Mainland Venice, Italy (Part 2- Palazzo Ducale)

PALAZZO DUCALE 

A month ago I promised to continue telling you about my trip on Mainland Venice, Italy with my wife. Since there are so many pictures, I'll have to save this blog post for various pictures of our next site: Palazzo Ducale.

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(Continued from Mainland Venice, Italy Part 1) We headed to Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace in English) and we were quite amazed by the interiors and the long stairways to get from floor to floor. The most amazing thing that stuck out in my mind was the view of the Grand Canal (particularly San Giorgio Maggiore Island) from one of the windows . You'll see this in my pictures later.

The structure of the Palazzo Ducale is made up of three large blocks, incorporating previous constructions. It has been refurbished countless times due to structural failures, new building installations, infiltrations, and restructuring of ornamental trappings.

Here's the configuration of the site according to the Fondazione Musei Civici Venezia website: The wing towards St. Mark's Basin (Basilica San Marco), is the oldest, built from 1340 and onwards. The wing towards St. Mark's Square (Piazza San Marco) was built in its present from from 1424 onwards. The canal-side wing housing the Doge's apartments and many government offices, dates from the Renaissance, and was built between 1483 and 1565.

This was the palace of the Doge of Venice during the late 14th Century. You can see the Venetian Gothic arches of the exterior, which was quite fascinating and it faces the Grand Canal on the Piazzetta Marco. Now onto the pictures:

This is your typical amazing Italian ceiling.

My wife with Mars and Neptune at the top of the stairway.

You can see St. Mark's Basin to the right.

The artistry between the walls and ceilings astounded me.

A view from one of Venetian apartments from one of the windows

A view of the Grand Canal from Palazzo Ducale

A view of San Giorgio Maggiore Island from Palazzo Ducale

The most stunning room

This place is one of the many must-sees on the mainland of Venice. You'll see beautiful paintings on the walls, ceilings, and get some different perspectives of the surroundings (the courtyard, the Grand Canal, and Venetian homes) as you look out of the windows. If you happen to make it here, take your time and enjoy every intricacy of this venue.


Scott Worden (The L.A./Seoul Guy)

Instagram: l.a.seoulguy

TV Viewing Habits While Living Abroad in South Korea

There is one hobby that I haven't really done a lot of since I left the United States to move to South Korea in 2003: watching TV. Before I got married, my landlord gave me an old TV and I could only watch basic TV channels. However, since it was all in Korean, I didn't watch it that much and I usually spent more time on Facebook or using YouTube for entertainment.

When I got married, my wife didn't want to get a TV, although she still watches her Korean dramas on her phone. She also doesn't want our future children to watch TV because she thinks it isn't good for them. More on that later.

For myself, I didn't really protest my wife not wanting a TV since the only thing that I watch is baseball which I can see on the MLB.TV website or basketball games which are on streaming sites. I always felt like watching season after season of various TV shows was a waste of time. Some of my coworkers could use their whole Saturdays to watch Game of Thrones or various other options on Netflix.  Early last year I got on the Netflix bandwagon and tried to watch the Korean version. But I didn't watch it that often and the Korean one had very few options, so I canceled my subscription.

I have continuously used YouTube to watch an old 80's TV show with my wife that I loved (Three's Company) as a kid. She likes that show just as much as I did and still do, but apparently some people are not allowed to post the shows on the site due to copyright issues, so half of the shows got deleted by YouTube. I also enjoy watching Judge Judy and subscribers post recent programs on there. Subscribers get kicked off if they post the shows and the shows YouTube takes the new shows down before new subscribers pop up and post more shows. It's kind of like a torrent site. You get rid of one user but another one pops up the next day. Although my wife and I still watch Three's Company on YouTube, I felt that I needed Netflix just in case both of those programs are completely off YouTube for entertainment. Therefore, I re-subscribed to Netflix a couple of months ago for more options.

So what's my verdict on Netflix? Netflix is okay for movies. The selection isn't great but I have been able to watch Hoosiers, Serendipity, It's a Wonderful Life and Scent of a Woman (four of my favorite movies) with my wife. She enjoyed all of them and she got more of a sense of what kind of movies I love. However, I've seen most of the "newer" movies on Korean Netflix.

Netflix is good for documentaries, but I find a lot of the documentaries like the media these days. They're mainly shown for shock value. On the other hand, they're still pretty interesting to watch. Life Below Zero shows how people live in Alaska and this has been by far the best documentary. It's realistic, sometimes a bit scary, but the most educational one that I've seen. There's the People vs. O.J. Simpson, which is okay but I watched a couple of episodes and stopped. I don't need to rehash this story since it would only frustrate me that O.J. is out on the streets and he really should be. I've watched the 72 Most Dangerous Places to Live, which is very educational, but obviously negative and depressing at the same time. I tried checking out one episode of Dexter and found it disturbing that people would want to watch a criminal devise creative schemes to kill people. People talked about Black Mirror so I saw two episodes and found it to be complete garbage. The first episode is about the British princess being kidnapped and in order for her to get freedom, the kidnapper wants the Prime Minister to have sex with a pig on live television. The ending of episode shows some of that. The second episode is about the future and how people are exercising at the gym to get merit points while on a treadmill. If they get 15,000 merit points, they can appear on a TV show similar to American Idol. Well, one girl got 15,000 points and she showed off her singing skills. And, after singing her song, the three judges said she was pretty good. However, if she wanted to stand out from the rest, she would have to show her breasts or do something tho show her sexy side. Even though they didn't show her raising her shirt, it was implied that she did because she became famous in the next scene.

But it's not all bad. There is one show that do I recommend: House of Cards. Sadly and ironically, Kevin Spacey (a very great actor), among many other male actors, has been accused of sexual harassment, which took some of the excitement out of watching that show. House is very dramatic, but has some sad elements. It seems that every show has a patient that is close to dying. Stranger Things is a bit weird but interesting. I'm still not sure if I like it that much due to its very dark nature of a small town of Indiana battling a creature from the Upside Down world and its promotion of teens having sex. It's not generally my TV genre to watch, but I'm trying to give it a chance. Bates Motel is a bit creepy but on the same lines as Stranger Things: It's dramatic, violent, and leaves you feeling like you wasted time on nothing.

Getting back to documentaries, I watched one excellent one about the Holocaust but then after watching it, Netflix recommended me FIVE more Holocaust documentaries. Really? Do we really need to have that many documentaries about something so depressing and heartbreaking? To find a show that isn't so dark or so negative is hard to find. Maybe Crown will do that trick. Who knows? All I know is that I now agree with my wife that I don't want to get a TV because my kids don't need to be directly exposed to so much garbage out there. Although I'm not a Baby Boomer, I truly believe that TV is definitely the "boob tube".


Scott Worden (The L.A/Seoul Guy)

Instagram: l.a.seoulguy

Sermon: "Remember" by Edward Chun (December 31, 2017)

Deuteronomy 8:1-10

In Deuteronomy, we have the new generation of Israellites about to enter the Promised Land. The last generation didn't make it. At 120 years old, Moses preaches to the new generation although, he won't make it in. However, before he dies, he preaches a crucial lesson: You shall not live on bread alone but by every word that comes out of the Lord. It's a matter of life and death.

The Lord's words are life but failing to follow Him leads to death. There's no life without God and God doesn't want you to die (Ezekiel 33:11). Jesus says in John that the thief wants us to die, not Him. The Israelites lived in the wilderness for 40 years. God taught this same lesson for that long and God humbled them by leading them to the wilderness. The wilderness is dangerous, uncomfortable, lacks water, and has a shortage of food. They literally have to rely on God for everything.

God also tests them (vs. 2). When God tests us, it's not because he's going to be surprised by how we act. He tests us to see if we'll obey Him. Only when things get hard do we find out where our faith is. When God tests us, he shows us how much pride and sin that we have. Even our best effort isn't good enough. They are filthy rags. God knows that we need grace and mercy, which is why he provided manna to His people.

Maybe you were in the wilderness in 2017 or you're still there. Let me encourage you with these three things: 1) God is leading you. He has not left you and has not forsaken you. He's with you. He's the good shepherd and leads you in the paths of righteousness. 2) Maybe the Lord is humbling you to show certain areas where you're not submitting to Him. He wants to show those things that are killing you. 3) God absolutely loves you. You're not in the wilderness because he hates you. He could be disciplining you (vs. 5). He disciplines the ones he loves.

God gave Jesus His Son. Without Jesus, none of us could follow every word that comes out of the mouth of God. Israel had the same problem. Over and over they sinned and didn't submit. Many died, were disciplined, and then exiled from the Promised Land.

Our rebellious hearts kept us from the Father. Yet God sent his Son who was the only one who lived a perfect, spotless life. He breaks the power of sin by putting our sins on the cross. God gave us a new heart by putting the Holy Spirit in us. As we enter 2018, let's remember that man lives by every word that comes out from the mouth of God. We have grace and the gift of salvation that Jesus gave us.

Scott Worden (The L.A./Seoul Guy)

Instagram: l.a.seoulguy

ESL: The Most Unique English Names Chosen by Korean Students

One of the joys of teaching English in South Korea is meeting a lot of unique and interesting people and among meeting those people, you also meet some students that introduce themselves with some very unique and/or creative English names.

Last week, I was discussing with my co-worker Nikki Rialp about these names and she was naming them left and right. Although I could think of a few names,  she gets most of the credit as I have compiled a list of some of the funniest and most unique English names that adult students have chosen at our academy.

We'll start off with some fairly normal ones and get more unique as we go along.

#18: BJ. Now I had a friend named B.J. from kindergarten through 8th grade, so this isn't too weird for me. Two female teacher co-workers grin every time they hear this name, so it's sad to say that this name is no longer proper to use. It now has too much of a sexual connotation behind it.

#17: Newton. This student chose this name because Isaac Newton is one of his role models and all of us teachers think he chose it because it makes him sound smart. Fair enough, but the name sounds a bit nerdy actually.

#16: Bruce (as in Bruce Wayne) because he couldn't use Batman.

#15: Romeo. We had to warn this student to not use this if he goes abroad. Women will think he's a womanizer or playboy.

#14: Roosevelt. He's a very nice older male student that enjoys coming to our academy to study English but doesn't study hard at all and doesn't come too often. When he IS there, he seems to have a fun time. He chose the name Roosevelt probably after F.D.R.

#13: Metallica. This student is pretty cool and very laid back. He chose this name after his famous rock band.

#12: Excellent. Since this guy only comes once a week on Saturdays, I'm more inclined to name him "Okay". Haha!

#11: Nemo. However, this student pronounced it "NAY-MO". Um, yeah, we don't get it either.

#10: Freddie. First the student said he liked the name after hearing a Gangnam Center teacher have it. Then it reminded him of the character from Nightmare on Elm Street (Freddie Kruger) and that cemented his choice. In Nikki's words, "So he named himself after a fictional, supernatural, undead serial killer....greeaatttt."

#9: Petunia. The girl said the name sounded pretty after watching Harry Potter.

#8: Bo Geum: This is more of a Korean name but since her last name is Park (sounds like Bak in Korean), she wanted to her name to sound like bokkeum-bap, which is fried rice in Korean. Hmm, interesting.

#7: Yangban----> Jon Snow. First this man in his 40s chose Yangban because it represented Korean royalty during the Choseon Dynasty. Then he later changed it to Jon Snow after watching The Game of Thrones. You gotta give the guy credit for creativity!

#6: Annabelle. The student thought this was a pretty name until watching the horror movie. She quickly changed her name after that.

#5: Lotus. This single middle aged man said that his ex-girlfriend from 15 years ago had the name Lotus as her email ID. We thought he should change his name, but he said that all of his close friends refer to him as Lotus. This is a funny name but it's a bit sad as well.

#4: Heren. This girl tried to be unique. She had seen the name Helen many times, so she thought she would change the L to R. Well, it's a bit ridiculous because she still thought it would be okay to pronounce it like Helen, but to have it spelled Heren. Teachers told her that people would pronounce it with the R sound, so she didn't change it, it would sound weird. At first, she was going to change the name, but kept it anyway out of stubbornness.

#3: Vege. The girl named herself this and had it pronounced like Veggie. We don't know why.

#2: Scolra. We have no idea why this female student chose this name.

#1: Xpaino. This is probably the weirdest name we could remember and we have no clue why this guy chose this name.

If you teach English abroad and you have some weird names to share, please write a comment. I would love to hear some more unique, funny, weird, and/or creative names!!


Scott Worden (The L.A./Seoul Guy)

Instagram: l.a.seoulguy