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This commercial came on a few weeks ago in Korea, and it's driving me insane.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy0rCwJEH-Y&feature=PlayList&p=37DFADC300D24205&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=32
It's obviously supposed to be "Where is the pulp?" but because of the slight Korean accent, the inconveniently layered sound effect, and the fact that the "l" gets kind of lost against the "p" anyway, it sounds like "Where is the pope?" I want to kill.
"With pulpy" also sounds like an English-as-a-foreign-language naming mechanism, but maybe not. The humor factor takes away from the incorrect use of adjective, I guess.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Saturday, June 26, 2010
FIFA World Cup USA vs. England
The game between the US and England was at 3:30am in Korea, so everyone had to do a lot of drinking and dart playing and such beforehand. The bar was as packed as I've seen it since then, there being so many Americans and Brits in Ulsan. The rivalry was strong, but there were no fights.
This is kind of a weird picture, but I took it to show how little space I had while watching the game. I was sitting on a windowsill with some other people, and the chairs in front of us kept getting inched closer and closer to let other drunken people stumble into the space and crouch down (or not, and get yelled at) to talk to the people in that area.
Here are a bunch of Americans. A couple of us found it amusing that the guy in red in the middle is holding crib notes for the USA chants they must have just made up for the game.
This guy on the left was hilarious. He's a friend of Emily's and came to meet Michael, on the right, but was so drunk, he held out his hand and fell flat forward into Michael, and almost flew out the window. Michael got kind of defensive and thought he was under unintentional attack, but then they worked it out and had a long inebriated conversation.
The game ended in a tie, which was disappointing to all. I think all the England supporters were surprised that we managed a point, but seemed to blame it on a moment of poor goalkeeping (considering the circumstance of our score) than on actual skill by the Americans. On the other hand, the Americans all seemed proud of keeping up and assumed all along we wouldn't lose outright, at the least.
This is kind of a weird picture, but I took it to show how little space I had while watching the game. I was sitting on a windowsill with some other people, and the chairs in front of us kept getting inched closer and closer to let other drunken people stumble into the space and crouch down (or not, and get yelled at) to talk to the people in that area.
Here are a bunch of Americans. A couple of us found it amusing that the guy in red in the middle is holding crib notes for the USA chants they must have just made up for the game.
This guy on the left was hilarious. He's a friend of Emily's and came to meet Michael, on the right, but was so drunk, he held out his hand and fell flat forward into Michael, and almost flew out the window. Michael got kind of defensive and thought he was under unintentional attack, but then they worked it out and had a long inebriated conversation.
The game ended in a tie, which was disappointing to all. I think all the England supporters were surprised that we managed a point, but seemed to blame it on a moment of poor goalkeeping (considering the circumstance of our score) than on actual skill by the Americans. On the other hand, the Americans all seemed proud of keeping up and assumed all along we wouldn't lose outright, at the least.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Taehwa River Festival and World Cup South Korea
This weekend was the Taehwa River Festival in Ulsan. Leon described it as the "shittest festival ever" and I have to agree. Admittedly, I didn't get there until 4:00 on Saturday, but it hardly stands to reason that there should be so little left to the event just because it's late afternoon. There were dozens of tents set up around the Taehwa Bridge area, on both sides, and they were mostly empty, except for people sitting in them, avoiding the occasional sprinkles or taking a break from whatever not-activity they were doing before.
After czeching out a tent with some children's prize-winning paintings and some taxidermied animals, I saw this guy making pottery for children for free.
Then there was this race, maybe a marathon, going on the whole afternoon, which made passage from different areas of the fair a little difficult, because you had to wait for runners to pass before you could cross the path. I saw some guy get heckled severely for absentmindedly wandering onto the track and getting in the way of some runners.
The most engaging thing around was this stage, on which belly dancers were performing.
And then this group came on, and they were pretty entertaining. They did the Macarena, among other dances, which made me wonder if they were referencing something from way back when, or if it just made it here. I'd like to think the former.
After the dancers I needed some food, but the food tent was so disappointing at the festival that I just walked down the street and got a sandwich at a convenience store. That's really sad. Had I had a group with me, I could have gotten barbecue stuff, but they don't serve that in single-servings.
As I got back, Leon had just arrived, so we waited for our friend Thulas to join us for the South Korea vs. Greece World Cup Game. It wasn't for like another three or four hours, but there was nothing else to do, so we secured our seats in front of the stage, near the back, as most of the seats were taken already.
Here are a couple pregame shows they put on the stage. Both very popular songs. I think it's kind of funny that the second song, which is about Korea, is sung by a white guy in the video. That seems very out of place for this culture.
Thulas went and bought some beer for the waiting and watching periods, and the area became totally packed come nightfall. South Koreans loves them some soccer, so it was quite exciting to watch with them in one of the many public viewing events in the city, especially since they won the game.
South Korea's team is the Red Devils, hence all the red and the devil horns. Korea's normal slogan is "Korea Sparkling" but lately all you can see is "Korea Fighting" (pronounced "hiting" or "hwiting"). They are very enthusiastic about this whole thing, despite their awareness that they won't win the cup. One of my classes wanted a party the other day, because another teacher was having her birthday party all day, I guess. I said that's because of her birthday, blah, blah. So then they tried to get me to agree to have a party if Korea won 16th place in the Cup. I said we could if they won, and the got wicked pissed at me. They did amend to 8th, and I said I'd think about it.
Here is some celebrating after the game, which they won 2-0:
The USA vs. England match took place five hours after the South Korea match ended, and I went to a pub with my friends to see that, but that's become a whole other entry in itself.
After czeching out a tent with some children's prize-winning paintings and some taxidermied animals, I saw this guy making pottery for children for free.
Then there was this race, maybe a marathon, going on the whole afternoon, which made passage from different areas of the fair a little difficult, because you had to wait for runners to pass before you could cross the path. I saw some guy get heckled severely for absentmindedly wandering onto the track and getting in the way of some runners.
The most engaging thing around was this stage, on which belly dancers were performing.
And then this group came on, and they were pretty entertaining. They did the Macarena, among other dances, which made me wonder if they were referencing something from way back when, or if it just made it here. I'd like to think the former.
After the dancers I needed some food, but the food tent was so disappointing at the festival that I just walked down the street and got a sandwich at a convenience store. That's really sad. Had I had a group with me, I could have gotten barbecue stuff, but they don't serve that in single-servings.
As I got back, Leon had just arrived, so we waited for our friend Thulas to join us for the South Korea vs. Greece World Cup Game. It wasn't for like another three or four hours, but there was nothing else to do, so we secured our seats in front of the stage, near the back, as most of the seats were taken already.
Here are a couple pregame shows they put on the stage. Both very popular songs. I think it's kind of funny that the second song, which is about Korea, is sung by a white guy in the video. That seems very out of place for this culture.
Thulas went and bought some beer for the waiting and watching periods, and the area became totally packed come nightfall. South Koreans loves them some soccer, so it was quite exciting to watch with them in one of the many public viewing events in the city, especially since they won the game.
South Korea's team is the Red Devils, hence all the red and the devil horns. Korea's normal slogan is "Korea Sparkling" but lately all you can see is "Korea Fighting" (pronounced "hiting" or "hwiting"). They are very enthusiastic about this whole thing, despite their awareness that they won't win the cup. One of my classes wanted a party the other day, because another teacher was having her birthday party all day, I guess. I said that's because of her birthday, blah, blah. So then they tried to get me to agree to have a party if Korea won 16th place in the Cup. I said we could if they won, and the got wicked pissed at me. They did amend to 8th, and I said I'd think about it.
Here is some celebrating after the game, which they won 2-0:
The USA vs. England match took place five hours after the South Korea match ended, and I went to a pub with my friends to see that, but that's become a whole other entry in itself.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Postscript
I forgot to mention that one of my classes, the one that used to pretend I was pregnant, has been pretending I'm a different teacher since I changed my hair. They maintain that Alia-teacher is on vacation and my name is Shelacongshasalasa. Or is it Shelacongsashalasa? It's kind of hard to keep straight; even the kids sometimes say it wrong.
I'm currently uploading all my pictures and videos from the Taehwa River Festival and the World Cup events I went to, but I have to go to bed early tonight. I'll have some stuff up later this week.
I'm currently uploading all my pictures and videos from the Taehwa River Festival and the World Cup events I went to, but I have to go to bed early tonight. I'll have some stuff up later this week.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Finally, a Decent Haircut
You saw the result of my last haircut, which was horrendous. This time I decided to take it up a notch and go to the posh hair salon by the movie theatre, where you get a free drink and can use the internet and stuff there. It costs 25k won, as opposed to the standard 10k, but even the higher price is about the lowest price I'd pay back home, so it was worth it.
I dyed my hair black the day before and brought in my pictures of Ashley Greene again as a guide. The guy cutting my hair got the length right this time, but again, the outward flipping of the hair threw the chick styling it for a loop. She also went at it with a barrel brush, but unlike the first girl, did not smarten up and use a flatiron. The result was even more horrendous than previously. I looked like the Mad Hatter without a hat. I wish I'd gotten a picture, but I had a ticket to see a movie shortly after the cut, and I spent the next three hours before I got home smoothing it down so I wouldn't be mortified to be in public. I was glad to be in the dark for a while.
Here's what it looks like when I style it myself. It takes about ten minutes, while the stylist took like 30-40 minutes doing it the hard way.
They dye was blue-black, but I've now realized that my hair is so resistant to dye now that even the black starts to fade after a short time, so it's more like brown-black now.
Anyway, I think I gave like 80 people half a heart attack when I went to work on Monday. Koreans don't seem to change their styles all that much. Pretty much the only thing they do to their haircolor is get it bleached to a reddish brown, and I don't think they often do drastic length changes. Also, Koreans overreact a lot, I think. So I heard pretty much everyone in the school gasp hugely, put a hand to a chest or face, and make some shocked remark about how my hair is black and short. The first student who walked into my class didn't even realize it was me in there. She walked in, saw black hair, then turned around and walked out. I had to get her and show her my face.
As always with kids, I got mixed reviews. I think all the adults who vocalized their judgment approved, but some of the kids shouted "Terrible!" and other similar things at me. One teacher and one student said I looked like a witch, which was true. I dressed goth that day. In conclusion, I am now pleased with my head. The End.
I dyed my hair black the day before and brought in my pictures of Ashley Greene again as a guide. The guy cutting my hair got the length right this time, but again, the outward flipping of the hair threw the chick styling it for a loop. She also went at it with a barrel brush, but unlike the first girl, did not smarten up and use a flatiron. The result was even more horrendous than previously. I looked like the Mad Hatter without a hat. I wish I'd gotten a picture, but I had a ticket to see a movie shortly after the cut, and I spent the next three hours before I got home smoothing it down so I wouldn't be mortified to be in public. I was glad to be in the dark for a while.
Here's what it looks like when I style it myself. It takes about ten minutes, while the stylist took like 30-40 minutes doing it the hard way.
They dye was blue-black, but I've now realized that my hair is so resistant to dye now that even the black starts to fade after a short time, so it's more like brown-black now.
Anyway, I think I gave like 80 people half a heart attack when I went to work on Monday. Koreans don't seem to change their styles all that much. Pretty much the only thing they do to their haircolor is get it bleached to a reddish brown, and I don't think they often do drastic length changes. Also, Koreans overreact a lot, I think. So I heard pretty much everyone in the school gasp hugely, put a hand to a chest or face, and make some shocked remark about how my hair is black and short. The first student who walked into my class didn't even realize it was me in there. She walked in, saw black hair, then turned around and walked out. I had to get her and show her my face.
As always with kids, I got mixed reviews. I think all the adults who vocalized their judgment approved, but some of the kids shouted "Terrible!" and other similar things at me. One teacher and one student said I looked like a witch, which was true. I dressed goth that day. In conclusion, I am now pleased with my head. The End.
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