April 14, 2009
Back in Korea!
I just wanted to post here: I'm back at the JoongAng as business desk editor, for two months now. So if you're ever in my neck of the woods, look me up!
It was also bugging me to have something so negative as my last post on this blog. There really is so much I love about this country -- sundubu, noraebang, fast Internet, and THE BEST film festivals, just to start. OH, and how CHEAP everything is!
So though I'm no longer a PiA-er, I certainly wouldn't have this job without PiA! And as it turns out Hannah and I will be helping pick the new fellow here at the JAD, so... watch out! :)
Posted by b-applegate at 1:49 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
January 11, 2007
Things I thinking
Syrian is cool.
Wow. These programs are hard.
This oatmeal package emphasizes that the health benefits of oatmeal remain whether it is eaten cooked or uncooked. Hm.
This taste must be why horses always look so despondent.
Even on a crappy streaming Web site, Cowboy Bebop is awesome. I should totally make my computer sounds be from that show.
My computer sounds are awesome now.
Does buying the three-disc Janggun eui adeul box set make me an old man or just a huge nerd?
Whenever I see "Taehung Pictures" I think it means "well hung" because Im Kwon-taek obviously is. "Tae" means "big," right? I am culturally insensitive.
Maybe I should write a Dungeons and Dragons campaign based on these books I'm translating. That would be cool. I can do that. It doesn't involve modulating orchestral hits.
I could totally get a job at Random House.
On the other hand, I could totally get a job here.
Or I could go back to school and seriously learn Korean.
Hmm... nah.
Neverwinter Nights 2 is so cool.
I eat too much pizza.
Real life isn't really all that different from college, except that it is.
Girlfriends are the best thing in the universe, except when they're the worst, but that's only once a month so I can handle it.
I'm so glad my girlfriend doesn't read this blog.
That I know of.
Hm.
Posted by b-applegate at 8:10 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
December 25, 2006
Things that were said that I want to remember,
"What's the word for individual grapes?"
"Uh, grape." -a British editor answering a translation question for a Korean writer
"Coffee is one of those things that smells better than it tastes. You know, like coal."
Posted by b-applegate at 10:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 28, 2006
Cryogenic expiration date
iTunes gave me video credits because they lowered the price of Battlestar Galactica after I bought it.
You have redeemed your video credit, valid for 5 free videos priced at $1.99.You must use this credit before Dec. 31, 9999.
I think I might be able to handle that.
Posted by b-applegate at 11:13 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
October 9, 2006
A shirt with this thing Ben said one time on it
Everyone should buy this shirt with this thing Ben said one time on it.
Also I am a copy editor at the business desk now. Moving up (sideways?) in the world. At least I have more leg room under my desk now.
And it turned out I had mononucleosis and a strep infection at the same time. What an overachiever I am, huh?
Also this is super-funny if you speak Japanese -- Shoko Nakagawa teaches Otakugaku.
The significance of the North Korean nuclear test depends on China's reaction, and to a lesser extent Russia's. If China cuts off trade and/or aid it will mean major consequences for the regime. If not, this is just another insane thing to add to Kim Jong-il's pedigree of crazy, and we go back to stalemate. The second scenario seems distinctly more likely to me, and probably more in my personal interests vis-a-vis physical safety.
Finally, it looks like I'm skipping the Tokyo Int'l Film Fest this time, since one of the two films I wanted to see (Paprika) is going to be at Pusan this weekend and I'm going to Tokyo next month to meet the brother anyway. I'll just have to suck it up and see Tekkon Kinkreet later.
Posted by b-applegate at 8:32 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
September 21, 2006
Fever.
Too much work and too many nights make one incredibly sick. Who'd a thought? Unfortunately I'm going to have to work through this as I have too much work to do to take a break from work. Did I mention all the work I have to do?
I think I can sleep, hmm, Oct. 14.
I'll tell you one thing, it would help if Yie-hyeon stopped ending text messages with, "Just don't die."
Posted by b-applegate at 6:07 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
August 29, 2006
Things That Have Happened
So much has happened in the last two months! I went home for two weeks, moved into a new apartment (pictures pending), rediscovered the joys of cooking my own meals, bought too many DVDs, got two new side jobs I shouldn't mention yet, AND most importantly of all--
I have a girlfriend. She's Korean, and a math teacher, and we watch movies together and do things and stuff. I won't mention her name because her mother would kill her if she knew she was dating a foreigner, but this is the main reason I haven't been posting lately (that plus all the above things).
Next superfun thing to do: Pusan Film Festival Oct. 12-20.
Next trip to Tokyo: For the Tokyo Int'l Film Festival, starting Oct. 21. Hee hee.
Posted by b-applegate at 2:10 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
July 20, 2006
Back in Korea
Just came back to Korea, moved into a new place in Haebanchon. Wizard needs furniture badly.
I need to use the word "clearly" less in my reviews. If so-and-so director "clearly" meant to express so-and-so, then I don't really need to mention it in the review, do I? Hmm.
Posted by b-applegate at 12:45 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
May 30, 2006
Join the fight against ZOMBIES AND VAMPIRES
BUY MY AWESOME FRIEND DAVE'S AWESOME SHIRTS!! You'll be able to say you bought a shirt from him before he owned the world... of T-shirts.
Posted by b-applegate at 9:25 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
College Tests!!!
The Fountain column for tomorrow references a saying that HS seniors use when preparing for college entrance exams: 사강오�, Sadang Orak. Literally it means "Four pass, five fail," that is, if you sleep for five hours or more a night you will fail your entrance exams. I talked to Mina about it and learned a few weird and interesting things about the superstitions of Korean high school seniors. Apparantly students follow this rule compulsively, even if they don't spend the extra time studying.
Also, you're not supposed to pick up an eraser after it falls on the floor. If you do you'll fail. And don't eat seaweed soup (miyeokguk) because it's slippery and you'll slide into failure. And when you're going in to school, walk through the bigger gate for cars, not the smaller gate for pedestrains, because the smaller gate means lower scores.
These apply to hagwon tests, mock exams, standardized tests, entrance exams school tests and all the other tests a Korean high schooler has to take.
Crazy. And to think my home state has its undies in a bunch over one lousy high school graduation test.
Posted by b-applegate at 5:18 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 9, 2006
I am a mountain climber.
This foreign activities column is turning into "Ben does things for which he is entirely unprepared." This weekend I climbed a mountain for the first time. It was Jirisan, second-tallest mountain on the Korean Peninsula, 6,200 feet, not exactly impressive, I'll admit, but it still made me sore in ways I never imagined. The sunrise, and watching the clouds drift between peaks, was beautiful, though. Just incredible. Pictures forthcoming.
Next up is the Epicurean Club, sampling subtle dishes from internationally famous chefs. Another thing I am totally unprepared for, but at least one that requires fewer hours of trudging.
Posted by b-applegate at 8:48 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
October 23, 2005
Gurg.
I broke one of the PiA rules last night-- the one about not getting drunker than your boss. I think I shall avoid fruit-flavored liquor in the future. Hell, with how I feel right now I may stop drinking altogether. And NO THERE ARE NO PICTURES. That I know about.
Posted by b-applegate at 12:40 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 10, 2005
Nice Day Card...
He may look weak, but just try to beat him. Go on. TRY!
Posted by b-applegate at 7:42 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
September 19, 2005
Chuseok
I realize that, despite my concerted efforts to be consistently late to class and never study, I am actually learning this language. Compare: I just had an incredibly stupid-sounding, elementary conversation about where my family is (London), how old I am (21) and how I studied in Japan in college and know Japanese (which I meant to make the other participants know that I'm not a total idiot, i.e., at least I know Japanese, but I think might have had an opposite effect). Whereas three months ago I could barely say hello.
The people at this cafe and in my hasuk have put up with me so wonderfully. I really have to bring holidays into their lives in the same way they bring theirs into mine. To wit: this last weekend was Chuseok (Korean thanksgiving) and I was pretty much the only tenant left in the building (everyone else had gone home to be with family, and I can only assume the two other foreigners have been here long enough to have somewhere to go). But the hasuk ajuma family gathered at the hasuk, which meant I got to see the two other daughters, their husbands and their kids.
This family is eerily similar to my Japanese host family-- three daughters, one my age and two others moved away and with kids. The only difference is that there's a dad and that, unthinkable as it is, Harumi is a pussycat compared with this mom.
The highlight for me was naturally the family member with whom there was no language barrier-- the three-year-old. We played peek-a-boo around corners and this jump up and down game that was instantly invented when I imitated him and made him laugh, and the pick-him-up-and-show-him-the-top-of-the-doorframe game. It made putting up with his crying in the middle of the night a miniscule price to pay for the kind of pure human connection I haven't had in a while.
The little kid's thirteen-year-old cousin interrogated me about American Chuseok (which I said was on Nov. 26-- I'm learning the language, but I don't yet know how to say third Thursday-- is it even the third Thursday?). I told him we ate turkey, and he didn't know what that is, so I made a thorough fool of myself strutting around making gobbling noises, which communicated to him precisely nothing, because, of course, he didn't know what a turkey was. So I just told him it was "chicken but not chicken" and left it at that.
The food was fantastic, as well it should be, since all the female family members were sitting around making it (I'm not kidding) all day for two days. I couldn't walk into the kitchen for most of the weekend because it was covered by cooking women. This is one of those things that foreigners find very amusing and Korean cultural expats (the ones who have moved away in all but spirit, like those I work with) find abhorrent. See this vivid description of Chuseok "dipped in boiling resentment" and this more newsy look at the crappiness of the holiday.
I had songpyeon, the little rice cakes, too, thanks to the ajuma at the Starlite (who I learned from her daughter, who is beautiful and interesting and likes Cowboy Bebop and computer games and hates pop music-- and is leaving for London tomorrow, where was I? Oh right, I found out from her that her mom is actually half-Japanese but her mother died when she was young and so she was raised Korean-- I didn't call this category streamofconsciousness for nothing), who gave me a dish of them for free, and, true to the spirit of the Filipino church ladies I remember loving as a kid, insisted I take a bag home too.
Well, I think I emptied the brain out pretty well there. Happy Chuseok, everyone!
Posted by b-applegate at 10:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 13, 2005
Invasion!
The sky fell on Seoul today. At least if you think of the sky as made of water.
I was half-asleep when, at 12:17 p.m. (I looked at the clock), an enormous boom shook my room. My immediate thought was, "Holy crap, the North Koreans are coming!" Then, when further booms didn't materialize, I thought maybe the construction site next door had an explosion. It turned out to be the biggest thunderclap I've ever heard. And I've heard some doozies in Chicago. Crazy.
This week is Chuseok, which means Koreans go to their ancestral homes and eat stuff (apparantly a special rice cake is among them). Seoul, I'm told, totally empties. Looking forward to some "me time."
I was on the elevator today and an ajumma reached out and suddenly felt the fabric of my shirt thoughtfully.
This was an... interesting experience. I never had occasion to go to a Pentecostal service in the U.S., so this was my first experience with them. All through the first half it seemed like a pretty average harmless-Methodisty-rock-music type service. The pastor started his sermon talking humorously about his vacation in Thailand with the other pastors in the denomination. Some funny/ironic, depending on your perspective, things about how fearsome it is to handle God's money were said.
Then he said for the potential fornicators and adulterers to come on up to the altar. He asked people to keep their eyes to themselves, and I was going to do that, until I realized that a) I was supposed to be reporting on this and b) no one else was.
I kind of regret not going up there myself. After all, you can't really judge something if you haven't experienced it, and this, though definitely weird and probably deceptive over the long term, was pretty harmless. As it is I was just perplexed by the whole thing.
Posted by b-applegate at 2:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 6, 2005
A Sempai (Upperclassman) Moment
I was burning some incense I bought in Kyoto in my room yesterday, and it occurred to me to post how I got it. Last month, on my ultimately unsuccessful visa run to Japan (another long story I should tell someday) I was wandering around my old neighborhood in Uji and finally went into this antique shop that I'd never been in before because it always looked too expensive for me. I found out that it was, but that it also carried incense. Seemed like a good omiyage idea, so I had the guy show it to me. While we were making chatter, he asked me why I was in Uji (the area I was in is kinda off the tourist path) and I explained that I had studied at the Stanford University center in Kyoto. When he didn't know what Stanford was I mentioned that it was connected to Kyoto University and he lit up, saying he'd gone there too (I forget for what). And when I bought two little things of incense, he told me to wait and puttered around for a while, coming back with a plastic bag containing a little incense burner and seven or eight plugs of different kinds of incense, for free. It was enough to make me wish I'd spent more time at Kyodai. At least the next generation of KCJSers will get a center located on the Kyodai campus.
Korean language update: I understood a complete sentence from my ajuma when I came back from my (successful) visa trip to Nagoya, and answered in a comprehensible way!
The exchange in question:
어�애�어�?
�본애서친구를만났어�.
Corrections are welcome as I'm sure there are some mistakes in my written Korean. I just wish I had more time to study.
And Mom, I bought a bed. But I left my towel in Japan and am using a dishcloth. I will buy another towel tomorrow, though. Really.
I figured out how to get the hot water to work. The Chinese ajuma showed me the hot water panel in the kitchen, which luckily I recognized as similar to the one at my host family's house in Japan (otherwise I would have thought she was showing me the air conditioning or something). But even with it on, the water is not that warm and the hot water pressure is horrid, so I think I'm just going to keep doing the cold shower thing. It shocks me into waking up and it guarantees I shower quickly. Though I anticipate problems as the winter approaches.
Anyone who knows a good public bath in the Sinchon area, please let me know.
Breakfast is getting more palatable day by day. I am actually eager to eat the kim chee now that I've sampled the other stuff on hand, which includes some sort of grape leaf squishy thing and assorted things that I can just barely get down when the ajumma points at them insistently.
But it's still cool to be able to eat healthy in the morning. The boiled potatoes aren't so bad, plus I actually like the little fishies. And every once in a while (if I'm extra good, I imagine) Chinajumma makes me a fried egg. ^-^
Posted by b-applegate at 6:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 18, 2005
Radioblog!
Look right. It's a radioblog! Neat, huh? The one I put up on my last blog killed the bandwidth, but hey, this is Princeton hosting here! Plus I downgraded the quality a bit. Have a listen to the Orange Range album I bought last week ("MusiQ"). EXCELLENT stuff. And 19 tracks of fantasticness at that! Good value in Japan, even better when you consider I paid Korean prices for it (13,000 won instead of 3,000 yen). One of the best parts of living here.
Posted by b-applegate at 10:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 7, 2005
Wow.
I'm sitting in a coffee shop and the radio is playing "He's Got the Whole World in his Hands," and it's an operatic soprano with the most dramatic backing ever.
"HEEEEEE'S GAUUUUT THAH WHOOOOOOLE WOOOOOOOLD IIIIIIN...
HIIIIIIIIIIS HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHNDS!"
I love Korea.
Posted by b-applegate at 1:01 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
July 20, 2005
Visas, Lonely People & T-Shirts
Here I am, back in Kyoto! Why, I hear you ask? Sit down while I tell you a tale.
I am in Japan again because my Korean tourist visa ran out, and I didn't have a work visa yet because they required my actual, real diploma, which of course I didn't get until the day before I left Chicago. And on top of that the office manager guy is quitting, which is something I should've taken into account when he said, "Sure, I'll have those forms to you by this [now last] Friday." Of course I still don't have the forms, despite having confirmed with him three times that they would be ready before I left.
As it turns out, my visa application (through the company, to the government) was rejected because the gov't wondered--you're gonna love this--why the JoongAng Ilbo is hiring so many foreigners. Never mind that it's a western-style English-language newspaper. So long story short, they had to resubmit the forms with assurances that I'm not a refugee sitting in a corner sewing shoes together, and I'm stuck here until the gov't sends the JoongAng the forms, and they FedEx them to me.
Which is great, because this is probably the longest vacation I'm going to get, and I love spending time with my host family. And it's only when I woke up in this wonderful quiet suburban Uji neighborhood once again that I realized how much the aggressive urbanness of Seoul was starting to grate on me. It's like a load is off my shoulders, just because I can see a few trees here and there. It really makes a difference.
Of course it also means a) no kim chee b) warm showers c) an actual bed to sleep in instead of three blankets on the floor (I brought an empty suitcase so I can buy a futon while I'm here). And trips to Kyoto again! I'm probably going to steer toward Arashiyama, where I didn't spend nearly enough time two years ago.
Two nights ago a gay Korean guy tried to pick me up. He walked up when I was walking the two blocks home, we did that language-negotiation dance and realized we both spoke Japanese. Then he said I had a cute face, and asked if I realized that it's possible for men to have sex with each other. I was just kind of dumbfounded, so thinking I didn't understand he went into a more detailed explanation. He said, "Do you hate men?" I told him that wasn't it, I just wasn't interested, and he left me alone. I took a roundabout route home and glanced behind myself a few times anyway. Surprisingly it didn't really freak me out all that much, though. Maybe it was because he was just so matter-of-fact about it. Or maybe it's because it's not the first time gay men have tried to pick me up.
I saw someone in Seoul the other day (a Korean) with a shirt that read, "These words are faded to make it look like I've worn this shirt a lot." Great stuff.
Korean language progress: I now know how to ask for three bananas and tell people my birthday. By the time I leave I figure I should be able to advance to, "Sorry, I'm not gay."
Posted by b-applegate at 10:12 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
July 11, 2005
Kisses 'n' kim chee
Hello! I am in Korea! Good for me, eh?
Hopefully after the untimely demise of my last blog due to my own technical stupidity (and an extremely unhelpful web host) this one will go a little better.
War of the Worlds is awesome and incredibly, incredibly scary. And not BOO! HA! MADE YOU JUMP! scary, which is what most horror movies are nowadays, no, you see it all coming and it still scares the shit out of you. Old school Spielberg. I'm living in a hasook (boarding house) literally right behind the Artreon Theater (a big, relatively well-known multistory theater complex), with at least three other theater multiplexes within less than a block, so I suspect I will be going to movies more often. Not that I'm complaining.
I now have two bylines in the paper! Two even! The first for a Sin City review (blegh) and the second for the first installment of the "break in the intern" column entitled View from the Pew.
Of course I did it on the local Catholic cathedral because, well, write what you know, right? It was actually pretty nostalgic to go to Coffee Bean and talk to the super-super-solemn Korean convert. Reminded me of growing up and meeting the Korean kids at my parish. That's the thing about young Korean Christians-- they're not all conservative, but they are all incredibly serious. Mass is at 9, so hopefully I'll be able to go there and then hit the various Worships of the Heretic Hordes-- I mean Protestant -- churches I'll need to go to for this column. I'm looking forward to it.
Korea is obsessed with this thing called "well-being." As near as I can tell it means, "Pretend whatever you're eating is healthy to make yourself feel better about eating it." Which isn't such a bad idea. When the Catholic dudes were talking to me about the "health and wealth" gospel that Cho Yong-gi preaches at the Yeouido Full Gosepel megachurch here in Seoul (it's one of those be good and God will give you money and good health things), I replied, "What, is that like wellbeing for religion?" That seemed to be very funny to them, though I was half-serious.
I started my Korean lessons this week at a hagwon across from the Anglican cathedral near Deoksugung. Now I have a small fraction of understanding of how difficult it is for the twenty-something Mexican guy in California who speaks no English to swallow his pride and try to learn. It made me feel truly stupid. Every mistake I made in reading was extremely embarrassing. It reminded me of doing multiplication flash cards with my dad in the dining room when I was a little kid. When I couldn't remember the answer and had to work it out I would try to make some superfluous comments and my dad would say, "You only talk when you don't know the answer." I half-expected those same words to come out of my Korean teacher's mouth, and I was fully prepared to cower at them like an eight year-old.
Since I can't communicate with anyone at the breakfast table yet I'm entertaining myself by trying to infer the relationships between the various other tenants in my hasook. The cast: Landlady, landlady's husband and youngest daughter, Chinese woman who lives and works there (but speaks fluent Korean), two other women and one man on my floor and foreign English teachers, one Canadian, one American, who I hardly ever see.
I suspect Man Who Lives On My Floor is the boyfriend of Daughter. Which would be a pretty sweet deal for both of them. The other day people who I'm pretty sure are the older daughter of my landlady, along with her husband and their ADORABLE little boy (looked about 3), came to visit while I was sitting in the common area reading. The kid peered around the piano at me and, silently, we made it into a game. Then he decided running up and looking at me through the bars on the chair and running away again was great fun. I love little kids. They can get away with having fun all the time. And on the way out, in response to his parents' urging, he bowed almost ninety degrees to grandma. This is one of those things I've only ever seen on commercials, because my host family in Japan is weirdly egalitarian (mostly because of Harumi-- the grandma's-- influence, I suspect).
Things I'm getting used to:
Cold showers (the hot water is never on and when it is there's only enough for a tantalizing taste of warmth before it cuts out leaving you feeling even colder, so what's the point)
Next-to-nothing rent (woohoo)
Less privacy (my landlady has at various times busted into my room with mosquito repellant or to close the window or to bring me a fan-- all incredibly nice things that I was happy for, but her being in my room induced this panicky feeling that I'm aware is cultural-- I just felt I had no way to respond because what she had done was just... not done! Oh, and she knocked on the door to the bathroom while I was taking a shower and kept knocking until I put a towel on and opened it-- I think she thought it was a family member in there)
Things I will get used to in a few months:
Kim chee, incredibly spicy food (I am the cliche foreigner in this department, I admit it, but I was pampered by Japanese food for a year, so there it is)
Several other things whose significance I'm sure hasn't hit me yet.
I fly to Osaka next Wednesday night for my visa and stay til Sunday in Kyoto with the host family. Anyone who's there, give me a holler and we'll go karaoke!
Now I must go or miss the train. Which is 800 won (roughly 80 cents). After a 510 yen commute for a year, that makes me very happy.
Posted by b-applegate at 10:15 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack