Blogs from Daegu, South Korea, Asia - page 8

WOW, I am alive. I guess, after a year of complaining about monentenous drudgery and the lack of feeling alive, I've definately begun to receive what I've been missing...in large doses. It's currently 2:12 am local time; 12:12pm back home and I feel really odd. I'm sitting in a love motel because apparently my new apartment won't be ready until Saturday...more on the hotel in a minute. I've slept about 7 hours total over the past 2 days, and I guess you can say, at least, that I feel weird. I thought I would be feeling tired, and even though my body hasnt had much rest, it still feels like noon right now. The trip itself went smoothly. The culture shock moved in a sort of sequential fashion. From Toronto to Tokyo there were a handful ... read more

Happy New Year! I can't believe it's 2010 but I'm very excited that it is finally here! I'm hoping that 2010 will be a good year! I'm pretty confident that it will be quite interesting no matter what. The regular semester at my school ended on Tuesday and then Wednesday and Thursday we had English Camp. I have very little school responsibilities left before I come home. I just have a two day camp at Mike's middle school (this Monday and Tuesday), two weeks of conversation classes at my school (the 3rd and 4th week of January), and then a random week of classes in the middle of February (but I think I will only teach two of those days, if that). I'm so excited! Things are finally wrapping up. Aside from relishing in the excitement ... read more

Okay. Now that all my blathering about classes is out of the way (sort of), I can tell you all about the wonders of KCulture which I've experienced here. I suppose I should start with coffee. If any of you at home had hope coming to Korea would stop me from drinking coffee and coffee beverages-- THINK AGAIN. Coffee shops are MADD prevalent around here. And not only that, but many of them are cheaper and more freshly made than at home. Stop right there. Are you thinking, "Woah, woah, woah! Did this girl seriously just diss her old M-town Starbucks hang-out where she spent upwards of 5 hours a day in the month before leaving for Korea?" The answer: not quite. But what I am trying to say is that coffee is effing everywhere. You ... read more

Happy Holidays from Lauren and Kagan!!! In the last month and a half we stuffed our faces full of mashed potatoes, Kagan's team won the frisbee championships, their were eight crazy nights of Chanukah, three different Secret Santas (which Lauren of course failed to keep secret) and a Jewish Santa Claus, to top it all off, visited our school. We may have been far from home for this season of family gatherings but we did not fail to eat until painfully full, surround ourselves with merry people and get in a bit of the holiday spirit. On Thanksgiving we hosted a potluck dinner. We loosened our belts and stuffed ourselves full of an unconventional Thanksgiving dinner. There might not have been any turkey or stuffing, but their were plenty of mashed potatoes, gravy, pumpkin pie (to ... read more

A week ago, I took an excursion to understand "a Korean Confucianism". I visited a confucianism academy where is located in Dodong village, Dae-gu city. when I visited there, some Confucians, the old, have a conference about a worship of their ancestor who was a great Confucian in Jocheon dynasty(朝鮮王朝). He was expelled and finally had a death to poison by his king(King, Younsangoon), due to protesting against his unreasonable king. He had a pure loyalty to his king and his country. but his king is not enough clever to understood his pure loyalty to his king. this confucianism academy was built for worship and memorial for him. The king didn't have a concern how to rule his country rightly but did have a concern how to enjoy his life with many his concubines and ... read more