sounds

Let the laws of acoustics quiver, let the foundations of music crumble

Nick and David cover White Winter Hymnal

Inauguration!!!

Unable to catch ANY live streams of Obama's swearing in (IP nazis somewhere in the intertubes), Nick and I L33t hack-zored the system and watched THROUGH video chat on Nick's Mom's computer.

Here is an inspiring portrait of patriotism...two men maximizing stolen internet reception by standing in the hallway of a korean apartment in order to watch the inauguration of their new president.

Around town

Mr. Nick and I did some city exploring around the city, and around our neighborhood.

Friday after work, two students invited Nick and I to pizza hut!!! Iris works for Pizza Hut and gets 50% off coupons every month...so naturally, we had a pizza party. Checkout the delicious cheesy crust in Korea



My favorite part of the hut was the salad bar stocked with plenty of strange fruits, coconut milk, and other things you wouldn't find at your standard pizza hut (accompanied by two other things you wouldn't find at an American Pizza Hut: service and non-creepy lighting)



We finally managed to meet a few friends to go out and socialize! Finally! Den (or so he is called in English) helped us to find all the places we needed to see but would have never found ourselves. Here are some pictures from that night.



Nick and I did some exploring around Taejon.

Hiking through the largest park in town




My favorite was the picture I took of ice in the stream...each crystal grain is about a millimeter in length




Hitting golf balls on top of "Home World"!!! It was excellent! They even serve you tea while you wack as many balls as possible in the alotted time (~$5 for 30 minutes).



We ended the day exploring the Chungnam University and having the best dinner/dessert/coffee combo since our arrival. We ate Sum Gyup Sa (Korean BBQ basically, with all sorts of side dishes), waffle/ice cream/whip cream uber creation at a nearby waffle dessert place, and finally...FINALLY....FINALLY.....


A coffee joint with character!

And jazz on the speakers!

And delicious beans!

And dark corners!

And did i mention character!

Nick and I worked on math here for several hours.



Things here are going pretty well I would say. Nick and I have found a routine, and we are tackling the challenges of teaching in the best ways we know how. As for myself, I have time for my reading, my running, my math, and my thoughts. Mom says I'm here to sow peace, so I do my best to focus on that.

-David

Your Seoul is Mine

Last weekend we visited our friend Tim in Seoul. He and his friend, Jessica, showed us around.


The Seoul Subway system is formidable




Kleeman's road less traveled



Kleeman enjoying some warmth in Bar Da, our favorite dive (so far) in Seoul.



At LotteWorld (the world's largest indoor theme park) has, among other things, a shooting range. Here, Tim and I don Kevlar vests to enter the range.



I decided to try an Australian Beef Big Bulgogi burger (korean equivalent of a Big Mac, with Australian Beef). I don't plan on repeating the experience.

Here I am after watching "Tuh-Ran-Su-Por-Ta: Lasu-tu Mis-syu-nu".


That would be "Transporter: Last Mission", written in my best interpretation of Konglish. This is when Koreans take English words and use their alphabet (Hangul) to spell the words. There is always some noticable error in the conversion, but they try pretty hard. Hangul is pretty cool. The alphabet always follows the rules.



The column is for consonants, the top row for vowels. The matrix entries are how to put'em all together! I'm sure you figured that out.

We've collected plenty of plants. I built the plant shelf and recently set up the ivy underneath this little tree someone in our apartment complex was giving away. I'm hoping the ivy goes crazy.


Hugs,
David

Although all postings are posted by the user "David", mind you, not all posts are written by yours truly. Some are written by Nick, such as the last one. If you are having trouble telling the difference, critically evaluate the writing style and you will easily find that the superior compositions belong to me.

Today is New Years, last night was New Years Eve.

Republic of Korea New Year's Eve Prep List.

• On New Year's Eve, choose a location from which to watch the sunrise a couple days in advance.
  
• Memorize the Korean name of a hospital or major landmark near your homestead for an easy escape home via cab. Koreans do not navigate cities by address or street, but by landmark.
  
• In a bar, if you are really hitting it off with a lady, make sure you know your blood type before continuing. Such knowledge can make or break the blossoming relationship.
  

Before the start of the evening, Yumi salutes on her way to Busan for an east coast sunrise.


Nick gazes out of our 13th story window at a midnight fireworks display behind Sicheong (City Hall)


The emblem of our sorta co-worker Jonathan's bar. He is what I would call a "lifer". He's been here for 14 years. Jonathan lays claim to a building, this bar, a machine shop next door, more instruments than I have seen in a good while, and some sort of personality that is really gracious while on the border with eccentric, creepy, and whatever the adjective would be for a person who is constantly on speed.



David

David and Nick Get a Tour

Our first subway ride.  We're waiting for the thing to come and are looking over a vending machine trying to figure out what kind of snacks Koreans eat underground when a young Korean kid walks up to the machine.  I step back to let him use the vendor, and so does he.  I soon realize he's not here for snackies.  Dralle and I buy some crackers and Mak-seu-well Hau-seu coffee and offer a cracker to this Korean kid.  He tells us he's a high school student who was downtown hangin out at the library.  We talk a bit on the subway ride, mostly confirming how to pronounce the name of our coffees, and when we get to the right stop, our little buddy gets off with us.  We get outside and ask him which way he's going and he snickers and says, "I'm going with you".  We had a tour guide.  Dralle and I had come here to the outskirts of town to hike some trails up in the mountains.  Our guide took us past his high school before leading us up into the woods.  The Development here is really bizarre, where it's flat, there are buildings.  Where it's not, it's nature.  This means at the end of town where the mountains start, there isn't a gradual decay from city to wilderness, there's a very visible line.  

We wandered around on the paths, learning some Korean words and asking him questions and fielding questions for a couple of hours till it was chow time and then we parted ways.  In the end, we got a tour through the mountains by a high schooler still carrying his library books, and he got a little English lesson and a good story to tell about meeting some bona-fide foreigners.

Hello Everyone.

Our time since arrival has been a bum rush for food and living essentials. E-mart, Time World, Family Mart, KimBap, *insert random korean restaurant name*, and Costco. Yes, Costco.

The flight was bearable.




Our first breakfast in Korea was cheap and plentiful (~$7!)


And Kim Bap (seaweed rice = korean sushi) costs a little over a dollar

When I try to write about all this, I'm lost for the words. It's not necessarily strange, or (overly) foreign, or physically taxing. I am mostly a mixture of thankful and confused. Thank you for my friend Nick who strikes out into the city, the language, and the culture with me. Thank you for Liz who is the coolest girlfriend ever in the midst of transitions. Thank you for my family who enjoyed Christmas at home for me, with me, in spite of my absence. Thank you for my friends who are always my friends.

Confused because my Circadian rhythms are reversing, my apartment is empty, and my home is a new one.

Do you understand what I'm trying to say?

Nick is playing the zaphoon (a reeded recorder/saxophone mix thingy??) Which means it's time to listen.

annyeong hi kae seyo,
David