59 lbs on my Korean diet

August 5, 2010
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It’s almost been one year in Korea, and throughout that year there has been one recurring theme… I am the fat American. I hate being the fat American.  I stand out in a crowd  It’s impossible to find clothes (although I did save a lot of money).  And my students lovingly (and sometimes not so lovingly) [...]

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Andong fountain video

August 4, 2010

The other day I posted some photos of Andong’s music fountain.  Now, I’ve finally put the video together. It’s very short (2 minutes).  I removed the live sound and replaced it with one of my favorite Kpop singers — Son Dambi.  (I love love Son Dambi.)

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it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s my new favorite trademark violation, Sulperman!

August 3, 2010

Korea can be a bit of a rebel when it comes to intellectual property rights.  I’m of two minds about it all, so I won’t judge.  But here’s my new favorite: Sulperman! This bar just opened up and some friends and I went there this weekend.  I loved it… actually I just loved saying the [...]

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Andong fountain

August 2, 2010

Generally speaking, I find Korea to be very good with lighting.  There’s obviously some rough spots here and there, but for the most part, I think they (more than Americans) take pride in how things look. Examples being… the ugly bridge in Andong that is slightly less ugly due to the colored lights at night… [...]

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dj doc; my new favorites

July 31, 2010
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My new favorite song is DJ Doc’s I’m This Kind of Person. I especially love that they make fun of other Kpop idol groups… and I especially especially love that they make fun of the boy bands who fake-play instruments while doing silly dance moves. ==

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the squat toilet

July 30, 2010

I’ve been in Korea for 51 weeks, and for 51 weeks I’ve maneuvered my way out of ever having to use a squat toilet… …until now… It’s not that I’m against the squat toilet.  Like most things in Korea, it’s efficient and it makes sense.  I’ve just had this perpetual fear that I would lose [...]

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my new home

July 30, 2010

Last week while I was planning my trip back to America and trying to navigate three states in 12 days while also trying to see many friends, I felt a sudden dose of relief when my itinerary arrived at the date I would arrive back in Korea. And then I realized… Korea is my new [...]

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living in a movie

July 26, 2010
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Before I moved to Korea I immersed myself in Korean movies — at least as much as I could via Netflix (which doesn’t offer all that much).  I remember watching the movies and feeling like I was in some bizarre dreamland. The movies were very similar to Hollywood, but something was always off.  Small things [...]

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bodybuilding & and the destruction of therapy

July 19, 2010

This weekend I went to my first bodybuilding competition.  Some friends from my gym were entering and I wanted to support them, while also realizing that the chance I’ll befriend bodybuilders again is about as likely as Bristol and Levi living happily ever after. It was interesting.  I saw more muscles, more black bikinis, and [...]

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getting heated over Netanyahu

July 17, 2010

Last week one of my Facebook friends posted an article by Al-Jazeera on Israel’s attempt to turn Jordan into the Palestinian homeland. I was reading the article while sipping my coffee and enjoying labors of free speech when suddenly I was thrown back to Jack Ass Land when someone left an insanely ignorant and mis-guided message [...]

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McChrystal’s Team America had patches! PATCHES!

July 16, 2010

General McChrystal may not have been the most politically savvy person in the lot, but at least he had a sense of humor. In the infamous Rolling Stones article that cost McChrystal his job, it was mentioned that some of his team referred to themselves as Team America…  Team America being the exhaustingly hilarious movie [...]

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North Korea’s new propaganda poster

July 15, 2010

It has been an interesting week on the Korean peninsula… with many things happening related to the sinking of the South Korean ship, the Cheonan. On July 9, the UN Security Council released a statement about the sinking, “condemn[ing]” the attack but not placing the blame on North Korea.  So, no new sanctions on Kim [...]

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“Nothing to Envy” in North Korea

July 12, 2010

I just finished Barbara Demick’s Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea.  I bought this precisely because I wanted a non-sensational account of life in North Korea.  I didn’t want to read about nuclear weapons or labor camps. In many respects, the handful of people Demick interviews do lead normal lives.  They go to [...]

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fourth of july…

July 5, 2010

To celebrate the Fourth of July, some of us got together to act American (i.e., be really loud) by shooting fireworks off the roof. We also ate hamburgers, chicken, potato salad, and beer!  And to make it even more American, I was able to squeeze in a fantasy baseball trade! But the Americanization was short [...]

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Balloons — DBSK / TVXQ

July 4, 2010
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When I first saw this video by DBSK (동방신기) I was mortified.  I didn’t understand the mittens, the headbands, the ties, or the penguin back-up dancers. I still don’t understand it, but after several hundred viewings, I have completely succumbed to their saccharin smiles and cheesy dance moves. Similar to a Picasso or Liza Minelli [...]

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fat in Korea

July 3, 2010

I’ve been wanting to write about my fat-ness for a long time, but to be honest, there’s too much to write about and I get overwhelmed… When I came to Korea I was fat, I’ll admit it.  My last couple of years in America were not a vision of health.  But in the last 11 [...]

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death, holidays, and homesickness

July 3, 2010

My grandmother died this week. I had written a long post about the somewhat rocky relationship we had over the years… but my server went down and I lost it all (thank you God). I’m not going to re-write everything, but I will say that over the last year I was able to shed some [...]

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Korean Cabaret

June 28, 2010

My Friend from the Philippines visited this weekend.  So, after a day at temple, we decided to walk through downtown Daegu.  Of course, something fun happened…  I got to see Cabaret performed in Korean, which is probably the next best thing to seeing Liza. It made me miss my good friend Tom, who never lets [...]

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mixing love & war is sometimes inappropriate

June 5, 2010

It’s a good day to be on Facebook… and it’s a good day to be one of the 16 allied nations that helped South Korea in their war with the North in 1950. If you are like me and from one of the allied nations of Turkey, Ethiopia, Thailand, Philippines, Belgium, New Zealand, Colombia, Luxembourg, [...]

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rocks for jocks

June 4, 2010

Math and science were always my best subjects… which is why I majored in English and minored in Business Administration. Once I decided on my major I didn’t really see the need for my other core classes.  When I had to pick a lab science I chose geology because it was supposed to be the [...]

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