Best Chuseok Ever! part 2

So after getting back from Seoraksan I had a day to rest up before I had my first visitors...I have a friend named Emilie who I was introduced to before I came to Korea because she was coming over at the same time. Emilie lives in Gwangju which is about 4 and 1/2 hours south of Seoul and since her and her friend Laura had nothing better to do they decided to come check it out.

They arrived in the early hours of Tuesday morning and after getting a little sleep we headed out to meet my friend Ahyoung. Ahyoung is a college student who works at the old OLA campus and we have kept in touch ever since. She was nice enough to show us some of the hidden gems of the city but the weather had other plans, raining us out completely and making us take cover within the COEX. The COEX is the largest underground shopping center in Asia and also houses a start of the art convention center. The G20 summit will be held there in November and none other than Obama is making an appearance.

Luckily Wednesday's weather held in check and we were able to venture out and participate in some traditional Chuseok festivities. First we watched a traditional Korean Musical performance that was out of this world. Then we worked our way over to the National Palace where we got to see lots of traditional games and arts & crafts. I even made a box with traditional Korean rice paper patterns. After that we popped some silk worm pupa and headed to Itaewon for some long awaited Mexican food. After almost two months of Korean food some wanna be Mexican was pretty badass.

This Chuseok holiday was great, I had a chance to get out of the city and see some amazing landscape, I enjoyed the company of a familiar face, and I got to take in some of the traditional aspects that Chuseok has to offer.

One more thing I got from Chuseok was that feeling of family even though mine is half way around the World. Just being out and seeing all the families spending time together, some looking anxious to get away and play with friends while others embraced the short times that had together it reminded me of something familiar even if it is only September. Happy Chuseok everyone!

Best Chuseok Ever! part 1

Sorry I haven't really done a good job the last week or so with keeping up on the blog. Even though I tend to have a good amount of down time for some reason it still seems like I never find time to write and it doesn't help when most of my week is pretty repetitive with work. This week I have lots to talk about though because it was Chuseok. For those of you who aren't up to date on your Korean holidays, Chuseok is viewed as an equivalent to Thanksgiving. We got Monday-Thursday off and I made tried to make the most of it.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to travel anywhere really exotic for the holiday, mostly because I had such a short window of opportunity to plan a trip and traveling during the holidays is a real pain. So I decided to get out of the city for a bit and took a weekend trip up to Seoraksan National Park. This was my first travelling experience in Korea and I did it solo. There were a few minor bumps along the road but everything worked out fine and I had an amazing time there. Seoraksan turned out to be even more exotic than I could have ever dreamed. It could very well be the most beautiful place I have ever seen, the mountains are outrageous and the valleys and streams just multiply it tenfold. On top of all that there are a few Buddhist temples and villages scattered throughout the park which made it that much more mesmerizing.

I even hiked up one of the peaks and crawled into a cave where Buddhist monks come to meditate. After almost dying from the hike and backing out due to some of the super sketchy trails that seemed to lead you to your death I reached my destination. Being up about 5,000 ft, sitting in a cave that has been used for centuries as a place of worship and looking over the mountain range can be pretty humbling and breathtaking. Even for someone who knows practically nothing about their religion it is not hard to see why they search for peace in these mountains.

I am so happy that I decided to go and push myself to make that journey to the top. It was definitely a once in a lifetime kind of experience. Hopefully I can make it out to Seoraksan again this winter and get another opportunity to have one of those moments that you will never forget or regret.

Address

I have had a couple of requests for my address so below is the address to my school. I think it is the safest bet because that way I won't have to worry about being present to sign. Also if anyone does decide to send me anything from a letter to a care package just know that if you do it via US Postal Service that once it crosses international borders the tracking number doesn't mean anything and if lost it might never be found. FedEx and UPS both ship here and can be tracked all the way to my door. One more thing it takes about 10 working days to send stuff so please not send live pets.

Taylor Southerland

Ian building 5th floor 563-16

Mangu-dong Jungnang-gu Seoul

S.Korea

131-810

If you are confused by this address please write it down exactly as you see it and they can help you at the store.

Play ball

I finally made it to my first baseball game of the season. I can't believe that I waited this long to go but at least I waited for a good one. Tonight the Lotte Giants came in town to play the Doosan Bears. These teams are two of the top teams in the league and with playoff time right around the corner it made for an exciting atmosphere.

It was like American football meets European soccer meets baseball. There are hundreds of vendors selling tallboys outside the stadium and its b.y.o.b at these games which is awesome. There are cheerleaders shaking their pom poms all around and the crowd is constantly singing and chanting nonsense at the opposing teams fans. Its perfect, I didn't even know who I was pulling for until the third inning but I didn't care cause the beers were cold and the chants were inviting. To anyone back home that thinks baseball is a slow moving boring sport with a lot of down time has never seen Korean baseball. I look forward to the playoffs and hopefully Doosan will make a run at the SHIP.

Howdy

So I have officially been in Korea for a month. Part of me feels like I just left but at the same time I am starting to get the feel of working the grind. I guess thats good and bad, good that I still feel some of the excitement of learning something new and good that I am becoming comfortable but bad that I am falling into that abyss everyone has but no one wants; the daily grind. I'm realistic and understand that there will obviously be quite a few days over the next 11 months that will fall under the daily grind category but to make sure that this trip doesn't just turn into the same old shit just a new place it will take a conscious effort on my part.

This is where the blog gets pretty dry...I am going to have to research some of Korea's hidden gems so I can make the most of my weekends instead of always going out to the bars, sometimes just a day trip to a market or going to see some live music will be more than enough to keep things interesting. Also utilizing my vacation days by hopping over to a near by island or country will very key. Then on a day to day basis I need to really focus on being productive before classes. These afternoons will be the key to a successful year...I am in the process of joining my first gym ever and when I'm not busy pumping iron and flexing my new muscles I'll need to make sure I put in a good hour or so on my Korean. If not my next year could consist of sleeping in till noon and bullshitting around my empty apartment which I think I've done enough of during the first 23 years of my life.

As far as my new neighborhood and school go...I'm happy here, it's quiet and laid back but only a 15 minute subway back into the belly of the beast. The apartment is starting to shape up but still has quite a bit of work to do. I like the school, its not as hectic as the last one, I like my kids except for a few punk asses but I guess you'll get a few of those in every bunch. My co-workers are nice, they're from Colorado. All three of them went to College together which tags me as the outsider but they are very nice so I don't feel get that feeling at all really.

SO overall I would say things are going really good. I am still happy and still having fun. I look forward to the upcoming fall weather and getting a couple of chances to explore some different parts of the country. The only bad thing right now is that I lost my diploma and a notebook today when I was at the store. Hopefully someone will return it to the academy since it was still in the envelope with the address on it. If not oh well I guess I will just have to start college all over again once I get back to the States.

I promise I will try and make the next post a little more interesting.

New Beginnings

I am officially moved into my long term school/apartment. All in all it's pretty much the same. I have a bigger bed and a bigger room but the room was dirty when I got to it so that sucked. It was also a little bit of a pain to have to pack up again and move all my shit half way across Seoul but now I can finally settle in and call something home (Cajun guy: "home is where you make it" Me:"What you like to see homos naked?") The school is somewhat nicer than the last one and definitely not as crowded which is a plus. Besides that I don't really know too much else about my new neighborhood yet. I'll be sure to update after this weekend though...

On a side not this up coming weekend marks the start of college football. I am truly going to miss this annual party. I know the Neer's are going to take care of Biznazz and I'm just hoping that the Heels will show up with half their roster.