza and Wine Married .
My "Funghi Pasta", which was string pasta with cream sauce, mushrooms, and black bread, was particularly tasty, and quite filling. After that, we headed to the Jang Cheon Art Hall close to my house, where one of my students was performing in the "Seoul Genius Junior Orchestra". June was the youngest member of the orchestra, and played both cello and trumpet. I forget sometimes how small my kids are. it was easy to be reminded when I saw June playing a cello that was larger than he was, seated with his feet dangling from his chair next to other students, some twice as old as he was.
After the performance ended around 9:30, and I had a short conversation with June's mom, Amy and I went back to my house, where I was charged with introducing Amy to the film wonderment that is Labyrinth. Before we saw the movie I checked my email, where I found out that I had won tickets to see Do Make Say Think Sunday night in Hongdae. I asked Amy if she knew who they were, and since she not only knew who they were, but also had some of their music (which was two steps ahead of me), I asked her if she wanted a free ticket to come with me. She agreed (would you turn down a $50 free ticket to a band you liked?).
Sunday morning I spent sleeping, and the afternoon was filled with putzing around my apartment, writing this blog (since I left my camera cord at school I didn't actually publish it), reading, and drinking an entire pot of coffee. Amy and I met around 4pm on the subway, and headed first to Richard Copy Cat's American Diner where we both enjoyed breakfast for dinner. We then made our way to Hapjeong station in search of Bau Haus Cafe, where Amy fulfilled her dog craving and I satisfied my curiosity.
After the dog cafe, we went to find the venue for Do Make Say Think. I had no idea where it was, only that it was in Hongdae, and it was called V-hall. Usually there are signs all over Hongdae on the streets for shows that point you in the right direction. This time there was nothing. So Amy and I stopped at the tourist box, where I asked for directions. The lady at the desk pointed out the window right across the street, and told us it was in the basement of that building.
I was worried that we might have trouble getting in because the reservations for the tickets had actually been made in someone else's name. I won the tickets through TheYeogiyo.com forum. The contest had been simple - first person to reply to the post gets the tickets. I was the second. But it turned out that the first person couldn't go, so that's how I got them. But the first person's name had already been put on the list. It didn't turn out to be a problem, and not only did Amy and I get in for free with no hassle, but we got there pretty much as the doors opened, so we were in the front the entire time.
The opening band was called On Sparrow Hills, and they were very entertaining to watch, particularly one of the drummers.
The second band was called Vidulgi Ooyoo. I couldn't tell if some of the sounds they were producing were accidental or on purpose. I'd like to think the ones that hurt my ears were accidental. Though I wasn't particularly fond of their music, it was nice to see a Korean girl playing guitar on stage.
And of course the last band was Do Make Say Think.
Even ignoring the fact that the first time I'd heard their music was the night before, I really enjoyed their performance. There were nine people in the band - two drummers, a violinist, saxophonist, two horn players, and three guitars and one bass (I think). Not only were they enjoyable to watch, but their music was interesting and varied. I'm not usually into instrumental music that's not classical style, but this was catchy, danceable, listenable music.
I wish I had better words to describe the concert. I've always envied people like my friend Steph, who can write about bands and review music and actually make it sound interesting. Anyway, the show was great, and as we were leaving, I saw a 10,000won note lying on the floor so I grabbed it, and promptly told Amy that we now had free cab fare home since the subways were just about closed.
And that was the end to my 'wonderful, marvelous, not bad, very good' weekend.
I've started taking Korean lessons with someone I met through ATEK on Saturday mornings. At first I was reticent to give up one of my few days sleeping in, as well as the possibility of going out on Friday nights, but so far it's been worth it. The first lesson was way above my level, but after talking to the guy who's giving the lessons to myself and another foreigner, it's been changed to something that's much more on my level. I thought at first that I wouldn't go to the lessons if they were free - that paying for lessons would be more of a motivation to go. But since the person is doing it for me as a personal favor, it's almost like I'm being guilted into attending. Not that I mind that much, as I'm learning quite a bit. It also gets me up and going on a Saturday morning instead of laying in bed and wasting the day.
This Saturday, I met a friend of mine in Anguk after my lesson. I had heard of a place in the area where you could go to see an ice carving gallery, and you could carve your own ice. We decided to find somewhere to grab a bite to eat while on our way to the gallery. We tried to follow the directions Amy had written down, but we weren't able to find one of the big landmarks that the directions were dependent on. So we ended up wandering aimlessly around Jongno, which since it was a nice day neither of us minded. We found a strange little coffee shop called Yellow Bricks. We stopped and shared a real Belgian waffle for lunch, and then tried again to find the ice gallery.
We finally managed to find the Ice Gallery. We headed in, steps ahead of a Chinese tour group. The tour started out in the ice carving area, so we decided to go into the gallery first. For lack of a better word, and pun intended, it was really cool. There was a small group of young girls in there who seemed to be just as interested in watching us as they were in looking at the ice carvings.
After wandering through an igloo, an ice pension, ice palace, and even and ice bathroom, we went back to the carving area, just as the tourists were coming down.
We watched an 'ice expert' carve a block of ice first into a beer stein, then a wine chalice, then a coffee mug. And then she handed us two ice picks and Amy and I had a ball hacking away at the ice.
After we left the ice gallery, we wandered around Jongno a little bit, deciding to stop at Jogyesa. The last time I'd been there was at Buddha's birthday last year, when I went to the Lotus Lantern Festival. There was some ceremony going on inside the temple, and while we walked around, Amy told me about some of the different symbolism in Buddhism. I can't wait to go to Japan with her - she's gonna be like my own private tour guide!
We then headed back to Apgujeong, where we killed time in a Tom n Tom's coffee shop, until we met up with Leah for dinner at an Italian restaurant right across the street at a place I'd been meaning to try, called Pizza and Wine Married .
My "Funghi Pasta", which was string pasta with cream sauce, mushrooms, and black bread, was particularly tasty, and quite filling. After that, we headed to the Jang Cheon Art Hall close to my house, where one of my students was performing in the "Seoul Genius Junior Orchestra". June was the youngest member of the orchestra, and played both cello and trumpet. I forget sometimes how small my kids are. it was easy to be reminded when I saw June playing a cello that was larger than he was, seated with his feet dangling from his chair next to other students, some twice as old as he was.
After the performance ended around 9:30, and I had a short conversation with June's mom, Amy and I went back to my house, where I was charged with introducing Amy to the film wonderment that is Labyrinth. Before we saw the movie I checked my email, where I found out that I had won tickets to see Do Make Say Think Sunday night in Hongdae. I asked Amy if she knew who they were, and since she not only knew who they were, but also had some of their music (which was two steps ahead of me), I asked her if she wanted a free ticket to come with me. She agreed (would you turn down a $50 free ticket to a band you liked?).
Sunday morning I spent sleeping, and the afternoon was filled with putzing around my apartment, writing this blog (since I left my camera cord at school I didn't actually publish it), reading, and drinking an entire pot of coffee. Amy and I met around 4pm on the subway, and headed first to Richard Copy Cat's American Diner where we both enjoyed breakfast for dinner. We then made our way to Hapjeong station in search of Bau Haus Cafe, where Amy fulfilled her dog craving and I satisfied my curiosity.
After the dog cafe, we went to find the venue for Do Make Say Think. I had no idea where it was, only that it was in Hongdae, and it was called V-hall. Usually there are signs all over Hongdae on the streets for shows that point you in the right direction. This time there was nothing. So Amy and I stopped at the tourist box, where I asked for directions. The lady at the desk pointed out the window right across the street, and told us it was in the basement of that building.
I was worried that we might have trouble getting in because the reservations for the tickets had actually been made in someone else's name. I won the tickets through TheYeogiyo.com forum. The contest had been simple - first person to reply to the post gets the tickets. I was the second. But it turned out that the first person couldn't go, so that's how I got them. But the first person's name had already been put on the list. It didn't turn out to be a problem, and not only did Amy and I get in for free with no hassle, but we got there pretty much as the doors opened, so we were in the front the entire time.
The opening band was called On Sparrow Hills, and they were very entertaining to watch, particularly one of the drummers.
The second band was called Vidulgi Ooyoo. I couldn't tell if some of the sounds they were producing were accidental or on purpose. I'd like to think the ones that hurt my ears were accidental. Though I wasn't particularly fond of their music, it was nice to see a Korean girl playing guitar on stage.
And of course the last band was Do Make Say Think.
Even ignoring the fact that the first time I'd heard their music was the night before, I really enjoyed their performance. There were nine people in the band - two drummers, a violinist, saxophonist, two horn players, and three guitars and one bass (I think). Not only were they enjoyable to watch, but their music was interesting and varied. I'm not usually into instrumental music that's not classical style, but this was catchy, danceable, listenable music.
I wish I had better words to describe the concert. I've always envied people like my friend Steph, who can write about bands and review music and actually make it sound interesting. Anyway, the show was great, and as we were leaving, I saw a 10,000won note lying on the floor so I grabbed it, and promptly told Amy that we now had free cab fare home since the subways were just about closed.
And that was the end to my 'wonderful, marvelous, not bad, very good' weekend.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Um. Wow.
So I told my kids this morning that they were going to have a test in math. Invariably, Lawrence will always say that something is easy. In this case he yelled it out. I try to tell my kids it's not nice to say something is really easy, because what's easy for some people may be hard for others. Anyway, my response was something along the lines of "But Lawrence, you don't know what's going to be on the test! What if it's something really hard, like 567 times 432?"
And his response was "That's easy! Can you write it on the board?"
So I did.
And he promptly, and correctly, solved it.
And I was floored. I went to ask his math teacher, with whom he does an individualized computer math program every week. This seven-year old boy is on a fourth grade math level, and can do 5-digit multiplication, as well as being the best math student in the school. If only I had known! I would have had him finish his math book a long time ago and given him something much more stimulating than double digit addition to be practicing!! This is why assessments are a good thing...
And his response was "That's easy! Can you write it on the board?"
So I did.
And he promptly, and correctly, solved it.
And I was floored. I went to ask his math teacher, with whom he does an individualized computer math program every week. This seven-year old boy is on a fourth grade math level, and can do 5-digit multiplication, as well as being the best math student in the school. If only I had known! I would have had him finish his math book a long time ago and given him something much more stimulating than double digit addition to be practicing!! This is why assessments are a good thing...
Friday, February 12, 2010
East vs West
I found this blog on Chris in South Korea, who said he read it at the Kimchi Cheeseburger, who quoted Bloggerbase, who credited Buburuza. So now I'm posting it myself. Not that either side is better, but it certainly helps to know this if you're going to spend any amount of time in Asia.
Blue = Westerner (American, British, Canadian. You know who you are.)
Punctuality
Anger
The Boss
Contacts
Three Meals a Day
The Elderly
Party
Handling Problems
Waiting in Line
In a Restaurant
Sunday on the Road
Transportation
Traveling
Moods and the Weather
Way of Life
Trendy Eating
Blue = Westerner (American, British, Canadian. You know who you are.)
Red = Asian (Korea, China, Japan, India, Thailand, etc.)
Opinion
Punctuality
Anger
The Boss
Contacts
Three Meals a Day
The Elderly
Party
Handling Problems
Waiting in Line
In a Restaurant
Sunday on the Road
Transportation
Traveling
Moods and the Weather
Way of Life
Trendy Eating
And now I will get back to finishing my trip to Vietnam. Right after dinner...
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