Viewer Question:Do Korean Men Like Western Women

Ashley sent in a question asking me " I am moving to Korea in 2 weeks and I am wondering,are Korean men attracted to western women, even though we aren't as small as Korean women? Will any Korean men still find me attractive?" Here is my slightly Sojued response!

I Stare At White People

The randomness that escapes my lips!

Seoul Sisters in Cheonan

Rugby Overdose! Saturday I went to a KTA touch tournament in Onsu. After being here for over a month, one would assume that I would finally stop getting lost all of the time, but no dice. I showed up about a half an hour late, but with enough time to change, eat and apple and talk smack before our first game. The tournament was a really good combination of Koreans and Foreigners with a rather large splattering of the Maoris, Samoans and other Polynesians who always seem to beautifully dominate such tournaments. Touch tournaments always remind me that I am not very useful outside of full contact rugby, but they encourage me to try different approaches I wouldn't normally try. For example....actually learning how to pass a ball before I am hit! Once we got a rhythm going it was actually quite impressive and my team mates are pretty fantastic. Of course, I wouldn't be me if something didn't go wrong and I managed to break my finger in the first game and continued to play like a fool. Ashamed to admit I actually broke my finger by jamming it off of some buff Korean (high school kids) chest. I really need to come up with a better story.

If Saturday wasn't enough, we headed to Cheonan Sunday morning for a full day of rugby, Korean formality and shenanery. The field we played on had temple seating, which is the coolest and craziest thing I have ever seen. Imagine playing to that backdrop? We were warmly welcomed and immediately the organizers yelled something in Korean at some boys sitting under a tent. They began gathering their things and making space for us. There was an opening ceremony for, which was nothing short of brilliant and incredibly strange. I am not certain if it was dance, martial arts or circus, but it was definitely something to see. My favorite part was watching the shirtless Korean man shove a nail through a board using his chest!

Our first match was against ourselves as a sort of "Foreigners play rugby in Korea" spectacle. I didn't realize how out of shape I was, until I started sucking wind about 5 minutes into the game; a bit shocking, considering we were playing 10's instead of 7's.

Our next match was against a boys "middle school" team. Now I have no idea what they put in the water here, but these boys were ridiculously mannish to be in high school  As a matter of fact, two minutes into the game, I took one of the hardest hits I have ever taken in my life. I'm not a big girl, but I am definitely hard to take off my feet...or so I thought. The game was actually incredibly challenging, but it was awesome to watch the team playing at a much higher level than we were when we scrimmaged ourselves. Although, I must say there was a lot more groping than I am used to, which is saying a lot because women's rugby is full of gropers!

The Cheonan Boys

Stiff arming the "children"

These boys ran circles around us and it was an awesomely fun game! Afterwards we were fed some of the best fried chicken I've ever had, given beer and asked to take part in a "ceremony." Korea has this habit of being wonderfully formal in very interesting settings. All the teams lined up in rows, they played some music and made presentations in Korean that I didn't understand. Then they presented us with a plaque, which Natalie graciously accepted, despite the fact we could not read it!

5 people (who looked very important) came up to speak and we clapped after each one. Then at the end, this crazy Korean lady who was acting as DJ for the day, began playing Gangnam style and asked us to dance. I love to take a every opportunity I can to be an an idiot. This was the result:

All in all it was an excellent day of rugby, which we ended by going to the Cheonan world dance festival, where I ran into this little character! She is so much cooler than I was when I was a kid!

For Tina

I made this video as a response or rather in solidarity with my friend Tina and fellow Epik teachers who may be hitting the "blues" mark. It is pretty common when you move to another country, to  crash hard when the honey moon phase is over. I still love Korea....but man this week has been frustrating! Check out Tina's blog and original video below.

Tina's Tumblr

Korean Beauty Products

My Favorite Korean Beauty Products:

1. Arsainte Eco-Therapy Moisturizer by The Face Shop

2. Mild Papaya Peeling Mask

3. Nonco Tea Tree Stick by A'Pieu

4. Real Nature Mask in Pomegranate by The Face Shop

5. Honey Black Tea Jelly Foam by Skin Food

6. Parsley & Mandarin Toner (for troubled skin) by Skin Food

7. VOV Aloe Essence Hairspray

8.Elastine Avocado Conditioner

Seeing Psy Live

So last night I found out Psy had a free concert at City Hall in Seoul. Not realizing the amount of planning it might take to get there, I decided to leave at 7:00pm and meet my friend Erika. Bad life decision, the subways were heaving and even if I had decided against going, there was no way out of the exit. I had planned to meet friends at exit 5, which of course was blocked off due to the high numbers of Korean fans. I maneuvered out of another exit and raced down the street, dodging old ladies and bounding past cars to get inside before the gate closed.

absolutely heaving subway!

Of course I had trouble Kakao-ing anyone because as you all probably know, Koreans love their phones! There were more phones than people in the area, making reception and internet usage damn near impossible. News crews kept stopping and asking me questions, obviously wanting the Waygook opinion of Psy in Korea. My response was the same every time "I love Psy. He's great and I am so excited to be here. Woo hoo, go Korea."

By the time I finally found Erika we were on completely separate sections of the gate. We waved sadly at each other long enough that some of the news crew and camera men noticed and helped me climb behind their gear to finally meet her. An old woman next to me (who I thought was a volunteer) began bumping me, fanning herself and screaming something in Korea, I ignored her until she put her hands on me. Anyone who knows me knows I can control my temper until I get touched! A guy next to me said the woman kept saying she was "hot" and we needed to move further into the crowd, basically she didn't like foreigners and thought she would attempt to punk us. She definitely picked the wrong person and we pretty much had a 10 minute verbal row, which ended with me telling her if she was feeling hot she needed to move and we would have issues if she touched me again. All of the young Koreans around us were laughing and one even translated for her...so she got the message. I have a tendency to believe people should maintain their composure especially when representing yourself as a foreigner in a new country...but...sometimes things happen and it turned into an epic-ally hilarious argument.

As it got later and the crowd filled up, people started pushing and shoving each other against the gates. This was not normal rock concert shoving, this was rock concert shoving in ASIA! Highly populated with tech savvy, adoring fans, many of them out of their heads on soju. This was the most diverse crowd I've seen, from young kids to old men and women, it was definitely surprising, but nice to see how much pride South Koreans have in their entertainers and how much support PSY receives. When it was no longer safe to stay where we were, we desperately tried to make our way through the crowd, chatting up each cute Korean man we encountered on the way. We were not moving more than an inch for every ten minutes.

Finally, a super funny Korean boy behind us started yelling something and it was as if he was Moses who parted the crowd. People were bowing and apologizing all over the place. It took us a minute to realize he was saying "pregnant women coming through" but hey, whatever works. We found a sweet spot in the back near some insane business men (one of whom picked Erika up so she could see better), cracked open some Hite beer and went mental to Psy. Towards the end, a man leaned over and said "only five minutes left,now he play Gangnam style." We ran towards the subway and perched behind a crowd of people and just like he said, Gangnam style started. I have never had so much fun dancing with folks in the street. Watching the excitement and pride that people felt about Psy's success was inspiring and dancing to Psy live has definitely been the highlight of my time in Korea so far!

The Glory That is Chuseok

Sonpyeon!!

Last Friday went by so quickly for me! In classes we talked about food and world holiday's, all while eating candy and eventually watching music videos. What is to attribute to this sudden lack of work and teacher apathy? Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) and all of the delicious Songpyeon my student's made for me. Chuseok celebrates the harvest season and is a 3 day holiday full of amazing food, cute children in Hanboks and some pretty interesting party games. The kids  were so excited to finally have a break that teaching became much harder to do and lesson planning pretty much went out the window. Yet, somehow this was one of my most productive classes and it got the students using English without even realizing it.  My teacher informed me that I would have off until Thursday and then the kids would have midterms for the next few days, so no teaching again until next Tuesday.

Woo Hoo!  At 4:30 I ran to the subway station, started my long and arduous journey to pick up my suitcase from FedEx (got lost 3 times) and fast tracked it back home to clean for Angelique's arrival and get ready for a night out in Gangnam!

My first strange encounter was with a guy drinking a bottle of extra stout Guinness, making faces at a small dog on the subway. I should have known such weirdness had to come my way and he ended up going out with me and my friends for the evening, one of the best nights I've had in Seoul, but I shall spare all of the details.

At 7:00 AM I lost to Gangnam! I made my way home, staggering like the last survivor in a Zombie apocalypse film. The streets were empty because everyone had already left for Chuseouk, it was eerily beautiful.I made it back to my apartment in time to buy a bed for Angelique, clean my apartment and make it to the airport before her flight landed.

We headed out with the Epik folks to get some beer and chicken, meeting the craziest taxi driver I have ever encountered on the way. His name was Sam and his English was absolutely perfect. He danced, joked, sang and at one point pulled over the taxi so he could play Gangnam style for us on his Ipad and do the dance. We invited Sam to dinner and thanked him for his kindness. In return he gave us a free taxi ride to our next bar-The Ho Bar.

2 bottles of Soju and an endless amount of beer later, we ended up at a club called Cocoon where the giant pipes blew out air-conditioning at huge hoards of dancers fighting for prime space. The second I found one, I was there for the night! So far, Cocoon has had my favorite music in all of Seoul and the drink prices were pretty reasonable for a Hongdae based night club. Most clubs are filled with K-Pop and EDM or strange house music, which is alright after much Soju...but Cocoon had an excellent DJ who actually played more old school hip hop than I hear at a lot of clubs in the U.S. When I heard "Love Like This" and "Gravel Pit" I knew I was in good hands!

The next few days Angelique and I went to church, celebrated Chuseok with her pastor,bummed around a bit, did some shopping and then went on a Seoul City (hop on and off) bus tour to attempt to take in some culture and work off my Soju hangover. This city is absolutely stunning. It's so crazy to see traditional architecture to a cityscape backdrop.

The little cutie to the left managed to make it into the shot

Angel's last night in Seoul we headed to Itaewon for a night cap with the Irish boys. My plan to remain sober  was demolished the second we started playing beer twister.

All in all it was an excellent break and with only two days until my next huge weekend (a rugby tournament and end of the year party as well as our first away game)I think it's time to do some detoxing.