Jamason Comes to Korea

Jamason decided to visit Korea. So I've had three visitors in Korea, my parents, Kathy Kim, and Jamason. Jamason packed about three kilograms of food in his backpack for this trip. He has incredible endurance as I am usually to lazy to even pack water. While he was here I ate the entire Easter goody bag of sugar cookies his mother made for him, about two-hundred M&Ms, and one protein bar. I had to argue with Jamason for approximately six hours to get him to relinquish that protein bar.

This is the view from Jongno Tower. This is my default photograph face.

Here's Jamason in from of the Cheongwadae. This is where the president lives. Every morning the president gets up and hikes to the top of that mountain behind his house. Then when he reaches the top he yells at the top of his lungs, "Hooorraaahhhh!"

Here we are at Gyeonbokgung. Jamason wouldn't stop talking about America so I pretended that I had a phone call for about forty-five minutes.

Here we are at Changdeokgung. Changdeokgung is about forty times better than Gyeonbokgung in my calculations. Notice those trees behind the temple? Guess what - they lead to a secret-garden. We sang a song about it.

Secret garden...secret garden...
I've got to go to my secret garden...
Getting away, away to play,
It's just me, me, and me,
In my secret garden

Jamason told me that for every photograph he tries to do a different pose. Look at this one. My goodness. What is he doing wasting his time teaching, he should be a professional wrestler.

Then again, this is Jamason's default pose. Left thumb hooked in jeans pocket, right side forward. At one point I told him it looked creepy, but I guess it's up for debate.

After Jamason took this photograph a lady walking by laughed out loud. Jamason brings the lulz to Korea.

Here is Jamason at Olympic park on a double-bicycle. The poor biker to the right of photograph was subsequently crushed when the sculpture tipped over.

Dongdaemun.

Here we are at Haeundae. So Jamason says, "I'm going to run down and touch the water! I've never touched the East Sea before." But then when he got down there he just started dancing and dancing. For nearly an hour!

What a wonderful spread! Jamason couldn't eat the shellfish though because he is allergic. When I found out it made me a little sad because I realized he will probably never eat shellfish again for the rest of his life. Anyway, I got to have all of it for myself. We ate for nearly two hours and had out "teacher talk" in which we basically talked about teaching the whole time after two bottles of soju. At the end Jamason hugged our waitress.

A mountain in Busan. See how my arm is resting on my hip? And I'm looking out towards the world with power and confidence? That's because this was the most triumphant moment of the trip for me, because Jamason finally gave in and gave me one of his protein bars. I ate it and had the biggest protein rush of my life. I actually jumped all the way to the peak in the background.

Submit this one to the Tyra Banks modeling agency. I'm ready.

I woke up one morning and Jamason had altered my apartment quite a bit.

I hate Blogspot's WYSIWYG interface. I hate it.

Chuncheon

Chuncheon is east of Seoul. About an hour drive. It is past Pyeongchang (famous for its water and bid for the 2018 Olympics) and near Gangwando (famous for its beauty).

An errant tower spotted on the way to Chuncheon. Similar to the Space Needle but not nearly as memorable.

In 1892 the Mayor of Chuncheon traveled to the Mississippi Delta and noticed a beautiful boat. He purchased it and brought it back to Korea and placed it in his city. It is the oldest and most beautiful building in Chuncheon.

An entire street devoted to dalk-galbi. Chuncheon is famous for its dalk-galbi.

What is the secret to Chuncheon's famous dalk-galbi? Why the cabbage storage of course! The cabbage is stored on the street on top of a plastic sheet overnight so that it soaks in the flavor of the Chuncheon air.



Delicious dalk-galbi. This was lunch. We also ate it for dinner. And then the next morning for breakfast.

Is this photo demonstrative of "countryside"? Having lived in Korea for nearly two years, I have never seen Dunkin' Donuts in hangul.

No comment.

One of the many attractions of Chuncheon - the Memorial Hall for Ethiopian Veterans in the Korean War. One of Chuncheon's sister cities is in Ethiopia. Everything about this place was perfect. The second floor has a window to sit at and look out - you can see it behind the flags. Old people ride their bikes here during the day, go up to the second flooor, sit down, drink Ethiopian coffee, and watch the traffic pass by.

House of the Dead 3? Or was it 4? Ask the man behind us - he was riveted.

Although the exterior appears to be a night club, do not be fooled. It is actually a time machine that is permanently set to 1981.

This man claimed that his daughter created the Korean drama 'Iris'. Apparently she netted approximately 100,000 USD for the project.