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.

Tips on Living Alone

So as most of you know I'm living alone here in a foreign country and sometimes I get lonely. Not anymore though with the help of my friend Dr. Steve Brule. Check out his video on how to fix those lonely times.

The good, the bad and the ugly

Just finished my second week here in Seoul and I'm still experiencing something new everyday. This blog focuses on some of these experiences and categorizing them accordingly. I'll start with the good...

Good

1. Korean women love to wear high heels and little clothes. I know that this may make me sound really shallow but I'm thinking more about it in a more functional manner...they can look sexy while giving their calves a strenuous workout.

2. Just like high heels, the metro cards are multifunctional. These cards can be purchased at your local convenient mart for a few bucks and then you add money according to your needs. Not only do these rechargable cards work for the metro they can be used for taxis, buses, and buying goods at the local family mart.

3. Phone chargers, I know that this may sound odd but Koreans have come up with an ingenious way to stop the age old problem of dead cell phones. If you are like me you tend to never have your charger when its needed most. In Korea this isn't a problem though, the chargers here are universal with a seperate adapter that correlates to the model attached to that phone. This way you'll never have to worry about ending those late night sext sessions at the bar due to a dead battery.

Honorable Mention: South Korea is the most connected country in the world. Within the next two years the average Korean household will have internet speed 200 times faster than that of an American home. Ironically I think I might be the only person in the country who still has to come steal internet from the local coffee shop.

Bad

1. Cigarettes are only like $2.25 here and they smoke them everywhere which has me starting a pretty nasty habit. Mom if you're reading this don't worry I dont smoke I'm just trying to act cool.

2. Blood Sausage, I'm sure that this is available back home but the way that they present/prepare this horse penis doesn't make it appealing at all. Its 4 am after a night of drinking and I am ready to give the street meat a shot. My friends decide as a right of passage I need to have a serving of this treat first. Needless to say I didn't enjoy chewing up this almost raw mystery meat.

Ugly

Fortunatly there is only one thing that falls into this category. Unfortunatly, it deals with bathrooms. I'm assuming that Koreans do this because of bad plumbing systems but they don't flush toilet paper. Instead they "neatly" dispose of it in the trash can. You can only imagine how disgusting this makes public restrooms. Also, lots of bars offer you a snack when you purchase a certain amount of alcohol. I like this alot but be careful not to ask for more salsa...Salsa here refers to something totally different (its related to the early subject from this section.)

Until next time.

Not in Kansas anymore

I thought I'd write a quick entry on a few funny things that are obviously different so far. First of all when I got to my apartment I had to take cold showers the first few days because I didn't know how to cut on my hot water. Turns out you have to cut it on and off everyday via a remote on the wall. Secondly, when you're walking down the street and someone older than you needs to get by they will just push you...its normal here no big deal, no need to say sorry or excuse me. While on the same street I noticed a hospital, the odd thing about the hospital is that patients are allowed to just walk around outside with their gowns and IV's hooked up. Sometimes they will be down the street eating outside or smoking a cig while just carrying around an IV. The health department back home would have a heart attack.
Another odd thing is that at my school if you want to use toilet paper its in the office hanging on the wall...You can only guess what the person will be doing with that wad of paper they just grabbed. Also the bathrooms in the school are public so someone off the street might stop in for a minute.
Last but not least I witnessed the funniest thing I've seen in a long time...on my walk to the market there was a stray dog barking at this Korean man and at first the man just stopped and looked at the dog in disgust. The dog kept barking though so the man stopped, turned around, picked up a handful of rocks and began throwing them while cursing the dog. Fortunately no one was hurt but it was pretty amusing at 8 in the morning. Obviously there are more things that stick out such as the dried seaweed snack that I was just given by one of the Korean teachers while writing this post(not that good) but for some reason these resinate more. Until next time.

안녕히 가세요 (stay in peace)

first impression

I made it. It was a pretty easy flight and Korean Air actually has some really spacious planes so it worked out well for me. After I found my driver we drove about an hour or so with traffic to my temporary apartment. The best way to describe it would be barren, I have a small mattress on the floor and a desk. Not much else to it but it takes care of my needs for now. Once I move in to my permanent apartment I will try and make it alittle more homey.
After spending a few minutes of unpacking I heard a knock on my door, not any knock but a loud one like someone was pissed off. I was hesitant to answer the door but I thought maybe its someone from my school or the landlord or something so I waited and they knocked again even louder. Of course I answered it this time and in front of my door is a Korean guy screaming at me about how I had been sleeping with his girlfriend. I was so taken back that the only thing I could muster out was "hey man, what's up?" He burst into laughter and my friend Dylan popped his head around the corner. Dylan who was a friend of mine at ASU has been here teaching for about a year now and used his Korean connections to try and freak me out within my first hour but I was so out of it I didn't even process that this guy was trying to scare me. What a friend he is.

I will update more about my first week later on but for now I'm having to use internet at a cafe close to my apartment.