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.

Related posts:

1. Pros and Cons of Korea
2. Home and Hongdae
3. Itaewon Nightlife

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 :)

Related posts:

1. My daily routine
2. Hongdae, Hongdae… New York, New York

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.

Related posts:

1. Home and Hongdae
2. My daily routine
3. Itaewon Nightlife

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…

Related posts:

1. My daily routine

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.

Related posts:

1. A bit of everything (and soon doobu)
2. Hongdae, Hongdae… New York, New York
3. Home and Hongdae

I saw large stacks of cardboard paper transformed into pretty, complete boxes. But each step requires different machinery. Big, hulking machines speedily print, score, cut, or fold. It’s so cool to watch something go in and watch it come out completely different.

Then there are jobs that require human touch to be finished. One such job had women from other Asian countries (Thais, Viets, Malaysians, Chinese) scoring and assembling boxes by hand. I guess they’re cheaper labor. Large stacks of finished boxes took up most of one side of the wall; there must’ve been over a thousand. This particular one was for a Ginseng health set and had a gold finish; I bet those boxes are expensive.

Eventually he wants me to go to trade shows in Las Vegas (yay!) and Chicago. After looking into it, I am pretty excited. Being able to travel for free and hobnob with large-scale businesses… Perhaps going into unrelated trade shows to hand out business cards and get some more clients for my unc… At a commission, of course :) It’d be pretty awesome if that was my job.

Of course, I still have a lot to learn about this business. I don’t know the specifications or logistics of anything yet. But I took a few related classes in college due to my advertising design degree. One class was all about printing, colors, offset machines, yadda yadda… The professor was talking about e-ink (as in what the Kindle uses) before the Kindle was even introduced. Saying how it’d change the world and we could eventually figure out how to put it on t-shirts so that we can change the message/designs on them at will. Awesome stuff.

I’m more excited about the possibilities of getting to travel for free to amazing places. There’s trade shows all over the world… If I’m lucky enough, maybe Japan, Thailand, and Amsterdam will be on my list eventually. Where are your top must-see travel destinations?

Related posts:

1. Pros and Cons of Korea
2. My daily routine

I wake up around 8am. This sounds early and normally it is for me, though living with a family whose kids get up at 7:30 and usually go to bed before midnight gets you in the habit of doing the same. So far this hasn’t been too bad at all.

I wash up and have breakfast. No toast, cereal, or oatmeal to be found here… Usually the first meal of the day consists of rice, sometimes soup with fish/tofu/beansprouts, and a bunch of side dishes including kimchi. Yes, their breakfasts are very similar to their lunches and dinners. At times there’s good protein like bulgogi (seasoned stir-fry beef), eggs, or fried fish. I’ve been eating more fish since I got here; I like that. It’s good for you!

After that I get dressed and head out to the office with my uncle. During rush hour the drive takes an hour to an hour and a half, ugh. He’s the one with the impressive packaging factory. I had no idea how big his company was (not in physical size but the amount of business that they do) until I got here. He makes boxes for Wal-mart, Samsung, Hyundai, cigarette companies, and countless food and beauty products across Korea. Although with this current economy, even he’s struggling to stay afloat. It seems very few are immune.

For the first couple of days at work I thought I’d die of boredom. I basically surfed the web for 6-8 hours a day. But now I’m working on getting their catalog online; been working on it since yesterday. I won’t bore you with the minutiae of this task; suffice it to say there’s a whole lot to be done for something that sounds so simple. I’ll probably finish it by today though. (I need to take breaks though; hence this blog post!)

Office workers in Korea generally get lunches (and I’m told breakfasts and dinners if they work those hours) for free. Pretty sweet. My other uncle runs the cafeteria here and his wife is a factory worker. Employing family members since 199x…

I finish up around 5-6pm and head home, but don’t get home till around 7pm. Then it’s leisure time. One thing I must say is that though deli’s here are plentiful (mistakenly called “supers” as in “supermarkets” by the locals) actual supermarkets are not so common, at least in my area. I found myself wanting to buy fresh fruit and healthier stuff other than chips and ice cream at the “super”. Also why tf is a watermelon $18, ughhh. I need to find out where to buy inexpensive produce. I haven’t been eating too well because of it :\

My next adventure will be trying to buy a prepaid cell phone… I totally wanna go to DongDaeMoon this weekend and go shopping. Yay for getting spending money. Eventually I wanna make my way to Lotte World and get on a couple of roller coasters but all my cousins like wussy rides. Mope.

Jenno out.

P.S. — Apologies for the lack of pictures. I took a ton and need to upload them; the next post will be a picture extravaganza!

Related posts:

1. Home and Hongdae
2. A bit of everything (and soon doobu)
3. The box factory & my future possible job

My friend and his pal showed me around Itaewon today. To those unfamiliar, Itaewon is a part of downtown Seoul popular for its foreigner population. Lots of foreigners = lots of Americanization, foodstuffs, and shops eager to take the bek-in’s cold hard cash. And of course that means places to party.

There are countless bars, clubs, and the infamous “hooker hill” where lady boys won’t hesitate to proposition any passing male. Sure, there are regular lady hookers as well, but I was surprised at the number of man-ladies preening at passerbys.

Last night was the first time I’ve really done anything “adult” in this country. On the surface, Koreans are a modest people, and they usually don’t wear revealing clothes or act too outrageously. But here, after the sun goes down, people watching is fascinating: girls of all races in clubbing gear (yes, including Korean gals who’d normally never reveal that much skin outside of Itaewon), more gay Korean men than I’ve ever seen in my life congregated on one street where all the boys clubs are (one aptly named Always Homme), and places of establishment created purely for the purpose of “giving some”; when there’s a customer, the storefront’s door remains locked.

This is the seedy underbelly of Korea. Rumor has it that the police sometimes goes into clubs and demands to drug-test everyone in there. You cannot refuse; that will land you in jail. If you do have anything in your system, expect to be jailed anyway, fined thousands of dollars, and deported, but not before getting to know the inside of the Korean prison system intimately. (At least there’s no ass-raping in these prisons.)

We went to a place called Bricx, a cool underground lounge-type bar with a dance floor and dim seating areas. Non-abrasive techno blared from the speakers and smoke wafted from nearby patrons with hookahs. A couple of drinks and Apple-infused tobacco smoke had me feeling pretty good for the night.

This place is pretty much the only place in Korea where people don’t bat an eye at interracial couples. All night I saw Korean girls leaving with white or black guys, and usually, the girls were way hotter than the guys (just callin’ it as I sees it). To them, the foreigners are a novelty… Girls have been known to come here to try new blood, so to speak. My pal commented that to be a female in Itaewon would be like being at a never-ending smorgasboard, but is it ever hard for a female to get laid in any country? Yeah, I thought not.

The night ended on a high. Buzzed from the alcohol and a bit lightheaded from the hookah, we made our way to an American-style diner (Copycat was the name of the place) where the proprietors claimed the best burgers in town. They were right (though the heavily promoted curly fries were nowhere to be seen).

Mmm… Itaewon cheeseburger.

Related posts:

1. Hongdae, Hongdae… New York, New York

The first day I was here I went merchandise shopping with my dad after a few hours of naptime. (Btw I hate how flights to Korea are scheduled… You land around 4am at Incheon which is an hour away from Seoul. So you’re forced to wait, fatigued, till 6am for a bus to take you to wherever… C’mon, you know people land at 4am!! Make it earlier! Or make the flight later! Sheesh.)

Anyway. I must say, I do like the subway system here. It’s so efficient and clean.

(Cont on June 1st… yeah I got sidetracked) My uncle is a jovial, cheerful man with 3 kids. For the summer I’m supposed to talk to them only in English but the youngest (age 8) doesn’t know what I’m saying most of the time. I find the Koreans’ will and efforts to learn English and to do well in school fascinating. Most Korean kids will go to school, then go to hak-won (after school academy to learn even more), then come home and do their homework… Oftentimes they will literally be studying from early in the morning to late at night.

I said to my dad, thank GOD I didn’t grow up in Korea to be subjected to this. My uncle agrees — he said children should have playtime and not be studying all the time. But his kids come in last place on placement exams and grades in school so what choice does he have but to make them do the same thing. This is the first year he’s been pushing them really hard.

My oldest cousin who’s 15 has been sent to a Catholic school in Illinois for the purpose of learning English and to hopefully get admitted to a good college in the US. She’s home for the summer but has been in IL for 6 months previously and her English has improved a lot, but the hak-won director said her test scores were abysmal. (Really? It’s that bad, compared to kids that haven’t lived in the US? Wow.) I’m supposed to tutor her for 2 hours a day from Monday-Friday after working at my uncle’s.Looks like my summer will be plenty busy…

Related posts:

1. Hongdae, Hongdae… New York, New York
2. My daily routine
3. Pros and Cons of Korea