Feel free to question my dedication to this bog.

That aside, I thought everyone would love to get a good look at some every day pictures. I hope you're going to come away from this feeling like you've just spent a day in the life of Peter Lacey. Five pictures should be sufficient.

First, the view from my apartment a month or so ago... It looks the same now, just without leaves.

Here are some old persimmons rotting on barren branches!

I strive for a friendly classroom environment.

My students like to keep it stereotypical in the classroom.

Ramyeon: the cheap and easy meal.

There you have it. Happy Christmas.

Peter

I play gospel guitar despite the subway

I went to a gospel choir practice this evening. Yes, I am a part of the choir - sort of. I'm there to play the guitar, of course. I'm Peter Lacey, right? I play the guitar, right? Of course! Where ever I go, the guitar becomes my identity no matter whether anyone has ever heard me play one. Nevermind, though; the interesting part is that I only have a massive, heavy hard-shell case over here for my guitar. It's a real burden to get around Seoul with it.

The subway lines are absolutely packed on Saturday evenings. Negotiating blind corners and long staircases while carrying the guitar case is a bit tiring in the weekend crowd (a disaster against the crowd if you get caught on the wrong side of a corridor or flight of stairs). Trying to get through the narrow turnstiles with that guitar case after scanning my T-money card is even more tricky. This evening I had to jump the gate because I pushed the case through the rotating bar instead of lifting it over and got locked with my case on one side of the bar and me on the other. Of course, 500 people were watching thinking I was blatantly breaking rules and not paying to get through. Once on the train, it's too packed to move and trying to maneuver to get out of the doors at the right stop is difficult enough without the case. With the case, I feel like I'm plowing people over. My dedication to this choir practice is tried every time I try to get there.

Anyway, there are three main ways to get around Seoul. The subway is the best. You can get anywhere on the subway and it is very cheap and easy if you're not carrying something heavy and cumbersome. The problem with the subway is that most of the lines run east and west and to move diagonally across Seoul you have to make two or three line transfers which means a couple miles of walking up and down crowded stairs and corridors. Besides the subway, there is also a multitude of busses. I've only figured out the routes of the busses that pass directly past my school, but those busses are much faster and cheaper than the subway - but only go to a few places. Thankfully, I can get to the center of town on the closest route. Taxis are the other option. Taxis are horrible. The drivers are untrustworthy. They're not scary, but they always take the longest way possible to your destination and the herky-jerky driving makes me very sick. Taxis usually cost ten times as much as the subway to get to the same place, but they are much faster.

If I had a bike, that would be a good way to get around. It would be just as fast as the subway since I could take direct routes, and Seoul is easy to navigate since there's a hill with a big tower in the north and a huge river that cuts the city in half. You can always tell what part of town you are in when those landmarks are visible. I may just buy a bike... too bad the temperature is dropping below freezing now.

Bring in that tasty, tasty kimbap

Recently, I was getting frustrated with Kerry Brown for not updating his blog about the Smashing Pumpkins recording sessions. Then I realized I was also neglecting my blog. However, I think a big difference is that my blog doesn't contain exciting information about the equipment for the next Smashing Pumpkins album or a report on the progress of Billy Corgan's recording. Those are the only things I want to read about in a blog, anyway.

A lot of wild and amazing things have happened since my last blog. I'm in Korea after all. Be content knowing I'm still the same person despite these powerful adventures. That's all a joke, actually.

I think I'd like to dedicate the rest of this blog to Korean food. I only know the names of a few Korean dishes: Kimchi - which is horrible, slimy, fermented, fishy sludge; Kimbap, which is basically sushi; and Bipbimbap, which is various things mixed into rice. Most other Korean dishes I've experienced are a variation of kimchi or some sort of cold stir-fry situation.

Most Korean food, with the notable exception of kimbap, is a mixed heap of something. There are a lot of vegetables, and you see a lot of stringy mushrooms, sesame seeds, and bean sprouts in the food. Also, a lot of sweet & spicy sauces which are generally enjoyable. Unfortunately, a lot of the food also has a distinct fish taste to it even if it is vegetarian. I'm not sure what produces that taste - but it's part of some sort of dressing I think.

Of course, I don't usually eat these traditional Korean dishes unless somebody else has made them. I eat ramyeon most often, which is ramen noodles. There are many varieties of ramyeon, but most are pretty spicy. My students also have given my songpyeon which is a cold, sticky rice dumpling filled with semi-sweet bean/nut/sesame seed mash (much like a sweet ravioli). It's tolerable but not great.

On the 1-14 scale, I guess I would give Korean food an 8. The inclusion of kimchi at nearly every meal brings the score down quite a bit, as does the popularity of dried squid. Riding the train to Daejeon last week, the passenger beside my was chewing on a dried tentacle for a half-hour. It was highly unpleasant but not surprising. Anyway, those are all my thoughts on Korean food at the moment.

Fashion Show

Went to a fashion show at a Kyung Hee University today, the first fashion show I've been to as far as I know. It was outdoors in front of building that looked like a cathedral, but was acutally a massive theatre. I have to say I was impressed with the show's production. The outfits were crazy, the models looked like models, and the light effects/music show was great. These fashions were apparently all designed by students at the university. There's another show on the 24th, and I may have to go again.

The venue.

Models on the runway.

Pretend you hear loud club music while looking at this.

Theme: Intersexion. I'm not sure what that means or how this model defines it.

You can't smile in a fashion show.

Theme: Cozy. Seoul's really on edge about the swine flu and airborne viruses.

Traffic Jam.

Theme: Lolipop.

This is important: The Beatles' remastered albums are fantastic. Hard Day's Night is about 2,000 times better in the stereo mix than the old mono mix. I haven't been this excited about the Beatles since I was in High School. They are dominating my rotation right now. Sky Blue Sky, Things You Should Know, Axis: Bold as Love, and From a Basement on a Hill are also current favorites.

It would probably be a good idea to create a conversation worksheet that discusses the Beatles for my Monday conversation class. Today, we discussed Siegfried Sassoon and 'Everyone Sang.' Maybe it's just the setting, but Koreans generally seem more interested in poetry than Americans. Some of my students got very excited when I mentioned EAP. I can't blame them. Who wouldn't be excited about 'The Bells' after endless worksheets focusing on things like the definition of courage and slogging through sentimental stories like 'the cab ride I'll never forget.'

That reminds me, I avoided a cab ride and walked back home to Sangdo from Itaewon on Saturday night after finding a good Mexican restaurant with a bad house band. My roommate believed it was about a half-hour walk. Nope. It was an hour and a half walk that included a 550 meter long tunnel against traffic. Probably won't do that again. Won't get lost between Sangdo and Itaewon either though. Thoroughly interesting, right?

You will want to know that I am at the Sangdo school in Seoul. Yes, that is correct, it's on line 7 and is at least 2 line transfers away from anywhere I want to go to in Seoul. No complaints here, though. I could be at schools that are 4 hours of bus riding from anywhere I want to go. The school is a 6 story building and operates on all but the ground level which is a Papa John's Pizza. My classroom is 501, the 5th floor, and teaching has been swell so far.

Two events that will enlighten you: I agreed to act in a skit about carrying baggage for the Vespers program this past Friday. As it turned out in the skit, you can't kiss your bride if you're carrying travel luggage you accumulated from bad grades and playing video games. I'm pretty sure the students were inspired to give up their Wii's after my performance. I felt like I was very well received. Also, today I visited the Seoul Forest. It is actually a large city park with some interesting playgrounds and various ponds and streams. It is not a forest. It is mostly open space with some landscaped trees that line the sidewalks and streams. Despite this, the place was packed. Many citizens of Seoul lying on blankets wherever there was level space.

So, an excitement filled weekend over here.

See you later, if I see you at all

As of Friday, I have a visa in my passport. I'm going to be in South Korea for 12 months starting this Sunday, the 23rd. I won't be seeing you during that span unless you coordinate a visit to Korea during my time off. Time off from what? Teaching ESL.

The title of this blog is a convoluted joke which I feel is appropriate in more than one way. As for future blogging, I hope to make a lot of absolute political and spiritual statements and express amazement at how I'm relating to things around me. No particular theme, but probably a reoccurring tone.

You'll want to read what I say here, but I can't make any promise of consistent blogging. However, a handful of people expressed that I should start a blog, so I thought I'd at least give it a try. I usually go in for trends, and blogs are just something you have to do if you think you're artsy or you're trying to be existential or you have experiences you think will impress everyone who's still stuck where you started. That describes me pretty well, so...