The Chronicles of Korea

Six Months Have Passed

2009-05-22T13:50:00.006+09:00

Six months and four days ago, I boarded a plane bound for America.

Since landing at LAX last November 17, time has literally flown by. I'm currently preparing to move up to camp in Idyllwild (5,400 feet up in the San Jacinto Mountains about 100 miles from my current residence) for my 5th summer working at Idyllwild Arts Summer Program.

While in Korea, I saw firsthand that life is boundless, its possibilities endless, and its wonders countless.

Undoubtedly, I've mentioned the impact that I feel Korea has made on my life. My experience there has infiltrated my mind to the deepest parts, I think it shall never leave. But some things have come to mind only recently. Others have been on my mind, but I haven't been able to express them.

On a recent visit to the grocery store, I suddenly noticed something that I hadn't before. I don't use shopping bags anymore. I mean, I'm conscious that I haven't been using shopping bags, but I suddenly realized why.

As you may recall, shopping bags cost money in Korea. A great alternative was simply to box up your groceries using the plethora of boxes provided. These were free--and it actually made carrying your purchases much easier (considering you sometimes had to walk a great distance with them).

To my knowledge, no stores in America offer free boxes (other than Costco), but they do have the carts. I simply put all the groceries into my cart and I steal the cart to bring my groceries home.

I was kidding about that last part. I simply roll the cart to my car and load all the groceries in. I just don't like using shopping bags anymore. Korea has done that to me. Just an interesting observation.

But Korea has changed the way I view the world. When I first returned from Korea, I was overjoyed to be home. While that feeling of joy has not waned completely; returning to America has caused me to question certain things I hadn't before.

I will say, it didn't take me long to start comparing Korea and America. I started to resent the negative things I saw in America (the ridiculous traffic, the horrible music played very loudly from people's cars, etc.). I longed to return to Korea. I would look at pictures from my time in Korea and cry. Weird, perhaps.

I see America in a new way. Perhaps not a new way, but I have a clearer view of it's positives and negatives.

I'm afraid we've completely forgotten the freedoms the forefathers fought for. South Korea has had "freedom" for 56 years (official end of the Korean War--July 27, 1953) while America has had it for 226 (official end of the Revolutionary war--September 3, 1783). Our sense of personal freedom has overshadowed our sense of personal responsibility. To use a Star Wars quote, our sense of freedom has "betrayed and murdered" our sense of perspective, and specifically, the responsibility that comes with having freedom.

The freedom the people in South Korea have is still fresh in their mind and all they have to do is look North to see very clearly what they came from and what they could return to if their freedom was taken from them. They understand full well the impact of their freedom. However, we in America have largely forgotten. We'd do well to remember.

Korea has changed the way I see my own life in relation to others.

I am more keenly aware of language, and specifically how I come across to other people. I find myself apologizing to people for things I've said (whether the person was hurt or not), when before I wouldn't have even thought I possibly owed them an apology. I understand more fully the importance of communication; to a degree I, ironically, cannot articulate.

Though I appreciate people more (much more), I have difficulty expressing it. Not because I don't have the words, but because my mind and heart are so full, the words and thoughts are gone nearly as quickly as they entered. Sadly, this renders the good thoughts ultimately unhelpful to the person who deserves to benefit from hearing how much I appreciate them.

I have somehow given in to the hustle and bustle of life here, which I typically appreciate, but unfortunately my mind seems incapable of keeping up. Thusly, I cannot focus on anything, any time, any place.

Korea has also changed my perspective about a great many things.

For instance, since I spent a year without a cell phone, I still find telephone conversations a little difficult, though I'm trying to get better.

Since my brain now recognizes the various signs/billboards, etc. (whereas in Korea, I couldn't read anything), I find that I'm more appreciative of things. Obviously, I can communicate easier, and this is both a relief on my brain and a shock. It's a relief on my brain because my brain doesn't have to be stuck in "Confused" mode, but can now work in "Understand" mode. However, while in Korea, I got used to not being able to understand anything, so my brain basically hibernated. Coming back to America was like stepping out of a pitch dark cave after 6 months and being blinded by the sun. It hurts a little bit.

I also appreciate the things around me more, and don't take them for granted as much as before.

Since returning from Korea, I've been to a Dodgers game, a Giants game; Universal Studios, Disneyland, various California Missions, and many other fun activities. I don't sit around on the weekends nearly as much as I used to.

Money isn't as big a deal to me as before. I'm still frugal (especially now that a gallon of gas is more than a gallon of milk), but I also don't hoard money like I used to. I want to experience life more--and I don't want to just sit around and wait for a big movie deal to come across my path.

I think it's taken the past 6 months and 4 days for some of these things to really sink in...and I'm sure there are more lessons to come.

I'm Back

2008-12-30T15:00:00.014+09:00

I spoke with Lim Jae Jun (my favorite kid from Peacetown, the children's home I visited while in Korea) on the phone tonight. It was about 12:30 p.m. over there in Korea, and I just randomly decided to call Peacetown and see if I could talk to someone who could give me the address, so I could mail some things to the kids. I didn't intend to speak to Lim Jae Jun (who I'll refer to as Jae Jun from this point, because Lim is his last name), but when I got to speak to Dae Won (the person who was my contact when I was helping schedule trips to Peacetown) she had someone run and get Jae Jun so he could talk to me on the phone.

Jae Jun--
I've been back in America just over two months--and yet I find I'm constantly thinking about my time in Korea, and specifically my time at Peacetown with Jae Jun. Truly, if I ever wondered what being a father felt like, this is how I'd describe it.

On the phone, we didn't share more than about 6 words between us; I said some Korean words and he said some English words; but that's all we could do. But just the chance to hear his voice and say HI to him was amazing. Dae Won said that he is always talking about me and wondering how I'm doing. That concept is amazing to me. The fact is--I visited Peacetown 9 times in 12 months. I hung out with Jae Jun only about the last 4 or 5 visits...for 2 hours each time. That's it. But I was still able to make an impact.

I'm not kidding myself and thinking that I've forever changed the course of this kid's life. I know that my influence and memory will eventually disappear, just as my vision of the past will haze. But it's remarkable to me that this kid could have such an impact on my life, and that I could have a sustainable impact on his.

Even though I've been back in California for over 2 months, somehow it feels like I was here the whole time.

Before I left Korea, thinking of California or America was like thinking of a dream I'd once had. However, now that I'm back home, it's Korea that feels like a dream.

Did I just spend a year in South Korea? Could that possibly have happened--or did I imagine the whole thing? It's nearly impossible to process.

It's hard to believe that it all happened.

My final few weeks in Korea were filled with all kinds of wonderful and crazy things. A final trip to On the Border, a stand-up comedy night, my last performances of "The Squirrels", my last game show, and my final visit to Peacetown; the children's home that played such a big part in my time in Korea.

On The Border finale (Candy told the waiter it was my birthday, she's a dirty liar)--Dustin seeing "The Squirrels" for the first time--on my last day--
Sarah and me after the First Annual EV Stand-Up Comedy Show--Herman, Nikki, and me after the aforementioned comedy show--Jae Jun and me on my last visit to see him--
My last day in Korea, I was invited to have lunch at Daniel's house; which was a true honor. Daniel is a 6 year old Korean child I met while working at English Village. His mother would bring him to the park about once a week. He saw many of the shows I was in, as well as the activities I hosted.

After a performance of "The Squirrels" (I'm Spiderman and he's Superman--he likes to do this stuff; and who am I kidding, so do I)--His English was amazing, as was his mother's. I remember the first time I saw him. I was hosting a game show, and he was on my team. It was the other team's turn, and so I was trying to keep my team from shouting out the answers (they often did this). Daniel was sitting close to the front, and he seemed like he knew the answer--but had put his finger to his mouth making the international 'Shh' sign, which I was also doing to keep my team quiet. I went over to him and pointed to my ear--basically saying, 'Whisper the answer in my ear'--and he did. He knew the answer. I saw him many more times after that. I miss him. He always had a smile on his face, and was always happy to see me. And I was always happy to see him. After all, it's what I was in Korea to do--make kids smile.

Riding back to EV in the car (I'm wearing his beanie, and he's wearing mine, because he said, "You like blue and I like brown"--because I had previously told him my favorite color was blue, and he said his favorite was brown)--I'm sorry it's taken me so long to post another blog. To anyone who has been willing to listen, I've attempted to share my basic observations about life in Korea, and about my return to America. It hasn't been an easy transition. It hasn't been a hard transition, either; but it's been a very new experience; one I wasn't quite ready for.

I describe my brain as 'mush'. So much has happened in so short a time--my brain is trying to catch up.

Driving a car wasn't as 'weird' as I thought it would be. I hadn't been behind the wheel of a motor vehicle for exactly 365 days, and though I knew I'd relax back into it, I definitely thought LA traffic would be more scary than it was.

I definitely have trouble paying attention. I'm typically a list-maker, but haven't done much of that since coming back, because the list itself would require a list. There was so much to be done.

When I arrived at the airport, after spending nearly 15 hours in the sky (from Korea to Vancouver, from Vancouver to Los Angeles), I couldn't believe I was really home. I saw the Hollywood sign from the sky as we descended toward the airport, and I couldn't fight the tears that came. I'm neither a child nor an emotional wreck, but coming home to America was among the most tear-jerking experiences I've ever had. I haven't cried like that since watching The Passion of the Christ.

The plane that will take me from Vancouver to LA-- The Hollywood sign in the distance! (if you enlarge the picture, you'll noticed I colored it in to make it stand out more)--
This was actually in Vancouver, but it was my first vision of an American flag--and it was quite something--
Suffice it to say, it was great to be home. I kissed the ground.

Patrice picked me up from the airport, and yes, as soon as I got my bags, we went directly to In-N-Out. I ordered all by myself--the excitement could barely be contained. I made sure to keep my hands at my sides, as to not scare the person behind the counter with either my ridiculous joy or my unnecessary gestures. I said, 'I'd like to have a #2 with lettuce, ketchup, and mustard only please.' It was so easy. 'And a medium t-shirt.' I love the t-shirts from In-N-Out. Patrice had sent me an In-N-Out gift card while I was in Korea, and I immediately taped it to my dressing room mirror so I'd have something wonderful to look forward to.

I must say--sitting down and eating an In-N-Out hamburger and drinking a full-sized cup of Dr. Pepper (with free refills, where the cup has John 3:16 on the bottom) that you got from the fountain is among the most simple and wonderful joys I've yet to experience in life. It was well worth waiting a year. A greater truth has ne'er been spoken: absence makes the heart grow fonder.

The next day I picked up my rental car. I rented it for 3 weeks. This would assist me in visiting friends and also searching for a car of my own. I got a bright red Chevy HHR. I grew to like it.
That night, I had a steak dinner with some good friends. It was the first sit-down restaurant I visited since being back in America. It was quite an experience. From this point on in my life, I will encourage people to say 'YES' to life (and I'm not just saying that because I've seen Jim Carrey's movie, 'YES MAN' three times since it opened in December).
But--I promise you, if you spend a year in a country where you are completely incapable of speaking to a waiter/waitress--coming back and talking to a server will be quite startling. It was for me. The waiter spoke perfect English. Yet I was remarkably confused by what he was saying. Though I swear I knew the words he was saying to me--'chives, cheese, bacon, cheese butter or honey'--I was completely lost. The other people at the table responded back immediately--and I was just frozen. He had to repeat the items to me. So simple. What did I want on my potato? Perhaps it was because he said them too fast, or because my mind couldn't process all the English at once--but I didn't know what to say. I literally had to get Patrice to assist me in making a decision. It's been like that for the past two months--I have trouble making decisions (which isn't normal for me). Luckily, however, it is getting better.

The next day I moved into the house where I currently dwell. From Korea, I mailed around 8 boxes to Patrice's house--rather than pay to take them with me on the plane. I packed up the HHR with all these boxes and stacked them in my good sized room.

I spent several days in San Diego for Thanksgiving. During that time, I rented a cargo van to move all my stuff from San Diego (where my aunt and uncle very KINDLY stored it) back to Orange County. Even though the room is good sized--it was not prepared to hold an apartment's worth of stuff. I'll definitely be downsizing in the next few months. Korea has definitely taught me what I can and should live with and without. I truly look forward to minimizing my possessions.

The sunset at La Jolla, San Diego, on Thanksgiving Day--

I also made 2 trips to Phoenix in 2 weeks. First, I went for a quick trip to see my friend Steve graduate from the police academy (and also got an awesome chance to briefly see my college friend Michael and his new child). I returned the next week to sing in the Christmas contata with the choir at my former church. Both were great trips, but I drove both ways both times all by myself. That's about 20 hours driving by myself. Thankfully, I had access to my CD's--which I hadn't had for a year. I sang until I was blue. And I was quite blue.
Steve putting me in some sort of arm-bar type hold--
Since arriving back in America, I spent a lot of time continuing to search for a car--and I only found 'the one' last month; Thursday, December 11. A silver 2001 Ford Taurus.
Some other picture highlights of my return to America:

The cereal aisle at VONS (a panoramic view, because a normal shot just wouldn't do it justice)-- Oh joy!!--
My favorite bargain/closeout store--
Hadn't had that in a very long time--
Probably my favorite store of all--
Delicious--

Korea has changed me. At this point, I can't really describe all the ways it has--but I know it has. Perhaps it's not even noticeable to the outside observer, but I know I've changed.

It's been very interesting to watch people's reactions to me after my return. I knew that very few people would understand what I'd just been through, and I assumed they wouldn't know how to respond to what I might go through--but that's also been a very isolating experience since returning. It's no one's 'fault'--it's just a result of the experience I've had.

Though I'm mostly over it now, I've spent much of my time thinking about returning to Korea. Not like I looked up flights back or anything like that. But truthfully, it's like "The Shawshank Redemption". I feel like the old guy, Brooks, who gets to leave the prison after spending so many years there. Even though he was now free--he simply could not get used to the freedom, and the difference between the real world and prison. Regardless of how he was treated in prison, and regardless of the fact that it was actually a prison; after he got out, he felt himself longing to return.

I feel the same way. I attribute that feeling to the desire for structure, and for the comfort of routine. All the new things I've had to do, though they're good things, have created a certain amount of 'stress'. Reverse culture shock, repatriation, returning to a previously held life, the holidays, visiting with friends you haven't communicated with in a year, moving into a new place, finding a car, and trying to prepare to return to work are all things that can be stressful. The icing on that stress cake is the ridiculous jet-lag, or mind haze that you experience when coming back after so long.

Here's my observation: to have been so changed by an experience such as I've just had and to come home to a place with people who remain so unchanged is very strange.

It's been quite an adjustment. And to go through it alone is very strange. I miss the simplicity of life in Korea--and I miss my experience there. I am, however, very happy to be back in America. I feel honored to have spent a year abroad.

Long Time Coming

2008-10-28T20:11:00.031+09:00

I have been busy!

In the past 30 days I have begun pre-packing to make sure I have enough boxes with which to bring home all my junk. I have also begun to sell the things I know I'm not taking to America. I have planned my final trip to Peacetown, planned a comedy night, spent my last "real" vacation days on an island south of Korea, and have spent hours and hours in the music studio recording songs.

I have been busy.

As I type this, I have 14 days left in Korea. Nine of those are work days. That means a total of 14 shows left. I can't believe I've made it this far.

If you've been following this past year of blogs, you know of the many things I've been fortunate to see and learn. The first 6 months of my time in Korea seemed to last a lifetime--truly.

However, the last 6 months have gone by in the blink of an eye. I can't believe how fast the time has gone.

I traveled alone to Jeju Island, off the south coast of Korea, from October 10-14. You are about to view MANY pictures from that vacation. It was exactly what I needed and wanted. I basically stayed on a beach with white sand and the bluest water I've ever seen for 3 days. It was amazing. The pictures should tell the story.

On the walkway to the airplane, Gimpo Airport in Seoul--
A map of Jeju Island with the main places I visited typed out--
As soon as I got out of the airport, I took a bus to Seongsan Ilchulbong (I named it incorrectly on the map above), and this was my first real view of the mountain. Seongsan Ilchulbong means "Sunrise Peak"--as it's famous for its view of the sunset, as this mountain is at the easternmost part of Jeju Island. The hike to see the sunrise, and the view of it were highly recommended to me, so I stayed one night at a "minbak" (a local motel).

This picture was taken from my patio/sunroom. This room cost only 20,000Won, which was incredible, as it had a TV, a small fridge, and a gas stove in the sunroom. Plus, it had this view. Unbelievable.

After checking into the motel, I walked to the entrance of the main hike area that leads to the top of the mountain...which I would do starting at 5:30 a.m. the next morning.

You can see what this sign says about the landscape of the area--

I took a helicopter ride and took this photo--

Just kidding. I didn't take any helicopter ride. This was just a big picture of the area--

At the base of the mountain, by the big picture, are several rocks with the sunrise carved at different positions--

Under the sunrise carvings is a chart of the entire year and the corresponding sunrise times. Remember, "Seongsan Ilchulbong" means Sunrise Peak--that's what this place is known for. It's most popular on January 1, and you can imagine thousands of people travel to see the first sunrise of the new year. I saw the sunrise on October 11--6:34 a.m.--

After reaching the top of the mountain, I took this photo. Obviously pre-sunrise, you can see the lights of boats in the distance. Beautiful colors already--

This is a view of where I came from. That's looking westward behind me--

A panorama of the horizon--

People waiting and watching--

Almost time (what you see at the bottom is the eastern edge of the cone of the mountain itself, then the ocean)--

First shot of the sun coming up--

Still rising--

That's not Darth Maul, that's me--

Well worth getting up at 5:30 a.m. to see--

Panorama of what's directly in front of me, the "crown" of this mountain--

Panorama of the sunset--

The Northeast view--

Me--

Panorama of the sunset and the mountain--

Panorama of the view behind me--

This is my first view of Mt. Halla--the tallest mountain in South Korea--which is basically in the dead center of Jeju Island. I didn't see it the previous day because it was too hazy--

Hiking back down--

Panorama of the west view of Jeju Island--you can see Mt. Halla on the left side of the picture--

Interesting path--

The north side of the mountain--

Beautiful--

I couldn't believe this, but as I was hiking down the mountain after seeing the sunrise, I heard music coming out of various rocks in the grass. It wasn't the musical rocks that surprised me, Disneyland has those hidden everywhere. It was the song coming out of the rocks that blew my mind. The video is below. So strange, right?

The pan I used to cook eggs for breakfast after returning from the hike--I'm surprised I'm still alive-- This is a piece of a GIANT pork burger, that's an APPLE slice on there, as well as olives and pickles and a weird sauce. But it was actually pretty good...considering that my other options included raw fish and pickled cabbage.

At Hamdeok Beach, just east of Jeju-Si (where the airport is); those statues are everywhere on the island, it's their "thing"--

View of Mt. Halla from the beach (check out the black lava rocks and the white sand as well!)--

Panorama of Hamdeok Beach--

My feet in the clearest water ever--

Peace--

Look at that blue water!--

This is what happens when you're on vacation by yourself--

Panorama of the other side of Hamdeok Beach (where I parked for 3 straight days)--

Hamdeok Beach--

A panorama from a pier at Hamdeok Beach, Mt. Halla in the distance--

I found this horribly rusty exacto knife on the pier, then I cut myself--

These are those fishing boats--check out all the lights! So strange--

Purple shells--

Do you see the creature in there?--

These little creatures are EVERYWHERE; I mean everywhere. There are little crab things inside, and they just drag themselves around. It was so interesting to watch...and see their trail--

The beach--

Very small shell--

See the crab guy?--

See this little guy?--

This thing was nearly as big as my torso...I can't say for certain what it was. I'm guessing jellyfish--but it was solid...very, very strange--

SMALL but perfectly formed--

Various shells I gathered--

That's my pinky, and a still connected tiny shell--

When the tide would go away--these balls of sand would form ALL over the beach. I can't be sure of what they are, but I'm going to guess crab poop--

Okay--I truly have NO idea what this is. As you'll see, the shell was pretty large. I don't know how to describe to you what the animal inside could do. What you see directly below is the "protection" mode. The swirl-like thing you see is how the animal protects itself. For instance, when I picked it up, it would switch to this mode. But as it relaxed, that would swivel around and a strange, orange, tongue-like thing with antennas would come out. SO insane. I took SO many pictures of it--here are the best--

Swiveling around--

One antenna came up and poked the top of the water--

Anyone else think this shell looks like the saucer section of the USS Enterprise NC1701-D?--

I have no idea--

After hanging out on the beach, I walked a bit around the area. This is first time since coming to Korea that I saw a Chicago style pizza place--

How many chilis do you think are there?--

A random beautiful temple entrance I passed--

I traveled one afternoon to Manjang Cave (a UNESCO World Heritage Site). The bus drops you off 2km from the actual attraction, so I walked 2 km down a road--

As I walked down the road, I saw fields of this stuff--I'm not sure what it was--but I think it was cabbage--

FINALLY, I arrived at the cave--

You can read about what this place is about--

That is a lava column--lava had flowed from an upper level and came down and then cooled-- Water was constantly dripping all over the place inside this lava tube--

I was in the tube/cave for about an hour, and when I came out--the sun was setting, and it was beautiful--

The cave closes at 6:00 p.m., and so there were no longer any cabs out front. So I had to walk the 2 km back out to the main road. By the time I got back to the main road, it was pitch black out. I knew I could catch a bus--but I didn't know exactly where to get it, nor when it would come. So I started walking back to Hamdeok Beach (at least 6 km away). I knew exactly where I was and wasn't worried at all...but I still didn't want to walk ALL the way back. I walked for over an hour before I reached my "end" point. I wasn't going to walk anymore. Again, I knew exactly where I was, I just didn't know exactly where to get the bus. But I stopped at a bus stop, and just sat down to wait for a bus. It came within 10 minutes or so, and it took me back. Thank goodness.

I got off the bus and decided to take some nighttime pictures. For my three days at Hamdeok Beach, I stayed at a dinky little motel, not even as nice as the one I'd stayed at while in Seongsan. But not far from my dinky motel was this very large and beautiful resort. It would have been lovely to have stayed there...but I'm guessing it would have been considerably more expensive than 30,000Won per night. Anyway, here it is by moonlight, palm trees and all (taken with flash)--

Taken without flash--

Taken from farther away, obviously--

Across the street from my motel was what I can only describe as a traveling amusement park...very small and a little scary actually...I didn't go on any rides or eat any food; here you see the "Viking" ride in action--

On my last day in Jeju, I traveled to the main city, Jeju-Si. I walked through Dongmun Market Place. Though not terribly different from any other market I'd ever been through, it had more Jeju-specific items.

Lettuce, sweet potatoes...and some GIANT green/white "thing"...what is that? An onion? I have no idea--

Believe me, I've seen a lot of weird fish displays...but this is simply wrong--

Fruit. Jeju is famous for tangerines/oranges--

Near the market was a small palace. I didn't go inside, but took some photos from outside--

I left the market place and palace area and headed to the airport to fly back to Seoul. My 5 day vacation was over. Here you can see Mt. Halla in the distance and the Jeju airport sign (like the Gimpo sign earlier)--

I did actually take this picture from the plane--that's Mt. Halla--

So that was my last vacation while in Korea.

My Time is Running Out

2008-10-07T18:42:00.009+09:00

When I write "my time is running out", I don't mean I'm near death. I mean, maybe I am, but I don't think I am. Whatever. What I specifically mean, though, is that, as of this writing, I have 26 days of work--40 total days left in Korea.

Just last night I had a dream, the first of its kind, where I was making my way back to America from South Korea. If you recall, I've had daydreams about the subject of being back home, but never had one while actually enjoying REM sleep. As it was a dream, there are details that either don't make sense, or are out of place in reality. But that's what makes it a dream, I suppose.

In the dream, I think I traveled back home on some sort of flying ship--something weird like that. The thing I remember the most is that I landed, I had tears in my eyes (tears of joy, of course, but tears seem to be a recurring theme of my return home), and I just started walking. I wasn't at LAX (like I will be in 40 days from now), but whatever.

In my hysteria of being back home, I had forgotten that I planned on renting a car at the airport, and instead jumped on a bus. At some point during the trip, I realized that I had forgotten this portion of my plan--and I was mad at myself. The bus was taking so much longer than it would have taken me in a car. I had also forgotten that I planned to go eat at In-N-Out as soon as I got back to America! I guess within the dream I was just so overwhelmed by returning home that I forgot my plans.

At some point, I got off the bus and started walking around. I wasn't in any place familiar to me, but I think I was looking for a phone, so I could call my friend Patrice. I started running, and I couldn't keep myself from crying (tears of hysterical joy again). I remember coming to some office complex, looking for a phone. There were huge spiderwebs all over, and it creeped me out. Then I found a bathroom, and for some reason I took off my shoes (I guess it's because I've been in Korea so long) and went in. I'm not sure if I thought there was a phone in there or what, but then I left, and forgot where I put my shoes. But then I found them and walked toward a nearby parking structure. I think it was at a school--and a teacher came up to me and was talking to me; she had noticed that I was sad (though I wasn't sad, it was the tears of joy). I started to talk to her about my time in Korea...and that's all I remember about the dream.

My mind is strange. Let's leave it at that.

I went to the doctor today, for the second time in one week. Last week I went because I was having allergy problems, and they wouldn't go away with normal medicine. I had been taking Claritin and Benadryl at appropriate times, and also doing my regular once-a-week intake of Airborne. That hadn't worked. I tend to sneeze a lot as it is. I'm not sure if it's an allergy thing, or if my body just enjoys sneezing; but I do it a lot. And I seem to recall that when the seasons change, as they are currently doing, I sneeze even more than usual. This is normally not a terrible issue, but it currently has gone past the point of being "normal" or appreciated. I scream when I sneeze now, because it frustrates me so much. (I'm sure you'd love to be my neighbor.)
Last week, the doctor prescribed me about 30 pills for 3 days. I took them all at their appropriate time. No change. Really.

I took this today, on my walk home from the Doctor; fall is definitely here--On my previous visit, I sat in the Dr.'s office for approximately 5 minutes. I briefly, using the most effective gestures possible, described my symptoms. The doctor then made me say, "Ahhh" and looked in my throat; and he also placed a stethoscope on my back and listened to some deep breaths. For this, I was charged 3,500Won (which at the current exchange rate was a mere $2.63USD). There is something to be said for Korea's health care system. I don't know if everyone has health care, but something about the system really works, at least for me. I was then sent downstairs to the pharmacy; conveniently located directly below the doctor's office. My plethora of pills cost 4,500Won ($3.39). Unbelievable.

Today's visit wasn't terribly different. I sat in the Dr.'s office for about the same length of time, but I suppose because it was a return visit, I was only charged 2,500Won ($1.88--I might add that in Korea, a bag of tortilla chips costs more than TWICE what a doctor visit costs--so maybe something is terribly wrong). This doctor speaks very little English and chooses his words carefully. I tried to be more specific and deliberate with my gestures and descriptions, so that there would be no room for confusion. As my previous pills didn't seem to have any effect, I wanted to make sure he understood what my problem was. I think he understood. Even after he said he'd prescribe medicine for 5 days, not 3 like before, I made sure to ask, "Will they work?" I could see his mind working...and after a few moments, he said, "I think...new pills will alleviate symptoms." He actually said the word 'alleviate'. Wow. Okay. Let's hope this works. Because I've now got NEW pills, different pills, for 5 days instead of 3. Very exciting. Oh, and the new set of medication cost 4,600Won ($3.46).

This weekend I have 3 days of vacation, coupled with my regular 2 days off, meaning I have 5 sequential days off work. This is welcome news on several fronts.

First, I hate the show I'm doing. There's no way around it. I've done everything that is within my power to change my feelings about the show, to no avail. I have since realized that it isn't my feelings about the show that are a problem, but my reactions that stem from my feelings. For instance, if I mope around and complain all the time because I hate the show--that's a problem. The problem doesn't lie with my actual distasteful feelings towards the show. I've been trying to change my feelings about the show--attempting to find some "good" in it.

Luke Skywalker was able to see good in his father, Darth Vader; but I'm afraid I am not as lucky in dealing with this show. The truth is, if Kim Jong Il starts to shock me with lightning from his hands, I don't think anyone from "The Squirrels" will save me by throwing the Dear Leader into a bottomless space silo. Ain't gonna happen.

Another reason I am excited for this weekend is because I am going to Jeju Island. Jeju Island is off the south coast of Korea, and contains, among other things, the tallest mountain in South Korea. I've been told to plan 7 hours for the hiking of said tallest mountain, though I do not intend to do so. I don't mind hiking, but mostly, I just want to lie on a beach and read. I will probably stay one night at Sunrise Mountain, a place where, I am told, a gong is struck which wakes you up prior to the sunrise, allowing you time to hike a short way up the mountain to see the sunrise. This sounds like something I'd enjoy doing at least once in my life.

I had been thinking of going to either the Philippines or Thailand, but as I will be vacationing by myself, those places seemed inappropriate. Asking, "What do you want to do today?" doesn't carry as much weight when you're asking it of yourself. Also, as I've been casually looking for a place to live and a car to buy once I do return to America, having those costs in my mind certainly encouraged me to keep the costs of this vacation to a minimum.

I am also excited because this will be my last vacation/break from work before I leave this continent and return to North America in less than 40 days. I want to make the most of it. You can bet there will be pictures to show and stories to tell upon my return next week.

Yesterday, Monday, October 6, marked my 7th (I'm pretty sure it's 7) visit to Peacetown. As always, it was a joyous and raucous time. Four new people from EV came and all had a great time, which is what I would have hoped for. Since this month is Halloween, and Halloween is hugely popular in Korea (more so than even in America; for reasons beyond my comprehension, since Christmas isn't that big a deal here), I decided we'd bring some candy (though oddly enough, Halloween candy cannot be found anywhere; though I attribute that to the very true statement that many Asians do not enjoy sweets as much as salty fish-like treats) and make balloon animals for the kids. Both of these things worked out well, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

Once we made balloon animals, the boys used every opportunity to kill us with their new "weapons". The 3 balloon creations that were available were a dog, a bird, or a sword. Most people got a sword, and many turned those swords into guns. It's a boy thing. I was executed nearly 900 times. They would make me put my hands up, then turn around, then get on my knees, then they'd shoot me. Yikes.

I didn't know this picture was taken until this afternoon--and I find it hilarious. It shows me and Jay (from North Carolina, this was his first time at Peacetown) both dead-ish on the floor with boys attacking us. Oh, and in case you didn't know I had shaved my head...I shaved my head. I did it about a month ago and have kept it up since. I guess the thinking is, I'm losing my hair, so why not lose it all? So I'm the dead-ish bald guy in the white shirt, Jay is the dead-ish bald guy in the red shirt.
While the boys were turning their swords into guns, this girl wanted to play the hand-slap game that I started playing on my very first visit to Peacetown last December. I can't say it plainer than this--they love this simple hand-slap game. Not just girls--but the boys, too. So, in the picture below, you see Im Jae (my favorite kid) messing with his blue balloon, and then you see me playing the hand-slap game--
As often happens, a child will swipe one of our camera's and take pictures. The next two pictures are some of those pictures. A kid took Laura's camera (but they're always very careful and considerate with the cameras) and snapped this picture of me with one of the leaders of the group.
He ran to show us the picture after he snapped it, and it was obvious that the leader could hardly be seen--because the camera was zoomed in too far. So he snapped another one. The leader is holding the tail of a dog balloon and pointing it at me in some sort of gun-like fashion.
Before I left, I finally got out my camera (I hadn't taken any pictures yet that night) and snapped one of me and Im Jae.
After I took a picture with Im Jae (who is the only kid whose name I remember, though I try to remember more, I cannot), this girl wanted a picture, too.
And after I snapped that picture, more kids wanted in (I'm sorry about my forearm, which looks awfully scary).
The girl below, along with the boy in the pinkish/tan shirt in the above picture (his shirt says Abercrombie on it--you can just make out the -rombie in cursive) taught me how to count in Korean. I knew up to 10, but I didn't know how to combine the numbers to go any higher than that. For instance, 1 is "eel" and 10 is "sheep". Eleven, then, is "sheep eel"; 10 and 1. Not so hard. Then you get to 20--which is 2 and 10. Two is "e". So 20 is "e sheep". We counted up to 30 or so. It was cool.
Though I may have stated it before, I have come to the realization (though I'm certain it's not startling) that kids are the same everywhere. They desperately want and need love. Though they may express that want and need in different ways, I believe all children are the same in that regard.

But if I were a kid in the same position as these kids, I can't imagine reacting to a stranger (a foreign one at that) the way these kids respond to us. What would I have done if an Asian person had walked in to where I lived? Would I have run to them without hesitation and grasped their hand and hugged them? I think not.

I find their trust and outpouring of love to be just overwhelming and beyond adequate description. I would imagine that is a small sample of what being a parent must be like; but please correct me if I'm wrong.

When we visit next month, that will be my last chance to see these kids. I don't know what I will do about that. I know I will bring pictures to give to the various kids that I have pictures with, most certainly Im Jae, who has meant so much to me personally. I don't know if I should write an encouraging note (and obviously have someone translate it into Korean for me) to give to him. I think I'd regret not telling him how much I appreciate him, and thank him for how kind and respectful he is, and how I have the highest hopes for him. I don't know what I'll do. Only because of Peacetown do I wish I was staying another year in Korea.

On a completely different subject, in closing, I invited a small group to join me at "On the Border" (the Mexican restaurant that I am so very thankful for) for my birthday last month. I got a free appetizer because I had a special birthday coupon. It was lovely.

Evan, Nikki, Herman, and bald me--At some point toward the end of the meal, the most adorable child I have seen in my entire life started wandering around the restaurant. One of the other people at the table pointed her out, and I think we all agreed that she looked as close to the character of Boo from the Disney/Pixar film Monsters, Inc. as anyone we'd ever seen. She was smiling and laughing at nothing. Then I started to make faces at her, and she'd laugh even more. Keep in mind, I'm a bald white guy--and I know I'm not intimidating--but I am very surprised that a small Korean girl finds me so non-menacing. I played Peek-A-Boo for a few moments with her, then her mother brought her over to our table. I have no idea why. Regardless, it made for the sweetest exchange (as you can see I played the hand-slap game with her) I've encountered in a while. Absolutely adorable, am I right?!

Boo--

You see, there are many things I will miss about Korea.

Until later.

The Look of Korea

2008-09-30T12:48:00.025+09:00

Before coming to Korea, the only place I'd seen this type of architecture was the Korean Friendship Bell in San Pedro, California (which is lovely by the way).

But this type of architecture is all over Korea--and I have taken many a picture of it. My aunt requested a blog showcasing all the various pavilions/gates--and here it is. Some pictures have been seen in previous blogs, some have not. ENJOY.

Namdaemun Gate before it was burned down--
Dongdaemun Gate--
Bosingak Pavilion (giant bell inside that is struck on New Year's)--
Independence Hall--
Tapgol Park (tapgol means pagoda, the park opened in 1897; first Western-style park in Seoul)--
Jogyesa (largest Buddhist shrine in Seoul)--
Changdeokgung Palace (Palace of Illustrious Virtue)--

Deoksogung Palace (Palace of Virtuous Longevity)--

Gyeongbokgung Palace (Palace of Shining Happiness)--
Peace Bell (at the Imjingak Tourist Center near the DMZ)--
Kwanghuimun Gate--

Wongudan (Altar of Heaven Pavilion)--

Pavilion by the Kyobo Building in Seoul--
Other random places--

What a Holiday!

2008-09-18T10:39:00.022+09:00

First of all, did you know that nearly everyone outside of the United States of America refers to vacations as holidays? It's made a small impact on my vernacular. I had quite a holiday last weekend.

Korea celebrates a Thanksgiving-like holiday every year at this time. It's called Chusok (choo-sock). Families travel, sometimes long distances, to the home of the eldest member of their family. Though there is no turkey to be had, they do have food and fellowship.

For this national holiday, English Village closed its doors on Saturday and Sunday. Because those are usually regular work days for me (as I now have Monday and Tuesday off), and because English Village closed on those days, they took two vacation days from me. It seems logical that if they were going to force me to take vacation, I might as well go somewhere. I had a total of 4 days (Saturday-Tuesday) to use.

A group of my fellow edutainers and I decided to travel east in Korea--to a place called Sokcho (pronounced just like it's spelled). It's about 3 1/2 hours from Seoul, on the direct opposite side of Korea, on the water. It is famous for beautiful beaches and beautiful mountains.

Jessica, Evan, Nikki, Sarah (slurping a smoothie), Herman, and Anand; waiting for our bus--
Platform 16 to Sokcho!--
We left Friday night at 9:30 p.m. and arrived in Sokcho at around 1:30 a.m. We had been told that it could take up to 8 hours to get where we were going, simply because of horrible Chusok travel. And it was pretty bad in parts--mostly because the highway had only 2 lanes. A mistake by any rational observer's perspective (it reminds me of the I-5 between Oceanside and San Diego--AGHHH!).

We slept about 6 hours in our respective hotel rooms and got up around 9:00 for the free breakfast offered. Cold scrambled eggs, weird-tasting orange juice, french fries with ketchup and more were ours for the consuming.

At around 10:30 a.m., we all headed to Seoraksan National Park, which is a 10 minute cab ride from our hotel. In Korean, "san" means mountain--so we were going to Seorak Mountain National Park. It was stunning, especially because of it's very close proximity to the beach. But as I said, Sokcho is known for its beautiful beaches AND beautiful mountains, and they are basically side by side. I'd say the beach is less than 2 miles away from where we entered the national park.

In the cab on the way to the national park--Just before entering the park-- Where should we go? (Notice the light blue line--that's the cable car we took)--
Jagged cliffs, or I guess you could call it a Happy Mountain...--
A couple of panorama shots (remember to click the picture to see it larger, then hit backspace to return to the blog)--
Waiting for the cable car-- On the way up--
Still on the way up--
Almost there--
It took us up pretty high and dropped us off. From there, we had a great view--albeit somewhat hampered by the low layer of mist (perhaps marine layer?) quickly moving through the mountains.

Now we're at the top and you can see the city on the upper left side of the picture, though it's a bit hazy--Lookout--This fog-like mist was rolling by fast--
Starting to hike--
After taking some pictures, most of us decided to hike a little bit. I didn't have a map of the park area, so I had no idea where we ultimately were or where we should go--but I just started going upwards. There was one pathway made for people to hike. It was relatively easy. I hung back from the rest of the group, taking my time to take pictures like this along the way.

Some moth-like creature on a flower--

After hiking for about ten minutes, I came to the end of the path--where everything opened up and I was surrounded by cliffs. There were many people sitting down, relaxing, taking pictures. Perhaps it's no surprise, but there were curio vendors as well. I bought a bandana that had a map of the park on it. It was only 2,000Won.

A panorama of the precipice (you can see 3 ladies lounging)--

Yes, I was actually pushing that mountain!--
Where I was--
On the edge of a cliff--I guess these two flowers like to live dangerously (but seriously, I had to climb out a little far to get the picture)--
Methinks this was the highest point to get to--at least in the portion of the park we were in. I know that we weren't planning to cover the entire national park, and I really didn't want to anyway. I just wanted to lay on the beach, though I was thoroughly enjoying the place.

People climbing up to where the Korean flag is flying--
Evan, Jessica, and Anand on their way down from the highest point--

Me scaling the cliff (Fear is simulated, danger is real)--
Panorama from the top--
Yay! I reached the summit--and I didn't have to eat anyone!--
Herman and Nikki--probably my favorite shot from the entire vacation--just a cool panorama picture--
Me lounging at the very top--

So when I reached this top point, there was this guy selling gold medals. So random. And what's more bizarre, he spoke better English than ANYONE at our hotel (this isn't to say his English was great, but we tried to ask such simple questions of the staff at our hotel, and nearly no one could help us; it was very odd). So, I bought a gold medal--and he engraved my name (in English and Korean), the date, and the location. It was awesome.
After we were finished hiking around and taking pictures from the top--we rode the cable car back down. From the top we had seen a GIANT statue of what appeared to be Buddha, so we headed that direction. This is the gate to enter where he was sitting.
This dragon head was in the entrance--
There's Buddha--

These little musical statue ladies were on a huge incense "thing" in front of the Buddha statue--
I know little to nothing about Buddhism, other than many Koreans are Buddhist, and there are temples all over Korea. But strangely enough, there's an entrance at the back of this Buddha to a temple that's directly under him--which was quite strange. I quietly went inside and snapped some shots.
After Buddha, half the people wanted to do some more hiking. There was a waterfall they wanted to see. My legs were tired (I walk pretty much all day every day in Korea, so it's not like I'm just lazy), and I was tired...and again, I just wanted to go to the beach. I just wanted to relax and NOT walk. So half of us headed back to the hotel.

Our hotel (does it seem odd that the name of hotel is in English [with no Korean to be seen], yet no one inside the hotel can speak English?)--

View of my balcony--

View from my balcony--
Once back at the hotel, I promptly put on my Superman swimming trunks (a must-have for every 29 year old that wishes he was still 6), and headed out to the beach--conveniently located RIGHT across the street from the hotel.

The water was CLEAR-- There were about 6 people on the beach--and that's including 3 of us!--
Jessica is from Hawaii--and she loves the water. She wasted NO time getting right in the water. I, however, am not so brave. The water was a tad cold for me, so I opted to put my feet in only, then lay down and read a book.
Sarah sprained her ankle pretty badly about 1 month ago; while playing Ultimate Frisbee. It was tough for her to walk on the sand, as you can imagine, but she did it anyway. She loved the beach.
We all spent a few hours on the beach, and then it was getting dark. By the time I was cleaned up, the other half of our group came back from the national park. They too cleaned up and we tried to find a restaurant that we could all eat at. Some of us are vegetarians and some of us are extremely picky (I won't mention any names). When we asked the front desk person for help with finding a place to eat, they had to get someone else to talk to us. I don't know if it was a manager or what--but anyway, the guy was extremely helpful. He spoke enough English to tell us where a good place was. In addition, he had someone take us to the restaurant in their car. The place was not far away, but I think it was mostly because Sarah was on crutches. It was a very nice gesture.

Our dinner was a very funny ordeal. The menu was not in English (some places have English menus) and no one working at the place spoke very good English. After ordering what sounded good to us, we were worried that perhaps something would be lost in translation and instead of getting the "bulgogi" (beef) we wanted, we'd end up with stuffed squid or something equally distasteful. But it was all good. The beef came and it was very good (and the non-meat food came for those who ordered non-meat food). Our fears were assuaged.

The next day, all I wanted to do was lay on the beach. And that's what I did. After watching about 6 episodes of "CSI: Miami" and "Superman Returns" (a must-watch if you're a 29 year old who wishes he was still 6).

Then, in the late afternoon, in a desperate search for Western food; Sarah, Evan, and I walked the entirety of Naksan Beach. We were told that we could possibly find Western food at another hotel, the Naksan Beach Hotel. That was all the information we could garner. In order to get the food, however, we'd have to find the hotel first.

On our walk, I saw batting cages, and I desperately wanted to try it--because I haven't been able to do that while I've been in Korea. I paid 1,000Won and grabbed the provided bat. The balls came VERY quickly, and I did my best, but my best wasn't very good. I hit one and fouled one. That was it. And I think it only pitched about 10 balls. Oh well, you learn by doing. Stupid.

But THEN, right by the batting cages was a place to rent bicycles! And not just regular bicycles, and not just crazy tandem bicycles, but bicycle cars! And remember, Sarah is using crutches--Evan and I thought this would be an ingenious way to get around.
We had an hour with the bike. On our trip around the area, we found the Naksan Beach Hotel, perched high up on a hill. It would be impossible for us to take the bike up the hill. We rode around a little while longer, looking for other places that might serve some form of Western food. One coffee shop only had donuts, one coffee shop had its door wide open but there was NO ONE inside, and still another coffee shop was closed. The Koreans like their coffee.

Our hour was coming to an end, and also it was becoming very tiring. Though both Evan and I were pedalling, I feel there was something wrong with our bike that made it not work perfectly. So we returned the bike and walked towards the Naksan Beach Hotel.

I alone made the trip up the steep hill to see if the rumor was true; "Was there Western food to be found?" It was true. The hotel had a restaurant that served Western food. Yippee. I informed the others, and we sat down to have something to eat.

A panorama of the great view from the Naksan Beach Hotel--

In case you were unaware of what falling looked like--
Sadly, the restaurant was a little pricey, so I got this appetizer. Smoked salmon. 7,500Won. It wasn't bad. We ordered pizza later that night.
Our last day was spent wandering around various parts of Sokcho, looking for trouble. I'm not sure why this guy has a portion of his body missing...and in the shape of an upright bass...but I thought it was worth a picture.
What do you think it is? And what in the world would you do with it? Eat it? Oh dear--
I almost feel sorry for them--

Evan, Sarah, and me at Daepo Harbor--
Don't get me to explain this, because I can't. It's simply squid drying on clothesline--
The sun setting as the squid were drying--
A panorama of the boats in Daepo Harbor--

Even though drying squid (with flies) is disgusting, it was an awesome vacation, and it was very hard to come back to work.

My next vacation is in October (10-14). I'm still not sure where I'm going; but it better be good. It'll have a lot to live up to.

My Looming Birthday

2008-09-05T23:24:00.002+09:00

My birthday is coming soon (Thursday the 18th). Looming, perhaps. If any of you reading this are over 30, do you remember what it felt like to creep closer to that mark? I'm NOT turning 30 this year, but I am getting ever so close. What major accomplishments had you garnered by that point in your life? I'd like to better gauge where I'm at in my life, though I certainly can't say it's lacking in excitement.

I am very fortunate. I have a job that pays me well, and I am even able to save some money. I really need nothing. I am not posting this blog to ask for birthday presents. I promise. If you DID send something to me--I'd just have to spend more money to bring it back to America with me in about 70 days.

If you were planning on sending something to me, and now you're angrily putting away the wrapping paper you had out on the table, and you're furiously slamming the desk drawer after putting the scissors and tape back in it--I'm sorry. Obviously, cards are perfectly great--and I'd love to hear from any and all of you. However, don't feel like you need to put a check or cash in there--because I'd literally have to mail it right back to America (I can't deposit American checks or cash here).

Though I'm the first to admit that I'm somewhat of a pack-rat--this Korean experience (among other experiences in my life) has continued to teach me what I can and should live without. I definitely don't need more "stuff"--even though I may want it.

With that said, I would also be more than happy to receive edible gifts such as brownies, cereal, chips, or other such accoutrements of the non-Korean variety.

The things I really need, are things I don't need here in Korea, but WILL need for my return to America in about 70 days.

A gas card (I'll eventually buy another car now that Eugene is with another family [Eugene is the name that was given to my former car of choice, sold prior to coming to Korea]). An "In-N-Out Burger" gift card (seriously, I will have to eat somewhere, I might as well enjoy it). A gift card to Target or some similar establishment. A grocery store gift card.

Those are things that are extremely practical, and would be very helpful to me in my transition back into "normal" life. If you would like to make that a birthday present to me, I couldn't be happier. I can give you an address to mail those to once I get closer to the end of my contract (in about 70 days).

Briefly, in other news, I made my 6th visit to Peacetown (the children's home) this past Monday, and it was, as always, extremely rewarding. Also, the show I've been railing on and on about has now opened. "The Squirrels" is now showing, 10 times a week. I wish I could say it's been a great experience thus far, but I'm not a fan of lying; even in a blog.

More about all those things later--but now I'm going to sleep.

Vacation of Sorts

2008-08-25T14:12:00.015+09:00

This past week, I took 2 days of vacation and combined it with my regular weekend, to enjoy 4 days off work. I did this for no particular reason--I didn't travel anywhere further than Seoul. I just wanted a break. Some people take their vacations (20 days) all at once; and that seems crazy to me. I much prefer spreading my earned vacation days across my entire contract.

That said, I have a small vacation in September, October, and November. For September, I had planned to go to China. I was going to take almost a week off. However, there is a holiday here in Korea called Chusok. It's a very popular holiday, and English Village has decided it will be closed for that holiday--because it is not similar to holidays in America, where people get together and go to theme parks. This is a very family oriented holiday, and thusly, people spend it with their families. So, basically, we are FORCED to take vacation days. So that means I'll have 4 days off work (2 vacation days and 2 regular days off). I'm planning a trip to Jeju Island, off the south coast of Seoul.

As I wrote at the start of this paragraph, I was originally planning to go to China. But I have heard that it may be very difficult to get a Visa for China at this point. I haven't checked into it in detail, but it's almost not worth it anyway--because I'd have to go alone. Jeju Island is much closer, and thus cheaper, and so more people are able to go there. There should be a good group of us that will head to the island for this holiday.

I'd still like to go to China...but I just don't want to go alone. I think it'll be easier to convince people to go to Thailand or the Philippines. And truthfully, there is much more to explore within Korea itself--I shouldn't forget that.

Anyway, this past weekend, I lounged around, did a bunch of nothing. One day, however, I did head south of the Han River in Seoul to the COEX Mall. I've been there before, even my parents have been there. But there is an aquarium at the Mall, and I went with a Korean friend.

On the subway on the way to the Aquarium--
Outside the aquarium's entrance, "Oh, boy, if it's this exciting outside, what's in store inside?!"--
I don't know what it is, but it's cool looking--
This hilarious section of the aquarium had fish in various household places--
Washing machine--
I thought it would be just like any other aquarium; but I was wrong. It wasn't as huge or fantastic as the aquarium in Sydney; but it did have some animals I'd never seen before, and some I didn't even know existed. They even had fruit bats and a squirrel monkey...which left me a bit confused...because it's an aquarium...oh well.

A two headed turtle? Really? Really--
A piranha--
This tank only had 3 fish in it. Another attempt to recreate something Disney-like, here is a clown fish looking for his son, along with a blue and yellow fish (below)--just like "Finding Nemo"--
Ellen DeGeneres' character--
I've never seen a fish like this before--so beautiful--reminded me of a ribbon dancer--
Another tank, this clown fish kept hiding from my camera--
This is when things quickly turned ugly--
A back-lit jellyfish--scary and frightening and cool and creepy and all that--
Another kind of jellyfish-- And another kind--
There was only ONE penguin swimming in the penguin place--which seemed really odd. All the others were literally standing on the edge of the pool, looking as though they really wanted to go in, but were afraid to. Once a penguin went in, the ONE penguin that was in there chased him all over the place; making me think I was watching some twisted version of the childhood game, "King of the Hill".
On another of my days off this past week, I headed across the street to the Heyri Art Village. It's literally across the street from English Village, but I've never walked through it. It was such a nice day that I thought I'd wander around in there. Basically, it's a village of art galleries, museums, eateries, and interesting architecture. I have been told that the only people who live in the Art Village are artists who build a home that can serve as their studio and gallery as well. It's a very strange place--but very interesting to walk through.

For example, they have a Teddy Bear Museum. I do not know what is inside, and after seeing what was outside, I had no intention of paying to see what was contained therein.

Why on earth would you decimate the Venus de Milo statue by putting a teddy bear head on top????--
They also have a Politics and Stamp Museum. It cost 2,000Won to enter, and I thought I better see what this place could possibly have.

As I said, a Politics and Stamp museum...hmm--
A sticker on the entrance to the museum--
I knew Grandma would want to see this--
Various buttons from different political races--
These are strange and a little creepy, and I don't particularly like them--
I'm not sure if this is an ACTUAL ballot from Hitler's election--but it's interesting nonetheless--
The President of Korea, Lee Myung-Bak--
Upstairs were the stamps--
How exciting and random--a Jim Carrey "Ace Ventura" stamp from the Congo--

See, it IS possible to have adventures without leaving Korea. I'll keep you updated with further adventures.

Until later!

A Poll

2008-08-22T08:32:00.006+09:00

Because I will not be starting my job until January 5, I am thinking I'll need to have some sort of income between returning to California and starting my job. I don't know what I'll be doing for work during that time (because I'll be traveling for the holidays, I'm not sure that I'll get an actual job), so I was wondering if any of you would be interested in supporting me by buying something.

I have created a simple poll to find out if it would even be worth trying to put something together for sale. For instance, if I made a simple book that included pictures and blogs from my time in Korea, would that be something you'd be interested in having? Or would you rather hang up a picture on your wall? Would a 2009 Korea calendar of my pictures of Korea interest you? Etc.

I am not pressuring or guilting anyone into buying anything, please know that.

Which ONE of the following items would you be most likely to purchase? ( surveys)

Thank You

2008-08-12T21:04:00.004+09:00

Thank you God for such a beautiful sunset. For a moment, it actually made me not miss California so much.

It rained again today, and this was the calm AFTER the storm. Very beautiful.

100 Days

2008-08-11T13:32:00.004+09:00

Literally, 100 days remain before the end of my contract. While I don't have a celebration each morning when the calendar clicks down; I do make a conscious decision to affect some positive change with my remaining "x" amount of days.

Early on in these blogs, I made sure to point out all my observations, revelations, and condescension's (I don't know--I just needed a third big word). I guess I've basically run out of things to share, at least at length. Sure, I've seen some new things, which I will point out, but most of what I see is more of the same. I'm not bored by it, but of course I'm not going to share it over and over and over with you.

I will say, though I have ridden the subway many, many times now; it has not gotten any less strange. Being the only non-Korean in an entire subway station is still just as unnerving and weird. I certainly don't feel in danger or anything of the sort, but I definitely feel strange. Nothing in America can compare with that feeling (well...perhaps outside of taking the bus in Orange County, which is mostly full of Hispanic people). Each time I get on the subway, I am consistently taken aback by the reality of where I am and what I am doing. It's a sobering, and really cool feeling. Again, it's not bad--it's just very stark.

Yesterday, on my day off, I went into Seoul, as I am wont to do. I met a Korean friend in Insadong, which is a place I've been to before; even my folks have been there. (The convenience store there sells Dr. Pepper for 900Won, which is a smoking deal compared to the 3,000Won it costs at the coffee shop here at English Village, or the 1,300Won it costs at our little convenience store here.) Insadong is a place many foreigners visit. There are many cool souvenir shops, and other fair-like booths out on the street. It's just a neat artsy atmosphere, and though it was exceedingly warm yesterday, I enjoyed being out and about.

They had odd mirrors in the ground--Made me think of Mary Poppins--
What are these?--
My first, and probably last, magazine cover--
After visiting Insadong, and eating at KFC (why not?), my Korean friend took me to a place called "Seoul Forest", which is just a huge park on the southeastside of Seoul. He said it's the largest park in Seoul.
As we were nearing the park, the sun was setting, and it made a beautiful sunset; the nicest I've seen since coming here.

The park was about a 10 minute walk from the nearest subway station, and as this was a part of Seoul I'd never been to, it was interesting to get yet another view the city. It was getting dark, but I was still able to get some cool shots before the sun finally went down.

A very strange playground addition--you can actually climb through this persons body; that's the moon in the armpit--

And it does exactly what it says--
Narnia + Harry Potter--
There was an outdoor concert going on, with what looked like a relatively young group of orchestra members playing some tunes. As we were leaving, I distinctly heard music from Disney's "Beauty and the Beast".

As I said, it was exceedingly warm outside; heat plus humidity. It's been like this for the last 2 weeks; July was warm, but not agonizing.

Well, today, Monday, was another warm day...though the weather forecast predicted evening thunderstorms. Well, they were RIGHT. The storm came and hit with a bang at around 8 p.m., and lasted for only 20 minutes or so. There was some INCREDIBLE lightning, and I was fortunate to be able to snap some great shots of it.

So this is what it looks like without the lightning--it was DARK--
Yikes--

Until I blog again, goodbye.

The Puzzle of My Life

2008-07-31T19:20:00.014+09:00

Here it is the end of July already. I am perilously close to finishing my contract here. As of the moment of this writing, I am approximately 111 days away from stepping back onto American soil. Well...not soil per se, because they don't have open fields of dirt at LAX. But you know what I mean.

I'm doing my best to make these last days count. What can I accomplish for myself? What can I accomplish for other people? The guests of English Village? My co-workers? My boss? Etc. I really want to squeeze as much goodness into the remaining days as I can. I tell you this not only so you know what I'm thinking about, but so that you can encourage me to continue in this mindset.

In other news, I do know what I'll be doing once I return to California.

Starting on January 5, 2009, I'll be back in schools presenting interactive history programs for 4-6th graders. My experience in Korea, specifically with the kids, has reinforced my desire to work with kids in some capacity.

It started with camp (nope, not Disneyland--I didn't really work with kids there, and mostly the kids would just scream and whine, so I tended to avoid them).

Me at Disneyland, with mom and dad when they rode my Jungle Cruise--In 2004 I was invited to work at Idyllwild Arts Camp for the summer. I would be working with 13-15 year old boys. I thought it would be awful. But it turned out to be a highlight of my life. I returned every summer for the next 3 years.

Some awesome choir kids (Brett and Eric)--My awesome family for ALL my summers (except the first one because I arrived late)-- Hard at work (no...this was totally staged...I can't save anyone)--
Here you see I'm really not all that different from the campers--
From there, I worked with kids at the Mesa Arts Center in Mesa, Arizona. After moving back to AZ after camp that first summer (and after finishing my horrible experience at a tele-marketing company), I got a job as a teacher's assistant and substitute teacher at the beautiful, new, Mesa Arts Center. It was a very part-time thing, and I only worked a few days a week anyway. It was basically a summer day-care type program for kids interested in artsy stuff. They could take ceramics classes, improv classes, music classes, dance classes, acting classes, etc. It was a blast. Even though I was just an assistant (though I did teach a few acting/improv classes when the teacher was gone), I really bonded with the kids. One of the kids even invited me over to his house to play. It was hilarious. His mother was very nice and invited me for lunch--and then I literally played baseball in the backyard with some of the kids from the program. It was a very short, but very impactful experience.

Some of the kids I worked with; guess which one I got along with??? (duh, the kid making the face, that's Dylan)--Then there was Baton Rouge. Forgive me if you've already heard this story. During the summer of 2006, while working at camp, I met a group of teenagers from New Orleans. They'd lost their homes (and much of their life) in Hurricane Katrina the year before. After hanging out and talking with them for the two weeks of their stay in Idyllwild, I was invited by their sponsors (art therapists who had been hired by Rosie O'Donnell to work with the kids, and this trip to camp was part of their healing process) to join a group of workers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (my birth state) to be present for the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Working not only with the teenagers at camp, but later the younger kids in Baton Rouge forever changed my internal understanding of life and education.

Looking official; notice the raindrops--I'd just helped save the side of this tent which had blown open due to the wind and rain-- The kids were working on art projects in the community tent--
Cute--
I promise I spent a LOT of time working--but here I'm clearly not...drinking my drink from Subway, scratching my head; the kids are showing their projects--
Then there was CWE. This company allowed me the opportunity to move back to California in 2006 (after I'd returned to AZ in 2004 after my first summer in Idyllwild). With my job, I traveled to hundreds of schools and did hundreds of programs for 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. In a year and a half, I got to work with some 12,000 kids. That's a lot. You could be a teacher for 300 years and not teach that many kids! Granted, I didn't get to spend an entire year with them, I only had 2 1/2 hours each time; but you get my point. I had the opportunity to influence, however small, lots of kids.

Some awesome 4th graders after the "Walk Through California"--And now Korea. Like Disneyland, this place is ultimately designed for kids. Adults sometimes like to learn English, too, but they don't usually like to pose for pictures with fuzzy characters like Hippokey, Doony, and the other weird characters at English Village. I've seen lots of kids here. I do have the opportunity to talk to many kids. Lots of kids see our shows.

Daniel and me (he speaks very good English, and is a regular visitor of EV)--I also get to visit kids at the group home/orphanage called Peacetown. Talk about an invaluable, life-changing experience. I just made my 5th visit this past Monday. We played games outside for the entire visit. I brought a frisbee and a beach ball--the ones I got free from buying boxes of various cereals. The kids had a great time outside, and they were rewarded with ice cream (we bought it). It was a great visit, like all the others. Natasha, my coworker who has spearheaded these visits, will be leaving at the end of August. Her contract is finished. From September through the end of my contract, I will be taking over. I will be emailing/calling Peacetown to schedule and plan our monthly visits. Natasha and I are the only ones who have gone EVERY time we've scheduled a visit. I'm looking forward to my small role in this entire thing; and as I've written before, if for no other reason, I am glad I came to Korea just to meet and visit with these kids.

What's remarkable about this entire Korea experience is that most of the kids do not speak English. It's funny, because I have all this various experience working with kids; and a lot of it doesn't even matter here.

Let's assume that I'm good at relating to kids. Who cares? It's a whole new game in Korea. If I say "I like your shirt" or ask "Do you like Mickey Mouse?" here...I get blank stares. The little tricks I learned in all my other experiences have not really helped me here. It's undoubtedly given me a foundation of how to relate to kids (getting down to their level to talk to them, especially if they're nervous or shy, etc.), but I've had to create new ways to get them to understand me.

Learning to communicate non-verbally is incredibly strange. Not necessarily difficult--but it's hard to measure whether you're successful at it or not. "Did the audience understand what I was asking because I spoke clearly or because my wild, animated movements helped them understand?" "Are they all talking over me because they just don't understand English and are bored, or am I not doing enough to captivate them?" It can be quite a headache.

All these experiences, as I've said, have simply reinforced my desire to work more with kids/youth. To some who know me best, this entire "working with kids" thing is hilariously bizarre. Had you asked me 5 years ago whether I'd want to work with kids, nearly exclusively, I would have laughed maliciously at you and then thrown paint at you.

But such is the journey of life...one which I hope I'm not close to finishing. There are many more blogs to write.

Counting Down

2008-07-20T19:15:00.011+09:00

Hello.

I haven't been up to much, except trying to survive the horrendous weather to be had here in South Korea.

Temperatures of 85 plus 100% humidity equal out to being a pretty ugly day...especially when all my tasks involve wearing a costume piece and being outside in the elements.

In addition to that, it is apparently "rainy" season now. I say that, not because it's the official name for this time of year, but because IT RAINS A LOT. It's raining right now, in fact. Though calling it a "Rain Shower", as my weather.com info board tells me, doesn't quite adequately describe it. It's torrential. Fortunately, I do have an umbrella--but in weather like this--I need an umbrella for the lower half of my body as well--because the rain is just attacking my entire body.

I've lived in Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and California. Obviously, there are certain weather elements in each of those places--Louisiana has hot and humid summers, Pennsylvania has cold and snowy winters, Arizona has hot everything, and California is just lovely.

I remember when I was a kid in Louisiana. I remember it would rain and rain and rain for what seemed like days on end. I remember the darkness at night would change to daylight for an instant with a bright flash of lightning. I still don't think I've ever seen lightning like what I saw in Louisiana.

But the rain here in South Korea is outrageous. I check my weather thing everyday...because it's just a habit. People in places like San Diego are lucky...their weather is generally always the same. The weatherman/meteorologists really have the simplest of all jobs. "Umm...well, today...it's going to be absolutely beautiful again. Now let's take a look at the 10 day forecast...here you can see we've simply copied and pasted today's forecast into the slots for the rest of the week."

But anyway, I look at the weather thing every day. Yesterday and today it said 100% chance of rain--and they were absolutely right. And as I said, the humidity is typically well above 80% every day. You might suggest that I turn on my air conditioner, but if you recall my story about using the heating unit--you should know that the air conditioner is equally ridiculously expensive. So I don't use it. I bought a fan, and it works very well.

I just returned from playing indoor volleyball at the gym we have here. It was my first time doing that since coming here 243 days ago. Oh yeah, I'm keeping track of my days now. I have 122 days left in Korea (that's not just working days, that's total). Counting down gives me something big to look forward to. There are some small things I have to look forward to:

1) We are making another trip to Peacetown--the kids home--next Monday. I very much look forward to spending time with the kids, and I even have started collecting little things to bring them. As I've mentioned before, "service" is a very popular thing in Korea. It's the receiving of an additional "something" for free when purchasing a certain product. Certain items of service make sense. For instance, there are certain boxes of cereal you can buy that have a cereal bowl taped to the box. That bowl is free when you buy the cereal. Cool.

However, sometimes the service item makes absolutely no sense, as it has nothing to do with the item you're buying. This isn't to say the service item isn't useful--it's just a funny combination. For instance, I bought a box of cereal last week, and taped to the box was a frisbee. Sweet. Also, I bought a box of cereal today (if you're keeping track, I've now eaten 44 boxes of cereal since arriving in Korea 243 days ago), and taped to the box, was an inflatable beach ball. Awesome. I could have chosen a sun visor, but I chose the beach ball instead--because I know the kids at Peacetown would love it. During winter time, I purchased a box of cereal that had some small, pink-striped, white gloves taped to the box. I needed gloves at the time, so this purchase was a no-brainer. But you see my point, few people wear small, pink-striped, white gloves while eating cereal. Perhaps I could start a new trend...

2) Auditions for the fall season were held a few weeks ago. The theme for the season (Sept-Nov) is "Family". The two shows that were picked for this season are "Johnny's Football" and "The Squirrels". The first show is about a brother and sister who are locked out of their house by their mother on a summer day. While they're playing with a football, the ball goes into their neighbors yard. The neighbor is a very mean character who the children are frightened of. This show teaches ESL words like "over", "under", "around", etc.--words that I think are important and simple. The story revolves around the kids trying to get the ball back. When our department read through ALL the scripts that had been written for this season, I loved this script immediately. And I voted for this one. I knew it would be a show I'd want to be in.

The second show is about a human boy who is adopted and raised by 2 squirrels, who teach him all about "squirrel" things. The boy runs away from home because his squirrel dad can't accept that he's not a squirrel, and the boy consequently gets sort of kidnapped by 2 raccoons who want to use his "squirrel" skills of gathering, climbing, and digging for their selfish purposes. When our department read through all the scripts, I disliked this script immediately. It was confusing; and I did not understand why "gathering", "climbing", and "digging" were important enough words to be the crux of the story. I did NOT vote for this one--but it made it into the top 2 anyway.

I think you can see where this is going.

I went into the auditions knowing that this would be the last show I'd be doing here. My contract ends on Wednesday, November 19; and the season runs through the end of November. I won't even finish the entire run of the show. Because I knew this would be my last show--I definitely wanted to make it a good one.

To make a long story short--I was NOT cast in "Johnny's Football", despite my listing it on my audition form. I was cast as Huey, the human boy in "The Squirrels".

I'm not terribly thrilled about it, but of course I'll do my best. I get to sing much more in this show than in the last show I did (where I sang about 2 lines)--so that's a good thing. Unfortunately, I have to spend nearly 3 months eliciting "Gather!", "Climb!", and "Dig!" answers from Korean children; which is quite an impossible task. It's nearly impossible to get them to say "Pencil" out loud--you think they're going to know gather? I'm a native English speaker--and I don't use that word! So that's a frustrating prospect.

But I have to do it. I have no other choice. "It's for the betterment of the group." So, I guess I've "taken one for the team" here.

I'm sure you're thinking--"Do you have to wear a squirrel costume?" The answer is NO. Thank God in Heaven.

I'm also sad that my friend Candy is not going to be in this show with me. You may remember seeing her name and picture in various blogs. She's really the only person I hang out with outside of work, and she's really the only person I have really clicked with over here. I'm not saying I don't get along with anyone else--but there's just not the friendship with anyone else. Undoubtedly, I will get closer with the other people who are in this show with me--but that's not the point I'm making.

Basically, I'm looking forward to performing again. That's all I can really say about that.

3) Since I only have 122 days left here in Korea, I have been thinking about what I'm doing once I return to California. As crazy as it sounds, I had actually entertained the notion of staying in Korea an additional 6 months. This would have only been for financial reasons, and no other. However, that thought entered my brain, and within 48 hours, drifted out again. The cons far outweigh the pros in this case. It will be time for me to come home.

But what will I do for work? A handful of people have asked me this question, and I certainly don't have a solid answer as of yet.

And while I don't want to jinx it, or lose my opportunity by mentioning it here; I am excited about the possibility of returning to CWE (California Weekly Explorer), the great company that allowed me to move back to California in 2006. I could write a whole series of blogs just on the wonderful memories I have from working there for a year and a half. Working with 4th, 5th, and 6th graders was some of the most incredible work I've ever done. Incredible in terms of the actual value of the work itself, the intelligence and humor of the students--and the amazing insight into America's education system I gained during my time with the company.

I have not talked to anyone on any sort of official basis, but there may be a position open, starting in January there. I would be able to return to California in November (eat at In-N-Out Burger promptly upon my arrival), in time to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday, and have several weeks to visit with friends and family in Arizona as well before heading to Texas for Christmas. I could return to California to enjoy the New Year in my home country.

I'd work until June, when school gets out. Then, I'd be able to return to Idyllwild for the 5th time to work at the arts camp there. I'm missing Idyllwild very much right now. It's another of my life experiences that I could write voraciously about.

As many of you know, I want to work on a cruise ship. Even as I type this, I'm creating a one-man show for myself. My friend Shaun is helping me with some ideas. One possible title is: "Not So Famous". Ideally, it will combine comedy and song, talking about my various experiences (Disneyland, camp, Baton Rouge, Korea, etc.) and brushes with fame--not the least of which could be the time I chatted nonchalantly with Hugh Jackman, or the time Jim Carrey called me his cousin, or the time Michael Crawford gave me advice on how to make it as a performer.

As always--my mind is full of ideas and thoughts. There is much to consider. Obviously, all of these hopes and dreams rest on the idea that I will make it through the next 122 days. =)

Two weeks ago, my friend Candy got married--and I sang at the wedding, videotaped the wedding, walked her down the aisle (her family didn't fly over from Michigan), and took the wedding photos after the ceremony. It was a very nice day, and a wonderful experience. I have also been taking many photographs in between the rainfall. I will leave you with some pictures:

Both the rings--
My favorite shot of all that I took--
A grasshopper that wouldn't SHUTUP outside my house--
A dragonfly resting--
Two butterflies hooked at the rear end (they landed for a brief second)--
Spiders are officially EVERYWHERE in Korea, and I despise them; I was simply trying to get a good picture of one of these leaves, when I spotted this spider hanging out upside down RIGHT where my hand was (of course I screamed); do you see the spider?--

OH--I never posted a picture from this experience--but it's funny enough to share. This is from May; just before "School Days" ended. You may recall that there were 2 male characters in the show. Antonio, the Spaniard who was new to our school, endeavoring to learn English; and my character, Curtis, the idiot.

Well, Brian was the actor who was cast as Antonio, and Nic was cast as his understudy. However, Nic's contract ended in April, before the end of the show. So when Brian went on vacation in May--there was no one to do his part. Being the fanatical overachiever that I am, I volunteered to learn his part (though I knew much of it already after watching Brian play it about 100 times) and go in for him when he was on vacation--which was really only 2 shows. EASY. So here is a picture of me in HIS costume. Here you see Derek--who was MY understudy. Obviously, when I went in for Brian, Derek went in for me. It was a wild day--

UNTIL NEXT TIME!

My Time Down Under

2008-06-29T09:17:00.026+09:00

It has been nearly 2 weeks since I returned from my trip to Sydney, Australia. I would have blogged sooner--but let me be the first to assure that it takes a great deal of time to sort through 1,773 pictures. I have now had sufficient time to go through all of the pictures I took and sufficient time to allow my index finger to heal from all the clicking.

Obviously, I won't be sharing all 1,773 pictures with you--because they aren't all great. That's the magic of digital photography. But I did take lots and lots of great pictures. I had 3 different cameras. I brought my new Kodak camera, which had replaced my former Minolta camera. I think I mentioned this in a previous blog, but my Minolta refused to recognize the presence of the memory card. I took it with me to Tokyo in April and gave it to Patrice to take back to California and get fixed. She did and brought it back to me in Australia. Plus, I had my video camera, which also can take pictures and store it on a memory card. It was a perfect system.

I left Korea on Sunday, June 8th, at around 8 p.m. The sun was setting. I had purchased tickets MONTHS before on Qantas Airlines, and the flight was being operated by Asiana Airlines, who I flew from LA to Seoul back in November. I did not fly on Korean Airlines, that's just a plane moving through the picture.

Meal One, Dinner: Salmon (my first time having salmon)--
Meal Two, Breakfast: Beef Bulgogi--
Night is falling...somewhere over the Pacific Ocean--
Sun rising somewhere in Australia, cool lake--
A new morning over Australia--
My first sight of the Australian coast--
A rainy morning landing in Sydney--
As I said in my previous blog, I landed on Monday morning, the 9th of June. After dropping our bags off at our hotel (we couldn't check in until 2 p.m.), Patrice and I just started walking around. I wanted to head towards the venue where Phantom would be playing, so we could escape any hiccups the next night when we attended the performance (of course, if you read my previous blog, you realize that wasn't the hiccup I needed to worry about). That's where I saw and photographed all the various billboards/signs/posters/advertisements for the show.

After we'd found the theater and investigated all there was to see there, it was lunch time. We conveniently found a large shopping area that had a large food court. Unlike Korean food courts, which have all kinds of wonderful Korean meal choices, this Australian food court offered stuff that I could not only read, but also found appealing! Imagine?! It really was a peaceful feeling. I was very tired, and I couldn't bring myself to decide what I wanted...so I had McDonalds. I know, I know!

To be perfectly honest, I have not had a McDonalds hamburger in probably 8 years. I do love their Chicken McNuggets and their McChicken sandwich...and of course the McFlurries; but I have refused to have a hamburger--because they're disgusting. But...and this is a BIG but, I thought being in Australia might mean that the burgers might taste differently--seeing how Australian beef is spoken of so highly.

Well, either way, whether it was Australian beef or Australian kangaroo...it wasn't good. It had the same rancid taste a McDonalds hamburger always has. Gross. But the fries were excellent!! Every subsequent time I ate a meal with french fries (called "chips" in Australia) they all had some terrific seasoning. My guess is sea salt--which I find to be delicious.

After lunch, we went to a Visitor Center to get information about a city pass or a transportation pass, etc.

Random building in Sydney; cool architecture--
In case you didn't know this, Sydney is a harbor city. Water splits the city. It's beautiful. The theater where Phantom is currently playing is on the harbor, as are most of the main attractions in Sydney.

Panorama of part of the harbor, Sydney Tower in the distance--

Maritime Museum in the Harbor--
A cool fountain in the ground, near our lunch spot--
Patrice in the fountain--
Our hotel was near Hyde Park, where the Anzac Museum is. It's built for the Australian and New Zealand soldiers who fought at Normandy in World War I. You see the Sydney Tower to the side.
Anzac Museum--
Anzac Museum at night--
Inside the Anzac Museum; that is not Jesus, it represents the soldiers who sacrificed themselves for freedom--
After we'd returned to the hotel, checked in, got settled, rested for a bit, and changed clothes--we headed back out into Sydney. Sadly, the sun sets at around 5:15 or so in Sydney...this being winter and all. So even though it wasn't late at all--it felt very late. In Korea the sun doesn't set until around 7:30, so this was quite an adjustment.

Anyway, as we were just wandering around in Sydney, we saw all kinds of lights and some commotion happening around the State Theater. There was even a red carpet. It definitely looked like a movie premier or something.

Patrice asked a woman who was standing guard near the red carpet, and she said that it was the Kung Fu Panda premier. Cool. When Patrice was talking to the lady, I could've sworn I saw Jack Black in the crowd, quite a distance away. I thought nothing of it, not remembering that he was the voice of the titular character in the film. But the woman said there were still tickets available if we'd like to watch the movie. We had nothing else to do, and it sounded like a cool thing to do. She asked another woman to escort us to the box office.

This woman walked us RIGHT ONTO THE RED CARPET, right in front of all the photographers who had, only moments before, taken pictures of Jack Black. The reason I can say that is because as we walked to the box office, Jack Black was not more than 10 feet away, goofing off and posing for pictures with a person in a panda suit.

Once we got our tickets for the movie, Jack Black walked directly in front of us...and I also noticed that Jeffrey Katzenberg was walking with him. I recognized him immediately. He's a producer and one of the founders, along with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen, of Dreamworks. He also used to work for the Disney Company.

Once inside, we found some seats on the far left side of the theater (it was large). Within a few moments, a lady came out and introduced some other guy, both of whom worked for the Sydney Film Festival, which this premiere was part of. Then the guy introduced Jeffrey Katzenberg, who talked briefly about making this film. He then introduced Jack Black.

Jack talked for a few moments--about nonsense. He's completely out of control, and truth be told, I have never liked him in anything I've ever seen him in. Fortunately, he didn't talk long and they started the movie.
I really enjoyed the movie. It was funny, touching, and had a great message. It was such a cool experience. And the next day, when I picked up a newspaper, I read that Cate Blanchett, who I was unaware was Australian, was also at the premiere with her kids.

Thus ended our first day in Sydney.

Here are a few random pictures from Sydney, that don't fit in any other category:

This is a picture of the Clock Tower of Central Station in Sydney-- The subway station nearest our hotel, called Museum Station--
Inside the subway station; it just happens to look EXACTLY like the subway station in Prince Caspian that the kids are in before they get magically transported back to Narnia-- Patrice in the subway...lots of graffiti...New York City isn't even this bad--
Luna Park, an amusement park in Sydney which opened in 1935--
I took over 100 pictures of the Opera House alone. It's a pretty incredible building, unlike anything I've ever seen. I suppose it's as creative a building as Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, which is quite something. Here are some of the best pictures of the Opera House, at different times, different angles, etc. There are more throughout this blog.

Inside part of the Opera House, looking out to the other part, during our tour--
Panorama of the harbor with the Opera House and Harbour Bridge in the distance--
Panorama of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge--

Taken from the Opera House during our tour, sunset behind the Harbour Bridge--
On our way back from the Blue Mountains; notice the lights of Luna Park on the left, and the Opera House dimly lit towards the right--
At night--
Our first full day in Sydney was technically Tuesday. This was Phantom day. In the afternoon, we went whale watching. I had no idea that it was actually a perfect time of year to see whales. I really only planned to come to Australia because Phantom/Anthony Warlow was there. However, because it was the beginning of winter in Australia, the humpback whales were migrating to warmer waters to have their babies.

And though the weather had been rather gloomy and rainy since we arrived--the sun miraculously appeared as we were nearing the dock to get on our boat. It was incredible. The captain said this was the most beautiful day in 2 weeks--and a perfect day to see whales. In this blog, you will unfortunately not see any pictures of whales--only because I don't have any. I videotaped the excursion and Patrice took the pictures. She has some great pictures of the whales we saw--and I will post those pictures when I receive them (she put them on a CD and it is in the air as we speak).

On the boat, going to see whales--
My first shot of the Opera House--
So cool--
Notice the moon in the top left corner, and the different color of the Opera House; it goes from white to gray if the sun goes behind a cloud--
So strange--

Sydney Tower in the middle of the two buildings of the Opera House--
Panorama of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge as we sail away towards the Pacific Ocean--
Patrice and the bridge--
Panorama showing the Sydney Tower, the Opera House, and the beginning of the bridge--

Out on the Pacific Ocean, you can still see the Sydney Tower--
It was FREEZING towards the end, especially at the front of the boat--
Heading back in to the harbor--
A tiny boat that was out whale watching with us--
The sun setting as we headed back into the harbor--

After we returned from whale watching, we headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up and dressed for Phantom, starring Anthony Warlow. As I've already detailed that debacle, I won't say any more about it.

WEDNESDAY:

We decided to spend the morning walking through Hyde Park up through the Royal Botanical Garden, all the way to the Opera House. It was about a 90 minute walk...specifically when you count how many times I stopped to take pictures.

A hilariously and ridiculously obese tree--

St. Mary's Cathedral--
St. Mary's Cathedral and Archibald Fountain--

St. Mary's Cathedral from the Royal Botanical Garden--
Getting closer--
Approaching the Opera House--
A view of the flags on top of the Harbour Bridge--
When we reached the Opera House, we intended to buy tickets to the musical version of Edward Scissorhands, a movie which I love. A kind worker at our hotel printed off information about it, and if we watched a matinee, we could get tickets for only $25. And it was at the Opera House, granted not in the main concert hall, but it would be neat to see a show at the Opera House.

We purchased our tickets and had time to get some lunch before the show.

It wasn't until about 5 minutes into the performance that we realized...this is not a musical...there is no singing...and no talking. This is a ballet. It was mentioned NOWHERE in the information I read. Hilarious. After about 5 minutes of the show...I leaned to Patrice and said, "Oh, please tell me there is singing in this..." There wasn't. It was visually interesting and the dancing was great; but that's all they did. I was hoping for some singing, but oh well. The music was great, but that's thanks to the movie music by Danny Elfman. Overall, it was an enjoyable show, but I would have preferred knowing what was going to happen before going into it. It makes for a funny story now.

THURSDAY:

We had made prior reservations to take a tour to the Blue Mountains, so called because of the oil of the eucalyptus trees which permeates the air and creates a blue haze. The Blue Mountains are about 2 hours NW of Sydney. Our tour van picked us up at about 7:45 a.m. and we headed out.

Our first stop was the Olympic Park in Sydney, which hosted the 2000 Olympics. We stayed for only about 15 minutes, just to get some pictures of the various buildings and surroundings. It was interesting to see.

A view from underneath the Torch, which for some reason wasn't lit-- After leaving Olympic Park, we headed to the town of Leura, a tiny mountain town in the Blue Mountains. We had about an hour to look around and do some shopping. It was a cute little town, and it reminded me of Idyllwild, CA.

After that, we headed directly to the Blue Mountains and Scenic World...all part of the tourism center of this place.

One stop in the Blue Mountains, named Dragon Head...do you see it?--

We took a cable car OVER a giant canyon, where I got a shot of Wentworth Falls--
We then took a steep train down to a lookout point, from which we hiked down a trail to the bottom of the canyon. This is basically Australia's version of the Grand Canyon, which our tour guide mentioned several times. Fortunately, he didn't say it was BETTER than the Grand Canyon, because I would have had to disagree with him...though it was a very cool spot. (So, Uncle Hank, don't worry, Australia doesn't have anything up on your place.)

Panorama of the Blue Mountains, notice the blue haze--

The Three Sisters are famous in the Blue Mountains. There are several ancient Aboriginese tales about these three mountains. You could see them from almost every angle in the Blue Mountains.

The Three Sisters behind us--

Panorama of the Three Sisters and the Blue Mountains--
After leaving the Blue Mountains, we headed to Featherdale Wildlife Park. This is advertised as the place where you can pet a koala and have your picture taken with one (though you won't see pictures of this yet, because Patrice is also sending me those)! Patrice definitely wanted to do that, and I was not opposed to meeting the cute animal. But in addition to that, we were also able to walk through the kangaroos pen, and pet them and feed them. To my knowledge, I'd never actually seen a kangaroo close up, and it was so cool. People have asked me if they punched or kicked, and I know they do--but they were kind to me.

A mom and her joey--

The joey and me--
Me posing next to a kangaroo--
I'd never seen a wombat before!--
Peacocks--A koala actually awake, it was feeding time-- Hilarious, an albino kangaroo with a regular joey in her pouch; who knew interacial relationships worked in the kangaroo world--

After Featherdale, we were driven to the dock where we'd catch our ferry back to Sydney. This was all part of the tour. We arrived back in Sydney at around 6:10. From there, we headed to a quick dinner and then to the theater to see if Anthony was performing in Phantom. He was and we watched. I died a little. In a good way. My previous blog explains it all.

FRIDAY:

Earlier in the week, we purchased two-day City Passes. Friday was our first of two consecutive days to use the pass. We had a handful of things to get through in two days, but we made a good plan of attack. We made a reservation for a Jet Boat cruise. Basically, they have these super-powered, high-speed, stunt boats, and they take people out and do big spins and other crazy manuevers. It sounded fun...though I knew once we started going, I may dislike it. Before leaving the harbor, our driver told us all the rules and such. When he was going to spin us around, he would signal us by waving his hand in a circular motion, then we'd all count down from 3, then he'd jerk the wheel or whatever and make us violently spin around on the water.

I had just seen Anthony Warlow perform Phantom the night before, so I was ready to die. It didn't matter what happened on the water, I was ready to go if it was my time.

Well, it wasn't really bad at all...other than the constant spritzing of salt water on my face...that and the horrible gym-locker stench of the plastic panchos they gave us to wear. Disgusting. We had a great view of the harbor (not that Patrice and I hadn't already experienced that the other 3 times we'd been out on the harbor; first with the whale watching, second taking the ferry around the harbor, and third taking our cruise back from the Blue Mountains the previous night). We sped through the other boats and kayaks that were out on the water. There is a lot of activity in Sydney Harbor. Ferries take people to different locations, just like a subway or a bus would. Tour boats are everywhere. Whale watching boats are plentiful. There are even yellow water taxis. Hmm.

Our driver was a cool guy, and he showed us some cool parts of the harbor. For example, he pointed out the Prime Ministers house on the harbor.

Then he spun us around about 5 times. It was a wild and crazy time. We made it back in one piece...and I spent a good 5 minutes scrubbing off my face and trying to get rid of the horrible locker-room smell.

After that, we went to the Aquarium in Sydney. It was pretty cool. I think the last time I was at an aquarium was when I lived in Sunnyvale, CA, and went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. That was 1987.

This is an actual turtle, his lips are hilarious--

I got a cool closeup of a crocodiles mouth--

Yikes--
Hilarious sign from above the croc pen--
Looks like a baby raptor--
The big tank...with sharks and turtles and such--
I hate sharks--

Oh gosh--
An itty bitty starfish stuck to the glass in a fish tank--

Here are some random pictures from around Sydney:

I saw this spider when we were walking through the Botanical Garden; GROSSLY GARGANTUAN--
This one was at the zoo; HIDEOUSLY HUGE--
Sydney Tower and Archibald Fountain--

Sydney Tower as seen near our hotel--
Sydney Tower through the trees in Hyde Park--
SATURDAY:

Saturday was Patrice's 25th birthday! She wanted to go to the zoo, so we headed there in the morning. The Taronga Zoo is known as "the zoo with a view" because it is right on the harbor. Indeed, it has a great view, as you will see from some of these pictures.

It was drizzling slightly throughout our time at the zoo, and the orangutans covered themselves with pieces of burlap that were laying around their pen--
A beautiful Sumatran tiger--

Believe it or not, this is called a Red Panda; it has a tail like a fox, but a face like a panda; it was no bigger than an average sized dog; I'd never heard of it before, but it was so cute--
The eye of a _______?--
Giraffe!--
Sydney Tower and Opera House serve as the backdrop of the Giraffe's house--
Funny enough, while we were walking around, I heard some people talking about the San Diego Zoo; and my ears perked up, seeing as how I've been there numerous times and good ole' Uncle Hank works there. They were not Australians, and they were talking about how awesome the San Diego Zoo is. Honestly, even before I heard these people talking, all I could think about was how much NICER the San Diego Zoo is compared to this one. (So, don't worry Uncle Hank, Australia doesn't have anything up on your place.)

After the zoo, we took the ferry back to the other side of Sydney, and we went to the Pylon Lookout on the Harbour Bridge. Oddly enough, I don't think I'd ever heard the word "pylon" until just a few weeks before going to Australia. I was watching the BBC (one of the few English stations on our TV's in Korea), and some guys were talking about the giant metal structures that hold up power lines. They referred to them as pylons. Anyway, the Pylon Lookout is atop the giant stone structure at the base of the bridge. It boasts some great 360 degree shots of Sydney.
On our way to the Pylon--

Still walking across the bridge to the Pylon, Opera House in the background; and yes, to answer your impending question, I do have dreads tucked underneath that cool hat that my awesome friend Liz made me--
The Pylon is directly in front--
Looking out from the bridge--
Climbing the stairs inside the Pylon looking out the window to where we had just been walking moments before--

Notice the groups climbing the bridge, this was an activity we could have done, but it cost over $100 just to climb for a few hours, we settled on the Pylon Lookout--
NORTH--
SOUTH--
EAST--
WEST--

While I was taking pictures from the Pylon, I noticed a jet boat, just like the one we took, out and about on the water--
After we climbed down from the Pylon Lookout, we quickly headed to the Opera House to take a tour, which was also part of our City Pass plans.

Our tour guide was not unlike every other customer service person we'd had in Sydney. Very personable, nice, and a little insane. It was supposed to be an hour tour, but because our tour guide liked to talk so much, about Opera House related topics, we stretched it to about 75 minutes. Did you know that the original designer of the Opera House (a Danish man who is still alive, but apparently is very ill) has never seen it completely finished? Did you know there are 5 different theaters within the complex? Anyway, we got to set foot inside the theater where Patrice and I had watched Edward Scissorhands days earlier. We walked under the Opera House where they load all the huge opera sets in. We walked backstage through a lot of the building as well. The whole thing was informative, interesting, and fun.

After that, we had dinner. Then to cap the night off, we went to the top of Sydney Tower to see the city at night. It was nice, but not as nice as Seoul Tower, or the Space Needle in Seattle, or the Stratosphere in Las Vegas.

SUNDAY:

Sunday was our last real day in Sydney, as we were both flying out early Monday morning. We had sufficiently used our two-day City Passes, and wanted to spend Sunday filling in the holes of things we didn't do; shopping and such.

It was a dismal Sunday morning. The weather was stinky. Not literally stinky, but just not ideal. Especially for heading to Bondi Beach, but that's exactly what we'd planned for Sunday, and so we stuck with our plan. Obviously, being as Sydney was entering winter, we had no plans to lay out or enjoy the beach as if we were back in southern California (though just thinking of the beach in southern California makes my heart beat faster with anticipation of returning). We simply wanted to see the beach and visit the shops that were there.

Bondi Beach (I did some effects on this picture to make it appear as though it were a nice day--but in point of fact, it was sprinkling sideways, it was bitterly cold and windy, and the sky was dark)-- Because of the negative weather conditions, we didn't spend much time at the beach. We walked up and down the main street looking at some of the shops, and then we got back on the bus and headed back towards civilization. Patrice desperately wanted to get her grandfather a kangaroo belt, because that's what he wanted. We visited many shops looking for the perfect one--and we were thankfully able to find it.

Monday morning we woke up very early and got a shuttle back to the airport. I think our shuttle picked us up at 5:45 a.m. My flight left Sydney at 9:10 that morning and I headed back to Seoul to return to the 150 or so days I had left in Korea (at the time of this writing, it's 142 days remaining--but who's counting??).

Say goodbye to Sydney--

If it wasn't so stinkin' far away (and stinkin' expensive--a bottle of water cost $2.20)--I would be returning to Australia every weekend. But it was a grand vacation all around.

From whales to Warlow--the trip was worth every penny.

Why Australia?

2008-06-18T11:30:00.009+09:00

I recently returned to Korea from my 8 day vacation to Sydney, Australia. It was the greatest vacation I've ever had; and such a wonderful experience overall.

I took a red eye flight (and definitely had red eyes by the end of the flight) Sunday night (June 8) and arrived in Sydney at 7:30 a.m. on Monday morning. It was about a 10 hour flight--and Sydney is one hour ahead of Seoul.

At the airport, I met my friend Patrice from California. We took an airport shuttle to our hotel. It was overcast and chilly. June starts the winter season in Australia.

The reason I wanted to vacation in Australia was simple. A singer named Anthony Warlow was going to be performing in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. For those of you who don't know--I'll let you in on a little secret--I really, really like The Phantom of the Opera.

It started in high school. I heard the music and I instantly loved it. There's just something about it. The melodies, the harmonies, the subject matter. Obviously, I'm not alone--as it is one of the most famous musicals ever--AND it's the longest running musical on Broadway.
I also really, really like Anthony Warlow. I didn't know anything about him until I moved to California in 2002. When I was doing the show 1776, my friend Tom told me about this Australian singer named Anthony Warlow. He let me borrow his CD. I was hooked. His voice is the best I've ever heard in my life.
More than 15 years ago, when Phantom first came to Australia, Anthony was cast in the title role. He was 28 years old (the same age I am now). He is still the youngest person ever to play the role. Then, last year, the show was going to come back to Australia--and Anthony was asked to return to the role that made him most famous in Australia. You must understand--this is very uncommon. Once an actor plays a role, he rarely, if ever returns to play the same role again. It's not like Jim Carrey doing another Ace Ventura movie--it would be more like Tom Hanks doing a remake of Forrest Gump, and playing the same part over again. It's very rare for an actor to do a role again--especially when that role made you famous. In Anthony's own words, he didn't want to return to the role, because he'd "conquered the beast" and wanted to do other things.
He eventually agreed to return to the role, and this presented an unbelievable chance for me to see him play the role that I desperately long to play.
Years ago, as part of my present for graduating from high school, my mom took me to New York City to see the show. That was the first time I saw the show on stage. We saw a Wednesday matinee. The Phantom was played by a guy named Thomas James O'Leary. If you look him up on youtube.com...he's not very good. =) I know I enjoyed it, but I don't really remember much about that first show.

In the 11 years since that first show, I have seen the show 9 more times. Once more in New York City (with Howard McGillin as the Phantom), three times in Phoenix (once with Brad Little, twice with Gary Mauer), once in Tucson (Brad Little), once in Los Angeles (Brad Little), once in Las Vegas (Brent Barrett), and twice in Australia.

I didn't intend to see the show twice in Australia...I didn't pay for two different tickets. But here's what happened.

I arrived in Sydney on Monday morning, with tickets to Phantom on Tuesday night. I was very excited. As I've already clearly stated, I am a huge fan of the show and of the star.

I had showered after a whale watching trip (to be discussed in another blog). I was dressed nicely. I couldn't believe I was nearing this moment.

Patrice and me on the Monorail going to the theater--

I got the tickets from the box office and proceeded towards the door. I stopped briefly and glanced at a large silver sign by the door. It was the cast list for the night's performance. The Phantom is listed at the top...and next to "The Phantom" it read: "Simon Pryce". My heart stopped...or skipped...or something terrible.
I didn't move for about 30 seconds. My hand went to my mouth and I found myself having difficulty breathing. I'm sure that at some point within the last few months, the thought had entered my head that Anthony might be sick on the night I was there to see him--but suffice it to say, that thought was not in my brain this night.

I was stunned. Honestly, it was like I'd been tackled by a linebacker (or in Australian terms, hit by a rugby player) and had the wind taken from me. I didn't say anything. I couldn't breathe. I really don't consider myself to be overdramatic, but this was the worst feeling I'd ever felt.

My heart was beating very fast, and I didn't know what to do. I had just flown 5,900 miles (9,495 kilometers) and spent a great sum of money for the sole purpose of seeing this guy play the Phantom. Regardless of the beauty of Australia, and the other wonderful things about the country--I was not interested in anything else. I wanted to see Anthony in this show. It was quite devastating...all in a moment.

I walked to the box office, clutching my chest, fearing that my heart would leap out. I spoke calmy but clearly to the manager behind the desk. Rebecca. She was very kind. I explained my situation to her as best I could. "I realize you may not care about this--but I have to share this with you so you can understand how much I care about this." I told her how far I'd come just to see Anthony, and that as a performer, I certainly understand there are no guarantees about any performance. She said that Anthony was sick, and had been the previous weekend. She listened intently to my problem--but said there wasn't anything she could do at present. She suggested that we check back later in the week (since we were going to be in Sydney for another week), to see if he was back in the show, and she would see what she could do. But again, she made no guarantees.

It was time to get into the theater to watch the show. I didn't even want to watch it. I was very angry now. Not like I wanted to hurt anyone, but angry, as if I'd just gotten in trouble in school and forced to endure something I didn't want to. Yes, I suppose I was feeling like a spoiled child who hadn't got his way. But I think you can understand the situation was a little more serious than that.

We went to our seats...which were perfect, by the way. Fourteen rows from the front, directly in the center. I had purchased these seats specially. I was very disappointed that Anthony wasn't doing the show.

I sat in my chair and tried to breathe. I tried to remain calm. After the usual announcements, we heard, "Ladies and gentlemen, we would like to inform you that as this evenings performance, the role of the Phantom will be played by Simon Pryce." There was a collective sound of disappointment, with the exception of two or three girls who cheered loudly. Weirdos. The lights went down and the show began.

I thought for sure that this Simon Pryce fellow would have to be pretty darn good to be second-string to Anthony Warlow. I couldn't have been more wrong. It was like hearing Kermit the Frog sing the part. I was not pleased. I realized, quite honestly, that I could have performed the role better than this guy (I later met the guy, and he was nice and all, so this isn't a personal attack). But I knew in my soul that I could not only perform better vocally, but I could act the role better. Oh well. All the more reason to hope that I'd get to see Anthony perform before the week was out.

I felt like strangling someone after the show, Patrice would have to do--This brings us to Thursday night, two nights later. We spent all day Thursday on a tour of the Blue Mountains (to be discussed in another blog). We got back into Sydney at around 6:10. We weren't far from the theater, so we decided to head over there and see if Anthony had performed the night before, and if he would be performing that night. I tried not to get my hopes up, only to have them once again violently crushed by a falling chandelier of disappointment.
I couldn't bring myself to look, so I asked Patrice to look for Anthony's name on the silver sign; while I went to the box office to find out if Anthony had performed the previous night.

He hadn't.

But his name was on the sign.

My heart stopped again...briefly. "Don't get your hopes up. There are no guarantees. You can't get back up again if another chandelier hits you in the head."

Rebecca said she would do what she could...but that we should check back 5 minutes before the show.

When we did, Rebecca had secured two seats in a box on the left side of the theater. I thought we were going to be way up high--but she got us seats very close to the stage...just on the left side. Basically, the view was partially restricted, but we'd get to see everything that Anthony did. And she understood that seeing (hearing) him was the only concern.

When we got to our seats, I was amazed that we were so close. Literally, we were within 10 feet of the stage. Towards the end of the show, I could have spoken to Anthony in my regular voice and he could have heard me. I didn't do this, however. I didn't want to disturb the perfection of what was happening on stage.

I can't express the feeling of relief I felt once this show started. This was marking the TENTH time I was seeing the show...and unless something terrible happened during the next few minutes...I was going to see Anthony Warlow, the greatest male singer I've heard in my life, sing and play the greatest musical theater role ever created.

I sat back, and tried to remember to breathe. This is a harder task than you may think.

As soon as his voice came over the speakers...I was pretty much dead. I could not believe that I was seeing and hearing this. I just could not believe it.

Earlier in this blog, I listed all the Phantoms I'd seen live. I've heard many more on youtube and other places. Let me be clear here--no one, and I mean no one, sings or plays the role as well as Anthony Warlow. Had there been any question in my mind before the show...there was no longer.

My life can now continue.

Fourth Time's A Charm

2008-05-31T22:55:00.005+09:00

Last Monday, I had the opportunity to return to Peacetown; the group home I've visited three times before. Our last trip was back in March. April was just very busy for everyone (including my vacation to Tokyo), and we couldn't get a trip planned.

This last trip was so amazing. I know the kids are loved by their caretakers and they get lots of attention from the various groups that visit them--but boy are they glad to see us. I can't begin to imagine how reassuring and fun it is for them to see familiar faces returning to visit them over and over again. I certainly find each visit refreshing in a way impossible to describe.

This trip we brought lots of white t-shirts of differing sizes for the kids to draw on with fabric pens. We brought irons and ironing boards as well--to set the colors on the fabric. I really didn't plan any of this at all, I was just along for the ride.

Out of all the activities we've done so far with the kids--they enjoyed this one the most, I think. Also, they were the best at it.

But before we went inside and started the activity, we played outside with the kids for about 20 minutes--and it made for some fun pictures.

Here are two of my favorite friends (that's the "girl in pink" at the bottom and her funny friend)-- Usually the kids cling to you for about 10 seconds, then they fly like bees onto the next person--but not this kid, not on this day. I hung out with him for most of the evening.
This was really the first time that we've visited when the weather has been nice enough to stay outside for extended periods of time--and so some kids were playing soccer and running around, and this kid and I climbed the monkey bars.
Okay--now it's time to start our activity. The people who planned the activity brought along different templates the kids could use to create various designs on their t-shirts. Well, without intending to, the design on my shirt was a very popular one--nearly all the kids in my group wanted to draw the same design. They all wanted to look at my shirt, and thankfully I had another shirt on, so I just took it off and set it on the floor so they could all see.

My little friend working very hard on his t-shirt--
Most of the kids, including the older ones, asked for help from us--but not him--he did this t-shirt all by himself--
Holding up his handiwork (HOW ADORABLE IS THIS!?)--
I moved over to help my other friend work on her shirt--
She had used a template of Mickey Mouse and I helped her spell his name and pick the right colors; this picture shows she's still working--

Lim Jae Jun; one of the nicest kids and SO full of energy; he's wearing the t-shirt he designed--
Notice the design on this guys shirt--I helped him write Korea on the top and draw the circle in the middle of the flag; notice also the Nike symbols on the shirt; several of the kids listed various symbols they knew (one kid wrote CIA and FBI on his shirt--I helped him add NYPD and Manchester United)--
After all the kids were finished designing and setting the colors of their shirts, we had a simple fashion show to show off the shirts. This kid sat in my lap for most of it and took about 50 of the 100 pictures I took that night. I think I've mentioned before how much the kids love taking pictures, not only of themselves but of other things as well.
The girls in the fashion show, being silly--
A new employee of English Village came with us to Peacetown this trip. When were getting ready to head home, I asked her how she liked it. She said, "When we first got there, I was very sad, because they have nothing. But very soon after, while interacting with the kids, I saw that they were really happy." She said she couldn't believe it--because they have so little, yet are so happy. She realized how often other people, who have so many things to be thankful for, prefer to complain about things--while these kids have much to complain about, but are thankful. It's an amazing truth that is overwhelming upon visiting a place like this.

It breaks my heart, but many of the children at this place will never know life the way I have. Though they are young, many have had to take on very adult emotions and decisions. It's unfair and sad. There's obviously more I could say about this--but I think you understand how I feel.

I continue to love spending time with them, and simply being a presence in their lives. I do not know if they'll ever understand the joy they bring me or the power of the lessons they teach--and that's okay.

I shall return.

250 Of My 500 Laps

2008-05-20T22:50:00.002+09:00

I'll keep this post short and sweet, especially considering the length of the last one. I just want to share a few thoughts.

Sunday, May 18, 2008 marked my halfway point. I am halfway done with my year contract. I have been here 6 months and have 6 to go. I'm sure you can figure out my analogies: I have played 81 of 162 games, ran 13 of 26 miles, and biked 1750 of my 3500 kilometers.

Firstly, I can't believe it's gone by this quickly. Secondly, I can't believe it's gone by so slowly.

Those two things seem to conflict; but when talking about time--they just don't.

I have experienced so much in this half a year. All you have to do is look back over the blogs I've posted to read about what I've done and see the pictures to prove it. And I know I'll experience more in the six months to come.

For some reason, within the past week, I have had 2 "daydreams" that bear repeating. Let me start by saying; typically, at some point during each day, I think of home. Not in a "Oh, I hate it here" or "I wish I were home" or "I want my mommy!" sort of way; but just in a realistic, normal way. As I think I wrote about previously, the second/third months are supposedly the toughest months to make it through. The haze of your cool "adventure" has worn off and you've settled into the reality of your new life. I was definitely somewhat homesick during those months. But crossing the six month mark perhaps stirred something in my subconscious.

Just yesterday, as I was preparing to exit the 2200 bus which had taken me into Seoul, out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone with a fast food bag in their hand. At this very second, I can't remember what it looked like, but I know it looked similar to the white bags you would get at In-N-Out Burger. I'll pause here and say, if you don't know about In-N-Out Burger, then I'm sorry. You haven't lived.

Anyhow, when the bag caught my eye, I was temporarily transported back to California. I watched myself walk into an In-N-Out (I'm pretty sure it was the one at Harbor/Orangethorpe in Fullerton, one I've been to many times, but they're all very similar, so the point is moot) with a huge smile on my face. And though I tried to stop the version of myself I was watching, he proudly proclaimed to the unsuspecting person behind the counter that he had been in Korea for a year and was so happy to be having an In-N-Out Burger.

This little daydream happened within only a few seconds. That's how they happen--very quickly, but they're very specific, and very powerful.

Earlier last week, I was getting ready for work in the morning. I was very tired that particular morning, and since I'd gotten ready quickly, I had a few moments to spare before running out to clock in. I laid on my bed briefly (something some people can't do, because they end up falling asleep and never making it to work) and shut my eyes.

As soon as I shut my eyes, I saw myself walking through Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). I don't remember carrying any bags, but I was briskly walking through the airport, making my way outside. I rushed out the automatic doors and ran to the sidewalk. With tears of joy in my eyes, I knelt down and kissed the sidewalk (don't say anything about how dirty that LA sidewalk would be, I know). I was very happy to be home.

Truly, last November, when I was at LAX preparing to travel to Korea, after I'd unloaded all my bags and boxes out of the rental car, after I returned the car; when I was walking out of the parking garage into the airport terminal--I was caught up in the emotion of that moment. I realized the gravity of what I was doing. Marty McFly would say, "This is heavy, Doc" to which Doc would respond, "You keep saying 'heavy'; is there something wrong with the earth's gravitation in the future?"

As I neared the airport terminal to get on a plane bound for Seoul, I could hear my grandmother's voice saying, "Why couldn't you have picked Australia or something?" I could hear the sound of my Altima's engine running, without me behind the wheel. I felt something. I had tears in my eyes as I walked alone into the airport terminal. Literally walking into the airport terminal but figuratively walking into the unknown. I had never been out of America (except for 3 short mission trips to Mexico; and not to be mean, but let's be honest, how different is Mexico from Phoenix or Los Angeles?). I was leaving every security I'd ever known.

I will undoubtedly have tears of joy in my eyes when I return home. I will understand something only those who have spent extended periods of time away from home can feel upon their return. I look forward to kissing the sidewalk. I'll make sure I have some anti-bacterial soap with me.

Until later--

The Folks Visit Korea

2008-05-18T12:39:00.004+09:00

So, my parents made a HUGE decision and an equally HUGE trek across the world and came to visit me in Korea.

Dad braved 15 hours on a cramped plane and Mom braved food she most certainly would not like.

When my parents first planned to come to Korea, I asked them what they'd like to do. I know my mom doesn't care--she'd be happy just to sit and chat. And we did do that, but I didn't want them to come all the way to Korea and not see at least a handful of the cool things I've seen. I thought that would be a waste. So basically, I walked them to death. We went everywhere. The pictures will prove it, especially if you looked at a map of Seoul.

Over the course of the 4.5 days they were here, I took quite a lot of pictures. Rather than write a lot--I thought I'd post a LOT of pictures and let the pictures tell the story of our various adventures. I'll number the pictures--and if you have a specific question about any of the pictures just email me.

Here goes.

Friday, May 2--We walked around a lot, mostly trying to find Dad a pair of tennis shoes. We went to Dongdaemun Market and Namdaemun Market. We went to Yongsan, where all the electronics are. We took the subway from Seoul to Ilsan where Mom got a 2 hour Thai massage (ask her about it). Dad and I took a bus to another town called Paju Book City and finally found him a pair of tennis shoes.

Picture 1--Dongdaemun GateSaturday, May 3--Walking around Insadong (the place where we stayed) and Jongno. We were joined by a family friend, Pam, who is teaching English near Seoul. Seoul was in the midst of celebrating the "Hi Seoul" Festival, along with several other festivities, including Buddha's birthday and the Lotus Lantern Festival.

Picture 2--Chinese Lanterns at Tagpol Park

Picture 3--Mom and Pam walking in Jongno
Picture 4--A chinese lantern (I think) and Jongno Tower (remember the name of this tower for later)
Picture 5--Mom and Dad and me at Bosingak, where I was for New Year's in Seoul (you've seen this in other blogs)
Picture 6--Lanterns hung at Jogyesa Temple, a Buddhist Temple, part of the celebration of Buddha's birthday and/or the Lotus Lantern Festival (if you look upside down, I believe the lanterns do show the shape of a lotus flower...or a flower at least)
Picture 7--The first of many pictures taken on our wonderful 2.5 hour tour of the beautiful Changdeokgung Palace (the most well-preserved Palace in Seoul) Picture 8--The sign says: "This building is Chong-jon Hall (the Main Hall) built in the premises of this palace, and coronation of a king and other official grand ceremonies were carried out here."
Picture 9--Chong-Jon Hall
Picture 10--Inside Chong-Jon Hall
Picture 11--View from in front of Chong-Jun Hall; interesting to see Seoul Tower and the other big buildings surrounding the beautiful palace
Picture 12--Palace tour Picture 13--Mom on the tour
Picture 14--Remember, you can simply click these pictures to enlarge them so you can see them more clearly--you should then be able to read this sign. Once you are finished with the enlarged picture, you need to click the back arrow to return to the blog to continue your reading and viewing experience.
Picture 15--The Juhamnu Pavilion, as described in the previous picture; I did not lessen the color on this picture--it really looks that drab.
Picture 16--Mom and Dad at part of the secret rear garden of the Palace; Dad was looking at his camera, he was not ignoring me; the building in the background is where the Queen went when she was pregnant--because it is a lovely, relaxing place to be
Picture 17--Another pond on the Palace tour Picture 18--Mom passing through one of many gates at the Palace
Picture 19--Dad walking around at the Palace, on the right is a house that one of the kings had built for his father
Picture 20--The sign for the ancient Juniper tree that is towards the end of the Palace tour
Picture 21--The 750 year-old Juniper tree; notice the metal rods around the tree--those are supporting some of the massive branches
Picture 22--One piece of the Palace wall--the ORIGINAL wall
Picture 23--Another piece of one of the many walls within the Palace, this one is new

Picture 24--Now finished with the Palace tour we head into Insadong for lunch and to see all the shops that are there (they close the road on Saturdays and Sundays to create a pedestrian free-for-all); this picture is for my sister, Valerie; this is the entrance to an art gallery, it is actually made up of pieces of picture frames--very interesting, eh, Val?
Picture 25--After lunch, as we walked along the street, we saw all kinds of interesting things--what kind of birds are these?
Picture 26--Dad gets politely accosted by some Korean girls who needed help for a school project--they had to ask him questions in English (ask him about it)

Picture 27--A busy street
Picture 28--View from above; lots of various candies and snacks
Picture 29--A woman going nuts at what I believe is a lathe of some sort--they were weaving basket material, bamboo? A guy behind her was using this bamboo like stuff to make slippers
Picture 30--The sign for the SECOND most important historical monument (number ONE was Namdaemun Gate, which was what recently burned) in Seoul
Picture 31--The pagoda as described in the previous picture (notice the reflection)

Picture 32--This is what you can see in the reflection from the previous picture
Picture 33--The sign for the beautiful octagonal pavilion in Tagpol Park--
Picture 34--The octagonal pavilion as described in the previous picture
Picture 35--A panoramic photo of the octagonal pavilion and the surrounding area

WARNING: Be prepared for some WILD photos of some WILD food. These are from our dinner Saturday evening.

Picture 36--The left side of our HUGE dinner options. Can you guess what any of it is?

Picture 37--The right side of our HUGE dinner options. Can you guess what ANY of this is? Mom was not impressed with either side. =)
Picture 38--Cucumber; Dad mistakenly tries some of this (he does not like cucumber)
Picture 39--A large bowl of beef (called bulgogi)--this is really the only thing I ate, it was quite good
Picture 40--Dad digging into his two fish

Picture 41--The soup that Dad says smells like wet dog and tastes just as bad; he gets no argument from Mom or me

Picture 42--Dad really enjoyed the meal, I survived, and Mom barely made it out alive; she is totally faking a smile (love you Mom--you are very brave!)
Picture 43--I think we literally had 30 different things on the table

Sunday, May 4--We trekked to Seoul Tower, had lunch, then headed south of the river to take a harbor cruise. The day was very hazy, so it didn't provide the greatest views of Seoul or the river, but it was relatively nice. Fortunately, it only started to drizzle once we got on our boat.

Picture 44--A fountain and Seoul Tower. On my previous trip to Seoul Tower the fountain wasn't operational--so this was nice to see
Picture 45--Mom and I at the fountain
Picture 46--My cool parents

Picture 47--A descriptive panoramic picture from the observation area at Seoul Tower, facing south/southwest, you should notice the Han River running through the picture (remember the 63 Building for later)
Picture 48--Another view from Seoul Tower--this time facing north, and yes, the President's house is called The Blue House, because of its blue tiled roof, but also to be like The White House in America (remember the picture from earlier of the Jongno Tower?)
Picture 49--Mom and I at Seoul TowerPicture 50--Now we're south of the river, just popped up out of the subway station, and we're close to our spot to catch our boat for the harbor cruise; we've just come from that Tower
Picture 51--That's the 63 Building (remember from earlier?) and we're walking to our destination

Picture 52--I wish I could adequately describe to you the horror I felt when I saw this character walking around. No folks, you aren't being fooled--that's NOT really Minnie Mouse and NO, there isn't a Disney park in Korea. I don't think I'm a Disney snob, but I just can't believe that this is legal or right. I HAD to take a picture with "her". Though it appears to, that does not say Di Li on her shirt, those are Korean characters, which reads MIN NIE. Unbelievable. Picture 53--Not 10 minutes later, I turn and see that Mickey (clearly spelled out on his shirt) is walking towards where Minnie is hanging out. I am once again horrified; but I MUST take a picture to prove this moment happened. The peace symbol is out in force (though I have learned it does not stand for peace in Korea, it stands for V--Victory over Japan)
Picture 54--Getting ready to board our boat--Mom has the V pose down by now; and it's only Day 3!
Picture 55--Our gate for boarding, Korean characters on top, then English, then Japanese
Picture 56--Cruising under one of many bridges (about 11) on our cruise--Seoul Tower in the distance
Picture 57--Another bridge, Seoul Tower to the north

Picture 58--Yes, another one
Picture 59--When we got off the boat, after our 1 hour cruise, I saw this sign

Monday, May 5--This day is a huge Korean holiday called "Children's Day" (not to be confused with every other day of the year when children think it's "all about them"; also not to be confused with Cinco de Mayo--at least Korean parents don't allow their kids to drink Corona beer as part of the celebration). Because of the importance of the holiday, I couldn't get the day off from work--which gave my parents a perfect chance to visit English Village and see what I do here! They saw the 75th performance of the show I'm in (which I've now done 95 times), and they also got to see some of the other festivities that were planned specially for Children's Day.

Picture 60--After the show

Tuesday, May 6--The last day of our adventures. Mom and Dad had to be at the airport by around 12:00 noon. We had to check out of the "hotel" where we stayed by 10:30; so before that we wandered around the area a little bit more.

Picture 61--In front of the "hotel", holding the sign I made so I could find them at the airport (I put "hotel" in quotes because it was neither a hotel nor a motel, but basically a hostel for people backpacking around--but it was a cute place)

Picture 62--The sign for this random temple I'd seen before but not ventured towards

Picture 63--Mom being silly at the temple entrance (boy, the apple really DOES NOT fall far from the tree...)

Picture 64--As we continued to walk south around the Jongno area near the "hotel", we saw many shops that had...well...LOTS of stuff, arranged in very specific chaotic order; these are for you Grandpa--Mom thought you'd like to see this stuff
Picture 65--What if I needed something from the bag on the very bottom?
Picture 66--More craziness
After we walked around a bit more, and Dad got his coffee; we headed back to the "hotel" to finish getting everything together to check out. We checked out and headed for the bus stop that would take Mom and Dad directly to the airport. They wouldn't need my help any further. They're all grown up!

Within about 30 seconds of arriving at the bus stop, the bus came...which, I assure you, NEVER happens. We rushed to say goodbye and all that--and in the hubbub, Mom left with my jacket in her hands. I didn't even realize it until about an hour later when I arrived back in Ilsan on my way back to English Village. Oh well, what is Christmas for? I hope she wraps it and gives it to me as a present. That would be funny.

I had a great time, and I think they did, too (ask them about it).

THANKS MOM AND DAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Who else wants to visit?

The Last Divided Country in the World

2008-05-11T10:01:00.014+09:00

On Tuesday, April 29, I had the opportunity to experience something that no one else in my family or in my circle of friends (outside of Korea) may ever have the opportunity to do.

I toured the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Since the end of the Korean War (or the Conflict, as it is often called) in 1953, Korea has been divided at the famous 38th parallel, where the DMZ is. This is no ordinary border. It is the most heavily guarded border in the world, as Korea is the last divided country in the world.

It was incredibly historic, very scary, extremely humbling, and eye-opening all at the same time.

I went to the DMZ with a group of my coworkers. I had read a little bit about the DMZ before going--and had heard that it has become quite a tourist attraction.

I'll spare you the history lesson (though it is absolutely fascinating), you can look it up yourself. But I will share some of the highlights of the tour, as well as some pictures from the tour.

We took a taxi to the starting point for our tour. I literally live 20 minutes from the DMZ. I can say that definitively now. I knew I was close...but I didn't realize it is as close to me here as the beach was to me in California.

Interestingly, the place where the tours begin has a small amusement park and other non-DMZ related activities. There is a beautiful outdoor theater area, a place to play traditional Korean games, and even fly kites. I couldn't believe there were amusement park rides at the DMZ. But as I mentioned, it has become quite a tourist attraction.

Kites flying (these were tied together)--
The outdoor theater area--
A panoramic shot of the amusement area of the tourist center--
This large tourist center (and when I say tourist, it's not just for Westerners--there were mostly Korean tourists there) had several important and impressive historical markers.

There is this beautiful bell pavilion (though aren't they all pretty lovely?) called "The Peace Bell". It was dedicated on January 1, 2000 with this quote: "As we bid farewell to the 20th Century in which we witnessed the division of the Korean Peninsula, we welcome the 21st Century as a time of reunification and peace for all makind. It is here at the point that marks the division of North and South that the hopes and prayers of 9 million Kyonggi [the county's name] citizens come together in the erection of the Peace Bell Monument. The Peace Bell, which is [over 7 ft] in diameter, [over 12 ft] high and weighs 21 tons is made of bronze and tin in the traditional Korean style. The bell pavilion which is made of wood with a four-sided arched roof sits on an area of [231 square ft] and is [nearly 40 ft] high."

Closer shot of the Peace Bell--
Not only does the bell weigh 21 tons, it also stands on the top of 21 steps, and the area, while 231 square feet in our American minds, is 21 pyeong, a Korean form of measurement. All the 21's represent, as I'm sure you guessed, the importance of the 21st Century in the minds of many Koreans.

Also, there was a fascinating monument near the Peace Bell. It is called "The Stones of Peace Wall". As you can read from the sign below, the wall is made up of rocks from 86 different battlefields in 64 different countries. I thought that was incredibly powerful.

Number 51, as you can see, is a rock taken from a battle (in Massachusetts) during the Revolutionary War in 1775.
Also, there is a bridge called, "The Bridge of Freedom", so called because 12,773 prisoners of war returned to South Korea through this bridge in 1953. It's not a fancy bridge, but is incredibly historic. One end of the bridge is the literal freedom of South Korea, where I entered the bridge, but the other end is blocked by barbed wire and high fences...that's the North Korean side. It was very powerful to walk across that bridge.

Panoramic shot of the Bridge of Freedom & the Peace Bell--You can see a train coming from North Korea (I'm not sure where or what or when or why), and you can see a closer shot of the Bridge of Freedom--
Getting ready to cross the Bridge of Freedom--
The Bridge of Freedom--
Walking across the bridge; that's Candy in the picture--
Our tickets were 11,700 Won and we had to show our passports to get tickets. I had no idea what was in store for me. We boarded our bus (the 12:00 tour) FILLED with Koreans (all except for the 10 of us Westerners), and headed first to our first stop. Throughout our 2 1/2 hour tour, the very kind Korean driver spoke fluent KOREAN the entire time. It was very funny. Each time when we disembarked, he was able to tell us how long we had until we had to be back on the bus--that was helpful. I'd hate to be trapped in the DMZ.
The DMZ is 4 miles wide and 155 miles long--dividing Korea almost exactly in half. The picture below shows the checkpoint where we had to stop, and Korean soldiers with M-16's (or AK47's or the like) boarded the bus and looked at our passports. We were then allowed through.
My first real view of the DMZ--
Our first stop was Dorason Station. It is basically the last train station before North Korea. I did not know this--but it only started running again LAST December--when I was here! Meaning that since 1953, this train route, which used to connect North and South Korea has been useless. President Bush visited this station with the South Korean President in 2002. I do not believe anyone is allowed to take the train (besides, I suppose the conductor); but it takes goods back and forth. The hope is that in the future, this train station will once again be a connecting link between the North and South.
This sign (which may be hard to read/see) simply shows the connection the train makes into North Korea, and the capital city of Pyongyang.
You can see the train parked in the distance--
Inside the station--it shows exactly what it hopes to one day be able to connect, as the sign said--
Candy and I posing with two REAL South Korean soldiers inside the Dorasan Station--
Our next stop was the Dora Observatory. This is atop Mount Dora, and is the closest you can get to North Korea. All the way up to the top of the mountain, I saw these signs along the side of the road, behind the wire--it says, MINE; as in, land mine, not "Hey, that's not yours!". SCARY.
Dora Observatory (camera and all)--
In case you get lost, this shows you where the really important things are--
This observatory has those binoculars you'd see at any observatory or tall building. You put a quarter in (or in this case, a 500 Won coin), and you can see all the way across the DMZ and into North Korea...though there's not much to see over there. It was such a hazy day, I didn't bother to look through the binoculars. However, this point allowed the best visual of the actual DMZ. This is the part that is famous for its wildlife and plant life. Literally, NO HUMAN BEING has walked through most of this area in over 50 years; and it is thusly one of the most well-preserved natural pieces of land in the world. The hope is that if/when the countries unite, the DMZ will be kept as a preserve. No one is allowed to take pictures of this portion of the DMZ. I failed to notice a yellow line painted on the floor as I entered the deck of the observation area, and so I snapped one picture. Within a few moments, a very tall Korean soldier was reaching for my camera. I had no idea what I'd done. He said nothing. I quickly gathered what he was doing, but was afraid he was going to take my BRAND NEW camera. I said, "Are we not allowed to take pictures?" because I genuinely didn't know--and he said nothing. He was pressing buttons as if to delete the picture I took. I said, "I can delete the picture, if that's what you want me to do." He knew his way around the menus of my camera, and he brought up the picture and deleted it without saying a word. It was very scary. Only then did I notice the giant yellow line painted on the ground that clearly said, in English, "PHOTO LINE". Oops. It was absolutely not my goal to cause an international incident. "Idiotic American Dares to Take Picture at DMZ, His Body Missing" is how the headline would read.
I cheated a little bit. Once I stepped behind the PHOTO LINE, I lifted my hands, zoomed in, and just took one picture. You can see how hazy it was--but I did some work on the contrast and brightness of this picture so you can at least see some of what is out there.
Me at the Dora Observatory--
From there we headed to our last stop on the tour, The Third Tunnel Of Aggression. I didn't know too much about this, though I'd read a little bit of information on it months ago. This was by far the most amazing part of the entire tour.

South Korea has discovered 4 tunnels along the DMZ; tunnels dug by North Korea with the intention of invasion, though the North denies it all. Hmm. The third tunnel is the closest to Seoul, only 27 miles away. This tunnel was discovered in 1978. We could not take our cameras into the tunnel with us, so I have no pictures inside.

The tunnel is just over a mile in length, and 6.5 feet high and 6.5 feet wide. It is 239.5 feet underground. To reach the actual tunnel, we wore hard hats, sat in the scariest, most ramshackle roller coaster-like train, and made a very slow descent through a narrow tunnel.

The roller coaster-like train thing that took us underground to see the Third Tunnel--The entire tunnel is not open to tours, because of course, part of the tunnel is in North Korea. There are 3 separate blockades under ground to keep anyone from going through the entire tunnel.

The rock in the tunnel is granite, though when the tunnel was discovered, North Korea claimed they were merely mining coal there. They even painted black coal onto the walls of the cave to disguise it. Also counting against the North Koreans is the fact that the holes they were drilling for dynamite to blast more of the tunnel faced directly south. It proves they were heading south.

Because of the various netting, scaffolding, and protective flooring (there was water dripping from the walls), it wasn't really 6.5 feet tall, so I had to walk hunched over for most of the tunnel. It was very painful after a while.

I have to hand it to the North Koreans. They were super smart. The tunnel is built at a very slight angle, starting lower on the North and higher on the South. This allowed for water to drain out and not become stagnant.

It is said that this tunnel would have allowed an entire division (something between 10 and 20,000 soldiers!) and their weapons to go from the North to the South in ONE HOUR.
Though 2 tunnels had been discovered prior to this one, the South was able to find this one because of information from a North Korean engineer who defected.

After we walked the length of the tunnel and back, we again strapped ourselves in for the slow ride back to sea level.

Heading to the Third Tunnel of Aggression (notice the barbed wire on both sides of the narrow street)--

After seeing the tunnel, we looked around in the little museum they have at the Third Tunnel area. They have many artifacts, pictures, and diagrams detailing the Korean War (or Conflict). I found these helmets fascinating.
This was another fascinating monument. In one side of the globe is North Korea (the one you can see etched inside the globe), and on the other is South Korea. You see people attempting to push them together to unite them. This was also at the Third Tunnel area.
After all this, we got back on our bus and went back to the tourist center where we started.

Safety lies through that archway--
Heading to freedom--
Overall--the entire feeling and purpose of the DMZ is to promote peace and encourage unification, hence the amusement park rides, the Peace Bells, and the countless signs and attractions calling out for unity. Specifically people in the South desire to change the opinion of the DMZ. Rather than view the DMZ as a sign of division, they want it to be viewed as a sign of peace--and in the case of the wildlife and plant life contained within it--they want it to reflect the beauty that can come from something as bad as war.

The division of the two countries is very real, and is very personal for most Koreans. Visiting the DMZ showed, beyond any doubt, that war/aggression is still a very real possibility. It was a frighteningly real look into this society.

Though I never felt that my safety was threatened, it was by far the most frightening thing I've ever done. Keep in mind, I've driven in LA traffic many times...so that's saying something.

It was overwhelming.

Five Months = Vacation

2008-04-27T22:42:00.008+09:00

This past week, I took a vacation to Tokyo. My first vacation since coming here last November, over five months ago. My friend Sarah, who I work with, and I flew to Tokyo on Sunday afternoon. It's only about a 2.5 hour plane ride. Tokyo and Seoul are in the same time zone. That was great. My friend Patrice, from California, met us at the airport and joined us on this Japanese adventure.

Our hotel-- The view from our hotel window (on the 3rd floor); that's Tokyo Bay in the distance--
We spent all day Monday (9 a.m.-10 p.m.) at Tokyo Disneyland. They are celebrating their 25th Anniversary this year. I took almost 400 pictures. I enjoyed meeting lots of characters, seeing interesting costumes, and hearing Mickey, Buzz Lightyear, and C3PO (among others) speaking in Japanese. SO weird. Disneyland was awesome. It is very similar to Florida, in that the streets are huge, and everything is larger than I'm used to (from working at Disneyland in CA). Cinderella's castle is immense and beautiful.

The Main Entrance Area--

I'd never had my picture taken with Donald Duck before. I just never had the chance, I guess. But he was being mobbed, and was getting ready to leave, so this was my only option.
A panorama of the castle area-- View of the castle from behind (one of my favorite pictures)--
Me with a Jungle Cruise Skipper--
Sarah had only been to Disneyworld in Florida, and that was when she was 7 years old. So this was a great experience for her as well. And I loved seeing all the "familiar" things, just done a little differently.

Patrice, Jason, and Sarah--

The Partner's Statue, with the Castle in the background; but I'm sure you already knew that--
The closest we got to seeing Snow White (notice her wearing her mom's shoes)--
Why do human beings get so excited to meet a short person in a mouse suit?
Cinderella's Castle (by far, my favorite picture of the entire vacation)--
We rode the "Jungle Cruise"...enjoying it while not understanding a single word. We rode "Pirates of the Caribbean", and it was mostly in English (Davy Jones, Captain Barbossa, and Jack Sparrow all spoke English), which was strange but comforting. We rode "It's A Small World"; and of course, it was in several languages. We rode this strange "Winnie the Pooh" ride, which apparently is all the RAGE in Japan. Just the line to get a Fastpass for the ride was longer than the line we waited in before entering the park. But it was a fun ride...very different and cool technology--no track. We rode the "Haunted Mansion", and it was so bizarre hearing the scary Japanese speaking voice instead of the scary English speaking voice. I even rode "Big Thunder Mountain Railroad"...more than once (I typically avoid that ride like I avoid the dentist--not only because someone died on it in California, but because it's really just not that fun; but I must admit--it was much better in Tokyo). We rode "Star Tours", and I can't explain to you how strange it was to hear C3PO speaking Japanese, and then hearing our robot captain doing his best Pee-Wee Herman impression in Japanese. It's a good thing I've been on that ride before in America, otherwise, I would have had no idea what was being said. Poor Sarah--she's never been on the ride before, AND she's never seen "Star Wars"--so I think she was pretty lost.

For some odd reason, we did not see ONE single Princess in the park (other than millions of little girls dressed as Snow White, not just the adorable one we sat by for the parade). We saw many characters, but never a bonafide Princess. We did see them in the parade, but not walking around the park. The language barrier prevented us from getting concrete information about when and where specific characters would be. However, I was able to find lots of characters who I'd never seen out and about before. Characters like Robin Hood and King John (from "Robin Hood"), and Scrooge McDuck.

It was an awesome day. We rode all the rides we wanted to, some more than once, and we caught the 25th Anniversary Parade, titled "Jubilation". We watched the "Country Bear Jamboree"...where the songs were in English, but the dialogue was in Japanese. So strange. I had no idea what was happening. We watched the Electrical Parade, complete with all new floats I'd never seen before (like a "Monsters, Inc." float and 2 "Toy Story" floats), and we watched an abismal fireworks show that makes Knotts Berry Farm seem on the cutting edge.

The fireworks were shot from Critter Country, which in Tokyo is behind and to the left of the castle. This means that the fireworks didn't even shoot from behind the castle; they were off to the left. What makes Disneyland's fireworks so amazing, other than the beauty of the music and the spectacular precision (which Tokyo missed on both counts), is the fact that they appear to shoot directly behind the castle, sometimes shooting directly off the castle and around where you're standing. Also, they last longer than 10 minutes. The music that played along with the fireworks in Tokyo lasted under 7 minutes; and it was 2 different songs. I can't explain how bizarre it was to watch a Disney fireworks show and not get chills. Oh well.

After the horrible fireworks, we still had about an hour until the park closed. We hadn't yet visited Buzz Lightyear and his Astro Blasters (one cool ride if you've never been); so we hit that. It was awesome, as always. That's where I caught Buzz Lightyear speaking Japanese.

On Tuesday, we spent the entire day (10 a.m.-10 p.m.) at Tokyo Disney SEA, the neighboring park. This park opened in 2001. It was indescribable. It was vast and all new. When I walk around Disneyland/the Magic Kingdom (either in Tokyo, Florida, or California), there is always a comfortable familiarity. Even though I may never have set foot in the park, I still know where things are; because the basic layout is etched in my brain. But Tokyo Disney SEA was something entirely new.

Tokyo Disney SEA has an Indiana Jones ride. I didn't know how similar it would be, if at all, to the ride I originally worked on at Disneyland in California. Well, after we quickly got a Fastpass for "Tower of Terror", Indy was the first thing we rode. It was incredible. It is the same basic layout and identical track as Indy at Disneyland...but the theme of the ride is different, and many of the effects are different. I was so surprised, and pleasantly so. It was such a cool ride...though Indiana Jones spoke Japanese (hilarious). We subsequently rode the ride 2 more times throughout the day. It was definitely my favorite of the trip. Instead of being "Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye" like at Disneyland, it's called "Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Crystal Skull", similar in title to the upcoming FOURTH movie installment, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull". I took many, many pictures, as Patrice and Sarah could both attest.
This is from the Indy cue--this is the Crystal Skull you see throughout the ride--

Me with an Indy cast member (to think, I used to don a costume VERY similar to this)--Instead of a castle (or giant golf ball, or magical Mickey hat, or giant Tree) at its center, this park has a giant volcano--which looks entirely too real. But then again, that's Disney at its best. Throughout the day, smoke could be seen eminating from the tip of the volcano. Without going into too much detail, the park is divided into several different areas, like every Disney park. While we waited to get into the park we made our plan of attack. Fortunately, this park was significantly less crowded than Disneyland the previous day.

A panorama of the volcano and the pirate ship and some of the harbor--

In the afternoon, we watched their version of a parade, which took place in their harbor, called "The Legend of Mythica" (their harbor is called Mediterranean Harbor, as all that's around it is very Greek and Roman, etc.). Mickey spoke in Japanese again, and we were left confused. It was a very cool water show...albeit a little bizarre, as it was all sort of non-Disney like. Yes, Goofy and Pluto and Donald came out of the big floats they had--but the floats had giant imaginary animals like a phoenix and a unicorn. Strange. But, after all, the show was called "The Legend of Mythica". You could say that Tokyo Disney SEA is like the California Adventure of Tokyo...where things aren't quite Disney. But it was a neat show, with excellent music. I bought the CD later that day. I found out the music was composed by Alan Silvestri (who scored "Back to the Future" and "Forrest Gump" among many others). Very cool.

A vertical panorama of our spot for the "Legend of Mythica" show--

The Legend of Mythica show--

Over the course of the two days spent at the Disney parks, it was most interesting to see what things were in English, what things were in Japanese, and what things had a mixture of both languages. For example, when we watched the "Little Mermaid" show at Tokyo Disney SEA, all the songs were sung in English (or lip-synced in English), but all the spoken dialogue was in Japanese. It was so strange, and I don't understand why it was like that. It was the only show we saw that had English subtitles available. EVERYTHING else we ever rode or watched left us basically clueless. Obviously all the Western cast members, specifically the face characters like Mary Poppins, etc., spoke English. But segments of the parades and fireworks were in English only, which I don't understand. It was a most confusing trip.

The volcano at sunset-- Sarah, Patrice, and me; volcano behind us--

We went to a delightful Mexican cantina for dinner. I haven't had any Mexican food since I arrived in Korea. Usually, when you have a hankering for Mexican food--you don't think "Korea". But it was the MOST DELICIOUS meal I've had in months (obviously I'm not counting my numerous bowls of Honey Nut Cheerios and Frosted Mini Wheats as meals). I had a fajita trio--steak, chicken, and shrimp. It was unbelievable.

Oh, and in case you aren't satisfied with the regular, butter popcorn that Disney serves in America...just travel to Tokyo Disneyland. You can get all kinds of popcorn. Honey popcorn. Strawberry popcorn. Black pepper popcorn. Sea salt popcorn. Cappucino popcorn. Caramel popcorn. Chocolate popcorn. Even CURRY popcorn is available. Who knew?

After dinner we found a good spot to watch the much-touted water and lights show--"BraviSEAmo". Get it? Because it's on the water...or sea...and we clap, and there is music...so bravo...hmm. I'm sure you get it. Anyway, this show is like their version of "Fantasmic", just in Japanese, and a completely different subject. For this show, only Mickey came out at the beginning and said stuff in Japanese...again, hilarious. Then he left and the main show began. The music was amazing; I had already purchased the CD earlier in the day, knowing full well I'd probably love it. It was a very strange show, and anything that was said was spoken in Japanese; but most of the show was simply musical, which is often called "the universal language". Or is that love? I don't know. Whatever. Anyway, the show is beautiful and I enjoyed it very much. During the show, the volcano gets angry and there are several large explosions of fire. It's so amazing...knowing that the volcano IS NOT REALLY A VOLCANO. Disney knows what it's doing. It was great. After the show, I think we rode the "Tower of Terror" once again, and eventually went back to the hotel. Our Tokyo Disney adventures were over.

Mediterranean Harbor; this was the view from our spot as we waited for BraviSEAmo!--
A nighttime panorama of our view from our BraviSEAmo! spot (volcano is on the Left)--
Up close of the volcano at night--
BraviSEAmo! (basically the show is about fire vs. water)--

Before leaving Tokyo Disney SEA, I took this--
But perhaps the most amazing thing about the ENTIRE trip--literally--was the fact that there was a Wendy's Hamburgers restaurant near our hotel. Folks, Burger King has great hamburgers, and they are all over Korea, for which I'm truly thankful--but I haven't had a Wendy's hamburger in many moons. Not to mention, a Frosty! It was our first night in Tokyo, we were on our bus from the airport; almost at our hotel, when Sarah saw the Wendy's. I nearly peed myself, and Sarah punched an old Japanese woman in the face. I'm sure Patrice thought we were insane (because she can ultimately have Wendy's whenever she wants; which of course she doesn't, because she lives in California--and why get a burger at Wendy's when you have IN-N-OUT BURGER!!!!!)--but it's SO hard to find a good hamburger in Korea. If you go to TGI Friday's or Outback Steakhouse (both of which are in Korea), the hamburgers are good--but they cost about $13. Korea is not known for it's cows, you see. Anyway, once we arrived at our hotel, checked in, purchased our Disney tickets, and Sarah apologized for punching the lady (of course, I'm joking about that); we walked to Wendy's for dinner. I ate entirely too much--but it was so enjoyable. Of course, I ate a Frosty afterwards. Whoever said I wouldn't be able to eat in Asia was SO wrong. =) Anyway, on our last day, before taking the airport bus from the hotel back to the airport, we once again had Wendy's. I didn't eat as much, which was good, but I did have another Frosty. The pictures are precious.

Delightful trip, I'd say.

Well, sayonara (that's goodbye in Japanese). Cyanide (that's goodbye in any language).

All Is Well!

2008-04-11T22:02:00.014+09:00

Okay, so that last little "test" post seemed to work. I simply resized the pictures, making them smaller than the original 2460 x 3280. Before posting this new post, I deleted the previous post so I could include the pictures and descriptions here. I hope it works! Be sure to tell me if something is wrong.

Here is the signage for the pavilion picture I posted in the previous blog, and more pictures of that pavilion. I'd been by it a few times, but never walked right by it. It is a rather small pavilion in the middle of Seoul.--
Poster for the show (first the regular poster, then a close up of my picture, then the giant hanging poster)--
A few weeks ago, this group of boys came to see the show, and I met them afterwards. They really enjoyed the show, and were very funny. They liked to do my "move" from the show, where I pump my fist toward the ground and do my school's cheer--"Smalltown Tigers, hoo hoo!" They thought that was the funniest thing, so they all did it for me. Well, just this last week they came to see the show again. Since I don't wear my glasses during the show--I had no idea they were in the audience again. But when I went out to the lobby after the show, I saw them again. They all did the funny move again--and they invited me to eat lunch with them.

We all went to the pizza place to have lunch. I learned their English names. The picture is below, and next to me in green is Morgan, then from L to R in the front are Danny, Brian, Dan, and James. They all came with their Taekwondo instructor, who is Korean, but also happens to live in New York. It was great hanging out with them. I call them my groupies. You will also notice in this picture that I am wearing SHORTS! That's because it was about 72 degrees outside on Sunday when this picture was taken!! I couldn't believe it.

My groupies--
The boys with their Taekwondo teacher--
Dan and Brian--
Honestly, this warm weather has given me energy I'd forgotten I had. I think I've really been a jerk the last 5 months. I haven't wanted to do anything; I've been tired, etc. This warmth is just what I need. I really have found my energy level has increased exponentially, and it's not just because I've tripled my dose of Ginko Biloba. I find I run around more. I was with those guys for lunch after the show, and I was wearing a t-shirt and jeans, but when lunch was over, I ran back to my apartment, jumped on my bed, reached for my suitcase that's stored on top of my shelf, and grabbed the ONLY pair of shorts I brought to Korea. I put them on and proceeded to run around outside like a 6 year old. I found the guys walking around and that's when I took the picture with them. I'm lovin' it.

If you've been following along with these adventures, you know I've spoken of the group home/orphanage that a group of us from English Village have been visiting. The place is called Peacetown, so that's how I'll refer to it from now on. Well, we've made a set plan to go each month, and our last trip was a few weeks ago, on Monday, March 31. I bought my new camera the day AFTER the visit, so I don't have any pictures from that night. However, it was more of the same. We played lots of games with the kids, and taught them how to do the Macarena and Limbo--both incredibly important things--then gave them snacks. But something we did finally do, at my behest, was to make nametags, not only for ourselves, but for the kids as well. This way, we could learn their names--at least a little better. It's still not easy to pronounce some of their names, even reading it in English, i.e. Xien Jiu, but it was still a neat experience to call out their names so they could come up and get a nametag. The kids enjoyed it; plus, as I said, they were able to better learn our names. It's one thing to hear a foreign name spoken, it's another to see it written. The kids are always excited to see us. I think I mentioned before that they get a kick out of facial and arm hair. I hadn't shaved, so I had a little stubble on my face. Well, they either feel my cheek to see what it's like, or when I give them a hug, they feel it on their face and giggle. Very odd, but funny. We'll continue to go back.

Within the past week, we've had two parties here at English Village. Last Friday (the 4th) we had a party to celebrate the 2nd Anniversary of EV being open. The new President (of EV, not of Korea) made a toast at the beginning.

The President of EV--
Candy and I at the party (I don't know why we have to make silly faces)--
Sarah and I at the party (she's the one going to Tokyo with Patrice and me)--
Then, just tonight (the 11th), there was another party, thrown by the new head of the education department, so we could mingle with people from other departments. It was fun.

Candy and I at this other party (see, we don't always make faces)--
This past week, I went into Seoul...as I am wont to do. While there I explored parts of town I'd never before seen. I went to a bookstore in the Kyobo Building, a bookstore I'd heard a lot about. It's a large bookstore, with a specific English section. I love reading, and I love books...but not only do I have enough books already here to keep me busy but the books were too expensive. However, in the same general area was a CD/DVD store called "Hot Tracks". That's all I need. So I bought some DVD's. That pavilion that is pictured at the beginning of this blog is in front of the Kyobo Building.

I also took some more pictures of Seoul Tower. I'm still trying to work out my camera's "flower" focus, to try and get some cool shots.

Seoul Tower in the background, in focus--
Seoul Tower in the background, not in focus--
Seoul Tower in the background, in focus--
On my way back from Seoul, I stopped in a place called Paju Book City, which is a little town not far from here. If you take the bus into Seoul from EV, the bus takes you through this little place, but I'd never checked it out. The shopping center is called "Orange County", and I just found that hilariously bizarre. I had to go. Well, I'm glad I did. I got some great things--at great prices. I had been looking for a lighter jacket (because it's getting WARMER!), and I found a perfect jacket for 5,000Won (about $5). I also bought a cool shirt (7,000Won) and a pair of New Balance shoes (35,000Won).

The shopping center at Paju Book City--
An oddly designed building in Paju Book City (the whole area is very artsy)--
Then when I was getting closer to EV, I got out of the bus early to walk the rest of the way (because it was SO nice outside), and I took some more pictures. I know I have posted a picture of our version of the "HOLLYWOOD" sign before, but here's another one from farther away. If you ever get lost in Paju, all you have to do is look for this GIANT sign. You may remember, early on in my time here, I took a photo from the street in front of English Village, across the Han River. Across the Han River is North Korea. We're...really...close.

You can't miss it--
It's right there--
EXCITING NEWS: I just found out today that I have been chosen to direct one of the shows in the next season. If you recall, I was writing a script for the next season, but it did not get chosen. Two other scripts got chosen, and I will be directing the show called "George Saves Storyland". It's a cool show. It's basically "The Wizard of Oz" meets "The Neverending Story"; both of which I love. The dad, George, is very busy with his work, and his 12 year old daughter, Chelsea, wants him to read her favorite bedtime story. He tells her that he is too busy and that she is getting too old to use her imagination. But Chelsea is the last child to believe in "Storyland", and it begins to fall apart without her belief. The Emperor of Storyland steals Chelsea and puts her under a spell in order to force George to save Storyland (hence the title). He embarks on a spectacular journey through Storyland, finding a dragon's tooth, a unicorn's tail, and a witch's broom in order to save his daughter, and thusly Storyland.

Auditions are in 3 weeks, so I have some time to prepare myself for what's ahead. The show opens in June, which means I'll be directing while I'm still performing 10 shows a week (we've done 52 as of right now). Oh, and I'm also writing yet ANOTHER script for the Fall season. It's going to be intense, but I'm looking forward to the new challenge.

I'll be going to Tokyo in 9 days! My friend Patrice from California will be joining one of my coworkers, Sarah, and me in Tokyo. We are going to Disneyland in Tokyo. They are celebrating their 25th Anniversary this year, and besides that, it will be neat to see another Disney park. This will be my first vacation since arriving in Korea 5 months ago. I have no real intention of eating any Japanese food or seeing any sights, other than Disneyland. The reason for this is simple: I'm living in Korea; and the two countries aren't all that different. I am amazed that Tokyo is only a 2.5 hour plane ride away. At least for me. Patrice will be flying for about 10hours. Sorry. =)

Mom and Dad will be visiting in less than 3 weeks, so I'm preparing for that as well. They will get to see me in the show among other sites in Korea. We'll hopefully visit a palace or two, take a river cruise, get shot at by North Koreans, ride the subway, hike to Seoul Tower, be ripped off while shopping at Namdaemun Market, and eat some wild food. Also, as I said, the weather is changing from freezing to pleasant, so we'll probably get a chance to see some lovely foliage.

This next month is going to be the busiest ever, but it should be fun.

Stay tuned.

My New Camera--KODAK M863

2008-04-04T16:24:00.011+09:00

M863 sounds like a car that James Bond would drive...but alas, it's the model of my new camera. Sadly, my Minolta G500 Dimage doesn't seem to want to work properly. I can still take pictures on the camera...but only using it's internal memory. And sadly, the internal memory only takes about 17 pictures, at a very small size. So it's just not worth it.

Outside the Yongsan area (the 63 Building [tallest building in Korea] in the distance)--

So I bought a new camera this past weekend. I went to Yongsan Electronics Market--the vastness of which I cannot adequately describe. The place is massive, with several levels, all full of electronics. None of the items (laptops, desktops, mp3 players, cell phones, video cameras, cameras, spaceships) have any prices on them; everything is negotiable.

The 63 Building up closer--I had to find a salesman that could speak English well enough to at least answer my questions and show me a camera that would fit what I needed.

A shot of Namdaemun, the gate that was burned; high walls are built around it--

It has some really cool features. Firstly, unlike my previous camera, this one can record videos longer than 30 seconds, allowing me to videotape anything I want; including the 10 songs I sang the other night at karaoke (which can be found HERE).

It also can take panoramic pictures, which is especially cool. You actually take 3 separate pictures, and the camera stitches the pictures together to form one cohesive picture. It's incredible.

Panorama of the Yongsan area (remember to CLICK the picture to enlarge it)-- A panoramo of my room-- Also, the camera has a much better flash than my old one. There are so many features on the camera. I have to read more and just play around with it to see how to best use it.

A cool shot of the subway train approaching; I did some after effects to it--Attempts at getting a close up shot--I'm still working out the macro focus--The next few weeks will be spent reading more about my camera in order to get the most out of it...including the best pictures. I will certainly share them here.

Until the next adventure!

GOD is REAL

2008-03-29T10:50:00.003+09:00

Yes, God is real. I have believed in God for many years. But if I ever doubted His existence--I can do so no more.

Remember, sometime last month, I wrote a blog which detailed a journey to COEX Mall. I was hungry and desperate to find something I could eat--and I saw, in the distance, a SBARRO Italian Eatery. I was overjoyed. This alone could prove the existence of a higher power.

However, that experience doesn't come close to the excitement I felt this past week.

On Tuesday morning, I headed back to Severance Hospital for my appointment with an eye doctor. When I was there last week to get x-rays on my hand and knee, I asked the regular doctor about lasik surgery. He set up this appointment with another doctor in the hospital.

So I arrived for my appointment. They did all kinds of tests on my eyes. To make a long (and potentially gross) story short; I am NOT eligible for lasik surgery. I've got an astigmatism in both eyes, and the doctor said something about myopia. Okay, so I can't have lasik surgery--I'll wear glasses for the rest of my life. But that's not the exciting part.

When I left the hospital, it was around 12:00 noon. I had awoke that morning at 6:30 a.m. to catch the 7:20 a.m. shuttle to Ilsan, so I could get to the hospital for my 9:00 a.m. appointment. So I was hungry.

I decided to take a different route from the hospital, to walk around and see a new part of town. Without looking at my handy guide, I knew that I'd eventually come across some place that I could eat. McDonalds, Burger King, Lotteria, something.

What I found confirms the very existence of GOD: Quizno's Subs.

QUIZNO'S!! I found a QUIZNO'S! No one had ever mentioned to me that Korea contained any Quizno's! I mean, Subway is good and all...but Quizno's is out of this world! Even though the sky was overcast this particular Tuesday, a definite ray of light was shining from Heaven upon this discovery.

This was different from my Sbarro's sighting. The Sbarro I saw was in the distance, and I was unsure of what I saw. I thought it was a mirage. However, my discovery of Quizno's was not unlike Indiana Jones coming face to face with the Ark of the Covenant in "Raiders of the Lost Ark"; and just as spiritual an experience. I did a triple take at the storefront directly in front of me. I walked in, garnering a few funny looks from the customers. I may have been walking in super slow motion into the restaurant, out of sheer shock; and that's why they may have been staring. That or the fact that, like a little dog, I'd peed my pants with excitement.

Anyway, I couldn't believe that this was real. All the signs, all the decorations, even the smells were identical to my American Quizno's experiences. I ordered my regular sandwich, The Traditional. They have this ranch dressing they put on the sandwich that is absolutely indescribably good. I ate my meal slowly and with care. I'll definitely return there again and again.

When I was finished and I was turning in my tray, I said, "Mashee-eessoyo", which means, "That was DELICIOUS." The lady laughed.

What a terrific lunch.

Unfortunately, I have no pictures for you. My camera is acting up. It will not recognize any memory card I put into it--thus making it impossible to take pictures. Fortunately, I am in South Korea, which has some of the largest electronics manufacturers and stores in the world. I'm looking into purchasing a new digital camera this coming week. Any helpful hints regarding a camera would be most appreciated.

Weekend Of All Weekends

2008-03-21T13:48:00.013+09:00

To start this exciting blog--here are some pictures from the show I'm doing; School Days (you will notice in some pictures, my hair is red, in others it is black--I changed it from the hideous red color to the more normal black).

My new hair color--

Singing in the first scene (old hair color)--Me, Curtis, introducing myself to the new student, Antonio, by yelling--
Me happy about my grade on the quiz...I got a C (I say, "C is for Curtis!")-- The three students (Curtis, Peggy, Antonio) after the Final Test song--
Mrs. Thompson (the teacher) talking to us--
Me as the Chef, looking on--Me as the Chef, singing and dancing--Mrs. Thompson dancing--breaking her own rule of "No Dancing!"--
Final Bows--
As of today (Friday, March 21), we've done 24 shows. Wednesday and Thursday we do 2 shows a day. Friday we do only one show. But Saturday and Sunday we do 3 shows each day. It's exhausting. Other than presenting programs to school kids and taking trips around the World Famous Jungle Cruise at Disneyland, I've never done a "show" this many times...and I still have 2 months of the show left. By the end (which is the end of May), I'll have done something like 130 performance.

Seeing as how I'm going to be working with the same actors for 3 months--I thought it would be a good idea to have them over for breakfast this last Sunday before our LONG 3 show day.

Brian (plays Antonio), Candy (plays Peggy), and Hwa Kyoung (plays the teacher, Mrs. Thompson; and the waitress)--Some of you may have been keeping track of the weather over here. It has become quite lovely, for the most part. I am happy to report that when I was outside this weekend, I found that I was actually sweating! For the past week, every time I go outside I expect coldness and haven't got it. It is incredible. IT HAS BEEN AROUND 65 DEGREES OUTSIDE!! Literally, I feel like I have been let out of a prison I've been in for 4 months (this past Wednesday marked my 4 month mark here in Korea). I have been set free from a cold, dark prison--and sent into a warm world. It is incredible.

With the aid of the weather, I had the greatest two-day weekend so far. Usually, when it comes to the weekend, I'm so tired from the week, I don't want to do anything. Remember, I get Mondays and Tuesdays off, which means Saturday and Sunday are my last two days of work for the week. But as I said, Saturday and Sunday are the busiest, most exhausting days of all.

So usually, when it comes time for my days off...I don't do much. I usually spend one of those days locked in my room, being lazy. I do "something" on the other day off. But this weekend I spent BOTH days off doing exciting things.

MONDAY--

I decided to go to the hospital. Okay, so that's not so exciting. But it was a new (new to me, not recently built) hospital, one I hadn't been to before. In Seoul, I had heard about a hospital that had an International Health Clinic. The hospital is called Severance Hospital...nomenclature that, in my opinion, should not refer to a hospital. "Sever"-anything is not something I want to hear in conjunction with any malady I might have.

The hospital--All I wanted to do was get a "checkup", because I really haven't had a checkup in...well...I don't when I last had a checkup. Last Tuesday (the 11th), while playing Flag Football, I jammed my pinky finger. I just caught (I should say dropped) a pass wrong, and it hurt immediately. I'm nothing if not consistently hurting somewhere on my body. A fractured foot, a jammed pinky, a sore knee, a sore back, a sore neck, various cuts and bruises from falling--it's always something.

During this show, I have to do pushups and a cartwheel, both painfully impossible with a jammed finger. For the shows, I simply taped my pinky to my ring finger and hoped it would get better. And it has gotten better. But while I was at the doctor, I thought I'd mention it and see if it was broken or something. So I got an x-ray on my right pinky finger and my left knee. Yeah, I hurt my knee about 2 years ago. Literally, I was bending down to pick up my backpack, and something "popped". I never got it looked at...until this past Monday. In the past 2 years, the knee has felt much better, which is why I never felt the need to see a doctor.

Well, the x-rays showed nothing wrong with either my knee or my pinky. So, nothing is broken. Great. I'm just aging poorly...like Brad Pitt and Harrison Ford.

Some of you have been wondering about my foot. You may recall that I fractured it within a month of arriving here in Korea; caused by dancing (I HATE DANCING!) without special shoes on a hard dance floor. Well, my foot is much better now. Every once in a while it will be slightly sore, but the real pain is gone. I plan to return to the hospital where I got it looked at to make sure all is well.

I don't know if any of you have ever investigated or had lasik surgery--but I'm thinking about getting it done; if I'm even eligible for it. So I spoke to the doctor about this as well. He got me an appointment with some eye doctor for next week. So we'll see how that goes.

After visiting the doctor, I headed to Namdaemun Market, which I've been to a couple times before. This new warm weather made me want to buy some t-shirts. I didn't pack that many t-shirts when I was coming here from southern California, not only because I didn't have room, but because I knew I was coming to a place with subzero temperatures. I knew that Namdaemun would have cheap t-shirts.

Namdaemun Market, Gate 4 (Seoul Tower in the background)--Underground directions--If you're really good with names, or you've been closely following my blogs, you recognize the name Namdaemun. Namdaemun means "great south gate", and is the gate that was burned down earlier this year. But right near the gate is a large, world famous marketplace that has existed since the 15th century! Certainly it's proximity to the gate is why it's been around so long. It NEVER closes. Obviously, some vendors don't stay open all night, but some do. Apparently, there's a section that only opens in the middle of night--and it is more packed than during the day (which is saying A LOT). So, anyway, this place is insane. I bought some t-shirts and that was that. Lovely day.

TUESDAY--

Before the weekend, I looked at the forecast. The temperature on Tuesday was supposed to be 68 degrees. The warmest it had been so far. I decided to hike up to Seoul Tower. In my handy "Seoul" book it gives very explicit directions on how to get there. I mean it literally tells you to take a right here, walk up the steps there, take the first left, walk up more steps, pass the playground and the old men playing Korean chess...etc.

I mentioned this adventure to Candy, and she said she'd like to go. Though she's been here 9 months to my 4, she hasn't done much touristy stuff. I usually do all this fun stuff alone--so I was pleased to have someone to accompany me. Plus, Candy is generally awesome.

Seoul Tower is on top of Mt. Namsan, which used to be part of the southern border of Seoul (the mountain is very near Namdaemun Gate). My handy book says the hike only takes 30 minutes. Of course, that's without taking a million pictures along the way; and stopping every 2 minutes to breathe; and visiting the various stops along the way. Well, the weather was incredible, but I was sad it was a bit hazy out. That would make the view less spectacular. Well it did--but it was still an incredible view, and I did take a million pictures.

Beginning our hike in a little park on the hillside (Directions say "turn right up the steps and into and through the small hillside park")--

This church was near the hillside park we stopped at--Candy and I stopped for a picture-- Candy on the steps on our way towards the Millenium Hilton Hotel ("go right and walk round to the front of the hotel")--The view from the base of the hotel--A cool stone with characters carved in it--Some flowers I saw--A birdhouse along the pathway up the mountain (no birds inside)--Another random birdhouse further up the mountain--Part of our pathway, making our way up to the top--A great shot of the path, the wall, and the Tower (and I suppose the dead trees, too)--This is me just off the path--touching part of the ORIGINAL Fortress Wall around Seoul (this was my first time seeing any of the fortress wall, it runs up much of the mountain to a guard center at the top)--Getting closer--Me at the outlook point--nearly a 360 degree view of Seoul--incredible--We made it--This guy made it too, kind of (they had several of these random wire people flying around)--We were lucky enough to see the changing of the guard ceremony at the top of the mountain (I didn't even know there was such a thing at the top--though it makes sense, seeing as how they would have been guarding the southern border of Seoul from this great vantage point), and I got my picture with two of the guards--it was pretty scary--On our way down the mountain, going back through one of the parks, we saw these two old (I mean OLD) men playing tennis. No net, no lines, no fans, no ESPN coverage--just old guys playing tennis. I just found it so bizarre.It was a terrific day. Beautiful weather, a great view, great exercise (which resulted in some soreness later in the week; surprise, surprise). I'm appreciating this new weather a lot. It'll make traveling around a LOT easier and more exciting.