A couple of weeks ago my school went on a field trip to a place called the "21st Century Farm." I don't know why they decided to called it that (a little strange sounding to Mr. Park and I) but it was a fun time nonetheless. We did a few different activities, had a really great lunch (well, the teachers did :) and then picked some pears from an orchard. The first activity we did was feed some goats and cows. The petting zoo scene is always a winner for elementary school kids, so that was nice.
Here I am in front of the park's main sign. I guess sometimes rabbits ride whales? haha
Here is a picture of the goat feeding area.
Snack time for the goats.
Here are more students and a cow.
Next we went to this little fish farm area where a unique (and apparently delicious) fish/eel creature gets bread in mass quantity. Here you can pick up these little guys, and try to hold on to them. The students were all about reaching into these shallow pools to pick them up. Mr. Park and I did as well, a little reluctantly though since they were quite slimy, and there was not anywhere to wash our hands.
Here's the pool with students grabbing fishies.
Mr. Park and a student.
A boy holding 2 of these little guys.
Next we walked through a rice field, and up to an area where they had tractor rides. This one was a lot of fun for me, and the kids really enjoyed it too.
Here is a video of it.
Next we had our lunch. The students had the lunches that they packed, and the staff at 21st Century Farm looked after them. The teachers usually have a picnic with kimbap and fruit for lunch on field trips, but on this trip we had a full restaurant style meal. The people that main and operate this park know that if you keep the teachers happy, there is a better chance that our school will return here next year. It still costed money (the school covered it, so free to me), but it was much better than a traditional picnic style lunch. We had a kind of seafood gumbo and many common side dishes. After lunch we went to the pear orchard.
This is one of my favorite students, Min-Ho, in the pear orchard. He used to be a pretty disruptive student, but after taking him aside and using positive reinforcement (as opposed to just yelling at him, which seemed to be the old approach) he has turned into one of my best behaved students!
Here I am in the Pear orchard. We all picked one, and were given a second one to take with us.
That was a nice little break in my week, and a fun experience. We finished around 1:30 or 2:00, then made it back to school around 3:00. Mr. Park and I still had our after school class, but it was a nice treat of a day.
My Father Mike Manary made it to Korea after 21 hours in transit, and had what we both consider to be one of the best weeks ever! I packed our tentative schedule full (with a little room for error.. which was sometimes needed), and we had an amazing time. The room for error in the schedule was in the form of several optional events, along with the possibility to end things earlier than I normally would. There were a couple things we couldn't get to (especially in Seoul), but Dad really hung tough for a couple nights out with us young guys (who were on a vacation)!
I went to Busan's Gimhe Int'Nat Airport on Saturday night (9/29) to meet the Padre around 8:30, and watched him come through the gates a little closer to 9:30. I know I used this photo in the last post, but it deserves to be in this one too.
This was such a cool moment for me.
We got his currency exchanged and discussed what the rest of the evening would look like. We could have come straight back to my apartment in Ulsan, or we could drop his luggage in a motel and go watch my friend Yusef's Jazz band play. My Dad loves Jazz, so I was pretty sure I could talk him into going, and I did ;) We had a little trouble finding the place (Busan isn't exactly small, OR my city), but we beat the band there after they changed venues (and I knew where the new one was located). After all of that travel my Dad made it until the music stopped at 1:30, and a little longer after that before we headed back to the motel.
Here we are at the Jazz concert (@ 'Ole 55's in Busan). While there my band booked our first gig outside of Ulsan; set to play there on November 10th.
The next day we slept in, and then went out to find some Traditional Korean cuisine. A lot of the BBQ restaurants (which was my original recommendation) are closed around lunch time, so we went to a seafood restaurant. I thought it would be an interesting soup/gumbo dish with oysters, octopus and other exotic (and delicious) seafood.. turns out I took him to a RAW FISH restaurant for his first taste of Korea. Oops. It was still pretty good though, and the only real struggle was trying to eat with chopsticks, haha. I forgot that I came to Korea already knowing how to use chopsticks (from eating at Mongolian BBQ a lot back in high school), so that is a common struggle for newbies to Asia.
Here is our delicious raw fish meal. If you know how to use chopsticks.. then you'll recognize how off he was on day 1. (haha)
Next we made our way back to the train station via subway, and ended up sharing a train with Keenan (from the band) and our great friend Rena (who sadly just left). We played musical chairs and ended up sitting across from them for the hour trip up to Ulsan. I think one of the best parts of this trip for my Dad was getting to really meet and talk to my good friends. The majority of people that I have met here (as English teachers anyways) have been so wonderful. We are very kind and respectful with each other, and as Dad pointed out, we have each other's backs. I think he can now understand just how hard it is for me to leave this kind of environment after meeting the awesome people that are always around me. Keenan is definitely one of my best friends, and this was a nice opportunity to talk about whatever. Once we got back to my apartment we had about 2 hours to relax, and then we had a dinner party to attend for the holiday of Chusok. As I mentioned before, I left some room for error in our schedule, and this was a day in which that was very necessary. We had a number of very optional things to do on this Sunday morning/afternoon before the dinner party. We didn't do a single one of them. I didn't know if we would stay in Busan or not, and I didn't know that we would arrive back at my apartment around 5 PM! In any case, it was all fine, and we took a taxi to this party around 7 o'clock. The party was hosted by some new, but very good friends of mine, Robert and Young. They are a married couple that have been living in New York City for some time. Robert is from England, Young is from Korea, but they both have lived in the US for years. Robert is in my Korean language class, and Young is in the beginner level course (she immigrated to the States when she was relatively young.. no punn intended). This was my second time over to their apartment for a meal, and it was a really nice time. Again my Father really enjoyed meeting people that I see regularly, and this time from a slightly different perspective since they are much closer to his age. Part of what is so interesting about the Korean culture is the whole hierarchical, Confucianism thing. Hearing stories from a 24 year old English teacher living in Korea are very different than the stories you hear from a 50 year old Engineer. Out of all the people we visited with during my trip, Robert ranks as one of the 2 most interesting guys to talk to according to the Padre, and that is part of the reason. (Also Robert is just a really nice, intelligent and fun loving guy. Cheers Robert!)
Mike, Ryan, Robert.
We didn't stay out at Robert and Young (who is also super nice and funny)'s place too late because the next day we had a trip to Seoul. I purchased the bus tickets the week before, and they were for 8:50 Monday morning. We would have taken the speed train (AKA the KTX) but it was already sold out when I purchased the tickets. The bus takes 5 hours, and the KTX only takes about 2 1/2 hours, which is what we took back to Ulsan on Tuesday. When you go to Seoul, you should have a whole week to do the city any sort of justice, but we gave ourselves just over a day. I think it was still worth it, but it would have been cooler if we had had more time. We decided on the bus ride to Seoul that we would have the following (tentative) itinerary:
MONDAY:
2:00 PM >Arrive
2:30 PM > Check into hostel/guest house
3:00 PM > Go visit Gyeongbok Palace
5:00 PM > Meet Alex (from the band) and his girlfriend Ellen. Also meet my friends Justin and Charlie.
> Visit Seoul Tower
7:00 PM > Have dinner at a Mexican Restaurant
9:00 PM > ???
TUESDAY:
11:00 AM > Visit the Korean War Museum
2:00 PM > Visit Dongdae Mun Market (big street market)
4:20 PM > KTX back to Ulsan
Well almost everything on that schedule fell through... but we still had a blast! We arrived on time, got some lunch at Lotteria (the Korean version of McDonald's), and made it to the guest house by 3:30. We figured there was not enough time to see the palace, which wasn't a huge deal to us. We were set to meet my friends at five, but got a little turned around at Seoul Station while transferring subway lines, so we were about 10 minutes late, as was everyone else. (This transfer is very confusing. I actually got VERY turned around doing a similar transfer my first time in Seoul by myself, for Global Gathering last year.) We basically made it to Seoul Tower in good time.. but there was a 2 to 3 hour wait for the cable car that takes you to it atop a mountain. It did not take us very long to decide that none of us wanted to stand in that line. Too bad.
Relaxing in our hostel before meeting everyone.
Next we went to the Mexican restaurant that Alex and Ellen were keen on going to, and had some interesting "Koreanized" Mexican food. That was great, and we had to decide what to do with the rest of the night. We were in Itaewon, which is a huge spot for Westerners to go and get rowdy, so we decided to have one drink out there. Alex and Ellen had a train back to Ulsan around 10 PM, so they were parting ways after that. Charlie lives near Gangnam, which has recently been made famous by the song "Gangnam Style," by Psy (see video below.. I can't imagine that you haven't seen it by now though). It is basically the Beverly Hills of Korea, but not just for residence, it is also a very prominent business district.
This may be the most famous man in the world right now. Just remember: "Dress classy, and dance cheesy."
This is a little glimpse of us.. doing the awesome/ridiculous Gangnam Style dance.. in Gangnam. So proud. (As you can see Charlie on the left is.. less than enthused. Justin and I were turning heads with our enthusiasm)
After Alex and Connie took off we headed there, and went to a few different places for drinks. What was so great about this night is the conversations we had about Korean culture. Justin and I came to Korea at the same time (he is the one playing guitar and dancing in my orientation talent show video), but Charlie has a much greater wealth of knowledge in regards to Korea. He is from the UK, and he has been coming to Korea studying the language for 5 years off and on. We had a variety of Korean foods, drinks, and chopstick practice to accompany the great conversations. Charlie ranks as the 1st (or 2nd, to Robert) most interesting people my Dad met on this trip. That is because of his extensive knowledge and insight on Korea and its culture. We ended the night by going to the Norebang (private singing room), and we had a blast. Dad and I sang a number of Classic Rock tunes, from CCR to the Rolling Stones, to Bob Segar. It was great!
That night ran a little later than we anticipated, so we got a slightly later start than we 'planned.' The only real regret I have about the stop in Seoul is that we didn't mingle enough at the hostel. Some of my greatest memories in Korea so far have stemmed from the youth hostels, and the people I meet in them. Since my Father has backpacked in the US and in Europe (way back when), I really thought staying in a hostel would be a great way to bring him back to his past experiences. Unfortunately all we did was drop our stuff off, sleep, shower and leave. I met a Chinese girl and a Swedish guy whilst my Dad was getting cleaned up Tuesday morning, but it was very brief. We did make it to the Korean War Museum (which I have been to before), however when we arrived there around 1:30 PM, it was closed. CLOSED! Agghhh. It's a good thing we had a great evening with Justin and Charlie (and Alex and Ellen too), because the Seoul Tower thing didn't work out, and now this happened. There were some cool planes, helicopters and boats outside that we checked out, but it was fairly lame that it was closed.
We clearly still enjoyed ourselves though :)
We made it to Seoul Station around 3:30, and had a 4:20 KTX train to catch. Since we had a little time we went to find a small market (our late start made Dongdae Mun Market impossible), but we came up short. We saw a free little art exhibition though, and it was very interesting. We spent about 20 minutes there, and then went back to board our train. The trip back was nice, faster than the bus, and smooth. I guess there is a new KTX train that is almost ready for use that will only take 1 1/2 hours to make the Ulsan/Seoul journey. A plane takes about an hour, so that is movin!'
In the art exhibition. I really want to build a table/art piece like this some day!
Here is a little video on the KTX.
We arrived back in Ulsan and were set for a very rockin' night at the Royal Anchor, where 'Stache Potatoes was playing a show just for my Dad's visit. We stopped back at my apartment and relaxed for an hour or two, then went for dinner at a Korean BBQ (finally!). We got some pork BBQ (my favorite), and finally got my Father some kimchi. That is a tough food for Westerners to get into, as it is spicy, garlicky, and strong in flavor, along with a slightly weird texture. He 'tried' it, which is all you can really ask for. Anyways the meal as a whole was very good, and he gave a big thumbs up for that one.
They give you big pieces of meat, tongs and scissors. You can throw garlic, onions and kimchi on with the meat too if you like. Also notice my t-shirt. My Mom was so happy that she found this shirt displaying all the different styles of mustaches. Of course I had to wear it for the concert!
Next we went to the Royal Anchor, where we had very successful concert for Pops. Some of our friends from the other band Karaoke Dokey played for about 45 minutes, then we played for a little bit over an hour. It was such great fun, and seeing my Dad really get into the songs we were playing (particularly our last song that encourages the entire crowd to dance and chant "Bah, bah, bah, da dah dah da, da da dah da!"), was one of my proudest moments as a band member. It was AWESOME.
The next day we met my co-teacher, Mr. Park, at 10:30 AM to go visit some temples and have a nice traditional dinner. We rode my scooter out to Mr. Park's neighborhood which is on the other side of town, and that was just one more cool experience that Dad was able to have. We stopped by Mr. Park's parents' house for a few moments, then we went out to visit Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa, which are recognized by Unesco as World Heritage sites (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/736)! I've been to a couple of those now (1 in Jeju Island), so I need to start keeping track of which ones I have visited. First we saw some amazing pagodas and statues at Bulguksa.
Then we went to see the beautiful temple at Seokgulam, which is in a man made cave at the top of the mountain. It was really nice and had a gorgeous view of the East Sea. Truly amazing! We bought some nice souvenirs and had a great picnic there.
We weren't done yet, and headed over to Gyeongju Historic Area which is also a Unesco World Heritage site (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/976). Here there were several interesting things, but most notably were a famous ancient bell and a museum. The bell has a myth, legend or story behind it, about a divine experience of a monk, who was compelled to offer a sacrifice to Buddha. According to the story, this monk actually forged this bell with a young girl, as his sacrifice. It sounds quite extreme (well.. read many other historical stories and you'll find similar or worse), but now when the bell is rung, it makes a tone that cannot be duplicated. It is a mystery, that makes this a famous site in the world.
The Museum was really cool too. It wasn't the largest I've ever visited, but it had some really neat stuff that I'd never seen before. There were many unique cultural art works inside, as well as several crowns of former kings and queens of the Korean Peninsula. As someone who studied history, I feel like there is an infinite amount of material to learn, and I always appreciate a good museum. I have only had the opportunity to visit museums in America (and a few here in Korea) so far, so seeing some evidence of Royalty (and..feudalism?) was quite exciting for me.
Now this is the evening that my band and I had an interview scheduled for 8 PM. We were doing pretty good on time, but we still had dinner in our plans, so we had to mind the time. After the museum we went to a famous tofu soup restaurant that was nearby. (In Korea there are many 'famous' restaurants, that basically serve the same food as many similar restaurants. Somebody, however, decides which ones will be famous, so all of the celebrities that pass that area eat there, and sign a framed piece of paper on the wall.) For that reason we waited about 30 minutes for our table, and had a great meal. My Dad was a real trooper through this whole trip, but some meals (this one in particular) were just not his style. We still had a nice meal nonetheless, and were off when we realized that it was 7 PM, and that I might be late for my interview.
I think Dad's the only one looking real "photogenic" in this one, but you can see the meal that we had here.
We decided to leave my scooter in Mugeodong where Mr. Park lives, so that we could just get dropped off right in Downtown where we were meeting for the interview. I linked the resulting article in the last post, so it is there if you would like to read it. We arrived only 5 minutes late, and had a very interesting, and fun interview for about an hour. I think it was just as cool for me as it was for my Dad, being my first 'real' interview. Not to mention how much fun the guys and I had with it!
Here I am with Deirdre Madden who contacted us about doing this interview.
Here are the fellas trying to think of something to say. haha
After the interview Dad and I rode a sardine packed bus (what I call it, for obvious reasons) back to my apartment. We finally got a relaxing night in, which was not only needed but also very appropriate since we both had school in the morning. There was another party this evening, but we wisely declined on that one. We watched Animal House (an absolute classic), and I gladly surrendered my bed to the Padre.
Thursday was the day that Dad finally got to see my school, and what it is that I actually came to Asia to do; teaching. Unfortunately the only day that he could come was the day that I had 6th graders. Now, I think that most of my students really enjoy English, and are legitimately excited for my class. Not the 6th graders. They are at the point in their lives where they stop seeking the teacher's (i.e. MY) approval, and start to value their peer's approval much much more. I don't mind that really because I do understand it, and I enjoy the challenge. Even though the other grades would be much more fun to watch, this did allow my Father to see a side of me that he has never seen before, a disciplinarian. He was a bit surprised by this, and told me after class, "don't be like this because I'm here." I reassured him that his presence had nothing at all to do with my strictness. These students are at a point where they do not yet know their boundaries. I take most of their insubordination as disrespect, however I recognize that most of them are not trying to be disrespectful, they're just trying to fit in. I can actually tell that some of them really want me to make a lesson interesting enough that they can participate without losing face. Because of this I am quite strict with them, and the Padre came at just a good enough time to see how well he rubbed off on me ;)
Mr. Park told us to finish the 4th period about 10 minutes early, and come back to his room so we could go eat with the principle. When we arrived at the classroom he was still teaching the 5th graders. When he dismissed the class they swarmed my Dad, haha.
The last event of this trip was my good friend Connie's birthday/potluck party in which her mother Diana was in town for! I prepared some of my 'famous' buttered ramen noodles with sauteed veggies and shrimp, some of my Grama Ehrman's cookies, and some of Mr. Park's pears. We had a great time with about 20 others in Connie's tiny studio apartment. It was a nice evening with great company for my Father's last night in Korea. We got back relatively early since I had to teach in the morning, and he had a flight to catch in Busan at 2.
This is Father and I with a good friend of mine Chrissy. She is actually from Concord! When she visited home last December she was working at Spats and ended up meeting my Aunt Peggy and Grama Manary. What a small world!
Here is my Dad, Barry, Alex and Ellen at Connie's party.
This was by far my longest post, and for good reason. It hardly tells the story of this week, because there were so many parts where you 'just had to be there' to understand. I'm hoping I have another visitor or two before I'm done living in Korea, but it will be hard to beat this. We set the bar pretty high. Thanks again Dad for coming, love ya!
I am having the most intense experience right now, and I am loving every minute of it! I am struggling to keep up with everything, as far as the blog goes, so bear with me. I have 5 or 6 really good topics to share, but hardly have the time to do them justice just yet. This is a fairly broad update, which will have several follow up posts to give more details on everything.
The most significant post that will be coming soon is "Dad Came to Korea!" As I reported he would, my Father, Mike Manary, came to see the Republic of Korea (ROK) for about 1 week. We did so much between the Saturday night he arrived and the Friday afternoon that he left. We spent a night in Busan, a day and a half in Seoul, and the rest of our time in Ulsan. We saw museums, temples, concerts (including my band's performance), friends, parties, Korean food, Western food.. you name it! I am so impressed that he kept up with me for this week, despite the jet lag/time change, and the fact that I was completely drained by Friday (and I have A LOT of energy). There are many stories, pictures and videos to come :)
I killed my whole phone battery, standing ready to take this photo for 40 minutes, haha. Welcome Father!
The next most significant thing is the band. 'Stache Potatoes has suddenly grabbed the attention of Ulsan! We have a show almost every Friday and Saturday during this month of October, we are getting a bit of money and/or compensation in other forms for our shows, we are having to turn down events because we are so booked, AND we just had an amazing article done on us by a popular publication in town, Ulsan Online. We are blown away by this success, and hope to ride the momentum into other cities around Korea (we have booked 1 show in Busan, and are looking to Daegu next). There will be a much more thorough update on the band coming soon, but for now you can check out the article yourself:
This was our most recent gig, and our first acoustic one ever. It went well, but our next acoustic set is this Saturday, and we need at least one amp and a microphone.. working on it!
The rest of my life/schedule is a wind whirl of practicing Taekwondo, studying Korean (which I am starting to get pretty good at), keeping up with an exciting social life (seeing old friends off, welcoming new ones, and having celebrations of all kinds), and continuing to be a full time teacher (with more and more responsibilities and assignments). Now I don't want to scare anyone away from taking a job like this, I asked for the craziness that is going on in my planner, but it is intense. I am excited for some down time, but I don't know when that will come.. I am also adjusting to feeling like a local celebrity, which.. has it's ups and downs.. but more than anything is CRAZY! Life is exciting right now, and I'm just running with it. I will do my best to share my experiences as they come, but a few might be left unreported.
This is my Korean language teacher, Eunji! She is so great, so we threw her a really nice surprise party in our classroom. We also sang happy birthday for her in Korean, while I played the guitar. (There are 2 Ryans in the class now, so I am "Rockin' Ryan." Had to live up to that :)
An extra teaching job I picked up on a Saturday morning. It pays pretty nice and is really fun! There are many different types of jobs you can do on Saturdays, and this is one of my favorites at the craft hall at Ulsan Grand Park. (Also note the 'Playboy Bunny' logo on this girls shirt. Nobody knows what it means, and it is everywhere!)
Also before I forget, I have purchased a scooter! It has been SO nice getting around on this bad boy. Discussing this and about the driving culture is a-whole-nother post to look forward to as well. Stay tuned!
Taekwondo is still a big part of my weekly routine, and I'm so glad that I am still doing it. My friend Keenan and I usually go at the same time, but with our increasingly busy schedules (he goes to another gym, I have Korean class and other obligations) we sometimes go at separate times. Our normal time is 9 PM on Mondays, Wednesdays and/or Fridays. My new (intermediate level) Korean language class is on Fridays from 7-9 PM, and I need a little more flexibility in my schedule (for teachers dinners, errands, etc.). Because of this I found out that I can go at 7:30 PM on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which is before band practice and open mic respectively.
Here are several of my 3rd and 4th graders.
The 7:30 time slot has a lot of my current 5th graders,several younger students, and several that are too young to my students yet. This is fun and interesting, but I also really enjoy going with Keenan and the middle school students too, so I am getting to do both at my convenience.
A couple 5th graders ready for battle!
Here are a couple of very young students, and they are just cute as heck.
I am having a bit of a break from TKD though after last night (I went Monday/Wednesday this week), because next week the studio is closed Monday-Wednesday for the Chuseok holiday. My Dad will be in town (he arrives Saturday!!), and we will be too busy Thursday/Friday that week. Master Lee was nice enough to send a couple of cool little statues (of a young TKD student) home with me as gifts to my parents. Because of that my parents are reciprocating and we will stop by on Thursday for that deal, but then we have dinner plans, and other options (Open Mic or the World Music Festival), so I won't be training next week.
3rd graders; "Tom" at the forefront.
I am getting excited for my next step in the TKD world, which will be a sparring competition/tournament. I don't have a lot of information on it, or an exact date yet, but I will probably be competing within the next month or two. Master Lee has had a lot more sparring sessions since I have achieved my black belt, so I know he is preparing me for the real deal. I don't feel like I've gotten A LOT of training for sparring in particular, but now that I have mastered most of the kicks, and since I have a background in wrestling, I feel pretty confident out there.
Here are some 5th graders sparring. I sparred with a few of them, but it is much better practice for me with the middle schoolers. These students are still a little to young for me to be going 100% against them (though I guess it does feel good to win every time, lol)
As my friend Penelope so elegantly put it, I am "dripping with padded children," hahaha
I have been having many interesting discussions with my co-teacher and friends about the recent events occurring in Eastern Asia. There is tension between South Korea and Japan over Dokdo Island (http://www.dokdo-takeshima.com/), there is tension between Japan and Russia regarding the island of Sakhalin (http://www.qsl.net/ah6hy/occupied.html), and there is tension between Japan and China over the Senkaku (or Diaoyu) Islands (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senkaku_Islands). I see a little bit of a theme here...
Now the Japanese-Russian conflict seems to be much less of an issue right now. The conflict over Dokdo Island (Korea-Japan) is not very explosive at this time, though I have seen several Koreans get very worked up discussing this one. The one conflict that has me a little nervous right now is the one between China and Japan. Not only do they have tension over this island business, but this week is also the 81st anniversary of Japan's invasion, and eventual occupation, of China.
This link you MUST CHECK OUT. It shows many photos of the very intense Anti-Japanese Protests in China : http://imgur.com/a/Y7oIp
Now what's so difficult for me right now is deciding what is credible information (other than photos like seen in the link above). There are buried facts and stories, along with tremendous bias in regards to these relations. I am lucky to have a well informed (and ideologically aligned) co-teacher, that discusses these current events, along with the historical backgrounds behind them all. But I can be certain that I'd be hearing a slightly (or completely) different version of each story if I was in Japan or China right now. I like being informed about these things, but I need to find the time to do some research of my own to have some perspective on the things I am learning.
I have read through a few articles now, and some time has passed (2 days since I wrote the above portion of this post). I'm pretty sure things are cooling down, however there has been quite a bit of "saber rattling" as I've heard it called. Both sides are shaking their fists at each other, but it is unlikely that a real conflict will come about. Here is a brief article to help explain the relations as they are right now if you are interested in this topic:
There is also a bit of tension between North and South Korea right now, but pretty minor stuff. I guess there were a couple of recent presidents here in South Korea that had helped improve relations between the two nations. The Korean people still identify as one people, and most would like to see the two joined again some day. There are families that had been split apart, and some citizens living in North Korea are in 3rd world conditions and starving. According to my co-teacher, when relations were improving a few things happened. Families were allowed to visit each other, South Koreans (and other foreign nations) were beginning to invest in factories in North Korea, and the South Korean government gave the citizens up north food and monetary aid (this had been happening for long time actually). The current president that is finishing his term has done a lot to ruin this improving relationship. He cut off the aid, calling North Korea their enemy, and the factories were abandoned. Some small mishaps between the two Koreas have caused a heightened tension, and foreign nations are afraid to invest in North Korea any more. I don't think anything serious will happen between the two nations, but it is too bad that the "sunshine diplomacy" has come to an end.
There is quite a lot happening over here, but luckily I still feel safe in my little industrial city of Ulsan. Another interesting (crazy) thing that happened over here is a couple of typhoons have come across the Koreas. One came when I was back home in Ohio, and another came last week. Typhoons are basically hurricanes, and can cause a lot of damage. Last Monday the students stayed home, and many of my friends that are teachers either stayed home or went home early. I still had to come in to school, but it was really windy and rainy. I am happy to say there was not a lot of damage in Ulsan (other than a tree or two down), but it was a little intense considering Typhoon Sanba was my first typhoon experience!
As you can see, it started slowing down as it got over land.
This post was also written during my trip back to Korea. Unfortunately I didn't get to take too many pictures of my awesome trip home, but my friends and family took a few, so I"ll share those :)
My trip started quite interestingly when I was informed that my flight itinerary had changed. I checked my email and learned that my flight departing from Busan was no longer at 7:20 A.M., but at 11:05 A.M. Well that's good, but then I noticed that my flight time and layovers no longer totaled a lapsed time of 24 hours, but 32 hours, 17 minutes.. woah! Not only does this inconvenience me (with 3 five hour layovers), but it inconvenienced my parents, since they were the ones picking me up from Cleveland Hopkins Airport. Instead of arriving at 6:24 P.M. on Saturday August 25th, I arrived at 6:22 A.M. on Sunday morning. Bummer.
So the flight situation was a 'little' annoying, but I made do and arrived in Cleveland airport right on time Sunday morning. My flights had been smooth and relatively uneventful (a very good thing when it comes to flying). I actually met a really cool Mexican guy that sat next to me on my flight from Incheon (Seoul) to San Francisco. He was traveling for the company that he works for. His job has something to do with programming the big cranes that lift the big shipping containers that you see on ships and trains. It was really interesting talking with him about his 1 week experience in Korea, and about my 1 year experience there. He said that the quality of work and overall work ethic that he witnessed was absolutely amazing in Korea. On the other hand China (which I'm currently flying to for a brief layover) he said was lacking in both of those qualities. That was very interesting to me since China is where we see so many things "made in." I can't jump to conclusions just based on one man's experience there, but it sure makes me think. Maybe they (as a nation) are focusing too much on quantity, and not enough on quality. That is a significant factor for Americans, and for the world in general as we push further into the 21st century.
(photo from internet)
So I arrived, and as many predicted, my mom had herself a good cry. It was really a nice moment. Not just to see how much she actually missed me, but also the amazingness of getting to see her and my dad (the photographer) after a year overseas.
"I love you too, Mom."
After we retrieved my checked suitcase we went to Bob Evans, and there was lots to talk about. The interesting things from that meal were talking to the waitress (reverse culture shock!), eating an American breakfast (sausage biscuits and gravy), and the older woman 1 table over. Apparently she was enjoying our conversation quite a bit! I didn't notice until we got up to go and my mom said "bye, have a nice day." I was like "...did you know her?" Mom told me that she had been smiling and nodding to her since shoe couldn't help over hear my stories of travel throughout the meal. I thought that was so cool, and I soon found out that EVERYONE is interested as soon as they hear me say "yeah, I lived in Korea for a year." I got to talk about my travels quite a bit on this trip (which I was happy to do).
Here is a great picture of my Mom, Dad and I in our backyard.
When I first got home I remembered all of the little (and big) things that I had left behind in my old bedroom. I guess I was expecting to come back to an empty room for some reason, but there were all kinds of memories coming back to me when I walked in.
The first few days were really nice because I spent them (almost exclusively) with my parents and other family members. We had some real quality time talking, joking, and just having fun around each other. I was able to see both my grandma Jean Manary and grandma Lois Ehrman that first Sunday back, and a few more times each after that. Monday my Grama Manary and my Uncle Brian treated me out to lunch. Apparently 3-4 places in Painesville are closed for lunch on Mondays, so we finally found one open; a great place called Silvestro's. We had a very nice meal (I believe I had a monster sized burger and ate every last bit). THEN grama told me that she wants to come visit me in Korea! It isn't all set and planned yet, but it looks like she will probably come for a visit in the Spring time :D
This is a picture of my Dad and Grama Manary. It is actually of our Labor Day party a week later.
Here is Uncle Bryan (from the next week as well). I showed some of these pictures to my students when I got back, and they all LOVED this one, haha
That evening I went out with my dad and his friends. That usually consists of going to a sports bar to eat wings and talk sports or politics, so that was nice. I definitely was still in an adjusting phase though, on how Americans discuss sports and politics.. slightly more direct than in Korea.
Tuesday my parents both took off work so that we could spend the day together. I made some bomblets (bomb-omelets) for my dad and I, and got to be a little bit lazy. Then we went to the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, which was just amazing. I have been meaning to go for about a decade, and since I waited until now to go made it all the better (because I have more of an appreciation for music now than ever before). It was really just so cool. We spent a lot of time on the first floor checking out the history of Blues, Rock 'N Roll, etc. Also on this floor (the biggest floor because the building is in the shape of a pyramid) were countless rock 'artifacts,' from Jimi Hendrex's clothing and guitars, to Elvis Presley's old car. It was amazing, and I could spend days in there reading about each item they have.
We went through the upper floors a bit quicker because the museum was going to close at 6, and we wanted to make it to the top (featured) exhibit for the Grateful Dead. The Dead exhibit was definitely cool, but it was a bit smaller than I expected. Either way I learned a ton, and had a great time. We actually spent a good amount of time in the gift shop before we left (it was open until 7), and that was just as cool as the museum! I did get a few small things as souvenirs, some guitar pics, an awesome t-shirt and a great book called: "Guitar, the Celebration of Pure Mojo," by David Schiller. I'm reading it on my journey back to S.K., and it talks all about the history of guitar, different kinds of guitars, and a few other interesting topics (haven't gotten that far yet).
Coventry. (Photo from internet.)
After that we went to a street called Coventry. Coventry is a really cool place to be, because they have all kinds of restaurants and shops and whatnot. There are a lot of Asian cuisine restaurants there (Japanese, Thai, Mongolian to name a few), but I wanted American food, haha. So we went to a kind of sports bar and grille that was there called Panini's. That was great, but we skipped the stores and headed back to Painesville. We had to stop by our house, pick up my grama Ehrman, then head straight out to Hooley House where I used to go for open mic last summer. I got there and saw so many old friends and had a great time. My mom actually took a video of a song I did that I will share. I started with an original song that I wrote called "Da Riva," and people seemed to like that (you can hear my mom referring to it at the beginning of the video. The 2nd song was the one in the video, and it was an original written by Tom from the band. I actually posted the band version a while back, and this is my tribute version since Tom has left Korea and is heading to Spain.
The third song I did was a cover of Dan Gable's "Anna Is A Stool Pigeon" using a harmonica. I learned this for 'Stache Potatoes, but I had never sang it before. Because of that I pretty much expected to forget the words, and I did, haha. Only the 2nd verse, but the rest of it went well. It was a great time, and then I got to watch my friends play. My parents and grama left after I performed, but I hung around and caught a ride home with my buddy Nick Zuber (who hosts open mic, and is a bit of a local celebrity) because he lives right around the corner from my parents in Paineville. Nick is a great musician, and just one of the nicest guys I know.
The next day, Wednesday, I went to Cedar Point with my brother and some friends. That was so cool because Cedar Point, if you don't know (http://www.cedarpoint.com/) is one of the top amusement parks in the world. It was so much fun, and it worked out because I got a ride out to my college town of Toledo from there. A good buddy of mine Nick Streeter came out with his friend Ryan, and I went back to Toledo with them around 8-9 O' clock. We went out for a little bit, then a friend of Nick's offered us a place to stay which was perfect (Nick lives in Michigan, and his friend lives on UT's campus). Trips like this are really more affordable/doable if you can "couch surf," as opposed to getting a hotel every night.
The next day Nick did me another great favor by taking me about 30 minutes down I-75 to Bowling Green. He dropped me off at my good friend Ashley Gore's house (Ashley # 2), who lives down there with her boyfriend. She was my neighbor in college, and we became really great friends. One of the things we always did was get a $5.00 Hot and Ready pizza from Little Cesars, accompanied of course by ranch and Frank's Red Hot sauce. I actually introduced her to Frank's, so it has become tradition. We enjoyed that, hung out catching up, and I played her boyfriend's guitar a bit. Then my other really good Ashley friend (Ashley Mielcarek/Ashley # 3) came over and hung out with us as well. Ashley # 3 was also one of my better friends from college; actually such good friends that we call each other "bestie," yes still to this day.
So we all hung out and caught up, then we went to Ashley #3's friend Tabitha's house for a bit. Her and her boyfriend were really cool to talk to, and then we went to the main event. This club called the "Clazel" hosts a Dubstep/Drum & Bass event called Konkrete Jungle, and this was its 2 year anniversary. It was pretty awesome, and we danced a ton. By 1 PM (relatively early for this event) I was really exhausted , so Ashley # 3 took me to Ashley # 2's house (she'd left around 12 PM) where I showered up and had a spare bed to sleep in. So far so good!
The next day we walked (or ran) her dog while having a bike ride. Then she gave me a ride back up to Toledo to my good friend Kate Rajski's house. (I did actually have guy friends in college, but it seems they all moved away! haha) So Kate and I walked around my Alma Mater, the University of Toledo's campus. That was very nostalgic, even though I graduated a mere 16 months ago. Then we went and got some great ice cream at a local mom and pop ice cream stand in the suburb of Slyvania. After that we went to her and her boyfriend's friend's house and hung out a bit. One of the guys I met there was really interesting because he had traveled all over the place with the army. We traded our stories, and I think it was very interesting for both of us. After that we went to a local bar for an event that I had coordinated on Facebook, and had a great time catching up with some really good old friends (and a couple new ones).
Here is our group (minus the photographer Dave) at a local pub called Jo-Jo's. We didn't have a very late night, but definitely had fun catching up with these old (and new) friends! Ashley # 3 is on the left (short hair) and Kate is furthest to the right.
This time I was able to crash on Kate's couch, and then got a ride to the downtown Greyhound bus terminal at 7:30 AM.
A BIG thanks again to Kate, Nick, Nick's friend, and both of the Ashley's for all of the help and hospitality!! I hope that these are the kinds of friends I am making in Korea, so that I can do this kind of traveling in the future, but all over the world! Also a lot of my friends know they always are welcome on my couch.
At this point I was able to get a bus back to Cleveland which took about 2 hours. My brother made it out to pick me up which was great, then we went to Coventry for lunch. We actually went to one of my favorite restaurants: Mongolian BBQ. It's such a cool place, and it's actually where I learned to use chopsticks back in 12th grade! You pick out your meats, vegis and a sauce (you can make your own), and they cook it on a big round grille using sword like utensils. Normally it is quite the show with flipping and tossing things, but we were the only ones getting food prepared at this time, so we chatted with our cook, and he was a real cool guy. He (like almost everyone I talked to in the States) could not get enough of my stories about Korea. (I was happy to tell my stories to everyone during this trip, but I'll admit I was wondering if people would be sick of hearing them by the end!) So we had our food, and then we checked out some of the shops out on Coventry.
We walked into one "head" shop, but didn't spend too much time in there. Next we went to a store called Big Fun, and it was the coolest old toy store I've ever seen! I'd heard of it before, but I'd never gone inside, and it was sweet. I got some great souveneirs and these awesome shades. (think 'Stache Potatoes ;)
Here is me posing with my first guitar, rocking the new shades from Big Fun.
This is Big Fun. Definitely a contender for coolest store, ever. (Photo from internet.)
We hit another cool store with lots of imported things (many from Indonesia), then we left. We thought about going to the Science museum/center, or catching the air show in downtown Cleveland, but we decided to just head back towards home, and hit the beach. We played some catch with an AMERICAN football, and relaxed a bit. Next we went to his girlfriend's house where he does his crazy P90X workouts. We did one of those (actually one from "Insane Asylum"), which was tough, but good.
That was all, so he took me home, and had successfully completed my little backpacking trip for Ohio. Next I was ready for a week in my hometown. The short and sweet version (too late, right?) is I saw a lot of great people from my past, and had a great time. I visited my old co-workers at the City of Painesville Water Distribution Department (hi Sue!), and I got to catch up with them. We also had a great family and friends of the family party on Labor Day. The night before that my friend Mason and his parents had a little get together for me and all of our old friends that would hang there. I did open mic again on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I had little jam sessions with one of my best friends since 7th grade, Justin Yeats. I actually showed him the ropes on guitar a couple years ago, and he has really gotten up to speed, which is awesome. We actually wrote a cool little song together called "Good Mood," which is floating around on my YouTube channel if anyone wants to give it a look/listen.
There were many other little things that happened, definitely too many to mention. Another cool thing is my neighbor Shannon (hey Shannon!) keeps in touch with me via email and the blog, and he lent me his grandfather's acoustic guitar to play while I was home. That was really great, so thanks again Shannon!
All in all I had a great trip, and it was really interesting seeing my adventure as it is from a different perspective. It's too bad that I got re-acclimated with American culture... just in time to go back to Korea, hah.
Also noteworthy: not only is my Father coming to visit (in less than 2 weeks now) and my Grama in the spring, but my good friend Justin might also come next year, my brother wants to come out next summer, and my other friend Julian has shown interest in a visit as well! I think that is so cool that people are willing enough to make that kind of a trip, and I hope they can for the experience.
Finally, on my trip I realized how many people back home are actually tuning into my blog! Thanks to anyone keeping up with this, and I hope you can keep enjoying it! Much love :)
Family photo right before I left. I have the red eyes going, but still a nice picture :)
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