Blogs from Bundang, Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, Asia - page 4

So eventually I had to teach my kids the happiest song in the world (also, my favorite), and in doing so it was only natural to also make them dance around like little Earth, Wind and Fire prodigies. Eat your heart out MJ.... read more

Through the Looking Glass.... My parents will arrive on Korean soil in T minus ten days. A few months ago I was completely unable to wrap my head around this idea...my parents, in THIS context, as part of THIS life. Last year it wouldn't have even been a possibility. And a few years before that I was going to finish my second degree in Calgary and get a job in Alberta...skiing in the winter and imagining hot, exotic places somewhere in Neverneverland, existing silently in a steamy breeze on the ouskirts of reality. And a few years before that, I don't even want to think about it. Oh how cliche it is, but life happens, and never according to plan. Or maybe it is just that plans change, and the more daring we get, the more ... read more

Korea is about the size of the state of Indiana in terms of land area. However, Korea has 7 times as many people living on that area of land as Indiana has (47.5 million to 6 million people). To attempt to put this into perspective, take Indiana and everyone that lives there and then add everybody that lives in the most populated state, California, and dump them in Indiana. Then you'd still have to add another 5 million people, say Colorado, and that should set the scene for the Korea I'm about to discuss. See, when you have so many people living in such a small mass of land, there tends to be some differences. Here's a small one: there are no late games. Have you ever been watching a sports game, say baseball for example, ... read more

My second contract has begun. The first day of classes of the new semester, it rained. Like I have become accustomed to in this country, seasons begin in one day. The earth literally just wakes up one morning and decides its time for a change. The humidity rolled in Friday morning, along with some yellow dust and the smell of moist, fertile earth (quite possibly my favorite smell in the world). Winter is over, Jennifer is done her contract, and I am on my own. I have my own glorious apartment to myself, and although it is an incredibly difficult thing to wake up to an empty room that once harbored a best friend that is now, once again, on a different part of the globe, far far away from me, it is wonderful to wake ... read more

Things I love about Korea - People are accepting, kind, and overly-generous (the other night, when I left the elevator, a 2-yr old girl very graciously and respectfully bowed to me and said good-bye in Korean, a courtesy, of course of which, I returned to the amazement of her parents) - Bread here is squishy soft - Snow is always snowball worthy... always - Currency is about 900 to 1, and that makes me feel rich when I regularly carry tens of thousands around in my wallet - Meals are served while sitting on the floor (chairs are indeed unnecessary) - Floors are heated (and this makes eating on the floor that much cooler... or whatever) - Chopsticks improve fine-motor skills (and this is something everyone should work on) - You never pour your own drink ... read more