Elevators

This happened to me on my way to the gym. I've been going to this gym for about 4 months now, so you think they'd be used to me. Apparently not.



I got this from facebook here:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=59501140#!/pages/ROKetship/34214005228?v=wall&story_fbid=126436794048606

Son Dambi "Saturday Night"

This was also a video that was playing during our field trip. The kids loved it, and continued to sing it throughout the rest of the day.

In Korean class, I've learned how to say saturday night but because of this song, I will forever remember it! Romanized, it sounds like "Toe-yo-il bam-ae"

After School "Diva"

So I've been meaning to post this Kpop video. It's pretty horrible, actually.

On our field trip a few weeks back, we had Kpop playing in our coach bus whenever we went somewhere new. This was one of the songs. Class 7 didn't really know any of the words other than the main line "Diva, diva, dididi diva!!"

I'm a fan of the horrible outfits and funny dance moves. I've asked a few Koreans what the rest of the lyrics are, but they say it just kind of sounds like nonsense! Check it out:

The South's Evacuation Plan

I read on Brian in Jeollanam-do's blog that he read on Chris in South Korea's blog about the emergency evacuation plan in case of the situation with the North getting worse.

Basically, it says "The United States embassy says Gwangju, Jeollanam-do, Jeollabuk-do except Gunsan, and the two Gyeongsang provinces comprise Area 4, an area with three evacuation points for American citizens, the nearest one to most Jeollanam-do residents being Chinhae (Jinhae, 진해).

They also recommend having an emergency survial pack ready to go (water, non-perishable food, playing cards) as well as having your important documents like your passport and bank details in an easy-to-grab spot.

I'm sure these posts have scared the newbies to Korea, and will probably also scare my parents a little. Don't worry Mom, I'll go on a scavenger hunt in my apartment this afternoon for my passport!

Birthday's

Kid's in Korea don't really celebrate their birthdays. I think that's kinda sad, I love celebrating mine (and other peoples!).

This week, I'm teaching about birthday's because last week was Buddha's birthday. For the lesson, we learn about the different ways other cultures (Mexico, India, USA, and Korea) celebrate their birthdays. I also ask them what they do to celebrate, and write their ideas on the board. I haven't had one class NOT say "go to the PC room." I have to pry pretty hard to get them to even mention the word "cake" and "presents."

At the end of the lesson, the kids make their own fortune cookies with a good luck wish inside. I give them a few examples, such as "you will be rich," "you are special," "have a great day," etc, but someone always writes "you will be die," or "you will break your boyfriend." It's actually kind of cute, and the kids think this is hilarious.

Here's what I wanted the cookies to turn out like. Of course, they don't look nearly as cute when they're just crafted out of plain white A4 paper and scotch tape!

Here is one of the many videos I took at sports day. They're probably the best. It was so entertaining! The danced to Abracadabra, Bo peep, and Heartbeat. I love the little guy who does the hip thrusts and takes of his shirt. If I can remember correctly, he did the same thing at our school's Christmas program last year!

Buddha's Birthday

Here are some lanterns hanging at one of the temples downtown. It was so pretty.



On Buddha's birthday, we were planning on going to a Kia Tigers game, but we got there a lot later than anticipated. My friends who were in town and I just ended up sitting at the pond at Chonnam for about 2 and a half hours.

Haemul Pa Jeon and Dubu Jeon

I had a successful day in the kitchen this Sunday afternoon/evening. I had mentioned to my mom during our Skype conversation that I didn't have anything special planned for the day, so maybe I'd do some cooking. Here's what was on the menu:

Lunchtime:
Seafood and Green Onion Pancakes (Haemul Pa Jeon)

This is a very common food that you can find all over Korea. I though I'd try making it from scratch, but that required me to buy both white and rice flour, neither of which I know the Korean word for. I decided to get a pre-package mix, similar to Bisquick mix I would assume.

It's a pretty simple receipe. I choose to add fresh shrimp to mine rather than squid. Not that I don't like it, it is just a lot harder to buy :) I also added about 5 green onions, cut into 2 inch pieces. I had some extra ingredients (red pepper, bean sprouts, and raddish) that I also decided to include.



Here it is, frying away in some canola oil:



And finally, the finished Haemul Pa Jeon:


~Quite delicious I thought!

Dinnertime:
Pan-fried tofu with mushrooms (Dubu Jeon)

This reciepe is fairly simple, but next time I make it, I'm going to actually follow the reciepe for the dipping sauce. I winged it this time and it was fine, but it could have been even better. Instead of using beef, I used pork. Beef is about 5 times as expensive, and it's hard to justify spending $5 on 100 grams, when I can get 100 grams of pork for just over $1.

First, I had to make the soy scallion dipping sauce. I had about half of the ingredients and improvised on the rest. It ended up being a combination of soy sauce, sesame oil, water, sugar, scallions, sesame seeds, and Korean red pepper flakes.



Basically, you fry the tofu, cook the meat and mushrooms, and spoon on some sauce. It's pretty easy.



I complemented the dubu jeon with some cooked zucchini. What a good meal, and I'm sure it will be even better next time :)

5-18 Democratic Uprising

Today is the anniversary of the 5-18 uprising in Gwangju. To honor this day, the entire school took a field trip yesterday (good thing we didn't go today, because it's raining!). There's just under 800 kids in the school, 19 homeroom classes, and went I got to school in the morning, I noticed all the busses. 19 of them! One for each class.

I went with Mihey and class 7, her homeroom class. I hadn't spent much time with them as a class before yesterday, but wow, they've got a lot of energy. I don't know how she does it!

Our first stop was at the new 5-18 cemetary in East Gwangju. This is where people who have recently died that were injured/shot in the uprising 30 years ago are burried. They have a nice memorial there, and pictures of each person burried. They also had a nice museum/expo center where you can learn about the uprising. We had a tour guide that took our class around. God, I loved her outfit so much. It's so Korea:



A little bit about the uprising: It is considered one of the most tragic chapters in modern history since the end of the Korean war. The uprising lasted 10 days, and thousands of people were injured/killed by armed forces who were controlling a new generation of military elites trying to find an excuse to seize power. There were numerous student demonstrations at Chonnam National University, and downtown on Geumnam-ro street. So basically, there was tons of violence- clubbing, beating, shooting, torture, you name it. At one point, there were more than 100,000 protesters. The official number of victims was 4,369!

In the afternoon, we got to go to the old military police headquarters, close to the military airport in Gwangju. The kids got to experience what it would have been like if they had been taken prisioner at the time. Here are the kids being lead to the jail cells. Note the guns:



Here are the kids in prision. The prisioners had to sit like this for 16 hours a day! I think the kids enjoyed the experience, and I know the other teachers and I really got a kick out of it!



I know it probably should have been a serious experience, but it was actually quite funny. I've got some more pictures online, and here's more information about the uprising:

Pictures- http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=38606019&id=59501140#!/album.php?id=59501140&aid=2202876&s=140&hash=23f212a78f4a58a28a8c376649d1d999

Korea Times- http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/special/2010/05/180_66017.html

The rest of the semester

Even though it still be 2 months away, school is starting to wind down. I've got a lot of fun things coming up in May and June!

Monday May 17- My birthday and an entire school field trip. We are going to the 5-18 park in Gwangju to educate the kids about the May 18 uprising in Gwangju.

Thursday May 20- Sports Day. The kids play games and sports and have various contests all day long outside on the playground.

Friday May 21- Buddha's Birthday, no school. A 3-Day weekend!!

Wednesay June 2- Election Day. Voting for the new mayor etc. No school.

Saturday June 5- My school's one-year birthday! We'll probably have something special going on but I'm not sure what.

Wednesday June 16- Friday June 18- Entire school camping trip! I'm pretty sure that I get to go on this. The kids get to do fun activities like hiking, rafting, swimming, etc. Mihey says the teachers get to do fun "teacher" activities, which I think is probably code for eating lots of galbi and drinking lots of soju. I can't wait!

Thursday June 24-Friday June 25- EPIK teachers Spring Retreat to Boesong. We went here in the fall for a two day orientation, but our coordinator at the MOE thinks that this time we will have more free time to explore the green tea fields at Boesong. This will be good, because I think last time I missed the biggest viewing area when looking through different friend's pictures.

Thursday July 1- Last day of Korean class at Chonnam. Yes, I really like going and learning everything, but I know that by then, I'll have learned so much more!

I'm looking forward for the next few months, especially the change of weather!

Asia's 20 best beach getaways

There was an article on CNN today about the best beaches in Asia. I've been to many of the countries mentioned (Korea, ovbiously, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand), and I plan on seeing the other places (like Indonesia, Japan, and Vietnam). I can understand how beautiful they must all be!

One of the beaches mentioned was Tanjung Rhu, Langkawi, Malaysia! I agree that this is definitely in the top 20! Here's what it said:

The island cluster of Langkawi is spearheading Malaysia’s bid to become the next major resort destination in Southeast Asia, and while on the main isle (also called Lankawi) most tourists flock to Pantai Cenang beach, we like the quieter Tanjung Rhu for its earthy beauty and serene atmosphere.

The two-mile Tanjung Rhu beach area is surrounded by ancient limestone caves, rippling waterways and dense mangroves. The newly opened Four Seasons resort offers boat tours around the mangrove forests led by naturalists.






Read more: Asia's 20 best beach getaways | CNNGo.com http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/none/asias-best-beaches-207933#ixzz0nlcqaxcL

These are some of my best guy friends here:

I found this photo on Facebook. Apparently the boys, Joe, Carmen, Evan, and Patrick were playing video games (Starcraft I think) at a local PC Bang. I've heard that Starcraft 2 is coming out soon, so they must be practicing. I can't belive I'm such good friends with them.

World DJ Fest- Part 2

Here's a picture from Alli from this weekend. From left to right, Emily, Abe, Margaret, Michael, Mike, Alli, Alex, Miguel, and Brian down in front. I still can't believe how much fun we all had!

4th World DJ Fest

This past Saturday, I went up to Seoul with Michael and Miguel to see the 4th World DJ Festival. We got on the bus around 11:20, and made it there by 4. After getting off the subway at the World Cup Staduim, we kind of got lost on the walk to the park along the Han river, but made it eventually just by following a mass of people!

I was glad we had purchased our tickets in advance. There were so many people in line waiting to get in! Our friend, Leah, was already inside and she told us that we weren't allowed to bring in any outside containers, so while we were waiting in line to get in, we were also drinking some Hite and whiskey. Here's Michael, Miguel, and I waiting to get in:



I was so glad we had gotten there early. It was great to be at the concert while it was still light out. I almost immediately lost Michael and Miguel, but that was okay :) I walked around drinking with Leah. We explored a lot of the vendor's stalls, took some silly pictures, played some bongo drums, and drank some more. Here we are at the Jagermeister stage, prior to getting face paint:



Here's what the venue looked like when it was still light out:



We had a lot of fun once the sun went down also. This was the main stage again. I'm not sure who was playing at the time, but everyone on the main stage was very talented!



Here's another of the stage. There must have easily been 10,000 people in the park. Good thing there were 5 stages!



The rest of our ticket group, Alli, Alex, Brian, and Emily, came later on in the evening. They also rode up with some friends from Gwangju, Mike and Abe. We looked for our Incheon friends, Evan, Carmen, and Joe, and eventually found them. It was a great time once we were all together. Things got pretty crazy pretty quickly. I stopped drinking around 11, I wouldn't have made it all night had I kept on drinking with the rest of them! That ended up being just fine though. By the time we left at 4:30 am, I was feeling good, just tired, while the rest of them were pretty hungover and tired I think!

Before we got back on the subway at the World Cup, we stopped at the Home Plus. I almost had a breakdown when deciding what early-morning snack to get. There were so many food choices that I hadn't seen in about 9 months, and I didn't know what to choose! In the end, I got something that I could have easily gotten in Gwangju- I didn't want to make the wrong decision! And, 5 am was just too early to be thinking straight!

It was a really long night, but it was so much fun. Everyone had a blast! I'm not sure if I'll go again next year, it may just have to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

World DJ Fest- Less than 1 week away!

Saturday is World DJ Fest in Seoul. It's gonna be a great weekend. My friends and I got tickets in advance. We'll be going up Saturday, staying at the concert (right on the Han) and staying up all night; the concert ends at 6:30 am Sunday morning. We'll take an early bus back to Gwangju then on Sunday. Here are some pictures of the concert in years past:

This years line up:

지리산국럽공원 (Jirisan National Park)

On Saturday, my friends Michael and Kenny and I went to 지리산국럽공원. Jirisan National Park was the first National Park ever in Korea, and is still one of the best. It is about 2 hours away by bus and pretty easy to get to.

We met at the bus terminal around 9, and took a bus to Gurye, the best gateway to the park. The bus terminal there was really sketchy. We didn't really know what to do, luckily our friends Drew and Kevin from Incheon went a few weeks ago and they helped us via text. We purchased a ticket to Jirisan, and the bus we boarded took us up very close to the top. The ride was quite long, about 40 minutes and the roads were so steep and curvy that Kenny and I got a little queazy, but Michael loved it.

We were dropped off at a lookout point where we began to hike. We really wanted to go on some trails, but for some reason, there weren't many there. We came across a path that was closed, probably due to poor trail/weather conditions. All three of us were game for jumping over it to make it to a peak we spotted. The trail was okay, but near the end, the trail stopped. We had to literally climb some big rocks to make it to the point. Kenny didn't come all the way up, but he took some pictures instead. Here's the rock:



Here was the view from the top of the rock. It's not green yet because of the cooler temperatures. I'm sure later in summer it'd be bright green.



After we had successfully blazed our own trail, we got back on the main road and walked up to the highest point in South Korea. The view was pretty impressive. Usually we can say whatever we like because nobody understands anyhow, but there just happened to be a group of 85 English speakers on an Adventure Korea tour. I'm sure they heard bits of our inappropriate conversation. Oh well. Anyway, this is what the view looked like:



Here's Michael, myself, and Kenny.



It was definitely a full day. We didn't really get the kind of hiking that we were looking for, mostly just trekking. However, we had great weather, and saw some great views. If you're interested in more pictures, find them here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2230977&id=59501140&page=7#!/album.php?id=59501140&aid=2230977&s=100&hash=d9bba7fd6adb49ae14493454e79a69d6