Wanderlust: Korea

School's Out!

2011-07-18T06:11:00.002+09:00

It's officially summer vacation! Class three was almost as excited as me! Next stop, Japan!

2018 in Korea!

2011-07-08T10:02:00.003+09:00

If you haven't heard the news yet, the small town of Pyeongchang (병창) has won the bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics. My co-workers are very excited about this, and they're hoping Kim Yu-na can give another spectacular performance.

The town is only about 40,000 people, and they're going to have to do a lot of work to prep it for the olympics. Luckily, it's already one of the top destinations in the country for winter sports, and it's location in the scenic "Korean Alps" will at least provide a beautiful backdrop.

Photo courtesy of CNNGo:

I hate my washing machine

2011-07-04T12:17:00.003+09:00

Normally, I don't have many problems with my washing machine. I know a lot of people have had many clothes ruined because of theirs, and yes, I have had a few fatalities. However, this last load of wash I did was the worst yet.

The damages include 1 stretched out skirt, 1 stretched out dress, 1 hole punctured through a cardigan, and 1 destroyed t-shirt. Here's some proof:

I'm pretty sure this isn't supposed to happen!

I've got to ask my co-teacher again if there's a gentle setting, but until then, can anyone help me?

RIP, t-shirt.

Picasso at the Lapin Agile (ie Rupert's Play)

2011-06-27T14:53:00.005+09:00

Sunday was Rupert's play. He's been busy rehearsing for over 3 months now, but I think all the hard work payed off! It was a fantastic show!

After getting back from Busan later than we'd anticipated, I met everyone at the theater. Some of the guys who went to see the play were Heather, Meaghan, Adam, Stephanie, Amanda, Ann, Kenny, Erin, Sun, Mike, and Sun Young. Andrew entertained us with a bit of accordion before the show started, and Matt was able to sneak in also, even though he didn't have a ticket for the sold-out show.

The theater was near Chon Dae's Front Gate, and it was a little small. They had a nice set up however, and because of the small size, nobody had a problem seeing or hearing.

The play was written by Steve Martin, and is a fictional story of when Picasso and Einstein meet at a bar in Paris. Later, Elvis even makes an appearance. All of the cast members did a fantastic job, but I think my favorite character of the evening was Charles Dabernow Schmendiman. He was so funny!

It was a great time, congrats, Rupert! :)

KSU Club Night~ Busan

2011-06-22T16:04:00.003+09:00

"BUSAN, South Korea -- Saturday the 25th will witness an evening (and probably early morning) of the peninsula’s top hip hop spread out between Vinyl Underground and Blue Monkey in Kyungsung. $10 gets you in both bars with a free drink in each and a long night of rappers spinning their yarns and DJ’s scratching."

The Deserts and Da Meegook Movement are playing their final out-of-town concert this coming weekend, and I know they've been working hard at getting ready for it. Stephanie and I are going to Busan Friday night (the boys will be playing/watching another concert in Daegu), and we'll catch the band in the exciting Kyungsung University District Saturday night. It should be a great show. There's a huge lineup, featuring:

*THE TROUBLE MAKERZ
*PINNACLE THEHUSTLER w/ DJ TOM SLICK
*BLACK ILUMIN & JUDONOMI
*DJ FENNER
*Da MEGOOK MOVEMENT
*THE DESERTS
*SAMMY CLAY

To find out more about some of these artists, check out Busan's English News Website here: http://www.busanhaps.com/article/hip-hop-descends-kyungsung

Daejeon Downtown~ 대정 시내

2011-06-22T14:39:00.002+09:00

I took this picture of downtown Daejeon on my weekend trip there with Kenny. Daejeon has two downtown's, old and new, and this was the newer, cooler of the two. We were surprised at the amount of people (both foreigners and Koreans) that were out to have a good time. There seemed to be an endless amount of places to eat/drink at, but I'm sure if we lived there, we would say the same things about Gwangju!

Yangdong Market (양동시장)- Gwangju

2011-06-14T10:39:00.006+09:00

Stephanie and I went to check out Gwangju's most famous market last Saturday, Yangdong Market. It's very convenient to get to as it's close to U-Square bus terminal, and it's also on the subway line. This market has been around for years, and an article in the Gwangju News Magazine showed a picture from the market back in the 70's. Things have changed architecturally, but I'm sure what they were selling back then is very similar to what we saw!

We first began by buying Stephanie some socks. Korean women like to wear socks that are made out of nylon, especially at school. Gotta keep your feet sanitary while wearing those community slippers!

Next, we found ourselves in the midst of the action. Fish, chicken, fruit, vegetables, kimchi, basically anything your heart desired. Some of the fish looked excellent, and the prawns were huge!

It always seems that at traditional markets such as Yangdong, they seem to sell everything in bulk, and that the vendor has enough to supply a small army. For example, how does he sell all this garlic?!

We also some some things that were a bit unsettling, so don't scroll down if you don't like seeing bizarre animals or parts! Don't say I didn't warn you!

Pigs heads and frogs- now that's something I'll have to go back for!

Seoul's Western Food

2011-06-07T10:03:00.008+09:00

Besides shopping, the variety of non-Korean food is one of the best reasons to go up to Seoul for the weekend. Stephanie and I went up this past weekend, and our whole weekend essentially revolved around Forever 21 in Myeongdong and eating as much non-Korean food as possible.

We first began with a Kebab from Mr. Kebab in Hongdae, for which I now have a punch card. Sorry, no picture of this as we were both too hungry to wait to snap a picture!

Saturday, we picked up a coffee from Dunkin Doughnuts in Hongdae, and by the time we were finished, Dos Tacos had opened up. We each ordered a burrito, mine was rice and bean with beef and avocado. It was simply fantastic, even though I couldn't eat it all. It was completely worth the 9,900 won!

After having perhaps too much success at Forever 21, we refueled with a giant, 1,500 won ice cream cone. It was fantastic because it was cool in the hot, afternoon sun, but it wasn't so filling that we were stuffed after.

Before we had dinner, we went to Happy Hour in Hongdae. The group next to us had a pitcher of what appeared to be fruit soju with real fruit. We ordered the same thing, but had to add the soju ourselves. It had a yogurty base, and was pretty unique.

The next place our group went to was a hopping Hof in Hongdae. Despite Hongdae being one of the main tourist areas, we were one of two tables of foreigners. Every other table was full, and it did take a while to get served. We ordered two types of chicken- a cheesy, boneless bbq style, and a spicy garlic chicken. The garlic chicken came in a shovel! I'd never seen that before.

Sunday, we began with breakfast at Rocky Mountain Tavern in Itaewon. This is probably the best Western-style breakfast for less than 10,000 in town. And the IPA we each ordered with it may not have been the healthiest decision for 11 am, but, oh, it tasted so good!

Finally, something I'd been literally dreaming about! Subway! I missed my chance when my parents were here when I stumbled upon a Subway in Gangnam, but forgot to go back to order! I was so happy to see one in Hongdae, where I generally stay. I chose the Subway Club, and it was just like back home. It was by far the best sandwich I've ever had in Korea!

When we weren't eating, we were either shopping, relaxing, or people watching around town. Even though we didn't do too much, we were both exhausted by the time we came back Sunday evening!

Where is Wando?

2011-06-01T14:31:00.007+09:00

Wando is a very small town located in Jeollanam-do providence, right on the coast of the ocean. I've been to this island (connected by a new bridge) three times now, and each time seems to get better than the last. Camping on the beach with a bunch of friends never gets old!

I received the Facebook invite a few weeks ago, and even though 293 some-odd people RSVP'd yes, I don't think there were more than 100. The beach is quite large, and our group camped away from the main party area (as we'd arrived late Friday night, and didn't see anyone else around). However, we were just a short 3 minute walk away from the main hangout area. We had the best of both worlds- right next to the clean bathrooms, and had a quiet sleeping area!

I came down with Michael, Matt, and Kenny after their band practice. Their music academy owner and his girlfriend were gracious enough to give us a lift in their van. It was a tight squeeze with all our tents, foods, backpacks, and of course, guitars.

The Deserts had won a competition and a local bank, NongHyup, gave them 300,000 won as their prize. We used those gift cards to feed our group of about 10 for the whole weekend, what a deal! We spend over 70,000 on meat alone, and really stocked up on beer (don't worry, we drank it all!).

Saturday and Sunday we spent doing normal beach activities- looking for shells, making campfires, cooking hobo dinners, and playing beer pong, volleyball, and Frisbee. Even though the weather was cloudy all day Saturday, almost everyone came home more red than they left! And of course, when we had to leave Sunday, it was perfect weather. Here's some pictures to ooh and ahh over!

No starfish this time, but still lots of colorful shells.

We both got color!

Super Color Super Launch Party

2011-05-24T10:04:00.008+09:00

As I'd mentioned before, Saturday night was the big music night in Gwangju. It was at Club Nevermind. I'd never been there before, but I showed up early to do a sound check with The Deserts, and got to see what it looked like before it got crowded. The stage was huge, lots of standing room, and in good condition, other than the bathroom!

The show started early at 8, because there were six different acts. First up was Feed the Boats, another expat band in Gwangju. They did really good; I hadn't heard them play before. They did some covers, but I think they also had original songs.

I knew the lead singer of the second band, Harp, from my winter camp at KeunByeol Elementary School back in 2010. They also did a fantastic job. Apparently, their drummer was only 15 years old! We thought the reason he was in the band is because it is the Music Academy's owners band, and he chose his best student to be the drummer.

The Deserts were supposed to go third, but for some reason the order changed and a heavy metal band was up third. They were second favorite band of the night! Check out their hair!

Finally, it was Deserts turn! Everyone was so excited, especially Rupert and Worth.

I can't remember when exactly it was, but at some point during their set, Kenny got up and announced to everyone that it was our one year anniversary and he wanted to dedicate the next song to me! I was so embarrassed! Then everyone was yelling at me to get up on stage to give him a kiss. So I did, and it was definitely something I'll never forget!! :)

It was such a fun night! I think the venue did a good job at making all their money back they'd put in to hosting the show. Tons of people showed up throughout the night, and literally hundreds of pictures were taken! Thanks to Amanda and Billy especially for the use of their pictures!

Super Color Super

2011-05-20T11:17:00.003+09:00

This weekend is a big weekend in Gwangju. The biggest live music concert of the year is happening Saturday night at 8 at Club Nevermind downtown. There are 6 different groups playing, including Deserts and Da Megook Movement. The cover is only 7,000 at the door, which is very reasonable considering the music will last all night.

I'm really eager to see Deserts play, as Kenny's recently joined the band (he plays guitar). They've been practicing a lot, and I know how much work they've put into it. He's played 3 shows already with the Deserts, but I've been out of town and haven't been able to catch any shows. I know they'll do well, and I'm looking forward to hearing their new songs.

I also haven't heard Da Megook Movement recently, either. Da Megook Movement has "Quick fire prose, lexical trickery and wordplay that will make you wonder why it looks so easy to do. These guys are good, the beats are infectious and the songs are so catchy you don't need a baseball glove to get hold of them." Kenny also makes many of the beats for them.

It should be a great night for live music (there's also another concert later at The Speakeasy), and I'll be sure to update you on how everyone sounded.

This is not a panini

2011-05-19T10:45:00.006+09:00

I may have jumped the gun a little bit. I was very excited when I noticed a new coffee shop/restaurant (LavAzza) opened in Suwan two days ago. I'd noticed on their outdoor menu that they serve paninis! Panini's are one of my favorite sandwiches, and I was thrilled that I could get one so easily. They also had a bunch of other yummy sounding things on their menu.

First, let's take a look at a delicious panini:

I've always thought at panini should be grilled in a press, just like the one pictured. However, after a quick search on Wikipedia, I learned that sometimes they aren't. However, a grilled, pressed sandwich is what I associate with "panini."

The sandwich I ordered was called the "Rustico." There wasn't a description of what it was, but the price seemed right (6,500). What I got wasn't anything close to what I was expecting.

Woah, wait a sec. Did they use sauce to mimic the grill mark lines?

Yes, I think they did! Also, the fillings were minimal- some melted "cheese," "bacon," and sun-dried tomatoes. LavAzza did have other things on their menu, like pasta, risotto, and toasts. I do know one thing- if I ever end up going back, I won't be having another panini! Having this disappointing of a sandwich just makes me want a real one even more!!

TAO- Family Restaurant

2011-05-18T08:47:00.007+09:00

To celebrate my birthday dinner, Kenny treated me to dinner at a new organic restaurant in Suwan. The restaurant, TAO, is located close to the Women's Hospital, and above Coffee Bene, which means it's got a great view of the bustling street below, as well as the Lotte Mart Lake Park.

Since we celebrated early on a Monday night, the restaurant was nearly empty. We choose to sit outside because the weather was so comfortable. Our waiters were very attentive, and they did speak some English, so we didn't have any problems ordering. We choose two main dishes, which we split.

The easy choice was the roasted duck with chutney sauce. It was served with grapefruit, asparagus, and crasins, which are both expensive and difficult to find in Korea. It was perfectly cooked and went so well with the apricots:

We choose the shrimp and scallops cream pasta to go with it. Even though the scallops were small compared to US standards, the flavor was great. The saffron on the side added a lot to the dish.

Our meal also came with a complementary salad, breads, and soup. They were nice, but nothing special. The wine we had originally chosen was out, so we opted for a half bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, reasonably priced. I thought the young waiter wasn't going to be able to get the cork out, but he eventually did. After that, we had him take a picture of the both of us. Forgive the angle, it was a very narrow seating area outdoors!

If you look closely at my wrist, you can see the beautiful bracelet Kenny gave me! I adore it! If you can't quite make out the detail, here's another shot :)

It was a great evening, and I'd definitely recommend Tao! We both thought it was the best Western food we've had in Gwangju. I know I'll be back soon, because they gave me a coupon for a free steak (before May 24th) as a birthday present. As my 9th graders would say (Unit 2, Teenage Years), it was "the icing on the cake!"

Happy Birthday~ To Me!

2011-05-17T13:07:00.006+09:00

I've got some great friends here in Gwangju! More than 20 of them came to my birthday BBQ Saturday evening on Kenny's roof. Everyone brought their own meat as well as a dish to pass- I even got some cute presents!

The weather was great- warm and sunny, perfect for summertime dresses! Here are some of the girls. It's hard to tell, but the theme was hats.

Here's Kenny and I!

And after we got the grill heated up, I snapped this picture of the guys. I didn't choose the "prom-style" pose though!

We had a lot of food and it went quickly! Everyone still loves my cheese ball (I think I've taken it to 4 different potlucks), and it was one of the first things to go. We also had pico de galo, guacamole, potato salad, spinach salad, strawberries, and orange jello. Ann was really sweet and made me an extra large jello shot with half a bottle of Smirnoff in the shape of a baby. It was pretty funny!

It was a great party and I was so happy everyone came! Thanks to all my friends!

Parent's Visit- Suwon

2011-05-12T09:25:00.000+09:00

The next city we visited was Suwon, just south of Seoul. We were really loaded down on the trip up there- between the 3 of us, we had 5 rolling luggages, and one duffel bag! But, three of those rolling luggages were full of my stuff to be sent home- I really cleared out a lot of clothes!

Once we successfully got all the luggage to our hotel, we took a cab to Suwon Folk Village. At first, I wasn't too keen on going there, as I've seen things like this in the past, and they're generally very touristy. This one was quite different, and definitely exceeded my expectations.

Though it was a bit expensive to get in, since we'd driven all the way there, we still went in. At first, all we saw were restaurants, souvenir shops, and elementary students, but after we passed the second entrance gate, the touristy bits disappeared and we were in a real village. All of the 260-odd buildings had been transported from different parts of the country, and we liked comparing the differences in architecture styles.

They also had lots of "businesses," like a pottery studio, silk studio, farms, and government offices. Mom and I bought some pottery necklaces and jars, which are one-of-a-kind. We saw a live performance of a wedding in the "Royal Palace" and an acrobatics show.

The next day, we stored our stuff at Suwon Station and walked to the main sight in Suwon, the fortress. It was awesome!

We payed just $1 to walk around the old walls and explore the lookout points. Part of the fortress was on top of a mountain, but it was so large that it extended down into the town. Of course now, the inside of the fortress is full of PC Bangs, homes, and schools, but hundreds of years ago, it would have been just like the folk village we'd seen yesterday.

We walked around on top of the mountain, and walked down through town at the end. We were all surprised at the size of it- I didn't realize it would be half as big as the city! This is a cool shot of the entrance leading up to the temple in the town. I've never seen anything on the sidewalk like this before:

The three of us had a great morning/early afternoon at the fortress, and Dad later said it was his favorite part of the trip!

Parent's Visit- Host Family

2011-05-11T09:07:00.007+09:00

We spent one day with my host family the second week of their trip... and I think that was enough! Don't get me wrong, we all had fun, it was just very tiring!

We started off the day with breakfast at their house, in Bongseong-dong. They gave us many presents, like plates, Gwangju guide books, and a DVD set. Very sweet, but we thought it would be challenging to pack 5 of each thing in our luggages!

On our way to the first stop, which ended up being a random garden in the mountains, we picked up our translator for the day. None of us really knew what was happening when this lady jumped in our van (rented for the day from the church) and started chatting with us. It ended up being nice to have a translator along with us, since my host dad and sister have limited English abilities. But wow, she was a talker!

At the garden, we heard a lot about Ying and Yang and Buddhism, and took many pictures, very Korean-esque. I'm not sure why we went there, but it was pretty and quiet, something that can be hard to find in Gwangju.

Our next stop was Damyang Bamboo Park, making it now 5 times that I've been there. It looks the same everyday- a lot of bamboo! We did get to visit a handicraft shop. The man specialized in making- get this- bamboo crafts! Woohoo! Actually, he was very talented and had many nice things for sale in his store. Our translator, Ms. Oh, surprised mom with a nice green flower pin, woven out of bamboo. Here's mom and dad, listening to Ms. Oh.

I was getting hungry at this point, but I declined a snack, thinking we were getting some bibimbap soon. Well, an hour and a half later, we made it to the middle of nowhere (otherwise known as Gochang) to a barley festival.

Wait, what?!

Yes, a barley festival. I'm not sure why, but my host family thought it would be fun. That's one word to describe it!

After tasting the bibimbap, made with local barley, we started to take a relaxing walk through the barely fields. It quickly got interrupted by a group of young men from the TV channel, Arirang. They were interested in interviewing Dad and me about our feelings on the barley festival. We did two takes, then spent about 15 minutes casually walking through the fields of barley while they filmed. Between Ms. Oh, Mr. Mun, and Mom, we had so many pictures taken- I really felt like a star!

After we were done walking through the barley, it was Mom's turn to be interviewed. For hers, she put on some traditional Korean clothes at one of the vendor's stalls. She actually really liked it, so for the rest of the trip, we were on the hunt for anything as cute as this one:

We entertained ourselves for the rest of the afternoon by making naturally dyed handkerchiefs and rice cakes (ddeok), and getting free samples from vendors, like juice, lotion, soap, and face masks. By the time we were finished, we were all exhausted, but had made so many crazy memories with my host family!

Parent's Visit- Gyeongju

2011-05-11T08:45:00.003+09:00

Following Busan, we headed north to a small town called Gyeongju. Gyeongju is referred to as the "Rome of Korea" and "Korea's best outdoor museum." The town is full of old artifacts, tombs, temples, and historical sites, some dating back to the 4th or 5th century. We didn't have as much time here as I would have liked, but we got a good feel of the city and the things to do. There's still many things I'd like to see, so I'll have to plan another trip back!

Our first stop was Bulguksa Temple, just outside of town but easily reachable by city bus. We went on a Saturday afternoon, which wasn't the best time (there were lots of people!), but we had nice weather. Bulguksa is classified as "Historical and Scenic Site #1," because of it's importance to Korean history. There are seven different national treasures there, and it's very beautiful. If you'd like to see more pictures or learn about the history, here's the link to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulguksa

On Sunday, we enjoyed a continental breakfast... and then found out it wasn't actually continental! Good thing we enjoyed it a lot and ate a lot of food. Next, we headed into town with our luggage, and did a walking tour for the rest of the day until our train back to Gwangju. We started by seeing the Royal Tombs in the center of the city. There were over 20 of them in the main park, and more in the surrounding area. We were all surprised at the size of them!

One of the tombs of the King had been excavated, and you could walk inside. Sorry, no pictures allowed. The remains were in the center of the tomb, surrounded by gifts of gold and pottery, enclosed in a wooden casket, buried under many rocks, and then covered with dirt. Also inside were some relics that had been cleaned and placed in display cases. Once we went inside, we had a much better understanding of what it was, compared to just a mound of dirt and grass.

Some other sites we saw included the oldest structure in Korea, an astronomical clock, which wasn't worth the $.50 we spent on the entrance ticket. We also walked around the old "fortress," better known as a "forest" (those darn translations!), and the free National History Museum, both enjoyable and educational. There were so many interesting things to look at in the museum, but it wasn't overwhelming, like museums sometimes can be. But the dates of some of the relics made my head spin. Hard to believe things from Bronze Age (1000 BC) still exist!

Gyeongju was a great time- so much to see and do, but not nearly enough time. If anyone out there wants to go sometime, let me know and I'll gladly join you!

Parent's Visit- Busan

2011-05-09T10:26:00.004+09:00

After Daegu, we took the bus to Busan for two nights. We had a great hotel, Sunset Hotel, right on Haeundae Beach. The weather was great the first day, so I'm glad we did a lot of sightseeing then, because the second day was rainy and a bit cooler.

It was so nice being on the beach, the three of us enjoyed walking on the boardwalk and watching the numerous boats out at sea. There weren't many people on the beach, since it was a Thursday, but there were a ton of adorable students going to the Haeundae Aquarium, and they all wanted to say "hi" to us.

We did see two "touristy" sights on Thursday, the Busan Tower and Jalgachi Fish Market, both near the port downtown. Mom and Dad really enjoyed the $3 trip up to the top of the tower- the view of the port is stunning. There are so many boats and containers! We must have taken hundreds of pictures between us.

The Fish Market was something I'd always been meaning to see whenever I visited. It was much larger than I expected. The first floor had lots of vendors selling crab, prawns, fish, oysters, clams, and various other sea creatures. We knew that we wanted to buy crab, so I was able to ask how many we should buy for three people, and the ladies advised us to buy two. I think we chose just the right amount.

Another lady took our two King Crabs up to the second level, where we had them prepared for just a little more. While it took longer than we expected (but still not too long), it was worth the wait. It was the best, freshest, sweetest crab I've ever had. It was simply steamed, and they gave us some scissors to help crack the shell. We didn't talk too much during the meal, we were enjoying it too much! By the time we finished, we were so sticky and the table was covered with bits of crab.

Friday brought with it rainy weather, so we entertained ourselves by exploring Shinsaegae and being interviewed by the Busan English Radio channel (which I'll try to post later). Busan's such a fun town, and I'll be going back sometime this summer to see Haeundae in it's prime.

Parent's Visit- School

2011-05-09T10:04:00.005+09:00

On their second day, I took my parents to school for two classes. Gosh, I thought they loved me, but their reaction to my parents was off the charts!!!! I think many Koreans are used to seeing young, white adults, but to see a middle aged foreigner is practically unheard of in my neighborhood. I can't even guess how many "hi's" my parents said, or how many times students compared their height to Dad's.

Here's some pictures of the two classes I taught with my parents assistance:

Here's Mom and some third graders:

And an action shot of me and Hyunhee, my coteacher, at my desk:

I'm pretty positive that this was one of the most memorable experiences of my parents visit!

Parent's Visit- Daegu

2011-05-09T09:42:00.004+09:00

One of the places I took my parents to was Daegu. I'd never been to Daegu before, so I was also eager to see what it was like. Daegu is famous for their traditional market, named Seomun, as well as their traditional herbal medicines. It sounded like a place worth checking out.

After we'd stored our luggage in the subway lockers upon arrival, we rode the subway to Seomun Market. Seomun had it all- dried fish, seaweed, fruit, comforters, street food, and great people watching. We weren't looking for anything in particular, but enjoyed the almond samples and taking pictures of all the "strange" food (strange for Mom and Dad, normal for me!). I thought I was going to have to hold dad back from sampling one of the dirt-flavored silk worm larva- thank goodness I was able to convince him that they really do taste like dirt!

(thanks Google Images)

My friend Jeannine who lives in Daegu recommended some good street vendors for lunch, a place that specializes in flat mando, and a place that has the best Heoddeok, a fried pancake with sweet filling. However, once we entered the food area, I knew we'd never be able to find the right one! There were just too many! Every stand was busy, so we knew wherever we decided to eat that it would be hot and fresh.

We settled on the busiest stall, and came back once three plastic chairs were empty. We ordered 4 dishes- a plain kimbap roll, udon, guksu, and heoddeok. All the dishes were good, Mom liked the guksu best because of the non-fishy broth, and Dad enjoyed them all, especially the heoddeok! The best part was that we were all full after, and the meal came to less than $9!

The medicine market wasn't exactly what I'd expected, it was more a cobblestone road with various medicine shops selling roots, barks, seeds, and the like. We paused to look around the medicine museum, and sampled some tea made from 10 different herbs that we continued to look for during the duration of our trip, but never found.

We enjoyed the temples in Gyeongsangamyeong Park, close to downtown before meeting Jeannine for dinner and desert (spicy fried bokumbap and ice cream waffle).

Daegu was great to explore for a day, and even though we all got tired in the afternoon, having Jeannine as our guide perked us up. When we got back to our hotel (16th floor!) later on, we all crashed before 10pm!

Supa Dupa Diva

2011-05-06T09:08:00.001+09:00

This is the dance we do in our dance class. It's probably not as cute as when Dal Shabet does it, but it's still fun!

Parent's Visit

2011-04-11T15:41:00.002+09:00

It's just a week now until my parents come, I can't wait! There's so much to do and see here, and I just hope that they'll have a blast!

We'll spend a few days of course in Gwangju, touring around the city, visiting my school, going out to eat, and meeting friends. My host family here is sooo happy my parents are coming- I swear, the dad would have wanted us to visit every day if we could! Thankfully, we'll just be spending one night at their apartment, and going to Boseong and a KIA Tigers game together. I'm really curious how the communication will work, and I have a feeling they'll grill my parents with all sorts of questions!

Some other cities we'll be visiting are Daegu, Busan, Gyeongju, Suwon, and Seoul. I'm really eager to go to Daegu and Gyeongju; I've never been there before. I'm sure my parents will like Seoul, just because there's so much to do. Also, I think our hotel there is going to be really nice! In Daegu and Busan, we'll be meeting some friends of mine so we can go to the best places. There's a lot to do in each place, but I want to do the best things.

I'm also looking forward to seeing the fun stuff my parents are bringing- some herbs to plant, some new shoes, and a Kindle (still so sad about the last one breaking). I'll be sending home 3 pieces of luggage with them, including my computer. Computer's are very expensive to ship, and since I get a laptop from school, I'll be able to use that at home. Getting rid of all my winter clothes and things I don't use will clear up a lot of space in my wardrobe. Whatever I can send now is something I don't have to pay for to ship home.

I know it's only been about 8 months since I saw my parents last, but I'm still very excited! The weather is nicer now, and I'm pumped to show them my favorite things about Korea!

Saigon

2011-03-26T13:27:00.008+09:00

Saigon is a great city. We arrived really late/early the first day of our vacation, due to the delay in Shanghai. By the time we got down to the backpackers district, it was nearly 4 am, and our pre-booked hotel had closed! Luckily, we were able to find a hotel that was open, but had to wake the receptionist.

We explored Saigon one day on foot, and were able to see most of the tourist sites that way. Here's some of my favorite pictures of Saigon during the beginning and last few days in Vietnam.

The motorists would stop along the sidewalk to grab a quick bite of something:

Colorful tropical fruits at the Ben Than Market:

The beautiful Notre Dame Cathedral:

The best Pho we had in all of Vietnam:

We saw a few motorbikes...

And finally, the great Ho Chi Minh:

Vietnam Recap

2011-03-26T11:31:00.003+09:00

I plan on posting more about my Vietnam trip in detail soon. Until then, these are my links to the Facebook albums. Be forewarned, there are a lot of pictures! They should be visible to everyone, even if you don't have Facebook. If there are problems, please let me know!

First/Finally~Sài Gòn
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2288981&id=59501140

Second/Third- Cu Chi Tunnels and Mekong Delta
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2289003&id=59501140

Fourth, Mũi Né
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2289016&id=59501140

Fifth, Đà Lạt
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2289024&id=59501140

Fifth, Đà Lạt Part 2
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2289034&id=59501140

Sixth, Nha Trang
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2289037&id=59501140

Outback Steakhouse

2011-03-26T11:09:00.004+09:00

Last Saturday, two of my coteachers and I went to Outback Steakhouse here in Gwangju. It was almost exactly like home!

We were given a free blueberry drink when we first walked in the door, and were promptly seated. We decided to get the lunch specials: Crispy chicken salad, cream pasta, and a garlic steak:

The steak was prepared as well as it could have been, but the cut wasn't that good to begin with. Everyone enjoyed the pasta, salad, and sides of fried rice and bread. With our lunch set, we also got fruit drinks, soda, and coffee. By the end of the meal, we were stuffed!

I figured the meal would have been more expensive, but Youngran had a discount card with her, so we got 12,000 won off. In the end, it ended up being only about $12 a person! For those prices, I'll definitely be back.

Suwan-dong

2011-03-21T11:05:00.004+09:00

My neighborhood, Suwan, has really changed since I first moved to Gwangju 1 year and 7 months ago. At first, Suwan didn't have much to offer, other than space, but now, I've got my pick of restaurants, coffee shops, and ice cream cafes. If you're looking for a great place to eat, choose Suwan!

Currently, we have two Vietnamese restaurants, Hoa Binh and Pho Bay. The prices at Pho Bay are about 1,000 won more, but I think the quality is better. Kenny and I also got a free sampler platter of dumplings on our visit.

There are also two new Japanese noodle restaurants open. I went to one last night, and had a bowl of creamy, homemade Ramen noodles for 4,900. Kenny's noodles were different (separate noodles and broth), but just as delicious, and cost 5,900.

If you're looking for Western food, we've got Lemon Table, Tao, Red Piano, Kraze Burger, Gio's, Starbucks (opening soon), Pizza School, Dunkin Doughnuts, Coldstone, and various other pasta and steak houses. The Lemon Table is the same as all the others, and I plan to try Tao in a couple of weeks. The interior of Tao looks welcoming, and there are tables that overlook the Lotte Mart park on their 4th floor balcony.

Naturally, there are many Korean foods available- "slow food," kimbap, Chigae, Samgypsal, and Shabu Shabu. I'd have to say the Shabu Shabu restaurant is my favorite.

For drinking, there aren't many original options, but we do have WA, Millertime, and Fish and Grill, not including the small Hof's. As far a coffee goes, there's the usuals: Kenya, Angel In Us, Coffee Bean, and Ludens.

If you're hungry and looking for a different part of town to check out, I'd definitely recommend Suwan!

Dance Classes

2011-03-16T17:16:00.004+09:00

I'm currently taking dance class once a week at the Hyundai Department Store. The 10th floor is a Culture Complex, and they often offer classes of all sorts. A friend of a friend works there, and told my friend about it. I wasn't sure what to expect the first night, but it wasn't what I'd expected!

The name of the class is Club Dance and Night Dance. I'm taking 3 months of classes, every Wednesday evening for 60,000 won. There's only a few people in the class, 8 total, and that's nice. I'm not embarrassed to be learning these sexy dances in front of them!

We're starting off learning basic moves, some steps, some arm movements, and of course, body rolls. A lot of the moves are difficult to do at a slow tempo, but once we speed it up and add music, it comes easily. It really reminds me of cheerleading!

At the end of our third class, we were starting to learn a choreographed dance. It's almost a week since we learned it now, and I've remembered a fair amount. I'm sure we'll be practicing it a lot this coming week.

Here's Okailey goofing around in the studio:

New School Year Begins

2011-03-03T13:33:00.002+09:00

Today is the first day of classes! It's hard to believe this is my 4th and final semester at Suwan Middle School! By now, I've learned all sorts of tips, techniques, and tricks, so this semester should be the best.

I've got a new schedule, of course. I teach 11 9th grade classes per week, and 8 7th grade classes. I won't be teaching any 8th graders, because I taught them last year. The school has also switched the time schedule as well- we're beginning 10 minutes earlier this year, and eliminating 6th period on Wednesdays. We'll make up for this by having 7 periods on both Tuesdays and Thursdays.

We've got so many new teachers this year! Including myself, there are 52 teacher. I'm teaching with 6 different English teachers: Hyeon-hwi (my new handler/co-teacher: 6 classes), Han-su (4 classes), Ms. Jeong (6 classes), Mi-hey (1 class), Young-ran (1 class), and Chi-won (1 class). It will be difficult to stay on the same page with all the teachers and grades, so I'm going to have to work at being very organized.

There's a ton of kids now. We've got 33 homeroom classes for 3 grades, about 30-32 per class. We also had to extend the lunch period by 30 minutes to make sure everyone's got enough time to eat! If I'm lucky, I'll learn 10 new names by the end of the semester.

My new 4th floor office is pretty nice. It's got heat, so that's an improvement from last year. I share with 10 other teachers, though I'm not exactly sure what they teach.

The focus this year for the 9th graders has switched from speaking to writing. Now, the students will have some short answer and/or essay questions on their tests. We're considering buying a new book for them with a variety of writing activities, but it will depend on cost. I don't know too much about this yet, but will probably find out more in the next few weeks.

Spring is always the best semester- there's so many things happening! Field trips, sports day, Children's Day, Buddha's Birthday, and the many "democratic" days in May and June. There's a lot going on and I know I'm going to be so busy!

Vietnam- Tentative Itinerary

2011-01-09T12:40:00.010+09:00

I'll be leaving for Vietnam soon. I have 10 official vacation days this winter, and I planned to take it over the Chinese Lunar New Year, giving me 3 extra "free" vacation days. I'll be in southern to south-central Vietnam for a total of 18 days!

I'm flying down to Ho Chi Minh City with Amanda, and Christina will join us a day later. The rooms are so cheap, Amanda and I decided to splurge on a $10 each hotel room rather than stay in a $5 each dorm room for the first night. However, when we're all together, we'll just stay in hostels.

We each have ideas of what we want to do, but nothing set in stone other than the first two days. We'll be staying in HCMC for a few days. I can't wait to explore and see all the French architecture! Oh, and dodge lots of motorbikes.

We want to do a few tours when we're there- The Mekong Delta (hopefully an overnight tour) and the Cu Chi tunnels.

From there, we'll probably go up to Mui Ne, a beach town famous for their sand dunes. I may consider getting a wind surfing lesson one afternoon, depending on the prices.

We may go up to Pan Thiet, the home of Vietnamese Fish Sauce. But we'll definitely make our way to Dalat, a kind of quirky town in the central highlands for some real adventure- canyoning, trekking, and mountain biking:

After mountain biking for a day through the scenic highlands, we'll end up in Nha Trang, just before Tet and spend our days relaxing on the beach, pina colada in hand. I also hope to do an island hopping tour and go snorkeling/scuba diving.

Eventually, we'll have to come back to HCMC, but I'm sure we'll just wish we could stay! One thing the three of us are really looking forward to is the food! Pho, spring rolls, dimsum, Vietnamese sandwiches, French bread, and real coffee! I can't wait to eat authentic, street vendor pho!

Anyone have any other suggestions of places to see or things to do?

Goals for 2011

2011-01-04T13:27:00.005+09:00

Here are 11 goals/things I want to do in the upcoming year:

1. Have an adventure while backpacking through Vietnam.

2. See the US Coast Guard Band play in Taiwan.

3. Check out the view of Victoria Harbor from above.

4. Explore the many rice paddies and temples on Bali.

5. Get certified to scuba dive in the Gili Islands.

6. Play with orangutans in Sumatra.

7. Ride a camel into the desert (and sleep under the stars) in Rajasthan.

8. Trek in the Himalayas.

9. Appreciate the beauty of the Taj Mahal.

10. Relax on the beaches of Goa.

11. Finally go to the Christmas Markets in Germany!

Gwangju Christmas Party

2010-12-27T10:49:00.010+09:00

One of the hardest things about living abroad for an extended period of time is missing family and friends, especially during the holiday season. I'm so lucky and blessed to have a wonderful group of friends in Gwangju that have really become my family in so many ways during the last year and a half.

Christmas Eve, me and about 25 of my closest friends in Gwangju got together downtown at German Bar for a potluck Christmas dinner. Everyone chipped in some money or food, and had an amazing time! We even had special place settings and decorations!

We had two turkeys, cooked by Steve and Rupert at Steve's school's kitchen (with the help of some of his students!), stuffing, gravy, rolls, green beans, baked beans, macaroni and cheese, wild rice salad, veggie tray, lettuce salad, carrot and ginger soup, cheese ball, sliced cheese, jello, ice cream, doughnuts, and banoffee pie. I'm not sure if I'm missing anything, there was so much selection!

Here I am with two of the best turkey-cookers I know!

I brought the cheese ball!

Song, the owner of German bar, has always been gracious to us (rock night, poker run, and bake sales), and we were so thankful that everyone was able to gather there without any problems. Andrew gave him a present for all he's done for us.

We also had a secret Santa gift exchange, which Rupert did a great job of organizing and emceeing. Some of the presents were really thoughtful (slippers, scarves, tea, coffee, clothes, toys, liquor, etc), while others were a "last minute" idea (ie: random items from Mini Stop!)

In the end, everyone was just glad to be around friends and to have had such a great meal. I think everyone would love to do it again sometime soon!

Boshintang (Otherwise known as dog soup)

2010-12-19T10:46:00.006+09:00

Last night I did something illegal. I went out with 5 other friends (Kenny, Matt, Steve, Emily, and Miguel) to a restaurant in Pungam-dong to try boshintang soup. It was my first time, along with Steve, Emily, and Miguel. Gaegogi (dog meat) is illegal to serve in Korea, but I read an article not long ago that estimated there are around 3,000 restaurants in Korea still serving it. Back in 1998, there were as many as 20,000 I won't get into any animal rights or treatment of the dogs, because thats just sad. I do know that nowdays there are not beaten to death in Korea, as they still are in other parts of the world. There is a specific breed of dog raised for this purpose, called Nureongi, so it's not as if we're eating random strays off the street, or cute fluffy pet dogs. Nureongi dogs are not normally kept as pets, according to Wikipedia.

We were really nervous, because we had no idea what to expect. We had to get some beer and soju before hand to help it all go down.

Here's what the soup looked like when it first came out:

Here's the first bite!

It didn't taste quite as bad as it looks like it does. The broth wasn't bad, it tasted similar to other Korean broths I've had before. Then there were some onions and vegetables, which I ate. There were some unknown chunks of something that honestly looked like skin... but it may have just been a tendon or fat. I don't really want to think about that! As for the meat itself, it wasn't horrible. It's more of a mental hurdle you have to get over. If it wasn't in the soup, it would taste greasy, gamey, and fatty. However, when you took a bit of broth, rice, onion, and meat in one bite, it wasn't the worse thing in the world.

Kenny did the best out of all of us finishing the soup, but didn't do it entirely. The rest of us had about a third, and filled up on the kimchi and rice. Including the drinks, the total for each of us was 10,000 won, or about $9. Not a bad meal cost wise, but I'm pretty positive it will be the last time I have boshintang!

Seoul Getaway

2010-12-02T09:56:00.007+09:00

A few weekends ago, Kenny and I went up to Seoul for our 6th month anniversary. I hadn't really been out of Gwangju since I'd come back in August, so I really felt the need to get out!

We just went up for Saturday night, but we seemed to do so much in the short amount of time that it felt longer than it actually was. We did lots of fun things, but I think our favorite was going out to dinner at "Between" in Itaewon, and going to "All That Jazz," also in Itaewon.

"Between" is a relatively new restaurant on the main drag in Itaewon. They're known for their wide variety of Tapas and bar selections. We had no problem getting a seat in the non-smoking section, even though it was busy. It was much bigger on the inside than it looked on the outside!

We poured over the extensive tapas menu for a while before we decided. We chose the set menu, assuming it was a "couples set." Unfortunately it wasn't (but for the price, it should have been! 55,000 won!). However, we looovveed every dish they brought us!

We had a total of 6 courses, and started with the appetizer- raw beef, lettuce, fresh Parmesan, olive oil, and some nuts:

Our second course, the tapas, we selected seared scallops wrapped in bacon. They were my favorite!

Third course was a spicy seafood pasta:

Fourth course was our meat dish- so good! Roasted duck with a orange glaze, garlic mashed potatoes, and cooked apples.

Fifth and sixth courses was desert (creme brule) and tea (mango). All this food was washed down with a nice Canadian IPA, Alley Cat. Even though the food was delish, we weren't completely full, but that made getting the late night Kebab from the street vendors all the better!

Here are some more shots of the restaurant:

How a 7th grader can Save The Earth~ Unit 10

2010-12-02T09:52:00.001+09:00

Dear Principal (Mr. Hyeok Seun Kim),

We can do a lot to save the Earth! There are many kinds of pollution: water, air, ground, and noisy. We can save Earth. We should use less water and recycle bottle, paper, plastic, cans and turn off the lights, TV, fan... but some of students think teachers waste many thing. Why teachers say, "Student turn off heater!~" Oh... my God!! Because of teacher, we waste many things. Students are cold. Please give our mercy! I want to turn on the heather. We are very cold. Please one more time say, teachers save Earth too.

(Korean blah blah blah 400,000won blah blah Korean)

Please teathers! Save Energy!!!!

Sincerely, Kim Chi Hun

Dakgalbi (닭갈비)

2010-11-11T11:48:00.004+09:00

After hiking on the 7th, Kenny and I ate at Chonnam Back Gate, one of our favorite places to eat. The area is packed with a variety of "traditional Korean restaurants," as well as having some Italian restaurants, cafe's, and even a Mexican restaurant.

One of the best things to get there is the 닭갈비 (Dakgalbi). It's a cheap dish, and very filling, especially when split between only two people! We were starving from the hike, so it was exactly what we needed.

Dakgalbi is a spicy stir-fried chicken dish with a lot of intense flavors. The waitress will bring out a large pan and put it on the table in front of you. It will look something like this:

On the bottom is sliced cabbage and on the top is the chicken, onion, ddeok (rice cake), and spicy sauce (usually a mix of gochujang, red peppers, garlic, sesame oil, soy sauce, pepper, and sugar). You cook this by swirling it in the pan for about 10-15 minutes. This way, the chicken is cooked, but the cabbage still has a bit of crunch in it. You cook it until it's bubbling away and looks like this:

As you can see, it made a ton of food. However, we were still hungry, and opted to the get Bokumbap (fried rice) for an additional 1,500 Won. After that, we could barely move! If you're ever looking to get a big meal on a small budget, dakgalbi is definitely the way to go (if you like spicy foods)!!

Hiking in November

2010-11-11T11:35:00.003+09:00

Last Sunday, Kenny and I went for a hike behind Chonnam National University. It was such a pretty hike, and a lot less crowded than hiking up Mudeungsan! We didn't know where exactly to begin hiking because the number 6 bus dropped us off at Home Plus, a short distance from the mountain. So we just started walking up behind some apartments in the area. We had no problems though, and the hiking was relatively easy, especially since I wasn't even wearing tennis shoes.

It took about an hour to get to the peak, where we enjoyed our snacks (apples and peanuts). The trees were so beautiful, different shades of red, yellow, green, and brown; I wish I could say the same about the view.

It's always hard to tell in Korea if you're seeing pollution, haze, fog, or what exactly the white "stuff" in the sky is. I've heard mixed things, the Koreans always say it's just moisture, but most foreigners know that it's gotta be a mix of pollution and clouds, because it's always there.

Here's some of the pictures. If only it was clearer, you'd be able to see almost the entire city!

Gwangju International Day

2010-10-28T10:02:00.006+09:00

Gwangju International Fest also took place in October. It seemed like everyone who was in town that weekend, October 9th, was there! It was a great time.

It seemed to be a few things combined- an international festival, a food fair, and concerts/performances, all at the Kim Dae Jung Convention Center in Gwangju. Kenny and I went for a few reasons, primarily because The Deserts were playing again, and to get some non-Korean food, which we'd both been craving. We also had amazing weather, which made it such an enjoyable day.

There were many booths set up outside the convention center, all with different foods from around the world. The booths were Greece, Mexico, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Nepal, North America, Philippines, Russia, Japan, Nigeria, and Sri Lanka, just to name a few. There must have been 20 different booths and they all had amazing food. Kenny and I had a great time eating our way down the row.

Inside the convention center were many different food booths promoting various things- beer, pumpkin ramen noodles, ice cream, etc. The highlight inside was the baking contest. Middle and High School students competed for prizes, similar to a 4-H show. However, these students took it to the extreme! I was so surprised to see all the sugar, chocolate, and bread sculptures that kids younger than me had created!

Finally, the Deserts gave a performance with a new sound. I'm not too sure how happy they were with their performance.

It was such a great time, I'm so happy we went!

School Field Trip- Kumho Family Land

2010-10-28T09:41:00.008+09:00

I know this post is about two weeks overdue... oh well.

Back on the 14th, I went with Mihey's homeroom class, class 7, to an amusement park in northern Gwangju for the day. It was something like "Nationwide School Picnic Day," and the park was so crowded with kids, young as kindergarten and as old as High School. Five of the classes from Suwan Middle School went, and we had a blast.

Here are some pictures from the day. The teachers and I had fun with the elephants. The baby elephants were created naturally, not artificially and they tend to have a lot of visitors because of that.

Social Studies Open Class

2010-10-01T15:37:00.002+09:00

There's currently a first grade open class happening in the EOZ. Mihey says it is part of a special teacher training course, and today is the last day.

This is a social studies lesson with class 1-6, a class of 39 students. I counted at least 32 teachers observing. Almost a one-to-one ratio! I heard there are teachers from elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and even a college professor was there to observe. This was also the same teacher who implemented a "radical, new teaching method" before break- group work.

Kim Chi Won has just explained to me the goal of the teacher training- "new school atmosphere." Our school is in the process of switching from Teacher Centered Learning to Student Centered Learning. This is a very different approach compared to other schools in Korea. We really want the focus to be on the students and how they can learn from each other, rather than have the teacher shouting out all the information in front of the entire class. Chi Won also explained that we shouldn't criticize other teachers anymore, but instead the students, apparently even if the teacher needed to be criticized. Guess that's the indirect speaking method, which Koreans are so talented at.

Open Class

2010-10-01T09:25:00.006+09:00

A requirement for all public school teachers in Korea is to do "open classes." These are typically done once a semester for foreign English teachers, such as myself, but I've been lucky and did my first one yesterday, after being here over a year already.

An Open Class is when we "perform" for the MOE. I say "perform" because we do what the MOE wants to see, not how a usual class is set up. For example, I rarely teach from the book, and I don't take more than a night to lesson plan (usually). This lesson was based on our textbook, and my co-teacher Mihey and I worked on the lesson for at least two weeks. We also rarely co-teach, (2 teachers teaching the same lesson simultaneously) but I do the bulk of the teaching while Mihey is in charge of discipline and sometimes translation.

Our lesson this week focused on the unit "That's Why." The main goals of the open class lesson was to 1) Make questions using "Why," 2) Giving reasons using "Because," and 3) Having fun talking with your group and the class. We chose the advanced level students, class 5/10, because they are the most cooperative, energetic (in a good way), and some of the smartest kids in school. I know that they also have the highest average test scores.

Since they are so advanced, we used the basic forms from the book, but expanded on it. Originally, we were going to talk about after school activities, but Korean students after school activities are very limited, we didn't think this would be exciting for them. We instead chose to focus on emotions, feelings, and appearances.

We began with a teacher role play, asking silly questions about Mihey's hair, and my glasses. The kids died laughing when we put on the props. Mihey's hair might have easily been the highlight of the lesson!

After introducing the key expressions, we asked questions about cartoon characters appearances. The final task was having the students create a chain dialogue that answered the question "Why does he look so mad?" which they did very well. The kids are so creative. We had stories about people eating each other's cake, dropping money down a manhole, dropping money down a drain, kids not doing homework, and parents not giving their son a birthday present. Earlier in the week, we also had dialogues about pooping and peeing, which is about the funniest thing for these 14 year old kids. I'm glad we didn't have any stories like that on the open class day!

There were quite a few teachers who came to watch, including some from other schools. My old co-teacher from Seongdeok Middle School, Hyun Ju, came to watch, unfortunately I didn't get a chance to talk with her because she couldn't stay for the whole lesson. There was one man from the MOE who came to observe, and as it turns out, he is good friends with my principal. They've known each other for about 10 years, maybe that's why we got such raving reviews!

In the end, he said we worked very well together and liked how we tailored the lesson to the students needs/abilities. He also said that this was the best open class he'd ever been to, but he probably says that to everyone. ^^ The other English teachers who were there, Kim Chi Won and Jo Young Ran, were astonished at how the class operated. Even though they teach 2nd grade, the say their students never work together like this class, and how do we get them to help each other? They were very impressed. The students said this was the best lesson all year. They loved the role play and thought that Mihey and I make a good team co-teaching.

They only problem is that we just don't have enough time to plan lessons like this every week!

2010-09-27T23:27:00.002+09:00

These are my new running shoes. If you think they look masculine, that's because they are.

I've been doing a lot of running in this past month, about 5 times a week. The other day I noticed while I was out, that my foot was really starting to bother me. When I finished, I took of my socks and shoes... I had a blister! I was suprised that I'd worn a hole in both of my shoes from all the running.

I went downtown Sunday afternoon and picked these up at ABC Mart. The salesman had good English, and told me there were no womens shoes that would fit me. I wasn't suprised at all. I had to choose from the mens, and these were the best option.

The salesman gave me a 5,000 won discount, and then a 5,000 won coupon for my next purchase. I would consider using it... if they had womens shoes that fit me.

2010-09-17T14:43:00.002+09:00

These are the score results for my low level grade 1 students. This was an 11 question vocabulary quiz, based on vocabulary from High School Musical songs, which we've been studying for the last two weeks. The quiz was a mixture of matching English to Korean (which most students got all correct), spelling, fill in the blank, and sentence jumble (which only a few students got correct).

I really thought they would do worse than they did. I asked my co-teacher, Ms. Jeong, how they did recently on the listening test, and she replied, "Oh, very well, I think, maybe, 40% or 50% score." I guess that is an improvement over the average 30% score on the final they took at the end of July. And then I can't really complain about them getting around 7 or 8 correct.

There's lots of money to be made in tutoring...

2010-09-14T15:36:00.002+09:00

From the Korea Times:

"A Korean private tutor was caught earning more than 150 million won ($130,000) a month, without paying tax, from illegally teaching students in an apartment in the affluent southern Seoul.

Under the law, adults who are engaged in private tutoring are obliged to report their monthly income to the education authorities, a measure to prevent tax evasion. But many tutors ignore the rule.

He allegedly taught a group of students in a 337 square-meter (102 pyeong) apartment, charging about 10 million won per student per year. This is the first time that a tutor who has taken such a large amount of tutoring fees has been caught."

It doesn't say what he taught, or for how long. I can't imagine how long he'd been doing that! $130,000 a month!! Parents here really will pay a lot for their children to have a good education... I wonder how much his penalty will be!

My Students

2010-09-13T13:32:00.004+09:00

I know I haven't posted anything for a while, school's been really busy. The week after Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving next week) I have my first open class. I've never done one before, so my co-teacher and I are frantically trying to finish the lesson by this week. It needs to be submitted before Chuseok break.

Here's some projects my students have done recently. First, we practiced the simple past with my low level students while learning about ice cream and summer time. They were supposed to each write four sentences about what they did this past summer, on average, each student got about 1 correct sentence. Then, I put the correct sentences up in the EOZ.

My advanced students wrote stories about their summer, my co and I helped edit them, then they wrote their final draft on t-shirts or shorts they'd cut out of origami paper. They turned out cute, and the students are still looking at them before class, even though they've been hanging up for about 2 weeks. There's a lot of them, I couldn't fit them all in the picture.

And finally, here are some of the kids during lunch time. The 20 or so 8th grade boys that usually come in are getting out of control, we've been talking about closing the EOZ during lunch because it's too chaotic, and they don't speak English when they come. However, these 7th graders are too adorable!

Low Sodium Kimchi?

2010-09-01T15:47:00.003+09:00

The Korean Food and Drug Administration is starting a campaign to reduce the amount of sodium in Korean Kimchi. It's about time!

Koreans eat kimchi at every meal, but there is so much salt in it, that it pushes the average Koreans daily sodium intake to over 4,553 milligrams. Remember, the WHO's recommendations is only 2,000 a day.

I always knew it was salty (due to the high amounts needed during the fermentation process), but never knew it was this high. I only eat it once a day, typically at lunch, maybe two times if I eat Korean for dinner. When I cook at home, I take special care not to add any salt to my cooking because I know I'm getting plenty in my school lunches.

I just wonder, if kimchi is that salty, how much salt is in the other dishes at school lunch??

Gwangju Kimchi Festival, 2009 (광주 김치 문화 축제 2009)

Monsoon Season Over, Typhoon Season Begins

2010-09-01T15:40:00.003+09:00

My guy friends told me that while they were camping on Jejudo in July, a typhoon hit. Of course, I didn't believe them because they're always exaggerating. However, now I believe that it may have happened.

So says the Korea Times:

"A typhoon is fast approaching the Korean Peninsula, with heavy rains and winds forecast for Thursday.

Jeju Island is expected to be hit first, Wednesday, and then the entire country will be drenched through Thursday, the KMA said.

In particular, heavy rains of more than 120 millimeters are expected on the southern and western coasts.
“Some regions may see torrential downpours of more than 40 millimeters of rain per hour,” Kim said. "

It looks like Gwangju will be hit hard, because we're southwest. The clouds already today (Wednesday) are incredibly dark.

On a side note, I've been back for a week and a half at this point, and didn't see the sun until this morning. It's sad when that nice weather is replaced by typhoon-like conditions...

Urgent- Blood Needed

2010-08-30T13:30:00.002+09:00

A few days ago Michael Simning - an expat in Gwangju - visited the hospital because he wasn't feeling very well.

He discovered that he has leukemia, was admitted into the hospital immediately (where he will stay for at least a month), and has started to undergo chemotherapy treatments.

As part of his treatment Michael needs to receive several blood transfusions.

Michael's blood type is B-, which is very rare, and so he, his family, and his friends are trying to find people in Korea who can donate blood to him immediately as well as periodically throughout the next couple of weeks. (O- blood won’t work in this case.)

If your blood type is B-, and you are able and willing to donate, please consider contacting Tim Whitman at 011.9600.6378 or tugrocers@gmail.com. Tim will pass your name and phone number along to Michael and his family.

You can also help by passing this message along to friends of yours here in Korea too.

Many people -- unfortunately -- don't know their blood type. You can find out yours -- and at the same time find out if you can help Michael -- by visiting a hospital in your area.

The procedure is relatively painless and should only take a few minutes.

In case you’re worried about communicating with the staff, you can print out and show them the following information, which explains to them why you’re there and why you need this information:

친구가 백혈병에 걸려서 도움이 필요합니다.
제 친구는 Rh-B 형 입니다.
제 혈액형 검사받고 하고 싶습니다. Rh-/Rh+ 인지까지 정확히 검사 받고싶습니다.

Once you find out your blood type, and if it is B-, you can do the same as those who already know theirs: contact Tim Whitman at 011.9600.6378 or tugrocers@gmail.com.

In the meantime Michael’s immune system is very weak so he isn’t able to receive any visitors. He is able to communicate using the Internet and telephone, however, and many friends have been wishing him well using Facebook.

And a side note: Mike’s sickness and rehabilitation may cause a lot of financial strain to him and his wife and daughter, so if you are in Gwangju, please consider supporting him in a very direct manner by shopping at the Underground Grocers and by eating at the First Alleyway, both of which will remain open in his absence.

Underground Grocers is open on Wednesday from 11 to 7, on Thursday and Friday from 1 to 7, and on Saturday and Sunday from 12 to 7; the First Alleyway is open Wednesday to Saturday from 5 to 10ish and on Sunday from 11 to 5 for an all day breakfast.

This past year...

2010-08-28T11:54:00.024+09:00

This past year I've...

1. Moved to a foreign country

2. Traveled to three other foreign countries

3. Eaten lots of exotic foods

4. Supported a new team

5. Controled a classroom of 40+ students

6. Learned to like kimchi

7. Learned how to use chopsticks

8. Been a photo opportunity more times than I can count

9. Slightly tortued my own brother

10.Been a teacher

a student

a sister

a daughter

a wife

and friend.

What have YOU done?

T Express- Everland

2010-08-26T15:32:00.001+09:00

Here is the rollercoaster that I rode back on our school field trip to Everland. Remember, this is supposedly the steepest rollercoaster in the world, basically straight down!! I almost get sick watching it. Be sure to turn down your speakers!

korean Amusement park T EXPRESS from You il han on Vimeo.

Sejong Academy- Minneapolis

2010-08-26T12:30:00.002+09:00

My friend posted an interesting article he found from the "Twin Cities Daily Planet" today about a new Korean charter school opening up in Minneapolis. It sounds like they are still in the planning phase, but far enough in to host a fundraiser. The academy is slated to open in 2012.

The school would most likely attract Koreans or Korean adoptees because Minnesota is the biggest adopter in the United states, and second in the world or Korean adoptions. I never knew that before reading the article.

The school is going to open as a kindergarten- grade 4 school in 2012, and add a grade every year until they become K-8. There is a large number of families interested, but they still need to have a few more to get the final "go."

Since I tentatively plan on being back in the WI/MN/Twin Cities area in 2012, wouldn't that just be perfect for a job and/or volunteering?!

http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2010/08/17/korean-cultural-festival-raises-funds-sejong-academy-charter-school

"The Best Country in the World is..."

2010-08-24T10:52:00.002+09:00

Here are some excerpt's from a recent issue of Newsweek. I picked up a copy while at the O'Hare airport on my way back to Korea. I found it really interesting! It is all in the answer to the question "If you were born today, which country would provide you the very best opportunity to live a healthy, safe, reasonably prosperous, and upwardly mobile life?" Well, here are the top 15:

1. Finland
2. Switzerland
3. Sweden
4. Australia
5. Luxembourg
6. Norway
7. Canada
8. Netherlands
9. Japan
10. Denmark
11. USA
12. Germany
13. New Zealand
14. UK
15. South Korea

In the specific category of Education, here is a small blurb about education of South Korea:

"Finland heads this category for good reason, but South Korea isn't far behind. The Asian nation is legendary for the quality of its schooling and the fervor of its students, who are among the likeliest in the world not only to complete their secondary education but then to go on and acquire college degrees (South Korean parents are notorious for spending huge sums of money on test-preparation courses for their kids). It's hard to imagine now, but back in the 1960's, South Korea's national wealth was on par with Afghanistan's. Today, it's one of the world's richest nations, in large part thanks to its focus on education."

There was another short article about 10 world leaders who have "managed to win some serious respect." What is says about South Korea:

"The CEO in charge- Lee Myung Bak- The global financial crisis provided a showcase for the South Korean president's management skills. Drawing on his experience as a former Hyundai CEO, Lee guided Korea Inc. through the storm, slashing interest rates and saving troubled banks. The result: the fastest recovery among OECD nations, and forecasts of 5.8% growth in 2010."

I thought this entire magazine was very interesting, as well as eye opening. I'd like to be able to use it in a future lesson, perhaps with my after school classes that will be starting soon, but I'm not entirely sure how. Any suggestions are welcome!

The Deserts

2010-08-24T10:35:00.002+09:00

http://gwangjublog.com/708

This coming weekend, my good friends are playing in a concert downtown. They'll have two concerts, one Friday and one Saturday, according to Andrew. So far, I've seen them play three times in Gwangju, but not recently. It's summer vacation now for some people, and they've all been busy traveling. The last concert I saw they played six songs- they were great! Check out the link for some more details and history about Deserts!

USA Vacation

2010-08-19T04:44:00.003+09:00

During my 25 days in the USA for summer vacation, I did a lot of nice things with my family and ate some great food! The big event that happened while at home in WI was going to my grandparent's 60th anniversary! We had a family reunion weekend filled with family, food, and fun times. Here they are with their cake!

Happy Anniversary!

As for returning back to Korea, I'm leaving Friday and will arrive Saturday night. I know I'm going to be jet lagged, and am not looking forward to having only 1 day to recoup before going to school on Monday!

Here's one for Mike...

2010-08-13T11:18:00.003+09:00

If you've been wondering why I haven't posted recently, it's because I'm finally on vacation in the States! I have 25 days off total, and only a week left! I can't believe it's gone by so fast. I've been able to see lots of friends and family, and can't complain about the weather! Much nicer than Korea this time of year!

I was sailing on Lake Michigan for the last two days, and my friend Mike commented that I hadn't posted anything on my blog recently! Well, Mike, here you go. This is our group that went sailing together up in Sturgeon Bay:

Samgyetang

2010-07-20T22:08:00.004+09:00

Monday evening, I went out to eat Samgyetang at Chon Dae Hu Mun with Kenny. We couldn't find the restaurant we were looking for at first, because there are so many. Somehow we managed to stumble upon it, I'm so glad we found it!

Samgyetang is a dish that Koreans typically eat in the summer, though it is available year round. It is a type of chicken soup (a whole chicken!) with ginseng. The whole chicken is boiled in the ginseng broth along with dried jujube fruits, garlic, ginger and glutinous rice. When we ate it, it came with some salt on the side for you to dip the incredible tender chicken is. I think even if I wasn't skilled at using chopsticks, eating samgyetang would be realitively easy because it literally just fell off the bone.

I'd love to try making it sometime on my own. Here's what it looks like:

Delish!

Lessons Learned- Don't try the 홍어

2010-07-16T08:45:00.007+09:00

I learned a very important lesson last night that I should have learned 10 months ago. I went out to dinner with two English teachers, Mihey and Youngran, and the two PE teachers, Mr. Kim and Mr. Ahn. The restaurant we went to was in Damyang, a small town to the east of Gwangju. I was told we'd be having a traditional Korean meal, which didn't suprise me, because they say every food we eat is "traditional Korean food."

The restaurant was on a road in Damyang which is famous for its restaurants. The funny thing was, all the restaurants looked like mushrooms! On the way back, they were lit up with neon lights, of course, so that made them look pretty strange. Anyway, it was incredibly scenic. The light rain and the lush, green mountains made it seem like we were hours away from Gwangju. Here's a picture of the back side of the restaurant at dusk. Our table was overlooking this pond.

This is the type of restaurant where there's no menu. You simply sit down, and they bring out the courses. Yep, courses. We had three courses last night, now lets see if I can remember what all we had!

Appetizer- Best described as a green salad submerged in cold soup, and tea to drink.

First course~

Starting from the very top: crab-in-shell kimchi; Right- ROTTEN fish*, kimchi, and pork pieces; Center- marinated chicken, some sort of pink vegetable, onion, and shredded laver; Far Bottom- mashed potatoes with purple dressing; Left- seasoned shrimp and bean sprouts; Far Left Top- seasoned tofu; Far Left Bottom- green salad.

*Yes, really, rotten fish. Here's the lesson I learned: Don't eat something you're unsure of if not everyone is eating it. For example, Mr. Ahn saw me eat a piece of the kimchi plain, which apparently you're not supposed to do. He demonstrated the best way to eat it- spread a piece of the kimchi out on your plate, place the pork on top of it, and the fish on top of that. Then, eat it all in one, giant bite. Well, I like all of those things separate, so why not try them together, right? Remember at this point, I didn't know the fish was ROTTEN! So, I do just as he says, but as soon as I begin chewing this massive amount of food, I can tell something's just not right. Of course, the four other teachers are watching me expectantly. I'm sure the faces I was making were pretty amusing. The kimchi and pork was good, but I couldn't place my finger on how the fish tasted. It faintly reminded me of how I think nail polish remover would taste. I didn't end up eating the whole thing, it was so bad I literally had to spit out the rest of the fish in my napkin! I also came across some strange piece of cartilage while eating it, gross! I felt bad, but I can't even begin to describe how bad it tasted.

I asked Mihey afterwards what the deal was with the fish. She explained that this type of fish is caught, then let to rot for three or four days!!! Apparently, it's the only fish that can be "prepared" like this. Mr. Ahn was also describing it to me in broken English, and somewhere along the way, he said "ammonia," and that's exactly how it tasted! I'm assuming when the fish rots, it tastes like ammonia!!!! So if you're ever in Korea, don't try the '홍어' or 'hongeo.'

So, on an happier note, here's course two (sorry it's a bit blurry)~

Starting from the top right- seasoned green lettuce to mix in with your rice; Bottom Right- marinated garlic and mushroom; Center- three cooked fish; Left side- different kinds of kimchi. The seasonings in the circle dishes are for your rice.

Not pictured- Course Three: An extra large rice bowl, bean sprout soup, warm scorched rice soup, and milk coffee.

Everything was pretty delicious, aside from that fish. And the best part is, only 12,000 won! At the current exchange rate, that's only $9.99!

Samgyupsal- Chon Dae Hu Mun Style

2010-07-12T11:27:00.002+09:00

This is a picture of probably the best samgyupsal restaurant I've been to so far in Korea. We got two different kinds of meat, the is the basic, but the honey red pepper pork was even better. We also grilled the onion, garlic, mushrooms, green peppers, and kimchi. With everything combined, it was quite the feast. Not pictured is the lettuce plate, 5 different condiments, cucumber dish, raddish kimchi, and salad. Kenny and I even splurged at got 2 glasses of wine. The delicious food and stylish decor made for a great dinner!

Octopus on a stick.

2010-07-12T11:22:00.002+09:00

This is a chewy yet delicious snack I had while hanging out at my host family's church festival on Saturday. The sauce was decent but it was so chewy and hard to even bite through. I had my host brother bite the head off, then I had the rest. It was pretty strange. My host brother really liked them... he had 10!

Ashely- American Grill and Salad

2010-07-09T11:56:00.007+09:00

On Thursday night, 6 of the English teachers went to Ilgok-dong (North of Chonnam National University) to have a dinner meeting. I didn't know where we were going specifically, but wow, was I impressed. It was easily the best non-Korean meal I've had here!

The restaurant is called Ashley. It's basically a salad bar featuring different dishes from around the world (America, England, South Africa, Spain, and Korea).

This building must have been new, everything looked so fresh and clean! I loved the interior of this place:

As a group, we ordered two main dishes. We chose the "Comeback Alfredo Pasta Pan" and the "Cheddar Vermont Pan." The pasta was delicious- comparable to Olive Garden, which is saying a lot, given that the Italian food is pretty horrible in Korea! The Cheddar Vermont Pan was a kind of meatloaf with potatoes and velveeta like cheese on top. Both were delicious.

But the best part was the salad bar. Actually, they hardly had any salads! Soup, bibimbap, antipasta, fruit, vegetables, desert, drinks, pasta, South Africian couscous, Spanish rice, fish and chips, meatballs, honey-glazed chicken, and the list goes on.

This is what I had. My favorite was the sweet potatoes and the pumpkin with cherry sauce:

What a great dinner, and excellent company!

http://diner.tistory.com/793

http://www.myashley.co.kr/

Re-signing

2010-07-06T09:47:00.002+09:00

For those of you that aren't aware, I'm going to be spending another year in Gwangju! I'm really can't wait, there are still so many things I didn't get to do this past year that I'll (hopefully) have time to do next year.

The official documents were sent out to our school today, and it also came with a list of people that are staying another year. For the people who's contract ends in August, there are 47 people staying, and 23 leaving. That's pretty impressive! I wasn't too suprised to see who was on the list, as we've been talking about it now for months.

I'm definitely sad to see some of my close friends leave, like Alex, Amandeep, Brian, Carleigh, Carlo, Emily, Kenny, Kyle, Naomi, Shabana, and Vann. However, there's lots of great people staying next year, I definitely won't be lonely! And I've also heard we're getting about 20 new teachers to replace the ones that are leaving.

I have to sign the paperwork next Wednesday at the Gwangju MOE, before that I have to get a TBPE test done to make sure I'm not using any drugs. I think we'll also be having dinner, good thing cause we probably won't get reimbursed for taking a drug test.

Monsoon Season

2010-07-01T11:46:00.002+09:00

Monsoon season has just begun in Korea. We had a massive storm come through last night. There was tons of thunder and lighting. It was so loud, that the car alarms were going off in front of my apartment. Normally, I like storms, but I had to sleep with my earplugs in all night to catch some Zzz's.

Monsoon season last year lasted about 6 weeks, I heard from a friend. I hope it doesn't last that long this year! But, for the next ten days, it's all scattered thunderstorms and high humidity:

"to kiss"

2010-06-30T15:18:00.002+09:00

The last few weeks I've had some great lessons, if I can say so myself.

This weeks lesson is about Gestures that I got from another EPIK teacher here. Basically, the students learn about different gestures from around the world and what they mean. They watch some You Tube clips of different, creative handshakes and get to perform them for the class. Finally, at the end, we play the game Gestures.

Well, it's kind of tricky coming up with funny and easy things to do. One of the actions I chose was "to kiss" because all the kids know it. I was thinking the kids would air kiss, or maybe even kiss their hand. Class 2/7 suprised me though.

A little boy was up front, and I could see he understood. He then took a step closer to me, just a short distance from where he was standing. I backed up, cause I didn't want to get kissed. Then, he must have realized that it would be inappropriate to kiss the teacher, so he called up his best friend, another boy.

The class almost died laughing when he tried to kiss his friend on the lips!! He had his arms around him and everything. That was by far the best gesture I've seen in any classes so far this week, and I'm pretty sure nothing can top that one! I love teaching :)

Matt's Suprise Party

2010-06-30T09:10:00.003+09:00

Tuesday night after our Korean final, my friends and I had a suprise party for Matt at Pump at ChonDae HuMun (Chonnam University back gate). Rupert distracted Matt by taking him to Tequilaz first while we got everyone together and bought a cake from Paris Baguette. Matt really though that nobody was going to come out for his birthday, and almost wanted to go home!

We had a lot of people there to suprise him: Myself, Alli, Emily, Alex, Brian, Michael Paul, Mike, Steve, Kenny, Se-Beom, Andrew, Matt, Leah, Naomi, Vann, Heather, Meaghan, Erin, Ramsey, and Ollie.

It wouldn't have been a party without the crazy birthday song, flashing lights, disco ball, sparklers, and confetti. Everyone had a good time, and we even got free "service" shots of tequila from the owner, Pete. I think we generally give him a lot of business.

Girls Weekend in Seoul (and Incheon)

2010-06-30T08:52:00.004+09:00

After our two day EPIK retreat to Boseong, Alli, Em, and I headed up to Incheon as soon as we could Friday night. We met the boys, Patrick and Joe, and went right to Art Center, seeing as how we were right there. Luckily, I packed lightly, but Em wasn't excited about carrying her 4 pairs of shoes around.

At the Art Center, there is a courtyard surrounded by really tall buildings covered with neon lights advertising noraebangs, hofs, and cafe's. Alli and I spun a wheel set up by a male booking club. On Alli's spin, she won a discount coupon of some sort, and when I spun, it landed on free food! Awesome! Then, the man in charge spun it a little more to be on the "free hug" part. I had to choose from 8 different "cutie" boys who I wanted to hug. I just choose the closest one, but it felt all wrong because he looked so young!

The boys and I watched the Brazil/Portugal game at one of the hofs. We played some drinking games, and learned a few new ones. It was a pretty exciting night! Carmen also came out to join us. Here's a picture of one of the new games- Icing. You have to sneakily give someone a Smirnoff Ice, and they have to drop down on one knee and chug it all. Alli and Em did this to the boys, they were so suprised!

We somehow managed to fit 4 people into Patrick's queen-sized bed Friday night. Needless to say, we woke up early because we were squished like sardines in there!

Saturday we went shopping at Dongdaemun and Myeongdong. For most of the day, we were feeling out of it. Staying up late three nights in a row was taking a toll on us! We each choose some things at Forever 21, the best place to shop in Myeongdong. Since we planned to watch the game, we went back to the hostel (which we'd somehow managed to book for the wrong day and the wrong amount of people but still got a room!) to relax.

We had an amazing dinner in Hongdae at Dos Taco's. We each ordered burritos, and they were easily the best burrito I'd had in 10 months! Our big plan was to watch the Korea/Argentina game in Hongdae, but couldn't find a place because it soon started to downpour and every place was full! I got pretty frustrated, and I think the other two did also.

Emily called our Korean friend Alex, who was on his way to Incheon. Turns out, he didn't really want to go there to begin with, and came back. He called his friend, who owns a bar in Sincheon, and was able to reserve a table for the 4 of us. It was great, and our other friend Kyu was there also. The three of us were so relieved to have a place to watch the game! I didn't take many pictures, but here we are trying to get our Korea tatoo's to stick.

It was a tiring 4 days in a row, but I'm glad we went up to Seoul/Incheon for the weekend. It was great being in that crazy large crowd getting ready to watch the game. Thank God we found a place to watch it!

Songgwang-Sa Temple

2010-06-29T09:51:00.005+09:00

After the green tea fields, we went to Songgwang-Sa temple, which is next to Mt. Jogye in Jellanam-Do. The temple dates back to the end of the Shilla dynasty and has been spotlighted as the center of Korean Buddhism. It was incredibly beautiful, and much larger than I would have guessed. They offer a temple stay experience that I would like to do sometime next fall. Here are some pictures from around the temple:

We had lunch near the outside of the temple. It wasn't that great, but Mr.Lee from the MOE explained to us after that it is a traditional meal for the temples in this area to eat. It was almost entirely vegetables.

Boseong Green Tea Fields

2010-06-29T09:45:00.003+09:00

On the second day of our retreat, we went back to the Boseong Green Tea fields. This time, I made sure to go to where the tea was, not where the bamboo was like last time! We got some good pictures on my friends camera, and I hope he posts them soon. But for now...

Leah and I took a hike up in the hot, humid weather to a lookout point and could see green tea plants everywhere!

Here are Leah and I at one of the photo opportunity spots at the tea fields:

It was hot by the time we got back down, so we cooled off with some green tea ice cream. That is by far the best ice cream I've had in Korea!

Boseong Workshop, Spring 2010

2010-06-28T22:14:00.002+09:00

These are some of my favorite people in Korea. The Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education treats us really well. We're the only EPIK city I'm aware of that does fun retreats like this. Dinner was a sushi buffet- so delicious!

The MOE also views these retreats as a sort of reward for our hard work. They were kind enough to provide some "social lubricant" (otherwise known as poju- Poweraid and Soju) to make the time more enjoyable.

Suwan Spring 2010 Field Trip

2010-06-22T14:37:00.009+09:00

Last week Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, I took a three day field trip with my school. It seems like we covered almost all of Korea, and spent so much time in the bus!

Our first stop was at the DMZ on the East Sea. This is the gym teacher and me... he's got a pretty good sense of humor!

Later that day, we went do a different beach where there was a pretty temple:

After a sleepless night in a resort up somewhere in Gangwon provience (the kids didn't have a bedtime), we went to Seoraksan National Park. The weather was very hot and humid, that's why it appears so cloudy in these pictures. It made for some uncomfortable hiking on a very long trail to the famous "Rocking Rock."

Later, we went to Everland. Everland is just like Disneyworld, but smaller. It was the perfect day to go because it was a Thursday, and Korea played Argentina. Hardly anyone was in the park! The most popular ride, the roller coaster T-Express, only took us 10 minutes in line, and usually the wait is three hours!

Here's the kids we went on T-Express with.

We also went on a safari and saw a sea lion show, which was pretty cute. Later, we watched the soccer game in the rose gardens of Everland but had problems finding a seat. It was too bad that we lost the game.

The last day, we went to the Independence Memorial. I was impressed by their museums. A lot was in English, so that was nice. It wasn't really as cloudy as it looks!

By the time we got home Friday night, I was exhaused. On Monday, they gave me a thank you present for going on the field trip- 5 dried squid. I'm so lucky.

Laser Hair Removal

2010-06-15T09:56:00.002+09:00

Yesterday after school, I went with Alli and Emily (and Emily's co-teacher) to get laser hair removal in our armpits. I was nervous all day! I'm just glad I only have 4 more sessions left...

The reason why we wanted to do it was in large part because of the price. Beauty treatments such as laser hair removal are fairly inexpensive in Korea. The total cost for me was 100,000 Won. That's for 5 sessions (typically it takes 5 sessions for the hair to be properly lasered out), but if a few do grow back, you can come back and they will do a touch up for free. Lot's of women seem to do that here, and the armpits are the most popular area of the body. I just found out my co-teacher Mihey has had her's done too. I guess it's a natural thing to do if you're Korean.

The building was nice, which helped ease some of my nerves. When we arrived, we could hear the laser going. It kind of sounded like mosquitoes getting zapped in a bug zapper. That kind of freaked me out. The women offered me numbing cream, but Alli and Emily said it didn't really help because it is an internal pain, not a surface pain. I decided to skip it.

I was led back and laid down. The women shaved my pits for me, kinda awkard. I was pretty nervous, I knew it was going to hurt bad, but had no idea how much. Alli was also back with me while Emily waited in front, so we were talking about nothing to each other waiting for the doctors.

First, they put gel on the area. Two women came and held down my arms above my head, I know they did it to keep me still because I was pretty nervous. The doctor came over and took the gun to me. OOOWWWW! The pain is hard to describe. It felt like getting a shot. But with a hot needle. In your armpit. All over. Really fast. For about 1 minute on each side. I don't think I breathed at all during that minute.

Finally, both arms were done. I thought it would never end. There were some hair follicles that hurt more than the others, but a lot of areas it was so fast it hardly felt like anything. I did shed a few tears at the end, but I didn't scream or cry during. I'll blame the nerves on the relief of having it over and knowing what it would be like for next time.

By the time we got back down to the first floor and out the building, I had no pain. I couldn't believe that practically as soon as they were finished it stopped hurting. I'm just glad that I've only got 4 sessions left over the next 4 months and then I'll be armpit hair free, forever! :)

A Korean Wedding Video

2010-06-14T11:30:00.002+09:00

Here's a short clip taken at a Korean wedding... it doesn't suprise me what happens around 43 seconds... Ajumma's are so pushy! She's clearly looking forward to the all you can eat buffet after the ceremony, and something tells me she'll be first in line.

2AM- World Cup Song

2010-06-14T11:24:00.001+09:00

An amazingly bad music video.

Wonder what "Hitman Bang" is...

Korea: 2, Greece:0

2010-06-14T10:57:00.004+09:00

Saturday was the big game, Korea defeated Greece 2-0!! I really had no idea that Korea was good at soccer. Koreans just tend to get very excited about their teams, so I figured it was all just hype. I was suprised at how well they played!

I met some friends at Chonnam University before the game started. Everyone is practically required to wear a red Korea "Fighting!" shirt, and it was very easy to find them at the many shops at Chonnam Back Gate (an area of town filled with shops, restaurants, hof's, and parks). There were lots of people around getting ready to watch the game at 8:30, and places filled up quickly with the college students. Here's Brian and I with some students who were going to watch the game:

These girls are striking another "cute-ie" pose:

Around 8:25, we headed into the university. They had a large screen set up on a grassy patch. There were easily 1,000 people watching it there, sitting on the ground sporting the Red Devils devil horns. I wished mine were glow in the dark! Just as we were getting there, we got our first goal, scored by Lee Jung-soo. The crowd went crazy again as their favorite player, #7 Park Ji-sung got another goal.

It was a pretty exciting game. I wanted to stay up to watch the US/England game, but with it not starting until 3:30 am, I just couldn't do it!

Next up for us is Thursday against Argentina. I'll be on my 3 day field trip with my school, but I'm sure we will find somewhere to watch it!

Go, Red Devils!

Haeundae Sand Festival (해운대해수욕장)

2010-06-07T13:46:00.011+09:00

This past weekend, I was lucky enough to go to the Haeundae Sand Festival. 해운대해수욕장 (Haeundae Beach) is the most famous beach in the country. It's located in Busan, and is about 1.5 km long.

Haeundae Beach is incredibly popular during the hot summer months, and is known for it's numerous beach umbrellas.

I spent the weekend with my friend Neil, who visits Gwangju quite often. He's got an amazing apartment (albeit small) at Minam Station, in central Busan. It was good to see him. This is a view from his helipad atop the 27th story early Saturday morning:

We went out for lunch the day of the sand festival at a local burger joint, Burts Breeze, very close to the beach. It's been about 9 months since I'd had a good burger, and this one came loaded! It was impossibly huge to take a bite of.

Here are some pictures from the sand festival and my captions below:

Ajuma's practicing safe sun.

Lot's of Koreans don't have swimming suits, so they just wear their clothes.

We didn't realize how cold the water was until we got our feet wet!

Pretty impressive! This was at the main entrance to the beach.

These sand sculptures were pretty big and it was neat to see them still sculpting them. Wonder how long they last...

For more pictures, check out: http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=2208360&id=59501140

Students in the news

2010-06-01T14:47:00.003+09:00

My students made it in the news! One of the second grade classes had their picture taken on our field trip back on May 17.

In the picture, they are posing with a politician, a Jeolla favorite, Chung Dong-Young.

I probably would have never noticed this, but "Brian in Jeollanam-do" posted a blurb about my field trip and included this in the post.

http://www.newsis.com/pict_detail/view.html?pict_id=NISI20100518_0002756734

http://www.newsis.com/pict_detail/view.html?pict_id=NISI20100518_0002756651

Brian's post: http://briandeutsch.blogspot.com/2010/05/students-commemorate-anniversary-of.html

Elevators

2010-05-31T23:00:00.004+09:00

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"

2010-05-31T22:19:00.001+09:00

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"

2010-05-31T22:14:00.003+09:00

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

2010-05-27T15:32:00.002+09:00

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

2010-05-27T15:17:00.002+09:00

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!

2010-05-23T21:22:00.002+09:00

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

2010-05-23T20:37:00.003+09:00

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

2010-05-23T19:46:00.008+09:00

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

2010-05-18T10:21:00.005+09:00

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

2010-05-14T08:43:00.002+09:00

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

2010-05-13T09:58:00.002+09:00

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:

2010-05-13T09:55:00.003+09:00

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

2010-05-12T08:50:00.003+09:00

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

2010-05-11T09:47:00.006+09:00

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!

2010-05-03T12:34:00.004+09:00

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)

2010-05-03T11:29:00.007+09:00

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

Mun Family Picnic/Photonics

2010-04-28T11:48:00.006+09:00

Last weekend I met my host family for lunch. I figured this would last 1, maybe 2 hours. Was I wrong!

After picking up their son, we drove about 45 minutes southeast of Gwangju to 화순. The park we went to was very nice and we had great weather (finally, a not cloudy/rainy day!!). For lunch we had 샌드위치,(sandwich triangles), 김밥 (kimbap rolls), 김치 (kimchi), and 오렌지 (oranges). My host mom is a great cook, and everything was so fresh.

We took around a small lake afterwards, and had fun skipping stones. I, of course, was horrible. I'll blame that on the fact that we were trying to skip from a ledge down at an angle!

The kids had a lot of fun:

I figued after lunch, I'd go back home, but my host family already had tickets for the 2010 World Photonics Expo in Gwangju. I'd had some friends go in weeks previous, and they really enjoyed. I didn't know what to expect, but I certainly didn't think it would be as cool as it was.

First, the expo grounds are huge! There were 9 tents set up in an area the size your state fair grounds. The tents aren't permantent, and neither are the displays. Everything was wonderfully set up and at times I forgot I was in a tent and not in a childrens museum.

Second, the exhibits were pretty cool. There was some strange stuff that I couldn't figure out why it was there, like two air force planes and a piece of a real space ship. We had lots of fun playing around with the interactive exhibits.

Lastly, it was very crowded! Because it was Saturday, everyone came with their children. We had to stand in line for a while to get into the spaceship tent. I know the event is very long so I'm curious to know how many people total will have gone by the time it is over.

More pictures here:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=59501140#!/album.php?aid=2231601&id=59501140

This week in school... Part Two

2010-04-23T14:28:00.002+09:00

This is a continuation of my previous post. Below are the rest of my favorite names and characteristics of some of the superheroes my classes created.

The names:
Fuck
Dirty and Loser Hero
Captian Park
Transgender
Pneomonoultramicrosilicovolcanoscopicconiosis
Dark Templer
Indiana Jones
Michael Jackson
Japanese Man
Undertaker

The descriptions:
"He looks like Mara"
"He is our teacher Ms. Park's friend."
"She kidnapps kids to eat... her face is disgusting and she doesn't wear clothes."
"His magic stick very small."
"Our superhero name is transgender because transgender is pretty and handsome and has a muscle."
"He can nuclear, he can upgrade attack point."
"He is dance God. He is stick dance. He likes children (goes with Michael Jackson)."
"He has a magic stick. He can't use magic without magic stick."
"She lives in sky castle. She has many servants. She can ride clouds. She makes their dreams come true."
"She eat blood. She has very bad smell. This smell is looks like trash smell."

This week in school...

2010-04-20T14:28:00.002+09:00

I'm teaching about Superheroes! I can basically teach about whatever I like, and when I got this idea online, I figured that would be fun. It also allows me to watch "Jack-Jack Attack" from "The Incredibles" 15 times this week. I'll probably be sick of it by Wednesday, but for now, it's still amusing. Plus, the kids love it.

At the end of the lesson, once I've introduced the various super powers and done some warm-up activities, the students get a chance to "create your own superhero." I have them select a cut-out piece of paper with a random animation superhero on it (nobody I recgonize) and afix it to their worksheet. With a partner, they need to write their names, choose a name for their superhero, and write about their superhero. Of course, they are all amusing, but here's my favorite one.

This was read to the class of advanced level 7th graders in my first period Monday morning. Both Mihey and I laughed so hard that we literally cried. Even the students could understand, so they were laughing along as well. This is exactly what was typed, with my notes/corrections in ().

"Alagalamu is bisexual (they meant that shes a boy and a girl). She can eat bugs and even eat human. He lives in Africa. She change into bus. He doesn't help people. Just eat people. But helps environment and animals. Bugs come out of her mouth and dancing with bugs before eat time. His weapon is dandrop (dandruff). She wash her hair once a year. His dandrop (dandruff) has poison. She loves animals and environment very much."

Here are some other great excerpts. First, my favorite names thus far (and will be edited at the end of the week):

Sexy woman
Chita Queen
A pimple princess
Casanova
Thin-thin
Mara
Monkey of Japanese
Cleopatra

Here are some of their "descriptions" about their superheroes (to be added to later):

"She is very pretty but when you take off the mask she is very ugly"
"She likes magazines"
"He likes Girls Generation and children"
"She knows the map of the town well"
"His heart is half bad, half kind, kind is kill knife and enemy kill, brings peace"
"He wears skinny jeans"
"His hobby is fishing"
"...but she has weakness- it's handsome boys (man)"
"He is afraid of scissors... he is very poor barber"
"In fact, she is a transgender. Three years ago he was gay with his boyfriend but the couple broke two years ago. Japan have many strange person."
"His weapon is feet smell"
"He's very kind despite his scary appearance."
"He lacks intelligence"
"He's gay. He likes boys and men. He indifference to girls. He's very strange."
"... but he has a big weakness! He is Casanova! He has many girlfriends! He is a bad boy!"
"His favorite food is swans. So swans are endangered. He lives Jupiter, but he comes to Earth because Swans live only in Earth."
"She has many pimples. She weapon is pimple laser. This is very dirty and bad smell. So she hids her face. She lives in pimple world. She throw poop to the evil. She don't like boys because boys don't like her."
"He eats battery and engine oil."
"She is sexy. She is very many have boyfriends. She is love coach so she is very many have boyfriends...she has a hot belly."

I can't believe it's only Tuesday and I have three more days (9 classes) left of this!

Homemade Sundubu Chigae

2010-04-18T17:18:00.005+09:00

One of my favorite things about the weekend is Sunday afternoon. It's generally a pretty relaxing time, and a great time to experiment in the kitchen. Last weeks project was homemade Kimbap, this week was Sundubu Chigae.

I went to a new mart just down the street, and picked up the ingredients I didn't already have- Soup base, bean sprouts, clams, and green onions. I already had the pork, sesame oil, tofu, red pepper flakes, and egg.

Here's all my ingredients. The bean sprouts aren't required, but they tasted good!

First, I put some sesame oil in the pan, and cooked the meat. I came across the soup base by chance and it said in English "Spicy soft tofu stew stock." I bought it since it was exactly what I was making. Since I needed 2c. of broth, I had to add some water to it. Once the broth boils, you basically add the tofu and rinsed clams. When the clams have opened, you carefully crack an egg into the broth and boil it. Lastly, you add the sprouts and green onion.

I tried it once it was done cooking and exclaimed outloud "Oh my God! This is sooo good!" With rice and kimchi to accompany it, it made the best meal I've made for myself since coming to Korea.

Power Music Concert

2010-04-13T09:28:00.006+09:00

On Friday, I went downtown for the "Power Music Concert." Gwangju is known as the city of light, and the city put on a concert with big names to get our annual lights festival underway. My friends and I knew that Girls Generation would be the main act, but had no idea really what to expect.

When we got there, the place was just packed! The front area was reserved for people who had purchased tickets and media. We ended up standing far away, but that was fine most of the time because of the large projector screens. The concert started at 9pm with fireworks before. The first hour and 45 minutes was a variety of artists- some groups, some individuals, a few bands, and some people singing ballads. I did some You Tube research, and found that one of the bands is called ZE:A, and another was F Cuz. I didn't realize that I'd have to wait that long to see my favorite band!

Here's some pictures of the hour and 45 minutes before GG. Some were good, others weren't.

This was our view of the stage:

The emcee:

A KPOP group- ZE:A singing Mazeltov.

Here's Girls Generation. They sang three songs, and the crowd went crazy! Most of my pics are blury because the people were pushing and shoving like crazy.

Congratulations, Margot!

2010-04-12T10:54:00.003+09:00

Congratulations to my sorority sister and fellow German Club co-president, Margot Pfefferle! She is the 2010 United States Cherry Blossom Queen!

This lucky lady applied to represent the state of WI, and by chance, her name was selected at the week's end ball to be the queen! Looks like she'll be going to Japan for a few weeks pretty soon. Couldn't be more proud of her, she deserves it!

Here's some news stories about the competition:

http://ncss.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/04/congratulations-to-2010-us-cheery-blossom-queen-margot-pfefferle-of-wisconsin.html

http://www.postcrescent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20104110553

Budget Meeting at Gio's

2010-04-06T20:20:00.003+09:00

Tonight we had our English teachers budget meeting at Gio's Italian Restaurant in Suwan. The best part of the meal was by far the fresh mozarella salad! We also had pizza that had what I'm pretty sure was a hunk of butter on top- ew!

We talked about the budget (mostly in Korean, so I'm not sure what all was said), and somebody said we should give out vitamins instead of candy for kids that came into the EOZ during lunch period. I'm not sure how seriously people took that, but Mihey wrote it down. The idea would be to say 5 things in English, then you'd get a Vitamic C pill. Those lucky kids, they'll all be lining up now, I can see it!

Here's the group of us. From left- Mihey, Youngran, Hyunjeong, Me, Jieun, Chiwon, and Ms. Jo. I share an office now with Hyunjeong, and Chiwon's personality reminds me of my Uncle Tim, which means he's great to joke around with. :)

Smile ^^

2010-04-06T14:30:00.006+09:00

My kids make me smile (most of the time). No other way to put it. It may be the funny things they say in class, the way they act, or maybe it's them just being stinkin' cute. Most things they do, make me happy.

During lunchtime, kids race into the EOZ room to play games. It makes me happy knowing that they are excited to see me and try speaking English. The little first graders get excited when they are the first ones to arrive. The other day they cheered, "Yay, we're the first ones here!" when they walked in. Here's some of them, playing one of their favorite board games:

During the 10 minute break time between classes, it's pure chaos. Kids running all over, pushing, shoving, etc. One of my favorite "break time" sights is seeing the kids running down the hallway, coming to a sliding stop in their slippery shoes, and almost tipping over while doing a full bow to greet me (stil sliding!). It's highly amusing, although I've yet to see any of the kids actually fall over. I'm just waiting for that day to come though.

Something else that's becoming a popular "break time" activity. The 2nd graders have recently discovered that their homeroom class is directly opposite mine(and up a floor). Because I don't teach them anymore, they're even more excited to see me than usual. They spend their entire 10 minute break times leaning out the open windows and yelling at me ("Hi, Mara!!!" "How are you doing today?" "Yes, I'm fine, thanks for asking!"). I've never yelled back, I just wave and give a thumbs up (to which they yell "ohhh-kaaay!!!" This is one of the pictures I snapped of some of the boys- I'm sorry I have bars on my windows- I guess they don't want me to fall out!

Happiness ^^

After School Classes

2010-03-31T22:42:00.002+09:00

Today was the first day of after school classes. One of the new English teachers, Mr. Kim, asked me how many I wanted to teach, how many students, and what kind of materials. I decided on three times a week, 20 students or less (but an even number) and that it would be called "Advanced English." The class is grade 2 only, which is great because they're all my kids from last year that I don't see too much of this semester.

Going into it, I only knew of boys that were in the class. There are a bunch of grade two students that I taught last year who come in to the EOZ during lunch time and they've been asking about it for a few weeks. I had an attendance sheet, but I still can't tell if a person is a boy or girl just by looking at the name. I was pretty relieved to find that the class was evenly split, 10 boys and 10 girls.

However, the class might as well all be boys. What I mean by that is, the boys are at their loud, obnoxious stage. The girls barely say a word all class, they just sit in the back of the room and try to hid behind their thick bangs. I'm now used to teaching my first graders, who have yet to go through their growth suprts. The kids still look like they are in about 5th grade. It's pretty strange being in a classroom now with boys my size or larger- I swear they all must have grown 3 inches from last winter!

I'm really excited for the classes, I've got lots of fun things planned. I feel much more confident this semester with my teaching abilities, and I know my co-teachers can tell I am also. I basically can teach whatever I like in my normal classes (like this week I taught about the life cycle of frogs) and I can do the same thing for after school as well, though there is more paperwork I am required to turn in. What I'm looking forward to most is the "Wallace and Gromit- A Close Shave" lessons. It will span 6 lessons and it's only a 30 minute video (each period is 45 minutes). I found an excellent website with an amazing movie guide filled with grammar, vocabulary, and extension activities. I'm not planning on telling my school how many copies exactly I'll be making because it's pretty long ^^

Anyway, I'm pumped for things to get going in the next few weeks. After school classes were my favorite part of last semester, and I hope they are again this semester also ^^

New Phones

2010-03-29T15:58:00.002+09:00

We're getting new phones. Everyone in EPIK. I've sent my papers in to the phone company, but I haven't heard anything about when I'll be receiving it yet. Lots of people have been having problems in the last few weeks, and somehow it always seems to come up in conversation. Some peoples phones are shut off because they didn't send their papers, and others can only receive texts and calls, but nothing outgoing. Luckily I haven't experienced this (yet).

We won't be getting the Lollipop phone unfortunately. Here's the promotional video for the new phone. I don't know what I'd say if someone called me his lollipop!