I figured I would catalogue all the things that I bought this year. Obviously, this doesn't include things like food, travel, alcohol, etc. This is pretty much just clothing, accessories, and make-up:
-10 pairs of 1,000 won earring from 못된고양이 = 10,000 won
- 3 pairs of not 1,000 won earrings from Forever 21 and Hongdae Free Market: 20,000 won
- 2 4,000 won necklaces from 못된고양이 = 8,000 won
- 2 5,000 won headbands from Bupyeong underground = 10,000 won
- 6 1,000 won headbands from 못된고양이 = 6,000 won
- 1 10,000 won headband from Hongdae = 10,000 won
- 2 skirts, 1 dress, 3 shirts, 1 coat from Forever 21 = 225,000 won
- 4 5,000 won t-shirts, 1 cardigan from 동인천 underground = 40,000 won
- 1 coat, 3 shirts from H&M = 150,000 won
- 2 pairs Converse Chuck Taylors (one hi-top, one low-top) = 120,000 won
- 1 pair Nike Air Legends = 60,000 won
- 1 pair Puma sneakers = 65,000 won
- 1 cardigan, 1 dress, 1 t-shirt, 1 sweater from Uniqlo = 115,000 won
- 1 t-shirt from Codes Combine = 25,000 won
- 1 sweater dress from Spao = 35,000 won
- 4 scarfs from various locations (인사동, 주안 underground, 명동)= 40,000 won
- 1 black cowl neck sweater from ehwa women's university shopping district= 25,000 won
- 2 pairs of gloves/mittens = 30,000 won
- 2 knit hats = 40,000 won
- 8 pairs of tights = 50,000 won
- 2 10,000 won purses from Bupyeong underground = 20,000 won
- 2 white, 1 blue Korea ultimate jerseys = 100,000 won
- 1 dumbfoundead t-shirt = 30,000 won
- 1 pair fake fob glasses = 10,000 won
- 20 bottles of nail polish (holy shit) = 33,000 won
- 2 lipsticks = 16,000 won
- 1 eyeshadow 4-way = 12,000 won
- 8 individual eyeshadows = 30,000 won
- black & brown eyeliner = 18,000 won
- all-over glitter = 5,000 won
- 1 dress from Thailand = 10,000 won
- 1 limited Edition silk screen t-shirt from Hongdae Free Market = 10,000
- 1 Coach wristlet = 60,000 won
- 2 belts = 15,000 won
Grand total: 1,418,000 won.
Now, I'm sure I've forgotten several things. Probably more than several. And of course, my prices are estimates. Some things I know for sure (eyeshadow 4-way, earrings, nailpolish, coach wristlet) and others are estimates (some more generous than others... I def over-priced some things, I def under-priced somethings). also, this doesn't include other purchases such as a cactus (I needed company), new comforter/sheets,
Now, add in my tattoo and my computer, and the roughly 150,000 won I've spent on Hello Kitty shit (sad, but true) and those purchases total out to 3,500,000 won, which is roughly 2 months of my salary (after taxes). I have spent 20% (2 out of 10 total months) of my pay on shit like clothing and make-up. Oh. My. Fucking. God.
I guess I should look at it this way: I got a lot of cool new shit. Actually, I should look at it this way: what the fuck is wrong with me and my addiction to buying shit?
That's depressing.
xoxo,
A
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
The Hot List
Since Summer is finally here, and it's legitimately HOT outside (or has been until today), I figure it's time for another Hot List. I should do these more regularly, but I don't. This edition will run the gamut of topics, so hopefully you will enjoy:
1. The Rub: I literally discovered them today via the Johnny Cupcakes blog. This DJ crew is composed of DJ Ayres, DJ Eleven and Cosmo Baker. The threesome has been working together for about 8 years, and they are based in NYC. They spin full-time and make mixtapes basically for a living. I haven't been listening to them for long, but I'm already hooked. They mix hip-hop, funk, soul, rock, and other genres to make truly interesting mixes. They also are currently producing a series called the History of Hip-Hop. This series basically puts a group of the hottest songs from a single year into a single long-ass mix. The series starts with the year 1979, which was posted on their site back in December of 2007. Their most recent addition is 2003, which is a throwback to high school for me. I'm listening to the 1993 mix right now, which contains classics like Tribe's Award Tour, Wu-Tang's Protect Ya Neck, Method Man and Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nothin to Fuck With, Snoop's Gin & Juice, TuPac's I Get Around, Cypress Hill's Insane in the Brain, and Souls of Mischief's 93 to Infinity (which Dumb and Wax sample in 2010 to Infinity), along with 39 other joints from that year. While I was only 6 years old in 1993, and certainly had never heard Wu-Tang, Snoop, or delaSoul when I was in first grade, my respect for these artists is immense. To hear them all on one track is pretty epic. All of their shit is available for download on their website. I really hope I can see one or more of them spin when I go to NYC this summer. Hopefully Diane/Amy/Sarah/someone will be down to check them out with me.
2. Rain: It's monsoon season here in Korea. Now, being from Florida, I'm no stranger to summer rains. In fact, in my personal experience, it (thus far) has rained far less here in Korea than it does each summer in Gainesville or Wellington. But, I appreciate much more here for various reasons. 1) my classes are no longer outdoors (LA classes at the ELI are outside and thus were moved every single day due to midday rainshowers). 2) it makes it significantly cooler in my un-air-conditioned classroom and office. 3) The students like rain a lot and are thus much happier/animated in my class. Plus, I just really like the rain. It's messy and wet and cool and it totally encourages casual behavior/dress. The only really unfortunate thing is that in my perpetual forgetfulness, I manage to consistently lose/leave at home my umbrella. So, in the last two weeks, I've bought three umbrellas. T_T
3. R16 Bboy Championships- OH MY GOD. It's this weekend. I've been on the website every day for the last 5 days just looking at the links and watching videos and checking out the pictures. I'm so stoked for this. I'm going to the pre-party with Words Run Dry and Dre. I'm also going with WRD to the bboy championships. I don't know if she knows it, but we are going eaaaaaaaaaarly to get good seats and be as close to the action as possible. I'm stoked as fuck. There will be an Urban Arts Festival at Olympic Park with graffiti exhibitions and bboy circles, along with a street market. Then, popping/locking battles on Saturday and Crew battles Sunday. ^______^ Tickets are still available at www.r16korea.com
4. FUEL- I just received a bunch of my FUEL gear from BoBo/parents. Everything is really great. It's unfortunate that I just now get the sweatshirt since it's really hot here. Also, more importantly, FUEL released their highlight video on youtube this past weekend and it's fucking awesome. Filled with layouts and skies and nasty d's (I've never seen so many handblocks in a highlight video in my life), it makes me so proud to be a FUEL alumna. Anyways, you watch the video here, and check out their other highlights which I've posted here but deserve more hits.
5. Taeyang's Solar Album: My Young-Bae is dropping his first full-length solo album tomorrow. I've got my copy reserved at ShinNara Records at the Shinsegae near Arts Center. I'm the 60th person in Incheon to reserve it. Clearly I'm a superfan. Anyways, YG has been releasing a 1 minute sample of songs every day since Sunday, and they are all super fresh. I loooooooove it so far. Tomorrow evening you can expect a full review of the album. I will listen to every song like 10 times and then really late at night, after I obsess for a few hours, I'll tell you all just how fucking amazing it is. I mean, jesus, have you seen my Bae lately? SEEEEEEX. See below for one of the audio previews released to youtube. Other previews can be found here, here (this one is really gooooood) , here (see previous parentheses), here, and here.
xoxo
A
2. Rain: It's monsoon season here in Korea. Now, being from Florida, I'm no stranger to summer rains. In fact, in my personal experience, it (thus far) has rained far less here in Korea than it does each summer in Gainesville or Wellington. But, I appreciate much more here for various reasons. 1) my classes are no longer outdoors (LA classes at the ELI are outside and thus were moved every single day due to midday rainshowers). 2) it makes it significantly cooler in my un-air-conditioned classroom and office. 3) The students like rain a lot and are thus much happier/animated in my class. Plus, I just really like the rain. It's messy and wet and cool and it totally encourages casual behavior/dress. The only really unfortunate thing is that in my perpetual forgetfulness, I manage to consistently lose/leave at home my umbrella. So, in the last two weeks, I've bought three umbrellas. T_T
3. R16 Bboy Championships- OH MY GOD. It's this weekend. I've been on the website every day for the last 5 days just looking at the links and watching videos and checking out the pictures. I'm so stoked for this. I'm going to the pre-party with Words Run Dry and Dre. I'm also going with WRD to the bboy championships. I don't know if she knows it, but we are going eaaaaaaaaaarly to get good seats and be as close to the action as possible. I'm stoked as fuck. There will be an Urban Arts Festival at Olympic Park with graffiti exhibitions and bboy circles, along with a street market. Then, popping/locking battles on Saturday and Crew battles Sunday. ^______^ Tickets are still available at www.r16korea.com
4. FUEL- I just received a bunch of my FUEL gear from BoBo/parents. Everything is really great. It's unfortunate that I just now get the sweatshirt since it's really hot here. Also, more importantly, FUEL released their highlight video on youtube this past weekend and it's fucking awesome. Filled with layouts and skies and nasty d's (I've never seen so many handblocks in a highlight video in my life), it makes me so proud to be a FUEL alumna. Anyways, you watch the video here, and check out their other highlights which I've posted here but deserve more hits.
xoxo
A
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Damn, I wish i was a native Spanish Speaker
Korea's office of Tourism is hiring a native Spanish Speaker to do translation and other website maintenance work (blogging, etc.) for their Spanish section of the visitkorea.or.kr website. They prefer native Spanish Speakers who are already living in Korea, but are taking application for those who also live abroad. You must have a high level of English OR Korean speaking ability (imagine if you had both) and experience translating from English or Korean to Spanish. I think that my writing and reading abilities would probably suffice for this position, but my speaking and listening is regretably low, especially now. Plus, I'm not a native speaker of spanish, so i wouldn't qualify.
Anyways, if any of my readers out there want to come to Korea and happen to be fluent in Spanish and English/Korean, you should apply. This would be a really great opportunity to work in a reliable job here on the peninsula. ^_^
For more information click here to be directed to the want ad posted on the visitkorea.or.kr site.
Anyways, if any of my readers out there want to come to Korea and happen to be fluent in Spanish and English/Korean, you should apply. This would be a really great opportunity to work in a reliable job here on the peninsula. ^_^
For more information click here to be directed to the want ad posted on the visitkorea.or.kr site.
Sorries
So I've been kind of an epic fail at posting these days. I know I know, it's been less than a week since my last post, which is way better than most of my blogging friends out there, but it's pretty bad compared to my recent 3+ posts/week that had been going on for the last couple months.
I'm still hella busy, which is why I haven't been posting. I started a post on Friday, but that never got finished. So I'll leave you with these bits of blogging ridiculousness:
1. I FUCKING HATE HANGUL WRITING PROGRAM. This is not the written language that I hate, but rather a Korean word processor that I am required to use to prepare my worksheets/lessons for my summer camp. It's used for all government documents here, which I think is just fucking stupid. Here's the thought process: hey, we need a Korean language word processor, and right now (btw it's 1989 or something like that), nothing exists for that. Let's make one. *Fast Forward to 2000* Hey MSWord has Korean compatability now, and that's what the rest of the world is using, should we use that? Nah, fuck it, why would our government want to use that? It's not like we have to interact with other countries, right? So, now I'm stuck using this stupid program that has the weirdest formatting (when adding pictures it makes portions of your type disappear in the editing section, but when you print preview it, everything is there-- frustrating much?), and which doesn't work on my office computer so I have to use my significantly hotter and more uncomfortable classroom computer to even create these effing documents, which I cannot access on my mac laptop at home, nor will I be able to access stateside if I ever decide, hey, those were some good activities, I'd like to use them again.
2. I love M&Ms. My co-teacher bought me a couple bags. They are supposed to be for my summer camp class, but I have an extra bag of peanut m&ms which I just looooooooove. So, yeah, those are mine.
3. God tutoring the business man I tutor is ridiculous. So strange. He just shares with me these uncomfortable theories and stories and other things. These are the things he told me last night alone:
a) "Drinking one bottle vodka, okay, two bottles, I crazy" (I asked for clarification, how many people are drinking said bottle of vodka? He said, "me only one bottle, friend and me drinking together, two bottles vodka" Just thinking about drinking a whole bottle of vodka made me feel like I had severe alcohol poisoning)
b) *while discussing whether U.S. cities are dangerous, after baltimore was brought up* "Baltimore have many black people?" to which I replied, "yes, a fair number" to which he responded, "I see. In Seattle, very safe. My friend say Seattle is very safe, not many black people. I think in United States no job is very big problem. Many black people, not just black people but black people, hispanic people, have no job, and I think it is a very big problem to the government. People with no job take some money from government and other people work very hard and lose their money. But the people with no job, the black and hispanic people with no job, don't work, only take money." I attempted to clarify that often, the jobless people aren't jobless because they choose to be, but because they can't find work, due to the economy, lack of education, lack or resources, lack of a great number of things. It's really difficult to explain the idea that certain communities of people (black, white, hispanic, asian, middle eastern african, whatever) are basically raised into lives with few opportunities as opposed to other communities (of more wealth) where things like education, food, homes, and safety and handed to the inhabitants on a silver platter.
c) *showing me a text message he had received from a girl which contained her measurements* "shoulders is that just here to here" *points from right should to left* Yes, of course. *writes down all measurements* "Her waist, is ____cm (I don't remember). How many inches is that? Is that big or small?" After a quick calculation, I reply, "It's tiny." And her shoulders and like half of mine. "ah, I see. This is for Chinese girl. Very nice. She is the secretary for my business partner. She drives us to factories and helps negotiate sometimes. She is very pretty so good at negotiations. I am very thankful so I say I give her present. She says she wants Korean dress." Oh, she wants a hanbok (traditional Korean dress)? That's surprising. "No, she wants red dress, short skirt like this (indicates a very short skirt) so I must get this dress." Are these dresses not available in China? This is all too strange.
d) The kicker. "In Australia, I smoke Marijuana." (Mind you, this is all completely unprovoked. Like, he out of no where is like hey, I smoked pot back in the day). "In Australia, everyone smokes marijuana, you never try?" In response, I truthfully say, "nope, I've never tried marijuana. It's not my thing. A lot of my friend smoke, but not me." "Really?" he says in surprise, "Everyone in U.S.A. smokes the marijuana." Well, not everyone, but okay, I see his point. He goes on, "my friend and I one night Australia drinking, talking, drinking, and we go outside and he goes to a narrow street, you know, for the pissing (DIRECT QUOTE I SWEAR TO GOD), and I look over and he sit down and is rolling, you know, the marijuana, and then the police come, and they see him. I very nervous about the marijuana, and the police bring more police and they see the marijuana, but it is less than 12 grams so it is not for the selling so they say, it is okay and we go." Should the guy I tutor be talking about his run-ins with the Sydney law enforcement agency over marijuana.
So, yeah, that's what I've been up to.
xoxo,
A
I'm still hella busy, which is why I haven't been posting. I started a post on Friday, but that never got finished. So I'll leave you with these bits of blogging ridiculousness:
1. I FUCKING HATE HANGUL WRITING PROGRAM. This is not the written language that I hate, but rather a Korean word processor that I am required to use to prepare my worksheets/lessons for my summer camp. It's used for all government documents here, which I think is just fucking stupid. Here's the thought process: hey, we need a Korean language word processor, and right now (btw it's 1989 or something like that), nothing exists for that. Let's make one. *Fast Forward to 2000* Hey MSWord has Korean compatability now, and that's what the rest of the world is using, should we use that? Nah, fuck it, why would our government want to use that? It's not like we have to interact with other countries, right? So, now I'm stuck using this stupid program that has the weirdest formatting (when adding pictures it makes portions of your type disappear in the editing section, but when you print preview it, everything is there-- frustrating much?), and which doesn't work on my office computer so I have to use my significantly hotter and more uncomfortable classroom computer to even create these effing documents, which I cannot access on my mac laptop at home, nor will I be able to access stateside if I ever decide, hey, those were some good activities, I'd like to use them again.
2. I love M&Ms. My co-teacher bought me a couple bags. They are supposed to be for my summer camp class, but I have an extra bag of peanut m&ms which I just looooooooove. So, yeah, those are mine.
3. God tutoring the business man I tutor is ridiculous. So strange. He just shares with me these uncomfortable theories and stories and other things. These are the things he told me last night alone:
a) "Drinking one bottle vodka, okay, two bottles, I crazy" (I asked for clarification, how many people are drinking said bottle of vodka? He said, "me only one bottle, friend and me drinking together, two bottles vodka" Just thinking about drinking a whole bottle of vodka made me feel like I had severe alcohol poisoning)
"One bottle vodka okay, two bottles I crazy."
b) *while discussing whether U.S. cities are dangerous, after baltimore was brought up* "Baltimore have many black people?" to which I replied, "yes, a fair number" to which he responded, "I see. In Seattle, very safe. My friend say Seattle is very safe, not many black people. I think in United States no job is very big problem. Many black people, not just black people but black people, hispanic people, have no job, and I think it is a very big problem to the government. People with no job take some money from government and other people work very hard and lose their money. But the people with no job, the black and hispanic people with no job, don't work, only take money." I attempted to clarify that often, the jobless people aren't jobless because they choose to be, but because they can't find work, due to the economy, lack of education, lack or resources, lack of a great number of things. It's really difficult to explain the idea that certain communities of people (black, white, hispanic, asian, middle eastern african, whatever) are basically raised into lives with few opportunities as opposed to other communities (of more wealth) where things like education, food, homes, and safety and handed to the inhabitants on a silver platter.
c) *showing me a text message he had received from a girl which contained her measurements* "shoulders is that just here to here" *points from right should to left* Yes, of course. *writes down all measurements* "Her waist, is ____cm (I don't remember). How many inches is that? Is that big or small?" After a quick calculation, I reply, "It's tiny." And her shoulders and like half of mine. "ah, I see. This is for Chinese girl. Very nice. She is the secretary for my business partner. She drives us to factories and helps negotiate sometimes. She is very pretty so good at negotiations. I am very thankful so I say I give her present. She says she wants Korean dress." Oh, she wants a hanbok (traditional Korean dress)? That's surprising. "No, she wants red dress, short skirt like this (indicates a very short skirt) so I must get this dress." Are these dresses not available in China? This is all too strange.
I am certain that red mini dresses are available in China.
d) The kicker. "In Australia, I smoke Marijuana." (Mind you, this is all completely unprovoked. Like, he out of no where is like hey, I smoked pot back in the day). "In Australia, everyone smokes marijuana, you never try?" In response, I truthfully say, "nope, I've never tried marijuana. It's not my thing. A lot of my friend smoke, but not me." "Really?" he says in surprise, "Everyone in U.S.A. smokes the marijuana." Well, not everyone, but okay, I see his point. He goes on, "my friend and I one night Australia drinking, talking, drinking, and we go outside and he goes to a narrow street, you know, for the pissing (DIRECT QUOTE I SWEAR TO GOD), and I look over and he sit down and is rolling, you know, the marijuana, and then the police come, and they see him. I very nervous about the marijuana, and the police bring more police and they see the marijuana, but it is less than 12 grams so it is not for the selling so they say, it is okay and we go." Should the guy I tutor be talking about his run-ins with the Sydney law enforcement agency over marijuana.
I swear to god I did a google image search for "Australia Marijuana" and this was the fifth picture.
So, yeah, that's what I've been up to.
xoxo,
A
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Work. School. Work. School.
A quick update on things in my life.
Right now across from me, my Korean co-teacher is cutting her hair with office scissors. I find this to be strange but comforting. I can get away with doing pretty much anything I want here. Korea is so weird. It's like teachers don't really teach.
I finally caught up on most of my work. In spite of a terrible computer fail earlier today, I managed to finish all of my final exam questions, and begin working on my lesson plans for my summer camp. My computer decided to eliminate all of my grade 1 and 2 exam questions, as well as all of the charts and pictures I had to include in the exam. So, I had to recreate everything, re-edit the photos, and re-write the questions. But I finished!
I also FINALLY wrote all of my stupid letters back to my students. They do this thing where they write letters asking for advice from a teacher. I get a lot of letters, because I'm intriguing to students, but they don't actually ask for advice because they don't know enough English. So, instead, they just write these ridiculous letters that basically say: "TEACHER! I LOVE YOU!" and the like. So I write back these equally ridiculous letters like, "wow, thank you very much. I hope you love English class a lot too!" and I decorate them with hello kitty stickers and various gelly roll pen doodles. I sound like i don't like this activity, but really I do. It's an ego boost when I have 10 letters on my desk and the other teacher in my office has three. ^_^
I also finally created a board with outstanding student work. It has stars and gold and drawings by my students right now. It seems to spruce up the room a little.
Also, we finally finished stamps. THANK GOD. I hated giving those stupid stamps with a passion. Now, stamps are over. Or at least until next semester! *^_____________^*
Now I just have to adjust to a totally new schedule that was just changed.
Oh, and for the best news of my entire week. This one student, the evil one who made me cry back in November. The one who seems to intentional try to make every teacher go mad, has reformed. By some miracle or some grace of god, this student today in my class was a perfect angel. We had free study time, so it's not like thre was really much of anything to do. But, still. Previous free studies have been like torture for me, where she just loses control and goes crazy. Today, she spent the entire 45 minutes studying. She even raised her hand and asked me a question. And while her question was in Korean, and I had trouble explaining, she sat and listened until she understood. And then she went back to studying. I've never felt such sheer unadulterated joy in my life. And so after, to reward the 5 or 6 students who were really good, including reformed demon student, I had them stay a minute late and I gave them Chupa Chups lollipops. The one student, when I said she could have one, looked at me with a look that could only be described as utter shock and awe, and said, "Teacher, ME?!" and when I said yes, she said, "Oh teacher, really very very thank you! I love you! Thank you!" I think that she and I have been growing on each other. I have to give her lots of attention, but that's okay. If I praise her (even verbally, not just with candy/bribes), she seems to perform much better. So everyday, I look for some way to say something positive to her, in hopes that she will continue to behave well. Then, at lunch, she and her friend came back to my office to talk to me, and reformed demon student MADE ME COFFEE. omg. I can hardly handle it.
So yeah. That's my life these days!
xoxo
A
Right now across from me, my Korean co-teacher is cutting her hair with office scissors. I find this to be strange but comforting. I can get away with doing pretty much anything I want here. Korea is so weird. It's like teachers don't really teach.
I finally caught up on most of my work. In spite of a terrible computer fail earlier today, I managed to finish all of my final exam questions, and begin working on my lesson plans for my summer camp. My computer decided to eliminate all of my grade 1 and 2 exam questions, as well as all of the charts and pictures I had to include in the exam. So, I had to recreate everything, re-edit the photos, and re-write the questions. But I finished!
I also FINALLY wrote all of my stupid letters back to my students. They do this thing where they write letters asking for advice from a teacher. I get a lot of letters, because I'm intriguing to students, but they don't actually ask for advice because they don't know enough English. So, instead, they just write these ridiculous letters that basically say: "TEACHER! I LOVE YOU!" and the like. So I write back these equally ridiculous letters like, "wow, thank you very much. I hope you love English class a lot too!" and I decorate them with hello kitty stickers and various gelly roll pen doodles. I sound like i don't like this activity, but really I do. It's an ego boost when I have 10 letters on my desk and the other teacher in my office has three. ^_^
I also finally created a board with outstanding student work. It has stars and gold and drawings by my students right now. It seems to spruce up the room a little.
Also, we finally finished stamps. THANK GOD. I hated giving those stupid stamps with a passion. Now, stamps are over. Or at least until next semester! *^_____________^*
Now I just have to adjust to a totally new schedule that was just changed.
Oh, and for the best news of my entire week. This one student, the evil one who made me cry back in November. The one who seems to intentional try to make every teacher go mad, has reformed. By some miracle or some grace of god, this student today in my class was a perfect angel. We had free study time, so it's not like thre was really much of anything to do. But, still. Previous free studies have been like torture for me, where she just loses control and goes crazy. Today, she spent the entire 45 minutes studying. She even raised her hand and asked me a question. And while her question was in Korean, and I had trouble explaining, she sat and listened until she understood. And then she went back to studying. I've never felt such sheer unadulterated joy in my life. And so after, to reward the 5 or 6 students who were really good, including reformed demon student, I had them stay a minute late and I gave them Chupa Chups lollipops. The one student, when I said she could have one, looked at me with a look that could only be described as utter shock and awe, and said, "Teacher, ME?!" and when I said yes, she said, "Oh teacher, really very very thank you! I love you! Thank you!" I think that she and I have been growing on each other. I have to give her lots of attention, but that's okay. If I praise her (even verbally, not just with candy/bribes), she seems to perform much better. So everyday, I look for some way to say something positive to her, in hopes that she will continue to behave well. Then, at lunch, she and her friend came back to my office to talk to me, and reformed demon student MADE ME COFFEE. omg. I can hardly handle it.
So yeah. That's my life these days!
xoxo
A
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Hip Hop Playas vol. 37
So one of my recently created like goals has been completed. Tonight I saw Dumbfoundead live in concert. Man, he really is the bomb. I've mentioned him before, in previous posts, but he is so awesome he definitely deserves more attention on my blog and in the general hip hop scene as well.
Anyways, me and Miranda went to see the HipHopPlayas.com show this weekend. I was initially going to go with Andre, but he bitched out on me. So I called Miranda and told her there would be lots of hot Korean dudes at this show and she was sold. So we headed out around 5 from Incheon.
Got to Hongdae at about quarter to 6. Scarfed some BK down and headed to the show. It was difficult to figure out how to get in, but we figured it out.
By the time we had gotten there, it was pretty much packed. We saw Hot Clip perform first. They are NOT hot chip, the American group, but they are still good. One of the guys (Beatbox BG) beatboxed for a while. That was pretty tight. And Beenzino spat some fire. It was definitely a good start.
Then (I think) B-Free performed (I could be mixing up the order of Hot Clip and B-Free, it's hard to remember exactly). B-Free was cool, but I don't remember much of the performance.
Then, the highlight of the night. Dumb and DJ Zo!
I pretty much lost it as soon as I saw DJ Zo... (너무 멋있어요! 사랑해요 오빠!!) They set up a different computer and I was just gaaaaaaaah! ZO~~~~!! He was so sexy on the tables, hat backwards and just killing it. And then Dumb came on. His first song was Bullets of Truth, one of my favorite songs by him. Then (I think) he did She Don't Care, which is my favorite song on the Fun With Dumb album (buy here-- support a bomb-ass rapper). DJ Zo then scratched a bit. This was probably my favorite part of the whole show. Really, it kicked ass. Then Dumb did Mr. Nice Guy off of his latest album Clockwise with Wax (man if only Wax would come to Korea, now THAT would be tight). I also really love this song. It's just so fun and cool. Everyone around me was like da-yumm, that girl is fuckin' crazy. I was gettin' down on this song. Then Dumb did Clouds. Everyone at the show lost it because that's the song that DFD did with Jay Park. And of course, everyone loves Jay. There were desperate squeals of girls hoping that Jay would just walk out. I mean, I was kind of holding out a tiny hope in the back of my head.that he would, but I wasn't holding my breath. If he HAD come, I would have lost it and so would have EVERYONE and then I would be able to rub it in my students faces HARD. Honestly, Clouds isn't my favorite song in the world. I love watching Jay dance, and he is a talented singer. But, I'm just not the biggest fan in the world of his rhymes. They're just kind of average for me. But Dumb just performed his verse, which was fine by me. Last song was Vacation Song, which is a song I really like. I don't know it as well as I know his other songs, but it is a really great song. I'm a little bummed he didn't sing Pushin' which is pretty much my favorite song ever by Dumb. Also, I really like Cockblockers because it's just such a funny awesome song. But, I was still so thrilled to have seen Zo and Dumb in concert. There was some Dumb freestyling mixed in somewhere, and I may have mixed up the order of a song or two, but that's the set to the best of my memory. The freestyling was pretty awesome. It was Konglish/English/Korean and I was pretty amped because I understood a good bit of it, even the Korean shit. p.s. I love it when Dumb pantomines being an orchestra conductor on stage when Zo is scratching and he isn't singing. It's so funny/awesome.
Anyways, then MYK performed. He wrecked it, but unfortunately there was some kind of strange miscommunication/problem with the dj-ing. I can't tell if it was an issue with the dj or with the tables or what. It was strange. It was a bummer because it was on the last song. Anyways, MYK is fucking tight.
The Quiett performed next. I don't know him as well as MYK or DOK2, but I've heard some of his shit and thought it was tight. He looked a lot different than I expected. Like smaller or something. I dunno. He was also all blinged out which was kind of weird. But his set was really good and I enjoyed that.
Double K was up next. This set was easily the most energetic. It helps having more people on the stage (there were three of them on stage, which is misleading because Double K is just one person). I don't really know him AT ALL. But his shit rocked. I'm definitely going to find his shit and buy it all up.
Then last, but certainly not least was DOK2. One of my students, Chaeyoung loves him. Like a lot. He started the show by throwing hats out into the crowd. That was cool. Unfortunately I was too far away to see that. Dok2's set was really fun also. I knew a few of the songs, and he had lots of stage presence too.
Then, everyone came out for an encore which was really awesome because they sang lots of the map the soul songs and freestyled. I also almost got my head chopped off my a ninja star-like DJ Zo cd. It brushed the side of my face as I ducked away, and it hit the wall and landed right at my feet. Jackpot!
After the show I stayed a bit and had dumb sign my ticket and zo sign that cd he tossed at my face. They seemed really cool and I got a picture with Zo, so that was cool. People were all losing it over Dumb. All I could hear was screams of 오빠! 오빠! over and over. The best part was that DUMB KNEW WHO I WAS from twitter/facebook. omg love it! I will see them again at their next show July 2nd. I can't wait!
Now I'm just chillin' at Lemon PC 방 waiting for my peeps to get to Hongdae so we can hit Ska2 and get our dance on! ^_^
Anyways, me and Miranda went to see the HipHopPlayas.com show this weekend. I was initially going to go with Andre, but he bitched out on me. So I called Miranda and told her there would be lots of hot Korean dudes at this show and she was sold. So we headed out around 5 from Incheon.
Got to Hongdae at about quarter to 6. Scarfed some BK down and headed to the show. It was difficult to figure out how to get in, but we figured it out.
By the time we had gotten there, it was pretty much packed. We saw Hot Clip perform first. They are NOT hot chip, the American group, but they are still good. One of the guys (Beatbox BG) beatboxed for a while. That was pretty tight. And Beenzino spat some fire. It was definitely a good start.
Then (I think) B-Free performed (I could be mixing up the order of Hot Clip and B-Free, it's hard to remember exactly). B-Free was cool, but I don't remember much of the performance.
Then, the highlight of the night. Dumb and DJ Zo!
I pretty much lost it as soon as I saw DJ Zo... (너무 멋있어요! 사랑해요 오빠!!) They set up a different computer and I was just gaaaaaaaah! ZO~~~~!! He was so sexy on the tables, hat backwards and just killing it. And then Dumb came on. His first song was Bullets of Truth, one of my favorite songs by him. Then (I think) he did She Don't Care, which is my favorite song on the Fun With Dumb album (buy here-- support a bomb-ass rapper). DJ Zo then scratched a bit. This was probably my favorite part of the whole show. Really, it kicked ass. Then Dumb did Mr. Nice Guy off of his latest album Clockwise with Wax (man if only Wax would come to Korea, now THAT would be tight). I also really love this song. It's just so fun and cool. Everyone around me was like da-yumm, that girl is fuckin' crazy. I was gettin' down on this song. Then Dumb did Clouds. Everyone at the show lost it because that's the song that DFD did with Jay Park. And of course, everyone loves Jay. There were desperate squeals of girls hoping that Jay would just walk out. I mean, I was kind of holding out a tiny hope in the back of my head.that he would, but I wasn't holding my breath. If he HAD come, I would have lost it and so would have EVERYONE and then I would be able to rub it in my students faces HARD. Honestly, Clouds isn't my favorite song in the world. I love watching Jay dance, and he is a talented singer. But, I'm just not the biggest fan in the world of his rhymes. They're just kind of average for me. But Dumb just performed his verse, which was fine by me. Last song was Vacation Song, which is a song I really like. I don't know it as well as I know his other songs, but it is a really great song. I'm a little bummed he didn't sing Pushin' which is pretty much my favorite song ever by Dumb. Also, I really like Cockblockers because it's just such a funny awesome song. But, I was still so thrilled to have seen Zo and Dumb in concert. There was some Dumb freestyling mixed in somewhere, and I may have mixed up the order of a song or two, but that's the set to the best of my memory. The freestyling was pretty awesome. It was Konglish/English/Korean and I was pretty amped because I understood a good bit of it, even the Korean shit. p.s. I love it when Dumb pantomines being an orchestra conductor on stage when Zo is scratching and he isn't singing. It's so funny/awesome.
Anyways, then MYK performed. He wrecked it, but unfortunately there was some kind of strange miscommunication/problem with the dj-ing. I can't tell if it was an issue with the dj or with the tables or what. It was strange. It was a bummer because it was on the last song. Anyways, MYK is fucking tight.
The Quiett performed next. I don't know him as well as MYK or DOK2, but I've heard some of his shit and thought it was tight. He looked a lot different than I expected. Like smaller or something. I dunno. He was also all blinged out which was kind of weird. But his set was really good and I enjoyed that.
Double K was up next. This set was easily the most energetic. It helps having more people on the stage (there were three of them on stage, which is misleading because Double K is just one person). I don't really know him AT ALL. But his shit rocked. I'm definitely going to find his shit and buy it all up.
Then last, but certainly not least was DOK2. One of my students, Chaeyoung loves him. Like a lot. He started the show by throwing hats out into the crowd. That was cool. Unfortunately I was too far away to see that. Dok2's set was really fun also. I knew a few of the songs, and he had lots of stage presence too.
Then, everyone came out for an encore which was really awesome because they sang lots of the map the soul songs and freestyled. I also almost got my head chopped off my a ninja star-like DJ Zo cd. It brushed the side of my face as I ducked away, and it hit the wall and landed right at my feet. Jackpot!
After the show I stayed a bit and had dumb sign my ticket and zo sign that cd he tossed at my face. They seemed really cool and I got a picture with Zo, so that was cool. People were all losing it over Dumb. All I could hear was screams of 오빠! 오빠! over and over. The best part was that DUMB KNEW WHO I WAS from twitter/facebook. omg love it! I will see them again at their next show July 2nd. I can't wait!
Now I'm just chillin' at Lemon PC 방 waiting for my peeps to get to Hongdae so we can hit Ska2 and get our dance on! ^_^
Driving in Korea
Yesterday I saw the craziest thing. Okay, so not THE craziest, but it was weird. In the morning I stopped by Family Mart to pick up a cappuccino, as usual. After paying, I go outside, and there is a white kia pulled up on the curb. Nothing unusual here yet. Cars often hop the curb and park on the sidewalk. The unusual part is how the driver decided to re-enter the street. His whole car is up on the sidewalk. Now, the street is directly to his left so in theory, he should reverse a touch and pull out easily onto the road. Well naturally the obvious option was a no-go. Directly in front of the car is the entrance to my apartment building's parking garage area. To prevent cars from driving onto the sidewalk from this entrance, there are some short, maybe foot and a half tall concrete pylons. There are maybe seven spanning the length of the sidewalk's border with the street entrance. They are each about 4 feet apart. This driver decided to try to avoid the pylons and enter the street via the entrance to the parking garage. Unfortunately, he forgot to take into account that his car is not, in fact, four feet wide.
Head out the window, he is expertly avoiding the pylon just left of his car's front corner. Unwittingly, he is literally smashing the right corner of his car against the pylon a mere 5 feet away. I'm begin to watch as I hear the crunching sound of his bumper grinding against the concrete pylon. Unfortunately this man doesn't notice the noise, or chooses to ignore it. He can't figure out why his car won't move forward as he presses the gas. he reverses a half a foot and the changes gears to drive and pushes once more into the pylon. he presses the gas, the engine revs and his car moves maybe a cm deeper into the pylon. He seems befuddled and it is at this point that I decide to inform him of his self-destructive driving. I wave, and point to the corner of his car being crushed. He looks at me. Acknowledges my warning and the proceeds to repeat his attempt again, in spite of me saying, hey guy, the front corner of your car is being repeatedly smashed in for no reason.
Oh well. I did what I could to warn him.
Head out the window, he is expertly avoiding the pylon just left of his car's front corner. Unwittingly, he is literally smashing the right corner of his car against the pylon a mere 5 feet away. I'm begin to watch as I hear the crunching sound of his bumper grinding against the concrete pylon. Unfortunately this man doesn't notice the noise, or chooses to ignore it. He can't figure out why his car won't move forward as he presses the gas. he reverses a half a foot and the changes gears to drive and pushes once more into the pylon. he presses the gas, the engine revs and his car moves maybe a cm deeper into the pylon. He seems befuddled and it is at this point that I decide to inform him of his self-destructive driving. I wave, and point to the corner of his car being crushed. He looks at me. Acknowledges my warning and the proceeds to repeat his attempt again, in spite of me saying, hey guy, the front corner of your car is being repeatedly smashed in for no reason.
Imagine repeatedly ramming your car into significantly fatter versions of these. Now imagine not realizing your car is being rammed into these. Hard, right? Welcome to Korea!
Oh well. I did what I could to warn him.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
The Oil Spill
So, this is my second report on news. My first report was regarding the tensions between North and South Korea and can be found here.
This one is going to be about the oil spill.
Ok, so maybe I'm going to sound like a big insensitive evil planet-hating bitch, but it's like not even a big deal here. This doesn't mean I don't care, it just means that NO ONE here in Korea cares. Not one student has said to me, hey, teacha, you know oil spill? no. nothing. Students are talking about the world cup. They are talking about k-pop. They are talking about lots of things, but the oil spill is not one of them. It's weird.
And it isn't really because Korea is just not up on world issues. When the Haiti earthquake happened, my students asked me all about it. When the Chile earthquake happened, my stuents knew more about it than I did. They know about these things. But it seems like the most disastrous oil spill in history is totally lost on them. They follow world news (which presumably this oil spill is), but this is not even on the radar.
In fact, my students are writing essays about the environment for a contest and not one has so much as mentioned this once. Strange.
As a result, I feel that I am really disconnected from the issue. Of course, I saw that video when Obama says he's gonna kick some ass, and I watched a very interesting video posted from CNN saying that Obama and the government can't really do anything in the short-term to fix it so the media should turn it's attention to BP and pressure them. I also think that BP is a big ass-hole of a business, but then, at this point, who doesn't think that.
Yes, I've seen those pictures of birds covered in oil. Yes, it makes me sad. Yes, I understand that this spill puts thousands of miles of coastline in unnecessary danger, and is destroying whole habitats and such, but still. Where is the coverage here in Korea?
I read the NYTimes, but I mostly ignore the oil spill coverage because it would likely dampen my spirits.
Call me an ignorant, uncaring bitch if you wish, but it's hard to take a firm stance when it seems like nobody in the entire damn country has any idea what the fuck to do about it.
I guess everyone feels the way I do: Damn that's terrible. Now what?
I dunno. I guess maybe this will encourage the government to push even harder for alternative energy options.
This one is going to be about the oil spill.
Ok, so maybe I'm going to sound like a big insensitive evil planet-hating bitch, but it's like not even a big deal here. This doesn't mean I don't care, it just means that NO ONE here in Korea cares. Not one student has said to me, hey, teacha, you know oil spill? no. nothing. Students are talking about the world cup. They are talking about k-pop. They are talking about lots of things, but the oil spill is not one of them. It's weird.
And it isn't really because Korea is just not up on world issues. When the Haiti earthquake happened, my students asked me all about it. When the Chile earthquake happened, my stuents knew more about it than I did. They know about these things. But it seems like the most disastrous oil spill in history is totally lost on them. They follow world news (which presumably this oil spill is), but this is not even on the radar.
In fact, my students are writing essays about the environment for a contest and not one has so much as mentioned this once. Strange.
As a result, I feel that I am really disconnected from the issue. Of course, I saw that video when Obama says he's gonna kick some ass, and I watched a very interesting video posted from CNN saying that Obama and the government can't really do anything in the short-term to fix it so the media should turn it's attention to BP and pressure them. I also think that BP is a big ass-hole of a business, but then, at this point, who doesn't think that.
I read the NYTimes, but I mostly ignore the oil spill coverage because it would likely dampen my spirits.
Call me an ignorant, uncaring bitch if you wish, but it's hard to take a firm stance when it seems like nobody in the entire damn country has any idea what the fuck to do about it.
I guess everyone feels the way I do: Damn that's terrible. Now what?
I dunno. I guess maybe this will encourage the government to push even harder for alternative energy options.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Some things
So I just wanted to take another break from posting our last day in Shanghai in order to share some things.
1. World Cup.
Korea won. 대~한민국!!! I tried to go to City Hall with Miranda to watch the game (ok, really it was so I could see Big Bang who was going to have an appearance at 5 before the game). We got to city hall at 11 and it was raining and there were not many people at all there. We got a bite to eat and I bought an umbrella and a red poncho and we got in the short line. We saw a bunch of big bang fan club vip girls. THey saw us and asked, Big Bang see? And we said yessss. And they said, no come, and formed the x with their hands that is a universal no sign. But they were still waiting so we thought maybe there was a miscommunication. We asked another guy if big bang would come and he said, at 5. So we sat down in some grass and started playing Go-Stop. We got confirmation that Big Bang was no going to be there, but we were playing go-stop, and it wasn't a big deal. It was raining a bit. Then we met two Korean guys who were impressed by my go-stop skills. And they joined in on the fun. Then it started raining a lot. After two hours in the rain, Miranda and I left, defeated. We went to Myeongdong and I got a red striped shirt to show my korean patriotism during the game. I watched the Korea game at Dillinger's, a frisbee favorite haunt. Then went to street stalls for food after the game, plus then Candacee's for relaxing and trying to stay awake and eating popcorn and squid and playing dice. We played dice even through Yong dropping one out of the window and therefore making the game a bit more tricky. Then Rocky Mountain Tavern for the USA v. England game. It was really hard to stay awake since the game started at 3:30 a.m. my time. By the second half, I felt like I was gonna die. I was nodding off and barely made it. By miracle, USA pulled out a tie (as I'm sure you all know) due to a big mistake by England's keeper. But anyways, I'm rooting for Korea, so I guess it doesn't really matter.
The gentleman I tutor here is a funny man. He is as old as my parents but he seems nice enough. He has lived in Incheon pretty much his whole life (minus a 10 or so year stint in Australia). When he was young (high school age) Incheon was obviously a much smaller city. He still keeps in touch with a number of his high school/middle school friends. As I had mentioned a bit ago, election day was a couple weeks ago. He had three friends running for seats in the city council and another running for something he called the manager of the district. It seems like some sort of mayorship role, but for a district. I don't know what the word is. The district is Yeonsu-dong, which is where Songdo is. Songdo is a huge area Incheon is pouring money into calling it an international free economic zone. Incheon is banking on Songdo becoming the biggest port area in East Asia. As such, construction in that area is booming. The man I tutor works in a granite import/export company (by works in I mean is the CEO of), and he has a decent amount of work largely in Songdo. He said to me, "my friend in Yeonsu-dong he is a good man. much better thn the city council friends. Honest. No bribes." I responded well, that's good. An honest politician is hard to come by. He said, "yes, I had dinner with him the other night. Big dinner. I pay. And I say to him, friend, you send business people to me. I work for you. He must because I always buy him dinner last year when he had no job. He must."
I laughed.
3. I got a new tattoo. I'm going to hold off on posting pictures because people read this who don't necessarily need to see my new tattoo (read: my parents and the occasional student). Don't worry Mom & Pops, I didn't get a naked she-devil tattoo or anything. Not anything to bizarro. Just some flowers. It's just that they're big, colored, and currently super painful. Like wrecking my life painful. Like I literally lept for joy when I discovered I couldn't tutor because the man had to meet with a business partner because it mean that I could lay under the a/c and hope to escape the fire-y burning that is overwhelming me.
4. My students made these awesome pictures for parents' day which was like a million years ago, but my school didn't get around to putting up the posters until way afterwards (anyone surprised? not me), but they are pretty cool. My students can draw. They are all grade 1&2 middle school. One of the pictures, the one with the frog, references this Korean story I read for homework when my co-teacher gave me that children's story book. I was proud of myself for understanding! *^__^*
Oh, and I saw this out my window last night. Thought I'd share. A bit blurry, but it was the nicest sunset I'd seen from my window so far.
xoxo
A
1. World Cup.
Korea won. 대~한민국!!! I tried to go to City Hall with Miranda to watch the game (ok, really it was so I could see Big Bang who was going to have an appearance at 5 before the game). We got to city hall at 11 and it was raining and there were not many people at all there. We got a bite to eat and I bought an umbrella and a red poncho and we got in the short line. We saw a bunch of big bang fan club vip girls. THey saw us and asked, Big Bang see? And we said yessss. And they said, no come, and formed the x with their hands that is a universal no sign. But they were still waiting so we thought maybe there was a miscommunication. We asked another guy if big bang would come and he said, at 5. So we sat down in some grass and started playing Go-Stop. We got confirmation that Big Bang was no going to be there, but we were playing go-stop, and it wasn't a big deal. It was raining a bit. Then we met two Korean guys who were impressed by my go-stop skills. And they joined in on the fun. Then it started raining a lot. After two hours in the rain, Miranda and I left, defeated. We went to Myeongdong and I got a red striped shirt to show my korean patriotism during the game. I watched the Korea game at Dillinger's, a frisbee favorite haunt. Then went to street stalls for food after the game, plus then Candacee's for relaxing and trying to stay awake and eating popcorn and squid and playing dice. We played dice even through Yong dropping one out of the window and therefore making the game a bit more tricky. Then Rocky Mountain Tavern for the USA v. England game. It was really hard to stay awake since the game started at 3:30 a.m. my time. By the second half, I felt like I was gonna die. I was nodding off and barely made it. By miracle, USA pulled out a tie (as I'm sure you all know) due to a big mistake by England's keeper. But anyways, I'm rooting for Korea, so I guess it doesn't really matter.
This is how I felt when I found out I couldn't see my 대성이.
These are the 천원 (1000 won) bets that the boys made on everything from who would have the next corner kick to which coach would get the next close-up on camera.
2. TutoringThe gentleman I tutor here is a funny man. He is as old as my parents but he seems nice enough. He has lived in Incheon pretty much his whole life (minus a 10 or so year stint in Australia). When he was young (high school age) Incheon was obviously a much smaller city. He still keeps in touch with a number of his high school/middle school friends. As I had mentioned a bit ago, election day was a couple weeks ago. He had three friends running for seats in the city council and another running for something he called the manager of the district. It seems like some sort of mayorship role, but for a district. I don't know what the word is. The district is Yeonsu-dong, which is where Songdo is. Songdo is a huge area Incheon is pouring money into calling it an international free economic zone. Incheon is banking on Songdo becoming the biggest port area in East Asia. As such, construction in that area is booming. The man I tutor works in a granite import/export company (by works in I mean is the CEO of), and he has a decent amount of work largely in Songdo. He said to me, "my friend in Yeonsu-dong he is a good man. much better thn the city council friends. Honest. No bribes." I responded well, that's good. An honest politician is hard to come by. He said, "yes, I had dinner with him the other night. Big dinner. I pay. And I say to him, friend, you send business people to me. I work for you. He must because I always buy him dinner last year when he had no job. He must."
I laughed.
3. I got a new tattoo. I'm going to hold off on posting pictures because people read this who don't necessarily need to see my new tattoo (read: my parents and the occasional student). Don't worry Mom & Pops, I didn't get a naked she-devil tattoo or anything. Not anything to bizarro. Just some flowers. It's just that they're big, colored, and currently super painful. Like wrecking my life painful. Like I literally lept for joy when I discovered I couldn't tutor because the man had to meet with a business partner because it mean that I could lay under the a/c and hope to escape the fire-y burning that is overwhelming me.
4. My students made these awesome pictures for parents' day which was like a million years ago, but my school didn't get around to putting up the posters until way afterwards (anyone surprised? not me), but they are pretty cool. My students can draw. They are all grade 1&2 middle school. One of the pictures, the one with the frog, references this Korean story I read for homework when my co-teacher gave me that children's story book. I was proud of myself for understanding! *^__^*
Oh, and I saw this out my window last night. Thought I'd share. A bit blurry, but it was the nicest sunset I'd seen from my window so far.
xoxo
A
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Shanghai China Day 2
Well, I figured it's time for me to actually talk about ultimate now.
The tournament seemed to be relatively well run and organized. One note I'd like to make about my experiences with Asian Ultimate Frisbee tournaments: they are significantly more expensive than American tournaments. You may wonder, "why are they so much more expensive in Asia if Asia is SO much cheaper than the States?" Well the answer, my friend, is double-sided.
1. Cost of field space. In the U.S. generally speaking, it is not terribly difficult to find space for 5, 10, 15, or ever 20 teams to play. There are, of course exceptions to this rule: NYC, LA, etc. But most average college campuses have enough field space to host at least 8 teams, often many more (see: College Southerns, UF's Florida Winter Classic, and NCState's wolfpack, all usually held on campus and hosting between 10 and 36 teams). In Asia, any city that is easily accesible by air (a necessity as ultimate in asia is still relatively small and hasn't penetrated beyond the largest, ex-pat laden cities throughout most of Asia) has almost now green space whatsoever. Look at Seoul for example: our team can barely find a space big enough for a single field twice per week for our practices and our small 4-team league.
2. Amenities. At a standard U.S. tournament, you will receive maybe 6-8 games, depending on performance, bagels in the morning with peanut butter, water at the fields, and one party Saturday night which consists of x number of kegs. At a standard Asian tournament you will receive a disc (and often a swag bag like I did at Bangkok hatter and Jeju-- t-shirts, water bottle, stickers, lotion, sunscreen, power powders, etc), bagels/peanut butter in the morning, a lunch on Saturday and Sunday (always quite tasty and plenty filling), Dinner on Saturday, a registration party Friday night, water during play, 6-8 games, a tournament party Saturday night (typically with all you can drink beer... sometimes more, see later Shanghai), and beer up the ass during the day at the fields. All in all, the extra 20-40 dollars I pay for the tournament fee covers every last penny I might spend at the tournament and thereby helps me to actually save money instead of spend it.
Anyways, Shanghai was well run. The fields were nice, albeit cut a bit short and therefore a bit dead-ish and scratchy. We had 4 games on Saturday. We played Singapore Disc Knights first. We won 11-7 or so. Then we played Shanghai-B, which we won 11-1. Then we played Hong Kong, our first true test, where we won in a hard fought game 11-8 or 9. Then we played the Philippines, Sunken Pleasure.
A note about ultimate in the Philippines: Manila has probably the single best ultimate scene in Asia. The sport is exploding in popularity due to various celebrities (news anchors, models, actors) playing the sport competitively. One girl who plays for the Team Philippines is sponsored by Nike, which is possibly the tightest thing ever. Another guy is an actor and lives in a mansion on the side of an inactive volcano. Additionally, almost all the people who play in Manila are Filipinos, which is impressive as the majority of the Asian ultimate community is ex-pat.
The Philippines team was good. They were REALLY REALLY fast. We played this team in Manila in November and got wrecked because they were so much faster. However, this year our team was greatly improved, with all of our best players present, and we won the game 11-7 or so.
Because we won our pool, we got a first-round bye the next morning, which was awesome.
Saturday night we went to the party extremely briefly because it kind of sucked. However, it should be noted that each team received two bottles of liquor (vodka and whiskey). Plus unlimited beer. Our team didn't really use hardly any of our supply. Instead, we went out and walked around a bit through the fancy shopping district near the party. Chanel, Coach, Ferragamo, Fendi. I was in 7th heaven. I just wanted to buy everything.
The tournament seemed to be relatively well run and organized. One note I'd like to make about my experiences with Asian Ultimate Frisbee tournaments: they are significantly more expensive than American tournaments. You may wonder, "why are they so much more expensive in Asia if Asia is SO much cheaper than the States?" Well the answer, my friend, is double-sided.
1. Cost of field space. In the U.S. generally speaking, it is not terribly difficult to find space for 5, 10, 15, or ever 20 teams to play. There are, of course exceptions to this rule: NYC, LA, etc. But most average college campuses have enough field space to host at least 8 teams, often many more (see: College Southerns, UF's Florida Winter Classic, and NCState's wolfpack, all usually held on campus and hosting between 10 and 36 teams). In Asia, any city that is easily accesible by air (a necessity as ultimate in asia is still relatively small and hasn't penetrated beyond the largest, ex-pat laden cities throughout most of Asia) has almost now green space whatsoever. Look at Seoul for example: our team can barely find a space big enough for a single field twice per week for our practices and our small 4-team league.
2. Amenities. At a standard U.S. tournament, you will receive maybe 6-8 games, depending on performance, bagels in the morning with peanut butter, water at the fields, and one party Saturday night which consists of x number of kegs. At a standard Asian tournament you will receive a disc (and often a swag bag like I did at Bangkok hatter and Jeju-- t-shirts, water bottle, stickers, lotion, sunscreen, power powders, etc), bagels/peanut butter in the morning, a lunch on Saturday and Sunday (always quite tasty and plenty filling), Dinner on Saturday, a registration party Friday night, water during play, 6-8 games, a tournament party Saturday night (typically with all you can drink beer... sometimes more, see later Shanghai), and beer up the ass during the day at the fields. All in all, the extra 20-40 dollars I pay for the tournament fee covers every last penny I might spend at the tournament and thereby helps me to actually save money instead of spend it.
bekah and I sure are glad we didn't have to worry about food
A note about ultimate in the Philippines: Manila has probably the single best ultimate scene in Asia. The sport is exploding in popularity due to various celebrities (news anchors, models, actors) playing the sport competitively. One girl who plays for the Team Philippines is sponsored by Nike, which is possibly the tightest thing ever. Another guy is an actor and lives in a mansion on the side of an inactive volcano. Additionally, almost all the people who play in Manila are Filipinos, which is impressive as the majority of the Asian ultimate community is ex-pat.
The Philippines team was good. They were REALLY REALLY fast. We played this team in Manila in November and got wrecked because they were so much faster. However, this year our team was greatly improved, with all of our best players present, and we won the game 11-7 or so.
Because we won our pool, we got a first-round bye the next morning, which was awesome.
Saturday night we went to the party extremely briefly because it kind of sucked. However, it should be noted that each team received two bottles of liquor (vodka and whiskey). Plus unlimited beer. Our team didn't really use hardly any of our supply. Instead, we went out and walked around a bit through the fancy shopping district near the party. Chanel, Coach, Ferragamo, Fendi. I was in 7th heaven. I just wanted to buy everything.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Pardon the Interruption
We interrupt the regularly schedule broadcast of my trip to Shanghai in order to bring you this time waster:
Time Magazine's list of YouTube's 50 best videos
From number one spot Charlie Bit my Finger, to #13 Kittens inspired by Kittens, #3 David After Dentist, to #36 Auto-Tune the News and #38 Chocolate Rain, the list was filled with some of my classic favorites, and with others I had never seen before.
Also, surprisingly high at #7 was something very close to home, the Don't Tase me Bro incident of 2007 at University of Florida's open forum with John Kerry. Additionally, Korea getting props with that adorable "Hey Jude" kid at the #25 spot.
By the way, this was a new one for me and my absolute favorite (who can resist a dancing baby?):
I wasted a full hour and 20 minutes loading and watching these videos at work today. Enjoy!
Time Magazine's list of YouTube's 50 best videos
From number one spot Charlie Bit my Finger, to #13 Kittens inspired by Kittens, #3 David After Dentist, to #36 Auto-Tune the News and #38 Chocolate Rain, the list was filled with some of my classic favorites, and with others I had never seen before.
Also, surprisingly high at #7 was something very close to home, the Don't Tase me Bro incident of 2007 at University of Florida's open forum with John Kerry. Additionally, Korea getting props with that adorable "Hey Jude" kid at the #25 spot.
By the way, this was a new one for me and my absolute favorite (who can resist a dancing baby?):
I wasted a full hour and 20 minutes loading and watching these videos at work today. Enjoy!
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Shanghai China Day 1
Today was my first full day back in Korea after my too-short trip to China.
Frankly before going, I wasn't all that excited about going to China. I've never really been that interested in going, but now, having gone, I'd like to go back. Besides, everything is so cheap that why not?
Anyways, to recount my time:
Friday: I left school early and took the bus to the airport. Got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. Me and another guy on my team were on the same flight. Our flight was about 20 minutes earlier than almost everyone else in our group who had gotten a group ticket booked. So, we went through security after agreeing to meet near the baggage claim at Shanghai's Pudong Airport. The flight was just under three hours, which Mike and I spent talking about a whole slew of things. We arrived at the airport, and went through security without any hassle. Mike bought some bourbon at the duty-free shop, and we sat down by the immigration counters and waited for our friends. After checking the boards we saw that two different flights from seoul/incheon (in addition to our own) had landed. We figured the one after ours had to be the right flight, so we waited and waited. Still no friends. After continuing to wait nearly an hour, we were severely confused. Where are our friends? Did they collectively miss the flight? HOW? We finally asked someone at an information booth (which was incredibly difficult to find, by the way), and then we discovered that there were in fact two terminals, each with domestic and international flights, which is completely counter-intuitive and annoying. We had figured that they had left, but went to terminal two to try to figure out. There was no sign of our team so a woman helped us get into a taxi which took us to our hotel.
Now, at the hotel, the Jinjiang Inn, there was a nice gentleman who spoke only a very little English. We indicated that we were with the Korean frisbee team and would like to check-in to our rooms. The clerk kindly asked us for the password. "Password?" I asked, "I don't have a password." He looked bewildered as he asked incredulously, "you don't have a password?" Now hopefully my frisbee team hadn't already checked in and left Mike and I stranded by making up a password that I didn't know. "KUPA" I said hopefully, thinking maybe they had chosen the name of our ultimate association. The clerk just looked at me in disbelief.
We asked to call a contact we had at the Shanghai tournament. Upon calling, I said to him, "the front desk clerk is asking for a password." The TD replied, "Password? What password? Just say Korean frisbee" which we had already done twice. He asked to speak to the desk clerk. They spoke in Chinese for a short time and he was put back on the phone with me. "Password? I thought you said password! Sorry. Just give them your password and you'll be fine." Wait, excuse me? Did I misunderstand? Is this gentleman telling me to give them the password that I already told him I don't have? What the hell? "I don't have a password." I reply calmly. "YOU DON'T HAVE A PASSWORD?" he asks in shock. At this point I began to wonder if I had mysteriously entered some kind of fourth dimension of three stooges whose on first routine. "No, I don't have a password, how can I get my room?" I ask nervously. "Well, if you don't have your password, you'll have to go to the police station." he said. "THE POLICE STATION??" I practically yell into the receiver. Mike, in the 
Frankly before going, I wasn't all that excited about going to China. I've never really been that interested in going, but now, having gone, I'd like to go back. Besides, everything is so cheap that why not?
Anyways, to recount my time:
Friday: I left school early and took the bus to the airport. Got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. Me and another guy on my team were on the same flight. Our flight was about 20 minutes earlier than almost everyone else in our group who had gotten a group ticket booked. So, we went through security after agreeing to meet near the baggage claim at Shanghai's Pudong Airport. The flight was just under three hours, which Mike and I spent talking about a whole slew of things. We arrived at the airport, and went through security without any hassle. Mike bought some bourbon at the duty-free shop, and we sat down by the immigration counters and waited for our friends. After checking the boards we saw that two different flights from seoul/incheon (in addition to our own) had landed. We figured the one after ours had to be the right flight, so we waited and waited. Still no friends. After continuing to wait nearly an hour, we were severely confused. Where are our friends? Did they collectively miss the flight? HOW? We finally asked someone at an information booth (which was incredibly difficult to find, by the way), and then we discovered that there were in fact two terminals, each with domestic and international flights, which is completely counter-intuitive and annoying. We had figured that they had left, but went to terminal two to try to figure out. There was no sign of our team so a woman helped us get into a taxi which took us to our hotel.
Now, at the hotel, the Jinjiang Inn, there was a nice gentleman who spoke only a very little English. We indicated that we were with the Korean frisbee team and would like to check-in to our rooms. The clerk kindly asked us for the password. "Password?" I asked, "I don't have a password." He looked bewildered as he asked incredulously, "you don't have a password?" Now hopefully my frisbee team hadn't already checked in and left Mike and I stranded by making up a password that I didn't know. "KUPA" I said hopefully, thinking maybe they had chosen the name of our ultimate association. The clerk just looked at me in disbelief.
Monday, June 7, 2010
HELLLLL YES!
SHANGHAI TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS!!
대한민국!!
Holy crap, it's so exciting.
Details to come tomorrow. Maybe pictures (not from the tournament).
대한민국!!
Holy crap, it's so exciting.
Details to come tomorrow. Maybe pictures (not from the tournament).
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Vanity
Korea has made me incredibly vain. Here is the proof:
1. I actually care how I look. I spent every single moment of my cognizant 20-something years not giving a shit how I looked. I almost never wore clothes other than t-shirts, hoodies, and casual jeans or basketball shorts. Now, I coordinate my shoes to my shirts, I belt my loose tees, I own 6 pairs of sneakers (not counting my actually tennis shoes for working out), I wear a skirt at least twice a week, and I wear earrings and a necklace everyday.
2. I wear make-up every single day. Every morning I have to budget an extra 5-15 minutes to apply lipstick, eyeshadow, eyeliner, and mascara. Previously, I wore only burts bees pomegranate lip balm (the best thing ever). When I was going out, I would usually make the effort to put on mascara. usually.
3. I am that girl who checks her mirror on the bus/subway. I used to hate that girl. "Who cares?" I always thought, "why is that girl so vain and self-absorbed that she has to constantly check her appearance to fix the one strand of hair or refresh the already caked-on make-up?" Well, now I am that girl. I have found that the subway rides can be productive if I spend it applying make up and fixing my hair. I also carry a mirror, a comb, oil control papers, lipstick, lip balm and hand lotion everywhere I go.
4. I take selcas at work. This is the epitome of vanity. I take pictures of my self at work making stupid faces and so I can inspect my new, different eyeshadow color (I lined my bottom lid with blue today) or so I can verify that yes, I am that cute. Also, I edit the pictures to add stickers and textures and various other effects.
Who am I and what became of ReallyWally? I'm not so real anymore.
This all came to me as I was reapplying my slightly faded lipstick at 10:30 this morning between classes.
But, it gets me dozens of compliments, and I like that, so I will probably keep on keeping on with the make-up and dressing nicely.
xoxo,
Beautiful A
1. I actually care how I look. I spent every single moment of my cognizant 20-something years not giving a shit how I looked. I almost never wore clothes other than t-shirts, hoodies, and casual jeans or basketball shorts. Now, I coordinate my shoes to my shirts, I belt my loose tees, I own 6 pairs of sneakers (not counting my actually tennis shoes for working out), I wear a skirt at least twice a week, and I wear earrings and a necklace everyday.
2. I wear make-up every single day. Every morning I have to budget an extra 5-15 minutes to apply lipstick, eyeshadow, eyeliner, and mascara. Previously, I wore only burts bees pomegranate lip balm (the best thing ever). When I was going out, I would usually make the effort to put on mascara. usually.
3. I am that girl who checks her mirror on the bus/subway. I used to hate that girl. "Who cares?" I always thought, "why is that girl so vain and self-absorbed that she has to constantly check her appearance to fix the one strand of hair or refresh the already caked-on make-up?" Well, now I am that girl. I have found that the subway rides can be productive if I spend it applying make up and fixing my hair. I also carry a mirror, a comb, oil control papers, lipstick, lip balm and hand lotion everywhere I go.
4. I take selcas at work. This is the epitome of vanity. I take pictures of my self at work making stupid faces and so I can inspect my new, different eyeshadow color (I lined my bottom lid with blue today) or so I can verify that yes, I am that cute. Also, I edit the pictures to add stickers and textures and various other effects.
Who am I and what became of ReallyWally? I'm not so real anymore.
This all came to me as I was reapplying my slightly faded lipstick at 10:30 this morning between classes.
But, it gets me dozens of compliments, and I like that, so I will probably keep on keeping on with the make-up and dressing nicely.
xoxo,
Beautiful A
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Election Day
Today was election day, which means that we have no school. It's a pretty awesome concept. Encourage people to vote by giving them the whole day. Now you can vote, do errands, enjoy some time outside, and relax a little. No stress for voting. However, with the no voting stress, you may forget to vote altogether. This seems to be a common problem as the voter turnout is still really low, especially when you consider no one has to actually make time to do it.
Anyways, since the big frisbee tournament is this weekend and we had no work today, we all met for practice in seoul at 9:30. I spent the night at bek's because 7:00 a.m. on a no-school day would have killed me.
Practice was small (only 10 people) but it was good. After we got sandwiches at this great little place near Ichon Station (이촌역). The place was called Tomati, and they had club sandwiches, and salads and all kinds of things. A roast veggie sandwich for vegetarians even; and it got good reviews from our resident veg-head, ADrews.
After practice I came home with the intention of going to E-mart to pick up some groceries. Before leaving for the store, I bought my plane ticket to NYC!!! So excited for that. My first trip to the big city where I can pretty much decide to do what I want to do. hehe. Anyways, then I walked to E-Mart (the day was GLORIOUS, warm and breezy). I did my shopping, went to the checkout line, got everything on the conveyor belt and suddenly realized that i had left my wallet at home. blaaaaaaaaaargh. I had to ditch all my purses and walk home defeated. I bought nothing today. hah.
Then I went to Bupyeong for dinner with Miranda and Christi. Had 닭야채볶음밥 which is chicken and vegetable fried rice (spiiiiiiicy) and 막국수 which is a spicy-ish cold buckwheat noodle soup. LOVE it. Then we went shopping a bit. I bought a hot pink t-shirt on sale at Codes Combine.
I also decided to try my hand at gardening. When I was about 13/14 years old, I had a garden. And by had a garden, I naturally mean that I picked out and helped plant the seeds and then let my father do all the weeding and watering and feeding and fertilizing and tending, and then I picked the veggies and took all the credit for MY garden (it was my idea, at least). So to get back in touch with my gardening roots I bought a plant. Okay, so, it's a cactus. Okay, so, cactuses are like the single easiest thing to care for. But, you gotta start somewhere, and I don't exactly have the space for some tomato plants or whatever.
I also bought some silver glitter french manicure nail polish, new eye liner and a new eyeshadow brush.
Anyways, my one goal for the day, to do laundry, did not happen. oops.
xoxo
A
Anyways, since the big frisbee tournament is this weekend and we had no work today, we all met for practice in seoul at 9:30. I spent the night at bek's because 7:00 a.m. on a no-school day would have killed me.
Practice was small (only 10 people) but it was good. After we got sandwiches at this great little place near Ichon Station (이촌역). The place was called Tomati, and they had club sandwiches, and salads and all kinds of things. A roast veggie sandwich for vegetarians even; and it got good reviews from our resident veg-head, ADrews.
After practice I came home with the intention of going to E-mart to pick up some groceries. Before leaving for the store, I bought my plane ticket to NYC!!! So excited for that. My first trip to the big city where I can pretty much decide to do what I want to do. hehe. Anyways, then I walked to E-Mart (the day was GLORIOUS, warm and breezy). I did my shopping, went to the checkout line, got everything on the conveyor belt and suddenly realized that i had left my wallet at home. blaaaaaaaaaargh. I had to ditch all my purses and walk home defeated. I bought nothing today. hah.
Then I went to Bupyeong for dinner with Miranda and Christi. Had 닭야채볶음밥 which is chicken and vegetable fried rice (spiiiiiiicy) and 막국수 which is a spicy-ish cold buckwheat noodle soup. LOVE it. Then we went shopping a bit. I bought a hot pink t-shirt on sale at Codes Combine.
I also decided to try my hand at gardening. When I was about 13/14 years old, I had a garden. And by had a garden, I naturally mean that I picked out and helped plant the seeds and then let my father do all the weeding and watering and feeding and fertilizing and tending, and then I picked the veggies and took all the credit for MY garden (it was my idea, at least). So to get back in touch with my gardening roots I bought a plant. Okay, so, it's a cactus. Okay, so, cactuses are like the single easiest thing to care for. But, you gotta start somewhere, and I don't exactly have the space for some tomato plants or whatever.
I also bought some silver glitter french manicure nail polish, new eye liner and a new eyeshadow brush.
Anyways, my one goal for the day, to do laundry, did not happen. oops.
xoxo
A
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