Monthly Archives: September 2011

the help & air force onesssss

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I walked into the local GS25 down the street from my work (school) today during my planning time (I needed CHOCOLATE okay?!) and my ears are embraced with the sound of an old song from high school blaring throughout the small convenience store.

Yes, I am in South Korea and I can still walk into a store and hear, “Air Force Ones” by Nelly. I could not stop smiling as I mouthed the words (wait… how do I know these words?!) thinking back to my days as a seventeen-year-old, sitting on my schools bleachers, and singing yelling along to the song as they played it during basketball warm ups. Nine years may have passed since then, but I can still remember loving to all-attitude up the girl part, “Kyjuan, where are you gettin’ them colors, are you dyin’ them?” Do you know how many people didn’t realize that song was about shoes? Well, a lot!

I left GS25 with a smile, still singing the song in my head. Then I saw a guy ride by on a scooter (or mopeds as they are commonly called in the states) with his helmet barely fitting on his head (let alone strapped around it) because he couldn’t handle the thought of taking off his baseball cap. Not sure the helmet is going to help much buddy.

In other news, I read The Help last week. SHOOT. That is One. Good. Book. I can’t wait to see the movie, but it hasn’t come out (and we aren’t sure if it will!-sad face-) in Korea yet. In all seriousness though, reading it made me realize how little I still know about the world I live in. The fact that mindsets like that could/can/and do exist. Wow. It made me think. I like to think. Sometimes…

“Are you a photographer?”

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Uh…. I was asked this question TWICE one day last week and both times I panicked. Both times I was holding my camera, posed to take a picture, and both times I answered, “No…..”.

Why did this question make me sweat? Why did this question make me so nervous? Why couldn’t I answer the way I wanted to? “YES! I am a photographer!”

Then I looked up the definition of a photographer in the dictionary (and when I say ‘looked up’ I mean ‘typed in’):

pho·tog·ra·pher

[fuh-tog-ruh-fer] noun

A person who takes photographs, especially one who practice photographs professionally.

 So… I thought, well I take photographs. Then I did what everyone my age does nowadays, and I looked it up in urbandictionary.com, and this is what I got:
What just about every scene kid and hipster under the age of 25 calls themselves these days. Many own Canon Rebel xtis and rely heavily on cropping and Photoshop filters to give their otherwise mundane photos an “artsy” feel. It is also not uncommon to see them wielding Lomography cameras (usually a Holga, now that they’re sold at Urban Outfitters) on any given day. Typically, these “photographers” cite Diane Arbus, Robert Mapplethorpe, or, in the case of those Vice Magazine devotees, Terry Richardson, Cobrasnake, or Richard Kern, as major influences, because they couldn’t name any other photographers to save their lives.

And I realized, okay THAT is why I didn’t want to answer yes… but then I kept scrolling down the page and I read this:

A photographer is a person who takes photographs using a camera. A professional photographer uses photography to make a living, while amateur photographers take photographs for pleasure and to record an event, place or person.Not all photographers are scene or emo kids and not all rely heavily on photoshop or any other photo editing software (such as GIMP, Lightroom, photobucket, etc) to make their photos look unique.Some photographers actually are photographers, not just “What just about every scene kid and hipster under the age of 25 calls themselves these days.”. Some actually shoot photographs for a purpose rather than because it is the “cool” thing to do at the moment. Some great photographers are Ansel Adams, Diane Arbus, Les Forrester, Lara Jade, Andrew Gransden, Joe Rosenthal, Jill Greenberg, and Annie Leibovitz.

Now even though I am a self-proclaimed lightroom editing LOVER. I still love my completely unedited shots. I hope the next time someone asks me if I am a photographer I can proudly say, “Yes I am!”

Here are some unedited shots for y’all. Enjoy!

These pictures were taken by Namsan Tower, it was my second time there in the two years I have lived in Korea. I need to make that hike more often!

Skychael

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I love weddings. But really. I LOVE THEM. I love helping my girlfriends with ideas and planning. I love looking at strangers’ wedding pictures. Which is not as weird as going to a stranger’s wedding (which I have done, and not as a date of a boyfriend). I love talking about weddings. If you must label me as a typical woman who loves to plan and re-plan her wedding (which, technically I don’t do. at. all.) and dreams in flowers, and colors, and venues, and guest lists… that is totally fine. To be honest, the idea of having a wedding of my own scares and stresses me to no end. BUT being a part of weddings, and making invitations for my sisters and friends, and picking out bridesmaids dresses, and commenting on good hairstyles. I JUST LOVE IT. Most of all, I love DANCING at weddings.

And last weekend, boy did I DANCE.

Congratulations to my friends John-Michael and Sky Becker. They got married in the States this past August and when they came back to Korea they had a celebration with all of their friends here, and we all know- it was just an excuse to get us all together so that we could DANCE.

The newlywed having a great time taking pictures of her friends on the dance floor, how gorgeous is she??? Love you Sky!

Oh, and here is the toast that Sky’s maid of honor made through a video. It is INCREDIBLE and I watch it at least three times a day. LOVE IT.

no pain no gain

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“I am actually surprised you haven’t gotten hurt sooner, you are a Welton.”

My sister’s response when I called her last night to tell her that I hurt my arm during taekwondo. In all fairness, the same thought actually crossed my mind as I sat there icing my elbow.

We were practicing our tumbling (“You tumble in taekwondo?” roommate’s responses when I snuck up on her this morning to ask what was wrong with my elbow, she is a P.E. teacher after all) last night, which I am actually pretty good at… So since I can cart-wheel, do back-bends, and somersaults like there is no tomorrow- thank you gymnastic lessons when I was 7 (or 6?)- I try really hard to impress since I can’t kick or punch as hard as the guys at my gym.

Anyhow, we were trying out front hand springs, I was on my third or fourth attempt when my arms buckled and something felt wrong in my elbow (a pop, if you will) and I came crashing down. My reaction was one of gasping for breath and disorientation. Everyone rushed over, which was not at alllll embarrassing (note sarcasm).

I was immediately ushered to a chair handed an ice pack and given a cup of water. Now my main master speaks English pretty fluently, but it was his birthday so he was not there. The second in command master is not as confident in his language skills so he starts drawing a bone shape (like the kind you give a dog) and a zig-zag line through it… no no no, I assure him, I did not break any bones.

So they continued with cool down stretches:

and I continued to ice my elbow… and then I left and as I was taking the stairs I stopped to do what I have been meaning to do since I started taking taekwondo a year and a half ago.

Okay seriously, HOW CREEPY IS THAT (who makes a fake dog look THAT REAL)?

p.s. the shots are all a little blurry since I was doing them one-handed and on my phone.

our beautiful world

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our world is breathtakingly beautiful. no matter how busy you get (and goodness knows, I tend to fall into that category more often than not) take time to tell the people who make your world beautiful how amazing they are (like now, YOU ARE ALL AMAZING!). take time to stop and look at the mountains surrounding the city of seoul, the lakes and sand dunes and forests of michigan, the awesome bridges in san francisco, the coral reefs in australia, the lights in hong kong, the viking ships in norway, the beaches in the philippines, and the list goes on (for a VERY long time!), and every single place, whether it is a building, a flower, or a person… is beautiful. God made it that way, take time to enjoy it, every day.

my bike ride this morning, I took time to enjoy the beauty of the outside world before discovering the beauty of words (yay, grad school!!! this is not sarcasm, trying to build an appreciation here).

I love my bell! Sometimes I ring it, just to ring it.

I tried a couple of self-timer shots.

I love it by the river!

Seoul has a lot of bridges…

I love finding nature in the city.

moth on flower, love.

a broken shelf and taekwondo

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I am staring at a broken bookshelf in my classroom right now. It toppled over a couple of days ago because the students tendency to shove the cushions back to where they belong was a leeetle too forceful. Luckily no one was behind it. That would have been bad.

As the students freaked out and started blaming each other I calmly asked them to sit at their spots on the rug while I picked the bookshelf up. “But what if it falls back down on top of me in my spot? You better be strong Ms. Welton!” One of my students exclaimed. Pssshhh, no problem. As they started shouting “Wow, superwoman teacher!” I lifted the whole thing up (books in it and all) and majorly pinched my hand in the process (but of course I didn’t tell them that). I love impressing my students.

Just to give you a picture of what this looked like, here is the bookshelf now, we took out the books and made it just for pillows (books used to be in the top shelf):

The kiddies love those strawberry pillows, found them in an underground shopping center connected to a subway last year.

And here is the back of the bookshelf:

Still not fixed, staples (from a nail gun) sticking out. SO SAFE.

Those pics were taken on my iphone so they are not up to the standard of what I usually do, but they had to be shared.

ALSO, I have FINALLY gone back to taekwondo. After blowing the dust off of my brown belt I participated in a class that KICKED MY BUTT. It was AWESOME. Then upon leaving I realized that my face was all over the hallway wall leading up to my taekwondo place. Hahahahahaha. Another pic from the iphone, can you find me???

I-cha, il-cha, sam-cha, and on it goes!

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In Gary Chapman’s book, The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate, he defines showing love through the languages of physical touch, words of affirmation, quality time, gifts, and acts of service. Living in South Korea has made me realize that he left out one key love language; sharing food together.

Whenever I travel back in time (literally) to Michigan I am always shocked by the size of the portions served in most restaurants (how can one person EAT all of that?). Not only that, I am terribly disappointed when every single person at the table refuses to share with me. I often hear, “I am ordering my meal and I am eating off of my plate, you can order your own food.” In Korea, there is a little something we like to call “family style” (I know you have heard of it Western people). When I first arrived here I would get so frustrated when the server only brought one menu for the whole table, don’t they realize we all need to order? Then I discovered that only one person needs the menu because they order a couple things for all of us to share and if we need more we order more. Or that one person shares the menu, we all voice our opinions and viola, we are served with a variety of food.

After sharing a meal together my friends usually ask, “Okay, where to for I-cha?” I just learned that directly translated “cha” means car. Koreans talk about “Il-cha” round one, as the first stop. Then you head out for “I-cha” round two, and so on and so forth.

My friend recently informed me that she once was out for 13-cha’s (only because I don’t know the Korean number for 13! Anyone?).

“I didn’t go home for two days.” WHAT?

Her rounds consisted of a lot of restaurants, bars, a movie, a show, coffee shops, jim-jil-bang (spa-like place where you can spend the night), noraebang (singing room), and more coffee shops and restaurants.

I am lucky if I make it out for sam-cha (round three).

 bbq! this is my favorite i-cha by far^^ (and I have no idea why these words are bold, won’t let me change it…?)

the love language that probably costs the most in korea is food! photo credit to Hailey.
my favorite breakfast/brunch spot in Seoul is the Flying PanA truly unique to Asia and fun round is definitely sticker pictures