Here in Korea they celebrate Chuseok which is very similar to our Thanksgiving. Chuseok is a very important holiday and it last for three days which is great becasue it means you get three days off of work. Just before the break we had a Chuseok party for the students and played all sorts of traditional games. Here are some pictures of the students dressed in their traditional Hanbok and enjoying in some traditional festivities. It was a joys day and the kids looked absolutely adorable. I think I might need to invest in a Hanbok before I return home.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Ashley's Visit
In the beginning of summer one of Alison's friends from her education program came out for her summer vacation. Ashley was the first of our three visitors to come to Seoul and it was a blast having her here. Ashley is a great friend and teacher back in Seattle and it was good to hear her insight. She shared with me several pieces of good advice and I continue to put her suggestions into practice. Here are a few pictures of the things we did while she was here.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Beijing, China: The Great Wall
With most of the major sites checked off the list we were simply left with the Summer Palace and the Great Wall. We had already planned our trip to the Great Wall for Friday so we spent our Thursday walking around the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace is nearly an hour subway ride outside of the city and is set around Kunming Lake. It is suggested by most guide books to visit the Summer Palace as a get away from the heat but let me tell you we did not escape from the heat. It was so hot that day we could not take back enough popsicles and water to cool ourselves down.
While roaming around the palace we stumbled upon the Long Corridor which was a nice pleasant walk along side the lake. Walking along the Corridor we took breaks popping into the Tower of Fragrant Buddha and Garden of Virtue and Harmony. At the Tower of Fragrant Buddha we hiked up this long staircase which brought us to the top where we could over look the lake. I wish I could say the view was amazing but the smog was so bad it left this yellow haze over the lake and we couldn’t really see anything too clearly. At the Garden of Virtue and Harmony we lucked out to see a group of musicians play some ancient instruments. It ended up being a nice relaxing break listening to them play. After they finished we made our way out the east exit to begin our journey to the Beijing Zoo.
Since we weren’t close to the subway we knew we had to catch a taxi but what we didn’t know was that Beijing has VIP “black” taxis. Hopping into the first taxi we saw we made our way to the Beijing Zoo running every red light and seeing the meter quickly double, triple in price as we kept driving. Finally making it to the Zoo, our bill was ridiculously high and I absolutely wasn’t going to take this nonsense. After our exchange of unfriendly words we walked away paying half the total price which was still beyond more then what it should have paid. With this said, Beijing does have “black” taxis and one should never take them because it is a total scam. Always ride in the standard looking taxi because the price is reasonable and they won’t speed through red lights.
Getting back to our time at the Zoo…we went to the Zoo for one reason only, to see cute, cuddly white and black panda bears. All of us except Mark felt that our trip would not be complete unless we saw pandas while we were in China and so we paid our fee and visited the panda exhibit. Although we only saw less then a handful we enjoyed our time taking pictures of them and watching them lay calmly in the trees and on the rocks. After we had our fill of the pandas we quickly walked over to see the white tigers which I sadly regret doing. Walking over to where the tigers, leopards and lions live I was shocked to see what awful living spaces they were placed in. They were individual placed in these small jails and it was just depressing to see. I quickly walked out and called it a day. Tired from walking around the Summer Palace and beat by the heat I was ready for a siesta and so all of us headed home.
The day had come; we were finally going to go see the famous Great Wall. It was an early morning with a minor set back but after three and half hours of being in the car we finally arrived to Simatai Great Wall. As I have mentioned earlier, Mark’s friends had visited China before and suggested we visit this guesthouse that sits at the bottom of the Great Wall in Simatai. Mark had our hostel in Beijing call and arrange with the guesthouse (DongPo Restaurant) to have a car pick us up and take us to them. We arrived around noon time and were immediately taken back by the view of the Great Wall. Eager to start hiking we postponed lunch till after we were done walking the Great Wall.
Pumped and ready to go, we set out hiking the Great Wall with no one around. Simatai is soon to be undergoing renovations and so it has been shut down, but with our connection to the guesthouse we are permitted special privileges to hike in and around this area. The scenery surrounding Simatai is absolutely amazing with the endless watchtowers covering the entire hill side. Since we were in no rush we took our leisurely time walking from tower to tower, stopping to take all sorts of photos. There were countless times one of us would comment on how this is one of the greatest moments of our life. We were all just amazed to be out on the wall and look off into the distance and see it continue with no end in sight. After about an hour and half of walking we finally stopped and had a little cookie break before we made our way back to the guesthouse. It was truly amazing to be out on the Great Wall with no one in sight except for the four of us. I can honestly say, this is one of my top favorite traveling moments and I hope to return some day soon.
Before the girls made their long journey back to Beijing we all sat down for a late lunch at the guest house and had some of the best Chinese food we ever had. Taking the owners advice we went with the sweet and sour chicken, vegetable fried rice, fried cabbage and fried noodles. All of it was absolutely amazing, but the fried cabbage was hands down my favorite; it had tiny pieces of ginger in it and it was delicious. After our tasty meal, Mark and I said good bye to the girls and reconnected with them the following day.
We stayed a night at the guesthouse and had a great time. In desperate need of a rinse from all the sweat we headed down to the dam for a swim. Not sure if it was entirely allowed, we enjoyed our time relaxing in the water and getting a bit of a rinse. As for the rest of the evening, we spent it sitting outside drinking beers and simply admiring the beautiful Great Wall. Still energized from our hike I had it in my head that maybe Mark and I could wake up early and hike the wall again before leaving. Mark was on board depending on how he felt in the morning. Once morning time rolled around our idea ended up being stormed out. From nearly 5am to about 10am all we saw and heard was rain, lightning and thunder; it was an intense storm. Bummed about not being out on the wall we had a leisurely morning in our room and then proceeded to eat an enormous Chinese breakfast. The owner brought us two bowls of noodle soup, a big egg pancake, and a Chinese pancake; we were stuffed. Shortly after breakfast our driver arrived to take us back to Beijing and so we said good bye to the Great Wall.
With this being our last night in Beijing we felt it best to enjoy a nice Peking duck dinner. Not exactly sure where we were going but read popular reviews on this one restaurant we showed up to a fancier restaurant then expected. Doing our best not to be discouraged by this fancy restaurant we all had a nice/expensive evening enjoying Peking duck and steamed vegetables. After nearly emptying our bank accounts we headed back to the same bar we went to the first night the girls arrived in Beijing for a round of drinks and dice.
As quick as this week went by, it was a much needed vacation and I had an amazing time touring in and around Beijing. It was great to finally make it to the Great Wall and I am so happy I got to spend time with Mark, Alison and Beth. The four of us had an amazing time together and will forever share some wonderful memories.
While roaming around the palace we stumbled upon the Long Corridor which was a nice pleasant walk along side the lake. Walking along the Corridor we took breaks popping into the Tower of Fragrant Buddha and Garden of Virtue and Harmony. At the Tower of Fragrant Buddha we hiked up this long staircase which brought us to the top where we could over look the lake. I wish I could say the view was amazing but the smog was so bad it left this yellow haze over the lake and we couldn’t really see anything too clearly. At the Garden of Virtue and Harmony we lucked out to see a group of musicians play some ancient instruments. It ended up being a nice relaxing break listening to them play. After they finished we made our way out the east exit to begin our journey to the Beijing Zoo.
Since we weren’t close to the subway we knew we had to catch a taxi but what we didn’t know was that Beijing has VIP “black” taxis. Hopping into the first taxi we saw we made our way to the Beijing Zoo running every red light and seeing the meter quickly double, triple in price as we kept driving. Finally making it to the Zoo, our bill was ridiculously high and I absolutely wasn’t going to take this nonsense. After our exchange of unfriendly words we walked away paying half the total price which was still beyond more then what it should have paid. With this said, Beijing does have “black” taxis and one should never take them because it is a total scam. Always ride in the standard looking taxi because the price is reasonable and they won’t speed through red lights.
Getting back to our time at the Zoo…we went to the Zoo for one reason only, to see cute, cuddly white and black panda bears. All of us except Mark felt that our trip would not be complete unless we saw pandas while we were in China and so we paid our fee and visited the panda exhibit. Although we only saw less then a handful we enjoyed our time taking pictures of them and watching them lay calmly in the trees and on the rocks. After we had our fill of the pandas we quickly walked over to see the white tigers which I sadly regret doing. Walking over to where the tigers, leopards and lions live I was shocked to see what awful living spaces they were placed in. They were individual placed in these small jails and it was just depressing to see. I quickly walked out and called it a day. Tired from walking around the Summer Palace and beat by the heat I was ready for a siesta and so all of us headed home.
The day had come; we were finally going to go see the famous Great Wall. It was an early morning with a minor set back but after three and half hours of being in the car we finally arrived to Simatai Great Wall. As I have mentioned earlier, Mark’s friends had visited China before and suggested we visit this guesthouse that sits at the bottom of the Great Wall in Simatai. Mark had our hostel in Beijing call and arrange with the guesthouse (DongPo Restaurant) to have a car pick us up and take us to them. We arrived around noon time and were immediately taken back by the view of the Great Wall. Eager to start hiking we postponed lunch till after we were done walking the Great Wall.
Pumped and ready to go, we set out hiking the Great Wall with no one around. Simatai is soon to be undergoing renovations and so it has been shut down, but with our connection to the guesthouse we are permitted special privileges to hike in and around this area. The scenery surrounding Simatai is absolutely amazing with the endless watchtowers covering the entire hill side. Since we were in no rush we took our leisurely time walking from tower to tower, stopping to take all sorts of photos. There were countless times one of us would comment on how this is one of the greatest moments of our life. We were all just amazed to be out on the wall and look off into the distance and see it continue with no end in sight. After about an hour and half of walking we finally stopped and had a little cookie break before we made our way back to the guesthouse. It was truly amazing to be out on the Great Wall with no one in sight except for the four of us. I can honestly say, this is one of my top favorite traveling moments and I hope to return some day soon.
Before the girls made their long journey back to Beijing we all sat down for a late lunch at the guest house and had some of the best Chinese food we ever had. Taking the owners advice we went with the sweet and sour chicken, vegetable fried rice, fried cabbage and fried noodles. All of it was absolutely amazing, but the fried cabbage was hands down my favorite; it had tiny pieces of ginger in it and it was delicious. After our tasty meal, Mark and I said good bye to the girls and reconnected with them the following day.
We stayed a night at the guesthouse and had a great time. In desperate need of a rinse from all the sweat we headed down to the dam for a swim. Not sure if it was entirely allowed, we enjoyed our time relaxing in the water and getting a bit of a rinse. As for the rest of the evening, we spent it sitting outside drinking beers and simply admiring the beautiful Great Wall. Still energized from our hike I had it in my head that maybe Mark and I could wake up early and hike the wall again before leaving. Mark was on board depending on how he felt in the morning. Once morning time rolled around our idea ended up being stormed out. From nearly 5am to about 10am all we saw and heard was rain, lightning and thunder; it was an intense storm. Bummed about not being out on the wall we had a leisurely morning in our room and then proceeded to eat an enormous Chinese breakfast. The owner brought us two bowls of noodle soup, a big egg pancake, and a Chinese pancake; we were stuffed. Shortly after breakfast our driver arrived to take us back to Beijing and so we said good bye to the Great Wall.
With this being our last night in Beijing we felt it best to enjoy a nice Peking duck dinner. Not exactly sure where we were going but read popular reviews on this one restaurant we showed up to a fancier restaurant then expected. Doing our best not to be discouraged by this fancy restaurant we all had a nice/expensive evening enjoying Peking duck and steamed vegetables. After nearly emptying our bank accounts we headed back to the same bar we went to the first night the girls arrived in Beijing for a round of drinks and dice.
As quick as this week went by, it was a much needed vacation and I had an amazing time touring in and around Beijing. It was great to finally make it to the Great Wall and I am so happy I got to spend time with Mark, Alison and Beth. The four of us had an amazing time together and will forever share some wonderful memories.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Beijing, China Part 2
Unenthused about being up early Tuesday morning, it ended up turning out to be perfect. Beth and Alison were expected to arrive sometime this morning but I wasn’t exactly sure when. Without even planning it, as Mark and I leave the café I end up seeing Alison and Beth stumbling out of a Taxi. Excitedly I shouted and welcomed the two of them with big hugs. The girls had just arrived form Shanghai via an over night train and where a little out of it but once I told them about the free breakfast the cheered up and gobbled it down. Now that all of us had our morning cup of Joe and breakfast we decided to hit up the Forbidden City for the day.
To our benefit our Taxi driver dropped us off at the back entrance where it was a lot less crowded in regards to getting tickets. It however was intensely crowded inside leaving us very few chances of getting a good quality shot. The day was hot, and the girls were tired, so we found ourselves struggling to really engage in the scenery and history around us. Nevertheless, here is some info on the Forbidden City; it was once home to China’s emperors and holds 800 buildings with 9000 rooms spread out over 720,000 sq meters. I gather the palace received its name do to the simple fact that any an unauthorized visitor would be instantly killed, hence The Forbidden City. (Info given to me by Lonely Planet) We did however make are way through the palace visiting most of the Christmas colored main buildings while popping into the air conditioned gallery rooms to cool ourselves down. Upon walking from the north entrance to the south entrance we managed to work up an appetite and decided to enjoy a leisurely lunch near our hostel.
Intending not to eat too much at lunch but failing miserably we still energized ourselves to go meet Casey (coworker) and Will (friend of Casey’s who lives in Beijing) for dumplings. Since the beginning of meeting Casey she has spoken about her love for dumplings and tonight was the night we were going to finally get freshly made Chinese dumplings. To our benefit, Will’s roommate Bret is dating JoyLin, a Chinese girl, and she happened to know of a great local dumpling restaurant. Since JoyLin was the local, she took it upon herself to order and did a marvelous job at that. We had about 7 different orders of dumplings and each of them were absolutely delicious. After our massive intake of dumplings, Will and Bret took us to a bar they frequent and taught us a Chinese dice game, a bit hard to explain in writing but tons of fun. All of us had a great evening together over dumplings, beer and dice.
Anticipating to be woken up early it came to my surprise when Alison woke us up at nearly 9:30am. The four of us took our time sipping our coffee and eating our breakfast while we chatted over what we wanted to do for the day. After mentioning a few ideas it was decided that we would hit up this massive flea market. Pumped and ready to shop we were quickly let down by how few stands were open. Apparently the Jinsong flea market is best visited on the weekends. With few gift items in our bags we felt it best to return to our hostel and shop in and around the famous Hutong streets. Our hostel sits in the mitts of the Hutong streets and the main street is filled with little boutique shops and local bars. We also found a crowded Chinese restaurant and popped in for yet again a “small lunch.” Regretfully we walked away with stuffed upset bellies.
Doing our best to walk it off we were still all full by the time dinner time came around. Not letting this stand in our way we headed towards the HouHai Lake where we were told of a good Peking Duck Restaurant. Mark’s friends from home eat at this very restaurant nearly two years ago and raved about it, so Mark was determined to find it and try Peking duck. Alison being a lover of Peking duck was very excited and could not wait for dinner. The four of us had a lovely dinner sharing duck feet with spicy mustard, Chinese broccoli, tofu fried egg role, duck dumplings and Peking duck. Why we ordered so much when we were full to begin with was a little absurd but all of it was very good…depending on your taste. As expected Mark wanted to try duck feet so we ordered it and surprisingly both Beth and I agreed to try it. Preparing myself mentally to the fact that it was going to be chewy yet tasty with the mustard sauce I put the whole foot in my mouth and began chewing. Sadly and yet instantly I was grossed out and could not come to swallow the duck foot. On the other hand I am proud to say, Beth did manage to get her one foot down after some time. Mark once again claimed to enjoy it but both Beth and I will forever pass on duck feet again in the future. After finishing off our tasty meal we sat around enjoying our beers while watching a range of different performs put on a show for all of us costumers. The show lasted about 30 minutes and although we were sad it was over we decided it was time to head home. Both Mark and Beth enjoyed their first Peking duck experience, Alison was happy she was eating Peking duck and I was simply happy to be in such good company.
This concludes my blogging for today but I promise to finish the remainder of my week in Beijing tomorrow.
To our benefit our Taxi driver dropped us off at the back entrance where it was a lot less crowded in regards to getting tickets. It however was intensely crowded inside leaving us very few chances of getting a good quality shot. The day was hot, and the girls were tired, so we found ourselves struggling to really engage in the scenery and history around us. Nevertheless, here is some info on the Forbidden City; it was once home to China’s emperors and holds 800 buildings with 9000 rooms spread out over 720,000 sq meters. I gather the palace received its name do to the simple fact that any an unauthorized visitor would be instantly killed, hence The Forbidden City. (Info given to me by Lonely Planet) We did however make are way through the palace visiting most of the Christmas colored main buildings while popping into the air conditioned gallery rooms to cool ourselves down. Upon walking from the north entrance to the south entrance we managed to work up an appetite and decided to enjoy a leisurely lunch near our hostel.
Intending not to eat too much at lunch but failing miserably we still energized ourselves to go meet Casey (coworker) and Will (friend of Casey’s who lives in Beijing) for dumplings. Since the beginning of meeting Casey she has spoken about her love for dumplings and tonight was the night we were going to finally get freshly made Chinese dumplings. To our benefit, Will’s roommate Bret is dating JoyLin, a Chinese girl, and she happened to know of a great local dumpling restaurant. Since JoyLin was the local, she took it upon herself to order and did a marvelous job at that. We had about 7 different orders of dumplings and each of them were absolutely delicious. After our massive intake of dumplings, Will and Bret took us to a bar they frequent and taught us a Chinese dice game, a bit hard to explain in writing but tons of fun. All of us had a great evening together over dumplings, beer and dice.
Anticipating to be woken up early it came to my surprise when Alison woke us up at nearly 9:30am. The four of us took our time sipping our coffee and eating our breakfast while we chatted over what we wanted to do for the day. After mentioning a few ideas it was decided that we would hit up this massive flea market. Pumped and ready to shop we were quickly let down by how few stands were open. Apparently the Jinsong flea market is best visited on the weekends. With few gift items in our bags we felt it best to return to our hostel and shop in and around the famous Hutong streets. Our hostel sits in the mitts of the Hutong streets and the main street is filled with little boutique shops and local bars. We also found a crowded Chinese restaurant and popped in for yet again a “small lunch.” Regretfully we walked away with stuffed upset bellies.
Doing our best to walk it off we were still all full by the time dinner time came around. Not letting this stand in our way we headed towards the HouHai Lake where we were told of a good Peking Duck Restaurant. Mark’s friends from home eat at this very restaurant nearly two years ago and raved about it, so Mark was determined to find it and try Peking duck. Alison being a lover of Peking duck was very excited and could not wait for dinner. The four of us had a lovely dinner sharing duck feet with spicy mustard, Chinese broccoli, tofu fried egg role, duck dumplings and Peking duck. Why we ordered so much when we were full to begin with was a little absurd but all of it was very good…depending on your taste. As expected Mark wanted to try duck feet so we ordered it and surprisingly both Beth and I agreed to try it. Preparing myself mentally to the fact that it was going to be chewy yet tasty with the mustard sauce I put the whole foot in my mouth and began chewing. Sadly and yet instantly I was grossed out and could not come to swallow the duck foot. On the other hand I am proud to say, Beth did manage to get her one foot down after some time. Mark once again claimed to enjoy it but both Beth and I will forever pass on duck feet again in the future. After finishing off our tasty meal we sat around enjoying our beers while watching a range of different performs put on a show for all of us costumers. The show lasted about 30 minutes and although we were sad it was over we decided it was time to head home. Both Mark and Beth enjoyed their first Peking duck experience, Alison was happy she was eating Peking duck and I was simply happy to be in such good company.
This concludes my blogging for today but I promise to finish the remainder of my week in Beijing tomorrow.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Beijing, China
I realize there’s a lot to catch up on since my last blog post, but before I write about the end of my first semester of teaching let me tell you about my summer vacation. It has been just over a week since I returned from my one week summer break vacation and I spent it in Beijing, China. One of the main reasons for coming to Seoul, Korea to teach was so that I could travel and see more of Asia. China is a major country within the continent of Asia and I have wanted to travel to it for quite some time. So it was without question that I would spend my summer break in China. Having this in mind, I was excited to hear how on board Mark was and was happy he wanted to fly and meet me in Beijing. It had been five months since we last saw each other and it was a long day of waiting to great him in the Beijing airport but well worth it. Both of us arriving safely, we were greeted by our hostels airport pick up and taken to our fabulous Beijing Downtown Backpackers Accommodation, recommended to us by Mark’s wonderful friends.
Having been my usual self I arrived to Beijing with little planned but Mark being the researcher he is had a long list of things he wanted to see, eat and do. Since it was near dinner time by the time we arrived Mark suggested going to the Nigh Market where he could eat a wide range of strange foods. Me, trying to be supportive but having no interest at all in eating the unimaginable I quickly jumped on board and was excited to see the Night Market. Upon arriving I was quickly taken back by the new atmosphere surrounding me but also enthralled in the night market’s crowded, long and busy street of venders selling a range of foods from stirred fried noodles to dead cicadas on a skewer. Immediately, Mark started to see all the things he had seen on Andrew Zimmerman’s’ strange food show and before I knew it our fist purchase was snake skin, snake meat and silk worm larva. Having no interest in the larva because I have heard they are awful I did embrace my adventures side and took a bite of the snake skin and meat…chewy, little flavor but will pass in the future. As Mark finished eating is “hardy” food we were greeted and warned by this friendly French couple that we should be sure to haggle and count our money when we get our change back. Slightly taken back, it became more apparent as the night went on that these food stands rank up prices and blatantly don’t return your exact change. Thanking the couple and further chatting with them, we found ourselves to be a good match because, both the guys were in to strange foods while us girls, sat back with our beers and watched the boys swallow scorpion and cicadas. They also tried a few other things but one thing we all caved in and tried were these bizarre Jell-O looking sea mushrooms. Still unsure what exactly it was it tasted like garlic and had a gummy bear chew to it, wasn’t too bad. After shutting down the night market the four of us took a nice stroll around the Forbidden City and they shared with us some of their traveling around China stories and offered good friendly advice.
For our first full day we ventured to the worlds largest most crowded square, can you guess what it is… that’s right, Tiananmen Square. Not realizing how early Beijing’s sites close we were short of time to step into Chairman Mao Memorial Hall, but in all honesty I was okay with passing. It was however fascinating to walk around this massive square and see all the people. Walking around Tiananmen Square, seeing the Chinese flag hang high and Chairman Mao’s face hang proudly over the square I become slightly fascinated yet baffled by the love and admiration the Chinese have towards this man. Upon arriving Mark and I read a memoir called Wild Swans by Jung Chang and she tells her family story of three generations which paints a very detailed picture of the communist evolution in China. By the end of the book it is quite clear that Mao is nothing but a crooked political murderer. And yet, all over Beijing and my guess all of China, there are posters and charms of Mao’s face that hang in these people’s houses and they say, “Good man.” Why might I ask…why? :(
Drowning in our own sweat from the heat, smog and sun we headed towards another market with strange and bizarre foods. Before arriving we did stumble upon a cute, quaint and quite river park called Changpu River were we took a brief rest from the sun. Embracing my next encounter to strange foods, Mark kindly passed on eating the dead seahorses do to my request and instead went for baby pigeon. Clamming pigeon meat is tender and good yet bony I enjoyed my nice bowl of mixed fruit. We also tried a few more traditional items but none of it was outstanding.
Upon our walk back from the market we stumbled upon a sushi restaurant and a tea shop just down the street from our hostel. So after our brief siesta it was with out question that we would hit up both of these places that evening. Our Taiwanese tea experience was a little pricey, unusual, yet overall very good. We went with a pot of green tea and in watching the server prepare our tea he pored the tea into these shot glass type cups and then covered them with little tea cups and proceeded to flip them upside down. Unsure as to why or what was going on we went along with it. Taking back our first cup, Mark pored our second cup of tea straight into the little tea cup. Trying to be tea tasters, we quickly noticed this round tasted a bit bitter and so for our third round we reenacted what the server had done and our third cup was much smoother. Mark and I figure, that in doing this tea cup flipping, air gets filtered through the tea to make it more aromatic. Either way it was a fun experience.
Going a long with Mark’s list he was excited to venture out to Olympic Park to see the famous Birds Nest Stadium and The Cube. Unsure as to what either of these things were I went a long with his enthusiasm reminding him that I was not around during the Beijing Olympics but instead traveling through Mexico and that is why I was un aware of these famous buildings. In favor of taking the subway, it ended up dropping us off right in between both of these buildings which was perfect. The haze and smog that day was so bad that if we had been just a few streets away the chance of us not knowing which way to walk would have been very likely. Although I am being a bit dramatic, the smog here is absolutely horrible and it wasn’t till we went to the Great Wall where we could actually see the blue sky and the yellow sun. Getting back to the Olympic Park I have to say the Birds Nest Stadium really does look like a birds nest. Since we were both money careless, we paid the ridicules fee to get inside and walked around briefly. I think Mark really enjoyed it and may have taken a moment to remember watching the track and field events air on TV at home. I on the other hand sat and rested my feet for a bit before walking over to the not so impressive Cube. Sadly it seemed to be under renovation so we couldn’t go inside but, I imagine it to be more admirable to see on the inside then it is on the outside in comparison to the Birds Nest. The look of the Birds Nest is all on the outside.
With it being lunch time and Mark full heartdly believing that this Donkey restaurant he saw Anthony Bourdain eat at to be close by we made our way out of the park and into a taxi…eventually. Mark the prepared one he is had the address and telephone number to the restaurant. Earlier that morning, we asked the hostel to please write the name and address in Chinese for us so we could give it to a taxi driver, which is exactly what we did. However, the taxi driver wasn’t sure where exactly where it was located but the kind man called the restaurant and got better directions. Once again, thinking it was close; we ended up sitting in the taxi for almost 45min driving to who knows where, getting slightly lost and paying nearly 80 Yuan nearly 12 dollars. Nevertheless, we did finally arrive and can assure you that very few if any foreigners make it out to this Donkey restaurant. Ready for a beer we kindly asked for two beers but instead got an estranged look. But don’t worry, I saw some empty beer bottles in the corner and walked the server over to them and said two with my two fingers. Sipping my beer, Mark took his time looking at the massive menu and picked out his two donkey dishes, green onion donkey skin salad and donkey hotpot stew. I went for some tofu spring roles and a spice tofu dish. Over all the meal was good, it was and adventure to get to and it was especially rewarding eating at a restaurant that no foreigners make it too.
Before leaving Mark was able to get across that we wanted to know the closes subway station to the restaurant. Having the server circle the subway station we hopped into a taxi and headed towards the subway station where we proceeded to travel back into the city. Having no jet lag and forgetting Mark is still coping with the time difference I suggested we go to the Temple of Heaven, which is exactly what we did and yet maybe should not have. Our time at the Temple of Heaven was good but Mark was a bit sluggish and could have gone for a siesta since he spent most of the time tripping over his own feet, poor guy. The temple sits inside this massive park which given more time would have been fun to explore. Doing our best to stay energized we explored all three parts of the Temple of Heaven and the best is the color décor and architecture of the three tiered circler temple, it is quite a marvel.
This completes our first few days, I will write more tomorrow. Promise!
Having been my usual self I arrived to Beijing with little planned but Mark being the researcher he is had a long list of things he wanted to see, eat and do. Since it was near dinner time by the time we arrived Mark suggested going to the Nigh Market where he could eat a wide range of strange foods. Me, trying to be supportive but having no interest at all in eating the unimaginable I quickly jumped on board and was excited to see the Night Market. Upon arriving I was quickly taken back by the new atmosphere surrounding me but also enthralled in the night market’s crowded, long and busy street of venders selling a range of foods from stirred fried noodles to dead cicadas on a skewer. Immediately, Mark started to see all the things he had seen on Andrew Zimmerman’s’ strange food show and before I knew it our fist purchase was snake skin, snake meat and silk worm larva. Having no interest in the larva because I have heard they are awful I did embrace my adventures side and took a bite of the snake skin and meat…chewy, little flavor but will pass in the future. As Mark finished eating is “hardy” food we were greeted and warned by this friendly French couple that we should be sure to haggle and count our money when we get our change back. Slightly taken back, it became more apparent as the night went on that these food stands rank up prices and blatantly don’t return your exact change. Thanking the couple and further chatting with them, we found ourselves to be a good match because, both the guys were in to strange foods while us girls, sat back with our beers and watched the boys swallow scorpion and cicadas. They also tried a few other things but one thing we all caved in and tried were these bizarre Jell-O looking sea mushrooms. Still unsure what exactly it was it tasted like garlic and had a gummy bear chew to it, wasn’t too bad. After shutting down the night market the four of us took a nice stroll around the Forbidden City and they shared with us some of their traveling around China stories and offered good friendly advice.
For our first full day we ventured to the worlds largest most crowded square, can you guess what it is… that’s right, Tiananmen Square. Not realizing how early Beijing’s sites close we were short of time to step into Chairman Mao Memorial Hall, but in all honesty I was okay with passing. It was however fascinating to walk around this massive square and see all the people. Walking around Tiananmen Square, seeing the Chinese flag hang high and Chairman Mao’s face hang proudly over the square I become slightly fascinated yet baffled by the love and admiration the Chinese have towards this man. Upon arriving Mark and I read a memoir called Wild Swans by Jung Chang and she tells her family story of three generations which paints a very detailed picture of the communist evolution in China. By the end of the book it is quite clear that Mao is nothing but a crooked political murderer. And yet, all over Beijing and my guess all of China, there are posters and charms of Mao’s face that hang in these people’s houses and they say, “Good man.” Why might I ask…why? :(
Drowning in our own sweat from the heat, smog and sun we headed towards another market with strange and bizarre foods. Before arriving we did stumble upon a cute, quaint and quite river park called Changpu River were we took a brief rest from the sun. Embracing my next encounter to strange foods, Mark kindly passed on eating the dead seahorses do to my request and instead went for baby pigeon. Clamming pigeon meat is tender and good yet bony I enjoyed my nice bowl of mixed fruit. We also tried a few more traditional items but none of it was outstanding.
Upon our walk back from the market we stumbled upon a sushi restaurant and a tea shop just down the street from our hostel. So after our brief siesta it was with out question that we would hit up both of these places that evening. Our Taiwanese tea experience was a little pricey, unusual, yet overall very good. We went with a pot of green tea and in watching the server prepare our tea he pored the tea into these shot glass type cups and then covered them with little tea cups and proceeded to flip them upside down. Unsure as to why or what was going on we went along with it. Taking back our first cup, Mark pored our second cup of tea straight into the little tea cup. Trying to be tea tasters, we quickly noticed this round tasted a bit bitter and so for our third round we reenacted what the server had done and our third cup was much smoother. Mark and I figure, that in doing this tea cup flipping, air gets filtered through the tea to make it more aromatic. Either way it was a fun experience.
Going a long with Mark’s list he was excited to venture out to Olympic Park to see the famous Birds Nest Stadium and The Cube. Unsure as to what either of these things were I went a long with his enthusiasm reminding him that I was not around during the Beijing Olympics but instead traveling through Mexico and that is why I was un aware of these famous buildings. In favor of taking the subway, it ended up dropping us off right in between both of these buildings which was perfect. The haze and smog that day was so bad that if we had been just a few streets away the chance of us not knowing which way to walk would have been very likely. Although I am being a bit dramatic, the smog here is absolutely horrible and it wasn’t till we went to the Great Wall where we could actually see the blue sky and the yellow sun. Getting back to the Olympic Park I have to say the Birds Nest Stadium really does look like a birds nest. Since we were both money careless, we paid the ridicules fee to get inside and walked around briefly. I think Mark really enjoyed it and may have taken a moment to remember watching the track and field events air on TV at home. I on the other hand sat and rested my feet for a bit before walking over to the not so impressive Cube. Sadly it seemed to be under renovation so we couldn’t go inside but, I imagine it to be more admirable to see on the inside then it is on the outside in comparison to the Birds Nest. The look of the Birds Nest is all on the outside.
With it being lunch time and Mark full heartdly believing that this Donkey restaurant he saw Anthony Bourdain eat at to be close by we made our way out of the park and into a taxi…eventually. Mark the prepared one he is had the address and telephone number to the restaurant. Earlier that morning, we asked the hostel to please write the name and address in Chinese for us so we could give it to a taxi driver, which is exactly what we did. However, the taxi driver wasn’t sure where exactly where it was located but the kind man called the restaurant and got better directions. Once again, thinking it was close; we ended up sitting in the taxi for almost 45min driving to who knows where, getting slightly lost and paying nearly 80 Yuan nearly 12 dollars. Nevertheless, we did finally arrive and can assure you that very few if any foreigners make it out to this Donkey restaurant. Ready for a beer we kindly asked for two beers but instead got an estranged look. But don’t worry, I saw some empty beer bottles in the corner and walked the server over to them and said two with my two fingers. Sipping my beer, Mark took his time looking at the massive menu and picked out his two donkey dishes, green onion donkey skin salad and donkey hotpot stew. I went for some tofu spring roles and a spice tofu dish. Over all the meal was good, it was and adventure to get to and it was especially rewarding eating at a restaurant that no foreigners make it too.
Before leaving Mark was able to get across that we wanted to know the closes subway station to the restaurant. Having the server circle the subway station we hopped into a taxi and headed towards the subway station where we proceeded to travel back into the city. Having no jet lag and forgetting Mark is still coping with the time difference I suggested we go to the Temple of Heaven, which is exactly what we did and yet maybe should not have. Our time at the Temple of Heaven was good but Mark was a bit sluggish and could have gone for a siesta since he spent most of the time tripping over his own feet, poor guy. The temple sits inside this massive park which given more time would have been fun to explore. Doing our best to stay energized we explored all three parts of the Temple of Heaven and the best is the color décor and architecture of the three tiered circler temple, it is quite a marvel.
This completes our first few days, I will write more tomorrow. Promise!
Monday, May 17, 2010
Teacher's Day
Friday the great day that it is was particularly special because it was Teacher’s Eve and as excited as we all were to see what we were going to get from our students we were sadly let down by the news Friday morning informing us that gifts are not to be excepted. The only thing we were allowed to accept were cards, flowers and treats. Slightly bummed by this piece of information, Friday turned out to be great and it was fun opening all the cards I received to see what the students wrote. I did however have to return a gift or two one of which I did happen to end up getting today. Apparently the rule only applied for that specific day, so to my shock today, Monday, Miss Bonnie (my Korean helper) gave me back the gift I was to receive on Friday, today. I got some new Aveda shampoo and conditioner which I am totally stoked about because I never splurge on expensive hair product so this will be a nice luxury item to use on my hair. To conclude Teacher’s Eve, the director took all of us out to dinner. We all went to VIPS, this salad bar and steak restaurant for dinner and it was surprisingly good. I obviously passed on the steaks but the salad bar was full of delicious items which I proceeded to stuff my belly with, in anticipation for the energy I needed for rock climbing.
In the midst of making new friends, Alison was connected by a friend from home to someone they know here and her name is Katie. Alison and I have hung out with Katie a few times now and she has introduced me to rock climbing. This is a new hobby of hers and well I expressed interest in it and she set me a link to this rock climbing group and once every three weeks they plan rock climbing outings on the weekend. I have had an interest in rock climbing for several years but never sought out a connection so when this one fell into my lap I figured why not give it a try. It turned out to be great and I am pumped to do it again soon. We rock climbed on Surisan Mt. and they had several ropes staked out and ready for us to climb. Nerves for never having done this before, the guys in charge were great and to my luck I wasn’t the only one who was new to rock climbing. Before we even started we were given a brief run down as to how the equipment worked, what the main key phrases are, and pointers on how to climb. To my surprise I felt as though I picked it up pretty quickly. I was nerves starting off but reminded myself that I need to trust myself and the rope. It is amazing what a stimulating mind challenge climbing is as well as how little grip one really needs to pull oneself up. At times I would only have two or three fingers barely getting grip and just trusting my strength to pull me up. I did five climbs one of them being very easy and the other two, which I did both of them twice, were moderately challenging. A few others braved it and tried climbing the more difficult rocks; I however stuck to the moderate/hard rocks. With my five successful climbs I ended the day exhausted and woke up the next morning soar but wanting to do it again soon.
Sunday was another beautiful spring day and in desperate need of some sun I joined several of my co workers for drinks at Nashville’s roof top garden. Relaxing and enjoying each others company I did eventually say good bye to meet up with Lindsey to watch the Lantern Festival parade. This next weekend is Buddha’s birthday and the tradition is to hold a lantern parade the Sunday before Buddha’s birthday. The parade was beautiful and reminded me of the Disneyland light parade. The parade lasted for two hours and several groups walked by with their own unique lanterns plus various well made lit floats paraded by. The lantern parade was lovely and I don’t know what it is about parades but they always make me feel like a kid inside. As repetitive as parades are, seeing float after float go by, they are just fun to watch and bring this sense of joy. It was a nice end to my lovely weekend.
In the midst of making new friends, Alison was connected by a friend from home to someone they know here and her name is Katie. Alison and I have hung out with Katie a few times now and she has introduced me to rock climbing. This is a new hobby of hers and well I expressed interest in it and she set me a link to this rock climbing group and once every three weeks they plan rock climbing outings on the weekend. I have had an interest in rock climbing for several years but never sought out a connection so when this one fell into my lap I figured why not give it a try. It turned out to be great and I am pumped to do it again soon. We rock climbed on Surisan Mt. and they had several ropes staked out and ready for us to climb. Nerves for never having done this before, the guys in charge were great and to my luck I wasn’t the only one who was new to rock climbing. Before we even started we were given a brief run down as to how the equipment worked, what the main key phrases are, and pointers on how to climb. To my surprise I felt as though I picked it up pretty quickly. I was nerves starting off but reminded myself that I need to trust myself and the rope. It is amazing what a stimulating mind challenge climbing is as well as how little grip one really needs to pull oneself up. At times I would only have two or three fingers barely getting grip and just trusting my strength to pull me up. I did five climbs one of them being very easy and the other two, which I did both of them twice, were moderately challenging. A few others braved it and tried climbing the more difficult rocks; I however stuck to the moderate/hard rocks. With my five successful climbs I ended the day exhausted and woke up the next morning soar but wanting to do it again soon.
Sunday was another beautiful spring day and in desperate need of some sun I joined several of my co workers for drinks at Nashville’s roof top garden. Relaxing and enjoying each others company I did eventually say good bye to meet up with Lindsey to watch the Lantern Festival parade. This next weekend is Buddha’s birthday and the tradition is to hold a lantern parade the Sunday before Buddha’s birthday. The parade was beautiful and reminded me of the Disneyland light parade. The parade lasted for two hours and several groups walked by with their own unique lanterns plus various well made lit floats paraded by. The lantern parade was lovely and I don’t know what it is about parades but they always make me feel like a kid inside. As repetitive as parades are, seeing float after float go by, they are just fun to watch and bring this sense of joy. It was a nice end to my lovely weekend.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Happy Children's Day
I have finally found one thing I love about the Korean culture and that is their celebration towards children. Unlike home where we celebrate Cinco de Mayo, Korea celebrates children’s day on May 5th, and it is honestly the best day EVER. Children have the day off from school which means teachers do as well and they simply get to be kids on this day.
On Children’s Eve, Bambini (my school) had a little celebration in toast to all the children. We spent the day playing, stuffing our faces with sweets and exchanging gifts, it was soooo great. Our day started with a few games down in the gym room then we made tasty parfaits in our classrooms. Now normally we would make it with yogurt and fruit but these parfaits were a little different and maybe a bit better. The kids had sugar cereals, ice cream, cocktail fruit and chocolate sticks to put in their parfait cups, they loved it. After they finished their parfaits they each got to have their faces painted. Following face painting the children colored for fifteen minutes till it was lunch time. Now lunch time was sort of a joke since we just had those parfaits but oh no we must eat lunch and to conclude lunch lets give the children cookies and orange juice; can I say sugar high. To burn some of their sugar high off we had a treasure hunt down in the gym room where they had to find matching pieces of paper in exchange for a pencil or an eraser. With some time to spare before the day was over the kids played play dough and I give them their gifts. Oh and did I mention I got a little gift from my boy Daniel, who knew teachers could get gifts on children’s day. And this concludes Children’s Eve, the easiest day of teaching yet.
For Children’s Day I spent the morning relaxing in bed reading before I finally headed out exploring a new neighborhood of Seoul with Alison. Originally we were going to go hiking but for some reason or another most everyone bailed. Although Alison and I could have still gone hiking we opted to explore Seoul because we had so much fun the other day doing it and well no one else really seems to enjoy it as much as we do.
Today we ventured out to Gwanghwamun, which is an area we had explored briefly one random evening when we got on the bus we needed in the wrong direction. Catching that same bus we headed to Gwanghwamun but got off a bit before simply because we saw this stream that looked calming. Walking a long Cheonggyecheon Stream we got flashbacks to when we were in San Antonio walking a long the river walk. This stream is very similar and it was packed with families enjoying this wonderful holiday. Along the stream under one of the bridges there was a collection of photographs from Algeria which has now convinced us it is a must see place. The pictures were amazing which makes me only think Algeria must be a gorgeous country. Upon arriving to the end of the stream there is this big red and blue seashell statue.
From here we just started walking aimlessly down various streets, not sure where we were headed or what we would find. What we did end up finding is another Hammering Man just like the one outside of the Seattle Art Museum, so random. Without knowing it we were right outside the Seoul Museum of History, which has a lovely floor water spout fountain that tones of children were playing in. Also they had a few booths with children’s activities one of them being big cardboard puzzle pieces that when put together made a 3D temple arch way and fortress wall, it was so intricut. Continuing on we stumbled upon several palaces, police museum, had an ice cream in Sajik Park, and walked down Insa-dong, Seoul’s most famous local vending market. Finishing our walk down Insa-dong we randomly ended up on the same street we got dropped off at by the bus, which fortunately for us came in our favor. Tired from walking for four hours we decided to catch a bus back home. Unlike home where you generally can catch the same bus on the opposite side of the street to go home this is not the case here. Needing to figure out what bus would take us home we found an information office and saved our self the stress of figuring it out ourselves and asked for help. Luckily the bus we needed was right outside the information office and our ride home was smooth and easy. Today was a wonderful relaxing day and I owe it all to Children’s Day.
On Children’s Eve, Bambini (my school) had a little celebration in toast to all the children. We spent the day playing, stuffing our faces with sweets and exchanging gifts, it was soooo great. Our day started with a few games down in the gym room then we made tasty parfaits in our classrooms. Now normally we would make it with yogurt and fruit but these parfaits were a little different and maybe a bit better. The kids had sugar cereals, ice cream, cocktail fruit and chocolate sticks to put in their parfait cups, they loved it. After they finished their parfaits they each got to have their faces painted. Following face painting the children colored for fifteen minutes till it was lunch time. Now lunch time was sort of a joke since we just had those parfaits but oh no we must eat lunch and to conclude lunch lets give the children cookies and orange juice; can I say sugar high. To burn some of their sugar high off we had a treasure hunt down in the gym room where they had to find matching pieces of paper in exchange for a pencil or an eraser. With some time to spare before the day was over the kids played play dough and I give them their gifts. Oh and did I mention I got a little gift from my boy Daniel, who knew teachers could get gifts on children’s day. And this concludes Children’s Eve, the easiest day of teaching yet.
For Children’s Day I spent the morning relaxing in bed reading before I finally headed out exploring a new neighborhood of Seoul with Alison. Originally we were going to go hiking but for some reason or another most everyone bailed. Although Alison and I could have still gone hiking we opted to explore Seoul because we had so much fun the other day doing it and well no one else really seems to enjoy it as much as we do.
Today we ventured out to Gwanghwamun, which is an area we had explored briefly one random evening when we got on the bus we needed in the wrong direction. Catching that same bus we headed to Gwanghwamun but got off a bit before simply because we saw this stream that looked calming. Walking a long Cheonggyecheon Stream we got flashbacks to when we were in San Antonio walking a long the river walk. This stream is very similar and it was packed with families enjoying this wonderful holiday. Along the stream under one of the bridges there was a collection of photographs from Algeria which has now convinced us it is a must see place. The pictures were amazing which makes me only think Algeria must be a gorgeous country. Upon arriving to the end of the stream there is this big red and blue seashell statue.
From here we just started walking aimlessly down various streets, not sure where we were headed or what we would find. What we did end up finding is another Hammering Man just like the one outside of the Seattle Art Museum, so random. Without knowing it we were right outside the Seoul Museum of History, which has a lovely floor water spout fountain that tones of children were playing in. Also they had a few booths with children’s activities one of them being big cardboard puzzle pieces that when put together made a 3D temple arch way and fortress wall, it was so intricut. Continuing on we stumbled upon several palaces, police museum, had an ice cream in Sajik Park, and walked down Insa-dong, Seoul’s most famous local vending market. Finishing our walk down Insa-dong we randomly ended up on the same street we got dropped off at by the bus, which fortunately for us came in our favor. Tired from walking for four hours we decided to catch a bus back home. Unlike home where you generally can catch the same bus on the opposite side of the street to go home this is not the case here. Needing to figure out what bus would take us home we found an information office and saved our self the stress of figuring it out ourselves and asked for help. Luckily the bus we needed was right outside the information office and our ride home was smooth and easy. Today was a wonderful relaxing day and I owe it all to Children’s Day.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Youngchisan Mountain
The weekend of April 16th Casey, Megan, Alison and I joined another 70+ people to head down south to Yeosu. We left at around 11:30pm the night of April 16th and drove through the night till we arrived at Youngchisan at 5:30am. We began our hike just as the sun was rising and a quarter of the way up we were able to see the beautiful sunrise. The beginning of the hike was extremely intense and directly up hill but after awhile it tapered off. We spent the morning/afternoon hiking through the hills of the mountain stopping for a coffee break, snacks, photos of the lovely pink azaleas, and popping into a few temples buried away in the mountain.
We spent the rest of the day visiting Odongdo Island, Suncheon Bay, and finally ending our night a quite nearly isolated beach. Our visit to Odongdo Island was a nice relaxation after our five hour hike; it was covered with red camellia flowers. We strolled around the island taking pictures of the flowers and took a relaxed to the sound of the waves crashing on the big boulders. Continuing on with our day the bus took us to Suncheon Bay to visit one of five, Koreas most preserved natural swamp land. Unsure as to what we were going to see exactly I was shockingly surprised at how beautiful it was. There is a nice walking path along the swamp lands and once we crossed over the swamp land we could hike up this mountain to see the sun slowly beginning to set as well as a 180 view of the swamp land. Although I was tired, exhausted and wanting to get to our final destination this was a very nice ending to the day. It was a good final stretch after a long day of hiking plus I had never really seen a swamp land before, at least not to my knowledge. By about nine in the evening we finally arrived to the beach where we were going to spend the night. Spent from the long day I had very little energy to cook dinner or take back a beer. Although a few others enjoyed the beef, pork and beer our guide purchased for us I opted to pass and headed straight to bed.
Warren, our tour guide, wasn’t lying when he said this beach was nearly isolated because after a decent nights rest me and several others spent the morning relaxing on the quite beach. This beach has proper sand to walk in with your naked feet and it was amazing doing just that. After our few hours of drinking coffee, reading, chatting and letting the sand fall through our fingers we boarded the bus and headed to Jirisan Ssanggyesa. Jirisan Ssanggyesa is famous for its long strip of cherry blossom trees. Usually during the month of April all the cherry blossom trees in Korea bloom and when they do it is the most beautiful thing ever; it even turns Seoul, this missive overly compacted city, into a white wonderland. While we were in Jirisan Ssanggyesa we walked around its market and this market set off the beginning of my new purchase obsession. Korea is apparently famous for its pottery and this market has a large selection of pottery, most of it being tea cups and tea sets. These ceramics are gorgeous and if I could I would have bought hundreds of dollars of this stuff but sadly I only had about 15 dollars on me so I simply bought three different tea cups. Since I still have 10 more months here I will just slowly build up my collection of Korean pottery, how I will get it all home, is another issue.
We spent the rest of the day visiting Odongdo Island, Suncheon Bay, and finally ending our night a quite nearly isolated beach. Our visit to Odongdo Island was a nice relaxation after our five hour hike; it was covered with red camellia flowers. We strolled around the island taking pictures of the flowers and took a relaxed to the sound of the waves crashing on the big boulders. Continuing on with our day the bus took us to Suncheon Bay to visit one of five, Koreas most preserved natural swamp land. Unsure as to what we were going to see exactly I was shockingly surprised at how beautiful it was. There is a nice walking path along the swamp lands and once we crossed over the swamp land we could hike up this mountain to see the sun slowly beginning to set as well as a 180 view of the swamp land. Although I was tired, exhausted and wanting to get to our final destination this was a very nice ending to the day. It was a good final stretch after a long day of hiking plus I had never really seen a swamp land before, at least not to my knowledge. By about nine in the evening we finally arrived to the beach where we were going to spend the night. Spent from the long day I had very little energy to cook dinner or take back a beer. Although a few others enjoyed the beef, pork and beer our guide purchased for us I opted to pass and headed straight to bed.
Warren, our tour guide, wasn’t lying when he said this beach was nearly isolated because after a decent nights rest me and several others spent the morning relaxing on the quite beach. This beach has proper sand to walk in with your naked feet and it was amazing doing just that. After our few hours of drinking coffee, reading, chatting and letting the sand fall through our fingers we boarded the bus and headed to Jirisan Ssanggyesa. Jirisan Ssanggyesa is famous for its long strip of cherry blossom trees. Usually during the month of April all the cherry blossom trees in Korea bloom and when they do it is the most beautiful thing ever; it even turns Seoul, this missive overly compacted city, into a white wonderland. While we were in Jirisan Ssanggyesa we walked around its market and this market set off the beginning of my new purchase obsession. Korea is apparently famous for its pottery and this market has a large selection of pottery, most of it being tea cups and tea sets. These ceramics are gorgeous and if I could I would have bought hundreds of dollars of this stuff but sadly I only had about 15 dollars on me so I simply bought three different tea cups. Since I still have 10 more months here I will just slowly build up my collection of Korean pottery, how I will get it all home, is another issue.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Exploring New Neighborhoods
I realize it’s been several weeks since my last post and I have a few catch up blogs to write; but before I begin those let me first share with you how I spent this past weekend.
In the past few weeks the weather has been getting nicer and Alison and I have talked about exploring our surrounding neighborhood. Well it wasn’t till this weekend that we finally began our adventure of exploring Gangnam. We had a feeling that COEX mall was fairly close to us but still wasn’t exactly sure where in vicinity to us it was located. Come to find out it’s a straight walk down this main boulevard. We walked nearly an hour before arriving but stumbled upon several unseen things before. After finally arriving to the mall we strolled around for a bit and then decided to venture back outside because it was much nicer outside then inside. Looking at the map I knew we weren’t far from the Hangang River. The weekend before Alison and I walked from our apartment to the river and really enjoyed the walking path it has a long side of it. Since the weather was perfect I suggested we walk along the river. Upon arriving to the river I noticed the Olympic Stadium as well as the Baseball stadium just across the other side. Excited about what we stumbled upon we ventured across the river to explore a new area.
For quite some time we both have talked about attending a baseball game but wasn’t sure where it was located or all the details about the game. Fortunately for us, the day before I was speaking to another teacher, Colleen, who has attended a few games, and she told me the details on the games; when the games start, where the stadium was located and roughly how much the tickets cost. As Alison and I walked across the bridge I shared with her all the information Colleen shared with me and suggested we try and get tickets. I told her the games usually start at five and she told me it was four thirty so we are just in time. Upon arriving to the stadium and unsure where to get tickets I walked up to the first foreigner I saw and asked them if they knew where the ticket office was. Luckily they did, so we tagged along with them and bought ourselves 8,000 Won field tickets. All of us picked up a few beers and then found ourselves some nice field side seats. I have to say for 8,000 Won our tickets were pretty good. Apparently they don’t do assign seating nor do they have nose bleed seats in the outfield so we were about seven rows up right behind left or right field. I’m not really sure how that works, is it from the perspective of the hitter that makes it left or right field? Either way the seats were great; our new friends were tons of fun and we are pumped to see another game soon, especially since it was so easy. I can’t tell you who won because we left after the 7 inning but when we left the home teem was loosing so it wasn’t looking good, plus the sun had gone down and we were getting cold.
On our venture home we stopped by Pizza School to pick up a 5,000 Won cheese pizza (that’s about $4.50) to enjoy at home. We kept hearing about Pizza School from other foreigners but it wasn’t till our walk to COEX mall that we finally stumbled upon one so we decided earlier in the day that on our walk home we would pick one up for dinner, and that is exactly what we did. It was cheep, cheerful and good.
To conclude my weekend, Sunday, I hung out with a new friend, Lindsey, whom I meet on a weekend hiking trip a few weeks back. (I will blog about that soon, promise.) Continuing on the weekend theme of venturing out to new parts I decided to head over to her neighborhood. She lives near Seokchon Lake and Lotte Word an amusement park. Upon walking up the stairs from the subway I was amazed at how calm and quite the streets were. Gangnam is load, busy and at times stressful but when I arrived in Seokchon I felt a sense of relief. Lindsey met me at the subway stop and she took me to her favorite Pho place which was absolutely delicious and exactly what I have been craving for quite some time. I miss eating it at home with my friend Natalie so it’s great to know that Lindsey loves it just as much. After our bowl of Pho and a beer we walked around Seokchon Lake. The path around the lake is beautifully covered with pink, purple, and white flowers. Lindsey said a few weeks ago all the cherry blossom trees were in bloom and at night it was as if they glowed, this would have been amazing to see but sadly the cherry blossoms only last for about two weeks. Any how the path was beautiful and the lake actually surrounds Lotte World which is a small Disney like amusement park. Someday I’m sure a bunch of us will go but it was fun to walk around it and see everyone so happy and enjoying themselves inside. The lake isn’t that big so before I realized we were back to the beginning and decided to just head home.
As low key as this weekend was I feel 100% more rejuvenated from all the vitamin D I absorbed plus it just feels great to have a better grasp of where things are in this massive city. I honestly feel a bit more settled and although I’m still somewhat a tourist I feel as though I’m making headway to becoming a local.
(Sorry to say I didn’t have my camera on me this weekend so no pictures, maybe next time.)
In the past few weeks the weather has been getting nicer and Alison and I have talked about exploring our surrounding neighborhood. Well it wasn’t till this weekend that we finally began our adventure of exploring Gangnam. We had a feeling that COEX mall was fairly close to us but still wasn’t exactly sure where in vicinity to us it was located. Come to find out it’s a straight walk down this main boulevard. We walked nearly an hour before arriving but stumbled upon several unseen things before. After finally arriving to the mall we strolled around for a bit and then decided to venture back outside because it was much nicer outside then inside. Looking at the map I knew we weren’t far from the Hangang River. The weekend before Alison and I walked from our apartment to the river and really enjoyed the walking path it has a long side of it. Since the weather was perfect I suggested we walk along the river. Upon arriving to the river I noticed the Olympic Stadium as well as the Baseball stadium just across the other side. Excited about what we stumbled upon we ventured across the river to explore a new area.
For quite some time we both have talked about attending a baseball game but wasn’t sure where it was located or all the details about the game. Fortunately for us, the day before I was speaking to another teacher, Colleen, who has attended a few games, and she told me the details on the games; when the games start, where the stadium was located and roughly how much the tickets cost. As Alison and I walked across the bridge I shared with her all the information Colleen shared with me and suggested we try and get tickets. I told her the games usually start at five and she told me it was four thirty so we are just in time. Upon arriving to the stadium and unsure where to get tickets I walked up to the first foreigner I saw and asked them if they knew where the ticket office was. Luckily they did, so we tagged along with them and bought ourselves 8,000 Won field tickets. All of us picked up a few beers and then found ourselves some nice field side seats. I have to say for 8,000 Won our tickets were pretty good. Apparently they don’t do assign seating nor do they have nose bleed seats in the outfield so we were about seven rows up right behind left or right field. I’m not really sure how that works, is it from the perspective of the hitter that makes it left or right field? Either way the seats were great; our new friends were tons of fun and we are pumped to see another game soon, especially since it was so easy. I can’t tell you who won because we left after the 7 inning but when we left the home teem was loosing so it wasn’t looking good, plus the sun had gone down and we were getting cold.
On our venture home we stopped by Pizza School to pick up a 5,000 Won cheese pizza (that’s about $4.50) to enjoy at home. We kept hearing about Pizza School from other foreigners but it wasn’t till our walk to COEX mall that we finally stumbled upon one so we decided earlier in the day that on our walk home we would pick one up for dinner, and that is exactly what we did. It was cheep, cheerful and good.
To conclude my weekend, Sunday, I hung out with a new friend, Lindsey, whom I meet on a weekend hiking trip a few weeks back. (I will blog about that soon, promise.) Continuing on the weekend theme of venturing out to new parts I decided to head over to her neighborhood. She lives near Seokchon Lake and Lotte Word an amusement park. Upon walking up the stairs from the subway I was amazed at how calm and quite the streets were. Gangnam is load, busy and at times stressful but when I arrived in Seokchon I felt a sense of relief. Lindsey met me at the subway stop and she took me to her favorite Pho place which was absolutely delicious and exactly what I have been craving for quite some time. I miss eating it at home with my friend Natalie so it’s great to know that Lindsey loves it just as much. After our bowl of Pho and a beer we walked around Seokchon Lake. The path around the lake is beautifully covered with pink, purple, and white flowers. Lindsey said a few weeks ago all the cherry blossom trees were in bloom and at night it was as if they glowed, this would have been amazing to see but sadly the cherry blossoms only last for about two weeks. Any how the path was beautiful and the lake actually surrounds Lotte World which is a small Disney like amusement park. Someday I’m sure a bunch of us will go but it was fun to walk around it and see everyone so happy and enjoying themselves inside. The lake isn’t that big so before I realized we were back to the beginning and decided to just head home.
As low key as this weekend was I feel 100% more rejuvenated from all the vitamin D I absorbed plus it just feels great to have a better grasp of where things are in this massive city. I honestly feel a bit more settled and although I’m still somewhat a tourist I feel as though I’m making headway to becoming a local.
(Sorry to say I didn’t have my camera on me this weekend so no pictures, maybe next time.)
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Cherry Blossoms
Spring is finally here and the cherry blossoms are in bloom. Two weekends ago Megan, Alison and I joined our friend Casey and her recruiting agency for a fun filled long Saturday day down to the southern coast of South Korea. Casey’s recruiting agency, Appletree, planned an event for all the newly arrived foreign teachers and we decided to join a long. We boarded the bus at the lovely early hour of 6am and drove down to Jinhae, South Korea, close to Busan. After being on the bus for five hours we finally arrived to our first stop, the Korean Naval Base where we saw the famous geobukseon, turtle ship. Yi Sun-sin was Korea’s most admired admiral in the 1590’s, because he recreated their navy ship to the turtle ship and therefore changed the dynamics of sea battle. This turtle ship was easier to maneuver, had double or triple the amount of cannons, a roof covered with iron sheets and spikes, plus a top and bottom gargoyle, with all of this it was able to destroy the Japanese navy boats time and time again. After sinking hundreds of Japanese ships, the Japanese eventually surrendered and proceeded to join forces with Korea in order to defeat China. Yi Sun-sin’s creation of the turtle ship is amazing and it was fun to walk around it and imagine what it would have been like in battle those centuries ago.
In desperate need of a lunch break we were dropped off in Jinhae where we had a chance to walk around and enjoy the cherry blossom festival. The festival was big, crowded and very “aromatic”. As we walked amongst the various booths, feeling at times as though we wanted to vomit too oh that smells good; we stumbled upon a variety of interesting items. We passed by big pots of silkworm larvae and escargot being simmered in some kind of broth. Several booths were selling dried and flattened fish or squid which just smells horrible. With neither of these food items sounding appealing I was fortunate to find not just one but a few tasty Turkish kabobs. We also stumbled upon several booths selling a variety of delicious cookies that we just had to indulge in. Just before leaving one of the guys on the bus picked up a cup of boiled silkworm larvae and shared it with the group. Surprised by Megan and Casey’s bravery they willingly jumped at the opportunity and each eat one larva while I took their picture. Alison and I proudly chickened out and opted not to taste or feel that nasty larva in our mouths.
Just before heading home the bus took us to Jinhae beach which has a small little island that people can walk out too. Although it had a strong seaweed smell it was nice to get away from the not so pleasant aromas at the cherry blossom festival. The beach was quant but to me I would not consider it a real beach because the ground is covered in rocks instead of sand and there are no waves. I realize I may sound a little ridiculous but I happen to have high standards for what I call a beach. Never the less, the sun was out and it was a pleasant walk before we began our five hour journey back to Seoul.
The bus ride home was much more eventful then the morning ride since most everyone was feeling pretty good/happy from drinking so much soju. I don’t know if I mentioned soju in my previous blogs but it is Korea’s vodka and personally it’s not bad as long as it is mixed with some kind of juice or soda, plain is just disgusting. The first half of the ride, us backseat riders played a lovely drinking game which lasted till the alcohol was gone. With the first half of the trip behind us we spent the remainder of the trip singing our hearts out. Korean’s are known for their Nori Bong which to us we call karaoke and well it seems as though they never go anywhere with out it. This bus was all set up for Nori Bong and we took advantage of it. The bus had a decent size TV at the front, two microphones, a never ending book of songs and a massively large remote box that controlled and played the songs we picked out. I’m personally not a fan of singing but joined a long in the fun only because my voice was over shadowed by everyone else’s which I am perfectly content with. With all the singing and dancing we were home before we even knew it. Well that’s a bit of a lie, by the end I was ready to be home and the last hour passed by slowly yet entertainingly as well.
To conclude my day, it was fun and a much needed get away. It was great to meet new people who have only been here a short time as well. I felt rejuvenated after a full day away from sky scraper Seoul and I also just loved seeing the water and the cherry blossoms some what in bloom.
In desperate need of a lunch break we were dropped off in Jinhae where we had a chance to walk around and enjoy the cherry blossom festival. The festival was big, crowded and very “aromatic”. As we walked amongst the various booths, feeling at times as though we wanted to vomit too oh that smells good; we stumbled upon a variety of interesting items. We passed by big pots of silkworm larvae and escargot being simmered in some kind of broth. Several booths were selling dried and flattened fish or squid which just smells horrible. With neither of these food items sounding appealing I was fortunate to find not just one but a few tasty Turkish kabobs. We also stumbled upon several booths selling a variety of delicious cookies that we just had to indulge in. Just before leaving one of the guys on the bus picked up a cup of boiled silkworm larvae and shared it with the group. Surprised by Megan and Casey’s bravery they willingly jumped at the opportunity and each eat one larva while I took their picture. Alison and I proudly chickened out and opted not to taste or feel that nasty larva in our mouths.
Just before heading home the bus took us to Jinhae beach which has a small little island that people can walk out too. Although it had a strong seaweed smell it was nice to get away from the not so pleasant aromas at the cherry blossom festival. The beach was quant but to me I would not consider it a real beach because the ground is covered in rocks instead of sand and there are no waves. I realize I may sound a little ridiculous but I happen to have high standards for what I call a beach. Never the less, the sun was out and it was a pleasant walk before we began our five hour journey back to Seoul.
The bus ride home was much more eventful then the morning ride since most everyone was feeling pretty good/happy from drinking so much soju. I don’t know if I mentioned soju in my previous blogs but it is Korea’s vodka and personally it’s not bad as long as it is mixed with some kind of juice or soda, plain is just disgusting. The first half of the ride, us backseat riders played a lovely drinking game which lasted till the alcohol was gone. With the first half of the trip behind us we spent the remainder of the trip singing our hearts out. Korean’s are known for their Nori Bong which to us we call karaoke and well it seems as though they never go anywhere with out it. This bus was all set up for Nori Bong and we took advantage of it. The bus had a decent size TV at the front, two microphones, a never ending book of songs and a massively large remote box that controlled and played the songs we picked out. I’m personally not a fan of singing but joined a long in the fun only because my voice was over shadowed by everyone else’s which I am perfectly content with. With all the singing and dancing we were home before we even knew it. Well that’s a bit of a lie, by the end I was ready to be home and the last hour passed by slowly yet entertainingly as well.
To conclude my day, it was fun and a much needed get away. It was great to meet new people who have only been here a short time as well. I felt rejuvenated after a full day away from sky scraper Seoul and I also just loved seeing the water and the cherry blossoms some what in bloom.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Happy Easter
Although it honestly doesn’t feel like Easter today, maybe because I didn’t find an Easter basket hidden in my apartment, my day turned out great. I had two lovely skype dates in the morning and then met Casey and Alison for brunch at Big Rock Brewery. We discovered this brunch at our recruiting agency gathering a few weekends back. The owner came over for a chat and told us all about his Canadian/American breakfast and since then we have been drooling over going. I figured since I won’t be with my family or friends from home enjoying a meal why not get my new friends here to go out for brunch on Easter. Of course only three of us made it out while the rest of the gang slept after staying out to late the night before. With or without them, us three girls had a blast and stuffed our faces and enjoyed tasty mimosas and a Bloody Mary. The brunch was delicious not as good as Salty’s from home but never the less good. Here are a list plate for plate of what I had, salad and croissant; potatoes, spring roles, and this rice and pasta dish; toast and veggie omelet; French toast and fruit; four cups of coffee and a spicy Bloody Mary. Two hours later we paid our bill rolled out of there and sickly walked home to take a food coma nap. I ironically was not in the mood to nap, probably do to all the coffee, convinced Megan (one of the girls who bailed on brunch) to join me for a walk outside. Just the other day I discovered this track field near by and had been meaning to go walk/run around it to get some exercise. Since Megan had been inside all morning/afternoon I told her to come outside for her vitamin D and we had a lovely walk around the track field. It was nice seeing people playing soccer, baseball and families out playing in the playground. With the sun setting or more just setting behind the buildings we opted to head home before it got to cold out. It is now night time and Easter is almost over for me but I hope all of you have a wonderful Easter and get something special from the Easter bunny, Happy Easter.
Brunch at Big Rock Brewery
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| From Seoul |
Brunch at Big Rock Brewery
Meticulous Parents continued (MPC)
On Friday Bonnie came in to have lunch with us and I of course asked her how the student’s parents are doing and if there is anything I should know. She said overall the phone calls have been fine but shared a few stories with me which I am glad to pass on to all of you. Apparently Lara’s father is upset because he feels that Lara’s bus ride to school is to long for her. Shocked to hear her say this I asked her how she responded and she told me she said nothing. Probably because there is nothing you can say to a ridiculous comment such as this. If you feel the bus ride is to long then bring your own child to school, come on what’s with these people. There are students who sit on the bus for an hour and she is on maybe thirty minutes if that and her dad is complaining, stupid I tell you. Another story she shared, was about Seoyhun’s mom’s concern that her daughter has lost one pound since attending school. One pound and you are freaking out; I don’t think one needs to be concerned. Admittedly Seoyhun doesn’t eat much for lunch because she doesn’t seem to like the food but I can promise she isn’t going to wither away. Plus, as Gordon (another teacher) put it, her mom should be happy because Koreans believe that in order to get married you have to be ridiculous thin and well we know this isn’t true. Have I mentioned how into their image everyone is here? So much so that as young as 6, children get laser surgery or are put on diuretics so they can be thin. A few weeks back Julie, one of Casey’s students had laser surgery on her face, not sure why exactly but what we thought were chicken pox where really scars from laser surgery. So in agreement to what Gordon said, the mom should be THRILLED her daughter lost a pound. (Trust that I don’t believe in this nonsense.) These are just a few more stories I heard about my children’s meticulous parents. I hope you enjoyed reading them and do anticipate many more to come.
Good Bye Heart
I ended this week down one child. My cedar class was originally a class of 9 but after Wednesday we became a class of 8. You would think I would feel the difference in the numbers but I honestly don’t and this is because Heart rarely attended school. Since the first day of school Heart has yet to show up on time or attend a full week of school. Apparently she had been sick so this is why she wasn’t attending school much the fist couple of weeks. Then, I come to find out that she doesn’t really want to go to school so instead encouraging her to get to school on time (10am) she will often times roll in at her own leisure any where from 10:30 to 12. Next excuse Bonnie (Korean assistant) told me was that Heart’s mom feels I don’t smile enough and it makes Heart uncomfortable. Trying not to take this comment personal, I asked myself why she might feel this way and I think it is because when Heart shows up it is always in the middle of my lesson and therefore I find it annoying to have to stop my lesson to deal with her. I honestly feel that if her mom was adamant about getting Heart to school on time and every day Heart would see how fun our days actually are and that I can and do smile a lot with the children. Finally, the last excuse for Heart’s absent, behavior and tardiness is she doesn’t like doing the school work. Probably because she doesn’t know what she is supposed to do because she NEVER shows up on time and always misses the lesson. Wow do I find this whole thing ridiculously annoying and stupid. Any how, in the end her mom decided to take her out of Bambini and it just so happen to be on Wednesday the one and only day Heart shows up on time. Shocked to even see her make it to school, let a lone on time, it was sad to see her go. After school her mom came to collect Heart’s belongings and we chatted a bit. I told her I am sad to see Heart go but in the end she might be doing the right thing for Heart since she is obviously not happy here and wished her luck finding another school more suitable to Heart’s needs. And so, my class of nine is now down to eight which ironically has always felt like eight with those rare exceptional days of the addition of Heart. It is sad to see her leave but good bye Heart.
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| From Seoul |
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Meticulous Parents
Have I mentioned how meticulous Korean parents are. I gather most of you got a brief sense of this after reading my blog post about writing Ricky’s mom an apology letter for him getting hurt under my watch. Here are a few other complaints we have heard from the Korean parents: A few weeks ago at are weekly meeting we were told the parents are astounded by how messy their children look when they return home. Their thought is we send them to school looking sharp we expect them to return the same way. So now we have to make it a point to zip their jackets, fix their collars, straiten their backpacks and jackets, look to make sure their shoes are on the appropriate foot and fix the girls hair. My thought is really, what kid ever looks good after a day at school. I sure as heck return home looking worst then when I left in the morning. Also, Korean’s are major germ a phoebes yet ironically not. The Korean assistance come in with a comb and hair ties and comb all the kids hair with the same comb so they look sharp when they go home, I’m sorry but isn’t this how lice spreads. Also if the children are sick and throw up, like one girl named Dahey did in Alison’s class, you would think she would go home but no they kept her at school. Just today Chloe another student of Alison’s had a fever and she still came to school. I really just don’t understand the Korean logic behind these sorts of behaviors. And the complaints I get about how the students hurt themselves is ridiculous. I have yet to go a week with out hearing from my Korean assistant that some parent is upset because their child came home with a scratch. I’m sorry but I cannot watch detail for detail what is happening every second of the day. My boys get very wild and rambunctious with each other and as much as I tell them to stop they don’t listen and continue to run and wrestle with each other because that is what boys do. Today I was told by Bonnie, my Korean helper, that Daniel’s grandfather is very upset because he has a scratch by his eye and she asked me how it happened. I simply looked at her and said it didn’t happen under my watch ask Daniel what happen, but could Daniel tell her, no, so it must not be that big of a deal since he wasn’t traumatized by the scratch. This nonsense really drives me nuts and I have no patience for it. It is honestly a good thing I am not the one calling the parents every day because having to listen to their nonsense is just annoying. Well I hope you got a bit more insight into the Korean culture or at least the Korean parents I have to deal with. Parent teacher conferences should be fun!
Monday, March 29, 2010
Splendid Saturday
This Saturday is one of the best Saturdays I have experienced here in Seoul and I know many more are to come. I met Casey and a few of her friends for an afternoon visit to a Buddhist Temple, tea shop and some shopping. Jamie a friend of a friend of Casey’s has been teaching here for the past nine months and has a better sense of the city and offered to take us to Jogyessa Temple. The architecture and color scheme of the temple is similar to the other palaces and temples here in Seoul and I’m guessing Korea. Never the less, it is absolutely beautiful and I never get tired of taking photos of all the colors and intricate drawings on the temple. The inside was just as beautiful if not more then the outside. I think one of the best temples I have ever seen. There were several people mostly older “wiser” women inside praying and we grabbed ourselves cushions and found an empty floor space off on the side. Sitting, soaking up the décor and watching people pray, a little old women came up to us and gave us another cushion and motioned to us to start praying. Feeling uncomfortable and out of place, I did three or four bows out of respect and then proceeded to grab my stuff to leave. Before leaving we walked around to the front to see the three big beautiful gold Buddha statues in the front and all the offerings people brought. Shortly after, a monk came in and started to chant. Wooed in by his chanting we grabbed another cushion and just soaked up the peaceful atmosphere the temple had and prayed. With all the prayer lanterns hanging from the ceiling, Buddha sitting so peacefully and the monk chanting an overwhelming feeling of peacefulness filled my body. It was a great feeling especially since it is so hard to feel a sense of peacefulness in this loud and busy city.
An hour had passed and we finally left the temple and headed towards one of Anguk’s popular shopping streets which is just down the road from the Temple. This street is full of art galleries, street sellers and one amazing yet hidden tea shop. Jamie took us to this tea shop and we indulged in plum tea, pear tea and honey cakes. Everything was amazing, my plum tea was so sweet and delicious I couldn’t get enough. Fortunately to our benefit the staff brought over complimentary jasmine tea. The jasmine flours were sitting in the small glass tea pot and as Jamie pored the hot water in to the teapot the flowers began to bloom. It was absolutely beautiful watching this happen. The jasmine tea was not sweet and mild in flavor in comparison to our fruity teas but still just as amazing. Apparently this tea shop is a popular spot for many of the monks to pop in for a relaxing cup of tea. After this experience I can see why and will most definitely be returning quite frequently to this tea shop.
Feeling sweet and warm from the tea we roamed the streets popping into the various art galleries and looking at all the great stuff the street sellers were selling. Do expect your gifts to come from this shopping street because the stuff here is awesome. Amongst the great gift items are food stands with interesting foods, most of them looking delicious and amazing. After I get my first pay check I plan to return and stop at each of the food stands sampling the various foods so that I can better acquaint myself with Korean street food. One stand took rock hard honey and stretched it out to several hundreds of threads as they mixed it with corn starch and flour. Hopefully you can get a sense of what I am saying from the pictures but either case it was fascinating to watch. To end our splendid day we stumbled upon some traditional Koreans drumming and dancing in this open cemented gathering space. Not sure why still, but it was a neat thing to see and plus there is a nice tile wall right there as well.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Field Trip
Last Thursday we were told that this Thursday (today) would be our first field trip to the National Museum of Contemporary Art Korea and immediately we all looked at each other and though “oh no.” In preparation for the museum, I mentioned to my students yesterday (Wednesday) that tomorrow (Thursday) we were all going to go on a field trip to the museum, but of course they didn’t really understand. So today I reminded the students that we were going to the museum and they all needed to be well behaved. I went over the rules (no running, no pushing, no hitting, talk in soft voices and asked them to stay with their partner and the class) and got them ready for the bus. Stressed and unsure as to how our one hour at the museum was going to go I was shocked by how smooth everything went. We had a nice stroll through the museum taking in all the fabulous art pieces and ended with a nice stroll through the children’s museum. Trying to do my best to keep the students engaged I would ask them questions like, “what colors do you see?”, “what shapes can you find?”, and “what do you see?” (tree, flower, person etc…) Without even realizing it, the hour had passed and I was getting my students ready to get back on the bus. We headed back to school had lunch, treats the students drew a picture of what they saw at the museum and the day was over. This field trip experience has given me a new found respect for my students. I officially now know that they can be good students who follow direction like no talking. The no talking when I am talking is such a hassle with my homeroom class and all the other classes but after today I saw a new light. I trust that tomorrow and the weeks to come are going to be so much better. I cannot wait till our next field trip and I am most defiantly returning to the museum because it had a lot of great pieces.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Birthday Celebration
Today I experienced my first birthday celebration and it was an experience. Lara, my student who spent the first two weeks crying everyday, came in with her near perfect English and started to sing the happy birthday song. With her big smile and overly excited body she told me it’s her birthday and so I wished her a happy birthday. Shortly later, Angela comes in to tell me that during lunch we will have cake in celebration of Lara’s birthday. Lunch time came around and Angela reminded all the children to eat quickly so we could have cake. After the students finished their lunch and we cleaned up Angela and another helper come in with party hats, banner, cake, chocolate milk, oranges, candy, and cookies. I immediately thought overkill but put on a smile and joined a long in the celebration. We put up the banner, wore birthday hats, sang happy birthday, took lots of pictures and then proceeded to stuff our faces with sugar. Amazed at all that was brought in I asked Angela if the school provided it and she told me this is all Lara’s mothers doing. Sharing my experience with the other teachers it is apparently common to have a birthday celebration similar to this one. I can only say I look forward to eight more of these celebrations and hay I am never one to say no to sweets. I just feel bad for Miss. Alison because she has my students after lunch, kids on a sugar high never any good. Sorry Miss Alison :)
Wild Korean’s
I was under the assumption that Korean’s and most Asian children are amazingly well behaved and I am going to say that I disagree. None of my students are ridiculous wild but they are no different then any child one would find in the rest of the world. The reason I bring this up is because earlier this week I came down with a cold and lost my voice or really my voice became very strained. Now if this assumption were to be true it would be fairly easy to teach these Korean angels because I would never have to raise my voice, the students would sit perfectly in their sets and be nothing but good listeners. Oh how I wish this was to be true because it is very hard getting your students attention when you have no voice. Truth be told, I spend most of my days talking in a very loud voice because these students are rowdy and well I hate to admit it but wild at times. It doesn’t help that there is a language barrier but these kids have a hard time remaining in there seats, shutting up when I the teacher is talking and simply following order. The first five or so minutes go really smooth and then once we break into our lesson activity they start talking, moving around and simply not following instruction. Now I love each one of my students and they are all amazing children but it is exhausting having to talk over these children. It is even more exhausting when I am sick and in no mood to deal with this nonsense. I can only hope that with time and discipline there will be a day when I don’t spend most of the day speaking in a loud tone. As for now I continue to remind myself to stay calm and assure myself that in this chaos the students are learning something.
St Patrick’s Day Let Down
Yesterday was St Patrick’s Day and I planned an impromptu gathering to get people out for drinks at the Dubliner. Last weekend when were walking to our recruiting event we found an Irish pub and that night I suggested to people to come out for drinks on St Patrick’s Day. I thought it would be a good way to reconnect with these teachers and make new friends, plus I invited my fellow co workers. One would assume lots of people would come and an Irish bar on St Patrick’s Day would be packed. This however was not the case at all. Four of us girls my girls I can always rely on to go out for a drink went to the Dubliner and found it completely empty, well near close to empty. Disappointed we opted to leave and try this new bar we heard of called the WA bar, it to was empty. Finally we decided to go to Woodstock’s which is another bar we had been to before and foresee ourselves frequenting often. Woodstock’s was defiantly not packed but had more of a full feel then the other two. Disappointed and ready to drink past it we had a drink or two and sadly ended our St Patrick’s Day night before midnight. This is what I call a St Patrick’s Day let down :(
Monday, March 15, 2010
Finally Photos
Here are some pictures I have taken so far. There are some of a palace I visited which I have yet to blog about but promise to do so soon. Enjoy.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Internet and Beer
Thinking I was going to have internet in my apartment Friday night it unfortunately wasn’t working do to the cable being down. Unsure as to why the cable was down I woke up Saturday morning feeling optimistic and gave my cable tv a try, low and behold the cable was back on and so was my internet. This is a first for me so I was and still am very excited to finally have internet in my place. It’s not as fast as I would like but that is something I can work out later. I spent my Saturday emailing and skyping with friends and family and it was just wonderful. With the day gone I got ready to attend the Adventure Teaching gathering with Alison, Megan and Casey. Our recruiting agency organized this event and invited all new and old English teachers to come and mingle. We met at Big Rock Brewery which was about a 15 minute walk from where we live (some people traveled over an hour, we definitely lucked out) and had a really fun night. This brewery brews their own beer, which is surprisingly good and also serves a killer Sunday brunch which all of us girls look forward to eating some Sunday morning. It was really nice to meet other English teachers and listen to how things were going for other people. Everyone lives in various parts of Seoul and Korea and work in such a wide range of schools. From what I gathered each school has its ups and downs and everyone struggles with the lack of inefficiency here. There is a group of girls that get together every Wednesday night to drink wine and hang out so I think I will be joining them a lot on Wednesday night, wish will be fun. I really enjoyed my time at the brewery and I look forward to meeting more and more people.
After the event, us girls grabbed a cab and met up with another co teacher to celebrate her birthday. Earlier in the night they had gone to a noreabang which is a karaoke bar/facility where you can rent out rooms to karaoke. Sadly we missed out on this part of the birthday bash but we made it for the dancing. We spent the remaining of our evening dancing and drinking out of buckets which gave me a flashback to Siem Reap, Cambodia’s Angkor What? Bar. Buckets can be deadly if not drinking in moderation but what I like about them is that you can share with your friends. Plus, there is just something fun about drinking out of a bucket verses a glass. Either way it was a fun night celebrating Robyn’s birthday.
After the event, us girls grabbed a cab and met up with another co teacher to celebrate her birthday. Earlier in the night they had gone to a noreabang which is a karaoke bar/facility where you can rent out rooms to karaoke. Sadly we missed out on this part of the birthday bash but we made it for the dancing. We spent the remaining of our evening dancing and drinking out of buckets which gave me a flashback to Siem Reap, Cambodia’s Angkor What? Bar. Buckets can be deadly if not drinking in moderation but what I like about them is that you can share with your friends. Plus, there is just something fun about drinking out of a bucket verses a glass. Either way it was a fun night celebrating Robyn’s birthday.
Costco in Korea, What?
That’s right, Seoul, Korea has Costco and a bunch of us girls spent or Friday night shopping and eating at Costco, it was wonderful. Going to Costco was like walking into the United States. It looks the same as home, for the most part, and has a lot of the same stuff as home as well. Hungry, we immediately went to the food court to order pizza and some soft serve ice cream. Shocked at how environmentally conscientious Costco is, or maybe just Korea, they served our pizza on reusable plates and also had real silverware. I think this is something the US could put into effect. Any how, with our tummies full we were ready to shop. Overwhelmed by all the American food I forced myself to simply pick up some basic necessities, frozen veggies, bagels, pasta, evoo, tofu, carrots and apples. Doing my best to not go over board I opted to create an imaginary list in my head for what I will pick up the next time I go, at the top is balsamic vinegar and wine. It’s a good thing I don’t have a car because I think I might go shopping crazy at Costco if I did but since I have to carry home everything I buy I know I cant buy more then what I can carry. Our Friday night adventure to Costco was tons of fun and I only wish I would have known ahead of time because then I could have brought my own card. Hey mom…you think you can send me my card?
Dear Ricky's Mom
I bet you can’t guess why this blog is titled “Dear Ricky’s Mom.” Feeling good about completing my second week of school, I got the students ready to go home on the school bus. Every Friday the students have to take home their house shoes to be washed and then brought back on Monday. To make things easy we all have our students remove their house shoes and place them in their backpacks in class before walking down the hall to the elevators and shoe shelves. With most of my students ready, primarily the boys, I let the students play in the class room till it was time to leave. Boys being boys got a little wild and started to run around the class room. Shortly after, the boys came tumbling down to the ground as they all slipped on the floor, do to not wearing any shoes and Ricky takes a nice face plant. I immediately grab Ricky and hold him to comfort him but also to look at his mouth. Just my luck, he cuts his lip and there is blood but nothing to sever. I have him drink some water to rinse down the blood and I make sure everything is okay. Angela, my Korean helper, comes in the room to help me get the students on the bus and it is then that I tell her what happens. Angela immediately gives me this look of fear and explains to me that she has to now call Ricky’s mom and explain what happened and assured me that she will be very upset. I instantly respond saying, kids get hurt and there is nothing to fuss or worry about. Shortly after, Angela comes in my room and tells me Ricky’s mom is very upset and I am expected by the head office lady to write an apology letter to Ricky’s mom. I just laughed and said, if this is what I have to do I guess I will. So then I proceeded to handwrite an apology letter explaining what happened and assured her that I will do my very best to not let this happen again. How ridiculous is this, in my opinion very. Never the less it makes for a good story and this is how I ended my second week of teaching.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
White Seoul
Yesterday, I had some friends over for Domino’s Pizza (so much better then home), ice cream bars and raspberry wine (a specialty of Korea, I guess) and on there way out they noticed the snow. We were all very excited to see the snow but had no idea it was going to snow all through the night and early this morning. When I woke up this morning I was shocked to see the snow falling out my window. Anxious to leave and enjoy my walk to school in the snow, I absentmindedly paid no attention to my footing and the first step out of my building I slipped and fell right on my bum/hip. This put a little damper on my mood but I cheered up seeing a beautiful white Seoul. I can’t believe its March and we are still able to get about three inches of snow, that’s just crazy!
School today was much more successful then the past two days. On Monday I worked with the kids on the concept inside and outside and it was such a stress getting them to understand and apply it to their worksheets. The math books I was given to use with the kids have these brief stories which are supposed to briefly cover/teach the students the lesson at hand. However, after the experience I had reading the story to the kids I don’t think I will be reading any of the other ones. They are just ridiculously stupid and the kids simply cannot make sense of it nor understand it really. Doing my best to explain and go through the worksheets with the students telling them exactly what they need to do, the students simply were not responding. It was as if I had spoken to a wall the whole time. Determined to get the students to understand the difference between inside and outside I came up with some more interactive activities for the next math day.
Today was the day I executed my inside and outside activates and I believe that each of the students finally grasped the concept. I gave each of the student’s five pieces of play fruit in a cup and we took them out of the cup, placed some inside left some outside and so on. After the fruit cup activity I had all the students step into the pre-taped circle on the floor and then would send various kids to different parts of the room and ask if they were inside or outside. Finally, I finished with one last worksheet where they had to circle the bear outside of the tent and mark on x on the bear inside the tent. Feeling better about how I executed the lesson, I was assured by Alison after work that while I was doing the inside, outside activities with Oak class my Cedar class, these are my homeroom students, were shouting out the answers during Alison’s class. (Alison and I have adjoining rooms with a removable wall so we hear each other teach often.) This made me happy and if my Cedar class understood the difference I gather the other classes did too. Everyday my Cedar students are slowly showing progress towards responding to the English language, which excites me.
School today was much more successful then the past two days. On Monday I worked with the kids on the concept inside and outside and it was such a stress getting them to understand and apply it to their worksheets. The math books I was given to use with the kids have these brief stories which are supposed to briefly cover/teach the students the lesson at hand. However, after the experience I had reading the story to the kids I don’t think I will be reading any of the other ones. They are just ridiculously stupid and the kids simply cannot make sense of it nor understand it really. Doing my best to explain and go through the worksheets with the students telling them exactly what they need to do, the students simply were not responding. It was as if I had spoken to a wall the whole time. Determined to get the students to understand the difference between inside and outside I came up with some more interactive activities for the next math day.
Today was the day I executed my inside and outside activates and I believe that each of the students finally grasped the concept. I gave each of the student’s five pieces of play fruit in a cup and we took them out of the cup, placed some inside left some outside and so on. After the fruit cup activity I had all the students step into the pre-taped circle on the floor and then would send various kids to different parts of the room and ask if they were inside or outside. Finally, I finished with one last worksheet where they had to circle the bear outside of the tent and mark on x on the bear inside the tent. Feeling better about how I executed the lesson, I was assured by Alison after work that while I was doing the inside, outside activities with Oak class my Cedar class, these are my homeroom students, were shouting out the answers during Alison’s class. (Alison and I have adjoining rooms with a removable wall so we hear each other teach often.) This made me happy and if my Cedar class understood the difference I gather the other classes did too. Everyday my Cedar students are slowly showing progress towards responding to the English language, which excites me.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
My First Week
With Monday being a holiday, Tuesday was orientation, and well most of you know how my Wednesday went, the last two days just flew by. Thursday is science day and the school has purchased weekly science kits for each of the classes. The perk to the kits is the science project is all ready for me; the challenge is simplifying the vocabulary to where I can actually teach the project to children who understand very little English. For example, our project was Configuration of Electricity, in essence the kids made a little flashlight with battery, wire and a light bulb. The project itself is moderately easy, explaining electricity on the other hand, very hard. In the end we just executed the project,they played with there flashlights turning them on and off and anything else they may have absorbed is beyond me. Although it was hard to actually teach the science behind it all, all the kids seemed to enjoy the project, so told to me by the other teachers.
The following day Angela my Korean helper came in during morning snack and told me she called all my student’s parents. Supposedly Andy, one of my students, went home and told his mom all about the science project plus told his mom about the letter B and wanted to go around the house looking for B items so he could work on his B sound. (Alison had gone over B’s with my students). Hearing this from Angela made me very happy because Andy is so shy and you just don’t know if he gets it but apparently he does. Also I have a girl named Lara who cries all the time and Angela said, that her mom told her it’s because Lara just really wants to speak English. My heart went out to Lara once Angela told me this however; if Lara just stopped crying she would realize she can speak English. For Friday’s math class, we went over our shapes and Lara new all her shapes and would say them out loud, I was shocked. Most of my students are bright its just going to take time to get them to actually verbally use their English.
The following day Angela my Korean helper came in during morning snack and told me she called all my student’s parents. Supposedly Andy, one of my students, went home and told his mom all about the science project plus told his mom about the letter B and wanted to go around the house looking for B items so he could work on his B sound. (Alison had gone over B’s with my students). Hearing this from Angela made me very happy because Andy is so shy and you just don’t know if he gets it but apparently he does. Also I have a girl named Lara who cries all the time and Angela said, that her mom told her it’s because Lara just really wants to speak English. My heart went out to Lara once Angela told me this however; if Lara just stopped crying she would realize she can speak English. For Friday’s math class, we went over our shapes and Lara new all her shapes and would say them out loud, I was shocked. Most of my students are bright its just going to take time to get them to actually verbally use their English.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
MY FIRST OFFICAL DAY OF TEACHING
Hurray, I did it! I completed a full day of teaching. Unsure as to how things were going to go I reminded myself to simply go with the flow. I welcomed my students in the morning and offered them there morning snack while realizing that my students know very little English. Smiling and doing my very best to do mannerisms while talking, I would say my students and I got along very well. I think in a matter of time they will be speaking English beautifully. As for how the day went with each of the classes, we went over the class rules, we introduced ourselves and I went through a little poster board I made of myself. I shared with the class where I am from, my favorite book, color, food, animal, and brought in pictures of my family. I think they enjoyed seeing the pictures the most. After they learned about each other, I had the students work on a connect the dots worksheet so that I could see if they knew there numbers. Afterwards we played a lovely round of color and shapes bingo. Before I knew it the day was over and the students were getting on the bus to return to there homes. My favorite part of the day was lunch because my Korean helper Angela asked my students which class they enjoyed the most and all of them said my class. Now, I don’t know if the students simply said this because they were in my classroom being served lunch or if they really meant it. Either way, I hope I can always keep my class fun and enjoyable and most importantly I just simply want to bond with my students.
A RECAP OF MY FIRST WEEK
To recap my first week here before the actual school year started, I left the United States at 6am on Monday February 22, 2010 and arrived in Seoul, South Korea the evening of Tuesday February 23, 2010. Excited, tired and overwhelmed my nerves slowly calmed once I saw my dear friend Alison. Pep my driver, a kind one at that had mentioned to me that he had picked up Alison just yesterday and would be kind enough to take me to her place before taking me to my new living space. Alison along with Pep and the realtor helped me with my bags up to my 15 by 15 foot room or should I say closet. Unsure as to what I just stepped into, Pep and the realtor smiled and waved good bye before I could think of any questions, all of which I have thought up now with a more clear and non drowsy head. Any how Alison distracted me with the story of her day and within the hour of being in my new home I fell soundly to sleep.
Pumped and ready to go, Alison and I meet up with the other new teachers (most of them being from Canada) at one of the local Dunkin Donuts. After about 20 minutes we arrived to our school, Bambini, and meet the other English teachers as well as the Korean teachers and the Bambini staff. Unsure as to what today held, I roamed around the classes taking in the layout while envisioning what the new school year would be like for me. By around 9:10 some of the students arrived for there last day of school and wow are they cute, don’t be shocked if I snatch one and bring he or she home with me. The school morning started and sadly they sent all the new teachers to the hospital for our health check. Overall the health check is pretty standard; weight, height, chest size (really as if this is important), ear and eye test (including color blindness), chest x-ray, blood test and to top it off we all had to pee in a cup. By the end of the week our results were to be in and fortunately we all passed, hurray non of us will be deported . After our excursion we returned to school in time to wave good bye to all the students and then spent the remaining two hours roaming around wondering what exactly we are supposed to be doing right now. This continued on the following two days and I think will be the being of my existents the whole time I am here. Well that may be an exaggeration but really Thursday we were told to prepare our room, okay but how I ask? Well with little response back I simply start observing the other rooms and just printing, laminating and putting things together. By midday the staff gave a bit more guidance but still no define list. Well, five o’clock roles around and we are all ready to go but the staff reminds us the rooms must be finished by Tuesday, ideally tomorrow (Friday) so no one has to come in on the weekend. Well with no precise instruction none of us no what it is we are supposed to be doing. This continued on to Friday and over to Saturday and a bit on Sunday. At the end of it all I can say that Koreans are some of the most inefficient people I have ever met and I think this is to do with there strict abidance to there culture. No one is allowed to talk against there elder so if the elder tells you something to do you must do it without question. This is very different from us and luckily it is expected of us not to abide to this rule. Nevertheless it is very hard to get any work done when the directors are coming to you an hour before its time to go to tell you exactly what needs to be done. I just think to myself, I could have been told this in the morning or the day before. Well I can only reflect on my many months of traveling and that is, nothing goes according to plan so it is best not to over plan because most often things will change.
Pumped and ready to go, Alison and I meet up with the other new teachers (most of them being from Canada) at one of the local Dunkin Donuts. After about 20 minutes we arrived to our school, Bambini, and meet the other English teachers as well as the Korean teachers and the Bambini staff. Unsure as to what today held, I roamed around the classes taking in the layout while envisioning what the new school year would be like for me. By around 9:10 some of the students arrived for there last day of school and wow are they cute, don’t be shocked if I snatch one and bring he or she home with me. The school morning started and sadly they sent all the new teachers to the hospital for our health check. Overall the health check is pretty standard; weight, height, chest size (really as if this is important), ear and eye test (including color blindness), chest x-ray, blood test and to top it off we all had to pee in a cup. By the end of the week our results were to be in and fortunately we all passed, hurray non of us will be deported . After our excursion we returned to school in time to wave good bye to all the students and then spent the remaining two hours roaming around wondering what exactly we are supposed to be doing right now. This continued on the following two days and I think will be the being of my existents the whole time I am here. Well that may be an exaggeration but really Thursday we were told to prepare our room, okay but how I ask? Well with little response back I simply start observing the other rooms and just printing, laminating and putting things together. By midday the staff gave a bit more guidance but still no define list. Well, five o’clock roles around and we are all ready to go but the staff reminds us the rooms must be finished by Tuesday, ideally tomorrow (Friday) so no one has to come in on the weekend. Well with no precise instruction none of us no what it is we are supposed to be doing. This continued on to Friday and over to Saturday and a bit on Sunday. At the end of it all I can say that Koreans are some of the most inefficient people I have ever met and I think this is to do with there strict abidance to there culture. No one is allowed to talk against there elder so if the elder tells you something to do you must do it without question. This is very different from us and luckily it is expected of us not to abide to this rule. Nevertheless it is very hard to get any work done when the directors are coming to you an hour before its time to go to tell you exactly what needs to be done. I just think to myself, I could have been told this in the morning or the day before. Well I can only reflect on my many months of traveling and that is, nothing goes according to plan so it is best not to over plan because most often things will change.
THE FIRST DAY OF THE SCHOOL YEAR
Well here I go again embarking on another adventure…I arrived here in Seoul, South Korea a week ago today. Today was my first official day of teaching at Bambini and it went as smooth as I could have expected. My homeroom students, which are a class of eight, are new comers to Bambini so my day consisted of a 30 min orientation and a quick hand out of binders and schedules to the parents. I co-teach with three other teachers and we each have our core subjects, mine is math and science (shocking, I know). Unlike today, we generally rotate the four classes amongst the four teachers so that each class gets forty minutes with each subject. Since my class, the Cedar class, was on a different schedule for today we skipped out on rotation and the other three teachers spent the day getting to know there homeroom students and went over the class rules and behavior chart.
For the afternoon we felt it would be good idea to get all the other students together to do a project so that we could acquaint ourselves with the other students and the students could acquaint themselves with us. Since I was told this morning that I wasn’t having my children at all I offered to do the project I planned for my students with all the other students since I had already put the time and thought into it. We gathered the other three classes together and had each of the students write there name, favorite animal and then draw a picture of that animal .To introduce the project each of the teachers including myself introduced ourselves and shared with the class our favorite animal and explained briefly why we picked this particular animal. After the students finished with there project the school day was basically over and this thus completed mine and the students first day of school. Although I can’t say I got a full grasp of everything since I spent no time at all with my students, I will say, I look forward to tomorrow.
For the afternoon we felt it would be good idea to get all the other students together to do a project so that we could acquaint ourselves with the other students and the students could acquaint themselves with us. Since I was told this morning that I wasn’t having my children at all I offered to do the project I planned for my students with all the other students since I had already put the time and thought into it. We gathered the other three classes together and had each of the students write there name, favorite animal and then draw a picture of that animal .To introduce the project each of the teachers including myself introduced ourselves and shared with the class our favorite animal and explained briefly why we picked this particular animal. After the students finished with there project the school day was basically over and this thus completed mine and the students first day of school. Although I can’t say I got a full grasp of everything since I spent no time at all with my students, I will say, I look forward to tomorrow.
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