The Invisible Man

I finally have a new blog name/address. I wanted to change my previous blog name, soloansanble.blogspot.com because that name was inspired by my first location in Korea, Ansan. I've been away from Ansan for over 2 years now so it had to go. I literally stopped blogging, and stopped having the desire to blog because I didn't want to blog under a name that no longer applied to me. I wanted "invisibleman" or "theinvisibleman" but they were both taken so I had to settle for "invisibleman15." It's unfortunate because those other two haven't been used in years. 15 is my favorite number and it's used in many other screen names I have so it's not too bad.

 This excerpt from Ralph Ellison's book "Invisible Man" describes exactly why I call myself The Invisible Man: 
  “I am an invisible man. 
No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allen Poe; 
nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms.
I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids
--and I might even be said to possess a mind. 
I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination--indeed, everything and anything except me. 

 Nor is my invisibility exactly a matter of a biochemical accident to my epidermis. That invisibility to which I refer occurs because of a peculiar disposition of the eyes of those with whom I come in contact. A matter of the construction of their inner eyes, those eyes with which they look through their physical eyes upon reality. I am not complaining, nor am I protesting either. It is sometimes advantageous to be unseen, although it is most often rather wearing on the nerves. 

 Then, too, you're constantly being bumped against by those of poor vision. Or again, you often doubt if you really exist. You wonder whether you aren't simply a phantom in other people's minds. Say, a figure in a nightmare which the sleeper tries with all his strength to destroy. It's when you feel like this that, out of resentment, you begin to bump people back. And, let me confess, you feel that way most of the time. You ache with the need to convince yourself that you do exist in the real world, that you're a part of all the sound and anguish, and you strike out with your fists, you curse and you swear to make them recognize you. And, alas, it's seldom successful."


 I'm not exactly sure when I first felt "invisible," but I think the first time was around 4th grade when I turned into a complete nerd and was knee deep in the books. From then on, I always had a hard time fitting in, particularly with students in my grade. In my neighborhood, it was a strange coincidence that the kids I grew up playing with were all a grade or two below me. I was NEVER around kids in my grade outside of school and I almost NEVER interacted with my neighborhood friends during school because of being in different schools or different wings of the same school. Also around that time, sometimes I felt "invisible" when visiting my dad just because of the dynamics of the house. When he was married to his ex-wife, sometimes it'd be her, her parents, and her son and daughter around and I never felt like I fit in being around them. Or sometimes I'd just come on the wrong weekend when they had events already set up and they'd go and I'd have to stay at the house. There were a few other dynamics to those situations but that's the general point of it.


 Then came high school. The first year was pretty much the same as the former years, but I moved to a different city/school in the 10th grade. Somewhat of a clean slate, right? Nope, pretty much the same. No matter how much I tried to be "normal" or "cool" there was always a lingering feeling of not being wanted or not existing. Don't get me wrong, I had some good friends but I couldn't for the life of me understand why some people just didn't talk to me or gave me funny looks/responses. I'm sure that happened to other people also, but maybe there were reasons. For me, people I had never spoken a word to, never had any interactions with, just "refused to see me" as Mr. Ellison mentioned in the quote above.

Along came college...My first year of college was probably the most invisible time of my life. 2 hours away from home, so whatever hidden thoughts, or lack there of people had about me at home couldn't possibly flow 2 hours away could they??? Of course they could and did. So not only did I find myself struggling to fit into a "clique," I was away from home which was good in some ways but I had absolutely no one, and nothing to do most of the time. I tried going to ice-breaking events, going to the floor in my building with all black people, and other things that freshmen did to get acquainted to a new place and new people, NOTHING worked. Sometimes, I would meet people, have conversations with them, see them again and they'd completely ignore me, walk past me, look at me like they never saw me, or give me the "What's up, but I don't know you" nod. And once again, I found myself on many a night thinking deeply about what was wrong with my personality that kept people away from me??? I couldn't place it at all. Did I come off as conceited? Corny? Shy? Uninteresting? Ugly??? Or was I literally just invisible to people??? If so, what about me made me invisible? My short height? Basic looking face? Style? No clue!


 Then came my second year of college and things became a lot better because I randomly got placed in a suite with 3 other black guys who became very good friends and were well connected throughout the black community and I finally felt like I belonged somewhere and felt what a "normal" life/social life was like. But of course, this is actually when I consciously felt the invisibility and started referring to myself as Mr. Invisible. Why? Because even though I finally had friends, there would be random awkward situations in which a person we all knew would come up to us and dap(shake hands) with everyone except me! It happened very often and I wish I was making this stuff up! That type of situation was the most noticeable but there were other types of occasions that produced baffling awkward events also.



 Coming to Korea, my invisibility was shattered. People from kids to old folks start at you with relentless curiosity/fervor 24/7. And sometimes I feel like a minor celebrity getting random "hello" waves and greetings from random people and random people wanting to talk to me. But of course my malignant invisibility found its way back at the start of my third year here. I began working for a private high school/boarding school with about 60 Korean teachers, and 15 foreign teachers. I'm the only domestic teacher, so I'm in an office away from the other foreign teachers. We talk in passing, but there are even a few of them for reasons unknown to me of course, that they don't want to talk to me, or say hello, or even acknowledge my presence. The same goes for about 50 out of 60 of the Korean teachers. You'd swear it was my first day of work, every day because even after 7 months, I get strange looks like who is this guy, he doesn't belong. And of course the usual ignoring, being left out of important work conversations, small gatherings with the principal and whatever else.


 That about sums up my history with feeling invisible aside from a few isolated events unrelated to these major time periods that shaped my invisibility. I will disagree with one thing Mr. Ellison said though, he said he isn't complaining about being invisible. I AM! It's a horrible feeling and I do my best to make sure I never make anyone else feel like that without reason.

1st year beginning/2nd year beginning

I thought I was retired from blogging but moving back to Korea resurrected my career. I need to solve this problem of mine that my current blog name is tied to the city that I lived in last year. I'm no longer in Ansan, so soloANSANble, no matter how clever it is, just won't cut it any more. And it would be easy to create another title for me relating to Seoul, but I've learned my lesson and I won't have the title bound to any specific thing other than me. I like to thoroughly think these things through so I'll keep posting under this name until I think of the new one.

Now I'm going to have a battle, between the beginning of my 1st year in Korea, and the beginning of my second year in Korea. It's actually my third time entering Korea but the second time was just for a month in Seoul and I wasn't working. So I'll leave that out. I'll try to think of as many specific things as possible and give a point to either the first start or second start depending on which was better. And I won't use the bias that I have for the first year because I know that the whole year was great and my time this year is mostly still to be determined. Note: I am with a different company and in a different location this year.

First year beginning(FYB) Second year beginning(SYB)

Location: Goes to SYB, FYB 0 - SYB 1: Last year, I think I lucked up in living in Ansan, it was pretty big, had some busy parts, interesting places and could find almost anything I wanted. But still, every time I would go into Seoul it would still feel a lot better, and I would have more of an exciting experience than a lot of the time in Ansan. I don't live in a very popular part of Seoul, it still takes me anywhere from 20-30, 40 minutes at the most to get to my favorite places but 30 minutes is a lot better than the hour plus change it took to get to Seoul from Ansan.

Apartment: Goes to FYB, FYB 1 - SYB 1: I figured that living in Seoul would most likely mean living in a smaller apartment because of how crowded it is, but wow. The total area of this apartment is about the size of only the bedroom part of my place from last year. Even though I was in my bedroom 95% of the time last year it's still psychologically hard to have it as the total area of your home, but in reality it won't be that bad. I just think of the many get-togethers we were able to have last year with so many people that just aren't going to be able to happen. And I have to get used to my shower being integrated into the rest of the bathroom. There's no separate wall or curtain keeping the shower away from the sink or toilet, it's just all in the same little area. And I didn't have a view from my apartment window last year, but it was quiet. Now I have a view to simply look outside and see people and cars and the area, but there's constant traffic even through the night which might make it hard to sleep sometimes.

Salary: Goes to FYB, FYB 2 - SYB 1: When I started my job search this time, I thought it would be very easy to at the least make the same amount as last year if not more. That turned out to not be the case at all. If I could have went with the same company I would have made more but not one single job offered me within 100,000w/month($100) of last year's salary. I guess I was pretty lucky last year. I'm making around $300 less than last year per month, along with no pension which turns out to missing out on about an extra thousand at the end of my contract.

It could be argued that I might make up for the loss in salary, in travel expenses because of how often I would go into Seoul last year. During my crazy casino adventures I would often take a taxi back home for about $40-$50, along with cabbing back from some nights out in Seoul, and even the subway fares add up, but there's no real way to tell.

Working hours: Goes to SYB, FYB 2 - SYB 2: Last year I worked 4p-10p and there was a strong love hate relationship with it. I loved sleeping in every day, but didn't love having days wasted away as I would often wake at 2/3pm and then not do much after work either. And each class was 3 hours long and that was quite dreadful when I had a bad or quiet class. This year's schedule is a bit complicated. M, W, and F I start at 11:20, teach for 40 minutes, then a 40 minute lunch, then another 40 minute class, then another break from 1:20 to 3:05, then teach 40 minute classes until 6:45, some weeks 7:30. T and Th, I start at 9:50, teach until 11:15 then have about a 4 hr break until 3:05! And I have another 40 minute break at 4:30, and finish at 6. Fantastic.

Vacation: Goes to SYB, FYB 2 - SYB 3: Last year vacation was scarce. 1 week for the whole year and we even worked just about every holiday, no actually we did, and if we got a day off, we either had to double up another day or work a Saturday. This year I get 1 week in summer and 1 in winter, and also holidays off.

Curriculum: Goes to SYB, FYB 2 - SYB 4: I'm with younger students this year, so prep time is minimal and having any troubles teaching them is minimal. I did enjoy having deep conversations with some of my students last year, but it was the same exact stuff every week that I was teaching them. This year we have things like field trips and birthday parties and even some classes have science experiments and it's a relief to escape the mundane teaching that I had last year.

Distance from home to school: Goes to FYB, FYB 3 - SYB 4: Last year I lived a 2 minute walk from the school and words can't express how lovely that was especially in the winter. Now I live about a 15 minute walk from the school, and about a 5 minute bus ride including the time it takes to walk to the bus stop.

Boss: Goes to SYB, FYB 3 - SYB 5: Last year I had an ok relationship with my boss, but he was quite awkward to talk to at times and I've heard of him being not so nice to other teachers. This year I think I may have the coolest boss in the world. She talks to me almost like a friend and isn't too strict about things as long as you do what you're supposed to.

CCTV: Goes to SYB, FYB 3 - SYB 6: I wasn't strongly opposed to being monitored and videotaped each minute of each class but still, it takes a while to get used to. There's no CCTV whatsoever this year.

Coworkers: I don't think either year was bad so I'll keep this one neutral. Although I had 9 other foreign coworkers last year and only 3 this year, I guess they both have ups and downs. *EDIT, after thinking about it more, especially at the beginning it was very good to have 9 other coworkers to break the ice with, almost any and every night there was somebody looking to do something or go somewhere interesting, so FYB gets a point. FYB 4 - SYB 6.

Lunch: Goes to SYB, FYB 4 - SYB 7: Lunch was technically dinner last year because it was around 7pm, but they gave us lunch off and on, depending on how many students we had and we only had 10 minutes. This year we have lunch no matter what, and we have a legitimate cook who makes different meals every day and we have 40 minutes.

Fridge: FYB, FYB 5 - SYB 7: This ties into having a small apartment but being the fat boy that I am, having a mini fridge cripples my fat tendencies to spend 100 buck every time I go to the grocery store. While this could be a good thing, as I'll probably waste less food and not pig out much, I still would like to have the comfort of a regular sized fridge!

There may be more to compare but I've been working on this for over a week and I'll end it at that. On paper the second year beginning edged out the first but I don't think there was a very big difference other than me knowing a lot more about Korea this time. Hopefully I won't re-enter retirement and I'll be able to give a full year to year comparison when this year is over.

How the Tilt saved my life in Thailand

Anybody who knows me knows I'm in love with my AT&T Tilt.



I've had it since sometime around October/November 2007 and here in Korea I can't use it for phone calls, but I use it for music, internet(only when near wifi hot spots), notes, games, google maps/gps and a few other things too.

When I got to Thailand and found out I could use it to talk, and on the 3G internet network I almost cried in happiness. Normally it was locked to the AT&T network but luckily a few months ago I unlocked it while trying to get it to work here in Korea. If I hadn't unlocked it, I wouldn't have been able to use it in Thailand. So for one week I got a sim card, 300 talking minutes and 20 hours of internet service for 500 baht, or $15, or 17,000w.

One baht/minute was the rate locally, but calling my girlfriend in Australia was 15 baht/minute! So a big chunk of the 300 minutes was used talking to her. My first two nights were at the Dusit Princess hotel in Bangkok so it wasn't a problem to use internet.



But when we went to David's uncle's golf resort, 3 hours away from Bangkok in Northwest Thailand, internet was scarce. This place was in the country, the boondocks, the STICKS! The only place with internet was the lobby/clubhouse which was semi-outdoors and downright exhausting to be in because of the heat, so it wasn't comfortable to be there. So at our boat house/hotel room which was like 200 feet away from the clubhouse, I remember that I used to tether my tilt to my computer and use the tilt as a modem for the internet. So I plug the tilt into my computer through usb, open the "internet sharing" program and let er rip! It worked! I was invincible! Using this method ate up a big chunk of the 20 hours of internet but throughout the week I didn't run out until the last day.

Now that was just for leisure, now I get to the part where it really saved my life!

I took about 300,000w or $255 with the intentions of using my Korean debit card to withdraw more money if needed. But when I got down to my last 500 baht/$15, I went to withdraw money and it didn't work. I tried like 5 different atms to no avail. I had my girlfriend call my bank and they said that I needed to talk to them in person before I left the country in order for atm transactions to work in other countries. SALTY! Why this ordeal couldn't be handled just as well over the phone as in person is beyond me but whatever I'm used to not understanding things about this country. Now I could have survived on this last 500 baht, because this was Friday morning and I was leaving Saturday night but the fact that I wanted to rent a motor bike, ride a jet ski and para-sail had me itching for more money.

My last resort was to call my mom and ask her to put some money in my American account and see if I could withdraw from that. I had ran out of minutes on my Thai account to call. And for some idiotic reason I didn't bring my laptop to the island so using regular skype was not an option. So I loaded up skype moblie on the tilt only to see a message saying "Skype does not allow service through mobile connections." Now why would skype MOBILE not work on a MOBILE connection is beyond me, maybe the version I was using was not up-to-date, I don't know. Then I go searching the beach and surrounding areas for a wifi connection.

I finally find a strong, reliable signal and load up skype to call my mom. Mind you the time was around 8am in Thailand, which was 8pm in the states so even if she was able to put some money in the account it was possible that I wouldn't be able to withdraw it until the next day in American time. Even if so, after talking she went to the bank and deposited some money, and about an hour later I checked the account balance online, also through the tilt and sure enough the money had been credited and was available for use!

So I dash to the nearest atm and give it a shot. I was pretty sure this card would work as I had used it in Korea a few times, but the last time I used it was around 5/6 months ago. "Enter pin" appears and I key it in, 2976 "You have entered an invalid code" showed up. I was almost 100% positive that this was the correct pin because the address to my old apartment in Columbus was 2697 and that was how I remembered the pin by switching the numbers. So I just think that I mixed it up so I try 2967..."You have entered an invalid code" shows up once again. At this point I'm stumped. I try 2976 one last time before getting rejected again and I just go have some lunch and think it over.

Then I remember that I might have had the pin saved in my tilt phone book under the contact info for the chase number. But I had re-formatted the phone so this could have been erased. Luckily the numbers were saved on the sim card and I found it! I'm not going to say what the actual pin was because some hacker is probably having a wet dream looking at this right now, but mission impossible was now a success and I was able to splurge on a few more things in Thailand.

So if you didn't feel like reading all that, here are the 3 ways the tilt saved my life:
1. I was able to use the tilt as an internet modem for my laptop when no local service was available.
2. When I didn't have my laptop, I was able to call my mom and ask her to put money in my American account because I wasn't able to withdraw money from my Korean debit card.
3. When I forgot my pin number for my American debit card, I found it listed under the contact information I had saved for chase in my phone book.

Everything I know how to say in Korean

It's 6am, can't sleep, luckily I can do this because I don't start work until 4:15pm, middle finger to morning shifts! I'm gonna try to write all the words I know how to say in Korean. Notice I didn't say all the words I know how to write because I know how to say a lot more than I can properly write using the Korean characters. And I will also include "Konglish" words that are a mix between Korean and English because if I didn't know the Korean way to say it, I wouldn't know that the English word was similar. An example is the word "coffee" which is spelled like this: 커피, and pronounced like: kaw-pi. I'm gonna guess before I start, and aim high and say that I know about 200 words/phrases, let's see.

1.hello 2.goodbye 3.see you later 4.today 5.tomorrow 6.tonight 7.breakfast 8. lunch 9.dinner 10. eat 11. I/me 12.you(the word you is not in the phrase "see you later") 13.we 14. I'm hungry 15.I miss you 16. now 17.there 18.here 19.this 20.that 21.excuse me 22.please 23.hello(on the phone is different) 24. leg 25.shoes 26.eye 27.ear 28.head 29.height 30.weight 31.It's cold 32.It's hot 33.How are you 34.Are you alone 35.fork 36.I like/good job 37.internet 38.computer 39.laptop 40.wifi 41.coffee 42.pizza 43.story 44.cell phone 45.read 46.write 47.speak 48.numbers(counting each number i can say would be cheating) 49.times 50.when 51.where 52.who 53.why 54.how 55.what 56.really 57.ok 58.very much 59.decrease 60.You're beautiful 61.I know/understand 62.stupid 63.pants 64.music 65.subway 66.station 67.medicine 68.red 69.black 70.blue 71.purple 72.car 73.airplane 74.woman 75.man 76.boyfriend 77.girlfriend 78.couple 79.honey 80.grandmother 81.old woman 82.old man 83.taxi 84.wait a minute 85.I have to go to bed 86.I want___ 87.My name is___ 88.Nice to meet you 89.bullshit 90.fuck you 91. son of a bitch 92.baseball 93.swimming 94.to beat someone 95.You look cool 96.I have/There is 97.hurry up 98.too expensive 99.straight 100.left 101.right 102.to bend 103.I don't believe you 104.eye for an eye 105.America(and anything related to using the word) 106.Thai 107.Korean 108.Germany 109.Japan 110.China 111.Vietnam 112.fork 113.tell me 114.wish/hope 115.always 116.exactly 117.again 118.meat 119.beef 120.chicken 121.fish 122.tuna 123.vegetables 124.apple 125.cucumber 126.baby 127.eel 128.rice 129.seaweed 130.ham 131.sugar 132.protein 133.carbohydrate 134.fat 135.sodium 136.return 137.follow me 138.dumplings 139.pork 140.beer 141.I love you 142.now 143.tree 144.It's fine/Are you ok 145.thank you 146.let's go 147.my house 148.mountain 149.high 150.English 151.teacher 152.next 153.help 154.piano 155.shrimp 156.take out 157.waste 158.half 159.empty 160.massage 161.hamburger 162.french fries 163.valuable 164. to lend 165.I don't have/There is not 166.sweet/affectionate 167.how much/how long 168. to leave 169.question 170.for/in favor of 171.forever 172.to strive 173.fact 174.to die for 175.together 176.princess complex 177.to recommend something 178.completely 179.year 180.How old are you 181.so what 182.submarine 183.to make 184.person 185.to lie 186.you choose 187.party 188.ideas 189.weather 190.study 191.to teach 192.The food is good 193.dangerous 194.tennis 195.fame 196.reason 197.emotion 198.the end 199.friend 200.investigation 201.nasty 202.smell 203.too much 204.amazing 205.bathroom 206.bottle 207.cancel 208.don't 209.no 210.yes 211.noodles 212.milk 213.cheese 214.tea 215.picture 216.private school 217.north 218.south 219.east 220.west 221.water 222.ice 223.salt 224.egg 225.rain 226.umbrella 227.restaurant 228.cut off 229.bank 230.money 231.year 232.ice cream 233.brother 234.sister 235.mother 236.father 237.I want ___ 238. kiss 239.anything 240.bagel 241.waffle 242.cake 243.book 244.singing room 245.yet 246.I can't 247.I'm sorry 248.strawberry 249.correct 250.incorrect 251.side dish 252.easy tiger!

I could probably try to struggle and think of a few more, but I'm tired, so I quit. But yeah, 200 days here, 250 words, YUUUP! And if you doubt me, call me so I can drop your jaw!

Culture Shock

Disclaimer: I have not experienced the slightest bit of culture shock while here in S. Korea, but I just want to talk about some things that might shock other people, and some things that are just weird, different or funny.

1. I am a gatorade lover, so what if it's taking years off of my life due to the excess sodium and sugar in it. I remember when I used to drink at least 4 32 oz. bottles per day for weeks at a time. My favorite flavors? Anything other than LEMON-LIME. So I'm in Korea, and of course the ONLY FLAVOR they have is LEMON-LIME! Seriously? Did they not get the memo that there's about 20 other flavors??? I'm not happy.

2. Of course crime is anywhere you go, but there's a shortage of it here, well at least for theft. My second day here I was strolling around at night and saw a few kids no older than 10 at the park around 1am with no supervision nearby. Even in grocery stores and malls, parents just kind of let the kids straddle along freely without any worries. I've seen girls at restaurants go to the bathroom and leave their purses at the table with nobody watching them.

3. If you don't like tipping at restaurants, just come here. It's deemed RUDE to tip! And what's sad about it is that I've never had bad service anywhere in Korea. Meanwhile in the states there's your typical rotten waiters and waitresses who know that the amount of money they get is based on how good they serve you but still find a way to give horrible service.

4. Before I came here I heard that deodorant was non-existent. There's a slight truth to that because it's not the easiest or most common item to find. But if you look hard enough it's there.

5. Yeah in Ohio U-turns are illegal and a lot of people still do them anyway. But I was amazed to see it not only legal here, but how often it's done and how normal and safe it looks and it makes me wonder what's the big fuss about it to make it illegal?



6. I'm no longer sure which Asians are known as the "short" race. But it damn sure isn't Koreans. They are tall! Men and women both! I have at least five students that are taller than me. Of course I'm not the tallest guy in the world but still. I don't remember the last time I saw 5 12 yr old American kids in front of me.


7. I was shocked to see a girl at Home Plus(Target/Wal-Mart equivalent) staring at a product. Why? She wasn't really interested in the product. She was looking at her damn hair in the reflection of the plastic on the box making sure she looked okay! Double EUU TEE EFF! Some of these girls are the most superficial creatures I have ever seen! Okay, sorry not some, ALL! There hasn't been a day go by where I haven't seen a girl check herself out in a mirror, cell phone camera, or a reflective surface of some sort. Like seriously? I'm sure you spent 2 hours to try to make yourself feel better before you left the house so just relax and stop worrying for 2 seconds. You're soaked in 6 layers of make-up so the real you isn't even there anyway. Oh yeah let's not forget the guys. I'm not sure if it's just a current trend or if it's always been this way but there's a lot of feminine looking guys out here. So while the girl is checking herself out in the car door reflection, her boyfriend is right next to her doing the same thing. They probably share clothes too. I'm just saying.

8. Now it's mostly just younger guys that act feminine, but I've seen an eerie comfortableness among men in general. Guys holding hands, giving each other massages, feeding each other food, etc. Supposedly it's common among heterosexual men and these guys aren't the slightest bit gay? I wouldn't care if they were but to say it's not is, like I said before, eerie.



9. In the states we use 120v outlets, along with the flat prongs. Here it's 220v with round prongs. I bought a prong converter, my laptop works fine with it with no problems, my iron worked for a while, then literally blew up and caught on fire. Not quite sure why, although I think it was due to the iron having the ability to take the higher voltage for a certain amount of time and then, KABOOM. The same thing happened to my ANDIS trimmers, WHILE I WAS CUTTING MY HAIR! So my clippers blew up mid-cut, and I had a half bald head and half hairy head for a few days. I don't care though I was still sexy.



10. Good luck finding toilet paper in public bathrooms, or even soap. And most of the time when I do see soap it's just a plain old bar of soap witch is downright nasty. I would say about 90% of the public bathrooms I've been in were missing toilet paper. But the restaurants in the same buildings keeps rolls by the door when people need to go, I wish I understood this? Oh yeah, and not only is there no toilet paper or soap, you might find a sexy girlie business card tempting you to call in for some late night, or mid-day nookie nookie.


11. That last picture brings me to my next point. Good 'ol prostitution. By the books it's illegal, but to say the police care about cracking down on it is to say that Kanye West cares about Taylor Swift's feelings(I want to add that this is the best blog of all time)! And there's many different forms of it too. Mostly around here there's girls getting picked up and dropped off in these amazing turbo vans.

A conversation I had with a Korean about language

So I'm not sure if most Koreans feel like this, or if she was just heavily feeling her menstrual cycle this month but she apparently doesn't understand why foreigners can't speak Korean.

have a question

[10/1/2009 4:57:24 AM] AJ Jenkins: yes

[10/1/2009 4:58:15 AM] Frannie Park: do u sometimes hang out with korean friends?

[10/1/2009 4:58:40 AM] Frannie Park: or usually with Enilish speaking friends?

[10/1/2009 4:59:00 AM] AJ Jenkins: mostly with English, sometimes with Korean

[10/1/2009 5:00:27 AM] Frannie Park: b/c oft he language , it's not easy to communicate with koreans, huh?

[10/1/2009 5:01:24 AM] AJ Jenkins: yeah, well some of them are good, like the counselors at my school speak ok English, but they would rather talk Korean with each other

[10/1/2009 5:02:09 AM] Frannie Park: they r koreans that's why they talk in korean
[10/1/2009 5:02:30 AM] Frannie Park: i was surprised to find that
[10/1/2009 5:03:17 AM] Frannie Park: americans expect koreans talk in English each other whenever americans and koreans r together

[10/1/2009 5:03:44 AM] AJ Jenkins: yeah because they know more English than we know Korean

[10/1/2009 5:04:06 AM] Frannie Park: don't take it personally

[10/1/2009 5:04:52 AM] AJ Jenkins: so it's either they don't talk to us at all or they talk to us in English

[10/1/2009 5:05:25 AM] Frannie Park: i'm a little bit not happy for English speakers not to try to pick up some basc korean language

[10/1/2009 5:06:44 AM] AJ Jenkins: you have to figure though most Koreans have been learning English since elementary and middle school
[10/1/2009 5:06:59 AM] AJ Jenkins: so we still won't be able to talk in full conversations
[10/1/2009 5:07:18 AM] AJ Jenkins: I know a good amount of Korean, but I still can't have full conversations

[10/1/2009 5:07:32 AM] Frannie Park: but still E is a foreign language in korea. and most of us don't need to speak E to live on

[10/1/2009 5:08:29 AM] AJ Jenkins: that's why I said it's either no talking at all, or talk in English
[10/1/2009 5:08:43 AM] AJ Jenkins: so if you don't want to speak English then you just won't talk to any foreigners

[10/1/2009 5:09:13 AM] Frannie Park: thank u for letting me know what foreigners expect to korenan people. talk in English ir no talking when we r together

[10/1/2009 5:09:37 AM] AJ Jenkins: so what you expect foreigners to learn Korean in a few months?
[10/1/2009 5:10:03 AM] AJ Jenkins: I'm saying that's the only way possible to speak

[10/1/2009 5:10:09 AM] Frannie Park: basic survival korean such as
[10/1/2009 5:10:21 AM] Frannie Park: 안녕하세요. 고맙습니다.
[10/1/2009 5:10:24 AM] Frannie Park: 잠깐만요
[10/1/2009 5:10:36 AM] Frannie Park: 맛있어요

[10/1/2009 5:10:41 AM] AJ Jenkins: ok but that doesn't mean talking, like I said, I know basic words, but I can't hold full conversations in Korean

[10/1/2009 5:10:44 AM] Frannie Park: 어디로 가나요?
[10/1/2009 5:11:00 AM] Frannie Park: u know what?
[10/1/2009 5:11:29 AM] Frannie Park: u don;t need to keep the conversation 100 % in korean

[10/1/2009 5:12:05 AM] AJ Jenkins: those few Korean phrases you posted will last a few seconds, and the MAJORITY of the conversation will need to be in English
[10/1/2009 5:12:35 AM] AJ Jenkins: that's the ONLY way it will be unless a foreigner is here for multiple years and wants to fluently learn the language

[10/1/2009 5:14:49 AM] Frannie Park: many E speakers including my co-worker in my shool don't know or don't try to learn that basic korean
[10/1/2009 5:15:35 AM] Frannie Park: we don;t expect foreigners talk korea fluently, not at all

[10/1/2009 5:15:56 AM] AJ Jenkins: well if they don't want to, then that's their personal choice

[10/1/2009 5:16:10 AM] Frannie Park: right

[10/1/2009 5:16:10 AM] AJ Jenkins: just like you didn't have to learn English, but you wanted to

[10/1/2009 5:17:14 AM] Frannie Park: but in the work place , as long as they r in korea, they need to follow korean way to keep the rule
[10/1/2009 5:17:36 AM] Frannie Park: i chose to learn E
[10/1/2009 5:17:41 AM] Frannie Park: i like E
[10/1/2009 5:18:17 AM] Frannie Park: bur I mean many foreigners expect every korenas speak E well
[10/1/2009 5:18:29 AM] Frannie Park: for example

[10/1/2009 5:18:36 AM] AJ Jenkins: I can't speak for them, I can only speak for me

[10/1/2009 5:19:25 AM] Frannie Park: ok. it seems to bother u

[10/1/2009 5:20:03 AM] AJ Jenkins: well I'm only ONE foreigner, I can't speak for the thousands of other foreigners that are here
[10/1/2009 5:20:49 AM] Frannie Park: personally i want them to show us respect for korean custom and korean lg.

[10/1/2009 5:22:37 AM] AJ Jenkins: well you should then talk to them

[10/1/2009 5:23:29 AM] Frannie Park: do they know that point when they r told by word ?
[10/1/2009 5:23:37 AM] Frannie Park: it's kind of a common sense
[10/1/2009 5:23:46 AM] Frannie Park: when u r in foreign country
[10/1/2009 5:24:26 AM] Frannie Park: how come they expect the landlady say E fluently.
[10/1/2009 5:25:21 AM] Frannie Park: how com they compalin about other subject teachers don;t speka E when they r together.

[10/1/2009 5:25:45 AM] AJ Jenkins: I, myself, me, AJ, can't answer those questions for you.

[10/1/2009 5:26:49 AM] Frannie Park: i don;t want to have an answer from u
[10/1/2009 5:27:20 AM] Frannie Park: i just don't understand some foreigners' attitude
[10/1/2009 5:27:51 AM] Frannie Park: maybe we can find the solution thru 대화
[10/1/2009 5:28:31 AM] Frannie Park: no offense
[10/1/2009 5:31:52 AM] Frannie Park: nice to talk with u. it was helpful for me to get the idea, '" in english or no talking at all"
[10/1/2009 5:32:39 AM] Frannie Park: have a nice day. sorry , to u, sleep tight~

[10/1/2009 5:32:42 AM] AJ Jenkins: yep


I don't get what was so hard for her to understand that it would take years of learning before foreigners could speak with the same level of Korean, that most Koreans speak with English???

Seven Lucks, minus a lot more luck

So I guess after two months of going awol on here, I'll give a go at writing something. I'll try more, I promise. Although I feel like my pictures and videos give a much more vivid depiction of what I do!

Before coming to Korea, I had only been to a casino once, when I was 19 in Canada. I gave a try to a few different games: roulette, the slots, and blackjack. By the end of the night, I was down $200 and kept it there. The next morning before we left Canada, I went back with $20 and won like $120, eventually to loose it all again. And that was my only casino experience.

When I first got here, I saw this biiiig building saying "Seven Lucks Casino"



It took me like 3 months to make it there, not to mention there's two of them. I'm sure there's more casinos but Seven Lucks is probably the best one. Another odd fact about it is that Koreans aren't allowed to go in. I'm not 100% sure why, but I believe it's just looked down upon for Koreans to gamble I guess. Entrance to the casino is only by having a passport from another country(unless you have a VIP membership card like me) so it's pretty strict. But I just read that there's one casino in a very remote location that Koreans are allowed to go to.

So I go for the first time about 3 weeks ago, with Tommy and Jamie(two other teachers at my school), after much practice at online blackjack and feeling ready to win big money. Mind you, it's about 3 in the morning, and the low betting blackjack tables are all full so we just browse and walk around for about an hour. I finally see a seat open and I rush to it, only to sit down and reach in all of my pockets not to find the 115,000 won that I brought. Salty! Ritz! Crackers! Lawrys! High sodium! Still not exactly sure what happened, but I either was pick-pocketed or I just dropped it somewhere. I should have just not played after that but I did, and I lost. I've decided to keep the amounts to myself, but I lost.

Went back the week after that, I lost. This time we went at like 8 am so I slightly blame it on the alcohol and being dead tired. Plus I played at the high roller tables this time(50,000 won minimum).

This past Saturday, we figured that the Seoul station one was not so lucky so we went to the other one near the Coex mall, I lost. I tried experimenting with 3 card poker and the slots here but mainly blackjack, still, I lost. Crazy thing is, while I'm sitting at the table I have my phone out learning how to count cards, which isn't illegal but if they see me start to win big money then I'm probably going to get a few gut uppercuts in the back room. Either way, I lost. I say I won't go again for a while, but I also said that after the first two times, so I might have a bit of a problem developing here, but let's hope the mind can overcome the matter!