My Ship has Arrived

Yes indeed, my friends. And it is called the R.O.K. Movie Star.

(Note: Korean ships are much like their Western counterparts. Except they are smaller and lighter, with more efficient power systems & engines - therefore making them faster and more maneuverable. On the other hand, their designs and floorplans are sometimes quite confusing, and there are also quite a few typos on essential safety equipment. Moreover, all purchases while on board are tax free.)

After spending nearly 2 years in Asia, I have finally reached the celebrity status that I've been striving toward since Day 1... I am featured in the currently-airing Korean blockbuster The Perfect Game!

Well, not exactly featured, per se, but I did participate in some of the filming, was compensated for my time, and can very probably be seen on screen. And several of my cohorts positively made an appearance either on camera or were named in the credits.

Nonetheless, it's an excellent film. In true fashion of 'based on true events' stories - it does not disappoint & certainly tells a story as only nonfiction can. I highly recommend seeing it - although be prepared if you're a fellow non-Korean speaker - for, excluding the opening scenes, not a word of English is spoken.

The Perfect Game recounts a tale of two ultra-competitive professional athletes of differing generations who struggle to discover in themselves the ability to find common ground in the midst of a time and place that tells them that they shouldn't. The movie's basic plot is: "Choi Dong-Won of the Lotte Giants and Sun Dong-Ryul of the Haitai Tigers are rival baseball pitchers. In an epic showdown these two pitchers faceoff in a 15 inning marathon game."

The final game is, of course, the culmination of the story. But there are many great subplots leading up to the showdown that add so much to the finale. It's ultimate moral is told through the lens of a 'never say die' baseball analogy. The background of its competitive setting wonderfully displays the unifying nature of sports to all of the players, teams, and fans involved. Professional respect & admiration shine through the fierce tension between the opposing teams and individuals. The movie also does a great job of describing the inner conflicts of many characters, and in some cases, shows the resulting unbreakable bonds. Additionally, there are touching family matters, heartbreaking endings of lifelong relationships, and personal (social, financial, and otherwise) struggles of many characters. During all of this, attention is also drawn to attempts by government officials to reduce the event so that it can be used as a political tool. But unfortunately for the concerned parties, the game refuses to be simplified and an authentic human spirit transcends.

Movies, US Taxes, 10K, Return of Godzeera, and a BBQ

Hey again. It's hard to believe, but I've already celebrated my 3 month anniversary in Korea. That means I'm already a quarter of the way through my stint here! Feels like I just got here. I feel like I've finally gotten over the learning phase, and I'm starting to fall into a comfortable rhythm (i.e., grit my way through teaching kids all week, have a glorious weekend, rinse, & repeat). Speaking of good times, I've had some pretty eventful times since the last post:


In my last note, I forgot to mention that I had finally filed my US taxes. My taxes are pretty straightforward every year, but I still procrastinate as long as possible because I dread it! I really don't know why though - you would think that I wouldn't mind the process after doing accounting for all these years. On a side note, I have an accountant friend who prepares his taxes by hand every year (he manually prints in ink on the hardcopy IRS forms. Kind of archaic, huh?). He believes that a 'true' accountant should do so, because he's experienced in the mystical ways of numbers. I don't think so - I rather agree with my other friend who compared this as follows: 'I have a pair of legs, therefore I should run a marathon'. Think about it. So I guess the tax process is just another thing that I'll never get accustomed to - just like the summer heat in the southeastern United States. So anyway, I finished the chore, and was even rewarded by Uncle Sam with a nice return!




In April, I joined the Kindergarten classes on another one of their monthly field trips. This one was a visit to a nearby energy plant. We visited the educational area, where they talk to the kids about energy generation, distribution, conservation, etc. Since my last job was at an energy company, I figured that I might be able to lend some knowledge, or perhaps another perspective. It basically was just another babysitting session, and everything was spoken and written in Korean, so I didn't get much out of it. But parts of the visit were enjoyable, so I wouldn't call it a total failure.



I saw the new movie, Clash of the Titans, at the local theatre. I remember watching and enjoying the 1981 Laurence Olivier version, but this modern version is even better. I've always really enjoyed Greek mythological stories, and this one definitely does not disappoint. The guy from Avatar plays a good part in this one too. I didn't get to see it in 3D, which may make the movie even better. Check it out if you get the chance.


A couple Fridays ago, we held our first monthly Movie Night at SLP. I'm saying 'monthly' because we're hoping to make this a habit. It was organized by one of the supervisors, and the director even supplied beverages. About 15 of us stayed after work, and a few other friends joined us too. We have an auditorium classroom complete with a projector and a big screen, so it's a perfect place to watch. Everyone chipped in for some pizza and food, and we watched 'Yes, Man' with Jim Carey. I had seen the movie before, but forgot how funny it is. Kind of the familiar Jim Carey schtick (if you ask me, this one is very reminiscent of 'Liar, Liar'), but still very funny. There's even a plotline in the movie where Jim takes Korean language lessons. At one point in the show, he speaks Korean to a woman, which was very amusing to our group of Koreans and Korean novices.




Last Saturday, my city held the Yongin Marathon. Me and a couple fellow foreigners signed up for the 10K about a month ago, and the three of us had a great time (Travis is fellow Yankee, and Toby is a Kiwi). I believe Toby is the first person that I have even known from New Zealand. Sounds like a really nice place. Have added it to my 'to-visit' list.


















Here's our gold medal ceremony after finishing the race. (Yes, they really did give us medals for finishing! Will be a nice addition to the trophy room.)



Last weekend was also the official Cherry Blossom festival in my city. The trees have been gorgeous around here lately. They say this year's fluctuations in temperature was especially erratic, so I'm sure that has affected the blooming. So maybe I didn't get to experience the optimal cherry blossom season. I guess this will give me an excuse to visit Asia again in the future.

The night after the race, my race buddy Travis (the fellow Yankee), and his wife had a bunch of us over for a barbeque. It was exquisite. You can imagine how much you can come to miss the comforts of 'home' when living abroad. Even when this comes in the form of hot dogs, hamburgers, and beer. We had a big crowd of mostly other teachers, but we always have the few token Koreans around too.

Here's most of the gang from the BBQ:

And Travis with his puppy, Otis. Great dog. He's a boxer, so is about 10X the size of all these little Korean apartment dogs.

Monday morning we were greeted by the return of our favorite supervisor, Susan. Susan is genuinely one of the best bosses I've worked for. She's very competent in her job, handles things in a timely manner, is constantly busy, but never appears flustered. As alluded to in the title (and mentioned in a previous blog), the students have what I will call a 'healthy fear' of Susan. That makes her a great asset when trying to handle rambuncious groups of kids. All of the kids seem to have great respect for her, and even some appear to be deathly afraid of her. That first week of her return, cries of child terror could be heard throughout our school of 'Susan Teachaa'.

And on a completely unrelated note, (I took this video and want to share it). As a general rule, Koreans are always in a hurry. All ages, genders, walks of life, anywhere, and at anytime. It's sometimes quite amusing to watch people run around like beheaded chickens. The various modes of transportation are the best way of seeing what I'm talking about. One great example is the buses. The drivers all must be mentally ill. I've learned through experience that prior to stepping onto any bus, you must mentally and physically prepare yourself. It's kind of like psyching yourself up before going, say, skydiving. Case in point, check out this video I took last week on one of these busrides. Notice how the driver rarely stays in one lane, he frequently speeds up and proceeds to cut off other cars, and it looks as though a cameraman from the show COPS took this video. Enjoy:

2 Months down!

Hey everyone, long time no talk. Entirely my fault - sorry for the delay since my last post. Here's some highlights from my past couple weeks:


Last weekend, I saw Alice in Wonderland (for the second time). But this time we watched it in 3D & it was very cool. I highly recommend it if you haven't been to a 3D movie.. The closest and best movie theater is about a 40 minute busride from my town. It's a CGV, which is a huge media company based in Seoul. They also have an English TV channel that I sometimes watch. They always play NCIS/CSI/Bones (i.e., forensic crime shows - they love them!). There is a closer movie theater in the local EMart complex, but the movies are unfortunately mostly in Korean.


I've discovered the magical world known as torrent downloading! I had heard about it before while in the States, but never tried it because of the slow connection speeds. The awesome technology here makes it so quick to download music and movie files. I've already nearly filled my hard drives now, I'm thinking about buying a new terabyte drive (1000 gigabytes!). These are also very cheap here. A terabyte drive will hold more than 1000 movies!


I had some more interesting new food last weekend. I was a little put off at first by the menu: ox stomach! But once you get past the chewy texture, the taste is surprisingly good! They say it's also a very healthy food - it must at least have some sort of minerals that I don't normally get. I went to this restaurant with a group of Koreans that I (again) met at the gym. The gym has turned out to be a great place for making new friends :)


Thursday morning of last week, I joined the Kindergarten classes on their monthly field trip - this month was a musical. It was the Korean version of 'Everybody Poops', and although it was entirely in Korean, I thoroughly enjoyed it! I had the fortune of sitting next to a fellow Korean teacher, so she was able to translate for me occasionally during the show. Here's the Readers' Digest version: The hero character (henceforth referred to as Good Poo) visits a racoon character, and they embark on a journey of discovery for how to defeat the 'evil poos' (played in the musical by bad poos of 3 kinds - with one carrying a devil's pitchfork, one a plunger, and one a toilet brush). Good Poo carries a magical rock that allows the Good Duo to travel searching for the 3 things that must be obtained to defeat the Evil Poos. They visit a variety of people and places - including the birthplace of all poos, a wise old frog, and a fun-loving skateboarding turtle. In the end, the 3 tokens turn out to be: 1) exercise, 2) vegetables, and 3) love. The Good Duo collects all 3 and unlocks the portal that sends the Evil Poos to their final resting place - that Big Toiletbowl in the Sky. So I saw a good show, learned a little more about Korean culture, and possibly learned something new about my GI health!






The Good Duo is here on the left, facing two of the Evil Poos.






Another new experience last weekend was finding a weather phenomenon worse than the pollen season in the Southeastern US. Until now, I didn't think I would ever come across another yellow coating that covers absolutely EVERYTHING outside. Well guess what they have here in Korea in the spring? It's called Yellow Dust (brought by 'the yellow winds'), and is said to be sand and pollution blown to the Korean peninsula from China. Many people wear face masks during storms like these, for great reason. Accompanying the Yellow Dust are winds that I have never experienced - it feels like being in a tornado. And not being able to see anything because of everything in the air makes it feel like you're in a whiteout. They advise people to stay indoors on days like this, for obvious health reasons. On a personal note, I had a sore throat and felt sick for over a week afterwards. I should really invest in a good facemask. Read more about Asian Dust here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Dust.


The crazy weather hasn't been limited to only the disgusting dust, either. For weeks now, Mother Nature has played cruel temperature games with us. It has warmed up on several occasions to near T-shirt weather. But just when we're convinced that warmer weather is here to stay, a cold spell will snap again! Last Monday snowed hard all day long, but it only stayed for a few days before completely melting. It must have been right on the edge of freezing temperatures, because the snow was very wet and slushy. This weekend was rather chilly too. Hopefully warm temperatures will be coming soon..


On Saturday a group of us went to see the Korean show Nanta. Nanta is at the core a traditional drum performance, but it has also modernized the performance and added some comedy - it's very good. The show has toured all around the globe, and has even appeared on Broadway in the US. The show mostly takes place in a restaurant kitchen, and follows a day in the life of 5 characters. They have a lot of fun drumming on every imaginable surface and object - and the show even being largely unspoken, is very funny. I've definitely learned that comedy is universal. For more information on the show: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanta_(musical) or http://nanta.i-pmc.co.kr/en/about/nanta_01.asp.

We went for a special promo for Nanta too - it was a half price performance, plus they included a small brunch for us prior to the show. The brunch was quite unsatisfying though - I was expecting a giant spread like our American buffets, but all we got was some coffee and juice, a tiny sandwich, and a cupcake. But after the show, my buddy won a nice door prize - a Polaroid camera!


Also this past weekend, I went to my second FC Seoul soccer game. They play in the World Cup Stadium in Seoul, where the home team is obviously FC Seoul. They play other football clubs throughout the country - this last time the visiting team was Pohang. I've never been much of a soccer fan, but it's pretty huge here, apparently also in the entire world..! :) The fans get very into the games - lots of cheering. Here's a few pics:












Fireworks before (and all throughout) the game:












Wild crowd cheering, chanting, and waving flags:

Our team






Sunday I made the trip to the nearby Korean Folk Village. I had heard about it even prior to arriving, as it's very nearby in our city. Although, unlike most places, it isn't very easy accessible by public transit. So a taxi is a must-do, but taxis are also so very cheap around here. The village is very cool - it has recreations of all types of traditional houses - from slave quarters to yangban (the Korean aristocracy). My favorite part of the village was definitely the performances. They have all kinds of things ranging from music and dancing to tightrope and equestrian acrobatics.

Hoping all is well with you, and I'll update you again in the near future!


Take care,



Matt