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.
Monday, May 17, 2010
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.)
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)