생일 축하합니다~

생일 축하합니다 생일 축하합니다
Blah blah blah 이차드~
생일 축하합니다~!

Today was my birthday and I had a blast. Breakfast was good, talked to family through the web for a few hours, finished a movie I started the night before, and because I don't have classes today I was able to do all of this pretty easily.

The rear wheel of my bike was out of alignment and it turned out to be an easy fix. Within 10 minutes I was off riding away and went farther than I had gone before. Path went to paved, dirt, paved, dirt (first time this far), paved bridge, dirt, little concrete as it dipped downhill into the stream with about 2" water, dirt, and then I had to turn around because the road was covered to tarps with rice drying. It is harvest season so I am seeing this all over the place.

At first I was hesitant to ride through the water, especially since the path was at such a downhill angle; I made 2 round trips. I felt like a little kid, it was such a blast. I know some people laugh when they hear my laugh; I've heard comments about it on 2 continents now :) But after going through the water I laughed like I have not laughed in years. It was so refreshing.

Ended the hour long bike ride just in time to get lunch in the cafeteria. Lunch was so good; bulgogi (barbecued beef) with fresh lettuce and steamed rice; which is one of my favorite dishes in Korea.

Now a few people had told me happy birthday that morning but nothing big had happened and I was wondering if something would. This was my second birthday outside of the US; the first was at Yonsei and my classmates took me out to pizza. Had like 7 countries represented at the table; it was wonderful.

Back to today, soon after I sat down with my food I heard a student start tapping out the birthday song on the piano - you know 'just practicing.' I hear a couple students say "birthday" behind me, real quiet like. Then the Chinese teacher and the RD stood up and starting singing me the birthday song in Chinese. Fun~

Someone hits the lights and a cake is brought out from the kitchen. Before I realize it all of the teachers and soon all of the students in the cafeteria start singing me happy birthday. The funny thing is I truly don't remember what language they were singing in ^^

The rest of the day has had random bursts of singing from groups of students; again in various languages. Gifts include cool fridge magnets, a pack of pomegranate gum, onion snack, persimmons, mandarins, candy bar, peach drink, and steamed bread.

download -> Utada Hikaru - MTV Unplugged "Parody" 7 megs

Update: I thought the day was over when I was given a few more gifts by friends and then told I could listen to a story at 10:50 on the 3rd floor (I get cryptic messages now and then so this did not raise any suspension ). At 10:50 I found the entire female student population crammed into one of the dorm hallways with a birthday cake of 'choco pies' (cookies in effect) with candles built in sitting on top of a box of cookies. They sang Happy Birthday to me in two languages, gave me a large bottle of corn tea, several energy drinks, and two handmade cards.

This has been my best birthday ever, period.

English Room Opening

In Korea hiring a private tutor for an hour can cost between $25 ~ $50 an hour. So whenever people hear about an English Room or an English Zone (read: Free) they get excited. It is the opportunity to practice the language without having to pay dearly for it.

Our school has been talking about opening our own English Room for awhile and after getting a native speaker and pushing from the parents of the students, we have now opened the English Zone. We are holding a contest as well to get a better name for the room.

In certain countries you can measure the success of something by the pairs of shoes outside. For opening day we had a good turnout. With the guys on one side playing board games or other games and on the other side the girls were chatting and starting on a puzzle.

We've got a really good selection of various games, puzzles, movies, and soon will have a great selection of books.

For opening week MiYoung and myself will be manning the room every lunch and dinner. After the initial startup time we will each be manning the room only once a week.

The Mandu Killer

There are plenty of food items which can translate from one language to another; rice, chopsticks, soy sauce, etc.

But there are even more things which have no English equivalent to them. Things like "nang myun" (cold noodles), "kimchee" (fermented cabbage in red chili peppers), and "doupookie" (thick slices of rice based noodles with spicy sauce and chunks of meat).

Certain things like "mandu" = "dumplings/pot stickers." I am not sure why but almost no one here has learned the word "dumpling" despite knowing the names for all other food products.

Keep in mind that Korean, like all other living languages, has a tendency to change over time. A lot of words and phrases from English have become Korean in recent years. The words translate but the meanings sometimes change. The word "killer," in Korean, means someone who devours a kind of food (great huh?).

My new nickname over lunch; ~The Mandu Killer~

I am thinking about putting that in the name slot for my room.

YonGoJon

Seoul University is the undisputed top university in the nation. The 2nd and 3rd place spots are a bit more fuzzy. Yonsei University; where I was an exchange student, and Korean University; where I lived this last summer, are rival schools. Every year they meet for 5 different sporting games as a way of competition.

Yonsei University calls these games YonGoJon.
Korea (Goraeya) University calls these games GoYonJon.

We saw the soccer game which was in a large sports stadium south-east of the river. If my friends didn't tell me the details I would have missed the event. And after all it is a lot more fun to go with friends then to go alone.

Right before the game started they showed a bunch of videos teasing and taunting each other. These were hilarious. They included a number of well known actors and actresses promoting one school or the other. One of my favorite actresses was promoting the other side; so sad.

I had no idea our school had so many flag wavers. I say again, so many flag wavers. Everyone in the stands were doing choreographed dances. But there is no way that they flag wavers could lead the dances. Which is why each university had three stages set up for the main cheer squad leaders. Let's take a closer look at those costumes. And what about the competition, Korean University?

I grabbed some audio with the still camera so you can hear part of one of the cheers. And if the crowds were now as hyper as you wanted, simply set off some fireworks to liven things up.

The game ends and everyone heads towards the field to continue to dance and cheer. I noticed how tongue-in-cheek the rivilary was as conga lines of Korea Univ students were coming to our side. So for kicks we conga'd over to the other side as well, where we weren't exactly alone.

Yonsei's mascot is an eagle which Korea's is a tiger. The tiger costumes looked more like Tony The Tiger but Yonsei students call them kitties. So I got a picture with some of the Korea cats before heading over to Sinchon; the happening place near Yonsei University. Besides the dancing and break dancing in the streets, there was a stage set up with a concert going on. Tradition states that if you go to a store as a group and start chanting and cheering they will give you free food and drink.

Japanese Adventure Part II

As night fell a crowd gathered around a small stage in the middle of the mall. They were from Sweden and, as all traveling Swedes do, began to play with fire. It almost looks like they are spelling out words. More fire. And finale.

And what trip to Japan is complete without seeing at least one robot roaming the streets?

Ate dinner late at a cheap priced restaurant. The food was really good.

I didn't have enough money so I had to hit an ATM. The problem was I got the exchange rate of Korean and Japan confused and instead of taking out $50 I took out $500; overdrawing my account.

Saw probably the only dryer in the city as dryers are mainly used only in America.

Cool bridge. And view of the inside. Which was connected to another mall. Complete with cute shirts, good size arcade with the Taiko drum game and the crane game with gifts of chocolate or potato chips, and a movie theater.

Everything is cute in Japan, from the buses to the security guards.

Our tourism books said that the real happening place of the city was on the other side of the river. Turns out that is the prostitution area of the city. Amongst that we found a pet store. Who would have thought? Want a $600 kitten? How about some clothes for them?

Found another small restaurant where the food was great and the people were really friendly. Friendly until they gave us soup for "free" and then tried to charge us for it. Still, the soup was so good I would opt for going there again sometime in the future.

Street vendor cart. Briefly went to a temple of some sort. And another shot.

Next morning found a photo studio complete with a couple of Korean style dresses (a lot of Korean tourists come to this city). Can you find the Korean style dress amongst the Japanese?

Got my visa and got bad directions so I went to the wrong harbor. Went to the correct port just in time to see my ride sail away. Waited another hour and was able to hop onto a different boat.

I want to go back to Japan again but next time without the stress and with someone who knows the country / language.

Japanese Adventure

In order to work in Korea I had to get a new visa (which cancels out the one I just got 5 months ago). The entire trip was thrown together and literally came down to "if I took five more minutes here or took the subway as opposed to a taxi I would not have made the ferry and hence not got to the visa office in time and therefore would have started work late." Stressful two days~

In the ferry I watched a group of people play a traditional card game; yet to understand the rules. Saw that the tv and the chair/table were all attached to the floor in some way. Watched a traditional Japanese parade on tv. Fun stuff.

Woke up the next morning to see I was in another country. Found I could barely fit into the seat on the bus and that we were driving on the other side of the road. Passed by the Fukuoka Hard Rock Cafe which was of course located next to the Yahoo! Dome where the Hawks play.

Subway was clean, open, and really quiet. I do enjoy having a choice of toilets when I go to the bathroom. It is better than being stuck with one design or the other. And was reminded again that I was in Japan. Loved the bakery. We spent a lot of time in that shop.

Putting a bike warning sign in the middle of the sidewalk, on the ground, almost guarentes you will be run over by a bike as soon as you read the sign. Did see a number of bikes and scooters in 36 hours.

Rear of the hotel had a nice view from the street. Front was nearly impossible to find as it was hidden in a marketplace. Smallest room as well as the smallest bathroom that I have ever used. Decided against the hotels where you rent a bed in the side of a wall.

Flower shop. Stumbled across a mall with interesting design which looked nice in day time and even better during the light and water show synchronized to the theme from Pirates of the Caribbean.

And this was all before night fall...

Speak of the Devil

You know it is a bad sign when you walk into your place of work and your boss is looking at you and one of your co-workers is pointing a finger at you. You walk toward your desk and you are told "you are no gentleman."

Okay....and what exactly did I do to get that greeting?

Fast-forward about ten minutes and I understand they were using a saying similar to "speak of the devil;" you talk about someone and then poof, they magically appear. Turns out "you are not a nobleman/you are no nobleman" is a saying.

I know there are some weird sayings in English and I know they are some strange sayings in Korean (I have a book of them ^^) but imagine having to tell someone what "speak of the devil" means in another language and making sure they understand that you were not literally calling them the anti-Christ...it took five minutes for me to understand they were not upset at me and were just using a common saying.

And I just wanted to see if there was any extra yangyam chicken leftover in the fridge...