ZenKimchi AdventuresZenKimchi AdventuresLife in Korea is always an adventure. Started out in 2004 as an English teacher -- my how things are changing! Articles
Trippin? #2: Take Your Brother to Work Day
2008-03-31 01:33:00 My first full day in the U.S. was rainy. It was rainy when I left Seoul, and it was rainy when I arrived in America–well, with tornadoes. Rather than spend the day getting over jet lag and watching TV, I wanted to spend it at Ben’s restaurant, Franco ’s, where he’s the head chef and creator ... More About: Work , Atlanta , Brother
Trippin? #1: Arrival in the U.S.
2008-03-25 01:13:00 The six-hour layover in Tokyo finally ended. On the way to the gate, I stopped to have some ramen and a beer. I was the only non-Japanese ordering a hot meal, even though I was surrounded by Americans there, who were trying to figure out what to get but seemed timid about ordering. The flight from ... More About: Immigration
Back in Korea
2008-03-23 17:11:00 A quick note to everyone concerned: Back home. Everyone and everything is safe with only trivial snags this time. Going to bed now. More About: Korea
Sitting in Japan
2008-03-13 08:05:00 Geez! This trip, as I was afraid of, has had its little snafus–or rather, it(where is the freaking apostrophe on this Japan ese keyboard…oh there freaking apostrophe on this Japanese keyboard…oh there) it’s not been one of those trips where I can sit back, relax and just go with the flow. Eun Jeong saw me off in a ...
I?m Off!
2008-03-12 21:49:00 It’s 5:30 in the morning, and I can’t sleep. My taxi leaves at 7:00. The airport limo bus will arrive at the airport at 8:00. I’ll board my flight at 10:00. It’ll take off at 10:20. (six-hour layover in Tokyo) Then I’ll be on my way home for the first time in FOUR YEARS!! (…and one month) It’ll be ...
A Month of Anticipation
2008-03-11 01:18:00 I’ve been working on many things as of late. The writing still takes up a lot of my “free space.” I’m worried that it’s hurting the Food Journal. I notice that I’ve been sitting on posts in case I want to use them in other articles. In the meantime, I’ve been attending Korean class. I’m actually pretty good in it. It’s greatly helped my confidence. I’ve also been working on setting up the new podcast. That’ll start in a few weeks. I’m excited about that. I’ve set up the web site, made tests of Skype and the editing software, set up panelists/guests, and gotten everything hooked up with iTunes. I’m also going to go on a big trip this week. Eun Jeong will be taking over my classes while I’m gone. I’ve been training her for almost a week now. I was asked a couple of weeks ago to send a picture and resume to the Seoul government. I was a candidate to give a lecture on Kore... More About: Month
And Here is ZenKimchi’s Valentine’s Post
2008-02-15 02:49:00 Korean class was even better yesterday. I’m feeling a lot more confident. I got off the bus one station too early and booked it to class. I got there just on time. A few in our group were later than me. I sat in the front of the class so I could be the class nerd. Chris W. did the same but against the wall. Holly asked if she could have a piece of paper. I ripped one out of my free KFC notebook and asked her why. She said that Sean had forgotten his Korean notebook. I gave him my Korean notebook from Tuesday. When class started, the teacher asked us to get out our notebooks. She asked why I didn’t have a Korean notebook. I pointed, “Son Babo-ssi!” She gave me another notebook. Chris P. showed up. He was late because he had to feed his kids breakfast. He sat in the front next to me, and we competed on who could be the biggest teacher’s pet. Early on, she was correcting Chris W. and his use of banmal. He fixed himself quickly.Â... More About: Post
Scary Day
2008-02-13 15:11:00 We’ve had Market Days at school this week from over a year hiatus. This is where the kids who have been accumulating a our little school money from doing well on tests and such get to spend it on merchandise that we set up in a classroom. Chris P.’s classroom was used for that, so ... More About: Scary
I am Stupid Hand
2008-02-13 02:16:00 We started Korean classes yesterday at the community center. I didn’t expect it to be so popular. Chris, Sean and I arrived together and sat in the back of the class with the rest of the Breakfast Club. Many of us were looking forward to being in classes with a bunch of hot Vietnamese mail-order ... More About: Stupid , Hand
Met the Fam
2008-02-10 08:38:00 We did it. I met Eun Jeong’s mother, and it was a success! We had booked train tickets to Pohang (next to Gyeongju ) but were too late to book train tickets for the return home, so we got bus tickets instead. We woke up early and made it to the train station at a decent time. I ...
The Breakfast Club
2008-02-07 04:20:00 I’m getting increasingly anxious. We’re heading to Gyeongju tomorrow to meet Eun Jeong’s mother for the first time. It’ll be a short overnight trip. I hear they’re nervous too. They’ve only seen foreigners on TV. We’ve been stressing on what a good gift would be. I wanted to get ... More About: Breakfast , Lunar New Year , Club , Brats
My Baby?s Back
2008-01-20 15:47:00 This was another pretty good and interesting weekend. I was planning to go out and do some research and pics for my next magazine article. Then I figured that it was a better day to experiment in the kitchen. I made a good bit of food and freak shows. I also cleaned the ... More About: Baby , Back , Anyang , Noise
Surreal Day Part 2
2008-01-19 03:21:00 You know, it wasn’t a strange day. But it certainly wasn’t normal. It wasn’t strange that my “Monkey Class” again did horribly on their grammar quiz. What got me angry was that after all we had gone through grammar-wise, this was supposed to be easy for them. It’s the last major grammar unit in “Up and ... More About: Discipline , Surreal , Part
The Pee Pee Players
2008-01-18 04:41:00 This day is starting off on the surreal side. Woke up this morning to the people next door again power drilling for some reason. How do you say, “Shut the fuck up, people are sleeping” in Korean? The morning winter school class I started to teach while trying to not notice the boy playing with himself through ... More About: Players
A Perfect Storm of Idiocy
2008-01-17 16:46:00 A quick little example of how stupid I am… Eun Jeong has been at her mother’s in Gyeongju for the past week to recharge her batteries. I’ve been having a good ole time this week playing computer games and eating foods that I’m forbidden to eat when she’s around. I’ve even broken out my pipe (tobacco) ... More About: Storm , Perfect , Perfect Storm , Idiocy
Guns and Survivors
2008-01-11 01:32:00 The fever returned with a vengeance. This was exactly was Eun Jeong had the week before. I went to work on Friday with just a headache, and it developed into the one of the worst headaches I ever had. I violated all the sensible over-the-counter rules and took nine aspirins that day, ... More About: Guns , Podcasting , Fever , Survivors
Weird Illness
2007-12-28 02:41:00 Last night, I watched TV on the sofa and went to bed after Eun Jeong fell asleep. I noticed I had a small headache from the base of the neck, which I assumed was from my position on the sofa. I also felt colder than usual under the comforter. I then woke up in the middle ... More About: Weird , Illness
HanaTV — Saved
2007-12-26 15:49:00 Just a note that I easily figured out how we could have both basic cable and Internet TV at the same time. It wasn’t hard. Just a basic hook up. Yet the installer guy told us that it was impossible to get both to work and told us not to fiddle with it. I hadn’t gotten around to checking out the hook up until tonight, when Eun Jeong complained that she missed some of her favorite shows. Now I’m a hero.
The Christmas Post
2007-12-26 03:25:00 Saturday was a nice lazy day–except for poor Eun Jeong, who was suffering from a cold/fever. I spent the day cleaning, and I made egg nog that night. It was the best tasting egg nog I had made, but it was also way thick. Chris wanted me to join everyone early Sunday morning for a pellet gun survival game. I didn’t want to wake up early, and I had a meeting at noon. I hope to join them next time. The meeting was with The Korea Herald about a new section they’re planning to add, tentatively called “Expat Life.” Even though I left at 10 o’clock for the noon meeting, I had a hard time finding the building. I always get lost in Seoul. According to my map, I could get out of exit 3 at Seoul Station. I had forgotten, though, that Seoul Station had two exits 3. I got out a little too soon. I eventually found the little curved side road where the Anglican church was and ran into the British embassy when Regina called. “We’re waiting fo... More About: Christmas , Post
The Carpenters at Christmas
2007-12-24 17:39:00 Forgive me a little cheesy nostalgic Christmas indulgence. Amongst my immediate family’s family traditions is the shamelessly white bread Carpenters Christmas Portrait album of 1978. We have heard this tape on a loop so many times that my brother and sisters have alternative lyrics (”It looks like snow and smells like snow”), profound questions (Is there a subversive message in the lyrics “Fill the bowl and roll out the barrel, have ourselves a fling”) and even a little choreography. This is not just a series of Christmas songs. It’s a complete album that sounds like a variety show of the ’70s variety with a little added Lawrence Welk white guys in red turtlenecks and black pants doing jazz hands. And seriously, Richard Carpenter is a talented music arranger. We heard rumor here and there that there actually was a Carpenters Christmas special with the songs on it. Well, thanks to the Internet, I have found that there indeed was one. And... More About: The Carpenters
Do You Ever Feel Really Stupid?
2007-12-22 02:39:00 So far, this Internet TV (HanaTV) has been good for us. Eun Jeong is too cute. She usually spends her evenings watching the same old Korean soaps. Thursday night, while she was in the shower, I thought I’d check out what food programs they had available. They had seasons one and two of “Hell’s Kitchen.” ... More About: Christmas , Stupid , Feel
Keeping in the Spirit
2007-12-20 04:04:00 Eun Jeong has been cute this week. We’re still in her first year of teaching. She has been desperate for fun projects in the classroom. Recently, she has been begging me for CDs and lyrics of Christmas music. She’s been learning the songs and singing them around the house. ... More About: Podcasting , The Spirit , Spirit
Bye at the Hi OB
2007-12-13 03:38:00 Here I go again, complaining about my health like an old man. I have a serious Seoul cough for the first time in two years. I could have sworn that I had beaten it. They must have changed the pollution composition recently. Actually, we had a small but severe spout of unseasonal yellow dust ... More About: Food , Korean , Anyang
Decadence
2007-12-11 03:45:00 I’ve basically summed up my weekend on the Food Journal already. In our personal lives, things have been going up and down like the weather. Eun Jeong got hired for a job that she wanted. But the next day she got a call saying that they weren’t ready to hire someone yet. We’ve also found out ... More About: Christmas , Elections , Korean
Hintings of Mass Exodus?
2007-12-08 01:05:00 Well, Kurt’s gone. Miss Koco is leaving in a little over a week. Others are leaving too. I’m getting invites to farewell parties almost every other day. And, no, I they don’t have anything to do with the crazy new E-2 visa regulations. Speaking of which, people are starting to panic a bit, mostly because ... More About: Christmas , Cooking , Food , Immigration , Mass
Mr. Hubbly Bubbly
2007-12-03 15:18:00 It felt like this was a bit of a crazy week. I think it was the buzz and a bit of the stress of having the writer “M” in town. Well, it wasn’t really stress. It’s just that my knowledge of Korean food is pretty good, but my knowledge of Seoul sucks. Really, whenever I go into Seoul to eat, it’s for foreign food. The foreign food in Seoul is better than it is in Anyang, except for the Brazilian restaurant. And most every time I’ve had Korean food in Seoul, it has never stacked up to what I get in Anyang on a typical day. So I was stressing on how to help him find places that were good. Luckily, Daniel and some other folks were able to help him with that. I got sick Wednesday night with a fever. We had a blast of yellow dust enter the country earlier, and it embedded in my lungs. I’m still fighting some bronchitis (the Seoul Cough). Eun Jeong took good care of me when I came down with the fever. I text messaged her from w... More About: Bubbly
Feels Like Things Are Happening Again
2007-11-27 02:58:00 What is it about November? Last November was the KOTESOL conference that got the ball rolling on a lot of projects, one leading to my gig at EBSe. This November, especially in this past week, it has seemed a lot of opportunities have popped up. I’m almost definitely going to add writing for The Korea Herald ... More About: Things
What the F&@! Was Up With That?
2007-11-20 03:52:00 November 19th. Snow and Violent Lightning. Mother Nature’s PISSED! Copyright © 2007 ZenKimchi Adventures. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact legal@www.zenkimchi.com so we can take legal action immediately.Plugin by Taragana More About: Weather
My Evening with the Bulgarian Ambassador
2007-11-17 04:34:00 I’ve recently become friends with fellow food writer Daniel Gray. He invited me out to Zelen’s in Itaewon for their wine party on Friday night. I was hesitant to go because I get off work at 8:30–which puts me in Itaewon at 9:30. The last buses for home leave around 1:00, so I gotta keep my eye on the clock the whole time. I did end up going. Zelen’s is a Belgian/French bistro in upper Itaewon, where all the new trendy restaurants are. It’s owned by the same woman who owns the popular Suji’s. Unfortunately, she wasn’t there that night, and I didn’t get to meet her. I came in right behind a group of young Korean women, who didn’t know a wine party was going on that night. They felt intimidated at the door and left. The guy at the door told me about the dress code–wear something silver. No one said anything about this before. So I was obligated to buy some cheap silver-looking bracelet on top of the 29,000 w... More About: Bulgarian , Ambassador , Evening
The Homemade Air Gun
More articles from this author: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, ... 1, 2, 3 |
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