It is less then two months until I come home; June 30th . It is a weird feeling. I feel like an immigrant ready to make the great jump to the land of opportunity. Except I will be doing it legally, unlike most immigrants these days. Recently I have been asking my Korean friends what they think they will do if they had the opportunity to come to the USA. All the girls have said they absolutely want to go to the USA or Canada. There parents have giving them the blessings to do so. The girls say yes because Korea is absolutely a men’s world, there is no denying that; It does not matter how much you believe in equal rights, that is not how it works here. This is why Korean girls want to leave, of course some time (I think in the near future there will be a women’s movement, It has to happen, Korea wants to be America and this would be a step.) Just witnessing this, not just through travel but living through it is quite the experience. I left the USA knowing it was the greatest country in the world, but now….It is like the Michael Jordan of countries…It is amazing how cool the USA is and how Koreans (just because I know from living here) want to be a part of it. Most Koreans I hang out with know more about USA pop culture then I do, but most Americans know more then me also, but they keep up with all that stuff. They are obsessed, it really is interesting seeing this first hand. These Korean girls love hanging out with Americans, they really do. Some to improve their English, some to get to USA, marriage or just ideas on what to do there, and some just to simply tell someone they spent time with an American. It is a really incredible experience, I hope everyone reading this can understand what I just wrote, it really is special to be an American. I went to an Indian restaurant the other night and the owner (spoke English) had Indian news on and everything that was on the news had something to do with the USA. I would not change this experience I had for anything, I will not stay for the whole year, but I have no regrets on what I have done, it has been awesome.

Last Friday night I was out and I turned around and saw a Korean who was easily 7’ 3”; he stuck out like a sore thumb and man was it funny. I started talking to him and he ended up being a professional basketball player in Korea. You never see Koreans over 5’10”, never mind 7’. It was pretty funny, especially when he tried dancing (not to say I am a good dancer, I’m not, but this was pretty funny. I mean, what do you say to a 7’ Korean man. The next day I finally ventured to the Han River and did a boat cruise up the river at night. This was awesome, it was finally a nice enough day to go for a boat ride and be warm enough to actually enjoy it. Going up the river was pretty cool seeing the huge city lights, the tall skyscrapers, and busy city life. The Han River runs right through the heart of Seoul, creating a south part of Seoul and the north part of Seoul, it is an impressive river. The boat ride was pretty impressive, they have themed nights on these boats and somehow I ran into a flowered theme river cruise, anyone could’ve easily mistaken it for a wedding cruise up the Han River and of course a Korean family came up to me and another teacher I was with to take pictures and ask questions about the USA. The best part about the river cruise is that it is byob. I could not believe it was, just for the fact that they could make a killing. This was not much of a drinking cruise for me because I wanted to enjoy the views and just be able to enjoy being back on the water for a night.

Sunday May 2nd was a fun day of watching sports in Itaewon. This day started at about 11am. The time differences makes watching sports next to impossible. Sunday morning we were able to catch the boxing match live on tv, it is pretty entertaining watching a boxing match with an international audience. I got to the sports bar around 11 and enjoyed a big breakfast and relaxed for a while. Some patrons there I believe stayed up from the night before, it was funny. Three guys got thrown out after the second under card match and created a nice scene. It is always amusing to watch these events when it is someone you do not know that is involved. There is also nothing like a bunch of idiots at 11 am on a Sunday; I think it is safe to say they are not the church going type. After the boxing match I was set to watch the Bruins after they finished up another hockey game that was on, as this game was in the third period ( remember I have been waiting all weekend to watch these playoff games, Celtics and Bruins and making sure I would not see the score on the internet.) So everyone is watching the game and on the ticker the score of the Bruins game comes on; Bruins won, day is almost wasted by now. It just is not fun watching a game when you know the results when it is just a regular playoff games. Luckily it was a sunny day out so I just enjoyed the sun and waited for the Celtics play game one against the Cavs; as we all know that went great until the second half and really ruined my day. So a Celtics loss and a Bruins win but a loss for me because the score gets shown right before the game comes on tape delayed. I did win the bet for how long the boxing match would go, that won a round of beers for everyone.

Saturday May 8- 75 Degrees and I am heading back to Jebu island, this time with another English teacher and two Korean friends. What a day it was to be on the beach, there is nothing better then escaping the hot city for a cool, sunny beach day. I already wrote about Jebu island so I will not go into much detail about the place. The seafood was still absolutely delicious and really reasonable. Four of us ate and had some drinks and it was 15,000 won a person; It only got better as we arrived back to Suwon and went to a Galbi restaurant and it cost each person 10,000 won ($10) to eat and drink for dinner and Galbi is absolutely awesome. Galbi is BBQ beef that Suwon is known for because of its great quality. I was explaining to my two Korean friends the differences in restaurants from Korea to the USA. They could not believe it. Basically whenever you are ready to order in Korea the customer just yells out “yogi” which means “here” If you ask me it is pretty rude but that is the culture and of course you do not tip in Korea. When you order beer they bring a large bottle and everyone drinks from the bottle with their own cup; and of course Soju is always involved when you go out to eat with a Korean. Soju is even cheaper then the food.
HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MOM