After weeks of trying to get me to write again, Jason got his wish. It’s not that I don’t want to write posts, but my job is (to say the least) tiring. I enjoy having my free time after work to unwind after a stressful day and I absolutely relish my weekends because I get to spend more time sleeping and recharging my energy.

But, since my school year is halfway over and we have been in Korea for over 6 months, there’s a need for an update! Here is what I/we have been up to since my last post –  Continue Reading →

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Last week I helped organize and then host the first ever “This Week in Startups” Seoul Meetup episode. In this post I wanted to discuss the experience of doing it, what I had hoped to gain from it and what I ended up gaining from it. Continue Reading →

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A few months ago while listening to “This Week in Startups” the host, Jason Calacanis, said he wanted to do a meetup episode in Asia. He called out Seoul as one of the potential locations. I had been living in Seoul for a month and figured, why not? I’ll try to organize it!

Four months later…

The event is finally happening! It was a HUGE process. Far more involved than I initially imagined. In a future post I’ll be going more in-depth about what I learned and what I got out of the process.

Watch the Twist Seoul Episode Live!

Today (August 26th) at 8pm Pacific, 11pm Eastern, 12pm Korean (27th), our “This Week in Startups” Seoul Meetup episode is live! If you miss it live, you can catch it anytime on the “This Week in Startups” site.

I’ll be hosting the show locally here as well as during the live episode, make sure to check it out.

Other Links

• The top 6 companies that will be pitching
• Korea Times article covering the event

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Life has become rather routine for Sharon and I here in Korea. We’re both primarily focusing on our work. However, it’s summer break for the kids, so Sharon will be taking a week off in mid-August. We’re considering a couple of different trips and also potentially just hanging around Seoul (money’s a little tight at the moment).

For today’s post I wanted to share a few of my recent links from around the web — Continue Reading →

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Having grown up half-way around the world in a Western culture, I recently realized that for this reason, there are many things in Korea that I simply don’t understand. However, that’s not to say I can’t help but laugh at them. Here’s a list of a few things that Koreans do that make me laugh. Continue Reading →

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I am not a fan of this type of plastic surgery.

When I think of the fact that South Korea tops the list of countries that are the most plastic surgery happy, I am a little disappointed that it happens to be the country of most of my heritage. When I think of the fact that people in South Korea predominantly get their eyes “widened” to look more “western” because their idea of beauty is “western looking eyes”, I start to get really sad. When I think about the fact that South Korean parents are now encouraging their children, as young as 12 years old, to get plastic surgery to look more beautiful, I start to get angry. Continue Reading →

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Today’s guest post comes courtesy of my father, Barry Demant. Sharon and I were excited to host both him and my Mom at the end of May in Seoul for nearly 2 weeks. This was their first trip to Korea, as well as Asia.  The primary goal that Sharon and I had set was to get them to try as many different types of food as possible. Overall I think we were successful. Reflecting on the trip, I now present Barry Demant…

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My wife Diane and I (Barry) had the distinct pleasure of visiting our son Jason and his wife Sharon for 12 days. Having never visited South Korea, we remained open minded but probably more nervous (at least initially) about the very long 12-hour trip from San Francisco to Seoul.

This summation is our thoughts and observations regarding our visit. Continue Reading →

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A few months ago I read Tim Ferriss’ latest book, The 4-Hour Body. I enjoyed it and would recommend it to those interested in learning more about health, nutrition and exercise. One of the key parts of the 4-Hour Body, is the diet he recommends to follow — the “Slow Carb Diet”. I’ve decided to follow this diet and in the following post I’ll tell you why I like it. I’ll also include all of the changes I’ve had to make to it in order to make it more feasible in Korea. Continue Reading →

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“Deskwarming”- that dreaded term known to every English teacher in South Korea. It is something that foreign English teachers here don’t really know how to handle at first, then become experts in the field by the end of the year. It is a work term that is well practiced here by Korean schools. It is something that every teacher here experiences. Some will deskwarm on a daily basis while others experience it once every week, month, school break, etc.

What is deskwarming? Continue Reading →

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While I was sad to leave the US again a few months ago, I was also looking forward to coming back to the Korean lifestyle. In fact, I like the lifestyle here so much that if it were possible to take my friends and family from the states and move them all here, I’d take that deal. In today’s post I’ll give a few of the reasons why I enjoy my Korean lifestyle more than the one back in California. Continue Reading →

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