Tyler in Real Life

Well, since my last few updates have been about events quite out of the ordinary, I figured this blog was due an update about my actual normal life - rather than a compendium of the various unusual trips I've taken. I don't want anybody thinking I'm some kind of jetset millionaire playboy who just parties his way across Asia. Actually, I would be totally ok with people thinking that. As such, this update will probably not contain the copious amounts of photos you may have become accustomed to in my extremely sporadic updates, but one hopes that the timeliness of this entry will make up for it.

If it works this time, this should be a brief tour of my apartment! Just to let everyone (who hasn't been here) know what my digs look like. You might have to turn the volume up a bit.

Anyway, as for the job situation, it's pretty much been same same but different, as my students would say. The teaching itself is pretty much identical, although I've definitely added quite the sleeveful of tricks to my repertoire to keep the students in line and get them speaking and writing in Engerlish. DecisionTime is quickly approaching as regards my future here at SLI, and a few weeks ago my meeting with 이상생님 (my boss) produced moderately favorable results. My original intention was to extend my contract for another five or six months, and end my tenure in December or January. This would have allowed me to visit Elise in Mali during the cold season, which I hear is about the only time I would be able to tolerate the climate there what with my Northern blood. This is looking to be increasingly unlikely because replacement teachers are few and far between in the winter months. Since we mostly hire recent college grads, naturally the summer months are peak season for new teachers. So, I am currently faced with choices: either I can leave in two or three months, whenever the school finds a replacement for me, or I can stick around for perhaps an entire extra year. Currently, since the pay is good, my living conditions favorable, and I would get a three-week vacation to go visit Elise, I am leaning heavily toward extending my contract for another full year. Am I nuts or what?

In other news, recently my bike ("Lil' Cuz") was stolen by some ne'erdowell from right outside my building. I console myself by laughing at the thief because of the terrible shape the bike is in. Although I mourn, my wounds are assauged by my acquisition of a totally free couch from what used to be Cafe Nostalgia. As I was walking to the drug store for some antacids, I noticed a veritable pile of loveseats and couches in the alley. Now, it is common practice in Korea, especially among foreigners, to pick up furniture that has been discarded near garbage pick-up zones (but only if its not really skanky-smelling). However, the preponderance of couches and their questionable placement near a recently-disemboweled bar and far from any trash pickups made me hesitate. I called Fellow Teacher Matt and we waited until the workers came back. Sure enough, they told us to hoist away what we wanted, so Matt and I each scored a couch, two matching cushions and a matching footstool.

Also recently, I joined a new gym that has just opened here in Suji. In an increasingly desperate attempt to make myself actually go to the gym, I shelled out the big bucks for a month's worth of personal training. Three days a week, four weeks. So far I have gone to the gym five days in a row and, seeing as how I have another session tomorrow, I don't see myself stopping anytime soon. Since the initial total muscle breakdown wore off (that just happened today), I have felt great! I'm also giving up red meat and increasing my veggie intake - just tonight I made a most righteous salad with more kinds of lettuce than I knew existed.

So, positive steps all around - I've got job security, mostly, I'm still meeting excellent new people all the time, and I'm feeling quite good. Which is good, because the big busy season is just starting to wind up, and soon I'll be pulling down 12-hour days at the academy.

Just to whet your appetite, here's a little sneak preview of what will probably be my next entry - a picture extravaganza of May's trip to Jeju Island:
That's me aboard my lovely motorcarriage Lucille. Don't I look beefy.

What's all this then?

What? What's a blog?

The past few months have not been without incident, and although that's no excuse for my beyond-sporadic updates, I feel that enough time and events have passed to merit another try at this whole "writing" thing.

First and foremost was March's trip to the wonderful city of Shanghai, in China. I went with three of my coworkers: Matt, Ryan and Alex. After touching down at the airport, we got to ride the bullet train, which was appropriately excellent.
This bad boy got up to 304 km/h while we were on it! And that wasn't even its top speed!


We spent the first few nights of the trip staying at the Blue Mountain hostel in a relatively quiet neighborhood of Shanghai. Or at least, it would have been quiet, had it not been...


Chinese New Year's! It sounded like a war zone outside the hostel every night we were in Shanghai. We bought a bunch of fireworks from a cart on the corner of the street and proceeded to go nuts, nearly blowing up a taxi in the process. Then, we took a cab (even cheaper than Korea!) to the French Concession and had dinner at 1001 Arabian Nights, a tasty if expensive themed restaurant/hookah bar. We then went to a bar where I beat the hostesses in foosball.

Waking up the next day, we made a beeline for what our guidebook promised had some of the best breakfast in Shanghai. As you can see, I was not disappointed:
That is powdered sugar from my french toast. POWDERED SUGAR. Anyway, the breakfast was stellar and since we were in the French Concession anyway we decided to take a little stroll which turned up a few surprises. First off was this blast from my past:
The Shanghai Conservatory of music! In 2002, I and my fellow members of the Eastview High School Band program played a very memorable exchange concert here during which our band and the conservatory's orchestra had unwittingly prepared the same Gershwin piece.

We continued strolling through the FC, until we hit the district's downtown shopping area. In front of a statue of the emperor, I was pulled into a family photo by this very enthusiastic dad, who literally shouldered his kids out of the way to stand next to me:

And we're back! Upon walking through the busier part of the French Concession, we came out the other side at beautiful Fuxing Park. In this park, there were a couple of fine gentlemen:
There was also a highly-illegal gambling game going on in the corner, but our attempts to photograph it were met with angry Mandarin and shooing motions.
Here's the game, over in the corner there. Sketchy! Fuxing Park was very beautiful and quite large, and home to a number of surprising sights, such as a tiny little carnival with bubble people:
See, communists can have fun, too. The next day, we decided we wanted to hit the Party Park for a much-recommended brunch (at least recommended by Lonely Planet). The food was incredible and the view excellent. Here are a few photos.

That is a plate of King Snake. Delicious!
Here's the view out the window. We weren't allowed to enter the park, as it is apparently only for Communist Party members. We were allowed to look at it, though.
And of course, my favorite part of the garden, the dragon wall guarding its perimeter.
It was, as you can see, quite awesome.

Later that day, which was mostly filled with wandering about, we ended up having dinner at a nice place in the French Concession which was renowned for its Peking Duck. There was even a photograph of George (Sr.) and Laura Bush eating there in the elevator. We decided to have a little more exotic appetizer.
Mmmm! Fried Scorpion!Yep, scorpions. They were quite crunchy and tasty. Of course, the duck itself was also delicious, and watching the preparation was a treat.
Carved and served right at our table! What service.

After a few nights in our first hostel, we relocated across town to a nice hostel near East Nanjing Road, which is possibly the most famous part of Shanghai. Our first night in our new locale, we took a stroll down said street and, what do you know, I remembered this spot from my last trip to Shanghai.
This is what I always think of when I think of China, and my second trip there did not disappoint. Lots to see, lots to eat, a sea of nose-high faces pressing past. Much of our time in the Bund, as this district of Shanghai is called, was a blur of sightseeing. Right across the Huangpu River is Pudong, Shanghai's newest and glitziest district, with its large towers and relative emptiness (no one really lives there yet). I bought chopsticks, a wall scroll, and avoided buying much, much more. Here are a few photos of the area.
This first shot highlights what is probably one of the more bizarre buildings in Pudong, or for that matter China and maybe the world, the Oriental Pearl Tower. You can also kind of see Jinmao tower rising into the mist, but it's tricky. The Pearl Tower is mostly used for broadcasting television signals but it also serves general-purpose sightseeing and tourist functions.This shot here more highlights an unusual TVboat trolling along the Huangpu. Those adverts on the side are actually giant LCD TVs. After strolling along the Bund riverside, we retired to the hostel, ready for the next day's foray into the strange.

The next day we decided to head for Pudong, and there were several options on how to cross the river. There was a walking underpass which, pardon the pun, seemed too... pedestrian. There was also a ferry, but that ran too infrequently. No, our transport of choice had to be the Bund sightseeing tunnel.
Our descent into madness began quietly enough, with a soothing escalator ride down a green slope, with branches overhead. Keep in mind we are entirely underground at this point.
Welcome to the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel ride, straight out of a Disneyland reject bin. But the best (worst) was yet to come...
Here's the view from one of the very toaster-like rail cars that would be our ferry into the land of the unknown. Let the ride begin!
As we crept slowly under the Hwangpu river, a number of low-grade lighting effects assaulted our eyes with vintage 1960s horror. Flashing rainbow-hued LEDs, bizarre pictures projected onto the curved walls of the tunnel, and even (as barely seen in this shot) wacky waving inflatable arm-flailing tube men! Throughout the whole ride, a strange female disembodied voice intoned totally nonsensical word pairings in English. The only one I remember is "magma understanding" or something like that.

At long last, the car pulled through a series of light-blocking flaps and into the dock on the other side of the tunnel. The nightmare was over. Of course, we did buy round-trip tickets...
And into the fancy district of Pudong we go! Our first stop was the quite-gaudy Oriental Pearl tower. It looks even uglier during the day! However, the view from the top is not to be missed.
Oho! Proof that I was there! It is worth noting that, while Matt was taking this picture using my camera, a bunch of Chinese people were taking my picture as well, with their own cameras. Eerie! Anyway, like I said, the view:
Ok, so this still isn't the view, but I thought this barbed lion was too cool not to take a picture of. This is inside the lobby of the pearl tower. That glass elevator in the middle there shoots straight up to the top of the tower. Unfortunately, we were going to be stuck in one of the concrete towers, since we were going to the observation deck, not all the way to the top (too expensive). Nevertheless, that view:
These are the two tallest buildings in China, the Jinmao Tower in front and some will-eventually be taller building whose name I can't remember. So after coming down from the tower, we decided to walk on over to the tallest (completed) building in China to see the famous atrium at the Grand Hyatt hotel.
This is the highest enclosed atrium in the world - not the tallest, but the highest (as in the highest off the ground). We also had a lovely dinner at the restaurant nearby, but my camera was running out of juice and I wasn't able to get any pictures of it. It was nice to live outside our means for a night.

Well, there's only one day's worth of pictures left, taken at the People's Square, on our last day.

And so we conclude our trip to China with adorable children feeding doves! All is right with the world.

North Korea, Part II: This time, it's not part one!

LAST YEAR, ON TYLER'S TRIP TO KOREA (a link to part one)

When we last left our hero, he had just returned from a harrowing journey up into the mountains, where he was confronted by strange concrete beasts and restrictive tour guides. Now, join us for part two of his exciting journey into the heart of darkness... er, North Korea.

So, upon awakening from a reasonable slumber, Matt and I decided to check out the local scene in Onjunggak. We first decided it would be rather classy of us to patronize the fancy hotel's equally-fancy ballroom. We grabbed a deck of cards and headed downstairs to enjoy the entertainment, and to play and drink gin (martinis, in the case of the drink but not the game). We particularly enjoyed the lounge band, and we went to compliment them on their show during a break. Turns out they are a band from the Philippines, and somehow landed a gig in North Korea. They told Matt and I that we look like Jack Nicholson and Chuck Norris, respectively.


After that it was off to the bar where they served a surprisingly tasty beer in cool glass pitchers. We met up with a group of other folks, mostly English, who were on our trip and we played some P & A (with the ranks cleverly renamed to "Dear Leader" and "Bear-suit Guy") before heading off to the local noraebang (karaoke room). I serenaded the British lasses with some Mr. Big and a good time was had by all.


The worthwhile pictures pick up again on the next day, when we hopped aboard buses bound for Guryoung Waterfalls. We were actually given a choice on this trip, whether to take the easier "lake" hike or the more challenging Waterfall course. I was feeling well-rested, in contrast to the previous day, so Matt and I opted for the greater challenge which we of course hoped would yield greater rewards. As you can see from the below pictures, it most certainly did.
This was some kind of house... on the river. That's about all I could tell.
Here, this one's for you, Mom. It was some weird tiger conductor statue. From here on out, for the sake of brevity, I think I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves, except when I feel they require some extra explanation.
Ah, now this is my kind of drink. I think this is some kind of Snake-Soju. It was on sale, but it was still the AM and I don't think I would ever have the courage to drink some kinda crazy homebrewed North Korean moonshine. With a snake in it.
Here's a bunch of people who were on the trip in front of the trailhead marker. This picture was taken by an actual North Korean party member (commie)! That's me in the middle, obviously, my coworker Matt on the top, second from the right, and some other guy named Matt bottom left.
Here are some Chinese characters carved into the stone face and painted red. These were all over the mountains - state-sponsored graffiti. Our tour guide explained that most of them extol the virtues of Communism and the wisdom of Great Leader (Kim Il-Sung). They were a bit surreal, but I suppose nothing more surreal than four giant presidential heads carved into a mountain.

Just to give you a little idea of what I was dealing with here.
And to prove I was there.
These were the promised waterfalls. They were very pretty, but I was in store for a better sight yet. There was an optional additional path that basically climbed straight up the side of the mountain overshadowing the waterfall. I of course couldn't resist.
The path up was treacherous and crowded. Steep stairwells and hundreds of Korean tourists (we were the only Foreigner group there at the time) made for an interesting ascent.
The view from the top was incredible. This shot doesn't quite capture the row after row of green peaks spreading out in a bowl around the cliff.
This one's better.
Looking back over towards the DMZ.

After the descent (which was exhausting, due to having to shove past hundreds more hikers who were just making their ascent, I met up with Matt and Matt again and we walked all the way back down. It was now about 2 PM, so after we rode the bus back to Onjunggak we had lunch at a delicious Korean Fusion restaurant in the square's miniature shopping mall. Time was short at this point, and I had yet to go to the square's outdoor jimjilbang (spa) so I rode the short bus over there (loaded up with Korean ajima) and enjoyed a relaxing sauna/hottub/shower.

After that, it was time to hop back on the coach bus and head home. Matt and I sat in the back with our newfound friends and we drove through most of the afternoon home. Customs on the way back was fortunately uneventful (they didn't even check our cameras, which was good because I know many of my traveling companions had taken many illegal pictures) and we watched a movie or two on the ride home. All in all, it was a fantastic weekend, one of my best to date in Korea, and certainly an experience to remember.

Next up: China!