o christmas tree

so, i gave in and dragged mark to the minimal christmas section of lotte mart tonight. i'd be trying hard to let my frugal conscience (wait, my what?) do the decision-making and recognize that decorating our apartment for the holidays isn't necessary since we're leaving for vacation on december 25th ...

but, that ideology didn't really work.

our apartment felt sad without a christmas tree. i'm a sucker for the holidays, and a tree is the most important part! i know that christmas this year is going to be significantly different than years prior, what with being on the other side of the globe and all, but that's no reason to dismiss its excessiveness entirely. despite its only one-time use (for us, i promise i'll try to recycle it to new friends), a ₩20,000 artificial tree felt like a good deal.



i haven't yet determined whether south korea's lack of hype about christmas is going to be a blessing or a curse. sure, there are a few lights and decorations here and there around our neighbourhood; mostly in storefronts and restaurants, and of course, the life-size creepy and bald/hat-less santa that went up in our school's lobby this afternoon ... but you definitely aren't inundated with christmas in this country. i'm sure it could pass somewhat unnoticed if you wanted it to.

but really, who would ever want to do that??

our tiny tannenbaum is no griswold family christmas tree, but it suits us just fine.

goodbye october

it was a happy halloween indeed. in the end, the costumes didn't end up coordinating, but they were both respectively fabulous. (that's mark behind the mask, just in case you were confused.) this indian and monkey butler headed to a house party in uijeongbu with some of our costumed friends and had an excellent night.

in other breaking news, we were informed today of the long-awaited fate of our apartment: we're keeping it! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! though i may not have mentioned it on here, we went into our contract aware that the lease on our wonderful 3-bedroom abode would be expiring at the end of august. and from there, they wanted to shuttle us into an officetel, or one-room apartment for the two of us. i don't know what sounds like relationship bliss to you, but rooming together in dorm-sized accommodations is not it! knowing well in advance that we'd be unhappy with the new digs, we responsibly staged our protest months ago.

however, when things get done korean-style, it's sometimes at a snail's pace. and there are often a lot of vague responses to requests and pleas and no clear answers. our lease ended up being extended until the end of october, which just sort of extended this excruciating situation. last week, when november first was looming at the end of our calendars, both mark and i were hesitant to bring it up. because it's also korean-style to get-it-done-last-minute. i was dreading hearing on the friday that we'd have to pack up and move sunday.

but despite all this anxiety, our answer's finally here and it doesn't involve downsizing! we're relieved and elated and, needless to say, busy preparing for a celebratory "housewarming."

so long sweet summer

so, tomorrow is the first day of september, and it can't help but stick in my mind as the end of summer and the arrival of the (at home) back to school season. here, it means ... not a whole lot, since school's been going strong through the hottest months of the year. it does mean our 5-month korea-versary is around the corner though, and again i marvel at how quickly the sand is passing through the hour glass. i live in this weird paradox of feeling like i just got here and feeling like i've been here forever. it's hard to wrap my mind around.

one thing i miss about being "new" to korea is the awe at all the weird different things this country considers normal. how quickly we've become accustomed to (and, mind you, have respectfully embraced, criticized, laughed at, and abhorred) things like everyday korean style, the ubiquitous sale and consumption of alcohol, drunk-in-public businessmen that accompany the ubiquitous sale and consumption of alcohol, lack of safety for pedestrians, lack of safety rules in general, cheap ice cream treats, cheap cigarettes, caramel popcorn at the movies, being objects of attention because we're caucasian ... etcetera, etcetera ... i really could go on and on (and on).

having mark's sister ali here was sort of a re-awakening to all these wonderful korean things. she left us copies of her pictures, and it was refreshing to see our stompin' grounds through someone else's new-to-asia eyes.

who needs a real-life employee when you can just have a volunteer mannequin direct traffic away from the construction zone? click to enlarge

mondo bugs are everywhere.

pizza school - pepperoni with cheesy crust in my personal fave, but you can get corn or pasta or potatoes on your pizza too ...

mark posing as a ... white guy ... for a random's photo

appealing (and again, life-like!) statues enticing you into a restaurant in myeongdong.

parent-less child going for a stroll, every day sighting.

frosted flakes!

snazzy umbrella bag machines, saves drips on indoor floors. excess waste not considered ...

why use the road for your motorbike, when this sidewalk is just that much handier? it's also common to see cars on pedestrian routes as well ...

so happy september to you all! i'm excited for less humidity and teaching my students a three-syllable month name.

Who's my homeboy?

About a month ago when I was doing my weekly chore of taking out the garbage, I came upon a discarded framed painting of Jesus


Alex and I had been looking for more apartment decor and as Jesus looked up at me from the heap of garbage he was sitting on, I had to take it
It was pretty much a sign from the big guy upstairs
Once I got it back to the apartment I started having second thoughts
Not being religious and all, I sorta wondered what we would do with it, and if I really wanted Jesus staring at me all the time
Then I wondered why he was even in the garbage in the first place
What had he done to deserve this fate?
Had someone lost their faith and angrily put Jesus in the trash?
A conversion to Judaism?
Maybe the painting had some underlying bad-luck-monkey-paw-curse secret
I debated sneakily returning him to the garbage pile

But as well, I worried that with Koreans being (from what I understand) pretty good Christians, and with us already standing out being the only foreigners in our apartment complex, that they would think I hate Jesus too
I'm trying to give us foreigners a good rep
I decided this Jesus had more life in him and wasn't going to the dump that day
So we kept him, albeit facing away from us 'til we could figure out what to do with him

I wanted to spruce him up
Make him a little hipper
You know, Jesus for a new generation
But alas I'm not very art inclined
So he sat

Then we discovered our friend Dave is quite the artist
So we commissioned him for zero dollars and zero cents to make Jesus a bit more contemporary and not so somber
The long flowing hair and the beard and mustache is always in style in my books, but something about those eyes just wasn't sitting right with me
From what I hear Jesus was pretty hip and to look so sad all the time wasn't really fitting
Now some might say, "Mark, this is blasphemous and you're going to hell"
and to them I say, "at least it's not a picture of Muhammad"

In all reality, if Jesus is so forgiving, he won't mind being spruced up for the good of my apartment
And as Dave reminded me, heaven is very close to the sun, so it's probably pretty bright up there
ergo Jesus most likely wears sun glasses anyway
So here he is, feast your eyes on The King of Kings:

Our place is looking better already!

If anybody is offended, please leave a comment, we haven't gotten many lately

-mark

jong comes to the dong

i wonder if kim jong il reads the blogs from south korea
you know, for intel purposes
i wonder if they creep the korean blog list
and if so, hes definitely reading this one
i wonder what he thinks of our time here so far
as crazy as he is, i'm sure he's pretty impressed by my crane game prowess and bobble head collection
sometimes i wonder if they even have the crane game in north korea
i would imagine not
maybe they have the crane game but the only prize u can win is oppression
or maybe they have kim jong il bobble heads
i think that would make for a good prize, better than oppression
he's pretty much a bobble head already
if he is reading this hes starting to get angry

i watched this great documentary on north korea
i didn't realize how kooky everything was there
i mean i figured it was weird but you gotta watch this documentary to see what i mean
anyway kimmy is all in the news lately
that's what inspired this blog
he's threatening to blow shit up, as per usual
but even though that's big news back at home, here its page 12 material most days
if it even hits the papers
i guess u get immune to the antics when you can pretty much see him from the balcony of your high rise
or maybe you just try and ignore him and they'll eventually just shut up
i think people here just get on with their lives because what else can you do
people here just continue to drive around in vans screaming in korean through a megaphone about local produce sales when i'm trying to sleep despite impending doooom!!
today though, my korean partner teacher told me kim got a 4 page spread in the local paper
all this is very reassuring since i find myself like half an hour from north korea
well half an hour if i had a rocket car that went directly north through the hills at 200mph
but to be honest, i feel pretty safe here in minlak-dong
i'm not really sure what jong would want from this dong
unless they are just interested in restaurants, convenience stores and hair salons(although i think mr. jong is due for a new hairstyle)
that's pretty much the gist of this town
i mean if u like fried chicken, which i do, u cant really go wrong in minlak-dong
most fried chicken joints per capita in korea (mark fun fact number 1)
i'm not really even sure who lives here as barely any of my students reside in this dong(neighborhood)
and pretty much none of the korean teachers live here
only the foreign teachers get the privilege to live in this dong, i'd say about 10 foreigners in this whole dong
i never thought i'd get so excited when i saw a random foreigner on the street
it borders on lame
anyway these facts makes me think that if the korean people don't even want to live here, don't want to hang out here and don't want to party here then what would kim jong il want with this place
i'm pretty sure he likes foreign movies, ipods and basketball according to wikipedia
these things don't exist in the minlak-dong
well basketball exists but when i'm schooling koreans on the court, you know something is up
what is up is that they suck at basketball
the koreans call me steve nash on the court
no joke
i think its more because im white, short and canadian but they also seem quite impressed by my "skillz"
which oddly enough never existed in canada
now uijeongbu he might like
despite the lack of night life, which i imagine he's craving and the overt military presence
they have everything kim could ever want there
you know, stores with gadgets, all the beige overall suits he could want, ipods, a basketball team, cell phones, a movie theater that usually has about 3 foreign movies at a time
so i think he'll leave us and the kind people of minlak-dong alone and therefore being in seoul or even in uijeongbu isn't all it's cracked up to be...
anyway if you are reading this kim, toss up a comment if you like it or even if you don't and want to smite me, i'm all earsi should probably just do like most koreans and ignore him, i shouldn't even write blog posts about him, but if i just wrote about my daily activities you probably would have stopped reading already(unless u stopped after the first line)
so mr jong, chill the hell out because you're making yourself look stupider than usual and you're making some people nervous, i imagine

-mark

oh, and as PROMISED

it's 3 weeks-a month later than expected, but here's the tour of the luxury pad.

happy children's day ...

... to us! we've spent a lovely day off recuperating (ok, so i was the only one recuperating) from our festive housewarming party last night and enjoying the balmy 25+ degrees - yay, shorts weather!

and while i was too busy enjoying the sunshine from the comforts of our couch (in my defense, the open verandah door was providing a refreshing breeze and i did make it outside by dinnertime!) to put together my promised apartment tour, i do have some recent photos for you to enjoy! so, enjoy.

dave and i kicking butt in street fighter at our new fave bbq duck restaurant. free video games for all!


wuhoo! i win!

mark's got a new addiction

...and a captive audience

the addiction continues

fruits of labour (so far, that is)

we went for a hike on sunday - up what we thought was a mountain. turns out it was only a "hill". dear god.

stairs helped the climb

bugs did NOT!

the view at the top! this is min-lak dong, our lovely uijeongbu 'hood.

how i felt about hiking that day ...

mark still had fun! (ok, i did too)

this is our building! (see, we're one step closer to giving you an apartment tour!) we spotted it from our hike and navigation was slightly restored.

and then we came across these guys! they live on the same farm that houses the multiple roosters who cock-a-doodle-do at all hours of the day and night. i like the ducks (swans? heh) better.

xoxo

before apartment tours...

... come tours of the love shack motel.