Interlude

Check out this blog about Health Care that really speaks a lot of truth (not conspiracies).

I'll put up more pictures later....


The Message - genius-and-sadness-of-our-health-care

JohnLoveisNotPretendingtobeinKorea.com

My travels took me to Namdaemun and Deoksugung (Palace of Virtuous Longevity).

I will add more and explain the trip further later. I'm on my way to see the largest palace in South Korea: Gyeongbokgung and hopefully the president's residence (White House equivalent) Cheongwadae.

Will, I hate you.

I made it to the end of this video, and I encourage you to do the same if you can.
You will first need to prepare yourself, as you are about to hear one of the stupidest people in our country speak out to her city council about...well, I'm not sure.
I heard her, but I'm still not sure what she said.
Because it is the definition of nonsense.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

and for a classic example of crazy and stupid combined, here's an oldie but goody.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Wow. I'm glad I still get the Daily Show and Colbert Report

If your interested in video games, then this is a very interesting story about trademarking and how the business side of the industry can negatively affect the consumer.

If video games are not your thing, then you'll definitely get a kick out of this video and the amazing ending.

Its under 5 minutes long so hopefully you can watch the whole thing, but if you're in a hurry, skip to 2:52.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
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www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Joke of the Day

My Second Day Exploring aka Korea's getting more and more interesting

This is the Skype conversation with my friend Will that I had earlier describing the incredible ordeal i went through the other night, and because I didn't feel like typing it again and thought his comments provided much insight, I simply copy and pasted. Please forgive any grammar or spelling mistakes and bear with my telling of the story.



[10:18:27 AM] John W Love III: I went eploring again, which is basically me getting on the metro and getting off randomly, and walking around
but i went into this place that looked like a western bar called slam bar. and they were playing some dope music and i heard babyface, so i was like, i gotta go in

so i did, and it was all koreans
and i went over to the bar, and two guys were sitting there like, WOW, in awe that a foreigner just came in for no reason

so i got a hienaken and the two guys started to ask me questions
like where i was from, and my family size, and why i came to korea
and we were basically kicking it, and they were like, have you had sex with a korean girl yet
and i said no
so they asked why not cause it would be so easy for me because im a foreigner, black, handsome and because im black i must be sexually gifted.
i said thanks, but i've only been here a week
one was pretty good at english, but he kept saying he wanted to meet a foriegner because he wanted to be better at english, and eventually travel elsewhere
so i was like thats cool. but he was saying it was destiny which brought me there, and that he could pay me for lessons in beer and women
i was like......no
but they were cool enough, and i had said i really liked the culture here, they were like we should go somewhere else. we had talked about clubs and other stuff, and they didnt really care for the bar we were in, and i had about four beers so i was like, whatever, im ready to go
so i was a little hesitant, but i got in a cab with them, and they were talking about showing me the real korea

now i know my surroundings from walking around, so i know the general direction of how to get back, and i'm thinking of which one to knock out first should something goes down
but they were both way drunker than i was, so i was thinking, i should be fine
so we get out and it looks like the typical scene: lights and cornerstores everywhere, and pretty much the standard city type look.
so he says to follow him and we go around a corner to another street only big enough to walk on right behind the main strip and he says, this is the real korea

and i realize they've have taken me to the gotdamn red light district


there were women all lined up behind glass and you just had to point and pay

so theyre like, choose one. they're treat

and im thinking NOOOOOOOOOOOOO
it was a very nice gesture on their part, but i was thinking of how to explain that i was morally opposed to paying for sex
so we started walking and he's like, how about these girls, and i'm like, no i dont like them
and he points to another store and is saying, how about these?
and im saying no, theyre not pretty enough
and so after about 10 shops he stops me and asks what the problem is
why? did i not like women?
i assured him i did, and that no, i was not interested in his friends asshole
and i didnt care how smooth his balls were
because that was described by them to me
but i wasnt worried because i know this culture is very homophobic to the point where there are no gays in korea, so it's okay to act kinda gay

[10:35:35 AM] krucialist: u know u wanna suck those balls
[10:35:41 AM] krucialist: they were probably smooth as eggs

and no
i didnt

so i tried to say i didnt like the idea of paying for sex
and he said its okay, he was paying, not me
and then i said i didnt want a disease

[10:37:07 AM] krucialist: the old STD excuse

and he said they were certified clean
and had documentation

[10:37:15 AM] krucialist: loll!
[10:37:18 AM] krucialist: got yo ass!

then i'm thinking, sh*t, how the hell can i get out of this and not appear like a racist snob or some sort of chump

and while im standing there, the dude walks into a shop and says we need three girls



..........................and the chick says no foreigners

[10:39:42 AM] krucialist: LOL
[10:39:45 AM] krucialist: and there it is

Im thinking HALLEEUJAH
so i say, oh well
that sucks
lets go

but he's like wtf?!
f*ck that. lets ask every brothel

so im thinking dammit
so he goes in to each place and is like how much? and they say: no foreigners everytime
him and his friend were heated
i was elated
in the end hes explaining sorry, and he's traveled so he understands discrimination, and he cant believe it, and that why he wants to leave the country, and im like dude, its fine. im not mad cause i got rejected by korean hookers. this is the best prejudice i've ever seen in my life

on an unrelated note, earlier in the night he also asked was it better to say negro or black guy
and i said black guy
this isnt 1842

[10:44:10 AM] krucialist: you negros are so sensitive

he also said in the mid 90's there was alot of prejudice against blacks in korea due to the 96 la riots
because all koreans saw were blacks burning and looting and going crazy, and it was reported to them by the scared white majority, and they just thought we were picking on white people

so the whole rodney king tape apparently never made it across seas

[10:48:13 AM] krucialist: so what u are telling me is that you owe white racism for saving you from having to bang a korean hooker?

no. i owe asshole foreigners before me for treating korean prostitutes like shit and so that i didnt have to have one

[10:49:20 AM] krucialist: ironically enough they were probably white

probably

[10:49:40 AM] krucialist: you goddamn foreigners

i also remember that another part of the no foreigner thing was to prevent the hookers from getting aids
so i was like hookers afraid i have disease? that's hilarious


UPDATE:

I forgot to add that I also tried to say that I was engaged, but one of the other guys was too, and assured me that she would never know cause we were 'all guys here'.

I have also been recently informed that prostitution here is generally socially accepted, and it is typical for businessmen to get deals done over soju and women, similar to how deals get done on the golf course in the west. This was very typical for the other guys, which I can now see was standard fare for them. So there was definitely no way they could have understood why I was morally against prostitution.





and on an unrelated but hilarious note:

Cookie Day at School!

My schedule at school goes like this:

9:30 - 11:30 - Joyful Class

11:30 - 12 - Gentle Class

12 - 12:50 - Lunch w/ the kids of Joyful

12:50 - 2 - Gentle Class

2:20 - 3:40 - Elementary Afterschool tutoring

3:40 - 5 - More tutoring with Director's kids (either Tim or Amy)





My Joyful class is 6 boys. They are the typical rowdy group of 5 year olds (since Korean ages are two years ahead of American ages- so if a girl says shes 18, she's actually 16).
They hate chairs. I have no video of them yet, but i took video of my other classes (after school and Gentle).

Here is my Gentle class, which, as you can see, is 5 girls and 1 boy; a sharp contrast to my Joyful class in gender only, because they are just as wild. And the one boy Aiden tries to make up for being the only boy by acting as wild as 3 of them combined.




Next, I have my tutoring, which is two separate classes, but this is the first one with Julia, Zoey and Selina. Despite the video evidence, they are smart but were just acting a fool because it was the last day before summer vacation. And Julia was saying earlier that she had the same camera as me but in a different color, but in the video realized mine was different.




Finally, the period I look towards most due to the fact that I can converse and have a discussion in English with my student is my tutor time with Amy which is on Monday's, Wed, Fri, and a little on Tues. She is the typical teenager which can be seen in these clips.





That is a 'cheese cake' she is eating. They have the similar flavor, but are fluffy like actual cake. I was really missing actual cheesecake eating that stuff.

I am on summer vacation now, which every student loves, and it's a whole week long!! (holy crap!)
I will do some day trips around Seoul and other parts of South Korea (been thinking about going down to the more tropical Busan) but was told to avoid the self proclaimed Hawaii of South Korea. Jeju-do island is apparently THE vacation spot for the country, so if I want to avoid the super mass of families and children, I should maybe go some other time.

I will post more video's of my travels later!

A Life in the Day of Love John

My Apartment!!!

Here is the view from my apartment:





And here is the apartment itself!

Once I Landed...

...I met a Korean man who helped me get on the bus at the airport which would take me to Bundang and my new home! The bus ride was very long and I dozed off at one point, since I only took two or three short naps over the previous 25 hours at this point.



Though the footage is dark, I assure you that it was a very bright and colorful city out the window. The line of white lights near the bottom is a long bridge.

More dark scenery.



When I arrived in Bundang, I saw that this suburb was simply a suburb in name alone, because I have never seen a suburb that looked like this.

Suburbs?

My 21 Hour Flight!

My itinerary stated that I was going to fly out of Dulles Int'l at 9:30 and arrive in L.A. around 11. Their time. Thats about 5 hours. And it was a little less, because the sky was so clear and sunny, and the weather was so perfect that we arrived early. I stepped off the plane to be reminded with each and every Kobe banner who really ran the city.




Booooooo. And who the hell is Kobe Bryant?









That was cool and all, but then I had to find the gate for the Korean airline, and then get my money exchanged to Won, and I also ate (which was pointless, because they served us two meals on the plane). After all this, I turned my cell phone off for the last time and boarded.

The view was horrible.

During the flight across America, I was in the middle seat and could see what looked to be interesting things out of the window. But the Japanese business man I was sitting next to kept nodding off and blocking the view, so I was stuck watching Duplicity starring Julia Roberts (could have been worse).

On the flight across the Pacific Ocean, all I could see was clouds, ice and water.




Ohh, look. More clouds!









Thoughtful or disappointed? Or just bored out of my skull?





The flight was long as hell because we had to fly along the land masses so that are jumbo jet wouldn't get torn to pieces by the ridiculous winds that blow across the sea, so we went up and followed the Bering Straight, then came down along Russia, and cut across Japan.




My one of many naps.







Just when I thought the flight was way too long, and the flight timer was reaching the end, we ended up doing circles for an hour around Korean cities due to the high turbulence and bad weather on the ground.




I found out later that this is apparently monsoon season.
Yay!!




I made it here in one piece! YAY!