hotel of love...

Love motel: a hotel rented out in small time increments ranging from one to three hours. These are found throughout Asia as well as South America to provide a place for locals to go with their lovers or prostitutes.

A love motel is a perfect getaway for single men and married men alike looking to hook up. Single men and women commonly live with their parents until marriage in Korea. If either sex is looking for some intimate time, their mom's house is the least likely place to go. Married men obviously do not use their homes for these endeavors. As such, a need was formed and, as it is not illegal to run a cheap motel, the love motel industry was born. Dependent on the area these hotels can range from windowless hook up rooms to exotically lighted and colorfully decorated rooms equipped with anything from a moving bed to mirrors strategically placed about. Prostitution in Korea makes up for more of the national income than agriculture if that says anything about the size of the industry. (paraphrase from speaking Korea) As you walk through the streets you can find pornographic advertisements for coffee girls. (coffee girls are ordered to deliver coffee to your home or hotel and for a small additional fee a number of other things) They are amongst the poorest paid prostitutes in country going for about ten to twenty bucks a pop according to one of my foreigner friends.

Well, I can now honestly say I have stayed at a Korean love motel. It was by accident of course, but it was interesting all the same. On my weekend trip to Seoul with my parents we looked for a hotel in the Gangnam are. It is a nicer shopping district in Seoul and is full of great spots for food and fun. We thought it would be a great central location to stay. We had our boss book it for us. It was not cheap so we thought it was legit. Well lets just say we found out otherwise as soon as we stepped into the elevator. The walls were covered in iridescent darkness accented by a stunning leopard print velvet. Our room was " beautifully" decorated with blue and red mood lighting that pulsed above both the bed and hot tub. The overhead light only was bright above the sink. The room was littered with little cups with condoms inside. It was pretty hilarious.

We had to check in early so we had an additional fee. The normal check in time was at 11:00 pm. Pretty hilarious if I do say so myself. The time for full night check in is strategically chosen based on public transit availability. I will say on the hotel's behalf that it was clean and the staff was pretty friendly. One more thing to check off on my life's to do list. haha

Go ahead and add B&E to my rap sheet

Since my parents have been here we have tried to take them to the more beautiful areas of the city of Gwangju. These have ranged from the super traditional Yangdong Market to a Kia Tigers Pro Baseball game. Today we decided to have a little fun as well. We heard from a friend there is a Danish hot dog restaurant in the World Cup Lotte Mart. We decided to check it as well as the stadium out. For those of you who do not know, South Korea put in a bid for the 2022 FIFA world cup games. As a result, there have been beautiful stadiums built throughout the country. One of the most beautiful is the Guus Hiddink Stadium. It was originally built for the 2002 games. The stadium was renamed to honor the Korean national team coach after their victory in the stadium over Spain advancing them to the semi-finals. It is considered one of the most beautiful FIFA stadiums in the world.

Much to our chagrin, the stadium was under total and complete lock-down. So Jack and I decided to go stealth. We went through the press office building to their private entrance to the stadium. The doors were unlocked there, so technically it isn't breaking an entering. Trespassing at best. haha! We didn't see any posted signs warning against trespassing, but then again if we had, we wouldn't have been able to read them. As a result, we got our own private tour of the entire stadium ranging from ground level to up in the decks. :) Enjoy the pictures!

KIA TIGERS!

Rain Delay... Boo

Tigers 6 Eagles 2

We embarked on our first excursion to a professional baseball game in Korea this evening. We were accompanied by my parents and our boss's family. It was so much fun. I have never been to a baseball game that had cheerleaders. And even more impressive, a game that had enough songs and cheers to go through the whole game without having any silence. It was awesome. Being a Tigers fan in Gwangju is like being a Yankees fan in New York. Last year, the Kia Tigers won the equivalency to our world series for Korea. Jack and I of course acting the part of the tourist immediately bought a couple of jerseys and a hat. They are pretty sweet if I do say so myself. The game was fun and I think I ate enough food to kill someone. haha

The day started out at our English church service. Since my parents are in town, we asked my dad to speak. He did a great job. (only a few things lost in translation to the kids) After service, we walked to the subway. As soon as we were getting on, Mr Han called us to see if he could take us and my family out to lunch. We met downtown and got a great lunch. I was stuffed. Shortly after we all took a stroll down art street and looked into some of the korean pottery and fine art stores. Mom got a few gifts. They are really beautiful.

From there we headed to home to don some more comfy clothes for the game later in the evening. We changed and relaxed a short while and the left again to go to the game. The game was going mediocre at best for the first inning. No one was really doing anything. It was tied one to one. Then somewhere in the 2nd or 3rd inning it began to poor. They quickly delayed the game and covered the infield. About ten minutes or so later the rain let up and we were looking at a completely different team. Kia began to kick butt. There were some great hits. It was great! I hope you enjoy the pictures and check out a few thumbnails and some of my video clips below as well. :)

Damyang and Daetongbap

Our trip to Damyang was great. We made our way through the bamboo forest, Jack finally found his panda (although it was made of plaster), We took a fun ride around the river of=n Meta-sequoia rode, and made our way to grab some food at one of the most famous restaurants in the city. Over all it was a great day. For full pictures check out our album

We have guests!

After a grueling 17 hour set of flights with sporadic flight in Chicago and Tokyo my parents have finally arrived. They came into Gwangju last night around one in the morning. They had to take a three and a half hour bus ride to our city from Seoul/Incheon International airport before we could meet them.

They finally showed up at our gate and we helped them and all their luggage to the line of cabs outside of U Square terminal. After a short five minute taxi ride, they finally were able to get comfortable. We unpacked and were very excited about the goodies they brought us. We asked for some essentials. You know, like ABC's and 123's, ranch dressing, and some clothes from American Eagle. Well they are essentials to me anyways. After they unpacked and I was on the brink of passing out from sleep deprivation, they decided they couldn't sleep, so off we went. We went for a walk around Sang Mu and grabbed a coffee at Tom and Tom's.

The walk was nice. The weather has been especially nice in the evenings the last few weeks here. It gets a little too hot for my taste during the day, but every once in a while we get a cold day to remind us it is still Spring.


I am really excited they are here. We have lots of adventures planned for them during their trip. The first is an excursion to Damyang on Saturday to see the legendary bamboo forests and walkways as well as grab some bamboo flavored soup . Here are a few highlights. :)

Bamboo Food- Damyang restaraunt preview

Foreign Propaganda or Truth?

Recently we have received an overwhelming amount of warnings and cautions from our friends and family back home. Through emails, phone calls, and facebook, we have learned that we should be terrified of the escalation between the North and South as of late. With a more conservative president in Seoul who takes a harder stance against the north and the recent developments regarding the sinking of of the Cheonan warship in March we should be shaking in our boots right? While talks seem to be heated in American circles, you should know that the many attacks of the past have not caused the country to go back to outright war. It almost seems as though the international media is trying to escalate the situation into something more than the South Korean people want.

Jan 1967 - attacks South Korean warship near border, killing 39 sailors
Jan 1968 - commandos storm presidential palace in Seoul in a failed attempt to kill President Park Chung-hee
Jan 1968 - captures USS Pueblo - one crew member dies and 82 held hostages for 11 months
Dec 1969 - hijacks South Korean airliner taking dozens of passengers hostage
Oct 1983 - bombs hotel in Rangoon, Burma in failed attempt to kill South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan - 21 people die
Nov 1987 - bombs South Korean airliner, killing 115
Sept 1996 - sub carrying 26 troops disabled off South - some land in South sparking deadly manhunt
Mar 2010 - torpedoes Cheonan warship, 46 sailors killed

It would be a better assumption that the South will simply gain international support from the UN, US, and others because of the incident. With the opinions of the Korean president and the trigger happy american allies (led most recently by Hillary Clinton and her exploits to rile up everyone with her recent trip to Beijing) all under consideration, we are still relatively unconcerned. The Korean people have illustrated for us that there are still some governments who care about what their people think. We know that most off all in our city. Gwangju is known for its active role in politics. This was best of all illustrated in the famous Gwangju protests in 1980. Gwangju was at the forefront of the democratic movement within the country and still is known for its involvement in any major political upheavals within the country.

Though the world is buzzing with news of the ship being sunk I assure you that as for now it is not as high of a concern as it seems. Of course any loss of life is a big deal, but to expect the south to go to war tomorrow is highly unlikely. A response of some sort is warranted, but the South Koreans do not want to go back to war. We assure you that if anything does conspire between the two countries there is a swift and well organized plan to send all the foreign expats home. Also, we are located near several US Army bases, so we are covered. :) For more details check out the BBC website (it seems to be a little less involved in the scare tactics of FOX news... hahaha)

*Edit* UPDATE:
There has been press released that quotes the Korean president as saying:
"We have always tolerated North Korea's brutality, time and again. We did so because we have always had a genuine longing for peace on the Korean peninsula," Lee said.

"But now things are different. North Korea will pay a price corresponding to its provocative acts," he said. "I will continue to take stern measures to hold the North accountable."

He has vowed to take the situation to the UN security council so that the north will be held responsible. As Lee spoke Monday, North Korea's main government run, fear based newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun, called the investigation results an "intolerable, grave provocation" tantamout to a declaration of war.

Even with all of this, South Korea wants peace. They want justice, but they are going through the proper channels with the UN instead of rushing to arms. We are confident things will settle down.