Estonian836's Xanga

Friday, October 09, 2009

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:39:47 GMT

Yeah... so it's been a while, hasn't it?

That's kinda awkward... not sure how to proceed here...

Well, anyway, I suppose it's time for an update. I suppose a lot has happened since September of 2008, huh? Well, here's the quick version. I'm still in Korea, still teaching at the same school. I went to the Phillipines for a week last February and was home in Indiana for a month in August. And ever since being back, I've been having a few health problems. In September, I spent a week in the hospital with some intestinal infection that was never really explained to me, and then I've been down for the past few days with another health problem that is a little embarrassing, yet extremely painful. It's starting to get better though, and I can walk around and not be doubled over by pain, so that's definitely a plus.

Other than that, I've just had a lot weighing on my mind. When I was home back in August, I got to see a lot of good friends that I haven't seen in a while (and I didn't get to see a couple of really good friends that I wish I could have). And I got to see the whole economic situation in America, a situation that was completely new to me considering my absence in the good ol' US of A. I heard stories of friends losing jobs and homes and searching fruitlessly for work. And I saw lots of houses for sale as well. And now my school is asking me to sign another year, and I have no idea what I want to do. On one hand, the job is great and the money is good and steady. I have better job security here than I think I could ever have at home. Yet I miss my family and friends. It'd been 18 months since I had been in America when I went home in August. That's a long time. I feel disconnected from some family members and friends and while I obviously know that people will always move on in life, I find myself missing so much about America and my life back at home. Yet if I were to come home, there would be a pretty slim chance of me finding a job as good as the one I have right now. Yet other than a few good friends, I've felt detached from most of the people here. I still have Ben Bowers and a few others that I trust and am close to, but there's been a different type of foreigner to come to Korea and it's been frustrating at times to see these types of people embarrass me and themselves as well as create more drama and headaches than they're worth.

In other words, I have a choice to make: stay here or come back to America. Job security vs. comfort and relationships.

(Side note: And if everyone keeps getting married or engaged or popping out kids at such a rapid rate back home, I'll have no one to hang out with. Take it easy there, sailors.)

Monday, September 22, 2008

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 05:33:36 GMT

I come from a land down under...
Where the women glow and men plunder...

This is my Australia trip posting. I apologize for only posting when I've been somewhere or done something, but I've just been lazy and haven't been writing at all, something I'm quite ashamed of. It's not that I'm that busy that I can't journal or write about anything, but it's just that I don't. No other excuse than that I don't feel like it or don't want to invest anything. Either way, shame on me. But I digress.

This is my trip to Australia. I had off almost the entire month of August and I went to Sydney to see family and Adelaide to see a good friend. After my Korean friends sent me off in style (a la Outback Steakhouse) I traveled to Sydney where I met up with my mom's brother Uncle Ken and his family. I spent a few days in Sydney before heading with the family on holiday to Nelson Bay and then I flew to Adelaide for a week to see Billie, a really cool friend who I used to teach with here in Korea. I came back to Sydney for the last weekend, then back to Korea. These are my pictures.

Of course, we have to start out with a few pics of the Sydney Opera house. Here's a pic of Uncle Ken and Aunt Barnetta, who graciously put up with me and my Americanisms for a few weeks.

More Opera house and Sydney pics.

I also got to hang out with some cousins who I rarely ever see. Here's me with Leanna and Stephanie.

And here's Heidi and her husband Steven and daughter Samara.

And the family shot

One thing that Korea sadly lacks is the abundance of unique and native animals. Other than the really small poodles and miniaturized dogs that the women dress up, paint up and carry around in their bags, you rarely see many animals here in Korea. So Australia was a welcomed change to that. This is the Animal portion of the post. Please observe a moment of silence for the fallen Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, then read the rest of this portion of the post in such accent.

These are either kangaroos or wallabies. Who knows? I can't keep them straight and I sure can't believe what the Aussies tell me. I was told, on numerous occasions, of the constant danger of the drop bear, a koala-like creature with huge fangs and sharp claws that will drop down from the trees and scratch you up, and the hoopsnake, a poisonous snake that does not slither, but bites his tail and rolls like a wheel. Yeah, look them up. They're all lies.

This is my favorite picture. The kangaroo was really into the shoot. He found his inner tiger.

Here's the other animals...

Wombat

Tazmanian Devil

And of course, the koala... not to be confused with the drop bear.

We spent a quiet and comfortable week in Nelson Bay just relaxing and watching the Olympics. This is my first Olympics abroad and I highly recommend doing so. Seeing another country in all its pride cheering on its competitors was a lot of fun, though unfortunately not without its America-bashing comments. I was rooting for the Aussies Stephanie Rice, Libby Trickett, Grant Hackett and Eamon Sullivan while gloating over the "Redeem Team" and Michael Phelps. But the Aussies are fiercely proud of their Olympians and I saw that in the airport as several crowded around the TVs to watch another gold being won. Good times.

Stephanie and I tried to go on a dolphin cruise and see some dolphins in the wild, but we only really saw one or two from far off. The splash of a dolphin was the best I could capture.

This was the most I could see of a dolphin.

From Nelson Bay, I headed to Adelaide, a small Bohemian-style city on the southern coast that was a complete chill place. I hung out with Billie. This is her.

Adelaide was a blast. Despite it being freezing, the food was excellent and there was more than enough to do to keep us occupied. One of the days, we went wine tasting in the vineyards.

We also went beach hopping. I'll try to wrap this up as I'm sure you all have lives to get to and don't have all the time to lounge around looking at blogs. But I promised me mum that I'd put up some pictures. So the next group are just some cool beach shots I took. See with your eyes.

And the coolest part of the whole trip was when we were at this cove and we saw three whales swimming lazily around beyond the waves. There were several whale watchers grouped around the hills with us just watching silently, enjoying the creation. I couldn't really get too many good shots, but here's a few.

Good times.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 04:31:06 GMT

Wow, it's been awhile. Yeah, I have no excuse, I'm just downright lazy. My apologies.

But it is time for another installment of Miah's Korea Adventures, so let's get right down to it.

First of all, it's been a weird past few months. I kind of had a falling out with one of my fellow teachers here at Dongsan High School. I get along really well with all of the others, but there's just one that has seemed to have had it in for me for a while now. I really think she just hates all Americans, because I can't pinpoint what I did to make her so mad. She's only 25 and it's her second year teaching. She's an English teacher as well and she was appointed to be the one to help me and do the interpreting for the meetings. But something broke between the two of us and she would get angry at me and not talk to me for almost a week straight before I would try to talk to her about it and apologize. (I have no idea what I was apologizing for, I just wanted to fix it so I could find out what was happening in the meetings.) Yet I would hear about her spreading rumors to students and other teachers about me. Well, a few weeks ago, she came to me and just went off, leading with "Who do you think you are?" It was a rough conversation that I have to say I couldn't keep my cool very well and ended up telling her "I know you hate me. I know what you say to other teachers and other students. I don't know why you hate me, but I have nothing to say to you because you wouldn't believe anything I said and you're just looking for a reason to go off on me..." Yeah, words were said and we basically haven't said much to each other since. The good thing is that I was told by my boss that they would do what they could to fix the situation and that they don't want to lose me, so it's been bearable as long as I'm not around her.

So that's been the little bit of stress I've had recently. I also went to a week long foreign teacher's conference in Yongin (about an hour or two away from Ansan) and it was a complete waste of my time as well as a horrid look into some of the people that are allowed to come here to teach. There were some shady characters and that's just being honest.

But I've been needing a nice vacation from it all and I finally got a chance this past weekend. This post shall be dubbed... "Mudfest II"

Last year, I went to the Mud Festival in Boryeoung and it was a lot of fun. Good times, good people and good mud. This year, Jeremy, Michelle and I drove down in my car late Friday night and threw down a tent in the camping area. Unfortunately, the tent we bought had screen windows only and no canvas covering or rain cover. So we knew if it would rain, we'd get soaked, but it wasn't too bad the first night.

For a little background info, the Boryeoung Mud Festival is just a giant week and a half party on the beach where they import this really expensive skin cleansing mud and everyone just covers themselves and goes to town. It's basically like Spring Break with Mud. Lots of foreigners and Koreans cramped onto a very muddy beach... good times. Here's the crew I came with.

This is Jeremy. He's from Vancouver and he and I spent a lot of time together. He's been in Korea for about six years, so he's an old pro. But it's his first time at the Mudfest, so he's due. I don't know why I haven't put more pictures of him on here before. He's like my best friend here.

And this is Michelle with Jeremy. She's another Canadian and she's pretty cool. Good people. This is them all mudded up and ready to go.

This is what the beach looked like. Packed with foreigners.

They had a decent foreign band on the stage playing a lot of cover songs.

Again, it really seems a lot like one of those Florida Spring Breaks, except that everyone's covered with mud and there's a ton of Koreans around.

Here's Michelle and I.

And another shot of Jeremy and I.

Oh, and there were these guys walking around in horse masks handing out these advertisements. I don't think he knew we were taking this picture.

And for those from Bethel, here's Derrick and Lavon Null getting into the spirit of Mud festival. They just got here over two weeks ago and they're feeling the love in Korea. It's great having some familiar faces here in Korea.

And here's the rest of the group we met up with. Chris, Me, Robbie, Lavon and Jeremy.

Here's me with Robbie and Caitlin. Again, Canadians. Again, good people.

Another shot of Jeremy and I.

Here's Maria and I. She's from Minnesota and she's pretty cool too. We met up with her and some others and watched the fireworks on the beach. I love this picture because my hair just looks huge. Seriously, I don't think I'm gonna cut it.

But here's where the story starts to take a turn. We had our fun on the beach and went back to sleep. I crashed pretty hard and Jeremy went off for a bit on his own. Around three in the morning, I awake to the screams of other foreigners. I hear them yell "What's going on?? This is supposed to be a waterproof tent." It kind of hits me right there that it's raining outside. It's raining really really hard. And there's standing water in our tent. Everything is soaked. I look down and I see all the water just running in from the top where there was no rain cover and streaming through the screens where there were no canvas covers and at that time, Jeremy comes running over and we haul everything to the car and try to drive into town to find a hotel. But as we get there, there's no room anywhere, so we have to find a sauna/jimjilbang where we can just catch a little bit of sleep.

Needless to say, it was a rough ending to what was a great weekend. I'm still trying to catch up on sleep and I don't think I'll feel dry for at least a few more days. But it was a great weekend and a great chance to get away from Ansan. So that's what's going on with me. Hopefully in August, I'll be in Australia. That's the plan anyway.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Mon, 12 May 2008 07:20:07 GMT

Yes I am still alive, and that's partly because I didn't buy the motorcycle.

I was looking at a few different ones, but one day, while taking a taxi to meet some friends, I saw a mangled scooter lying on the pavement with a chalk line around it. That was kind of it for me with the motorcycle idea. But pastor Nick went with me and found a pretty nice 96 Kia Seppia for about the same price as the motorcycle. And as is with me, I didn't think, I just bought. And it's pretty awesome.

Korea looks completely different when you have wheels. I've been out to the ocean on a few road trips with friends and have been able to explore all kinds of things I couldn't have found via subway or bus. There's even a little area near the factories where all the Vietnamese, Chinese, Phillipino, Thai, Middle Easterners and many others live and eat. There's tons of restaurants from Chinese to Nepalese to Uzbekistanese foods. The only kicker is that you shouldn't be there at night as it's probably the most dangerous part of Korea. (No joke, two years ago, someone was caught with body parts in a suitcase there. It's kind of well known for it). We kind of figured it out when we found ourselves there after dark and had a lot of angry or menacing stares and whatnot. But still a good time.

So that's what's going on with me. I'm loving the school I'm working for now and am getting along pretty well with everyone there. I've got some reallly close friends and have been out a lot lately. The only downer lately has been that I've been a little sick. Ever since being back in Korea, I've seemed to have lost my appetite completely and as a result am suffering from malnutrition. I had to go to the hospital last Thursday and have a bunch of tests, but nothing was conclusive. So I'm just trying to eat more and take it a little bit easier. Other than that, things are going well, and I'll update when I have a story.

And today is Buddha's Birthday, so make sure you celebrate it right.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 23:43:34 GMT

Just to throw an update out there, I'm back in Korea and doing pretty well. I'm working at Dongsan High School, which is one of the top high schools in all of Korea, and it's definitely a great gig. Last year, at the private academy, I was working around 35 classes a week. Now I'm working 16 a week. I also have more vacation time, more money and the kids are pretty great. All in all, it's going really well so far.

I am thinking of buying a motorcycle though. I'm getting tired of taking taxis everywhere I want to go and when I was looking at scooters, I saw this beauty...

It's now all I can think about. My problem is, I probably don't need it. And if I were in Indiana, it would be okay because the roads aren't too packed and most drivers are sensible. That's just not the case here in Korea. Drivers zip in and out of traffic, red lights are suggestions and many occasions, I've seem drivers on a six lane road make a left turn from the far right lane. So riding this guy around town might be a tad dangerous. But I've always wanted a motorcycle and it'd save on transportation and I'd be able to travel around the city more.

I can't decide if I should or not. It's a really good price, but still more than I need to spend. Let's hear some thoughts. Someone make up my mind for me, because I just can't.

Should I?

Monday, February 04, 2008

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 20:05:14 GMT

Ummm, is it me, or does xanga look a lot different than it did... say... a few months ago? Albeit it's been a while since my last update, I didn't think things would look this different. Geez, you take a little vacation and when you get back, your roommate changed the locks and all the furniture. Typical.

Well, I guess to update, I'm still in Indiana, but I'm finishing up all my paperwork to go back to Korea. I'll be working at one of the top five high schools in Korea, Dongsan Christian High School. And I'll be in the same area that I was in before and most of my friends will still be there with the exception of that one guy Ben. So yeah, I'm pretty excited and ready to go.

Honestly though, as much as I love being back here hanging out with family and seeing friends, I don't know how long I'll be gone this time. I dunno, the whole idea of getting a random job, starting a career, getting settled in by buying a house, a new car, getting my "401K" (imagine me making quotation marks with my hands there. I don't know why, but it seems to fit) set up, paying insurance bills and whatnot just really doesn't appeal to me anymore. To be honest, neither does marriage and having a family anymore, which is really weird to say... or type. Maybe later, I suppose, but who knows. I could be gone for the next year, or next five years, or I might just end up co-owning some random little resort on a beach in Bali, Indonesia, sitting on the beach for the rest of my days (don't laugh at that last one. I have a friend who is looking into it and offered me a chance to get in). Maybe this is just me in my restless stage. Or maybe I like always being the foreigner to whom all the kids point and stare at.. although you usually get that from being around the amish children, but it's different.

I guess that's my update. I should be around for a little bit longer... at least two more weeks. Then who knows? One thing I won't miss? Redneck bumper stickers. Today's little gem I saw while I was out... "Gun control is being able to hit the target." Indeed.

Oh, and here's a few pics of my travels when I got back from Korea...

Pete and I in Times Square...

Hangin' with the stars in NYC. Samuel L. wasn't very talkative. And he kept refusing to recite a certain scene from Pulp Fiction with me.

Overall, Sammy was just kind of a jerk.

Pete and I outside the Met.

Pete and I in Central Park doing the Senior Picture thing. I think Dad's got this picture on his desk at work, so it's a good one.

Pete had this poster in his room of John Lennon posing in front of the Statue of Liberty. It looked something like this...

So we tried to recreate it...

Pete makes a better John Lennon. I look too much like a biker.

We also went to the Halloween Parade, which was definitely an experience. Pete's dressed in a 70s getup that he had to wear at work, and then there's Pete's awesome roommate Crockett, who many mistook for my brother rather than Pete, as Bob Ross the Happy Trees painter.

I also went down to Philly to hang with Marcia Green. Here we are in front of the Liberty Bell.

And here's Julie Fish and I in front of the world's tallest three story building... no I'm not making this up. There's actually a record for this. But the really sad part about it is that this was the biggest tourist attraction Julie could find in Paris, Kentucky... impressive.

I think that's it for now. Who all is still using Xanga nowadays?

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Sun, 14 Oct 2007 06:43:17 GMT

Looks like I'll be home in four days. I'll fly in on Thursday. Haven't really seen a football game in years.

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Sat, 29 Sep 2007 11:54:10 GMT

Another Chuseok come and gone and this one was quite memorable. I with a group of five others (all Canadians, good folks) took off for Cambodia to check out some of the most beautiful and venerated temple ruins in the world. And what we saw and experienced were things I will never forget, much like all my journeys I've taken in the past year. We arrived in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh and met up with Ben Bowers, my old partner in crime and an old friend Scott from older ECC days. We spent the night in the city and took a boat ride early in the morning up the river and massive Tonle Sap lake to get to Siem Reap where Angkor Wat and all the other breath-taking temples were. Here's a pic of the boat ride as well as the floating village that served as the port to the city.

Here's the gang relaxing on the boat.

Here's part of the floating village.

As we made our way off the boat, we took tuk-tuks (little carriages driven by motorcycles) through an extremely impoverished street with several ramshackle houses and children devoid of nourishment and clothes. It was pretty sobering and staggering to see this kind of scene and not feel extreme pangs of guilt for the little inconveniences that I might have ever complained about before in my life.

One thing you have to realize about Cambodia is that it isn't very far removed from its horrible and tragic history. For those who know little of Cambodian history, its people were torn apart during the Vietnam war by both sides of the Vietnamese siding with different parties of it's people and government. As a result, Viet Cong abused the poor people as well as the Vietnamese and U.S. forces. And after the war, a French educated Cambodian Maoist Agrarian dictator Pol Pot, leading the Khmer Rouge, cleansed the country of it's well-to-do citizens by seizing thousands of foreigners, bankers, doctors and anyone else who weren't peasants and threw them into prisons and committed mass genocide. An arguable figure of 300,000 Cambodians and foreigners were killed by the Khmer Rouge and those responsible for this tragedy were never brought to justice. In fact, it's quite possible that several of the leaders and soldiers of the Khmer Rouge are still operating throughout Cambodia still today. As a result, the people have had a terrible past few decades and are just now starting to claw through the wreckage and see any signs of improvement. But the fear still has to be there, and it's so sad because these people are kind and good people.

We decided to hit up the biggest temple first, Angkor Wat. It was built in the 12th century and stands as one of the largest religious structures in the world.

Ben and I in front of the temples.

And this is me making a breath-taking image look even more breath-taking.

And there were also monkeys running around.

And the carvings all along the walls were so intricate and amazing. These are some of the bas reliefs.

Here's a view from the top. Yep, I climbed up. I'm pretty spritely when I want to be.

Our next temple structure outing the following day would take us through some of the ruins that were featured in Laura Croft: Tomb Raider starring Angelina Jolie. I have to say that I've never seen the movie, but we heard a lot about it while in Cambodia. Maybe I'll watch it just to obnoxiously point at things I know and yell, "I've been there, have you?"

Here's the main gate.

I know, it's got a bit of a Jurrassic Park/King Kong feel to it. And yes, those are elephants coming through. More on the elephants later.

Here's me at the gate.

I bought a hat. I thought it would give me an Indiana Jones-ish look. I don't think I bought the right hat. But it did have a british flag on it. Gotta represent.

Nevertheless, here's Scott and I with our hats.

Some of the corridors in the temple were pretty cool. There were bats flying around and it definitely made us feel like adventurers. Here's Ben as he's hit with a beam of light.

And here's the whole gang.

From left to right: Me, Aaron, Michelle, Ben, Lindsay, Scott, Erin and Sean. Good people all. Our next temple was by far my favorite. As we made our way there, we were vehemently instructed to stay on the path because of all the landmines. Thousands of mines were laid all along the country and they apparently haven't all been found yet. But where we were going was worth it. The jungle had grown through the temple structure and as a result, you see some amazing scenes of these majestic trees pushing their way through these ruins. It was so overwhelming to be able to climb around these structures. Here's a few pics of the trees pushing their way through the ruins.

And the most famous is the one at the end. This one, I'm sure, is on all the brochures and in the Tomb Raider movie.

Here's a few more pics of this place.

Now in that one, I look like an explorer. The next one is Ben, Scott and I by a huge tree. (I suppose I could preface the pic with a bit more than that, but I'm tired. So just look at it.)

We tried to make it up a pretty high mountain to watch the sunset on the top of this really cool temple, but we didn't want to walk up. So we took elephants. Yes my friends, I have now ridden an elephant. Here's Ben and Aaron on the elephant behind us.

Here's the girls in front of us.

I also have a video of the experience, but I can't quite figure out how to get it on Xanga. I'll try again later.

After the elephants, we went to the beach for a day. It was pretty exotic, a little like Thailand. We took a taxi to Phnom Penh first and we stopped along the side of the road for gas. This is what the gas station looked like.

Yeah, that's gasoline in those bottles. They basically had gas in two liter plastic and glass bottles. It was definitely a little different than your normal Speedway station. After that, we grabbed a taxi in Phnom Penh to head to the beach in Shianoukville. But when we got to the taxi place, we were mobbed by Cambodian men fighting for the chance at a far. Scott was grabbed by one of them and dragged against his will towards another car and Ben and I were pulled another way. We finally found a decent fare for a nicer car and set out. Here's what the beach looked like.

After a really nice day on the beach, we headed back to Korea where I am currently and while the trip was an amazing experience, and while it is nice to be back, I've been kind of contemplating my time here. While this all has been an amazing experience, I'm starting to get a little burned out. Korea is still an amazing place and the friendships I've made here I hope to keep for my lifetime. And I'm not saying that I'm done with Korea or done traveling either. But I think I need a break. So I might be coming home for Christmas and a little while after that. In March, I have some amazing job opportunities that could happen in Korea, so I'd probably go back for them, but for now, I'm hoping to head back to Indiana for a bit with a short stopoff in San Francisco and a nice vacation in NYC as well. Florida might be in the itinerary as well. Again, this is just kind of my thoughts for now, but the way I've been feeling, I think I need this break to evaluate where I want to be right now.

Okay, there you go. There's my Cambodian adventure. Feel free to ask any questions or remark on any glaring inconsistencies you might find in all of this. Go on, I dare you.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 06:01:22 GMT

Well, today's my one year anniversary of leaving for Korea. I left the comforts of home at around 9:00 a.m. to fly across the world and I have to say I made the right decision. It's been an amazing year and I can't think of a better way to spend my time than what I've been doing and experiencing all the amazing people I've met in the past year. It's been a hoot.

As a bit of a trip down nostalgia lane, I went back over my past posts to relive my journey and it was pretty cool. But the interesting part is the post I made September 20th, 2006. Here it is:

"I leave for the airport in a little over an hour. I haven't slept since yesterday morning. I suppose that's what you get when you leave off packing a year-long trip until the very last minute.
I still don't think it has sunk in that I'm leaving. People ask me if I'm scared or excited and I really can't say I'm either right now. I'm just kind of sitting around waiting to see what will happen. Ben and I fly out at around 10:15 this morning and we'll get to Seoul at around eight tomorrow night. The very next day, we begin our training. I'm starting a new job in a very different place. Everything will change and yet I'm indifferent? Is that how I'm supposed to be? Robbie and Kristen told me it really won't sink in until a few weeks into the experience. Should make for an interesting post, I'd say.
Others who have spent a year or two in a different country teaching English have told me how much this kind of experience can alter your thinking in almost every aspect and reveal the kind of person you are as well as draw you a lot closer to God (if it's what you desire.) I really don't know what to expect, except that the potential massive life change sounds exciting and I'm really hoping I can be open to it rather than lapsing into complacency and losing my desire for an adventure."

It really has been a life changing experience. I feel like I've grown into a different person and I'm so grateful for all the experiences I've had. I'm still here, and it'll be interesting to see how long I stay. I do miss home though and am contemplating coming home for Christmas for a while. Nothing is set in stone yet, but I'm starting to miss good food, good friends and a great family to spend my time with.

But here's to what has been a great year.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Sat, 15 Sep 2007 03:22:02 GMT

It's time for another update, I suppose. It's funny. You scroll down to about this time last year and you'll see a young, wild-eyed man getting ready to begin his Korean adventure. And now I've been here about a year and am staying much longer than anticipated. Who'd have thought it? But it's a great life here and while I miss my family and friends immensely, I've formed a groove here that I'm just not ready to leave yet. I've got a lot of people here that I care about and I'm just not ready to return to America. There's still traveling to do, and if I don't do it now, I may never do it. So here's to maybe another year abroad. Oh, and I'm still wild-eyed. I have the pictures to prove it. Those babies are huge.

Here's a pic of a soccer game we went to recently. It was English Premier League Bolton Wanderers vs. Spanish Premier League Real Racing Santander. Good times.

They do know how to put on a soccer game here, but us foreigners knew how to cheer one up as I and a few others made fools of ourselves, much to the enjoyment of the Koreans around us. We even got a few to cheer with us.

This is Lindsay and I cheering. Again, see those wild eyes?

And this is Ben and I. Ben gives my eyes a run for their money in wildness, but I think I still win.

Speaking of Ben, he's headed on to much greener rice patties. No, that doesn't mean he's dead. He just left Korea. He's in Vietnam right now and will travel through Cambodia, Indonesia and Malaysia before heading home for a bit and then starting a teaching job in China. He'll probably be abroad for a long long time. Here he is with Seth, an Australian, after covering themselves with mud on one of our trips to the coast.

We spent some time with our worship team from church on the coast. It was a good time. Here's our group shot. I'm a bit of a beast.

And here am I with a few of the ladies.

And here's the part where I'm sure I'll lose a few fans on the xanga circuit. You know the phrase, "When in Rome...", right? Well, I'm a big dog fan. I love dogs. We have one at home named Roy and I'm a big fan. I missed him and was happy to see him when I went home. So I really don't hold any illwill toward any dog anywhere... but I did eat one. Don't judge me! It's a delicacy here and I had to at least try it out. How many times in your life can you say you ate a dog? Well, think ill of me all you want, but I ate one. Although if I were to eat any dog in America, I'd probably eat that one dog that used to be in the Target commercial. You know, the one with the Target red circle over his eyes? I always hated that one. Here's what a nice steaming bowl of dog meat looks like.

To critique, I wasn't a big fan. The dog soup was pretty good, albeit spicy. But the meat was way too fatty and didn't really have any flavor. Think of the blandest soggy beef you've ever eaten and that's probably equivalent. I probably won't eat it again, but it was an experience, and that's what Ben and I were going for.

And what vile knave sends the poor poochies to the meat grinder? This guy...

And that about does it for me. Don't hate me. I'm just doin' my Korean thing. Oh, and here's a pic of me with the band at church.

And I'm out. I'll teach this week, and then I'm heading to Cambodia for a week where I'll tour the jungle and see the killing fields and Ankor Wat, one of the greatest temple structures in the world and the place where they shot Tomb Raider. I've never seen said movie, but I'm aware of it's existence, so if you've seen it, you'll know where I'm going. It's very Indiana Jonesish. I'm excited.

Here's to one year having adventures.