Weekend Warrior Report: Where Does The Time Go?

One of the disadvantages I've run into is that most extra curricular activities are usually on Saturdays. Most hagwon teachers work evenings so activities geared towards ex-pats tend to favor their schedules. To me, this is one of the few disadvantages to working for public schools/EPIK.

Want to go up to Seoul and visit friends or take in the nightlife? Going to be on the weekend. Korean class at the YMCA? Most classes are either mid-day on select weekdays or Saturday morning. If you want to start an activity, club or organization, then you'll more than likely have to meet up on Saturdays because that's when people will have time for it. There are exceptions, but it can make for some tough scheduling choices.

My own Saturday schedule is this: Band Rehearsal at 2, Salsa at 8, then dinner with friends afterwards. Doesn't sound like much, but before the winter break I took Korean classes early in the morning on Saturdays and went to Fight Club at 1:30. When I joined my band, I had to give up Fight Club (an activity I've done for over a year) because those times overlapped. Then I recently took up an activity on Fridays that goes from 11pm to 3am.

So imagine this schedule once school starts:

Friday: 11-3AM - Get home about 4 AM
Saturday: 11-1 Korean class. 2-4 or 5 rehearsal, get home about 6. Leave house for Salsa lessons around 7 or 7:15 and get there just before 8. Salsa is from 8-10 with social dancing afterward. Dinner with friends around 11. THEN you get to go out for the rest of the evening. Add in travel times (train, walking, cab, etc) and you have a full day ahead of you.

I used to have Sundays to recover, but now there is another activity that started on Sundays that starts at 1pm. Yikes!

Doesn't leave much space for any unexpected events like birthday parties, going away parties and other activities (all common things here). This leaves me with a lot of free weekday evenings. I would much rather spread out some activities during the week and free up weekend time.

I am looking at options. There is a new hagwon that teaches Korean to foreigners here and they are open on weekdays. The downside is the prices are high for classes. The YMCA 12 week course is the about the same price as one month at this school. Granted, classes are several times a week and the YMCA classes are once a week, so it evens out a bit. So it's a dilemma I'm trying to settle here.

As for fight club, I plan on going back to Daegu MMA for weekday workouts. While I would love to have that extra day on Saturdays to work out with my friends, it's not required if I renew my membership. I will see my friends later on that evening on Saturdays.

I had planned on taking some vacation time and going up to Seoul to visit a friend who is leaving Korea soon. Due to obligations, I wasn't able to go. I also had to pass on participating in an event because of scheduling conflicts. Most of the participants were Hagwon teachers and rehearsal times would have been during the day.

I'm not so much complaining as I'm trying to look for a medium for all of this. It's getting a bit out of hand and stretching me thin. I felt it this past weekend when I found myself face down in my bed with little motivation to move on Sunday (and none of it was influenced by alcohol!). I have friends who are active in other things and they too have expressed their own frustrations with keeping such schedules. I honestly like having things to do. Just not on top of each other. Now if I could clone myself, then I wouldn't have this issue.

Weekend Warrior Report: Rainism Assassin

I'll Preface this by saying that I talk a lot about the movie "Ninja Assassin." While I say there's no plot points to speak of in the movie, you have been warned.

So last week I had a day off and decided to check out the movie “Ninja Assassin.” I had heard about this movie for some time and remember it being delayed more than once. I had been skeptical about it when I saw the first trailer for it, but I was still curious. This was supposed to be the movie that showcases Korean star Rain (비) and introduces him to the western world. For those who don't know, Rain is Korea's entertainment God. He's been in movies, TV shows and is known in his home country for his flashy dance moves and songs about his “magic stick.” Before I came to Korea, all I knew Rain for was that dude that Steven Colbert had a feud with on his show. After coming to Korea I learned that Rain was trying to break into the American market and wondered how well he could do. Considering that he's more known for his music and his role in a Korean soap Opera, I doubted he could be taken seriously as an action star. (His previous role in a Western movie was in Speed Racer. Despite that steam pile's lack of awesome, he impressed the producers enough to give him a shot at his own movie.)

Turns out I was wrong. Rain does a pretty good job as a ninja. Critics didn't like the movie, but it worked well for me. The movie is gory as hell and the first 5 minutes set the tone for it. I wouldn't say it's a family film, but if you want action and fighting, it's the way to go. Just don't expect a plot. The story in this movie makes “The Transporter” look like high art. It pretty much goes like this: Kid is kidnapped and trained to be a Ninja. Ninja rebels against clan, ninja attacks clan and gets revenge.

I will admit I was expecting A LITTLE more form the plot, but wasn't upset by it. No, I was impressed by . . . . wait for it. . . THE NINJAS!!! Thankfully the director realized he shouldn't let a silly thing like plot get in the way of a good fight. However I would imagine it's tough to make ninjas look cool when they are supposed to be silent stealth killers. Somehow he manged to make things work. I watched this movie and thought “this is exactly how I would expect two ninjas to fight each other.” Sure, there some anime influence here (*cough cough NINJA SCROLL cough*) but it came out well. To barrow from my friend who I was watching the movie with, it has some great action sequences that you can't see well in the dark.

Now the one big thing I wanted to get back to the casting. Rain's co star in this is Naomie Harris (yeah, I don't know her either). She plays a Eruopol Agent who first learns about the strange ninja world Rain lives in. In action movies like this one with paper-thin plots, a girl like this is usually some sort of romantic interest for the lead. What I found odd about this is that she's a black woman. Why is this so odd? Well, besides the usual ethnic issues Hollywood has, I was thinking about the Korean angle. The whole time I was watching this movie, I kept thinking “There is no way in hell Rain kisses this woman.” The nationalist, conservative views of the country as a whole places a lot of value on pure blood. Koreans think very highly of their stars and watch their every move when they venture out into the world to gain fame beyond their boarders. So do I expect one of Korea's spokesmen to come out and kiss a black woman on screen? Hell no. At some point, Rain will want to come home to his native country. No way they accept him doing this, even for a movie. (Remember Romeo Must Die??? Come on!)

So this brings up an interesting point; could Rain kiss anyone else in Hollywood and Korea be OK with it? Yep. However, I think it would have to be a certain caliber actress. Even if his name isn't big in the west (despite me having to break my student's hearts when I tell them that Rain isn't well known in the USA), Korea holds him in a light equal to a Will Smith, Tom Cruise or Bruce Willis. He could go as low as Megan Fox and be alright, perhaps even a Kristen Steward of Twilight fame (I'm sure this would delight the females of my school who read Twilight and are waiting for New Moon to come out this week over here). But Hallie Berry? Nope. Jennifer Lopez? Sorry. Eva Mendez? Try again. Beyonce? Almost but not quite.



So with this in mind, I'm going to start a “Who Will Rain Kiss In his Next Hollywood Movie” betting pool. If you have any suggestions, please let me know so I can make a chart. This could get interesting. Place your bets! He is supposedly reading for parts now. America, it's about to Rain.

Weekend Warrior Report: Great American (Korean) 4th of July Bash!!!!

It was the 4th of July last week. A big deal in the states. . . nothing here in SoKo. Needless to say, I was missing the BBQ and the fireworks back home. However, it doesn’t take much for the local foreign community to celebrate important holidays. Once again, I was out with my camera taking pictures of my friends. A few of the foreign friendly bars downtown had special events and fun was had by all. Sadly, the monsoon season has hit here and it’s made things tougher if you want to be out and about.

A few friends hanging around the deck @ Club That.

Club That had a live concert going on. Local favorite Sensational Gonzalez was there to perform.

I allow people to take my camera and these kind of pictures are taken. . . believe it or not, i'm not smiling. I can't smile in pictures unless it looks goofy.

It will be a quiet weekend this time around. The vast majority of foreginers are heading out of town to Mudfest. From what I can, people go to some place in the middle of no where, jump in mud pits, hose down, then do random crazy stuff. Strangely not my style so I will be here at home this go round.

Less than a week of school left, then it's off to camps! Whoo hoo!

Weekend Warrior Report: Beach Blanket Busan Blow-Up!!!!! (June 26-19th)

Going to Busan has convinced me that somewhere on Cyworld (the Korean version of facebook) there is a fan site of me. You see, EVERYONE has a cyworld homepage in Korea. They post a lot pictures there (mainly from crappy cell phones) and I was stopped several times by various people to be in pictures with them. As I have stated before, I’m a physical freak in this country. I’m black, I’m big and I’m tall. It’s like some triple crown of oddness for Koreans and there is no place that I feel that freak show mentality more than Busan.

I went down to Busan with friends to spend the day at Haeundae Beach. I rarely leave Daegu, so I was looking forward to being out of the city. It’s only an hour train ride so it’s perfect for a day trip. We took cabs to the beach and grabbed lunch at a bar called Fuzzy Navel that serves Mexican food(!). Finally God has decided to bless me with a decent burrito here in S.K.

God – “I know you've been craving food from Atlanta, so I’m going to give you a preview of home. . . . starting. . . NOW!” (Cue choir singing the hallelujah chorus while lights shine on the burrito as a cute waitress brings me what will be a glorious meal.)

Ok, I’m finished drooling over the burrito. Where was I? Oh yeah, the beach.
First of all, I’m a southern boy. Second, I’m a city boy. I’ve only been to the beach a couple of times in life. I get excited about the idea of the beach because the ocean is a foreign thing in my eyes. What really stuck out to me is how different Koreans are at the beach vs. other groups of people there. The majority of the Koreans were on one side of the beach, mostly clustered together under umbrellas. Most of the women were covered up as much as possible and many shirts over their swimsuits. In fact, I didn’t see a single bikini on a Korean girl. It’s fairly well known that Koreans view white skin as a sign of beauty, so they protect themselves fiercely from getting tans. I’m honestly surprised that they would go to the beach much. It was so odd from what you might see in Florida or California. Just another difference in culture I suppose.

Foreigners were on the more open side of the beach and you would see a random mix of people out there. Russians, Tai, Philippine, Vietnamese. . . and each group seemed to be in a spot. I think the funniest thing we saw was the group of guys in man-kinis. The glorious neon colored evil thongs were on display and you could not get away from them. It was just awkward and glorious all at the same time.

Now as much as we people watched, people watched us. . . especially me. At one point, there was this group of about ten guys who just stood by and watched me. I believe they were Vietnamese, but they kept pointing and whispering from about six feet away.
Some group of Russians asked to take a picture with me which I thought was insane. Some random Korean people did and I caught a few kids trying to sneak pictures with camera phones. Then there was this group of people on the street who stopped me. Just before we left the beach, some kids walked up to me asking for pictures. At that point, I just shook my head and played it up. Apparently some of them thought I was a rapper (seriously).

I after leaving the beach, we were all sore. The guys (minus me – I didn’t want to spend the money) went to get massages and the girls wanted to shop. I tired some Vietnamese food and was pleasantly surprised. I usually have problems with new food, but I’m glad I tried it.

Every time I go to Busan I’m impressed by it. I really am tempted to look for a job down there if I stay a third year here. I’ve never lived on a coast and I think I could get used to spending time on the beach.

Weekend Warrior Report: Racing The Sun

My Friday was boarder line pointless. I didn’t do too much and I only ended up meeting with friends and bar hopping to Commune and That. The night started out with a little bit of promise. That promise eventually fizzled out and gave way to mundane blah-dom.

Saturday I allowed Nick’s girlfriend Susy to talk me into coming to Salsa lessons and observe . I might actually sign up because I like dancing and want to learn how to do it right. Truth be told, I’m a little self-conscious about it. Dancing is one of the few kinks left in my armor. I plan on making Susy teach me some basics before I walk into class (Yes, a pre lesson before an actual lesson! Makes sense. . .) due to my own silly issues about it.

After getting galbi with the usual suspects, I headed off with a few friends to find something to do. Intially there wasn’t much success. That was blah, Old Skool has officially been taken over by the U.S. military, but, it was in Frog where I ended up having the most fun.

Now I hate Club Frog because It’s overcrowded and I always feel like I should have an STD test after going there. Yet it’s my boy’s favorite spot to hit up in town and I ended up hanging with him for a bit. Surprisingly it wasn’t bad; the music was decent and a few people I know were there.

Towards the later end of the night, Jeff the DJ showed up and bought me and some of the guys a few rounds. Me and him kicked it a bit on the balcony and he gave me some intersting info and prespective. At some point during out converstation, he tells me of a random spot to check out and on the spot he decides to take me there. He introduces me to the staff and then talks me up to some people hanging in there. I found this funny, but I took the que and enjoyed myself.

We stayed at the bar until they closed. By this point the sun was beaming down but I somehow ended up at another galbi joint with a few random Koreans while they drank Soju and talked. To wrap up this little adventure, I walked into the house around 8:30-9ish in the morning. After a little net surfing and skype called back home, I hit the sack. Definitely a unique night for me. . . but fun all the same.