Questions About Korea Part 1

First I want to make it clear that learning a language is only as difficult as you make it. I have had the pleasure of meeting several people from around the world and I am glad I made the trip half way across the world to teach English. I keep getting these reoccuring questions that I just want to address and some of these are common sense (at least to me), but there are others that are interesting nonetheless. I will just answer them without any reguards to order. Some of  these questions are in other languages and I'm just going to summerize them in English.

Q1: When are you going to go back to (Okinawa), Japan?

A1: I have bought a plane ticket to visit there from January 21-24. I will basically be reconnecting with old friends and hopefully I'll make some new friends.

Q2: Are you going to try to come back to America?

A2: I will visit and probably invest, but if I choose to return it would have to be for a good reason. Currently, I am making more money abroad than I was in the United States and I am doing my dream. I wanted to travel for the longest time and I do not want anyone or anything to take that away from me. If I do choose to come back to live, it will be on my own terms and my own volitions.

Q3: Why Korea and why not Japan?

A3: I did actually try to go to Japan during the beginning, but that when the language schools Aeon and another chain closed. And that was before the earthquake too. While it has been a dream to live there, I have already done it  as a international student anyways. That being said, I guess I have to factor in the fact that I wanted to learn another lannguage too.

Q4: How is your Korean?

A4: My Korean is a work in progress. I have reached a middle intermediate level in the language, but honestly I could have reached low advanced if I had not had so many distractions with social activites. Not to say I want to become anti-social, but I had to make a trade off between reaching a desired level and experiencing new things. There we certain days where I had to choose between either meeting someone from my hometown, (that i haven't seen in years) or studying 2-3 lessons in Korean. This new year though I  will be  making up for lost time.

Q5: Is their racism towards foreigners in Korea?

A5: I am not going to beat around the bush and evade this question. Yes there is racism, but it is on a minor level. For one, when I walk outside I will get the painfully obvious "Oh, you're a foreigner." response. I also have a harder time to engage a Korean person in the Korean language because, not to sound counter racist, but there are some Korean people that refuse to talk to me in Korean. Even if my Korean keeps getting better and better and I no longer need English to do anything, there are those few people that just refuse to speak Korean with me just because I am white. I came across this in Japan, but it is more prevalent over here simply because it is not in the norm for a white person to speak Korean- period. There are seriously English teachers that do not even bother to learn the Korean language because they have no positive interactions with Korean people in Korean. I met a English teacher that has lived in Korea 9 years and only has a basic level of proficiency in Korean. But despite this, I still get plenty of language practice in Korean and I have noticed myself not even use English on the weekends. My interactions with Korean people have been both warm and cold.

If you are African American, you will be hard pressed to speak Korean right away, however if you happpen to be Asian, most Korean people demand that you understand Korean because it isn't seen in their culture that you could be a native English speaker. If you happen to want to learn the Korean language, being Asian by default opens more doors as opposed to being white in Korean society. Also if you're white, in many Korean people's eyes you're automatically assumed to be an American by default. There will be places where I would go and Korean people will comment that "this American acts weird", and I would have to tell them that he or she isn't American. Their exposure to foreigners mainly comes from hagwons and middle schools so it is easy to make assumptions based solely upon ignorance.

Age is key in Korea. People say that the older you are the more respect you will get, but  the younger you are the more jobs you will get. On applications there are some job positions with age limits and this causes a lot of turmoil for people  that are trying to pursue their dream jobs late in life. You cannot enter a university after a certain age in some schools. It is sad, but it's their culture and that's the way things are done. Times are changing, but until it completely changes that's the way it  is over here.

The main thing that should be taken away from this is the limited exposure to outside cultures. Not all Korean people are as I have described above. There are some open minded Korean people and there are a lot of closed minded Korean people. Those people have to have an interest in learning about other cultures to want to open their minds.

However a closed mind is like stagnent water- it grows fowl.

Q6: How are you able to study so many languages?

A6: I schedule them. Originally last year I was going to study a lot more, but I had a change of plans. I got to a point where I was getting pretty stagnant with learning languages, but here's how I basically study languages and it isn't my whole flowchart but it just to give you an idea, I'm actually going to change it up a little bit.

Step 1: Phrase Learning Phase- I basically learn the basic script and get adjusted with how the language sounds. I will probably add more audio/shadowing sessions to this in the future.

Step 2: Grammar Learning Phase 1-I learn grammar but do not focus heavily on vocab. From doing the grammar exercises, I pick up vocab from the context. I used to just put everything on flashcards and memorize it, but I do not have the time to always make them. If I do not know a word and I need to know it, I would make a list of words I want to use in exercises and incorporate them somehow. I have found that this works great for Korean and I will do this method for other languages.

Step 3: Polishing Phase/ Reading Comprehension- I get language material that is on my level and study them. I  will naturally learn new phrases and grammatical expressions anyways. This is the step I grind out whatever errors I have in speaking a language. This phase sounds tedious, but only the final steps take a while because it involves a little bit of shadowing. Doing this, I have noticed I can naturally improve my listening since it is audio heavy anyways.

Step 4: Optional Grammar Phase 2- If I find myself still enthusiatic in a language, I will decide whether I want to learn it to another level. This phase involves more polishing and learning techniqual information and specialized jargon. So far, I have only gotten Japanese to this phase mainly due to time constraints. I plan on getting Chinese to this phase once it becomes in my active study catagory.

Note that I am not "fluent" per se in any of these languages. I am saying this because to me fluency is the ability to speak at a near native level. That alone takes years on end and you have to go beyond the advance stages to do so.

Also I have side languages which I dabble in (mainly to see what I want to study next). I do not know any grammar in these languages; I just know like basic phrases.

I have dabbled in French, Spanish, Russian, Okinawan, Arabic, Bengali, Hindi, and Cantonese. I think of these French and Spanish is pretty good followed by Bengali. Bengali kind of sticks to me for some reason. I would say that I really only know 4 languages fairly well, but I will add more as I get older.

I have more questions that I will answer, but I do not want to make this blog overly serious because I want a comedy/satirical blog. I supposed I could have answered them in a another fashion, but I do not want to come off as racist or bigoted so I decided to answer them out of the blogging persona here. I think I will do the other ones in the exact same manner just to be safe. I in no ways concider myself to be an expert on learning languages nor Korean culture, but I hope I was able to answer honestly and truthfully.

The Epic Quest for Shoes

Lately I have developed such tactiturn towards blogging. However if I do not talk about this epic adventure, I will die a thousand deaths and ajummas with giant visors and counterfeit handbags will haunt my dreams. My feet are fucking big. There is no simple way of putting this. My feet are so big that you can land aircraft on them. They are so fucking big that I can charge people rent to live inside my shoes.

I should go into a little bit of detail: I am a stubborn mofo when it comes to learning languages. So I decided that the whole day I was going to not use English. I usually can get away with this, but when visiting Itaewon (이태원), you sometimes need to throw that rule out the window. While I was more than capable of doing this by myself, I happened to come across a fellow foreigner who was willing to help me so that's why. Originally I looked up an address on the internet and I was able to find a place, but it turns out they actually sold suits instead. Luckily the person he was with was Korean and she was able to save the day.

The first place I went to was this seedy back alley which was down this narrow corridor. I was so tall that I had to crab walk down the stairs just to peep this ajosshi's wares. He had my size shoes, but I had a choice between ajoshi-pointy-style shoes that were slippery or ajosshi-pointy-style shoes that were not slippery.

The foreigner herein will be referred to as Justin. Justin said that he shopped "there for some Nike's and said that they fell apart a month later." The Itaewon Ajosshi told me in Korean that he had a special sale just for me because I brought in a pretty Korean lady. Ok, creepyness check. He was going to offer me a deal of a life time. Bullshit meter check. He told me 100,000won was a real bargain for his shoes. Scam meter off the charts. To make a long story short I beat feet and went to withdrawal cash.

After I withdrew cash I went into this store with two ajummas and haggled with shoe prices with them. NO HAGGLING NO LIFE! Originally they wanted 140,000won for some authentic hand made Italian shoes. While that is probably normal retail for them, I decide to enlist some help with my haggle. I told my pretty Korean assistant to tell them "There is so many shoes to choose from and I am having a hard time making up my mind. Maybe a discount will help me make up my mind" I actually did have a hard time choosing and I wanted a discount so it wasn't a lie at all. ;) I walked away with the pair I wanted for around 120,000won which were not the shiny-pointy-ajosshi-shoes that I have luckily evaded.

Next I went to Wang Thai which is located at the same building as What the Book is. It is a Thai restuarant with a plethora of eatings to choose from. And for my bottomless pit of a stomach, it is always seasons eatings. I had chicken curry and some other Thai dish. And I have to say that that was the best Thai food that I have ever had. I will certainly be back en masse. My dinner conversation ranged with topics related to English employment, Ohio, and dentistry in Korea, along with the law. In other words somewhat random, yet some what coordinated.  The law came up mainly because Justin's hagwon isn't paying into pension and insurance which is totally illegal. I advised him to file at the pension office, but that could have it's mixed results.

After purchasing my shoes and celebrating the season for eating, I wound up on a subway heading for home. No, the adventure is far from over. I was to be whisked away to a Hof to have another conversation with subway ajosshi (here to be referred to as Mystical Ajosshi as his alias). SA or Mystical Ajosshi wanted to have deep conversations in English. He was actually a fairly open-minded person.

First we talked about travelling to different countries and we wound up talking about Romania and Vlad the Impaler because he worked in that country. Then we talked about GM and Chevrolet because he worked for the Chevrolet plant in Korea. Then we started talking about longevity at the Hof bar and he went into this talk about how he spent his time studying English. We then started talking about Confucian Analects being memorized along the health benefits of studying Tai Chi Chuan  （太極拳）then the health benefits of drinking and the Okinawan diet.

When I mentioned the Okinawan diet, surprisingly he wasn't as apprehensive to classify Okinawan people as Japanese people when I told him the history behind the people. I almost feel like a delegate sometimes when it comes to explaining Okinawa to Korean people because geography skills are surprising low compared to their math and science skills. To cast away any doubt my mentioned statement, I should reiterate that younger children seem to have better geography skills than their Korean elders because the level of education has skyrocketed between the two.

One part of his conversation was this:

When I first started Taichi I couldn't feel any spark in my hands. But after a few months, I could breathe for one minute straight and after 5 years I could feel and electric numbness in my penis and rectum. And finally after 15 years I was able to feel it in the palms of my hands. I am interested in things that will promote logevity so that is why I began Taichi.

Around 3am I parted ways from the Mystic Ajosshi, never to see him again. He was so epic to talk to on a multitude of levels and not just about sparking penie. It is funny to see that Korean men are open about a lot of things and can speak frankly about things without feeling embarrased. He said the above statement so frankly, one could not help but bask in the awe of his awesomeness. (Maybe it was perhaps best avoided, but it is something that worth mentioning because it sort of gives an insight into Korean culture.)  While it does sound like Tantric, he made it perfectly clear he was studying Taichi. Those was his exact words almost verbatim. Now everytime I wear my new shoes, I think of the man on the subway who went on random wtf conversations about philosophy. My day was the makings of a Kubrick film without the late film director (also noted for his sometime random musings.

Halloween Party

Ok being as sick as a dog, didn't help much to give everyone a non-jaded perpective, but this is the viewpoint that is Halloween: every Korean child is either a witch or a wizard!

Korean children need to step their Halloween game up! It was very hard to judge the Halloween contest when everyone partically wore the same costume. There was maybe one devil or one vampire. Ironically most Korean women sported devil horns for Halloween or cat ears. Very basic. However, I think Korean children are perhaps the children American people want as trick or treaters. All the children were greatful to get candy and they were not bratty about it.

I wanted to go to Hongdae to perhaps see the rest of the drunken English teachers/ military people get wild out in costumes. It's just one of those days where complete idiocy is acceptable and sometimes encouraged. Cultural note: I am mainly reffering to the military here, although I have crossed some sleezy English teachers in my time in Asia. I am still slightly sick and I openly wish everyone had my cold after being sick on what is usually my funniest 2 weeks of the year. Of course just this is a gross exaggeration.

Stranger Danger

I have a massive headache. I have finally met students that have been push so far up an educational system the sun don't shine. I was teaching my class like normal when I come across students that do not know what "civilization" and "tradition" means. I get that. I am learning these words in my 5th language. They can be difficult  to grasp, even for me. The world graduation (iphak) took a bit of time in basic Korean.

But then I come across students that do not understand a single world after explaining to them what it means every which way possible AND not understanding that means there is something wrong with how they are studying English. Clearly one should be able to get, "a person you do not know" or "someone who isn't known." These are students that have studied English for 3-4 years and they are supposed to be in the upper intermediate level.

I even broke it down even further

1. Someone you don't know.
2. Do not know their name or where they are from.
3. You never have seen this person before.
4. They can be seen on the street and walk by you everyday.
5. They can be random people whom you never met.

Sigh and double sigh. I just want to beat them with a dictionary. How can these students go through so many years of English study and not know the word stranger nor how to understand its simple English definition? I would have seriously had a talk with the previous teachers as a parent. It is just a shame that the parents in Korea are at times neglectful and do not focus on the children in their times of need yet shell out ridiculous amounts of money for their children's education.

To wrap things up, if they do not understand the word stranger, it is going to be a looooooooooooog semester with that class.

Quick Posting

Thought I post something quick like Nick. For those of you who got the Seattle Supersonics reference, give yourself a hug. For those who didn't ; cbar. Yep that's right cbar. One of the many ways Korean children tell their teachers to go nplmu themselves. Gotta love Korean code. Korean children are polite yet some are fairly straightfoward in expressing themselves. I can see the contrast between Japanese children and Korean children. Usually most children are very over worked from all the hogwans they have to go to. At my old hagwon, there was a girl who went to 7 different hagwons.

Collecting homework at my new job is an eventful task that requires the utmost amount of wit and diplomacy. Because in actuality hagwon ESL work is a combination of ESL teaching and customer service. A lot of teachers fall into the traps of being overly harsh or being felt underly appreatied in Korea. They forget the customer service part of the job: if the child is performing well, that is one thing, but the child has to be happy as well. Otherwise you will hear things like : "teacher, teacher, pinishi!" or "I cut this academi." I am perhaps just writing this quick piece to A) give advice and B) make a quick posting. The book idea has been delyaed from the whole moving hagwons and also due to other events that are personal and cannot be disclosed on the information super gossipway. This is Charles signing out, so go nplmu yourself.

Stubbed My Toe and Went to Seoul Aquarium

Good part about the day: I say a movie and went to Seoul Aquarium. There were a lot of animals and attractions. Bad part about the day: I stubbed my toe. It looks purple and I am in Korea. I seriously do not want to go back to CastleVania Korean Rendition. I will try to wait a day or two, maybe this minor annoyance will go away or maybe my toe will fall off. The good news is that I can bend it.

If anyone lives in Korea, you have to make a trip to the Coex Shopping Center. It is worth the visit and honestly it is filled with many exciting things to do. I was thinking of other activities to plan there as well. In case anybody was thinking "what the Lotte", they have a Lotte World there. I have to give the Koreans credit for the abundance of Lotteria; they have been curbing my hunger for fast food. This next paycheck, I am hoping to finally do something about my accursed teeth. So to the best of my ability, I have been trying to just eat traditional Korean food. I feel a lot more energetic from making the switch in diet, but Korean people really lay out the side dishes. I think I spent a little more than I wanted to, but that was because I went out and had this deep dish pizza. It was okay, but not really Chicago style like it said on the menus.

I guess I'll end this with "I'm crossing my fingers, hoping my toe doesn't fall off".

Thought I Post Something

Life in Korea has been rather hectic for me with the switching of Hagwons and the relocation process. I am still in Incheon, so I am still keeping the site as Incheon Charles. Anyways, I have implemented a strategy to start writing a book. I am not going to say what type of book I will write, but expect an announcement on Facebook and Kindle. The only real obstacle that is holding me back from publishing it is the inherent lack of internet.

Ok, that sound's like an evil enough monolouge without revealing too much. Expect me to be tight lipped. No homo. Expect an update on this book soon. Expect me to blog on this site more now that I have escaped the bowels of ESL hell. Right now I like my new job. I currently work at Avalon, I am teaching there full time and I get to torture little Korean children for a living. Can't beat that.

I have recently gotten back into playing games because mentally I need a recess from going through 4 language books in 8 months. I currently speak a Intermediate level of Korean and can get around fine. (At least according to what the book says; it is more like a  high beginner level.) I think that all I want to write for now. This was suprisingly written in less than 10 minutes. It is probably filled with grammatical mistakes; but if I corrected my own mistakes, I better be getting paid for them =)

Patiently Waiting at Lotteria

Ok this is going to suprise mainly the Americans that read my post, but near my hogwan is a hopital and apparently they are not restricted to the bed! I was shocked when I went to Lotteria to study Korea and low and behold there is a a patient with an IV eating a burger combo! He had the night gown, the nursing assistant, the whole nine yards! I wish I had a camera to take a picture, but I been too busy at work to actually spend time to look for a decent camera that won't cost me an arm and a leg.

I actually had to talk myself into going in because I actually have a cold right now and I didn't want to get sicker. I am going to keep this post brief, because I am still sick. I'm convinced that he was probably from a nursing home in Korea and he was given permission to eat there. And I'm also convinced when I get to the age to be thrown in a nursing home, I'll check myself into a Korean one!

MSG + Americans Don't Mix!

Wow, I never thought I would accidently taste MSG in Chinese food. I thought as health conscious as Korea is, they would have eliminated the use of MSG. I thought wrong.

In Incheon, I had some bomb Mapo Tofu/ 麻破豆腐 (That's right; I know Chinese too!)/ 마보도푸밥 and it was okay, but I had some sort of egg drop soup with it and it tasted a little bland. At first, I accidently added a dash of vinegar (which could have also done it to me X_x) and then I added some soy sauce.

Well it didn't improve the blandness after the vinegar; it made it inedible. However, that did not stop me from trying to make a  fool of myself. I decided to eat it anyways. I promptly paid for the meal (which I was feeling fine then) and left.

Afterwards, I started goofing around on Facebook and I was commenting on someone's Facebook account (because when I am off I either go to Seoul or stay at home) and then I noticed that my stomach started to feel weird--like sick weird. On top of it, I started to feel really drowsy so I went to bed. I woke up and now I feel fine, but it'd be nice if there was a disclaimer located somewhere that says: "Warning, we use MSG!" Eat at your own risk! I feel fine right now, but earlier I thought I was gonna hurl! Since I do not eat product with MSG on a regular basis, the Chinese soy sauce made me feel like I became bloated and then kicked in the stomach.

White Day!

White Day. Better known as "okay guys Valentine's Day is over;  time to pony up bitches". So what should you do on White Day? Well in Asia you usually have to give something back to all the women that have given you chocolate.

In Japan you have to buy chocolate that is three times the amount. I recieved some, but I have to techniqually only buy candy for 3 or 4 women over there so it wasn't bad. For the ones that gave you honmei choco, (which I recieved) you should do something special for them.

In Korea, same thing except guys usually buy candy. So I would have to figure out how to give more for the girls that bought me candy. So I have to give candy. I reasoned it is probably best to give all the girls candy because I do not want much trouble about it during my class. I do not completely understand Korea's White Day so I am just going to err on the side of caution. I think if any adults ask me to give them candy it will be a little awkward, but oh well. 

How Knowing Japanese In Korea Saved Me From Total and Utter Confusion

Ahhh, Shinsege....bustling with Korean hipsters thousands and thousands of them. It is literally an army of bound and ready consumers that just flock to these places and shop. For a second I thought I was back in Okinawa participating in Tsunahiki (a giant Japanese tug-of-war event) except I was just crossing the traffic light. Armed with an arsenal of broken Korean and a little can do attitude, my mission was simple: to infiltrate Kyobo Bookstore and find me some JLPT prep books and some Korean books for foreigners.

While the book "Korean for Foreigners" was a good book, I could not help but notice the title. There was "Korean for Japanese", "Korean for Chinese", and then there was "Korean for Foreigners". I must say that this book is grammar heavy, yet effective. However, I am at odds with the title. Why are Japanese and Chinese people are being acknowledged in English "for Japanese and for Chinese" but English speaking people are known as "for Foreigners"? I think the Japanese company 3A had the right idea and gave themselves a place neutral title. "Minna no Nihongo" (Japanese for Everyone) because frankly even Japanese people can learn grammar from this book. I notice one thing about the book market in Korea. Cram books are popular. They had the HSK, TOPIK, Tofel, Toeic, JLPT, JPT, SAT, MCAT, and books on how to get into Ivy League schools. (No really! They did!)

So your probably wonder as to how Japanese got me out of a jam. Turns out, my Japanese is very useful in Korea. There are quite a few Japanese speaking Koreans over here in Korea with a even higher proficiency than me in Japanese. I had to say and they were the best thing since sliced Kimchi at the moment. I honest had a hard time finding a decent Korean learning textbook. There was one in my place that is ok. Complete Korean is reading heavy. I just wanted something a little more grammar heavy to get over the hurdle of difficulty I was having in learning by myself. Right now, I am not in a school, but I am learning Korean and more Japanese on my own. The hard thing with learning on your own is checking grammar. For me, it is basically trial and error. If my co-workers says my grammar stinks like moldy kimchi than it is back to the drawing board. Each day is getting a little easier on me and it has been a interesting learning experience studying a language without much help from an institution. I am thinking about taking classes due to grammar in Korean being a little harder than Japanese, but I will see how far I progress on my own first. I feel I am able to handle a basic 15 second conversation which is a start. I can say hello, say I like something, order food and apologize. I think those are fairly important skills. Slowly I think Korean will overtake my Spanish and Chinese. I am starting to feel like I know more Korean than Spanish, but I know right now that isn't true. It probably will not catch up to my English and Japanese, but there's no telling what the future holds. My Korean did not get me out of the Kyobo bookstore dilemma, my Japanese did! I was wondering around the Japanese sections and I struck a conversation up in Japanese because I was honestly lost and did not know where the foreigner's section was. I had some help choosing my book and then that person left. I was still looking for a certain Japanese book series, but I could not find it. While I was recommending books for this one person (because I was under the impression that person was just starting Japanese) it turns out she took the 1kyuu of the JLPT. So after shooting the breeze with her, I convinced her into helping me look for a Japanese book series known as Nihongosou-matome (日本語総まとめ）. I finally struck gold and find the books I wanted. They were in Japan and Kyobo had to special order them for me to be able to have them in Korea, but the delivery price was dirt cheap compared to America! I paid roughly $20 total for both books. Wow, I  thoroughly convinced that Korea has the one up on America when it comes to studying a foreign language. This person took the 1kyuu without ever having stepped foot in Japan. It was honestly super rare to come across such a phenomena! Then again I think Korea's JLPT passing rate was about 47% for the JLPT N1. I have to look at the new results. Tomorrow is a new day. I will hang out with my boss at 11am.

Wow, I have to say thanks to all the people that have put up with my absurd Japanese grammar over the years. Japanese really saved me.

Valentine's Day in Korea

Valentine's Day in Korea boasts of something special. It is the one day boys girls give chocolate to girls boys. That's right! Guys you do not have to worry about Valentine's day (there is another day you have to worry about).

Valentine's day in America works like this: guy buys chocolates and champagne for girl. They might go out to movie and enjoy a happy ending to their day. Girls in Japan and Korea use this day as a way to be frank and hit on guys. It is the one day where they do not have to be indirect with their feelings. And guys, it is the one day you don't have to worry about whether a girl likes you: the proof is in the chocolate.

I haven't really been out too much to really get to know anyone, but I wound up getting a few pieces of chocolate today. So I have to return the favor. If I have received any chocolate today, I have to buy candy for them on White Day. White Day (March 14th) is the one day when guys give candy to girls. This is usually a fairly inexpensive day for guys except if you are going to use this day to propose her hand in marriage. You are expected to take a girl out on a night of the town. And expect to pay about 3.0-4.0 million ($2,300- $3080) Won to use this day to propose to her. Just a reminder: do not forget this day! You will live to regret it! Another thing is this day is the day that guys have to give extra presents to all those ladies that gave you chocolate.

To those in America, Happy Valentine's Day! At least you won't go broke. For those guys in Japan and Korea, prepare to pony up! Just kidding; enjoy your chocolates! (You will have to pony up later though!)

Two Bros From Reno: United At Last

This whole Korean New Year thing was a bit of a let down for me. Koreans have a festival, but mainly they party, play cards, and hit the Sulchip (bars). It was not a total loss because now I scored this cool LED watch for 10000 won in a place near Itae-Won.

In other news I got the whole foreigner experience. Luckily I was not in the military or I could not use the global assault to my sinus canals known as a club restroom. I'll be frank for now: I am not much of a club person. I do not really care for them one bit. However, when 1.5 liters of soda starts pouring through my body, desperate times calls for desperate measures. Forget what you guys think you know about clubbing. There are no fire hazard laws in Korean clubs. So if places get packed; they really get packed. And no I would not be exaggerating when I say that they get packed. They get China's population density in Beijing packed. That is no joke. So if your claustrophobic, avoid the clubs at all costs. They are a smoke filled wasteland of honnies and hotties. While were at it, let's get back to the bathroom. I had to wait in line to take a leak in the most disgusting bathroom I have ever been in in my life. The smell was so rank that I thought my  all my nose hairs were going to be hinged. I only wish I was exaggerating.

If you want to find a place to score, Itae-won's for the win. Seriously, I did not believe my friend when he said there was a place called Hooker Hill. Here, you need to take caution because there are some prostitutes that bat for both genders. I was scared to even try anything with anyone there. It was either a tranny granny, or a "bar maiden". But for those that want to know more, I would say this much: go inside one of the bars and "order" a drink. I'll leave it at that. As I was leaving, I totally turned down a street walker for sex. I think she must of thought I could be easily convinced because as I was hailing a cab to flee the scene of crime I was being chased out of Itae won by an aggressive hooker. So in a nutshell: that is Hooker Hill. 

 So back to my friend Bruce who happened to land here before I did...He is a brave soul stepping into the heart of the jabberwocky trying to get a GF in Korea. Before we decided to do this long drawn out escapade, he went on this site called http://www.koreancupid.com. and looked for someone to go with us. Most of the normal people usually gave a prompt "no" to this persistent soul-searching paladin (he's a little obsessed with D and D), but lo: around 4ish, we finally got people to come hang out with us tomorrow! I will meet two people in Incheon and I will probably recover from my thrown off sleep schedule sometime next Korean New Year. Maybe I turned into a vampire after the cutie with the three inch needle happened to extract four pints of my blood. Yeah--I'm still a little bitter about that. Overall, this misadventure is one for the books. And imagine that I probably still have at least 30-40 years of living to do!   

Castlevania Korean Style! (AKA The Medical Exam)

Well I have to admit, I was/am pretty scared of the medical exam. I have pretty bad teeth and there is always that paranoia that something is going to come up like TB or some type of Cancer. So far so good...right?

The university hospital I went to was a labyrinth of elevators and stairwells. I was just waiting for the flying Medusa heads and the zombies to start the welcoming party. Exams go super quick in Korea. They have this assembly line of doctors that are locked away in several rooms. First they had me put my stuff in a locker. Then they bombarded me with various tests.

The first one I went through was the eye exam: my left eye is shot so they did not tell me anything that I don't already know. I am near-sighted in my left eye and far sighted in my right. My right eye is getting a little bad though. I used to be 20/20 out of that eye but maybe I am getting weaker in that eye.

The next one was the hearing test. Dealing with a bad left eye really heightens the other senses because I passed with perfect hearing!

Next was the blood pressure test. I have a slightly high systolic rate and a low diastolic rate that has been the same for years. Nothing new there. I have been sitting at a 140 systolic for umpteenth amount of years with no sign of it really going up so I should be fine there.

Next was the dental exam. For personal reasons this section is censored. I'll just say my teeth are bad shape and move on.

And then I went up to the clock tower to battle Vlad himself...or so I thought. Vlad took the form of a cute Korean nurse in her mid 20s. I was totally caught off guard with the whole process. Usually examiners take up to 2 pints of blood at the most, but this Vlad in disguise was definitely making a withdrawal today. So I wound up getting 4 pints of blood out of me! She wanted me to pee for a diabetic test, but I could not do it right away so I had to come back. Before her fangs protruded for seconds I made haste to the X-ray machine.

The X-ray exam is one of the final tests for the procedure. After that they did a BMI which the results were strange. I actually shrank a little, but it could be do to bad posture. My back doesn't hurt so I am not going to dwell on where my 4 centimeters went! I actually like the idea of being a little shorter! To me that was great news. Maybe my head will suffer less concussions. I am surprised there wasn't a reflexology exam as well, but back to the second encounter with Vlad!

I came back with my vial of holy water or holy bladder (your choice!) and I gave it to her. My urine tested low for blood sugar so I shouldn't have diabetes.The whole procedure had me feeling super faint was after I passed out at work from her withdrawing four pints vampuric embrace. I was out cold for about 2 hours waiting for my classes to start. I basically pigged out at Lotteria (pronounced Lotto-ria) (and no you don't use lottery tickets as tee pee there; it is a hamburger restaurant).

Hopefully everything goes fine here. I do not want to be deported because I shrunk or my left eye is a little bad. That would not be a good way to start off Korean New Year's. Hey with my superhuman hearing, I could be a superhero that wears an eye patch that magically shrinks on command! Sweet I have bizarre super powers after leaving Reno! At least I got something out of the place! Or I could just be a pirate =P. I better start working on enunciating my "ARGS" I mean my r's.

Sorry I couldn't resist.

Laundry: by far the most troublesome chore in Korea next to crossing the street.

Okay. I have have to say this will be a two part post. So I figured I'll talk about the bad first. And yes, I mean bad.

So I am doing laundry today for one week's worth of clothes and this is with me even going a little college clean on some days. I have a grand total of 3 loads to do =(. I really need to figure out a system where I do not have as many. I can only wash so many clothes per hour as well. My laundry hanger is sprawled out throughout the room. And no, I did not make any grammatical error: it literally is sprawled out throughout the room.

So what does this mean of me? One of those class days will have to be devoted towards washing those tighty-whites that I had put off for the longest time. Another thing it means is that I have to break up the sessions it takes to dry laundry. Usually eight to twelve hours does it for laundry drying. Other than that, I like my place a lot. I feel that I am able to concentrate on things without much interruptions, loud room mates, people inviting me over to parties or to LAN sessions. (Not that the occasional LAN session isn't fun; I'm burnt out on it right now.) And for the last month in the states, it was a pain attending all those going away parties and studying Korean at the same time even though everyone meant well. So if I am lucky, maybe my clothes will be dry by the time I sleep. If not, they will hang over me while I sleep.

Being schooled in pizza by Koreans

Wow, life in the fast food lane can be pretty harry. I can't seem to wrap my head around certain restuarant themes. There is Mr. Big Hamburger: they serve small, medium and extra large burgers. No I did not make that up. They actually have size catagories for burgers. I refuse to eat a Large burger simply because I do not even see the point off living up to the America sterotype that everything is big. Burgers are small in America. You have rare exceptions but compared to Korea, burgers are small.

My next point: pizza. Between Japan and Korea, I have been totally schooled in the fine art of ordering pizza. Today I had a Rion Pizza which was pizza with wrapped ham with a sweet potato filling. Call me crazy, but who thought of this? It was killer. I would probably have never thought Koreans would school Italians and Americans in pizza, but I stand corrected. Next thing is variety: Korea has it but it doesn't. Every store I have gone to, I wind up with coffee or Coke for my drink selection. Other drinks have a voice too. And Korea make some good drinks, but I would like to at least order a diet Coke every now and then. Pizza School is one of the best places to go for food in Korea. There is pizza, pizza, and more pizza. And if your insides need a break from Kim-chee, Pizza School is a winner.

Dabbling with size conversions!

Well I have to say the past week has been entertaining. All day I have been hearing this Korean couple have lover spats in Korean. At least the dishes havn't started to fly yet. But anyways, life goes on. So I mentioned before I had accidently taken someone else's luggage. I am guessing  that the airport will not check into it, so I am forced to rely on other options. I had to go to 24 Hour Mart and grunt, build fire, find clothes for wild man search land for clothes that fit. Okay you get the idea. While I didn't have any problems finding my size, I went ahead and made a conversion chart for all my dress sizes.

Shoes are 292
Pants are 97cm x 81cm
Shirts are size 110cm
Undies are 105cm

One of the websites that has a great conversion chart for people who have giant sizes (interesting enough I never shopped at Big and Tall because I was told my neck was too small for any of their clothing). Nine times out of ten I was usually in the right dress size at Wal-Mart anyways. Anyways here one of the websites I used: http://www.cutiecode.com/index.php?main_page=sizeinfo#1712 . Have fun and take care!

안 녕하새 요! This is Charles coming to you with another reporting! Gently. But anyways, Incheon has been easier on me today. I actually got around to trying out Pizza School where they serve pizza from around the world. Kind of like your slice of your country's food delivered on a slice of cheesy goodness. I found ordering food was a lot easier than before.

It is like my mind in naturally adjusting itself to everyone's body language and I am naturally figuring out the parts of when I pay and what not. I thought about buying a watch today because I am borrowing a co-workers, but decided to refrain until I can figure out the words "this one" and "that one". At first I did not want to leave the house due to the last two days of frustration, but decided I was better off to do so.

Nothing like being back in Asia drinking a tall bottle of Calpis. Nope, I am not spelling it wrong and yes it sounds the way you're thinking. the Japanese Family Mart in Korea has their own brand of goodness all over. At the 24 Mart I found undies for less than 3 bucks! That is a phenomenal deal! (Now let's just hope they fit ;) ) I also bought socks but they might not fit. They are about an inch and a half undersized, so I will have to see.