One Year In, One Year to Go.

Well, for those of you reading this now that on Saturday the 12th I will celebrate me 1 year anniversary for being in Korea. What most of you may not know is that I have decided to spend another year abroad here in Korea. There are many reasons for this. Some of them are very good reasons to stay, and others are not as good. However, the decision being mine, and mine alone I decided to stay.

Good Reasons:

1. The economy. Plain and simple, things still are really bad for the United States economy. This is effecting everything from Universities to food prices, to health care. Wait that's a debate we're not going to get into on this post. Simply put the economy is still a mess and I have a decent job here.

2. The Job Market. This one is tied to the economy, but honestly it is another animal altogether. The current job market is horrible for people with a BA. In fact the job market is horrible right now for people who have their MA. School districts are still firing teachers to make the budget work. When there are cut backs like the ones California is going through, who is going to actually hire teachers. Most the teachers I know who have graduated recently have not been able to find jobs.

3. My friends. I have met some wonderful people here in Korea. We have had some wonderful times together and I honestly think that this past year has been one of the best in my life. It has been filled with hardship and happiness. I am not ready to end this chapter of my life, and I think that I still have work to do here.

4. Money. My school is giving me a raise and giving me a really nice bonus to stay on. I'm not going to argue.


Not so good reasons:

1. The motorcycle. I only bought the thing back in June. It would have been tough to purchase it for only two months and then have to sell it.

2. Ease of the Job. I mean I could actually look for a job that is exceptionally challenging, or I can continue my job here. Make no mistake this is not statement that I am lazy, but more a statement of the fact that I am able to teach here, while I probably would not be able to teach back home right away. The job is also pretty easy.

3. Food. The food here is actually really delicious. I'm even digging Kimchi now. I honestly will miss the food when I do head home to the United States. As weird as it sounds I know that I will find myself craving Kimchi Chigae or Kalbi Tang (Kimchi Soup, Beef Rib Soup). I maybe even find myself craving Bo Shin Tang (Dog Soup).

4. Students. The students are really well behaved. I have one or two students whose behavior remind me of students from back home. One or two out of 700. Any teacher would kill for that ratio.

5. Principal. My principal absolutely loves me. In fact he's trying to get me to commit to even longer then my next contract. Don't worry I told him that I'm more then likely heading home at the end of my next contract. I might extend it a little bit so that I head home to coincide with the start of a new job or school term.

6. Volleyball. Where else can a 6 foot tall white guy who can't jump actually play on a competitive Volleyball team. Not only play, but also be one of the key players. I mean seriously, I can't jump, anyone who has seen me try knows this.

7. Medical Insurance. I didn't have it back home.

8. Being away. It's nice to be away from home. It really does make me treasure things when I am back in the United States. I know that I am really looking forward to seeing my family when I go back in October.

Korean Music.

I know many of you have heard me complain from time to time about Korean music. Those of you who I visited in February had the exquisite pleasure to experience Korean music via YouTube. From time to time I have even posted Korean music videos. Well this blog is going to be solely about Korean music, and yes most of it is going to be bad.

In the United States you have your choice of music. You can listen to rap, rock, punk, country, bluegrass, oldies, etc. You can turn on the radio find a station that plays music that you like. Now granted my experience with Korean radio is limited, and in now way am I really qualified to talk about diversity on the Korean radio. However, I can tell you that there simply is no diversity. It's all Korean music. Unless you are lucky enough to live close to a major US military installation there are no English radio broadcasts. There are a few channels that will occasionally broadcast English lessons. Other then an occasional English pop song you have what seem like two choices for Korean Radio. You have adult contemporary/oldies, and you have pop.

Now, I'm sure if I was Korean I would love the radio, but the simple fact is I'm a Waygook. What this means is that Korean radio, and Korean music tend to be torturous to me. However, there is almost no difference between Korean adult contemporary, and pop. The main difference that I've found is that instead of 40 year old people singing the songs, I'm berated by every single one of my students singing the songs. I guess I finally understood how my parents felt the first time my sister brought home a New Kids on the Block tape. Everywhere I turn it's one song after another that honestly all sound the same. Maybe I'm just finally turning into the old crotchety guy my parents always warned me about. Either way I figure this blog should be a great excuse to allow you to experience some of the finer points of Korean music.

Like a fine Arbor Mist Merlot these songs do not get better with time. Which apparently the Koreans do not quite get. You will hear the same songs berating your ear drums day in and day out. I think I moved to Clear Channel heaven. If only they could get this type of play time and air space they would complete their awful and horrible plans of destroying the minds of America on bad song on repeat at time. Yet, in the name of all fairness, and because I think some of you actually want to share in the pain I live with here are some of the greatest "hits" of Korean music.

2NE1 with Big Bang: This song just happened to coincide with a new cell phone release called the Lollipop. Needless to say this music video was also the commercial. Hey at least they multi-tasked.




Girls Generation: Besides the rampant Mannequin vibe (yeah the movie from the 80's where Kim Cattrall was a mannequin that came to life and fell in love with the window designer) there are actually 9 members to this girl group. No those weren't all back up dancers in this video, there are actually 9 of them.




Super Junior: Great name huh. This song is the current bane of my existence because every time a student says "sorry" to me the can't help but break into the chorus of this wonderful song. After the hundredth time it gets really annoying. The other thing is this is the largest Boy Band in the world. There are 13 members. I mean come on, 9 members was pushing it, but 13.



TVXQ: This song is huge currently. It is impossible not to hear it anytime you go to a bar, club, or just get into a car with a Korean.



After School: Are the girl groups all starting to look and sound the same yet? Good that's partially the point.



Kara: I figure I should go out with Drew's favorite musical group in Korea. I don't know why he likes this band so much, but he has actually been known to not only sing the songs, but be happy when he goes to their concerts. This band is huge right now in Korea. They also butcher the English language when they choose to use it. Recently their hits have included the lyrics " If you wanna pretty, every wanna pretty" and "Rock U Body Say." Need I say more. In fact for further torture I will include two videos from them, one with English subtitles.

MudFest

For two weeks every July the city of Boryeong becomes foreigner central for all of Korea. Yet, what is it that brings all of these foreigners to this small beach community in the middle of nowhere Korea. It isn't for the vibrant nightlife or the stunning beauty of the beaches. There are places throughout Korea with far better nightlife and far better beaches. Yet, something draws almost 2 million people to this city for during two weeks. Honestly, its the chance to get filthy, and I mean covered head to toe in complete filth.

The Boryeong Mud Festival, or MudFest for short is a large party where the standing orders are to be completely covered in mud. In fact it is nearly impossible to come to this festival without taking at least one trip to the ocean to wash the mud off your body. The mud located in the Boryeong and Daecheon areas of Korea is renowned for its mineral properties. Many health spa's in Korea feature mud from this area in their spa treatments. It was an ingenious idea to hold a festival that would draw millions of people to this small Korean town.

MudFest is a reason for foreigners to gather together in Boryeong and just generally have a good time. There are several different types of things that you can do there. You can spend all day lounging on Daecheon beach, you can cover yourself in mud repeatedly, visit the mud prison, mud slip and slide, mud wrestling, mud rave, mud, mud, mud, mud, mud. There are also spa treatments and a carnival style atmosphere nearby. It is quite easy to head down here and spend several hours getting filthy dirty and just generally reveling in one of the few times that there are more foreigners around then Koreans. It actually seemed like English was the language of the day.

Our day started with David and I meeting Drew at the Boryeong bus terminal at 11 in the morning. Luckily for us Drew lives in Boryeong and we had a free place to crash. We headed off to Drew's apartment to drop off our stuff and then made our way down to the beach to get really muddy. When we first got there we cased to surroundings and figured out that the best thing to do to start the day off was to take a swim in the mud pool. Well it's more like a wading pool but it's still filled with mud. After taking a quick dip in mud we wandered around and let the mud dry on our bodies. After this we ran down to the sea to clean up. We followed this up by liberally re-applying mud to our bodies and styling our hair with mud. After a rinse and repeat we partook in the mud prison.

After the prison we decided to walk down to the carnival area to partake in some carnival games. We started with a dart balloon game which is probably the easiest carny game I've ever taken part in. Just don't miss a balloon with a sharp dart. After we had finished we won a hello kitty stuffed animal that I promptly gave away to a Korean woman who had been watching us throw darts. I didn't get her number but it was worth a shot I figured. To this David took offense because he had planned on giving that to someone and didn't tell me about it till after I had already given it away. I told him not to worry because we'd just come back to something like this and win another one (which we did later). After some batting cages we walked back up to the beach to clean off and head back into town for Dinner. Along the way we decided to stop and ride the Pirate Ship. Well, the Viking here in Korea is far more terrifying then the ones back in the states. The locking mechanisms on the ships here actually move at the upper limit of the ride. Needless this is quite terrifying and resulted in me holding the bar down every time we went up because our butts were coming off the seats. Not kosher if you ask me.

After a quick stop at the Sauna that way we didn't have to wait for all of us to take showers we headed off to dinner at Pizza Hut. We were famished, and honestly needed some major sustenance because we were heading out later that night for Ji Sun's birthday. Ji Sun is Drew's friend from Boryeong. The plan for her birthday was to meet down near the festival and figure out what we wanted to do. Most the people who were there had already spent several hours if not days at the festival so the plan we made was to head back into town to Norae Bang for several hours. It was a great night of Norae Banging that led to numerous horrible renditions of great songs.

Ann's Visit: Suwon and Busan

Busan, is Korea's Second City. Located at the South Eastern tip of the peninsula it is a fishing village of 3 million people. Yet, before we made it to Busan, Ann and I stopped in a town called Suwon. Suwon is the provincial capital of Gyeonggi-Do. Why, per se, would someone want to stop and visit Suwon? Well, it is in this city that there are three cultural sights to go see. The first and most important sight is what is called the Korean Folk Village. One of the hills in the city the Koreans have established a village that is run the way the Koreans ran it in olden times. It's very much like Colonial Williamsburg only absolutely nothing like it. This is a place that Korean's and foreigners go to see what it was like to live in Korea during older times. You can witness and partake in many Korean cultural things here. Needless to say it's an important sight to go see for anyone who is trying to obtain an idea about old Korean culture.

When we arrived in Suwon on Sunday we headed out of the train station to tourist information. It is here that you purchase tickets to the Folk Village. When we arrived it was raining rather steadily so Ann and I asked if the Village was still open in the rain. To this the nice ladies at the counter responded yes. Excellent we thought, we'll just run over there in the rain and have the whole place to ourselves. Well, so we thought. As we were riding in the Taxi to the Village the Heavens opened up. Roads were flooding and hillsides were eroding all across town. When we arrived at the village there were two rivers of muddy water running out of the entrance and exit. In this downpour Ann and I figured, to hell with it, let's go get wet and explore the village. As we walked towards the entrance we saw several men standing at the entrance in Storm gear telling us that the park was closed due to the rain. With this information we hopped on the free shuttle bus back to Tourist Information.

With our refund in hand we headed out to explore some of the other sights the city had to offer. Notably, we went and visited Hanggeung Palace, Hwaseong Fortress Wall, and the Paldamun Gate. These were nice to see and run around, primarily because once again we were almost the only tourists out and about. Everywhere we went we more or less had the place to ourselves. Hanggeung Palace, is not a palace in the sense of Versailles or the Hermitage. It was primarily used as a residence for lesser members of the Royal Family and as a rest stop for the King and Queen when they were travelling through the area. The reason that this city was chosen was because of the fortress that surround it. The wall was quite impressive as was the Paldamun Gate. With our time in Suwon at an end Ann and I hopped a train down to Busan.

After checking into our Motel in Busan, Ann and I headed up to Pusan National University for Dinner. The plan was to have a street food meal. Street Food in Korea is a way of life. Any area that boasts a night life will always have numerous stalls selling weird and delicious food late into the night. The area that we chose was PNU. After wandering the streets for an hour and trying a few things from the stalls we happened upon the gold mine. A restaurant the served street food. We purchased lot of Mandu (Korean Pot stickers) and I ordered some Blood Sausage with Liver and Tripe. Yes Mom I actually willingly ate liver and it was delicious. After chowing down on some good food we headed back to our Hotel for the night.

The next day we did the typical tour of Busan that I've now down three times. First we headed off to Bemosa Temple. While we were there we saw a bunch of guys in Navy Whites. As we walked by we heard that they were speaking Spanish. Interesting I thought but no big deal. After Bemosa we headed down to Jagalchi Fish Market, and then up to Busan Tower. Once again at Busan Tower we ran into the same group of Sailors. While taking a picture for a few of them we found out they were Colombian. When we found this information out, we asked them what the Colombian Navy was doing in Korea. The guys we ran into we part of a Colombian Goodwill tour. They apparently were sailing all across the Pacific and were allowing people from other countries to view their ship. It was really interesting and you could tell that these guys were loving their jobs. Before Korea they had been in San Diego, and they were headed to Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and couple of other places. Not bad duty if I a say so myself.

When we finished up at the tower we headed over to the UN Cemetery to pay our respects. We finished up with the Cemetery and then headed back to our hotel to take a well deserved nap. It was really hot down in Busan. It was about 90 Degrees and about 80% humidity, when it wasn't busy raining on us. That night we had Korean BBQ as way to say goodbye to Korea for Ann. We wandered back our motel and got some sleep. The next day we headed off to the airport, and then I headed back to Seosan to go back to work.

Ann's Visit: Seosan and Seoul.

Here we go again ye happy campers of my blog. Well probably not so happy considering my posts have been seriously anemic lately. Avast, I am here to write today about my first official visitor here in Korea. For those of you who don't know already, or haven't guessed already My Aunt Ann came to visit East Asia during her summer vacation from Los Coches Creek Middle School (yes, it is shortened to LCC). After a spending some time in Japan Ann took a quick hop flight to Busan, South Korea. I met Ann at the airport and embarked upon an exceptionally fast tour of Korea.

Yet, first I must tell you about the airport experience here in Korea. I haven't had to deal with it first hand, but I have it from good sources that it can be quite the experience. When you first roll off the airplane here in Korea, you are not greeted by people giving you leis. You're greeted by the KCDC. Yupp, the Korean CDC who are busy swabbing and testing you to make sure you're not carrying the Swine Flu. Korean are notorious when it comes to overreacting about germs and honestly are rather ill informed about the way diseases work. I have actually been told several times that SARS and the Avian Flu have not hit Korea because of Kimchi. Anyways, enough of this.

After Ann cleared through immigration, which is a funny story, we headed off to Seosan. Wait, wait what happened at Immigration you're wondering. Well, as normal it turns out that when you are visiting a country, or even returning to your home country you need to give an address for where you will be. It turns out that I had forgot about this until I was at the airport waiting for Ann. With no way to contact her, I only had to hope that she had written down my cell phone number so that Korean Immigration could call me. Luckily, she did have my number written down and I received a call from Immigration. That in itself was another experience because I was trying to tell someone who spoke little to no English my apartment address. Now to be honest I don't even know my address. If anyone needs it I just pull out my Alien Resident Card and give it to them that way. Well after reading the address several times in my jilted Korean we finally reached an acceptable address. It was a harrowing experience, well no it wasn't harrowing but it was rather annoying. My mistake. Next time someone comes to visit me I will give them my address ahead of time.

With Ann cleared through customs we headed up to Seosan. I asked Ann if she would like to come to my school for part of a day and experience Korean ESL. When she arrived at my school it didn't take long for news to spread across the entire 6th and 5th grades that there was a new foreigner at the school who was visiting. The were more students standing outside my office door and jumping to try and see through the window then when the students find out that the teachers are eating ice cream in my office. We visited one 5th grade class and two of my better 6th grade classes. The students really liked it when Ann partook in the game that we had the students playing. Here is the picture.

After a quick lunch we headed up to Seoul in some of the worst weather I have seen in Korea. We were having a serious series of thunderstorms rolling through Korea. The rain was quite intense, but the wind was the worst part. It was gusting in multiple directions that made it impossible to use an umbrella. Along the way to Seoul the Korean CDC decided it would be nice to scare the hell out of me. They decided to call and check up on Ann, to make sure she wasn't sick. However, when they called and identified themselves as the KCDC I thought they were going to say Ann had the flu. We arrived in Seoul we headed off to Dongdaemun market. this is a great place to wander around and find your fill of trinkets, goodies, and all around things Korean. After the market we wandered into Myeongdong to show Ann the higher class and scale of Korean shopping. If I have never said this before, Koreans love to go shopping for name brand things, and are willing to pay exorbitant prices for them. A pair of Levi's retails for around 100 dollars. Myeongdong is filled with high rises, neon signs, and shops. It is a great place to go visit to get a feeling for Seoul.

With our first day ending in Seoul we headed back to our hotel to prepare for the long grind of the next two days. Our second day in Seoul was filled with Museums and Korean History. Our first stop was the National Museum of Korea. This museum provided an excellent display of art and artifacts from Korean history. In fact it was one of the best National History museums I have been to. It combined art, history, and culture all under one roof. There was not an over abundance of one type of thing, and the stuff switched quite often so you felt like you were seeing different things. After the National Museum we headed off to the War Memorial Museum. This museum is an homage to all the wars fought on Korean soil. It's most important function however is to serve as an educator to the youth of Korea about possibly the most important, and least taught part of Korean history. Having studied the subject of the Korean war lightly, I am surprised to find out that I often know more about the seminal moment of Korean history then most Koreans. In America I am probably already in the top 15% of people who know anything about Korea, and I barely know anything. Most people only know M.A.S.H. and assume that Hawkeye and Hot Lips were all the Korean War was about.

After wandering around the museum for a few hours we headed outside the museum to every boys dream. Military equipment you could climb around on, and in. Pictured here is me on an Anti-Aircraft gun. There was also a Korean Tank that you could put 50 cents into a machine and it would move the turret and pretend to fire. Needless to say the little boy and history geek in me were loving every minute of it. I even got to stare up the bomb bay of a B-52. We headed out after this to Tapgol Park near Insadong. Tapgol Park is the site of the March 1st movement. The March 1st Movement refers to the Korean Declaration of Independence from Japan in 1919. Things did not go so well for the Koreans, as the Japanese did not leave until 1945. The park was where the Declaration was first read to a large gathering in Public. As a result of the March 1st movement over 7,000 Koreans were killed in the resulting protests, riots, and crackdowns. There are a series of panels in the park where are dedicated to the martyrs of this movement.

With Tapgol completed we headed into Insadong. Insadong is an arts and crafts neighborhood which is one of my favorite places in Seoul. There are tons of shops and interesting sights in this neighborhood. At the other end of Insadong is Jogyesa Temple. This temple is quite unique for the fact that it is a Buddhist Temple in the middle of a major metropolitan center. Buddhists tend to place their temples on the top of mountains and down dirt paths. The other very unique thing about this temple is that they are very welcoming to foreigners, and will even allow them to enter into the main prayer hall. With the day ending we headed back to our hotel to get some much needed rest. The next day would be filled with the DMZ, and it started at 7 in the morning.

The DMZ tour started at the Camp Kim USO in downtown Seoul. After checking in we boarded a bus and headed off to the JSA or Joint Security Area at Camp Bonifas. After a quick briefing we headed up to stand as close as possible to North Korea, or in our case, actually stand in North Korea for a moment or two. The JSA is where North and South Korean Soldiers stand a few feet apart from each other. There is no fence, no big wall, only a small slab of concrete to mark the line between the two Koreas. One of the places that you visit while on the tour is the armistice room. This is not where the actual armistice was signed, but is the room where nations meet to discuss the armistice and its terms. It is possible while in this room to walk across the border and stand in North Korean territory. The border runs directly through the middle of the building. While we were there no North Korean guards came down to look at the tour group, but sometimes you can see stuff like this.

After the tour went through the JSA we headed off to the 3rd infiltration tunnel for a little bit of underground hiking. This tunnel was built by the North Koreans into South Korea, and if it had ever been used to it's full potential the North Koreans could have put 30,000 troops into South Korea an hour through this one tunnel. The Koreans have found 4 tunnels, and they guess that there are at least another 10 tunnels that they have never found. The North Koreans claim that this was a coal mine that just happened to end up in South Korea. To help with this ridiculous claim the North Koreans actually painted the walls black. The thing is, nobody has ever found coal anywhere in the region, and from what I've read, it's nearly impossible to find coal in granite. Now, normally when hiking 80 meters underground it's safe to assume that those that are tall will have some issues. Yet, this tunnel was so short that you would bang your head constantly if you were 5'3" and trying to stand up right while walking. Yeah, it's small.

We made it back from the DMZ at about 3 PM. Ann and I decided to take a quick nap before meeting my friend Da Young for some Mexican food at On The Border. Da Young had never had Mexican food before, and I was jonesing for some decent Mexican that I didn't have to cook. I have to admit that I'm starting to go to Seoul just to be able to go get some Mexican food. After I had drank my margarita and eaten my fill we headed out. Da Young and I stayed out for a few hours to catch up, and Ann headed back to the Hotel to get some sleep. The next day we would head off to Busan to continue our trip.

4th of July

This past Saturday was the 4th of July. Really, not a big surprise for anyone back in the States, but here in Korea, the 4th of July was just another Saturday. That was until a group of people, all Americans, except for one adopted Canadian and a few Koreans, decided to head down to Mailpo beach and celebrate in an essentially Californian way. We rang in the 4th of July as best we could given our limited options.

The planning for this essentially started from the day that I arrived in Korea. I realized quickly that going to Seoul and celebrating there would not truly be the 4th of July. Fireworks had to be involved in some way shape or form. Another option would be to find my way down to a military base and enjoy the fireworks show put on by the United State Army. Yet, this option would severely limit the amount of people we could bring with us. I, therefore, started to think locally. It wasn't until my first overnight beach trip that I realized that it is legal here in Korea to shoot off simple fireworks at the beach. We are talking you're very basic things. Roman Candles, sparklers, dazzlers, and other assorted small fireworks. There is nothing too big or dangerous allowed, no m-80's or cherry bombs. With this realization I finally had the idea for how to celebrate perhaps the greatest act of treason of all time.

In, my mind the plan took shape, and as all the pieces fell into place the only thing that could rain on our patriotic parade was, well rain. As had happened with the past three or four attempts at a beach excursion, mother nature attempted to ruin our well laid plans. Luckily, this time the weather reports were wrong and the day was epic. We arrived at Malipo beach at 2 in the afternoon. Loaded down with supplies we quickly found a beach motel to use as a base of operations for the night. After offloading the copious amounts of food, alcohol, and entertainment (which honestly was just a football) we headed down to the beach to spend some time in the sun. The beaches here on the West Coast are notoriously shallow affairs with no waves at all. The difference between high tide and low tide is over 200 yards (seriously). No I'm actually being serious here. It's ridiculous. What during mid tide was 12-15 feet deep water was reduced to knee deep water at the lowest tide.

After a nice swim in which I swam a farther distance then I have in well, the past five years combined, we relaxed on the beach for a little while before I headed up to the motel to start cooking. The meal for the day was a 4th of July special for us here in Korea. The first course revolved around Jose's epic homemade Salsa, which I have to steal the recipe for because it's seriously ranking up there with mom's salsa, and might be better in some facets. The main course was an excellent cross sample of typical BBQ foods you would find at a BBQ. It started with a 12 pack of smoked Johnsville Brauts (thank you costco) cooked in a bottle of beer. Beer brauts, I'm not sure those have even been had off of a military installation here in Korea. The second round was red and yellow bell peppers grilled with olive oil, onions and garlic on the grill. This was followed by fish cooked till it was falling apart with a little bit of olive oil and blackened grill seasonings on top. The third movement was a package of grilled Andouille sausage. My mouth is watering right now thinking about the food we had on Saturday. The last thing we had for our meal were potatoes wrapped in foil and thrown into the coals of the charcoal at the start of my BBQing. The potatoes were not alone in the foil, they contained several slices of garlic, a dash of Cajun seasoning, and of some olive oil.

After thoroughly stuffing ourselves at the motel David and I walked contentedly into town to purchase fireworks. In Korea there are no open container laws, so while stopping at a convenience store to use the ATM David purchased both of us an ice cold bottle of beer. As we stopped at a store that had a nice selection of fireworks I heard the most dreaded words a buzzed foreign teacher holding a bottle of beer can ever hear, "Will teacher!!!!" That's right, I'd been spotted. Not only by one of my students, but quite possibly the one student I have in complete need of Ritalin. I swear you can see this boy shaking as he talks because his mind is moving a mile a minute. Needless to say, word will have spread all around school by tomorrow that I was at Malipo drinking and buying fireworks. Great. After purchasing a nice supply of things that go bang in the sky David and I headed back down to the beach to join our compatriots.

As the sun set I decided to go for another swim. After about twenty minutes of swimming, and dumping TC off of his floating tube we walked the 200 yards back to where everything was. We then began to set up for our little fireworks celebration. We set up for one large grand finale, well basically that was the entire show. We had 20 packs of Roman Candles and several other things that lit up the night sky on the beach. It was a glorious few minutes where all of us were allowed to celebrate those thing we hold so dearly to. We looked up in small wonderment and celebrated our love for America on foreign soil. Our show may or may not have looked something like this, I'll leave it up to you the readers to vote.

After the glorious pyrotechnics on the beach, we meandered up to our motel for a little rest, some relaxation, and some marshmallows. We did not have a bonfire to roast them over, but we did the next best thing. We cooked them over the BBQ. I had brought an extra thing of charcoal just for this occasion. After roasting our marshmallows on wooden chopsticks, yes you heard correctly, we decided to wander into town. There we won 6 more things of roman candles via carny games. My best is the dart game. It is here where David and co went on a few of the carnival style rides that I chose not to partake in. They were perfectly safe, but looked like they hadn't been oiled since 1965. With the town taken care of we found our way back to our motel to shut in for the night well, not to go directly to bed but soon enough. After two late night strolls along the beach when the tide was up which included my sinking knee deep in sand at one point we fell asleep and awoke on the morning of the 5th.

Our patriotic duty accomplished we cleaned our motel room and headed back to Seosan.

안녕

I think I will take this opportunity to say goodbye to two of my very good friends. Brenden and Carissa you guys will be seriously missed here in Korea. I hope that you guys had a great time and I will look forward to seeing you guys in Vancouver if I ever make it up that way. In memory of your departure I figure instead of getting all weepy I'll just post some pictures of our better moments here in Korea. You guys will be really missed.