i'm home.

well, i'm on winter break now. i didn't realize how long the days were until i didn't have to work. you see, all of my friends kind of left. coleen, rachel1, rachel2, danny, and june. now kai is leaving in a few days. i only have a couple of friends left. i guess this is what contracted work in korea is like. jackie warned me that everyone would leave. so i'm not really making any attempts at meeting people since i only have 2 months to go. needless to say, korea can be a place full of crippling loneliness! it is so easy to make friends in america. i don't know if i've lost it or something...but i just remember how i would meet someone and then we'd be friends...maybe that's because i met a lot more people with similar interests/common ground. lots of douche bags in korea. i had a big discussion with my friend about how you see koreans and their fashion would indicate a certain counter-culture element, but how disappointing it is that not all girls with thick frame glasses, skinny jeans, and a carefully selected "thrown together" look does not indicate a hipster status. it just means she dresses like everyone else, is probably getting a worthless degree, and will stay at home with her 2 kids once she gets married. not that it's a bad thing necessarily...it's just weird because a selected fashion that means something in the states means nothing here.

it snowed a few inches yesterday. today it's all brown and disgusting from the cars. i walked a couple of miles to the library to get a card and see what they had in their english section, but for some reason, even though they were open last night when i went in, they were not open today (monday). i have no money until the end of the month, so i've been walking to yeongtong (4km) everyday so that i can check my email and get out of the house. tonight's big plan to go to starbucks and then possibly the bar to study korean. korean is difficult as hell by the way. my teacher explains that they use two number systems because it is easier...easier than one number system? i don't believe her explanation...i think they just didn't want to concede to the fact that the chinese numbers were much more efficient and made more sense.

i'm looking at jobs already. i'm just seeing what's out there...but i'm thinking more and more that i want to move to busan. it's got nice beaches, i could have a scooter, and i could make more money there. i don't know why i'm not as psyched about living in seoul...but my friends will be everywhere. june will be gone. i'll have to start over wherever. i'm looking forward to coming home and just relaxing for a while and collecting myself. it's been a bad month.

my name is yoo, yookulele.

i haven't posted in a while. this is because i will never have the internet at my apartment, because what good would it do my bosses for me to have it? it wouldn't do them any good at all. in no way is it beneficial for them. there's my "i hate my job" rant for this post. i am actually happy with work this week and that is because i don't have to be there. i was lucky enough for one of my coworkers to come down with swine flu and so they closed the school for a week. i don't have swine flu, but i get all the benefits of having it. i'm sure my bosses will be in sour moods next week, but the important thing to remember is that they won't be mad at me for once. my coworker with the swine flu has not stayed in bed as she was supposed to and has been going out normally as if she weren't sick. they're pretty mad about it, but i don't live at the school and don't have to deal with babysitting her. so, here are some pictures and then more on my life:



i went to the asshole of korea for halloween. it's a place called itaewon. all the foreigners seem to flock there...and that's precisely why it's a bad place. i didn't have much choice since everyone seemed to be going there. i was harry potter. i had a lot of korean people shouting "hally poata da!" (it's harry potter) and it was cute. i met a korean harry potter too. my friend rachel went as g-dragon, a kpop star in the group big bang. they're actually pretty listenable. june was a vampire, but really she just looked a hot korean girl. things are going well on the june front. i've seen her every weekend since i met her and if i'm correct, she likes me. i'm about 80% on that. she's pretty great, we have common interests, she has a sense of humor, and look at that picture...is there any reason i should be allowed within 500 feet of her? the answers is: God, no. we went to a dance club and i actually tried to dance a little. once i figured out that i wasn't the only person not picking up their feet i felt more at ease. then june and i broke off and went to a hamburger joint and went to the hotel. we talked till about 4:30 when rachel came home and we pretended to be asleep. the next day at lunch she asked me if i wanted her to take me a palace. i answered yes, but in my mind i was thinking "duh, i'll go anywhere with you." we totally held hands and it was awesome. the longer i don't have a girlfriend, the more i appreciate the subtleties of a relationship...and girls...my english girl friends tell me to go slow for various reasons and my korean girl friend is like "this is how korean girls act when they like a guy! are you stupid?! just kiss her!" either way, that's that and now i will see her this weekend, i think. she might have the pig flu as well. right now, i just went to seoul to a music shop. i had bought a ukulele about 3 weeks ago but i wanted something nicer and with a pickup...so kai called them and asked if i could trade it in and pay the difference. they said yes. so he gave me 200,000w for my old one (i only paid 180,000w for it) and i paid the difference plus a leather strap, which came to 370,000w...total comes out to be about 600,000w...which is more than i'd like to admit...but if you go to a currency converter, you can find out how much i spent on a ukulele and shame me. i'm about to meet hyunji, june's cousin for coffee and english lessons. i'm getting about 240,000w for 8 hours a month. i gave her a discount, or else i'd be getting about 320,000 an hour. so hopefully it will go well and she'll refer me to others. alright, going to go now.

what good would living do me?

we went to a cow farm this week. we milked cows and made cheese and ice cream. it was a nice day, though i've been sick for a while. luckily, i got some medicine last thursday and i think all i have is a stuffy nose, a sure sign that things are getting better in my book.

i went costume shopping with rachel and seeing as how korea doesn't really enjoy halloween so much, the selection was rather limited. seeing as how i didn't want to go as "mexican" or "bed sheet ghost" i went with a harry potter outfit. i have the gryffindor cloak, a tie, and a scarf. it was only about 35$ total.

i then went to insadong to meet with june and her cousin, who will hopefully be my new private student. i went to the nagwon music arcade and bought a ukulele and hardshell case for about 200$. it was pricey, but worth it. i love it. great purchase. i then met with june and watched her get her hair cut while i read chesterton's biography on st. thomas aquinas. we went for sandwiches and met her cousin who was very shy. i convinced them to come back to yeongtong with me to meet up with our friends. we went to the laos bar, a horrible place full of horrible people. her cousin lives in the next town over and so june went to help her find a cab. they were gone for about 20 minutes and so i went looking for them and walked everywhere, knowing june's phone was dead and that she didn't know the area. finally, i found them and they couldn't get a cab cheap enough. so they stayed with me and i slept on the floor. most of the night was spent by them asking me which celebrities i found attractive. here's a sample conversation:
june:do you think nicole kidman is attractive?
me: maybe in the year 1843.
june and hyunji: (korean)
june: you are crazy.
i cooked them french toast and basil/cheese omelets the next morning, which they found "divine" and other adjectives that indicate a glorious afterlife. all in all, it was a good weekend and i'm looking forward to halloween weekend...except i know i will not like going to "clubs." i never do. oh well, time to go to class.

channeling astrud

well it's been a while since i've written, but i don't have the most to say these days. things are going relatively well. i am still researching on how to get into universities over here for my masters degree...but if it doesn't work out, i'll just come back to work. i'm not done with korea yet!

june came down yesterday to record vocals on a song i wrote. it sounds really good, i just still have a lot to do. thankfully, jessica calleiro has offered to do the mixing/mastering duties for me so that it will actually sound good this time. then we went out to dinner with some people and went to a bar. one of rachel's student's parents was there. he bought us beer, but was very annoying. don't get me wrong, he was friendly and all that, but he just sort of sat down with us and wanted us to hang out with him afterward. he also sent his wife away. she was trying to get him to leave and he just shooed her away and she left. he was drunk. we then went to a game room. you pay like 1.75$ per person/per hour and you have a bunch of board games to choose from. we played clue. i found out how to win at clue: cheat. if you just always deny having any cards, but no one else has anything and you have one of them, you can at least figure out what 2 of the right ones are and at the same time, make someone else lose when they make their guess. so it works out really well.

then i went to church this morning with colleen, june, chelsea, and frank. i didn't care for it very much as i had some sort of theological disagreement with something said and i don't like to have hour long praise and worship (especially when they only sing about 4 or 5 songs). we then got some chicken for lunch and i walked june to the bus stop so that she could make her two hour journey home. it was a good, but short, weekend. since i've only eaten korean food for the last few days, i'm going to reward myself with pizza tonight. i rented "an inconvenient truth" cause i never saw it before, so maybe i will watch that or finish up the last 2 episodes of buffy season 3 tonight. that is all for now.

surprise ice

ok, so maybe i posted something a couple of posts ago that was rather impulsive. i removed it. either way, things are starting to get really good or really bad, but i'm happy about it.

boredom is a day without work.

i understand there's no excuse for doing a survey...but i'm bored and i have a day off...so this was on josh austin's facebook and i figured i would attempt to not lie about something. due to the relatively unscandalous characteristics of this quiz, i've decided to ignore many questions.

Tell no lies!
Can you fill this out without lying?

1. What was the last thing you put in your mouth?
cigarette

4. Name someone who made you laugh today?
i haven't seen anyone today, so no one...does internet laughing count? because that's just "haha" but i don't even crack a smile in real life.

10. How do you feel about Dr Pepper?
it's called dr. pepper because it tastes like medicine, i will only drink it if it is absolutely necessary.

13. Who was the last person you took a picture of?
a wonderful girl named june.

19. Night out or night in?
night out, unless season 3 of buffy finishes downloading soon, then i have my plan for the week.

23. How do you feel about your life right now?
i don't belong anywhere, i hate my job, but everything's great.

27. Has anyone ever called you perfect before?
no, unless they didn't say it to my face, then perhaps someone did. so let's just go ahead and assume that all of you get together and talk about my perfection.

28. What song is stuck in your head?
"wings of love" or "pentacost hotel" by nirvana (the original one, not that crappy 90's band)

29. Someone knocks on your window at 2:00 a.m., who do you want it to be?
a man with a check for 50,000,000$. he will be a man in his mid-50's who has realized that his greed has filled his bank account but has emptied his emotional wallet. he views the money as a curse and wishes he had never gotten it. he's giving it to me in order to cleanse himself and to cast off his embarrassing riches. i accept the money and make him a grilled cheese sandwich and i think to myself "i'm going to buy the good cheese at the grocery store next time."

31. Name something you have to do tomorrow.
go to the gym, take medicine, 한국말 공부해요.