Saturday, December 5, 2009
Flickr Photostream
I don't update my Flickr often, but I decided to put up a Flickr Photostream up here. You can find it at the very bottom of the side menu. As I've mentioned in the past, I'm trying to get better at photography, and I also have my photo blog here. Feel free to browse either spot and please pretty please give commets. Some comments I've gotten in the past have really helped my photography skills. If not, just enjoy...
Christmas Obsession
Call me what you like, I can't stand Christmas time. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas day. I love eating and seeing family and the like. But I hate the hype. I hate Christmas shopping, I hate Christmas music with a passion, and you know what, even Santa Claus is starting to seem a little ridiculous.Now, I'm not making any judgments on any other country when I say this, but America has a sick obsession with Christmas. Why does the Christmas music have to start on November 1st, playing on the radio? (that's no exaggeration if you've never heard it before) Why do we need to buy not one gift, but so many gifts for our loved ones? We spend so much money on gifts. These gifts are usually things that people don't need and sit in the closet, get re-gifted or go out in the next yard sale (secretly, of course). In fact, why do we even have the word re-gift in our vocabulary? The whole idea is somewhat silly, really. We have so much stuff in our lives, yet, we give more stuff every year for Christmas, so we can add to the stuff pile.
Now, I know it's the fault of the economy, but working at Macy's this year is making me realize the extent of the economic crisis underway. Here it is, Christmas time, and the mall is quite empty. Black Friday was bad, but I'm sure if you compared it to what it was like a few years ago, I'm sure it paled in comparison. I'm hoping people will realize in this economic downturn that we don't need so much stuff in our lives. If you need to give a gift, just give some money... something that everyone could use a little of at this time.. Frankly, I hope I don't get any Christmas presents this year. My mom bought me a new ski jacket for Christmas, since mine is quite worn, but she told me it's all I'm getting. And I'm thankful. The last thing I need is more stuff.
Be wise, ask for no gifts this year. Do you really need that useless stuff anyway?
Here's a photo I found when I typed "santa" into google's image search.... this is a Korea blog... let's tie it in somehow... Are those mailmen? The definitely work for the Korean post office..
Friday, December 4, 2009
Job Hunt Update
Well, after many attempts (and I mean many) I have finally gotten two interviews. One with Readingtown in Hongdae and one at SLP in Songpa. I already have the contract from Readingtown, and I'm waiting on the one from the SLP. I've heard good things about the Readingtown, but after reviewing the contract I'm feeling a bit sketched out... Here's why:
1 day paid sick leave/year
one day orientation
vacations in 3 day spurts throughout the year
withholding first 10 days pay and not giving it back until the end of the contract
not giving cash for airfare if you stay in the country after your contract completion
and no sneakers at work...
I think there were some others, but these were what stuck out in my mind...
My Neighborhood
Before I left Korea, I took some photos of my neighborhood to make some blog posts after I left. First I'd like to show you around Sindang Station area, the station closest to my old home.
Here is my apartment entrance. It's supposed to be called Joongang Cityville. Unfortunately, that "CI" sound doesn't really exist in Korean and the closest is a "SHI" sound. Therefore, I lived in Joongang Shitty-ville for the past year and 4 months...
My FamilyMart... One building over... very fun to hang out there when the weather is nice...
A back alley near my house. My one adventure down there lead to me finding many strange oddities like pig's nose, hooves and maybe ears for sale. I never went down there after that... They don't get many forigners down there, you get some strange looks back there...
A new cell phone store. Three stores down from another cell phone store, and probably across the street from 3 others. But this one is particularly big and new and shiny.
The corner leading to my house. It's kind of cut off, but you can see on the first floor here there is a big fish place (the one that says 9900 won). On nice nights the sidewalk here will be full of tables where people eat thier 회 (hui- raw fish. Correct my spelling if necessary... ) and soju. I always ment to try it, but it never happened...
Here is one entrance to Sindang station. I was super lucky to live in such a good area. Sindang is on the green line, line 2, which makes a circle around the whole city, and it intersects with line 6, the brown line that goes to Itaewon. It's only 1 stop away from Dongdaemun stadium where 3 lines meet, and 2 stops away from Wangsimni, where another 3 lines meet (eventually will be 4 lines... someday).
The vegetable halmoni (grandmother). I only ever bought things here a few times in a year and a half, but I always felt like I should have bought from her more often.. poor old woman out in her vegetable shack no matter the weather. She seemed very sweet too...
The cool thing about my neighboorhood was that there were many shops that make those mother of pearl inlaid wood things that you can buy in Insadong. There are at least 7 or 8 shops that I've seen, and there could be more on some side streets that I never ventured down. I'll bet many of the things that you buy in Insadong are made right around here. I always wondered if it would be cheaper to buy them here, than in insadong, but they never really looked like stores, just the workshops. Maybe if you wanted something big and custom made you could come here.
Stay tuned, I'll have 2 more posts about my old neighborhood!
**Atention stalkers, I don't live here anymore, so don't try to find me here...
Here is my apartment entrance. It's supposed to be called Joongang Cityville. Unfortunately, that "CI" sound doesn't really exist in Korean and the closest is a "SHI" sound. Therefore, I lived in Joongang Shitty-ville for the past year and 4 months...
My FamilyMart... One building over... very fun to hang out there when the weather is nice...
A back alley near my house. My one adventure down there lead to me finding many strange oddities like pig's nose, hooves and maybe ears for sale. I never went down there after that... They don't get many forigners down there, you get some strange looks back there...
A new cell phone store. Three stores down from another cell phone store, and probably across the street from 3 others. But this one is particularly big and new and shiny.
The corner leading to my house. It's kind of cut off, but you can see on the first floor here there is a big fish place (the one that says 9900 won). On nice nights the sidewalk here will be full of tables where people eat thier 회 (hui- raw fish. Correct my spelling if necessary... ) and soju. I always ment to try it, but it never happened...
Here is one entrance to Sindang station. I was super lucky to live in such a good area. Sindang is on the green line, line 2, which makes a circle around the whole city, and it intersects with line 6, the brown line that goes to Itaewon. It's only 1 stop away from Dongdaemun stadium where 3 lines meet, and 2 stops away from Wangsimni, where another 3 lines meet (eventually will be 4 lines... someday).
The vegetable halmoni (grandmother). I only ever bought things here a few times in a year and a half, but I always felt like I should have bought from her more often.. poor old woman out in her vegetable shack no matter the weather. She seemed very sweet too...
The cool thing about my neighboorhood was that there were many shops that make those mother of pearl inlaid wood things that you can buy in Insadong. There are at least 7 or 8 shops that I've seen, and there could be more on some side streets that I never ventured down. I'll bet many of the things that you buy in Insadong are made right around here. I always wondered if it would be cheaper to buy them here, than in insadong, but they never really looked like stores, just the workshops. Maybe if you wanted something big and custom made you could come here.Stay tuned, I'll have 2 more posts about my old neighborhood!
**Atention stalkers, I don't live here anymore, so don't try to find me here...
Alcatraz Prison
A welcome to Alcatraz Island. Remnants of the prison, and the Native American occupancy from 1969-1970.
Welcome to prison.
Here is your cell.
Here is your cell.
Guard Tower
From inside the dining hall
Don't help the prisoners escape!Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Frustrations in America
You know, I have so many friends dying to come back to the States, but for me I see the states as a place of endless frustrations and expenses that I don't have to worry about while living in Seoul. I've been home only a week or so, and I'm already so frustrated with certain points of life that I can't get back to Korea soon enough.
1: Lack of health insurance. I'm sick. I don't know what's wrong, but my asthma is kicking up something terrible, I have a hacking cough, and my nose is an endless faucet. No idea what it could be but it's been going on for a week and a half. But I refuse to go to the doctor because I have no health insurance. It's not even the doctor's appointment that is so expensive, but if I need drugs or tests on top of the doctor's visit, it's going to get too expensive. Even trickier is the fact that I live in Massachusetts, the only state where it is mandatory to have health insurance. I love that idea, but I don't plan on staying that long and I don' t know if I can get health insurance for just one month. I have two choices if I want to get health insurance. I can get the cheap plans, but it will cover nothing and I might as well just pay out of pocket, or I can get the expensive ones and pay very little IF I actually need to go to the doctor. What is a person to do? I miss Korea, where the national health plan covers just about everything.
2: Transportation. Relatively, by American standards, my house is in a very good area to get public transportation. By Korean standards it is very low. Today I had to take the bus home from Macy's for the first time since I was in middle school. It took me 2 hours to get home. It took me 15 minutes to drive on the way to work. Why didn't I drive home? Well, I drive with my mom to work, since she works at Macy's too, and we start at the same time. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I finish at 10:00, where as my mom finishes at 2:30. So, I either have to wait for her at the mall for 4.5 hours, or I can take the bus home.. and get home 2 hours before she does. Some options. I had to catch the bus from the mall, to Quincy station. That only runs once an hour. Then from there I caught another bus, which also runs once an hour. And wouldn't it figure that I just missed one bus and had to sit for nearly an hour for the next one to arrive. Then that bus did a zigzag tour of Quincy and my town until finally dropping me 1 minute from my house. I think tomorrow, I'm going to ride the bus to the train, take the train to JFK/UMass, change from JFK/UMass to the Ashmont line, and take the trolley to my house that way. Yes, it may take longer.. maybe, but at least I'll be inside instead of outside in the freezing cold waiting for a bus.
3: Home. I won't go into personal details, but living at home isn't exactly a peaceful existence for me. One problem I need to get over at home is the cat. Our cat is very sweet, but I'm allergic to her. It could be the cause of one of my symptoms, though I was definitely sick in San Francisco too, so I can't blame it all on her.
1: Lack of health insurance. I'm sick. I don't know what's wrong, but my asthma is kicking up something terrible, I have a hacking cough, and my nose is an endless faucet. No idea what it could be but it's been going on for a week and a half. But I refuse to go to the doctor because I have no health insurance. It's not even the doctor's appointment that is so expensive, but if I need drugs or tests on top of the doctor's visit, it's going to get too expensive. Even trickier is the fact that I live in Massachusetts, the only state where it is mandatory to have health insurance. I love that idea, but I don't plan on staying that long and I don' t know if I can get health insurance for just one month. I have two choices if I want to get health insurance. I can get the cheap plans, but it will cover nothing and I might as well just pay out of pocket, or I can get the expensive ones and pay very little IF I actually need to go to the doctor. What is a person to do? I miss Korea, where the national health plan covers just about everything.
2: Transportation. Relatively, by American standards, my house is in a very good area to get public transportation. By Korean standards it is very low. Today I had to take the bus home from Macy's for the first time since I was in middle school. It took me 2 hours to get home. It took me 15 minutes to drive on the way to work. Why didn't I drive home? Well, I drive with my mom to work, since she works at Macy's too, and we start at the same time. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I finish at 10:00, where as my mom finishes at 2:30. So, I either have to wait for her at the mall for 4.5 hours, or I can take the bus home.. and get home 2 hours before she does. Some options. I had to catch the bus from the mall, to Quincy station. That only runs once an hour. Then from there I caught another bus, which also runs once an hour. And wouldn't it figure that I just missed one bus and had to sit for nearly an hour for the next one to arrive. Then that bus did a zigzag tour of Quincy and my town until finally dropping me 1 minute from my house. I think tomorrow, I'm going to ride the bus to the train, take the train to JFK/UMass, change from JFK/UMass to the Ashmont line, and take the trolley to my house that way. Yes, it may take longer.. maybe, but at least I'll be inside instead of outside in the freezing cold waiting for a bus.
3: Home. I won't go into personal details, but living at home isn't exactly a peaceful existence for me. One problem I need to get over at home is the cat. Our cat is very sweet, but I'm allergic to her. It could be the cause of one of my symptoms, though I was definitely sick in San Francisco too, so I can't blame it all on her.
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