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

(22) 90 in 90: What is there to do in October anyway?

Footwash. Purify your feet and mind!

To answer the title, lots. There are lots of things to do and many goals to accomplish in the month of October.

October has always been a busy month for me. Since coming to Korea October has been the month that has fallen right after the summer break and the beginning of the fall semester, and the cram period for students to study and prepare for the college enterance and final exams.

October is also the time for school trips and events. Two weeks ago I went with my school on a trip to Yeonphoong Seongji, a site famous in Korea for being the location of the birthplace of the Catholic Church.

Statues at Yeongphoong Seongji

It was an interesting day to explore a site of such significance in Korea, as well as being able to participate and observe a Catholic ceremony. I had previously sat in and participated in a Catholic ceremony as a child, but to see the impact and power the ceremony had on my teachers and staff was a truly powerful thing to witness, and a reminder of just how significant the Catholic religion is in Korea.

October is also the time of Halloween, a holiday that I have always participated in but never really embraced the holiday until this year. For the first time, I'll be going to a Halloween party dressed in a real costume with the intent of having a good time and getting into the mood.

Chungcheongbuk-do has some of the most breath taking scenery in Korea

I went to a party last year for Halloween with some friends but I didn't pick a costume and just wore a suit and tie (after all I could be pretty much anyone in that get up) I had a great time, but didn't stay out for the night and didn't really go to celebrate the holiday, but rather to just be with friends.

There's nothing wrong with good company, but I always wanted to do more, to just once celebrate Halloween in full festive mood, costume and all.

So this year I decided to celebrate in my favorite crazy spot in Korea with my girlfriend and some other friends to have as much 21 and over fun that we can. I may be getting older and not really interested in partying, but Halloween has always been that special night to dress up as something you normally never would and be someone else for one night. Before I get to old to appreciate that sentence, I'm going to take advantage of it.

A preview of a Halloween costume to come

Along with school life and personal life, my job hunt continues. I've had no luck yet, but its still relatively early to toss in the towel, and while I have a decent job now, I have no room to worry or complain too much. If anything, its been a weekly reminder that not everything is easy and a reminder to appreciate the things that you have, because like all things in life, they shall not last forever.




All in all, I'm busy but still enjoying myself. Korea is an adventure everyday and it still doesn't cease to throw in some surprises, both good and bad every now and then.  

(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.

(1) 90 in 90 Begins Again

When I was a university student, I was tasked with a challenge by my professor to take the 90 in 90 day writing challenge. For 90 days I would write a blog post everyday. The topics would never be specific, rather it would be anything that happened to come into my head. I can't remember every post, but a few still stick out in my memories. I remember writing about my final days of being a college student. I remember writing about that slight nervousness and excited anticipation of what the future would bring me. Some of the writing was introverted and deeply personal, while other bits of writing were nothing more than rambling nonsense that comes from lack of sleep or lack of ideas.

No matter what I wrote, the main objective was to always keep writing. To keep and hold onto a goal to keep my mind fresh and my fingers constantly typing. The writing wasn't stellar and it wasn't always meant to be. It made me write everyday, whether I had a fresh idea or was struggling over a single sentence. It kept me sharp and focused.

Its been a few years since I've completed the 90 in 90 day challenge and since that time I can readily admit that the time I spend writing has greatly diminished since then. The reasons are not important, I won't spend time pouring over petty details, rather I would try to spend my time fixing the mistake instead. The lack of writing, no matter what the reason is painful to see and realize, so I am taking steps to fix that.

I'm going to start writing everyday for 90 days. Whatever comes to mind will make its way to the page. Living and working abroad presents many opportunities to write about many different things. It's time to get out of the rut and time to start writing again. There's never a perfect time or mood to write. It something you do not because you have to, but like laughing out loud or crying during a sad movie, something that we do because we want to. We need to express ourselves and our lives. Writing often helps us focus on that. It allows us to reflect on the things that bother us most, and sometimes, the things that we aren't always aware of.

The new 90 day challenges begins again. Let's see if I can do it again.

November testing and beginning again

It’s that time of year for Korea high school students. It’s the time for testing and preparing to finish up their semesters. While the lower grades at my school face the three week onslaught of speaking and essay tests, grade three has recently finished what would most likely be the most difficult test for them so far, the college entrance exam.

Entrance exams are nothing new to me; I have had my fair share of them in my life before and during university. However, the ones in Korea are a bit different than any other exams I have taken before. Getting into a university is so important for students at my school and all over Korea, that a majority of the semester was spent with self study, simply taking a class period to prepare for the upcoming test for their university of choice.

During my little break, I was able to visit the beautiful autumn scenery of Jikjisa  Park

The US SAT has two general sections, English and Math. The Korean exam has five categories including Math, English, Korean, and Social Issues. The test is taken so seriously that the day before the exam is cut short and the other grades (and quite a few teachers) have the day off the day of the exam.  Even airlines are diverted and delayed during this time, to prevent any planes from flying over the school and causing a distraction to the students.

Education is given paramount importance in Korea. I can still clearly remember being told that education is more than a bright future and a good head on your shoulders, in Korea education is a resource.

“In Korea, we have no natural resources. We live on a rock, no minerals, no gasses or materials to export. The only thing we have, the only thing we can offer is educated and specialized individuals.”

Also, Hyejin came to visit. Here we are at a coffee shop in Gumi.

Besides the glut of exams and tests, November is full of events at my school, including the upcoming school festival and service day. It feels strange not actually teaching a class and making new lesson planning material, but just like the spring semester towards the end, the lack of new lessons stands as a sign of the times, a sign that it’s time to wrap up the semester and eventually prepare for a new one.

So now I use this newfound free time to help better and prepare myself for the new year ahead. Soon I will be having new students, teaching new lessons and hopefully spending another year in Korea.

Despite being busy, November has been very good to me. I’ve been doing a better job of keeping personal goals and writing more. I’ve had more time to get back in contact with friends from back home and reconnect with people I thought I would never hear from again. November has also been the month my writing has picked up substantially with articles, personal stories and the National Writer’s Month goal of writing a significant amount of words in a single month’s span.

The wedding of one of my friends, another happy event in November.

I’ve even managed to fall in love during all of this, and despite the distance, am very happy to be with a special someone and hopefully look forward to many more months ahead.

Lantern Festival in Seoul

I was once told that if you’re busy doing the things you love, you will not notice the time passing around you. This could not be closer to the truth, as it now is the middle of November, and I feel like some much has happened to me in a short span of time. As many things that have happened to me, I still feel eager and ready to discover more opportunities and jump into more adventure.

The year may be nearly over, but there are many more months ahead of me. I’ve come so far, and still feel the need to get started. This is a good thing. A busy thing. A happy thing. 

How "busy" is busy?

How busy is busy? Is there a test for measuring how busy we actually are? It’s a phrase we toss around all the time, use interchangeably in our daily lives whenever something from our personal agenda happens to come up into conversation, or as a statement to let others know that we don’t have time for your wants and needs, I’m busy damnit.

It’s a phrase I notice I toss around quite often, even more so since becoming both a teacher and journalist in Korea. While this may sound like I’m about to unveil a shocking truth about me never actually being busy, it’s not. When I say I am busy, I really do mean it. I have a fairly full schedule that I manage to complete fairly effectively every week, while at the same time maintaining a healthy social life. The question is not if I am busy or not, but rather just how busy I am.

I’m more than willing to admit that I am fully capable of wasting copious amounts of time if need be. On days where I deskwarm* close to 80% of the time is spent browsing the internet, searching desperately for a digital tidbit to starve off my boredom for a few minutes more. The remaining 20% is usually spent writing, reading, or preparing lesson plans. Before you say how this looks bad on my part for taking such a short amount of time planning lessons, rest assured that most of my lessons are planned in advance at home (hence the busy part). I know I waste time at school when I’m not teaching, so the “how busy am I?” question is all but moot here. I want to know how busy I am when I actually say and acknowledge I am busy.

A typical busy night will have me going home at around 5 PM. I usually end up going to bed around 1 AM or earlier depending on the events that the following day will hold or how fatigued I am feeling. What happens between those times?

5:30 PM: Sit and read the news, watch YouTube clips, read comics, sit and stare ahead processing the events of the day.

6:00 PM: Start thinking about what I have to do tonight. Do I have to clean house? Meet someone? Make dinner? Write an article? Plan a lesson? All of the above?  Wow, I guess I better get started…  after I finish watching this video.

6:15 PM: Ok, now it’s really time to get ready. I should get started…. This video is part of playlist? Well, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt if I went through all of them. It’s only about 12 minutes after all.

6:25 PM: Almost done…

6:27 PM: Finished, wow that was fun. It’s not even seven yet, I’m doing pretty well.

6:28 PM: Holy crap, it’s almost seven. I have to meet someone at eight.

6:30 PM: At this point, I’m frantically scrambling to get ready and change into new clothes, a necessity since the summers in Korea are so hot and humid that your clothes by the end of the day have soaked up more sodium and fluid than the Dead Sea.  How well do I know the person I am meeting? Am I friends? Are they judgmental?  Do they care how I dress? They don’t? Jeans and a crappy t shirt it is.

6:40 PM: Well I said I would meet them at seven and technically, I can make it if I walk, but since its hot as balls out, I’ll just end up looking like I slaved away in the salt mines so, taxi it is.

6:45 PM: I sure wish I had some cash in my wallet. This check card is super nifty with me never having to carry cash, but finding a cab driver that accepts a card in my town is like finding money on the street. Probable it will happen, but don’t count on it to pay the bills for you. That being said, time to stop at the bank.

6:50 PM: Well only ten minutes left until I have to meet up, thank God taxis are pretty fast around here. If one ever shows up… I swear I just saw an entire fleet of them a few seconds ago…

7:05 PM: I finally found a cab and am now on my way to the station. Sure I’ll be a little late but hey, it took a long time to find a cab, fate’s conspiring against me today. It’s not like leaving a little earlier would have made any difference right? Right?

7:10 PM: I finally show up at our meeting spot and apologize profusely for being late. It will never happen again you tell your guest, as long as I have no Youtube videos to watch**

8:13 PM: Wow, it sure was fun meeting up. I had a great time, we should do this more often. If you’ll excuse me though, I have to return home, I’m very busy you see (LOL).

8:15 PM: Since I have time to spare I’ll just walk home. I’m not in a rush (even though I’m busy) and who wants to spend 2,500 won anyway?

8:32 PM: Finally made it back. That was a nice walk, time to start writing and lesson planning.

8:33 PM: I sure am hungry though. I should probably eat first. I’m so tired though, I don’t really feel like cooking today.

8:35 PM: Why hello kimbap take out place only a few minutes from my apartment. Guess what I’ll be eating tonight?

8:45 PM: Glad I grabbed take out instead of taking time to cook, now time to eat this meal and get to work.

8:47 PM: I don’t really want to eat in silence though. I should have something to keep me entertained while I eat. Time to go to Youtube… again.

9:10 PM: Well that was pretty good, not great but considering I saved time cooking, it was worth it. I was finished eating about five minutes ago but, those videos are so…damn… addicting.

9: 34 PM: Ok, for real, all done now. I watched every single video this user has posted along with his favorites. I’ve watched so many videos about him I’m pretty sure I am now qualified to give a psychological evaluation about his life.  Maybe I will… but that’s for another day. Remember, I’m busy.

9:40 PM: Let’s start lesson planning. This should be easy. I know exactly what I have to teach my students and how I will do it..

9:47 PM: Hmmm, this lesson is a lot shorter than I expected. I should add some more.

9:55 PM: Holy crap, this is too long, this can last three classes. What was I thinking?

10:05 PM: This looks good, it’s a nice balance. I just hope it’s not too difficult but I guess I’ll test that as I go along. This is the first time I’m giving this lesson. Prototype baby!

10:15 PM: Now it’s time to finish my last task (not really) and write that article. I’ve taken so many notes I’m sure it’s a matter of just writing itself at this point.

10: 20 PM: I don’t like the way this sounds. I’m going to re-write.

10:30 PM: Still don’t like it.

10:40 PM: Still don’t like it.

10:50 PM: I like it a little better. It’s slightly above literature prose homicide and now just a steaming pile of vile words and awkward sentences. I’m getting somewhere.

11:00 PM: I still hate it. I give up. I’ll finish it tomorrow.

11: 10 PM: What’s that awful smell?

11:11 PM: (Make a wish!) Oh wow, that’s me. Looks like its shower time.

11:24 PM: I feel so much better. Refreshed, clean and ready to make it all for nothing tomorrow morning when I sweat my ass off on the way to school!

11:27 PM: It’s time for bed. I’m tired and tomorrow is another busy day. I feel good though, I finished everything I wished to accomplish. I’m pretty good at this. 

11:28 PM: I forgot to clean today. Damnit.

It looks like a busy schedule, in some ways it is. I notice though that in between the actual busy parts I tend to waste a lot of time doing meaningless stuff.  I have to wonder though, is this normal? Are we as humans programmed to always waste time in between? Is there anyone out there that has a 100% efficient work ethic?

I am busy. I do accomplish my work but I can’t help but feel the amount of time I waste, could be used for so much more. It something that I’ve struggled with and something that 

I hope to figure out. My goal is to have a perfect work ethic one day. It’s a goal that I will shoot for… tomorrow.

The desk of a busy man or a messy man? You decide.

*deskwarming is when teachers go to school and do not have any classes to teach so they spend the days sitting at their desk hence the term ‘deskwarming’

**As  long as the internet exists, this will never happen.