I can't believe Christmas has already past. It truly feels like Ian and I just started working at CDI. The past five and a half months have flown by. Fortunately, we were able to have Christmas off, which was spent relaxing and eating delicious food! Since we currently have no need for Korean gadgets, we decided to spend our gift money at Costco. We bought cheese, cheese and more cheese! Living on a Korean diet makes you deprived of a certain food that we love dearly (cheese), so we decided to splurge and eat enough of it to fill us for the next year! After stuffing ourselves we watched a favorite movie of mine, The Family Man. It was very weird being away from home but at least we didn't have to work and were able to enjoy a relaxing day not thinking about the kiddos at school!
Seoul got its first substantial snow the other day. It was only 3-4 inches, but let's just say it reeked havoc. Since it has been very cold, the snow immediately stuck to the ground, causing very slick roads. It was the first time I have been on a bus that fishtailed down a major road and then got stuck. Even though the conditions were horrible, the McDonald's, Domino's, and Fried Chicken delivery boys were still in action. Nothing stops them!
We start intensive this upcoming Thursday. I'm excited to teach an addition/different class, but I'm crossing my fingers we don't get sick. Working from 9-10 (Tues, Thurs, Sat) with a few hours of rest in between is going to be exhausting. Ian is teaching Critical Speaking and Writing Level 1, which will be full of the smallest kids at CDI. It's a little challenging teaching the youngest kids because they understand, if you're lucky, about a sixth of what you say. Let's just say you draw a lot of pictures and use a lot of hand gestures. I'm going to be teaching Grammar Level 2. The students will be about fourth-sixth grade. I've heard I can play some games with the students, so I hope it will be fun.
Ian's parents arrive in two days! We will update their travels in our next blog. Happy almost New Years!
We also uploaded a new slide show. The pictures are from our trip to China Town, the local mosque, and City Hall. Enjoy...
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Birthday Weekend
The best part about international birthdays is that you get two of them! Friday was my Korean birthday, and Saturday my American one. What an awesome treat!
My birthday this year was pretty low-key, thank God! Let's just say that my last two birthdays had less than spectacular endings. SO I ended up eating a lot of meat with friends and then getting to bed around 1:30 A.M., which I was very thankful for.
Incheon has a small and quaint Chinatown that Leslie and I wanted to check out. In fact, its South Korea's only Chinatown thanks to the Chinese alliance with the North during the war. It was basically a few streets bathed in a sea of Communist red paint, lanterns, the ubiquitous Chinatown lampposts, and entrance gates. We found a dumpling restaurant and had delicious dumpling soup. After stuffing ourselves on dumplings, we took a short stroll, might I add a very cold stroll, around Chinatown. We were even able to see part of the sea, which was surprisingly refreshing. Being constantly surrounded by gigantic buildings, we tend to forget what open space feels like. It was very enjoyable to say the least...
The Korean winter has finally arrived and it is extremely cold. Even walking around with long johns under jeans, a down jacket, hat and gloves, you get stung from the bitterly cold wind. Thankfully it doesn't rain or snow that much here, so it won't be a wet winter. Something we always get a kick out of are how the Korean women dress. Us Americans thought that the usually fashionable Korean women would actually cover themselves up during the winter time. To our surprise, the Korean women still feel the need to impress by wearing tights, even shorter skirts and high heals, and jackets that barely cover the body. Let's just say bundling up for the cold is so out of fashion in Korea.
Fortunately, we are getting Christmas day off! Our head instructors fought long and hard and finally convinced our boss that getting Christmas day off would boost morale. Unfortunately, even though she agreed to give us the day off, she is making us come in on Saturday to make up for the missed classed. It was a little disappointing, but at least we can celebrate Christmas on the actual day!
Merry Christmas everyone and safe travels!
My birthday this year was pretty low-key, thank God! Let's just say that my last two birthdays had less than spectacular endings. SO I ended up eating a lot of meat with friends and then getting to bed around 1:30 A.M., which I was very thankful for.
The next day we ate at a local spanish tapas restaurant called Three Sister's. It is one of best restaurants in Seoul that actually offers European style food. Most Italian restaurants in Korean put a sweetener in spaghetti, but fortunately Three Sister's makes pasta just like home! Thanks to Jay and Sue, we splurged and ordered drinks and multiple tapas, including sauteed mushrooms in garlic and wine, spanish meatballs, an orange salad, and spaghetti with tomatoes and basil. It was absolutely delicious and a great way to end the weekend!
On Saturday Leslie and I headed out to Incheon, a port city about 20 miles to the east of Seoul. Well, technically Incheon is a separate city, but actually it is just the place where the sea stops the urban jungle of Seoul.
Incheon has a small and quaint Chinatown that Leslie and I wanted to check out. In fact, its South Korea's only Chinatown thanks to the Chinese alliance with the North during the war. It was basically a few streets bathed in a sea of Communist red paint, lanterns, the ubiquitous Chinatown lampposts, and entrance gates. We found a dumpling restaurant and had delicious dumpling soup. After stuffing ourselves on dumplings, we took a short stroll, might I add a very cold stroll, around Chinatown. We were even able to see part of the sea, which was surprisingly refreshing. Being constantly surrounded by gigantic buildings, we tend to forget what open space feels like. It was very enjoyable to say the least...
The Korean winter has finally arrived and it is extremely cold. Even walking around with long johns under jeans, a down jacket, hat and gloves, you get stung from the bitterly cold wind. Thankfully it doesn't rain or snow that much here, so it won't be a wet winter. Something we always get a kick out of are how the Korean women dress. Us Americans thought that the usually fashionable Korean women would actually cover themselves up during the winter time. To our surprise, the Korean women still feel the need to impress by wearing tights, even shorter skirts and high heals, and jackets that barely cover the body. Let's just say bundling up for the cold is so out of fashion in Korea.
Fortunately, we are getting Christmas day off! Our head instructors fought long and hard and finally convinced our boss that getting Christmas day off would boost morale. Unfortunately, even though she agreed to give us the day off, she is making us come in on Saturday to make up for the missed classed. It was a little disappointing, but at least we can celebrate Christmas on the actual day!
Merry Christmas everyone and safe travels!
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Sorry for the delay...
The past couple of weeks have flown by with the start of a new term. Even though it's sad to bid some students farewell, it's exciting to teach a new level. Ian says his Albatross class has been great to teach. The students are very fluent and are fairly easy to entertain. Even though the reading topics can be somewhat dull, the students make up for it. Eagle has also been enjoyable so far. The past two topics were gambling and smart technology. It's very interesting listening to the student's opinions and ideas. I was signed up to teach a Saturday class, but fortunately it got cancelled because there was only one student one the role. This means that Ian and I will actually have weekends to celebrate for the next three weeks! It is only three weeks because intensive classes start at the end of December.
Even though we have not ventured far from Seoul these past couple of weeks, we have been introduced to some delicious eateries. We recently ate out with some friends and were taken to a Japanese Teriyaki meat restaurant. You basically get a bowl of rice covered in Teriyaki meat. You also get a side bowl of Japanese noodles in a beef broth. It was quite tasty, especially since in only cost about $5.00 each! Our friends also told us about a restaurant that only serves Chinese noodles. Since we have yet to learn Korean, we just pointed to a woman's dish that looked tasty. It's a little risky doing that in Korea because you never know how something is going to taste! Fortunately, the dish, which consisted of noodles sauteed with vegetables, was delicious. The newest eaterie is a Chinese Dumpling restaurant. All I can say is that Ian has found a new love! The dumplings are made to order, by one person, and are steaming hot with delicious pork goodness. It's a nice change from Korean mandu because the flavoring is less powerful and has a thicker dough.
Some exciting news, Ian's parents are visiting us at the end of December! We have already started to plan their week vacation and are thrilled to show them what Korea has to offer. We are also planning on taking a mini trip this weekend. Since we can actually enjoy a weekend, we figure that we should see a little more of the countryside, even if it will be very chilly!
If anyone is curious, the Thanksgiving feast turned out delicious. It was amazing that everything actually turned out. It was nice to eat a complete non-Korean meal with great company. It definitely helped us feel less homesick.
Again, sorry for the delay in posts! Happy Holidays everyone.
Even though we have not ventured far from Seoul these past couple of weeks, we have been introduced to some delicious eateries. We recently ate out with some friends and were taken to a Japanese Teriyaki meat restaurant. You basically get a bowl of rice covered in Teriyaki meat. You also get a side bowl of Japanese noodles in a beef broth. It was quite tasty, especially since in only cost about $5.00 each! Our friends also told us about a restaurant that only serves Chinese noodles. Since we have yet to learn Korean, we just pointed to a woman's dish that looked tasty. It's a little risky doing that in Korea because you never know how something is going to taste! Fortunately, the dish, which consisted of noodles sauteed with vegetables, was delicious. The newest eaterie is a Chinese Dumpling restaurant. All I can say is that Ian has found a new love! The dumplings are made to order, by one person, and are steaming hot with delicious pork goodness. It's a nice change from Korean mandu because the flavoring is less powerful and has a thicker dough.
Some exciting news, Ian's parents are visiting us at the end of December! We have already started to plan their week vacation and are thrilled to show them what Korea has to offer. We are also planning on taking a mini trip this weekend. Since we can actually enjoy a weekend, we figure that we should see a little more of the countryside, even if it will be very chilly!
If anyone is curious, the Thanksgiving feast turned out delicious. It was amazing that everything actually turned out. It was nice to eat a complete non-Korean meal with great company. It definitely helped us feel less homesick.
Again, sorry for the delay in posts! Happy Holidays everyone.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
New Slideshow and Schedules
We have posted a new slideshow. There aren't too many photos but there are a few of our excursions and two of our classes. Enjoy!
This is the last week of the term, so we have received our new schedule for winter term. Ian and I will both be teaching 27 hours/week. Including prep for the classes, we'll be working about 35-40 hours/week.
The level of classes are: EC (the youngest/lowest level), Memory (middle level), Bridge, Par, Birdie, Eagle, Albatrosse (very fluent level), and Masters.
Ian will be teaching two types of Memory and Albatrosse Listening and Reading.
I will be teaching EC 4 again and Eagle Listening and Reading.
We are both excited about our schedules, especially that we will not not be working 6 days a week! However, starting at the end of December we will be teaching extra classes that are "Intensive Courses." These are extra courses the students can take during their Winter vacation. So, in a month we will be working in the morning and nights. It's sad when the kids actually get a break from school, they get to attend more classes at CDI.
This weekend we will be enjoying a Korean Thanksgiving. Ian, myself and some friends are planning an actual Thanksgiving feast. You may ask, "If you don't have an oven, how do you possibly cook Thanksgiving?!" Well, we can get a pre-cooked turkey and gravy from the U.S. Army base, our friends have a microwave oven (which will be used to cook candied yams), add some mashed potatoes, rolls, pumpkin pie from Costco and you have a full Thanksgiving meal!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
This is the last week of the term, so we have received our new schedule for winter term. Ian and I will both be teaching 27 hours/week. Including prep for the classes, we'll be working about 35-40 hours/week.
The level of classes are: EC (the youngest/lowest level), Memory (middle level), Bridge, Par, Birdie, Eagle, Albatrosse (very fluent level), and Masters.
Ian will be teaching two types of Memory and Albatrosse Listening and Reading.
I will be teaching EC 4 again and Eagle Listening and Reading.
We are both excited about our schedules, especially that we will not not be working 6 days a week! However, starting at the end of December we will be teaching extra classes that are "Intensive Courses." These are extra courses the students can take during their Winter vacation. So, in a month we will be working in the morning and nights. It's sad when the kids actually get a break from school, they get to attend more classes at CDI.
This weekend we will be enjoying a Korean Thanksgiving. Ian, myself and some friends are planning an actual Thanksgiving feast. You may ask, "If you don't have an oven, how do you possibly cook Thanksgiving?!" Well, we can get a pre-cooked turkey and gravy from the U.S. Army base, our friends have a microwave oven (which will be used to cook candied yams), add some mashed potatoes, rolls, pumpkin pie from Costco and you have a full Thanksgiving meal!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Monday, November 16, 2009
How it all Began!
In previous posts you might have remembered us mentioning how exhausting, confusing, and at times terrible our first couple weeks in Korea were. We would now like to explain these first weeks in graphic uncensored detail, just so you can share a bit of our pain.
Lets start from the beginning....After 14 hours of flying we landed in Korea. At this point we only had one hard fact regarding what was awaiting us upon arrival: a van from our school was going to pick us up at the airport and take us to a hotel. However, once we got through customs and the swine flu check we sadly realized there was no such van waiting for us. We had no phone and there were no pay phones. Thankfully, a nice Korean man let me borrow his cell phone and I called the one Korean number I had brought with me, that of an employee at Chungdahm headquarters.
She proceeded to tell me that we needed to take an hour bus ride from the airport to a bus depot, and that our mysterious van would be awaiting us. So, carrying our 8 pieces of luggage through Incheon airport we found the appropriate bus and actually made it to our hotel without much more incident.
Upon arrival at the quite plush Hotel Prima (this is when we actually learned we would be staying at the same hotel together) we were given the keys to our room, along with a pair of thermometers and complementary Chungdahm coffee mugs. Not knowing what the hell the temperature checkers were for, we gladly accepted them, found some dinner, and promptly passed out on our extra stiff bed.
Once morning arrived we finally received an email detailing the course of events for the next week and a half. We already knew that our training didn't start for another five days, but we had no idea what was happening during the interim. We now found out that we were technically in "quarantine," which meant that we were strongly discouraged from leaving the hotel and had to email our body temperature twice daily to Chungdahm headquarters. Since the hotel was the only place we knew where to get internet it was Chungdahm's way of insuring we couldn't venture far from the hotel.
Thus, we spent the next five days connected to the hotel by a moderate leash and spent most of our time discovering the immediate surrounding area, sleeping and waking up at odd hours, and trying to hunt down some semblance of a western-style breakfast. It wasn't until over a week later that we learned our hotel had a massive and delicious free breakfast buffet every morning. (This fact apparently got lost in translation.) Therefore, most days we spent our breakfast time walking nearly a mile in the rain to Dunkin Donuts, spending almost $20 on shakes in the hotel lounge, or buying orange juice and pastries from 7-11.
After five days of aimlessly milling about we started training. Training was a week long event from 9:00am to a little before 5:00pm every day. Once back at the hotel after training we usually had to do about 3-5 hours of studying and prepping to prepare for the following day. The actual training day consisted of hours of mindless structural memorization and unrealistic mock classroom situations, followed by intensely stressful periods of practice teaching and evaluations. All of this was endured on about 5-6 hours of sleep as well. But I guess we should have expected nothing less considering Chungdahm condenses what would be a year-long program in the U.S. to a mere week. Oh, and did I mention we had to wear stifling face masks the entire time and get our temperature checked multiple times, along with continued hand sanitizing.
After our final day of training, which consisted of grammar tests and a final extensive mock teaching period we were finally told we had passed training and were officially Chungdahm instructors. Literally minutes after hearing the news we, along with all our belongings, were jammed into a cab and sent across town to our school, even though the cab driver wasn't exactly sure where he was going, but somehow it worked out. Exhausted, semi-delusional, and still extremely nervous we arrived at the front steps of our school. We were immediately carted inside, and given the introduction to at least 20 people. Then, we were whisked away again by two Koreans we didn't know, and who didn't really speak English, to our temporary apartment. (Which was just a small room with nothing inside except a bathroom.) We dropped off our bags and then were told that it was time to have dinner with the owner of our school.
Stomachs still sensitive from the Korean food we'd been eating all week, we made small talk and had what would have been a quite delicious meal of barbecued meat, if we only had the energy and stomachs to enjoy it. I just worked on keeping my composure, eating all the food on my plate, and trying not to look unappreciative or foolish in front of my new boss.
After dinner we were dropped off again at our room with no bed, no food, no toilet paper, no blankets, and no idea what was going to happen next. All we knew was that we started work in two days. Thank god our friend Dan was working at the school. He came over and gave us pads to sleep on and blankets, showed us where to get food and toilet paper, and took us out to breakfast the next day. If we didn't have him I don't know what would have happened!
And as they say, the rest is history. We have now been technically teaching for almost 4 months and we are about to start a new term. Starting in December we'll be teaching some of the highest levels Chungdahm has to offer, so we'll see how we like it. Those first few weeks in Korea were extremely tiring and difficult and something we never want to repeat again. But everything worked out well in the end. Still, every Monday Leslie and I pray for those poor souls who are about to embark on their training process and have no idea what lies ahead!
Lets start from the beginning....After 14 hours of flying we landed in Korea. At this point we only had one hard fact regarding what was awaiting us upon arrival: a van from our school was going to pick us up at the airport and take us to a hotel. However, once we got through customs and the swine flu check we sadly realized there was no such van waiting for us. We had no phone and there were no pay phones. Thankfully, a nice Korean man let me borrow his cell phone and I called the one Korean number I had brought with me, that of an employee at Chungdahm headquarters.
She proceeded to tell me that we needed to take an hour bus ride from the airport to a bus depot, and that our mysterious van would be awaiting us. So, carrying our 8 pieces of luggage through Incheon airport we found the appropriate bus and actually made it to our hotel without much more incident.
Upon arrival at the quite plush Hotel Prima (this is when we actually learned we would be staying at the same hotel together) we were given the keys to our room, along with a pair of thermometers and complementary Chungdahm coffee mugs. Not knowing what the hell the temperature checkers were for, we gladly accepted them, found some dinner, and promptly passed out on our extra stiff bed.
Once morning arrived we finally received an email detailing the course of events for the next week and a half. We already knew that our training didn't start for another five days, but we had no idea what was happening during the interim. We now found out that we were technically in "quarantine," which meant that we were strongly discouraged from leaving the hotel and had to email our body temperature twice daily to Chungdahm headquarters. Since the hotel was the only place we knew where to get internet it was Chungdahm's way of insuring we couldn't venture far from the hotel.
Thus, we spent the next five days connected to the hotel by a moderate leash and spent most of our time discovering the immediate surrounding area, sleeping and waking up at odd hours, and trying to hunt down some semblance of a western-style breakfast. It wasn't until over a week later that we learned our hotel had a massive and delicious free breakfast buffet every morning. (This fact apparently got lost in translation.) Therefore, most days we spent our breakfast time walking nearly a mile in the rain to Dunkin Donuts, spending almost $20 on shakes in the hotel lounge, or buying orange juice and pastries from 7-11.
After five days of aimlessly milling about we started training. Training was a week long event from 9:00am to a little before 5:00pm every day. Once back at the hotel after training we usually had to do about 3-5 hours of studying and prepping to prepare for the following day. The actual training day consisted of hours of mindless structural memorization and unrealistic mock classroom situations, followed by intensely stressful periods of practice teaching and evaluations. All of this was endured on about 5-6 hours of sleep as well. But I guess we should have expected nothing less considering Chungdahm condenses what would be a year-long program in the U.S. to a mere week. Oh, and did I mention we had to wear stifling face masks the entire time and get our temperature checked multiple times, along with continued hand sanitizing.
After our final day of training, which consisted of grammar tests and a final extensive mock teaching period we were finally told we had passed training and were officially Chungdahm instructors. Literally minutes after hearing the news we, along with all our belongings, were jammed into a cab and sent across town to our school, even though the cab driver wasn't exactly sure where he was going, but somehow it worked out. Exhausted, semi-delusional, and still extremely nervous we arrived at the front steps of our school. We were immediately carted inside, and given the introduction to at least 20 people. Then, we were whisked away again by two Koreans we didn't know, and who didn't really speak English, to our temporary apartment. (Which was just a small room with nothing inside except a bathroom.) We dropped off our bags and then were told that it was time to have dinner with the owner of our school.
Stomachs still sensitive from the Korean food we'd been eating all week, we made small talk and had what would have been a quite delicious meal of barbecued meat, if we only had the energy and stomachs to enjoy it. I just worked on keeping my composure, eating all the food on my plate, and trying not to look unappreciative or foolish in front of my new boss.
After dinner we were dropped off again at our room with no bed, no food, no toilet paper, no blankets, and no idea what was going to happen next. All we knew was that we started work in two days. Thank god our friend Dan was working at the school. He came over and gave us pads to sleep on and blankets, showed us where to get food and toilet paper, and took us out to breakfast the next day. If we didn't have him I don't know what would have happened!
And as they say, the rest is history. We have now been technically teaching for almost 4 months and we are about to start a new term. Starting in December we'll be teaching some of the highest levels Chungdahm has to offer, so we'll see how we like it. Those first few weeks in Korea were extremely tiring and difficult and something we never want to repeat again. But everything worked out well in the end. Still, every Monday Leslie and I pray for those poor souls who are about to embark on their training process and have no idea what lies ahead!
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Hyehwa
We decided to put our training blog until next weekend. Sorry!
This past weekend Ian and I decided to adventure to another market. This time it was going to be the Filipino Market in an area of Seoul called Hyehwa. The past markets have been huge disappointments, so our expectations were rather low...
Before starting our adventure, Ian and I needed some breakfast. Having little food in the apartment, we ate at a local bakery called Paris Baguette. There are literally hundreds of these bakeries around Seoul. At first, Ian and I balked at the pastries they serve and the bread they offer, but having lived here for a little while, our tastes have changed substantially and now we actually really enjoy P.B. (as Ian calls it). So, we each had green tea and two croissants. Might I say a great way to start the day! We then took a bus ride and the subway to Hyehwa looking for some tasty Filipino food.
To our surprise the market was decent. It wasn't very big but it did have a fair selection of food. Since we were still full from our croissants we decided that food would have to wait. So, instead we explored Hyehway a little more. Thank goodness we did because it has become one of our favorite areas of Seoul.
The buildings are not extremely tall, there are a lot of independent shops and eateries, and you can even see the hillside! Sadly, it was amazing to actually be able to see the hillside with houses and trees. Being surrounded by huge buildings, roaring buses, and never seeing open space, is something neither Ian or I will ever get used to. Fortunately, this area also had avenue-like streets with trees lining the edges. With the yellow and orange leaves on the ground it was actually very pretty.
We walked around the area for about an hour planning where we would eat or drink when we would be back next. Lunch time came and we decided that Filipino food would have to wait for another day, because we stumbled upon a restaurant that only serves Japanese style noodle soups. The entire menu was in Korean, so we just pointed and crossed our fingers that we would not be getting something inedible. To our surprise the soup was delicious! It consisted of a very flavorful pork broth with egg noodles and some vegetables. The bowl of soup was only $5.00 and it gave you a considerable amount of food.
With full and happy bellies we decided to try out a tea house that we found. As some of you know, our previous tea house experiences have been rather retched, so we entered with caution. Ian got a Darjeeling tea and I got a black papaya tea. Both were absolutely delicious. The only down side was the price. The combined price of our teas was 14,500 Won (more than our food)! But they were worth every cent.
Completely exhausted we made our way back to the apartment and collapsed. After relaxing for a couple hours we decided to make dinner at home. With only a few possible options, we decided that breakfast for dinner sounded delicious. Fortunately, we were able to find regular American bacon at a specialty store. So, we had bacon, scrambled eggs, homemade hash browns, and even biscuits! Since we have a crock pot and bisquick we attempted to make a bisquick loaf and it worked out to be surprisingly very tasty. We ended the night with eating ourselves silly and watching a movie. It was definitely a perfect Korean weekend!
Pictures of Hyehwa coming soon!
This past weekend Ian and I decided to adventure to another market. This time it was going to be the Filipino Market in an area of Seoul called Hyehwa. The past markets have been huge disappointments, so our expectations were rather low...
Before starting our adventure, Ian and I needed some breakfast. Having little food in the apartment, we ate at a local bakery called Paris Baguette. There are literally hundreds of these bakeries around Seoul. At first, Ian and I balked at the pastries they serve and the bread they offer, but having lived here for a little while, our tastes have changed substantially and now we actually really enjoy P.B. (as Ian calls it). So, we each had green tea and two croissants. Might I say a great way to start the day! We then took a bus ride and the subway to Hyehwa looking for some tasty Filipino food.
To our surprise the market was decent. It wasn't very big but it did have a fair selection of food. Since we were still full from our croissants we decided that food would have to wait. So, instead we explored Hyehway a little more. Thank goodness we did because it has become one of our favorite areas of Seoul.
The buildings are not extremely tall, there are a lot of independent shops and eateries, and you can even see the hillside! Sadly, it was amazing to actually be able to see the hillside with houses and trees. Being surrounded by huge buildings, roaring buses, and never seeing open space, is something neither Ian or I will ever get used to. Fortunately, this area also had avenue-like streets with trees lining the edges. With the yellow and orange leaves on the ground it was actually very pretty.
We walked around the area for about an hour planning where we would eat or drink when we would be back next. Lunch time came and we decided that Filipino food would have to wait for another day, because we stumbled upon a restaurant that only serves Japanese style noodle soups. The entire menu was in Korean, so we just pointed and crossed our fingers that we would not be getting something inedible. To our surprise the soup was delicious! It consisted of a very flavorful pork broth with egg noodles and some vegetables. The bowl of soup was only $5.00 and it gave you a considerable amount of food.
With full and happy bellies we decided to try out a tea house that we found. As some of you know, our previous tea house experiences have been rather retched, so we entered with caution. Ian got a Darjeeling tea and I got a black papaya tea. Both were absolutely delicious. The only down side was the price. The combined price of our teas was 14,500 Won (more than our food)! But they were worth every cent.
Completely exhausted we made our way back to the apartment and collapsed. After relaxing for a couple hours we decided to make dinner at home. With only a few possible options, we decided that breakfast for dinner sounded delicious. Fortunately, we were able to find regular American bacon at a specialty store. So, we had bacon, scrambled eggs, homemade hash browns, and even biscuits! Since we have a crock pot and bisquick we attempted to make a bisquick loaf and it worked out to be surprisingly very tasty. We ended the night with eating ourselves silly and watching a movie. It was definitely a perfect Korean weekend!
Pictures of Hyehwa coming soon!
Monday, November 2, 2009
Halloween Weekend
Well, Halloween weekend was very different this year from last. As I can recall, last year I dressed up as an alcoholic drink with my three best friends from school and Ian dressed up as a Mormon missionary. We then followed the night dancing and drinking. This year was spent with no dressing up, no dancing, and very little drinking. I had a very low key night of dinner and a movie with a co-worker and Ian played screen golf with a few guys from work.
Even though the excitement level was considerably lower, we both enjoyed the weekend to its fullest and even learned more about the Korean War...
Since our weekends are ridiculously short (just 1 day) we decided to spend the rest of our Halloween celebrations relaxing, eating good food and seeing the Korean War Memorial. The Memorial is about a 30 minute bus ride from our apartment in an area called Itaewon. Itaewon is basically the "America Town" of Korea. It also has the US Army Base. While it definitely has its fill of sketchy Americans, it brings back a small feeling of home.
The War Memorial only costs 3,000 Won (about $2.80) to enter and is big enough that you could easily spend three hours walking around. The most interesting parts were learning about the Korean War and exactly why there are currently two Koreas. There were also several airplanes ( even a B52), tanks, missiles, and helicopters. We could even walk into some of them! Going through the Memorial and watching a few short video clips about the Korean War definitely made us appreciate Korea a little more and gave us a better understanding of Korea's past.
We ended the day with buying a rotisserie chicken and making chicken and cheese sandwiches for dinner. Definitely not the most exciting Halloween weekend we've ever had, but it was still thoroughly enjoyed!
We have finally decided that enough time has passed (roughly 4 months) since our training to properly describe it. The horrible memories of training have finally worn off and we are in the right mindset to actually tell you about our first week in Korea! So look forward to it coming soon...
Even though the excitement level was considerably lower, we both enjoyed the weekend to its fullest and even learned more about the Korean War...
Since our weekends are ridiculously short (just 1 day) we decided to spend the rest of our Halloween celebrations relaxing, eating good food and seeing the Korean War Memorial. The Memorial is about a 30 minute bus ride from our apartment in an area called Itaewon. Itaewon is basically the "America Town" of Korea. It also has the US Army Base. While it definitely has its fill of sketchy Americans, it brings back a small feeling of home.
The War Memorial only costs 3,000 Won (about $2.80) to enter and is big enough that you could easily spend three hours walking around. The most interesting parts were learning about the Korean War and exactly why there are currently two Koreas. There were also several airplanes ( even a B52), tanks, missiles, and helicopters. We could even walk into some of them! Going through the Memorial and watching a few short video clips about the Korean War definitely made us appreciate Korea a little more and gave us a better understanding of Korea's past.
We ended the day with buying a rotisserie chicken and making chicken and cheese sandwiches for dinner. Definitely not the most exciting Halloween weekend we've ever had, but it was still thoroughly enjoyed!
We have finally decided that enough time has passed (roughly 4 months) since our training to properly describe it. The horrible memories of training have finally worn off and we are in the right mindset to actually tell you about our first week in Korea! So look forward to it coming soon...
Monday, October 26, 2009
Oh Our Students!
In many ways, our students are the same as students everywhere else. You have the super smart ones, the obnoxious ones, the slow but persistent ones, the cute ones, the mean ones, the shy ones, the energetic ones, and the dramatic/emotional ones. But our students at Chungdahm definitely have some characteristics that you won't find in classrooms back in states. There is a marked difference between the elementary kids we teach and our middle/high school students. Lets start with the elementary rascals first...
First off, Leslie and I are not referred to by our actual names. We are known simply as "teacher" or if they want to get fancy and are referring to us in the third person: "Ian-teacher" and "Leslie-teacher." Although a few of my slow students still think the upper-case "I" in my name is actually a lower-case "l" and call me "Lan-teacher."
Second, elementary kids here (both boys and girls) are fixated by death, computer games, and thievery and it seems as though all our classroom discussions somehow weave their way towards one of these topics.
Third, Korean children love to speak their mind and find no shame in saying what they think, without any intention of verbal harm or praise. I have been called: fat, bald, crazy, sexy, boring, not funny, poor, trans-gendered, ugly, handsome, and nearly everything in between. None of these are really meant respectfully or disrespectfully, but either as the crux of a good natured joke or simple objective observation.
Fourth, little Korean kids love the word "crazy" and will burst into laughter at nearly every mention of it, no matter the context. Korean students have a great sense of humor, especially when it comes to slap-stick type stuff, like me falling town and pretending to hurt myself, or talking and acting like a woman.
Fifth, a lot of kids love to give their teacher part of their snack at break time. For the first few weeks of class I foolishly accepted and ate the generous gifts, against the advice of Leslie and some of my more seasoned colleagues. However, after a garlic bread incident that nearly had me blowing chunks into the first row of students I learned to accept only packaged foods.
Lastly, most of our students are very well behaved and have a great attitude in class, especially considering that they are in some kind of school for at least 10 hours a day! They work very hard and are extremely smart, perhaps a little too smart. Some of my students don't play sports or exercise, and thus have no idea how to catch. I learned this lesson the hard way when I tossed a marker to a student that went straight through his outstretched hands and slammed into his face. Oops!
Now the middle/high school kids are a different breed. Some of them are either to cool for school, too tired from their intense schooling, or are too self-conscious to participate. However, others are very talkative and have a great sense of humor. They love simple things like fart jokes, but also more creative humor. Some also refer to us by our actual names.
The biggest challenge the older students face in our classes is having to interact with the opposite sex. In my classes, boys and girls will sit on opposite sides of the room and would rather go skydiving over the DMZ than suffer the unbearable agony of working with the other gender on a project. Many times I relent and let boys and girls work in unisex groups (Leslie is better than me with this), just to spare myself the hassle and utter despair that befalls the class when boys and girls are forced to interact. Sometimes they won't even say a word to each other. Leslie and I still aren't sure why this is, since most of the younger kids work perfectly well with the opposite sex.
Next week our students take what is called a 'Level-up Test", which basically determines if they can advance on the next of the 16 levels at our institute. We are hoping that our students do well. Wish us luck and we miss you all!
First off, Leslie and I are not referred to by our actual names. We are known simply as "teacher" or if they want to get fancy and are referring to us in the third person: "Ian-teacher" and "Leslie-teacher." Although a few of my slow students still think the upper-case "I" in my name is actually a lower-case "l" and call me "Lan-teacher."
Second, elementary kids here (both boys and girls) are fixated by death, computer games, and thievery and it seems as though all our classroom discussions somehow weave their way towards one of these topics.
Third, Korean children love to speak their mind and find no shame in saying what they think, without any intention of verbal harm or praise. I have been called: fat, bald, crazy, sexy, boring, not funny, poor, trans-gendered, ugly, handsome, and nearly everything in between. None of these are really meant respectfully or disrespectfully, but either as the crux of a good natured joke or simple objective observation.
Fourth, little Korean kids love the word "crazy" and will burst into laughter at nearly every mention of it, no matter the context. Korean students have a great sense of humor, especially when it comes to slap-stick type stuff, like me falling town and pretending to hurt myself, or talking and acting like a woman.
Fifth, a lot of kids love to give their teacher part of their snack at break time. For the first few weeks of class I foolishly accepted and ate the generous gifts, against the advice of Leslie and some of my more seasoned colleagues. However, after a garlic bread incident that nearly had me blowing chunks into the first row of students I learned to accept only packaged foods.
Lastly, most of our students are very well behaved and have a great attitude in class, especially considering that they are in some kind of school for at least 10 hours a day! They work very hard and are extremely smart, perhaps a little too smart. Some of my students don't play sports or exercise, and thus have no idea how to catch. I learned this lesson the hard way when I tossed a marker to a student that went straight through his outstretched hands and slammed into his face. Oops!
Now the middle/high school kids are a different breed. Some of them are either to cool for school, too tired from their intense schooling, or are too self-conscious to participate. However, others are very talkative and have a great sense of humor. They love simple things like fart jokes, but also more creative humor. Some also refer to us by our actual names.
The biggest challenge the older students face in our classes is having to interact with the opposite sex. In my classes, boys and girls will sit on opposite sides of the room and would rather go skydiving over the DMZ than suffer the unbearable agony of working with the other gender on a project. Many times I relent and let boys and girls work in unisex groups (Leslie is better than me with this), just to spare myself the hassle and utter despair that befalls the class when boys and girls are forced to interact. Sometimes they won't even say a word to each other. Leslie and I still aren't sure why this is, since most of the younger kids work perfectly well with the opposite sex.
Next week our students take what is called a 'Level-up Test", which basically determines if they can advance on the next of the 16 levels at our institute. We are hoping that our students do well. Wish us luck and we miss you all!
Sunday, October 18, 2009
New Blog Post Coming Soon...
The past week has been filled up with work, work, and more work. While this is great for the bank accounts, it leaves us with nothing to update you with. So, we uploaded a few photos and hope to have a blog post up within the next week. Sorry for the delay but we hope you enjoy the photos!
Saturday, October 10, 2009
You Know You're In Korea When...
1. When you read a sign that's completely in English and you still have absolutely not idea what it's saying.
2. When every meal cooked at your apartment consists of one, if not all of the following ingredients: peanut butter, noodles, eggs, and milk.
3. When moving your couch two feet to the left creates an entire new room in your apartment.
4. When an 80-year-old woman elbows you in the kidneys just so she can relish in the pleasure of being the first person off the bus.
5. When words like "intefrity" are a perfectly legitimate part of the English vocabulary.
6. When "traffic laws" are created solely for drug control and not motor vehicle safety.
7. When you go to buy a fancy beer for dinner and return with a can of Budweiser.
8. When 85% of all restaurants sell basically the exact same thing.
9. When you believe you are biting into a scrumptious chocolate filled pastry only to be fooled yet again, as the inside is actually stuffed with red bean paste.
10. When Leslie is the only woman over the age of 15 wearing tenni-runners.
11. When the white Anglo-Saxon Christian guy ALWAYS stands out.
12. When you begin to notice the innumerable subtleties found within the smell of rotting garbage.
13. When there is a mandatory law to re-wallpaper every apartment, but no law what-so-ever for the installation of smoke detectors.
14. When absolutely everything can be delivered to your home.
15. When your job demands professional expertise in the arts of pictionary and charades.
2. When every meal cooked at your apartment consists of one, if not all of the following ingredients: peanut butter, noodles, eggs, and milk.
3. When moving your couch two feet to the left creates an entire new room in your apartment.
4. When an 80-year-old woman elbows you in the kidneys just so she can relish in the pleasure of being the first person off the bus.
5. When words like "intefrity" are a perfectly legitimate part of the English vocabulary.
6. When "traffic laws" are created solely for drug control and not motor vehicle safety.
7. When you go to buy a fancy beer for dinner and return with a can of Budweiser.
8. When 85% of all restaurants sell basically the exact same thing.
9. When you believe you are biting into a scrumptious chocolate filled pastry only to be fooled yet again, as the inside is actually stuffed with red bean paste.
10. When Leslie is the only woman over the age of 15 wearing tenni-runners.
11. When the white Anglo-Saxon Christian guy ALWAYS stands out.
12. When you begin to notice the innumerable subtleties found within the smell of rotting garbage.
13. When there is a mandatory law to re-wallpaper every apartment, but no law what-so-ever for the installation of smoke detectors.
14. When absolutely everything can be delivered to your home.
15. When your job demands professional expertise in the arts of pictionary and charades.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Chu-Suk
Fall has finally arrived and fortunately the cooler weather has arrived too. We were getting extremely tired of the heat, humidity and mosquitoes. However, we have been told to enjoy these few weeks of Fall weather because Winter apparently hits hard and quick here.
Fortunately, Korea recently had its Thanksgiving holiday called Chu-Suk, which meant that we got the entire weekend off! Yes, we got an entire Saturday AND Sunday off. While that seems like a very short holiday to most, to us it was unbelievably amazing and seemingly long. Since the big city wears on us a bit, we decided our holiday vacation would be spent venturing outside of Seoul.
Since most of the two-way train tickets out of Seoul were booked we decided to try our luck with riding a bus. After reading through our Lonely Planet Korea, Ian decided we would attempt the hour and fifteen minute bus ride to the town of Chuncheon. So, in the morning we made ourselves a tasty lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, two cookies and two apples. Excited and a bit nervous we set out on our adventure!
In order to get to the bus station, we had to take a bus ride and then a thirty minute subway ride. We actually found the bus station with considerable ease and were able to buy our tickets without any trouble. Spending only 9,000 won for the bus ride was a little disconcerting at first, but to our surprise it was clean and the seats were very comfortable!
Driving to Chuncheon was extremely relaxing. Korea’s landscape consists mostly of very densely forested mountains. The trees almost look like a mixture of pine trees and oak trees. The mountains aren’t huge, but are relatively big. The foliage is so dense that hiking within these mountains seems impossible.
After an hour and fifteen minute bus ride we finally arrived! Our first stop was to the Tourist Office. The employee knew a small amount of English and was able to give us a Korean map of the city. We eventually took a public bus and a taxi (definitely got a bit lost) to one of the four lakes that surround the city. Fortunately, there was a walking path around the lake, so we took full advantage of it.
After walking along the lake and seeing parts of the city, we decided it was time to make our way back into the depths of Seoul. Since getting to Chuncheon was so easy, we figured that getting out of Chuncheon would be just as easy! We learned very quickly that was not going to be the case. We asked the ticket office employee for two tickets back to Seoul. She proceeded to tell us something in Korean and then gave us two tickets for the total price of 3,400 Won. Remember that we were a little concerned only paying 9,000 won to get to Chuncheon. Paying half of this amount made us even more concerned. So, we immediately thought she gave us the wrong tickets causing us to ask one more time “Does this take us to SEOUL?” Again, she rattled something off in Korea and motioned us to get out of the way for the other customers. In a mild panic, we decided to ask the employee at the Tourist Office. We very slowly asked if these tickets would actually take us all the way to Seoul. She also nodded her head and said in broken English to take bus 3.
Before getting on bus 3 we saw a sign above the bus that said “Seoul” but it also had two other destinations below it. We were immediately relieved and thought “Of course! This bus must stop two other places and then proceed to Seoul. It must just take longer.” We were then very pleased that we only spent 3,400 Won to get back to Seoul.
While getting comfortable in the bus and enjoying the scenery Ian and I relished in the fact that we were able to get to and from Chuncheon with very little hassle and spending very little money. Boy, were we wrong! After fifteen minutes of driving the bus abruptly stopped on the side of the rode and the driver proceeded to yell something in Korean towards our direction. He then opened the door and pointed outside. In a panic, we got up and showed him our tickets. At this point other Korean tourists are yelling in Korean to get off the bus, and to tell us that our 3,400 won tickets are only going to take us this far. We attempt to give the bus driver more money, but he shakes his head and points to the door.
So, we were left on the side of the rode near the outskirts of a town we didn’t know the name of or where it was. Fortunately, I saw a sign that said Station, so we made our way there. We were able to find a train station, which had two available seats for a train that left in an hour. Relief finally set in again and we walked around the town. To our amazement the town was very quaint and had delicious dakgalbi (a Korean mixture of fried vegetables and a spicy red pepper sauce). We then sat out in front of a convenience store, had some drinks and people watched.
Surprisingly, the best part of our entire adventure started after getting kicked off the bus. Enjoying our dakgalbi, drinks, and people watching was definitely not part of the plan, but was well worth the mild panicy feelings! While our trip didn’t go as planned, we found a new town that we will definitely be visiting again and have learned that when you think you’re getting a great deal you’re either going to be kick off the bus early or going somewhere not expected.
Fortunately, Korea recently had its Thanksgiving holiday called Chu-Suk, which meant that we got the entire weekend off! Yes, we got an entire Saturday AND Sunday off. While that seems like a very short holiday to most, to us it was unbelievably amazing and seemingly long. Since the big city wears on us a bit, we decided our holiday vacation would be spent venturing outside of Seoul.
Since most of the two-way train tickets out of Seoul were booked we decided to try our luck with riding a bus. After reading through our Lonely Planet Korea, Ian decided we would attempt the hour and fifteen minute bus ride to the town of Chuncheon. So, in the morning we made ourselves a tasty lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, two cookies and two apples. Excited and a bit nervous we set out on our adventure!
In order to get to the bus station, we had to take a bus ride and then a thirty minute subway ride. We actually found the bus station with considerable ease and were able to buy our tickets without any trouble. Spending only 9,000 won for the bus ride was a little disconcerting at first, but to our surprise it was clean and the seats were very comfortable!
Driving to Chuncheon was extremely relaxing. Korea’s landscape consists mostly of very densely forested mountains. The trees almost look like a mixture of pine trees and oak trees. The mountains aren’t huge, but are relatively big. The foliage is so dense that hiking within these mountains seems impossible.
After an hour and fifteen minute bus ride we finally arrived! Our first stop was to the Tourist Office. The employee knew a small amount of English and was able to give us a Korean map of the city. We eventually took a public bus and a taxi (definitely got a bit lost) to one of the four lakes that surround the city. Fortunately, there was a walking path around the lake, so we took full advantage of it.
After walking along the lake and seeing parts of the city, we decided it was time to make our way back into the depths of Seoul. Since getting to Chuncheon was so easy, we figured that getting out of Chuncheon would be just as easy! We learned very quickly that was not going to be the case. We asked the ticket office employee for two tickets back to Seoul. She proceeded to tell us something in Korean and then gave us two tickets for the total price of 3,400 Won. Remember that we were a little concerned only paying 9,000 won to get to Chuncheon. Paying half of this amount made us even more concerned. So, we immediately thought she gave us the wrong tickets causing us to ask one more time “Does this take us to SEOUL?” Again, she rattled something off in Korea and motioned us to get out of the way for the other customers. In a mild panic, we decided to ask the employee at the Tourist Office. We very slowly asked if these tickets would actually take us all the way to Seoul. She also nodded her head and said in broken English to take bus 3.
Before getting on bus 3 we saw a sign above the bus that said “Seoul” but it also had two other destinations below it. We were immediately relieved and thought “Of course! This bus must stop two other places and then proceed to Seoul. It must just take longer.” We were then very pleased that we only spent 3,400 Won to get back to Seoul.
While getting comfortable in the bus and enjoying the scenery Ian and I relished in the fact that we were able to get to and from Chuncheon with very little hassle and spending very little money. Boy, were we wrong! After fifteen minutes of driving the bus abruptly stopped on the side of the rode and the driver proceeded to yell something in Korean towards our direction. He then opened the door and pointed outside. In a panic, we got up and showed him our tickets. At this point other Korean tourists are yelling in Korean to get off the bus, and to tell us that our 3,400 won tickets are only going to take us this far. We attempt to give the bus driver more money, but he shakes his head and points to the door.
So, we were left on the side of the rode near the outskirts of a town we didn’t know the name of or where it was. Fortunately, I saw a sign that said Station, so we made our way there. We were able to find a train station, which had two available seats for a train that left in an hour. Relief finally set in again and we walked around the town. To our amazement the town was very quaint and had delicious dakgalbi (a Korean mixture of fried vegetables and a spicy red pepper sauce). We then sat out in front of a convenience store, had some drinks and people watched.
Surprisingly, the best part of our entire adventure started after getting kicked off the bus. Enjoying our dakgalbi, drinks, and people watching was definitely not part of the plan, but was well worth the mild panicy feelings! While our trip didn’t go as planned, we found a new town that we will definitely be visiting again and have learned that when you think you’re getting a great deal you’re either going to be kick off the bus early or going somewhere not expected.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Healthy Korea
Well, we're almost at the three month mark and we are enjoying Korea more and more. It was definitely a difficult transition at first, but we are starting to find our rhythm and settle nicely into the pace of life here. This "settling" hasn't always been easy, greatly due to our new environment, and equally as much to the cultural divide. We would like to highlight for you one example of this cultural difference, so that you can get a glimpse of the"Korean mentality." This example mostly highlights some negative aspects of Korean culture (there are many positive ones that we hope be come forth in other posts) and definitely does it share of generalizing, as any reflexion on an entire nation will tend to do. But we still think it paints a relatively good picture, so here it goes!
In short, Koreans seem to continually obsess about their health, and the H1N1 swine flu virus has only amplified this obsession. While swine flu, at least so far, has not shown itself to be more virulent that other forms of flu, Korea has gone berserk in an overblown, illogical, hypocritical, hopeless and at time racist effort to prevent its spread.
When we first arrived in early July, our temperature was taken as soon as we disembarked the plane. I'm not sure what would have happened if we had a fever, but thank God we didn't. We were then technically "quarantined" in our hotel for 4 days, which simply went that we were forced to take our own temperature twice a day, and email it to Chungdahm (our employer). After quarantine we went to training and were forced to wear masks all day while we studied and practiced teaching, and had to sanitize our hands every hour. We also had to take lunch in shifts and could not use the stairs, so as to not infect the other occupants in the building. Now, while we teach we have to sanitize our students' hands three times a class, and also have to take their temperatures.
Oh, and did I mention that every foreigner that came to Korea during the summer had to go through some kind of quarantine, but any Korean who came home after traveling abroad for any period of time was quarantine free!
Also, for being a highly developed country with a health obsession, Korea's general population still has many backwards views on disease prevention. For instance, it is always a gamble whether you will find soap in the bathroom (including at our school), and covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze is definitely an unknown thing here. Further, we've been told by Koreans that you could not possibly catch swine flu in Hawaii because "it is hot there," or in Japan because it is in Asia. The notion here is that foreigners and western nations are more susceptible to this flu. Why?, who knows!
Perhaps the best example of Korea's unique stance on health would have to be "fan death." This episode occurred when a Korean air conditioning company, in a effort to boost sales, paid doctors to go on TV and say that fans kill people because they suck all the air out of a room, thereby slowly suffocating their victims. Some people here believed this, thinking that doctors could not lie to them, and fan sales dropped throughout Korea, or so we've heard. However, this scam was ultimately exposed and thankfully fan sales today are as strong as ever.
We hope this post showed how problems can be addressed over here, and why adapting to this culture has taken both time and a generous serving of patience. Overall, Koreans are a kind and wonderful people, and it is a joy to be around them, especially the younger generations. Just make sure if you come and visit us that you don't have the flu!
In short, Koreans seem to continually obsess about their health, and the H1N1 swine flu virus has only amplified this obsession. While swine flu, at least so far, has not shown itself to be more virulent that other forms of flu, Korea has gone berserk in an overblown, illogical, hypocritical, hopeless and at time racist effort to prevent its spread.
When we first arrived in early July, our temperature was taken as soon as we disembarked the plane. I'm not sure what would have happened if we had a fever, but thank God we didn't. We were then technically "quarantined" in our hotel for 4 days, which simply went that we were forced to take our own temperature twice a day, and email it to Chungdahm (our employer). After quarantine we went to training and were forced to wear masks all day while we studied and practiced teaching, and had to sanitize our hands every hour. We also had to take lunch in shifts and could not use the stairs, so as to not infect the other occupants in the building. Now, while we teach we have to sanitize our students' hands three times a class, and also have to take their temperatures.
Oh, and did I mention that every foreigner that came to Korea during the summer had to go through some kind of quarantine, but any Korean who came home after traveling abroad for any period of time was quarantine free!
Also, for being a highly developed country with a health obsession, Korea's general population still has many backwards views on disease prevention. For instance, it is always a gamble whether you will find soap in the bathroom (including at our school), and covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze is definitely an unknown thing here. Further, we've been told by Koreans that you could not possibly catch swine flu in Hawaii because "it is hot there," or in Japan because it is in Asia. The notion here is that foreigners and western nations are more susceptible to this flu. Why?, who knows!
Perhaps the best example of Korea's unique stance on health would have to be "fan death." This episode occurred when a Korean air conditioning company, in a effort to boost sales, paid doctors to go on TV and say that fans kill people because they suck all the air out of a room, thereby slowly suffocating their victims. Some people here believed this, thinking that doctors could not lie to them, and fan sales dropped throughout Korea, or so we've heard. However, this scam was ultimately exposed and thankfully fan sales today are as strong as ever.
We hope this post showed how problems can be addressed over here, and why adapting to this culture has taken both time and a generous serving of patience. Overall, Koreans are a kind and wonderful people, and it is a joy to be around them, especially the younger generations. Just make sure if you come and visit us that you don't have the flu!
Monday, September 21, 2009
Another Slideshow
We've posted another slideshow to go along with this blog post. You just have to click on the slideshow, which will link you to Flickr. Then you need to click on the box that says "17 items" (it's on the right side of the pictures). Enjoy!
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Biking, Parties and Musicals...
Fortunately, our boss and her boyfriend have been kind enough to take us under their wings and show us more of Seoul. They have shown us some of their favorite restaurants, bars, and outdoor activities. Since they will be leaving Seoul in February, they are trying to get all of their favorite outdoor activities done soon. So, the four of us ended up biking along the Han river.
The walking/biking route along the Han attracts thousands of Koreans each Summer weekend. There are even bike rental shops along the river, so we were able to rent bikes for 3,ooo Won each. Even though they were crappy bikes (my seat wouldn't raise and Ian's gears wouldn't move), they were cheap! We ended up biking about 14 miles and enjoyed every second of it. It was one of the first moments that we didn't feel completely surrounded by a gigantic city. However, the best part was that the Korean families didn't bring a typical blanket to sit on while enjoying the sun. Rather, they brought camping tents! They put in the effort to set up an entire tent just to get absolutely NO sun rays. Apparently, getting a sun tan is not as popular as it is in the states.
This past week, a couple who works at CDI took their vacation to get married in Hawaii. Since they didn't have a bachelorette/bachelor party, our co-workers decided to throw them one. Ian and the boys first went to a casino. Suprisingly, it is illegal for Koreans to gamble, so it was built just for the foreigners. Ian enjoyed it thoroughly, especially since you get free food and drinks while you're there! After loosing some money, they decided to experience a Korean arcade. Just imagine lots of bright lights, sounds, and some really weird video games, like firefighting and river-rafting games. After the arcade, they went to a couple of bars and ate some street food.
The ladies (myself and six other women) went to dinner to at a Thai restaurant. It was delicious and suprisingly not too expensive. We then made our way to a couple of bars. I think the bride had fun, which was the most important part.
The following day we went to the play RENT. It was the actual broadway cast, which was exciting. Ian and I really enjoyed just sitting and listening to people talk/sing English for an entire two and half hours. We felt right at home! The only aspect that brought us immediately back to reality was that Koreans get REALLY into broadway musicals. They basically act like they are at a concert. The audience clapped during most of the songs, screamed like little girls when the band started to play, and the front row even had RENT posters. It was definately something we were not expecting. But as we have now learned, you should never have set expectations in Korea because they will most likely always be different or the opposite from what actually happens! Korea has definately suprised us at times, from tents in a park to hooting and hollaring during a broadway show.
The walking/biking route along the Han attracts thousands of Koreans each Summer weekend. There are even bike rental shops along the river, so we were able to rent bikes for 3,ooo Won each. Even though they were crappy bikes (my seat wouldn't raise and Ian's gears wouldn't move), they were cheap! We ended up biking about 14 miles and enjoyed every second of it. It was one of the first moments that we didn't feel completely surrounded by a gigantic city. However, the best part was that the Korean families didn't bring a typical blanket to sit on while enjoying the sun. Rather, they brought camping tents! They put in the effort to set up an entire tent just to get absolutely NO sun rays. Apparently, getting a sun tan is not as popular as it is in the states.
This past week, a couple who works at CDI took their vacation to get married in Hawaii. Since they didn't have a bachelorette/bachelor party, our co-workers decided to throw them one. Ian and the boys first went to a casino. Suprisingly, it is illegal for Koreans to gamble, so it was built just for the foreigners. Ian enjoyed it thoroughly, especially since you get free food and drinks while you're there! After loosing some money, they decided to experience a Korean arcade. Just imagine lots of bright lights, sounds, and some really weird video games, like firefighting and river-rafting games. After the arcade, they went to a couple of bars and ate some street food.
The ladies (myself and six other women) went to dinner to at a Thai restaurant. It was delicious and suprisingly not too expensive. We then made our way to a couple of bars. I think the bride had fun, which was the most important part.
The following day we went to the play RENT. It was the actual broadway cast, which was exciting. Ian and I really enjoyed just sitting and listening to people talk/sing English for an entire two and half hours. We felt right at home! The only aspect that brought us immediately back to reality was that Koreans get REALLY into broadway musicals. They basically act like they are at a concert. The audience clapped during most of the songs, screamed like little girls when the band started to play, and the front row even had RENT posters. It was definately something we were not expecting. But as we have now learned, you should never have set expectations in Korea because they will most likely always be different or the opposite from what actually happens! Korea has definately suprised us at times, from tents in a park to hooting and hollaring during a broadway show.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
B-Ball Korea Style
Luckily for Leslie and I, we live within a five minute walk of Yonsei University, "The First and the Best" university in Korea, as the banners all over campus not so subtly point out. Especially lucky for me, this old and prestigious university has a set of outdoor basketball courts that pass no judgement on who pays tuition and who gets to play upon them.
So as you can probably imagine I've ventured over there quite often with some of my friends from work to shoot around and take on a few Koreans on their home turf. Now, you may think that basketball is basketball, regardless of your global location. You just bounce the orange ball and put in through hoop right? Well, not really. In many ways, Korean basketball can be a game unto itself.
As we've said before, Westerners are a rarity in Korea, so we sometimes get stared and pointed as we go down the street. This trend continues on the basketball court, where sometimes a small crowd of kids will gather to watch us play, cheering when we make a shot, booing when we miss, and yelling the usually few English words they know in know particular order.
Playing in Korea helps you practice your shots under pressure, as you feel like you need to give these kids their moneys worth.
My friends and I have scrimmaged with Koreans on multiple occasions and so far I've learned a few things about Korean pick-up basketball. First, I think Koreans divide basketball into two parts: "offense," and "the time when you're not playing offense." Us westerners call this time "defense" but Koreans seem to have no such notion. Okay, maybe its not quite that dramatic, but still a lot of Koreans won't start guarding you until you cross the free-throw line, and even then will not touch you in even the most delicate way, unless by accident. I do think though that this lack of physical contact might have more to do with the fact that Korean summers are hot and humid, and we westerners look more like displaced ocean mammals than basketball players. I mean, I wouldn't want a guard a panting, sticky, smelly, sweaty mess of a man either!
Finally, Korean ballers are extremely polite on the court. If I miss a shot, which happens most of the time, they often apologize and say it was their fault that I missed, not my poor skills. I had one incident that probably sums up best the Korean basketball mentality and the problems of a language barrier:
I was playing two on two with three Korean guys one afternoon. A man on the opposing team drove to the basket and I fouled him. Not much of a foul really, but I decided to give it to him anyway. He thanked me and then on the next play proceeded to drain a three pointer. Jokingly I told him: "Hey, I gave you the foul call, but you weren't supposed to do that." Then a worried look came over his face, and on the next play he instantly jacked up a wild three pointer that smacked hopelessly off the backboard. I tried to explain that he didn't need to do that, and that I wasn't serious, but it was no use. Koreans are just too nice when they play ball.
So as you can probably imagine I've ventured over there quite often with some of my friends from work to shoot around and take on a few Koreans on their home turf. Now, you may think that basketball is basketball, regardless of your global location. You just bounce the orange ball and put in through hoop right? Well, not really. In many ways, Korean basketball can be a game unto itself.
As we've said before, Westerners are a rarity in Korea, so we sometimes get stared and pointed as we go down the street. This trend continues on the basketball court, where sometimes a small crowd of kids will gather to watch us play, cheering when we make a shot, booing when we miss, and yelling the usually few English words they know in know particular order.
Playing in Korea helps you practice your shots under pressure, as you feel like you need to give these kids their moneys worth.
My friends and I have scrimmaged with Koreans on multiple occasions and so far I've learned a few things about Korean pick-up basketball. First, I think Koreans divide basketball into two parts: "offense," and "the time when you're not playing offense." Us westerners call this time "defense" but Koreans seem to have no such notion. Okay, maybe its not quite that dramatic, but still a lot of Koreans won't start guarding you until you cross the free-throw line, and even then will not touch you in even the most delicate way, unless by accident. I do think though that this lack of physical contact might have more to do with the fact that Korean summers are hot and humid, and we westerners look more like displaced ocean mammals than basketball players. I mean, I wouldn't want a guard a panting, sticky, smelly, sweaty mess of a man either!
Finally, Korean ballers are extremely polite on the court. If I miss a shot, which happens most of the time, they often apologize and say it was their fault that I missed, not my poor skills. I had one incident that probably sums up best the Korean basketball mentality and the problems of a language barrier:
I was playing two on two with three Korean guys one afternoon. A man on the opposing team drove to the basket and I fouled him. Not much of a foul really, but I decided to give it to him anyway. He thanked me and then on the next play proceeded to drain a three pointer. Jokingly I told him: "Hey, I gave you the foul call, but you weren't supposed to do that." Then a worried look came over his face, and on the next play he instantly jacked up a wild three pointer that smacked hopelessly off the backboard. I tried to explain that he didn't need to do that, and that I wasn't serious, but it was no use. Koreans are just too nice when they play ball.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Chungdahm Institute
We have officially started the new term. This means that we get new students, new material, and that we finally get to be on the same schedule! Ian and I were hoping to get the weekends off, but it turned out that our branch is at capacity, so we were given more hours than expected. That was both good and bad news. It just means that we will have to explore the rest of Korea later in the year. With this post we mainly want to explain our jobs and to let everyone know exactly what we will be doing here for the next year!
Our employer is called Chungdahm Institute (usually shortened to CDI). CDI is a private english institute and has branches throughout Korea. In fact it is the most popular English institute in Korea. Fortunately, Ian and I work at a franchise. This means that our boss bought a branch of CDI, making it so we teach CDI material and have CDI regulations, but she owns and runs the company herself. We have been told that franchises are the best situation because instructors don't have to deal with the nuances of headquarters.
There are several class levels that CDI offers. They include:
EC2, EC3, EC4, MM, MG, MT, Bridge, Par, Birdie, Eagle, Albetrose, Masters
As you can probably guess EC2 is the lowest level and Masters is the highest. Fortunately, Ian and I were given pretty good classes this term. For being newbies we were very suprised! We are teaching:
Ian - EC3, EC4, Par (Reading & Listening)
Me - EC2, EC4, Par (Reading & Listening)
We each teach a total of 7 classes, so that about 80 students to remember!
Our schedules basically consist of half younger students (11 years old and younger) and half older students (12 and older). The material in EC consists of reading a few pages of a storybook, answers reading comprehension questions, playing some games, and completing a project or two. Par, on the other hand, is extremely fast paced. The students either have to listen to several story passages and complete questions, or have to read passages and complete the questions. Teaching par expects us to teach how to analyze a passage, find the topic, main idea, and details. We then discuss the topic and outline the ideas on the board. This week we read about stem cell research and the history of media. Even though it's a lot of work for the students, they keep up!
While our classes have been great so far, we are extremely busy! We are working 6 days a week, so we will be working over 40 hours a week. This week we had so many new classes to prep and seminars to attend that we arrived to work around 1:30 and left about 10:15 every day. We are absolutely exhausted, but it's definately worth it!
Even though we are busy, we can't even compare to our students. The younger students go to regular school all day and then attend CDI from 4pm-7pm (two days a week). The students usually attend other institutes, including history, math, chinese, or music. The older students attend school all day and then attend CDI from 7pm-10pm. They are lucky if they get home by 10:30pm. Korean students are constantly either attending school or a private institute, studying, or practicing an instrument! They have very little down time. Despite being ridiculously busy, most students are willing and even excited to be at CDI.
This doesn't explain everything about our jobs but it should give a little insight into our lives here in Korea. Pictures to come on Sunday!
Our employer is called Chungdahm Institute (usually shortened to CDI). CDI is a private english institute and has branches throughout Korea. In fact it is the most popular English institute in Korea. Fortunately, Ian and I work at a franchise. This means that our boss bought a branch of CDI, making it so we teach CDI material and have CDI regulations, but she owns and runs the company herself. We have been told that franchises are the best situation because instructors don't have to deal with the nuances of headquarters.
There are several class levels that CDI offers. They include:
EC2, EC3, EC4, MM, MG, MT, Bridge, Par, Birdie, Eagle, Albetrose, Masters
As you can probably guess EC2 is the lowest level and Masters is the highest. Fortunately, Ian and I were given pretty good classes this term. For being newbies we were very suprised! We are teaching:
Ian - EC3, EC4, Par (Reading & Listening)
Me - EC2, EC4, Par (Reading & Listening)
We each teach a total of 7 classes, so that about 80 students to remember!
Our schedules basically consist of half younger students (11 years old and younger) and half older students (12 and older). The material in EC consists of reading a few pages of a storybook, answers reading comprehension questions, playing some games, and completing a project or two. Par, on the other hand, is extremely fast paced. The students either have to listen to several story passages and complete questions, or have to read passages and complete the questions. Teaching par expects us to teach how to analyze a passage, find the topic, main idea, and details. We then discuss the topic and outline the ideas on the board. This week we read about stem cell research and the history of media. Even though it's a lot of work for the students, they keep up!
While our classes have been great so far, we are extremely busy! We are working 6 days a week, so we will be working over 40 hours a week. This week we had so many new classes to prep and seminars to attend that we arrived to work around 1:30 and left about 10:15 every day. We are absolutely exhausted, but it's definately worth it!
Even though we are busy, we can't even compare to our students. The younger students go to regular school all day and then attend CDI from 4pm-7pm (two days a week). The students usually attend other institutes, including history, math, chinese, or music. The older students attend school all day and then attend CDI from 7pm-10pm. They are lucky if they get home by 10:30pm. Korean students are constantly either attending school or a private institute, studying, or practicing an instrument! They have very little down time. Despite being ridiculously busy, most students are willing and even excited to be at CDI.
This doesn't explain everything about our jobs but it should give a little insight into our lives here in Korea. Pictures to come on Sunday!
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Korea: Love, Hate, and Everything in Between
Korea is an interesting place. Interesting is perhaps the best word to describe this country and its people. There are some things we love here, others that we hate, and still other things that evoke a balanced mixture of both. Both Leslie and I agree that we've never been to a place that so often provokes the thoughts: "Wow, I never thought about doing something like that!" or "Hmm, why do they do things this way?" or "What the hell are these people thinking!?"
From this constant curiosity of Korean ways, we have begun a quite unprofessional and at times we're sure ignorant analysis of Korean culture, and come up with some things that we truly cherish about Korea, others that we can't stand, and more that fall all places in between adoration and loathing. Here are some of those things...
What we Love
1. Safety: Minus Papa Kim's 1.2 million man army less than 40 miles to the north, Korea is a remarkably safe country. There is virtually no petty crime or violent crime. We have never felt uncomfortable while in Seoul, even late at night by ourselves.
2. Transportation: Mass transit in Seoul is awesome! Buses go everywhere and arrive every 5 minutes. Most inner city buses cost only 50 cents. The subway is great too. The systems has lines running everywhere, has everything in English, and costs 80 cents for a one way trip. Its also the fastest way to cross the city. Taxis are fantastic as well, and yes you guessed it, cheap. A ten minute taxi ride will only set you back about 6 dollars! But if you go with a group you can split the price and make it even cheaper.
3. Convenience Stores: Korean convenience stores are far superior to their western counterparts for one glorious reason: Many stores have patios with tables and umbrellas out front where you can eat and drink. The best thing to do is buy cheap beer and snacks from the store, sit out on the deck, and people watch. Genius!
4. Eating out: When it comes to restaurant management, we really need to take a page from the Koreans. Firstly, you call your server over when you want, they never come to you. (They are always very attentive so its quite convenient, and you never get interrupted during a meal.) Second, you pay your bill up front, so you can leave whenever you want, and there is never any pressure to make you leave once your meal is done. Third, the best part, for diners at least, and probably the worst for the wait staff, are the table buttons. At many restaurant you have a button at your table that you press when you want the server to come over. Finally, many restaurants give you free food if you order a certain amount, or if you are a regular customer. We're not talkin' mixed nuts or stale bread, I mean the good stuff. The other night a bunch of us were given two huge bowls of mussels and unlimited delicious sweet pancakes!
5. Our Job: So far at least, Leslie and I really enjoy our job. We work with good people and the students (most of them at least) are wonderful. They are very eager to learn, respectful, and fun to be around. An upcoming blog post will tell you more about our teaching experiences.
6. Respect: The vast majority of Korean people are extremely polite and respectful, which makes the cultural transition much easier.
7. Electronics: Electronics hear are cheap and plentiful. For example, today Leslie and I went to Yongsan Electronics Market (Seoul's largest) and bought the first seasons of The Sopranos, True Blood, and a season of Entourage, plus eight movies, for a little over 30 dollars. Good stuff!
What we Hate
1. Asian Big City: This generic, ambiguous term just means that we dislike the crowdedness and general filth of Seoul. The city is polluted, (nothing like China, but still bad, around LA standards.) Also, with the right wind pattern, certain areas can have a truly nauseating stench, that only a city of 20 million people cooking Korean food can have.
2. Spitting: Korean men like to spit, A LOT! Why? We have no idea, but spitting is as common as kimchi around these parts.
3. Motorcycles: Motorbike delivery guys are everywhere and ride their bikes on any navigable surface. They also refuse to obey even the most basic traffic laws (like stopping at red lights.)
4. Neighborhood Fruit Man: By our apartment, a flatbed truck comes down the road religiously at 10:00 every morning selling fruit. Seems harmless right? Well, actually no. The truck is equipped with a huge sound system blasting out Orwellian sounding messages, not about big brother, but about watermelons. Needless to say very annoying.
5. Oppositeness and Illogicalness: Koreans do so many things in an illogical fashion that we are astounded every day that their country is prospering so much. There are too many to get into at the moment, but hopefully we can talk about them in detail later.
Also, so many small things here are opposite from their western counterparts. For example, doors must be pushed to open and pulled to exit. You walk up the left side of the stairs not the right. To lock a door you twist to the left, away from the bolt hole, not towards it.
6. Shower: As you've probably seen in pictures, our shower is not separated from the rest of our bathroom by anything. As a result, whenever we take a shower our entire bathroom get covered in water and things begin to rust or dissolve, (like the molding around the toilet that connects it to the floor. God knows what will happen when it finally gives way!)
7. Shopping: If you decide to go shopping at any relatively upscale store, the store staff will stand right next to you the entire time you shop.
8. Soju: Soju is Korea's alcohol of choice, and Koreans drink it by the boat load. It is retched. It's like vodka, except it tastes just as bad and gets you drunk half as fast.
What Falls in the Middle
1. Korean old ladies (Ajimas): Ajimas are a thing unto themselves. These old Korean women, with their huge visors and curly short hair, are some of the feistiest and funniest people I've ever met. Don't mess with them. They will shove you out of the way to get off the bus first, or elbow you in the kidneys to eat that last free sample at Costco. They take crap from no one, and do what they want, always!
2. Food: As one of our previous blog posts stated, we have a love/hate relationship with Korean food. Some is delicious, while some is horrible. But we are starting to find better and better food with the help of our seasoned coworkers.
3. Hiking: Hiking in Korea is quite an experience. Between dodging ajimas barreling down the trail and taking in Korea's scenic mountain beauty, it is quite an affair. The best part about hiking in Korea though are the Korean hikers themselves. Why?, because they love hiking gear more than hiking itself.
Leslie and I and a couple friends recently did a little 2 mile hike up to a large hill in inner city Seoul and saw numerous Koreans in full hiking attire: poles, boots, carribeaners, rope, camping cups, stereo backpacks, gloves, wool socks, etc... All just for a simple 2 mile stroll. Ridiculous!
Well, that's the news from Seoul. Hope everyone is enjoying the last little bits of summer.
From this constant curiosity of Korean ways, we have begun a quite unprofessional and at times we're sure ignorant analysis of Korean culture, and come up with some things that we truly cherish about Korea, others that we can't stand, and more that fall all places in between adoration and loathing. Here are some of those things...
What we Love
1. Safety: Minus Papa Kim's 1.2 million man army less than 40 miles to the north, Korea is a remarkably safe country. There is virtually no petty crime or violent crime. We have never felt uncomfortable while in Seoul, even late at night by ourselves.
2. Transportation: Mass transit in Seoul is awesome! Buses go everywhere and arrive every 5 minutes. Most inner city buses cost only 50 cents. The subway is great too. The systems has lines running everywhere, has everything in English, and costs 80 cents for a one way trip. Its also the fastest way to cross the city. Taxis are fantastic as well, and yes you guessed it, cheap. A ten minute taxi ride will only set you back about 6 dollars! But if you go with a group you can split the price and make it even cheaper.
3. Convenience Stores: Korean convenience stores are far superior to their western counterparts for one glorious reason: Many stores have patios with tables and umbrellas out front where you can eat and drink. The best thing to do is buy cheap beer and snacks from the store, sit out on the deck, and people watch. Genius!
4. Eating out: When it comes to restaurant management, we really need to take a page from the Koreans. Firstly, you call your server over when you want, they never come to you. (They are always very attentive so its quite convenient, and you never get interrupted during a meal.) Second, you pay your bill up front, so you can leave whenever you want, and there is never any pressure to make you leave once your meal is done. Third, the best part, for diners at least, and probably the worst for the wait staff, are the table buttons. At many restaurant you have a button at your table that you press when you want the server to come over. Finally, many restaurants give you free food if you order a certain amount, or if you are a regular customer. We're not talkin' mixed nuts or stale bread, I mean the good stuff. The other night a bunch of us were given two huge bowls of mussels and unlimited delicious sweet pancakes!
5. Our Job: So far at least, Leslie and I really enjoy our job. We work with good people and the students (most of them at least) are wonderful. They are very eager to learn, respectful, and fun to be around. An upcoming blog post will tell you more about our teaching experiences.
6. Respect: The vast majority of Korean people are extremely polite and respectful, which makes the cultural transition much easier.
7. Electronics: Electronics hear are cheap and plentiful. For example, today Leslie and I went to Yongsan Electronics Market (Seoul's largest) and bought the first seasons of The Sopranos, True Blood, and a season of Entourage, plus eight movies, for a little over 30 dollars. Good stuff!
What we Hate
1. Asian Big City: This generic, ambiguous term just means that we dislike the crowdedness and general filth of Seoul. The city is polluted, (nothing like China, but still bad, around LA standards.) Also, with the right wind pattern, certain areas can have a truly nauseating stench, that only a city of 20 million people cooking Korean food can have.
2. Spitting: Korean men like to spit, A LOT! Why? We have no idea, but spitting is as common as kimchi around these parts.
3. Motorcycles: Motorbike delivery guys are everywhere and ride their bikes on any navigable surface. They also refuse to obey even the most basic traffic laws (like stopping at red lights.)
4. Neighborhood Fruit Man: By our apartment, a flatbed truck comes down the road religiously at 10:00 every morning selling fruit. Seems harmless right? Well, actually no. The truck is equipped with a huge sound system blasting out Orwellian sounding messages, not about big brother, but about watermelons. Needless to say very annoying.
5. Oppositeness and Illogicalness: Koreans do so many things in an illogical fashion that we are astounded every day that their country is prospering so much. There are too many to get into at the moment, but hopefully we can talk about them in detail later.
Also, so many small things here are opposite from their western counterparts. For example, doors must be pushed to open and pulled to exit. You walk up the left side of the stairs not the right. To lock a door you twist to the left, away from the bolt hole, not towards it.
6. Shower: As you've probably seen in pictures, our shower is not separated from the rest of our bathroom by anything. As a result, whenever we take a shower our entire bathroom get covered in water and things begin to rust or dissolve, (like the molding around the toilet that connects it to the floor. God knows what will happen when it finally gives way!)
7. Shopping: If you decide to go shopping at any relatively upscale store, the store staff will stand right next to you the entire time you shop.
8. Soju: Soju is Korea's alcohol of choice, and Koreans drink it by the boat load. It is retched. It's like vodka, except it tastes just as bad and gets you drunk half as fast.
What Falls in the Middle
1. Korean old ladies (Ajimas): Ajimas are a thing unto themselves. These old Korean women, with their huge visors and curly short hair, are some of the feistiest and funniest people I've ever met. Don't mess with them. They will shove you out of the way to get off the bus first, or elbow you in the kidneys to eat that last free sample at Costco. They take crap from no one, and do what they want, always!
2. Food: As one of our previous blog posts stated, we have a love/hate relationship with Korean food. Some is delicious, while some is horrible. But we are starting to find better and better food with the help of our seasoned coworkers.
3. Hiking: Hiking in Korea is quite an experience. Between dodging ajimas barreling down the trail and taking in Korea's scenic mountain beauty, it is quite an affair. The best part about hiking in Korea though are the Korean hikers themselves. Why?, because they love hiking gear more than hiking itself.
Leslie and I and a couple friends recently did a little 2 mile hike up to a large hill in inner city Seoul and saw numerous Koreans in full hiking attire: poles, boots, carribeaners, rope, camping cups, stereo backpacks, gloves, wool socks, etc... All just for a simple 2 mile stroll. Ridiculous!
Well, that's the news from Seoul. Hope everyone is enjoying the last little bits of summer.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
43 Days
Well we have officially been in Korea for 43 days now! We are starting to feel more comfortable with our surroundings and the apartment is begining to feel a little like home. Even though I don't think we will ever get used to the tiny kitchen or the shower with no curtain, it certainly feels good to come back to after a long, sweaty day of walking around Seoul. Some exciting news, at least for us, is that we finally bought a kitchen table and chairs. While this may seem rather boring to most of you, we suggest eating on the ground for over a month! It definately gets a little tiresome after a while. However, making sure that we were getting the table we paid for and that it would be delivered to the correct apartment was quite the experience. Buying items that need to be delievered from someone who knows basically no English is very difficult. But after several hand gestures and head nods, our table and chairs were successfully delivered and definately worth the hassel!
Some more exciting news is that we bought a gym membership. A few other instructors, who also belong to the gym, suggested it. Fortunately, it is literally a 2 minute walk from the apartment. While it's not the best gym in the world, it gets the job done. For those of you familiar with UP's gym it's kind of on par with that. Unfortunately, the incline button for the treadmills don't work. But one thing we have learned while living in Korea is that you shouldn't sweat over the small things (like the incline option not working on the treadmill). Or else you would go crazy!
This past weekend Ian and I spent some time getting to know the other staff members. Ian and few guys decided to try out a virtual golf game. You basically pay for the number of holes you complete and can bring in as much beer and food that you want. While they had a good time, it took them three hours to complete just nine holes! That same night I went out with another Instructor whose name is Laura. We had dinner and drinks in an area called Hungdai, which appears to be where the majority of young Koreans go for a night out on the town. It is ridiculously busy and gives you the realization of how many people live in Seoul . During our night out we decided to try out an "ice bar." This is literally a room or a bar that is completely made of ice. Before going into the bar, they give you a jacket, booties, and gloves. It was kind of weird but definately worth the experience!
Tonight we have a staff dinner. The boss is paying for everyone to have dinner at a local Korean BBQ restaurant. Ian and I have been told that while these staff dinners are usually enjoyable, the newbies ( us and a few others ) have to give a speech as to what we are enjoying about Korea and CDI. So that will certainly be interesting!
We put up a few more pictures on the blog, but will put more up soon. Hope all is well with everyone and thanks for reading and supporting the blog. We love writing about our experiences in Korea and we hope everyone enjoys reading about them too!
Some more exciting news is that we bought a gym membership. A few other instructors, who also belong to the gym, suggested it. Fortunately, it is literally a 2 minute walk from the apartment. While it's not the best gym in the world, it gets the job done. For those of you familiar with UP's gym it's kind of on par with that. Unfortunately, the incline button for the treadmills don't work. But one thing we have learned while living in Korea is that you shouldn't sweat over the small things (like the incline option not working on the treadmill). Or else you would go crazy!
This past weekend Ian and I spent some time getting to know the other staff members. Ian and few guys decided to try out a virtual golf game. You basically pay for the number of holes you complete and can bring in as much beer and food that you want. While they had a good time, it took them three hours to complete just nine holes! That same night I went out with another Instructor whose name is Laura. We had dinner and drinks in an area called Hungdai, which appears to be where the majority of young Koreans go for a night out on the town. It is ridiculously busy and gives you the realization of how many people live in Seoul . During our night out we decided to try out an "ice bar." This is literally a room or a bar that is completely made of ice. Before going into the bar, they give you a jacket, booties, and gloves. It was kind of weird but definately worth the experience!
Tonight we have a staff dinner. The boss is paying for everyone to have dinner at a local Korean BBQ restaurant. Ian and I have been told that while these staff dinners are usually enjoyable, the newbies ( us and a few others ) have to give a speech as to what we are enjoying about Korea and CDI. So that will certainly be interesting!
We put up a few more pictures on the blog, but will put more up soon. Hope all is well with everyone and thanks for reading and supporting the blog. We love writing about our experiences in Korea and we hope everyone enjoys reading about them too!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Excursions
Within the past week Ian and I have been able to see a few very different and interesting parts of Seoul. Some places we loved and others not so much. We visited two markets, the Namdaemun market and the Noryangjin Fish market, a beautiful man made lake, and an area that Ian and I call "America Town!"
Ian and I were really excited to visit our first Korean market, called Namdaemun market. Expecting the vendors to sell every possible good, our hopes were let's say very high. Unfortunately, after walking around for about 15 minutes we soon realized the only goods available were cheep/ugly clothes, kitchen supplies, bedding supplies, backpacks, sunglasses and purses. Plus the market had an extremely horrible smell, making the experience even less enjoyable. While we are glad to say that we have been to a Korean market, we do not plan on going back any time soon!
Fortunately, after our disappointing afternoon we decided to make our way to another area of Seoul called Itaewon. Since this is where the U.S. military base is located a lot of food vendors have set up foreign food options. Thank god! We were able to find an abundant amount of Italian, Thai, middle eastern, and Chinese restaurants. Having been away from Portland for over three months, we had been craving one of Portlander's favorite cuisine: Thai! So the decision as to where we would eat was easily made! It was surprisingly pretty good. We ordered sweet and sour chicken and phat thai (yes, here it's phat not pad). The phat thai was different from the U.S., but it certainly did the job! Ian and I already suspect we will be back to Itaewon very soon.
The following day Ian and I needed to get out of the city. Being surrounded by cars and people non-stop started to wear on us, so we took a public bus about 20 minutes outside of the city to an area called Ilsan. While Ilsan isn't completely out of the city, it does have a smaller town feel. The best part about Ilsan is that it has the largest man made lake in Korea! We walked partially around it looking at the flowers and the families having picnics. It was one of the most relaxing days we have had in Korea, and because of this I know we will be back very soon. It will also be even better when we aren't dripping wet from the humidity. It definitely got a little too hot, but was still enjoyable!
Last night Ian's friend Dan decided to take us to Korea's famous fish market called Noryangjin. All we can say is it was quite the experience! Imagine a HUGE building containing hundreds of vendors selling everything from crab, octopus, lobster, clams, flat fish, and even baby shark. Basically how the market works is you buy the seafood and then go the market restaurant and they cook it for you. So we found a vendor we wanted to buy the seafood from. There were four of us so we bought 1 crab, 1 flat fish, we believe to be flounder, and 2 octopus. The vendor's wife then fileted our fish, while the vendor put the crab and octopus in a bag for us to take to the restaurant upstairs. So imagine us walking through the market with a live octopus and crab in plastic bag! Once we got to the market's restaurant we handed them the bag and they cooked the crab and cut up the octopus.
The first thing we ate was the live, yes live, octopus! It was even still moving on the plate. Ian had been wanting to try this ever since we watched Anthony Bourdain eat it, so here was his chance! I thought it was absolutely repulsive. The tentacles suck to your tongue or your cheek as you attempt to force it down your throat. Plus to make it just that much tastier it is extremely chewy, almost like eating sticky rubber. Ian even ate part of the head ( including the eyeball) which he said was pretty disgusting. Fortunately, the crab came next, which was scrumptious! The fish was next, which was not cooked. It was sushimi, which Ian thought was very tasty. I, on the other hand, was not as big of a fan. The texture just didn't do it for me. With the last remnants of the flat fish and crab, the chef cooked up a spicy fish stew with tofu and fried rice with small pieces of crab. These were both very good.
Surprisingly we felt fine after eating all of that and did not have to break out the pepto bismol! Even though I won't be eating live octopus and sushimi anytime soon, it was an amazing experience and one that we will never forget.
That is all from Seodaemun! Hope all is well and a few pictures of the markets and lake will be posted soon.
Ian and I were really excited to visit our first Korean market, called Namdaemun market. Expecting the vendors to sell every possible good, our hopes were let's say very high. Unfortunately, after walking around for about 15 minutes we soon realized the only goods available were cheep/ugly clothes, kitchen supplies, bedding supplies, backpacks, sunglasses and purses. Plus the market had an extremely horrible smell, making the experience even less enjoyable. While we are glad to say that we have been to a Korean market, we do not plan on going back any time soon!
Fortunately, after our disappointing afternoon we decided to make our way to another area of Seoul called Itaewon. Since this is where the U.S. military base is located a lot of food vendors have set up foreign food options. Thank god! We were able to find an abundant amount of Italian, Thai, middle eastern, and Chinese restaurants. Having been away from Portland for over three months, we had been craving one of Portlander's favorite cuisine: Thai! So the decision as to where we would eat was easily made! It was surprisingly pretty good. We ordered sweet and sour chicken and phat thai (yes, here it's phat not pad). The phat thai was different from the U.S., but it certainly did the job! Ian and I already suspect we will be back to Itaewon very soon.
The following day Ian and I needed to get out of the city. Being surrounded by cars and people non-stop started to wear on us, so we took a public bus about 20 minutes outside of the city to an area called Ilsan. While Ilsan isn't completely out of the city, it does have a smaller town feel. The best part about Ilsan is that it has the largest man made lake in Korea! We walked partially around it looking at the flowers and the families having picnics. It was one of the most relaxing days we have had in Korea, and because of this I know we will be back very soon. It will also be even better when we aren't dripping wet from the humidity. It definitely got a little too hot, but was still enjoyable!
Last night Ian's friend Dan decided to take us to Korea's famous fish market called Noryangjin. All we can say is it was quite the experience! Imagine a HUGE building containing hundreds of vendors selling everything from crab, octopus, lobster, clams, flat fish, and even baby shark. Basically how the market works is you buy the seafood and then go the market restaurant and they cook it for you. So we found a vendor we wanted to buy the seafood from. There were four of us so we bought 1 crab, 1 flat fish, we believe to be flounder, and 2 octopus. The vendor's wife then fileted our fish, while the vendor put the crab and octopus in a bag for us to take to the restaurant upstairs. So imagine us walking through the market with a live octopus and crab in plastic bag! Once we got to the market's restaurant we handed them the bag and they cooked the crab and cut up the octopus.
The first thing we ate was the live, yes live, octopus! It was even still moving on the plate. Ian had been wanting to try this ever since we watched Anthony Bourdain eat it, so here was his chance! I thought it was absolutely repulsive. The tentacles suck to your tongue or your cheek as you attempt to force it down your throat. Plus to make it just that much tastier it is extremely chewy, almost like eating sticky rubber. Ian even ate part of the head ( including the eyeball) which he said was pretty disgusting. Fortunately, the crab came next, which was scrumptious! The fish was next, which was not cooked. It was sushimi, which Ian thought was very tasty. I, on the other hand, was not as big of a fan. The texture just didn't do it for me. With the last remnants of the flat fish and crab, the chef cooked up a spicy fish stew with tofu and fried rice with small pieces of crab. These were both very good.
Surprisingly we felt fine after eating all of that and did not have to break out the pepto bismol! Even though I won't be eating live octopus and sushimi anytime soon, it was an amazing experience and one that we will never forget.
That is all from Seodaemun! Hope all is well and a few pictures of the markets and lake will be posted soon.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
A Taste of Seoul
We promised a post about the food over here in Korea, so without any further ado, here it is...
First and foremost, Leslie and I have a love-hate relationship with Korean food. Korean gastronomy has numerous tasty dishes, however we've found it difficult to eat Korean food repetitively due to its strong and unique flavors. Maybe you would all understand our ordeal better through the following example: Say that you head out to your favorite Chinese restaurant and order a wonderful meal. You return home with your belly full and satisfied, the taste of fortune cookies still lingering on your palate. Maybe you have a few leftovers that you save for lunch the next day. But when dinner rolls around the following night do you ever say to yourself, "Man, I think I'll go have Chinese food again tonight." Hell no!, of course you don't, because the flavors are so strong and unique that they satisfy your Asian urge for a least a few days.
So, just substitute the word "Korean" for the word "Chinese" in the above story and you can see our problem. We like Korean food, but eating it everyday is taking some getting used to. It has very strong flavors that often do not vary that much from dish to dish, which is making the adjustment a bit more challenging. Although one thing that was an easy adjustment is the price. Korean food is cheap, I mean dirt cheap. If Leslie and I spend more than $10 total a meal of ethnic Korean food, we are really livin it up.
However, on the flip side, foreign food is expensive. You can find good Italian, Mexican, American, and Indian food in Seoul, but it'll cost ya! A large peperoni pizza from Pizza Hut costs around $20, and we had a sit down Mexican meal last week for a wallet vaporizing $46! But we have been making things like pasta and sandwiches at home which are definitely more affordable.
Now, on we go to a look at some of our favorite, and not so favorite, Korean dishes:
DISHES TO LOVE:
1. Mandu: Mandu is the Korean word for dumplings, and they are absolutely delicious. They are usually filled with a mixture of pork and green onions and then steamed. However, they also have Kimchi flavored dumplings (of course!), and those we haven't liked so much. But overall mandu are just great, the only side effect are the burps. Mandu burps are the absolute worst, like some small burrowing mammal crawled into your stomach and died. But if you can survive these burps of death they are definitely worth it!
2. Ramen: Ramen comes in all shapes, sizes, and colors in Korea, and usually is quite tasty. You order it in restaurants with all sorts of toppings, or you can buy it almost anywhere for about 50-70 cents and just add hot water for a quick snack of salty-spicy goodness.
3. Gimbap: This is the Korean take on a sushi roll. The standard gimbap roll is filled with rice, egg, crab, picked radish, ham, cucumber, and one indistinguishable brown element that we have decided not to ask questions about. Gimbap comes in all different varieties and usually cost between $1 and $3 for a whole roll.
4. Bibimbap: This dish is awesome, I mean you can't deny that the name itself "bibimbap" is by far one of the coolest words in existence. Bibimbap is basically rice topped with fresh vegetables, seaweed, meat, chili sauce, and a fried egg, all served in a hot stone pot. You just mix it all together and enjoy for only about $4.
5. Bulgogi/Kalbi: Oh yes, we haven't forgotten the famous Korean barbecue. Beef, lamb, or pork marinated and then grill at your table over hot coals, rapped in a lettuce leaf with bean paste and other condiments, and then gobbled down like a lettuce wrap. Fantastic!
6. Green Tea Shakes: Ice cream + ice + green tea, what's not to love!
DISHES NOT TO LOVE:
1. Kimchi: This fermented chili infused cabbage condiment is as common on restaurant tables as napkins or salt shakers, and has quite a unique taste. While have had some kimchi that we like, it often has a fishy taste that the fermentation only seems to exaggerate.
2. Pickeled Radish: Kimchi's partner in crime is the just as popular pickled yellow radish, which has a bitter vinegary taste that always catches you off-guard, as the flavor contrast sharply with its innocent vegetable appearance.
3. Traditional Korean Flavoured Tea: Recently, Leslie and I went to a traditional Korean tea house in hopes of enjoying the old-timey Korean version of the beverage we love so well. However, upon first taste our excitement immediately vanished into mixture of fear, panic, and ultimately dispair. This drink my friends, was the by far the worst beverage, outside of cold medicine, that we have ever had. I mean, a luke-warm "gin and diet coke" made by a drunken frat guy would have tasted better. The tea was a syrupy, earthy, at times slightly crunchy hell-water, made of who knows what. Probably, some weird roots and rotting leaves or something. Oh and did I mention that it cost $5 a cup! Very disappointing to say the least. Oh well, can't win them all I guess.
We are going to post a picture slide show soon of some of the food we have eaten. We don't have pictures of all the dishes we talked about, and we also have pictures of many dishes we didn't talk about, but hopefully they should be interesting to look at. Take care everyone, keep an eye out for the slide show.
First and foremost, Leslie and I have a love-hate relationship with Korean food. Korean gastronomy has numerous tasty dishes, however we've found it difficult to eat Korean food repetitively due to its strong and unique flavors. Maybe you would all understand our ordeal better through the following example: Say that you head out to your favorite Chinese restaurant and order a wonderful meal. You return home with your belly full and satisfied, the taste of fortune cookies still lingering on your palate. Maybe you have a few leftovers that you save for lunch the next day. But when dinner rolls around the following night do you ever say to yourself, "Man, I think I'll go have Chinese food again tonight." Hell no!, of course you don't, because the flavors are so strong and unique that they satisfy your Asian urge for a least a few days.
So, just substitute the word "Korean" for the word "Chinese" in the above story and you can see our problem. We like Korean food, but eating it everyday is taking some getting used to. It has very strong flavors that often do not vary that much from dish to dish, which is making the adjustment a bit more challenging. Although one thing that was an easy adjustment is the price. Korean food is cheap, I mean dirt cheap. If Leslie and I spend more than $10 total a meal of ethnic Korean food, we are really livin it up.
However, on the flip side, foreign food is expensive. You can find good Italian, Mexican, American, and Indian food in Seoul, but it'll cost ya! A large peperoni pizza from Pizza Hut costs around $20, and we had a sit down Mexican meal last week for a wallet vaporizing $46! But we have been making things like pasta and sandwiches at home which are definitely more affordable.
Now, on we go to a look at some of our favorite, and not so favorite, Korean dishes:
DISHES TO LOVE:
1. Mandu: Mandu is the Korean word for dumplings, and they are absolutely delicious. They are usually filled with a mixture of pork and green onions and then steamed. However, they also have Kimchi flavored dumplings (of course!), and those we haven't liked so much. But overall mandu are just great, the only side effect are the burps. Mandu burps are the absolute worst, like some small burrowing mammal crawled into your stomach and died. But if you can survive these burps of death they are definitely worth it!
2. Ramen: Ramen comes in all shapes, sizes, and colors in Korea, and usually is quite tasty. You order it in restaurants with all sorts of toppings, or you can buy it almost anywhere for about 50-70 cents and just add hot water for a quick snack of salty-spicy goodness.
3. Gimbap: This is the Korean take on a sushi roll. The standard gimbap roll is filled with rice, egg, crab, picked radish, ham, cucumber, and one indistinguishable brown element that we have decided not to ask questions about. Gimbap comes in all different varieties and usually cost between $1 and $3 for a whole roll.
4. Bibimbap: This dish is awesome, I mean you can't deny that the name itself "bibimbap" is by far one of the coolest words in existence. Bibimbap is basically rice topped with fresh vegetables, seaweed, meat, chili sauce, and a fried egg, all served in a hot stone pot. You just mix it all together and enjoy for only about $4.
5. Bulgogi/Kalbi: Oh yes, we haven't forgotten the famous Korean barbecue. Beef, lamb, or pork marinated and then grill at your table over hot coals, rapped in a lettuce leaf with bean paste and other condiments, and then gobbled down like a lettuce wrap. Fantastic!
6. Green Tea Shakes: Ice cream + ice + green tea, what's not to love!
DISHES NOT TO LOVE:
1. Kimchi: This fermented chili infused cabbage condiment is as common on restaurant tables as napkins or salt shakers, and has quite a unique taste. While have had some kimchi that we like, it often has a fishy taste that the fermentation only seems to exaggerate.
2. Pickeled Radish: Kimchi's partner in crime is the just as popular pickled yellow radish, which has a bitter vinegary taste that always catches you off-guard, as the flavor contrast sharply with its innocent vegetable appearance.
3. Traditional Korean Flavoured Tea: Recently, Leslie and I went to a traditional Korean tea house in hopes of enjoying the old-timey Korean version of the beverage we love so well. However, upon first taste our excitement immediately vanished into mixture of fear, panic, and ultimately dispair. This drink my friends, was the by far the worst beverage, outside of cold medicine, that we have ever had. I mean, a luke-warm "gin and diet coke" made by a drunken frat guy would have tasted better. The tea was a syrupy, earthy, at times slightly crunchy hell-water, made of who knows what. Probably, some weird roots and rotting leaves or something. Oh and did I mention that it cost $5 a cup! Very disappointing to say the least. Oh well, can't win them all I guess.
We are going to post a picture slide show soon of some of the food we have eaten. We don't have pictures of all the dishes we talked about, and we also have pictures of many dishes we didn't talk about, but hopefully they should be interesting to look at. Take care everyone, keep an eye out for the slide show.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Sinchon
Hi all! Well, we have been here for over three weeks and we can definately say it has flown by. While we are still getting used to living in Korea we have had some great experiences so far (meeting new friends, eating Korean food, having our own apartment, and even teaching!)
As you can see in the slideshow Ian and I have visited a restaurant and shopping district called Sinchon. Sinchon is an area where thousands of young Koreans come to shop, eat and drink coffee. This area is exactly what I imaged Seoul to be like. It is crowded, has lots of street vendors, neon lights, and hundreds of restaurants. Fortunately, Sinchon is either a 3 minute bus ride or a 15 minute walk from the apartment, so getting there is extremely easy! Plus it has the Korean version of Walmart, called Grandmart! It has a grocery section on the bottom 2 floors and every possible household necessity on the remaining 5 floors. You may notice by looking at the pictures that you see VERY few foreigners. The funny thing is this part of Seoul is considered to have a larger population of foreigners, since there are a few international schools here. Well, Ian and I have found that a "large" foreign population in Korea means you see about 3 foreigners a day, if you're lucky. Now we know how it feels to be the minority!
Another restaurant and shopping district, which is in the opposite direction of Sinchon, is called Hungdai. This is also about a 5 minute bus/taxi ride. We went there last weekend and met up with some friends of Dan (who is Ian's friend from UP). Ian and I stayed out until 2:30 AM while the rest of the group was going to the next bar! The next day we heard they stayed out until 4:30 AM. Staying up late is something they do very well here. Even at 2:30 AM restaurants were busy!
This upcoming weekend we hope to visit a section of Seoul call Insadong. This area is know for its tea shops. Unfortunately, getting tea here is extremely expensive, so we are hoping that the tea in Insadong is little more reasonable. Who would have guessed that an Asian country would sell ridiculously high priced tea! We also want to take the treck to Seoul Tower, which is basically the Korean version of Seattle's Space Needle. You can see the entire city from the top. We just hope the weather works out!
Our next post is going to be about the food we have loved and dispised! Pictures are soon to come...
As you can see in the slideshow Ian and I have visited a restaurant and shopping district called Sinchon. Sinchon is an area where thousands of young Koreans come to shop, eat and drink coffee. This area is exactly what I imaged Seoul to be like. It is crowded, has lots of street vendors, neon lights, and hundreds of restaurants. Fortunately, Sinchon is either a 3 minute bus ride or a 15 minute walk from the apartment, so getting there is extremely easy! Plus it has the Korean version of Walmart, called Grandmart! It has a grocery section on the bottom 2 floors and every possible household necessity on the remaining 5 floors. You may notice by looking at the pictures that you see VERY few foreigners. The funny thing is this part of Seoul is considered to have a larger population of foreigners, since there are a few international schools here. Well, Ian and I have found that a "large" foreign population in Korea means you see about 3 foreigners a day, if you're lucky. Now we know how it feels to be the minority!
Another restaurant and shopping district, which is in the opposite direction of Sinchon, is called Hungdai. This is also about a 5 minute bus/taxi ride. We went there last weekend and met up with some friends of Dan (who is Ian's friend from UP). Ian and I stayed out until 2:30 AM while the rest of the group was going to the next bar! The next day we heard they stayed out until 4:30 AM. Staying up late is something they do very well here. Even at 2:30 AM restaurants were busy!
This upcoming weekend we hope to visit a section of Seoul call Insadong. This area is know for its tea shops. Unfortunately, getting tea here is extremely expensive, so we are hoping that the tea in Insadong is little more reasonable. Who would have guessed that an Asian country would sell ridiculously high priced tea! We also want to take the treck to Seoul Tower, which is basically the Korean version of Seattle's Space Needle. You can see the entire city from the top. We just hope the weather works out!
Our next post is going to be about the food we have loved and dispised! Pictures are soon to come...
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Slideshow
We finally figured out how to make a slideshow! What you need to do in order to view the slideshow in a bigger size is...
1. Click on the picture below the title "Slideshow", this will link you to Flickr
2. On the right side of the slideshow you will see a box that says "9 items." If you click on the picture of a projector below the "9 items" it will link you to the slideshow. It should then play for you.
If this doesn't work or you can't figure out how to view the slideshow, just email Ian and we will work out the kinks!
1. Click on the picture below the title "Slideshow", this will link you to Flickr
2. On the right side of the slideshow you will see a box that says "9 items." If you click on the picture of a projector below the "9 items" it will link you to the slideshow. It should then play for you.
If this doesn't work or you can't figure out how to view the slideshow, just email Ian and we will work out the kinks!
Monday, July 27, 2009
A Run to Costco
This last Sunday Leslie and I took the subway across the Han River on the first of probably many ritual pilgrimages to that gastronomical mecca we hold so dear to our hearts: Costco! We were very excited but still nervous. Would the Korean Costco be the same as its American counterpart?, or would it just be full of 2 gallon barrels of kimchi and endless vats of pickled radishes? Well, it turned out to be a little of both.
Costco Korea definitely had its bulky share of seaweed drums, floor mats, and shoe racks, but it also had plenty of what we were looking for. Cheese by the pound, rows of bagels, Tabasco, deli meat, and an assortment of snack foods. Unfortunately, we could only take back what we could carry, so we had to be quite scrupulous in what we left with.
Also, as it turned out, leaving was a challenging matter of its own. As I mentioned before, we went on a Sunday, which we will never do again! The place was packed to the gills, with hundreds, if not thousands of shoppers wielding oversize shopping carts through the narrow winding spaces between other Costco-ers, all on the personal vendetta to get what they came for and escape alive.
It was a complete zoo! The food kiosk looked like the feed lot at the Chicago slaughter pens. People packed shoulder to shoulder, 20 deep, all jostling for get their pizza or hot dog (which were quite tasty in fact, just like back home) There were no open seats and half-a-dozen diners would begin to encircle those on the benches who were finishing their meal. Every person sitting down had someone slowly inching closer to them in a desperate attempt to grab the open seat when they left. People were literally standing right next to diners as they ate.
Leslie and I decided it would be best (and safest) to stand unobtrusively in a corner and match the battle unfold. And it was entertaining to say the least. No one seemed to mind all the people crowding around them as they ate, it must be a normal occurrence at Costco. On a side note, the chopped onions at the condiment station were immensely popular. People would load up an entire plate of them, and put them on everything, and sometimes mix them with ketchup and mustard. Some people would even take the remaining onions home in a bag. Costco even had grinders for people to grind their own onions because they probably couldn't restock the onion tray fast enough, which incidentally made them quite fresh and delicious.
After lunch Leslie and I braved the horde of shoppers and managed to escape with some precious cargo: sharp cheese, Cheerios, pancake mix, olive oil, and salami. It was very exciting. Now we can make sandwiches!
I'm sure we will head back to Costco soon for more things, just not on a Sunday. What a rookie mistake. We heard afterwards that mid week is much calmer. We will put up another post about school and other things soon, so don't go anywhere!
Costco Korea definitely had its bulky share of seaweed drums, floor mats, and shoe racks, but it also had plenty of what we were looking for. Cheese by the pound, rows of bagels, Tabasco, deli meat, and an assortment of snack foods. Unfortunately, we could only take back what we could carry, so we had to be quite scrupulous in what we left with.
Also, as it turned out, leaving was a challenging matter of its own. As I mentioned before, we went on a Sunday, which we will never do again! The place was packed to the gills, with hundreds, if not thousands of shoppers wielding oversize shopping carts through the narrow winding spaces between other Costco-ers, all on the personal vendetta to get what they came for and escape alive.
It was a complete zoo! The food kiosk looked like the feed lot at the Chicago slaughter pens. People packed shoulder to shoulder, 20 deep, all jostling for get their pizza or hot dog (which were quite tasty in fact, just like back home) There were no open seats and half-a-dozen diners would begin to encircle those on the benches who were finishing their meal. Every person sitting down had someone slowly inching closer to them in a desperate attempt to grab the open seat when they left. People were literally standing right next to diners as they ate.
Leslie and I decided it would be best (and safest) to stand unobtrusively in a corner and match the battle unfold. And it was entertaining to say the least. No one seemed to mind all the people crowding around them as they ate, it must be a normal occurrence at Costco. On a side note, the chopped onions at the condiment station were immensely popular. People would load up an entire plate of them, and put them on everything, and sometimes mix them with ketchup and mustard. Some people would even take the remaining onions home in a bag. Costco even had grinders for people to grind their own onions because they probably couldn't restock the onion tray fast enough, which incidentally made them quite fresh and delicious.
After lunch Leslie and I braved the horde of shoppers and managed to escape with some precious cargo: sharp cheese, Cheerios, pancake mix, olive oil, and salami. It was very exciting. Now we can make sandwiches!
I'm sure we will head back to Costco soon for more things, just not on a Sunday. What a rookie mistake. We heard afterwards that mid week is much calmer. We will put up another post about school and other things soon, so don't go anywhere!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Moved In!
Well, we have moved into our actual apartment! It is basically one large room with a small kitchenett and bathroom. It's not a lot of room but we are happy with it. What's really nice is that it has a washing machine! Thank god we don't have to go searching for a laundry mat. Another nice aspect is being in the same apartment complex as most of the other teachers. This makes getting together really convenient.
Ian started teaching on Monday and had a pretty successful first day. He said the younger students (around 8-10 year olds) are all very eager to learn and participate. The teenagers, on the other hand, aren't as vocal and take a lot more coaxing. I started teaching today. My first class has about 12 ten year olds. They are all really cute but a little more shy. But once you get them relaxed they are a lot more willing to participate. For the next five weeks Ian and I are going to have different working schedules. He works at night and I work in the morning. That has taken some time getting used to but we are just happy to have jobs!
We haven't seen too much of the Korean night life yet. We went to a bar last Saturday with some of the other teachers. It was fun but since we left too late we ended up at a "Foreign Bar." This is basically a bar for all the Americans who are teaching english. I must say it was really suprising walking in and seeing so many people that looked like us! Fortunately, we are in between two universities, so finding a restaurant and or a bar is very easy.
Earlier today we were able to buy a bed! This may not sound too exciting but after sleeping on floor mats for close to a week we are very excited! Unfortunately, we don't have sheets or blankets yet. But those will come soon (hopefully)! We were also able to buy a few items (lamp, t.v, pots) from the girl who lived in our apartment previously. It will probably take a couple of weeks to actually set up our apartment since we don't know where to buy anything!
That's the news from Seodaemun-gu! We will post pictures of the apartment later tonight.
Ian started teaching on Monday and had a pretty successful first day. He said the younger students (around 8-10 year olds) are all very eager to learn and participate. The teenagers, on the other hand, aren't as vocal and take a lot more coaxing. I started teaching today. My first class has about 12 ten year olds. They are all really cute but a little more shy. But once you get them relaxed they are a lot more willing to participate. For the next five weeks Ian and I are going to have different working schedules. He works at night and I work in the morning. That has taken some time getting used to but we are just happy to have jobs!
We haven't seen too much of the Korean night life yet. We went to a bar last Saturday with some of the other teachers. It was fun but since we left too late we ended up at a "Foreign Bar." This is basically a bar for all the Americans who are teaching english. I must say it was really suprising walking in and seeing so many people that looked like us! Fortunately, we are in between two universities, so finding a restaurant and or a bar is very easy.
Earlier today we were able to buy a bed! This may not sound too exciting but after sleeping on floor mats for close to a week we are very excited! Unfortunately, we don't have sheets or blankets yet. But those will come soon (hopefully)! We were also able to buy a few items (lamp, t.v, pots) from the girl who lived in our apartment previously. It will probably take a couple of weeks to actually set up our apartment since we don't know where to buy anything!
That's the news from Seodaemun-gu! We will post pictures of the apartment later tonight.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Training
Well, we did it. We passed training and are now officially Chungdahm Institute instructors. And it feels great! Training, on the otherhand, did not feel great. In fact, it was pretty horrible. Currently, the raw burning memory of our training program is still fresh in our minds, and we do not have the strength to talk much about it. Perhaps one day, with the healing efforts of time, we might be able to enlighten you on our week long adventure to hell and back.
But on a lighter note, we have made it to our branch in beautiful Seodaemun-gu, and it seems great. All the staff and instructors are very nice and welcoming. It looks like a great place to work. Everyone seems very happy there, even most of the students.
I start my first day of teaching on Monday and Leslie starts on Wednesday. We will get a post up soon to tell you how it goes!
But on a lighter note, we have made it to our branch in beautiful Seodaemun-gu, and it seems great. All the staff and instructors are very nice and welcoming. It looks like a great place to work. Everyone seems very happy there, even most of the students.
I start my first day of teaching on Monday and Leslie starts on Wednesday. We will get a post up soon to tell you how it goes!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Korean Characteristics
After being in Korea for almost a week now, we wanted to share with you all some insights we've gained about this lovely country. Based on our limited experience so far, these twelve observations represent a solid piece of the Korean portrait we have drawn for ourselves. Enjoy!
1. The sidewalk is a vastly under-rated area for both parking and driving.
2. Pringles potatoe chips are a universally tasty food. I have yet to meet a culture that does not worship their deliciousness.
3. The term "mild" is an unknown word in the Korean mind.
4. Pizza Hut is quite a swanky and respectable eating establishment, with a salad bar to boot, which happens to be saladless.
5. Flat Screens TVs are everywhere, I mean everywhere; public buses, bathrooms, and divey restaurants.
6. Every meal has two staples. No not green tea and white rice, but kimchi and pickled yellow beets. And when i say every meal, I mean every meal.
7. While few people seem to speak it, English is everywhere. Its on restaurant menus, advertisements, clothing, and roads signs. Sometimes entire businesses and advertisements are in English, with Korean characters crammed unobtrusively into the margins.
8. Tea is expensive, much more so than in the U.S. Iced Tea is the splurge item on coffee shop menus and our hotel lobby charges $7.50 for it.
9. In Korea, rain jackets are for the fashionably unsensible or the financially unsupportable. Umbrellas are definitely the cool way to go. Everyone has one.
10. Hoegaarden is the new Bud. Nearly every convenience store we've seen, including 7-11, sells this relatively illusive and pricey European wheat beer, and for a reasonable price.
11. The way to get lunch in Seoul is by motorcycle delivery man. These delivery guys are more common than Portland bicyclists, McDonald's even has their own fleet of them. They ride on every navicable surface disobeying most traffic laws.
12. Korea is a homogeneous culture, at least in the area where we are staying. Leslie and I could count the number of westerners we've seen since we've been here on our fingers. But nearly everyone has been both kind and gracious to us.
1. The sidewalk is a vastly under-rated area for both parking and driving.
2. Pringles potatoe chips are a universally tasty food. I have yet to meet a culture that does not worship their deliciousness.
3. The term "mild" is an unknown word in the Korean mind.
4. Pizza Hut is quite a swanky and respectable eating establishment, with a salad bar to boot, which happens to be saladless.
5. Flat Screens TVs are everywhere, I mean everywhere; public buses, bathrooms, and divey restaurants.
6. Every meal has two staples. No not green tea and white rice, but kimchi and pickled yellow beets. And when i say every meal, I mean every meal.
7. While few people seem to speak it, English is everywhere. Its on restaurant menus, advertisements, clothing, and roads signs. Sometimes entire businesses and advertisements are in English, with Korean characters crammed unobtrusively into the margins.
8. Tea is expensive, much more so than in the U.S. Iced Tea is the splurge item on coffee shop menus and our hotel lobby charges $7.50 for it.
9. In Korea, rain jackets are for the fashionably unsensible or the financially unsupportable. Umbrellas are definitely the cool way to go. Everyone has one.
10. Hoegaarden is the new Bud. Nearly every convenience store we've seen, including 7-11, sells this relatively illusive and pricey European wheat beer, and for a reasonable price.
11. The way to get lunch in Seoul is by motorcycle delivery man. These delivery guys are more common than Portland bicyclists, McDonald's even has their own fleet of them. They ride on every navicable surface disobeying most traffic laws.
12. Korea is a homogeneous culture, at least in the area where we are staying. Leslie and I could count the number of westerners we've seen since we've been here on our fingers. But nearly everyone has been both kind and gracious to us.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Made It!
We finally made it to Seoul after having been up for over 24 hours! Even though we were exhausted after finding our way to the hotel, we could not give up the chance for our first bite of Korean food. Our table was filled with several side dishes, kimchi included, and a main dish of short ribs. While the short ribs were delicious the kimchi was a little fishy. But all in all it was a great meal. Fortunately, we have seen several American food joints throughout the city, including KFC, The Coffee Bean, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, Baskin Robins, Hooters (Yep, they have Hooters!), On the Boarder, TGIF, and of course McDonalds.
The next day we had to take a medical exam at the National Medical Center. Unlike the hospitals in the U.S., this one is pretty dismal and dirty. But after having our weight, blood pressure, eyes, teeth, urine, and chest checked we were thankfully released!
We have done a little exploring of the city. Yesterday we took our first city bus ride! It only cost 1,000 Won (about $.72) and was not too difficult to navigate. We are going to explore the subway system today, so hopefully we don't get lost! Fortunately our hotel is really nice. Ian thinks a little too nice, suspecting it MUST be headquarters of the Korean Mob :)
Well that's all the news from Seoul. Check back in a week to hear about our wonderful adventures of training...
The next day we had to take a medical exam at the National Medical Center. Unlike the hospitals in the U.S., this one is pretty dismal and dirty. But after having our weight, blood pressure, eyes, teeth, urine, and chest checked we were thankfully released!
We have done a little exploring of the city. Yesterday we took our first city bus ride! It only cost 1,000 Won (about $.72) and was not too difficult to navigate. We are going to explore the subway system today, so hopefully we don't get lost! Fortunately our hotel is really nice. Ian thinks a little too nice, suspecting it MUST be headquarters of the Korean Mob :)
Well that's all the news from Seoul. Check back in a week to hear about our wonderful adventures of training...
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Headed to the Eastside
So we're leaving for Seoul in mid August. Oh wait!, I mean July 11th, no July 3rd! No, sorry, its July 7th. Yes, that's it, July 7th!
After four date changes and two changed plane tickets we are finally about to embark for Korea on, yes that's right, Tuesday the 7th, assuming the date doesn't change yet again. Leslie and I were never quite sure if this whole thing would work out, but miraculously it has, and we are more excited than ever to go.
We fly from Salt Lake to San Francisco, and then on to Seoul a 12 hour direct flight. When we arrive we are staying in a hotel until the 13th when our training officially begins. During this time we have to pass a government health inspection so we can qualify for health insurance (and so the proper authorities can make sure we are not biological terrorists or ignorant transporters of the swine flu).
We have a week of training starting on the 13th, and then we start work at the institute; Chungdahm Institute, Seodaemun Branch to be exact. We hope to get a posting up a few days after we arrive, assuming we can get internet access, which shouldn't be hard considering Korea is the most wired country on earth.
Looking foward to posting again from Seoul!
After four date changes and two changed plane tickets we are finally about to embark for Korea on, yes that's right, Tuesday the 7th, assuming the date doesn't change yet again. Leslie and I were never quite sure if this whole thing would work out, but miraculously it has, and we are more excited than ever to go.
We fly from Salt Lake to San Francisco, and then on to Seoul a 12 hour direct flight. When we arrive we are staying in a hotel until the 13th when our training officially begins. During this time we have to pass a government health inspection so we can qualify for health insurance (and so the proper authorities can make sure we are not biological terrorists or ignorant transporters of the swine flu).
We have a week of training starting on the 13th, and then we start work at the institute; Chungdahm Institute, Seodaemun Branch to be exact. We hope to get a posting up a few days after we arrive, assuming we can get internet access, which shouldn't be hard considering Korea is the most wired country on earth.
Looking foward to posting again from Seoul!
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Gyeongbokgung Palace
Seoul's biggest palace and its historic seat of government.
Gangchon
Korean Corn Dog
Notice how much batter there is around the hot dog
Tom's Tacos
Minus sour cream we can get everything to make tacos!
The Completed Apartment
