Goseong...in pictures

Here are the pictures that I promised to post a while back. Just some random shots around the city that I am living in now. In other news, I will be leaving on Dec. 23 for Manila to spend Christmas and New Years with my dad. We may be spending a few days in Borocay if we are able to get hotel confirmations. Should be a lot of fun and i'll have my camera there to document everything :D


this is the playground of the apartments I live in, a couple of these kids are my students and I snapped it before they saw me and came running over.
at the local park...looks like a student studying in the background
ran in to these guys at the same park, they were filming for a school project
typical korean house architecture
more
more
lots of sidewalk shops around here
and people wonder why Asians live longer
view from the top of a local mountain

Friday Night Fever

Life is pretty slow here in the countryside of Southern Korea. I was glad when my adult class students suggested that we meet up outside of class for my Friday night class. I volunteered to host the shin-dig and four of my six students showed up. We stopped by the supermarket beforehand and picked up a few items eg. soft drinks, snack food, fruit, cups etc., then it was off to my place. We all had a good time,ate some Korean-style food and fried chicken... and yes, it WAS finger-lickin' good!!

Here are a few pictures from earlier tonight. I've inserted the names into the first pic. The two ladies in the back are also teachers at the Math academy underneath my school. That school is also run by my boss. Jeong Ho works as a physical therapist (thanks for the tips on how to get rid of that pesky eye twitch), and Woo hyun is an explosives engineer...man that job sounds like a blast, ha ha ha.

At first I wasn't sure how I was going to like teaching adult classes again. Although I've done it for many years in the past, the last two spent in Korea were strictly spent with children, and this job was suppossed to be as well. I have to say that it's actually quite nice to have them as they are all wonderful students and I like ending my Tuesdays and Fridays with them.

This is the spread BEFORE:
and AFTER:

I'm going to throw some random shots of the city I live in and other stuff. Things are really a lot different than they are back home. I like the excitement of being in a new country and city, but I also know that I'm missing out on a lot of things back home... like watching little Hannah and Erica grow up. :(

Here are the pics: (blogger given me problems at thr moment)

It's raining lights

Heard some loud booms going off near my apartment an hour or so ago. Peeked my head out of my fifth-floor window and saw this:




I didn't have the best angle as a new building that is being constructed in front of my building blocked my view from the launching point but I still managed a few nice shots nevertheless. I'll have to find out what the occasion was back in the office on Monday.

It's getting pretty cold over here and I'm looking forward to spending Christmas and New Years with my pops in The Philippines, although I wish all the family could be together for it. Come to think of it, I can't remember the last time we all celebrated Christmas in the same place...it's literally got to have been at least 12+ years.....DAMN!


**UPDATE** Found out that the fireworks were to celebrate the 1ooth year of a local school. I beleieve it was an elementary school. Thought I would pass it on.

A Tribute

I'm writing this post as a tribute to a lot of hard work, blood, sweat, and tears. Well, the blood is an overstatement and I don't know about the tears, although it COULD be true. The hard work and sweat are dead on, however. The subject of my tribute goes by many names... most of which have the six-letter word
D - O - N - K - E - Y in them (but that's a completely different story and one better told by him). I knew him simply as:
La Capitan de el Constipaciono'... sounds pretty regal, doesn't it? It was a title bequeathed to him by myself and our good friend Ryan. His legal, and Christian name is Jason Roberts...yeah, I too prefer the other one's.

It was around the end of June or early July of '05 when he showed up at the YES Youngdo branch in Yeongtong, South Korea where both Ryan and I were working. I was introduced quickly in-between classes and took note that this "New Guy" was from Mississppi, right next door to my home state, the most interesting state in the entire US, home of the previous NCAA National football champions and multiple College Baseball World Champions, known for its cuisine, friendly people, Southern hospitality, Mardi Gras parades, and site of the largest single addition of land to the USA bought from France....LOUISIANA. Now, just to let you know, this school had some 22 foreign teachers and a whole mix of different personalities so becoming friends with them (and in some cases staying on speaking terms) was almost an impossibility. While me and Ryan were good friends and had worked together for nearly a year at a different branch of the same school, and the pickings were slim when it came to finding cool people to hang out with after work (besisdes ourselves of course), we decided to see what this "Newbie" was made of.

Now Mr. Roberts, or the "Donkey tamer" as I like to call him, was a big guy when we first met. But all that soon changed once we became friends, started hanging out, and when he finally decided to join me and my other new recruit, Ryan, at the gym. Along with a lot of hard work and early mornings, strange face contortions and grunting, claims of being 6'6", and of course the obligatory making up of names for the hot chicks in the gym, he shedded those pounds and took on a new air of confidence. So, you don't believe me huh? Just take a look at some photos of him before and after on his web album (sorry blogger's not lettin me upload photos at the moment).

I decided to post this after chatting with Jason today at which time he thanked me again for the help, and told me a pretty awesome story of people noticing his results. J.R. As I said to you earlier on messenger, you couldn't have done it without putting in all the effort yourself...I was jut there to crack the whip so to speak. Next step = Quit Smoking!!!

Korean Castle

Anyone who has ever lived in Asia, Japan and Korea specifically, will know what I mean when I say living quarters for teachers are usually quite cramped. Of course, this varies from city to city and company to company. Moving out of a bigger city may either get you a bigger apartment or a really old, dilapidated one. I've been pretty fortunate over the past six years (WOW...has it really been that long) in that I've always been out in a livable place. I have taken to the country in this contract, the biggest reason being because of the high salary and saving potential here. This is where I am (look for the red pentagon on the southern coast):


Now, the first year I spent here in Korea was a one-room studio type apartment...very, very cozy, but surprisingly comfortable. It was in a new building built by the school I was employed with (YES Youngdo) so things were nice n' clean. Later I found out I was being charged the commercial rate for electricity and gas because the school used the first floor as storage. :( Here it is:



That's tiny compared to western standards, but for a single guy, used to the small sized accommodation, it's Okay. Compare that to my new place here in Goseong...man, not much of a comparison.
Here's my bedroom:
Living room:
Kitchen:
and finally bathroom:
I do have two more bedrooms, but don't use them and feel no need to post pics of them. So, if you counted correctly...large bedroom...separate kitchen...full bathroom...two more bedrooms...plus a rather large balcony. I'm liking the extra space.

I found a little fishing shop (with the help of Mr. Yoon) around the corner from my school. So, I picked up some bait and plan to do a little fishing tomorrow morning if the weather holds up. I'll bring the camera along and snap a few shots of the monster fish I catch.

quote from Gone Fishin, "That's a 10....borderline 11!"

Vandals!!!

Only a day after posting my "new ride" post, vandals struck at my apartment and I was an unfortunate victim. My precious SUPER CAB was maliciously knocked over sometime between Monday 9pm and Tuesday 10:30am. I was P.O'd to say the least. The thing that got me was how the person who knocked it over, during which time the brake handle was snapped off, picked the bike back up and took the broken handle from the scene. Did they think I just wouldn't notice? I had it fixed yesterday and it cost me a whopping 4000 won ($4.00) so it was virtually painless. When I first saw the bike...I didn't understand what had happened. I thought maybe some xenophobic person had broken it off intentionally.
I then noticed the bits of sand on the end of the throttle, and eureka...figured out someone must have knocked it over. "Elementary my dear Watson."
Apparently this sort of thing happens often here and no one usually steps up to take the blame.

On brighter note...I went for a hike with my boss' husband on Wednesday. I thought it would be a walk in the park but it turned out to be pretty challenging for me...guess I need to start getting back in shape as I thought my heart was about to bust out through my shirt at a couple of steep inclines. Here's a photo from somewhere near the top as we made our way back down. You can see the Fall colors are just starting to show around here and from what I hear, they will be their best around the second week of December.

After the hike, I had lunch with Mr. Yoon (Boss' husband) and one of his friends whom I had meet a week or so ago, Mr. Baek. We had a dish called Chuo-Tang or something like that, and although the taste was quite strong, I found it delicious and gladly emptied my bowl. A few shots of the spread we had.


If you notice, we are all seated on the floor. This is very common here in Korea as many authentic-style restaurants are situated this way. I usually have to stretch out my legs after about 10 minutes or so but Koreans can stay cross-legged for eternity...or so it seems. I'll be back to post some pics of my apartment and eventually a few shots of my sleepy town.

My new Ride

I'm now in my third contract here in Korea and I've made a major move out of the big cities of Suwon and Anyang to a very rural area on the southern coast of the penninsula. Now, when I saw rural, the area of Goseong has about 60,000 residents...which is actually much bigger than the city I grew up in back in Louisiana, Denham Springs. It might not be a fair comparison though, since I think comparing Goseong itself with livingston parish might be a bit more evenly matched.

Regardless, my reason for writing is to show everyone my new ride... oh yeah baby..it's a doosy. Now, those of you who know me, might remember the maroon Ford Mustang GT 5.0 convertible I drove in high school (picture is only for visual purpose as I don't have a photo of my old car handy),


or the 1970 Chevrolet Impala with a 350 V8 and three-speed hydromatic transmission that I currently have. Its all original (except for the paint) with 54,000 miles on the odometer. You should hear it purrrrrrr.

Well, folks...I've got a new ride now. As I didn't want to have to ride a bike around everywhere here, I got myself a little somethin somethin. I know, you're probably wondering "Did he get one of those sweet as custom cars like I saw on Fast and the Furious", or perhaps a crotch rocket like the ones featured on "Biker Boyz". I can feel the tension building up in the air...man o man, you could cut it with a knife. Ladies and Gentlemen...Boys and Girls of all ages... prepare to feast your eyes on the future of personal transportation, ONLY available here in the "Land of the Morning Calm" (a.k.a. South Korea), not only is it stylish and economical, it also pulls in the ladies like you wouldn't believe.... without further adieu.... I G I V E Y O U

S U P E R C A B

Yeah Yeah, I know what you all are thinking, "Man this guy is pimpin'" or "I bet his phone doesn't stop ringin'"... while those are both true, I see my purchase of this used Hyosung Super Cab scooter ($300) as a tool to help bring me closer to my Korean hosts in my ongoing mission of acting as an American cultural ambassador through the English language....................................

Okay, that was lame. I got it because I'm lazy and didn't feel like riding a bike around this relatively small town which has easy access to everywhere by bike within only 5-10 minutes.

Stay tuned as I will be bringing pics of my small town, as well as my school/co-workers/students soon. Same BAT time, same BAT channel.

Visa run to Fukuoka

Aht...here it is. The update that's been a long time coming. C'mon, it's only been a week or so since I made this trip. Yeah, I've been quite lazy lately when it comes to updating this thing. It's not like I really have anything else to do, but man it's a chore forcing myself to sit down and do it.

So last Thursday and Friday, October 19-20, I was off to the "Land of the Rising Sun" (a.k.a Japan, Nippon, Nihon) to get an E-2 working visa. I was supposed to have gotten it done ages ago but the owner of my school got curious and opened the sealed transcripts when I sent them to her from Japan in August, which basically voided them in the eyes of immigration here. For those of you who don't know, I went to Silliman University in the Philippines and so it took a while to get another copy sent out here.

Fukuoka is closer to Seoul, South Korea than to Tokyo, Japan. It's only a three hour boat ride from Busan port where I was leaving from. I was offered a ride to Busan by my boss and it was decided her husband would take me Thursday morning and pick me up Friday afternoon. This is how I was greeted at 5:30 a.m. on Thursday while waiting for the boss' husband to pick me up for the 2 hour drive to Busan.


It was unusually foggy that morning and continued to be pretty much all day...even in Japan. It cleared up a bit, but as you can see in this shot from the boat while leaving Busan harbor...not by much.


Here are a few random shots that I took during my stay.

A brief intro to the photos:
School children on what looked to be some sort of field trip. Funny how when Japanese travel in groups..be it children, adults, or seniors...they have these guides as leaders waving flags so no one gets lost. These kids looked to be in either Jr. High or High school. Notice the kid in white flashing the peace/victory sign. I'm not too sure exactly when this became the norm but you will see it in pretty much every photo taken of Japanese.




These are shots I took while walking around town. In Japan, and korea for that matter, it's amazing the number of people you see walking or riding bicycles. I guess that explains why their life spans are much longer than the average westerner's. The first is of some of the beautiful quite interesting architecture. I think it must be a restaurant of some sort (seafood perhaps) with the boat coming out of the building.


The second is a home-grown beauty...only one of many in Japan. The sense of fashion in Japan is top-notch. Even people who's looks are average somehow manage to look either really cool/hip or beautiful by choosing great outfits. I haven't seen anything like it anywhere else that I travelled to.


The subway system in Japan is a marvel in itself. Japanese trains are best known for their punctuality, cleanliness, and the fact that horny old men (and occasionally public officials) like to either grope or expose themselves to women on them. BBC story on the topic. In the event that a train is actually late, which rarely happens, the attendents will give out pieces of paper to riders explaining that the train was late. This is done to prove the fact to your boss in case you were late for work, missed a meeting etc.. as the boss wouldn't believe you otherwise.


Seeing a car that even remotely resembles an American gas guzzling muscle car in Japan is definitely a rarity, especially since gas is about $6.00 / gallon. I was surprised to see this car pass by after I dropped off my papers at the Korean embassy. I wish I could have gotten the camera out quicker as the two "gentlemen" in the car were sporting the huge 50's styles hair quite commonly associated with wanna-be gangsters. Btw, any ideas what that is hanging out of the back?


The last two shot I took from the Fukuoka tower. I believe it's the tower used by NHK, one of the major TV broadcasters. There is an observation deck near the top and it's pretty close to the beach. I snapped this resort or restaurant which actually goes out on the water. The second one is just me showing off my 12X zoom on my Canon S2 IS. Look close enough at the first shot and you'll see a white speck to the right of the resort along the beach...then up close in the second shot. That's not infringing on their privacy...is it? ;D

Well, that was my trip. It was really nice to be back in a country were I can speak the language. I stopped many times and asked directions from friendly passer-byes and had no problems. That is somethng I could never have done here in Korea as I haven't been able to learn the language. I think when I first got here from Japan and realized that I was now back to zero in terms of language skills, I just wasn't motivated to study yet another language. Needless to say, I do alot of gesturing and have actually become quite good at it.

Stay tuned for updates including my HUGE apartment and my new scooter.

Blah blah blah...

Yes, it's been another typical weekend here in nowhere part of Korea. Me, sitting at home, venturing out only once to get some food at the local supermarket, coming home and watching tv, playing video games, and occasionally reading "The Shogun", a book I am currently into.

On a brighter note, I have heard from my boss that I should be heading off to Japan this week to get my work visa...yippy!! Yes, those of you who are familiar with the immigration process here in S. Korea are wondering how/why I have a "boss" when I don't yet have a visa.....weeeelll, let's just keep that under wraps. lol

I've taken some photos at school and will post them soon. I'll also try to get some photos from Fukuoka when I go and stick them on here as well.

..........until next time

Nukes

Now I'm not new to living abroad or traveling to not-so-secure places. I spent over four years in the Philippines, have visited Saudi Arabia about six times, spent a month in Thailand, and am living in Korea. As everyone knows, North Korea just entered the nuclear age. It's a bit unnerving knowing that not only all of their conventional weapons are pointed this way, but now they have nukes, too.

There are around 30,000 US troops stationed here....as well as a quite large and up-to-date Korean army and US troops stationed in Japan. All of this helps one relax a bit, but if something happens, there's no stopping it.

Since I'm not in Seoul, I would probably be ok, I think, maybe, I hope, should be...hmmmm. :D

BTW..check out my online web picture album here.

Chuseok = Korean Thanksgiving

Well, today is Chuseok here in Korea and I'm loving it. Why, you might wonder, would an American living in a foreign country be so excited over a local holdiday... NO WORK!! hahaha
Yeah, basically I've had off Tuesday, Wednesday (after calling in sick thanks to binge drinking while Ryan and Jason were down), Thursday, and today. To find out more about Chuseok, jus click it. I haven't really done much this week..although as I mentioned some buddies from Seoul headed down here Tuesday and Wednesday, you can click on their names to check out their blogs. We went to the Dinosaur 2006 Expo site which is just down the street, had a nice dinner, then drank the night away with good ol' Jim Beam and coke...man o man the next morning was rough.

I'm living in a very small town on the southern tip of the Korean penninsula in a place called Goseong. Things here are quite a big change from the year I spent in Anyang and the nine months in Suwon, both big cities and very close to Seoul. Although boring at times, I'm enjoying the clean air, friendly locals, and the huge three-bedroom apartment (pictures will be posted soon).

That's all for today, I'm headin out for some food.

First post...hopefully many more to come!

All right guys and gals, I'd like to welcome myself to the blogging community and welcome you to my new site. With inspiration of a couple of friends' blogs here in Korea, I've decided to set one up myself. A quick introduction may be in order now. My name's Damon and I'm from Louisiana...that's right folks, home of the Saints, LSU Tigers (Geaux Tigers!!), the best boiled crawfish in The South, the Crescent City, and unfortunately the home of a major FEMA f@$% up not so long ago. I'll be chronicling my adventures as I live and teach English here in Korea, as well as update everyone on the past eleven years of living overseas....briefly..I PROMISE!

Ya'll come back now.....ya hear.