Monday, July 6, 2009

Here is an Interesting story in the Times about Korea

http://http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/world/asia/07pride.html?hp

I sometimes entertain romantic notions of escaping my life as an English teacher to go work on the high seas. That can actually get somewhat dangerous here since Chinese fishermen have also been known to attack Korean boats. It is a bit of a difference of culture that someone would be ashamed of working hard to make ends meet. These people would be lauded in some cultures for being upright men and doing whatever it takes to take care of their familys. I'll admit that I don't want to become a professional back scrubber, but I think that working on a fishing boat would sure teach me all the Korean that I want to know.

4 comments:

nb said...

It's great that you are on a diet. I didn't, however, see a post of exercise. Are you regularly exercising?

3gyupsal said...

Well I fell off the wagon a bit on the diet. I'm still trying. And yes I try to go to Gumdo 검도 and 태권도 Taekeondo lessons 3-4 nights a week. The thing is though that some times there are conflicts. Like last night, for my diet, I made a vegitable curry, with barley rice. I also planned on going to the Kumdo school (검도 도장), but I ended up having to skip that because they vegitables didn't cook fast enough. (I intended to eat when i got back from Kumdo, but the food wasn't ready.

nb said...

You know what works wonders? A cucumber protein smoothie. I swear to you on this. 2 medium cukes, 2 scoops whey protein....then blend. It is a great breakfast and takes me through until lunch. I read on your diet and I know the conventional wisdom of eating 5 times a day, but i do not personally buy into it. 3 meals a day with the cuke shake in the a.m., running....dude, you need to run, and 2 modest sized meals eaten until you are 75% full. This diet can shed 1 kilogram a week. Do you lifet weights? And tell me you still are not making popcorn in oil.

3gyupsal said...

Thanks for the good advice. I was hittin the Gym pretty hard last year, and I enjoyed it, but the place got a bit pricey. Now I'm just sticking with Kendo and Taekwondo. The Taekwondo place I go to doesn't charge me anything because I am a 4th degree blackbelt and I can probably be of some help, but it kind of sucks cause all the other members are kids.

For the diet, I bought a diet book that teaches strategies for dieting. It also has a bunch of recipes in it. The recipes are fantastic, and they give exact calorie counts, but they can be difficult to make in Korea since some of the ingrediants are difficult to get.

Do you live in Korea, and can you get Whey protein here?