when traveling abroad, you will discover other countries use a different range of voltage than that of the US. in South Korea, they use 220V which is way different than the 110V in the US. they also use a different plug outlet (two small thin prongs). making sure whatever electronic device from the US you plug into an outlet here can handle 220V seems obvious, but that didn’t stop me from attempting to try getting my Xbox 360 to work here…

the Xbox 360 has a large power supply brick that says it can only handle 110V input. i had purchased a voltage converter from Best Buy that worked as well as using a rock to convert voltage (unfortunately, i didn’t discover this until i had moved to Seoul, so i doubt i can get a refund…). i also purchased a couple of plug adapters for those electronic devices that can handle 220V input (like my laptop). anyway, i tried the voltage converter first, and the Xbox 360 turned on for maybe 2 seconds, and then nothing worked. so i thought “hey, i’ll try the plug adapter and see if that may work.” don’t try this…. plugging it into the wall caused sparks to fly out of the plug adapter. the result was i now had a broken Xbox 360 power supply and a broken plug adapter. thankfully this was the worst that happened and nothing more like a fire or injury. and since then i have purchased a Korean Xbox 360 power supply that works just fine with 220V as well as the US Xbox 360 my friend bought me a real voltage converter that works great too!

so learn from my dumbness; if the input range does not include the voltage you want to use, then it won’t work and you can easily destroy the device or do something worse…

[videoplayer file="http://www.in23h.com/video/walking_to_davids.flv" /]

Walking to David’s (성률) house from 아차산 (Achasan) station. Sorry it’s such a shaky video…

well, i’m finally here in Seoul after an 11 hour flight from Seattle that seemed to go faster than i thought it would. Korean Air is nice with many free recent movies to watch i’ll back up a bit to explain some stuff; i quit Sega back on August 1st (sorry guys), and then moved up to my parents house in Washington state where i stayed for almost 4 weeks. i spent most of my time reorganizing things i brought with me, making many address changes, and then packing everything for the big move. one handy thing to get if you decide to move, are vacuum seal bags that can compress clothing very well. but now i have a very wrinkly wardrobe XD

so anyway, i made it here last friday night and met up with David (성률) and Hyeyun (혜윤). they took me into Seoul from the airport (which is actually in Incheon). Hyeyun had to meet up with her boyfriend, so David, me, David’s mom, sister and 2 friends went out for dinner at some BBQ place which was good. David’s friend, Cheongeun, let me use his extra cell phone until i can get my own. i was feeling exhausted and went to bed soon after i got back.

yesterday, David and his girlfriend helped me to learn how to find my way to and from the subway station near his house. the neighborhoods here are very maze-like–no easy grid system. and it’s definitely a challenge when you don’t know the language too! on the subway, David helped me understand how the whole spider-web works. i’ve only been used to BART in California, so having now to deal with 12 different subway lines all crossing over each other is pretty tough too. especially with the transfer stations. a lot of the signs have english for the subway stops helps, but it’s still pretty complex. we went to a department store, then got sushi, and then wandered around David’s university. it feels much much safer in this big city at night (from where i’ve been so far) than in San Francisco (sorry to say).

today i made my way alone to the subway and rode it a ways to meet up with Hyeyun who helped me find where my church was at. she didn’t stay, so i was on my own. thankfully, some of the missionaries there were from the US and helped translate for me. i was able to introduce myself in Korean. it was probably clunky sounding, but they seemed to understand for the most part. a few people there know some english to hold conversations. the bishop there already found an older couple who just got a new apartment and are willing to rent out one of the 3 extra rooms to me for about $300 a month. i will be checking it out next sunday. David told my friday night that he thinks all the apartments near Yonsei University (where i’ll be going to school) are either way too expensive, or are already taken… so i was feeling a bit stressed about where i can live, but now with this new opportunity, i feel much much less worried about everything. David and his family are very very kind and generous, but there house is too small for another person and i don’t want to overstay my welcome. actually, all the Koreans i’ve met so far have been very kind and helpful to me

i’ll try to take some pics and get them uploaded soon

the other day on my way out to work, i walked out into the garage and saw my roomate’s cat, Jin, lounging on top of his car just hanging out. it surprised me cause i’ve never seen him lounging there. he likes to lounge in some odd places sometimes. like outside in the dirt, on the bathroom counter, halfway inside a room, etc.

i decided a while back after visiting Korea back in February to look into the possibility of going to school there to learn the Korean language. actually, only after a few days of being there, i started having thoughts of either teaching English there or studying Hangul (the Korean language). i really liked it there, but it may have mostly been the vacation to a new country… whatever the feeling at that time, when arriving back in the US, i’ve been craving to go back and have been studying Hangul on and off ever since. i applied to Yonsei University and was accepted to the fall semester! the plan is to move to Seoul at the end of August, stay with the Hong family, which are very cool, and then search for an apartment and take care of other things like Alien ID, Student Visa, bank account, etc. for a few weeks before the semester starts near the end of September. everything is falling into place so far. i still have a big list of things to take care of in the next few months. i’m excited about it and a bit nervous–mainly i worry about getting everything taken care of when i’m over there and also hopefully not getting lost in the giant city of Seoul…

Yonsei has a one and a half year language program split into 6 semesters with an optional 7th semester afterwards. it’s 4 hours per day, 5 days a week. i’ll probably look for a job after getting the hang of the language enough. it should be an interesting adventure i also want to make some “tutorials” on how to move to Korea and go to school once i get settled to help out anyone else who may be considering it

the real Lego Indiana Jones is coming soon, but for now you can check out this funny reenactment:

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too funny!

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I finished watching this Korean Drama not too long ago. It’s called Couple or Trouble, or 환상의 커플. It’s by the same writers who made Sassy Girl Chun Hyang and My Girl. The story is about a very self-centered rich girl who, after causing much trouble to a hard-working guy, loses her memory. The guy sees the girl at the hospital, and decides to get revenge by telling the doctor’s she’s his girlfriend. He wants to put her to work as a caretaker/babysitter at his place for his nephews. There’s lots of comedy in this one, and i liked the main characters a lot. Most of it is predictable, but it’s still fun Yesasia did the subtitles and release of this TV series, and they did a very good job of it too.