An Ode to Korea!

(From a Wayguk’s perspective…)



To Korea! The land of the morning calm.
(But the blame might lie in that last Soju bomb…)

To Korea! They say "Woori Nara (Our country)" and put "we" first.
(However with shopping, traffic and in lines it becomes "ME" first.)

To Korea! Where Kimchi is eaten morning, afternoon, and night.
(But not the wee hours, when your colon starts its fight…)

To Korea! A respectful culture that is quite remarkable.
(And the lanes of any street are considered park-able...)

To Korea! Our dearest Yeosu, City of Flowers, Sea and Light.
(But never forget to be careful – The zombies come out at night…)

To Korea! Where hiking lush mountains can inspire with raw power.
(Just ignore the men in business suits and the occasional cell tower…)



To Korea! Where eating live Squid is considered appealing.
(And dog, too! Shh. Animals don’t have feelings..!)

To Korea! Where Jimjilbangs allow people to be comfortable in their skin.
(The beach is a different story – only the fully clothed may swim…)

To Korea! Of Swine flu, Crazy Cow and Fan Death the people have learned.
(As for the Nuclear Neighbor to the North? Not too concerned…)

To Korea! The president Lee Myung-Bak might be a bit pushy.
(Now you have your own version of George W. Bush-ee..)

To Korea! The people bow, and use two hands to be polite.
(But Dong-chims to me, just don’t seem right…)

To Korea! Corporations like Hyundai work with amazing precision.
(In reality, we all know Kai-Bai-Bo makes the decisions…)

To Korea! Where after a year, a piece of my heart will stay!
(For this one I’m afraid I have nothing funny to say.)



We are out of here in two weeks! Obviously a lot has been learned, and we have gotten to know this great culture. Take this lightly! Add your own. For those from home who don't get them, we can explain in August ;-)

A Perfect (Korean) Beach Day

The forecasts last Sunday called for Thunderstorms, rain at best. Megan's favorite middle school student (Jackie) invited the two of us to Mosageum beach, 2PM. We headed out at a quarter two with bleak hopes. We arrived to a full beach for a cloudy day, and I with my low expectations.

The students arrived from the Hagwon a bit late, and we could already tell it was going to be an exciting adventure, Rain or Shine (well, not so much shine!). We didn't bring any swimwear, because we hadn't planned to swim. About 30 seconds after the boys got off the bus, I could tell that was a bad choice. It only took about a minute for the first girl to be dragged into the water and tossed down... She was NOT too happy!



We started the time off with a traditional Korean game. A large circle is draw in the sand, one side cut in half, and the other cut in 1/4. These represent each of the original Korean kingdoms, Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla. Basically you just needed to knock everyone out of their kingdoms, but it was pretty fun. It ended up being a showdown between myself and two small girls, they put up a good fight!



Next, it came time to randomly try to throw people in. I ended up getting soaked, but only because I got to throw three students into the water. It was a lot of fun to take out some aggression!! Even Megan got pulled in by the students, she wasn't too happy.



In the end, we had to leave early and miss a trip to the Noraebang, to go eat dinner at Jeff's. It was a fantastic home-made sam-gyup-sal meal from Hyegyong. It was so great to see Sara and Hana again. Sara can speak English amazingly now, and Hana is as smart as ever, starting to count by 10's, add, and everything! I think Megan and I will miss them the most! We'll miss you too Jeff, HG and all of our friends of course!

Here is the full picture album, plus our going away lunch!

Happy (Late) 4th of July!

Happy late 4th of July everyone! I hope you all had a safe and relaxing holiday weekend. Ours was pretty relaxing and we tried to keep some traditions alive too by re-enacting the Iwo Jima statue, singing the national anthem, and having the best firework show ever (well at least in Korea, haha). It was great weekend, and luckily for us the weather was great.



On Saturday we hung out at the beach with about 30 other foreigners, mostly Americans with some Brits and Canucks helping us celebrate. I made homemade egg salad and crab salad sandwiches for lunch and we grilled out for dinner (traditional chicken, hot dogs, and sausages). We even tried to drink American beer to really show our true American pride. I never really cared much for the 4th of July, to me it was just another loud holiday that meant no work. But living over here away from all the action automatically creates this sense of pride and respect for your country that made this 4th of July much more meaningful and celebrated event. Later at night Dave and Jeff put together a large firework show with fireworks they ordered over the internet, and it was a great display! So the only thing missing this 4th of July was the monotonous parade festivities which made it the best 4th of July ever, haha.



Now we only have three more weekends left here in Yeosu, and I can’t believe it. It still feels like we have so much time, but yet so little. It’s crazy how your mind changes day by day on your thoughts about going home. Mostly mine are extremely excited and now I simply feel that I cannot wait to get back to my roots. I know the next 25 days will be gone in a flash and I’m trying to take advantage of the time I have left with the good friends I’ve made here. While we are both excited about going home we are also both really nervous and anxious to find jobs and an apartment. Change is a good thing, but stressful thing all at the same time. I’ve been applying every chance I get to jobs I see posted online, with not much luck. I’m lucky to be home the entire month of August to visit schools and really try hard to land a great teaching job so wish me luck! Dave has been applying also to a few jobs he has seen posted but no word yet. I think we are both going to have to wait until we are back in Minnesota before we get any interviews. August will definitely be a busy month filled with job hunting, apartment hunting, and catching up with friends and family. Luckily I will be staying with my sister and brother-in-law when I get back and Dave will be staying with his parent’s for a little while. We are both really excited to see the two new additions to his family. If all works out as planned we will both start work September 1, and have an apartment by that time too, but time will only tell.

Well Dave and I wish everyone a happy 4th of July weekend and hopefully we will be seeing you all in about 3 weeks! Wish us luck on the job hunt and if you know of any teaching positions or Web developing positions let us know, haha.

Check out more pictures here!

Survivor Sado (May 31)

Hey guys! Hope everything is getting warmer back in the states, haha. Last weekend Dave and I had a fantastic time with good company on an island close to Yeosu called Sado. We went out to the island to play Survivor with about 20 other Yeosu friends and 20 friends from a different city called Daegu. One of the foreigners Rich whom we are good friends with planned the whole weekend. We took a ferry to Sado at about 1130 am Saturyda and arrived at Sado about 1230. Some of the foreigners were going to camp out, while others (Dave and myself) were going to share a MinBak. A MinBak is like a really really cheap hotel room. Basically you are given a room/bathroom/kitchenette to sleep in. Our Min Bak Slept about 12 foreigners (I think it was only meant for like 4, haha). It was a cozy Saturday night to say the least. After throwing our gear in the MinBak it was time to randomly pick from a hat teams for Survivor. There were three teams of 12 people. Dave was on a team with mostly guys (it looked like a basketball team). My team was mostly girls (only 3 boys), so a lot of people seemed skeptical of how well our team would do. We decided to call my team “testrogen.”



The first challenge was a ton of fun. We had about 1 hour to search for 60 items on a scavenger hunt list. Some of the items on the list were easy, find empty soju bottle, driftwood with rusty nail, but some of the things were a little more risky like running naked into the water, haha. Overall our team tied with Dave’s team for finding 38 items. We settled the tie with a simple Rock Papers Scissors game which luckily our team won! Dave’s team had to vote off a person and they decided to vote off their captain Jen who is my best friend : ( I think they regretted that decision later on throughout the game. Our team got immunity and respect from the other teams, game time is on!



Throughout the day there were activities like sack races, wheel barrow races, three legged races, tug of war (which we obviously lost but held our own), and target throwing. Pretty simple and fun stuff. Our team kicked ASS and we won the majority of the challenges which meant the other teams were voting off their players left and right. Since one of the teams was down to 4 players, they merged with the remaining two teams. After the reorganization of teams Dave’s team stabbed him in the back by voting him off and keeping the new players! Dave was one of 2 Yeosu people on that team so I think they were trying to get rid of Yeosu people and keep the Daegu’s strong. After a much needed dinner, we went back to the games, byt this time it was about 8 pm at night. Team testrogen (mostly Yeosu peeps) was still going strong against the team that voted off Dave. After a couple more games we were down to the final 12 which meant no more teams, it was on an individual basis. I was in the top 12! The second to the last challenge consisted of 8 people (Which I was in!) and you had to boil water. We were split into 4 teams of 2 and whosever team boiled water first got to go to the finals. Unfortunately Hugo and I couldn’t boil our water fast enough. We had a good fire going, but we didn’t account for the water being so shallow, so instead of quickly starting a fire we spent more time getting wood and other materials to keep a long lasting fire which in the long run hurt us. So you could say I made it to the semi-finals. Everyone had a chance to vote for the two final people, and Dan won. They gave speeches and everything, it was really fun. That night we just hung out by the bonfire, played music, drank, and had a good time.



The next day a lot of the people left by like 1. Dave, me, Rich, Shannon, Tara, and Steven all stayed till about 430 hanging out on the beautiful beach. The beach was an isthmus with a lagoon on either side. It was perfect weather and beautiful scenery. I felt like I was on vacation! For lunch we decided to get the freshest things available, octopus and fish! We ate live octopus again on the island right in front of the beach, it was awesome.



Dave and I both want to go back to Sado again soon for another relaxing weekend. I think I am really going to miss the beach and this beautiful weather here. You just can’t beat it! But we are both really excited because we have less than 2 months left! Our boss has already asked us which days we want to leave and it looks like we will be leaving somewhere between July 30 - August 1! It is so exciting and sad leaving a place that we have grown to know as our home.

Udell's 18 day stay in the far East...

Well I’m sad to say that we said goodbye to our last set of visitors today. After a 19 day vacation in Korea and Japan, my sister and brother in law left from Seoul today at 11:00 am to head back to Minnesota. It has been such a great experience sharing our Korean lifestyle with people we love. I think Erin and Brian really got a snapshot of what our life has been like over the past 9 months. They were able to experience the good and bad that comes with living in Korea.



When Erin and Brian arrived in Yeosu we headed straight for the Chunnam Dragons soccer game in a nearby city called Gwangyang. After their stomachs were filled with their first Korean meal (Kimbap Nara) we met up with some foreigner friends of ours who organized a May birthday party noraebong bus! Yes a Karaoke bus was their first real Korean adventure. It was really fun and a great way to throw them into the culture, and meet our friends as well. Even though they had basically rolled off the plane after 24+ hours of traveling and were placed on a singing bus with people they didn’t know they did great, and only fell asleep at 10 pm on the bus, haha. The next day we went for a hike up Gorak Mountain because the weather was fantastic. On the way down we stopped at a highly popular workout area where many kids were playing. Once Brian took off his hat, the kids were pointing, pulling their friends over and staring at him. He also got dong-chimmed (a poke in the butt) by a kid, haha. Some girl also said “ 축축한 “ to Erin which Dave translated to mean “wet girl,” haha. All of these little situations were definitely some of the more memorable moments. Luckily we worked up an appetite for dinner at Hyegyong’s and Jeff’s house. We hung out with the girls until Erin and Brian started to look like zombies haha, then we decided to head home.



For lunch on Monday we took them to Marina buffet which serves Chinese, Japanese, and Korean cuisines. I know they both loved the food, but unfortunately we weren’t able to go back for a second visit. After lunch we brought them to our school. What perfect timing too because it rained hard all day. The kids were of course curious and excited to see more foreigners at the hogwon, and Erin and Brian had a great time too. The best part was when Brian showed the kids his bald head and his goggly eyes, haha. The kids went crazy, some were even too scared to talk to him! After school we went out for a couple of drinks and called it an early night. The next day we went out for lunch at a small but delicious Korean restaurant in downtown Yeosu. It was a spicy pork/vegetable meal and I could tell that they both really liked it. We dropped them off downtown at the open market before heading off to school where they shopped and took great pictures. On Wednesday I took Erin and Brian on a hike up MuSan Mountain, the mountain Dave and I frequently hike in the mornings. Being much smaller than Gorak mountain, we didn’t think much of it at the time, but I forgot that later that afternoon they would be going with Hyegyong and Sara to Odongdo to walk around. Needless to say I think Erin and Brian were definitely tired after all that hiking!





Thrusday we were able to go to Heunguksa which is a temple near our house, the weather was wonderfully warm and sunny, and Erin and Brian really enjoyed the scenery at the temple. We had a fish lunch prepared by our boss’s wife which even Dave loved! (he doesn’t care for fish much). And since it was finally Thursday, Dave and I knew we could handle going out that night.



After class we met up with them for dinner at a Korean style BBQ. Even though Erin and Brian are vegetarians, they have a rule that when on vacation they can eat meat! Lucky for them because the meal was really good. We had a couple of drinks at a few places and then were off to Noraebong! This was so much fun, something that I really wish was offered in the states. We sang our hearts out and thankfully went to the “Mandu” (Erin’s pronunciation) or Mondu street vendor that Dave and I frequent. Erin was reluctant at first to sit down in the tent, but I think that was more or less the soju working its’ course on her, haha. We did almost the same routine on Friday night, but this time heading to Ellui for the fire show and to meet up with some friends. Now that Erin and Brian were seasoned Noraebong singers they were able to really let loose! ( I have a great video of them attempting to sing/dance/ move/entertain to MC Hammer’s “Can’t Touch This” that I’m sure I’ll be posting, haha).


Saturday was a sightseeing day in which we went to Nagan (traditional folk village). It was really cold, and therefore not as fun to walk around outside, but we saw a sign for a temple so we decided to go. It turned out to be one of the best decisions! The temple was on the middle of this mountain range and absolutely beautiful and serene. We were all astounded at the beautiful flowers and the gorgeous architecture both inside and outside. In Minnesota at least it seems like the flowers are mostly oranges, yellows and reds. Here the flowers are fluorescent purples/pinks/reds. The flowers are like lanterns glowing in the sunlight, absolutely beautiful.







Sunday we went to yet another temple (3rd temple of the trip). We met up with Jeff, Hyegyong, Sara, and Hana at Hyangiram. Erin, Brian, Dave, and myself decided to hike up the mountain before we knew how long it would take. Unfortunately it took so long that Jeff and the girls went back home, but at least we made it to the top! It was actually a little scary of a hike, but worth the view.



The next couple of days Erin and Brian went to Fukouka, Japan to get another taste of Asian culture. They were able to meet up with one of Brian’s old drum core friends, Hiro. He took them to several different places, and it looked like they had a great time. Even though there was a little miscommunication between them and a cabby in order to find the bus terminal in Busan, they made it home to Yeosu safe and sound.

We took it pretty easy the next couple of days because we were going to Seoul for a long weekend. May 2 was Budha’s birthday and there was a lantern festival going on in Seoul so we left Saturday by train to check it out. Well, after an hour trying to even find a hotel (holiday weekend) we missed the festival by a whole week, haha. Yes, the festival took place the week before unknown to any of us. We searched all night for it, but ended up strolling the streets of Seoul, checking out the sights. The next day we did some souvenir shopping in Itaewon which was fun and cheap. Erin and Brian got a couple of cool things for their house, and Dave and I got quizno’s, haha (we also got some things too, but nothing compares to a well made, western style sandwich). We also did a little shopping in Dongdaemon (the district where we were staying) and I finally got a cute Korean fashion dress which I’m super excited to wear for the summer. After shopping we went to a temple where they were supposed to have a lantern festival. We got there at about 6:30 pm and it was still light outside. There were 1,000 lanterns set up, it would have been so beautiful it they were lit up. It was cool to be in such a historic place right in the middle of a huge modern city. We checked out the beautiful handmade lanterns which depicted a story about Budha and by the time we walked out of that building the sun had set and the lanterns were turned on! So we didn’t get to see the actual festival, but the 1,000 lit lanterns were extremely impressive. That night we headed for Mexican food, drinks/darts, then noraebong before calling it an early night (2 am).











The next morning we had to wake up and leave our hotel by 7:20 because we had already booked a tour to go to the DMZ the day before. This was a little rough at first seeing as we didn’t get much sleep, but the tour was pretty cool. We went to a river valley which was gorgeous and very scenic. There was a little sandy area where we were able to lay on for about an hour before heading to the DMZ (Demilitarized zone). We went in a tunnel that North Korea had built but refused to admit it. Later on North Korea explained that they did build the tunnel but for coal mining purposes (they spread some black stuff on the walls to make it look like a mine). We were also able to go to an observation place where we could see the actual border between the North and South. We were about 300 meters from the border. This place is really surreal to see, environmentally it is so pure and untouched, but of course politically this place is extremely tainted. Military men stood by, armed with huge guns the whole time. We were only allowed a certain amount of time to stay at the couple of sites we went to, usually people were rushing us out. Overall it was a good trip, but the bus ride home was pretty awful. We had to share a conversion van with five other Japanese people and boy do they like to talk. Plus traffic was awful and it took double the amount of time to get home as it did getting to the DMZ. Later on that night we finished off the trip with Erin and Brian’s last Korean meal (Korean style BBQ duck). It was tasty and we all ate a lot, but not enough that we couldn’t noraebong one last time. I don’t know if this was a good thing or a bad thing in the end, but the lady at the noraebong kept adding more free time to our room. So much time was added that we didn’t even realize it was 3 am when we finally finished. Unfortunately we had to wake up at 7 am to get things packed and ready to leave.
Overall this was a really awesome trip.





Dave and I both appreciated Erin and Brian coming over, it’s so nice being able to not only see people from home, but share this experience with them. It was a sad goodbye (I have been trying to hold back tears for the past 2 days, haha with some success) but this was the last big plan of our stay here in Korea. We are now officially in the home stretch of our trip. ¼ left, 3 months, 90 days, however you count it, our time is winding down. While Dave and I both feel like we really want to get home, it will be hard leaving this life, our friends, and this adventure. I think we are finally feeling the bitter sweetness of this experience. It was great being able to talk about traveling and living in a different country with Erin and Brian since they have done that before too. It is also great having people from home visit because it gives us more perspective on how far we’ve come since last year. Seeing Erin and Brian’s reactions/perspectives on things that we consider normal now has also been a great way to renew our own perspective of this experience. Living here for such an extended period of time wears on you, and you grow numb to things your once thought unusual. Erin and Brian brought a new light and energy into our lives and we will surely be feeding off this for the remainder of our trip.

As usual, we took a lot of pictures while Erin and Brian were here, so click links to the four part album below...
Part One - Noraebus/Soccer Game, Musan Mt, Heunguksa Temple
Part Two - Norae Time, Nagan, Sunamsa Temple
Part Three - More Sunamsa, Hyangiram, Seoul Lantern Fest Temple
Part Four - River Valley, DMZ

Soaking in the nude!

Hello everyone hope you're all doing well. This entry goes out to all of the beautiful women who read this blog. This weekend I had a pretty cool experience, one that was definitely unusual, crazy, and fun. I went with my good friend Jen to a Jin-Jeh Bong, which is somewhat similar to a sauna. It had 5 different pools that had jets, and chairs, and each pool had a different temperature ranging from 64 degrees to 107 degree pool. There were three sauna rooms ranging from 100 degrees to 180 degrees (which I definitely did not try, haha). You might be thinking, cool a nice sauna/hot tub action is always fun, but there was something really different about this place . . . you are naked! Yes completely naked, no towels, no shoes, no little swimsuit or coverup, just the birthday suit! I walked into this beautiful Grecian inspired locker room, and immediatly became giggly and nervous seeing many nude women just walking around. It was time for me to de-robe. It took me a couple of seconds to comprehend that I had to take off all my clothes, I kept thinking "really? everything?" This was quite awkward and nerve racking for me, but I had to do it. While I was having a little panic session I saw about 10 other women walk by with no worries, so I decided to go for it. I walked into the sauna area completely nude with about 30 or more Korean women walking, showering, soaking as if this is completely normal. First we scrubbed in the showers (no doors of course, haha) and then hopped into one of the huge hot tubs (I'll remind you it's a pool size hot tub). It was very beautiful and clean in there and while I was self conscious about not only being naked but being a foreigner who is naked (Korean stare more at you when you're a foreigner), I found myself walking really fast and tense like. Once I sat down near the jets and finally relaxed I realized this was something so unique and so special. I am just chilling with 30 other women ranging from age 3 - 60+ (yes children, teenagers, and young adults too) in the nude and it felt extremely invigorating and surprisingly comfortable. I am pretty self conscious when it comes to my body, but sitting there seeing all of the realistic bodies types, shapes, sizes and relaxed women was a wonderful reminder of how we should be able to appreciate our bodies and be more comfortable in our own skin. I felt more relaxed than I thought I ever could. It's not just that women were sitting and sulking, they were conversing like they were having dinner and scrubbing each other like they would to their own child. And when they scrubbed I mean they really scrubbed hard and thorough, haha. It was nice going with a good friend to talk with and overall it was a positive and an eye-opening experience to say the least, haha. I never thought I would be able to do something like this but after the initial naked shock I found it cleansing, relaxing, and interesting haha. We tried a couple of other pools (the cold one was great) and then topped it off in the sauna where it looked out to the ocean, beautiful view. There was even a pool outside you could go to and be naked outside overlooking the ocean, but we left that for another day. I definitely want to go again, Erin are you interested when you come in 2 weeks? Just wanted to share this cool and unique experience with you all.

here's to beautiful naked bodies!

"Fishing" Trip at Bangjukpo Beach!

I stayed over night out at the beach on Dolsan island this weekend. Their were about 9 people who stayed over night, and maybe 15 people who came throughout the day. It was a little bit colder than average, especially with that ocean breeze rolling in, but it felt great to be outside all day. We fished off a fishing pier during the early afternoon..... Well, wait let me rewind a bit. Megan decided fishing wasn't going to be her thing, so my friend Ed and I went out to Emart, bought our fishing rods, some cheap-o bait, and got our McD's lunch (Big Mac!). We then started our short quest for fireworks, while also heading out towards Dolsan, Banjukpo beach to be specific. This beach is about 20km from my house, out in rural Dolsand island, on the way to Hyangiram temple. In fact you could see the temple from the beach, especially the path light up at night.


The place we stayed in the red one with "Spanish" looking arches.

We arrived out at the beach at about noon. Rich, our friend from New Zealand made us feel like totally chumps, but helped us get the line on our rod nonetheless, thankfully. This lead to Ed and my fishing, which lasted all of about 30 casts, maybe one or two hours. We fished, chatted, and generally hung out for a while. A few more people arrived, and we decided to check into the beach/cliffside minbok (kind of a Korean small hostel / B&B type place). THe price was kind of high, 50,000 Won per room, but we bit the bullet since the view was awesome. After that we unwisely switched to fishing from the shaded side of the cove, which was absolutely miserable. I personally made only one cast at the time, and mostly hung out and tipped a few back. Finally some wise guys decided we should switch back to the other side of the cove, and eat dinner. At this time we went to the beach side mart and bought about 30,000 of roman candles and bottle rockets (whistlers with report to be exact). Ed and I also did a short jaunt on a ocean side cliff walking path, which was awesome, hopefully he will have some pictures. We eventually made it over their and had a great dinner of samgyubal (Korea grilled pork), Mondu, and a bunch of other GREAT food. It was a lot of fun. We hung out their, and did a few of our fireworks, much to the chagrin of the locals out fishing. We had music playing from the car, I'm sure the locals had never seen anything like it. It felt a lot like being back in Minnesota, good friends, relaxing and having a lot of fun.


Once the sun went down around 7:30PM, two pretty cool things happened. First, a camoflauge jeep showed up full of about 10 soldiers. I thought they'd been called about the fireworks, but they could've cared less. They were actually there for the rotating duty to watch out for spy activity off the cove. It was pretty cool, we talked to them for a bit and they said a beach fire was all good, and out of their jurisdiction. Secondly, all of these mysterious lights popped up along the tidal river from this beach. We thought it was more soldiers checking out... whatever. It was rather a bunch of older woman, shining the light back and forth, over and over again, with a small net in hand. We couldn't spot what they were trying to catch. Ed and I watched for a while, when finally the woman we were observing scooped her net and put something in. We kindly asked in the simplest Korean, (Mua ah yo) what is that, she shined her light and said (Jang-uh Seki) I knew Seki meant animal baby, and we later learned the other word to be eel, pretty interesting, and fun to watch. You just don't see as much stuff like that back at home. Just before sundown the beach was full of the older ladies pulling out the sea weed, which we saw hanging to dry later that night also. Those are some of the things that make living here interesting, and a small reminder of the culture I am surrounded by each day.



At about 11PM or so, we moved over to the beach to start the bonfire. Wood is a bit harder to come by here then it was back in the North woods. We had to "borrow" someones old scrape wood (or so we thought) to get the bonfire going. This was also the time we went crazy and lit off the bottle rockets and roman candles. After the wood adventure, we were relaxing for a while when a group of Koreans came and visited us. I used my Korean (although we had to fluent speakers with) to ask where they were from and what they do, etc, which was a lot of fun. Then, one of their friends was thrown into the ocean, nice guys, huh? They didn't turn down the Soju we offered them, of course. Eventually the sleepy bug hit, and my goal of staying up and watching the sunrise at the Hyangiram temple came crashing down at about 3AM. The minbok offered Korean style bed (a blanket on the floor) and an empty room. We slept 4 people deep sardine style, and I'd guess my roomies didn't like my snoring one bit.


The other room, just to get an idea.

The next day we had another good brunch at the fishing pier. No one caught any fish that day, and only a flounder and a rock fish the first day, so we had to enjoy some chicken, eggs, bacon, and some other treats instead. I headed back to Yeosu at about 12:30PM, marking the end of the 24 adventure. In the end it was a lot of fun, being able to bond with my friends, and enjoy the outdoors.

Anyways, that's my story. Now that I see how long this ended up being I will probably copy it on to the blog. It was obviously the biggest adventure and most fun I've had in a while!! I have hit 8 months today, that means only 1/3 of the time here is left until I come home!

Hanrahans in Yeosu!

After several months of anticipation to have my parents come visit I’m sad to say it has already come to an end. We sent Mom, Dad, and Tim home on an 8:45 am flight this morning and while the goodbye was short and sweet, the aftermath is really making me homesick.


It was a really busy but fun week with the family. After finally getting my hair highlighted up in Seoul Dave and I met my parents and brother at the airport. They were of course the last people to walk through the gate, but they made it nonetheless. We took the bus to the hotel, dropped off our stuff and then quickly went to eat subway (I don’t think my family knew exactly why their first meal of the week was subway, but by the end of the trip they figured it out, haha). My dad spotted a jazz club and we attempted to go there, and to much of Dave and my surprise, it was a legitimate live jazz club. We stayed for a couple of rounds and then headed back to the hotel. While I was in the cab I noticed I had lost my wallet. After crying a little, the cabby dropped us off where we needed to be and luckily didn’t kick us out on account of having no money. I lost the train tickets along with my wallet, so the next morning we had to purchase more train tickets. But we made it to Yeosu in the afternoon, everyone together with only a wallet lost in the shuffle. When we got into town we took the family to Kimbap Nara and they ate their first “Korean” meal. I could tell my brother has been practicing with the chopsticks, but NOT mom and dad, haha. We took them on a scenic drive of Yeosu, stopped at e-mart for some grocery shopping and got McDonald’s for dinner. Everyone was exhausted, including Dave and I so we made it a short night.


The next day while Dave and I worked, Hyegeong, Sara, and Won kindly took my family to Nagan, a traditional folk village. They stopped at a flower festival as well where my brother got hit on by a drag queen, haha. That night we relaxed, had some cake (it was my birthday) and had a couple of drinks. The next day we took advantage of the beautiful weather we have been having and went to Odongdo, Dolsan Park, Jinnamgwan, and the open market, all before we had to work. The weather all week long was amazing! No rain, and mid 60’s the entire time we were in Yeosu. My family was pretty impressed with the open market, it’s not every day you get to see fresh fish chilling in the alley, and a pig’s head dangling from the ceiling. Good thing we ate beforehand. After school, Dave and I took them out for a Korean style barbecue. I think they all liked the food very much, but the spices got to my dad the next morning. After dinner we drove through the industrial complex where I think everyone fell asleep in the car at one point in time (besides Dave). We came home and chilled the rest of the night.


On Wednesday we had a Korean style picnic lunch out at Shindock beach. We turned this into a candid photo shoot taking silly and fun pictures on the beach. It was a lot of fun, and got some great pics. My mom also successfully attempted a cartwheel on the beach (she does this every once in a while to make sure she can still complete it, haha). While we were driving back there were a couple of times we had to get out of the car while Dave drove over the speed bumps in order to not bottom out our car, but besides that the little Elantra survived the Hanrahan’s, haha. This was the day the fam came to school. Our boss and his wife gave them a warm greeting and they had tea and potatoes ready for them to eat. While Dave and I were preparing for class, my mom and dad talked with our boss and my Maric (our boss’s 2nd oldest son) took my brother to look at a comic book store. It was great having the family in school, all of the kids were amazed and excited to see them. Some of them were even nervous and scared. I made up some questionnaires that the kids used to interview my family, it turned out to be pretty fun. I think my mom, dad, and brother were really excited and happy they could get a chance to see the school and the kids. My boss also took my family aside and basically said “teach my son how to play jazz.” Well his son only plays violin, and my dad doesn’t play violin. My dad taught him a jazz scale and they listened to Max (boss’s oldest son) play violin. Exactly what my parents wanted to do, haha jk. They missed one of my classes that I actually had a special lesson prepared for my family because my boss wanted them to hear his son play the violin. I think this little lack of communication situation gave my family just a little taste of how this school and Kologic (Korean logic) can get very daunting and annoying. After having dinner at the Hagwon, my family took a cab home and waited for Dave and I to finish the rest of our teaching.



Thursday I didn’t have to work! Unfortunately Dave did, but I think it was nice for him to just get out of the house alone for a couple of hours, haha. I took this opportunity to hike the mountain with everyone. It’s the mountain Dave and I hike frequently, and even though it was foggy and rainy early in the day, it cleared up while we were hiking. The flowers have just started to bloom so it made for some beautiful scenery. After the hike my mom and I went to Lotte mart and then the open market closer to our house to pick up a few more things. That night we all had dinner at Hye-gyong’s sister’s apartment. Hye-gyong, Jeff, Sara, Hana, Jahn-oak (Hye-gyong’s sister), Won (Hye-gyong’s brother), Hye-oak (Won’s wife), Jay-yeong (Hyegyong’s neice), Hyun-sa (Hyge-gyong’s niece), and my family. It was incredibly nice of Hyegeong’s family to do since technically I am not a part of their family. They are such a generous and supportive family, thank you! We had a traditional pork dinner sitting on the floor, which I must admit my family did pretty well at. It was delicious and much appreciated; what a cool experience for my family. We visited awhile with them and then set off for home. We played scattegories at home while having a couple of drinks (luckily my dad brought some good whiskey from home). Then we hit the town and went to a soju room where my parents had their first and last taste of soju, haha. After that we were ready for the noribong! This was probably the most fun night of all, everyone was singing and having a great time. We didn’t get home till 3:30 am!



Friday both Dave and I had off of work! We were a little sick from the night before, but nothing that a little McDonald’s can’t soak up. We took everyone to Hyangiram (a temple on the south side of Dolsan island). It was very beautiful outside, and at the top of the mountain we took some great pictures. We also went to view the turtle ships and drove through the famous Marae tunnel that Koreans built by hand while enslaved by Japan. That night we went out to dinner with Jen and took the parents to Ellui, the bar where most foreigners hang out. There they got to see the fire show and meet a couple of our friends. I took my brother home early and we got some Mondu from the nicest foodstand lady in town. My parents stayed out for a bit longer with Dave and they also got Mondu (or according to Sue – Mongu) later that night.
The last day we got kimbap nara one more time and headed to Gwangyoung for a soccer game. It was really fun because it gave them a chance to just sit and watch Koreans, haha. They were able to experience the storm of “Hi, how are you?” and the other fun things that go along with this culture. We headed home and after a whole week of no rain, it started to rain. Mom and Dad walked and got a pizza (all on their own) for us and we just visited and watched a movie. The next morning we headed our early to say goodbye and put them on a plane home.


I don’t think I have been as homesick as I have been these past several hours after saying goodbye. It meant so much for me to have my family travel all the way out here to see me. Dave and I both had a great time visiting, and had a lot of fun sharing our Korean life with people from back home. It was the best birthday gift I could ever ask for. I am so lucky to have such a great family! Thank you so much Mom, Dad, and Tim, we love you!

p.s. Only three more weeks until the next set of visitors come! And only 4 more months left of Korea! Time is really going by too fast.

Here are the pictures part one!

Part Two!

Visiting Season Approaching...

Megan and I are getting really excited, because as the frigid Midwest winter continues, finally a few people are heading to the other side of the world to check out how we really live over here.



March 14 - 22
Megan's parents and brother Tim will come during the UW-Milwaukee spring break. They will have a quick, strenous trip, but we have planned the travel and got a few days off to maximize their experience here. This one has been in the cards for a while, so we almost have the plans to an hour by hour level!

April 17 - May 5
Breaking News! Erin and Brian, the Udells, have BOOKED their trip from April 17th - May 5th. They will take a week or so in there to hit up at least one other Asian country, to complete the experience, but they will have an extended stay in the 'Su.

We are SO excited for both these visits. The timing is perfect and has been driving us through this mid-contract stretch. Not to say time still isn't flying. We have now hit the 7 month point of being in Korea, and are rapidly approaching the 7 month point of our contract. I can almost not believe it, but then I think back about all of my experiences, and realize that, I have grown a lot, we have had a lot of fun, and these next 5 months will FLY by, especially with all these people visiting. It really makes Megan and I feel loved. I know that my family would be here just as fast, but health reasons and TWO new cute nephews have unfortunately prevented that. Instead we will enjoy the FULL Hanrahan clan.. Unbelievable!

I am also a little closer to that announcement, so keep checking the blog for updates.

Added the Twitter Widget

If you couldn't tell from the widget above and to the right of this blog post, I added the twitter widget. I might relocate it depending upon how much I actually use it, but I think it might be kind of nice...

This week we haven't been up to much. On the bad news side, the car is going to the shop straight away on Monday morning. Following a long line of events that probably should have led to me taking it it, the power steering went out on Saturday afternoon. The car has since been parked at Jeff's, waiting to be taken to a service station. Luckily the availablity of cabs here is great, along with buses, so getting around is not a problem, even if it takes a few days.

Hopefully the car isn't totaled, seeing as almost any repair puts it into that range!!

Valentine's Week Update

This month has not been nearly as busy as last month, but instead of battling weariness Megan and I were stuck battling apathy. After our virtual 12 hour shifts of January, we needed to rediscover what to do with our open mornings, and later nights in February. The first week of February resulted in a quite boring, and even slightly depressing result, in which we just wasted away the mornings and evenings, browsing the internet, or something similar. This week we remembered how to make things a bit more enjoyable...

The first thing was, adding a morning hike back into the plans. I think exercising always lifts one spirit, and nothing is more spiritual to Korean people than mountains. For those non wayguks who read this blog, Koreans mostly bury family members with plots on the side of a mountain, "for the view". If you look back at some of our earliest pictures, you can see an example of the mounds. The high temperatures didn't hurt last week, but we even made it up to the top today in 40 degree and rain (I wore shorts and a long sleeve-t to the shock of the locals). Regardless, adding this back to the morning routine definitely was a key to reducing cabin fever.

The other key thing has been socializing. We have both made some good friends here after six months, and we just need to get out of the house once and a while. Megan was lucky enough to have a girls only Valentine's party on Saturday afternoon, and we just had a few nights out with Gwang-he our co-worker, and our good friends Ed and Jen. This has kept us sane...

Other then that, I've been filing my time studying Korea, and doing a bit of side web development, for those who don't know, check out huminsight.com, for a tiny bit more about what I do, but expect a big announcement in a few weeks, I can't say exactly when just yet. I went out to Emart this week and bought a Hanja book (Korean via Chinese characters) made for little kids, to study the Hanja, and just improve my understand of Korean. I think I have become addicted to studying it, but it has slightly improved my quality of life, I must say. It's nice to tell someone something nice, or catch a kid using a swear word, haha!

This weekend, Megan had the valentine's party, like I said. At that time, I went over and toured the Yeosu Industrial Complex, for something to do. It is really INSANE. It is just about 8km straight of refineries, chemical plants, etc. It is really an awe striking place... I think I will go out, and get some pics. I might ask JS or another Yeosu-ite where I can hike to snap some good photos, it is almost unbelievable... And a bit scary, too!

We went out just for something to do each night, but didn't do anything to uniquely interesting. Today, we headed out to Suncheon, the next town over for our Valentine's dinner, Outback Steak House. It was GREAT... BLOOMIN' Onion mmmmmmm! The cost was.... reasonable, W70,000. My steak was quite mediocre, and really fatty, but apparently the Korean's like the fat. Megan has her first salad in ages, a Mango Chicken w/ Honey Mustard to be exact. After that we checked out Suncheon's various shopping outlets for a bit, and headed back.

Well, not too exciting as far as blog posts go. I'd love to get some nice social commentary pieces, or a bit more in depth, but that doesn't happen when you start a post at 2AM...! I hope to update a few more times during the week, I know I left some stuff out, especially objective piece as opposed to a summary...

Wrapping it up, some news, we hit 6 MONTHS at the end of January, and are now officially scrappy Korea vets. My sister Angie had ADORABLE son, named Adrian. He is incredibly cute. My sister Laura's 6+ month old, Noller skates, has been battling a fever, so we all wish him well. Megan's parents are coming in less than 4 weeks!!! We are SOOO excited. No pictures this time around, so I'll just leave you all with a video I enjoyed from Youtube! Bye, don't forget to email!



If you liked it, check out http://www.cloudcult.com . They are a veteran, indy band from MN which I've been listening to a lot lately. Alright, I must SLEEP!

Solnal Weekend in Fukuoka, Japan!

We have been insanely busy this month, working a morning shift (9:30AM-12:30) along with our regular teaching hours (2/3PM-8PM) at the hagwon. This has made our lives quite miserable, but the time has flown by. This was the reason you have likely not heard from us, and the blog has been barren. We have done nothing worthy of note, besides work, and sleep until this weekend. I have nothing else to say about it, other then that we are finished in the next three days, and we should get fat pay checks.

Last weekend was Solnal, or Lunar New Year, Chinese New Year, whatever, in Asia, so we had Monday and Tuesday off! This allowed us to final clean all of December and January's dust from our house today, but more importantly we made it to Fukuoka, Japan from Saturday-Monday. I will give a brief outline of the trip, plus we got about 40 pics and a video!



Friday night after work we headed over to Yeosu Bus Terminal to catch the 10:30PM bus to Busan. We arrived in Busan, and after an expensive (W20,000) taxi ride over to port, we found a cheap love motel and spent the night. The next morning at 9AM, we headed over to the domestic (lost in translation) ferry terminal, and then walked over to the international terminal. We got on the ferry, and had a great ride on the Kobee Beetle Hydrofoil. It was really cool, the boat uses a jet engine and rides mostly above the water besides a small fin. The ride was 115KM and took about 3 hours. We arrived in Fukuoka and found our way to the Central Hotel. Fukuoka was hit with an ultra rare snow storm (about 2 inches). So, we got many great pictures.



The first day in town we checked out the local shopping areas, andfound our way to this Canal City shopping mall. We bought nothing because any item would have literally busted our trip budget (Y30,000 ~ $300). Afterward we went back to nap so we could check out the Fukuoka night life. At about 10PM we meandered over to the downtown area, and searched and searched for a pub called Three Kings. We found it after about 1/2 hour and we rewarded with two pints of Old Speckled Hen for our troubles (for Y1,800). After that we went to another bar called Small Spaces. Like the name implies, it was a small, yet intimate and cool bar. There we had our first (and only) sake of the trip, and a few beers. We never found out the name of the beer because everything was in Japanese. We met a man from England who was the manager of a band named Keith who was touring in Fukuoka that night. He told us about how people in London were so excited about Obama, and the changing opinion of the world about America. It was much more rewarding then having to explain old Bush. They also played a video of a band called Special Others, who are part of the new Japanese Indie scene, that we really liked. I will post a video... On the way back I was devastated to find the famous Fukuoka food stands all closed, but was determined to get some the next day.

The next day we decided to try to see a few sights of Fukuoka, and decided to scrap our plans to visit Nagasaki (St Paul's sister city). It was raining, so we had to use umbrellas, but it was a little easier compared to heavy snow. First, we walked over to Subway to get our first subs since Itaewon... MMMMMMMMM! Then, we walked over to the Fukuoka castle ruins. The museum was closed, so we just enjoyed the beautiful moat surrounding it. After that, we took the subway out about 15 minutes to the other side of town. We were hoping to check out Fukuoka Tower and a temple, nearby. We tried to go to the temple first, but we were having a hard time finding it. We finally stopped and asked for directions, but the 7/11 employee didn't speak enough English to help us out. Luckily, a French guy who lived in the area was walking by, and he kindly pointed us in the right direction, on top of a large hill, and told us that it was the first time he had seen snow in town in a long time. On the way, we walked through a neat American style neighborhood, that happened to be having an open house. We decided to check it out, but unfortunately the interior design was modeled after an American home... it was gorgeous, but not too exciting! We finally got up to the temple, and admired the beautiful views it offered, which you can see in the pictures. We found the stairs on the other side of the hill down, which were only about a five minute walk from the subway station, although we walked for about 40 minutes to get around it the first time! We then went back for a nap.



That night we wanted to try a Japanese restaurant, so we went back to the same area we'd been in last night. We finally chose a cute looking place, but there were no pictures or English descriptions of the food. Luckily, a waiter there spoke excellent English, and helped us order... From the Italian style menu!! We order Fettucini with Oysters, which was great, but not what we'd hoped for. Later on we went to some of the many arcade rooms, and challenged ourselves with a bunch of the fun, crazy games. We managed to get a video of one of the Japanese gaming masters. The game's name was Pop'n Music... We headed home early so Dave could get his street food fix... Plus we only had Y1,000 left to spend!!



The final day we just slept in and took the now simple public transportation back to the ferry. We had a full day of travel: Ferry 2-5 -> taxi 5-6 -> bus 6-10, and made it safely back to Yeosu.

Overall, Japan was great. The people were incredibly kind, fashionable, and the culture is incredibly fun to observe. We say Sumo on TV, and the game nerds at the arcades, the most stereotypical things! The public transportation was intuitive, architecture reminding me of Minneapolis, and was great. We even discovered a new favorite band, Special Others, and Japanese indie rock scene. To any fellow Wayguk-ins reading this blog, I most definitely recommend a visit. I leave you with the music video that we saw in Small Spaces... Also, my sister is due to give birth to a son any day now, so wish her good health!

We miss everyone, please write!!! Anyoung Hasayeo! In the mean time, check out the pictures!