More Snow, Good Times

So it's been almost a week since my last post and it's hard to believe that. Time here is flying and that time is amazing. So where do I start. Well, it's been snowing here on and off for the last week. Even though it snows hard, it doesn't really stick much, but it's still very pretty. So I have some pictures of that again here.

I got my second assignment here this week. As being an RA, we have a second assignment at the school and that assignment for me is to help with sound for chapels and other events here. I'm so excited to be in this position as it relates to my major and it's fun for me. I already helped out with sound for the chapels this week and it was fun to be back in the booth again.
As for the rest of this week, it's been a pretty normal week. Although I did buy a table this week from someone I didn't even know. Let me tell you a story:

So, I was looking for a new table in my apartment because my table was a hideous green and I wanted something to blend in to my apartment more so I looked online on an ESL forum for Korea and found a guy selling a table for 15,000W which is like $15. So I contacted him and he gave me a place near his house to meet him since to tell a taxi where his house was would be too hard. So I meet him and we introduce ourselves. Turns out he is a russian working here in the science field with chemistry and biology, but now he is moving back to Russia. Nice guy. Then we walk to his apartment to get the table. As we are walking I think about how just 50 years ago, you never would've seen this....an american walking with a russian just chit chatting about what we do. Anyway, we get to his apartment, and he invites in, introduces me to his wife and shows me the table. Then he also gives me a desk lamp, a vase, a korean learning book, and a calendar. So as a normal american, I was about ready to leave because I got my table and I thought that was it. But he said, "hey, do you want some tea". He had heard me sniffling on my way there, so since I was cold, he offered tea. So there in this strangers house, I had some russian black tea and cookies and we just chatted a bit about Korea. Then about 15 minutes later, we put the stuff in a taxi and part ways.

What I got from this though is that I need to be more hospitable. If I were in his shoes, I probably wouldn't have invited someone into my house and offered them tea without even knowing them. You know? It's a weird concept to us Americans.

So yeah, that was my cool table buying story. Oh yeah, it was fun, last night, the one spanish teacher invited me to her house as she was having a spanish party with some of the kids from her class and was going to be playing spanish games. So I went and played and heard spanish again. Oh, how I love hearing spanish. Anyway, there was even a girl here who is from Argentina. So we talked a bit about argentina.

This saturday I get to go skiing. The dorm program is doing a ski trip, so that is exciting. My first korean skiing experience. I'll let you know how that goes.

Also, next week I have to go to Osaka, Japan for my Visa. They thought they could do it all here, but it turns out the government rejected that proposal, so now I have to travel to Osaka to get the visa. So pray for that please. It should go smoothly, but prayer is always good.
The trip is paid for, so that's not a problem.

Well, this has been a fairly long post. So I'll leave you with this.
Blessings

Seoul and back

Alright, so it's been a while since I've posted, but here it goes. This is an exciting one, hopefully.

So, Korea interesting thing #4....Jingubongs. These are bath houses. I went to one on Tuesday night with some of the guys. This is pretty much self explanitory. It's a bath house. Gender specific I should tell you. It was fun though. They have basically different pools of hot water and jacuzzi like water. They are all hot and then there is one pool that is really cold. So you do the hot tubs first, then you go to the cold and then the hot again. It was a good experience and very relaxing. I'll probably go again sometime as they aren't very expensive.

Well, this last week wasn't too bad although it wasn't as easy as the first as we had some issues come up in our dorm which had to be addressed. So yeah, other than that though, the week went really smooth. Celebrated some bdays, and just in general had a very good week.

Today I decided since I had off I'd go up to Seoul as a day trip. Mostly to see a guitar place up there called Nak-won. So I took a bus this morning at about 9:30, got to Seoul around 11:20 and went right to the subway. Got on the subway and took it to a place called Insadong. Insadong is an artsy district where the guitar place was. So then I walked a couple blocks to the guitar place.

This guitar place was HUGE....I can't even explain it. There were probably about 50+ music stores all in one building. Picture 1000+ acoustic guitars and 1000+ electric guitars and then tons of other music equipment. It was like a dream for me. So I walked around for an hour or so and then decided to get an epiphone les paul custom. I got it for $320....which is a steal. I'm not sure if it's a true epiphone, but who cares because it sounds great....and looks great. I have a picture below of it.....it's beautiful. I'm tempted to see what kind of acoustics they have. haha, not really, but maybe. So then I took the subway back to the bus station and then took the bus back to Daejeon. On the way back in the mountains we saw snow falling and getting back in Daejeon, there was probably about an inch to an inch and a half of snow that fell. It was an awesome way to come back into town. Everything was blanketed with a little snow. So I have those photos up on this blog as well.

So yeah, it was a great trip up to Seoul. Very big city mind you, but great city. There's so much more I could've explored, but being on my own might have been a bit boring.....but the guitar shop definately occupied my attention. I should've taken pictures of it.
Anyway, another week starts on Monday. Wow, I've been here over two weeks now! Sweet. Loving it still and hope you are enjoying reading this blog.

Oh, funny story, well, not funny, but awkward. I had to go to the bathroom after the bus ride, so I go into the bathroom and just as I'm finished going a lady comes in and cleans while the men are still using the bathroom. Awkward if anything, I guess it doesn't matter here.
Well, gotta go for now. I'll hopefully update some more later. Enjoy the pics.

Earthquakes, Food, Stores, etc.

Hey everyone, so as for the title, there was a slight 4.8 earthquake east of Seoul about 4 hours from here. Supposedly some people felt it, but I did not sadly. I wouldn't mind feeling one you know.

Alright, so the last few days have been good getting to know the guys some more. They are a great group. There was a talent show here on saturday for the school and one of my guys was in it so that was cool and I have a picture of that below.

Also, the other night I had this stuff called kimbop. It's like a california roll. Kind of like sushi. It was rice wrapped with seaweed and in the middle of the rice was a piece of pineapple, some sort of meat and then a veggie, all small pieces though. It was very good.

Now......

Korea Culture Thing #3: In the stores here there are some interesting things. They have jobs for everyone. At the front of every store is a greeter who bows to everyone who passes by. Also, there are jobs for people just pointing out some things in the store. Also, in the stores they have escalator type things that you see at airports, but these go from floor to floor, so they are elevated. It's like an escalator, but no stairs, so you can go up with your shopping cart. Great idea if you ask me!

Well, I'm have a great time here....I hope to post some more stuff, later. Down below I have a picture of the kimbop, my guys from the hall in the talent show (the one of the left in the first picture, the one on the right in the other picture), the high school building here, and then finally a picture of my apartment finally decorated a bit.

Blessings!

Another Interesting Tidbit

So another interesting thing from Korea.

Interesting thing from Korea #2: DVDbongs-A DVD bong is a place where you walk in and it looks like a video store. But, you grab what you want to watch, and hand it to the guy at the desk. He then pops it into a DVD player and then tells you what room to go to. You then go to the room with your friends and sit on a big couch like bed thing and there is a big screen in front of you and a projector projects the movie on the screen.

So basically it's like your own personal movie theatre. Sweet if you ask me.

So today was my day off. My kids here are great and they will be great to get to know. The food here is still amazing and there is a huge variety of foods to get.

I'm comfortable going downtown by myself. I have cards that have the name of popular places to go here and the korean symbols below. So I just show the taxi driver it and he understands and drives there. Sweet, huh?

Also, today I put up some stuff on my walls, got a computer desk and chair and my place is feeling more like home. Although I blew out my surge protector the other day as I tried to plug it into a 220V thing. Long story, but it's alright.

Just wanted to say that the staff here are amazing here and really gracious and kind. So that is good.

That's it for now, if more comes up, I'll let you know about it.

Blessings

New Thing

Hey Everyone,

Things are still going really well here. Let's see, I've now hit up like 5-6 different restaurants/coffeeshops here and they are all amazing. I went to one the other night called KBens. It's a place where they serve pulled pork sandwiches just like Carolina pulled pork. It was very good. The guy that owns the place was from Virginia, so he must know a little bit about it. Then on Sunday I went to a japanese restaurant where I had pork over rice, some cool noodle soup, and some cabbage stuff. Oh, I went to a coffee shop here where they serve you toast with your coffee and to top the toast they give you whipped cream. So you are supposed to put whipped cream on the toast and eat it. It's actually very good.

As for restauants here, there are a million of them and they all look awesome to go to. It might take me a while. I hear there is a meat buffet that I'll have to go to sometime. I also heard today that there is a coffeeshop here in town where you can get a footbath while you are drinking your coffee. How sweet is that.

Anyway, the kids arrived today and they seem very cool. It will be great to get to know them on a more personal level. The rest of the dorm staff seem very cool as well and I'm excited to get to know them more as I will be hanging out with them a lot.

A theme here is that everyone seems to travel when they have time off. I'm not kidding, half of them over Christmas went to Thailand, some went to Europe, others went to Phillipines, etc. It's cheap here to travel.

Well, as for the title of my post, I'm now going to try to put interesting Korea facts on this blog. Whenever something comes up that is strickly found here in Korea or is interesting to me, I'll post it.


KOREA INTERESTING FACT #1: Here in Korea at the movie theatres you get to choose your seat. Yup, assigned seating in the theatre. This is a good thing as you don't have to get to the theatre so early to have a good seat...just buy your tickets, choose your seats and get there a minute before it starts.

Well, that's it from here.

Blessings,

Mike

Pictures of Taejeon

In South Korea!

Hey everyone.....so, it's the day. I'm in South Korea. I actually got here last night, but it hasn't been until today that I've realized....wow, I'm in South Korea. And to think that this here is going to be my home for the next 2.5 years, maybe more.

First off, my travels yesterday were great. Made all flights and even in detroit got to take a earlier flight to get to Tokyo and have a little extra time in that airport. My flight was from Greensboro to Detroit, Detroit to Tokyo, and then Tokyo to Seoul. Then last night from Seoul, the dorm dad from my dorm where I'm living and I took a bus from Seoul to Taejeon.

Taejeon is a beautiful city, and the school is in the heart of the City.

Things so far are going well....I'm moved in for the most part, went out to eat at a place called Kingdom Buffet and then tonight I'm gonna go see a movie with some of the RA's. So life is busy, but I wouldn't have it any other way. By the way, the food at Kingdom Buffet is amazing....really good food.

The toughest thing for me here though is going to be the language. Korean looks tough to learn and I don't even know how to say thank you. It's alright though because at the school here I don't need to, but whenever I go out, I'll have to learn a little.

I have some pictures posted from my flight and some from my apartment and what it looks like.

Interesting Shot of the 747.

Sweet Cloud Shot.

Beautiful Canadian Rockies!

My apartment's dining and kitchen area.

This is of my living room.

My Bedroom

As of right now, it looks a little empty in my apartment, but I hope to make it look more homelike over the next few weeks.

So, that is it for now. I'll try to update sometime soon with pictures of Taejeon as it is a neat city. It is a city of 1.5 million and is surrounded by tall hills.

Blessings,

Mike

Soon Leaving Again

Wow, so it's 10:42 at night and it's about 3 days till I leave for South Korea. What's going through my mind? Excitement, nervousness, all that. If you would have told me that I'd be leaving the country again after just being back in the states for less that 7 months, I would've said your crazy.

But, God had other plans. He thought it'd be cool to send me to South Korea to be a Resident Assistant to Juniors and Senior high schoolers at a Christian Boarding school in the city of Daejeon, South Korea.

So, as I sit here and think about the amazing opportunity ahead of me for the next few years I can't help but think of all the things that might happen and that God might want to do in my life.

But it is hard as well to think of everyone I'm leaving behind, and that is hard. All my friends, family, etc.....

It is comforting to know though, that I will be back during the summers and that there is always emails and other forms of communication.

Well, keep in touch.

Blessings,

Mike