Wrapping Up 2013

Living in South Korea means your life is constantly changing. Maybe it's because of a new job, travel opportunities or the coming and going of friends, but things here are always in flux. For a person with an adventurous spirit, that can be a blast.

For Jeong Mi and I -- and Liquor Burger -- we really get to see as much of that lifestyle as possible. The year 2013 was no different. We went on a variety of trips, met a ton of great people and had some fun parties. So the final two months of the year, as busy as they were, didn't catch us off guard.

The Makoli Men (November and December)

Our local band -- The Makoli Men -- have been playing a lot of shows recently. We've watched them in Seoul, Songdo and right here at LB in Yeonsu. It's always nice when you get to see your friends become successful. Unfortunately, due to the temporary status of a lot of people here, bands don't get to last together a super long time. But these guys put in a lot of shows together, and it's been a whirlwind of fun.

Here are The Makoli Men in Seoul

LB Thanksgiving Dinner (November)

Thanks to our friends Seth and Lucy, LB Thanksgiving dinner was really easy this year. They hooked us up with their friends, Joe and Sumi, who have access to the Yongsan military base. That meant picking up the turkeys was monumentally less stressful.

We had 40 people or so at LB this year for Thanksgiving dinner. As usual, the food was delicious and the atmosphere was nice and relaxed. We even closed LB down early that night to spend some time with our friends. It was a really great day.

LB's Thanksgiving Feast

After party with our friends.

Star Dance Adieu Party (December)

As everyone knows, Jeong Mi and I met through salsa dance academy. We're fortunate enough to still be in touch with friends from the academy. One of our friends (who also did both of the LB interiors) owns his own dance studio. Every year they have a fun end of the year show and party. So Jeong Mi and I went to watch and support our friends.

The show featured salsa, belly and zumba and was a lot of fun. Afterwards, we spent the night drinking, dancing and singing with our friends. We're so fortunate to have such great friends here in Korea.

Star Dance Party pics

LB Christmas Potluck featuring The Makoli Men and Dinner at Wang's (December)

It's so important to have a nice community and support system while you're living abroad. We just happen to live in the best neighborhood with the best community in Korea. Just like last year, we did our LB Christmas Potluck dinner and it was an awesome event.

Again, we had between 35 and 40 people come over with a homemade dish to contribute to the buffet. Everyone did a really great job on the food. We had a super fun Secret Santa and The Makoli Men played for us.

Check out dinner and the band here

Later on in the week, we once again got to spend time with our friends. A group of us went to Jeong Mi's best friend's house, where we ate, drank and had a great Christmas together.

Christmas with Wang pics

Trivia 100 with Dorian

My favorite weekly event is obviously our Trivia night. It's been a staple of Liquor Burger and has been a really great Thursday night get together for the neighborhood.

For the 100th Trivia, Dorian -- our original host -- came to town to run the show. It was so much fun and we had a lot of teams turn out for it.

Trivia 100 pics

Pocheon Lake Hot Tub (December)

Given the theme of this post so far, it's only fitting that I wrap up this entry with a friend-related item. At the end of December, we headed back to my favorite lake in the country with a great group of friends. Because it's winter, we stayed at a pension that is about a ten-minute walk from our usual place. The reason: It has a hot tub.

We ate and drank and hot tubbed and had a great time just being out of the city. If you're someone who loves city life, Korea is a good fit for you. But if you're not big on it, you have to make occassional trips to the non-city places in the country. Thank goodness Pocheon exists. I might go nuts without it.

Hot tubbing with buddies


What's Next???

For the first time in a long time, I don't really have an answer to this. We don't have a winter trip for LB planned yet, and we're not 100 percent sure if we'll do one at all. We will have a band and magician do a show in February, and we'd like to do more live music in general.

I'm on a soccer team for a February tournament, and LB has a floor hockey team for which we're competing over the next 10 months. At least I'm going to be in great shape.

Other than that, we'll just keep plugging along at LB.

We miss our family and friends back home a lot, but we're so thankful to have such wonderful family and friends here.

I'll keep updating our adventures as long as you keep stopping by!!!

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!

Non-Stop September and October

It's just been action-packed over the last couple of months at LB. We didn't take our foot off the gas following our one-year anniversary. We just pressed it harder. Needless to say, it's given me very little time to sit down and write. Even when I had a break from school and the bar, I was out traveling or hanging with friends.

September 30
The weekend of Chuseok was incredible. Because of how it fell this year, Chuseok gave us five straight days of freedom. Instead of keeping the bar open, we decided to take a trip with 8 of our friends. We headed over to Gangwondo, on the east coast of the country.

Jeong Mi's friend, Wang, got us a great room at a resort on the beach. Even though the water was a little chilly, Popper, Joe, Q and I decided to take a few dips in it. Koreans watching on with their full-on fall gear was a lot of fun.

We had a great time hanging out, playing on the beach and even got to a noraebang. Can't have a trip without that.

On the way back, instead of sitting in traffic for 12 hours, we stopped off a couple hours from home at the greatest place in Korea. That's right. It's the lake we went to the last time we got a weekend away. Though a bit chillier this time, it was just as fun. We ate dinner, hung by the water and took in that wonderful feeling of not being anywhere near a city. It was a perfect trip.

Check out pics from our Chuseok trip here!

October 20
Now here was a big day for the bar. This Saturday marked the first time we had live music. Thanks to Wang loaning us some equipment, Joe, Sam and James -- collectively known as Bozoot -- took the stage. Yes, we actually used the stage as a stage.

Our good friend Bryan opened the show. And our good friend Craig closed it. In between were a bunch of great covers and one original -- Liquor Burger Ho. Call it our theme song if you'd like.

The whole thing was a lot of fun, and we are definitely going to continue with the live music in the future.

Check out the Bozoot pics and videos here.

October 26 and 27
Our Chadwick friends once again made us their first stop on their Halloween bar hopping bus tour. Thankfully, they do their event on Friday, leaving us Saturday for our own. From about 7:30 to 9 p.m. on Friday, 60 Chadwick teachers came through.

Their costumes all looked great and we had a ton of fun. We're so thankful that we've built such a nice relationship with them.

Check out the Chadwick Halloween pics here.

So with their party on Friday, it left Saturday for us. Bucking the usual trend of having a big Halloween party at the bar, we decided to take our party with us. We packed 35 LB friends into a bus and went over toward the west coast.

We rented an entire house just for our crew. It had grills, a fire pit and even our own, unlimited noraebang.

The gang looked great in their costumes. We all decided to wear them on the bus so we'd be ready to go as soon as we got to the house.

Jeong Mi went earlier in the day with Chris and MOB so they could set up the fun stuff. By the time the bus arrived, Jeong Mi was already grilling and the meat and other food was ready to eat. That meant the partying started right away.

We drank, danced, bonfired, sang and had a really incredible time. It went as well as it possibly could've, and that's saying a lot.

Check out the LB Halloween pics here.

Future
Looking forward, we have a couple of events planned already. For Thanksgiving, we'll once again do a turkey dinner. We also have live music planned again for mid-December.

It's an exciting time for us at LB.

Of course, with the excitement is sadness. Our friendly familiar faces continue to cycle out. We only have a few people left of the original crew. As we grow and move on in years, so moves away our good, old friends. Fortunately for us, the latest group who has come into Yeonsudong are just as fun and friendly as the old group. It's hard knowing your here for an extended stay and friends roll in and out. But we'll never forget our originals, and we look forward to making new memories with the current crowd.

Check out some of LB's current pics here.

Anseong 10 Kilometers of Love

This may have been my best weekend in Korea yet. I've been here more than 2 1/2 years, but haven't had such a full weekend with so many new experiences. It was just incredible.

On Friday, we did our usual deal and hung out at Radio. That has definitely become our club, and since Woo Min gave four of us VIP cards, we get 10 percent off on all our bills. I'm just really comfortable there. And Woo Min is more than just a bartender/owner, he's a good friend. In fact, he'll be one of the four friends carrying me in for my wedding.

On Saturday, Jeong Mi and I went to another bar owner/friend's wedding with Bryan and Kim. Mike is the guy who used to own Go Bar. It's the bar in Inha that we have frequented quite often over the last couple years. He's always been really good to us, and I was even on his big, blow-up advertisement out front of the bar.

So we went to his wedding at a wedding hall in Bupyeong. While the wedding hall was pretty similar to many of the others ones we've been to, it was the food that stood out. This was probably the best wedding buffet I've had in Korea yet.

Another really cool thing happened at the wedding, too. Apparently there's a bit of tradition with the throwing of the bouquet that is a bit different from America. In America, we have the single girls get up there to catch it. In Korea, they want a soon-to-be-married girl to do it. As luck(?) would have it, Jeong Mi is the only girl who fell into that category.

So she got up there in front of a big crowd and caught the bouquet of nice, yellow roses. We even got a free cake as the couple who came away with the bouquet. That was really fun.

There was a soccer game Saturday night that I really wanted to go to, but Bryan and Kim we're trying to talk Jeong Mi and I into going 93 km south with them to Anseong, where they would be running a 10k the next day.

As has been my habit over the last couple of years, I usually don't do anything big on Saturday night, and then so something restful on Sunday. But that's a habit I've been trying to break, and have been successful so far.

So I decided that we'd take Bryan and Kim up on their offer and join them down south. So we went home, packed our stuff and headed to Emart to get some supplies. One of those supplies included a Rayboard for me. It's this awesome skateboard with only one wheel in front and one wheel in back. The center of it is a big spring, so you move it by rotating your feet back and forth. I always see students buzzing around on them, and decided it would be my summer toy purchase.

We got on our way around 3 p.m. and got down there around 6 p.m. We would've gotten there sooner, but we saw a sex shop in a tiny pink trailer by the side of the highway and we had to stop and check it out. Did we buy anything? Oh, the stories we could tell.

Anseong is a very small area. This little town might be smaller than my home town of Franklin, PA. And Franklin only has about 6,000 people. What I'm saying is this place is AWESOME. There are no huge apartment complexes or neon lights. It's just small buildings, a main street and actual houses with yards and gardens. It was like being in Small Town, USA, South Korea.

The 10k was happening as part of Anseong's cultural festival. It was like a smaller version of Applefest. They even set up a big stage in the town square area with some little (falling apart) carnival rides and food booths. On the stage was a variety of martial arts shows, singing and bands.

We hung out in the area for a bit after we arrived, and Bryan and I were flagged down by a police officer who asked to see our IDs. As he was checking our IDs, he was asking where we were from, how long we've been in Korea and how far they were running the next day.

It was too perfect of a day to be upset. And really, we think he just checked our IDs as an excuse to practice some English with us. We were joking that we are probably the only two Americans who have been in that town since the war. The more we thought about it, the less it seemed like a joke.

We stayed that night in the Shot motel, which was pretty newly built. It had great gear on the inside, and Bryan's room even had blacklights. Unfortunately, our blacklights were broken.

We got up bright and early the next day to make our way to the race site. It was just a few kilometers outside of the small town at the public square in front of the local hospital/old folks home. There were a ton of tents and spaces set up for the various teams and organizations who had runners entered.

We didn't have a tent, so we just hung out while everyone was stretching and getting ready.

When the time came for the race, Bryan and Kim got into place, and they were off. They took a little over an hour for their 10k. Kim has been running lately, but Bryan hadn't trained at all. Also, the heat was just sweltering. I was just hanging with Jeong Mi and I was sweating.

After the race ended, we headed back into town to hang at the festival some more. We first went into one of the event halls to see some of the Chinese-inspired art. While there, an older man came up to me and asked me if I spoke Korean. He then proceeded to lead me around the whole exhibit and explain all the paintings to me. He even introduced me to one of the teachers/artists. He was a little surprised when I asked to take a picture with him. But it's that small-town mentality that's so nice.

We headed across to the square after that because there was a mariachi band from Mexico City who played. And they were GREAT. We bought a couple of beers and hung out to listen to them. It turns out they are staying in Bucheon, which is just 20 minutes away from us on the subway. So we got their email address and I said I'd send the names and numbers of local bars. Hopefully we can see these guys again.

We hung out for a little more after the Mexican band finished, took int he festival, are some corn dogs and relaxed. We then hit the road to make our way home.

Since it was only about 5 p.m. when we got back, we decided to grab some galbi and beers and hang at Radio a bit to have a night cap.

All in all, this weekend was full of new experiences and really fun times. The weather was beautiful and we were with good friends. If it gets any better than this, I won't know what to do with myself.

Picture time!

Mike's wedding

Anseong 10k

Yeonsu District Office Song Performance

Twenty schools came out to sing at the performance on Nov. 3 at the Yeonsu District Office. We learned that out of all those teams, our group and one other sang English songs. Both of our songs were English, as we sang 'Sweet Caroline' and 'Summer Nights.' One other school 'did Sing, Sing, Sing.'

Ridia was a bit worried that we didn't have a ton of motions, but it made more sense since we had to learn English words, while the other schools only had to learn movements, essentially.

The students did very well with their singing. I think they had fun, but we're all relieved that it's over. We did a ton of practice and basically had no real down time or prep time for the last 6 weeks. It was fun and whatnot, but that really can drain a person.

It wasn't a competition, so there were no prizes awarded, but our students put on a really nice show. I think the crowd got into it, when they weren't being rude by talking and walking all over the place. The auditorium was packed far beyond its limit, and typical Korean manners took over. I spent the majority of my time reprimanding students for talking and running around during other schools' performances. Oh well. If I can even influence one student to be considerate of others, I'll feel that I accomplished something.

But enough of my complaining. Here are some more pics from the event. It was a good time, and it's nice to get it over with. Back to normal schedule!

K-Pop Back To Its Roots ...

... of stealing other peoples' songs.


Jae-beom, former member of 2PM, is back on the scene with a solo album. Jae-beom was famously tarred and feathed last year because he called Korea gay on his MySpace page. Jae-beom was an American over here just for the dumb band, and was either a teenager or in his early-20s when he posted that.

And to be fair, Korea is totally gay.

Anyway, his solo album sticks with the long K-Pop tradition of ripping other people off. His new solo is basically stolen from American singer B.O.B.

From the story:

'The new single, titled ``Mideojulle (Will You Believe Me),'' features a reinterpretation of American rapper B.O.B's ``Nothin' on You.''...

 '``Though the songs are based on the hit number by B.O.B it's Jae-beom's first solo album under his own name,'' said Warner Music Korea.'

Based on the hit? Under Jae-beom's name? I could steal a Queen song and put my name as the author, but I'm still just some music thief stealing a Queen song.

Bamboo Shango Team Wins!!!

It was an incredible weekend and I already gave away the best part in the title. Saturday was the 2010 Seoul Latin Dance Festival and Competition.

My dance team, Shango Team of the Bamboo Dance Academy in Incheon, went to compete against 11 other teams. While we didn't win a top 3 prize, we walked away with a trophy for the "Most Popular" performance. It was my first competition after 6 months of salsa dance and I was part of a winning team!

We've been practicing for about 2 months, with people rotating in and out of our team due to injury and other commitments. We've been meeting Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday every week.

We met at our studio around 11 a.m. Saturday where the girls started preparing their makeup. We got to the concert hall in Seoul around 2 p.m., and started to prepare.

Each team got about 7 minutes for a rehearsal. That's not a lot of time, so we mostly worked on our spacing and a quick run-through. We all felt pretty good. Most of the teams had pretty technically advanced routines, but only one really caught my eye. The team's guys all died their hair blonde and spiked it up in a faux-hawk. They won first place overall.

We were the last team to go, so we had to wait for all the other teams. But when it was our time, we didn't disappoint. We really nailed our timing as a team, and the choreography of our routine sucked the crowd in. There was a certain part where the crowd started to rumble, then just exploded into cheers at various sections of the dance. When it was all over, they were on their feet going crazy. It was a really incredible feeling.

Then, during the parade, while all the teams stood on stage, we heard our team's name called for an award. So we got to walk out in front of everyone and take a bow. Noticing a foreigner, the host immediately came to talk to me and ask me where I was from. The crowd went nuts again. It was such a cool thing to do.

We went back and celebrated our incredible experience afterward.

Unfortunately, I'll miss the next available show that's taking place in August. I'll be back in America with Jeong Mi for my sister's wedding. That means I have to wait until February to compete again. Hopefully I'll get to perform between now and then though. It's such a rush to be up there with your partner and team and hear the crowd yelling and cheering. I'm so fortunate to have become a part of this team and met such wonderful people, and I hope it continues for a long time.

I'll post the video as soon as I can, but for now, check out all the great pictures!

Wonder Girls Not Quite Slaves

A story came out in many of the English-language newspapers today with information from the guy who was the Wonder Girls' English tutor while they toured in America.

Daniel Gauss goes through a laundry-list of bad care for which JYP's agency is reponsible. From minor things like small ailments not going treated to major ones, like having no health insurance and not getting proper treatment when one of the member's fathers went into a coma.

I understand not treating minor things. After all, they're Koreans. If they sneeze, they want to go to the hospital. Someone across the room could sneeze, and the non-sneezer will want to go to the hospital.

But no health insurance in an overpriced country like America is ridiculous.

And here's the father incident:

'Gauss further wrote that after the group acquired a sponsorship deal with Sony Ericsson, JYPE had Sun-ye perform in Sanya, China, for Sony Ericsson executives, shortly after her father was rushed to hospital in a coma.

He wrote that Sun-ye had told him “her father had stopped breathing and had to be rushed to the hospital. In the ambulance, (Sun-ye) and her family had to decide whether the father should be given treatment to be kept alive since he had lapsed into a coma. The family chose to keep him alive and I was told by the girl that he was never going to come out of the coma.”

“Very shortly after that trauma, she was performing for Sony Ericsson executives in Sanya,” Gauss wrote. “I did not have the heart to ask her whether it was her idea or JYPE’s idea for her to perform.”'

Obviously, JYP's reps are denying all these things. They have confirmed that this guy was the English tutor, however. His response is that he isn't asking for conpensation, but is just concerned.

The entertainment industry here is notoriously unkind, especially to young women. I'm sure it's like that in Hollywood in many cases as well. But anytime people are put at risk in order to sell their cds for "$1" so they can boost themselves on performance charts is pretty terrible.

No surprises from me if these are somehow found out to be true.

A Sad Note For Asian Pop Stars

The Onion is reporting that because of the economic downturn, Asian countries have been forced to lay off about 700,000 pop stars. This is devastating news for the "Korean Wave." Also, suicide watch!!!

The brief, as it appears in The Onion:

'SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA—In what is being called the worst development to hit the Asian pop star industry in years, the floundering economy forced several Pacific Rim nations to lay off some 700,000 pop stars this week, sources close to the young, perky entertainers reported. "Although we still have more than 2 million pop stars left working, this is a devastating blow," entertainment industry analyst Bak Jae-bok said. "Sadly, the space-age Korean teenybopper and Japanese cowboy sectors were hit the hardest, and may take many months to recover." Bak went on to say that several Asian entertainment corporations are now looking to outsource their red-haired, leather-jacket-wearing teenage boy workforce overseas.'

I Feel Shame ...

... because I actually like a K-pop song. Now, there are songs that came out during my time here that I found catchy. And there are a couple others that I do really like to listen to -- to the point of making them a favorite on Youtube.

But this is my first coming out (appropriate term) to admit on my blog that I like a song.

It's called 처음처럼/Like The First Time by a group called Tiara. Prior to this, they released a song called BoPeep, which may have been the most annoying song/dance in the history of the world. I mean ... the whole world.

But I like their newest song because it reminds me of an '80s tune ... a lot. A lot of K-pop songs have an '80s feel, but utilize the annoying autotune, ruining it forever.

But this one has a good beat and a rockin' synthesizer with NO autotune. That's all it takes for me, I guess.

It's Happening Again!

I'm actually getting really excited about all the "copycat" groups the newspapers and netizens are finding. This one is pretty hard to argue, too.

Introducing Ok-Bang! It's China's version of the hugely popular Korean group, Big Bang. I'm just enjoying this so much! Haha.

More Copycats

This time it's a group from Thailand who is supposedly copying Korea's 2NE1. Let's be realistic here. Does anyone really want to copy these KPop groups? And look at that picture anyway. It's a bit of a stretch to think they're copying the group when both of them simply have a motorcycle in the music video.