First 10 Days

Annyeong Haseyo, friends!

First off, sorry I've been sooo busy DOING stuff I haven't had any chance to WRITE about it.

After my flight arrived in Korea on Thursday, June 18 at ~8:00 am, about two hours late, two nice young gents from my recruiting agency--HandS Korea--were at the airport to pick me up. One was Japanese, whom I conversed with in Japanese, and one was Korean, whose English was good enough to talk to in English. They drove me from Incheon airport to Ansan, which took about an hour and a half. On the way I noticed almost all cars were either Hyundai or Kia. Later I noticed that all other things are made by Samsung and LG. Korean people buy KOREAN.

Yamanaka-san on left. Mr. Kim on right.

They took me to my temporary apartment on the seventh floor of a building very near my school. I was just staying there for two days, but it was surprisingly nice and cozy. It came complete with:

Foyer--you must take off shoes before entering.

Bathroom--all regular amenities except a separate shower. The shower was just a spout in the corner and there is a drain under the sink. However, my new permanent apartment has a bigger bathroom and does have a nice separate shower with a door and everything. So that's cool.

Staircase to upstairs bedroom.

Kitchen--sink, clothes washer/dryer combo (no dishwasher), two burners (no oven), fridge, microwave, etc.

There was also an A/C unit and one thing far superior to American apartments: HEATED FLOORS. Useless in Florida (and now in summer), but anywhere it gets cold, you can't beat heated wood floors when you wake up on a cold winter morning.

Bedroom--this bedroom had a high ceiling, but my new place's bedroom, also upstairs, only has about a four-foot ceiling. So no jumping jacks, sleeping room only.




My new, permanent place is almost exactly the same but nicer and newer, with a bigger kitchen and bathroom but low-ceiling bedroom. I think you get the picture. And it's on the 9th floor of one the tallest buildings (if not the tallest) in Ansan.

Here's my view from the 9th floor:

If you noticed the mountain in the distance, Korea is full of mountains. And many people's favorite hobby is hiking and mountain climbing. That is the topic of my next blog, Ryan's First Hike.





But first, here's a quick recap of my first 10 days in Korea. So far, I have:


-been to several bars and tried soju and the local brews (Cass & Hite).

This is a 3Liter draft tower of Cass. Costs 12,000 won (about 10 bucks) at Cave Bar (see the rocks behind it? yea, CAVE Bar).







-eaten out at like 20 places (eating out is about the same price as cooking for yourself--no tax, no tip). I've tried all kinds of things from bebimbap to kimbap, from mandu to dulgass, from bulgogi to kimchi.
Pictured from left to right: kimchi mandu jige (kimchi dumpling stew), dulgass (fried pork cutlet in sauce) & fries, omlet with meat inside covered in ketchup & mustard. All of this for just 11,000 won (<10 bucks) OVERfed 2 people.

-visited Seoul (with my coworker, Lee) and went to the coolest night club I've ever been to (with tons of LASERS!), danced with many hot korean chicks, and got very wasted off of cocktails and imports (like budweiser ahahha).

Oh! important note: No open container laws in Korea as far as I can tell. So you can drink in PUBLIC. yay!

-climbed a mountain (Gwanak-san).
-made some friends.
-taught 4th-8th grade Korean kids English.
-started picking up on some Korean, should be prettty good at it in a few months I think.

I'll go over my mountain climbing stuff tomorrow.

Annyeong Haseyo!

It all began...

...in Jacksonville, Florida on Wednesday, June 10, 2009. On my way from home to Seoul, South Korea, I made a pit stop for a week in Los Angeles, CA to stay with my cousin Brian and his girlfriend Meg in Beverly Hills 90211 (just one number too high, still loses on the Price is Right).

Brian works for an investment company, and Meg was staying with him for a summer law internship before returning to UC Davis for her final year of law school.

I had sooo much fun with them! We went out to some awesome places, from Angelo's on Melrose (imagine the thick Italian accent of our waiter, who ended every statement with "We are here to make you happy for your pleasure. Enjoy.") to Trader Vic's famous bar in the Beverly Hilton--complete with asian transvestite--to a dive bar. And that was just Friday night.

We went to the Santa Monica Pier and ate at The Lobster (got the lobster of course), and we saw all the zany street performers in the Promenade. Brian and Meg really took great care of me, and I thank them ever so much for that. (Now where's my nephew! hahaha)





The Santa Monica Pier












I also had my first Korean experience and Korean food in Los Angeles's Korea Town. With all the signs in Hangul and the kimchi, I felt like I was already there.











Soju Town (for my Three Sheets crew!)









My friend Ben Carson had also just moved to LA to work for the IRS (boooo), and HIS girlfriend, Michelle, was staying with him for the summer, too. My first night out, I went with Ben and Michelle to a comedy show downtown (pic above). We were late and saw just 2 comics, but the last one was hilarious, he came out as a Mexican in a sombrero, sunglasses, and aluminum foil teeth, and ended up being Korean (who was part Mexican).

I think that's LA for you, lots of people pretending to be something else. For instance, Ben's roommates: one is an aspiring actress who happens to do secretarial work; the other is "in a band" but actually edits porn for a living. The scantily clad woman below was also involved in the comedy show somehow, I'm just not sure how exactly (probably just to be scantily clad).



Oh, and it was Michelle's birthday while I was there, so we three went out on Saturday to the Getty Center Museum (aka Dr. Evil's secret lair). Next, that night to the old Pig 'n Whistle for a dinner and drinks. Then we met up with a buddy of Ben's (UCLA student, they met in Spain) at a ridiculously packed UCLA bar, because their graduation was the day before. Ahh, those days of being young and in college that I pretty much already put behind me after graduating a month earlier...

















Views from the Getty Center


















So what now? Well, I'm already in Korea--Ansan to be exact, a suburb of Seoul. It's my second day here, and I have pictures from my first, but I will have to wait to post that in the second installment on this blog. After all, if I spend too much time talking about the past I won't have time to have new experiences to talk about later. Annyeong! :-)