(11) 90 in 90: Into the (Ocean) World

Last week, my girlfriend and I spent a day at Ocean World, a water park a few hours away from Seoul. I've been to Caribbean Bay, another water park located next to Everland, however Ocean World was an entirely different beast. While both were water parks, Ocean World had more of everything. More slides, more pools, a bigger park, more areas to rest and a bigger variety of other attractions to see besides the slides. I may be getting ahead of myself, but in my opinion, Ocean World was a much better experience.

Getting to Ocean World is a fairly painless process. There are several buses that go directly to Ocean World and are free, as in no need to pay bus fare or swipe your travel card. They leave from a few locations in Seoul and Incheon, including places like Bupeyeong and Sinchon at different times.

The Ocean World Entrance

Once you arrive, there is a changing area at the front of the park along with an area to store picnic food and buy your tickets. after that, the rest of the park is pretty straight forward,as you can walk around the entire park with each new pool and slide located one right after the other.

We went on a Thursday, which by normal standards should have been pretty empty but due to it being the summer time and a peak season where most people in Korea are either on vacation or have extra days off work, the entire park was packed.

I didn't mind though, compared to my last visit to Caribbean Bay, which was strangely empty, seeing lots of people swimming and having fun was nice to see.

Another thing that was different (and admittedly a pleasant surprise) was the lack of covering up from many people in the park. I've been to other pools and beaches before in Korea and both guys and girls usually make it a habit of covering themselves with pull overs, big t shirts and hats. Here, i saw very few people covered up and instead swim trunks and bikinis everywhere. For someone from America, this wasn't exactly a foreign sight to see in the summer, but in Korea, this was the first time I ever saw this much on display at once much to my surprise.

The two most memorable parts of the park were the massive wave pool and the tube slide. The wave pool was probably the largest I have ever seen in Korea and America and was at any given moment filled with people. There were more than enough people to fill the entire front section of the deep end, making moving around impossible. I never felt the threat of drowning or being swept away by the waves due to the large number of people. The claustrophobia was worth it though, as the waves the pool sent out were strong and large. If you caught the wave at just the right angle, you could have easily been carried back several feet. There were times where I would struggle to stand up after a massive wave and regain my composure before another one would come crashing down on my sending me back and disorientating me even further.

There was a downside to the waves though, my girlfriend lost her balance to one of the larger waves and scrapped her leg on the bottom of the pool. Since the bottom was rough and oddly, sharp textured, she ended up getting some significant cuts. A trip to the medical ward showed that she was not the only one there as there was a line out the door of people who suffered cuts all over their bodies. Perhaps its time to invest in another material Ocean World.

The slide was also a highlight for good and bad reasons. The good being that the slide was long, the longest I have ever been on with lots of drops and steep inclines to make it feel almost like a roller coaster more than a water slide. The bad was the wait. We had to wait in line for three hours before getting the chance to go down the slide for a few minutes. My advice is to get in line as early as possible because from 12 PM on, the wait will surely stretch to 3 hours.

Towards the end of the day, we ended up relaxing in one of the spa pools filled with pine needles and also discovered by accident another water park located indoors. If I haven't stressed this enough, I'll say it again: this park is massive.

My girlfriend at the DJparty

In the center square of the park, there is a stage that throughout the day features different performers and musical acts to entertain the guests. At the end of the night when the park closed, there was a DJ on stage

complete with booming speakers and a dance area for people to gather around. Judging by the massive amount of people dancing and grinding in the center, they were having a great time even after spending hours in the water.

I had a great time at Ocean World for me and my girlfriend, it was a nice way to send off the summer, to say goodbye to our vacation period and welcome back the 9 to 5 jobs that allow us to travel to places like this in the first place. It was fun, it was wet and exciting. I could not have picked a better way to say goodbye to the summer. It's still not too late, visit Ocean World, you won't regret it.

Link to Ocean World's website 

(10) 90 in 90: Back again aka working is hard!

Today marks the first day back for the second school semester and while I wish it was a little more exciting with a little more fanfare... there wasn't.

The mood today was incredibly dour and quiet. None of the enthusiastic greetings from teachers, none of the normal greetings from students. Everyone today was tired and not looking happy to be there.

I guess you could have included myself as well. After having an extra long vacation and having to start my normal schedule again, I also felt incredibly lethargic and sluggish throughout the day. Something about being back and working didn't register in my brain. Thank goodness the activity level of everyone today was low because I'm pretty sure the thought processes in my brain were tumbleweeds.

I'm hoping that this is only temporary and I'll be back in the work and teaching mode by the end of the week. It's such a weird feeling having a different mind set when you need to be doing something. It feels weird, not right and yet you know it has to be done. Your body is rebelling against you while your brain yells at you for being a lazy ass.

You tell em lazy cat. You tell em. 

I wish there was more to say but today was incredibly meh, a solid 5 out of 10. Here's hoping my students and more importantly myself are ready to go at this whole teaching and learning thing again soon. Doing simple warm up activities was a long and time consuming task that took a large amount of effort just to get the students doing what they were supposed to do. An activity that was supposed take thirty minutes took almost the entire hour.

I can't help but feel bad for the students though. Their summer vacation wasn't really a summer vacation like I was used to. Students still had to go to school and attend classes until noon. Afterwards, they were required to stay and study until 6 pm. Some of the teachers also had to stay full days as well not only to teach them, but to monitor the study sessions as well. I consider myself very lucky. I have a feeling that besides myself, very few teachers or students had the opportunity to relax and go on vacation like I did.

So now, I head to bed. Wish me luck tomorrow world. Let this laziness go away and get my butt back in gear. I'm a big boy now, time to start acting like it.

(9) 90 in 90 Hiatus: Coming Back Sunday

I'll be gone for the next few days enjoying the last part of my vacation before my school starts again full time next Monday. It's been an incredibly relaxing and incredibly lazy last week as a majority of my summer classes were cancelled and the extreme heat has kept anyone with sense indoors.

So I'll be going to Ocean World, a famous waterpark in Korea along with some other random adventures before coming back on Sunday.

This means I won't be able to post for a few days, and maybe I'm technically cheating on the 90 in 90 rule, but well, its my blog and my rules. That's all I have to say about that.

So see you in a few days. To the few people that read this or stumble upon it by accident, thank you for taking the time to read. I'm really doing this more as a way to write and have a reference for various memories and states of mind while I was in Korea, but if some of you actually find what I write entertaining and worth reading, that's cool too.

See you when I see you!

I'm cheating a little bit. I ain't even mad though.

(8) 90 in 90: The rain that takes the heat away

The rainy season is almost finished in Korea, meaning the hot and humid temperatures will eventually lead the way towards cool and windy fall days.

For that, I can't wait. I've said it many times before, but I'm just not a fan of humid summers. I can deal with the high heat but its the humidity that makes it a miserable and sweat filled experience for me, sapping away any energy and will I had to accomplish anything, and instead making a lazy day spent in an air conditioned sound like a continually tempting way to spend a day.

However, there are days, a small amount of days, where the rain comes and doesn't make the weather more

DAT HUMIDITY...

humid. Sometimes, the heavy rain can bring a moment of relief from the hot summer days. For a few hours, it feels nice.

This feeling never last long. It last for a few hours before the sun comes out again and the sweltering heat comes back. Until that time, I enjoy the coolness that it brings. The heavy and sticky feeling of humidity yields to a cool and chilling feeling. A cool breeze can lightly be felt, a sign that for a few hours, its time to open the window and let in some air from the outside that actually feels good.

Sadly, this has not happened very often this summer. A majority of the days were humid, but its those few rare times, where relief comes through and allows me to escape from the heat for a little bit.

It's funny how appreciative I have become of something as simple as a rainstorm, but like many things since moving to Korea, I've gained a new perspective perspective and appreciation on many things.

So thank you rain and the cooling effect you bring. You're my moment of relief and a sign of cooler days to come.

(6) 90 in 90: Korea Heat

Korea is humid and hot. Hardly groundbreaking news to anyone who has lived in Korea for an extended period of time, but for me, its been almost two years living in Korea and I still can't get accustomed to the heat.

I grew up in Indiana. Located in the Midwest part of the US, where summers would occasionally get hot, but it was never anything that could be considered extreme. Even when the heat would climb higher in the summer, the humidity wouldn't ever become too unbearable. To me, those hot summer days were the definition of "hot" summer days.

Once I came to Korea, I learned the true definition of hot summer days. I knew what it meant to be hot.

Where I live in Korea is the central most area of Korea, only an hour away from Daegu, the largest city in the Gyeongbuk-do region. While this means that the winters are usually not as cold as Seoul or Incheon, it means that the summers are significantly hotter and more humid.

Home is still really hot in Korea

The act of simply stepping outside on a typical summer day will usually result in my body sweating profusely and my shirt becoming drenched in sweat in a record amount of time. I used to enjoy walking to school every morning, but during the summers it becomes an impossibility.

The humidity is what makes the summers so ridiculously hot. It often adds up to 5 extra degrees to the overall temperature and makes the air thick with moisture, making even the simple act of breathing a uncomfortable experience.

This makes the air conditioner and water my two best friends during the summer.  I am constantly running the aircon, making my house a cool environment that at times almost feels too cold, a much preferred alternative to the hot and humid outside. During the summer, I am constantly drinking water, even when my bladder feels like it will burst and my thirst has been quenched ten times over. I feel this constant paranoid, creeping feeling that my skin and body is rapidly loosing moisture to the heat and I am constantly trying to recover it.

This also makes school a sometimes sticky experience, as my school is an older building and the principal of the school constantly request that we run the air conditioner the least amount of times possible to save energy. I hope Korea appreciates our sacrifice, because I'm certain that both the teachers and students do not.

There are much hotter and much more humid places in the world, but for now, Korea is the hottest and most humid one I have been to yet. Maybe one day I'll get used to the humidity and heat. Maybe one day I'll welcome the sweat slicked back and soaked shirt. Maybe one day I'll embrace the heat of Korea and welcome it like I welcome other things in life that start as annoyances but eventually become routine parts of life.

Maybe one day I'll learn to walk on water as well.

*for those who ask if the rainy season that Korea gets makes the weather more bearable: no, it does not. It just makes things wetter and more humid.

(2) 90 in 90 days: My vacation in Osaka and the feeling of returning home

Working with the EPIK program usually means having a short period of time for vacation. Typically, there are eight vacation days in the summer and ten in the winter. While most of my summer vacation was spent last year exploring the southern coast of South Korea, my time this year was spent in Osaka, Japan.

I had visited Japan previously, once in the summer of 2009 and another during the summer of 2011. Both times had been spent in the Tokyo area looking for jobs and visiting friends who were already living there. Both times also served as my first and second times out of the country and in many ways, set me on the current course I currently am following currently.

Previously, I had only dreamed of visiting places outside the US, thinking it should be something better reserved for people with ample amounts of free time and money. While the trip wasn't cheap, it was well worth the effort and willingness to travel around the world as both times served plenty of happy memories and experiences that still remained to this day. I never thought I could fall in love with a culture or city, but two years in Tokyo taught me how attached one could become to a place. In its hectic and sometimes chaotic neon drenched atmosphere, beat a soul and a pulse that gave the city its life and atmosphere. Once I witnessed that pulse for myself, it became a seductive lure that always called back to me.

Oknomiyaki, an Osaka specialty 

Years later, I found myself in the position to visit some of the same friends I had previously met in Tokyo, this time in Osaka. Having never been to Osaka before, and being offered a full week to stay with friends during my vacation, I jumped at the opportunity to go and visit.

 At first, I thought it would be silly to have expectations of having the same exciting and fun experience that I previously had in Japan. I was a different person back then, less educated on the world outside my own country and naive to cultures different from my own. I knew that such a wildly eye opening experience would more likely than not be possible due to having a stronger sense and grasp on worlds and cultures outside my own.

However, I was very happily proven wrong as once again, my trip to Japan proved to be another incredible experience of meeting new people, seeing new places and falling in love with Japan all over again.

Osaka Castle

Osaka is a very different place from Tokyo. Gone is the crowded streets packed with people rushing to get from place and to place, replaced with a city a little more relaxed and laid back. Osaka, while still a large city, never felt like I was being rushed or pressured to make my way around there. The general atmosphere was one of calm which made visiting different places very fun and without massive amounts of pressure.

One thing I was able to do that I did not have time to do before, was visiting more historical sites. This time I was able to visit Osaka Castle and the riverside area of Osaka City. It was an incredible site to witness the sheer size of Osaka Castle, the despite being heavily modernized on the inside, still proved to be incredibly large on the outside. Even the park area that housed the palace was large and took a great deal of time to walk through. This was a great experience for me, as someone who was used to the cramped spaces of walking through Tokyo, being able to stretch my legs and have a wide open area was almost liberating in a sense.

Lanterns in Osaka

Exploring Osaka was also a joy and new experience for me to enjoy. Having a river running through the center made for a very festive experience. Lanterns lined the river area, and at night emitted a white glow which reflect off the water along with the other neon signs. Osaka also had more open area markets and arcade areas which hosted a variety of smaller random shops and restaurants. In many ways, it reminded me of Cheonggyecheon in Seoul, with is river running through the city and smaller places and shops to explore.

The week passed much faster than I would have liked, with every day filled with exploring during the day and eating delicious food with friends during the night. We never really had a set plan or criteria of what we wanted to do just doing what we felt like at a moment's whim. It made for a less structured time but at the same time, a more enjoyable and less limiting time.

It was nice to see old friends again. Despite being apart for several years and only talking through mediums like facebook, it was both a relief and reassurance that for the most part, my friends were still the same. Spending the nights drinking Japanese beer and eating delicious Japanese food with friends brought out lots of stories and experiences being accounted from the past, along with new jokes and stories from our time together.

Old and new friends

It was a great time in Osaka, the pictures and short bits and descriptions are not enough to show just how much fun I had there. For a time, I felt like I was back in college again, joking around, acting more immature than I should for my age and enjoying my time for a brief period without worry of student loans, lessons plans and monthly experiences, the things that had come to be a form of stress in my life.


Just me, my friends and happy memories set in the city of Osaka. Once again, I am assured that my friends are still the great people that I knew from years ago and that Japan is still the same country I fell in love with years ago, and even as I write this, I know in my heart that one day I will return again.

Little Things to Love About Korea

The things I seem to enjoy the most about Korea are the little moments. The unplanned events that begin as random excursions and become nostalgic filled memories later on in life serve as a reminder that our lives, no matter how routine or drab always hold surprises for us when we least expect them. If we keep that positive attitude, if we gravitate towards the interesting and adventurous rather than the pedestrian and routine, we find out selves making new relationships and going to new places where yesterday, you would never think you would end up.

Korea has more than its share of those random adventures that make for entertaining tales to be retold later on. The differences in culture along with the different mentality we adopt when living and working abroad makes for some off beat and varied encounters with people and places. A cynical view may make my amusement at the little things seem like a childish and naive fascination with the world, an optimistic and simplified view on the world at large, but I prefer to look at it in a different way. Where other see frustration  I see a new opportunity for understanding and perspective. Where some claim they will never understand I claim to try my best to understand.

I think to work in Korea, or anywhere not counting your own home turf, you need that sense of wonderment and that attraction to adventure and the what ifs. Working overseas is not for those who wish to have a safe and predictable life. For me and most likely many other foreigners living in Korea, running towards something new will more likely than not garner more rewards than walking.

While there are more than I can possibly list in one tidy post, some of my favorite little/big adventures are things I see or participate in everyday.

I love that the city I live in is small. I know there are days where I would prefer the excitement and relentless pacing of the big city, but living in a smaller, more rural location has its benefits. It's laid back and relaxing, with an area big enough to have distinct areas that differ from one another, but are still easy enough to get to. This is best during the warm summer nights when walking from place to place with only the distant rumble of cars and chirping insects can be heard against a faintly lit city street.

I love that my co teachers this year are young and friendly. I didn't spend a lot of time last year getting to know my co teachers and didn't form any strong or lasting relationships. This year, after only a few days into the semester, I feel like I have a more friendly relationship with my co workers. They are a lot like me, young, needing a job and all together in this little job we call teaching. While still acting professional, I feel like I'm more at ease around them. I can act like a professional young man, one who wishes to break out of his shell every now and then.

I love that there are a lot of new foreign teachers in Gimcheon. Last year I had gotten to know some people pretty well and developed a group of people that I spent time with. This year, there is a larger selection of people from all over the world, each of them bringing with them interesting back stories and reasons for being in Korea. It's always a refreshing way to start a new year by meeting new people. While I can't say with complete conviction the strength of our relationships with one another, I can say they are new and friendly, making each new person met an exciting new encounter.

I love that I finally feel comfortable with teaching. Last year was my first year teaching and while I did a decent job, there were many areas that needed improvement and many time where I didn't always feel confident in what I was doing. Now that I have been here a year, and feel familiar with the way the school operates, I feel like my lessons have really taken a turn for the better. I anxiously look forward to each new class and look forward to how I can build a lesson around new material. While its is still challenging and demanding at time, feeling more comfortable and confident goes a long way to making me a better teacher, and therefore benefiting the students even more than before.

Perhaps its the change in temperature, perhaps its a renewed interest in exploring everything and everyone Korea has to offer, but I can't help but feel excited about every new day. Every day is filled with a new unexpected adventure or inspired conversation waiting to happen. I'm doing the Feris Bueller, and slowing down to pay attention to the finer details and things around me.

So far, I really like what I see.

Photos of some great people from my town