Fun with June, MiJeong, and PETER

Expedia just sent me the "Final Details of Your 12/20 Trip to Chicago ORD"
It's real boys and girls. :D


1988 Olympics World Peace Gate
View from the same coffee shop I sat in and studied for my placement test in August.
It's been an amazing four months.


SeongMin (Peter), SeongSoon (June), and MiJeong (Ashley)

Samgyeopsal!

Guess if all fails MiJin can be a soju girl? :P

Especially with a mouthful of samgyeopsal, haha sexy

~James

War Memorial of Korea

MiJin and I went to the War Memorial of Korea today, which was the biggest military museum I've ever been in. The museum covered the history of every armed conflict anyone who's ever called the Korean Peninsula home ever took part in. I couldn't capture this museum with enough photos, very well done. Just some standouts:


We didn't know what this was, but we just got lucky and walked up to all this happening.







The tiger drum that is the Korean spirit.

A hwacha, Korean-invented early firearm.

My picture didn't quite capture it, but this sword has a map of constellations important to the lunar calendar engraved in it. a.k.a BADASS

An admiral's sword (huge)

15ft bottlerockets (basically)

Boo! *Hiss* :P

Yi Sun-Shin's "Turtle Ship"

Used to ram straight through invading Japanese ships in the 16th century.

Ah, so that's what did it, the work of one WOMAN "encouraged the Aggression" to start the Korean War. Display=FAIL.

Korean War-era flag signed by student volunteer soldiers with patriotic slogans.

Student Volunteer soldiers

"Stand or Die"

"Tear drop" of dogtags and razor wire for the UN troops killed aiding the South in the Korean War.

Goofy character representing the museum. Really?

The most tragic photo I've ever taken.

~James

Nothing To Do, Lots of Time to Do It In

I have nothing to do. I got an A- in Intensive Korean, so i'm completely content with doing absolutely nothing this week but read and take pictures.


Interesting building, love motel I think.



grafitti across from the love motel parking lot, clever




"Return to Nature" :S




Who's watching this kid? This intersection rivaled any busy street in downtown Milwaukee.

Samgyeopsal with MiJin and SooJung

Watching Jeff get stressed at the end of the close Eagles/Giants game.

Eagles win. haha

From footbridge, Noksapyeong Station, Itaewon. It was really cold and windy, if i had about 30 min and wasn't shivering, could've gotten some really good photos. Oh well, wait for spring.

Namsan from Itaewon.

Noksapyeong Station. Fancy Schmancy subway station.

See you guys soon~

-James

Finals Week

I'm done with all of my finals. I'll spare you the details of the last two weeks, you'll get 'em right from the source in a bit.



My Intensive Korean classmates. Saw these people every morning for over 3 months. I'll miss them a lot.
From L to R, back row: Adam-MN,USA; Peter-Germany; Cheyenne-CHI, USA; Nyika-Japan; Rika-Japan
R to L front row: Prativa-Nepal; Soua-MN, USA; Giang-Vietnam; Hana-China; ZhouYang-China.
And Kim JiSun, our amazing professor in the front :D

The joke was always that our professor and ZhouYang were siblings.

Across from me in the back there is our other professor, Lee HwaYoung

Friday night, after my Chinese History final, I went to see WTM in Itaewon. :D

HongGu, WTM Drummer, and JeongMin--Couple Pic. I'm SOOO glad this finally happened :D
They're both drummers in bands so it's adorable.

So for those of you who cannot read Korean:

The black characters at the top left of this sign are my name, "JaeImSu", and the big red font says "Singing Club"*

*A 'singing club' is one of many obscure forms of prostitution in Korea, where patrons pay a woman to sign karaoke with them and .......other stuff....

So that was the last few days, otherwise all I did was study, sleep, eat, go to exams, repeat.

See you all soon :D Now I have a week of chillin' at the Kwon Hotel, so excited for MiJin's mom's cooking every day! :D

~James


PREVIEW:

Something I want to do next spring is to document the varied problematic racial and ethnic representations in Seoul advertising and signage. There are a lot of bars, pool halls etc. just called "Indian" as well as other odd uses of Native American imagery in clothing stores and other places.

Kimbab (sushi roll) chain. Yikes.

Karaoke and bar.

21 Years Old: A Celebration of Edge

Hey everyone,
So finals are next week....

yeahhhh

So i'm quite busy and also getting ready to head back to visit WI on the 20th.
Just thought I'd upload some of the pics from my birthday and the Geeks 10th Anniversary Show.



German and Japanese classmates at my bday gathering


21-Year-Old James

MiJin and I love this acoustic bar, Sally Guitar

Sally herself!

That's what the developing world thinks of you

Hyundai Department Store, Sinchon

Thanksgiving at Jeff and Trash's turned into a game of "King Cup"

Hong Gu passed out

Jussi and I at the Geeks show (MiJin took the camera from here)

Ki Seok and I X'ing up, very special that he did it for me

As I requested all week, the Geeks played a cover of my all-time favorite Straight Edge anthem, "Promises Kept", by Champion. I don't remember the time between the song starting and it ending, but that's me up there. Soooo great.

Forget what you heard, THIS is Korea.

See you all soon. Love you all.