Matt Mead Life

Goodbye Blogger...

2011-02-26T21:58:00.000-08:00

So long Blogger. It was good while it lasted.

Check out the new site always in progress: www.mattmeadphoto.com

Buried Patsy

2011-02-21T13:27:00.000-08:00

Snow Night

2011-02-21T13:25:00.000-08:00

Aster Cat

2011-02-20T09:33:00.000-08:00

Black and Whites

2011-02-18T20:55:00.000-08:00

Minnehaha (Frozen) Falls

2011-02-18T20:47:00.000-08:00

A little obsessed...

2011-01-15T09:22:00.000-08:00

And a brilliant photo by the aspiring photographer Lindsay Schwartz:

1728

2011-01-04T11:08:00.000-08:00

In the Kitchen

2011-01-04T11:05:00.000-08:00

Photo taken by L. Schwartz!

Seattle Day 3

2010-12-15T21:57:00.000-08:00

Seattle Day 2

2010-12-15T10:55:00.000-08:00

Seattle Day 1

2010-12-14T19:22:00.000-08:00

Road Trip Day 2: Coffee

2010-12-14T19:19:00.000-08:00

Seattle Roadtrip Day 1: Giant Buffalo/Freezing Temperatures

2010-12-14T00:16:00.000-08:00

minneSNOWta... an overused (but practical) pun

2010-11-15T21:44:00.000-08:00

Holy Bowly

2010-11-08T13:14:00.000-08:00

007

I don't usually do this but...

2010-11-06T15:55:00.001-07:00

...here are a few photo blogs that are definitely worth checking out:

Stephen Maturen

Amanda Schwengel

Josh Anderson

Jules Ameel

Matt Mcloone

Chris Franz

Curiosities of Change

MJR

Cia de foto

Ratatattoo

2010-11-03T00:20:00.000-07:00

Random Singles

2010-11-02T13:46:00.000-07:00

NYC

2010-10-18T20:33:00.000-07:00

Birds and Tea

2010-10-18T20:30:00.000-07:00

Cheonggyecheon Stream

2010-10-06T08:33:00.000-07:00

Bright

2010-10-04T11:24:00.000-07:00

Lets Drinking... ?

2010-10-04T11:22:00.000-07:00

Quick Trip: Han River

2010-09-26T09:19:00.000-07:00

At the top there was a temple...

2010-09-25T10:45:00.000-07:00

Namhansan (South Han Mountain)

Aquarium

2010-09-20T22:18:00.000-07:00

Cats and Coffee / Cat Cafe

2010-09-19T09:19:00.000-07:00

Cemetery

2010-09-18T09:13:00.000-07:00

Transit

2010-09-14T08:02:00.000-07:00

Soccer

2010-09-12T10:21:00.000-07:00

Temple

2010-09-12T08:41:00.000-07:00

Buy the Way

2010-09-07T18:08:00.000-07:00

The Students

2010-09-07T18:05:00.000-07:00

Paths

2010-09-07T18:04:00.000-07:00

I hate spiders

2010-08-28T23:51:00.001-07:00

And this one is right outside the door of my apartment. Not sure if it's poisonous, but it looks mean.

Something smells fishy...

2010-08-27T22:10:00.000-07:00

We went to a fish market.

This lady was really excited to sell us some seafood; notice, the seafood wasn't excited. (crab trying to escape from the weigh) We bought one crab.

We bought 40 shrimp;

Which were delicious;

An octopus; she was really happy to show us.

Close up;

And prepared...

The crab was delicious, also.

And we got all that meat for 40,000 Won.

mmmmmmmmm.

Went To a Park...

2010-08-23T07:32:00.000-07:00

I seem to be...

2010-08-22T01:48:00.000-07:00

..posting more regularly on the 365 page more. If you're itchin' for some more up-to-date stuff check that out.

365 in 2010

Seoul: A place with everything and nothing

2010-08-19T08:36:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone-

I'm still in Korea. I think I almost have too much to update you on, so I'll just skip to the interesting stuff. Let's get the question "How is teaching going?" out of the way. For summer classes, there are Monday/Wednesday/Friday classes and then Tues/Thurs classes. My Mon/Wed/Fri classes are meh. And by meh I mean some of the kids drive me nuts. Half the time their drawing pictures of me on the board:

Most days I feel like what the drawings look like after M/W/F classes.

Tues/Thurs classes are my busiest days, but they're the ones that seem to go by the fastest. And sure some of the kids are nice.

And some are a little odd...

But hey, it's a job right? Take the good with the bad.

Most of my days are spent hangin' with these bums:

Joel;

and Mr. Roy McKee.

We spend a lot of time on a soccer field by a public school. It's a nice place to sit and just hang out. There isn't a lot of space to just run in Korea. In fact, most of the time you're having to play a maze game while walking through people on the sidewalk. So the soccer field is a god-send if you just want some open space.

Even at 6 a.m. :

Seoul has a lot of places to shop; however, the most common places that you can shop at have nothing you would actually need. When you walk down a street, 90% of the shops are either PC Bongs (PC rooms), cell phone stores, or restaurants and bars. It took me so long to find a place where I could get a towel so I could dry off when I showered. When I did find a place, the only thing they had were hand towels that don't really dry you off. So just think about that all you Americans, so lucky to have Target, I'm drying off my body with hand towels every morning.

Anyways, other than hanging out at the field, eating a lot of Korean food, and teaching, I haven't really explored the city that much. Don't worry, I will. I just needed to settle in. I found a place, got a cell phone and internets, and I finally got a pillow and blanket (and shitty hand towels). Let the exploring begin. More pictures and a tour of the pad coming soon.

Matt Mead

Apple DemiSoda

2010-08-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

A purchase I won't soon be making again...

South Korea: Thus Far

2010-08-01T09:36:00.000-07:00

Remembering Three Years to the Day - Bridge Collapse

2010-08-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

K-Pop Discovery

2010-07-30T05:01:00.000-07:00

The power of Soju.

2010-07-29T15:28:00.000-07:00

Ahn-nyung-ha-se-yo! (it means hello!)

Yeah. I'm trying to get this language down. All I know right now is "hello" and "thank you" and "give me back my change!".

The second day was a little different from yesterday: I finally ate!

After a few grueling hours of training, a few of us trainees went out to get some food to eat. Because pretty much everyone in my training group is from Korea or has been in Korea for more than a year, they all showed me the "authentic" food that they had. To find this place, you walk down an alleyway and walk under a few tarps. Here are the foods I encountered.

A) Some kind of cooked fish with spices - all bones still in it, all skin still on it
B) Cold potato fries - tasteless compared to "real" fries.
C) Kimchi - Pretty awesome spicy cabbage
D) I'm not sure what they called it, but the Korean lady said it was made out of acorns
E) Korean pickles - didn't try them... I don't like pickles
F) Sardines and peppers - ew. tried it. didn't like it.
G) Seaweed soup - surprisingly good. Good for the Seoul*
H) Ham? - She said it was ham, didn't taste like it at all. The texture was weird too.
I) Rice - Duh.
J) I have no idea. Didn't try it.

After getting done with lunch, which took about 30 min, we went back to training. I'm not going to talk a lot about training because it would be pretty boring to hear about.

Training completed. Had to get back to the hotel.

The subway is pretty easy to use once you understand where you are and where you're going. Every time I've been on the subway thus far it's been pretty packed. Lots of advertising everywhere. After getting back to the hotel, some other trainees quickly called and said they wanted to go to this Korean Barbecue place down the street.

DELICIOUS!

Thank god for locals. If she didn't come with, we wouldn't have known how to order.

You know I'm always down for grilled meat. and Kimchi. They were all surprised that I was willing to try everything on the table. Bring it on.

During supper, someone mentioned Soju. Holy Soju. I tried it. Tasted like water. Had two more shots of Soju. Definitely felt it. I think I should be careful around Soju.

After supper I went back up to my room and passed out, knowing that I'd wake up at 4am anyways so I could study more for todays FINAL EXAM! Wish me luck. I suck at grammar.

Oh, still flippin' humid.

Till next time, wherever you are,

Matt Mead

Day 1: Holy Moses

2010-07-28T02:22:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

I'm in Korea. Holy smokes. It was a long flight but I made it. I have to say, if all planes were like the one I took to Korea, I'd think about flying a whole lot more. Leg room, lots of it. The food was awful though. Don't have the fried rice.

I stepped off the plane and started sweating right away. The sweating still hasn't stopped. It is so so humid here. After taking a bus and taxi, I arrived at the Coatel Hotel around 8:30 p.m. Korea Time. I guess they weren't expecting me to get there so early so they had to find a room for me. After asking a million-bagillion questions to the front desk clerk (thank god for him), I found my room on the 12th floor. It took me about... well... way longer than it should take anyone... to find out how to turn on the lights. After that, I was suppose to call the recruiting office. So, I wondered down into the streets to find a public telephone. I found one, couldn't figure out how to use it for the life of me, and decided I'd just e-mail her to let her know that I had arrived. Then it was off to sleep.

I woke up around 6:30 a.m. (Well... woke up is a loose term. I more so just got up because I couldn't really sleep). To get to the training center I had to use the subway, something that can be difficult the first time if you're alone and don't understand a lot of the Korean language. By some stroke of luck, I made it there with, oh, about 2 hours to kill. I wandered up and down the streets like a tourist and made my way to a bench next to a passed out man and people watched until I decided maybe someone from my program would be at the training center.

After talking to a REALLY nice security man, I found my way to ChungDahm's recruiting office. Water. Cold Water. I liked this place already. After chatting it up with other trainees, I started my day with a class full of other people about to embark on their journey to the April Institute. We did mock training and I felt a little behind (only because I definitely was about two days). Nevertheless, we completed our day of training and I was told to go to the hospital to get my medical check.

One cab ride later and I was there. Here are the things and people I encountered, in order, before and at the hospital:

1. Angry cab driver who rolled down his window to, I'm guessing, swear at the car next to him for not letting him cut in front.
2. A very nice old man who had a tag that said "Volunteer Interpreter" that didn't really know what I was saying.
3. A nurse who I'm pretty sure said that I was cute, and then proceeded to check my weight, height, blood pressure, eye sight, and hearing.
4. An X-Ray machine that took a picture of my chest.
5. Another nurse who took three viles of my blood (my arm swelled up like there was a golf ball under my skin and it still hurts) and asked for a sample of my urine.
6. The old man interpreter again who somehow helped lead me to the nearest subway

Surprisingly, I made it back to this hotel. Now I'm off to study all this stuff and mock teach with myself.

Still humid here. But I found out how to turn the air conditioner on finally.

Hope all is well wherever you may be.

Matt Mead

P.S. Did I mention that in Korea I'm a mill-Won-aire... hehe

'works

2010-07-19T08:24:00.000-07:00

Divas

2010-07-11T23:09:00.000-07:00

Cali - Hwy 1

2010-07-06T18:32:00.000-07:00

Cali - Wedding

2010-07-06T18:30:00.000-07:00

Cali - Brothers

2010-07-06T18:27:00.000-07:00

Cali - Wine

2010-07-06T18:25:00.000-07:00

Cali - Pt. Zoo

2010-07-06T18:23:00.000-07:00

Cali - Pt. 1

2010-07-06T18:20:00.000-07:00

Quality Time

2010-06-23T22:08:00.000-07:00

Explode!!!

2010-06-12T14:04:00.000-07:00

Hey Meow.

2010-06-07T09:10:00.000-07:00

House - Hands

2010-06-07T09:09:00.000-07:00

Run

2010-06-06T10:18:00.000-07:00

Hunting Club

2010-06-04T14:16:00.000-07:00

Hunting Club
Listen HERE

BIRDS!

2010-06-04T14:14:00.000-07:00

A Dog's Day

2010-05-29T16:02:00.000-07:00

Take me out to the ballgame (then kick me out for various offenses)

2010-05-26T12:51:00.001-07:00

Little Man returns (the next day)

2010-05-26T11:18:00.000-07:00

Little Man

2010-05-23T23:46:00.000-07:00

There's this neighborhood boy (which for privacy reasons I'm going to be calling 'Little Man') who rides these ridiculous bikes around the block and by my house. The first encounter I had with Little Man was him asking "Are you a boy or are you a girl?" But how can you be offended by that question when asked by an adorable three-foot-tall 5-year old neighborhood kid? I'm sure we'll be seeing him around again.

MN Beer Week

2010-05-21T01:10:00.000-07:00

The Fam

2010-05-18T19:51:00.000-07:00

Fshing

2010-05-18T19:46:00.000-07:00

The Bird

2010-05-12T13:30:00.001-07:00

Duluth

2010-04-25T16:35:00.000-07:00

Grill

2010-04-25T16:30:00.000-07:00

Day in the Life 2010

2010-04-25T16:17:00.000-07:00

12:56 a.m.

3:17 a.m.

5:28 a.m.

9:55 a.m.

10:28 a.m.

3:29 p.m.

3:45 p.m.

4:01 p.m.

4:18 p.m.

4:29 p.m.

5:46 p.m.

7:11 p.m.

7:31 p.m.

10:42 p.m.

10:51 p.m.

Thursday / Little into Friday

2010-03-25T23:31:00.000-07:00

7:44 p.m.

10:10 p.m.

11:07 p.m.

Friday - 12:35 a.m.

The New Additions

2010-03-24T21:44:00.000-07:00

Baseball

2010-03-23T23:42:00.000-07:00

Kitten / Whiskey

2010-03-21T23:39:00.000-07:00

Haircut

2010-03-19T13:47:00.001-07:00

Father/Son Bonding Day

2010-03-14T18:33:00.000-07:00

Elevator

2010-03-13T19:09:00.000-08:00

Swim

2010-03-07T07:48:00.000-08:00

Up in the air

2010-03-06T23:37:00.000-08:00

Tim Jenkins

2010-03-02T21:31:00.000-08:00

I saw Tim Jenkins on the Washington Ave. Bridge today and stopped to talk to him. An hour and a half later I learned that he was from Winona and that his daughter lived at Camp Hill, which is near Sauk Centre (where I'm from). Very interesting/nice fellow.

hcruhC

2010-02-28T01:47:00.000-08:00

KODACHROME

2010-02-24T21:15:00.000-08:00

Kevin Takes a Bath

2010-02-20T10:24:00.000-08:00

Comedy

2010-02-10T20:19:00.000-08:00

Skijoring

2010-02-06T20:27:00.000-08:00

Andrea Johnson and Loverboy

Joe Madryga and Gunnar

Tom Holzmer and Katie

Mary Holzmer and Kiki

Sandy Law and Simon

Doug Hanson and Buddy

Parking

2010-02-06T02:38:00.000-08:00

By Window

2010-02-06T02:37:00.000-08:00

Beargrease Stills

2010-02-06T02:12:00.000-08:00

Joel's Last Night

2010-02-03T20:32:00.000-08:00

It was Joel's last night in Minneapolis before heading to Korea (South Korea. Duh) for a year. There was whiskey involved. Joel will be seriously missed (mostly by this guy).

Mark Black: Beargrease

2010-02-02T00:52:00.001-08:00

Also, check out Alex Robinson's story in the Star Tribune

New Friends/Foes

2010-01-20T23:14:00.000-08:00

Nora Leinen

2010-01-20T23:09:00.000-08:00

Jules / Furious

2010-01-20T23:07:00.000-08:00

The Minnesota Daily

2010-01-19T23:09:00.000-08:00

Sea in the Clouds

2010-01-14T22:20:00.001-08:00

vs. Michigan State

2010-01-13T21:07:00.000-08:00

Planes

2010-01-13T20:48:00.000-08:00

Nay Nay's Apple Pies

2010-01-12T23:52:00.000-08:00