Pirates do exist!

I always thought that pirates were made up just like santa claus, but this news article from the Korean Herald site tells me otherwise. Pirates, UFO's, bigfoot, lochness monsters, ghosts... Who believes in them? Well, I didn't believe in ghosts, until I experienced one couple of years ago. As for the others, I have to see it to believe it!

Somali pirates release hostages

Week off from work

My school's summer vacation starts this week. I still have my private tutors on Monday and Tuesdays nights, but I don't have anything else planned. Actually, I might go to Hongdae on Tuesday night to meet up with some friends to celebrate Sarah's B-Day. Towards the end of the week, I might go down to Jeon Ju to see my cousins. If it doesn't rain, I will go hiking in Gwanaksan but with my luck, it probably will rain. I've been to a lot of the tourist spots in Seoul, so I don't know where else to go. I need to get the Lonely Planet book of Korea to get some ideas. Anybody have any ideas?

This weekend was a mellow weekend for me. Even on Friday night, I got home around 3am, rather than my usual 6am. I went out to Jong-Gak to meet up with some friends. First, we hung out in front of Family Mart (small market) and drank soju while we waited for our other friends to show up. Then, we all went to a bar and did the usual. It was pouring rain all night; but this time, I bought a really nice umbrella so it didn't break. I stayed home Saturday night and watched couple of movies called Bandidas and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. They were both pretty funny. Bandidas was played by Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz , which are absolutely gorgeous (that's an understatement). They became bank robbers after their town was taken over by some con man. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was played by Robert Downey Jr. who was a petty thief that tried to become an actor, but ended up being caught up in a murder mystery. Val Kilmer played a gay detective that was trying to solve the murder mystery. Anyways, I highly recommend these movies if you want a good laugh. I have both of these on DVD, if anybody wants to borrow it.

Interesting Day...

Well, I had an interesting day today. First, my umbrella broke while I was walking down the street to grab a taxi in the pouring rain. Second, someone hi-jacked my ebay account. Third, this recruiter kept calling me, even though I told him to stop calling, then he sent me a rude text message.

I don't usually check my email in the morning, but I decided to check it this morning. When I clicked on my email account, I had over 100 emails. Someone hi-jacked my Ebay account and listed over 100 auctions, which charged my account about $500. Then, I spent 30 minutes trying to figure out what to do. I immediately changed my password, and sent ebay an email. By that time, I was late for work. To make the matter worse, it was pouring rain and my umbrella broke. Then, this recruiter kept calling me all week, even though I told him that I didn't need his services anymore. Today, he called about 10 times while I was in the middle of teaching. I didn't answer the phone, so then he sends me a text message cussing me out. I was furious!!! Here's a guy that I've never met before acting like a dumbass. I had no idea why someone would act like that. I told one of the other teachers, so she decided to call him to find out what his problem was. He even cussed her out! He has no idea who he's dealing with. I should go down to his office and beat his ass, but I refuse to stoop down to his level of stupidity.

Anyways, I was planning on staying home tonight, but I decided to meet up with Charlie, again, to have a few drinks. We are suppose to meet up with other teachers from his school for dinner, then meet up with friends later on tonight. I am sure I am going to do another all nighter.

Good bye for now.

Happy B-Day

Happy B-Day Dad! I hope you're enjoing your voyage.

Landis fails drug test

Tour de France winner, Floyd Landis got busted for using steriods. I guess he's going to lose his title. In a way, I don't really sympathize with him, since I have always been aganist using steroids. Being dishonest will always come back and bite you in the ASS. I even lost a friend from this drug years ago. He received a full football scholarship to a division 1 school. A month later, he was found passed out in his room . He was rushed to the hospital and was in a coma for a week, before he died. The autopsy showed that he had a puncture wound on his lower back (lumbar area), which is a spot that is used to inject steroids. This spot is used, instead of the butt, to hide the evidence. They never officially announced what caused his death, but we all knew what had happened.

Well, Lance Armstrong will always be the champion in my book. As you all know, Lance has ruled this sport in his time. He has made history. He's been a great role model as an athlete and as an individual. Even though cycling is not my favorite sport, he's one of my favorite athletes next to Walter Payton and Barry Sanders.

Motorcycles everywhere...

Before I came to Korea, I had two motorcycles that I sold. One was a 2002 Suzuki GSXR 600 that I rode on the race track, and a 2003 Suzuki GSXR 750 that I rode on the street. Riding motorcycles was one of my passions. Every weekend was spent riding my bike. Here in Korea, I see motorcycles and scooters (mostly scooters) everywhere. It makes me want to go and buy a bike, but I think I would get killed out here. The traffic and the way these people drive are insane.

Here are some pictures of my bikes, friends, and the good times.

Double with grilled onions, light on the sauce

If you're in California, can you please overnight me a hamburger from IN-N-OUT. If you haven't had a burger from IN-N-OUT, then you are missing out. This is another food that I have been craving.

What the Pho!!!

One of my favorite food is the Vietnamese dish called "Pho". It is a beef noodle soup that consists of beef broth, angel hair type noodles, beef, steak, and herbs. When I lived in California, I ate it about 3-4 times a week. You only pay about $5.00 and you get a huge bowl of that stuff.

I have been craving it, ever since I have been here. I looked for a place that had it, but I guess I was looking in the wrong places until now. I found a restaurant off of the Seoul University of Education Station, so I decided to check it out. This restaurants was pretty big. When we walked in, we were greeted by this attractive lady with the traditional Vietnamese outfit on. She took us to our table, so we sat down and looked at the menu. When I looked at the menu, the Pho was about $9.00 for the large bowl and $8.00 for the small bowl. I don't know why it was so expensive but I didn't care. Come to find out, the lady that took us to our table was a Vietnamese girl that didn't speak any Korean or English. For that reason, I thought that it was an authentic restaurant and the soup was going to be really good and was looking forward to it. With my luck, it was horrible! I was so dissappointed. I guess I won't me eating Pho in Korea.

I am MOVING!!!

No, I am not moving back to California. Some of you probably thought that I might be moving back home from the subject title, but I am not going anywhere.

I am moving next month to a bigger place! I signed the paperwork today, so I am all set. This place is awesome! It's only about a 3 minute walk to the subway station, and about a 5 minute ride to my work.

Oh yeah, I should tell you where I am moving to. First of all, let me tell you about the place. It's Villa style apartment with 2 bedrooms, huge bathroom, livingroom, kitchen, and a sunroom. The rent is cheap too. I will turn one of the rooms as my office/gym. It's very expensive to join a gym here, so I plan on getting my own set up. I only need a bench and some weights to get a full work out, so now I can't complain of not being able to workout. It's going to feel good to lift weights, since I haven't lifted for four months. I am set to move in on the 15th of August.

OK, OK... I am moving to Oksu-dong, which is right next to the Han River. It's a perfect place to go jogging. Oksu-dong is in the middle of Seoul, so it's very convenient to get around to different areas of Seoul. It's right off of the Oksu dong station on Line 3.

One week until my vacation

I have the week of 7/31 - 8/4 off from work. I don't have anything planned yet, but I am looking forward to having the week off. I might go down to Jeon Ju to see my cousins and to visit my grandmother's grave, but I am not sure yet.

I just have to survive this week, which will be a long week. Instead of 2 times a week, I have my private tutors 4 times a week, now, since it's summer. That means I leave my house around 7:30am, get off work at 3:30pm, go to Starbucks to kill time until 6:45pm, then teach for 1 or 2 hours (depending on the day and the student), then come home at around 10pm. It's a long day but it's life.

I am counting down the minutes as we speak. One week vacation, here I come!!!

Hiking in the rain, again, in Gwanaksan

It seems like everytime I decide to go hiking, it rains. Couple of weeks ago, I got off work early so I went hiking. But it started to rain 3o minutes into the hike. I had a feeling that it was going to rain, so I brought my umbrella. I started off at the main entrance to Gwanaksan and I didn't have a plan of where to go, so I just kept walking. I only hiked for 2 hours and decided to head back home. I usually bring my Ipod when I go hiking, but I didn't bring it this time. It was actually nice to hear the sound of the streams, birds, etc. There weren't too many people hiking that day, so I had the whole mountain to my myself. I had a chance to reflect my past and just to clear my mind of being in Seoul.

Seoul Food

Last week, I went to Yongsan to check out some scanners and printers. Yongsan is a huge mall that sells all sorts of electronic goods. It has about 5 floors and each floor sells different things. First floor sells only cameras, second floor has cell phones, third floor has computers, etc. This place is huge! Each floor is like the size of Circuit City or Best Buy, so you can imagine how big it is. It's set up like a swap meet, since you have your own little spot and every one of them sells the exact same thing.

Also, this mall has a huge food court, so I decided to get some dinner before heading over to my private tutor. There were a lot of choices but the "Menu for Dummies" made it a lot easier to choose what I wanted to eat. The dish that I had was called Kalguksu, which has thick noodles in some beef broth with seaweed sprinkled on top. This dish brought back memories from my childhood. Everytime I eat certain foods, it brings back memories of when I lived in Korea. It was really good and it hit the spot. It was cheap too. I only paid about $7.00 and I got the soup, 3 huge homemade steamed mandu (egg rolls), and the rest that you see in the picture. I am definitely coming back to this place again!


This is the Kalguksu. Thick noodles in beef broth mixed with eggs and seaweed. Just add some salt and you're good to go. It was GOOD!











The 3 white things are the mandu. They don't look that big in the picture, but they were pretty big. I am not a huge fan of kimchi, but even the kimchi was good. The yellow thing is some sort of soup, which was good as well.









The Menu for Dummies. Even non-readers can order food here. This picture is dedicated to people that can't read. The one I had is on the top left corner.

Men Think Clearly Only If They Sleep Alone

I was surfing the net today and I ran into this article. I think it's full of crap! Men are always the bad guys, and women are always innocent. This statement, " Women are pre-programmed to cope better with broken sleep " is SO wrong. I remember getting beat up by my ex for waking her up at 4 in the morning, and I didn't hear the end of it for the rest of the day.

"According to a study conducted by the researchers at the University of Vienna it was found that sharing a bed diminishes the man's ability to think clearly. The lead researcher Professor Gerhard Kloesch analysed about eight unmarried, childless couples in their 20s. They were asked to share their beds and on the next day they were asked to perform a simple cognitive test. It was found that women were fresher than men even when both slept the same number of hours. The researcher said that sharing a bed with a partner temporarily confuses men’s brains and increases the stress hormone levels. On the other hand women do not suffer from this problem. Men have disturbed sleep whether they make love or not. The results of the study were reported in New Scientist magazine. Men kept turning, tossing and snoring which indicated that they had disturbed sleep whereas women slept more deeply. Professor Dr Neil Stanley, a sleep expert at the University of Surrey said that women are pre-programmed to cope better with broken sleep. This is because they face a lot of disturbance in their sleep during various phases of their life during the Menstural Cycle, bringing up children and the menopause stage."

Links...

I am pretty new to blogging; so my blog advisor, Jes, recommended that I should have links on my blog. The question is, which links? Any one have any ideas?

Weekend report

I had another great weekend! I went out on Friday and Saturday night and didn't come home until the next morning, so I need to catch up on some sleep today.

On Friday night, I met up with Charlie at the Hilton Casino, since he was already there gambling. I thought he learned his lesson from last week when he lost all of his money, but he came back for more. Well, surprisingly, he lost all of his money AGAIN. You could say that he wasn't too happy, but I had no sympathy for him since he is a grown man. Anyways, we went to the town Itaewon to meet up with some friends at a bar called " Hollywood ". Personally, I don't like to go to Itaewon at night. It's full of marines and foreigners. It's not that I don't like marines or foreigners, but it has a lot of weird people. It seems like everybody wants to fight, and I just don't like the atmosphere there. I like to be around people that likes to have a good time without any tension. Speaking of fighting, drunk ass Charlie almost got us in a fight 4 times that night. That guy can not handle his liquor, and I wanted to kick his ass for being so stupid. We left Itaewon and went to a town called Suyu, which took forever. After a $25 taxi ride, we got to Suyu and met up with Ghung Hee, Jeen Ah, and two of their friends. Then, drunk ass Charlie was being so obnoxious that we left the bar in embarrassment . What a dumbass!!! Charlie went home, so the rest of us went to another bar. I had the biggest headache that night. It's probably because I had peach cocktail soju. I guess the regular soju is too strong for the ladies, so they all seem to drink that cocktail soju. Since I was the only guy at the table, I just drank the peach cocktail soju with them. We managed to finish off two giant pitchers. Once again, to end the night, we went to the Noraebang to sober up but ended up drinking some more. Man, these ladies can drink!!! They all weighed about 110lbs each, but they can drink alcohol like water. I got home about 7am and passed out.

On Saturday, I met up with Jessica, Brendon, and his girlfriend Rose who is visiting from Ireland. Brendon's a English teacher from Ireland and he has the same accent as my sisters boyfriend Chris. Chris is from Scotland and the way they spoke was pretty similiar. I met them at Geckos in Itaewon to have a drink, then we went to Kangnam to get some dinner. Around 10pm, Brendon and Rose went to another bar to meet their friends and Jessica went home for the night. I had plans to meet up with Cherry and some of her friends. Cherry is a Korean girl that decided to pick " Cherry " as her American name. What's up with these weird names? Anyways, I met them at a restaurant near the town that I live at and hung out. This time, we didn't go to the Noraebang, since I wasn't too far from my house. I took a taxi and got home, relatively, early. I got home around 4am, but I could not sleep for some reason. I started reading " Angels and Demons " by Dan Brown, and I fell asleep around 7am.

Sunday morning, I had to get up at 9:30am to teach English to the kids from my church. I was half asleep, so I don't think I was very productive. Today, I will be going hiking for couple of hours, then I have to find a place to live that is near my work. I am not sure where yet, but I am thinking Cheong Dam, Sinsa, Hannam, or Oksu area. My school is near Cheong Dam, so I prefer to live there but it is a wealthy area so it might be too expensive. Anyone have suggestions on where I should live that is near Cheong Dam or Apgujeong station? I don't know the towns here, so I can use some suggestions.

Posting pictures

I know some of you have complained that I haven't posted any pictures on my blog lately, so I will try to post them more often. I know some of you can't read and just visit my blog to look at the pictures, so I will try to make it compatible for all of you.

Honestly, I don't carry around my camera, since I try to travel light as possible. Commuting by public transportation everyday and the weather being so hot and humid, I don't like to carry around a bag or anything else. All I need is my wallet and I am good to go. I love my camera, but I should of bought a smaller one that fits in my pocket. I already spent too much money on my current camera, so I am not planning on buying another one. Also, this site takes way too damn long to upload the pictures. I have to post it one by one, which is a pain in the ass. So, for those you that can not read or that do not like to read... Tough Luck!!! Use your imagination!

Why did I even write this post? The non-readers are not even going to read it anyways!

Come back soon...

Pencil in the eye and tattoos

Wednesday was an interesting day at work. First, I chewed out one of my best students in my advanced 8 year old class for almost poking a classmate in the eye with his pencil. Second, some of my students saw my tattoos and made a huge deal out of it.

Here is the pencil incident: Byron is one of my best students in class. He soaks in everything that I teach him, and is the only one that ALWAYS completes his homework. But, he is a class clown! He's always goofing off in one way or another. I have 4 students in my class, and we were sitting at a round table going over their homework. Then, Byron decided to play around with his pencil, which slipped out of his hand and flew across the table hitting Ashaa on the face. I remember seeing this pencil, in slow motion, going across my face hitting Ashaa. I was PISSED! I remember when I was in elementary school, I was sitting next to a student that, accidentally, poked himself in the eye with his own pencil. I will never forget what happened after that. He cried so loud from pain that other students cried with him. A lot of us thought that he lost his sight, but everything turned out OK. Anyways, I just chewed him out! He almost cried from it but life goes on. It could have been worse. Later on that day, Ashaa's mom called my director to inquire about the incident, so he asked me what had happened. I am sure Byron's parents got a phone call from my director, and he will be getting a mouthful from his parents.

As most of you know, I have a few tattoos. The latest one I got is the half sleeve on my left arm that was done by a well known tattoo artist in California. Part of the tattoo was done in memory of my dad that passed away this year, and the other part is related to my Korean heritage. Anyways, it was during gym time for the students when they saw a peek of my tattoo. I was the first teacher in the room with about 55 students. I reached down to pick up something from the ground and couple of the students ran up to me asking what that thing was on my arm. Then, about half of the students were all screaming to see what it was and I quickly told them that I just drew on my arm. Luckily, they all believed me and went away. Then, the rest of the teachers walked in the room, so they had no idea what had happened. I didn't think that it was a good idea for my director to know that I have tattoos; especially, when I haven't worked at this school for a long time. I am not, at all, ashamed of my tattoos so don't get me wrong, but sometimes it's better to be discreet about it living in a society that judges people by it's cover. Koreans have a different perspective on tattoos compared to the US. The older generation thinks that only gangsters have tattoos, but the younger generations are very curious about it. In other words, some approve of it and some don't. I do get some stares in buses and subways, but sometimes it helps to get some room when it's packed. They see my tattoos and step back. It cracks me up when this happens.

Volunteering

On Sunday mornings, I have been volunteering teaching English to the kids from my church. It is only for about 20 minutes during the youth service, but they all seem to like it. I attend the adult service with my cousin, but I can't understand the Pastor's speech. He talks too fast and uses words that I don't understand. I found a church that has an English service, so I am planning on going to that one.

The Never Ending Rain...

It has been raining nonstop since Friday night. I've never seen so much rain in my life. It has caused some flooding all over Korea, such as subways, homes, streets, and more. I think 11 people have died and 15 are missing. Hopefully, they are OK but it doesn't seem that way.

On Friday night, we ended up going bowling with about 6 other people. Once again, I don't remember their names. This time, there were 2 Americans (Charlie and a girl from San Diego) and 4 Koreans ( 2 guys and 2 ladies). On the way to the bowling alley, Charlie wanted to get some drinks before we get there, since the bowling alley does not serve alcohol. In Korea, bowling alleys and pool halls do not serve alcohol. But the funny thing is, it is legal to drink on the streets. We ended up getting some soju at a mini-mart/7-Eleven and drank it on the tables they had outside.

After bowling for about 2 hours, we (except the 2 Korean ladies) went back to the same area that I was at last weekend and went to this bar to meet up with some more people. This time I remember their names or atleast 2 out of 3 of the names. There were Ghung Hee, Jeen Ah, and I forgot the other one. They were all Korean ladies. I pretty much talked to Ghung Hee and Jeen Ah the whole night. They didn't speak any English, but we had a lot of laughs. Once again after the bar, we ended up at a Norae bang (karaoke) until 5 in the morning. All public transportation stops at around 1pm on weekends and it starts back up at 5am, so we all left and called it a night.

The next morning or should I say a few hours later, Charlie called me to see if I wanted to go to a Casino to do some gambling. Keep in mind that I have been asleep for about 2 hours, so I quickly declined. In Korea, gambling is illegal for Korean citizens so only foreigners are allowed to gamble. I woke up at around 12pm and called Charlie to see if he was still at the Casino, which he still was losing his money. I didn't want to gamble so I told him that I will meet him at the Casino, then we can do something else.

I went down to the Sheraton Hotel Casino, which took about 50 minutes by bus and subway and taxi. When I got there, I realized that I went to the wrong hotel. He was at the Hilton Hotel Casino and not the Sheraton. Earlier, Charlie said he was at the Hilton Hotel but I forgot. I thought that there was only one Casino in Seoul, but I was wrong. Hilton was about another 45 minutes away from the Sheraon. Anyways, I called him up and he sounded a little pissed since he lost all his money. I told him that I went to the wrong Casino, so I was heading back home.

On my way home, I decided to get a haircut hoping that they won't mess it up again. I've been to two different places and they messed it both times, even after I explained to them exactly how I wanted it. There are 2 hairstyles on guys that are common in Korea: short or long. Short style is like a upside down triangle. Imagine looking at a guys head from the back but upside down. It looks like a triangle! They do this really bad fade which I do not like. Long style is long bangs, long side burns, and long in the back. Too gay for me!!! Anyways, I went to this place that just opened up by my house and I explained to her what had previously happened. I had to use both English and Korean to explain what I wanted, but it was tough since she didn't speak any English. It paid off and I got the right haircut! I even tipped her and told her that I will be coming back to her from now on. She was surprised when I tipped her and she gave me a bottle of shampoo. I refused but she insisted and told me to come back.

I knew I was going to run into some obstacles living here, but I never expected a haircut being one of them. Luckily, I got over that obstacle.

Three day weekend.

I have a three day weekend coming up, so I am looking forward to it. Monday is some Korean national holiday that I don't know about, but I just know that I am glad to have a three day weekend. Woring all week and doing my private tutors have drained me a little bit. There are days when I leave my house at 6:30am and don't come home until 11:30pm. The commute, alone, is about 4 hours a day but I have no choice. Using public transportation has its ups and downs, but one thing I do know is that I miss having my own car. Ironically, I am still wide awake and looking for things to do when I come home.

I got off work at 4pm today and went to Jongak, again, to meet up with Charlie. We were suppose to meet at 8pm, but I didn't want to go home since it's out of the way. For that reason, I just came out to Jongak right after work. I am at a PC bang, right now, checking my email and just killing time. I am not sure what we will do tonight, but I am looking forward to having a drink or two or three. I will see how the night goes. If something interesting happens then I will be sure to post it, if I feel that it's appropriate.

Superman Returns...

We went and saw Superman Returns on Saturday night. We went to Yongsan to watch it at the IMAX (3D) theater, but the next showing was not until midnight. We didn't want to wait that long, so we went to another theater to catch an earlier showing. We should of just waited and watched it at the IMAX theater, since it was the same situation at the other theater. We ended up waiting until midnight to watch the movie in the smaller theater.

The movie was pretty good. I don't want to spoil it for those that have not seen it, so I won't write my review here. I do recommend it, so go and watch it.

Night out...

On Friday, after work around 5pm, I met up with Daisy in Sinchon. I met Daisy couple of weeks ago through a friend of mine. We weren't sure what to do, so we walked around for a little bit. Finally, we decided to get some dinner at this Japanese restaurant, which was not too bad. Then, we went to Starbucks to get some coffee. This girl was so boring that I was itching to leave. It was only 6pm, so I could not call it a night. She asked me the weirdest questions too. Anyways, I could not take it anymore so I told her that I had to leave by 8pm. In the meantime, I text messaged Charlie who I met earlier in the week by my work. He's the one (American) that is from Seattle. He replied back and wanted to meet in Jonggak, which is only about 15 minutes away from Sinchon. I walked Daisy to the bus stop and left to go to Jonggak.

The subway arrived at the Jonggak station, so I was walking up the stairs when I saw this guy trip and almost fell flat on his face. I started to laugh a little bit when, all of a sudden, I almost fell flat on MY face. Yes, I almost fell but caught myself. I guess that's what I get for laughing ( I apologize for laughing). Charlie met me at the subway station, and we went to this bar that his friends were at. When we got there, he introduced me to 4 girls an 1 guy. He told them that I was from California. All of them have been taking some english lessons so we conversed in english. I don't remember their names, though. I am usually good with names, but I can't seem to remember the Korean names. I remember one name which was "Kim" because it's an American name. Actually, he is Korean but has an American name. Also, he lived in Irvine (close to my hometown in California) for about 6 months and has a cousin that lives in Irvine as well. As for the others, I have NO idea.

It was a fun night. We started drinking beer, since the bar didn't serve soju. Charlie drank gin on the rocks, since he did not want to drink beer. It was funny hearing Charlie (caucasian guy) speaking Korean. He ordered all the drinks which was pretty impressive. We were all having a good time when Charlie ran into some of his other friends (Korean) at the bar. Now, there were 10 of us. The bar that we were at did not have enough room for all of us, so we went to another bar.

The new bar that we went to served soju, so the girls ordered their cocktail soju. The men ordered a pitcher of beer and about 5 bottles of soju. Suprisingly, they all spoke some decent english. Charlie and I were the only 2 native english speakers, so we were just babbling away. The others tried to keep up but had a tough time. This one girl started to talk to me in english, but I could not understand what the heck she was saying. For that reason, I started to speak Korean and everyone's eyes got really big. All of them thought that I only spoke english, so they were surprised when I spoke Korean. Then, couple of them started to call me "Opah" for some reason. Apparently, according to Kim, couple of them liked me and wanted to get my number but too shy to ask.

I don't know why, but Koreans always go to the Noraebang (Karaoke) after drinking. I think it's a ritual thing to do after the bars.

Oh, by the way, I was crossing the street to catch a taxi and I tripped AGAIN! This time in the middle of the street! It was so embarassing! Luckily, all of my friends were in front of me so they did not see me, but other people that were around saw me. What the heck was wrong with me that night? This time, I can blame it on the alcohol.

Other than tripping and almost falling on my face, I had a great night. It started off boring but ended up having a good time.

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th, everybody! I hope everyone have a safe and fun 4th of July back in California. Nothing going on over here, since Korea does not celebrate the 4th.

I have a busy week ahead of me so it should go by pretty past. Also, I think I picked up a another private tutor. This one isn't for English; it's for math. I better sharpen up my math skills.

I made my first American friend today. I was at a bus stop waiting for my bus, and this guy was standing right next to me. I asked him where he was from, and at first he looked at me as if I was speaking a foreign language, then he answered, " Seattle." I told him that I am from California, and he got really excited. We made plans to go out this weekend and check out the night life. He's been in Korea for almost 2 years, so he knows his way around here a lot better than myself.