longPASTdue

ok ok...so i have been absent for quite some time now. a lot has happened since my last post and i vow now to keep this blog up to date as some of the people who actually do follow me do not have facebook. i finished up my year in SK and ventured over to SE ASIA for a much needed vacation. i left my friends, my little kids, and part of me in ULSAN but looked forward to traveling knowing i would be back in no time. saying goodbye to friends i may not see for a long long time was hard, but reassuring knowing that i can always count on them if ever i need.

(our hostel in HANOI, VIETNAM..very popular)

so i flew into HANOI, VIETNAM by way of CHINA to meet up with dan (a good friend of mine from ULSAN). we traveled to HALONG BAY, checked out the local scene in the city, and made it to snake village, a strange and interesting experience where we, or i ate a live beating snake heart while drinking that cobras bile and blood. why?...for the story i guess!

(HALONG BAY from the cave entrance viewpoint)

(i ate this dudes beating heart, drank his bile and also his blood)

(sunset in HALONG BAY as we spent the night on the boat)

after 8 or so days in NAM, dan and i met up with a few others that we became good friends with (MIKEY, LUCY, LAURA, and KIRSTY) for a 22 hour bus ride to VIENTIANE, LAOS. i was happy to leave VC world as it wasn't my favorite place; however, a great experience. the 6 of us set up shop in the country's capital for just a couple days where the girls walked about and us boys got some motorcycles and cruised around the city the lazy way. interesting city, real laid back and casual during the day, but what a circus at night. imagine every two wheeled vehicle having a prostitute or a lady boy trying to make a few bucks. gross. after a couple days, we deemed it necessary to leave and cruise to VANGVIENG, and if anyone has ever traveled LAOS, you know this is a highlight of a trip of this nature. tiny little town in the middle of nowhere filled with a bunch of backpackers and a muddy little river. this river is the VANGVIENG river and is know for tubing. you rent a tube, start at the top...float 3.5 km as you stop at the many makeshift bars along the way. loaded with ziplines, rope swings, slides, rapeze swings, women showing their body parts, 21st birthdays, and people just having a great time, this place was dangerous but created some amazing memories. the day after tubing we went to the lagoons and to the caves. cold crisp blue water with a tree plenty high enough to backflip off of made for a great day.

(backflip off the top of the tree into the lagoon)

we swam, hiked up to the cave, and a few of the 6 people crashed their motorcycles!! all around good time in VV. after a few days in VV, we loaded up and headed to LUANG PROBANG. an amazing bus trip through the mountains with great views along the way.

(lookout on the way to LUANG PROBANG)

in LP we got our own dorm style room with bunk beds for 5 days or so. although it rained quite a bit, we did some great things including a sunset boat trip down the MEKONG river and the well known LP waterfalls.

(our sunset boat trip up and down the MEKONG river)

(backflip off the falls in LUANG PROBANG)

(rope swing into the falls in LP)

(amazing crew..right to left: mikey, kirsty, lucy, laura, dan, myself)

this place was beautiful and really was a pure and serene place. as it came time to leave LP, it was a bit bittersweet as the 6 of us who had been traveling for the better part of a month together prepared to go separate ways. dan and i took a bus back to the country's capital where we would catch a train to BANGKOK, THAILAND before getting a van and a ferry to KOH CHANG. mikey stayed in LAO another two weeks, the three girls would go to BANGKOK before lucy split to AUSTRALIA and the girls to KOH TAO, THAILAND. dan and i made it to KOH CHANG, a nice remote island on the east side of the GULF. we spent a week there where we had great weather including sunny days and great storms at night.

(sunset on the beach in KOH CHANG)

after KOH CHANG, we headed back to BANGKOK where dan would catch a plane to FRANCE and i would head down to KOH TAO to meet back up with laura and kirsty to get our SCUBA certifications. spent a week on this little island where i got my open water as well as my advanced SCUBA certs.

(sunset over the port in KOH TAO..amazing)

it was great to be back with the girls one more time before i split. after KOH TAO, i had to make a visa run. i left by boat overnight to land, then van to a boat to BURMA(myanmar) back to a van to a bus to BANGKOK.

(boat ride into BURMA/myanmar)

from BK, i took a train up to the north of the country to CHAING MAI where i would again meet up with mikey who had just flew in from LAO. on the train i met a guy name EERO from FINLAND, a cool dude who traveled with us for the duration of the time we spent in the north. after a few nights in CHAING MAI, mikey, eero, and myself rented some motorcycles and set off on a 6 day trip around the north. the first day, we went to the tiger kingdom, the hotsprings, a few waterfalls, the PAI canyon, and eventually to PAI.

(jungle cat who loved to cuddle)

(a must do if you travel north in THAILAND)

(a beautiful waterfall along the way north to PAI)

this was an awesome town, it was small, remote, with a bunch of backpackers just having some good old fashioned fun. we spent a couple nights in PAI going to the waterfalls and other random places, before heading off to MAI HONG SON. we visited the longneck village and the hillside tribe.

(not my definition of fun..but hey, to each their own)

(little boy in the longneck village..he was so innocent looking)

after a day in MHS, we cruised into MAI CHEOM where there was absolutely nothing to do, atleast our guesthouse had a pool. got up early and went up to the highest spot in THAILAND before cruising back into CHAING MAI where we were racing against the clock to get our bikes back on time. amazing road trip, highligh of my vacation.

(way up high and way too cold..but cool sights)

back in CHAING MAI we spent a day and did the jungle flight ziplining with 44 platforms weaving our way through the jungle.

(zipline flight through the jungles in the north)

after a few more days in the north, all three of us went back to BK where we were getting ready to go our own ways. eero stayed in BK for a few days before going back to FINLAND, mikey cruised down to the islands to do his diving, and i made my way to SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA. after a pain in the ass ride to SIEM REAP, i stayed at a place called popular guesthouse where i met a few people who i would travel with to see ANGKOR WAT. this place was amazing as it was almost hard to believe that the religious structures that they built were so massive and intriquitly crafted. i'll post pics, its hard to fathom it without a visual.

(ANGKORWAT)

(check out the face carved into the stone above my head)

i spent a few days in SR before catching a bus to the country's capital PHNOM PENH. i relaxed for a day before cruising to the airport to pick up HERIM as she would meet me to travel for the next 3 weeks. PP was a bit overwhelming for the fact that if you are white then they assume you are rich and are in your face all the time. in PP, we visited S21, the genocide museum as well as the killing fields where a lot of the natives killed during the POL POT regime were buried in mass graves.

(S21 genocide museum)

(this tree was used to hang women and to smash babies off of..sad)

it was a very somber place and almost uncomfortable in a sense. we left PP after only a couple days and headed down to the southwest coast to SIHANOUKVILLE, a little beach town where it would have been nice to relax and get some sun if it didn't rain for 6 days in a row! we left the south and headed back into THAILAND where we would ferry out to KOH SAMET, a beautiful small island with whitesand beaches, peace, and quiet. it was nice after being in an in your face country like CAMBODIA.

so we spent a nice week on the island before heading back to BK where i would again meet up with mikey before flying out and back to the land of the free. BK was interesting, we hit up the royal palace, a lot of other buddhist stuff, the whole KOH SAN ROAD thing, and of course a ping pong show. if you don't know what that is, you can figure it out on your own, i'm not explaining it. i flew out of BK on the 5th of august, exactly 60 days after i left KOREA. back to sunny SAN DIEGO for a short time before heading back to SK. overall, a great trip, LAO and THAILAND were my favorites while CAMBODIA and VIETNAM (minus HALONG BAY) were average, but nonetheless interesting. i look forward to finishing up SE ASIA (malaysia, indonesia, and philippines) next year, again with dan and also with J AG. crazy adventure...check. way more pictures on my facebook page..check em out if you want. stay tuned.

CHANGwon

kickin' it in CHANGWON, oh oh, kamsamnida..annyonghaseo!..so i hopped the bus west a couple of weekends ago and made my way to visit an old college friend. my buddy MATT FISH moved over here to SOUTH KOREA about 5 months ago. we used to kick it in college, so why not in KOREA? after a pretty eventful friday night, i allowed myself to naturally wake up saturday morning and regroup before i bussed it over to MATT's humble abode. we hung out, reminisced, drank beer, and laughed at both old and new jokes. we talked about our old friends at college and our new friends that we have made here. it's a really good feeling to have people who know and understand you just a stones throw away, or a 74 minute bus ride, you can look at it either way! it was a fun little town and after he comes to ULSAN, i will, for sure, be going back there again.

2 and 1/2 years and over 8000 miles later, we pick up right where we had left off. good times with a good friend.





found the korean HARRY POTTER..he was awesome. please listen to the following!..



he said it, not ME!!





kicked in ULSAN for the weekend after i went to CHANGWON, kept it low key and i was gearing up for my first of just two or three breaks i get. i didnt really have much time to prepare so i decided to head up to SEOUL, south KOREA's capital city. it is just south of the north korean borded. i went up there with a few of my new friends, DAN(ireland), BEN(scotland), and LEON LEE(korean, china for 10 years). we just went with the flow and kind of found things to do along the way. the highlight of the trip was going to the KING's palace. before KOREA moved to democracy and a president, they had a KING. i went to his abode..check it out.

not really sure what this was used for, but it looked cool and somewhat important. i mean, i know i don't have that kind of chair in my house!


this was the entrance to his palace. he must have been kind of a big deal..just guessing!

just another beautiful building that was on the grounds. this place was enormous, it took an hour and 20 minutes to walk it.

from left to right...BEN, LEON, ME, DAN. again..good times with good people.




we went out in SEOUL, ate good food, hungout with good people and made good memories. it is a very westernized city and that being said, it was much easier to get around and figure things out. there is english everywhere. we also had our korean friend LEON who speaks english, chinese, and korean. that is always a bonus!!



oh yeah, saw this guy in SEOUL too!!!...watch:



not sure what he was trying to accomplish, but i'm pretty sure that he didn't get it done!!



oh, the weekend between CHANGWAN and SEOUL, i was able to experience a traditional korean dinner at my friend JI WON PARK's home. teacher KELLY introduced me to my korean friends and JI wanted to host a going away dinner at his home in ULSAN. we went and did the traditional korean dinner and met his family and shared stories. JI served as our translator as we exchanged different things that we have experienced in our lives. it was really an amazing night and his family members are great people. thanks JI!




i am back to work on thursday, we have a new teacher so that is a little exciting. i am no longer the new kid, however, the girl who left, KELLY, was one of the most amazing people i have met. she really made transition from the states to korea very smooth and easy and always lended a helping hand or an ear to bitch into when i needed either of the two. after the two day work week, i am going to make it down to BUSAN again for my friend JI's, who i mentioned above, skating competition. he is a professional sponsored skater. should be a good time, he lent me his home for a night, the least i can do is lend him support at his competition this weekend.



miss all of you back home, take care and stay healthy...






"to live is the rarest thing in the world, most people exist, that is all.." -Oscar Wilde

oNe mOnTh AnNiVeRsArY.

so i have been here a little over a month which means i only have a little less than eleven left!! it was an interesting weekend to say the least. friday night us foreign crowd met up at a bar here in MUGEO, the town i live in, to gather and unwind before we loaded up a bus and headed west to the opposite coast of KOREA for MUDFEST 2009. instead of unwinding, it was more of a gearing up for a six hour bus ride in which less than a handful of the people on the three coach busses we took were able to catch any kind of sleep. it was a mobile party which included people from all over the world, kareoke, fresh beverages, and good fun. we left at 2 a.m. to head for BORYEONG, a city on the west coast of KOREA. right on the ocean, it reminded me of where i am now except for much much smaller! we got to BORYEONG around 8 a.m. saturday morning which to me was unneccesary due to the fact that we could not check into our places until 2 in the afternoon. what are 3 busses full of people who havent slept in over 24 hours supposed to do for 6 hours when all they wanted to do was crash and get ready for the days festivities. after searching relentlessly for somewhere to sleep, we decided to just change and go lay on the beach. 3 hours and no sleep later, the activities involving mud finally were underway. as not fun as it sounds, it really was a great time. i cant tell you how many times i got tackled, thrown, tripped, pushed, or slammed to the ground in a giant 4 inch deep pool of mud. here is what the majority of us looked like after..

apparently this mud has healing capabilities, however, all i really received was ears full of mud and an eye infection. the rest of the day was consumed of much of the same. at 2:30 we decided to check into our MINBOK. a MINBOK for those of you who don't know, is a giant room with a wooden floor. no beds, no luxury, nothing at all like a hotel room. there were about 25 of us that stayed in the same room (sanitary i know). they look like this..

that was my little corner where i had a wooden floor, my bookbag as my pillow, no covers, and a fan that was basically pointed in my general direction all night. NO BUENO! it was a good experience and nothing more. i do not want to stay in one ever again, atleast by choice. it was 15,000 WON a night which is dirt cheap..you just have to deal with the consequences the next day which include back pain, stiffness, eye infections, things that are generally thrown into similar categories!



this is a video of ME, my buddy DAN, and a friend of mine BETH after we went "mudding" for the second or third time of the day. oh and if you ever find yourself at MUDFEST, do not wear brand new white board shorts. not a good idea. KOREA's MUD: 1 JASON's SHORTS: 0


after a few hours of sleep at the MINBOK, we showered up and headed out on the town. we ate, we drank, we laughed, some may have cried, but most of all we were just a bunch of traveling souls together for the same reason. it is nice to be surrounded by people who share the same nomadic mindset as yourself. people who are all in the same place for similar reasons. as much as i didnt wanna get on that bus and go to BORYEONG, i am glad that i did and glad that i got to experience what i did with the people i was either with or met along the way. MUDFEST 2009 check.





ok..so that was MUDFEST. time to talk about something that is not as important but definitely blog worthy. korean birthdays!..oh what fun, humiliating, and to some extent painful. as BARI and I were walking to meet up for dinner on friday night we got to experience how KOREANS celebrate eachothers birthday. in our country we take our friends out, buy them drinks, hold their heads while they are hugging the porcelin pillow, and laugh at them the next day all the while telling them the ass they made of themselves the night before. not in KOREA. here, they tightly tape you to a pole in the middle of the university streets with duct tape, sing happy birthday to you, and then proceed to kick you relentlessly until they deem it necessary to cut the tape. watch this video..



when asked why, one of the crazy KOREANS said "he kicked me on my birthday." fair enough. eye for an eye i guess. as mean and painful as it might have been, it was rather entertaining to watch. KOREAN culture is KOREAN culture, i just roll with it as i laugh and learn. poor kid!








i shaved my beard and am cutting my hair tomorrow. goodbye!

PUBLIC busses and IMAGINARY swords

ok so this guy was really doing this on a public bus...



he wins for having the courage to actually do this on a bus in the middle of daylight with other breathing, fully functioning, humans in a clear visible close approximation to him.






"the best way to prepare for LIFE is to begin to LIVE" - elbert hubbard

the ADVENTURE

oh AMERICA day! JULY 4th. independence day...birthrights to our freedom. this year was a bit different for me obviously because i am in SOUTH KOREA on maybe my favorite holiday of the year! bummer but whatever, i spent it doing much of the same we went and set up shop on the beach in BUSAN.

this is HYUNDAI beach. its just a picture that i got online, it isn't actually from yesterday.

anyway, after we were done at the beach, we went to a place called FUZZY NAVEL (yeah real manly i know) for burrittos and guiness. we met some dudes that were in the AIR FORCE and friended them and spent the remainder of our time in the beach area with them. they had a hotel in downtown busan, so after festivities at FUZZY NAVEL, we hopped in a cab, went back to their pad to shower up and get ready to go out. note: we had reservations at a hostel but i never once saw it or attempted to make it there. bari and i showered and ditched the military men and went somewhere, i dont really remember the location. at this point it is 1130 goin on midnight and i decide to forfeit the money i paid for the hostel and find my way back to ULSAN. i make it down to the subway and proceed to purchase a pass for the subway which i believe is goin to take me to the bus station and from there i would bus it back to ULSAN. picture this..i am on a subway that i think is goin where i want it to when infact it is going the complete opposite way of my destination. after about a half hour on the train i muster up the courage and words to ask one of the only people on the subway if he speaks english. it is amazing that not only did he speak english, he spoke perfect english. he proceeds to tell me that i am unable to take a bus because it was too late, i am unable to take a train because there was no train going to ULSAN, and that pretty much i am shit out of luck. i ask him how much a cab is and he tells me that it will cost me 100,000 won and at this point i contemplate lying down on a bench until the busses start running again. i have him ask a cab driver how much it would be to get back to ULSAN and the cab driver says something in korean, all of which i did not understand. the english speaking korean kid bargained the cab driver down to 30,000 won which is only about 30 dollars with the stipulation that i provide english lessons on the way home. ridiculous. whatever...i agree and for 75 kilometers at what seemed like a turtle pace, i am teaching this dude random english words. i guess it is cool to have a bargaining tool to use. i'll teach you preschool english if you drive me back to another major city for almost nothing. all of this happened after a good 8 hours of consuming beverages that effect your cognitive abilities. i win. it was a crazy adventure and the outcome was much better than i had envisioned when i was sitting on the subway for thirty minutes traveling in the wrong direction!

on another note, i got my first paycheck, i am now a millionaire...in WON. whatever, its still cool to say i make a cool 2.4 million a month. peace.

"not all who wander are lost.."

PARTY beard.

end of another week and the start of another weekend. the infamous JULY 4th weekend! i don't care if i am in SOUTH KOREA..i am having AMERICA DAY!! the foreigners are gearing up and heading down to BUSAN, a city just south of ULSAN, and heading to the beach. food, beer, beach, ladies...all the things that define the american dream. ideal situation would be to be in america with my orginal crew..but this has to be the next best thing!! hey atleast the korean flag is red white and blue!!whatever..it is close enough. looks like a PEPSI can. real creative!

anyway...i have decided to grow out my facial hair and also my regular hair since i have no case of yellow fever and have absolutely not a soul to impress. also i could give a shit what my school thinks about it...we have no rules. they need us more than we need them. don't get me wrong, i love my job, but i will cut corners with them the same way they bend us over and pull their non consensual stunts with us. JASON: 1 ELC: 0 i win.

and JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE thought he was bringin' sexy back. i look OFFICIAL! it says sophistication with a hint of "i still like to party".

ok so that same girl in my last blog, the one that let me bartend, apparently asked me for my number that evening and i must have given it to her. i am glad now that i did. two days had passed and i got a string of text messages from a name that was LEEKYUNGHWA. since this cellphone had been in the hands of two teachers before me, i thought it was just one of their KOREAN friends shooting them a text. nope! it was 36 year old bartender chick. the text messages read as follows..

the first one: "HI! last night be happy. sorry a little english talk. nice a meet you"

the second one: "my shop very busy. next time again your face?"

the final one: "you very attractive"

so BARI had a great idea and i think that i want to save a list of korean text messages and make them into shirts when i get back to the states. they are amazing. i save them so i can laugh whenever i feel like i need to get a good giggle in. i guess high five to her for trying..but low five for thinking i am interested in, not only a 36 year old bartender, but a woman that speaks (read above) hardly any english. not to sound mean, but come on..i have better convo's with my PRE STEP school children!

so tomorrow (FRIDAY) i start a new semester at school. looking very forward to it as it really sucked jumping into teaching here 3/4 of the way through someone else's semester. i had no training and no direction and i just had to figure everything out on my own. NO BUENO! so needless to say, a new term, new students, and my own rules come as a very attractive change.

TODAY (thursday) was a very cool day in that it rained really hard and for the first time in over TWO years, i got to see a good old fashioned run of the mill THUNDER and LIGHTENING storm. living in SO.CAL is awesome but not being able to see a good storm was one thing i really missed while living there. today was awesome! be jealous left coasters!

ok..enough for now. it isnt even the weekend yet. catch up with me sunday or monday and relive the weekend with me. hope all of you back home have a safe and eventful 4th of JULY, be safe and please do not do anything i wouldnt do! i will crack one for all of you sharing in the same festivities that i will be involved in.

oh yeah, if you have SKYPE or want to download it. i have a microphone and a webcam now, so if you want to chat or cyber (joke) just shoot me a call. its free. love you all.

"i have had so many friends..most they come and go. time it moves so fast..when it seems to move so slow.." -wyatt penrod

weekEND tWo.

well another weekend went by and another set of stories were made. friday night was very relaxing, i went bowling with a few of my kind, then to B's place to crash. woke up really early saturday morning to go with BARI to an orphanage in BUSAN. we met at a church and it was an interesing group of people..it looked like an audition site for the REAL WORLD!! anyway, at the orphanage it was international sports day and i was able to volunteer and spend they day with some really amazing children. it was exhausting but at the end of the day, it felt really good to know that they really appreciated us.

the taller kid was really really good at soccer..i was thinkin he might be a good investment!!

yeah this kid really drew a middle finger on the back of his shirt..not really sure they know exactly what it means!!!

when we got back from the orphanage, BARI and I got ready and headed over to ILSAN beach to meet up with our friend SCOTT and friends to send SCOTT off in style. he is headed back to the states on JULY 1st before heading to the UK for his new job placement. (he builds ships..awesome!) BARI and i got dinner at a place called "OH MY DAK". dak means chicken here and it is pretty friggin good. we got their version of a foreigner menu and check out what the translations say! we went to a place called NOX bar, it was pretty cool, we listened and danced to MICHAEL JACKSON songs, hung out and made memories, and i got to bartend for a couple hours. it was a great time..possibly my favorite night in KOREA so far.

this was the restaurant OH! MY DAK.

the translation says "SHIT POCKET"..if you want a shit pocket then order a shit pocket!

and this one says "FUKIN SPICY WING"..no comment!

thats for you MICHAEL J..rest in peace homegirl!

this is my buddy SCOTT and myself..we are posing with an ELVIS doll who's neck we eventually broke. OOOPS!

loved her..she let me come back and bartend with her, and she kept telling me i was very attractive..i think those were the only words she really knew in english..whatever..she was cool.

that's me doing the dang thing. pouring some stiff drinks for friendly people. good times at NOX.

after our time at NOX expired..we decided to go down to the beach. just a couple hundred yards away. on our way we stopped at a mini mart and bought HITE and fireworks. not a good combo! we proceeded to light roman candles off in the middle of one of the busiest streets in ILSAN beach. awesome!

JASON and his friends: 1 KOREA: 0

after lighting up ILSAN beach like N. KOREA is gonna light up S. KOREA, we actually made it to the beach. more fireworks, more fun, and one naked JASON jumping into the sea of JAPAN. SCOTT said i wouldn't..i said i would. i did.

JASON: 1 SCOTT: 0

it was actually refreshing to be able to swim in the ocean. the taste of the salt water reminded me of the CALI coast. after..i decided to run down the beach, naked, not cool. cold water and chilly nights make for a very low rent JASON!! it was all fun tho..memories that i will never forget although maybe someday i will wish that i had!

it got later and later which turned into earlier and earlier and the sun started to rise. of course we got the cameras out and started what seemed to be a photo shoot. when the sky starts to light up and there is a little light in the background, pictures just seem to turn out really cool. here are a few..

pretty cool.

its nice to have the beach here too.

priceless.

i made it back to SCOTTS..crashed on the couch, got a few hours of sleep and soon am on my way to back over to ILSAN beach for SUNDAY night family foreigner dinner! good times with good people make adjusting to life here in SOUTH KOREA much easier and much nicer.

i will leave you with a couple of pictures of my students the (favorites) and a video for you mom.. enjoy!

KOLE..he broke his hand. no bueno.

kelly and jessica...they are awesome!

one of my best students. he is rockin' a FILA shirt!

mom here is my two students JESSICA and KELLY saying hello..hope you can hear it and enjoy it :-)...