Blogs from Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, Asia - page 5

There are no guns in Korea. Well at least compared to the United States, it seems like there are no guns in Korea. Gun laws here are very strict. You are not allowed to keep a gun at your house. You are only allowed to own a gun for hunting purposes, and the few who do, have to keep these guns at the local police station. When you want to hunt, you go to the police station, check your gun out, hunt, and return it to the station when you're finished. This is vastly different from America, where it is considered an undeniable right that every citizen over the age of "able-to-hold-a-gun" is allowed and in fact encouraged to wield a lethal weapon. I must say that this difference in gun culture is intriguing. Now, don't ... read more

I will lose 20 pounds this year. I will stop drinking so much and spend more time at the gym. I will call my mother more. I will never smoke again. I will eat healthier............................ Blah blah blah blah blah OK, fair enough, it would be lovely to actually succeed with goals like that. But resolutions shouldn't be so cut and dry. I have now, almost offically, spent a year away from home. I have grown, and changed. I have met fabulous people and ravelled to some of the most fascinating parts of the world...the most beautiful beaches, the most serene landscapes...and tackled some of physical and mental feats. But what I really came here for, beyond the obvious desire to see the world, was to work out who I am and who I want to ... read more

Finally! After many painful hours of practicing our play for the Winter Drama Festival, class Pluto put on a great performance of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer for their families. The play consisted of roughly 7 lines per child - memorized - and two Christmas songs with actions (Rudolph and Jingle Bell Rock). We would practice a minimum of 45 minutes since the beginning of December. There were many problems leading up to the actual presentation, but they managed to pull it off. The kids would memorize their lines, then over the weekends they would come back and either forget their lines or when it was their turn to speak. In addition, my original "dance moves" were seen as inadequate by my superiors for Jingle Bell Rock so they taught the kids a whole new routine. I ... read more

After being in Korea for a month, Kovats and I started to feel pretty lazy with the lack of physical exercise. We were drinking lots of beer and eating lots of rice. That's a bad combination for the appearance of any body. So we had the option of either joining Taekwondo, or joining a gym. We joined "Kyunghee University Taekwondo". We refer to the owner as Grand Master. There are also two other instructors, whom we refer to as Mr. Lee and "Kevin". They are usually the ones teaching us. For the first two months we were White Belts. White is a symbol of innocence, as in we have no idea what we are doing. Thankfully we're since then graduated into Green Belts. There is lots of kicking and lots of stretching. I don't think I've ... read more

Wine Party About a week ago, Dave organized a little wine party for anyone who was interested. He was able to gather about 12 of us and naturally it ended up being mostly foreign teachers. So, this wasn't the kind of wine and cheese party where everyone brings something and all share, or the kind of party where Dave is kind enough to supply several bottles of wine for the enjoyment of others. Though Dave may be a generous guy, he's a bit smarter than that. If you're going to have a wine party, how about you find out a way to make the wine free for everyone? Dave found an add for a wine distributor that puts on wine tastings for large groups. He spread the word, gathered enough of us, called the guy, and ... read more