Archive for the ‘Korea’ Category

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Going in Circles?


2009
11.13

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Posted in Australia, Korea | No Comments »

m.c. escher - reptilesAm I going in circles? I just read this from my blog 2 years ago:

” I miss the streets of Seoul, the bustle, the cars everywhere, the awesome subway, morning Dunkin Donuts runs, partying hard in Hongdae and Itaewon, Pita Time, motel rooms, orange-flooded midnight streets, walking to the Kim Bap Nara in the wee hours of the morning and ordering don cass, crazy ajoshis, kids staring at my whiteness, playing darts in Seoul Pub, egg and cheese Sally, shopping at 3am in Dongdaemun, driving on the right, galbi wrapped up with kim chi in a lettuce leaf, hanging with my korean ‘brother’ and talking about life until morning, cheap taxis, high-speed internet, being told my Korean is good when it sooo isn’t, my adorable student Hae Ri, Korean people and how they act the same wherever you go, making strange videos with Keith, my boys, my girls, and waking up any time and stepping out into a city that never seems to really sleep. It’s all a dream now.”

Now here I sit in Australia, thinking about my Korea far away over the seas.  Another world, another life currently continuing while I sit in a different reality.

But this time it is different, I think.  After years of not being able to do what I wanted, I was shocked suddenly to be back in a country where my possibilities weren’t limited to being a teacher or a company’s resident foreigner.  As I feel my mind opening up to the possibilities I see the future as being very different from the past.  Something clicked.  So while on the surface it may seem like the circle repeats, on the inside it is a whole new reality.

Popularity: 7% [?]

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Spring


2009
03.17

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Posted in Featured, Korea, Movies | No Comments »

Today, Spring came.  It was a relief.  For months, the cold has forced me to huddle inside every day.  I have hardly had any sunlight on my skin and I am sure that as a result I have SAD.  No, not sad, S.A.D. or Seasonal Affected Disorder.  When I don’t get enough sun I start to feel miserable.  The days seem boring and I just want to run away to somewhere bright and warm.  I self-medicated as much as possible by going to the tanning room and this seemed to help.  This is where I picked up my winter tan.

Korean spring 

I was also in Australia for a month, which would more accurately explain where my winter tan came from.  The sunlight there really recharged my batteries, not to mention all the food, exercise and family love.  The trouble with going home is leaving again, the dissatisfaction I feel when I return to Korea.  I used to travel to go somewhere new, so returning to a second home has none of the thrill that real home has and all of the drawbacks.  They say home is where the heart is, which is why, with my family, my friend and my love all under one roof, it was almost impossible to get on the plane to come back.

But I did come back, and the weather is only getting warmer and warmer here.  It’s going to be great to sweat it out again through a Korean summer.  Then, if I’m lucky head back to Australia and start Spring all over again.

Popularity: 53% [?]

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A Trip to the Beach


2008
08.06

Posted in Korea, Regional | 1 Comment »

Last weekend, I made the most of my short vacation and headed down to Busan on the slow train. The ride took over 5 hours each way, but it was my hope that some nice beach time would make up for it. Little did I know, all of Korea had decided to do the same thing.


A South Korean Beach in Summer from David Toyne on Vimeo.

Popularity: 9% [?]

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Hello, Goodbye


2008
06.05

Posted in Korea | 1 Comment »

This relocation to Korea has turned into a vacation of sorts. There I was, in China, writing blogs about my new religion, relaxing in the afternoon sun and now here I am in Seoul with dreary weather and no motivation to write about anything. People living here seem to work too much and enjoy too little. Sure, I used to live that life too, however it’s only after stepping out of that environment that I could realize how dull it is.

To be fair, there are lots of great things about this country. If you look at it in context, you can really see how they as a people have developed. The grandparents of this country have seen so much change and dealt with it. As kids, they lived through a horrible war that tore the whole country apart, and now they drive nice cars on 5-lane streets through a city lined with tall buildings and high-speed internet cables. But I’m not a historian, nor am I a Korean studies major. I’m an artist at heart and an Australian by birth. Concrete everywhere, cars cluttering every feasible space, people bustling around with the mark of stress on their face, really brings me down. Life, to me, is more than about making money and babies.

In Korean, the same word for day is the same word for work (“Il”). This really says a lot. In English, work and day don’t even have any of the same letters as each other. This says a lot too. I do believe that to be happy, one must engage in productive work, I just don’t believe that said work should encompass all of one’s life at the expense of everything else.

But don’t listen to me, I’m currently unemployed.

Sometimes decisions have to be made and they turn out to be wrong. I think there is some correlation between self-honesty and the eventual success of those decisions. It’s never too late to change one’s mind, but breaking a pattern of denying one’s dreams is very hard to identify and cure. Those who dare to do what they dream are the lucky ones, those who are not concerned with the here-and-now and more concerned with the future they envision. In this case, work is justified and fulfilling.

I came to Korea and found myself wanting to rewind the clock and stay in China. I miss my bike, my apartment, my $2 noodles, my coffee maker and my City Shop salad. Most of all, I miss the bright sunshine which warmed this artist’s soul each day. My religion and thus the world needs me to fulfill my destiny. It needs you to do the same thing. The doing is the hard part, but there is happiness in the act and in the result.

Popularity: 8% [?]

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It’s Not About The Money, Honey


2008
05.22

Posted in China, Korea | 1 Comment »

It’s been a busy week for Dave. Well when I say busy I mean stressful, and when I say stressful I mean to say I’m getting the shaft from a few different sides right now. In a few days, I’ll be heading over to Korea to rejoin my fellow English teachers as we give Korean kids Englishee. I’ll also be rejoining a bunch of my friends, starting a new job and spending time with my girlfriend. Note the lack of plurality. I’ll be leaving my current school in Shanghai early, and cutting my apartment lease prematurely and it has been a balancing act to allow each side to adjust to accommodate me. For almost a month now I’ve been trying to find someone to replace my job, live in my house and buy my bicycle. They basically have to take over my life which, by the way, is pretty sweet. However its sweetness mainly comes from me being in it, rather than the job, house or location of it.

Anyway, this process has really not been as easy as I thought it would be. The landlord isn’t happy I didn’t pay the last month’s rent, but as I’m going to lose my deposit, I figure what’s the point. Meanwhile I’ve been looking for people to take the apartment, but the new teacher thinks it’s too big and wants a roommate and so I’ve been finding a roommate, but the person who was meant to come decided that she would just go to some random location instead of following the specific directions I emailed to her, so never made it. It’s been hard. My job wants me to stay longer, to ease the transition period but who are leaving it completely up to me to find them a new teacher. After I found a teacher the first time, they waited so long to decide on him that I practically had to kick them into making a decision. So every time I extend my date of arrival, my girlfriend gets sadder as I tell her, “wait a little longer”. I justify the delay to her and myself that I’m trying to get the deposit, plus another paycheck from the school, but I suppose that’s not the real reason.

There is some part of me that really enjoys being here in China. I love my apartment, my job is easy, I ride a bike to work and have lots of spare money to spend. I can blaze around in the afternoon or head into the busy town for a nightcap. I can eat at a fine restaurant, or go down the street and get some 5 kuai noodles from the vendor on the footpath. My apartment is really nice, but I probably mentioned that before. I haven’t had an apartment this nice, ever. It’s not Palazzo Versace or anything, but it’s bright, clean and has lots of open space. Some afternoons are just like heaven, the sunlight, the gentle breeze blowing the white curtains, the distant sound of a motor mower, the smell of my burnt pancakes and coffee, the late start to my working day. It’s almost like a holiday living here.

The lounge room where I chilled in the afternoon Something about someone mowing that grass calms me

A lovely sleep can be had here in the afternoon

So yeah, it’s about the money but it’s not only about the money. It’s also about savoring this moment in my life before it becomes a distant memory of twenty-something youth.

Popularity: 9% [?]

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The Unreturn


2008
04.26

Posted in China, Korea, The Unshow | No Comments »

Following my decision to return to Korea, it was soon leaked on the internet and before long people were celebrating in the streets. Not only for my return, but also for the return of the internet’s most mind-bogglingly amazing show-that-is-not-a-show sensations, The Unshow.

As a way of getting you as pumped about this prospect as no doubt millions of fans are around the globe, we have prepared a few teasers trailers to be released in the coming weeks before my ultimate return.

YouTube Preview Image

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