Brandon and I at the scrumpious meet buffet.
My student Tae Woo, or Taylor. Quite an interesting kid. Tests my patience I enjoy him.

Soy, Brandon, and I on Gwanak Mountain today.

Hello, hello. Well, I got lots of stuff I want to post. Most of it is videos and pictures. I also just finished the song I've been working on. I thought I could post it on here, but I don't think I can (unless I'm missing where to do it at). But I'm really excited about this song. I've had it mostly done for about 3 weeks but have just been waiting and listening to it a ton until I was completely satisfied with it. So, I guess the next best option is to post it to my myspace and give you the link. Here it is -www.myspace.com/derekfekkesmusic. The song is called "Discontent Breeds Growth." Let me know what you think. I think I'm going to try to do some more songs along this vein, in part because I don't have much choice here in Korea with a computer, keyboard, and mic to work with. But I like this kinda stuff a lot. I've been playing on the piano at school after classes some. It's way out of tune, but it's still great to play on a real piano for a change.

Well, I am just beginning a four day weekend. It's Korean Thanksgiving, called Chuseok (pronounced "chew-suck"). Everybody goes to their relatives place and makes different foods, some in honor of their deceased relatives. Tomorrow, Saturday, most everything is closed I am told. So, I stocked up on supplies to make some curry for lunch. Can't wait. Today is Friday, and I met up with Brandon and Soy (his girlfriend) around 2 and we went on a hike in Gwancheon, which is about a 45 minute subway ride from me, up towards Seoul. It was awesome!! Gorgeous 360 view of all of Seoul. Simply incredible! I'll put the video below. There was a Buddhist temple towards the top. You could here people chanting most of the way up. It was pretty cool. At the top, there was a little food vendor set up making ramen and other stuff. It was kinda weird. But I did buy two ice cream pops from a guy who hauled up a backpack freezer full of them to sell. They hit the spot. Overall, it was a great hike and I'd like to go do it again, maybe even try to run part of it.

Well, here are some pics and videos. Hope it gives you a image of my life here.

This is one of my classes from last week. Notice how the boys are all about the camera and the girls are extremely embarrassed.



Here is Seoul from the top of Gwanak Mountain.