Martes Gratis (Mardi Gras in Spanish)

Mardi Gras was a long time ago, but I haven't written in a while, so I thought I would catch you up. I haven't had many plans lately, hence I haven't written in a while, but it seems like I usually write a blog when I upload pictures to Facebook, but since I haven't taken many pictures lately, I don't have much to write about.

Anyway, for Mardi Gras, there is actually someone from New Orleans that lives in Wontong, the city next to Inje. It's about 10km down the highway. I was going to meet the Inje crowd and from there we were going to travel to Wontong together. We were going to celebrate at the foreigner apartment, but we were running late, so we just met at a bar. Nothing too exciting.

After a couple hours of drinking, we decided to go to 노래방 (noraybang - karaoke) and I sang two songs that I got 100% on -- La Bamba and Pokerface. Don't judge me. It seems to be a regular routine to sing karaoke after a few hours of drinking. It is quite an experience each and every time.

That's about all that happened. I usually bring my camera to these events, but this night I didn't. I will have more pictures to post in the next couple weekends.

Thanks for reading!

Earthquake/Tsunami In Japan

Hello everyone. It has been a long while since I have written on here. Call me lazy or call me boring, but there hasn't been much happening around Inje. But I'm sure everyone has heard about the recent earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan. I never actually realized how close the Korean peninsula was to Japan until I saw the map on the news.



Here's a little geography lesson: The red X in the map above is the epicenter of the earthquake. The red circle is the Korean peninsula. I've also written in some other bigger cities/countries to show some relevance. I saw reports on the news that Beijing, China could feel tremors from the quake. I didn't feel anything even though Korean is between Japan and China. Also, tsunami warnings went out for Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia and Australia. Other warnings went out for countries across the Pacific ocean, including: Hawaii, Western coasts of Canada and the U.S., and South America (Chile mostly). I think Hawaii got some waves, but on CNN here, they are mostly reporting on the damage and economic impact of the tsunami.

This map shows the wave patterns and arrive times from the waves of the tsunami:



Also in the news now many of the nuclear power plants are exploding. That, of course, raises concerns for radiation exposure. That is a big worry over some Asian countries. I don't know the exact extent of it, but I know MANY departing flights from Japan have been canceled and many of Japan's exports are going through extra scannings to make sure the goods have not been exposed to any radiation. I don't think Koreans are too concerned with that. I will keep everyone posted. Everything in Korea seems to be fine! Thanks for reading.