More awesome English names

God (At first I thought he wrote Gob, and I almost passed out.)
SCV (I swear I had nothing to do with this--I need to take a picture to prove it!)
Another Macguyver! He's got to be on tv here, which is awesome.


New pics today--some nice dinner out with some teachers from Gangdong Middle School and the English Village at a nearby middle school Mi Sung and I went to visit.

Sometimes in Korean dramas, they play instrumental versions of Western music. I was pretty surprised when I heard:

Blue Light, Red Light - Harry Connick, Jr.

Breakfast at Denny's - Combustible Edison (!)

Also during a climactic moment in one drama, I may or may not have heard a haunting rendition of the Inspector Gadget theme song playing softly in the background.

Also, at around 2:30 a.m., Korea turns from ultra-harmless, kid-friendly programming to the all porn network.

Finally!

I got my Alien Registration Card today! Finally I can get internet and a cell phone. You never know how alone you feel until you try going without those things. Just shows how dependent I am on technology :) Anyway, time for more random Korea things:

Many bathrooms in Korea are unisex. Not in the way you can go in and lock the door, one person but can be used for two people kind of unisex, but the full-on, Ally McBeal style. You can be in there doing your thing, and all of a sudden, some girl can walk in on you. I was, naturally, disturbed by this the first time it happened, but the girl had no visible reaction to coming in right in front of a guy at the urinal.

Women here eat. A lot. And they're still rail-thin! I don't understand it. My co-teacher at Gangdong eats about three times as much as me each time we have a meal together, but she's so thin. It's amazing.

Did I mention that a dish of pickles come with pizza? No matter if you get it from Pizza Hut or Pizza Bingo (Korean pizza place), but at Korean pizza places the pizzas come with corn (?) on them too.

More to come!

Awesome English Names

At school, each of my students gets to pick his or her own English name. Most were normal. I even put a few on the board if the students couldn't think of one. No kidding, the first thing a kid asks me;

"How do you spell Macguyver?"

Now keep in mind, this is Korea. And Macguyver has been off the air for at least 10 years. Basically this kid is now my new hero.

Other notable names:

Milk
Whoseain (I think he was trying to spell "Hussein.")
Horror
Boss
BumBum

New pics and photos!

New pictures and photos of my apartment and my district, Yeonam-dong! Scroll down to see the links.

It's the little differences.

All Pulp Fiction references aside, I've noticed a few differences living in a city here vs. a city in the US.

* People take recycling here very seriously. At every fast food place, you seperate your own trash (food waste, paper, plastic) into seperate bins.

* Lots of little resturants. Tons of them. Everywhere. Some sit as few as eight people.

* "Well Being." This is some kind of new fad. You'd think well-being products would be confined to healthy food, but I've even seen well being cigarettes.

* Cigarettes. Tons of people smoke. All over the place. I think it must be like how the US was in the 50's.

* It's safe here. Kids run around everywhere. There is very little crime, and violent crime is almost nonexistant.

* There are two Starcraft channels and a channel that has Go games 24 hours a day.

My Co-teacher is Awesome

Well, finally, orientation is over. I moved into my new apartment in Ulsan and was quite shocked. It actually has four rooms! A kitchen, a bedroom, a living/dining room, a laundry room, and a bathroom! Woo-hoo! As someone who'd prepared himself for just living in a one bedroom/efficiency type place, this was quite the pleasant surprise. Not only that, but also included were all new appliances and a HDTV! Oh yeah! Anyway, my co-teacher has already been very helpful; showing me around and helping me buy some more stuff. Oh, did I mention they're giving me $500 more for other new appliances I might need? Geez Louise, that's awesome! Anyway, I'm about halfway unpacked. No internet yet; I'm typing this from a PC Bang down the street from my apartment. Hopefully I will get internet on Tuesday or Wednesday and I will be able to post some pics and a movie tour of my apartment I made.