So recently, I've been noticing that in poor lighting my vision has been a little goofy, and even when I read in "decent" lighting I find myself squinting or straining... The thought of having glasses is a bit weird, since my vision as always been pretty good. The Korean "eyeglass" system is super efficient, and by efficient I mean cheap. I recall about 4 years ago going to get a "check-up" at the local eye doctor and paying something like $70 out of pocket for the eye exam. In Korea, eye exams are free, zero, zilch. And you can find any number of places while walking around that will give you a free eye exam. Glasses, including lenses start around $25 and can obviously shoot up to several hundred if you're one "those" people who need your glasses to have someone else's name who've you never met on them. My friend Hiro just needed lenses so we walked into ALO, he got his eyes examined, 100%UV/Scratch resistant lenses made and paid for in about 25mins. Compare that to the usual week to 2 week wait in the U.S.


Well, I found out that what the eye doctor told me 4 years ago was a "healthy" stigmatism was actually creating some blurriness that I was noticing during lower lighting. My eyes came back at 1.5 (or 20/15 US) for my vision with a slight stigmatism...so I took the plunge and picked up a pair of glasses, which actually make a huge difference. Being the "chill" guy that I am.. Figured I'd pick up some plain jane glasses...

And so soon too :( oh well, I suppose it comes with the territory. I
came to one of favorite study hangouts, Caribou Coffee, hoping to get
away from the nonsense that is the the typical Korean coffee shop
filled with countless numbers of youth without a place to congregate
except perhaps the occassional DVD room. Normally Caribou's a pretty
quite place, but today its bustling with sounds of broken Korean being
spattered about by exchange students from all over the globe. What's
funny is that one really doesnt even have to look around to know the
different nationalities here, just simply listen for intonation and
pronounciation...

Here's to a long night of studying Korean verb conjugations and
vocabulary. Cheers.

As mentioned, I'm loaded up with a slew of courses this semester and have been waiting for some books that my mom was supposed to forward on. When I came home today, I was delighted to see two packages. Of course my first thought was, School books, nice. Then I opened the package...

Now, I could be frustrated that I haven't received my books yet, but on the other hand, it's actually kinda funny, and besides, who can't use another weight loss cookbook! So in the words of Louie Armstrong, quoted in Joe's recent blog...

...and I think to myself, what a wonderful world.

It’s been a pretty interesting year so far. From a new relationship to new friends; from interpersonal struggles to a pride check from law schools, it’s been a pretty crazy start. I spoke with a friend the other day, Ms. D., we haven’t really chatted in a while, but it was good to talk to her. It was interesting a question she posed, it went something along the lines of: What do we do when we feel like there’s way too much to do and so little time to do it. Isn’t that an interesting question. I suppose there was a time when I felt like everyone wondered that very same thing, however, over the years I’ve come to discover that there are the few, the “dreamers of day” that are the ones that must deal with such issues. For most others who “dream in the dusty recesses of their mind” life is easy going, with plenty of time to be bored, to have fun, to hang out.

I told Ms. D about a recent video podcast I listened to from Mark Driscoll. I’ve mentioned him before, but just incase this is your first run-in with him, let me give you some background. Driscoll is the pastor of the biggest church in Seattle and one of the fastest growing churches in the country: Mars Hill (not to be confused with Rob Bell’s Mars Hill). He’s a thirty something with a wife and five kids, looks like your average guy who has a firm pulse on pop culture. (He can be seen often sporting the latest from Hurley and the occasional funny “Jesus” t-shirts) He is one of the top 100 most influential pastors in America and His church is the 2nd most innovative church in the country. Mars Hill is nearly 10,000 strong, made up of a lot of “single white twenty somethings who live with their moms, have Starwars blankets, can’t commit to their girlfriend and can often be found catching the latest Star Trek marathon” (paraphrasing Driscoll’s own words). He’s currently doing a series called “Religion Saves and 9 other myths” where Mars Hill received over 300,000 votes for what questions Driscoll should address. In the last message, Driscoll was asked to address the issue in Christianity he has the most challenge with. The idea of GRACE.

In the message Driscoll talks about some of his life goals: write 6-7 books a year, publish 300 books during his life; help plant 1,000 churches, he preaches some 5 sermons a week, travels extensively, and at the same time is a father and husband. He states that he struggles with how he’s going to accomplish any of that because whenever he looks at his tomorrow, it’s overwhelming.

I’ve felt that way before, and often I find myself in the same predicament. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t spend Thurs-Sat of last week writing 150 pages of a book like Driscoll, but I would propose that our goals are equally lofty. So back to Ms. D. I’ve thought about it for for a week now, how to answer her question. I’ve attempted to look at it in the most rational mindset I know how to. And no matter how many different ways I try to cut it, it seems to come out the same: You’ve got to sacrifice. Let’s assume that’s the “right” answer, so next question: What do you sacrifice? As I look through history and more recently, I see many people who have sacrificed a great deal. Whether it’s Einstein, Mother Theresa, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Brittany Spears... I can hear some of you laughing at my list, but let me propose something. Each one of these people, in an effort to attain their deepest desires, has sacrificed. Einstein who married his cousin was it? And Brittany who’s been in rehab how many times and lost custody of her children. And in the name of what? For what? Those of you who know me on a more personal level, know that I struggled with this at age 20 while owning and operating a business, working a full-time job, attending school full-time and still not seeing ends meet. I find myself in another one of “those” situations. This semester I’m taking just over 30 credit hours (yes, 30), tutoring English several times a week, helping to lead a weekly bible study in Korean (and no, I’m not fluent enough to read the bible in Korean), growing a new relationship, trying to visit family from different cities every couple of weeks or so, getting everything ready to start law school in the fall, maintain and build on my existing relationships with friends back home, experience cultural life in Korea, and maybe even visit China for a few days. Needless to say, most days I don’t think I can do it all. However, I found a bit of hope in the words Driscoll eloquently delivered so I’ll point those of you in a similar situation, in that direction.

Watch the Video Here...


ORMars Hill Video Link

iTunes Podcast Link

My first Chinese New Year... with Chinese folks! Good times. Let me catch you up on some of the goings on in the past couple of days.

Spent on of my 5 days off at Building 63 with a really good friend. It's the tallest building in Seoul and yup, you guessed it: 63 stories high. It has an aquarium, shopping, dining, and a sky deck. And while earlier in the day I found a McDonalds that might look like it rivals Building 63, a quick look out of the window of the SkyDeck, shows you that you can't compare the two. The last picture of the skyline is high quality, incase you wanted to use it as a desktop image.





HIGH REZ Photo

On to new years. I spent the better half of the morning with my friend at Minto, it's a unique blend of coffee shop slash restaurant slash local hang out with free wifi. Originally it started as a small coffee shop in the late 70s early 80s that was opened by a local christian who wanted a local hangout for kids to be able to study and have bible studies. You pay per hour, or three hours to be exact. Basically you pay 5000won (about $5.50) for a three hour time slot. During the three hours you get unlimited refills on coffee, a variety of teas, you can get a cup-o-noodle, or bread. Once during the three hour period, you can get a latte, milk, ice cream and such. Pretty fascinating concept.

On to last night, the chinese housemates made dumplings and they let me help out. After eating a few pounds of dumplings and then a few pieces of cake which was part of my contribution, we decided to take a 15 minute hike in 12 degree weather to go light some roman candles. It was a good time for all.

So I was told by "Bookie" that her name is actually spelled "Fu Qi" in Chinese but there are no "F's" in Korean so it's spelled "부키" Anyways.. so I felt bad and decided to update the class photo... check it out the link for the pic.

So I came across this story on Breitbart.com headline: "Women 'tricked into suicide blasts" the follow up headline:"Mentally Retarded Women Used in Bombings." So first of all, it's disgusting and leaves me almost speechless. I wish I could put to words the range of emotions that I'm feeling right now. My heart goes out to the families of these women. Let me give you a snippet from the articles:

Two women suicide bombers who have killed nearly 80 people in Baghdad were Down's Syndrome victims exploited by al Qaida.
The explosives were detonated by remote control in a co-ordinated attack after the women walked into separate crowded markets, said the chief Iraqi military spokesman in Baghdad General Qassim al-Moussawi.

Police said the woman wearing the bomb sold cream in the mornings at the market and was known to locals as "the crazy lady."

... the use of the handicapped in suicide bombings is not unprecedented in Iraq. In January 2005, Iraq's interior minister said insurgents used a disabled child in a suicide attack on election day. Police at the scene of the bombing said the child appeared to have Down syndrome.

Yes, I'm upset and angry at the terrorists who engage in such atrocious acts, but for some reason, at this very moment, I can't stop thinking about the idiots who try to compare "us" to the terrorists. The people who call the terrorists "freedom fighters" just like those in the American revolution. You tell me the last time you ran across a story in a history book about American revolutionaries using mentally retarded people to blow themselves up... Damn it!

(Updated 2/8/08)

Okay it’s next time ;) thought I’d through together a few things about my Intensive Korean class. So far the group is pretty interesting. First there’s teacher 2.0a; she’s what I could consider a “typical” korean girl. Cute, in a 14 year old cousin sort of way, easily embarrassed and not one to be very forceful. Then there’s teacher 2.0b who’s totally not your typical Korean. I’ve heard that she hold some level of seniority at the school, and boy does she walk around like it. The first day of class she came in wearing corduroy pants, Puma shoes, and a turtleneck. As rockstar would say, “she’s rock n’ roll.” Then there’s Hiro, one of five Japanese students in my class. He’s probably in his late forties, has two daughters? and is in Korea studying the language for his job. He works for a Japanese company whose clients are increasingly more and more Korean. There are two girls that I would say are fairly “typical,” there’s the “80’s guy” someone didn’t tell him that tight jeans and turtlenecks left 25 years ago, and then there’s the “stripper.” There’s one girl from Hong Kong, pretty straight forward. Three girls from China, one, Boo-kie looks like a little doll, to quote the Ravi, “her pudgy cheeks make her eyes look like an afterthought” but she’s sweet and of course the baby of the class. Then there’s the Chinese guy who looks mid thirties but is actually early twenties. Hmmm. Rounding out the group is the Brazilian Korean with a brazilian first and middle name and the last name Won. She looks a bit like a Brazilian Lucy Lu to me, except her parents are both Korean? Of course then there’s me, the gyopo (korean abroad) who brings American humor and entertainment to the group. :D I have to say that I’ve been blessed with another great group of friends. I still keep in touch with the last class. Mai, Liene, Zhui-Fong, Nanupa, Elle, and Teacher #1.5a.

Okay, So here goes. Long time no blog ;) It’s been a pretty crazy time since I’ve returned to Korea. To be honest, I still haven’t worked my way down the list of people I was supposed to contact, so what have I been doing? Reading... a lot. Going to 20 hours a week of intensive Korean and occasionally doing homework for the class. I spoke to Tall Kate today, so that was good. I’ve had the chance to touch base with rockstar, the kids, mr. firefighter, big love and even the rents on a couple of occasions. Well I’m sitting here at Caribu Coffee, my almost favorite hang out, except I can’t get my wifi working for the life of me, heck my MacBook Pro can’t even see the network! Ahhh, so I’m surfing the internet on my iPhone while I’m writing this blog, which, means I won’t be able to upload it until I get home later tonight. And at the same time, I’ve decided that because I can’t get online, I definitely can’t do any homework while I’m here. So... Since people are going through withdrawals at my sudden absence from the blogosphere, I’ll point you in a couple of directions: First there’s the list of friends: joe, elliott, jon, kt, sam, vaka, and missy. Then there are the power house Marks: Batterson and Driscoll. Batterson, pastor of NCC in Washington, DC is a dynamic speaker, whose “boy-next door” charm and humor makes him an easy listen along with his almost daily updated blog make him a keeper. Then there Driscoll: pastor of the one of the fastest growing churches in the country, the largest church in Seattle, a published author, theologian, and all American “white guy” make him a great place to start if you’re into fire breathing, dry wit, and layers of sarcasm. Not only has he read literally thousands of books, but his ability to decipher biblical texts almost unparalleled. So there’s a couple of places you can go if you ever find yourself in need of a good blog or two. Keep in mind that I’ll keep the blog roll - rolling as time goes on. Also if you're interested in checking out some rad pictures, a good friend of mine here in Korea is sort of a photographer extraordinaire. Her name's NaeKyoung and she actually just published a travel guide to London, (written in Korean of course) but anyways, she's definitely an up and coming so you can check out her pics and buy her book too!

Until next time


The cover of NaeKyoung's new book.. it's full of photographs she took...