.my hovercraft is full of eels.

where to begin? 

korea can be thought of as an old man's yard. every day the old man is out there, toiling away, picking at the weeds which seem to always encroach upon his whimsical jewel of disillusioned immortality, his yard. in the case of the korea, the yard can be seen as 'old korea' and the weeds ... 'a new western korea'

this dichotomy between old and new is physically visible, literally. the older koreans are dwarfed by their younger korean counterparts by almost 2+ feet. its amazing what proper nutrition and a little milk can do. younger koreans (~20 yrs.) are in this transitionary period where they want to become more 'westernized' in regards to fashion, music, and life style but are at odds with defying an older generation of koreans who are more traditional in nature. this struggle has unseeingly spilled over into my classroom and has manifested itself within some of my new korean friends; however, this issue remains to be potential fodder for a future blog topic and is something i don't wish to go into great depth covering. you could honestly write an entire bachelors essay on this topic. 

i have done a lot of sight seeing in addition to preparing for my classes. on my second day of work i went to something called "wuehshee" which basically equates to getting plastered with your co-workers. in korea drinking is considered to be a social activity, and by many leaps and bounds, i am to be considered a social korean in this aspect. even more so than some of my native counterparts who passed out at the table.....so in short, thank you cofc for preparing me for developing a healthy korean social life. 

("wuehshee" happens every 3 months and is when everyone from work goes out with the boss to drink and eat korean style. of course the boss always pays. god bless koreans)

i managed to make it into Itaewon in Seoul which is known as the 'crazy' western portion of town. there i was surprised to find a surplus of russians...which also makes for another interesting topic. apparently, in korea, russians are used as prostitutes and the whole russian sex trade is run by crazy nigerian gangsters in Busan???? talk about learning a new fact. i learned this from many of my new korean friends who kept trying to recommend where i could get a nice russian girl, to which i firmly and politely replied: "i am not in korea to cultivate an exquisite herpes and hiv collection." i thought it was weird that multiple koreans, women none the less, were trying to set me up with hookers. although, i later realized that prostitution is a taboo topic in korea and that my new korean friends were excited to talk about it because i am a foreigner and they don't have to worry about saving face with someone who can hardly speak korean. 

saving face is also another point of annoyance for me. koreans are some of the most look-obsessed people i have seen. not a second goes by that i don't see some korean woman adjusting her makeup via a cheap cosmetic mirror, or some effeminate asian man playing with his hair in the glare of a sliding glass door during the 2 second delay that it takes to open up. furthermore, asian children and adults who don't understand you or know the answer to a question will just smile, shake their head, and say "yes" continuously. one day i had had enough and tested my theory. i asked an asian man at the counter  of a GS-25 if he liked men to which he replied, with a smile and a kind nod of the head......(wait i'll give you one guess, YUP YOU GOT IT!)......"yes."