I’m now back in New York and already miss Korea. Didn’t know how good I had it…

The last night I was there, I went out with a few friends to Hongdae. I wanted to see the “other” nightlife area of Korea besides Itaewon. Differences? Lots more Koreans, a lot more places to dance, but also a lot of empty or near-empty clubs (or maybe we just picked unpopular places). We went to Sensation (cool bar, cool DJ, no cover) and one other place that I forgot the name of.

Even though we weren’t in packed places, we still had a good time. Hookah and drinks at Sensation while watching my friends dance to trippy hip hop/techno. More techno at the other place; I liked it.

Street carts line the blocks up and down in the wee hours of the morning. After dancing we ate at a kabob cart but it’s more like a gyro. Good eats.

After being back in New York I can truly appreciate how nice Korea is. I am seriously considering teaching English there now.

What I miss about Korea:
- The cleanliness of their streets and subways
- Cheap food and cost of living
- My extremely nice relatives who took care of me and gave me $$
- The great friends I made during my short stay there (most of them are English teachers from Canada or the US)
- Inexpensive nights out and cheap cabs
- Looking at cute girls with their cute outfits, dressed to the nines
- Flavorful fruits and vegetables (getting back to NY, none of the produce I’ve eaten was as tasty as in Korea… probably cuz we use massive amounts of hormones to grow such big veggies)
- Having a guaranteed, easy job with my uncle
- Cheap subway fares

What I missed about New York:
- Authentic NY pizza (though when I recently had a slice, I was wondering if it was always this greasy)
- Vietnamese and Malaysian food, and take-out Chinese
- Cleavage baring! No one did it in Korea; just bare legs up to the crotch
- Seeing people of all different colors and sizes

Yeah I think Korea wins for now.

I’m going home on August 8th. Home is on the horizon.

And yet, I know that once I’m gone, I’ll be missing this crazy place. 3-for-chun won ($0.80) boong-uh ppang (fish-shaped pastries filled with red bean filling… yum). $3 soon tofu. $1 kimbap. $2-3 earrings that look damned good, $4 graphic tees. Cheap everything, really, except for fruit (paid about $9 for 2 pounds of grapes, eesh).

Maybe this should’ve been a food blog. Oh well, too late now. I am seriously craving some New York style pizza… thin crust with piping hot cheese and sauce… mmm. And  a few other home comforts like my canine companion and pals.

To make the most out of my stay here, I’ll be trying to do the following in the few days I have left:

• Visit some family on my mom’s side and see my adorable 2 girl cousins… haven’t seen them since they were 4 and 6
• Get new luggage and gifts for friends
• Go to Hongdae and check out their nightlife and dance clubs
• Wrap up all leftover work at the office including translations and convention details

I think that’s doable.

My time here has been insightful, filled with a lot of fun but also loneliness,  constructive, and rewarding. I haven’t achieved nearly all the things I’ve wanted to (becoming fluent in Korean and figuring out what I want to do with my life) but it has lead me on a direction towards that.

Random fact about Korean people: They think it’s weird to sit side-by-side when at a table/seating area. And my 13-year old male cousin is afraid of cats.

I have no more. Will update with my Hongdae experience in a few days :)

Apologies for my woe-is-me rant in that last post. No, I won’t get rid of it :p

It is about Week 8 into my Korea furlough. I’ve started to have bouts of homesickness, especially when concerning my dog Aji and my good friends back home. Though I’ve made a slew of awesome new people here (funny how a chain of events, through one person, can alter the course of your stay/life…).

Went to Mudfest ‘09 in Boryeong this past weekend. They say the mud from this area is good for your skin so the townspeople organize a festival for it every year. They haul in truckloads of the mud and have all sorts of activities for people to just get dirty and rowdy. With cheap alcohol, loads of 20-somethings, and bare bodies, yeah it can be a recipe for trouble… or just wicked fun, whichever way you look at it!

I got painted on with mud, handprints on my ass/boobs, and for the first time had a decent amount of beer (about 8 ounces or so). Alcohol’s not really my thing, but what the hell, we were at Mudfest and I let loose!

The girls all went out at night and 2/3 of them came home with tales of late-night makeout sessions and discovering “19! He was NINETEEN!” (ahem, I won’t mention any names!). I took way too few clothes even though my bag  weighed about a ton. Had some awesome soon-tofu with Kathleen.

I’ve wanted to post a bunch of pictures on this blog but Facebook is way easier for adding pics… Maybe I will make them public :) Some of them, anyway.

Since I’ve been here I’ve not bitten my nails once and they are freakin’ long! Longer than I’ve ever had them, I think… though I find myself wanting to bite all the time rawrgh.

This post is all over the place but that’s ok. I think I will come back and add to it later.

I stumbled across this post and cannot recommend it enough: Tom’s Twelve Laws of Life. If I knew Korean well enough I’d be tempted to translate it and scatter it across the Korean subway system all over town (these people feel a whole lot of guilt and obligation).

This may seem too hippy and self-help-like for a lot of people but after reading it, I couldn’t agree more. Success and happiness does not come easy but there exists a formula, more or less, and Tom’s post describes it in good detail.

I have battled over whether or not to reveal myself too much in this blog. It can be so easy to because we like to think we’re anonymous… But those days are catching up to us, with employers looking into workers’ facebooks and myspace pages. Everything is getting connected and tracked back to us eventually. I guess the goal is to chronicle my life and efforts and see where it leads me (and who it leads me to) while trying to keep my stuff online as kosher as possible.

A few years ago I was making good money online. Not kiddy stuff, I’m talking 4-5 figures per month. Now that’s dried up and although I’ve been trying to get back in the game, I know it won’t be as easy as it was before. The rules have changed (and I unintentionally helped change them) for the worse… Still, I will keep trying, because “nothing worth having comes easy.”

One of my fatal flaws has been my thinking of the now, now, now. Immediacy. I want what I want when  I want it. It has been a great hindrance. It has lead to time being wasted, unhealthy foods consumed, and potential lost. At 25 years old I feel I don’t have much to show for my time spent on this earth. But that is no reason to feel sorry for myself and give up.

One of my greatest inspirations has been and continues to be Mr Jamar Whaley. A high-school dropout, he’s managed to work a 6-figure job with no college education before quitting to pursue a degree in Psychology (which may now turn into a double MD/PhD degree!). And even with no job, he makes decent coin from all his scholarships, grants, and other money they throw at him to study, grow, and research… Because he makes a mother-effin’ effort with his big ol’ brain. He gives his damnedest and that kinda money doesn’t come to people that are fine with just gettin’ by with B averages. Mister 3.98 GPA.

I know I’m far from stupid. I know I have massive amounts of potential. Why do I shy away from hard work? What makes me not consider tomorrow in making today’s decisions? When will I grow up…

Been here for about a month now, and I think I’m taking the change pretty well.

Pros:

• Nice to have someone home-cook all my meals for me :D
• Shopping is hella fun cuz everything’s so inexpensive
• Fun to people watch cuz the girls here make so much effort (heels and makeup to go to the supermarket? Of course!)
• The subway is clean and cheap (’bout 90 cents to $1.20, depending on how far I go)
• Made new Canadian friends! Tiffany especially is awesome-cool.
• My uncle’s apartment is on the first floor. So far we’ve not turned on the AC once but there hasn’t been a need to… Lower-floored apartments for the win!
• I feel like my family here actually cares about me and my well-being (besides my dad)
• Have a good, steady job that’s not too demanding
• Opportunity to travel to new places for trade shows
• My cousins are all adorable and fun
• Heard it’s been raining buckets in New York. The weather here, while muggy, has been pleasant. I think it’s only rained about 2 days here so far.
• Lots of time to do the things I’ve always said I’d “get around to” doing. Setting up websites and reading, mostly.
• Prepaid cell phones are cheap. 2 cents for sending a text, free to receive, free incoming calls… awesome.

Cons:

• Fruit, however is NOT cheap. $5 for a little tub of blueberries? $20 for a watermelon? Gack.
• Pizza is also expensive.
• A lot of clothing here is made in one size… I hate that
• My aunt & uncle expect me home by a certain time
• I miss Jamar, my friends, and Aji a lot
• The aforementioned make-a-lot-of-effort girls usually are with boyfriends that are way less good looking and way more casually dressed
• Generally less freedom and privacy, though it hasn’t been too bad
• The subway stops running at midnight arrrgh <– hate that
• Some of them really do eat dogs :( But never tiny purebreds… those they keep.
• The time difference from here and NY makes it hard for me to take care of billing calls / anything that requires calling to NY

Hmm, I guess my pro list is way longer than my con list. I’ve thought it would be a lot harder for me to adjust and get used to life here but it’s not. I can actually see myself staying here for a few months with not much trouble. And the trip has forced me to put my long-idling laptop to use. A perfectly good laptop that I didn’t use for over a year… Shame.