Matt's Suprise Party

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.

Congratulations, Margot!

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

The Dentist- Part One

I'd planned on going to the dentist. I should have learned by now that things don't always turn out like you plan.

I had spoken to Mihey about going sometime late last week, and she mentioned it to the gym teacher, UnSeok Kim. His sister is a hygenist at a local office. The plan was to meet today, Saturday, at 3:20 in front of schoool.

The meeting each other wasn't a problem, nor was the part when we met UnSeok's best friend, a gym teacher from another middle school, YuJin, in front of the dentist office. It turned out we had an hour to spare before the appointment, so we decided to get coffee at Kenya Espress. UnSeok got a call from his sister, and there must have been a scheduling conflict at the office.

The men asked if I'd ever been to Damyang Bamboo Park. Well, I'd already been there two times, but I said sure and went along with it. YuJuin spoke a good amount of English, so we had a decent conversation during the 45 minute drive to the bamboo park just outside of Gwangju.

The bambook park was just liike it was the last two times I'd been there- walking paths with bamboo all around you. This time instead of snow and ice, there was wet dirt and more people. At least the weather wasn't as cold.

After walking around in the muddy park, we got some dinner at a samgypsal restaurant on the way back home. Even though both men are 37, married with children, they were a lot of fun to talk to and joke with. We stayed at the restaurant for over an hour, which is uncommon. Koreans tend to eat as quicky as possible, but we enjoyed the time.

I think we are going to meet again on Thursday and try again to go to the dentist. It was just a funny afternoon because it was a perfect example of how you never tend to get exactly what you expect in Korea. Instead of the dentist, I got coffee, Damyang Bamboo Park, and dinner! But I do really hope next week we make it to the dentist, fingers crossed!

I was so happy...

Today, I came home from school on my lunch break. One of the men that works below my aparment in the car shop opened the door for me, and presented me with two large boxes! I hadn't ordered anything, so I was taken by suprise! One was from Mike Kubisak, and the other Analiese Tushaus, one of my best friends from back home. I haven't been that excited in so long! It was a great feeling!

I ran back to school before opening them, because I wanted some pictures taken. Mihey was just as excited as me! Here I am. Look at how happy I am!



I tore into both packages, and had such fun opening them. They each contained the necessities. For example, shower gel, t-shirts (Go Badgers!), chocolate, Hershey's, Dove, candy canes, and macaroni and cheese. I just put them into my cabinets today after school, and I've got one designated specifically to American food. Combined with the food my brother brought over a few weeks back, it's the fullest cabinet! And mostly with junk food. It's a good thing I joined a new gym yesterday in my neighborhood since my other membership expired. It may not be as nice, but it's about half the price, and it doesn't take me a half hour and cost 1,000 won to get there each way! Which reminds me, I'm off to my training session. Just wanted to say thanks again! ^^

Philippines Trip Day Four

On the fourth day in the Philippines, I felt like a true tourist. We woke up early in Intramros, and walked together (with me flanked on all sides by my bodyguards- Edmark and Raymund, and Joe and Kenny) through the slummy part of Intramuros to the tourist area. Our first stop was Manila Cathedral. This is one of the main tourist attractions, yet I felt like the only tourist there!



After snapping a few pictures, we took a half hour horse tour ride around town. We got to see some old buildings and the wall. I couldn't hear much of what the tour guid was saying because I was in the back of the carriage, but that was okay.

Next, we toured Ft Santaigo where Jose Rizal (the national hero) was held captive before he was executed a long time ago. It was very pretty, but the weather was SO HOT. It almost made me long for Korea's weather!

After eating some Pork Sisig for lunch at a hole-in-the-wall-but-still-cute restaurant, we crashed for about 4 hours. I think the heat got to us all. We took a jeepney to Rizal park later on, where we took a few pictures, but the highlight was Ocean Park Aquarium at the west end of the park.

I haven't been to many aquariums that I remember, but this was awesome! I petted a starfish, which actually didn't feel like anything special. There were tons of fish I'd never seen before. There were lots of sharks, sting rays, and there was even a tunnel you could walk though. It was like "Finding Nemo" but in person. Little did I know, I'd be going snorkeling in the ocean and the aquarium wouldn't have anything on that!



I thought our day was over after the aquaruim, but suprise, suprise, it wasn't. We didn't get the memo that we were supposed to pick up Cora, Joe's mom, from San Juan at 6 pm in order to go visit Joe's dad's side of the family in Quezon City. It was already 8pm by the time we left Ocean Park. We got back into the Mitusubishi, drove to San Juan to get Cora, then spent another hour in the car to go to Quezon City. Kenny and I tried to be in good spirtits to meet another 20 odd family members, but we were pretty tired. We'd already eaten at the Pancake House in Ocean Park, and had to eat some more, so as not to be rude, with the family. It was after midnight by the time we got back! Another night without a lot of sleep!

Facebook album:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2219385&id=59501140&saved#/album.php?aid=2219215&id=59501140

Gwangju International Weekend Experience

Friday evening, I got a message via Facebook about the International Cultural Center had a homestay program this weekend. It was last minute (as in, it started Saturday morning!), so I called immediately. I think I was able to secure one of the last spots!

We did lots of exciting things Saturday! I was supposed to spend the night with the Mun family, but their 14 year old son said "Our house is difficult" about halfway through the day, so I was unable to spend the night. But that was okay because the daytime was amazing none-the-less!

We started at JS Cuisine Institute, were I learned to make Jabchae-bab with my host family. We had a good time. I really like the aprons, and I think my Grandma would have liked them too. We got to eat the finished product afterwards, and it was pretty tasty!

We then drove by car to a Confucian school. We took some group pictures and played some lawn games in the nice weather. Here's us as a group:



Next, we watched a movie, but there were no subtitles. Good thing it was only 25 mintues long. After, we got to learn some of the history about Hanbok, and what the different parts meant. We had an intrepreter for that, but I can't remember it all.

There was one pretty dress, the wedding dress, that I liked. I didn't know we were going to get to try them on! Soon after, the ladies asked who wanted to be the bride, and I kinda got voted into it, but secretly, I was like, "yes!!" I had no idea how much of a process this was going to be. I was not even dressed by the time everyone was finished. First, I had to have my hair pulled back, pins shoved in my hair, a head garmet put on, etc. Then, I had to wear about 4 layers of clothes and special garmets. I had at any given time 4-5 middle aged Korean ladies getting me ready. The entire time I was having pictures taken. It was a little excessive! :) I really did feel just like a bride!

Finally, I was dressed. We learned how to bow properly, and had a "wedding ceremony" at the end. This was my "husband" and I. I have no idea who he is.



After about a million pictures were taken, we had a tea ceremony, and played the drums. After this, we went our separate ways. My host family took me to Art Street, where we browsed in some shops, drank coffee, bought earrings, and took more pictures. For dinner, we had some pasta, spaghetti, salad, and Fanta. It was pretty great.

My host brother could speak a good amount of English. He is also 1st grade middle school, same thing that I teach. He would have been in one of my advanced classes I think. My family and I hit it off really well. They are Christian, and I will be seeing them the week before Christmas instead of on Christmas, because I'll be on my way to the PHILLIPPINES!!

As awesome as the Mun family was, they still don't top my family! Love you and miss you all!

ps: check out all the pictures from Saturday here. I didn't post all 171, I thought that would be a bit excessive! ^^

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2214437&id=59501140&saved#/album.php?aid=2214437&id=59501140&ref=mf

Food of the week- Pizza (피자)

Last week at Korean class, Mr. Lee from the Metropolitian Office of Education came to class during our break between hours. With him, he had 4 pizzas, and 5 liters of Coke! We were all so suprised to see him again (it had been a while since going to Boseong for reorientation) and even more shocked that he had given us pizza.

Pizza is pretty expensive here. I've had it twice at school as a snack with the other teachers, and Gabe and I split one for dinner once. Going from eating pizza often back in WI, it is a change to not have that kind of comfort food here! The cost depends on where you buy the pizza from, but when Gabe and I ordered a small supreme (we didn't know how to order anything else other than just pointing), it was about $12. We thought it was worth it. For the MOE to buy 4 pizzas each for 3 classes, 2 beginning and 1 intermediate, had to be pretty costly. But much appreciated.

The pizza was unlike any other pizza I've had so far. It had a stuffed sweet potato crust, sauce, cheese, shrimp, olives, crab, shrimp wrapped in spaghetti, and what I originally thought was octopus turned out to be just cuttlefish, as informed by Mihey and Jiyeon. And I couldn't forget the corn, they always put corn on pizza it seems!

Here's us looking at the pizza, my 선생님 is the Korean in the picture.



This is the pizza, the shrimp with spaghetti are around the edges.