2 months in

Well as of today or yesterday we have been here in Korea for 2 months. It is kind of hard to believe. It seems like just recently we were just getting off the plane and finding ourselves totally befuddled in a foreign land. My how the time passes.

I am pretty pumped because I (and Bonnie) am learning to read. I can read most of the Korean symbols now and am getting more speedy. It is pretty funny to look at English words translated into Korean.
For example: I went to McDonald's last night and got a ice cream cone. This would be pronounced (based on the Korean spelling) as: ah-e-suh guh-rum go-nuh (the uh's here make the uuuuh sound like in bud). Almost any word we English speaking folk would end in a vowel ends in UH or EE sounds here. It is just very humorous to hear a kid answer a question in math class by saying "slope-uh." It is hard to make all of this make sense by typing...

Also we booked our flights home for Christmas over the weekend. We will be coming in at 11PM on Saturday, Dec 20th and leaving at 7AM on Monday, January 5th. At this pace that will be here before we know it.

my scariest moment since living in Korea

This post is in dedication to my great friend and hairdresser: Liz Wheeler.

Yesterday it was time...I had to get my hair cut. I've put this off as long as possible, but I just couldn't put it off any longer because my hair had become a shaggy mess. Some other ladies at school have gotten their hair cut recently, so I picked their brains, heard some horror stories, and ultimately found a place to go to that did a good job on my colleague's hair.

I show up at the salon. The hair dresser doesn't know any English. I don't know any Korean. So, we had some awkward exchanges accompanied with many hand jesters. Finally I take my seat in the chair. To my credit, I came prepared. I printed off a picture of how my hair looked after the last time Liz cut it so I wouldn't have to try to explain anything to the guy. He liked the picture, or so I surmised, but it wasn't until 5 minutes later that he realized it was me in the picture (that's how bad I needed a hair cut).


The haircut: I am terrified. Koreans are great in a lot ways, but hair style is not one of them...lots of ugly bangs. Instead of washing my hair before the cut, this guy had a spray bottle and he would just spray one area at a time and then cut it. Everything seems to be going okay until it was time to cut the bangs. He takes a whole bunch of hair from the front of my head and gives it one big chop. My heart is racing in this moment. The result was something like this:


The only thing I could think of is the 1990's hair style of the huge bangs (thank you Mom for never making me cut my hair like that). At this point I am freaking out. So I make some hand motions trying to describe that I want my bangs to sweep to the side. He solves this by making a few cuts and mostly by just combing my bangs over.


Now that the cut was finished it was time to wash my hair. This was pretty standard except when she gave me a head massage; it was the hardest my head has ever been pushed by human hands. They then styled my hair. Some things I noticed: they didn't sanitize their hairbrushes. The brush he used on me was covered in hair. They also aren't as careful with their scissors; my dude poked me right above the eye with the scissors. Lastly, he didn't really part my hair before he cut it, so now my hair has a funny part.

The whole thing took about an hour and was a little under 20 bucks. How do I feel about my new cut? Well, it got the job done. My bangs are pretty bad. I will become the master of bobby pins because I think I will be pinning them back quite a bit. The weird part in my hair throws me off. But it could be worse. Overall, I think I am okay with it. It's not as edgy and full of layers as I would like, but it's just hair so it will grow out and then I can come home and have Liz give me a cool new look.



This picture was taken after the cut. I already have my bangs pinned back. I'll try to post a better picture of the cut later. We just found this bear walking on the street.

A long awaited purchase

So one thing that Bonnie and I have always wanted is a coat rack. We would look everywhere for them back in Como, but they were always way too expensive or just totally out there tacky. Every time I would go to a garage sale or thrift store and look for books I would always keep my eyes open but always to no avail.

So since Bonnie and I actually had a weekend off this past Saturday and Sunday we decided to spend part of Sunday at our local Homeplus (target-like) and actually take our time walking through the whole store and checking out the goods. This is actually pretty important to do. Since we can't read we really have to look closely at pics and stuff to decipher what we might be getting.

Well long story short as we were wandering through the home section the clouds parted and a light shown down from heaven upon the holy grail of our marriage thus far. There is was. A coat rack made of wood priced at 23,000 won (about $20) that didn't look tacky. We decided we must snatch it up. Now it sits in our front entryway eagerly awaiting the winter.

The other two pics were some sweet finds at a furniture thrift store across the street from our apt. We had always seen this place with little relics sitting on the sidewalk from our window but never had the time to venture down. We found the time and now we have a new love seat and a second tiny night stand for our bedroom. Yippee! That's all I've got.

Cheers to my first fantasy football victory of the season this past weekend. My team needs some improvement. Pray for them.

one thing we've been missing

Tom and I have been thinking recently...and we miss Hank. At times we picture what it'd be like for Hank to live in Korea: hearing his paws pitter patter on the hard wood floor; what it would look like for him to be perched on the back of our coach looking out the window at Asia; what would he think of all the interesting smells??? But then we think about how he would be cooped up in an apartment and he would have to go to the bathroom on concrete because we don't have grass. And then we think more about how sweet of a life he has at my parent's house just hanging out with Macey, getting treats (but hopefully not getting fat), and going on all these great walks everyday with Jerre. Yes...he's better off without us and without Korea for now, but we still miss him snuggling in bed with us.

Hong Kong final thoughts

So we have returned safely from Hong Kong and can now breath a bit easier. I posted another 50ish pictures on the Hong Kong slide show so feel free to check those out. The night after the last post Bonnie and I went out to a nice dinner at a very energetic, pricey, and pleasant "Surf and Turf" restaurant as our guide book called it. It was great and the food looked like it was straight out of Top Chef on Bravo. After dinner we walked across the street and strolled down a boardwalk that ran along the harbor. It was really cool because that night there were a ton of locals out because of a holiday. People had all kinds of glow sticks and toys and candles and such.

The next day I took a 1/2 hour ferry ride to an island near Hong Kong and did some hiking. It was pretty cool because there were no roads on the whole island. Just concrete walking trails. I visited a couple beaches along my 4 to 5 km hike and then caught a different ferry on the other side of the island and made my way back to the hotel.

That night Bonnie and I went up to the "Peak Tower" to catch a really cool night time view of the city. It was absolutely amazing and the video and pictures do not do it justice.

We slept in the next day bummed around the area near our hotel and then made the journey home. I don't care how many times I go through customs. I think I will always feel like Jason Bourne. That was our journey. Thanks for reading and posting comments! We love those.

Pics up

I got the slide show feature to work properly so the pictures are up on the right hand side. If you double click on the slide show it will open in a new window so you can view the pictures larger.

Hong Kong Day 2

So yesterday Bonnie started her conference and I headed off to begin exploring Hong Kong. I found out some interesting things. #1 fast food is cheaper (and faster) here. You can get a McD’s breakfast extra value meal for about $2.50 and lunch/dinner for about $3.75. The quality of food tasted about the same too. You can also get a cone for $.33, a shake for $1.25, and a McFlurry for $1.25. That is so awesome I can't even explain it. One negative about eating here in Asia is that chicken is a little funky. For the most part I don’t think they do cuts of meat here. I envision them taking out a butcher knife and just getting after the chicken. Then it gets cooked bones and gristle and all. Don’t get me wrong it still tastes great it’s just most of the time I can’t pinpoint what part of the bird I am eating. Anyway, on to more interesting things…

I explored the more downtown part of HK and then went to hit up “knock off alley” as I have dubbed it. Downtown had a lot of big buildings but on the whole wasn’t too fascinating to me. I'll post a new slide show on this sometime soon.

Knock off alley on the other hand was pretty cool. I went early in the day and then Bonnie and I went back later in the evening and fleeced the place, or was it the other way around? Time will tell. I got a nice midsized hiking backpack for about $25. Bonnie got a “D & G” leather purse for about $25. She got a pendant necklace for $2.50. We got a set of place mats for $5.75 and a 2’ by 3’ painting of a traditional Hong Kong market for $10. Oh, I also got a mini tripod for my camera for $2.50.

I think we may do a little bit more shopping in the coming days but Saturday was a good day. That’s all for now. As soon as blogger stops being dumb I'll post that slide show.

Arrival in Hong Kong

Well, we made it to Hong Kong. This is just one of the tons of huge buildings in this crazy city. Hong Kong itself does not encompass a large amount of area, but it does bring a new vision of a city built vertically to my eyes. Sorry Jill, Adam, and MK but in my opinion the urban environment in Hong Kong is even greater than in downtown Chicago. I'll try to make another slide show when time permits so you can check out more pics of the city.

So we got in yesterday in the early afternoon, quickly grabbed some lunch and headed out to do some shopping. Korea doesn't really have the cheap shopping (from what we've seen so far), but Hong Kong on the other hand... yeah, it's got that going on. Bonnie got a Goach (like the Coach purses with C's all over them but his has G's) for about $11 USD. She also got some nail polish, pens, and jewelry each of those things was about $2 to $4 each.

I'm hoping to do some more exploring today. I'm going to try to find some cheap camera accessories. Maybe a new teacher (messenger) bag. Tangent: Never buy a Swiss Army brand bag. They are crap. Buy their knives. The Swiss know how to cut stuff and make gadgets but bags...nope. Anyway, I'm in the market for a new messenger bag and maybe a heavy duty backpack for some possible intense summer traveling. That's all for now. Hopefully I'll update more later and even get some pictures up.

i did it first

I just want to note that the "sauna" Tom mentioned before isn't just for boys...it's a big hit among the ladies too. In fact, before Tom ever stepped foot in a sauna I went with a group of women from my school. Yes...it is true. I too stripped down naked with my co workers in Korea. This was a big step in my life...you know, the whole sitting around naked just talking to people...but it I did it. I think I'm a better (and cleaner) person for it.

Hong Kong here we come!!!

Hong Kong bound.

Well Bonnie and I leave Friday morning for Hong Kong. Bonnie is going there for some IB training and I am tagging along for the ride. I had to pay my own way and make all of my own travel arrangements so this could be a little bit of an adventure for me... I hope to watch some NFL while there. That is my goal for the weekend. That and see Hong Kong... More later.

high school retreat

We went on a retreat with our high school students this past weekend. We had a great time and it was a huge turning point in developing deeper relationships with our students.

One thing that is really big in Korea is Noraebangs (you say it Nor-ray-bong). It is kind of like karaoke, but instead of going to a karaoke bar you go to a noraebang with your friends and you rent out a room to karaoke in. For whatever reason they are a really big deal here. My students really wanted to go to a noraebang but it was closed when we tried. However, they quickly discovered that the arcade at the resort had a very mini-noraebang that you could sing in. Here is a video of a few of my students singing their hearts out. They love this song...."I'm so hot..." They were kind of mellow in this video...but I really think part of it is due to the fact that they were just so dang focused on singing these songs! These girls meant business. Watch out America, you don't want to mess with Koreans and their noraebangs.

Big Sauna

Let me begin with a disclaimer. If you get squeamish thinking about an area filled with pools and naked men then please discontinue reading at this point. Everybody still on board? Okay lets proceed.

So Wednesday night I joined 3 of my fellow male staff members and took part in an aspect of Korean culture that is definitely foreign to me. We went to what is called a sauna. This is a large health club type place filled with all kind of hot tubs and cold tubs and steam rooms and actual saunas. These places are very common in Korea. The particular one that we went to was especially large. It probably had 10ish tubs, several steam rooms, 5 or so saunas, and even a sleep room where you can spend the night (on a 1 inch foam mat with a wooden block a for pillow).

So here's how it works: First off, it is basically just on a floor in the big mall type shopping buildings that they have here. We walked up to a desk and purchased our tickets. Next we headed to the male locker room. When you walk into the locker room the first thing that you see is a bunch of rows of small lockers. You pick one, open it, put your shoes in, and take your key. Then you head over to another part of the locker room and find the big locker that corresponds to your key. Then you strip down naked.

Yeah, it is a bit strange at first. But then you look around the room and you just see tons of naked Korean dudes walking around and you begin to feel a little weird having you clothes on. So then you head into the actual Sauna. Before you enjoy all the attractions you are supposed to shower off. No stalls, you just line up along the wall... naked... one of a few white dudes in the room.

Then, you can basically choose from all the options above. There were some wicked hot hot tubs. One which advertised in poor English translation that it provided a "full corpse cleansing." That was a bit creepy... There were also luke warm tubs, jet powered tubs, cold tubs... all were very pleasant. At one point we stepped into a sauna that registered 94 C (about 200 F) for 3 or 4 minutes. I have never felt like that before and don't desire to again.

At the end of the night you shower off again. You can shave, brush your teeth, and do basically whatever hygiene activities that you want. And then you leave feeling like a new man and you go home and sleep like a baby.

You may think this sounds a bit strange and awkward but surprisingly it really isn't. Just think about it this way: If you would feel strange naked in a room full of clothed people, then wouldn't you feel strange clothed in a room full of naked people?

Overcoming Mountains

At our faculty retreat Tom and I got to go on a hike! It was great. This is us at the top of Tohamsan Peak. It's not the Rockies, but it sure was pretty! In the first picture, it's hard to see, but in the distance is the ocean. Korea is a beautiful place.