Chris on January 31st, 2010

Mmmmmm….puppy for dinner!!!  No I am kidding, although you can grab a meal of DOG meat soup in Korea…but I haven’t done that YET!

Getting to the dog cafe..

I went to a meet-up with other people from meetup.com.  The meet-up was at a dog cafe.  This dog cafe was at the Jangsan stop on Line 2 subway in Busan.  Quite a few people made it to the meet-up on Sunday, although I didn’t interact with many of them.  I was deathly hungover from the previous night.  My bus to Haeundae took 2 fucking hours because of construction and traffic!!!  It at least gave me a chance to chill out and catch up on a few podcasts. 

After my bus FINALLY arrived, I had to walk to the subway station for a short subway ride (2 stops) to get to Jangsan.  Now, I have a bus/subway pass on my cell phone (which will be discussed in a later post), so it makes the subway quicker since I don’t have to buy a ticket. Read the rest of this entry »

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Chris on January 26th, 2010

Just a little video I put together from Monkey Mountain….nothing special.

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Chris on January 15th, 2010

This is just going to be a post of what one of my students wrote.  I asked my highest level class to write me an essay about ANYTHING they wanted.  Posted below is what one of my students wrote.  I didn’t change/correct anything in any way.  This is what my student had to say:

“I don’t like Korean educational system.  All of students in Korea is not a human, expressly, high school students.  They are just a robot that have to study.  All of high school student go to school at 8am and finish the school at 10p.m.  It’s over 12 a.m when they come back home, because they have to go academy or library after school, it’s crazy!  Students can’t be happy in this society!!!  It must change.  Study hard is good for us, but study by force is not good for us.”

I think she pretty much sums up why all Korean students hate their lives and why Korea’s suicide rate is so high among teenage kids.

I swear, I might take all of this one student’s writings and make a book out of them.  She is very opinionated, smart and isn’t afraid to express herself….I don’t think she is actually Korean.  She is 16 and has to study/be in school for an average of 10 hours a day, EVERYday…even Sunday her and her brother have to study.  It sounds like hell.

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Chris on January 14th, 2010

Taiwan is a fantastic country.  The people are nice, they speak a good amount of English, the strip clubs are out of this world, the food is delicious and the weather in winter is lovely.  Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Korea, but once I am done in Korea and travel a good bit, I could see me living/working in Taiwan…raining terror on little Taiwanese children.

Motorbikes/scooters/mopeds…whatever

Whatever you want to call them….they are EVERYWHERE!  I haven’t been to any SE Asia countries, so I am sure it isn’t as crazy as Vietnam or anything, but there are a shit ton compared to Korea.  Taiwan is definitely a motorbike country.  They have special street markers for only the motorbikes because there are so many.  Just like in Korea, the traffic laws are suggestions and not really “laws”. 

Taiwan vs Korea ESL

I love scooters, so this is a definite positive for living in Taiwan.  You get to pick (I guess you HAVE to) your own apartment because the schools do not provide you with one, but you Read the rest of this entry »

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Chris on January 12th, 2010

So…I went to Taiwan for 10 days during my Winter break.  This is just one experience from my visit….I will post another entry about more of my Taiwanese experience (I really will because I have already written it in a notebook!!).

Monkey freakin’ Mountain!

While I was in Taiwan, a few people told me about some MUST do things while traveling in Taiwan.  One of those “must do” activities was to visit Taroko Gorge, but I wasn’t able to make it because of time constraint and there isn’t much else to do around that area.

Another must do activity was visiting/hiking Monkey Mountain in Kaohsiung.  Kaohsiung is the second largest city in Taiwan.  To get to monkey mountian, you can ask Read the rest of this entry »

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