Whose Is This?

Just so you all know, I had my camera with me today at school and I took a WHOLE bunch of videos... if you watch them all at once, it will be exhausting but a very accurate capture of the craziness that I endure on a day to day level. However, I'll do my best to get the series of 9-25-09 up here as quickly as possible.

Our first little spotlight is on Paul... The kooky one in the front weating a yellow shirt.

Paul is quite the character. He is a bright boy (lived in Boston for a year) so his English is quite good. However he is, in a word, neurotic. The smallest things put him over the edge, he can get hysterical from 0 to 60.

When he doesn't understand something he'll say, "Teacher, what can I DO?!?!?!?!?!?!?!" and once I go over the directions he'll say, "oh, yes, I knew THAT!" Funny the first time, not so much the 87th. Despite all this, I see a little bit of my child self in him. Not sure if that's so great...

P.S. Paul is looking at absolutely NOTHING in these series of pictures... he is (if anything) reading the class rules on the wall. I just thought this was a pretty funny shot what with all the chess action going on in the background. :)

In this video he is determined to get the phrase, "Whose is this?" out of his mouth. And then congratulates himself and does a weird victory dance.

I'll Make Love to You Noraebang style

Liz and I did the honor of serenading Daniel and his new wife, Lana, at a Noraebang as our wedding present. Their first dance was to the classic, "I'll Make Love to You" by the inimitable Boyz II Men. While performing our number, the father of the bride (the most awesomest ajussi in Seoul) took what we thought were pictures of our performance but it turned out to be a series of short videos. With the wonderful editing talents of Liz Teacher I now give you this video. And yes, we sound THAT amazing!! Enjoy!

Mikey Teacher vs. Chicken Wing

Tuesday Nights are Wing Night at Rocky Mountain Tavern. The wait is horrendous (good luck getting anything in less than 45 minutes) and you are lucky if your full order is right. But these are the best wings you will find in the Land of the Morning Calm. For 300 won a wing, it's a bargain so the wait is at least worth it.

Mikey has slowly been teaching me the Ways of the Wing from which flavors to order (a Lemon Pepper turned Creamy Cool convert) to how to properly eat a wing (you have to take the wing by both joints and twist).

Seeing Mikey Teacher eat his wings is pretty funny. He means business and focuses his whole attention on gettin down. So I put Mikey to a challenge: How fast can you eat one wing?

Behold.

Boooo-san

The more time I spend in Busan the more grateful I am when I return to Seoul. It's not that I don't appreciate the beach, but honestly, Busan is a poor man's Seoul... However, I did want to take advantage of the last of the summer sun so Liz, Lori, and I took the KTX on a Saturday morning to Busan last weekend. We met up with a few people who rented out the "penthouse" of a motel. We had a sick view of the ocean from our balcony!

The weather could not have been more perfect, the sky was crystal clear and I was a little worried about the crowds we would have to battle to find a spot on the sand. However, I was pleasantly surprised once we saw the sand and surf. There was hardly anyone on the beach! Once September rolls around, the Koreans stay away from the beach like Way-gooks stay away from white after Labor Day.

If I had taken a picture at this spot a month earlier you would not have been able to see much more than umbrellas everywhere!

At times, I felt like I was back in the states, it was so strange to overhear conversations in English. I did see a lot more foreigners this time around. Apparently there was some sort of surf competition going on... though, as you can see, the waves were less than gnarly.

We spread out and soaked up the sun. I could feel the vitamin D soak in and felt very content with the few hours outside. With an encore of sun the next morning I felt revitalized and energized... but I still fell asleep at 8:30 on Sunday night when I got back to Seoul.