people

Marmot’s Hole Podcast: Korean Parliamentary Election Results

Fri, 04/15/2016 - 12:20 - KoreaFM.net

Marmot’s Hole blogger Robert Koehler goes through the recent South Korean parliamentary election results & discusses his thoughts on Saenuri’s fall behind the main opposition Minjoo Party in National Assembly seats as well as the rise of liberal defector Ahn Cheol-soo’s new People Party.

An Interview with Joey Rositano, Photographer of Jeju Shamanism

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 14:38 - SeoulSearching

Joey Rositano is not your ordinary expat. Hailing from Nashville, the Tennessee native has called Jeju-do, an island off the southern coast of South Korea, home for the past nine years.

Korea's Mythical Murals: An Interview with Michael Roy

Sun, 01/25/2015 - 13:33 - SeoulSearching

Michael Roy, who also goes by the moniker “Birdcap” is an American street artist and illustrator that hails from the southern state of Mississippi (also home to yours truly.) Although he is no longer living in Korea, he quite literally left his mark on the streets of the East Asian nation while he was working here as an English teacher and an artist.

Roy, who sees the beauty in the “active ruins” of the city’s forgotten neighborhoods of the past, in a city of the future, has created a unique contrast with his whimsical murals and colorful graffiti, which often incorporates Korean imagery and language. He notes, “In an age of such eclectic materialism and with an ever-increasing variety of digital media and sources, I have found in the raw physicality of buildings, a sobering vestige of site and memory.”

Grab Your Traveling Spoon and Get a Taste of Korean Culture

Thu, 12/18/2014 - 01:10 - SeoulSearching

Some of the best memories of my travels involve sharing a meal with the local people. From slurping up chanko at a sumo wrestling championship with a Japanese couple in Tokyo to picnicking with Tibetan monks in India to chowing down on tajine with Berber nomads in the middle of the Sahara Desert, the experience combines the very best two ways to get to know a country's culture: conversing with the locals and eating the food.

Such experiences are often spontaneous, as getting a chance to interact with the local people isn't always easy. After all, it's kinda difficult to walk up to a stranger and invite them to share a meal, without looking like a crazy person, that is.