......

One of my students died (7 years old) in a tragic plane crash yesterday. He was vacationing in Cambodia with his family (mom, dad, 1 year old brother). No one survived the crash!!!!! His one year old brother was a twin and they only took one of the babies on the trip.

So sad.........

I found these two picture on his father website under photolog.........

http://blog.naver.com/augyjoe

Time for a change

With all the free time I had last week I thought it would be good to change my room around. My main goal was to put my exercise machine in my bedroom, not the storage area, so that I would use it more often.


Ahhhh, what a mess. Deciding to re-arange things at night was a bad idea (especially since it was 10:00 pm). I even took apart my bed frame with Sung Hyuns electric drill. The plan was to store the bed and sleep KOREAN STYLE.......aka on the floor!!!! So that is what I did. I acquired a couch and nicely rearranged things so that my apartment was more suitable for entertaining.

Only problem was that at 1:00 am, after I had spent a mere 15 minutes on my new Korean style bed (the floor) I decided that putting my nice Western style bed into storage was a bad idea. The next day after work I once again re-arranged my room in order to fit the bed -- it was a must. And here is what I came up with:

My entrance way -- I had to move my kitchen table back into the kitchen.....

My nice new comfy couch

Still haven't used my exercise bike -- maybe tomorrow......kekeke

The view from my couch

TA-DA!!!!!

I will miss my almost daily trips to Sinchon..........the super-hip and always crowed place to be, where you will be sure to bump into some cutie Korean students ;) Yes my university class has come to an end. I studied hard and burnt myself out. I was getting so worn down that I decided that I better hold off on the next course (plus I didn't want to have to worry about studying when I made my trip to Canada). So I opted out of the final because at this moment I have crammed in enough information that I possibly can. And on top of that, I'm in it for the long haul and not too concerned what grade I get. As long as I'm learning I'm happy.

Just one super cute Korean kindy that I teach. Even though he's not the smartest in the class I am sure his super sweet looks will take him far (well at least that is what my Korean co-teacher keeps telling me)

I think my next goal will be to see if it is possible for me to take a picture without putting up the Korean 'kimchi' fingers.

And here they are again. I swear it is just part of how people take pictures. How I got wrapped into this crazy idea is beyond me.

THREE KOREAN GUYS HUGGING (yes you heard that right) IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET..............WHILE THEY HAPPILY POSE FOR A PICTURE.......ahhhh somethings I will just never understand. Actually it is really nice to see men be able to do something so freely and not be concerned with the Western connotations associated with such harmless touch. Here you are not gay if you decide to wear pink or wrap your arms around your guy friend.

Sitting on the roof-top in Nashvilles kicking back a cold beer is the perfect way to enjoy a Saturday.

I love how this yellow sign prohibits the sale of goods, yet right below are some knock-off DVD's for sale.........kekeke

It's very seldom that I experience culture shock now. Having lived in Korea for over a year and a half I have grown (or just come) to accept the ramdomness of this country -- puke on the street, pushy Koreans, cheap food, feeling like a celebrity.........This past weekend Sung Hyun and I decided to head for dinner and it was his turn to pick were we were going. Since I wasn't very hungry I was up for anything because I just figured that I wouldn't eat much anyways. And of course I didn't eat much, especially after I found out that we were going for octopus (don't worry this time it was dead).

Painting something on some half-naked guy in the middle of the street................this is one of those ONLY IN KOREA MOMENTS!!!!

Soccer game

A couple of weekends back I went to a soccer game with my friend Charlie. So here are some pics of us during the night.

Always a big crowd when we head to events like this. Lots of people = lots of pushing!!!!! I hadn't seen Charlie in over a month so it was fun to catch up with each other. Right now Charlie is in Japan for a short time until he heads into his military service. He got accepted as a Army officer and will be starting his 3 years of service in about 3 weeks. Before that time I hope to see him again.

Hey Charlie, it's my turn to treat you to dinner...........

One heck of a good time

Last Saturday our school planned a field trip for us -- they rented us a bus and took us to the woods to shoot at us. We had a full day of fun from the time we got on the bus till the night was over. Don't worry, no one was armed in battle........it was only paintball that we were playing anyways.

Everyone knows the back of the bus is always the most fun. So that is where we started..........lots of laughs, jokes and singing.

Anne marie brought her handy speaker system including her ipod and we rocked to tunes all the way there -- we even had the Korean bus drivers singing along.

Shortly after we arrived at Jisan ski resort (looks a lot different covered in snow). We were ready for battle. It was really great to get away from Seoul and be surrounded by mountains, clean air and good company.

Here we are ready for battle. Jackson and I pose for a picture, before we begin discussing our battle strategy. We were all smiles until we got our butt kicked by the other team.

This is the first time I have played paintball and it was very fun. I'll definately be doing it again. I think I will have to take Sung Hyun to lazer tag in Canada.

After our battle we sat down to some grilled pork (Korean style BBQ) and copious amounts of alcohol.

Shane, the Western guy in the picture below, has a talent. He can shotgun a beer in about 3 seconds. He had all the Korean men beat as he rocked his mad skills. They certainly have him a a pedestal now.

CHEERS!!!!!!

So this Korean man has adopted me as his daugher and I always call him 'father'. But what kind of father would encourage me to drink like this?

The bus ride home had to be the best. All the Korean bus drivers were dancing in the ailes, doing shots of soju, singing and acting like complete fools. They even started to do flips by haning on to the seat hand rests..........wow leave it to Koreans to have a good time. It certainly was obnoxious but I loved it!!!!

And just when I thought the day was over, we moved on to a local pub by my house. I often go here on Friday for a cold beer after a hard week of work with some teachers and I have been attending this place for the past year and a half, so I am pretty sure the owner wasn't impressed when I brought in a posse of already drunk Koreans.

Yup the night was still not over. And what do you do with a bunch of drunk Korean guys at 8 pm on a Saturday night? Take them to a singing room where they can sing and dance and get it on. Seriously these rooms are always packed but this is by far the best time I have had in a Norleebong.

FOR YOU MY LOVE...

I haven't been able to update my homepage for awhile because I have been working really hard on my studies.

Today we had a day off so I decided I was going to attempt to make my first video.......inspired by Amy who has already made 3. Well actually I am the queen of procrastination so this was the perfect activity to keep me away from my homework for a good couple of hours.

Considering that I am not very good with computers I think I did a pretty good job, plus it was a lot of fun. The whole time I was making it I had such a BIG SMILE on my face because I was thinking about all the good time with my lover.

The music in this song is composed and sung by a Korean -- he is dating my good friend Anne Marie and likes to sing for fun.........I think he's darn good.

Anyways, this post is for you BABE...........ENJOY!!!!!