This Must Be the Place

Adventures in Eating, Retro Edition

2011-07-27T01:03:00.000-07:00

So, this is from quite awhile ago, but we forgot to post it. Here, we are eating durian in Borneo. It's big, spiky fruit that has the consistency of a rotten vegetable. The videos are pretty self-explanatory.

Adventures in eating

2011-05-28T17:24:00.000-07:00

Here Brendan and his cousin Joey try some beondegi, silk worm larvae.

Here we all try some live octopus.

An interesting article regarding education in Korea.

2011-04-04T00:08:00.001-07:00

This article is a pretty straightforward assessment of what Korean kids are facing in regards to school and competition in education.

Bali Pics

2011-03-18T22:19:00.000-07:00

Bali

Do you know South Korea?

2011-03-10T17:44:00.000-08:00

Just in case you ever might have wondered why we live in South Korea, or why we have stayed.

This video shows some of the really great things about living here, including the food, the seasons, the culture, and most of all- the kids. :)

link fixed

2011-02-10T21:55:00.000-08:00

Current temperature in Seoul, Korea: 35 degrees F.
Current temperature in Bali, Indonesia: 86 degrees F.

I'm ready for a 50 degree jump baby!

Daydreaming of Spring

2011-02-08T15:49:00.000-08:00

I'm getting pretty tired of wearing leggings under my pants, walking through snow, pounding my feet on the floor to shake out the numbness, and typing with gloves on. Today I am dreaming of Spring. Korea is beautiful in the springtime. Last year in April, we had to make a decision about staying in Korea for another contract and the beautiful weather was a heavy influence.

Next Friday we are leaving for Bali and will be back March 1st. After that, spring is just around the corner right?

A perfect example of Korean Middle School girls...

2011-02-06T22:33:00.000-08:00

Korean Boy Bands

2011-01-30T16:12:00.000-08:00

This is a video by a boy band called TVXQ. It's not a joke, it's a real video. Very popular with my middle school students. The blonde one, who looks like the main character from the Legends of Zelda is called "Hero." He's considered the hottest one. Had to post this, I bet you wont be able to tear your eyes away.

you're welcome.

Back from America

2011-01-18T17:23:00.000-08:00

We recently returned from our whirlwind trip to America. We saw many friends and family (although not everyone that I hoped to!) It was fun and exhausting, but now we are back and a week and a half into teaching our winter break classes.

During the winter, Korean schools close for the month of January and part of February. Instead of giving us hard working teachers all of the time off however, we get the task of designing a 3 week "Winter Camp" for our students. Right now, I'm teaching 3 one hour long classes a day. I've themed them, Harry Potter. So everything I teach for 3 weeks is based around the Harry Potter movies. In retrospect, this may not have been a good idea. I'm already tired of Harry Potter and we're barely halfway through. Oh well, we're running with it.

Brendan and I have our last vacation for a while coming up at the end of February. We've decided to spend a week in Bali, Indonesia with a short stopover in Hong Kong on the way back. We initially hadn't planned to visit Hong Kong, but we ended up having a long layover there, so we extended it to a day, and are going to try and get some good Chinese food and see the downtown area. When we're in Bali, we plan to go spend most of our time in the Gili Islands, a set of 3 islands off of the coast where they have good snorkeling and diving. We may also take a day trip to Komodo to see the Komodo dragons (a giant lizard only found in this part of the world.) Lastly we will be spending a day in Ubud, an inland city set in the midst of terraced rice paddies in the mountains. it's supposed to be beautiful. We're booking our tickets tonight!

Anything will be better than the harsh winter that we've been having in Korea. I've never been so cold. My school has decided to try and save movey on heating, so my office is frigid. I have to wear foot warmers in my shoes or my feet feel like iceblocks. This is no way to live! There is snow everywhere and the current high is 27 and the low is 10. I would say that today is warm compared to our recent weather. Once i get home to our nice, warm apartment, it'svery difficult to get me to leave and brave the elements. Last night Brendan warmed us both up by making some spicy chili. It was delicious. I'll leave you with a few pics of Bali. :)

2010-12-09T20:11:00.000-08:00

As of today, it is exactly 2 weeks until we start our 20 hours journey back to the states!

Merry Christmas!!!

Love this

2010-12-02T18:35:00.001-08:00

A day in the life of a Korean High School student:

In regards to North Korea...

2010-11-24T21:03:00.000-08:00

Many people have been emailing me, asking if the Koreas are on the brink of war. Am I concerned that North Korea is going to bomb Seoul?

Frankly, no.

I'm concerned about drivers- drunk or normal, mopeds, kids on bikes, falling construction equipment, building collapses, insulting the bartender at the mob-run bar and getting beat up, food poisoning, and more.

But I am not concerned with North Korea.

US media always over hypes these things. I remember the "bad relations" a few months ago all over American news. Didn't even make local news here.

I'm more concerned about the fact that I may not be able to procure a turkey for our Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday, which I have promised to have in order to feed my 10 guests.

Once you learn that there wont be another war (at least until something dramatic happens to the relationship of the 6 nations) it becomes easier to shrug these kinds of things off.

Chris Hill was the top American negotiator for several years in the 6 party talks. He said once, that after a long day of negotiations and a few too many drinks, one of the NoKo negotiators let it slip. He said "We know America has hundreds of the newest technology nukes pointed at us every second of every day. We have, maybe 5. The technology that built them, decades old. What good are 5 old nuclear weapons against America's arsenal if not negotiating chips."

And he's right. They build a bomb, we give them a years worth of food to destroy it. They build two, we give them a years worth of oil. They build 5, we loosen trade restrictions so they can sell their poorly made products to Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Africa.

All this is just a way for them to put as many things on the table that the West has to pay to take off. The shelling and that brand new nuclear plant... really big negotiating chips.

Halloween and Rock Festival

2010-11-11T01:36:00.000-08:00

We saw the Hamburgler and Col. Sanders

Halloween!

Daejon Rock Festval.

The More You Know…(A post by Brendan)

2010-10-28T23:04:00.000-07:00

So this might be common knowledge, but I found it interesting. The racial slur gook came

about during the Korean war. The Koreans’ word for foreigner is waygooken, but their word for

Americans is megook. So when US soldiers would walk through villages the Koreans would run

up shouting “Megook! Megook!” The soldiers’ reaction was, yes, we know you are a gook.

Pro's and Con's

2010-10-19T23:01:00.000-07:00

+ Tomorrow is our "School Festival" and I don't have to teach!

- I am sick, possibly strep.

+ It's fall and the leaves are starting to change!

- There are still mosquitoes dive bombing us in our sleep.

+ 2 months till we come home!

- We're flying United. Bleh.

+ They have officially outlawed corporal punishment in Korean schools. (For the first time ever.)

- The students are insane.

+ We went to Costco and bought a bunch of awesome western food.

- We have very expensive tastes.

+Life is good.

Beijing (cont.)

2010-10-10T23:05:00.000-07:00

Beijing Day 3.

We were awoken by the sound of our room phone ringing. Assuming that it was the wake up call that I had requested, Brendan answered the phone. In fact, it was not the wake up call, but our tour guide coming to pick us up for our trip. The wake up call never happened and we were late. Such was the beginning of the day for our trip to the Great Wall of China.

As we rushed to get ready, I took a quick jaunt downstairs to grab some food. I met up with the tour guide and told him that we were running behind schedule because of our non-existent call. He seemed to be pretty understanding. I went in the breakfast room to grab some croissants for the road. As I was buttering them up, a short old Englishman proceeded to make fun of me for being tall. Being already slightly perturbed I ignored him and ran back out to the lobby. When I got to the tour guide he suggested that if I wanted a wake up call, I have to ask for one from the front desk. I'm thinking to myself, "Yes, I know that tiny Chinese man, I am not an idiot." He then told me that the front desk clerk said I was lying and had never asked for a wake-up call.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a morning person, that on top of everything else that happened was enough to have Brendan find me yelling at the front desk lady while she sat dumbfounded behind the desk. The interlude was awkward enough that I didn't approach the desk for the entire rest of our trip.

Word to the wise, don't ask hotel clerks to give you a wake up call. Brendan and I have NEVER had them actually call us. This resulted in us nearly missing a morning flight in Malaysia, and holding up a giant group of people in China. Great. I don't know why I always believe that they will actually call us.

The trip to the wall was uneventful. The guide was giving us his cheesy, History-of-China-and-The-Great-Wall-speech most of the way there. I tend to despise guided tours and especially tour guides. I don't like fake happy people and I like my freedom. But that day, the simplest way to get to Wall was through him. We took a gondola up to the top of the mountain range and climbed all over the section of the wall were on. We even went a bit off of the beaten path to a section of the wall that was crumbling and not open to tourists. It was exhausting, but fun. I was really looking forward to going back down though, there is a luge that you can ride down. Not made of ice, but a long metal slide from top to bottom. Of course, being the day that God decide to hate Kelly, the luge was closed for repairs. On the way back down to our van Brendan and I bought some dried mangos and walnuts from a street vendor lady. Brendan's mangos were good, but my walnuts tasted like chlorine. Such is life.

After the Great Wall we visited the ming tombs, an underground burial spot for Emperors and Empresses (Emperi?) It was very...Eh.

On to the jade museum and lunch! Eh..

At the end of the tour the guide handed out review forms to everyone. Brendan wrote my name on it and suggested that I put that he was a "fair" tour guide, rather than an excellent. (Due to the fact that he may or may not have been drunk for the second half of our trip.) After I handed it in, the dude has the nerve to confront me about his review. I informed him that I wasn't in the mood to argue. He was probably jealous because I rated the insanely agressive van driver "excellent."

That night we ate some pretty awesome dumplings at a random hole-in-the-wall restaurant. Nothing like what a tour guide would take you to.

Korean subway madness!!!

2010-10-04T23:09:00.001-07:00

This is a perfect example of how scary old women are in Korea. They are hardcore!!!!!!

If I was that girl, I would have thrown some serious punches though...

Beijing (cont.)

2010-10-03T17:54:00.000-07:00

On day 2 of our whirlwind tour of Beijing, we decided to hit up some major tourist attractions, Jingshan Park, The Forbidden City and Tienamen Square. I woke up around 7:30 as I am wont to do, and had a leisurely breakfast of, you guessed it, eggs and salad. Brendan slept. The day was much warmer than our first exploration day, so we were happy to wear shorts and t-shirts.

Our first stop of the day was Jingshan park. I had read somewhere online during my intense pre-trip research extravaganza, that this park gave awesome views of the forbidden city and allowed for you to enter the FC from behind and leave from the front (supposedly a much better way to see it.) Brendan decided that wee should walk from our hotel to the park, another part of his secret plot to make me exercise. It took forever, but it was good to be able to see more of the city...I guess. On our way we passed by a popular nightlife place called Houhai. It a million restaurants and bars surrounding a small lake. Very picturesque. At Houhai lake we had one of many Chinese guys try to sell us a ride in a rickshaw, but we were feeling spry and decided to keep trekking on to the park.

Brendan, our navigator got us as far as the back wall of the park. We had no idea where the entrance was, so we had to guess which way to walk along the wall in order to get into the park. He was feeling the right hand side, so we walked in the direction. And walked, and walked while I mercilessly mocked him for choosing the wrong direction. We eventually found the entrance and Brendan was victorious. We briefly debated grabbing lunch at one of the restaurants outside the park but decided to buy a few bottles of water and some "ice cream-mint flavored oreos." I don't know if these are popular in the states, but we found these things disgusting. Brendan said that they made his mouth burn.

Upon arriving at the park, we immediately decided to climb the small mountain in the center. It had a temple on the top and we figured that was the best place to get views of the city. It was steep, but it wasn't a terrible climb for us since we live in a 5th floor walk up in Korea.

Like everywhere in Asia, the temple was super-crowded, but the views were pretty amazing.

After forcing strangers to take multiple pictures of us, until I got the "perfect" one. We descended the opposite side of the mountain towards the Forbidden City, which you can see behind us in the above photo.

According to wikipedia, "The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is located in the middle of Beijing, China, and now houses the Palace Museum. For almost five hundred years, it served as the home of emperors and their households, as well as the ceremonial and political centre of Chinese government.

Built in 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 buildings with 8,707 bays of rooms and covers 720,000 m² (7,800,000 sq ft). The palace complex exemplifies traditional Chinese palatial architecture, and has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and elsewhere. The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987, and is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world."

The Forbidden city was huge and impressive and old. That's pretty much all I can say about it.

The Forbidden city can make you levitate.

One of many gigantic buildings in gigantic courtyards.

More FC.

After wandering through massive courtyard after massive courtyard, we exited the front of the FC. Where we saw the famous picture of Mao. We also found ourselves to be at the end of Tienanmen Square. If lots of cement and tourists excite you, you wont be disappointed there. After walking around aimlessly, we caught a cab and tried to go to one of the awesome restaurants that I researched before coming to China. Halfway there I realized that the restaurant I wanted was closed from 2-5 which would make it difficult for us to eat there at it was 3 pm. We somehow got the driver to go to another restaurant, close to our hotel, but realized that it was ALSO closed. As Bredan pointed out, at least now we knew the exact location of the restaurant, for future dining purposes.

Distraught, but not defeated, we ended up going to a steamed bun stand on the street. They are traditional Chinese steamed buns filled with meat and vegetables. Very tasty. Brendan had Beef and mushrooom and I had Chinese spare rib and cabbage. I probably would have ordered something else if I had known that they didn't take the meat off of the bone first! The neighborhood we were in is called Nanfujing Street...I think. It's an awesome little shopping district and many Christmas presents were bought there.

After hours of walking, wandering, and present buying, we made our way back to our hotel and rested up for the evening, where we planned the ultimate Chinese meal: Peking Duck. Like I said before, I did an insane amount of research before we went to China and one of my main goals was to find the best Peking Duck that China had to offer. Luckily, one of the greatest duck restaurants, Quan Ju De (King Duck) was in Houhai, fairly easy walking distance from our hotel. We got specific instructions from the hotel front desk on how to get there and started walking. We were in for a bit of a surprise. Apparently Houhai is one of the most popular nightlife spots on the city of Beijing and walking through the crowds there is like...black Friday shopping. Another obstacle, aside from the crowds, was our inability to read Chinese or figure out the addresses. We ended up circling the entire lake and walking up and down each side of it multiple times looking for the restaurant in the massive crowds. All the while, people standing outside of every restaurant and bar we pass are yelling, "Hello! Hello! you want Drink? You want have fun? Come here! Come here! Hey you!"

We searched for the restaurant endlessly. We were lost, hungry, grumpy and as usual in Asia, many of the tiny people were laughing at the giant blonde woman and the hairy faced man. Brendan worked up the nerve to ask a group of young Chinese girls how to get to the restaurant, they pointed to the other side of the lake. GAH! We walked over there, found nothing. I was beginning to give up hope. We circled the lake again, smushing through the crowds. I saw a restaurant that claimed to serve "Beijing Duck." I wanted to surrender and eat there but Brendan "didn't like the look of it." We pressed on, discussed giving up and decided to double back the way we came one last time. All of a sudden I saw the number 57 up ahead, the address of Quan Ju De! The crowds parted slightly and a large yellow duck sculpture appeared. We found it! Come to find out that the restaurant was in the basement of a large building, we took the elevator down and the doors opened up to a massive restaurant. We ended up ordering an entire duck between us with multiple sides. It was crispy and delicious. Served with sauces and small pancakes to be wrapped in. Certainly worth all of the frustration trying to find it. At the end of the meal they gave a certificate identifying which specific duck we had eaten. Interesting.

Peking Duck...mmmm

Back from Beijing (with pictures to follow)

2010-09-29T17:29:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that September will be over tomorrow! October is one of my favorite months of the year. The cooling temps, sweaters, changing leaves, hot drinks, snuggling up in a warm house and looking forward to the holidays. And we really have something to look forward to this year as Brendan and I will be coming home on Christmas Eve and staying until January 8th! That's only 3 short months away. :)

Our trip to Beijing was amazing. We had nearly a week off for Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) and we tried to take full advantage of it. Usually we spend our vacations staying in hostels and backpacking from place to place, but this time we decided to take it easy, stick to one location and one hotel and work outwards from there.

We had a short, two-hour flight from Incheon airport (which we almost didn't make because of terrible bus traffic on the way to the airport.) Who knew that one should leave early on the busiest Korean travel day of the year? We made it into Beijing by 9 and into our hotel room by 10:30. Surprise when we showed up, free upgrade!

The "continental breakfast" at our hotel turned out to be make-your-own salad, assorted breads, and cook-your-own eggs. Interesting. We had to stand in line to get to the pan and hotplate that were for egg-cooking, but I actually prefer to have control over how my eggs are cooked, so it was fine by me. Brendan didn't like the crowded breakfast room and vowed never to return. A vow which he kept.

The first day of sightseeing was the coldest of the trip. And rainy. Not the best way to start a walking tour or Beijing, but great atmosphere for the Lama Temple. It's a huge temple complex near our hotel which originally served as a palace for one of the many princes of the many dynasties in China. It was a great experience. Every time I visit a Buddhist temple and experience the peacefulness and tranquility it's very moving and I kind of wish that I was a Buddhist for a minute. There were many people there doing prayers and burning incense, as well as a myriad of different representations of Buddha, ranging from the reclining and laughing chubby-faced Buddhas to what we think of as more traditionally Indian Buddhas with hundreds of arms and dragon-like faces. Of course the architecture was super-impressive and intricate. It's scrolls on top of gold on top of filigree on top decoration. A little bit mind boggling. There were many impressive statues but the MOST insane was a 3 or four story standing Buddha that was entirely carved from a single sandalwood tree. To give you an idea of scale, it's foot was twice the size of my entire body. It's little toe was the size of a giant suitcase. We weren't allowed to take pictures of it. Depressing.

After a few hours wandering around the temple, and visiting the inevitable gift shop (where Brendan, regrettably, did not buy a jade elephant he was eyeing, we moved on to walk toward Wangfujing street. A "snack street" where they serve everything from grilled scorpion to starfish, to seahorse, even sparrows and spiders. Now there is some alliteration for you!

It was a looooong walk and we got hungry on the way, so we popped into a restaurant that had lots of pictures and English on their menu. We settled on some duck in a black bean sauce. Sounds kind of eh, but tastes AMAZING! It came with some small pancakes to wrap the duck with some shredded cucumber and onion, and tasted better than any Chinese food you can imagine. It was rich, like a dessert and hard to finish one plate between us. We did manage to finish with the help of some tasty Chinese beer to wash it down. Now, onto Wanfujing!

By the time we got to Wanfujing, I was still incredibly full from our lunch and the site of scorpions still squirming on a stick gave me the urge to call PETA. Brendan wanted to try some delicacies, but I wasn't feeling it so we walked around the market a bit and examined their wares. Many stone statues and incarnations of Buddha later, we had bought nothing but a pair of "Ray-Ban"(yeah right) sunglasses for Brendan that I bartered down from 60 to ten bucks. After much walking and talking with a few sets of Chinese "art students" who wanted us to come and see their "exhibitions,"(scam) We decided to head back to the hotel and rest up for the evening. (To be continued.)

2010-09-12T07:22:00.000-07:00

So, we'll hopefully get to Borneo in the near future. In the meantime, we went to Costco & bought a bunch of food. I hadn't had turkey since leaving the US, plus we got awesome salami, cheese!, and good rolls. First real deli sandwich in over a year. Oh my god, it tastes good. Also, we got andouille sausage (another first in over a year). Forgot how good some american food can be.

We'll be home from December 24th to January 8th. We're also leaving for Beijing, China in 8 days.

Oh, and at least I'm not a hokie!

I hate getting news like this

2010-09-09T23:05:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling shocked and upset.

Todd Weaver, who graduated high school with me, passed away yesterday in Afghanistan. He left behind a wife, who also graduated in my class, and a beautiful baby daughter. He was just a really nice guy, with a beautiful family and now his daughter will not be able to know him.

I've known other young people who have passed. Even other people from our graduating class. But, I've never felt so angry at hearing about someone's death. It was his choice to join the military and i'm sure that he served it proudly, but this seems so senseless.

If you would like to see pictures of our trip to Borneo...

2010-08-29T00:53:00.000-07:00

...click on the following links.

Borneo 1

Borneo 2

Details later.

In 6 days...

2010-08-05T18:47:00.000-07:00

...we're going to Borneo!

We're going to the Malaysian portion of Borneo called Sabah. We're fluing into Kota Kinabalu, then flying to Sandakan and finally to Semporna.

Were going to do some jungle trekking, see an Orangutan Reserve, Snorkle, Beach, White Water Raft....Gahhhh! I'm so excited. We're also (hopefully) going to be diving one of the top 10 dive sites in the entire world!!! (If we can get permits.) Sipadan Island. Turtles and Stingrays and Sharks, Oh My!

We are also finally finishing up moving. All that is left is to get the last stuff from my apartment this weekend, clean up and finish unpacking. Pictures to come!

White Water Rafting and Bungee Jumping

2010-07-11T22:18:00.000-07:00

Saturday was really fun. Brendan and I, with some friends, went rafting in Gwan-ju on the only river in Korea with anything resembling rapids.
We had a great Korean Buffet lunch and then went bungee jumping.
I didn't jump because I have some pretty serious back issues that were exacerbated when I fell backwards out of the raft and landed on a rock. However, Brendan did.

One of our friends was set to go before Brendan, but chickened out twice. It took Brendan jumping and not dying in order for the guy to man up and take the plunge.

In order to fully appreciate this video, turn up your volume so that you can hear the terrible noises he was making before, during and after the jump. Also the repeated "Oh God!"

He's groaning so loud near the end that I thought for a second he was hurt, but fear not, he was just freaking out.

Please try to ignore my loud, grating voice.

The Bungee platform.

A view of the Bridge

The Jump

Brendan after the jump: Happy to be alive.

Adventures in chicken (by Brendan)

2010-07-06T18:19:00.000-07:00

So, a couple months back I went to dinner with a Korean friend of mine. The place had a small grill in the middle of the table to cook or heat up the food, depending on what you ordered. We got some mushrooms wrapped in bacon and coated in BBQ sauce (prettygood), sausage (meh), a freshly diced ½ a pineapple (awesome, grilled or raw), & a trio of mystery chicken on a stick. She claimed they were all parts of the chicken we eat in the US. I knew she was lying, but why not be adventurous? After trying them all, I found out they were, in order: the skin, scrotum & testicles, & hearts.

The skin: Easy to figure out, it was cooked, but not charred at all, so was VERY fatty & gelatinous. If allowed to cook a while longer, it might have been pretty good.

The unmentionables: Had a fear, especially once biting into them, but I didn’t know what it was. Chewy, cartilage-like crunchy, it really was not pleasurable gnaw on. The flavor left something to be desired, but the texture was what really got me.

Hearts: AWESOME! Great texture, not overly chewy, slightly melt in your mouth-ish (probably just compared to what I had just finished eating). The flavor was intense, & all around tasty.

Overall, the bacon & mushrooms would be nice without the sauce, & the pineapple was good. As for the chicken, I’d get the hearts again in a heartbeat (sorry), and the skin if I had control over how long it could be cooked.

From Brendan

2010-06-30T16:51:00.000-07:00

Here’s what three shirts a few of my 11-12 year old students have worn over the past couple weeks said:

Smell my Funky Monkey Ass (With butt cheek drawing!)

VALUE
Be Of Make
Natural Life

Blue
Blooded
Drinker
Bock
Duffle
Beer

New Apartment: Currently Under Construction

2010-06-29T22:20:00.000-07:00

The following is a virtual tour of our new apartment. Please excuse the random order of the pictures, as the picture uploading thingie makes absolutely no sense. Also, it was a dark and rainy day, so the pictures arent great.

The living room

Our Soon-to-be-enclosed Laundry room.

Our very long and narrow porch, also soon to be enclosed (unfortunately.)

Brendna standing in front of the building while I take pictures.

The second bedroom. (Probably going to be a giant closet.)

The Master Bathroom

Master Bedrooom.

Kitchen

The view from the living room.

Front Bathroom.

The view from the front bedroom.

Front Bedroom aka the "Brewing" room.

Storage room.

Front door!

New Apartment

2010-06-27T18:01:00.000-07:00

We went house hunting on Saturday. We saw some really crappy apartments, a few okay apartments and 1 brand new, top floor, 3 bedroom new build.

Guess which one we signed a contract for?

If you guessed the brand new apartment, then you guessed right!

It's still under construction, but they are "guaranteeing" that it will be move-in ready by August 1st.

The new building

Our Apartment is on the top floor

Our new street.

The street is actully not that new to us. The new apartment is only a half a block from Brendan's current apartment. 3 Bedrooms? I wont know what to do with myself. It has a separate laundry room, 2 bathrooms, a wrap around porch on 2 sides, a great view, gas range, extra storage room, built-in entertainment center and closets! (They usually dont have built-in closets in Korea.)

Now, on to buying furniture! :)

The World Cup

2010-06-17T22:09:00.000-07:00

How crazy are Koeans about the World Cup? Oh just crazy enough to gather in the streets of Seoul in the hundreds of thousands to cheer for their team which is thousands upon thousands of miles away.

http://www.koreaherald.com/sports/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20100617001053

Korean Friends and Deep Dish Pizza

2010-06-14T22:41:00.000-07:00

Our new Korean friends

Recently, Brendan had been working out at a gym near his school after work. The trainers at the gym have taken a particular liking to him and attempt to make conversation with him every time he goes. They don't seem to mind if he is biking, running, lifting weights or showering. Any time is a good time to talk to the foreigner.

Long story short, somehow I got conned into having lunch with Brendan, his trainer, his trainer's girlfriend (a yoga instructor) and another trainer from the gym. To be honest, I was intially dreading meeting up with these people on Sunday. If anyone reading this has attempted conversation with someone who does not speak the same language as you, you know how frustrating and ultimately, boring it can be.

The lunch lasted about 4 hours, two rounds of grilled pork, one round of grilled beef, a korean pizza, many sides, and various types of Korean alcohol. I have no idea how Koreans stay so skinny with all of the eating and drining that they do. Surprisingly, it was a pretty fun time. In a long standing tradition, the more you drink, the easier it is to speak another language.

In other news, we made a pizza! Not only that, a deep dish. Chicago style, this is mostly because we dont own a flat pan of any sort. Using a pizza dough mix, sent to us courtesy of Brendan's mom, some onions, yellow peppers, garlic, tomato paste, tomatoes, pork and mozzarella cheese. It was delicious!

Brendan carefully dispersing the ingredients

Note the tiny oven

Our pizza, pre-cheese

Our pizza, pre-munching

A very happy Kelly and Brendan abot to eat some tasty deep-dish

mmmmm....

A look at our friendly neighbors to the north...

2010-06-09T19:15:00.000-07:00

Interested in what it's like to be a North Korean?
Read this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/world/asia/10koreans.html

2010-06-08T23:47:00.000-07:00

Well, it looks like we are going to be spending another year in the ROK.
Unless, of course, anybody out there has some job leads you want to hook us up with.

In the meantime, he are some videos of some popular Korean pastimes.

Some crazy adjummas (old ladies) working out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_Wp0Njs3Ro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12kxWQEOLl0

Karate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vckn7Y7mXJ0

Noraebong (Kareoke):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcWSAfesBq4

Making annoying songs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGbwL8kSpEk&feature=related

Just your average Korean Tuesday night:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_v9hh2JJXT8&feature=related

Riding the subway:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcvwlNSZr5I&feature=related

...and my all-time favorite adjumma clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qNOevO8ytc&feature=related
(It just describes this culture perfectly)

Lotus Lantern Festival

2010-05-16T16:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we went to one of the biggest festivals that Seoul has to offer, The Lotus Lantern Festival and Parade. Unfortunately, my camera died before that parade, but hopefully my good friend Cianti will be sending me some of her pictures for a future post. The festival honors Buddah, whose birthday is a national holiday this coming Friday. They had a street lined with booths where you could try temple foods, paint fans, create your own lantern, buy stuff... We mostly walked around and took in the sights.

We also visited a Buddhist temple. I was super impressed by the 3 gold Buddah statues in the temple and the ornate decorations. It's always a little akward to enter someone else's religious grounds as a tourist though. Of course we removed our shoes before we entered, but we didn't stay in the temple long because people were bowing and praying and you feel a bit like a jerk snapping pics. There was a definite sense of peace and tranquility in the temple, despite the festivites raging around it. I enjoyed seeing it a lot. Just when I was starting to think that Korea lacked a definite culture, we saw this.

We shopped around Insadong, a historic market district, and I made a terrible attempt at withdrawing moeny from a no-English ATM. I'm not sure what I did, but I didn't get any money. We spent the late afternoon havig drinks on the garden roof of a local Mall while we waited fr the parade to start.

The parade was pretty cool. Giant floats with brightly lit paper lanterns of dragons and elephants and Buddahs. Some of them shot out fire or smoke and some moved. Tens of thousends of people carrying lanterns of every shape, including boots, umbrellas and fish. Drummers, performers, dancers, monks and children most in traditional outfits. Everyone in the parade got excited when they saw our friend Eric and wanted to give him their lanterns. (We think that it might be because he's bald like the monks.) After watching the parade for a couple of hours we decided to go get some yummy Korean BBQ. Brendan and I caught the last subway train home and made it back by 12:30. Luckily, my school is having sports day today, so no teaching for me!

Baby monks!

Inside Jogseoyo Templa

Outside of the temple

This really says "Korea" to me. The old and the new.

Some lantern carriers getting ready for the parade wearing traditional Hanbok dress.

Look at all of the lanterns!

Paying tribute to Buddah.

Adjumma bowing to "Mario Kart" Buddah.

Ramblings

2010-05-10T06:15:00.000-07:00

So, Kelly joined Hot Yoga last week. They blast the heat at 105+ and pump in steam during each 1.5 hour session. Sounds like a blast, I know. As for me, I joined a gym last week. I paid for 3 months, as did Kelly. They gave me a good discount; I’m assuming because now that they have a white member, they have a whole lot more street cred. I do have the best (only) beard at the place, so that’s nice.

Speaking of beards, I’ve been growing mine out since the Philippines (Feb.). I got my haircut today (had no school because it’s our school’s “birthday”). The dude gave me a half decent cut, except, apparently, he’d never had a client with a beard. He took my sideburns down to the skin. Now my disconnected beard just pops out of no where, and it isn’t that much shorter than the hair on the top of my head. I wasn’t really that conscious of having beard and having people stare prior to this, but, today, oh my! Feels like I just arrived based on the stares, snickers, and dropped jaws.

And here are some pictures of us at a Korean baseball game:

Fan Death

2010-05-08T03:33:00.000-07:00

With spring under way and it finally getting warm in Seoul, now feels like an appropriate time to warn you of a (almost) silent killer of which many probably are not even aware.

For years Koreans have been conscious of a deadly threat that no other society has discovered: fan death! The government controlled media reports on deaths by fan periodically, and an average of 10 Koreans die by the blades of electric fans per year.

So what’s the actual cause of death? People sticking their face into the blades? Nope. It happens when people fall asleep with the fan running in an enclosed room. There’s no consensus, but here are some of the theories of how the fans kill:

The fans create a vortex that sucks the air from the room and creates a vacuum inside.
The fan chops up the oxygen particles.
The ELECTRIC fan uses up the oxygen and creates carbon dioxide.
The fan sucks away all the oxygen if aimed at the face.

Consider yourself warned, and I hope you do all you can to prevent yourselves from falling prey to this menacing household appliance.

On a totally unrelated note, since boarding up Kelly’s windows, its quite stuffy in her apartment, so I took the liberty to purchase 6 fans for her that are running 24/7.

At Long last... The Philippines Part III

2010-05-03T22:19:00.000-07:00

Brendan's "giddy for tiger prawns" face

Best restaurant in The Philippines: El Nido Corner. Not a bad view either.

Best pizza of my short life.

How about some snorkeling?

We took a day trip around the islands. Here the boat guys are fixing some lunch for us.

Our boat.

Check Out the reflection.

Brendan calls these the cliffs of insanity.

Our hotel room, nicest one of the trip.

Our view

Our friend Jason looking like he's on fire or something.

Our room was on the second floor on the left.
So beautiful. The Japanese owner used to live in Reston. Go figure.

A man and his dog.

Some video from our trip

2010-04-28T22:33:00.000-07:00

It really wasn't that windy.

This made me laugh...

2010-04-22T18:29:00.000-07:00

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2009/01/11/120-taking-a-year-off/

Now I have truly heard it all

2010-04-21T21:02:00.000-07:00

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/special/2010/04/182_64560.html

An Iran hard-line cleric claims that women who dress "inappropriately" incite extramarital sex which in turn causes more earthquakes, Telegraph reported on Monday.

Women who snub traditional Islamic clothing to instead wear fashionable clothes and apply heavy make-up, caused youths in the country to "go astray" and have affairs, the hard-line cleric Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi said.

Also, he said as a result the country, bounded by several fault lines, experienced more "calamities" such as earthquakes, the reformist Aftabe Yazd newspaper reported.

The Islamic dress code is mandatory in Iran, which has been under clerical rule for more than three decades.

An excerpt from an email that I just sent to my mother

2010-04-19T22:21:00.000-07:00

"There are so many things that I miss about America... the big and little things. Taco Bell, Kujo, TV commercials, sports, driving, family, calling people on the telephone, the rest of my clothes, dryers, cheap pizza, good beer, good cheese, music, concerts...but that's not to say I'm not happy here. We have friends, we do trivia every Thursday night, I like my job, my students are generally adorable, I eat pretty well, and I'm saving money.

I DO think that living in Seoul is bad for my health. People constantly tell me that I look tired here. I've always had circles under my eyes, but now I have to actively wear make-up to conceal them. I'm tired and sleepy a lot. I think part of it is the weather, part living in the city, part the incredible amount of air pollution, the yellow dust from China, pollen, living in a small space with a lack of sunlight, walking everywhere...

I miss trees. They have trees here, but not many. I miss green and grass and animals and backyards. I can't even buy a plant because I don't get enough sunlight in my apartment. "

This sounds pretty complainy doesn't it?

Right now, we are trying to decide whether or not we will be staying in Korea another year. It's been on my mind a lot lately because no matter what the decision is, we have to get the ball rolling on it soon. While there is nothing wrong with living here. There is something ...not quite right.

Someone wrote on a Korean English teacher's message board this statement and it expresses how I feel:
"There are dozens of pros and cons to living in Korea...all of which are routinely used as valid arguments for why Korea is or isn't a great place to live. For us, it all comes down to one thing. Korean is draining our soul. The money's good, the job's good, friends are good, and life in general is comfortable and fun enough....but there is just something about this place that sucks away your life essence. It's like the polar opposite of what happens to your soul when you're in places like Spain or Brazil. "

Is that depressing?

2010-04-02T03:45:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I know it's been forever since we(I) posted but it's been a crazy month. We(I) also never finished posting the pictures from our vacation to the Philippines. I sincerely hope to do that sometime this weekend but who knows?

Update.

We both started the new school year in March. This means new co-teachers, new desks, new classes, vice principles, schedules etc. I've been spending a lot of my time writing lesson plans and getting to know the new staffers. This includes obligatory dinners with the other teachers after school. These usually involve sitting on the floor and eating grilled meats and drinking soju. For those of us with bad backs, it can be less than great to spend a 3 hour meal on the floor, but why complain? It's free food.

To top off the business of the new school year, Brendan decided to slip in the shower and tear his ACL in the beginning of March. This has slightly complicated life as he is hobbling around on crutches and has to go to an orthopedic specialist once a week. On a side note, one more vote for a single payer health care system here. Crazy, I know, but I live in a Democratic country with a single payer system and... it works! Brendan visited a top Orthopedic Specialist without an appointment, was seen within 20 minutes, x-rayed, diagnosed, treated and written a prescription within an hour. Cost? $5.00. Considering our friendly neighbor to the North, I don't think that this country is in any hurry to go Socialist. Not a political statement, just personal experience.

Anyway, he's probably going to get surgery in the near future to repair his ACL and another torn ligament in his knee.

The weather here might FINALLY be turning a bit warmer. We've topped out at around 55 degrees so for, but 60 is projected for Sunday. Hopefully, I will be experiencing that wonderful weather at a baseball game. Baseball is big here. Like REALLY big.

Tomorrow we're going to the opening of a new restaurant down the street called Georgia Wing. Free food! Yippee! Wings, Cheese steaks and an assortment of other American foods, my mouth waters at the thought. Or perhaps my mouth waters because Brendan is making me a taco salad.

Hope that everyone is doing well.

The Philippines Part 2: Sabang

2010-03-11T01:37:00.001-08:00

With limited captions for now.

By far my favorite place that we went on vacation. There was almost nothing/nobody there. Just beach and relaxation...

We arrived in a jeepney much like this one. There were about 27 people inside another 15-20 on top and a couple hanging onto the sides.
This was the view to the right of our hut on the beach.
Our hut.
The view from the front door of our hut.
Brendan playing with one of the many beach dogs hanging around Sabang. We named it Sandy-face dog.

Path to the Underground River.

Looking out of the cave.

The mouth of the cave.
They made us wear lifejackets and helmets to protect us from the hundreds of thousands of bats inside the cave.

This evil monkey lives at our hotel. I thought I was standing far enough away from him, but he jumped off of his perch and attacked me. It didn't really hurt but he was trying really hard to bite me by slamming his head into my shoulder. I hope I don't turn into a zombie 28 days later.
Monkey bite!

Epic picture.

Our hotel.
This is about how relaxed I was the whole trip. I think i'm meant for warmer climates.

Fish Sisig.
Brendan eating the fishes cheek.

On the boat leaving Sabang. Excuse the hair, the was a strong wind. You can date the pictures by Brendan's beard. He didn't shave the entire trip.

The Philippines Part 1: Puerto Princessa

2010-03-08T03:13:00.000-08:00

We flew into Manila from Seoul Korea at around 12:30 at night on March 13th. I hd the name of a hotel that I had found online so we caught (an extremely overpriced) cab and headed toward Hostel 1632. It's not really a hostel, I don't know why it's called that. The drive to the hotel was kind of creepy. We knew going in that Manila is supposed to be a bit of a seedy joint (exactly why we weren't spending any significant time there.) Manila reminds me of those late 80's and early 90's movies that tried to make America's inner cities look like post-apocolyptic war zones with out of control youth roaming the streets. Like the beginning of The Terminator, only tropical. By the time we got close to our hotel it was 1:30 am. We were stopped in traffic when a 7 or 8 year old girl ran up to our car with a handful of "flowers for the lady!' She was trying to sell us the sad dead flowers and yelling "Happy Balentines day!" with her face pressed up against my window. Balentines is not a typo by the way, that's the way she pronounced it. We both just kind of stared at her and Brendan commented n the fact that it was freaking 2 in the morning before we drove on. We arived at a pretty OK looking hotel and they got us a room. It had the Korean style stick-your-key-in-this-slot-to-turn-on-the-electricity thing. The interesting part about the room was that it was about the width of your average hallway. Narrow enough, in fact that the 2 beds had to be pushed against the wall sideways to fit. In any case, it had airconditioning, a tv, a shower, and it was only for a few hours so it worked. Unfortunately the ac turned out to be a big problem, it blew on my face all night and I ended up getting a mild sinus infection because of it. Brendan also didn't appreciate the prostitutes outside of our window that had a 6 hour long screaming competition. (I slept through most of that.)

We got up as late as possible the next morning, I downed some Benadryl and we looked out of the lobby to find the street much less menacing inthe daytime. We decided to have breakfast/lunch in the reataurant of our hotel outside on the patio. This would have been really nice (warm weather, breeze) had there not been the most obnoxious Canadian woman sitting out there with us. We've all heard of the "Ugly American" stereotype. The traveler who is completely naiive about the world outside of their own region and lacks any cultural sensitivity, usually treating the locals like servants or pre-schoolers. This woman was the "Ugly Canadian." Between sips of her 6th beer at noon these little gems escaped her lips at a completely unnecessary volume:
"Who's the president of this country? I'll teach him a thing or 2!"
When a family of philippinos walked toward her, "Oh, they travel in packs!"
To a philippino man (who are generally of small stature), "Don't you ever wish you were taller?"
"Is it rude to pick your teeth in the Philippines? We pick our teeth in Canada."
"I heard this was a rich country, it doesn't look rich to me."
There were so many more that I can't think of right now. She started talking at us and we gave a few polite answers to her questions, but I wanted to get away from her as quickly as possible so we got out of there.

We crossed the street to change some money. We had to change Korean Won to dollars at the airport and then into Philippine pesos in the country to get a better exchange rate. We changed our money with an extremely old dude who had a line of ants marching across his counter and a tiny grandaughter asking questions in tagalog (Philippine language) and desperately trying to lift o 5 pound weight.

Caught a taxi to the national airport to board a plane to the island of Palawan, where we would be staying for most of our trip. There we had a brief interlude with a toothless and crippled man who was trying to lead us to a restaurant or something. I thought Brendan would have a heart attack before he got the guy to leave us alone, as politely as possible of course.

The Plane from Manila to Puerto Princessa

Brendan and I did a million crosswords during transit on this trip

Zest Air: Asia's most refreshing airline

We arrived in Puerto Princesa in the afternoon of the 14th. It was immediately more laid back. When we got there we caught a tuk-tuk to our hotel and checked in to the Moana Hotel and Dive Center. It was a really nice, small hotel with lots of shady trees , a pool, 2 bars and really friendly employees. It was also within walking distace of a few good restaurants and stores. It was immediately relaxing. We set up our dives for the next morning as soon as we arrived and spent the rest of the day wandering around the town.

This restaurant as awesome. It was called Ka Loui and served awesome fresh fish and seafood

The light in our hotel room

Our transportation to the first dive site. They don't do seat belts in The Philippines.

A banka

Some of the other divers

My dive instructor, Rhammel. Pretty awesome guy, but why wouldn't he be? He's got the LIFE.

This isn't our dive, but it was filmed in the same location, a few days after ours with one of the guys we dove with.

What a terrible view

You are looking at a newly certified diver! (me)

The bar at our hotel. We met a cat there and Brendan offered him a beer.

Butterfly farm

Kind of lame, kind of cool

Pupa

The bar at our hotel

Front entrance

A tu-tuk or trike. Main mode of transportation. In these, one person faces forward and one backward. They are literally just kawasaki dirt bikes hooked up to these sidecar things.

Inside out hotel

We arrived on Valentines day. This was a nice reminder.

We're back!

2010-03-01T17:05:00.001-08:00

So, we got back from our 2 week vacation in The Philippines 2 days ago.

Now i'm back at work doing nothing, so pictures and blogs about our adventures will be forthcoming.

For now let's just say it was wonderful, warm and relaxing.

I meant to write this months ago-Brendan

2010-02-12T06:41:00.000-08:00

In October I went to a palace with the teachers from my school. It was ok, but I had been there a week earlier with all the English teachers in my district. Anyway, afterwards all the teachers went to a great Korean restaurant. We were served dish after dish. A couple highlights were these tiny clams, I guess we’d call them cockles, in a vinegary, soy saucy thing with finely diced scallions and hot peppers. I couldn’t get enough. Also, giant prawns covered in sea salt and cooked on a hot cast iron pan. The shrimp were slightly mealy, but I love salt, which I don’t get enough here.

Now to the strange. Towards the end of the meal, we were served fermented (rotten) skate that you eat along with kimchi (which is naturally fermented) that they let sit & rot longer. All this is wrapped in lettuce. Pure funk. This dish made me strongly disagree with George Clinton (figure out that reference!). Not sure I’d be ordering that again. This was followed up with fermented tofu soup. Smelled like old shoes after you played 5 pick-up games in them. It tasted great, however, and I hogged most of it to myself.

So, Tuesday night, all the teachers went out because my principal is leaving for greener pastures (or a smog covered city, not sure which). This was a barbecue place, where you sit on the floor & grill the meat on the table. There were ribs and seasoned pork (though I tasted no seasonings). Side dishes that came with it included ray smothered in a thick, spicy red sauce. The sauce was good, & the meat tasted ok. The problem was, with my piece, they hadn’t removed the cartilage, and there was nowhere for me to spit it out. That was rough (in Will Ferrell voice). Also, there was jellyfish. Jellyfish is much better here than in the states (no offense Balducci’s). I’ve had it a bunch here; I just hadn’t realized what it was. I thought it was some kind of ice cold, slimy noodle. Either way, it tastes pretty good.

And then yesterday one of the special teachers bought Chinese for the rest of us (the non-homeroom-having). There was what amounts to sweet & sour pork, a mix of stir fried veggies that centered on green peppers, dumplings, and larger fried dumplings. This was 2 hours after lunch. Ugh. It was pretty good, though.
The nurse was invited to dine with us as well. While eating, she asked, “Do you have a religion?” I answered that I was raised Catholic. This confused her, and she asked a couple people in Korean what that meant. She then turned back towards me and asked, “Catholic?” while doing the sign of the cross. I answered in the affirmative, & she was quite happy that she figured it out.

The 1st 4 pics are from a school BBQ.

Korean style BBQ

From right: Chaehuen (my co-teacher), ME!, Eun young (the special-ed teacher), & her daughter

Nurse "Nancy" in the bottom left. The #1 badminton player at our school (pre-pregnancy).

Tisu (the other English teacher), Bongsoon, Chun gyun, Hyeon Jung, ME!, Eun young, & Myeonghee

A kind of long day...

2010-02-08T06:19:00.001-08:00

So, today I had a kind of long day.

I awoke at 7:00.

Dressed applied makeup, brushed teeth.

Started walking to subway at 8:00.

Arrived at school around 8:30.

Taught some classes.

Watched the superbowl streaming online. Although it cut out every 90 seconds and I had to refresh the page.

Lunch at noon. (Fried fish, sweet potatoes, well not sweet potatoes, but potatoes that were sweetened, radish kimchi, spam soup) Koreans love that spam!

More classes.

Left work at 3:50

Walked back to subway.

Took train to Paju. (A city outside of Seoul.)

Arrived in Paju at 5:40.

Grabbed cab to Dive Center.

Took final Scuba test. (Written)

Got directions from scuba instructor.

Tried to walk to train at 7:45.

Got lost.

Wandered around a city I was unfamiliar with at night.

Finally found train at 8:25.

Boarded Train.

Arrived at my station at 10:15.

Brendan tried to call me, lost connection in subway.

Walked to fried chicken joint.

Waited for takeout.

Got chicken.

Walked to corner store, bought beer and water.

Walked home.

Called Brendan back.

Ate chicken at 10:45.

Now updating blog.

Seems like a long day to me. Note the no eating between noon and 10:45.

2010-02-03T20:25:00.000-08:00

Today I was walking to Brendan's apartment from the subway and feeling kind of eh, so I decided to stop at this little hole in the wall place and get some hot chocolate. No really, it's literally a hole in the outside wall of an apartment building with a lady that stands inside and makes awesome hot chocolate. So anyway, the lady was so smiley and genuinely kind and happy to see me and her hot chocolate is so good I no longer feel eh. I have no illusions that she was actually excited to see me per se, I know she was excited to see my wallet and my 2,000 won, but it was nice.

Also, my paper coffee cup (which I promise to recycle) says this on the outside, "Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction." I like this.

Brendan's co-teacher's birthday is the day before his, so he bought her an ice cream cake and a bag of oranges. (The oranges are just what people do here for some reason, they buy bags of oranges for each other and everybody has one.) Well, they aren't really oranges but i'm not sure if they're tangerines. They're small. So he showed her the cake and pointed to the grocery bag and said, "I also brought oranges." But since she's Korean and their accents are weird, she thought he said orange juice. Koreans say orange like "ahrahnjuhhhh," and orange juice like "ahrahnjuss."
She says, "Ahrahnjuss? That needs to go in the fridge."
Brendan says, "Do you really have to refrigerate oranges?"
Then it goes back and forth like this:
Her: Ahrahnjuss?
Him: Oranges?
Her: Ahrahnjuss?
Him: Oranges?
Then she finally looks in the bag and says, "I thought you call these tangerines!"

Was that funny? I don't know, it's hard to type out a story like that.

Busan Pt II

2010-01-22T08:26:00.000-08:00

At long last.....Busan Pt II!!!!!

It seems that I like pictures.

This is some culturally significant gate.

Hi, creepy carousel!

Getting ready to go on the cable car to get to the top of the old mountain.

Cable car!

We get on...

A view of Busan.

Some honeless people live on this mountain. Hm.

Hiking to the "fortress"

It was cold.

And windy.

Kelly not happy.

The fortress.

Getting ready to go back down.

Some high quality sushi at the beach.

Wasn't so sure about this dish...

Sushi!

The beach at sunset.

Our restaurant is the 8th floor up in the middle.

Just finished a weekend of scuba training and 3 weeks of English camp. Tomorrow we are going to see the Andy Warhol exhibit at the art museum and to see Avatar. The Philippines in just a few weeks!

Snow in Seoul!

2010-01-13T00:29:00.000-08:00

8 inches of snow, -5 degrees and not a bag of salt or snow plow in sight.

Seoul was not ready for snow.

Here is the view from my front door.

This is the road that my side street opens up to. It's a very popular nightlife area.

I was on my way to work and trying to take a picture of my reflection in a window when a fine young chap offered to take my picture for me. Unfortunately, no good deeds go unpunished because he ended up dropping his coffee in the snow.

Note the rain boots. They leak. Don't buy rain boots from Target!

This is my high school Sehwa Girl's High School.

I looked out my office window and saw some girls playing in the snow.

A view of the middle school next door from my office.

A snowy train station.

Busan Pt 1

2010-01-09T01:20:00.001-08:00

A few days in a city by the sea. A very windy and cold city by the sea.

Seoul train station, getting ready to find our platform and take the 3 hour trip to Busan.

Brendan carrying the big backpack.

Looking tired on the train. Somehow we ended up with seats across the aisle from one another.

Dinner the first night at a great Italian restaurant called "The Pan." We sat outside even though it was freezing and the heaters didn't help much.

Jagalchi Fish Market.

Here we see some hanging dried squid.

I don't know what this is.

Met a fish that really wanted to escape.

I convinced Brendan to buy a knife as a souvenier. Only 15 bucks for a sweet, newly sharpened and gigantic knife!

Getting the new knife sharpened

Eating at one of the small, family owned resaurants at the fish market. You can choose what you want straight out of the tank!

There were some very loud Korean businessmen chatting it up.

Hiking up to Busan tower.

Nice view.

A korean sized staircase.

Christmas lights

Part II to come later!

And so this was Christmas...

2009-12-27T17:06:00.000-08:00

Some highlights (and bright lights) from our 2009 Seoul, Korea Christmas.

Seoul-ites do their Christmas lights a little bit differently. They prefer to cloak and entire building in lights. Below is city hall.

We spent Christmas Eve with some friends looking at Christmas lights around the city.

Here we are in line waiting to get knife noodles at a restaurant in Myeong-dong, a big shopping district.

Our Christmas lunch. Korean made wine, Cheese from Brendan's mother, and Crackers.

Korean Salvation Army bell-ringers!

Presents, stockings (filled!), advent calendars and better cheddars from Nancy.

Home made Chocolate chip cookies from my Dad and Beth.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T16:56:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas blog-readers!

...now we're off to Busan!

2009-12-15T21:56:00.000-08:00

It's so nice when you have people that care enough about you to buy you gifts, pack them up, go down to the post office, wait in line and pay exorbitant fees to ship to Korea. Brendan and I aren't going to have too shabby of a Christmas from the looks of the piles of presents in both of our apartments.

Thanks parents!

Lots of content!

2009-12-10T22:34:00.000-08:00

TGIF PEOPLE!

The one and only picture of my tree lit up. Soon after this was taken, the light bulbs starting exploding and then the tree went entirely out. Apparently 220 volts of electricity were a few too many. They do look unusually bright, don't they?

Some pictures of my after-school class. Their task this semester was to remake High School Musical. There were mixed results. In any case, they had fun speaking the English language and that's my main goal. I can't believe I'm giving the peace sign, these Koreans are rubbing off on me.

This girl is my greatest actress. She played the villainess. She's probably the only one who took it even remotely seriously. Notice the two little heads peeking through the window behind us.

Here is a video of the Seoul Lantern Festival. The images were taken a while back, but I set it to a techno version of Deck the Halls because I'm feeling Christmasy.

I recently started painting again in an effort to spend less time watching tv on my laptop or vacantly staring off into space. My first effort was pretty terrible. Second less so.

My students are taking exams all next week, so I have half days. On Monday, all of the teachers in my office and I will be going to Everland. It's supposed to be Korea's best amusement park. We shall see. If it follows the trend of the rest of this country, it will be a really crowded hack version of an American theme park.

Check out where I'm going in February. Sweeeeeeeeet!

By the way, I'm finally not sick! (Knock on Wood)

It's snowing!

2009-12-05T17:16:00.000-08:00

My tree!

2009-12-04T00:10:00.000-08:00

My wonderful mother sent me a tree and some presents to put under it. The lights don't work because they cant be plugged into a korean outlet and I had no ornaments or star. I remedied this by putting my stuffed Kujo at the top of the tree and decorating it with family photos.

It is rock star.

2009-12-01T01:01:00.000-08:00

Well, we had a really good Thanksgiving on Saturday. We went to a friend of a friends apartment who is Korean-American. There was a mix of Americans, Canadians, and Koreans there including his aunts who made a bunch of Korean food to go with the American Thanksgiving food.

It was pretty good. The funniest thing was that everyone only has toaster ovens, so there were multiple tiny dishes of casseroles instead of one large one. We brought tomatoes stuffed with mozzarella cheese and drizzled with balsamic vinegar, chocolate chip cookies, and a huge jug of sangria. It was really fun. It was nice to just sit around with multiple English speakers and talk. I think everyone was afraid that there wouldn't be enough food, so we had all brought entirely too much. We also played the game catchphrase to mix it up a little. We found out towards the end of the night that it was the host, Brian's Korean Aunt's 60th birthday, so we established one of the cakes as a birthday cake and had her blow out some candles. I was really afraid when first coming to Korea that the major holidays would be sad and depressing for me. I found that you can have a "family" atmosphere wherever you go. This might have been one of my favorite Thanksgivings yet!

The next day Brendan and I went Christmas shopping around some of the big market streets. The day started out very productively until we got lost and couldn't find the last market that we were looking for. Then it ended up with two tired and slightly grumpy people eating a shrimp avocado burger at Lotteria (like Korean Burger King.)

I'm still not healthy. I have a terrible cough that causes everyone on the subway to run away from me. At least sometimes I get a little room to myself. I went back to the doctor today and got some antibiotics so hopefully that will help.

After my father mentioned the lack of people in my pictures i went back to take a look at them. I don't know how I managed to get 3 pictures without any people in them. There is usually a crush of people and absolutely no personal space here. My photos are very decieving. I always kind of laugh to myself when I'm on the subway. Just think of a hundred little black haired heads smushed together with my blonde one sticking up in the middle.

I have 21 days of vacation that I can use throughout the year, and I had been planning to use 10 or 11 when we go to the Philippines in February. The stipulation with our vacation days is that we must use them during student breaks (end of December, month of January and month of February, Month on July.) I found out of Friday that we will only have time for one week of vacation in July (5 working days) so I have to use up the rest of my vacation days in during the winter break. That amounts to 16 working days of vacation. On top of that, some of the days that I requested off were already holidays so, surprise! I now have a bunch of vacation time coming up. From December 24 to January 3, January 27 to 31, and February 13 to 28. I have no idea what to do with my time but i'm considering a ski trip, a train trip to southern Korea, a second trip to another part of The Philippines, or possibly another country. It all depends on airfare costs.

2009-11-25T01:10:00.000-08:00

I went to the doctor today after work. I have a hacking cough that I feared was bronchitis. Walked in with no appointment and filled out no paperwork. Was seen after a 10 minute wait. Talked to the doctor for 5 minutes, he took my vitals and asked me some questions. He gave me a prescription. The pharmacist was located conveniently downstairs from the doctor's office.

Total cost of visit to doctor and prescription meds:

Doctor: W2,500.00 or about $2.20

Meds: W3,200 or about $3.00

Total time:

20 minutes

Sometimes I love this country.

And now a picture of my apartment building.

The street on which i live...

...and the street parallel to the street on which I live.

Brendan's blog entry #4

2009-11-23T03:14:00.001-08:00

I’ve been meaning to post for a couple weeks now…

But I’ve been busy. A couple weeks ago my school asked me if I’d be interested in teaching after school classes at a different school. I hesitated, but it pays really well. I had to decide within the hour of them telling me and then leave for an interview. Got the job, and of course they told me I needed to start in 10 minutes (though they swore before hand I wouldn’t have to). Terrible time, not told what to do, how it was taught previously, and I was teaching grammar while reading what I was supposed to be teaching.

I work 8 hours extra a week, and get back around 6:45 as opposed to 5:00. Because I leave early for this I now have little to no time to lesson plan with my co-teacher for my regular classes. Plus, I have to write a separate lesson plan for each of those 8 extra. Also, I have to have grades for all my students for writing and grammar, as well as comments for each kid in one of the classes, by Wednesday. I know nothing about them, not even their names, and their grades are now based off of how well they answered about 10 one word answers while I looked over their shoulders. Completely arbitrary.

Extremely wore out right now, but this should pay for most of our trip come February. More interesting posts from me should be coming shortly.

I am sick...

2009-11-20T00:00:00.000-08:00

This is the chair next to my bed.

I was going to take a picture of myself, but then I started coughing. So I just figure that it was appropriate.

What's up party people?

2009-11-13T02:02:00.000-08:00

Yeah, so it's been a while since i've posted. I can feel the guilt washing over me.

This week was the Korean SAT. It's only for the seniors. We call them 3rd graders because High School is 3 years here and they are (obviously) in their 3rd year. I found this a little confusing at first but anyway. It was on Thursday. So I didn't have to come to work! Yay! It's a national test and it's pretty darn serious. Like, if you do badly it will ruin your life, serious. This test is weighted as 90% of your college application here. It's about 8 or 9 hours long. Kids prepare for it by studying 5 and 6 hours a day outside of school for YEARS. There are no make-up days even if you have swine flu. It's crazy. Planes are not allowed to fly on this day. Traffic is stopped for students. Parents sit outside the gates of the school and wait for their kids. What did I do on this all-important day you may ask? I cleaned Brendan's apartment and watch 5 episodes of America's Next Top Model. All of the other teachers (the Koreans) had to work that day proctoring the tests. One of the teachers told me today that a girl threw up in the middle of the listening test all over herself. Awesome. It's the pressure. It's insane here. Interested in reading more about it? You can find a news story here.

Hmmmm what else? Brendan and I got trivia every Thursday night at a foreigner bar in Itaewon. (That's the happening place for English speakers.) We've never won. Recently, we've paired up with a group of military micro-biologists and nurses and have come in second twice. The trivia is no-joke and has 5 separate sections. Somehow I always come out of there feeling dumber though...

Brendan is over his illness. Still don't know what it was but I suspect it was the regular old flu. He never even missed a day of work. The working Korean-style right there.

I've been shopping around for Christmas presents lately. I'm trying to get stuff bought up for everyone and sent out in time for the big day. Only 7 more shopping weeks till Santa is born and Jesus comes down the chimney!

I want some cranberry sauce. I don't think they grow cranberries in this country. I also want egg nog.

I'm a little concerned about all of the people in southern Virginia. Are you ok? Are you flooded?

It's finally getting cold here. I think it was in the upper 40's and lower 50's today. It also rained. Kind of depressing. Especially when the bottoms of your shoes are breaking away and street water pours in to greet your socks. Then you have wet feet all day. Ick. Plus the streets here are gross. I can't even get into how gross.

Koreans are not classy dressers. I wish I had pictures to show you but I will tell you why.

1) Shiny suits. I'm sick of seeing dudes walking around in pin stripes and shiny suits. It doesn't make you look important. It makes you look like your from the 80's.

2) Women here wear cut off shorts with tights and high heels. It's so pretty woman in this country.

3) Fur- they all wear it. That's just gross.

4) High-heeled tennis shoes. Apparently Koreans aren't all quite as tall as I thought, they're just sneaky.

5) I think Brendan has gone over this one: Clothes with incomprehensible English writing on them. Wow, you're shirt says, "Sweety girl toaster rebellion" and your bag is telling me, "Gives faces above paranoid..."

6) Men straighten their hair here. They also get perms.

7) Glasses with no lenses. Frames for fashion.

The DMZ!

2009-11-02T04:01:00.000-08:00

We went to the DMZ this weekend! It was... OK.

I made a video about it for your enjoyment.

I forgot to add into the video that at the train station, a girl got on the train thinking that it was part of the tour and the doors closed on her. She was stuck inside the train while it took the hour long journey to Munsan. Lol.

Brendan's Apartment and Kelly's School Field Trip

2009-10-30T01:18:00.000-07:00

So, this is a pretty picture heavy post but here we are...

BRENDAN'S APARTMENT:

Here is the view of Brendan's Apartment from the front door. It almost looks like amidget lives there!

Looking back at the front door at the shoe closet and trash sorting area..

Directly to your left when you enter is the "kitchen." Brendan is the only person I know with and oven. (It's the red thing.)

Looking back the the rest of the apartment from the kitchen. It's more like a glorified dorm room.

View of the closet and bathroom door. By the way, all of the purple bedding and wallpaper ame with the place.

The desk.

The bathroom.

His sweet shower with the rain shower head. You'll note that there is no seperate shower here, just a drain in the floor.

A look back at the book shelf.

KELLY'S FIELD TRIP

And now, my school field trip. The students took a break after exam week was over and took a field trip to the park. Their assignment? Paint a watercolor landscape. These are some of the winners during the judging process.

A temple at the park.

That bell is really old and used to hang in a monastery.

Korean museum that was next to the park. If you look in the distance you can see Seoul tower, which is their version of Seattle's space needle.

Two teachers "exercising" by swinging back and forth on these things.

One of these things is not like the others...

Some leaves are changing!

Students eating lunch. Skinny jeans are in here.

Students drawing in a pagoda.

This is what 500 asian high school girls look like.

Brendan's blog entry #3

2009-10-27T03:59:00.000-07:00

A Korean, an Irishman, and a German walk into a kitchen, though none of them can cook. What do they make, you ask? My lunch today. A smorgasbord of heavenly delights, such as: rice (Korean), potatoes in a clear broth with seaweed (Irish, K), some sort of cross between Irish bacon & corned beef (I), and kimchi (spicy cabbage) that tasted of sauerkraut (German, K). Thank God I am sick, or I would have had no excuse not to eat it.

In my classes the students were allowed to pick an English name because there is no way I would remember their real name. Because of this I actually yell on a daily basis things like (names in bold):

l “Fire! Dog! Class is up front.

l “Superman and Human, please close your books!”

l “Wake up Dorito”

l “PC Room and Randy Johnson, please sit down”

l “Pain and Power Ranger, stop talking!”

l “Better Cruiser, give Sun Chip his eraser”

l “Musician, can you ask Yoshi ‘How are you doing?’”

l “Kareem (I named him), what’s #2?”

l “Yes, Cherry and Sickly, you can go to the bathroom.”

l “Terminator, turn around!”

l “Tank, stop!”

l “Mario, can you ask White Mario ‘How was your weekend?’”

DMZ

2009-10-26T01:50:00.000-07:00

We're going to the DMZ on Saturday! (Demilitarized Zone) Hopefully we won't get sniped.

Finally took at trip to Costco on Saturday. Bought $300 worth of stuff. We were there for over 3 hours. It's cool because I finally have cheetos (enough to last for the rest of the year.) We also got some Australian steaks, mustard, sushi, Ritz, Dr Pepper, Gatorade, Budweiser, paper towels...the list goes on. We got up to the cash register and found out that they only accept Samsung cards. Who knew? I had never heard of Samsung cards in my life. It makes sense though, considering Samsung and LG make and own everything in this country. So, I got to hold up the line while Brendan made a mad dash for the ATM which, of course, was at the other end of the store. Good times. Then there was the dilemma of getting all of our purchases home without a car. I did not think about this. I finally flagged down a cab driver who was nice enough to block traffic while we loaded up his cab. He even drove us straight to our front door and helped unload the car. Classy.

Brendan is sick. Working with Elementary school children, "the gift that keeps on giving." Don't worry it's PROBABLY not the swine flu. He's taking alot of Vitamin C and the medicine that the pharmacist gave him. We have no idea what said medicine is, by the way.

I have pictures to load of our past weekend fun but, my camera cord is at my apartment and I haven't been there in over a week. Maybe tomorrow?

Kelly's haircut

2009-10-20T22:12:00.001-07:00

So, after a long delay, I finally got up the nerve to walk into a hair salon and get my haircut! There were communication problems, Yes. But, there were also pictures. I knew I wanted bangs and to keeps it long. I ended up with a very Korean style haircut that I don't hate. What do you think? Brendan hates it, I think. The people I work with love it, but they're Korean. Anyway, I haven't had bangs since I was about 10 so I thought it was time for a change.

Before:

After:

Food and Brendan's Haircut

2009-10-16T21:17:00.000-07:00

Last night we finally found a place where we can eat dinner for less than $5 a person. Neither of us can remember the name of the place. But we both got a dish to share and they gave us like 7 side dishes and the total meal came out to about 9 bucks. I continued my streak of ordering the worst thing on the menu while Brendan continued to order as much meat as possible. As long as we keep going to restaurants with pictures on the menu, this will probably happen. Brendan ordered this spicy pork stew. It was really great. Usually, when you order a hot dish, they will bring it to your table in the pan it was prepared in with a little cookstove style burner. Then your meal can happily boil away while you eat small portions of it. Last night was no exception. I, on the other hand, ordered this noodle dish with radish, cucumber and kimchi in it that came, I kid you not, floating in water and larger chunks of ice. Why does this always happen to me?

Today we went to Dos Tacos for lunch. It's cheap and tasty. Brendan says it's better than Chipotle. It's not easy on the stomach though.

Tonight, we are going to meet some friends at a place called Monkey Beach. It's a giant bar with fire dancers and drinks that come in buckets. Exciting.

And now, without further adieu... Brendan's Haircut.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Cabin Fever and Commuting

2009-10-14T05:21:00.000-07:00

Brendan has promised to update in the near future. I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you. Perhaps if I fill this post with misinformation he will feel the need to post and correct what I write again.

My students are currently taking mid-term exams, so I don't have to teach this week or next. Unfortunately, I still have to show up to work. This results in me sitting in the office all day surfing the internet. There are other people in my office as well, 10 to be exact, but they mostly just speak Korean. So, I just surf all day and almost never speak. Therefore, when people do actually talk to me, I get very excited and end up sounding like a moron. Luckily, Koreans can't detect (Moronity?) I have however, conducted a very awkward conversation with one of my (American) neighbors and written all of my emails in pirate language today.

Tomorrow I am going to some useless 2-day training seminar on how to work with your co-teachers. It is useless for 2 reasons: 1. I already have awesome co-teachers. 2. The people running the seminar are the same boneheads that ran our orientation, and I will never get that week of my life back. Oh well, at least i'm not teaching.

Well, Fate has proven me wrong. Brendan just emailed me a post.

The public is clamoring; so here it is folks, Brendan’s 2^nd post:

I take the bus to work everyday. Awesome, I know. I love the 10-20 high school students who get on the stop before I get off in the morning, and then proceed to block the doorway and do their best from letting me leave the vehicle. Oh so many elbows have been thrown into the arms, chests, and heads of little bastard kids and wicked adjumas (old Korean hags).

Also, apparently it’s extremely difficult to get a job driving a bus. You have to be able to scream obscenities while riding the tail of someone who cut you off, only to slam on the brakes and send everyone skyrocketing to the front of the bus. And everything is a race, so you have to be flooring it the entire time. Luke should apply. (Lol...This is kelly)

Additionally, bus drivers cannot be intimidated by something as inconsequential as a red light, or pedestrians crossing immediately in front of the bus. I cannot count the number of times a bus I’ve been traveling on has just cruised through a red at 30-40 mph. And I’m not talking about “not going to make it before yellow turns, but not braking, either” red light running. No, “it’s been red for a minute, some stupid crosswalk has the right of way, but I’m racing bus #2211, and I can’t give him the chance of catching up.”

Two busses run the same route, at least before splitting up right after my school stop. I get on at the last/first stop in that direction, and #3 & #2211 race out of the gates, refusing to wait for people at that pickup. Whoever is behind will tend to skip the 2^nd stop, where the leader is idling, instead deciding to cross over the double yellow for the chance to make their move, oncoming traffic and school children be damned. This defensive-style driving continues until I leap out of the bus, which doesn’t have enough time to completely stop while letting me off.

Saturday, in the park, I think it was the 10th of October

2009-10-10T06:14:00.000-07:00

Click on pics for close-ups.

Here we have a weird Korean playground. Brendan was hoping to see children climb up into the arm and then fall to certain death.

Fear and loathing in Korea part I (look at the bridge.)

Fear and loathing in Korea part II.

If you look closely, you can see the deer wading through the stream.

Feed Me!

Obligatory tourist photo.

Buck

The bicycle built for two is quite popular here.

My favorite picture!

Wow, in retrospect, this was unnecessary. I am lame.

Car carousel! Want your car to have fun while you're away? Take it for a ride.

...and on the seventh day, God made pork. This painting is found in the entrance of a Korean BBQ (as in Korean grilled BBQ, not southern pulled pork BBQ).

This is Brendan now. To clarify, last week we had hot, creamy tofu with sesame DRESSING, not oil. Also, on the indian night, which was fantastic, we had chicken TANDOORI, not satay. Kelly despises me for adding this because I "am an asshole".

Chuseok

2009-10-06T04:21:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know I haven't written in a long time. I'm a very important person and it's hard for me to find time to sit down and write things.

Right now Brendan is making dinner. We're having baked chicken with onions, kimchi, rice with seaweed wrappers and tofu in sesame oil. No, really, don't be so jealous. I know this all sounds wonderful to you. Actually it is all good.

My ankle is getting better. I still wear a brace every day, but today I actually ran to catch the subway. I think that's a good sign.

We just had a 4 day weekend. It was Chuseok, the Korean Thanksgiving. It's also a day when they honor their dead ancestors. I didn't honor any dead ancestors but I did celebrate by sleeping. A lot. We also went to a place in the city called Insadong. It's an older part of the city. They have a pretty awesome stream that I will post p0ictures of. We also saw a statue of a famous general in the Josan dynasty. He was a pretty formidable looking guy. Brendan is trying the tell me the exact name of the place we went. Apparently it sounds like qhuang-wong- whatever. It was nice to see another part of the city, and you can see the mountains very nicely there.

We also made some new friends last week when we went to a Thursday night Trivia. A couple named Kendall and Richard. They teach at a University here and have been working in Korea off and on for...9 years. He's from New Zealand and she is from Texas. They were happy to have us on their team because i'm full of useless knowledge and Brendan knows everything.

I'm having my after school class make a movie so that I don't have to teach them anything. They have decided to make High School Musical. Despite the fact that they are all girls, and that they are all Korean and they don't speak English very well, I think that they're doing a pretty good job. I was hoping to use my video camera to film them, but it refuses to work. It currently just asks me to eject the tape and when I attempt to retrieve said tape it refuses that give it to me. Make up your mind video camera! Brendan tried to fix it, but I think he broke it some more. Now it just makes this whiney beeepy noise when I turn it on. Anyway, thank God my camera has video recording on it.

Brendan wants me to tell you about some of the good food that we've been having. The other night we went out to an Indian Restaurant and got some wonderful vittles. In my opinion there wasn't enough of it, but it was really good. We had Chicken Satay, a salad with purple dressing, Lamb Curry, Samosas and Garlic Nan. It was great. The place only had like 10 tables and was rocking a decidedly Urban/Modern/Garbage can decor. For some reason our waiter laughed at us. That seems to happen quite a bit here.

We also had some tomatoes with mozzarella and olive oil. No basil, but still delicious. I have to say that their tomatoes might be better than our tomatoes, and their apples and pears are huge! The size of a baby's head. I'm not kidding.

Last night we were wandering around for a while looking for a restaurant with an English menu, or at least pictures, and we finally settled on a thai restaurant that didn't seem to have either. But it's Thai right? It has to be good. Much to my surprise, when the menu arrived it had English AND pictures. What a delight. I don't remember exactly what we had, but Kelly like.

That's the thing about Korea, one of the things I really miss is going to a restaurant, sitting down for a meal and thinking, "What am I craving today?" We can't do that here. Everything you order is a guess. Even if you know what it is you are ordering and aren't just blindly pointing at something on the menu (which we have done) you never know if it's going to be anything like you are assuming. Ordering is like a mine field. Will you end up with an entire cooked fish, head and all? Or perhaps sauteed spam? Maybe even chicken butt. At school the food is buffet style, that is where I try to strategize my portions. If i'm looking down the line and seeing a lot legs or tentacles, i'm just going to pile a bit more rice on my plate today thank you very much. Of course there are downfalls to this strategy. Sometimes I mistake one dish for another and end up eating a heaping pile of, let's say, pig fat and "mushy starchy thing" that I thought was beef stew. Then i'm missing out on the candied anchovies which are actually delicious. I have also thought I was putting a green olive in my mouth which turned out to be a hard-boiled quails egg soaked in soy sauce. I guess you live and learn.

I got a package!!!!

2009-09-25T21:14:00.001-07:00

Here is a picture of my co-teacher, she's an angel from God. She speaks perfect English, with no accent and helps me with everything. Here she is depicted sitting in the Immigration Office with me for 2.5 hours while I wait to apply for an immigration card.
Here is crab that I saw in a tank on the street outside of a restaurant. The crabs are humungous here. That thing could eat you.

I got my first (and hopefully not last) package this week. My mother was kind enough to send me a gi-normous box of such American delicacies as sunchips, cinnabun bars, better cheddars and candy corn. I was extremely excited. I also got some new shoes since I am literally walking the bottoms off of my shoes here.

Very excited about some Halloween decorations also. They don't celebrate Halloween here, so I'm teaching to my classes the week before. I've also decided to give 5 extra credit points to any student who dresses up in a costume for my class. I know that they wont want to do it, but it's an automatic A. Korean kids will do anything for good grades. The seniors stay at school until midnight every night to study for the Korean SAT's. The school serves them dinner and everything. It makes me very sad.

Since I have started this post, Brendan has sliced off his fingernail and cut his finger while slicing garlic. I think I need to watch him more closely while he's cooking.

I think my ankle is getting better. The doctor says that I am walking on it too much, stading on it too much and not elevating it enough. He wants me to come back every week to check it. That doesn't bother me because to visit him only costs $2.50 and he's an orthopedic specialist. You can't buy a sandwich for $2.50. You can't buy a sock. Tell me that national health care isn't awesome. They only pay %6 of their income in taxes also. How is this possible?

I think that the plan for this weekend is to try and get hair cuts here. We're going to print out pictures of the hair cuts that we want and then bring them to a salon. I'll let you know if this strategy works. Maybe with pictures???

I hope everyone that reads this is doing well. Everyone else...who cares? Just kidding. See ya!

By popular demand, my mother’s, here is Brendan’s 1st post:

2009-09-23T02:50:00.000-07:00

I work at Hwibong Elementary teaching 5^th & 6^th graders. I live in Hoegi (pronounced Hweggy). Why the difference in spelling? No clue.

It’s fun walking through the halls because everyone wants to say hi. I now know what the cool kids felt like in school. Plus, I can’t understand their insults.

After 3 weeks, I decided today to make an effort and learn student’s names by learning/assigning English names. It’s hard to come up with names on the spot, but in my last class, with 10 or so students needing names, I decided to just use Simpsons characters (of course). I didn’t have the gall to name anyone Milhouse, but we’ll see if that changes tomorrow. I did name a dumb kid Ralph.

Random Notes:

· Kimchi might be the greatest food in the world. I eat it at least once a day, and always have 2-3 servings.

· T-shirt I saw last week:

FEED UP

To Go Swim

· Korean Honey Bunches of Oats is good, but not as good as the original

· I was told that unlike what I heard, Koreans don’t think men with facial hair are dirty or homeless, just that they aren’t attractive. I think Kelly is secretly Asian.

· What should taste good is gross; what looks disgusting is awesome.

o Pizza! But with bacon, pork, pineapple, BBQ sauce, cheese flavored sour cream, and mashed sweet potatoes=nauseating

o Most pasta, at least red sauces, have a nasty hint of sweetness

o The sweetness applies to most food-not good

On the flip side, if you can get over the texture and consistency there is some awesome food to be eaten

Hot tofu the consistency of flan dipped in seasoned soy sauce-AMAZING!
Basically gray, non-sweet Jello mixed with onions, peppers, etc.-still working on this one
Whatever is in the soups I eat for lunch daily. I never ask what I am eating anymore until I at least try it. The salty, translucent blue anchovies the size of needles mixed with a few peanuts was especially interesting

The driving abilities here are as expected…

2009-09-21T01:39:00.000-07:00

So, my co-teachers forced me to go to the school nurse today who, in turn, forced me to go to the doctor.

I got some x-rays.

Apparently at some point in the past, I fractured my ankle, but didn't have it treated, so it never healed. Now my ankle is permanently weak. They said that if I continue to sprain my ankle, over time I will have to get surgery to correct the old fracture.

On Friday I tore one of 3 main ligaments in my foot because of the weakness.

Right now my foot/ankle is in a brace and i'm taking a bunch of medicine.

I guess the old fracture is pretty bad , even I could see it on the xray.There is quite a large chunk of bone just floating around my foot. I don't really know when I did it but I do know that American doctors have x-rayed my ankle before and never mention this break. I'm guessing that the break happened in college, my senior year, but who can be sure?

In other news I was told by one of the Korean teachers that the best way to heal my foot would be "to lose weight."

Another teacher told me that I have a nose like Barbara Streisand, but that's OK because "She is velly Surrcessfur." (Sound it out)

Foot Update

2009-09-18T20:05:00.000-07:00

The swelling has gone down. The pain is the same. Kept it elevated and took a bunch of Extra strength tylenol. I can't stay locked in this apartment all weekend so I am going to the movies or aquarium or something in this giant mall. Maybe I will get one of those mall scooters...

Also wearing some very fashionable basketball shoes with jeans to keep it from bending out again. I have no idea how it happened. was walking back from TGIFriday's (Yes they have those here.) Lamenting that it was OVER $100 for the 3 people to eat their incredibly crappy food when i stepped on an incline or in a hole or something and then I was on the ground surrounded by hundreds of Koreans walking by.

2009-09-18T06:58:00.000-07:00

Guess who sprained and possibly broke their foot?

No, not Brendan.

This time it was me.

All I know is, now I have a lump on the side of my foot that is the same size as my ankle bone.

Korean streets are treacherous.

I have to walk everywhere.

I am basically screwed.

*Pictures to come!

My School

2009-09-14T02:10:00.000-07:00

My desk!

Listen to Mr. Mang, one of the English teachers, tell me about sports while we watch the gym classes from my office window.

Here I made a secret video of one of my classes, you can only see a few of the girls (of about 40) but you get the idea.

Around Seoul

2009-09-13T04:20:00.001-07:00

Brendan's Grocery Store, the seafood section. Squid anyone?

How about some fish?

Street market in Gangnam near my house. I think it's boiled silkworm larvae. From what I hear the taste isn't as bad as the smell.

Also available at this fine establishment were tentacles, dried squid, and other delicacies.

Sushi for dinner! We found a pretty good Dim-sum place near Brendan's apartment that was $1.00 a plate. Yummy.

Tuna. Mmmmmm.

2009-09-12T01:08:00.000-07:00

Last night it was pouring rain here. I was on my way back from walking with my friend to the subway (she didn't know where it was) and I saw a bunch of girls huddled in the doorway of a ministop (7-11). Koreans HATE getting their hair wet. It must take forever to get it perfectly straight which is the preferred style and (I can sympathize) rain destroys all that hard work. With various hand motions I offered to walk one of them to a cab under my umbrella and a lady came with me. She was very nice and knew some minimal English and I ended up taking her to a bus because none of the cabs would stop. She ended up giving me her card. She owns a hair shop and I think I might be getting a free haircut!!! I am in dire need of some highlights and a cut. I hope she does white-girl hair!

2009-09-10T03:44:00.000-07:00

I think I'm losing weight. What do you think?

Also, do I look tired to you?

I'm working on one of my lesson plans for next week. I have to make it entertaining enough that I don't want to kill myself after doing it 13 times.

I had a student yesterday tell me that she likes my small face and tall height. Compliment? I guess it's bad to have a big face here...

My students are all in love with the male teacher from England who works at the boys school. They are constantly asking me to give him messages from them when I see him at lunch.

I think the funniest thing about my students is the names that they choose to be their "English names." In my classes i have: Melon, Bop and Boom, Louis and Vitton, Romeo and Juliet (remember I teach at an all-girls school), Marylin Monroe, many Sunnys, Mac, Bob, Chanel, Lady GaGa, Beyonce, Prada, all the characters from Gossip Girl, and Triangle. There are so many more great names but I can't remember them all. I have over 600 students.

I'm going to make a video soon showing parts of the city. Get excited!

Observations

2009-09-08T01:13:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the gap in updates. Adjusting to life in a new country takes a lot of energy and time.

Things I've noticed about Koreans:

1. They can sleep anywhere.
Sitting at their desk, sitting on the subway even standing on the subway. At any place and time, day or night (preferably day) people young and old are sleeping. I knew this country was overworked but yeesh.

2. Staring is not considered rude.

Ever get the feeling that someone was staring at you? Well if you are in Korea, then they are. People will just openly stare at/size you up. It's odd. Try being the only blonde in a subway full of Koreans. I'm constantly checking to see if I spilled something on myself or if there is something in my teeth the way people are looking at me.

3. Speaking of something in my teeth, The Food.

This is probably the most disconcerting part of this country. Let's just list some of the highlights of my meals here is Korea. Candied sardines with mixed nuts, Beef and octopus stew. Tofu of all shapes, textures and colors. Fish head stew. Sushi with yellow mustard on it. Sushi with graham crackers and maple syrup. Fermented cabbage. Seaweed soup. Dried seaweed. Steamed seaweed. Pretty much and kind of see weed. Barbequed squid. Pig colon. Various unidentified vegetables. I'm sure I'm missing some things.

4. Walking.

Seeing as I have to walk everywhere, I've started to notice some trends. Like, they don't seem to have the "no driving on the sidewalk rule." These people will drive motorcycles cars vans....anywhere they can put them. Walk at your own peril. If you are in their way, they will either honk at you until you move or just run over you.

5. Spitting.

People are hocking up the contents of their throats constantly. Nough said.

6. Korean bathrooms.

I can't even get into this right now.

7. Old women.

Old ladies in Korea are not ladies at all but fighting machines not to be trifled with. If you're in their way, they will push you. If you do something they don't like, they will yell at you. If they want that last seat on the subway, they will do anything to get it. God help you if you try to fight the ajummas at their own game.

Alrighty, that's it for now.

We have decided to stay in our existing apartments although they are far apart. My school was very gracious in trying to find an apartment for both of us, but it didn't really work out.

See ya!

Victory is mine!

2009-09-04T18:19:00.000-07:00

I love my school. They're trying to find a new apartment for us halfway between our schools. Now we just have to get Brendan's school to agree!

2009-09-02T23:48:00.000-07:00

Feeling better today. Better planning is needed on my part. Co teacher is asking about switching apartments. Probably going to be a VERY costly process. Have been discouraged by other teachers from trying to move. Unmarried couples not supposed to live together in this country. Not sure that it is worth it.

Long day

2009-09-02T04:22:00.000-07:00

Took subway 45 minutes to work and walked the rest of the way. $1.00

Worked 4 hours.

Took the subway for 45 minutes to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education. $1.00

Picked up my health check.

Argued with Coordinator about housing.

Ate lunch with co-teacher. (free, courtesy co-teacher)

Took subway 45 minutes to the immigration office. $1.00

Waited in line for 2 hours.

Turned Alien registration card application. $60.00

Took 1 hour taxi ride to Brendan's apartment. $25.00

Brendan wasn't there.

Waited for 20 minutes.

Left a note.

Took 1 hour subway ride to my station.$2.00

Walked home.

Got an email from Brendan saying that he was 1 block from his apartment at an internet cafe waiting for
me to get online.

Cried.

In my room...

2009-09-01T01:24:00.000-07:00

2009-09-01T01:01:00.000-07:00

I am going to get my ARC card tomorrow and to get a cell phone. Sorry I haven't been able to speak with you but I have been staying at Brendan's house half of the time and he doesn't have internet yet.

I guess they had to submit my work schedule to the SMOE office for approval and the school got a call from the office saying that I needed overtime for any after school classes. There fore i'm getting 4 or 5 hours of overtime per week. Also, i'm actually not teaching at a public school. I'm teaching at a private girls highschool. Don't really know how this works. I'm the first native english speaking teacher that they have had here in 10 years so I am supposed to make up the curriculum, I am teaching 13 classes with the 10th grade, the same class 13 times. I have 5 conversation "workshops" with the english teachers where we just sit around and talk for an hour. Every Monday afternoon I spenda period consulting with the English newspaper on campus and editing their stories. 3 periods a week I conduct practice interviews with the 12th graders in english, and lastly i have 4 hours of after school classes where i can pretty much do whatever I want. (One teacher at another school plays football with the kids every day and calls passes in English.) The after school classes are overtime pay. It sounds like alot, but it's only 26 hours of teaching time over 5 days. I come into work at 9:40 am and leave at 5:40 pm Tuesday-Thursday and at 4:50 pm Monday and Friday. That's less than 40 hours and i'm getting overtime for 4 of those hours. I have 3 co-teachers, all of whom are very nice and speak practically perfect english. One of them is helping me with alot of stuff.

My school is 4 subway stops from my apartment. But i have to change llines 2 or 3 times so it takes over a half hour to get there from my apartment. It took me an hour this morning from Brendan's front door to my office at the school. It's taken us both over an hour to get from my apartment to his apartment.

I am currently writing you from the laptop that my school has given me. Unfortunately all of the programs are written in Korean...awesome. At least I figured out how to convert the keyboard from Korea to English.

I've been kind of overwhelmed recently trying to figure out the subway and my school, traveling back and forth to Brendan's apartment, buying groceries and supplies, etc. I am planning to take pictures of the both apartments so that everyone can see what they look like. His has a REALLY nice shower the the rainfall head and a massaging head also. But, it is decorated like girl lived there before him. All pink and purple.
My nieghboorhood is like a cross between Bourbon Street, times square and tokyo. Its very bright, with tall buildings and advertisements everywhere. It's apparentyl where young people go to hang out. My street is a little quieter then the main road though. Brendan's place has a bit more a nieghboorhoody feel, like Brooklyn or something. There are at least 3 or 4 other English teachers living in my building so thats nice. Brendan has 1 living in his but he doesnt like her.

Thats about it for now!

You're Welcome

2009-08-30T08:54:00.000-07:00

We're alive

2009-08-30T07:45:00.000-07:00

We are in fact living an hour apart by subway. The apartments are very small, but fine. Hopefully something will get figured out.

We both are visiting our schools tomorrow morning to meet the staff. After that back to quaratine for another week! They're afraid to let us near the kids because they think all white people and foreigners have swine flu.

I visited Bendan yesterday and then forgot what stop I lived at on the way back. We got lost in the subway system and this underground mall for 3 hours. Brendan wanted to kill me.

Not too happy

2009-08-28T15:12:00.000-07:00

So we both found out where we will be teaching last night. I am at an all girls school called Sewha Senior Highshool and Brendan is at something like Hongwin Elementary.

They are in 2 different districts.
They are an hour apart by subway.
We do not have couples housing.

I'm not happy.

I'm trying to get one of us changed to at least districts that are near eachother, but it doesnt look promising. I'm just not sure that it's worth it to stay here and be miserable living an hour apart. I didn't come here to be alone. The guy in charge is completely uncooperative and is pretty much a jerk.

I'm not quitting yet.
But this is just really dissapointing and unprofessional.
I was literally lied to before coming here.