ZenKimchi AdventuresZenKimchi AdventuresLife in Korea is always an adventure. Started out in 2004 as an English teacher -- my how things are changing! Articles
The Homemade Air Gun
2007-11-15 04:08:00 Chris is an engineer at heart. He boasts that he built a car completely out of junk when he was a teenager. This week he has been developing an air gun to use for his science classes. Basically it’s a diaphragm (like a balloon) over a cylindrical object, like a yogurt container or, ...
ARRGH! KIDS!
2007-11-14 03:53:00 I hate kids! I like the kids in my school. I like kids on an individual basis. But kids in anonymous packs need a good knock on the head. First coming to Korea, the little “Hello” game kids do was amusing. You felt like a small celebrity. After a while, when the “hellos” weren’t in front ... More About: Kids
Kids and Marmite
2007-11-14 02:53:00 Autumn from my window Let’s see if I can post more regularly again and not wait for things to pile up. I got contacted yesterday for another paid writing opportunity. I’m pretty sure I’m going to take it. I’m not quitting the other one. I’m just working more and more extra jobs. Hopefully I’m developing a ... More About: Kids , Marmite
Every Weekend Full
2007-11-11 15:10:00 Anyang Acrotowers in Autumn (took this on the bus to work) Man, I let these past few weeks fly. I honestly just haven’t felt like more writing. I have been behind on my other blogs as well. The Food Journal has many original posts waiting in line for me to write them down. I’ve mostly just been passing along news. I’ve also decided to take down the Video Hunt and move the content to the main page. It’s just too much to do, and other blogs like Mongdori are finally doing what I intended the site to do in the first place years ago. I also have had some deadlines, such as this month’s article for SEOUL Magazine and a big stack o’ report cards. Let’s start with the weekend of October 20th. Early in the morning, I headed to Seoul, near COEX Mall, for an event for foreigners at a Buddhist Temple. It was lectures about Buddhist temple cuisine. I thought it was so interesting I couldn’t resist. I also thought it would be an easy arti... More About: Weekend , Full
Finally, the Posse is Showing Up
2007-10-17 17:50:00 Every weekend is getting booked like I’m some celebrity or that I have a life. Well, I guess I do have a life. Activity has picked up a lot since the summer. The weather has definitely cooled, but now the mosquitoes have decided to come out, not realizing that summer is over. We had ... More About: Finally , Ally
Busiest Chuseok EVER!
2007-09-27 04:20:00 I really looked forward to the five days off. I was planning to veg. I was planning to play computer games. I was planning to hole up, consume unhealthy items, and ignore the rest of the world. That didn’t happen. And that was a good thing. Saturday was my only true veg day. ...
Happy Birthday Harrison!
2007-09-17 03:14:00 I just received the picture on my phone this morning. Brant and Terra’s baby, Harrison, was born today. Brant sounds like he’s excited. He asked me when his heart will slow down. It’s fascinating to see Brant’s transformation from roving bachelor to happily married father in the past three and a half years. He would ... More About: Immigration , Happy , Birthday , Happy Birthday
The Pop
2007-09-04 02:57:00 This sums up my teaching skills. She’s sitting in the front row, too. Twice she’s fallen asleep in class. We’ve just hit what I call the pop. In less than a day the weather turned from unbearably hot to breezy and cool. I’ve noticed that it tends to do this right at the turn of the month. This time it happened on August 30th. Two days off. It’s easy to laugh at Korean tourism promotion telling people to come to Korea because it has four seasons, as if no other non-equatorial or arctic nations have four themselves. Yet I do feel more awareness of the seasons here than I have anywhere I’ve lived — be it the Deep South, upstate New York, or Germany. I’ve continued to exercise by walking up and running down the mountain. I’ve also occasionally joined the guys for morning racquetball at the Anyang Youth Center. It’s still the same case. When I exercise, I gain weight. When I skip a few days, I lose weight...
The NEW Spy Zone
2007-08-20 05:47:00 So, I’m back doing the EBSe show Spy Zone . I didn’t get the big raise I had been shooting for, but things have changed drastically. The whole show has been revamped. It’s not this tedious show with thematic activities (”Let’s act like animals today”) that have nothing to do with spying. It now actually ...
Vacation is OVER!!
2007-08-13 03:56:00 Vacation has been over for a week. It started the Saturday before last. I got a call from Dohee that the EBS new season will be shooting in two weeks, a month earlier than I thought. The good news is that it looks like I’m only doing Spy Zone, and the scripts and ... More About: Vacation
Dead Computer Resurrection (aka Why I Haven?t Posted in a Few Weeks)
2007-08-02 06:13:00 The biggest majorest computer cataclysm I’ve ever had happened a few weeks ago. I got up early on Saturday morning to talk to my family on the computer. They had gathered at my grandfather’s house and had set up a web cam for everyone to use to talk to me. For ... More About: Computer , Brant , Dead , Resurrection , Haven
Out in the Country
2007-07-13 05:53:00 It’s funny when I sit down to write something. I’m getting more and more like the Metropolitician. I don’t know what to write and before I know it, I have written a novella. The latest article I’ve finished involves the modernization of soju. It wasn’t my first choice, but my editor liked ... More About: Country
Transformers and Freedom
2007-07-05 16:18:00 If you haven’t heard the Anyang Police have recommended to the prosecutor that I am not guilty of criminal libel in the stuff I have said on this web site about the School-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named. It still was an emotional experience. I got the call yesterday morning while setting up my computer with Vista (yes, I’m brave). It took me a while to figure out what the call was about. It was the chief of Cybercrime himself asking me to come to the police station in the afternoon. I told him politely that I had to work and asked if I could show up the next morning. He said it was fine. Unfortunately, I couldn’t understand the first part of the conversation, and the last part ended so quickly, I didn’t have the presence of mind to ask him to repeat what it was about. I got Eun Jeong to call him back, and he said that he had already told me what it would be about. This morning we showed up thirty minutes early. The door to Cybercrime was open, and we p... More About: Freedom , Transformers , Transformer , Tran
Season One? Done.
2007-06-25 03:12:00 Summer has hit. Beomgye is getting more crowded. And the restaurants and bars are removing their windows, creating nice balcony seats. Yea! I did it. We wrapped up all studio work yesterday. All we have left is a quick little location shoot this Saturday. The last Spy Zone shows took longer than before. ... More About: Season , Seas , Done
Not Hating Immigration as Much as Before
2007-06-22 03:28:00 I can’t believe it! I actually had a problem-free experience at Immigration yesterday. Chris, his wife, and I went to Immigration together. They were getting approval for a new teacher, which had run into some snags. I was extending my contract for another year. This time, I just filled out the usual form, waited for my ... More About: Fore
Only in Korea?
2007-06-20 17:11:00 You know, sometimes I just take breaks from writing because I think that life here has finally gotten a little settled an monotonous. Hardly. Really, I only have one full weekend off in June, and it was last weekend. Eun Jeong and I used it to do some clothes shopping. She bought one shirt. This shirt ... More About: Korea , N Korea , Kore
The TV Diaries
2007-06-11 05:17:00 A strange coincidence I forgot to write about before. Last Saturday (June 2nd), I was heading to our studio office in Mapo at 8 AM so we could do our location shoot for the day. When I exited the subway, I saw a familiar form walking by, listening to his iPod. I stood in his path, and he looked at me quizzically. “You? What are you doing here,” Michael Hurt, Mr. Metropolitician, said. “Heading for a location shoot today.” “Oh, you do the TV show around here? I didn’t know there were any studios.” “Well, the offices are here. The studio is somewhere else.” We talked about getting together for the Transformers event in July and moved on. But man, how strange is that? I don’t know many people in Seoul, and running into one at 8 AM on a Saturday? I just finished my second to last full studio weekend, and I’m beat. My feet and legs are killing me from standing all day in uncomfortable shoes, trying to memorize th... More About: Aries , Diaries , Diari
Memorial Day to Remember
2007-06-06 17:28:00 Pictures to go with the previous post. This is our director. He’s generally good natured, and I like him a lot. I really like our crew. They are under high stress. They are even more underpaid than we are. And they still keep the spirits up on ... More About: Brant , Memorial Day , Memorial , Memo , Rial
Season?s Almost Over
2007-06-04 04:37:00 I know I have been grossly incognito when I get emails from family asking if I’m not in jail. I’m fine. I’ve just been extraordinarily busy. The EBS shows wrap up at the end of this month. I’m looking forward to that. I want my weekends back. I also have been busy with editing movies for ... More About: Season , Seas
We are Becoming a Different Kind of School
2007-05-15 16:41:00 This all started when Chris had the idea to make little films and have them be part of the curriculum. His friend Shane shot some sample scenes in Canada with professional actors, and that was the original plan. Then for fun, we made our own little movies for Summer Intensive Courses in August, even using ... More About: School , Rent , Ming , Diff
Criminal Investigation
2007-05-13 03:53:00 I’m sure you know all the dust stirring around because of what I wrote here. It was in The Korea Herald, and other media outlets are picking up on the story too. If you have been out of the loop, I’ll fill you in. All that factual information I wrote regarding my case against L.N. ... More About: Investigation , Invest , Criminal , Rimi , Mina
Holdin? Up
2007-05-04 16:21:00 Man, stuff has been happenin’, hasn’t it? I have been getting a lot of concerns from people, and I just want to say Wow! Thanks. What a lot of people see as problems I see as opportunities. A very wise teacher of mine stopped in the middle of class, became silent, and told us ... More About: Hold
The Book
2007-05-01 16:53:00 An essay that I wrote on Korean food and essays and photos from other foreigners in Korea, including some that you have seen on this site, is now published in the book Korea Up Close. You can buy your copy at Seoul Selection right now. If you look closely, you can see ... More About: Book , E Book
Gave It to Brant
2007-04-18 04:53:00 Man, I’m sore. But it’s a good sore. For over a month I have had my weekends taken up with taping shows. It’s fun. Yet until this weekend, taping went for twelve hours each day (including the long wait for the studio to be free). I got blisters on ... More About: Rant , Brant
Live and On the Air
2007-04-06 04:31:00 Well, it looks like the new channel has been unveiled and is on the air. We saw a little thing about it on the main EBS channel this morning. It’s now called “EBSenglish,” or “EBSe.” I’ll admit, I’m pretty impressed with it. Man, my acting needs to get better. As of now, they have the ... More About: On The Air , Live , The A
EBS Time
2007-04-03 05:15:00 Third time’s the charm… maybe. My third trip to Immigration on Friday they approved my application and printed a blurb on the back of my Alien Registration Card giving me permission to do the TV shows. It was a long day at work on Friday, and I tried to go to bed early. I had ... More About: Time
I Hate Immigration!
2007-03-28 03:47:00 I have posted many stories on my adventures with Korean Immigration . Rarely have I had any — ANY — good experience with them. Simple tasks become nightmares. Some of the Immigration weirdness I have been able to stave off and anticipate beforehand. For example, I knew from message boards in 2005 that the rules changed ... More About: Hate
I Hate Immigration!
2007-03-28 03:47:00 I have posted many stories on my adventures with Korean Immigration . Rarely have I had any — ANY — good experience with them. Simple tasks become nightmares. Some of the Immigration weirdness I have been able to stave off and anticipate beforehand. For example, I knew from message boards in 2005 that ... More About: Hate , Hat
I Hate Immigration!
2007-03-28 03:47:00 I have posted many stories on my adventures with Korean Immigration . Rarely have I had any — ANY — good experience with them. Simple tasks become nightmares. Some of the Immigration weirdness I have been able to stave off and anticipate beforehand. For example, I knew from message boards in 2005 that the rules changed ... More About: Hate
Can You Guess Brant?s Wedding Gift?
More articles from this author:2007-03-24 01:25:00 This is the styrofoam packaging that came with Brant ’s much belated wedding gift. Okay, this isn’t Brant’s wedding gift itself. I bought it for myself and another one for him because we both have been wanting one of these. They just came in from America this week. So, any guesses on what ... More About: Wedding , Gift , Guess 1, 2, 3 |
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