Fire Ants

     When I first looked around this neighborhood it was dark, and hideously cold outside. I did not know exactly where I was, I only had a faint map and address that I had printed off the internet. The streets were not brightly lit, and I stumble across this monstrosity of a graffitied building. I had a feeling that my new apartment was not going to be in an ideal neighborhood. I finally found the address, and half a block away I found a well lit and manicured area full of new wealth and vigor. "At least the neighborhood is only half bad." I thought.
     For the past couple of weeks that night stumbling about in the near dark and freezing temperatures had tainted my view of the southwestern part of my neighborhood. However, during the past few days I have attempted to acquaint myself with this area. Happily I can say that my first impressions were wrong. The graffiti was only to say that the building had been condemned. The streets are dark at night, but they are safe and the neighbors are friendly. There is a bit of revitalizing construction going near my building, and apparently money is being poured into the area's general vicinity to make it more akin to Seolaemeoeul, or Insadong. The more that I look around the neighborhood the more I get a feeling of the Fine Arts building back at GSW. There is a mix of design companies and other studios peppered about the general populace. Although it is not terribly visible, their mark is on the town.

Sinsa

It's that sort of...

     I was sitting in a coffee shop Sunday morning flipping through an art and design magazine. This is the sort of neighborhood that has coffee shops, and they are open on Sunday mornings. The coffee shop I went to is the sort of coffee shop that provides you with high-brow magazines. The magazine I picked was mostly about objects. Cars, daily planners, cellphones, furniture, anything that is ever used, even if it is only to decorate, was discussed in this periodical. There was a paragraph about the milk ajuma hand carts. It compared phones by Prada and Giorgio Armani. The magazine seemed to focus on the ideal of, "Form follows function" and added the clause, "and an important function is to look pretty". It was simply entitled Design. It is that sort of magazine.
     There was a particular shop that the magazine discussed. The photo spread showed a shop full of merchandise that looked a bit more low-brow. The items were of a modern pop-art theme. Toys, posters, and random odds and ends were the norm. The photos reminded me of "Juxtapoz" . The main item that I remembered from the write-up was a trophy mounted polar bear head that was wearing a pirate hat. It was that sort of shop. I remembered it specifically because it did not seem to fit the clean cut image of the magazine. It was that sort of photo spread.
     Yesterday, I was wandering around the less clean, more graffitied part of my new neighborhood. I was looking for an old furniture store that I had noticed a few nights before. I was heading in a general southwesterly direction when I saw a polar bear's head mounted on a wall inside of a shop. I stopped to gape for a moment because I began to notice other items from the magazine spread. It is that sort of neighborhood.

Transitions...

     I am in a state of transition. It is a bit like being a minnow in tapioca pudding. Friday was my last day at Sungdong POLY, and I am now finishing up the last hurdles of the new visa process, and should hopefully begin teaching at PlusOne by the beginning of March.
     Why the change? Well, I'm still searching for a school with integrity. POLY quickly proved itself to not be such a school. I am not going to get into details here, but from the moment I turned in my notice (over a month ago) I have felt a weight off of my shoulders.
     On the other hand, PlusOne is proving itself to be an awesome school. Everything that I have seen shows a relaxed atmosphere with more devotion to teaching the children rather than making a quick buck from the parents.
     I am not putting up any PlusOne pictures just yet. I have another week and a half of down time, so I should be able to catch up on my back log of blogs. Instead enjoy my farewell photo essay of POLY.

**I apologize in advance if I have misspelled anyone's name**




ByBye POLY

Namdaemun:RIP

     It's amazing how the destruction of a site that I barely visited can affect me so strongly. The people around me today (namely at the hakwon) have expressed little emotion towards the event, but just hearing about it, and later seeing the pictures that accompanied the Associated Press Article has left me feeling a bit hollow. I can only assume that this is because I consider Korea as my home, and Namdaemun (남대문) was an important cultural treasure.
     Unfortunatly the only pictures I ever took of the gate was on a cell phone, before I purchased my digital camera. Even more unfortanatly I was never able to transfer the pictures from the phone onto my computer, and are now gone for good. This has just given me the conviction to always carry my charged camera, and to take pictures of everywhere that I go.

Ringing in the New Year

     Happy 2008, everyone! The end of 2007 was fairly eventful for me. On the 15th Jungwon and I had an action packed day. It started off with ring shopping at Insadong and Chungro 3Ga. This was followed up by some coffee at the Insadong Starbucks, and then meeting Sarah and Michael. The four of us then went to a ceramics party that Jungwon's friend was catering, and then on to some fancy building back on Chungro 3Ga that had a fancy sky lounge.
     During the ring shopping Jungwon and I started at an artsy jewelry shop in Insadong. They had some lovely rings, but Jungwon wanted to check out the well known jewelry shops along Chungro 3Ga. So we walked there and I immediately didn't like the shops. Imagine a room full of greasy men that could very well be used car salesmen only instead of trying to sell fenderless Pintos, they're tying to pass along cheaply stamped out gold foil rings. It was obvious we weren't going to find anything there.
     So Jungwon and I meandered around, and we broached some cultural differences that we hadn't fully noticed before. I had to explain that engagement rings are for the woman, and that they are typically worn on the finger along with the marriage band. Jungwon explained that I should have a ring too (I'm not sure if this is a Korean thing, or a Jungwon thing), and with her bashfulness of her hands, they may very well be the only rings we buy.
     We also decided that we both really liked one of the specific designs back at the first shop in Insadong. We soon found ourselves back in the shop being measured and jittery with excitement.
     The rings are two tone, white and pink gold. There are four stones set along either edge (see the pictures) of each ring. The gold is unfortunately rather soft (as gold should be), and Jungwon insisted on cubic instead of real diamonds. "Can you tell the difference?" She asked. I, of course, had to admit that I couldn't. The delivery from the workshop was delayed due to the Christmas orders, but we finally picked them up on the 29th. Unfortunatly my ring was a bit larger than I was confortable with. I could just imagine it slipping off if I was to ever go swimming. So Monday I returned to the shop to get it resized, and I'm hoping it will be ready sometime in the next few days.
     Still, Jungwon and I consider ourselves officially engaged. There aren't any dates set, and I'm not sure anything will happen anytime in the next year. Just rest assured that when the weddings bells do ring, they will probably ring twice, once for each homeland so don't be afraid that you'll be missing anything.

RingShopping

Sarah and Mike Last Fling

rings

One Year

     Today is our one year anniversary!
     That is all.

Where to begin?

     It's been a long month. Dad has come and gone from Korea, Jungwon and I went to Namsan, and of course there was Halloween at the school. I'll keep the text short, and let the pictures do the talking.

Namsan	Halloween	Dad