Just woke up from a terrible nightmare that I have to leave Korea in less than 24 hours. Oh crap...
It's come to this. I'm sitting at the cafe where I started my blog at, one year ago, cranking out my last in-Korea post. I've seen some amazing stuff. I've done more than I ever imagined I would. And met some incredible people I'd call great friends. It's been a hell of a ride. But since all good things must come to an end, so too shall my unforgettable year in Korea.
Yesterday I had to say goodbye to my students, coworkers, superiors, friends, both computers, both desks, and school lunch. Needless to say, my eyes weren't dry as I gave my farewells to everyone that made my life at Young Sung Middle School, and Korea for that matter, a million times better.
I have to keep this short because I have about an hour to finish moving out of my apartment, pack for India, and throw out crap I've accumulated the last 12 months, but this is a precursor of what's to come.
Indonesia, the past few weeks in Korea, the speech I gave, and the letters I received from my boys (although you'd guess they were female fan club members) will all receive the attention they deserve.
But for now, it's time to pack for India (note to self: don't pack white boxers)
Chau chau!
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
The Big Picture: South Korean floods
If you've never been exposed to Boston.com's The Big Picture photo blog before, here's a good excuse to start. The blog is "intended to highlight high-quality, amazing imagery, with a focus on current events."
Here's a link to the photos from the end-of-July downpour that plagued the country with heavy flooding:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/08/south_korean_deluge.html
Here's a link to the photos from the end-of-July downpour that plagued the country with heavy flooding:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/08/south_korean_deluge.html
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Quick Update: Mon-hopefullyitends-soon, K-fame, NQ, and Indo
As I fulfill the remaining hours of this week's deskwarming stint until I depart for Indonesia, I realize there's still so much I want to share before I'm bombarded with photos from Yogyakarta and motorbike stories from Bali (what a predicament).
For starters, today is the first day in the last 6 that hasn't seen torrential (and I mean torrential) downpours. Seriously. It's been bad. Some of you may be thinking sure Quinn we've all seen rain you big wuss. Unless you helped film the Vietnam War scene in Forrest Gump, I'm not convinced you've experienced rain like this. It's gotten so bad that at least 32 people died just east of Seoul (and not that far from my teachers field trip) in deadly landslides. Flash floods crippled many of Seoul's lowest-lying districts, including the chic Gangnam area. Here's a video from yesterday of someone in the Gangnam area.
On a much less serious note, the rain also cancelled all of the public pool plans Scho and I had planned for this week. After hearing about the deaths in Chuncheon and floods in Gangnam, I think I'll let that one pass.
On a lighter note, Jules and I made it into a K-Pop video! Let me back up a bit. About a month ago our whole crew was walking around Hongdae (our favorite area to go out) when some Koreans approached us and asked if we wanted to be in a music video. Considering I turned down a similar offer (it still haunts me) back in December, I was all over this one. The song was called "Love" so they asked Jules and I to embrace and kiss. Not to name names, but 1 of the 2 of us is a little camera-shy so it was a tad awkward at first. After a shot or two, they gathered something they were satisfied with. Our friends Mo and Zoe got in on the action as well. Here's the video. We make our appearance at 1:44 with Mo and Zoe at 2:59.
Moving on to the exciting stuff. I'm going to be an uncle very, very soon! My sister-in-law is full-term and appears due ANY DAY NOW. My fingers are trembling a bit even typing this. Julie pokes fun at me and has to remind me that it's not my baby. Deep breaths. Ok, she's right. Not my baby. Settle down Quinn. Anyways, Tonya is a very adorable pregnant woman and looks ready to pop any day now. ANY. DAY. NOW. The little tyke's name is Nolan Quinn Hubertz and, if I say so myself, it's a rather noble name...
Here are some pics of the parents-to-be.
If baby NQ doesn't come out in the next 12 hours then I will have to wait to hear the good news while in Indonesia! Speaking of which, I depart Incheon tonight at 11:25pm and arrive in Jakarta tomorrow morning. It's going to be an exciting week with stops in...
-Jakarta, to check out Olivia's father's bird's nest soup farm. Here's a link about bird's nest soup production Indonesia, a Chinese delicacy: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12274825
-Yogyakarta, home to Prambanan, a 9th century Hindu temple and one of Southeast Asia's largest.
-and Bali, home to motorbikes, SCUBA, and some of the world's best beaches.
It should be a great time and I'm extremely lucky to have the opportunity to spend 2 weeks there. I hope everyone has a great August, and here's to baby NQ coming into the world soon! I'm out!
Back in 2 weeks
For starters, today is the first day in the last 6 that hasn't seen torrential (and I mean torrential) downpours. Seriously. It's been bad. Some of you may be thinking sure Quinn we've all seen rain you big wuss. Unless you helped film the Vietnam War scene in Forrest Gump, I'm not convinced you've experienced rain like this. It's gotten so bad that at least 32 people died just east of Seoul (and not that far from my teachers field trip) in deadly landslides. Flash floods crippled many of Seoul's lowest-lying districts, including the chic Gangnam area. Here's a video from yesterday of someone in the Gangnam area.
On a much less serious note, the rain also cancelled all of the public pool plans Scho and I had planned for this week. After hearing about the deaths in Chuncheon and floods in Gangnam, I think I'll let that one pass.
On a lighter note, Jules and I made it into a K-Pop video! Let me back up a bit. About a month ago our whole crew was walking around Hongdae (our favorite area to go out) when some Koreans approached us and asked if we wanted to be in a music video. Considering I turned down a similar offer (it still haunts me) back in December, I was all over this one. The song was called "Love" so they asked Jules and I to embrace and kiss. Not to name names, but 1 of the 2 of us is a little camera-shy so it was a tad awkward at first. After a shot or two, they gathered something they were satisfied with. Our friends Mo and Zoe got in on the action as well. Here's the video. We make our appearance at 1:44 with Mo and Zoe at 2:59.
Moving on to the exciting stuff. I'm going to be an uncle very, very soon! My sister-in-law is full-term and appears due ANY DAY NOW. My fingers are trembling a bit even typing this. Julie pokes fun at me and has to remind me that it's not my baby. Deep breaths. Ok, she's right. Not my baby. Settle down Quinn. Anyways, Tonya is a very adorable pregnant woman and looks ready to pop any day now. ANY. DAY. NOW. The little tyke's name is Nolan Quinn Hubertz and, if I say so myself, it's a rather noble name...
Here are some pics of the parents-to-be.
If baby NQ doesn't come out in the next 12 hours then I will have to wait to hear the good news while in Indonesia! Speaking of which, I depart Incheon tonight at 11:25pm and arrive in Jakarta tomorrow morning. It's going to be an exciting week with stops in...
-Jakarta, to check out Olivia's father's bird's nest soup farm. Here's a link about bird's nest soup production Indonesia, a Chinese delicacy: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12274825
-Yogyakarta, home to Prambanan, a 9th century Hindu temple and one of Southeast Asia's largest.
-and Bali, home to motorbikes, SCUBA, and some of the world's best beaches.
It should be a great time and I'm extremely lucky to have the opportunity to spend 2 weeks there. I hope everyone has a great August, and here's to baby NQ coming into the world soon! I'm out!
Back in 2 weeks
Booze cruise, noraebang, bomb shots, and Nami Island.....just another Teachers Field Trip
The week leading up to Mud Fest, my school had a field trip for the teachers. They told me a few weeks prior that I would be going on an overnight trip to some lake in Namyangju (east of Seoul....Sammy and B represent). That's all they really told me. That and the fact that my vice principal (the booze hound that he is) would try and get me really drunk. That might sound weird to some, but it's rather common practice here in Korea (see: earlier post). After eating lunch on Thursday, all the teachers got ready to board our coach bus. But not before grabbing a mini keg, 4 cases of beer, 2 cases of soju, and many bags of chips.
"This is for tonight?" I asked my buddy Oo June.
"Oh no. This is for the bus ride," he replied.
Jeeeeez. These people are ridiculous and I love them for that. As each teacher boarded the bus they were given a coffee drink. 20 minutes later each teacher is handed a beer. 20 minutes later each teacher is handed some chips. Like clockwork. Any time you wanted a beer, someone was willing and ready to grab one. We didn't go through all of the beer but, yikes, the teachers of Young Seong Middle know how to have a good time!
The first place we got out at was Cheongpyeong Lake, a manmade lake of the Bukhangang River. It rained cats and dogs so we all waited under a canopy for our boat to arrive. I helped carry the mini keg onto the boat and we took off. 20 minutes and a Krombacher draft later, the rain subsided and many of us went on the upper deck to check out the sights and take photos...
"This is for tonight?" I asked my buddy Oo June.
"Oh no. This is for the bus ride," he replied.
Jeeeeez. These people are ridiculous and I love them for that. As each teacher boarded the bus they were given a coffee drink. 20 minutes later each teacher is handed a beer. 20 minutes later each teacher is handed some chips. Like clockwork. Any time you wanted a beer, someone was willing and ready to grab one. We didn't go through all of the beer but, yikes, the teachers of Young Seong Middle know how to have a good time!
The first place we got out at was Cheongpyeong Lake, a manmade lake of the Bukhangang River. It rained cats and dogs so we all waited under a canopy for our boat to arrive. I helped carry the mini keg onto the boat and we took off. 20 minutes and a Krombacher draft later, the rain subsided and many of us went on the upper deck to check out the sights and take photos...
 |
| Waiting for the boat |
 |
| Oo June and the VP |
After the booze cruise pregame, we boarded the bus and headed to our next destination: the Garden of Morning Calm. The rain started up again when we got there, but I feel like every beautiful Asian garden has mist and drizzle at all times. Apparently, Morning Calm is the oldest private garden in Korea. It attracts some 600,000 tourists every year. We only spent about an hour walking around, but it was pretty cool.
 |
| The ladies and I |
After Morning Calm, we drive a short distance to our restaurant. The rain was full on torrential downpour at this time. I sat down next to Jimi, my main co-teacher, far away from the soju instigator, i.e. the vice principal. After putting down some bossam, or steamed pork slices, the VP had me in his soju sights and requested for me to join his table. I wouldn't return. Shot. Makgeolli. Shot. Shot. Bomb shot. Makgeolli. Bomb shot. Bomb shot. Bomb shot. Things started getting messy. Apparently in Korea, every man has his "number" when it comes to drinking. The "number" is the amount of soju bottles you can consume in 1 night. I don't exactly know how many hours "a night" constitutes but regardless, most Korean men have a number. They compare them like a bunch of teenagers. Anyways, my VP's number is in the double digits. The dude can drink. He warned me back at our last teacher dinner that we would be taking a lot of bomb shots. He wasn't lying.
If I wasn't being force fed soju or bomb shots by the VP, I was having conversations with teachers who pretend not to speak any English at school (per usual). Nothing new there though. I remember the Spanish skills being much better after a few fernet y colas. Here are some photos of the dinner (but mainly just the drinking parts).
Now that the night was in full swing, we got back on the bus and headed for the hotel. Not to finish the night though of course. Only to drop our bags off before continuing the night at a noraebang in the basement of the hotel. The room was huge. Easily big enough to hold all ~40 of us. As we all sat down, some teachers were shuffling around making sure each area had beer, soju, watermelon, and other snacks. You could tell it wasn't their first rodeo. I sang 2 songs that night. I tried picking songs that (a) I've sung before (b) were familiar to Korean ears and (c) easy to sing by myself. My first choice was "Summer Love" from Grease. A fellow English teacher took the Olivia Newton John lines and it turned out pretty well. Feeling confident, my second choice was "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen. Criteria (a) and (b) were satisfied, but boy is that song tough to sing solo. The whole scalamoosh scalamoosh and let me go! parts were awfully difficult. I was also able to take some photos with the Principal and VP so I'm stoked about that. After a few hours of crooning, the VP grabbed the mic and told us if we wanted to continue the party then we should move upstairs to the party suite the school booked for the night. It was about 2am at this point. I obviously went to the suite to continue the night with about 7 other troopers. At about 4am I started dozing off and Oo June, the good dude he is, prepared a bed for me in one of the suite's rooms. This worked out nice because I was supposed to sleep with 4 other ajusshis in a much smaller room. Now I had a room to myself. Here are some photos from this part of the night.
 |
| "Summer Love" |
 |
| Ajusshi Love |
 |
| My bro Oo June |
 |
| Looking for a good one |
 |
| Bohemian Rhapsody |
 |
| VP telling us to move upstairs |
 |
| The party suite |
 |
| View from the party suite |
Post is starting to get a little on the long side so I'm going to start to "Winehouse" it (too soon?). The next morning I was woken up by the VP (slightly awkward) and we went to breakfast. Nothing quite beats pungent, fermented Korean bean soup at 8 in the morning (not true). After breakfast, we went to Nami Island, which is famous for being the site of a famous Korean Drama (soap opera) named Winter Sonata. The 1 season it aired was fairly popular in Korea, but exploded in other Asian countries such as Japan and Thailand, turning the 2 main actors into millionaires almost overnight. The majority of the tourists therefore were not Korean. Here are some photos.
 |
| The Korean Drama Winter Sonata |
 |
| Lunch: traditional, non-Chuncheon style dak galbi |
Ok officially pulling the plug on this post. For more photos of this ridiculous trip click here.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Nothing 'week' about these 'ends'...
The last few months or so there has been a serious sense of urgency to knock off some items on the Korean bucket list. Places such as the DMZ, the Boseong Tea Fields, Seoraksan, Mud Fest, and, yes, bungee jumping. Since I'm playing catch-up with my blog posts in order to get ready for my 2 week vacation to INDONESIA coming up, I'm going to bunch all of these weekend trips into one post starting with the most recent...
Bungee Jumping (23 April 2011)
Back when the two and only, Greg and Tay, were still ROKing it, the 4 of us went bungee jumping in Yuldong Park on a Saturday morning back in April. We had previously struck out back in the Fall, when we arrived an hour after they opened only to find out they were booked for the whole day, and didn't want to make the same mistake twice. We got there right when they opened and were the first ones to jump. Lucky for us, these guys don't operate like me. My first few lessons of the week are always the worst for the kids, as I'm not completely comfortable with teaching a lesson until about the third or fourth one. Bungee jump guys aren't allowed the same grace period. Phew! Anyways, Greg, Jules, and I jumped (Tay had previously jumped and once was enough) and had a fun-gee time. Greg pulled a move from Fresh Prince and pretended to propose to Tay just like Hilary's boyfriend does in the show. A Korean guy ended up hearing it and, believing it to be real, offered to buy us all pizza to celebrate the "big moment"! So kind Koreans are. Here's a little video I made of the day...
For more photos click here.
Seoraksan (28-29 May 2011)
Back in May, Julie was lucky enough to have her father and brother come out to visit her. One of the many activities Jules had planned for them was a weekend trip to hike the famous Seorak-san (san means mountain). Seoraksan is the largest mountain in the Taebaek range in the Gangwon province in eastern Korea. We decided to go through Adventure Korea because they took care of transportation and lodging and made everything easier overall. We left Seoul early Saturday morning to get our hiking on. We did the famous, rigorous, picturesque hike on Saturday afternoon and saw some amazing views. The next day we woke up early and did a less intense hike along a river bed. It was a great way to spend some quality time with some quality guys, Ian and Izaak. Here are some photos...
Boseong Tea Fields (18 June 2011)
Another major item on the bucket list was hitting up the green tea fields of Boseong, located in the Jeollanam province in southwestern Korea. My bros in Korea had already gone so it was a rather estrogen-heavy weekend with 6 other girls and I. Jokes aside, it was a fantastic weekend with some fantastic ladies. Highlights include:
-consumed green tea ice cream, green tea lattes, green tea makgeolli (Korea famous rice wine), green tea pajeon (squid and green onion pancake), green tea samgyeopsal (Korea famous pork belly), and, you guessed it, green tea!
-played "Ninja"on the streets of Gwangju to the delight of many onlookers
-started The Hunger Games which, if you're looking for a suspenseful, mindless read, I'd recommend you check the series out
-made friends with some Korean bros who bought us soju, makgeolli, and snacks...man, Koreans are the best
Here are some photos from the tea party...
DMZ (25 June 2011)
How can you live in Korea for a year and not go to the DMZ?! That was the debacle facing us as we neared completion of our stint here. The DMZ isn't something we looked forward to doing because, well, it (a) is only a Saturday morning/afternoon excursion yet seems to take the entire weekend, (b) we didn't have THAT many weekends in Korea left and (c) isn't exactly "fun". With all that being said, we had to go. Chris's friends from Hong Kong were in town that weekend and wanted to join us as well. We took it "easy" the night before (cough Mo Jo Zo cough) to get up early enough to make the early departure out of Seoul from the Yongsan Garrison U.S. Army base. The day started with a presentation from a soldier previewing what we're going to see, what we can and can't do, and what's what. He also gave a brief history of the DMZ starting with the Korean War. Turns out, the North had the South pushed back all the way to Busan (southern Korea) until US forces showed up. We then pushed North Korean troops back until the threat of a Chinese intervention emerged. The sides settled at the 38th parallel, or what is known today as the DeMilitarized Zone. Here are the photos...
Bungee Jumping (23 April 2011)
Back when the two and only, Greg and Tay, were still ROKing it, the 4 of us went bungee jumping in Yuldong Park on a Saturday morning back in April. We had previously struck out back in the Fall, when we arrived an hour after they opened only to find out they were booked for the whole day, and didn't want to make the same mistake twice. We got there right when they opened and were the first ones to jump. Lucky for us, these guys don't operate like me. My first few lessons of the week are always the worst for the kids, as I'm not completely comfortable with teaching a lesson until about the third or fourth one. Bungee jump guys aren't allowed the same grace period. Phew! Anyways, Greg, Jules, and I jumped (Tay had previously jumped and once was enough) and had a fun-gee time. Greg pulled a move from Fresh Prince and pretended to propose to Tay just like Hilary's boyfriend does in the show. A Korean guy ended up hearing it and, believing it to be real, offered to buy us all pizza to celebrate the "big moment"! So kind Koreans are. Here's a little video I made of the day...
For more photos click here.
Seoraksan (28-29 May 2011)
Back in May, Julie was lucky enough to have her father and brother come out to visit her. One of the many activities Jules had planned for them was a weekend trip to hike the famous Seorak-san (san means mountain). Seoraksan is the largest mountain in the Taebaek range in the Gangwon province in eastern Korea. We decided to go through Adventure Korea because they took care of transportation and lodging and made everything easier overall. We left Seoul early Saturday morning to get our hiking on. We did the famous, rigorous, picturesque hike on Saturday afternoon and saw some amazing views. The next day we woke up early and did a less intense hike along a river bed. It was a great way to spend some quality time with some quality guys, Ian and Izaak. Here are some photos...
 |
| Bronze Buddha of Sinheungsa |
 |
| Ian and some ajummas |
 |
| Izaak and Jules |
 |
| Jules, Izaak, and Ian |
 |
| Made it to the top! Not before getting really sweaty though... |
 |
| Beautiful....the mountains aren't too shabby either |
 |
| Pajeon! |
 |
| Quail eggs |
Boseong Tea Fields (18 June 2011)
Another major item on the bucket list was hitting up the green tea fields of Boseong, located in the Jeollanam province in southwestern Korea. My bros in Korea had already gone so it was a rather estrogen-heavy weekend with 6 other girls and I. Jokes aside, it was a fantastic weekend with some fantastic ladies. Highlights include:
-consumed green tea ice cream, green tea lattes, green tea makgeolli (Korea famous rice wine), green tea pajeon (squid and green onion pancake), green tea samgyeopsal (Korea famous pork belly), and, you guessed it, green tea!
-played "Ninja"on the streets of Gwangju to the delight of many onlookers
-started The Hunger Games which, if you're looking for a suspenseful, mindless read, I'd recommend you check the series out
-made friends with some Korean bros who bought us soju, makgeolli, and snacks...man, Koreans are the best
Here are some photos from the tea party...
 |
| Par-tea time |
 |
| Couple shirts |
 |
| New friends |
 |
| Bundaegi: roasted silkworm pupae....nothing quite sucks the moisture out of your mouth like these lil guys |
 |
| Green Tea Samgyeopsal |
DMZ (25 June 2011)
How can you live in Korea for a year and not go to the DMZ?! That was the debacle facing us as we neared completion of our stint here. The DMZ isn't something we looked forward to doing because, well, it (a) is only a Saturday morning/afternoon excursion yet seems to take the entire weekend, (b) we didn't have THAT many weekends in Korea left and (c) isn't exactly "fun". With all that being said, we had to go. Chris's friends from Hong Kong were in town that weekend and wanted to join us as well. We took it "easy" the night before (cough Mo Jo Zo cough) to get up early enough to make the early departure out of Seoul from the Yongsan Garrison U.S. Army base. The day started with a presentation from a soldier previewing what we're going to see, what we can and can't do, and what's what. He also gave a brief history of the DMZ starting with the Korean War. Turns out, the North had the South pushed back all the way to Busan (southern Korea) until US forces showed up. We then pushed North Korean troops back until the threat of a Chinese intervention emerged. The sides settled at the 38th parallel, or what is known today as the DeMilitarized Zone. Here are the photos...
 |
| Brief history |
 |
| North Koreans checking us out |
 |
| ROK Soldiers always keep a battle-ready tae kwon do stance |
 |
| dadsonvacation.tumblr.com worthy? |
 |
| Olivia, Nate, and Chris |
 |
| Wooo North Korea! (spring break style) |
 |
| DMZizzle |
 |
| North Korean beers after a long, stuffy hike into old tunnels used by the North |
 |
| Bulgogi and Cass for lunch |
 |
| Dorasan Station....a train to North Korea...reopened for the 2002 World Cup...closed in 2008 amidst conflict...South Korea acts like they're "doing everything they can to reopen it." Not buying it though. |
Boryeong Mud Fest (16-17 July 2011)
A couple weekends ago, all 15 (or so) of us went down to the much-anticipated Boryeong Mud Fest, located ~100 miles southwest of Seoul in the Daecheon beach area. We first heard of this debaucherous event when we arrived back in September 2010. We had looked forward to this weekend for months! From what we had heard, it's a weekend full of sun and fun, mud pits, mud contests, foreigners, and drinking. In a nutshell, that's basically it. The 2-week long festival, which started in 1998, brings in more than 2 million visitors per year! I didn't bring my camera out to the action, but here are some photos I stole from other people (mainly Olivia) of the event...
 |
| Stole this from a blog |
 |
| ...this one too. |
 |
| Wolfish, Scho, Zoe, JC, Liv, B, Jules, and I |
 |
| Olivia! |
 |
| JC! |
 |
| B! |
 |
| B v. Me |
 |
| B won... |
 |
| some randoms |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)