Trying to get by in Yeosu

A further explanation of what life is like in Korea to the tune of a popular K-Pop song (Wondergirls "Nobody").

Happy Birthday MOM!!!

I had my students say hello to you. Here they are:

Selly, Serena, Brian, Jerome, Gilbert

Jenny (front), Annie, Rosa & Sally (twins), Scott (blurry), Claude, Tory's arm.
I love you Mom. See you (relatively) soon!

Love, Brandon

Kyrios 2010

Japan vid...finally

Yep, here ya go. But I suggest to watch the high-quality version on my Facebook.

My First Bungee Jump

Cory, his gf JiYun, our attractive friend Jung-ah, and I went up to Andong last Saturday to go bungee jumping and see the annual Mask Festival. I was sooo excited to finally go bungee jumping! When I got up to the top of the crane I was a little nervous but thinking "Man, I can so do this!" When I stepped to the edge, my heart sank looking down. haha. In the vid, you can hear some guys at the top saying to me "54321 JUMP!" but I didn't jump the first time assuming they were going to nudge me off. So I made them count one more time and BOOYA. It was awesome. JiYun is the one filming. She was laughing at me cuz I was "yahoo"-ing and also said "Ji-Gi-Neh-Aeh!" in the air which roughly translates to "that kills!" (in a good way) or like "That's Awesome!".

Who wants to go with me next time?!?!

House Party II

Old "BR" student/teacher letters to Me and Nate

Click the image to see it larger:

Now here are the original letters.
First, my former higher level elementary student, Nancy. She's a very smart student but got distracted a lot by other students although she could also keep others in line if she wanted to. She was a pain at first but got better as she warmed up to me:

Maria, super smart and a sweetheart although has good ability to provoke mischief. But she did it in a very fun way. Great kid. The korean she wrote at the bottom of the page means something like "Come back again!":

Anna, cute little sweetheart. I felt terrible one day when she got hurt playing our introductory Butt Soccer game. She cried. Sorry, Anna. Next time, punch Peter in the face. I won't tell anyone:

Kevin, or as I liked to call him "Kevin 7" to distinguish him from another Kevin in the class. Good kid. Fun. Smart. Unpredictable. He had a unique personality. Very creative actually:

The infamous Peter. Kind of a dopey kid. Annoyed the crap out of everyone. "Peter, where's your pencil today?!" ..everyday. seriously.. 진짜! Notice how he signed his name as "secret":

오랜만이야! (o lan man iya ~ "long time no see")

Sup. Long time. My bad. Just wanted to share the designs I've made for the church this year. First is the Sunday bulletin for church. It's a tri-fold and I have to update it each week.


Second is the new Kurios 2010 Conference flyer that's happening in October. I didn't want people at church to notice it, but I'm the guy throwing his hands up in the logo at the top of the page. haha.

Happy 4th!

Update

Not too much has been going on but I'll try to squeeze something out here..

Umm...World Cup soccer games started up this month in South Africa so the Koreans are going CRAZY over it. Korea won their first game but lost terribly in the second, and they have a 3rd on the 23rd I think.. So a couple Saturdays ago I went to Duryu park here in Daegu to watch the game on a few large screens. There were a ton of Koreans all in red and glowing devil horns. I always knew they were a little evil.. On the phone, Cory says "Hey! I'm the guy wearing a red shirt! Can u see me?!" I replied, "Oh yeah, there you are...and there you are, and there you are, and there you are... As if you weren't hard enough to find before!" Anyway, it was a ton of fun. Check out the pix:








School's going well. My kids are much better than before. There's a few I'd like to adopt! hahaha.

In my free time I usually study Korean which I've done a LOT lately, more than usual.

I'm also working on a few paintings as well as entering myself into an illustration contest here through a chain of coffee shops, called DaVinci Coffee. Winner gets 3million won ('bout $2,500).

Thanks to my church friend, Karin, I also signed up to participate in a world-wide sketchbook tour through 'ArtHouse Co-Op'. They send me a small sketchbook that I fill up based on a theme I chose from a list they provided. The theme I chose is "It'll be fun, I swear." A million ideas ran through my head already. Anyway, once filled up I send it back to them by January for them to digitize it for their website so that it can be viewed by online visitors. In March, among thousands of other sketchbooks from around the world, my sketchbook will tour around several major cities for people to check out from a library to view and read. I have complete freedom to include anything I want in the sketchbook; name, contact info, and even a price of however much I want to sell my sketchbook for. Sketchbooks in the past have been priced at a million dollars, but I don't think I'll be that steep. haha. Anyway, I will also be notified by email or text message whenever my sketchbook is checked out on the spot. After the tour, the sketchbooks are cataloged in the Brooklyn Art Library for life.

Sounds pretty darn rad to me.

Anyway, I gotta go get some shopping done. Love u guys. cya!

Korea News in English

Here's a link to a Korea newspaper all in English so you can stay updated. Love you guys. later!
http://www.koreaherald.com/

My Warm Apt... with sound effects..

My New Apt Address

975-3 3F Maeho-dong
{975-3 3증 매호동}
Suseong Gu, Daegu, S.Korea 706-140
{수성구, 대구, 대한민국 706-140}

Phone: +82 010-9293-0401

Cambodia pix up on Flickr

Click her' fer flickr

..and here's a little viddy called "All the Single Apsaras":

I'm So Ronery..

Sorry bout the curse in the beginning :/

Cambodia Photos

Posted some new Cambodia photos on facebook so far. Not all, but some. I'll post more later, as well as on flickr.

I rode the motorbikes a lot because they were only $2, and they were just more fun than the Tuk-tuks anyway. Here, I'm riding with Ton-gu (I think that was his name). He's taking me to Sap Lake, the largest fresh-water lake in Asia, I guess. There we went to ride the boats over to the large house-boat community for tourists to see the sunset over the water. It was a bit cloudy though, but not bad.

a few odds and ends..

Here's a few random videos and photos from the past couple months.

First up, I went with the orphans to Herb Hills, which is a small amusement park here (it ain't no Cedar Point, but ..no matter..) Here's a vid of most of us on the viking ship. Billy and Helen seemed to love it, but Anthony, as you can see, wasn't too thrilled –hahaha:


Next up, my sledding tragedy:


Last weekend, I was invited by one of my students to go see the Yaenoeul Jazz Singers. Not bad:


Finally, here's a funny pic I took of a cover of a students notebook. Check out these hilarious English mistakes based on NBA team names (click on it to see it larger):

I have a few more photos to share, so I'll try to post them soon on flickr.

My Dongshin Church sermon reflection

Click here to read it

Kickin' it in Geumchon

This is very much like just about anywhere in South Korea:

Ok, where was I?

oh yeah, I got hit by a car.. I've told this story a number of times, and I'm sick of explaining it, so this is the last time. Sorry. Anyway, I was walking home from the corner store. As I came near a small intersection a car coming from the right cut the corner so tight that he, or she, almost hit me head on. No headlights, just parking lights, as well as no blinker of course. I jumped off to the right but the front driver-side fender hit me and I tumbled over the hood. They weren't going fast, but just enough to piss me off, though. I spilled my Pepsi® over their windshield and so they finally stopped. I pushed myself off the car stunned with anger. I stepped back and immediately began yelling at them. The windows were dark so I didn't see who was inside or even how many people. They didn't bother rolling down their window either to communicate with me in the slightest. I continued to share my disgust and shock of their actions. But what shocked me most is that they kept on driving. I chased after them throwing the rest of my Pepsi® at the car, but still wasn't able to read their license plate cuz I didn't have my glasses (so stop asking me why I didn't get their information!). My ribs below my left breast was soar only when I laughed for the next week until this past Tuesday when I suddenly became sore just when I breathe. The doc last week said I was fine, and I'm sure I am. Just sore and ticked off at people's ignorance and carelessness.

Moving on..

"새해 복 많이 받으세요!" (se he bok mani ba deu se yo!)
Last weekend was Lunar New Year. Year 5,000-sumthin I guess.. haha. Didn't really do anything special. I cleaned my apartment so that Nate could stay here as his parents crashed up in his place for this week. Sunday I lost 11 bucks in poker. No, I'm not a gambler. And although I was kicking butt the first two hours of those games. I'm sure that will probably be my last time playing with actual cash, no matter how cheap the ante. Monday, i practiced some guitar and had a bit of a drawing party at a friend's place. So, not too special of a New Year. No fireworks as far as I know. Terrible shame on how they don't know how to properly celebrate anything here. Perhaps the reason is broken spirits by all the cars they get hit by here. RELAX I'm fine!

In other news, found a new job! Now it's just a matter of getting my visa junk renewed, blah blah blah... The job is very similar to the academy I work at now, only my apartment is WAY better; bigger, nicer. Slightly lesser pay, but it has it's perks that make it worth it for now.

For now, I'm doing fine. I'm pretty happy and have a tight church family and friends that support each other in any way we can. You may worry that I may get hit by a car again, but there are the same dangers in any other country, so please don't worry too much. I mean, at least I haven't gotten a gun pulled on me here. Anyway..before I make anyone mad...

I began "intermediate survival korean" class at our church on Saturdays. Korean is an unattractive language in my opinion but after a while it's still fun to learn. Hopefully I can learn to be some what fluent some day..

I'm still involved with the orphanage and the kids have warmed up to me immensely as of late. It's a good feeling that we can allow ourselves to open up to people we barely know, but something tells us that we can trust them. Maybe not fully, but just enough to know that we are safe and that they have something to share with us that is extremely important in our lives. And we may not know what that is for a very long time, but one day God makes it known to us even after those friends are long gone. This is why I visit them. I have just as much to learn from them as they do from me in regards to God's plan and purpose in our lives.

With that, here's some Word to share that's been on my heart and mind lately:
Psalm 139
Ecc 12:1-7,13,14
Matt 5:13,48
Luke 14:26,27
1 Cor. 10:31
Phil 3:7-11
Phil 4:6,7
James 5:13-16
1 John (yep, all of it)
Rev 21:1,2

{This post is brought to you by Pepsi Cola Co.®....but not really.}

2010 update..

Annyeong se yo!!

It's been a while.. So it's 2010. A fun year thus far. I like this year of the tiger. New years was nothing too special really. Just went out with friends and met a couple other newbies.

Still playing bass at church and helped out with designing a new bulletin. Loox great if you ask me! By the way, I guess I should've posted a link a long time ago to my church's website. Here ya go:
http://dongshinchurch.wordpress.com/
If you scroll to almost the bottom of the page, you'll see a group photo where it also reads "Dongshin Gallery". Click on it and you'll see some pics of me and Nate having some good times at different events we were involved in. It's been fun being involved in the church, meeting new people, playing music, discovering God in new light, and just goofin off.

Been job searchin lately. It's going ok. Problem is, at the moment, that most schools begin March 1st whereas I don't finish my current contract 'til March 22. There's a heap of options out here as to where I could work, so I'm thankful. I've been offered a couple neat positions for August; one is an RA in Daejeon, bout 2hrs west of here, but I'd rather stay in Daegu. Another is an Art Teacher position at a private international high school. Sounds good! So, we'll see.

...Soo...uh...was hit by a car the other day. haha. Don't have time to tell you now about it, but I'll update this post later. Love you guys!

Brandon / BJ / BañoJoe