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 :-)...

good TiMeS in SK

hello everyone..another weekend has gone by and i am still above water and breathing. it is sunday and we were supposed to go hiking at mount shinbul but it rained and it is a million degrees out. way too hot, way to humid, and way not in the mood to do much of anything. KELLY and i did walk over to munsu football stadium (soccer). it is a world cup stadium and hosted the games in 2002. they pretty much think they are awesome because of this stadium, but really it isnt all it is cracked up to be!

yesterday we celebrated our korean friends OTS last day here, he leaves for the army on monday and we went out and dinner and listened to his friends tell stories in broken english about their favorite memories. it was fun..sad to see him go tho. gonna miss you OTS..

went to dinner over by the rotarty and saw this sign in the bathroom..the bathrooms are unisex at some places so it is kinda creepy..nothing i am used to. i like females, but not when they are popping a squat right next to me!..

tell me that isn't awesome and i will tell you that you are one of the lamest people i know!!

SUNDAY FUN NIGHT i went over to ILSAN beach again for a foreigner family dinner at my friend SCOTT BONNERS place. it is about an hour bus ride and every sunday it is totally worth it. we had french dips, cake, cookies, potatoes, carrots, au jus, all the good stuff and i am totally going to miss SUNDAY NIGHTS when he leaves to go back to the states on JULY 1st. this is ME and SCOTT singing, or trying to sing at a noreabang..

monday night was our friend JI's birthday, he is one of my korean friends that has been amazing in helping me figure my new life out, helping with translation, helping show me culture and just being an all around totally cool dude. he is one of the coolest people i know. we went to dinner and ate some grub, got him a birthday cake and headed to JINHA beach to hang out, eat cake, and have a good time. it was one of the funner nights i have had here and we were all dead sober. awesome....here is JI..the birthday boy!

he is a good kid...glad i have gotten a chance to be buds with him! HIGH FIVE JI!..keep rockin the disney's love hits cassette tape!

ok..enough for today, to all you back east on the west coast i miss you like crazy, to all you on the east coast i miss you kids too. keep in touch and i will see you all soon enough. i think about you everyday. LOVE YOU MOM...hang in there, we will talk soon!!

a little message in the sand that i wrote with a chop stick (a chop stick that we ate cake with, yeah they eat cake with chopsticks!!).

till next time...

roofTOP party

last night..KELLY, KAT, and I met up with a few friends OTS, JI, and GON on the top of a roof of an academy for a going away meat party. OTS is leaving in a week for the KOREAN army. all males here in KOREA have to join the army for atleast two years. most of them do it right after highschool to get it done. this is why most KOREANS graduate college around the age of 25-26 (or 26-27 korean age). OTS made the olympic qualifiers for snowboarding for KOREA but didnt make the squad, so his army service is coming late. here are a few pics of last night. it was beautiful as we had meat, soju, good people, and good stories. the city was lit up bright and we were high atop the building..

my wOrK..

these pics are where i work. mugeodong ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTER. it rocks!!

grocery STORE

i was out and about today and found a store called HOME PLUS, it is a grocery store that actually has some american food!! i found spaghetti sauce, mozz cheese, grapes, cereal, milk, oj, all the good stuff, oh and cream cheese. its pricy, i didnt buy anything yet, but i will be goin there once i get my first paycheck. althought i have found american food, i have really gotten to like a lot of the korean food that i have been eating. beebimbop is so far my favorite..so i will be sticking to that most of the time!! just stoppin in to let ya all know i am alive and doing well. to all my friends..I LOVE YA and I MISS YA and although i am loving it here, i will always look forward to seeing you all again..

oh the bottle above is the SOJU that i have been talking about..kind of like japanese drinking SAKI with dinner.

Munsu Mountain

my first weekend in korea was pretty awesome. friday night, bari came down and we went out to dinner and had meat with a bunch of foriegners. when i say meat, we had pork, they just say meat here, they dont say we went to dinner. with the meat, it is cooked on a grill in the middle of your table as in the picture up top. they dont use knives here, so everything you cut, you have to cut with scissors, its so strange, but it is korean culture. we had soju, grub, and good times. after dinner we went to a flavored soju bar then to a noraebang or "a karaoke room. yeah after a night out, people go to a room where they sing any song you can possible imagine. weird i know. saturday we woke up early, well noonish, and headed to Samsandong or "new downtown" to explore and just kinda cruise around the city. the bus system is amazing, and it only cost 1000 won (about 1 US dollar) to go anywhere you want. after Samsandong, we met up with a couple of other whites and went to the Taehwa River festival. the picture of the bridge is the bridge that crossed the taehwa river. it changed colors and flashed all the time. amazing. we walked from the taehwa river to shinae or "old downtown" where we walked around, shopped, and then went to a couple of bars that are very foreigner friendly. today, sunday, i went hiking with my two ESL teacher friends, kelly and kat, and two of my korean friends Minki and Jong Won. we hiked Munsu mountain, which is a bit over 3 kilometers high and the most rugged hike i have ever done. after we reached the summit, Jong Won took us down the backside of the mountain to a temple. amazing. tonight, i am heading to another foreigners house in Ilsan beach, about an hour bus ride from me for some home cooked dinner. check out the pics and i'll be continuing to keep everyone updated.

and SO it BEGINS..

ok..made it to southeast ASIA in one piece. the plane ride was long but very very smooth. asiana airlines is the best airline i have ever flown on. so here i am in ULSAN and life is pretty, well actually, really really different. picture the opposite of anything you have ever seen. thats where i live. i have only been here two days and i have met some amazing people. i have started my teaching and love my kids..well most of them! they call me teacher jason! i have come at a time where all the foreign teachers contracts are just about up..all within 3 months, so in no time i will be the oldest foreign teacher at my academy. i am lookin forward to there being new people coming in so i dont feel so new. its like all eyes are on me!! the teaching is really lax...all i really do it work on phonics, identifying, emotions, seasons, weather, hobbies..all that jazz. very very relaxed so far. ok..so about SOUTH KOREA, its a very different culture, with very different views. i eat EVERYTHING with chopsticks. drink SOJU (like japanese saki) with every dinner. guys tell me i am handsome all the time and rub my arm..weird i know! you do a little bow everytime you see someone..as it is respect. the food is very different, very spicy, and some of it just plain terrible. they do have ramen in the markets, but it is very spicy!! the streets are very crowded with shops and vendors and people and scooters and cars and everything you can think of!! i live right next to the university and it is a great location because it is close to everything and there are so many people my age. at night everything is bright and flashing and colorful which is pretty cool. the social scene is pretty crazy..they stay out all night, and usually after dinner(s) they go to little kareaoke rooms that serve beer and have everysong you can imagine. by dinners i mean you can go out for a full dinner with SOJU and eat a ton and then the next place you go, the same thing happens. this goes on for about 3 or 4 times a night. how are they so skinny!! the food is much better..all veggies and rice and all that jazz. my apartment is pretty cool i guess..cant complain really. it is different...its like a studio but not. i have a queen bed in the main room..sliding glass door off the back that goes to the kitchen and a door on the right that goes to my closet space. the bathroom is weird cause its just a shower on the wall with the toilet and sink and cabinet in the same room. check out the pics below. ok..enough for now, i will write more later as i make this crazy adventure..