Western Delights

Can you get Western food and things in Korea?

This is a question I get often. I am lucky. I can pretty much get everything I love in America here in Korea. Since I live in a fairly wealthy area that is in close proximity to Seoul, Western amenities are easy to come across. I can find most Western food in the mega super marts (similar to America's Wal Mart). The food is usually expensive and not very good, but it exists.

When I want to get Western food at a restaurant in Bucheon I usually head to Rhythm and Booze or The Park. Both are Western bars that serve tons of delicious Western food at a reasonable price (5,000-10,000 Won).

This is what a average Western or Foreigner Bar looks like in Korea. Many of them have live Western music on the weekends and play football and basketball games during the week. These are also great places to meet other foreigners in your area.

Last week I at dinner at The Park (I was craving a cheeseburger). I took some pictures of the bar and the food I ordered. I ate a cheeseburger, a grilled cheese and a chicken parmasean sandwich. All were good, but not great (well except the grilled cheese-AMAZING). What else can you expect from Bucheon, South Korea? (I know Americans are stereotyped as being fat, but I actually shared all this food with someone else).

Also, today I was I lucky enough to get a early birthday package from my Wisco roommates.

It was filled with Velveeta mac and cheese, buttered mircrowave popcorn (my weakness), Cape Cod sea salt and vinegar chips and English magazines. I opened it and went to heaven. Thank you so much guys, I LOVE IT. I also currently have a stomach ache because I have been eating Cape Cod chips for the past 2 hours.

KPOP Friday

Happy Friday!

I woke up to the first snow storm that actually stuck to the ground, and I could not have been happier. Here are some pictures from this morning!

View out of my apartment this morning.

On the walk to my bus stop (Jungang Central Park).

Bugok Middle School neighborhood covered in snow.

My school and the view from my office window.

Tonight I am going to meet up with some friends in Apgujeong, the Manhattan of Seoul. We are planning of getting a nice dinner and go bowling at a trendy spot. Should be a good night.

For this weeks song, I wanted to show you that KPOP is really going global. Kpop may ubiquitous on the Asian charts but the KPOP style is breaking into main stream American music too. The music video for will.i.am and Niki Minaj's song "Check it Out" is completely KPOP-ified. Complete with hangul, Kpop wardrobe and dance moves, this music video screams Korean. I am excited to see where KPOP shows up next in American pop music!

Minus the fact that "Check it Out" has Kpop influence, it is a great weekend jam. I hope you enjoy it ! (PS from what I can tell the Korean is correct in the video, but I am going to ask some of my students to double check for me!)

KPOP

Happy Friday!

I had a great week including some scrabble and the Bucheon Philharmonic Orchestra. A Co-Teacher of mine, was kind enough to invite me and a friend to their performance last night. The concert was actually held in the province's art high school auditorium, Gyeonggi-do Art School, which happens to be right next to my apartment. It was a beautiful and interesting show: a two hour classical music orchestra concert with songs from the Westside story sang in Korean accents.

For this week's music post, I am going to give you an older jam. Sam said he heard this Korean song while he was studying abroad in China in 2008; however, I have been hearing often in the Korean clubs here. So I think it is still quite popular. The artists are Korean DJs and call themselves DJ DOC and the song is called "Run to You". Anyways, great Korean party song. Hope you enjoy it.
"Run to You" DJ DOC.