(34) 2014 is the Year of Upgrades

I once heard that it's better to make a year of changes and improvements based on a yearly theme rather than set New Year's Resolutions that may or may not be doable. I've recently taken that advice to heart and have decided to make 2014, my 27th/28th year of birth and my third year in Korea a year of upgrades.

What this means is taking a look at my life, my goals and my current life situation and deciding to improve or upgrade the things in my life that will allow me to accomplish my short and long term goals. I am making this the year of upgrades with a strong desire to see all of my goals succeed but also keep in mind that they may lead to some spectacular failures, many of these things I am indeed thinking of or pursuing for the first time. 

That's the beauty of a "Year Of..." theme, it allows you to continually make changes and improvements without the limitation and disappointment of failing to meet resolutions. Every little victory leads to a better state of living, every little goal adds up to becoming a better person.

So, here is my list of things that need upgrades in my life. 

2014: The Year of Upgrades

1. My first goal is to improve the current employment situation I have in Korea. With my school ending my contract, I've spent time looking for different location and a different school to work at. As of now, if all goes according to plan, I could possibly have a better paying, better located job as soon as March this year.

2. In order to have an easier time getting jobs and participating in opportunities, I will also begin the process of obtaining an F4 Visa, which would allow me more freedoms (closer to a Korean citizen) than my current visa allows. Since I was technically born in Korea, it would be a shame to waste this unique opportunity and allow myself the closest thing to dual citizenship I most likely will be able to get

3. I need to improve my Korean language ability. I've been here long enough to have a basic understanding of the language and if I wish to live in a larger city and participate in more opportunities, a better grasp of the language is necessary. I am currently looking through language classes and deciding which one will be the best.

4. I need to have a solid workout routine again. I know myself and how difficult it is to motivate myself to workout, but I feel it is long overdue that I begin again. Despite lacking motivation, I need to be fit again. I want to feel like I did at my peak. 

5. If I do get a job in Seoul, this means having access to a larger expat scene and larger night scene where interesting stories and places lurk. I want to take advantage of this and enjoy these sights and places. As petty as it sounds, I want to experience some of those crazy "what happens in Seoul stays in Seoul" moments before I'm too old and crotchety to enjoy them any longer. 

6. I need to learn to relax this year. I often found myself stressing out over things beyond my control and often letting my negative emotions get the best of me and those around me. I need to learn/study/practice the art of taking it as it comes and letting things roll of your shoulder. I need to be less Donny and more like The Dude*  I need to realize what makes me tick and be more honest with myself and others when it comes to my limits. 

7. I need to get involved in more travel adventures. It can be somewhere in Korea, somewhere overseas or somewhere next door. I need to see more travel opportunities and be willing to leave my bubble in order to experience some adventures. By the time 2014 ends, I want to have gotten out of my comfort zone and have some travel stories to share.

8. I need to be involved with the writing scene and need to submit more articles and ideas. I'll be in the primary location of many foreign publications with much easier access to events. I need to get out of my writing slump and find more stories, get off my ass, knock on doors and write. I need to learn more about publishing and writing. I need to constantly be learning more about the ever changing field of journalism and its relation to media. I need to stay up to date with my peers and take advantage of that knowledge. 

9. If there are only two books I attempt to read this year (although I hope to read many), I want to attempt reading two books I have long put off: Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace and a comprehensive look at Korean history that's not "Korea's Place in the Sun". Reading more in general is always a good thing and I can easily think of several other books I want to read, but as of now, these two are the mains.

10. Finally, I want to gain more knowledge and appreciation with my hobbies and the things I enjoy. This means finding new music to enjoy, watching new films and hidden gems I might have missed and going through my massive backlog of games and classics from yesterday that I have yet to play. Having a rich, fulfilling and enriched enjoyment and understanding of your favorite pastimes is a reward in itself.

That's it. This year is a year of upgrades and changes I can honestly say I haven't been this excited by the future in a long time. Whether this ends up as a year for the history books or a year of crash and burn, I'm going at it full speed and seeing where it takes me. 

2014. This is MY year. 

*The Dude

The Fruits of Our Labor: Seoul, Our City Presents: A Memory

One of the recent projects I have been participating in is helping to write and act in a short film for an upcoming film contest called Seoul, Our Movie.

Seoul, Our Movie was created by the Park Brothers, Park Chan Wook and Park Chan Kyong. Both are well known directors in Korea, with Park Chan Wook being the director of famous films such as Oldboy and Joint Security Area. It was created to showcase a series of short films showing everyday life from different parts of Seoul.

Our short film is titled 'A Memory" and is a short film about a young man reminiscing about finding his first love in a coffee shop. We filmed the entire short film in Itaewon.

Please take the time to check out this and the other short films on the website. If you enjoyed it, please vote for it.

Sometimes, its good to participate in different creative outlets in Korea and gives me the opportunity to work some some really creative and awesome people.


Link to "A Memory"

Link to Seoul, Our Movie

Link to the youtube page

(18) 90 in 90: The Plan that Came Together

Confession time: I'm pretty bad at planning events. I've always been bad at planning them. I've been planning them or rather wanting to plan them since a young age but always faltered when it came time to step up and claim responsibility. Never wanting to give up, I continued to try and be the party planner, always trying to schedule big meet ups or events, having visions of events running without a hitch in my mind, yet in reality, the result was always far from the desired vision.

So you could imagine my nervousness when I began planning my girlfriend's birthday party. This wasn't something that belonged to me, it wasn't just my enjoyment that was at stake this time, it was hers as well.

That's not to say she would have complained or protested if something went wrong, she's not that type of person. She would have appreciated anything as long as my thought and sincerity was there, but for me, it was something I wanted to go well. In my mind she deserved it. She deserved it for all the long hours she worked everyday, working insane nighttime hours. She deserved it for the endless amount of time she spent studying and preparing for her future jobs. I knew her life was full of stress and I wanted her to have a relaxed and happy day, even if it was just for one day.

So I started to pay attention, started to listen and take note of the things she said, the things that she wanted. While this may sound like an obvious thing to do, it takes a good memory and power of recollection to remember every detail months away, something that I usually am pretty bad at.

Happily, everything went incredibly well and according to my plan. It was almost too scary how well things went and how well each activity lead into the other one. We started with dinner at Namsan Tower at a restaurant called The Place, a nice Italian restaurant with a spectacular view of the entire Seoul area below Namsan. When we first arrived, the look of surprise on her face said it all. I had done something that I had rarely done before, I had genuinely surprised her.

It didn't stop there, I had a whole list of things to do the next day, including brunch at a nice breakfast place in Itaewon called The Flying Pan and the main event, tickets to watch the musical Chicago, which at the time, was its last day of production for the remainder of the year at the National Theater of Korea.

At the end of the day, I ended up spending more time with her than expected (this is another story for another day) and was able to spend the night at her family's house and enjoy her birthday breakfast in the morning (consisting of galbi and seaweed soup), a tradition that she had told me about and I had finally had the chance to participate in.

My girlfriend is a very calm and rational person, showing extreme amounts of emotions of gushing with joy are two things that do not commonly happen with her. The few days spent celebrating her birthday were filled with smiles and laughter. With emotional gushing and squeals of delight. With "Oh My God" and "Ahh, so excited" heard throughout the day.

If it sounds like I'm writing this to show off how awesome of a boyfriend I am, its not. Rather, its more of a feeling of joy and relief that I had finally put together a great plan for someone who really mattered to me. There was no regrets or do it better next times, but rather a great plan that surprised and made someone close to me very happy.

To go back to a previous post, I'm much better at participating and having energy at someone else's party rather than my own, and this is no exception . Hannibal from the A-Team was right, I love it when a plan comes together.

Website for Namsan Tower
Website for The Flying Pan
Website The National Theater of Korea 
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(12) 90 in 90: The one day vacations

Yesterday was Korean Independence Day. While it was an important holiday, most Koreans choose to spend the holiday relaxing and enjoying their one day chance to rest and relax before going back for one more day on Friday. Instead of staying my home, I choose to take a day trip to Seoul to visit my girlfriend.

Normally, these one day breaks I don't like to do anything too crazy or venture too far from my town. I always feel like if I do something too big and too adventurous I'll keep being distracted by the clock and knowing that despite all the fun I'm having, it all has to end soon and I'm left with the task of making sure I can make my way home in time to get a decent night's sleep for the next work day.

This was different though. I have plenty of experience traveling and walking around Seoul and Incheon. I've visited my girlfriend many time before and have become familiar with both cities and what they have to offer.

We didn't do anything out of the ordinary, a late lunch and a trip to the DVD room to watch a movie, along with dinner at a Mageli place. Nothing too exciting, but still immensely fun.

I think what made the day so enjoyable was a near perfect amount of relaxation, visiting someone I cared about and getting out of my own house and town. It's my ideal perfect day: spending time away from home so I don't get too stir crazy and doing something fun and relaxing as not to disrupt my peaceful state of mind.

That's not to say that I don't enjoy doing exciting stuff, but like I said earlier, one day adventure fests are never fun to me. I never have fun as much as I worry. Maybe that's why I disliked Majora's Mask, that damn time limit and the moon threatening to crash down on me.

We tried a mageli sampler. It did not taste as good as this picture may lead you to believe. 

Lately though, its getting harder to leave once the day is over. For me, there is still this longing to be there longer. My initial need to go home in a timely manner is suddenly replaced with a moment of illogical thoughts of staying longer, staying the night even and catching the earliest train back home in the morning, knowing very well this is very stupid and is worth more trouble that its worth.

My traveling mind makes no sense to me. It goes from being logical and on time to wanting to have fun and forgo all responsibilities the next. My adult, responsible self constantly at war with my immature side.

However, my adult side always wins, even if its painful for a few seconds upon departure. I know we will see each other again soon and I'll most likely have a lot of fun again but, I want to have fun now. Not later. Once again, my inner spoiled child starts crying again.

A few minutes later though, I'm on the train on my way home. Tired, knowing that I have a three hour ride ahead of me and knowing that by the time I get back, it will be way past my work day bedtime. I could have planned it earlier, but I just had to squeeze those last few minutes of fun out of my mini break day.

I guess in the end, the adult and the child can come to a compromise after all.

Living a second year in Korea: Love stories in Hongdae, North Korea and trips to Japan

I know quite a few teachers and other foreigners in Korea that go through a busy phase in the summer and fall time.It's that time when the weather starts changing and with it comes final exams and many, many events to go to and visit on the weekend.

Last year, I didn't take advantage of going to as many events as I wanted to. I was still new to this whole living in Korea thing and some days, having the energy to survive a day in school and make it home was more than a challenge. At the time, I was worried that the travel bug and the side of me that loved doing stuff was slowly dying or simply not interested in exploring what Korea had to offer. I thought I was in imminent danger of becoming  the hermit that lived to go home and spend his entire days playing video games and surfing the internet away from other people.

My new favorite tea shop in Seoul

A lot of teachers I know often spend their first year exploring and going on vacations to other countries nearby Korea. Every weekend is another adventure and every holiday is a chance of living it up in another place. By the time the second year comes by, most people are burnt out of traveling, having explored all their options. The desire to travel and explore dies. The honeymoon phase of seeing all the nooks and crannies of a country disappears.



"You don't live your second and third year," someone once told me. "Rather you coast them."

I wish I could find the guy who told me that and show him my schedule for the next couple of months, just to prove to him how wrong he was about this second year foreigner living in Korea.

Well, not really, since I don't like to gloat and want to be nice to everyone. Still though, the last few months have been incredible in terms of going places and seeing things. Every weekend since the beginning of June has been filled with some kind of interesting place to visit and cool thing to see. The only time I ever stayed at my home during the weekend was due to a lack of money or being simply too busy with something else to venture out.

I'm getting to know Seoul better. For all the hofs, clubs and restaurants that are always talked about, there's a charming underside to Seoul that I absolutely love. One of my favorite spots in Seoul is the Hongdae area, home to Hongik University and one of the most varied and interesting nightlife areas that I have visited in Korea.

Being near a famous university know for art, there are lots of coffee shops and cafes with interiors resembling  different artistic styles. Its not entirely uncommon to run into a coffee shop with an Andy Warhol esque interior to only go across the street to a cafe filled with art deco tables and chairs.

A wedding proposal in process with a guy in a bear suit. Only in Hongdae.

The nightlife in Hongdae is just as interesting. The streets are packed with people walking around and contributing the happy atmosphere. On every corner there's usually an outdoor show or public performance happening. There has never been a time that I went to Hongdae and wasn't entertained. I've seen everything from giant dogs to girls fist fighting in the streets. If I could, I would jump at the chance to live in Hongdae. Its that exciting, crazy city life atmosphere that would leave you with a million interesting stories to tell.

On the work side of things, this month has my school finishing their final exams towards the beginning of the month and their summer vacation beginning shortly afterwards. It's also the month I have two exciting events to look forward to: my trip to the DMZ and my summer vacation to Japan.

I've been wanting to go to the DMZ since last year, however time and money has always been a factor in turning down opportunities to visit. I never had a specific time to visit this year, but felt that it would be best to go when the opportunity best presented itself. A few weeks ago a friend offered the chance for me to visit both areas of the tour for a cheaper price than most travel packages. Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity. If there was ever an "this is it!" moment, well, this was it.

My first time watching live bands perform in Seoul.

Towards the end of the month I should also be making my way to Japan for a week to visit old friends and spend some time in sunny and beautiful Osaka. I've previously spent a great deal of time in Tokyo, so exploring somewhere new is a very exciting prospect for me. Japan was my country of many 'firsts' for me. The first time being abroad, the first time job hunting for a career job and the first time spending a significant amount of time on my own without help. I have a certain draw to Japan that I continue to hold near and dear to my heart. The USA will always be my home and Korea will always be special to me, but Japan is in a category all on its own, and I can't wait to reunite with her again.

My schedule is looking busy and expensive, but I honestly could not be more excited. My second year has been one exciting adventure after the other and I'm looking forward to many more.

Sophomore slump? Never heard of it.

Travel Journal: Feb-Mar 2013

The purpose of post like these is to make a list of locations that I have traveled to and experienced during my time in Korea for the 2013 year. It's meant to reflect and remember the interesting and unique places I went to and to serve as a way to track my travels and where I want to go next.


Tim Burton Exhibit- Seoul- February 

The Tim Burton Exhibit was a celebration of Tim Burton's work showing props, drawings and artistic work from his movies and early days as a film school student. It was really interesting to get a peak at some of the props and illustrations that made him famous. I was particularly fond of the Batman and Pee Wee's Funhouse props while my girlfriend was particularly drawn towards his concept work and props from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

They were also showing some of his short films in the "Stain Boy" series. Short, and slightly disturbing, they were a great companion to the other forms of weirdness on display.

House Party- Gumi- March

Living in Korea leaves one with few opportunities to go to an actual house part as most people (or foreigners) in this case tend to live in apartments. In March I was lucky enough to attend a part held at a house in Gumi. One of my friends was leaving to go back home to the US and we both thought it would be nice to meet up at a place to chat. The girl who lived in the house worked at a hagwon and after her two roommates left, was able to keep the house to herself. The weather was perfect that day, as it was about 80 degrees outside with a gentle breeze, a pleasant surprise for the early month of March. I had a great, laid back time as I chatted with people outside on the house porch as others started a bonfire and barbecue a few feet away. The smell of cooking meat, burning wood and beer permeated the warm air. For a few hours that night, it was a fantastic time, and despite the location, made me miss the summers back home in Indiana.


Orientation Class Meetup- Daegu- March

I actually do not go to Daegu as much as I would like to. It's only a short 45 minutes away from my city and yet I usually find myself heading up North to visit Seoul and Incheon. The past weekend I spent some time catching up with some old friends from my orientation class.

The thing I like the most about Daegu is its big city feel combined with its sense of intimacy. The streets are all close together and often mix with the walking areas. The sidewalks are usually kept clean and tidy with trees, running water and other ornate decorations to stand out as  a contrast against the grey backgrounds. I love how little shops are in between towering sky scrappers. I love how the air smells fresh despite the abundance of  cars everywhere. I love that only a short distance from the station is a huge stage area that usually has some kind of show on display with plenty of people around to keep it lively.

If Daegu has any flaws in my eyes, its that it can sometimes be confusing to navigate the streets due to the lack of signs or identifiable buildings. I'm sure a few more visits will rectify that problem however, as experience eventually solves everything.

I notice that I never make plans when going to Daegu as it usually turns into an entertaining adventure in itself to simply walk around with good company and explore. When I spent the day with my friends, I didn't worry myself with going to a specific place at a specific time. We went where we wanted and had a blast doing it. Daegu may be the most laid back big city in Korea, and for that I love it.


Future Plans:

March- Everland
March- Possibly Strawberry Festival in Nonsan or The Cherry Blossom Festival in Seoul

May- Caribbean Bay
May- Damyang Bamboo Festival

July- Japan Trip

Eventually- DMZ
Eventually- Jeju Island 
  

Helpful Information: Registering with your embassy in Korea

This was sent earlier today by my good friend Hannah through an email, detailing how to register with your embassy and options to have in case of an emergency. While I wouldn't say that things regarding North and South Korea are serious enough yet, having a back up plan for any kind of disaster or serious event is never a bad thing. Here is the original email, along with a listing of resources for foreigners living and working abroad can use.

Hey guys!!

This isn't to alarm any of you, but I've been reading up on things and since we're all living abroad, I figured this might be of interest to you guys too.  There are services available to UC citizens living abroad such as an alert system in the case of emergencies (war, natural disasters, epidemics, etc).  In certain cases, they'll coordinate an evacuation for us, but they'll only be able to let you know if you are listed on our US Embassy's list of Americans living/travelling abroad.  

They have an alert system where they send you a text message and also an email newsletter they send out when there is an alert out (they don't send it routinely, but only if there is an alert out).  Sign up if you guys want to!  It was fairly quick and easy for me.  I signed up for the notification and email  :]  So here are the links:

Overview & Info

http://seoul.usembassy.gov/acs_emergency_preparedness.html

STEP program (Smart Traveler Enrollment Program) - It's not just for travelers, but for citizens who live abroad too.  This enrollment is also how the Embassy communicates with you:

https://step.state.gov/step/

Email and text message service:

http://www.asktheconsul.org/

There are two US Embassies in Korea - one in Seoul and one in Busan, so if there ever is an emergency head for the nearest one to you.

Not saying there is any immediate threat, but it's always nice to know we have an emergency backup plan  :]

So there you have it. Quick, easy and covered by the government. Better safe than sorry folks. Thanks Hannah!

The Best Weekend Ever (or close to it) Part 1

I don’t live for the weekends. I was never one of those people who felt the need to let loose all of their bottled up stress from the week and let it loose for two days. Having fun on the weekend was important but be rested and relaxed was also just as important. Going back to work on a Monday jus as exhausted as you were on Friday is about as much fun a day full of deskwarming in a air conditioner-less room. Bonus points for misery if you were still hung over Monday morning.

Just like a day at work, there is also no guarantee that every weekend would be a perfect weekend. Sometimes things would go wrong, plans would fizzle out and changes would have to be made. This was a common occurrence in my life. It never bothered me, but was something that I was simply aware of and flexible to. I never hyped myself up for a perfect weekend, because I always knew there was simply no such thing.

This past weekend came awfully close to be perfect. It wasn’t a full weekend, nor was it anything too terribly exciting but, the amount of fun I had and the people I spent it with will probably last for a long time. Just thinking about it puts a huge smile on my face.

The week leading up to the weekend was an absolute disaster, a swirling mass of chaos that enveloped my school for the entire week and caught all of the teachers and students in its trap. Missing tests, missing grades, confused students and frustrated teachers made for a generally unpleasant environment to be in. 

Every day seemed to get slightly worse. I’m sure the super hot teacher’s office didn’t help matters. If you’ve ever seen the movie “Do the Right Thing” you will have a close idea. Just replace the themes of racism with missing papers, and you’re half way there.

I was excited and practically jumping at the opportunity to leave the school. A weekend break sounded like the perfect thing to clear my mind. In truth though, this weekend had been planed many weeks before. This was the weekend I was going to watch Wicked.

I was never a person who avidly watched musicals. I had no distaste towards them; in fact a majority of my middle school years was spent with musicals, whether acting in them or working behind the scenes. Where I lived, the number of musicals that were available to see was severely limited. Even community productions were in short supply as the community theater in my town only held a handful of productions a year.

I lived close to Chicago where a large variety of musicals would end up. One of the most noticeable ones was Wicked, based on the novel by Gregory Maguire. In it, the story of the Land of Oz from the Wizard of Oz and the origins of iconic characters such as The Wicked Witch and the Good Witch are explained. It was a musical I had always heard of but never actually made my way to see it. My sister and brothers saw it.  A majority of my friends saw it, but I never did. I always assumed that I would see it one day when the opportunity developed.

When I found out that Wicked would be coming to Seoul, I jumped at the opportunity. Eventually I made plans to see Wicked in Seoul along with two close friends living in Korea.  Tired, sweaty from the humidity and itching to leave my small town behind for the weekend, I boarded my train after school and began the ride towards Seoul and an evening at the theater.

I arrived at Seoul about an hour early, making sure that I had enough time to meet up with my friends and make my way to the theater. After meeting up we excitedly claimed out tickets and found our seats. The seats were on the third floor with a bird’s eye view overlooking the stage. At first I was worried a seat so far away from the stage would hamper my enjoyment, but it actually was a good view. The stage, despite being small, was loaded with large props and details that were able to be made out from even far away. The musical was in English, with the cast from the New York production performing. For all the Koreans in the audience, subtitles were on the side of the stages so they could follow along. 

I don’t claim to be a reliable or reputable source on musicals, but watching Wicked was one of the most enjoyable and engaging entertainment experiences in my life. Wicked had great music, excellent performances from all of the actors and a story that gave backgrounds on characters and the world of Oz without ruining the reputation of the original Wizard of Oz. I would even go as far to say that if you were going to make it a prequel, borrow a page from Wicked. It was that good. 

I remember feeling such a vivid flux of emotions and during the course of the musical, not necessarily from sadness or happiness, but through the delivery of the songs and the nuance from each character. It was so well done it inspired a raw emotive response that I rarely if ever feel from any entertainment medium. Like I said, I may be wrong; this may be a fairly mediocre to bad musical from a connoisseur’s perspective, but what I do know for sure is that I enjoyed it to death and would take an opportunity to watch it again in a heartbeat. Hopefully one day, I will. 

A good musical seen with good friends. A night I will never forget. 

Chapter 6: In the City

The weekend trip to Seoul was a trip that I had long thought of during the week. While sitting at my desk watching the clock slowly tick away as I planned my lessons for the week or when I stood in the classroom lecturing classes of students who most likely had a stronger desire to be anywhere but the classroom more than me. It was an event that was weeks in the making. It would be the first time I would be meeting with the people I met during orientation in quite a while. We were going to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in style. We were going to laugh, travel and drink together in the largest city in Korea. Seoul could do nothing to hold us back. Good times were ahead.

Friday finally came and together my Friday traveling ritual of leaving the school as soon as the bell rang, finding a taxi and getting to my town’s train station as fast as possible began. 15 minutes later I was on a train out of my little town and on my way to bigger city of Daegu.

The plan was to meet in Daegu a large city that had trains that went all the way to Seoul. We would end up traveling a little longer than taking the speedy KTX but would end up spending less money in the end. I didn’t mind along as I was in good company, the train ride would most likely pass quickly.

We passed the time by talking about our teaching experiences, sleeping, staring out the window and walking around the dining car to stretch our legs. The dining car was where I found myself spending most of the time during the trip. Plenty of room to walk around and even a bar to sit down and have a beer. It was a places that was strangely peaceful and relaxing, more so than the cramped passenger seats. I sat down at the bar stool and stared out the window watching the city lights and other trains pass us by. As another train passed next to us and I caught a glimpse of the other passengers going about their business. A felt a smile creep across my face. Seeing so many random people, zipping along on a speeding train towards Seoul reminded me just how big Korea really was, and at any moment, the sheer number of people going thousands of directions doing thousands of things.

I felt comfort by this. For I knew that whenever I reached this point, this realization in a new places that I had truly become comfortable with my new surroundings. It’s the realization, the moment of clarity in which you understand how big the world is, how you are just a speck on its otherwise grand scale that you know how your experiences and expectations mean little if anything to the world. Your life, your experiences and how you experience them are all your own expectations. Like the poem Invictus said: “I am the master of my fate, the captain of my soul.”

Our trip was about to come to an end. Soon we would be in Seoul and resting for the night, ready to face the day tomorrow.

I was incredibly lucky to have this opportunity to see a new part of the world and to see it with great people.  My life and experiences may mean nothing to others, but to me, they meant the world. They were opportunities that I did not want to go to waste. They were mine.

So I wasted no time. I traveled and I explored.