Blogs from South Korea, Asia - page 368

Somewhere I heard it described in this way: the desire to fall deeply in love with something is that the world becomes much more manageable. Passion for something, one individual focus for that passion, allows one to center their attention, to keep from spilling all over the place (I think it was the movie "Adaptation"- I'll have to search for the actual quote- certainly its eloquance will exceed my awkward paraphrase). Being a person of passion, this makes absolute sense. This may be the actual reason I have a love affair with being in love- the intensity is focused, cleaner, less erratic, contained. However, travel awakens passions the heart has forgotten or has not yet been introduced to. It splits us open and lets our obsessions come oozing out, chaotically bouncing off foreign terrain and dodging ... read more

Hello! A couple weeks ago we had the year end Kindergarten concert at school. These concerts are taken very seriously with the private Kindergartens. This is a chance for the school staff to affirm that the parents’ decision to pay big bucks for that school was a good one. (These “hagwons”, or private schools, are a dime a dozen around here.) As teachers, we started being told about the importance of this event back in November. We had to pick our class costumes in December (yes, two official costumes changes per class) and confirm songs, skits, and dances. Weekly, and sometimes daily, rehearsals were enforced from the big wigs because it was important that the “kids don’t make mistakes”. Obviously we wanted to do everything possible so that the students had success on the big night, ... read more

So this is going to be a quick entry. We have been negligent with reporting of February activities. The month seemed to go very quickly as we eagerly anticipated the visit of my sister Christine...on scene. She arrived on February 21, the same night that Kristy and I attended an Oasis concert. The concert was ok (they only played for 1.5 hrs, and did little to impress the crowd), but not necessarily worth the $66 American, and the 2 hours it took me to write out detailed directions (with pics) that would guide Christine safely from the Airport in Korea to our humble home. Yes...we are bad hosts and abandoned her. However, she did find the place and was happily enjoying a Korean brand beer when we arrived. So, these photos date back to the end ... read more

ON Saturday I had the pleasure of seeing an old friend of mine Ji hyang. She came to Maryville College to study about 2 years ago and graduating Yonsei on Monday. She took me out to sushi and we talked of new times and old ones. It was so good to see her. We walked around and checked out the night life, then had coffee. I saw her again on Tuesday and she took me to some really nice places. We met up at 2 to go down to a more secluded part of the city SamcheongGak. It was origionally built in 1972 as a banquet place for confreneces between the North and South. It was opened up only a few years ago to the public. We were practically the only ones there, and it ... read more

Je suis en Corée… Jamais je n’aurai pensé un jour me promener en Corée. Il y a seulement 4 ans de ça l’Asie ne m’intéressait tellement pas! Et puis il y a eu le coup de foudre, et j’ai choisi le Japon… maintenant je suis en Corée, où nombreux de mes films préférés de malades mentals ont été créés… Je n’avais tellement aucune idée de ce qu’était la ‘Corée’. Je n’avais comme image que ces vieux films de guerre qui se passaient dans le bois… la guerre entre les deux Corées… alors quand mon oncle m’a dit que certains coins de Séoul faisaient penser à Tokyo… j’ai fait : ‘Pfoua!’ (oui je sais c’est laid mais bon je dis ça de même que voulez-vous). Au courant de la journée, je me suis promenée un peu et je ... read more