Spring is Here ... Right?

It seems that the longest winter in Korean history is coming to a close. We've had a couple nice days here and there, but the weather was practically summer at the beginning of April last year.

Our lives have been filled to the brim with work and play. And all has been going well.

Pocheon Lake

Back in the middle of winter, we made another trip out to Pocheon. It's my favorite place in Korea and was awesome to see during the winter months. The lake was totally frozen over. Summer is nicer for hanging outside, but to be out in the middle of nowhere on a crisp winter night is incredibly refreshing.

Pocheon Lake in the Winter

Fun at LB

We've been doing a ton of new activities at LB. Our dart leagues, movie night and trivia are the staples, but we want to do as much as possible to include everyone in Yeonsu in the fun.

We're going on a Spring trip in a month, but the winter weather has kept us inside. So we put on Bozoot's third concert and a magic show with our Korean buddy S-Five.

Bozoot 3

S-Five's Magic Show

Soccer and Baseball Seasons

Easily the best part of the spring and summer in Korea is that we get to hang outside with buddies at sporting events. Tickets are cheap and the beer flows freely.

This year, Incheon United has started strong. Unfortunately, the Wyverns have had a very shaky beginning to the season. While I want to see the teams win, I'm more than happy just taking in the sunlight after the terrible winters here.

Incheon United

Incheon Wyverns

Frisbee at the Jeju Dirty Dozens Tournament

The best part of the year so far is definitely the Ultimate Frisbee tournament. As some of you may know, I play frisbee most Sundays at the International School the next neighborhood over. It's generally just a fun pickup game with a bunch of good people.

But this year, we entered a team in an ultimate frisbee tournament down in Jeju Island. We were in the C Division, because we've never been in the tourney before and no one knew if we were any good.

Well, we not only were good, but we didn't lose a game the whole weekend. We went 5-0 down there, including beating two B division teams. We probably had a chance to win the B Division, had we not all had to leave early to catch our flights home.

I've traveled all over Korea in the 5 years I've been here, but this is one of the best trips on which I've gone. The team was a great group of guys and girls, and Jeong Mi and her friend came along, as well.

Jeju Tournament Pics

Personal Life

Though my life is largely public now, there are some personal things going on.

The Good:

My time teaching at Hambak Elementary School has come to an end. I had a great three years there, but it's such a nice feeling to be working at the bar only. I may take on some private lessons, but life is pretty comfy right now.

The Bad:

I was in my first taxi accident here. Coming home from frisbee a few weeks ago, three other guys and I were riding in a cab when some dummy tried to make a U-turn from the far right lane. The lady crossed directly into our path and we rammed them. Fortunately, no one was hurt on either side. It was just a fine example of the lack of spatial awareness of Koreans.

In other bad news, Jeong Mi's mom isn't feeling too hot right now. For the sake of some privacy, we won't go into details. But she's been in the hospital for about a month now. She got out briefly, but then had to go back in today. So if you read this, please send some positive thoughts her way.

The Future

As I already mentioned, we have a big trip planned for the spring. We're going to an awesome, huge log cabin to play with our LB friends.

The big news is that in the next few months, we'll be moving the bar. We've looked at a few places in the area already. We still have some time, but the day of the move is getting closer. We definitely aren't planning on leaving Yeonsu-dong. This neighborhood has been a great home for us. We may only move a block or two away.

Either way, the nice weather is almost here and these are exciting times here at LB!

April and May Happenings

I wouldn't go as far to say that being busy is the reason I haven't updated this in awhile. It's more or less that I don't really want this blog to be just a big, dumb ad for Liquor Burger. Making things difficult is that even the events we do now happen mostly through LB.

Back in April, we took 40 people to a Strawberry Festival in Yangpyeong. It was really a great time. We rented a bus and took an LB crew. We made strawberry bread, picked strawberries, ate some bibimbap, rode a tractor, made some rice cake and drank some maggulli.

It was a lot of fun to see what a strawberry farm is like in Korea. Because of the weather here, they raise the strawberries in greenhouse-like tents. I guess I'm not sure how they raise them in America. I just always pictured an open field. I suppose anywhere without a perfect climate would need something this, though.

Keeping with the theme of LB events, we took about 40 people to an Incheon SK Wyverns baseball game in May. With the summer here, we wanted to do more for the Yeonsudong crowd to make they get some cool experiences in Korea. While many of them have been to baseball games before, very few of them sat right down in the reserved seat fan zone.

So we booked tickets for all our buddies, made LB/Wyverns t-shirts and went and had a great time. Fortunately for us, Incheon won. There were even fireworks!!!

We did actually take a day off and go do something by ourselves! At the end of May, everyone had Monday off from work. We decided to close the bar on Monday as well and head to Gangwondo and Seokcho on the east coast. Over there, we headed to Seorak Mountain.

Everyone in Korea knows Seorak mountain. As far as this country goes, the east coast is my absolute favorite part. It's all countryside. There are mountains, rivers, trees and clean air. It's really incredible.

So we went hiking all day on Sunday, and then just hung around the east coast on Monday, when the weather didn't cooperate as well. It was an incredible time to just be by ourselves and get away from the city, the bar and school for a couple of days.

Everything at Hambak has gone really well through the first semester. I really like my co-teachers. We don't work directly with each other on normal days. But they're very professional. We discuss everything. They don't give me late info (unless it's late because of another source). The students all know me and we have a nice vibe in our classes. It's still a really pleasant work environment, and I'm happy to still be a member of the staff there.

On the side, I'm still teaching Mr. Kim's son for two hours a week. We even added one of his buddies now, as well. It's great to have a second student in the class. One-on-one can be tough unless the student's level is incredibly high. Now that he has a friend there, he is a little more comfortable and is quicker to answer questions. It also makes game a ton more fun.

While I am tired and do get a little stressed from all the odd hours, I'm very comfortable over here professionally right now. Outside of bar business, Jeong Mi and I don't even have the smallest squabbles. And we understand that when we fight about the bar, it's business-only. I'm sure there would be tension with any business partner. Things are obviously kicked up a notch when the person is your spouse.

As the end of June approaches, we have a couple of big things happening. One is our one-year anniversary. It's on June 26 (same day as my birthday, of course). The great news is that we'll be in America for the anniversary. We'll be home for the last week of June and first week of July.

While we're gone, we'll have one of our Korean buddies and a couple of part-timers running the bar. We'll still do our usual events. This is a guy we totally trust, so we're fortunate to have him. Neither of us were really looking forward to just shutting down for two weeks.

I'm sure there area bunch of things I'm missing in this update, but that's the basic scoop of everything that is going on here.

The bar is open now, so I guess I'd better get to work! See you all in a couple of weeks!!!

Check out more of our pictures here:

Strawberry Festival

LB Wyverns Game

Seorak Mountain trip

Two Months Worth of Events and Fun

Wow. To say we've been busy lately would be the understatement of the year. During the last two months, we went to Jeong Mi's brother's wedding, saw Cats (the musical), held countless events (including St. Patty's Day) at Liquor Burger, went to two Wyverns games, one Incheon United game and even went to a Cat Cafe.

Pile on that the fact that I've been working at Hambak three days a week for the last month, as well as teaching a private lesson two days a week and teaching my Vice Principal's son every day for the last two months, and you can understand why it's been awhile since I've last posted.

Let's get the Liquor Burger stuff out of the way first. We've made some big changes to the bar, and everything has been going well. We previously had a long bar stretching along one of the walls. Well, it wasn't really being used. No one sat at it really, or even stood at it. So we decided to cut it out and move it across the room, next to the dart board. We were able to slide a table into the spot, and now have really opened up the bar. It would be nice to have a little more room (not a bad problem to have), but we're feeling comfy right now.

We also got two new beers on tap at the bar. The company's name is 7brau. They're the first Korean company to get a national brewing license in more than 70 years. At the time we got their Pilsener and IPA installed, we were only the third bar in Incheon (and one of only a handful in the whole country) that offered. It's a quality beer and has been a big hit with our friends and customers.

Trivia night has grown above and beyond what we ever expected. It's a very popular event which has inspired some fierce rivalries. Throw on various parties and events, and the bar is really having a good run right now. It's sad to see our old friends cycle out, but exciting to meet their replacements. Such is the life of an expat bar, I suppose.

In February, Jeong Mi's brother got married. We went to the wedding in Bupyeond, a neighborhood that is about a 20 minute subway ride away. The event hall was the same place I met her parents for the first time. So that was a nice memory.

In my typical style, it wouldn't be an event without me taking place. Jeong Mi's brother asked me if I wanted to sing the congratulations song. And I jumped on the chance. We had a CD made with just the music, but the key was very high. I fiddled with it online and brought it down. But when I gave it to the event organizer, he said not to worry and just sing with theirs. Well, I was worried, because I can't sing that high.

Well, it turns out that there were two violinists and one pianists there to play along. They just so happen to have known the tune I was to sing. It's a popular Korean wedding song. So I got to sing in front of a live band!!! It was really awesome. I'm glad I got to be a part of my brother-in-law's special wedding. It's just another example of how great her family is towards me.

Baseball preseason is underway, and soccer season is a few games in. We've already gone to two baseball games and one soccer game. The soccer team plays in a beautiful new stadium. The baseball team is in the same fun spot as before. We'll make a point of getting to as many of those as we can (just like we always have). It never gets old having a couple of beers outside while watching the games.

After one of the baseball games, we found our way to a Cat Cafe in the neighborhood. You pay 8,000 won for a cup of coffee, and get to hang out with about 20 cats. Needless to say, it's totally awesome.

Jeong Mi and I also went to see the musical Cats. It was my birthday gift to her. It was a lot of fun. All the songs were in Korean, but that didn't take away from it. Maybe it even added a bit to it, since it was like a brand new experience for me. Unfortunately, there are no pics from that day. But it was really great, and I'd love to make a habit out of seeing more musicals here.

That might catch you all up on the things we've been doing lately. Like I said, it's been busy. But that's better than boring, right?

There are a ton of pics for you guys to check out. See them all by clicking the links below.

Liquor Burger pics

Incheon Wyverns

Incheon United

Cat Cafe

Min Uk's Wedding

Enjoy all the pics, everyone! We miss you! We're going back to visit America in June. I'll get you the dates soon!!!

The Life of a Non-Teacher (Sort Of)

It's been a busy month and a half since my last post. While I haven't been exceptionally busy, it's been busy to the point that I've been a bit tired when it comes to chronicling my adventures. The life of a bar owner is an interesting one. It's not because I'm a bar owner specifically, but because I'm outside of the native speaking teacher club.

Since ending my contract, I've been fortunate enough to make connections (or use former connections) to get private lessons. I was very close to my vice principal at Hambak. Her son is going to Canada in a couple of months. Because she felt so bad about the closing of the English Center, she asked if I would do privates with her son until he goes.

He's a great guy, and his English level is high. So we meet every day to work on his grasp of idioms. He simply wants to sound more natural.

The VP even said she is trying to make up a new position at the school for me to teach English. How insane would that be?

I also have started doing private lessons through some of our customers. I work with the son of the the man who owned the bar 4 years ago, when it was a western bar. I also will start working with three girls who work in a salon and come to the bar to hang out. It's nice to earn a little extra money, and I enjoy the teaching.

The bar has been going better than expected, but we still have more expenses now than before. After all, we no longer have a school to sponsor our housing. We moved out of the officetel and into a comfy one-room apartment a few blocks from the bar. I like being out of the officetel. Even though I enjoyed our last apartment, I like being out here. It feels more like I'm a regular guy, rather than a teacher lumped in with every other teacher.

The bar has really turned into a cool spot for the community in Yeonsu-dong. There aren't many other options in the neighborhood, which helps us. But we also have a great crowd of people. We like to joke that we're a modern-day Cheers, where everybody knows your name.

And there's truth in that. People can just show up at the bar, and they're sure to find a group of friends they know and with whom they can hang. It makes for a really intimate, fun atmosphere.

It also allows us to have really nice events. Since Thanksgiving was so successful, we had a Christmas dinner and New Year's party as well. Both of those turned out really nicely for us.

On top of that, we have regular events at the bar that are really fun. On Tuesdays, we have a card group. Wednesdays is our cheap night, which really brings our friends out. Thursday is our trivia night, which has grown to be just huge. We're almost always packed for trivia, and competition is pretty intense.

We're so happy with how things are going so far. We don't really look at most people come in as customers, but as friends. That sounds corny, but it's true. It's just a really nice group of people, and we're having a great time with them.

Check out pictures from all our fun events here:

LB Random Pics

Trivia

Christmas

New Year's

Goodbye Letter to Hambak Students

Well, today is officially my last day at Hambak. In classic Korea style, I have no classes, but have to spend the whole day here anyway. Why not one last reminder of the cultural differences? Haha.

But really, it's a sad day. I had some terrible experiences at the academy during my first year. But since coming here, I've learned that professionalism actually exists here in South Korea. I was fortunate enough to find something that is more of a career feeling, rather than just a contract gig.

I posted the message to my colleagues a couple days ago. I also wrote one for my students. It says something similar to that of my colleagues.

I'll miss everyone here. It's off to new adventures at Liquor Burger! Here's the letter. So it goes ...

학생들한테,

이제까지 저는 2년동안 함박에서 일했습니다. 계약이 끝나니까 여기서 끝이네요.

이번 시간은 완전 좋았어요. 학생을 가르치면서 재미있었어요. 함박학생들은 한국에서 제일 좋은 학생이었어요.

저는 함박에서 많은것을 배웠습니다. 학생들도 계속 많은것을 빼워야대요. 그래서 질문이 있어면 애런샘한테 문자를 보내주세요!

이제 함박에서 끝나지만 한국에서 계속 살거예요. 그래서 이거는 영원히 안녕은 아니에요. 나중에 또 봐요.

고맙습니다!!!

애런샘한테서

Goodbye Letter to Hambak

Today I wrote a letter to the Hambak staff, and Ridia corrected my mistakes for me. It's basically just thanking them for making my time at Hambak so enjoyable. Here it is:


12/27/11
선생님들께,

이제까지 저는 2년동안 함박에서 일했습니다. 계약이 끝나니까 여기서 끝이네요.

이번 시간은 완전 좋았어요. 학생을 가르치면서 재미있었어요. 동료들도 진짜 좋았어요. 함박선생님들은 한국에서 제일 좋은 선생님이었어요.

저는 함박에서 많은것을 배웠습니다. 한국 문화와 미국 문화는 교육 스타일이 다릅니다. 처음에는 힘들었어요. 하지만 부인이랑 동료들때문에 저는 더 쉽게 지낼 수 있어요.

이제 함박에서 끝나지만 한국에서 계속 살거예요. 그래서 이거는 영원히 안녕은 아니에요. 나중에 또 봐요.

고맙습니다,
애런에게서

P.S - 앞으로 같이 놀아요! 010-3305-8367. www.liquorburger.com

End of an Era, Big Parties and Big Things Ahead

As December 31 quickly approaches, one thing is happening without a doubt: My time as a teacher at Hambak Elementary School is coming to an end. Now, my teaching in South Korea isn't done, as I've had offers for part-time work with private individuals, small companies and even a substitute teaching gig at an international school.

So here we are. It's been an interesting three years in South Korea. From the absolutely terrible working conditions at my first academy, to my wonderful two years at Hambak and all the adventures in between, South Korea has become a great second home to me.

As far as Liquor Burger goes, things have been going really well. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at which we hosted 53 people. We almost didn't get the food, because the Koreans who work at the deli at the American military base failed to tell me that I need a base pass or escort upon my arrival in order to get the food.

I was in an argument with the kitchen staff for 20 minutes because they insisted they told me I need a base pass. When, in reality, they only asked me if I had a car and if I could come to the base. Apparently, those things are all the same in their mind.

Fortunately, we were willing to find a GI who escorted us in and out, and we are very grateful for him for that.

Besides that, we've been really successful thus far in expanding our business and getting our name out. Obviously, a lot of it is through social media and the Internet, but we've been fortunate enough to have word of mouth really work for us.

We're really doing what we can to help everybody, besides just giving them a fun place to drink. We've helped a few people get cell phones and bank accounts and we teach free beginner Korean lessons every Sunday.

We've also established ourselves as an interesting place among western bars. On most nights, our ratio of Korean to westerner is right around 50/50. Now, on a packed Friday night, the westerners outnumber the Koreans. But on a normal night, we have a great ratio. It's really refreshing to have a place where these different cultures can come together and just hang out and be buddies. It's awesome.

We've also established a very nice relationship with an international school in Songdo. They brought a busload  of people the night before our Halloween party, and turned it into a Halloween weekend. They also recently celebrated the end of Movember by bring 45 people over. We give them a good group deal on alcohol, and they bring a bunch of people. It's a lot of fun, and has even established some great contacts for me and my life after Hambak.

So what's next for us? Well, we have our poker nights on Tuesdays and are starting our trivia nights on Thursdays. Our first trivia night is tonight and we're super excited. After that, we have our Christmas dinner on December 24 and our New Year's party on December 31.

There is so much stuff going on right now, and I'm incredibly tired. But losing sleep is a small sacrifice for what will be my life after being an every-day teacher in South Korea. It's weird to think that I'm leaving the system that brought me over, but I'm sure it won't be a final farewell.

So here we are and here we go!

For more of our Thanksgiving pics, go here: https://picasaweb.google.com/110752803825288352709/LBThanksgiving

For more of our general Liquor Burger pics, go here: https://picasaweb.google.com/110752803825288352709/LiquorBurger2