TAO- Family Restaurant

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!"

Random Things

Here are some random stories that have happened over the last couple of days.

1. Yesterday, I had a break after lunch, when my co-teacher, Mr. Kim, came into my room. I turned around and he was holding a huge black and white bird in his hands. At first, I thought it was fake, but the closer I got to it, the more real it got. His English is somewhat limited, but he said that the bird had been "causing trouble" somewhere in the school. I'm not really sure what that means. I wanted to take a picture but he left to fast. Then, I was looking out my window and Mr. Kim had attracted attention from a bunch of 7th graders down in the courtyard. I grabbed my camera, and snapped a picture real quick. I'll post it soon.

2. At the gym yesterday, I got on the eliptical. I was quickly shooed off by the trainer, who sat me down and went over my BMI, strength results test, and other health related things. Let's just say I scored in the middle for everything. He walked me over to the treadmill after and said "slow, slow today." He had the treadmill turned all the way down to 1- which is slower than I normally walk. He wanted me to walk for 30 minutes like that. Well, I had just spent a half hour on the bus, and there was no way I was going to walk that slow! So after he left, I cranked it up to 7.5 and broke a sweat. It seems that I have a workout plan for each day I come, and next time I go we will work on my shoulders. I wasn't really expecting a workout plan, but maybe that will be a good thing.

3. After the gym, I was walking back to my apartment and passed a few shops. While I was waiting at the cross walk, a young boy stood next to me. I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye and wondered, "Is he one of my students?" I work with 525+ students a week, and I don't know many names. And they all look somewhat similar. The boy caught me looking at him, and jumped a few feet in the air and said "Seonsaengnim!! I... uh ...mean... Mara Teacher!" We chatted for a little while we waited for the light. His English was good, so I decided he must be in an advanced class. He told me that he was coming back from his music academy (he's been playing violin for 4 years). He has gone everyday for the last 4 years and absolutely hates the violin. His parents make him play. He said "it's really boring!"

Later, at the grocery store (it's pretty small), I was approached by another student! I was trying to decide on a marinade for some pork, and asked for her advice. Unfortunately, since she's only 7th grade, her mom still cooks for her. Guess I forgot what it's like to be 14. Wasn't much help, but I think I figured it out anyhow.

4. Students at lunch do not sit across from each other. When the kids are done getting their food, they will sit down next to each other in a line. It is strange to see literally one SIDE of the table full with the other seats across from them empty. I haven't quite figured out why that is, but it's interesting.

5. The other day I saw some live octopus in front of a store. They were really creepy and slimy looking. I'm not sure if I'll be able to stomach eating one live...

6. I crave Kimchi. Our region has a Kimchi Festival, and I'm praying it is not cancelled because of Swine Flu. Lots of festivals country-wide have been cancelled. I think it would be tons of fun to check out because there is such a wide variety. Sometimes when I'm sitting in my office, I really just want to eat Kimchi for a snack.

I think those were the some of the things I wanted to post about this week. I'm really excited for Halloween, and it sounds like I'll be hosting the party for my friends at my place. My coteachers are really excited for it too because we are talking about culture in unit 8 after midterms. They keep on asking about it and what they think we should do.

Things are still going well here, except I'm not getting many emails! If you haven't emailed- you should! I'd love to hear from you! :)

Lotte Mart, Suwan, Gwangju

Today was the big day. Everyone has been talking about it at school for the last month. Lotte Mart had it's Grand Opening today, September 24, 2009. This may not be that big of a deal for many of you, but for the residents of Suwan, this is BIG NEWS. The development of Lotte Mart is bringing a lot of businesses to the area. Suwan, which is my neighborhood, is the home of the first-ever Toys-R-Us in Korea! We are also getting Baskin Robbins, a new coffee shop, and Nike, Puma, Fila, and Adidas shops. I know this because I see the signs for them on my walk to school.


So I decided to check out the Grand Opening tonight. I'm glad I went, but I'll never go to a Grand Opening again. It was worse than the mall the day after Thanksgiving. Lotte Mart is a very short walk for me. It is about 4 blocks, or 15 minutes. It is very, very close. Usually, on a Thursday night, the area is very quiet and you are lucky if you see a few people walking around. Tonight was a different story.


There were police directing traffic at the intersection, and guards directing traffic into the 4-story parking garage. People were milling about everywhere, and the cars were double parked.

I didn't spend too much time looking around because it was way to packed. I know there are 4 stories of outlet shops, and a grocery store on the other half. Since I knew I needed some basics, I headed towards the grocery area. I saw tons of crazy things- mushrooms for 129,000 won (about $100), lots of seaweed, fresh fish, rice, and of course, fresh kimchi. I didn't even know where to begin. I had to ask for help to get a basket because I didn't know where they were located, but luckily there were clerks at EVERY end cap, just like all the other Lotte and E-Marts.

I just picked up the basics- rice, seaweed, body lotion, mozzarella, tomatoes, italian dressing, and hair gel. I decided to get organic rice because 1) it was the smallest/cheapest bag 2) I know I'm going to be here a year, but do I really need 20 kilos of rice? 3) I didn't feel like lugging 20 kilos of rice home! And the seaweed, well, when in Rome! And, its pretty tasty! I'm really looking forward to the mozzarella!

I saw a lot of crazy things, but I think the most interesting things are the people. There must have been some pretty good sales going on. I saw a person with 11 packages of 24 rolls of toilet paper. It was taller than him. Not kidding, here's a picture!

It wasn't until I saw him on the other side of the checkout that I realized/counted 14 packages! Really, how much TP does a person NEED??

In all, it was a very exciting experience, and I'll definitely be going back sometime soon, probably to see the Toys-R-Us!

Korean Bowling

Let me start out my saying that I am a horrible bowler. I'm lucky if I break 50. I'm really bad.

Today Mihey told me some teachers from Suwan MS were getting together to go bowling. I did not want to turn down the invite, and I didn't have anything else to do, so I went along.

Me and 4 other teachers left school around 5 and went to a bowling alley nearby. The bowling alley was pretty similar to something you would see back in the states, and the prices were almost the same. It had been a really, really long time since I went bowling, but I thought I could pick it up right away. Boy, was I wrong!

We played 2 games, 3 teachers to an alley. 6 teachers total. I was the worst out of the 6 of us. I scored so low, I won't even tell you what it was! The second game, we made teams to even out the skill level, haha. I was with the best bowler :) We decided that whichever team had the lowest score would pay for the games. So, I bowled really really well! Well, I did a granny bowl for EVERY SINGLE frame. No joke. But I scored high! My score for the second game was 102. So since I was using 2 hands, that figures out to be 51 per hand. Still, I was pretty pleased.

Koreans seem to get really excited when you do well, but also are supportive when you do poorly, like me. There were lots of high 5's. Basicallly, I got a high 5 after every time I bowled. They were doing lots of cheering and clapping too, though not necessarily for me. I felt like an idiot for doing the granny bowl, but they had never heard of it! At least I did it well. Our side didn't have to pay for the game, thanks to my amazing contribution.

After, we went out to dinner together to a noodle restaurant. The first course was radish and cabbage New Kimchi and sticky rice. One of the noodle bowls was noodles with a red bean sauce. It was pretty good and tasted exactly like a red bean. The other dish was noodles with clams. The exact same thing that I had at the beach this weekend. It wasn't as good though!

It was a fun night, but no will I not only be remembered for singing the ABC's, but also for doing the Granny Bowl!

Life in Gwangju

It is really hard for me to believe I've been here almost a week! I sometimes wonder where the time goes.

I've gotten out of my neighborhood a fair bit this week. I've been meeting my friends Alex and Allie, Brian and Emily, and Gabe often for dinner, and we use that time to catch up about our apartments, schools, and co-teachers. I think our group is a good mix of personalities, and we get along really well. We typically meet at the YMCA downtown because it is close to everything. When we go out for dinner, the prices are really good. A plate at a restaurant will cost anywhere between 4,000 won to 8,000 won. And the food is delicious!

Going downtown is a lot of fun because there are so many people, sights, and lights. It has a completely different feel than in my corner of town. I just located my neighborhood on Google Maps, but my area is so new that it still looks like green fields, even though it is built up with many high rises now. I tried to do a print screen, but Korean computers are hard to use! Anyway, the narrow pedestrian streets downtown always seem to be busy, even on weeknights. The clothing stores stay open late, and there are many restaurants, bars, and Noribangs (karaoke bars).

To see pictures in my Facebook profile, look here:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=2202874&id=59501140

This weekend our Gwangju group is getting together Friday evening to go downtown, but I just found out I'm going out to dinner with my co-teachers that night also. Koreans tend to mix business with pleasure a lot. My co-teacher Mihey and I get along great, I know a lot about her, for example, that she just got set up on a blind date and when I asked if she would go, she said "Of course! Why not!" Saturday our group is planning on going to the market, and then going around to each others apartments to check them out. Sunday we'd like to make it down to the coast and islands, hopefully we can figure out how to get there.

Everyone of my friends seem to have similar experiences to mine, yet somehow they are completely different. One of my friends got spit on by her principal and thrown out of her office all the while being screamed at, another friend got asked out by a 4th grader in a love note and is constantly being climbed on by 3rd graders, and someone else learned how to drink Soju properly with his principal (its not actually a shot, you're supposed to sip it!). Everyone in Gwangju has two schools we work at because they are so desperate to learn, and when we talk about our schools it is hard to keep every ones stories and experiences separate.

Gabe from New Zealand and I are going to Incheon next week to visit the other half of our orientation group. We'll see Evan, Patrick, Joe, and Sophia. Not sure what the plan is exactly, we first need to figure out how to get there. Train is cheap, about $25 for a 2 hour ride cross-country. Should be a great weekend.

My landlord brought me dinner again last night (similar to corn dogs), and I told her the Internet was set up but it was really really slow. As in, when I woke up in the morning today, my homepage (CNN) had still not loaded! Definitely slower than the Internet in rural Cambodia. She said she would have someone look at it today. We'll see how that goes!