Korea Life Blog - Fiona's Fantasy


While I was looking through the drawings of pictures of me, I was a little disturbed to find this scene drawn on the back of Fiona's paper. Apparently I fell out of an airplane. It's not clear whether I've jumped or been pushed out. Either I'm about to land on the mountain and die and be greeted by a friendly English speaking ghost, or I've already died and now that ghost is me. (At least I think that's a ghost.) This reminds me of the gory scene she drew on halloween. Some little girls have little crushes on me. Fiona fantasizes about my horrific death. I think she's still angry about the time I wouldn't give her a talent sticker for erasing the board months ago. Talk about holding a grudge!


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written by shawn matthews   -|link

Korea Life Blog - Flash Puzzle

Check out this cool flash puzzle if you haven't already: Crimsom Room

It'll give you something to do while you're waiting for an update here.


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written by shawn matthews   -|link

Korea Life Blog - Is it Me?


The students had an assignment. Draw three students and compare noses. Some of them chose to draw me. Then the question, "Whose nose is the biggest?" Guess who they picked... I cut out a few examples:


Now I know my nose is a little big by Korean standards, but this is ridiculous. Come on! My nose isn't THAT big! The one on the top left is my favorite. The student forgot to even draw a nose. Can you tell I didn't shave that day? The kids always notice that.


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written by shawn matthews   -|link

Korea Life Blog - Jab Chae Bap



One of my favorite Korean Chinese food dishes is jab chae bap, vegetables and noodles with rice. I eat it several times a month. The current price is 5,000 won ($4.50). Who said American portions are too big. Look at this mountain of food. It's easily enough to feed two (normal sized) people. I usually eat half then the rest later. Like bokum bap (somewhere on this page) it comes with the delicious jam bbong , spicy red seafood soup. Yum!


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written by shawn matthews   -|link

Korea Life Blog - Surprise Visitor


I was horrified today to come home and see this: a goddamn mosquito. I thought I wouldn't see the flying bastards again until June. For a few days the weather breaks and already they're coming back. It's just a matter of time before they can live through the whole winter, causing eternal havoc and aggravation year round. I can't remember in my life ever seeing a mosquito in February. Good thing I still had some F-killer left over.

Before anybody says anything, it took this zoomed shot to make me realize how dirty the wall is behind my range stove. I went ahead and cleaned the wall, then the range, then under the range, then under the counter, then...that was enough for this month. Next month: the bathroom. Gross. I can't imagine what's living under my bed. I'm afraid to even look.


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written by shawn matthews   -|link

Korea Life Blog - Photo Edit

My friend Swiss James over at Lost Seouls works at the airport. He's in charge of security, or something like that. Instead of keeping the airport safe as possible, however, he spends his time using a computer, posting thought provoking messages on ESL forums, updating his eye-popping website (ranked 612 for best Korean Blog), and editing pictures such as the one on this page. He was inspired by this comment:

Cool photo... haven't seen that one before.

Think how spooky that could be if some enterprising graphics tool guru made an animated gif or mpg or flash of it opening it's eyes to reveal slit pupils in serpentine yellow eyes (like http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0767802497.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg) or something worse...
jtb | Email | Homepage | 02.17.04 - 10:35 pm | #

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Blown away with inspiration, Swiss James abandoned what little attention he was paying to security, and took up the challenge:

"I use this freeware program called The Gimp, it's absolutely mint, I could play with it for hours. Oh wait, I already do." - Swiss James

Thanks, James. I love the animation. But I have to wonder about the safety of millions of travellers whose lives may depend on someone playing with his Gimp for hours.


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written by shawn matthews   -|link

Korea Life Blog - Windy (2)

All day long I was in a good mood. One of my coworkers told me that Windy called and said they're going to a skii resort for the day and her children would miss class. Since one of her daughters is in the last class before the adult session, I assumed Windy would also be absent. After that class, I hung around excited by the fact I wouldn't have to hear her non-stop stuttering about every detail of her pitifully mundane existence.

Sure enough, just when I thought I was in the clear, she ran in, panting. "Sorry I'm late! I h-h-hurry! Don't worry. I'm here n-n-now."

She then told me how they finished skiing a little early and drove fast so she could study with me. Masking my inner turmoil, I smiled and said, "Wow, I am lucky to have such a great student." At this she laughed merrily and, covering her mouth, exclaimed, "Rearrry?" Oh no, I'm egging her on. How can she be so gullible?

Today she informed me, out of the blue, her dream is to live in the country in a house made of clay and grow "wide" vegetables, catch fish (she enacted catching a fish with her hand) and make tofu. One of these days I'm going to get an MP3 player with a digital voice record built it, then I'll be able to record some of the bizarre things she says and post them for download, perhaps mixing certain quotes with techno music.

These days she is in heaven because she has my direct attention all to herself. And she has no shortage of things to talk about, usually strange things at that. No matter what we're discussing, she will break in with some random story, not in the least way connected to the topic. Last week one of the male students started talking about weight-lifting. The second he paused, Windy chimed in with, "So, my daughters and I made pogy (fog) today," and proceeded for 15 minutes to tell us all about the dubious science experiment. The next day, he quit.

Whenever she talks, she only looks at me, so she is oblivious to the expressions of disdain on the other's faces. Not that she would notice anyway. A few times I've been unable to keep from sighing and rubbing my face, but she doesn't flinch. Not only that, but she is clueless as to why the other students don't show up, calling them lazy and blaming it on their drinking problems.

I've had several students that could barely speak English at all, and Windy would laugh at their struggling. To show her ability, and in her mind impress me, she would quickly correct them and/or answer for them. Perhaps she thinks she's being helpful, but in fact she's intimidating everyone, making them feel uncomfortable and inadequate. Many of those students quit the same day or week, making off with a quick refund. I've told my boss, but he has no advice and he probably blames their quitting on me.

Oh well, I guess I should be thankful I don't have a class full of adults that can't speak well. Windy has kept that from happening, at least. I just hope a few more students will join. Maybe, at that time, I should have a talk with her. It'll be hard though, because she's very emotional. That's why I haven't said anything yet. My class is literally the highlight of her boring day. What a dilemma!


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written by shawn matthews   -|link

Korea Life Blog - Fat Cat's Offspring

I just spent the last 15 minutes trying unsuccessfully to get a picture of what must be one of Fat Cat's offspring from the past. I mentioned before he's the only non-orange and white cat that hangs around here. Well, I just saw the ugliest cat of my life. The poor things is Orange, White, Black and Gray. It looks like a freak of nature. It's pretty big, so I'm not exactly sure where it came from, but it could very well be Fat Cat's. By the time I got my camera, it was gone. Hopefully it'll come back around sometime.


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written by shawn matthews   -|link

Korea Life Blog - New Pic

I put this new pic on the home page if you didn't notice. If your screen resoultion is different than 1024x768, it will probably look strange. Let me know if this is the case. Also, if you know how I can make it show up proportionally on different resolutions, please tell me how. I added a new blog list as well.


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written by shawn matthews   -|link

Korea Life Blog - Korean Style

At 1:30 the phone rings. It's my coworker. "Shawn, you have to teach first class. Where are you?"

"But my first class is at 2:30."

"No, you have class. First class on Tuesday."

"I'm looking at my schedule right now. It says 2:30."

"I think you make mistake."

"I'm looking right at my schedule. It clearly says 2:30."

"But you have class at 1:40 on Tuesday."

"Well somebody must have changed the schedule. I didn't know."

"Hurry, please."

"I can't come now. I'm busy."

"But you have a class."

"I'm sorry but I didn't know that. Next time tell me if the schedule changes. I'll teach the class tomorrow."

"I see, nae...."

This situation has happened to me many times since I came to Korea. The schedule changes, nobody tells me, then it's my fault I missed the class. Sure enough when I went in, I got the evil eye from the Korean teacher who had to cover it. Of course, nobody would think of blaming the boss for changing the schedule and not telling me. When in doubt, blame the foreigner!


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written by shawn matthews   -|link

Korea Life Blog - A Sad Day for Julie

Saturday afternoon, her phone rang. Immediately Julie began to sob. Her grandfather had been in a car accident the night before. He didn't survive.

He was a traditional Korean man who owned a small farm and a hill. Through tears she told me about the many wonderful times they had together simply talking and eating delicious side dishes. While they were very close before, Julie hadn't spent spent much time with him recently. She feels guilty because she knows he was lonely since his wife had died years before of cancer.

I'm pretty sure everyone can relate to how she feels. I know I can. All over the world, people are basically the same.


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written by shawn matthews   -|link

Korea Life Blog - Hodgepodge

Here are some of the pics I took on Friday night.



After an hour and a half on the bus and train, I finally arrive to Hongdae Station, 20 minutes late. Julie and her friend are waiting, but I take the time to snap this exciting shot.



Well, here's Julie. She's excited about a night of partying. Her friend, Unshil, is not pictured because I forgot to ask her permission. We hung out at US66 where I met Swiss James, Kevin, the infamous Tiger Beer on ESLcafe and his girlfriend.



After some rounds we finally headed out to Hodgepodge. Since it wasn't "clubday", we ended up staying here the rest of the night. It costs 10,000 won to get into a club on a regular weekend. Clubday, the last Friday of each month, you can get into all the clubs for a one time fee of 15,000 won.



You walk inside and there's a throng of Korean girls there dancing. It's a great place to meet one, I would guess.



Tiger Beer and his girlfriend. She's from the Philippines, but she emmigrated to the US. She's visiting from Las Vegas, where she works in a Casino.



Down on the floor some guy is shucking and jiving with some other foreigners. To the right, a guy with evil red eyes watches.



Well, maybe this guy's shuck isn't all that jive after all. The evil virus has passed to the guy on the left.



Julie looks bored here, but she spent a long time dancing with Unshil and Kevin's girlfriend.


As for me, I spent most of the night talking to Kevin. I hadn't socialized much in the past 6 months so it was nice to talk to foreigners for a change. I must have been drunk. What the hell am I doing drinking Bud Weiser?



Not a great shot of the DJ, but he did a pretty good job of keeping everyone happy. The place was packed well into the night.



The bartenders. I was surprised. These are the same ones that were working here ages ago when I came. (the link to the exact post is broken, just scroll down)



Me, Kevin and his girlfriend. Wow, look I'm so clever. I'm making bunny ears to the side of Kevin's head.



It was really dark in the club. Later in the night I just held up the camera and started snapping pictures. I got at least 10 of absolutely nothing. But eventually the system paid off. Some, like this one, came out pretty good.



And this one isn't bad either. Nobody should be disappointed I didn't show Korean girls dancing.



Click, flash again. I'm surprised nobody got angry. But it was almost 4 in the morning at this point so everyone was probably drunk anyway.



I know I was. I have no idea who this guy is. I vaguely remember meeting him, but that's about all. Why I have my arm around him and a crazy look on my face is beyond me. He looks a little skeptical, but at least he isn't angry.


Well, that's it. Having so many, I didn't spend a lot of time commenting on each picture. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoyed my night out in Hongdae.


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written by shawn matthews   -|link