My winter vacation

It's that time of the year again. The time when I flee the school and stay as far away as possible for 3 weeks. This year, our vacation didn't actually start until Dec. 29th but because my back was so messed up, the school decided that I wasn't going to have to do a winter camp. Thank science for that! It's so much work for such an awkward event.

Every year, this is the time that as soon as school finishes I race home, grab my wife and my suitcase and catch the first bus to the airport. I usually try to get out of the country within 12 hours of walking out of my office. Sooner if I can get a better flight.

This year, however, we are trying something different. I'm taking my vacation in my living room. bah, this sucks. Every year, we get to leave the confines of this xenophobic peninsula where every city looks like every other city and the cultural events and sites are the same from province to province. We escape the 0 degree cold and usually head to the palm trees and beaches of SE asia. This is in Krabi, Thailand, exactly one year ago to the day.


Now, I get to look at this.


But, because its currently -4 degrees outside, I'm spending more time playing stupid facebook games and reading about all the other foreign teachers' SE Asia vacations. Currently, I believe I know 3 people in Singapore, 2 in Malaysia, 6 in Thailand, 1 in Vietnam and then of course I know 3 people who live in Burma (Myanmar) but they don't count. Nick is going to Thailand in a week and a half and Kendall and Leslie are heading there on the 25th.

Now, I'm not saying I'm jealous, but the next time I hear about someone laying on the beach and playing with monkeys or elephants and eating some authentic Thai food I'm probably going to take their papaya salad and shove it in their ears until it comes out their mouths.

Everytime I start thinking, "man, I know I have money in my bank, I know that Yoon mi and I can take a short trip to Vietnam, or maybe Taiwan. . ." I just remind myself that the money it would cost for the two of us to get to the airport, fly, live in a hotel for a week, eat out, fly back, and bus back to town could also go toward living expenses so that the mother of my baby can stay at home that much longer with our child.

So, maybe I really want to go somewhere sunny. Maybe I want to eat something other than Korean food (I think I just thought of a new post). Maybe I want to go somewhere that doesn't have the same thing to see wherever I go. Maybe I need a break from Korea. However, none of that matters when it comes to providing my kid with the love and care that only my wife can provide with the money that we can save.

So, I'm off now to go for a hike in the valley.

In the Flesh

I've been on winter vacation for a week. During that time, I've accomplished several things. I've managed to make several wooden planks, quite a few stone blocks, I've planted and harvested multiple crops and built several buildings. Oh, but in the real world I drank a few cups of coffee, watched some X-Files, did some shopping, went to the sauna and slept. I was going stir crazy and my plans to go to an island in the southern part of the country to visit a friend fell through as he's busy with Samsung's payroll and taxes. So, I called up an old friend of mine, a new friend of mine and Nick and went to Seoul. Nick had to work (sucker!) so he wouldn't be able to come up until later. Eric (the old friend) had winter camp so I decided to head up early and join him. My bus arrived at 12:30 in central Seoul. I walked through the station and headed out to the subway entrance. I was a bit preoccupied with my phone so I passed the entrance and was halfway to the inner city bus stop when I looked up and noticed a small gathering of people which usually indicates someone famous being present.

Oh, hold on.

There is a show that has been playing here since I got here. It is really fun and instead of going into the whole premise of the show, I'm going to use my mad blog skillz and hyperlink it. The show is called 무한도전 pronounced moo han doh jun. It means Infinite Challenge. This is the only Korean show that I can handle watching on a regular basis because it's not corny, the actors aren't extremely annoying and it has a lot of action (not usually cornball slapstick). Throughout the years, I have come to understand that nearly everyone I know (Koreans) watches this show. I have come to find the styles of 2 of the members to be the most entertaining. The first is yoo jae suk. He's the leader of the group and pretty funny. He is also a really nice guy and I'd guess that he is the most popular entertainer in Korea probably of all time. It seems that everyone loves him and everything he touches is successful. He's my second favorite entertainer. The other (and by far my favorite) is a guy named Noh Hong Cheol (<---Hyperlinkability!) (read the links please, I'm not just doing it to show my amazing editing skills).

Ok, back to what I was saying before. I passed the subway and saw a gathering. Before I got there, I remember thinking, I wonder if it could possibly be a muhan dojeon filming. As I was looking over to see what was going on, I caught a glimpse of a tall Korean with a goatee. Instantly I realized what I was seeing. There in front of me, 10 feet away was my favorite Korean entertainer. Standing in front of some odd food truck was Noh Hong Cheol (he also sang this song as part of his show, its called "shake it"). After trying to take a couple pics but getting blocked by the producers several times, I decided to head over to the side where there was a considerable lack of people. Now, I was 3 feet away from him and he was taking a short break while the director was working with his new co-host for his new show. I called out his name and when he turned around I put my thumb up, extended my arm and said, "you're the best". He did a double take when he saw that I wasn't a Korean and gave me a huge smile, he came over and shook my hand and we shared a little bro hug.

He started talking to me and instantly I had 5 cameras surrounding me. They were not going to miss the chance to film him speaking with a foreigner! I quickly realized that his English really is SERIOUSLY lacking. So, I spoke with him mostly in Korean because my Korean is better than his English. . .that's bad! He asked me where I was from and was surprised when I told him I knew who he was and that I watch his other show every week. He and his co-host (some guy who was in a boy band a little while ago that I don't know) explained to me that this new show is selling food for donations that go to some sort of charity. They wanted me to buy the first round of food. I was a little hungry and I am a ham for attention, since they were going to put me on tv, I agreed. Instead of just going up and grabbing some food, they made a huge show of it and No Hong Cheol made me address the crowd through a megaphone and introduce myself. With cameras 2 inches from my face, I said the only thing I could think of in Korean. "My name is (Korean name) I am American." well, it worked. I bought my food and walked away allowing them to get on with the show. It should air Friday the 13th at midnight thirty on MBN.

The rest of my trip was awesome and I am happy I was able to hang out, drink a couple good drinks, eat some amazing food, more importantly meet up with some good friends and wake up feeling good so that I could get on the bus and come back to my beautiful pregnant wife.

I wasn't sure if I was going to go to Seoul this weekend because I didn't have a specific goal in mind, but man, I am HAPPY I went. What a weird experience. Hope it happens again!