Filed under: Apartment, Funny Story, Korean Culture, Korean Friends, Korean Life | Tags: class, esl korea, funny, gaelic football, haircut, rock, same name
students
Filed under: Apartment, Funny Story, Korean Culture, Korean Life | Tags: Apartment, esl, faucet, hagwon, lotte mart, north korea
My Apartment
Words can’t express the amount of horror that came over my face when Matt opened the door to my apartment. I couldn’t help but think…”Wait wait….this is South Korea, right?” as I noticed the brown stained walls, broken tiles, tilted kitchen (it was actually at a slant), broken furniture, smell of rotten kimchi, and duct taped sliding doors. No really, for a moment I thought I’d accidentally ended up in North Korea or 1940’s Soviet Russia. I kid you not. It was THAT bad. I wanted to cry for like 30 seconds…but then I spent the rest of the night laughing and talking to my oppas about my shock and dismay. They were…well not too comforting…
Filed under: Travel | Tags: babies on planes, flight, kids on planes, korean bound, tokyo
Incheon Airport
Note to self: Don’t pack muscle relaxers at the bottom of your carry-on, and don’t forget to take them out of your bag BEFORE the flight- especially when you’ve got a window seat. Woe was me for the first 6 hours of my flight as I restlessly attempted to convince myself that I could fall asleep naturally. Eighteen different possible sleeping positions later, and I was still wide-a-beeping-wake. Not to mention, I’d really wanted to sit next to someone awesome- someone that would make the 13 hour flight fly by more comfortably- but in the end I sat next to the two quietest friends I’ve ever seen in my life. How the beep to you fly over 5,000 miles next to a friend and never once talk to each other. NOT ONCE! So I gave up all hope in either of them striking a conversation with me.
Filed under: Funny Story, Korean Culture | Tags: Funny Quote, Korea, Korean, VISA, Work Visa
says the consulate interviewer...
Today I had to go to the Korean Consulate in downtown Atlanta for my visa interview. After 20 minutes of driving and 30 minutes on the metro I finally made it to a small rinky dink office in a grand building near Peachtree Center. The collective English skills of all the employees at the consulate probably only amounted to grade 4 (and its only so high because I noticed an American girl working neatly tucked away in the back).
Filed under: Dramas, Korean Culture | Tags: Coffee Prince, Full House, Goong, K-drama, Korean Dramas, My Girl, Roomie, What Happened in Bali
The Result of Not Having a Life…
So what is a K-drama you ask? It’s like an American soap opera only it generally lasts around 16 episodes, higher quality, and mildly less over dramatic…kind of like a miniseries. Love. Lies. Heartbreak. All that jazz.
My Top 5
1. Goong
2. Coffee Prince
3. My Girl
4. Full House
5. What Happened in Bali
Iljimae would be on there…but stupid Crunchyroll (my drama paradise) took down the drama due to copyright infringement. I hate law abiders! I was only on Ep 7 or 20something!
Filed under: Korean Culture, Music, Uncategorized | Tags: Big Bang, BoA, Da Vinci, Kara, Korean Pop, Lee Hyori, Roomie, Se7en, Shinee, Twitch, Uhm Jung Hwa, Wondergirls
G Dragon of Big Bang
I’m just going to assume that none of my friends or family know a darn thing about Korean pop culture. I’ve found that most people don’t really think that Koreans could possibly have anything cool or interesting, and are always surprised to find out how big their music market is. ITS HUGE! Although Japan definitely has a much larger entertainment market, Koreans are really making their imprint on it these days. Lee Hyori, Wondergirls, Shinee, and Rain (ranked #3 most influential man in the world)…the list goes on and on. Some of them I like, some of them I hate, but I admit a lot of it is really catchy or just outright adorable. All that aside, Korean guys dress FIERCE…and this is just the outright truth. Metrosexual? Maybe….but still, their television dramas are full of guys that could school even the Clinton on “What Not to Wear.” It’s an Express for Men in human form.
Anyway, here are some little bits of Korean pop culture- music, movies, fashion, and much much more.
Filed under: Couchsurfing, Friends, Korean Friends, Korean Life | Tags: Ajusshi, Brazil, Busan, Couchsurfing, Falco, GI Joe, Luna, Player
Okay okay…so I have no friends anymore (other than Player and Brazil but they don’t count). I left Mount Holyoke and then suddenly…bam…utter loneliness and nights spent on language exchange websites begging people to let me teach them English so that my life can have meaning. What’s funny is that this new addiction has actually become pretty useful. It’s both minimized my fear of continued loneliness once hitting Korean soil and enabled me to teach foreigners phrases like “If you’re gonna act like a bitch, I’m gonna treat you like a bitch” and learn useful Korean words like 뷴태(sp?) byuntae (pervert). Plus, I’ve actually managed to make some pretty close buddies that I’m looking forward to meeting upon my arrival to Korea.
Home is where the rent is paid
Here are some pics of a apartment…not necessarily mine. It’s the pictures my agency sent me to show me the kind of place I’ll be living. Plus: It’s fairly large for one person and has a bath tub which is uncommon in Korea. Minus: Look at that furniture!
It comes with all the necessary stuff like forks, bowls, chopsticks, and I can’t believe I forgot to ask but I’m PRAYING that it has air-conditioning. It’s bloody hot in Korea and I don’t want to die from fan death. I’ll post pictures of the real thing as soon as I’ve seen the real thing. Say a prayer that my neighbors aren’t crack heads or people in cardboard boxes.
Filed under: Korean Life, Travel, Work | Tags: Flights, Friends, Housing, Leaving Home
Literally.
I’m not even kidding. 12 hour flight from Minneapolis to Toyko and I’ll probably end up between some fat guy with head lice and a snuggler. A wise woman once told me, “take valume.” Sadly without insurance I can’t even fake anything that needs valume, but thank goodness for the muscle spasm of Summer 2008 because I’ve got a nice supply of muscle relaxers.
