The Foreigner Community

So as mentioned before, Jinju is not an overwhelmingly big city.  It has about 300,000 residents but based on the construction going on, that number will be going up significantly.  But in those 300,000 people there are about 100 foreigners that have decided to make this city their home.  The foreign community is from all over the English speaking world and some have been here for up to 3+ years.

It was told to me last week that it is better to be placed in a city like Jinju rather than Seoul or Busan since the foreigner community is smaller and there is more opportunity to meet people and not be ignored like it could happen in the bigger metropolitan areas.  This seems to be true as all foreigners so far have been friendly toward this new guy since they were all in the same situation before.

Now, for those of you that actually know me, I do not hide that I am not a religious man but, as you can tell from the title of this blog, that I was born Jewish and culturally and stereotypically still am.  But it seems to be that the foreigner community of Jinju has not had a Jewish residence in what would seem to be ever.  It seems that my way of sticking out and making myself known to people in this town is that I am the local Jew which I'll gladly take.

How can this be so weird though?  I do not know much of the history of Jews in England but the British people here told me they really never knew one so I guess there aren't many there.  But it dawned on me why this could be and that is I feel this is one of those few places that has a lack of people from the Northeast United States.  I have met Michigan, Texas, the West Coast, England, Scotland, Australia yet the part of the world where I always felt there will always be someone from regardless of world location, there are none (or if there are I have not met them yet).  And since the Northeast has a large Jewish population, it might make sense that this town has not had one.

So I will do my best to live up to all pre-existing Jewish stereotypes so the people here are not disappointed.  It is a lot of pressure but I'm sure I'll do a good job.  And if I don't then I'll just show them some legendary Jewish guilt and they'll have no choice but to like me.

Other thoughts:

• The Red Sox are having one hell of an off-season.  The Bobby Jenks addition is fantastic and if it allows them to trade the overrated bumpkin Papelbon then it will be an even better off-season for them.  Hopefully the Yanks will wake up and do a little more than sign a left-handed specialist.  But at least we can Pedro Feliciano to the Yankees/Mets list

• Went to my first movie in a theater in about a month.  That was probably the longest movie-in-the-theater drought since I was 4.  The movie of choice was The Tourist and, as I was told, it wasn't really any good.  And considering the first scene is spoken almost entirely in French and the Korean subtitles didn't help, I was a little lost to start.  I still have about four movies I need to see before I can make my year-end top 10 post so if anyone finds a link for either Black Swan, The Fighter, True Grit or The King's Speech before I do then send it my way.

• One of the great things I have found is in the delivery service of food here.  As I mentioned in another post, the school buys our dinner every night so that it saves a lot of money weekly.  But after you're done with eating, you leave the garbage and trays outside and they come BACK to collect it later in the evening.  All we have to do is leave it outside the building and the delivery person comes back to throw it out.  For some reason this fascinates me but it is nice and convenient.

• There is absolutely no tipping in this culture.  Waiters, cab drivers, bartenders, hookers and everyone else you would usually tip do not get any.  They do their job and that is all.  So no figuring out tip on a bill or finding the extra 1,000 won (equivalent to a buck in U.S. dollars) for the bartender.  Just pay and get out.

• If you haven't seen The Daily Show this week, especially his final show of the new year, about the Senate's filibustering of the 9/11 responders bill that would give them healthcare coverage then please check it out.  He has been hammering the topic all week but Thursday night's show was truly excellent.  But let's give the Senate credit when they deserve it for finally repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell.  And hopefully we will do our part to look at the 30+ GOP Senators that voted against repeal with disdain and forever brand them as homophobes which they are.  (Sorry for the political rant.  I will try and stay away from this as much as possible)

That's all for now.  If I don't write before Christmas then have a good one for all of you who celebrate it. As for the town's only Jew I guess I will try go see a movie and find a Chinese food place.  It's the only thing I have done on Christmas for 25 years now...can't break tradition.  

The Cliff Lee Post

This is going to be my first non-Korea post as the news of Cliff Lee spurning the Yanks for a reunion with the Phillies is less than an hour old and I have the forum to spew my opinions for people to read so I might as well do so.

This signing means a lot of different things for me as a fan of the Yankees, and for me as a fan of baseball. As a Yankee fan, this is the worst possible news.  After Boston gets Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford, two of the best left-handed hitters in the game (and two very different types of hitters mind you), the Yankees' need for Lee skyrocketed.  A rotation of CC, Lee and possibly Pettitte would have been a great counter for the left-handed leaning Sox that would still include Ortiz.  And when the Yanks increased their offer to 7-years, an insane amount for any player let alone a pitcher (how's the Zito deal working out SF?), it was almost a given that he was coming because if the Yankees set their mind for someone then they get them.

But the weird thing is they didn't get him and now without the assurance that Pettitte is returning, the Yanks rotation seems very bland behind Sabathia and Hughes and a more than questionable A.J. Burnett (who doesn't instill much confidence in me) and an unproven Ivan Nova.  Factor in an aging Jeter and Posada (although I think Jeter will be on a mission this year) and asking for similar years from Gardner and Swisher and this team could fall apart real fast.

But as a baseball fan this is extremely exciting.  For one, many critics can finally see that the Yankees DON'T get everyone they want and other teams can spend their way into championships (Red Sox mostly this year to take the brunt off of us).  Secondly, the Phillies have, on paper, the best rotation that probably has ever been put together in my lifetime.  Even in the Braves heyday of the mid-90s, they were front heavy with Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz and pieced it together with not so great, but good pitchers on the backend (Denny Neagle, Kevin Millwood, Damian Moss, Steve Avery, etc.).  The Phillies 2011 rotation on paper, regardless of who is #5, has the chance to be the best ever and as a baseball fan that excites me to see how this plays out and just how good they can be.

That is how people should look at it.  As a Yankees fan this is incredibly deflating and a giant kick in the gut as the Red Sox are clearly better than us on paper and, as of December 14th, many teams can be better than us on the field.  But what we saw is a team use resources of a deep farm system to acquire Roy Halladay and Roy Oswalt, Cliff lee once and also spend the money to get him back and retain homegrown talent like Hamels, Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins.  And that is what all teams should do.  Build through the draft and then use prospects to acquire the players you can't sign, yet still sign players when you can.

All teams CAN do that, just most don't and that is where the bitching from other fans come in that the Yankees and Red Sox and Cubs and Phillies have an advantage.  They don't have an advantage, they just spend their money more wisely and develop prospects that other teams want.  And if it really was the case then we wouldn't have seen a Giants/Rangers World Series (well based on the ratings, not many people really saw it, which is their fault).

That and after always hearing about athletes only caring about the money, here is a guy who left $50 million from the Yanks and possibly more from Texas on the table to go where he wanted to go.  Regardless if that place is the shit hole known as Philadelphia is beside the point, it is admirable and everyone should respect him for being a pro-athelete who realized he can do everything he wants in life with $100 million and the extra $50 million+ wouldn't have made a difference.

So although it is upsetting that the Yanks are a far worse team today than they were yesterday just because the option of getting Cliff Lee is no longer available, anyone who is a baseball fan, myself included, should be excited at watching what could be a legendary team, some of whom have given up a lot of money to make it happen.

Unless of course you're a Mets fan.  That team is screwed for another decade.

Trip to Busan

So it's been a week since I updated and that is basically because not much happens here during the week.  Jinju is a nice little conservative town in which people go out on the weekends and keep to smaller things during the week.  This is mostly because people work until 9-10pm so no one does anything afterwards.  So there wasn't much to write about outside of the few baseball moves made (maybe more on that later).

The week though was highlighted by the first trip outside Jinju to the second largest city in the country, Busan (or Pusan).  Busan is a city that seems to be laid out through the mountains and lays upon the Pacific ocean at the Southern part of the peninsula.  It is only an hour and a half by bus to get there but then another 45 mins-1 hour to get to the part of the city we stayed at by subway.  Any city with a subway is very homely.  There are actually 13 year olds working in the subway basically to help clueless foreigners find their way around.  It's very helpful but odd at first when a little Korean comes up to you giving you directions on what to do and then they dissapear.

The purpose of the trip was very simple.  There were 8 of us and basically it is an opportunity to get out of Jinju to a bigger city, eat some western food and take a trip to the casino.  The casino is weird since Koreans aren't allowed into it.  It's basically a place for western teachers living in Korea and older Japanese businessmen to use while in the city.  There are two roulette tables, one non-$100 blackjack table, Caribbean poker, what seemed to be 600 baccarat tables (no idea how to play that) and a handful of slots.  Basically it is a smaller Atlantic City without the fat people on motor scooters.

Week 4 is starting and it's amazing how you become appreciative of the little things the more you don't have them.  For example I had a piece of bacon at breakfast yesterday and it was absolutely perfect.  I didn't do much exploring around the city and stuck to the trip and one small area that other foreigners hang out at but there will be more trips and as the weather gets nicer, the beach area becomes good places to be with lot of beach bars, etc.

This was the coffee shop by the hotel.  If you can't see the mascot, it is an older black guy (looks eerily similar to Cee-Lo) dressed up like a recently emancipated slave doing a jig with his coffee.  It looked incredibly racist and politically incorrect but that just means I had to take a picture and document it.

Yes I know it's a picture of a urinal.  But if you see, there are ice cubes at the bottom of it.  I can't answer you why this is and no one else I was with seemed to know either.  But I found it so odd that water and drinks at restaurants don't come with ice but the urinals can be packed with them.  Just another quirk of Korea that us westerners don't understand.

This is upon entry to the casino (which ironically, we didn't see until we were leaving).  Now I don't know if it means no drunks allowed or they meant to say no alcoholic drinks are allowed in but obviously there are no drunks allowed.  Again, I don't know if this means people currently drunk, people who are just naturally alcoholics or any other possible option.  

Other notes:

• I was given my first exposure to the Korean game baduk this weekend.  Basically it is a game involving black and white stones that seems like it makes no sense at first but it actually is a very strategic game that involves a lot of thinking.  It is a lot harder than it looks.  The game is very popular here as it has been in the school books I have been teaching out of so even littler kids are exposed to it.  But I played with a friend on the bus ride back from Busan and an older lady was watching our game seeming very interested in jumping in.  I think you haven't properly been creeped out until a Korean elder watches your every move on a bus

• At certain hours of the day, red lights seem to be optional.  If there is no one crossing the street (and even sometimes, if they are) and there is no cars coming from the other direction, then the cars will go through the red light like nothing is wrong.  I actually don't mind this idea since the lights are SO long here that they can easily save 5 minutes by going through the light when no one is there and continue on their journey

• What came over the Red Sox?  They are easily the best team in the league right now and since Cliff Lee hasn't made a decision yet.  The Yanks are clearly in trouble if they don't sign him.  A rotation of CC, Hughes, a questionable Burnett and then two question marks (one if Pettitte doesn't come back) isn't competitive with the Sox and will be awfully troubling.  I won't go more in-depth than that except that, as of now, without Cliff Lee, it's not even close.  At least my co-worker who was born and lived in the U.S. for a few years summed it up perfectly when she was talking about her college experience in Boston..."Boston sucks."  See, even Koreans know that.  No wonder why they rank higher than us in all school subjects internationally

That's about all for now.  I'll come back sometime during the week or next weekend with another update.  I start three new classes this week so I have less free time at work which is good.  So enjoy the next few days.

Welcome Back Captain

The unoriginal titles continue but before we start, not that it is surprising at all, but nice to have the Jeter hoopla over with.  He was NEVER going anywhere and the entire situation was probably overanalyzed but it's over and now we can move onto other pressing needs (my brief thoughts on the Adrian Gonzalez trade further down).

Week 3 in Jinju starts tomorrow and it is getting increasingly more comfortable by the day.  Went to my first party here Saturday night.  I was told that birthday parties are ok for all foreigners to go to.  It was a nice opportunity to meet people and have a good time.  It's almost like everyone has been in the situation of being the new person before so they help out the other newbies as they come to the city.  And with contracts expiring every month, people come and leave all the time it seems.  But I met some very nice people so all was successful.  Now all I need is a phone so I don't have to keep telling people I don't have a number and to use Facebook.

First week of school was also good.  Not a lot of students until March as I said in the last post so it hasn't exactly been exhausting or anything yet.  The school pays for dinner every night which is fantastic for someone that can't cook and doesn't have a microwave (I don't think ANYONE does here) so that is one fewer thing to pay for.

I took a walk to this real long outdoor market this weekend.  The streets are lined with people selling vegetables, meat, desserts, cart food and fish.  The fish market was actually fascinating and was unlike other fish markets I have seen.  Half the vendors had just buckets of fish still alive just waiting to be killed.  In some instances (I think they were grouper but I'm not sure), they were literally stacked on top of each other, alive, just laying there.  I know fish can't stay stationary but they were.  There were buckets of live fish, octopus and squid just chilling there.

Here are dead and live animals.  The buckets directly in front are stacked to the brim with animals

I don't know if that is a ray or what it is, but you can buy an opened ray with all the guts if you want.

I also took a look at the Galeria which is the department store here.  Typical stuff and nothing of great interest except for the small MLB section which had some sweatshirts that looked like the ones we wore in 5th grade.  The designs weren't so bad though.  Shame they looked uncomfortable although the Montreal Expos one was almost bought (have to represent Vlad's first team).

Some other notes:

• It has been uncharacteristically warm the past few days.  No idea what it is like back in the U.S. but it's been very nice here

• I have never felt more safe in any other place in the world than I do here.  Another foreigner was telling me that the biggest crime he heard a foreigner complain about during his time here so far has been a stolen bicycle.  But there has not been one occasion where I have felt in danger or anything like that.  The street I live on isn't exactly the most lit up of streets and at night there is not any concern about being a foreigner and getting taken advantage of or anything.  Has been a pleasant surprise

• The MLB Winter Meetings are this week and it's always a fun week to be a baseball fan.  I won't bore any readers who don't care about either baseball (which is many) or my opinion of these moves (which is all) so I won't go overboard on them but I feel that I must say that I like the Adrian Gonzalez trade for the Sox.  A-Gonz is one of the best first basemen in the game and moving Youk to third and jettisoning Beltre who will suck on a multi-year deal is a great move.  The prospects are supposed to be good (Casey Kelly apparently being a future #1) but if you're the Sox you can always get an ace pitcher and however good the 1B prospect they traded turns out to be, it will be hard to be better than A-Gonz.  So if he can handle the pressure then it's a great move. 

• Terriers on FX ended this week and because of the Slingbox (second greatest invention ever behind the iPod) I have been watching it.  The show might not get a second season but it has been the best new show I have seen in ages so if it is On Demand or online then please try and watch it.  The entertainment level of this show was spectacular and a huge surprise.  Check it out.

That's about it for now.  I am beginning to run out of introduction to Korea posts so this blog will turn more into random happenings and some other thoughts and tangents that I have.  But the main focus will be on life here and things that I am doing.  As always comment, share, complain or give me any feedback about what you read.  

If the teacher pops a test, I know I'm in a mess and my dog ate all my HW last night

So it is three days into this experiment of being an ESL teacher and I don't think a verdict will be reached as to if I am made for it, or even if I like it, for a few months still.  See, Jinju SLP, where I am working, is a start-up as I have mentioned.  The SLP chain of language schools has been around for a years but never had a Jinju branch.  Now it does and I am here for the ride as well as the others that work there.  We were hired to work with the influx of kindergartners that will be at the school.  Unfortunately those kindergartners aren't arriving until March so until then we have classes of one or two students.

Schooling in Korea is different than the U.S., mainly because they to school for the morning and then come to Hagweon's after school.  SLP is a hogwon and these students have already gone to school for a few hours and then come to us for extra English practice.  So with such few kids to teach and worry about until March, the ultimate verdict about whether I like what I'm doing will be left incomplete.  For now, it isn't that challenging.  March will be the real test.  There was talk today that they are hiring six other foreigners for March so that could be fun.

Going to work on Monday though was certainly weird.  As most of you know, that was my first day of actual "work" since April of 2009.  The year and a half plus of unemployment was tough and hard and at times very frustrating but I came through it with a job halfway around the world and an experience that will hopefully be worth the wait it took to get a job.  But it was very relieving getting dressed again (nicely) because I had work.

Below are a few pictures of my school that will employ me for the next year:

Front desk in the "lobby"

The kids are not wearing these strapping uniforms now.  Perhaps in March when the Kindergartner's arrive they will.

A sample classroom from one side.  The classrooms are all names of Ivy League schools.  I asked where the Quinnipiac room was.  They looked at me like I had 6 heads.

Another view.  Each room comes with those big TVs which are also computers.

Our library.  Observers can see the Very Hungry Caterpillar in the center there.  Classic.

Our multi-purpose room.  I actually liked the windows there with the map of the world drawn by using the names of the countries in their specific shape.  Mr. Jeong (the boss) said it cost a lot of money.  Recession my ass.

Some other notes:

These are the bikes that the McDonald's delivery people drive around in.  Cause the only thing lazier than not cooking dinner and relying on McDonald's for a quick meal...is relying on McDonald's for a quick meal and have someone else deliver it to you

• I know I'm a few days late on it but haven't blogged since but anyone that has my Facebook saw my brief status about it.  But if there still is possibly someone that I'm friends with that hasn't seen Airplane! or The Naked Gun movies then now is the time to do so to realize the brilliance of the late Leslie Nielson.  He has a special place in my Mt. Rushmore of comedy heroes (The Marx Brothers, Woody Allen and George Carlin are the others).  So pop in one of those four movies and realize how great he was.

• Bus drivers here are insane.  They drive about 80 miles an hour and don't wait for people to sit down after getting on.  It's the exact opposite of the New York City buses which stops at every light and sits and waits and takes 45 minutes to get 15 blocks.  But you get on, pay the fee and then hold on cause he isn't waiting for you to find a spot.  It's extremely efficient, if not incredibly dangerous.

• The cliche about older Asians walking around with surgical masks covering their face is not a cliche or a stereotype.  It is true and very much a way of life here.  Apparently they are concerned about the polluted air coming over from China but I find it to just be an overreaction

• Some of you know I usually slept with a loud, obnoxious fan that sounded like a jet engine.  Well, I didn't bring it with me but buying a fan is out of the question too.  There is old Korean folklore that if a fan is kept on all night, unattended, that it will create a vortex and suck you up when you are sleeping so the fans come with timers.  I am not making this up as this is very serious and all fans have timers on them.  So I will be fanless for my stay here.  Crazy things this culture believes in.  Oh well, it's less crazy then believing some of the shit we believe in...like Sarah Palin, or really thinking Derek Jeter will not be back with the Yankees.

Alright, I'll check in later.  As usual please leave comments or let me know somehow that you are reading.  Your feedback, good or bad, is always welcomed

Sunday Night and Kickoff Hasn't Happened Yet

So I have to get used to this whole Sunday evening and the NFL doesn't kick off until 3am Monday morning.  Shame that I have to wake up and find out how badly I kicked ass in fantasy football this week.

Anyway, the trip to Jinju Castle was a success yesterday.  Set in the middle of the city, it is celebrated for being an important cog in the Korean's holding off the Japanese in the Imjin War which ranged from 1592-1598.  It is more of a collection of fortresses than a castle but they aren't into semantics...that is why I am here in this country to begin with

This crazy dude points at you as you walk in.  He must be Jewish cause I immediately felt guilted into doing numerous things I normally wouldn't do.  

Hey it's the first pic of me.  This is one of many fortresses that make up the "castle."  Yes it is as stereotypical as you can get when you think Asian architecture but it is very nice and the artwork on it is very intricate.  Those two guys on the side are fake but you don't realize it until you get up there and close.

You are allowed to venture up into this thing (exact name I don't know) via the staircase in the direct middle.  Like many places in the city though you have to remove your shoes before entering.

This is inside the Jinju National Museum (admission free!).  As you can see I perform being a Devil better than Ilya Kovalchuk...OH SNAP!  (P.S. how bout them Rangers?  Sure heartache is going to happen but Dubinsky and Callahan look great right now.  Alright back to Korean stuff).

The most impressive of the fortresses as the design and detail was fantastic.  This one looked out right onto the river (extra pictures will be on Facebook...kind of like extra's on the Special Edition DVD, I need to give you a reason to follow me on yet another medium).

Hey it's me again.  I do look dapper in a coat that wasn't stolen in Hoboken (nope, still not letting that go.  Damn you Phyllis).  The lights of the metropolis Jinju in the background.

Grace and I also spent time exploring downtown Jinju.  The city is not that big but there is a downtown and other neighborhoods which we do not know the names of yet.  What makes the city feel so big is how they cram stores into every possible nook and cranny.  There are stores that go up and down in the same building and the streets wind around in curves and aren't grid-like.  The city is probably no bigger than say Hartford but it feels so much bigger.  Downtown is a busy few streets with dozens of bars, shops (ranging from the dinkiest of clothes to Lacoste and Polo), about 600 coffee shops and plenty of food.

A typical street in the downtown section.  Like many other Asian cities, it is very bright, the stores are compact and people are walking around freely.  Lot of fun things in this area.

This is one of those picture taking things you see at the mall, just hyper-it up Asian style.  You take pictures and then can essentially do whatever you want with them.  It's much more than the ones you see on the boardwalk or other places that would have these that I just can't think of now.  But it is who uses these that make it comical (see next pic).

Obviously teenage girls are the predominant users of these things (there was about 10 or so of these machines in the store).  Those silver jackets you see glistening behind the curtain belong to five Jinju police officers who obviously had such a busy night that they took a half hour perfecting their pictures in this machine.  Giddy doesn't begin to describe how these guys were acting.  Meanwhile, as the rest of the world stops and worries about if war is going to break out here, police officers are putting computerized sparkles on pictures.  There has to be something poetic about that but I just can't figure out what.

Street vendors lining a section of downtown.  The food is not expensive and range from tempura, hotdogs and other Korean delicacies.  They are open late and the people that work these are behind them working all night.  

Nothing important to say about this except that it's the movie theater and obviously this need to be found for me to be able to stay sane.  The English language films playing were The Social Network, Skyline (on two screens!) and Due Date.  Harry Potter doesn't open for a few more weeks so I get Potter-mania in two separate countries.

This is the Jeep clothing store.  I have yet to see a Jeep vehicle anywhere but the fact that there is a whole clothing line of Jeep certainly made me laugh and get freaked out at the same time.  The jeans are "rugged" and the hats are "tough."  Alright I made that part up but the store is as you imagined...if you ever imagined what your jeep would look like in clothes form.

At one of the Western bars I found this gem.  At first I was disappointed since they had a Philadelphia Flyers license plate by the entrance but after looking around I found this and geeked out.  Yes there was a New Jersey license plate which was cool but a Back To The Future time machine license plate was the last thing I expected to find in Jinju (well, I guess second least expected thing after a cup of Matzohball Soup).  There was also a huge ceramic penis over one of the tables.

Some other notes of interest:

• People love Major League Baseball hats.  While there are plenty of Yankee hats, there seems to be a lot more Red Sox hats.  Everytime I see this, I wish just slightly that the North attacks.

• While walking around, we found the Jinju Red Light District.  Of course there was no red lights like in Amsterdam, but instead it was almost pitch black.  The whorehouses are called "Business Rooms" which might be a double entendre or not, I can't tell.  But the lobbies aren't disguised from the outside and if you're walking down the street you see 8 scantly clad women just sitting there in a row waiting for people to come in and take their pick (this set-up is a lot better then the way some of the hookers in Amsterdam solicited themselves.  My favorite one there was the girl eating lo mein out of carton.  Needless to say, she wasn't getting much attention).

• Koreans LOVE pastries.  There are multiple pastry shops on every corner and there are always people in them, yet I never see overweight people.  The U.S. should take notice.

Alright, this has been my longest one of this yet and I hope you have mildly enjoyed reading it.  Please comment or message me or tell me you are reading this.  Any and all feedback would be great.  

Second Update (more creative titles to come)

I want to get into a regular habit of writing these thing as much as I can so I'll try to get my way through a second post.  The quirks of this city are becoming apparent more and more by the hour.  The biggest, as I alluded to in the first post, is that the number of kids that seem to be walking around the city at all times of the day is insane.  They are always dressed for school and are carrying around books/backpacks, yet never seem to ever be there.  The buses are full of them as are the streets and mostly every store.

Speaking of the stores, what we would consider a problem in the U.S. is far from one here.  East Windsor never got a Borders or Barnes & Noble because there were those stores in Hamilton, Lawrence, etc and therefore too close for one in EW.  But here is the exact opposite.  There are cell phone stores of the same company across the street from each other and two on every block.  Same goes for coffee shops, convenient stores and internet cafes (or internet gaming cafes really).  There are so many of them that it's hard to find other stores.  When I add pictures of the city I will show some of these stores.  There is also is a large number of outdoor sportswear stores which of course is exactly what I like.

There was just an older woman connected to an IV walking down the block as I was writing and I felt like that is worth pointing out for both the insanity of it and the humor of it.

This is one view of Jinju from a hill that was found.  As you can see there aren't many skyscrapers or anything but the number of stores and restaurants that are here on every street and in every corner is truly remarkable.  

That bridge separates East and West Jinju.  The other side is where the bus/train station and the hospital is (for when I hurt myself climbing the Korean version of Masada is for you birthright people reading this).

As promised as well I will share pictures of my small, tiny, internetless apartment (at least for now).  It serves its purpose though.

This is the size of the kitchen which leads into the bathroom.  The view you see as you walk into the apartment.

You might be able to make out the TV on the far corner.  Needless to say I doubt it will be used much

The closet and refrigerator are both extremely small but it works fine which is all that matters.

Here is the toilet I tried explaining in the previous post.  As you can see, they built the shelf or whatever that is OVER the top of the lid of the toilet so it can not shut and will therefore always be open.  The chest to keep all the stuff in the bathroom is over this so one slip and its going in.  It's a nice quirk of the apartment.

I'm going to Jinju Castle later today with two Korean girls that work at the school.  The language barrier makes communicating difficult but they understand us somewhat so it shouldn't be that hard.  They're also showing us a typical Korean dish later for dinner so an eventful night is in store for tonight.  I'll report back after school starts on Monday with some pictures of school and other thoughts.  

But for anyone wondering, another quick update on the North Vs. South thing.  Some Koreans Grace and I have spoken to say that they usually ignore the threats from the North but this one seems to have a little more validity to it.  There doesn't seem to be a big concern in the Southern part of the country where I am as people are going through their everyday lives so it's nothing to be too concerned with yet. Enjoy the weekend.

First update

So it's currently 10pm on a Thursday evening on night 4 of this year long adventure to Jinju, South Korea and I am currently without internet in my box of an apartment.  Luckily there is a coffee house not to far away that looks like something that was transported out of the West Village that has free wireless as well as some soothing Louis Armstrong (although it is about 600 degrees in here).

I will use this space to update all of you with what is going on over here instead of sending out e-mail after e-mail saying the same thing to everyone.  I'll try and update frequently (for those of you that actually are going to continue reading this) with all the happenings.  As I get more access to the internet in my apartment I will add pictures and other things that you guys really want to see and less of me rambling but for the first entry it'll be graphicless.

Adjusting to a new life halfway around the world is both exciting and completely overwhelming at the same time.  There are times I have felt completely lost yet there are times like right now that feels eerily very Manhattanish and like home.  Of course Jinju is nothing like home.  Take out the McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts, Outback Stakehouse and Dominoes (no plain pies though) and it is nothing like home.  The city is active until all hours of the night and it's like no kids have any curfews or responsibilities at all.  It's like Fridays and the Movies in middle school just every night.  Kids walk around all day in their school uniforms even though I can't seem to ever tell when they go to school (I swear this place is Weber's porn collection come to life with all the Asian school girls).  It really is mind-blowing but just one of the overt differences between our cultures.

My apartment is extremely small.  There is a stove in the kitchen with a sink and that's about all.  The bathroom has a showerhead but no actual shower so I had to tape it to the wall and create a shower space (picture will follow about how the construction of the bathroom has the toilet unable to shut fully).  Single bed with a pretty hard mattress but that seems to be customary.  College sized refrigerator was included.  Luxurious it is not but I have never been one that needs a lot of space.

The school I am teaching at is a start-up school actually.  The school SLP (Suwon Language Program) is a chain throughout Korea and are just opening up the Jinju school so I am here for the beginning of it.  The school is extremely nice looking and has all the makings of something that will be real good but I will elaborate as I learn more myself.  My boss today, Mr. Jeong (very Bond villain sounding) told me that Shin-Soo Choo of the Indians is a national hero and he is a Red Sox fan.  After not quitting right on the spot he told me that he doesn't like Derek Jeter and Chan Ho Park is great.  My resume is en route to other schools in the area as we speak.

The other American at my school, Grace, is very nice and we have gotten along great these past few days which is good cause we have yet to find another foreigner in this city even though we know they exist.  We actually found a Thanksgiving dinner going on at the English speaking church here on Sunday night (one of the biggest in the country actually) which hopefully will open up some connections.  I also hope it will be as non-denominational as possible for all the obvious reasons.  But I do hope there will be some foreigners there so we can start making some more friends here.

So I'll end this now.  A Happy Thanksgiving to all at home as Thursday is approaching the end for me and it's just starting over there.  I'll check in in a few days, if not sooner since I really like this coffee shop.  Now all I have to do is start drinking coffee.