Thursday, August 28, 2008

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Last Week



All great things must come to an end. Well this was my last week in the place I have grown to love. Sunday I went to church and had a farewell dinner with my BSF buddies at an all you can eat Korean restaurant called Carney Station. The food was so good. While there I realized I’ve been away from the states for two long because the restaurant just so happens to serve spaghetti and I thought it was amazing. The dinner was really nice and afterwards we went to coffee bean to chill and talk. I’m so grateful to my church members and Tina for taking me. Ever since I came to that church they showed me nothing but love and respect. I truly love all of them.

Monday I met up with the dance crew (R&B kids not pop N lock). We went over the usher routine and I almost had it down. We ended by going to get some Korean food near my apartment. That night I met up with Jaewon and two of his friends at (you guess it) the Hookah bar ha-ha. That night we went to a bar to play some darts and talked. I totally kicked Jae's butt the first round but he made a come back. Also while there, a ran into a kid from school who I thought I would never see again. The kid was name Joseph I hadn’t seen him since my second year of college. It was pretty funny to see the kid.

Tuesday was a very gloomy day so I pretty much did nothing. Wednesday I had breakfast with Natasha, and ate some toast and egg sandwiches. For lunch I met up with Kyla (the model) and one of her friends who was really nice. We went to a Korean BBq place. It was really cool and we got in to a good conversation about God. That night I met up my friend Eun Hee who I met at Jakes College. She didn’t have much time so we got some pizza and talked for a bit. Thursday was Natasha’s last full day in Korea because she was heading back to Kazakhstan to visit her family. So I wanted to do something special for her. So I got her a few little things and a teddy bear. That night we went to dinner and pretty much just hung out.

Friday ended up being the longest and most busy day in Korea. That morning I took Natasha to the bus station. After that I met up with the dance crew for one final practice, and got a little food. As soon as I met up with them I met up with my POP N lock crew to chill for a bit. Spark K bought me a new shirt, which was really cool. After I said good buy to them I went to Itawon to pick up some shirts for my sister and have dinner with Leslie and Natoshia (one of the girls from the 80's party). After dinner I met up with Won and the dance crew in Hondae to have one last crazy night of fun in Korea. We ended up going to this Hip Hop club and having a really good time. When I got back home to Hoegi I notice that I left my key in the locker at the Hip Hop club. Not knowing what to do I call my friend Yung in Busan. Saturday I was planning on going to Busan to pick up one of my bags so I decided to head there. So I road three hours to Busan hung out with Yung, went to the beach, ate some food, went to the Gun range, picked up my bag, and headed back for another 3-hour trip to Seoul. Daegou left me an extra key and I started to pack. The next morning Jaewon picked me up and took me to the Airport.

Well it’s been a week and I am now back in Chicago doing RA (resident advisor) training. This trip has been very beneficial for me and also made me think of a lot of good ideas to reach out to more international students. This is also the first time I've experienced Jet lag ha-ha. The main purpose of going to Korea was to experience Korean culture first hand, and I believe I did that. I'm so thankful for the friends I made, and all the wonderful and random experiences. I really would like to thank everyone who has helped me and made my Korean experience wonderful. With out all of you guys and gals (Jaewon, Won, Yung, Christine, Hanna, Jake, Tina, Natasha, Eun Hee, my BSF, New Feel Crew, and the Big ISIS) my experience would have been very lame. Words can't express the gratitude for everyone who helped me get here (GOD being the first, my family, Archibald motley fund, international affairs, Cheeyon Cha Korean advisor, Dijana Granov). I would hope by this trip more people would be inspired to go and experience a different way of life.

Well its almost time for school to start so I need to get back to business. Thank you all for reading my crazy adventure.

AHN YEONG !!!

Friday, July 25, 2008

FAST FRiends





So a lot have happen in this short amount of time, but I’m going to try to give just the main things. That random week ended pretty fun I hang out with a few of Won’s buddies. We ended up getting into one of the hottest clubs in Seoul called Volume. It was pretty fun but after that night I really started to get tired of the club scene. Saturday was ok; I went on a double date with Jaewon and one of the girls I met on the train the day before. Date started off really good but didn’t end so well. All I’m going to say is don’t play Korean soju games if you’re American. Sunday I went to church and hung out with my bible study group. We went out for some food and shared prayer request for the week. I really have to say meeting the people in my bible study has made an impact in my spiritually. I didn’t expect coming to Korea to meet a great group of people who all have a strong relationship with God.

The night I came home from church I went talk to the girl next door Natasha. She is 26, forth generation Korean and from Kazakhstan (you know Borat) so she has a strong Russian accent. We ended up having a long conversation about her country, music, my art work, and American Idol. Monday, Natasha and I texed back and forth for awhile so we decided to have dinner together. While at dinner she told me she was working on a thesis which is totally in English. I found that really impressive considering English is her third language. So the day she finished, I made her dinner to celebrate. She was mad impressed with the cooking skills. To pay me back for cooking for her she took me to a Russian style restaurant. Before that day I didn’t even know places like that excised in Korea. The food was pretty good, and at the restaurant I met her best friend Natasha, who is Russian and also 4 percent Korean. Yo this girl was funny; she has such a warm personality and can dish out jokes. I like when a girl is confident in her self that means a lot to me.

Also that week I met up with my friend from the dormitory, Hangil. He just had a trip going to Japan, and was in Korea for a few weeks hanging out with relatives. So we decided to go to the Seoul National Arts Center. It was so cool and the center was featuring two new galleries the Magnum Korea (photography show) and Pixar in Seoul. Both galleries were great, but the Pixar gallery really inspired me. There was a really interesting puppet animation called a zoetrope, which gave me a good idea for a senior project. A zoetrope is a device that produces the illusion of action from a rapid succession of static, simple pictures put in the inside of a cylinder. So when we look at the image it appears to me moving when actually it’s many images moving around in circles. The Pixar gallery did this process with toy story figures, making it look like they're moving in front of the viewers face. I want to do the same thing but with my break-dance figures. I can’t wait to get back and start making this contraption.

For the rest of that week lots of random crap happen. On day I decided to chill out side and I saw two dudes with cool hats heading to the dance studio. So I asked what style of dance do they do and one of the dudes (spark K) was like, "Pop Lock mane). SO I was like, "Word, Me too". SO he invited me to join them for a Pop session. After dancing for like an hour they asked me to join there crew. YO those dudes were so good, and I learned a lot from them. One day they brought a few girls to meet me and I ended up teaching on of them how to do the usher slide ha-ha. Also on that day they told me they got us a gig at MB2. It was some hip hop showcase and they wanted to give me a solo. Only thing is its going to be in the month of Aug and I will be back in America by that time. They were kind of disappointed but they understood.

As for the dance group things have been going really well and I’m almost got the routine done pat. One day after practice I was heading up stairs to my room and I wanted to play the piano on the second floor of the apt. So I asked if I could play for a min, after figuring out was I was talking about they lady said sure. I’m telling you I played for like 2 or three mins and When I looked around there were a group of like 5 or 6 girls pulled up chairs to watch me play. One of the girls (Kyla) could speak English so start asking me my story. After I gave her a little bit of history I asked what where they doing in the music studio and she informed me she was a model, and so was all of the other girls I was playing for. I couldn’t believe it but then they all stood up and "WOW" they were all tall and gorgeous. Kyla ended up getting all my Information and informed me she may be coming to Chicago and if in town she wanted to chill.

The next day Yung, Daegou (they guy whose place I'm staying in) and I took a trip to this water park called Caribbean bay. We were originally supposed to go to Jae Ju Island but Yung and D couldn’t afford it, so we settled with the water park. It was so much fun, and the girls were all banging (slang for really hot). Caribbean bay has this feature where you into the huge pool and they make artificial monsoon waves. They also had some crazy water slides. When it was getting closer to closing time we got on this one water slide like 5 times in a row, the employees were laughing at us. That night we sleep at this place this called a Jim Gil Ban. Basically it’s a community sleeping area with a bath house, TV, computers, sauna, and rooms with different temps. The only problem is you have to sleep on the floor. I also got a really good massage for like 40 bucks (and mom if you’re reading this it was for 100 mins). The whole experience at Jim Gil Ban was so cool and some of that night felt like a dream.

As for this week things have been pretty much the same, hanging out with Jaewon, Won, Natasha and Jake, meeting new people, going on dates, partying till 5am, and hitting up the Hookah bar. I've also been pretty sad because my Korean journey is coming to an end, so I have been thinking of what I want to do before I leave. These last to weeks have been so fun and I've met more people then I have mention on this post. Meeting more people is fun but also makes it harder to say good bye. I really thank God for this opportunity to come and see how others live and enjoy life. Well it is now Sunday and this is the start of my last week in Korea, I’m not sure what will happen but I will give your all the highlights.

WELL I must head to Church.
AHn Young

Thursday, July 10, 2008

BACK AND FORTH




So a lot has happen since the last time I bloged. Well first, the week in Busan was a lot of fun. Tuesday Yung and I went to the United Nations graveyard. It was so amazing; I didn’t realize how many people were involved with the Korean War. What really shocked me was when I see how many people from my hometown (Missouri) where in evolved with the war and gave their life. It’s different when your fighting for your country but to go to another country and fight for people who you don't even know is so honorable. I have a bigger respect for the war after going to the graveyard. That night we met up with Yung's pops and brother to get some food and go do karaoke. That made for a really fun night.

The next day we got up early because Yung's mom took us to this Buddhist temple, it was so beautiful. I think the pictures I took there were most deff my favorite on the trip. Yung's mom also bought me a prayer bracelet with my Chinese zodiac on it (the hare). After the temple we went to go eat real chapagettie, I eat it in the states but Real chapagettie is so good. After the food we went to go work out at the gym. Also at the guy was my first time going to a public bath. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but when we went in to the sauna some old Korean dude was staring at my man hood, which I found a little bit awkward. That night we went to see hulk (which was dope).

Thursday was a lot of fun we went to Hondae beach. It was so nice, and the girls were on point (slang for just right or wow). That night we decided to hit up the bars. We ended up getting in to a fun dart battle with a few other guys. Well on Friday I was heading to Seoul to go hang out for the forth of July weekend. While Yung and I were getting ready Yung found out his mom thought I was heading back to the states, so she was going to give me a ride to the airport. When Yung first asked his parents about me staying he failed to mention I’ll be in Korea until Aug 3, since she didn’t know she made plans to go to there family plantation and grow some crops. So Yung and I went on a quest to find a place to stay while in Seoul.

After asking around one on his friend who we call polar bear (dude should be a football player and I don’t mean soccer) said we can stay at his place for the night. Another one of his friends said I could stay at his apartment during the week since he stays with his parents, and only stays at the apartment on weekends. So that’s where I’m staying now. He wasn’t going to charge me but I told him I'd give him a 100 for letting me stay at his place, which is Extremely cheep considering I would spend that in a day at a hotel. The place is really small but I'm not complaining, it has no bed but a pad so I sleep on the floor and it has the most importing thing everyone needs Internet. As for Yung he’s living with his grandma looking for odd jobs so he can save up for Jae Ju Island.

That Sunday I went to church to surprise Tina. When I got there I found out they put me in a bible study group. The group was really cool and showed me a lot of love. That night they had a fundraiser for this group going to a high school in China to preach the word. They served food and the group put on some performances. The performances where great and I even cried during one of them. Tina also performed that night and did a great job she may have a future in dance.

As for this week, I would have to say RANDOM so far. The apartment I'm staying in just so happens to have a dance studio in the basement. So Monday I went by to check it out. There were only three people in the class so when I came so I thought it wasn’t open, but they said it was ok to come in. The three students (two guys, and one girl) seem pretty cool and I told them I can pop and do a little break-dance so they invited me to come out on Wednesday to learn a routine. That night I couldn’t sleep to I went to this shopping area called dongdaemoon and picked up some new shoes. On my way home some kid name Esco sparked up a conversation with me. The dude clams to be a rapper and wants me to be in his music video (I guess he feels he will get more street creed if a black dude’s in his video). Tuesday my friend Won came to visit from Japan so we met up. That night we partied in Hongdae. We met a few girls from the states at a hookah bar and then hit up this club called MB2. It was mad fun and we stayed out until 5am (MIND YOU THIS IS A TUESDAY THIS DOES’NT HAPPEN). Wednesday I went to the dance studio to learn the routine. The female dancer, who I found out is skilled in pop and jazz style, greeted me. Man I tell you the girl is talented and she even showed me a few of her routines. So we chilled and danced around for a bit until the other two showed up to teach me the routine. The hip-hop dude showed me this routine he made up to this song off the new Usher CD. The dance was sick but a little hard to get use to being my first time but I got with it. After hanging out the afternoon dancing we went to get some food and called it a day. After eating I found out the girl was going to be on a Korean dance show this weekend and she asked me to watch.

As for yesterday, I would have to say it was the most random day of my life. I decided to go take a walk to check out my area and stumbled upon a university, so I decided to take a rest. While sitting down this Korean kid name Jack comes over to have a conversation. He informed me he's learning in English and wanted to talk ha-ha. We actually ended up having a long conversation about girls, school, and my experiences in Korea. The funniest part is on their campus you can drink in the courtyards, so we had a few beers. While drinking He taught me how to say a few phrases to sweet talk Korean girls. Next thing I he's trying to call up some girls to see if they could come out but they were all in class. So we decided to go to Hondae to test out my skills. We ended up going to a grill and meeting two cool girls. One of the girls was really in to me but she was 29 and in Korea going with a much younger person is a no no. So we ended the night going to MB2 and dancing with some cute girls. So like I said this was one random week so far. As for today I have no idea what will happen, but I will keep you all posted.

Well I know this has been a lot to read and I hope I didn’t bore you with my craziness ha-ha.
Until next time
PEacee

Monday, June 30, 2008

Finding a new home



So I have been going threw a transitional period and haven’t been able to blog. Well my sister officially left last Sunday, and the night she left I stayed with her friend Leslie who is also in the army. The night before we went to a birthday party at this guy name Rock's apartment. It was really fun and I got a chance to meet some cool black girls, who are actually in Korea teaching English. We ended the night checking out this club called Harlem. It’s pretty fun they played strictly mainstream hip-hop, which is chill with me.

So after saying the night with Leslie I needed to find a hotel to stay in. Jaewon told me there was a lot of cheep hotels not to far from the Yolksan stop which is one stop from Gangman where the hookah bar is located. But before I looked for a place I met up with Yoshie because it was her last official day in Korea. First we went for lunch at some mall, and checked out this bookstore. After the mall we went to Gangnam and shared some cold stone ice cream. An hour later I dropped her off at the train station and continued my mission on finding a place to sleep. The first place I check was a hotel called Human Star villa. Very nice place but it was filled up for the week, so I decided to check out this place up the street called Cosmos. After fumbling around, my Hangul I found out the place was 60 bucks a night. So called Jaewon the set up my reservation for me. The hotel was small but really nice. There was a flat screen TV, computer, bed, and two extra chairs. The computer also hooked to the flat screen, which was really cool when it came to finding something to watch. I ended up staying for 4 days.

Thursday I meet up with Hanna to go get some food. We went to one of those beef grill places. Later that night we meet up with Jaewon, Leon, and this guy name Peter whose cool with Jae, at the Hookah bar. When we arrived Leon was in the restroom "asking the toilet its phone number". We where also joined by these two other girls invited by Leon, who where really nice. We all had been drinking for a while that night so I grab the guitar and decided to play for the girls. One of the Korean girls really liked my playing and insisted I keep playing until she left. That night Peter and I became fast best friends. This came about because Hanna was talking with a friend on the phone and Jae took Leon’s friends home so Peter and I had time to talk. Man that kid is goofy, if you think I'm funny then you would love peter. This was the first time we only went to the Hookah bar; we ended up leaving at like 2am.

The last few days in Seoul were pretty chill. I meet up with my friend Hong on Friday to have dinner with a few others from my school. The girl Leslie I meet was having her birthday party on Saturday and wanted me to help plan it. It was 80's theme so I was a big help when it came to music and artwork. To better help with the event I stayed with her until the big day (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning). On Friday I found out we could rent a strobe light from this recreational center on post. The only problem was choosing the location. The first idea was to have a roof top party; the only problem was it was due to rain to Sunday. So she decided to have a house party, to further establish the 80's theme. The prime location was at her place, but Leslie felt her spot was too small to hold the guess list. So Saturday morning Rock offered to have the party at his place, and she accepted. All Saturday morning I work on the decor for the party cutting out neon colored arrows, triangles, crazy shapes, and even did some graffiti. We then went to rocks place to set up. We also cut out famous people and families from the 80's for example, Janet, The Cosbys, New Edition, and of course Millie Vanelli. My favorite decoration was this picture of Night Rider and Gerry Colman giving the thumbs up behind the bathroom door. The party over all was a huge success; a lot of people showed up and had a great time. Everyone took a picture behind my "DOPE" tag, which was pretty funny.

The next morning I packed up my things and took a train to Busan to stay with my friend Yung Jun and his family. Yung and his buddy picked me up from the station and we caught a cab to his house. Busan is pretty cool, yet grimy place to live, and it’s a smelly place to live as well. The sewer system is pretty bad here, but it's not to bad. Yung’s brother and I were making jokes in the car calling Busan P-U son. The first day I meet some of Yung's while they where playing soccer. His friends are really funny and very nice. That night we all met up with Yung's family at this restaurant/ grill. There I met Yung's mom, dad, uncle, auntie, and cuz. They were all so nice and were really excited I was there. The food was so good we order rib eye meat and it felt endless, I could cry. I left that place full and happy. We ended that night going to a bar with the whole family. I found out Yung looks a lot like his Uncle even more then his dad.

Monday was a pretty lazy day. We woke up mad late from staying out the night before so we only went to go play basketball. That night I finished my third soulNseoul drawing. The new drawing is inspired by a blind bagger I always see on the L train. I heard he's not really blind and if you put paper in his basket he will chase after you with his stick. Today we are going to do a little sight seeing and maybe make it to the beach.

Well that’s all for now.
Ahn Yeong

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

BUSY WEEK


So it’s been awhile since my last blog but it’s been hard to sit down with all the crazy stuff I've been up to. On Monday Christine called me up to hang out with her and pick up some stuff from the Army store called the PX. After we handled her business we ate some food and took a walk down the Han River. It was really cool and I enjoyed just being by the historical river. Personally I would not go there at nighttime because it doesn’t look like they cut the grass very much. Who knows some one might come out of the bushes or something.

Tuesday I decided to hang out with my sister a little bit so we went out to dinner at the Stake House. This was some must needed bonding time. I have been hanging out with my friends so much I forget that I have a sister who would like to spend some time with me.

On Wednesday I went to Tae Kwon Do class on the army base. The main instructor wasn’t there but there where two guest instructors. They were really cool and helped me out with my forms. The really dope part about the class is not having to pay for it. Since the instructors where guest they didn’t realize I've never been in the class and I’m also a black belt so they really didn’t care. That night I met one of my sisters Army buddies whom actually goes to the tae kwon do class on the regular. We talked a little about the class and I got a chance to meet her three little boys. After that I met up with Jaewon, Bling and Bling's friend at this mall in Samseoung. We ate at a restaurant at the mall then went to play video games at the Internet cafe.

Thursday I got up pretty early and went to Owsan army base with my sister to do some shopping. The area around the army base was mad cheep. I found this really dope new age clothing store, and racked up on some new gear. My sister and I split up so I went to this random bar for a drink. While I was there I ran into a few Americans. One of the kids was running around the bar asking for water. Apparently one of his buddies dared him to eat this really spicy meat, dude wanted to prove him self so he went for it. As you know this was a bad idea. As I chuckled the cute bar tender asked me if I wanted to try it. Me being a strong lover of spicy foods and a bit of a show off I said why not. So this hot Korean girl comes over and let me bite off hers. At first it wasn’t that bad and actually kind of good. The bar tender and the Korean girl were impressed at my ability to handle their spicy food.... then I took a swig of my beer and all hell broke loose. I could even feel my face, but after a few drinks of water I was fine. The bar tender and I talked for a while and I found out she was an artist. She even let me see some of her work and I showed her what little I had on my ipod. After gaining a new friend it was time to head back to the Yongsan base.

Friday was a pretty fun and random day. I started off my day hitting up the gym, and then I meet up with my girl Hanna. She took me to Insadong, which is the most traditional place in Seoul. As soon as we got there we found a really cool gallery, where the artist made her sculptures out of silverware. I was really impressed with all the detail the artist put forth. After the gallery we where starving so we got some Korean food. I ate some beef spare ribs, which were bomb I must say, and Hanna got some soup. After walking off the meal we stopped at an arcade and played some shooting games. OOO if you have not played Time Crisis 5 you are missing out. While trying to get a cab to head back we found a Buddhist temple. It was so amazing and people were praying to 3 golden Buddha’s. After I said good-bye to Hanna I meet up with Jaewon. Of course we hit up the Hookah bar and had a few drinks. Friday also marked Blings final party day in Korea so we meet up with him and went to this club called Answer. The club was straight Techno, which is something I don’t mind getting down to. That night at the club I ran into at least 4 girls from my school, which was really funny. We all had a lot of fun that night.

Saturday my sister and I meet up with her friend Won and went to the Seoul Tower. It was so breath taking. I wanted to take the cable car up to the top, but my sister wasn’t having it, so we took a cap. The tower was really cool and when you’re at the top you can see everything. That night we at a "Korean” Mexican restaurant (Won's choice). The food was ok, but after being in Chicago you get real picky when it comes to your Mexican food (I wont even eat taco bell in Chicago)

Sunday I went to church. That was pretty much it at least I thought. There is this new Korean musical called Jesus Jesus (a musical about the whole bible) that’s opening this week. The church I’m going to has been hyping it up because the Pastors little brother is going to play Jesus. We even prayed for him at the end of service. Well that night I went to shoot some hoops on base and guess who shows up ALL the guys from church. Being the second "black" guy in their church they recognized me and asked me to play ball with them. It was really fun and I got put on the same team the pastors brother, whose name I think is Tim, and might I add the kid can ball. I ended up playing two games before I headed back home.

On Monday my good friend Yoshie came to Korea so we meet up and I took her around. She had to be back at her home no later then 9 so we couldn’t do much. So I took her to the mall and the hookah bar. Later that night I meet up with Jaewon and we went to another hookah bar ahaha. One of my goals in Korea was to get a really good back rub. I haven’t been able to do that because at lot of the places in Seoul don’t just give back rubs (if you know what I mean...RED LIGHT). So that night we saw a place across the street from the hookah bar that looked legitimate, and we where right. So Elgin got his first real massage, it was full body 100 mins for 70 bucks and it includes tea, and foot rub.

Well today has been very busy. My sister leaves Korea on Sunday so she had movers come by, pack up all of her stuff, and ship it. This also means I needed to pack up all my things as well. Tomorrow we move in to the dragon hill hotel to stay until its time for her plane to leave.

Well I think you all have read enough. I will try to make my next blog shorter.
Until next time
AHN Yeong

Monday, June 9, 2008

RED LIGHT


So this has been an interesting few days. On Thursday Christine told me about this MTV sponsored party at this club called The Circle so Jaewon and I decided to go. The club was really nice, and had light beams and a smoke machine, like in music videos. The only bad part about the club was the drinks and music. Every drink was at least 10 bucks and these weren’t big cubs I'm talking sippy cups with a lot of ice. Jaewon got a beer and that was ten bucks as well. Some dirty-south rapper performed whose name I cant remember, his style was very "TODAY" I don’t think I'll hear from him in 2 years. O and the music was not very good. It was a mix of old school and new school "POPular" rap. For example I never want to hear the song, everybody dance now again. But I did meet a nice girl and Jaewon got a phone number so the night wasn’t a total waist.

On Friday I needed to rest from my Thursday night, but my sister gave me a quick tour of E-mart. E-Mart is like Best Buy times a billion. Instead of having a section for games and cameras, it’s an entire floor, crazy right. While there I decided to pick up some a few bootleg movies (Forbidden Kingdom, Machine Girl, Korean movie called Kidnap, and some Thai movie).

Saturday I was really bored so I took a bike ride around E-mart so I could really check out the area. I didn’t see anything I wanted to buy so I kept riding. While riding around I turned on this strange street with a lot of glass windows. At first I thought it was a beauty supply area because the walls inside the windows were pink and had a girl sitting in a white chair. After seeming the same store down the block (and besides the fact that all the ladies were all signaling for me to come over) I figured it must be a red light district. A red light district is a block were you can pay a prostitute for sex (instead of them being on a street corner you go to there window). I admittedly high tailed my butt out of there but then realized I've never seen anything like this before, and thought this would something cool to draw. So I called Jae to ask how to say, can I draw you, just in case I got stopped. After learning the phrase I found a good corner and got started. The prostitute across from me noticed that I was drawing and signaled for me to stop. So I went over to the prostitute and asked if I could draw her and flashed 20 bucks. I then showed her some drawings in my sketchbook to show that I was an actually artist so she said it was ok. I went back to my corner and begun drawing my picture. In the mean time she went back to her job trying to get dudes to come over to her window. After realizing no one really wants sex at 4 in the after noon she decided to come see my drawing. I had only been drawing for like 3 mins so I only had the pose down and didn’t want to show the drawing to her until I was close to being done. So when she came over I tried not to show her. This upset her and so she grabs my drawing and took it out of my sketchbook, and start showing it to her friends. I didn’t know what to do so I called Jae and had him talk to her. By the time I gave her the phone she already ripped up my picture. After talking to her Jae told me that she that she only wanted me to draw her face and was mad because I was drawing her full body. Me not speaking full Korean didn’t understand this when asking her in the beginning. Well I felt really bad because it was just a mistake in commutation so I told her that I would draw her face but by that time she didn’t want to do it. So I just left it alone, and plus I had been there for long enough to draw a picture later. Still I felt bad for taking up her time so I gave her a few bucks and told her I was sorry.

That night I met up with Jaewon and Bling at the hookah bar. There was a singer at the Hookah bar but I believe she was high while singing. After the Hookah bar we went to this spot called two two chicken, which is pretty funny because in Hangeul it sounds like your saying dodo chicken. The chicken was really good and reminded me of this chicken spot in Chicago called Harold’s. We then went to play Korean style pool and ended the night at an Internet cafe.

Sunday my sister and I were suppose to meet up with Dylan but she never called back. So we watch movies and I finished the Red light district picture.

Well that’s all for now.
Ahn Yeong

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

easy week



This week was pretty lade back. On Sunday I got to go to church with my friend Tina Lee. The church was called Holy Jubilee. It was nice to see how people worship over seas. Which was pretty much the same as in America, oo and the church was English speaking. That afternoon I hung out with my friend Christine. She was allowed to come on the Army Base because her father works for the army. That night her parents took us to the free theater to see Indiana Jones, and my sis came along too.

Monday I finally fixed my sisters bike so I went on a bike adventure around the Yongsan Army Base. It was really cool. On my adventure I met a cute girl name Min, who's knew a few people that went to my school (small world). Also while riding I went to the War Museum. The sculptures there were so cool, and had a great deal of detail. Later that after noon I went shopping with my friend Hanna Sull. I got a new shirt, and two new CD's, MC Sniper, and Dynamic Duo (Korean hip hop groups). So that was cool.

Tuesday was a bonding day for my sister and I. early that day we met her Korean female friend Dylan. She works in a weight lost client in Myeong Dong. Dylan was so adorable and sent me a calendar, a long time ago, which my sister gave to me that day (bad sister). After the meeting with Dylan we met up with Jaewon to have some exotic Korean food. The place we went to was really grimy looking but had good food. We ate cow intestines and lever, which was actually pretty good. We ended the night by meeting some of Jae's friends at the Hookah bar. It was a really fun time. This was also my sister first time having Hookah, which I think she likes now.

As far as Wednesday, nothing really happen. I just chilled out, watched movies and finished my first soulNseoul drawing. SeoulNsoul is a series of drawings I will be doing about my experiences in Seoul. The first drawing is about the yellow sand effect in Korea. There are a lot of motorcycle delvers in Seoul, and last Friday the yellow sand from China's mountains came over to Seoul’s climate so the delivery drivers had to where mask. That image stayed in my mind for a while so I decided to draw it.

so thats all for now..
ANh yeong

Saturday, May 31, 2008

First day out

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I'm a little late with this blog but my first day out was so crazy I needed a day to recover. It started off like any other day, I woke up, did some Thai chi, and Nun chuck training in this shrine area out said my sisters apartment. I soon meet up with my sister and her army friend to have lunch. We went to this place were the Catoosa eat (U.S Korean solders). The Food was great but restaurant was mad cold.

The next stop was getting a hair cut. I knew I was going out that night, and I didn’t want to go out with my hair looking WOPP DA FIED (slang for messy). So I went to this barbershop on base. The most interesting thing about the shop was how all the women were barbers. The woman that cut my hair was really nice and treated me like a prince. Haircuts on base were way different then what I’m use to in America. For 21 bucks the barberist cut my hair, give me a manicure, washed my hair, a facial, and a full body massage, and that does include finger and leg popping. It felt so good.

So after I got my hair cut it was time to meet up with my friend Jaewon from my freshmen year of college. Jae took me to some college fest in Pun-dan. On the way we picked up two of his friends (whose names I can’t remember at the moment) and headed off. The fest was pretty cool but at the time of arrival there were a lot of younger people at the university (I’m talking 9 to 12). Which took away the college aspect. It was really funny to so the different reactions I got from people. The most common face I got was the "wow was that a black guy" face. The best reaction of the night would have to be the ones from kids. For example a group of kids were asking my friend for some money, looked up, saw me and freaked out in amazement. One of the kids shouted, "YOU LOOK SO COOL" in Korean. I just laughed; my friend didn’t have the cash for the kids so I give the little rascals 10 bucks. Those kids freaked, and start singing praises to me as I walked down the steps. The coolest thing I saw at the fest would have to be the Brown Eye girl’s performance (famous Korean girl group). They were really cute and actually sounded good. I have never seen so many screaming kids before.

We left the fest early because Jae had to drop his friends off. Upon that we decided to hit up the hookah bar. On the way to the bar we picked up Jae's Seoul buddy Bing "Bling". The Hookah bar was pretty fun. We mostly caught up and had a few drinks. Well Bling and I had a few drink considering Jae was the DD, ha-ha. After the hookah and drinks settled it was time to hit up the clubs. We went to the big university club stop called Hun dae. Hun Dae was so cool looking; there were hip-hop stores, eateries, clubs and beautiful girls galore. We meet up with my friend Andy (DJ ANDRIZZLE I prefer to call him) at this club called The Velvet Banana. Andy put me on the list early so we all got in for free. The club was jumping and they were doing live hip-hop performance when we arrived. I was really impressed with this group Team Supreme (the best new lyricist team in Seoul). Andy also introduced me to all of the Disk jockeys, and they showed me mad love. After the live performances were over an old school hip-hop set begun. The music was a mix of ragga and hip-hop, so I was up for dancing. While doing some ragga dances one kid wanted to test my skills and we started to have a friendly dance off. Everything was pretty playful until the guy revealed he could do some break dance. Being that I do a little Pop N Lock I was up for the challenge. Seeing that a battle begun the club circled us, and someone recorded the whole thing. The guy I battle was actually pretty good, but in the end I was declared the winner. One thing I've noticed is when you can actually dance it makes girls nervous when it comes to dancing with you. So where I was getting mad respect with the guys, the Korean girls got nervous when it came to dancing with me. So we decided to hit up another club.

The next club we went to was a mainstream American hip-hop club. There we had a great time. I don’t think they had live performances but they did have two hype men shooting out the lyrics of the songs. This club was a pretty chill environment so we had a lot of fun. O and did I tell you, the girls was so fine. Since I didn’t battle anyone in the beginning the girls were not shy when it came to giving me some love (one the dance floor that is). I did still get a little popping done but at that point people just wanted to learn some moves. We actually got a really nice popping circle going.

Well we ending the night with eating at this Korean style fried chicken spot. It was pretty good and soaked up all the ALC (Elgin’s slang word for alcohol). I eventually made it back to the base at 5 in the morning. Needless to say I didn’t do anything today but sleep. One thing I learned from my first day in Seoul is Hip Hop only speaks on language. You can feel the love that pure Hip Hop brings threw language barriers.

Well that's all for now.
AHN Yeong

Thursday, May 29, 2008



I've finally made it!!! Korea is so grimy looking I love it. The 12-hour flight was really nice. All the flight attendants were pretty and treated me really nice. The food was so freaking good. The first time they gave me beef and noodles, and the second time I got chicken and rice. Korean Air really keeps you entertained on the flight with these touch screen monitors in the back of your chair. The monitor had music, movies, and games on it. I mostly watched movies, The Great Debaters, Bucket list, and some of Jumper, but then I started to get sick so I stopped.

My plane arrived 40 mins early so I was stranded at the airport for a while until my sister arrived. Everyone thought I was in the army, "thank God I'm not". I’ve never got that much attention from cab drivers but as soon as they knew what base I was going to they were all over me. Luckily my sister showed up and we went to the base.

The base is actually really nice, and right in the middle of Seoul. The base has 2 gyms, a driving range, hotel, soccer field, baseball field, many little shops, and fast food galore. It surprised me to see that Popeye’s delivers on base. My sister’s crib (slang for home) is small but cozy. I’m sure were going to have a lot of fun together. I’m really looking forward to some much needed bonding time. So that’s all I have to say for today, I have to rest up for tomorrow’s actitives. AHn Yeong

Friday, May 16, 2008

12 days till trip,

Things are going pretty good lately, I’ve been packing and studying up on my Hungul. My Korean Advisor Che Yeong Cha has been really helping out on my conversation skills. Today she told me I’ve mastered basic Korean. That really gives me confidence for this trip. Yesterday I bought a Korean dictionary and this 100 Korean word textbook. That’s really going to come in handy when learning to read. I found out Korean is actually easy to read; I only have to mesmerize a few characters. Well I go home on Saturday to visit my folks back in St. Louis, Missouri. Its really going to suck not seeing my grandma this summer, but I plan on taking her and my mother out to dinner. Well On-Nul Cu-Mon (Korean for that’s enough for today)
Ahn Yeong

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Awaiting the day

Wed, May 14, 2008 (14 days away)
So I have less then two weeks before the big day. Today I got a new suit case and plan on doing some designs on it to make it stand out. The bag is pretty dope and has a lot of space so I can bring crap back. Now that I have the case I just need to think of what clothes to bring. I don’t want to bring to much crap because I most deff want to shop while I'm in Korea. But I may need to buy a few pairs of shorts. I really can't wait for this trip and everything I'm going to experience. Tomorrow I'm going to meet with my Korean advisor to go over some Korean basic conversation. That should be interesting. Well im going to Bed
-Jal Ja