Our Little Brown Blog

Closing One Chapter and Starting Another

2009-02-21T17:14:00.002+09:00

It's hard to say whether anyone is visiting this site anymore since it hasn't been updated in a month. I am alive and well- enjoying my current adventure but I am missing Korea. I thought long and hard about what to do with my blogging and with this blog and then I decided I wouldn't feel right to keep posting here. It pained me to think that my Korean memories would be bumped further and further into oblivion with each new blog entry so I have created a new blog. You can visit it here and I hope you do. I also put a link on the sidebar for the new blog: Amber of the Moment. I'm working on documenting my travels through Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia but it might be sporadic depending on the internet access I have available.

I plan to write a reflection on Korea once I've had some real time to reflect on it. That means there may be another post or two over here in the future. Going to Korea was one of the scariest, craziest, bravest and most rewarding things I've ever done. I feel like I'm closer to the person I want to be. Through the good and the bad I am so fortunate for having two years in the Land of the Morning Calm. 한국, 난 널 사랑해! (Korea, I love you!)

Saying Goodbye to my Best Friend

2009-01-17T07:23:00.003+09:00

Here's the final picture of us in Korea.

The best thing that I gained this year was my friend Min Jung and so saying goodbye to her was the hardest thing to do hands down. In my life at least, it's rare to make such a solid, unconditional friend so easily and I really miss seeing her and chatting with her every day. Here are the last pictures we took in our apartment and in Korea. Min Jung spent time with us until we got onto the airport bus and I cried so much saying goodbye that the bus driver almost left without us (and with our luggage under the bus already)! People ask me if I will return to Korea someday and I have to say that if Min Jung decides to stay there, then I most definitely will be back so I can see her. (Don't get me wrong, I made tons of awesome friends! I just worked side by side with Min Jung and became incredibly close with her. I am thankful for all the wonderful people in my life!)

Saying Goodbye to my Students

2009-01-17T07:12:00.002+09:00

So it's over- I'm no longer Amber Teacher. Strange to think but no, I am not interested in becoming a teacher in Canada. I like my students well behaved with limited English skills. Less backtalk that way. Hahah. I took a few pictures of students on my last day but this one was my favorite. Look at mischievous Kangmin!! I'm going to miss that little terror! I knew he was doing this too (click on the picture to see). My last day was much easier emotionally than Little Brown. I didn't even shed a tear and I was frantically busy for pretty much the entire shift. Also I was proud of myself because I didn't punch any of the douchey management. This is a bigger accomplishment than you think.

I had a few highlights to my last day- one being that I broke the "serious" rules for once and totally let my favorite class watch a movie instead of reviewing their boring lessons for the 14th time. One boy was so adorable because he was like, "We must keep our books open on our desk so if wonjongnim (the principal) walks by he will think we are studying". Sneaky! It was great though.

Matt decided to order pizza for his last 2 classes of the day and so he had them delivered right to the classroom. There were 5 and they were massive so he gave one to me- the trouble was, I was finished my classes except for my Korean Mom Class. The 3 of them (one is in the US for a vacation) showed up with a pizza and a huge cake! So we spent our last class eating, chatting and giving away pizza to anyone willing to take some. It was excellent. My year with Little Brown was all about my students- I still think of them often. This year was way more about friends and colleagues and so that is who I am really missing. I'll have to write a real reflection post on my life in Korea, maybe when I've had a little more time to process it.

500 Posts and our "KNC Christmas Party"

2009-01-17T06:52:00.002+09:00

This is the Little Brown Blog's 500th post!! I feel like I should be toasting with champagne or something. I guess Fresca will have to do. I decided to use this post to talk about our final hurrah- the staff Christmas party that Eddie organized. It was disappointing that more people didn't show up but those that did had a fantastic time. It's hard to get people together when your employers spend all their time and effort trying to alienate people and spoil their relationships. However, Eddie is awesome and a really positive person (they really don't deserve him) so I hope that his influence will help bring some changes over there. Lord knows, they really need it and none of the management is going to do it.
But this isn't about how crappy KNC Hyunjae is (it's really crappy- I can say that now that I am not on payroll) but about how cool our staff made Christmas party was! We all met up for a late dinner of galbi and beer (I stayed away from the soju- yikes!) and then basically went out for more beer and then more beer and norae bang. It was also our last norae bang and I wish I hadn't been still so sick so I could have sang better and more. Oh well. It was a great night and you can see all the scandelous pictures here. I'm really going to miss these people- they are fabulous! Thanks for the great send off and memories!

New Glasses!

2009-01-17T06:37:00.002+09:00

One thing I had to do before leaving Korea was take advantage of cheap prescription glasses. Especially considering that there were lots of year end sales that made them even cheaper than usual! I ended up buying 3 pairs of glasses and a bunch of contacts (which aren't cheap but I needed some) for TOTAL $225. Can you believe that? In Canada it is impossible (or very difficult) to purchase one pair of glasses for that price. It's a crime.

So here they are- it's hard to tell them apart but the top left pair is black with white on the inside, the top right is grey, the bottom left is the brown ones I've had for awhile and the bottom right is red. Fun! Maybe I should have bought some crazy ones but I wanted some that looked nice too. I just bought from one place so I was limited with the selection they had. Bottom line, if you are in Korea and wear glasses- go buy some! The most expensive pair were the black ones and they were $55!

Froggy Humidifier!

2009-01-17T06:34:00.003+09:00

This is the cutest humidifier I've ever seen. I found this at a Baskin Robbins of all places. I have to admit, the competition for cutest humidifier wasn't very steep since most humidifiers are not cute at all.

Free Fish Cakes

2009-01-17T06:23:00.002+09:00

So I am going to attempt to finish documenting our last weeks in Seoul before taking off on our next adventure. First up- the tiny cheap diner that we frequented had a customer appreciation day of sorts. I happened upon it by accident and the ajummas that work there spotted me and grabbed me. One of them had the male owner take a picture of us together and then she pushed the crowd aside so that I could get my hands on some free fish cakes on a stick. It was a bit odd and there was a massive crowd. I love how people have absolutely no shame when it comes to taking multiple free samples. They will park themselves and their kids right front and center and pop 25 free samples in their mouth. They do it at the grocery store too- they will eat all of the samples even if there is a line of people behind them. Funny for a culture where, otherwise, they always seem to share food. Anyway, here's a couple pictures of the chaos. I hope that the picture they took of me ends up on the picture wall. They made the best dolsot bibimbap there!

Greetings from Canada!

2009-01-12T15:19:00.002+09:00

Hello Readers (if there are any left)!

I'm writing a short post to say that we made it safe and sound to Canada! We both suffered the most intense jet lag (it took me a week to sleep semi normally) but we're doing better and really enjoying our time with my family and some of our friends. I have things to update about our final time in Korea and hopefully I will get a chance to do that later this week. I'm almost at 500 posts so that is exciting! I am still thinking about what to do with this blog. I think I would like to continue blogging but I am considering starting a new blog for my life after Korea. Stay tuned for that. Until then I am counting down to our travels through Southeast Asia. We have a flight booked to Bangkok for January 20th and we will return to Canada and try to become grown ups on May 21st. Happy Belated New Year to everyone! I hope everyone is happy and healthy!

Love, Amber

(P.S. It's my birthday on Thursday!!!)

We Leave Tomorrow

2008-12-29T08:13:00.003+09:00

It's just past 8 am and I can't sleep any longer. There is so much to do before we go and I am shocked that our flight to Canada is tomorrow. I still have so much to blog about but that will probably have to wait until we're in Canada. I feel like there is electricity running through my veins in lieu of blood. Yesterday we headed to Bundang to drop off some stuff for Dana and Curtis and today we have to tie up all our loose ends before heading to work for our final shift. It's completely surreal. I've been thinking a lot about what will become of this blog after we leave the Land of the Morning Calm and I think I might start a new blog but we'll see. I like blogging but will my life be interesting enough to document without tiny Korean children, Konglish and random free stuff? We will have to see. But now I need to jump in the shower and finish packing and then get to the bank to transfer all my money to Canada. Please wish us happy thoughts for safe travels and no delays/disasters tomorrow! Love to everyone reading this!

Lotte World

2008-12-27T10:37:00.004+09:00

On Tuesday we went to Lotte World. It's strange that we haven't been there more (we went once last year and once this year) because we literally live less than 10 minutes away from it. I had thought about getting a year pass but never got around to it. We chose to go on Tuesday because it was a bit warmer and I was feeling better (I've been sick for about a week now). We also thought it would be less crowded since it was a weekday. This turned out to be false since most kids are on winter vacation so it doesn't matter what day of the week it is. Oh well.

The best ride was also the first ride we went on- the Gyro drop. I'd been on it before but forgot how scary it is. I actually screamed a genuine scream and had to close my eyes for part of it. That thing is high up! I could almost see our apartment from the top of it! We wanted to go on it again but we figured it would be open until the park closed (11 pm) but as it turned out it was only open until 8 pm so we missed out. How disappointing!

As anticipated, the lines were long so I was glad that I brought my Nintendo DS to help pass the time. Matt and I took turns using it and we also sang along with the Christmas music they had playing everywhere.

Highlights included:

Matt "playing" the ball game when there were no employees around.
Looking at the Mexican restaurant that sold mostly pork cutlets.
Glaring at annoying teenagers (mostly boys) that kept trying to cut lines.
Laughing when one of these boys tried to cut line and instead smashed his head on the ceiling.
Reading funny graffiti and signs.
Seeing tiny kindergarten children and having one of them yell "Hi Teacher!" at us (we don't know these kids).
Lots of rides.
The crazy Christmas parade with the Korean dressed up as a Mountie and the fake soap sud snow falling on us.
Riding the carousel and feeling like a kid again, especially when they put the safety strap around my waist.
Ending the night by riding on the hot air balloon around the park with a family that spoke English.

If you want to see all of the pictures you can look over here. It was a great day and we were definitely exhausted when we got home and paid for it the next day when we were so sick we couldn't get out of bed. It was worth it though and possibly the best thing we did on our winter vacation this year.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T16:33:00.003+09:00

We're having a really low key day. We've both caught a death cold which has basically rendered us unable to leave the apartment for the last 2 days. Here's a picture we took on Tuesday when we were feeling better (compared to the weekend). We paid dearly for that epic Lotte World odyssey though since Wednesday was spent entirely in bed. Don't fret- technically the timing is good since we have the time off to sleep and try to heal before our flight next week. I can't imagine trying to work like this. Anyway, I hope that everyone else is having a fantastic Christmas! We love you all! I know that the lack of Christmas will totally be made up by a kick ass New Years Eve and then fabulous family time until we embark on our 4 month travel adventure.

Can You Read It?

2008-12-25T13:29:00.003+09:00

My lovely Min Jung stopped by yesterday for lunch (brave woman since we are both really sick- I hope she didn't catch our death cold) and she brought me the most excellent present ever. This is something I have been coveting for a very long time. It might not look like much to my average reader but it's actually a name necklace. My name in Korean! I love it so much! It's so perfect and I am just giddy about having it. Thank you Min Jung, you are an angel!

Funny, funny...

2008-12-25T12:37:00.004+09:00

Here's the Christmas card I was tempted to get everyone. It's paired with possibly the rudest socks I've ever seen. Yep, that red part actually sticks out of the sock. (><) And why does the panda have an apple on it's butt? What kind of crazy panda fetish socks are these?!? No! I am not happy, panda!

Snow!

2008-12-25T12:27:00.003+09:00

We aren't having a White Christmas in Seoul but we did get snow on Monday night. It's all melted now but it was lovely to look at for awhile. I hear that the weather is really crazy across Canada and the Northern USA so I hope that things smarten up before we fly out on December 30th. My idea of an awesome New Years Eve isn't being stuck in the Seattle airport praying for my connecting flight to Edmonton.

An Evening in Insadong

2008-12-25T11:45:00.002+09:00

After we sold our precious books for peanuts we decided to go to Insadong to complete another task on my "must do before I leave Korea" list. You see, I've always admired han bok and there is no way that I am going to buy one so the next best thing is to rent one and take pictures. You can do this at the Tourist Information Centre in Insadong for the bargain price of 3,000 won/person.

Unfortunately the selection is slim and the jacket that actually went with my skirt didn't fit me properly. I didn't want to change the skirt though so imgaine that my jacket is equally as stunning and gold, not pink. There was only one male han bok so it's lucky that Matt is average size. What do you think? Are we Korean royalty or what? Or does it look like I'm wearing a giant, silky mumu?

We spent some more time walking through Insadong and enjoying the sites. There is always something unusual or interesting to see in this neighbourhood. Look at this picture. Look closely. There's a trumpet, some swords and... hmmm... what else is hanging for sale at this booth? Hehehe.

Then we went to various stores to look at the lamps that we love but can't buy. Maybe one day when we have a lot more money. These lamps are made COMPLETELY from paper. Mulberry paper, I think. Of course the electrical stuff isn't made of paper but the base and light covers are. Despite being made of paper they are surprisingly flexible and sturdy. We could have bought a small one and brought it back to Canada but Matt and I both agree that the ones we really love are large and would be incredibly expensive and hard to transport. So one day when Matt is a successful lawyer I will be returning to Seoul to pick up our dream lamps.

The nice thing about Insadong is they are used to a lot of tourists so they gladly let me take a million pictures of all their products. Actually, at one point a saleswoman came over and I thought I was going to get in trouble but then she offered to take our picture by the lamps!

A Sad Task

2008-12-25T11:26:00.002+09:00

We had to whittle down our book collection before we go back to Canada. Later I'm going to try to figure out how many books I read this year (yeah, I probably should have kept track better... oh well). I can say with confidence that it was a lot more than last year so that means I met one of my goals for this year.

Keep in mind, this is just the stack we decided to get rid of (although that was really tough since I enjoyed a number of these books a lot but it's just not realistic to bring them to Canada) and it doesn't include the stack that we've already sent to Canada in a box or the stack that we still have in our closet. Yikes!

We went to What the Book to try and get something for them which turned out to be not much at all. This store is amazing for finding books but since they are the ONLY used English book store (that I know of) in Korea they pretty much can screw you big time when buying books. Pretty depressing and there was probably a better way to go about it (say giving the books away but most of my friends have read these books since many were book club choices) but we are getting close to the wire and needed to unload them.

I ended up using store credit to pick up two books that I have wanted to read for some time: Flowers for Algernon and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I just finished reading The Tesseract (it was fabulous, thanks to Eddie for giving it to us) and have started Flowers for Algernon. What can I say, it's winter vacation and we are both pretty sick. I've got the worst cold I've had all year so even though it's vacation and Christmas I have spent the majority of my time lying in bed feeling sorry for myself. My goal is to get better before we fly to Canada. I already am making a list of the books I want to read next year. I am totally looking forward to living in a country where every soft cover novel doesn't cost $20 and where libraries exist.

That last post made me think of this...

2008-12-25T10:47:00.002+09:00

This is completely non sequitur but whenever I hear the word 'jjigae' (pronounced jee-gay) I always get this song stuck in my head. Just replace the word business with jjigae. This actually works for almost any 2 syllable word but I am partial to using jjigae. Man I love the Flight of the Conchords.

Gimchi Jjigae with Mi Eun

2008-12-25T10:22:00.002+09:00

After work last Friday I had a dinner date with my lovely friend Mi Eun. Originally Kyung Hwa was going to come too but unfortunately her mom was really ill so she had to cancel. It was a bit cold outside but that didn't deter us from walking to Sincheon area. Mi Eun knew a famous gimchi jjigae restaurant and so we decided to go there.

I have to admit, I probably would never have gone to this place on my own. It didn't look like much- was really small with plastic covering the outside. Once we sat down I was a little surprised when one of the workers came up and told me in perfect English, "It's a bit spicy, is that okay?". I assured her that it was and then noticed that eyes seemed to be on me. We soon got a huge steaming pot of jjigae that also had pork in it. It was really delicious, but pretty spicy. Maybe the spiciest jjigae I've had, actually. It's good that I had this meal now and not 2 years ago since I wouldn't have been able to cut it then. I was fine though and didn't mind the pleasant burn on my lips.

We had a fantastic meal and great conversation. Mi Eun is really cool and sweet and I hope to stay in touch with her. She gave me a gorgeous diary/day planner and it's got artwork on it that I've admired the whole time I've been in Korea. I wouldn't have bought it myself so it really was the perfect gift. I love the characters that this artist draws. How did she know? See, I told you she is cool and sweet.

Partway through the meal I realized that a lot of the other people in the restaurant were paying attention to me. Specifically a girl sitting to my right. I was pretty sure that she spoke English and was itching to talk to me. I was the only foreigner in the restaurant and from the feel of things I could tell that not a lot of foreigners eat there. Sure enough, when it suddenly started to rain the girl beside me took the opportunity to lament about the strange weather with us. I knew she spoke English. Apparently a few people in there did since before I knew it there was an umbrella being handed to me and then one scrounged up for Mi Eun too. It's moments like these that make me never want to leave Korea. When I'm back in Canada no one is going to care if it's raining and I left my umbrella at home. Mi Eun said she was happy to be with me because otherwise they wouldn't have given her an umbrella. Heh. So with that we left and I walked home untouched by the rain, smiling and singing Christmas carols.

My Last Mandu Party

2008-12-22T11:10:00.001+09:00

Garrett Teacher was uber kind and surprised me with a going away mandu party at work. There was so much food! It was really delicious and all the kids were jealous. I don't think we managed to finish it even with half a dozen people helping us eat. I'm really going to miss mandu, oh, and Garrett Teacher too! ^^

An excerpt....

2008-12-22T11:08:00.004+09:00

Sometimes teaching English can be hilarious- like when you come across passages like this. I'm not sure why this was chosen or who thought it was appropriate but I think it's funny. I always giggle when the student reading character B realizes that they have to claim this person is their uncle. Then I cringe because then they have to say they need to diet.

Free Christmas!!

2008-12-22T11:05:00.003+09:00

This is excellent news! Usually Christmas is so expensive but Lotte World is pulling through for us. And I thought we were going to ignore Christmas this year...

We Finally Tried It!

2008-12-21T23:55:00.003+09:00

After walking by a juk restaurant every day for the last 11.5 months, we finally stopped in there and ate it for lunch. I have to say, I wouldn't want it all the time but I did like my chamchi (tuna) juk (rice porridge). It was tasty and filling and good for a cold day. Plus there was a mother there with no one, but two cute babies. Matt ordered the samgyetang juk but I liked mine better. I'd rather have regular samgyetang. I've already updated our list. Maybe we'll get brave enough to try the dog soup before we leave.

Something to Look Forward to....

2008-12-21T23:18:00.001+09:00

Magazines that DON'T cost $26. (No, I didn't buy it! I just took a picture because otherwise no one back home would believe me.) Not sure why the label claims this is a Marie Claire magazine when it's clearly a Cosmo.

Anna Banana

2008-12-21T23:05:00.002+09:00

Meet my student, Anna aka Anna Banana. I think she might be a teacher in training- look at what she wrote on my board when she came early for class. She is really cute and sweet and I started calling her Anna Banana for no particular reason but now she seems to like it and even wrote it as her name on her test paper. At first there was only her in the class and then a precocious boy named Jack came along. He wanted a nickname too so I call him Black Jack. Then a couple other students arrived but they weren't as fun and their names didn't rhyme with anything so I stopped handing out nicknames at that point. Anyway, this is kind of pointless other than to show how cute Anna Banana is. ^^

Our Final Bookleaves Meeting

2008-12-21T22:35:00.002+09:00

This meeting was over a week ago but I haven't been able to blog about it. I'm just so darn sad that we have to leave our book group. I've never tried to be in a book group before (well, some friends and I had intentions but didn't follow through in the past) and I don't think I will be able to top Bookleaves. Our last meeting was at a FABULOUS restaurant in Gangnam that I wish I had known about 11 months ago. It's called Pasha's and it serves Turkish food and it's so delicious!
We were discussing the novel Old School, which Matt and I really enjoyed. We actually read it out loud since we were a bit pressed for time (for both of us to separately read it). To tell the truth, I read the majority of it out loud because I couldn't stay awake while Matt was reading for longer than 10 minutes. Anyway, I recommend the book to anyone who likes quality literature that pokes fun at literature and examines morality in the process.

At the end of the meal Veronica, our fearless leader, showed up with the most adorable ice cream cake in Seoul. It tasted amazing! We managed to finish the whole thing after playing a game of "Never Have I Ever". If you did the thing then you had to take a bite of cake. I learned some interesting things about my fellow Bookleaves. I'm really, really going to miss them too. Look how cute Mitzi, Shawna and Susan are dressed up like wolves (huskies?). They are like a furry family. I definitely have a Bookleaves shaped hole in my heart now.

Christmas means,,,

2008-12-21T22:27:00.003+09:00

Freaky Santa Clauses everywhere. Matt made friends with this skinny, scary fellow that lives outside our local bakery. Ho ho holy crap he is frightening!

A Present for Matt...

2008-12-21T22:25:00.002+09:00

He'll probably kill me, but look at the hilarious awesome present Matt got from Min Jung a little while back. Bwahahah! She somehow knew his size perfectly- do you think I should be concerned? Nah, she just knew to get the largest size in the store! ^.~

Dunkin Donuts FTW!

2008-12-18T10:56:00.006+09:00

I have a new love. Maybe you've seen it on my Facebook profile picture, if you have Facebook. I've been meaning to blog about it since I got it last week but life got in the way. Anyway, every year many of the chain stores (Paris Baguette, Baskin Robbins, etc) offer some sort of special winter/Christmas headgear. Last year Paris Baguette gave out polar bear hats, which I thought were sort of cute. This year, however, both Paris Baguette and Baskin Robbins have ridiculous hats that even I wouldn't be caught dead in.
But Dunkin Donuts, well! Now they know how to do it! Look at my SUPER AWESOME earmuff headphones. They are warm and cute AND let me rock out while I'm waiting for the bus. How can you beat that? I think you are supposed to buy a cake and get these as a free gift but we emphatically told the frightened worker that we didn't want the cake, just the muffs. After a few seconds of terror she decided to surrender them to us for the bargain price of 5,000 won (less than $5). Ahssa! And look, everyone that has come into contact with them LOVES them too! Go out and get yours before they are sold out- they have them in white too!

Strange Coincidence

2008-12-18T10:41:00.002+09:00

Our lovely friend Mitzi gave us a CD filled with pictures from the year when we met up with our book club on Sunday. I was excited to get these photos and show everyone what happened at Matt's birthday party this year. Basically everyone that came, except for Becca and Mitzi, were wearing black. We seriously looked like some kind of bad theatre group or something. Here are my favorite pictures from that night. Jazz hands! I love how Becca pops in the last one!

Nastiest Snack in Seoul

2008-12-17T12:52:00.002+09:00

Some of you thought that some of the items on the Korean Foods You Gotta Try list were questionable, however, I think this dish takes the prize. On Saturday night we changed locations with some of the party goers and this was the snack they ordered. You've got all your favorite foods- sausage, cheese, tomatoes, peas, corn and kiwi. Mmmm... And ketchup and mustard for dipping. Who thought this up? Blech!

Our Farewell Party at Big Rock

2008-12-17T12:41:00.002+09:00

We decided to throw our Farewell Party a bit earlier since a lot of our friends will be going places for their winter vacations. We chose Big Rock in Gangnam since it was easy to find, in a good area if we wanted to move to another place and since it serves great Alberta beer and so we could get a taste of what we're returning to. Lots of fantastic friends stopped by and we had a fabulous time just shooting the breeze.

When we returned to Korea I made it my goal to meet new people and make new friends (I also wanted to learn more Korean... Well, at least I succeeded with one of my goals). Last year it was all about exploring and loving my kindergarten babies and this year was about friends, discovering food and culture. We are going to miss so many things about this country, but really we are going to miss so many people so much more.

There are lots of pictures from the night. We stayed out late but not ridiculously and we had great food, drinks and friends to share it with. You can go here to see all of the pictures.

Norae Party with my Korean Moms

2008-12-16T11:37:00.002+09:00

Friday night was a really fun time. I met up with my Korean Moms after work for a goodbye party. It's not just for me, one of them was going to be leaving on Sunday for a 2 week vacation in America so she won't be attending any more of my classes. Everyone was decked out in their best and really excited to have a night on the town without any children. We made for an interesting group and did get a couple of glances but we didn't care about that.

I'm grateful for this Moms class because it has taught me a lot more about Korean culture. I'm not just talking about the opportunity to make gimchi either, these ladies have allowed me insight into their lives and tried to explain the things that I just don't understand. This often happens at unexpected and innocent times, like when J asked me what time Matt wanted me to be home. I looked at her, rather puzzled, and explained that I come home when I want to. She was pretty shocked and confided that her husband had given her a midnight curfew (although she blew it and didn't get home until 2am...). The hierarcy here, even though I am aware of it, always surprises me. I am definitely used to having a lot of personal freedom and really come to expect it.

The first stop was a little hole-in-the-wall bar where we feasted on fried chicken and a fruit platter. I could tell they were curious to see how much I could drink and were all interested in getting me drunk. They bought me a special refillable all you can drink beer (for 7,900 or less than $8) and then proceeded to share a tiny pitcher between the four of them. On Tuesday they had asked me how much I can drink- my answer? More than you. Then Matt stopped by my room and taught them the phrase "I can drink like a fish." so I had a lot to live up to. I have to say, I definitely held my own considering my mug was almost twice as big as theirs and I had four of them while they each had only one or two. J was willing though, as you can tell by her eagerness to drink from the pitcher!

Next stop was a Luxury Norae bang in the area. We all had free ice cream while we waited for our room to be ready. I knew this was serious business since they all said they were "preparing" songs. I used this opportunity to teach them the idiom "wing it" when they asked me if I had been practicing. I was impressed that they chose a number of English songs, clearly they had been practicing! I heard Mariah Carey, Josh Groban and even Barbra Streisand. Maybe my favorite part was when J and I did a duet to the Wonder Girls song "Nobody". She supplied the Korean and I filled in for the English. I hadn't been able to learn a Korean song to sing. Maybe someday. We capped off the night with a rousing rendition of "We Are the World" (their choice, not mine) which turns out to be the longest song ever. It might even rival Meatloaf. It was a great night and I am so glad they were able to take time out of their schedules to do it. For more pictures of the Amber/Ajumma debacle '08 you can go here.

100 Korean Foods You Gotta Try

2008-12-15T22:25:00.004+09:00

I have lots to blog about since it was a really busy (and fun) weekend but of course I am procrastinating. I found this list on Zen Kimchi's blog and couldn't resist seeing how I score after living in Korea for almost 2 years. You'll notice that most of the foods I haven't tried contain intestines or other yucky parts. The bold ones I've eaten. In total I've had 65% of these must try dishes. ^^ (Matt, who is more adventurous, has tried 71%!)

What have you tried? Anything missing?

1. Myeolchi Bokkeum (Stir-fried Anchovies) 멸치볶음

2. Samgyetang (Ginseng Chicken Soup) 삼계탕

3. Bulgogi (Grilled Marinated Beef) 불고기

4. BulDalk (Burn-your-pants-off Spicy Grilled Chicken) 불닭

5. DalkBal (Spicy Chicken Feet) 닭발

6. Korean Fried Chicken 치킨

7. Dalk Galbi (Stir-fried Marinated Chicken and Veggies) 닭갈비

8. San Nakji, chopped (Semi-live Baby Octopus) 산낙지

9. San Nakji, whole (Live Octopus)

10. Sundubu Jjigae (Soft Tofu Stew) 순두부 찌게

11. Juk (Rice Porridge) 죽

12. Galbi (Grilled Short Ribs) (소)갈비

13. Galbitang (Short Rib Soup) 갈비탕

14. Shinseollo (Fancy Hot Pot) 신선로

15. Gobchang Gui (Grilled Beef Intestines) 곱장구이

16. Seng Gan (Raw Beef Liver) 생간

17. Galbi Jjim (Stewed Ribs) 갈비찜

18. Bossam (Steamed Marinated Pork with Lettuce Wraps) 보쌈

19. Japchae (Clear Noodles Stir-fried with Pork and Vegetables) 찹재

20. Jaeyuk Bokkeum (Spicy Stir-fried Pork) 재육볶음

21. Kimchi Jjim (Stewed Kimchi with Tofu)깁치찜

22. Ddong Jip (Chicken Gizzards)똥집

23. Odeng/Eomuk (Street-side Fish Noodles) 어댕/어묵

24. Hoddeok (Stuffed Street-side Pastries) 호떡

25. GeiJang (Raw Fermented Crabs) 게장

26. Hongeo (Fermented Skate) 홍어

27. Gochujang Samgyeopsal (Grilled Pork Belly Smothered in Red Pepper Paste) 고추장 삼겹살

28. Lotteria’s Shrimp Burger

29. Sae-u Kang (Shrimp Flavored “Fries”) 새우깡

30. Doenjang Jjigae (Fermented Bean Paste Stew) 됀장찌게

31. Cheonggukjang (Stinky Fermented Bean Paste Stew) 정국장

32. Boshintang (Dog Soup) 보신탕

33. Seonji Haejangguk (Hangover Stew with Clotted Cow Blood) 선지 해장국

34. Ddeokbokki (Chewy Rice Cakes in Spicy Sauce) 떡볶이

35. YukHui (Raw Beef Salad) 육희

36. MiyeokGuk (Seaweed Soup) 미역국

37. Mae-eunTang (Spicy Fish Soup) 매운탕

38. Nakji Bokkeum (Stir-fried Baby Octopus) 낙지볶음

39. Ojingeo (Cuttlefish) (마른) 오징어

40. Beondaeggi (Silkworm Larvae) 번대기

41. Golbaenggi (Sea Snails) 골뱅이

42. Jangeo Gui (Grilled Eel) 장어구이

43. Jaratang (Turtle Soup) 자라탕

44. Bogeo (Blowfish) 복어

45. Sae-u Sogeum Gui (Salt Grilled Shrimp) 새우소금 구이

46. Deodeok Root 더덕

47. BindaeDdeok (Mung Bean Pancake) 빈대떡

48. Pajeon (Green Onion Pancake) 바전

49. Bibimbap (Mixed Rice and Vegetables) 비빔밥

50. Boribap (Mixed Barley Rice and Vegetables) 보리밥

51. Marinated Garlic (마늘장아찌?)

52. Patbingsu (Shaved Ice and Red Bean Treat) 팥빙수

53. Dotorimok (Acorn Jelly) 도토리목

54. Naengmyeon (Chilled Noodles) 냉면

55. Makkoli/Dongdongju (Rice Beer) 막거리/ 동동주

56. Bokbunja (Raspberry Wine) 복분자

57. Soju (Rice Whiskey) 소주

58. Andong Soju (Strong Rice Whiskey from the Andong Region) 안동소주

59. Jogae Gui (Grilled Shellfish) 조개구이

60. Haepari (Jellyfish) 해바리

61. Gyeran Jjim (Steamed Egg) 계란찜

62. Corn Ice Cream

63. Dolsot Bibimbap (Mixed Rice and Vegetables in a Sizzling Stone Pot) 돌솥비빔밥

64. Mandu (Stuffed Dumplings) 만두

65. Ddeokguk (Chewy Rice Cake Soup) 떡국

66. Songpyeon (Stuffed Chewy Rice Cakes) 송편

67. Hot Bar (Fried Fish Batter Street Food) 헛바

68. Shikhye (Sweet Rice Punch) 식혜

69. Any product with Green Tea in it 녹차맛 xxx

70. Gujeolpan (Nine-section Dish) 구절반

71. Yogurt Soju Cocktail

72. Baechu Kimchi (Cabbage Kimchi) 배추김치

73. Any Kimchi that’s over 3 years old

74. Baek Kimchi (White Cabbage Kimchi) 백김치

75. Shake-’em-up Dosirak

76. Mul Kimchi (Water Kimchi) 물김치

77. Oi Sobagi (Stuffed Cucumber Kimchi) 오이소바기

78. Ggakdugi (Cubed Radish Kimchi) 깍두기

79. Sae-u Jeot (Salted Tiny Shrimp) 새우젓

80. Myeongran Jeot (Salted Pollack Roe) 명란젓

81. Changran Jeot (Salted Pollack Guts)장란젓

82. Ssamjang (Mixed Soybean and Pepper Paste) 쌈장

83. Kalguksu (Hand-cut Noodle Soup) 갈국수

84. Ramyeon (Ramen Noodles) in a Tin Pot 라면

85. Entire Hui Meal (Korean style Sashimi) 회

86. Gimbap (Seaweed Rice Rolls) 김밥

87. Jokbal (Pigs Feet) 족발

88. Sundae (Blood and Noodle Sausage) 순대

89. Yeot (Traditional Korean Candy) 엿

90. Naengi (Shepherd’s Purse) 냉이

91. Kimchi Jjigae (Kimchi Stew) 김치찌게

92. Budae Jjigae (“Army Base” Stew, traditionally including hot dogs and Spam) 부대지게

93. Agu Jjim (Stewed Monkfish) 아구찜

94. Haemultang (Seafood Soup) 해물탕

95. Nurungji (Hot Water Mixed with Rice Scrapings in a Stone Pot) 누릉지

96. Sujebi (Rustic Dumpling Soup) 수재비

97. Janchi Guksu (Thin Noodles in a Seaweed Broth with Condiments) 잔치국수

98. BungeoBbang (Goldfish-shaped Stuffed Pastry) 봉어빵

99. Raw Ginseng or anything with Ginseng in it 인삼

100. MakHui (Chilled Sashimi Soup) 막희

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

2008-12-11T11:45:00.002+09:00

There are so many lovely Christmas lights popping up all over Seoul. This year our Christmas is going to be pretty grim. We have winter vacation from December 20-28 but we're not going anywhere since we will be packing up our belongings and preparing to say goodbye to Korea. We have no decorations and almost all of our friends will be out of the area because they have some time off too. We are definitely looking forward to coming to Canada and basking in everyone else's Christmas tree and festivities. I'm also looking forward to all the fun things we have planned in the next while. This weekend is going to be frantic and fun. Friday night I am meeting my Korean Moms for drinks and norae bang. Saturday night we are having our own going away party starting at 7pm and Big Rock in Gangnam. Sunday we're meeting our book club for the last time and Sunday evening we're having dinner with our lovely friends Eddie and Gisela. I predict we are going to be exhausted by the time Monday rolls around and we start our last full week of teaching at KNC.

Toys-R-Us Fun

2008-12-11T11:30:00.002+09:00

Last weekend we checked out the new Toys-R-Us at Lotte World. I don't know if it's the first in Korea but I can say I've definitely never seen one out here before. I haven't been to a Canadian location in a long time so I can't say with certainty, but this one seemed a lot more hands on. There were tons of samples and stations to play at and try out a lot of the products. Also, I recommend going there if you are looking for English children's books at a reasonable price. I was kicking myself for not going there before I met with Jake because there were tons of Curious George books for 3,000 won each. *shakes her fist at the sky*

The Lego section was also really cool. Matt immediately gravitated towards the massive city and I cuddled up with Santa. We also marvelled at all the cheap stickers and the section that is full of party decorations and costume pieces. So it would be a good place to check out next year around Halloween if you are trying to put a costume together.

The games sections was also really interesting. The had a number of English games (including Pictionary and Scrabble) and also many familiar games in Korean. My favorite (the one I actually wanted to buy) was the Korean Monopoly game! The money was in Won and instead of Boardwalk and Park Place they have Gangnam and Myeongdong. Not far over (on the green squares) you can find the area we live in, Jamsil. I settled on taking pictures of the box instead of buying it but it would be really awesome to have, even if we'd be the only people who could read it.

Lunch with Jake

2008-12-08T12:18:00.002+09:00

Not sure if you remember one of my favorite kindergarten students from Little Brown, Jake, but we met up with him, his mom and Elly (his aunt and our old coworker). We had a late lunch on Sunday and it was great to see them but I definitely felt a little weepy after it was over. It's quite possible I will never see them again. Leaving Korea is hitting me bit by bit.

Anyway, we had a delicious lunch filled with noodles and Jake is just as hyper and funny as always. His English is excellent! I'm so impressed and proud of him. Not only is his pronunciation great, but he also consistently uses articles and full sentences. We got him a present (a stuffed toy and an English book) and he really liked both. Actually when we were at the book store we deliberated for ages on what to buy. We chose something age appropriate but as it turns out- he can read in English and could easily read the book. Since it's age appropriate it's still okay though and he wasn't bored with it so that's good.

It was great catching up with Elly and after lunch we had some coffee and dessert. We ended up ordering 2 pieces of tiramisu because Jake was devouring it! He probably ate 1.5 by himself. Then he proceeded to mix all the leftover beverages together in one cup to make some sort of concoction. His Mom doesn't know a lot of English but she was saying "one shot" to Matt. Hahah. Jokingly of course. It was also funny that Elly and I seemed to be dressed as mirror images. I hope they stay in touch. We told Elly that someday when Jake is older if they are interested in having him study in Canada to contact us. We didn't take as many pictures as I'd hoped but here are the ones we did get. I'm so proud of Jake and how smart he is!!!

A Creative Appetizer

2008-12-07T23:58:00.004+09:00

Take a look at this brilliant typo we found on our menu last night. I wish we'd ordered the French Fried Photo just to try it. (The Korean says potato- so basically it's fries.) Also, how is Cheese Cake an appetizer? Oh Korea!

Bake-a-thon

2008-12-07T23:37:00.005+09:00

So after having our Saturday plans canceled (not once but twice) we decided to spend the day baking some delicious things. I made my cookies and Matt made banana yeast bread. We actually had 4 loaves but we ate 2 already. *^^* I also baked some blueberry muffins from a mix we found. So now we have plenty of baking and I will probably give some to my Korean Moms tomorrow. Yum, yum, yum!

Later in the evening we met up with Dana and Curtis for dinner and coffee. Then they were attacked by bear. Our group was luckier than the mannequins- everyone retained their head.

Mario Kart Love Song

2008-12-06T12:49:00.002+09:00

Just to cheer everyone up. Carter posted this the other day and it is cute, funny and the guy has actual talent. Man, I can't wait to get back to Canada so I can play Mario Kart on our old Nintendo 64. That's the most classic racing game ever!!

RIP Sweet Bart Dog

2008-12-06T11:10:00.003+09:00

We got some sad news today- Matt's dog Bart died. (T T) He was 14 or 15 years old and he had a long and loved life but it's still hard to say good bye. I'm a dog lover and have had a number of great dogs in my lifetime but I have to say that Bart was really special. He was always so cheerful and affectionate. He was a big teddy bear and loved to cuddle and would gladly snuggle with you for hours if you were so inclined. Matt and I always have said that if we get a dog we hope it has a personality like Bart's. Besides being sweet, playful and comforting, he was also adorable. I hope he's in a better place now. He will be sorely missed by everyone who met him and I only wish I could have hugged him one more time. The strangest thing about this is that Matt actually had a dream that Bart died last night and then when he woke up it was true. So sad. We love you, Bart dog!!

My Lovely Lilies!

2008-12-06T11:05:00.004+09:00

Look at how gorgeous these lilies are! I haven't been given flowers in a really long time. Before you start oohing and ahhing too much, they aren't from Matt. My awesome friend Mitzi stopped by to pick up her camera (she forgot it during Matt's party) and she brought me these! I hope all the buds open but it's been pretty cold these days so... The vase is pretty classy too, eh?

In the Alley...

2008-12-06T11:01:00.001+09:00

This is where English education goes wrong. We glanced at these books that someone threw away while we were walking to work. I'm glad they tossed them because they were full of all sorts of trash. We were tempted to keep one for comedic value but they were pretty heavy and we are leaving soon. I wonder how much they cost?

I forgot to mention...

2008-12-06T10:54:00.003+09:00

That Matt actually had THREE birthday cakes. You already heard about the two ice cream cakes at his party but on Monday his partner teacher gave him this delicious cake too! He brought it down and shared it during my Moms class and so we had a little cake break. Excellent!

Reward Stickers for Mediocre Students!

2008-12-02T12:14:00.002+09:00

I am probably the only person that finds this funny... Curtis actually got a pack of these stickers for his birthday from Jinie. I loved them and so I was excited to find some at Art Box the other day. The ones that say "good" are pretty normal but I totally cracked up at the "ok", "nice" and "fine" ones. We just need a "so-so" sticker and the pack would be complete. You know, for those essays and projects that aren't "great", "excellent" or "terrific" but are kind of mediocre. It's what every teacher needs!

Matt's Birthday Weekend Part 2

2008-12-02T11:58:00.002+09:00

On Sunday, after eating Dana's AMAZING breakfast, we gathered up our belongings and took the journey out to Gimpo. This is actually where Shawna lives so we were able to travel with her for most of the way. It's a long trip, in case you are wondering, especially if you are starting in Bundang. It was nice being back in Gimpo and Matt and I both commented on how many fond memories we have of our time there. We were happy in Gimpo.

The reason for going out there was to meet with Paige Teacher! We had plans to meet up and she asked if we could come out to Gimpo so she could take us to a special traditional Korean restaurant. How could we turn that up? After we met up with Paige we climbed into our car and drove to the restaurant. This was a bit of a journey since it was actually close to Paju! I didn't realize that Paju and Gimpo are so close to each other. I am so bad at visualizing geography.

The restaurant was lovely and secluded. It was pretty empty actually so we got a whole room to ourselves and lots of privacy. The meal had numerous courses and was really delicious and light. That was a nice change from the previous night where we had gorged ourselves on ice cream cake and beer (not the best combination). Actually, Matt ate 4 pieces of ice cream cake so he had a bit of an upset tummy.

After we finished eating we started playing with all the decorations throughout the restaurant and taking silly pictures. Here are some of the best ones but you can find more over here (pages 3 and 4).

We wrapped up the evening with some hot chocolate, chit chat and bloody knuckles. Yeah, you read that correctly. I didn't take part in any of those games but I watched crazy Matt and Paige. Paige has way better reflexes- is it because she is younger or because of all the rock, paper, scissor practice she's had in her life? Hard call. We promised to see Paige again before we leave. There are so many things (and people) in Korea that we're going to miss.

Matt's Birthday Weekend Part 1

2008-12-02T11:36:00.004+09:00

Our weekend was hectic and jam packed but so much fun! On Saturday we made the trek out to Bundang and celebrated Matt's birthday with lots of lovely people: Dana, Curtis, Kate, Dave, Shawna, Rebecca and Mitzi. We started off with a fantastic Vietnamese dinner at a restaurant near Dana's apartment. Yum! The restaurant even provided everyone with appropriate party headgear and took 2 Polaroid pictures of our group- one for Matt to keep and another to post on the wall of the restaurant. I think we are the only foreign group on the wall. ^^

Then we headed over to Dana and Curtis' apartment to hang out, chat, have a few drinks and a LOT of cake. I think that you can measure how much people love you by how much birthday cake you get (or at least how well your friends communicate). Matt had TWO huge ice cream cakes. Shawna had celebrated a birthday this week too so we let her claim some of the cake. Mitzi took some hilarious pictures of us that I will include at a later time. By some strange coincidence the majority of the group was wearing black. I guess we were all mourning a little for Matt getting older.

The next stop was norae bang! It was a karaoke marathon and so much fun! We were there for a really long time, like probably 3 hours. We had a lot of drinks and snacks and even received a service platter that had small fish and squid on it.

We stumbled home in the wee hours and then watched a few episodes of "The Office". I know that Matt had a great time and it's all because we have such fabulous friends! In the morning Dana even cooked a feast of eggs, bacon and homemade pancakes! For more birthday pictures you can look over here.

Happy Birthday Matt!!!

2008-11-30T14:54:00.002+09:00

Well folks, I did it. I totally conquered the NaBloPoMo! I can't think of a more fitting final post than this one. This is going to get a bit mushy so if that's not your type of thing you should either get a barf bag ready or just skip reading this one. ^^

Today is Matt's 29th birthday. That's a little bit strange to think about considering when I met him he was 19 years old. I had no idea when he wandered into my dorm room asking everyone silly questions that I was meeting one of the most important people in my life. Not only is he intelligent, hard working, funny, talented and strong but he is an all around kind and decent person. I am so much better for knowing him. He has taught me humility, how to relax and be spontaneous, true friendship, love and devotion. Matt is unconditional. Matt is open minded. Matt is genuine.

I probably don't say it enough but I am really fortunate that Matt is in my life. Every day I wake up knowing that I am with someone who honestly respects and adores me. You can't buy that sort of thing and it is extremely hard to find. So if you have some time today, please drop Matt a birthday note. Let him know what a fantastic guy he is and how much he is loved. Happy Birthday Matt. I love you!

Goodbye Nick!

2008-11-29T10:43:00.002+09:00

So I thought I would change things up a bit (not blog about gimchi) and talk about how sad I am that one of my favorite students had their last day yesterday. He's going to the Philippines for a little while and will be coming back but by that time I will be finished my job. His English name is Nick and even though he's in A1 (lowest level) his English is amazing. He's a tiny kid too (short for his young age even) but really funny, clever and creative. He's the shortest boy in the picture wearing the Harry Potter glasses (they actually say Harry Potter on them).

I really like this class in general. They are all really smart, cute and hilarious. One girl is missing today. This picture is the "silly" one. I love how Max (the tallest boy) just smiled really big for his silly pose. He's an amazing artist. The boy furthest to the left (in the blue jacket) is really great too. The other kids say he looks and acts like Kung Fu Panda (he really does) and the funniest part is that I inadvertently gave him "Jack" as an English name (in case you don't get the joke, the voice of Kung Fu Panda is Jack Black).

The girls are really sweet too and this is just a lovely class to teach. I'm really lucky that most of my classes are smart, sweet and well behaved. I was lucky to be teaching this class during a really difficult day the other week. They really helped cheer me up by making me laugh with their funny jokes. Aren't they cute?

We're having to get creative...

2008-11-28T10:34:00.002+09:00

We have so much gimchi and only a month left in Korea. Even Min Jung said she probably wouldn't be able to eat that much gimchi in a month! And the sad thing is, I doubt we would be able to take it with us so we have to eat it or give it away. (T T) So we are doing our best to eat it!

This leads us to try and think of innovative and creative uses for gimchi. Our first attempt was to make "Gimchi Burgers". Why not combine the two most stereotypical Western food and Korean food? Here's what we did:
Matt made the hamburger patties as usual but then finely chopped a gimchi surprise to add in the meat. After that we cooked things normally and even made some homemade french fries. You couldn't really taste the gimchi but since we had left over burgers and ran out of lettuce, the next day we used gimchi (instead of lettuce) on top of the burger. This was delicious! Lotteria probably has something similar or else it should. I'd definitely have this again. Gimchi Recipe #1 was a success!

Does anyone have any other ideas for creative ways we can use gimchi? We're thinking about gimchi spaghetti or maybe a gimchi and fried egg sandwich? Post your fantastic recipe ideas in the comment section!

Making Gimchi!!

2008-11-27T10:45:00.002+09:00

Seems like the theme of this week is gimchi. I've never bought gimchi before and now I have so much I almost need a gimchi refrigerator! Yesterday we were invited to my gracious and generous Korean Mom's home to help make gimchi. She sped up the process a bit by buying cabbage that was already pickled. One of the other Korean Moms stopped by to help for awhile until she had to go pick her son up from school.

This Korean Mom (J) is really outgoing and chatty. She's actually planning on moving to Ontario in the New Year with her two sons so that they can learn English in a more natural environment. When we entered her home we were greeted by her husband and shown around the house. I wasn't that surprised to see that the largest room had been designated as the study room for her sons and that the walls were covered in certificates and other achievements and awards. Smart kids, hard workers.

Then it was time to get down to business. If you want to make gimchi you will need the following ingredients: pickled cabbage, daikon radish, green (spring) onions, garlic, ginger, chili pepper powder, oysters/shrimp, fish sauce, sugar. For an actual recipe you can go here though.

The first step involves a lot of chopping of vegetables. From this experience I learned that usually the man's job is to wash all the materials thoroughly and later mix things up (although I am sure the mixing is often done by women but J's Husband is really cool and helpful). Our main task was conquering the numerous daikon radishes, which need to be chopped in thin coins and then chopped further into thin strips. I have the blister to prove it. Plus all the work is done on the floor so the whole time you are either squatting, kneeling or sitting cross legged on the floor. My butt kind of hurts today. Haha!

So all the chopped veggies are thrown into a giant bowl and then in another container they mix the spicy sauce part of it. Next you have to start gradually adding and mixing together the two ingredients. Once you have a huge bowl of this you can start to make the actual gimchi. You break the head of lettuce up into quarters (approximately) and you carefully coat or paint each individual leaf on the head. Once you're satisfied with the amount of sauce on the cabbage you can pat it back into it's original shape and stick it in a container.

Here's a look at the finished product. Doesn't it make your mouth water a little bit? (N0? Just me then? ^^) After we had made some of it (since our time was constrained by having to go to work) then we spent a little time with J's boys, who had returned from Korean elementary school and were having some down time before attending hagwons. J also cooked us the most amazing lunch!! Because I have a terrible memory I can't remember what they call the small coins of pork. But you wrap it up in a white, pickled cabbage leaf and add some gimchi and yum! Plus she made us soup, rice, salmon and another kind of fish. The gimchi we ate was the stuff we'd just made. It was pretty spicy since we used strong pepper powder and since it hasn't fermented yet but it was delicious! After we stuffed ourselves we had a little bit of milk coffee and some persimmons.

Matt finished up his chess game and we had to go to work. Now we have one bag of gimchi in our fridge and two more fermenting on our windowsill. The bag with the pink dots is from the Mom that briefly helped us today and the brown bag is the gimchi we helped make! If you want to see a few more pictures of our gimchi making adventure you can go over here.

Out of the Woodwork

2008-11-26T10:05:00.003+09:00

Pretty much everyone knows that we are leaving Korea at the end of next month. It's been really interesting to see who is contacting us wanting to get together. Of course, the people we regularly hang out with are on the list but there are some older friends that we haven't/don't hear from so much. This reminds me of when we left Edmonton for the first time, since the same thing occurred. I'm happy to see everyone though.

As it stands, our schedules and weekends are filling up pretty fast. That's exciting because it means that we have a lot to look forward to. This weekend we're celebrating Matt's birthday in Bundang. If you're interested in coming I think we will meet at about 5:30 pm at Jukjeon station. We're planning on dinner at a Vietnamese place that is nearby and then hanging out and eventually norae bang. We're also planning a party on December 13th so if you can't make the one this Saturday you could catch us two weeks from now.

In gimchi news, I have more gimchi. This bag has to ferment a little longer so it's by the window for 3 more days. I'm sure our neighbours must think that we moved out and some Korean people moved in just by the smell coming from our place. Today we get to try our hand at making gimchi because we have been invited to one of my Korean Moms' apartments to learn how. Should be interesting! Expect some pictures of the occassion tomorrow or the next day.

I Love Gimchi!

2008-11-25T10:15:00.000+09:00

I can really, honestly say that now. At first, our relationship was rough and unpredictable. I like trying new foods but I can be a bit of a chicken about it sometimes. I attribute this to how I was raised- it was definitely a meat and potatoes upbringing. In fact, I didn't try sushi, any kind of Indian, Thai or Vietnamese food until I was in university. It just wasn't available where I grew up and my Mom didn't cook that kind of stuff. (Not that she couldn't, she just didn't- make no mistake, my Mom actually is the best cook in the world.)

Anyway, when we first moved to Korea I was pretty nervous about a lot of the new foods I was presented with. It took me awhile to get into eating Korean cuisine but I eased my way in with the classic galbi and samgyupsal (both kinds of barbecued meat). If I am being really honest, I didn't start to like and choose to eat gimchi until we started this contract (our second year). Now I really like it and sometimes even crave it. I'm over the whole "spicy" angle and I even have gimchi preferences (I like mine with more fish oil and garlic).

Needless to say I am delighted with the gimchi present from one of my Korean Moms. Her mother-in-law made it and shipped it all the way from one of the southern provinces. Now I can have gimchi at home with every meal if I want to. It's gimchi making season right now and I think one of the other Moms (the one who made the gimchi jeon) is going to be giving me more homemade gimchi (that she made). On top of that, one of the other Moms is going to let me make gimchi at her house sometime this week. Exciting! I know it's cliche but after living here for almost 2 years I've never had the opportunity to make it and now I feel like I am in a place where I can appreciate gimchi in all it's glory.

American Thanksgiving with the Book Club

2008-11-24T12:56:00.003+09:00

Yesterday we were treated to our second Thanksgiving dinner of the year. Since we have a lot of American friends we were able to partake in their Thanksgiving celebration as well. We headed off to Bundang since Mitzi was gracious enough to host the whole event. We talked about Sickened by Julie Gregory. Not exactly a cheery book but definitely was good for reminding us that we all have a lot to be thankful for.

The meal was delicious and the company was even better. We even got sent home with leftovers so we don't have to worry about lunch today! We're really going to miss this book club when we go back to Canada. I wonder if we'll be able to find one that can compare since it's a good motivator for me to be in a group. It gets me to read more consistently and helps me choose things I wouldn't pick up on my own.
After the meeting we picked up the next book- Old School by Tobias Wolff. As Matt said, "I don't think it's the book version of the movie" but who knows. Hahaha. Then we got home and both passed out in an insulin induced coma (Matt passed out a bit even before we got home since this picture was taken at Mitzi's house). Too much food. ^^

Our Neighbour's Dog

2008-11-23T11:39:00.002+09:00

Our next door neighbour got a new dog a few weeks ago. Before this she already had one dog but it was pretty well behaved and seldom barked but this new dog was kind of high strung. It barked quite a bit. Then we realized that our neighbour had decided to get the new dog de-barked. Have you heard of this operation? It's a bit disturbing to me. The dog still barks but it kind of sounds like it's been chain smoking for 25 years. It's really wheezy and creepy. I'd never heard of this operation before we moved here but Matt has received essays from students about dogs in apartments and the necessity for this proceedure. What do my readers think about it?

Cake and Nice Things

2008-11-22T11:21:00.004+09:00

It's been a crazy week but luckily we have awesome friends and shopping therapy to help us out. Min Jung bought us this gorgeous and delicious cake. I made Matt blow out the candles that came with it even though it's not his birthday yet.

Then I bought a couple things- the best slippers ever (since my monster slippers died earlier in the month) and a cool bag that I have coveted all year. I love that Panda. I don't know what I will do when I can't regularly visit Art Box.

It's gotten cold so...

2008-11-21T11:32:00.003+09:00

I've been spending a lot of quality time with 소희. And since apartments in Korea lack power outlets, we have had to improvise and use the air con outlet when 소희's battery starts going dead. I've finished a game already and am really far in another. I really love my DS.

We have a ticket to Canada!!!

2008-11-20T21:47:00.002+09:00

I have to say, it's been one heck of a week. I am super exhausted in all ways a person can be but I am stronger for it. The exciting news is we finally have some idea of what our last month in Korea will look like so we can actually start to make solid, real plans. Today we were given our flight ticket back to Edmonton and we will be leaving Korea (possibly forever, unless we visit at some point) on Tuesday, December 30th. Our flight leaves in the evening (I am so happy it's not an early morning one because YOU KNOW our school will have us working on December 29th) and because we are going through a lot of time zones we will also be arriving in Edmonton on December 30th. So there you have it people! We will be celebrating New Years Eve in Canada. Next on the list will be figuring out when we are leaving Canada again to explore Southeast Asia. Yes, I know it's weird that we are going to North America and then turning around and coming back to Asia, but it's a really long story and trust me, it does make sense. I am pretty excited but a bit sad at the same time. Here's hoping things go smoothly from now until we are finished our jobs.

K-Pop is Everywhere...

2008-11-19T21:56:00.002+09:00

I'm posting pretty late today since I wasn't sure what to write about. Then I remembered the cute videos I took of random Koreans dancing to Wonder Girl songs. The first video was taken in Myeongdong and these guys were dancing in front of a cosmetic store, probably trying to attract customers.

The second video is from Halloween when we met those adorable university students and played the spoon game. The last round we upped the stakes and the loser had to dance in front of everyone. Well this is the song the girl chose (the latest Wonder Girl single). I think she was pretty embarrassed but she was a good sport (plus the bar was really quiet).

To see the original versions of both songs (in case you don't live in Korea or don't follow K-Pop), the first one is "Tell Me" and the second is "Nobody". I kind of like "Nobody". It's catchy.

Creative Kids and Korean Cuisine

2008-11-18T10:30:00.002+09:00

Yesterday I was teaching one of my A1 (the lowest level) classes a story from the reading book about people that work at night. I've been teaching the same books (to different classes) for over 10 months now so it can get a bit dull at times. Luckily this particular class is incredibly clever and creative. I made them make two lists: one of night jobs and one of day jobs and this is what they came up with. Let me tell you that no other class mentioned fireworks, criminals or aerobics instructors on their lists.

Then during my Moms Class one of my Moms brought out a delicious snack she made! It's Korean style pizza! She made homemade gimchi over the weekend and today she used it to make gimchi jeon (김치 전)! I've had this a number of times at different restaurants but I can honestly say hers is the best I've ever eaten. This was full of homemade gimchi, a few other veggies (green onions I think) and of course plenty of 오징어 (squid). She made a lot and I got to take the rest home to share with Matt. Ahssa!

Choco Rocko Chip Cookies and Progress

2008-11-17T00:17:00.001+09:00

It was sad leaving the party early Saturday night but it did mean that we were incredibly productive on Sunday. This has been a hard month since work has been stressful and we are trying to plan our trip afterward and we both caught colds/sinus infections. I'm still battling mine but feeling a bit better.

Sunday we accomplished the following:

all of the laundry (there was a lot)
cleaned the kitchen
cooked 3 square meals
did all the dishes
made the bed
swept and washed the floors
cleaned the bathroom
blogged for the day
marked essays
made important trip decisions
baked the most kick ass cookies ever

We used all the white chocolate chips and couldn't find any more anywhere so this time we used these chocolate rock candies. They are so chocolate-y and delicious!

In other news, we've been trying to figure out the logistics of our travels after we finish our contract. It's a long story (so if you're really interested in all the details you can ask me privately) but it looks like it will actually be cheaper to use our contract return ticket to go back to Canada and drop off our stuff, visit a bit (celebrate my birthday!) and just buy return tickets to Thailand than to buy one way tickets to Thailand and then back to Canada and ship our stuff via cargo. One way tickets are ridiculously expensive! Anyway, it means more travel time but I've got my awesome DS and we don't mind plane rides. We're going to talk to our manager tomorrow and try to firm things up a bit more this week. I am hoping that it's going to be a really easy, low stress week. Cross your fingers! Oh and we're still waiting to hear from our potential couch surfers so we'll see.

Dana Banana's Birthday

2008-11-16T13:35:00.003+09:00

As I mentioned, last night we went out to celebrate Dana's birthday. There was a pretty good turnout of friends and we started things off at a Moroccan restaurant in Itaewon. The food was okay but nothing special and they really were pushing everyone to get the buffet. In fact, when a few members of our party tried to order something else off the menu (that wasn't included in the buffet) they were told that it wasn't available. With all the fabulous restaurants in Itaewon, I don't think I would go back to this place.
After dinner we headed over to a salsa club. Everyone did a little bit of dancing but most of us have little to no experience with salsa. It was a lot of fun and we managed to get there before the bar starting charging cover so that was fortunate. Definitely Dana and Octavio were the top dancers in our group. We had to call it an early night since today we had a lot of stuff to do. We might be hosting some couch surfers this week so we really needed to clean up plus we need to get our big trip planning going. Happy Birthday Dana!

Busy Weekend so far...

2008-11-15T15:43:00.002+09:00

I'm making another quasi lame blog post for today. Hopefully I can take some fun pictures of Dana's birthday party tonight and do something more exciting tomorrow. Last night I went out on the town with Garrett, Emma (new teacher), Min Jung, and Ryan. It was pretty fun. I have to go and get ready for Dana's party though. We're going to Marakech Night which looks like a pretty awesome restaurant.

I'm Running Out of Things To Blog About.

2008-11-14T13:23:00.002+09:00

Sad but true. So I thought I would post a boring little blog about what we're sort of up to. Still working, working hard. Looking forward to the end of this contract for so many reason. Would like to know when our Christmas break is so we can see exactly how many more working days we have. Today we cleaned up the apartment a bit since it was getting pretty grotty. It's still dirty actually and we should deal with that tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow- we are going to be celebrating the lovely Dana's birthday. We're going out with a million people for dinner and afterward we'll be salsa dancing. Should be fun.

On the topic of birthdays- Mr. Matt is having one at the end of the month. We've been so busy we haven't really planned anything either. When I asked him what he wanted to do he said he wanted to just hang out with lots of friends. We are trying to save money so that cancels out having a huge expensive party somewhere. Really we should be celebrating like crazy since it's his birthday and then it's basically time for us to leave and my birthday isn't that far behind. I'm sort of coming to terms about leaving Korea. I think it's going to be easy and hard. I'm trying to gather up stuff that I want to have but it's tough to do, especially when we are trying to budget for multiple months of traveling after we finish up here.

If there is anyone out there who wants to burn me a CD full of Korean music, let me know. ^^ I want a bunch of silly stuff- like songs that were/are popular on the radio here to help me remember my time in Korea. Everything from Wonder Girls to Big Bang or Sugar Donuts. I'm a bit too cheap to buy all their CDs (especially since I don't like ALL their songs) and I'm not sure how to download Korean music. I also think I want to get my name on a necklace written in Korean. Anyway, this is just a hodgepodge of thoughts since I can't think of anything else to blog about. I'll try to do better for tomorrow.

A Traditional Food Gift

2008-11-13T10:47:00.002+09:00

My sweet friend Kyung Hwa (경화) had offered to have us at her home for dinner some time ago. Unfortunately circumstances kept preventing that from happening so she did the next best thing and brought a bag filled with goodies on Monday night. I was actually teaching my Moms class at the time but Matt happened to see her so he grabbed her and interrupted my class for a moment. The Moms were pretty surprised about the situation and made me open the package and show them the food. Later Kyung came and explained what it was and told me that her mom made everything.

Yesterday this is what we had for lunch! At the top you can see the main dish which was meat and quail eggs (so yummy). This was the only part of the meal that was hot (other than the rice). The other dishes are various banchan (side dishes). In the top left you have the garlic cloves pickled in vinegar and next to this there is a combination of fermented mung beans and pickled plum. On the bottom left you can see sesame leaves and then next to that is kimchi, of course. It was all really delicious, my favorites being the meat with quail eggs, the sesame leaves and the kimchi. Yum! Thanks so much Kyung! I'm so lucky to have such awesome friends!

Okay, I feel a little guilty...

2008-11-12T12:52:00.002+09:00

So I'm going to make another entry today. On Saturday we met up with Rebecca from the book club and watched Body of Lies. I really liked it. Actually, I really like Leonardo DiCaprio in general. People may say that he sucks at accents or he's too political or his movies are too melodramatic but I think that he makes intelligent choices and his recent movies have important subject matter. Of course they are dramatic, it's a movie after all, but the things portrayed are happening in real life and probably the reality of things is far more dramatic than the movie would dare to be.
Anyway, after the movie we parted ways and I noticed that there was a massive line up by the Inkoii store. There were security secret service types guys all over the place and they had corded off a wide berth around the store. I was curious as to who was causing all this ruckus. Could it be Wonder Girls? Or Lee Hyori? Big Bang? Super Junior? SHINee? Nope, just some new singer named Son Dam Bi (손담비) that I've never heard of. I asked Min Jung about her and she didn't know who she was either.

Anyway, I decided I was going to play the stupid foreigner card and try to get a closer look. I started taking a few pictures and stopped in front of the store to try to catch a glance of this up and coming music sensation. I didn't see her (or I don't think I did) but I was amused by the way the security panicked. I could tell they were saying, "OH NO! Who can speak English well enough and is brave enough to try and tell the stupid foreigner that they can't just stand and look. It is a MAJOR security breach!!". In Canada I probably would have been tasered. Finally one security guard came up to me and said that I had to keep moving. I asked what was happening and he looked at me like I was retarded. He said a famous singer (haha) was signing autographs and if I wanted, I could go line up in the giant line. Just to piss him off (since I could read the giant posters) I asked him what the singer's name was. Yeah, I know, I am bad but I put up with lots of crap being a foreigner here and I am usually really well behaved. So that's the story of how I almost saw Son Dam Bi.

Pepero Aftermath

2008-11-12T12:33:00.005+09:00

Yes, I know I already posted about Pepero Day yesterday but this whole blogging everyday thing is challenging. I can't think of something to post about today so I am copping out. If anyone has any suggestions or ideas about what they'd like me to write about, they are always welcome. Please leave your suggestions in the comments.

I don't know about Japan but Korea has started taking Pepero Day to a new level. Look at these HUGE stuffed Pepero toys! I look horrible (bang reality is sinking in, I don't have the patience to style them everyday so they will be pulled back a lot) but look at the size of the Pepero toy!

And here's a picture of our haul. I'd like to point out that I have by far the largest Pepero in this relationship. Hahah! I also win the award for the most Konglish/Engrishy box. In case you can't read it, it says, "May joy and happines fill every minute of your day. It feels happiness with the delicious sweet. Sweetest & Longing Thank of your loverly... You're My...". I'm sure lots of teachers received more Pepero than we did but unfortunately we have fewer students on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Maybe there will be some stranglers giving out Pepero today. My favorite is the Pepero with the nuts.

Happy Pepero Day!

2008-11-11T10:35:00.002+09:00

November 11th is Pepero Day (11.11 looks like a bunch of Pepero sticks). Yesterday I got a couple of boxes from my Monday students but we'll see if I get many on the actual holiday. We need to go grocery shopping today and I'm sure the vendors will be out in full force. I'm thinking about buying some for my Moms Class. I like Pepero so I was hoping to get a nice haul. We'll see once the day is done I suppose.

Presenting......

2008-11-10T00:47:00.008+09:00

I'm finally unveiling my lovely Nintendo DS because I bought a case for it yesterday. I know that Stephie and Carter will approve. I'm not a huge HK fan or anything but I do love apples. I think I've found a Korean name for my DS: 소희 or for those who can't read Korean, So-hee. This means "smile" and "pleasure" respectively. This also happens to be the name of one of the members of the Wondergirls (Ahn So-hee).
In other news, I spontaneously decided to get my hair cut today and I got bangs. This is really unlike me and I am kind of regretting it. What do you think? Matt doesn't like it. I haven't had bangs since about 7th grade. Min Jung said I look nice but really young. Maybe that's a good thing since soon I'll be pushing 30 like Matt. ^^ I suppose if I can't style them properly then I can just pin them back and wait for them to grow out. Or shave my head. I took about a million pictures today in a panic. Yes, I am a vain loser.

Presenting a Couple New Things...

2008-11-10T00:47:00.001+09:00

Lunch with the Moms

2008-11-09T01:51:00.004+09:00

On Thursday my Korean Moms took me out for lunch at a fancy traditional Korean restaurant that overlooked the Han River. It was a bit of a gong show getting there since we had to drop off B's car first and then that meant that J (who was driving) was in an area she wasn't familiar with so we got a bit lost. It was pretty hilarious actually and really interesting to see the Moms outside of the classroom. We made it to the restaurant on time and the food was delicious. I lost count of how many different courses they brought out. There was at least 5 courses but probably more. Most of the food I had tried before but never at the same time. Also this was way better quality for the most part and I did get to try sesame soup which was really interesting. I can't even describe it because I have nothing to compare it to. It tastes totally unique. We had a lot of laughs, like when they told me the joke about what ajummas and gangsters have in common or when I couldn't layer my meat on the cabbage and they had to do it for me. I got to work on time but it was tempting to skip and go to a jimjilbang, have some beer and head to noraebang like J suggested. Hahah. Don't worry, it was never a serious suggestion or consideration. I have to say that it's pretty neat having Korean Moms in my life.

Something a bit more uplifting...

2008-11-08T09:29:00.003+09:00

After the pants debacle we went to Yongsan and bought a few things, including my awesome Nintendo DS (that I love more than I expected to even). On the way home afterward the subway was really crowded so we were standing up. There was a little girl with her mother sitting over in the section reserved for the elderly, disabled and pregnant women. She was wandering around a bit and couldn't have been older than 4 or 5 years old. She seemed like she was walking with no purpose until the ajumma beside me (in Korean) told me, "She wants you to go with her and sit down". I was a bit taken aback and not sure I'd understood correctly so I just smiled. Sure enough, the little girl came ambling back and when I looked at her she gestured to me to follow her.

At first I expected that she or her mother were learning English and wanted to practice on a native monkey, I mean speaker, but I quickly realized that neither spoke a word. I sat beside her on the small bench and noticed there was a lot of interest from the other passengers about our situation. Seems that this little girl was extremely spunky and playful and just wanted to hang out with me! I know it's probably because I looked interesting and foreign but I listened carefully and didn't hear any references to my "waegukin" status. Heck, they didn't even ask me where I'm from. It was as if this little girl had sensed that I was feeling sad and wanted to cheer me up. We made funny faces, talked in broken Korean and just played in general. She even gave me one of her princess cookies. Her mom just sat there the entire time, neither encouraging or discouraging her. It was a really bizarre situation especially since she was specifically interested in me, not Matt. He came over and stood beside us and she wasn't afraid of him, just indifferent.

It's certainly not the first time that I've been given attention but this time felt different. Maybe it's because I was feeling blue and she did cheer me up. Maybe it's because she reminded me of my Little Brown babies. I don't know exactly but it was a special moment in my day that I won't forget.

Pants Despair

2008-11-07T10:52:00.006+09:00

Something really horrible happened on Saturday. I "lost" a pair of jeans. Everything was going fine, nothing out of the ordinary, when disaster struck. We were washing clothes and somehow my jeans tore in the washing machine and there is no way they can be repaired. If I was at home this would just be a minor annoyance but here this is a major crisis.

I've written in the past about the lack of size diversity with women's clothing and now I am facing the problem head on. I'd always had enough clothes with me to last for a year in Korea but apparently this time I was under prepared. Winter is here and I now have one pair of dress pants and one pair of jeans that fit properly (I have another pair but they were bought hastily and aren't really comfortable at all). This is a big problem. I do have numerous skirts but that requires tights and nylons, which I also have, but in a limited supply. Once they get holes in them I can't buy more (since the nylons/tights here are also in one size fits small). I had another pair of dress pants but they met their demise earlier in the year in a tragic bleaching accident.

Matt and I headed over to Itaewon last Sunday to try and rectify the situation but it didn't go that well. I thought I'd grown a thicker skin from being constantly told by small Korean children how fat I am but I've always had issues with clothes shopping. I am the type that prefers to be left alone and back home I always go shopping (for myself) alone and rarely ask for any help from the salespeople. I don't like trying things on and parading them for other people. I know what fits and what looks good and I don't need a second opinion. Shopping in Itaewon for pants was incredibly traumatic and degrading for me.

As we wandered the streets there were a number of stores proclaiming they had "BIG SIZE". We looked for the shop my friend Andy suggested and this was the only place I went. Yes, I know I should shop around to try to find the best deal or whatever, but I just didn't have it in me. The ajumma running the place was nice enough but it was just a humiliating experience all together. Most of the clothes were totally not my style and the jeans that I did end up buying, since I'm desperate, are only "okay". In fact, now I have a new problem because they are about 10 miles too long and also too large in the waist so I need to figure out where to get them altered and hope that the language barrier doesn't result in them fucking up the jeans altogether.

It really doesn't do much for your self esteem to have your boyfriend and some ajumma discussing your big ass while you try on countless ugly pairs of pants. Some of them were 6 inches larger in the waist than the size I buy back home because they were trying to find something to accommodate my hips. Really at this point I don't even want to look at the jeans I ended up buying. It makes me so sad. So the next time you're shopping in Canada and lamenting on how they never have your size, please remember it could be much, much worse.

Curiosity...

2008-11-06T09:51:00.004+09:00

So since I updated my layout I had to restart my map that shows where people are reading my blog from. I have noticed a lot of red dots in places where I don't have any friends or acquaintances (to my knowledge). So I'm really curious who's reading my blog. If you read this entry I'm asking you to leave a comment and let me know how you found this little brown blog. ^^ Heck, even if I know you, leave a comment. Everyone loves getting comments and it's nice to see who's reading.

Halloween in Korea

2008-11-06T09:07:00.003+09:00

Halloween isn't a holiday in Korea and outside of hagwon parties and bars there isn't much sign of it here. In fact, our school is so serious that they didn't have a party (which is pretty unusual, actually). This didn't stop Matt and I from slapping together some ghetto costumes and recognizing the day. We also brought candy and I snuck in a Halloween word search at the end of my lesson. I know, pretty lame, but you have to work with what you've got.

Our costumes were big hits though, even if some people didn't know it was Halloween and looked at me like I had totally lost my mind when I walked in.

After work we decided to go and get something to eat. We could have gone to one of the many parties in Itaewon, Hongdae or Apujeong but we were feeling kind of tired and needed a low key weekend so we didn't go far. Matt had taken off his "costume" but I decided to leave mine on and see what happened. Well, I did get more attention than usual, that's for sure. A group of drunk businessmen (and one businesswoman) started talking to us on our way to find dinner. They had decent enough English skills and they were having a work dinner party and invited us to come and have free drinks. Hahah. Maybe we should have gone with them but we were starving and probably would have been puking drunk after a few drinks since our stomachs were empty and they were probably drinking soju. We chose a new restaurant to try but it was kind of crappy unfortunately. Then we headed over to a bar we'd been at with Min Jeong where they gave us a lot of service stuff last time.

Even though it was advertised as a Western bar, there really wasn't anything Halloween related happening there. A few of the same employees were working and at the table behind us there was a group of three friendly university students. They liked my make up and decided to play a spoon game and invited us and the bartender to play. Basically everyone has a spoon sitting on the table face up and we all do rock, paper, scissors until there is a loser(s). The ones that lost have to flip their spoon over and it keeps going until one person's spoon is flipped a different way from everyone else's. That person is the loser and everyone got to draw something on their face with eyeliner. Matt and I never lost but the bartender got it pretty bad. It was really funny. It was a pretty quiet Halloween but that's okay. I'm looking forward to making a big deal out of it next year when we are back in Canada.

Profoundly Confusing Produce

2008-11-05T00:10:00.003+09:00

These apples are extremely delicious and we purchased them for a good price. When we unpacked our groceries we noticed the interesting slogan.

Are these "pro-choice" apples? Anyone have any ideas?

In other news, I am feeling stressed out about the American election. Obama has to win, right? Going back to live in North America with McCain in charge and Palin on deck is a terrifying thought. If there are any eligible American voters reading my blog, please remember to vote today.

A Mexican in Seoul

2008-11-04T10:16:00.002+09:00

Our friend Octavio is in the neighbourhood these days. We met him way back in university when Dana was involved in the Mexico exchange through our school and Octavio was also involved. He's been staying with Dana and Curtis for the bulk of his stay and also he's zipping around to visit a few other nearby countries like China, Thailand and Japan. Anyway, we managed to meet up the other weekend for some dinner, dessert and fun in the street.
You may remember seeing these punching games before (we made a video when we went to Wolmido with Matt playing one). Since Octavio is a kickboxing instructor back in Mexico he thought he'd try something a bit different. I have to say I'm proud of Matt though since he got the high score (through punching even). Dana and I also gave it a try but I was pretty pathetic. Haha! We also made sticker pictures that night as a souvenir. Unfortunately I can't show them since they are really small and I don't own a scanner.

Adventures at the Folk Village

2008-11-03T11:41:00.006+09:00

A couple weekends ago we went to the Folk Village near Yong-in with Eddie and Gisela. Even though the weather was a bit nippy and I was suffering from a death cold, we still had a great time. It's a really fun place and there are lots of interesting things to see and do over there. You can ride horses, watch traditional dancing and tight rope walking, go to the amusement park, try your hand at thrashing hay, playing traditional games and you can teach your kids traditional ways to torture people. Say what?! Yep, you read that right and I have photos to prove it.

"No son, you need to spread your brother's legs out wider. Like THIS!" So weird. Most cultures are sensitive and embarrassed about their torturous pasts. Not Korea!

Despite the weather, the park was fantastic. I love fall and the colors were amazing at the Folk Village! I really recommend going there.

Some highlights were the tightrope walker who looks about 60 years old(I took not one, not two, but three short videos of him!!) and Gisela riding one of those robot furry animals. Some other foreigners came by and called her pathetic (what the heck!?!) but we just said the baby wanted to ride (Gisela is pregnant).

We were rained out but luckily we'd seen everything we wanted to at that point. I am still have picture issues with Blogger so you should really just head to my Photobucket to check out all the awesome pictures we took. Seriously, there are some really good ones of the scenery and of Matt seesaw battling with a Korean guy.

An Early Christmas/Birthday Present

2008-11-03T00:07:00.002+09:00

We're trying to be cheap and thrifty and do lots of traveling. But also, I am a bad person. At least now I am a bad person who owns a Nintendo DS Lite! Ahssa! I am having so much fun playing it that I will have to be careful that I squeeze in my blogging plans. I will post some more tomorrow but now we're going to watch a movie, plus my DS is charging. I need to think of a name for her- any suggestions? I also must buy a super awesome cool case and then take a picture so you can see how beautiful she is.

I didn't mention this here...

2008-11-02T10:10:00.000+09:00

But I think I was inadvertently the English voice of the Seoul Design Olympiad 2008. A Korean friend of mine got a job with them and was asked to do the announcements in Korean and English. This caused a massive panic since her English isn't awesome. So she asked if I would read the announcements and allow her to record me. I wasn't sure if it was so she could use me to practice but I really suspect she just played the recording when they had to do the announcement. I didn't go there and check it out. It would have been too weird. Anyway, if you did happen to go and you have heard me speak, can you confirm or deny that it was my voice during the English announcements? I'm curious.

So it begins...

2008-11-01T19:01:00.003+09:00

To help motivate me to blog, considering I don't really do much else besides work and have fun, I joined on with the National Blog Posting Month Challenge or NaBloPoMo for short(er). Basically you have to post every day in November, for a total of 30 posts. I'm not sure how it works if I post more than that, but probably that doesn't matter. So for the month of November I will update the blog at least once a day.

I'm not the only one embarking on a new challenge- across the street they opened a new fruit store. We couldn't figure out what all the yelling was about this morning but the guy that owns it was trying to advertise. When we ventured out they ran up to us all excited and gave us each half an orange. Hahah. I took a picture and my favorite part is the guy inside the store giving the peace sign (and holding a beer). Oh Korea, I love you so. We went in there to browse a bit and chuckled while the shopkeepers frantically asked each other (in Korean), "Does anyone speak English??!!?! OMG!?". We left before anyone hyperventilated. Anyway, best of luck to them (they seem really friendly) and best of luck to me!

Curtis' Birthday

2008-10-28T12:05:00.008+09:00

This was a couple of weekends ago but I've been busy (and a little sick) so that's why I didn't write about it sooner. It was a two day extravaganza in Bundang. We started by having dinner at Outback and Curtis was serenaded by the lovely employees. I took a video that everyone should watch. Funny! Then we hung out at their house playing cards, other games and Wii.
We had a delicious ice cream cake and I supplied the authentic cherry whiskey that I have been saving for a special occasion. Well, I supplied half a bottle anyway. Hahah. It was nice to have cherry whiskey paralyzers for a change. Other Saturday night highlights included Dave's experiments with dry ice (from the ice cream cake- was keeping it cold on the way home), Curtis' crazy sheep pillow from Jinnie and Matt and Dave's limbo battle.
The next day we all went to Seoul Grand Park to check out the zoo. It was a surprise for Curtis and the weather was beautiful. The zoo was cool and excellent but again I am reminded how differently people view animals out here. They aren't really looked at as living creatures as much as tools- whether they are used for work or entertainment purposes. My friend Eddie commented that he often feels like he's stepped back in time a few decades when he's in Korea and I think this is a situation where that's a really accurate assessment. The way the monkeys, in particular, were treated made me feel a bit ill. The inside cages were pretty filthy and children and adults were throwing them all sorts of crap from straws, to cookies, to hard candy.

It wasn't all depressing though. I had a temporary bout of insanity and decided to be brave and face my snake fears. This was a ridiculous idea. There is a reason why snakes are scary- they are creepy and evil. Maybe I don't look scared in that picture but trust me, I am barely holding it together. Moments before that the snake handler smacked me in the face with the snake wrapping it around my neck. After he removed it I had a mini panic attack for the next several minutes. I don't plan on doing that again.
Other things were just amusing, like seeing coyotes, foxes, beavers and raccoons on display at the zoo. Or being able to buy beer and walk around drinking it at the zoo.

Perhaps my favorite moment of the day was when a group of small girls stopped dead in their tracks, tiny Korean mouths agape, and pointed directly at me and shouted "Waegukin!!!!". That's means foreigner in case you don't speak Korean. I reacted without thinking and immediately pointed and shouted "KOREAN!" at them. I mean, come on, we're in a ZOO and I'm the most astounding and interesting thing you've seen?

Anyway, it was a fantastic weekend, spent with lots of great friends. Blogger is being a pain with pictures so I really recommend you go here and look at the rest of them.

Fashion Trend Sweeping Seoul...

2008-10-27T00:04:00.003+09:00

I'm a bit out of touch with things in North America but PLEASE tell me that the state of fashion over there isn't the same. Right now Korea has been infected with early 90s PLAID!?! (><) I can't escape it! It's everywhere. Look at this little shop! I like plaid in small doses but right now there is way too much ugly plaid everywhere. It's giving me flashbacks to when Jacquie studied Highland dance and kept replaying that horrifying bagpipe music in order to practice. Bagpipe music makes my ears bleed and plaid makes my eyes bleed. It's like I'm living in a horror movie where someone has vomited plaid. Who do these Koreans think they are? Lumberjacks? Gah. I am definitely not going to miss all the plaid when we leave.

Me and My Moms

2008-10-26T23:51:00.002+09:00

Unfortunately there were a few regular students absent the day we took these. Aren't they cute? The mom I have the "couple" picture with is the one who provided the camera. Every time I bring up leaving they all tell me I should stay. Hahaha. I say they can come visit me in Canada.

Trick-or-Meat??

2008-10-26T23:37:00.002+09:00

This week a lot of my students were asking about Halloween. They don't celebrate it in Korea but they all know about it and most kids that go to an English hagwon have experienced a Halloween party of sorts. Unfortunately for my students, our school is more serious than the average hagwon so there will be no party, just regular classes. I am going to sort of dress up and probably will buy some candy to pass out. I had an interesting conversation with one of my A1 classes on Friday.

Nick: Teacher, it's Halloween day soon! You must give me candy!
Other kids: Yeah!!!!! CANDY!
Me: Oh? You think so, eh?
Nick: Wait! No, I want MEAT!!!
Me: Whaaaa? Meat? Nick, are you a crazy boy?
Nick: Meat, meat, MEAT, meat, MEAT!!!
Other kids: [laughter] No!! Candy, candy Teacher! Not meat! Nick is crazy!!
Me: Maybe you guys should give me candy.
Nick: Okay! I give you candy and you give me MEAT.

Matt thinks I should bring a sausage or something just for Nick on Friday. Hahah.

This is what sanity looks like...

2008-10-26T23:32:00.003+09:00

Maybe this doesn't seem very special or exciting to you but I jumped for joy and almost tackle hugged the homework teacher when she dropped these off in my classroom last week. I've been teaching the same DVDs in my Screen English class for about 8 months now. I have seen the same Magic School Bus and Super Dave Osborne cartoons more times than I can count. No one should be subjected to Super Dave that much. Trust me. I'm a changed person because of it. Starting in November I have new movies!!! Cinderella, Snow White, Shrek and one other that I can't remember right now. I am elated. Who knew the price of my sanity was a few bootlegged Disney movies?

Conversations with Students

2008-10-22T23:39:00.002+09:00

So today I had 3 out of 4 of my Screen English students come to class with no homework. Since Screen Class doesn't have Jae-si (aka Detention) I have created my own detention system. So those 3 students sat on the floor outside of my classroom until they finished their homework. Meanwhile, the solitary good student managed to get 100% on her pop quiz, besides being finished all her homework. The policy I have in this class is if someone gets 100% on the quiz, they get a prize (it's really difficult to get a perfect score). Since I'd been given 2 chocolate bars by admirers today I gave one of them to her as a prize. Then we watched a fun movie until the other students finished up so we could start the regular class work. When the other kids returned this conversation took place.

Me: Wow, Amy got 100% on her quiz today so she got a prize.
Other Students: WHAT?!!? Really?! What is the prize?
Me: A chocolate bar.
One Boy: You gave her cigarettes?!
Me: WTF?!?!

I have no idea how he interpreted 'chocolate bar' as cigarettes but just thinking about that kept me giggling for the rest of the day. The absurdity. I totally crack up every time I think about me giving away cigarettes as a prize. That boy really needs to work on his listening comprehension.

I Love "Service"!

2008-10-18T00:13:00.003+09:00

Anytime you get something for free they call it "service" here. There is a cheapie samgyupsal restaurant right by our apartment that we frequent. I suspect we are the only foreigners that eat there and as a result, we are known by all the staff. There is a new waiter and the last time I ate there (with Mi Eun and Kyeong) he was really interested in me. He's older and was wearing a wedding ring, so it wasn't anything romantic. Basically he is trying to learn English and is interested in Canada AND he thinks I'm cute (he didn't say that part but it's pretty obvious, plus, who doesn't think I'm cute? Yes, that is a rhetorical question.).

Last night Matt and I had dinner at that restaurant and my fan waiter was working. We ordered delicious cheesy rice after our main meal and at this point he came over to prepare it and gave us a service jjigae (spicy soup) and pineapple Fanta. Ahssa! I love free stuff! Then he turned our cheesy rice into a heart. This is one of the reasons why I love Korea. ^^ (By the way, the cheesy rice wasn't ready to eat at this point- you have to wait until the cheese melts. Trust me, it's delicious.)

I forgot to mention...

2008-10-17T23:57:00.002+09:00

...how the Parents Class went on Tuesday. You may remember that I gave some "homework" (their words, not mine) and asked the moms to bring a couple pictures or a souvenir and tell the class a little about their best/favorite vacation. Well, even though only 3 moms showed up I think it was a success. The moms took this task really seriously- one wrote a speech and another made a Power Point presentation! Whoa! They were all really cute. After each person shared about their vacation and showed the pictures I let the other people ask questions. Here was my favorite conversation of the class:

Mom 1: So where did you stay while you were on your vacation?
Mom 2: Oh, uhhh, just at a local hotel (says the name in Korean).
M1: Ahhh, did you make a baby?
M2: No, because my husband, uh, (Korean phrases), ummmm, surgery. [gestures at her lap]
M1: I understand. I want my husband to get that but he is a lazy boy.
Me: Tell him to stop being lazy! Say that I told him he needs to get a vasectomy!
M1: [laughing] Okay, I will text message him right now.
M2: Ahh! "Get a vasectomy"! [frantically starts writing this in her notebook.]

Cue to me laughing wildly. And then I taught them the word 'vasectomy' and had to answer a number of vasectomy related questions while they furiously copied the new vocabulary in their notebooks. This class is so different from any other class I've ever taught. When it ended Mom 2 pulled out her camera and we all took pictures together. She's supposed to email them to me and print hard copies too. Hehehe.

I'm so sorry, but I love you (다 거짓말)

2008-10-17T23:44:00.004+09:00

This is one of my newest students and today he wore the most wicked hat ever. Now that is style! I told him he looked like a member of Big Bang or something and he giggled and high fived me. At the end of class I told him I wanted to take his picture. At first he tried to hide, then he asked "Really?" (then I took the first picture) and then he posed like a good K-Popper in training. Love it.

Canadian Thanksgiving in Korea

2008-10-16T12:50:00.004+09:00

Last time we spent Thanksgiving in Korea (back in 2006) it wasn't much to write home about. Considering we were really new to the country (only two months in) and didn't really know many people, let alone any Canadians... Last Thanksgiving we happened to be in Canada so we got to experience glorious gluttony at its finest. I hadn't thought much about Thanksgiving this year (I'd actually forgotten that it was coming up) until I talked to lovely Dana and she mentioned she was having a full blown dinner and invited us to come.
Unfortunately Shawna had to make her way back to Gimpo and wasn't able to make it for the dinner. She was there in spirit though. I hadn't really thought much about the logistics of the meal and had mistakenly assumed that it wouldn't be that authentic. Maybe that sounds mean but there were a lot of odds stacked against a decent Thanksgiving. For example, no one has an oven and if they did, it wouldn't be big enough to cook a turkey. Of course, that's assuming that you could find a turkey for sale in this country. Plus things like stuffing, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie aren't exactly available in any regular store out here. You can see why I was prepared to value the occasion for the company rather than the food. The company was awesome, by the way, and we all had a great time hanging out, laughing, playing Guitar Hero and other games.
Happily, I was proven wrong and had clearly underestimated the awesomeness of the people I know. Dana, Kate and Katrina prepared the most authentic, amazing traditional Thanksgiving meal imaginable. They went to multiple foreign food markets and made a trip to Cost-co in order to find all the necessary supplies for this mouth-watering meal. We didn't get turkey but we did had a huge rotissary chicken that was so juicy and succulent! That was the only "variation" from the traditional menu. We all gourged on rotissary chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, squash, fruit salad, stuffing, cranberry sauce, buns, green bean casserole and dill pickles. Yep, we ate actual dill pickles in Korea, the land where only sweet pickles are welcome.
Even though they had planned the meal for about 13 people (and there were only 10 of us) we managed to polish off an impressive amount of food and drink. A couple of Dana/Curtis/Kate/Dave's Korean coworkers came to celebrate the holiday with all us waegooks. You know it's a good meal when the Koreans are attacking the dessert table (besides pumpkin pie we had Dunkin Donuts and Teri's amazing homemade shortbread) and when Dave is drinking gravy.
We ended up staying a bit later than planned and therefore ended up having to spend the night in Bundang. As luck would have it, Monday morning was the Oiler's season opener so we got to truly indulge in all things Canadian. Who isn't thankful for hockey? Curtis signed up for some sort of subscription where he can watch hockey online and he is able to hook his computer up to the TV. You can watch archived games as well as live broadcasts.
This was a really exciting game (although you wouldn't think so judging by Matt)- we were playing Colorado, which meant that Ryan Smith was back in town. (This paragraph is going to be a bit boring for anyone that doesn't follow hockey.) They actually had him as the Colorado representative for the honorary face off. I didn't notice any booing though. We played a solid game and Curtis filled me in on some of the new members of the Oilers. I've fallen behind a lot since moving to Korea but hopefully I can get back up to speed this season. The Oilers led for most of the game and it looked like we were going to go into overtime but then Penner scored a goal for us in the last six seconds!! Ahssa! So we won!!! What a great start to the week. ^^ Plus, it meant that the Oilers have won their season opener the last five years in a row. I hope we do better this season.

So there you have it- Canadian Thanksgiving Korean style. I miss my family and friends back home but I think we managed to do the holiday justice here. To see all the pictures you can venture over here. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We miss you and love you all!

Seodaemun Prison

2008-10-16T11:13:00.005+09:00

On Saturday we met up with a new friend, Shawna, who is living in Gimpo and teaching at a public school. We decided to visit Seodaemun Prison which was a prison built by the Japanese while they attempted to colonize Korea in the early 20th century. It was a strange experience and I tumbled across someone else's blog about their visit to Seodaemun and it summed things up much better than I can.

I don't think a museum like this could exist in modern day North America. The main purpose of the museum wasn't to educate about this period in Korean history but to cultivate and encourage anti-Japanese sentiments. All of the exhibits here were going for shock value and even though I know that many of the torture scenes depicted were accurate, I know that Korea isn't full of innocent puppies and kittens either. I guess for me it's hard to take something seriously when it's obviously not objective or balanced.

The musuem was filled with different lifesize manniquins covered in fake blood and accompanied by haunting audio tracks of people screaming and crying. Most of the signs were translated into semi-decent English but they may have been better off not including some of the information because it revealed how incredibly biased the writers were. Also I felt a bit uncomfortable since most of the other people at the prison were families with young children. I imagine that these parents were probably taking their children to each exhibit to point out how barbaric and horrible Japanese people are. Nothing like a nice Saturday trip with the purpose to teach your children to hate. Especially since the Dok-do debacle resurfaced, anti-Japanese sentiments have been out in full force. To digress a bit, I'm pretty sick of hearing about or being asked about this stupid island that is basically made entirely of rock and how awful the Japanese are for trying to "steal it".
In one section of the prison museum you can sit on a bench in front of a jury and a recording will play sentencing you to death (in Korean) before the bench drops a bit. Despite the sign prohibiting children (and pregnant women) the main people I saw sitting on the bench were children. Usually hoisted up by their parent(s). I took a little video of Matt awaiting his fate. Sorry about the low quality, but you get the idea. If you want to see more pictures from Seodaemun Prison you should go here.
Anyway, it was fun hanging out with Shawna and afterwards we we to CO-EX for awhile. I introduced her to Art Box and took some pictures of some hilarious pajama pants that I wish I could fit into. Trust me, it's worth it to click on the pictures and read the text. Do it.

While Shawna was visiting we discovered a couple of strange and interesting things. One was the new "Straight" Tea and the other was a giant bathtub outside of Lush that the employees filled with water and bubbles. I'm not sure what the hell they were doing but it was weird. Maybe some sort of promotional thing so you could see how the product worked/smelled? Not too appealing after all the mosquitoes drown in it but whatever...

A Late Night Dinner

2008-10-14T22:59:00.003+09:00

On Friday night we had a late, late dinner with some coworkers. You may recognize Anna (who looks menacing with the rice scoop) from the Spris Let's Rock Festival we went to.
Diana, our newest coworker, organized the meal. She's from Australia (in the striped shirt) and is really sweet. I feel bad because our schedules don't match and so I have barely seen her since she started. This was a good opportunity to spend some time together and hopefully we can hang out more in the future.
We ate at a restaurant that specialized in tofu and everyone ordered a different type of tofu filled stew. Mine was the tofu and mandu (dumpling) stew and everyone got a healthy portion of rice in a hot stone bowl. Yum! We all cracked an egg into the stew when it arrived. The eggs were in a little basket on the table and at first Diana and I thought they were fake decorations!

Of course the meal came with numerous side dishes. Actually it came with a couple whole fish, which isn't uncommon here. It reminded me of the days in the lunch room at Little Brown. Diana and I both dislike eating things with eyes so we covered our fish's eyes with cucumber. Then we thought that Matt and Seobom's fish looked cold so we gave it a gim (seaweed) blanket. Hehe.

I've come a long way in my eating habits since moving to Korea. Now I can tolerate really spicy dishes and actually look forward to eating gimchi! Canadian on the outside but Korean to the core. Here are a few more pictures from Friday night.

Sure beats those annoying decals where Calvin is peeing on something...

2008-10-14T12:10:00.005+09:00

I discovered this masterpiece on my way to work last week. It says, "I keep on drive that's the reason for I exist". No truer words have ever been spoken (or written).

What You Can Buy for $2.50

2008-10-14T12:08:00.003+09:00

The world's tallest celery. Unfortunately there were a bunch of bug damaged bits so we didn't actually end up with that much celery after all. Probably for the best.

Long Weekend (October 3-5): Part 2

2008-10-14T11:50:00.003+09:00

On Saturday we spent a large portion of our day lamenting about our lack of purpose in life and what we are going to do post-Korea. We were both depressed looking at the job prospects in Canada right now (how DO people live on those pathetic salaries?!). After we stopped sobbing into our pillows we decided to get out of the house and see the fireworks festival near Yeouido. First we stopped by a shop in Lotte World area and bought the world's most expensive gummy candies. Guess how much we paid for those 2 little bags? About $15. Yeah. Frick. But they were glorious and completely worth it so I could have coke bottles, fuzzy peaches, cherry blasters and a number of other sugary treats.

We hopped on the subway and made our way out to Yeouido. This was a stupid idea. There were atleast a million other people with the same stupid idea and I am not exaggerating at all. In fact, if anything I am underestimating how many people showed up to see the fireworks in Hangang Park. When we finally managed to emerge from the subway station they were already starting some fireworks, which didn't last that long. At this point I wanted to punch someone. We had barely seen anything because of all the trees and other people in our way!!

So we did what any self respecting adult would do in a situation like this. We scowled and sulked alot and ate a bunch of candy to ease our pain.

And this totally worked! The fireworks starting up again and while we still couldn't see that well we could see so all wasn't lost. The show was okay but we would have been better off staying home, if you ask me. The fireworks we saw at the Mud Festival last year and when we visited Busan were WAY better. Plus when we tried to go home it was almost impossible. I think it took us almost 3 hours to get back to our apartment. They had closed the subway station closest to the park and so we had to walk to the next one. And the police were only allowing people to enter through one of that station's exits and all the trains were packed. It was pure transportation hell.

Sunday was a better though because we met up with Andy. I'd been talking to him online for quite awhile but hadn't met him in person since he lives really far away. He's leaving Korea this week and returning home to Australia so it was nice to meet him before he left. We ate fabulous burritoes at Dos Tacos and then perused the English section at Kyobo books. We had deep conversations about things like flame throwers (everyone needs one!), hover boards and making clothing out of bacon. Excellent times!

If you want to see all the pictures from the long weekend then you should pop over here.

Long Weekend (October 3-5): Part 1

2008-10-14T11:21:00.003+09:00

I seem to have gotten ahead of myself but I was really excited about the new computer in my room so I skipped writing about the long weekend. October 3rd was a national holiday in Korea, Foundation Day. We've been working hard lately so we really needed a break.

After work on Thursday night we went out for shabu shabu with Min Jeong and then ended up at a fun bar called The Wild Bunch where we were pampered with free nachoes AND a free fruit platter! Also there was an awesome show put on by the bartenders which included fire and the creation of 2 fancy drinks (and I was given one of them for free- it was delicious). It was a fun night and a good way to unwind after the work week.

This month there is a huge Autumn Hi Seoul Festival going on so we wanted to check out some of the festivities. On Friday we tried to go out for the opening ceremonies but we missed a large portion of it because we were at the wrong pavilion. Apparently there were two different festivals going on at the exact same time within a few blocks of eachother. D'oh.
As a result of the mix up we spent a bunch of time at the Salvation Army 100th anniversary celebration festival. It was not as fun as it sounds. Yeah.

We ended up finding the festival we wanted to see which included performances by a symphoney orchestra, the Korean National Ballet company, a concert pianist and an opera singer. It was a bit hard to see but was a nice time. We randomly bumped into some other teachers that live and teach closeby to us. Small world! It was bizarre to see a horse drawn carriage amidst the traffic in Seoul too.

Classroom Upgrade!

2008-10-14T11:09:00.003+09:00

Things looked pretty grim last Monday but by Tuesday there were some major improvements (you might even say miracles). I attribute most of them to my amazing partner teacher and friend Min Jeong. I am so incredibly fortunate to have her and she totally fought and fixed a number of worrisome problems. So I was starting to feel better come Tuesday afternoon. And the week just seemed to get better from then on!
The best part of last week was when I came in on Thursday and found out that not only were they not moving me to B Level (which had been rumoured) but they had combined my Screen English classroom with my regular classroom. This means that now I have a pull down screen, a projector and a laptop with speakers at my disposal!! I won't have time to use those things during my regular classes but I will use it tonight for my Parents Class (they are after Screen English so everything will already be set up) and it means that I no longer have to scrounge for a computer or lug everything upstairs when I have to do all my paperwork. I am elated!

Look What I Made!

2008-10-14T10:35:00.003+09:00

So this week the Lesson for my Parents Class is about planning for a trip. So I thought it would be fun and shake things up a bit if I asked everyone to talk about their favorite/best vacation. I encouraged them to bring a picture or a souvenir if they had some and just tell us about it. I promised I would also talk a bit about my best vacation too. Since I now have the most awesome classroom (I will post more about that in a minute) I put together a little slide show. I think it's cute. What do you think? Hopefully it won't make anyone's computer crash. You've probably seen a lot of the pictures before since it's of the Beijing trip but it was so excellent (and now slightly edited) so I think it's interesting to see them again. Oh and there's music!

The Only Bright Spot in my Day

2008-10-06T23:35:00.002+09:00

Look at the delicious drink my lovely partner teacher Minjeong gave me today. We ordered this when we had Indian food a couple weeks ago and she found this at the store and picked one up for me. Minjeong is fantastic and usually the brightest part of my work day but let's just say I hope my week improves from here. It certainly can't get much worse. I probably shouldn't say that since things can always get worse. Don't worry, I'm just dealing with work incompetence. Sigh.

Teaching Adults is Different

2008-10-01T23:35:00.002+09:00

Look what one of the moms in my Parents Class brought. Steamed sweet potatoes! She actually grew these herself so they were extra special. It was an unexpected and pleasant surprise. I got to take the leftovers home for Matt (only after I promised to promptly return the Tupperware- which isn't on the list of Stuff Korean Moms Like but it should be).

The next day (since I teach this class on Monday and Tuesday) I obediently returned the Tupperware and our class started off on an interesting note. One mom shared that she enjoys romantic movies and another mom piped up, "Oh, you call it chick flicks, right?". So then I had to explain what 'chick flick' means. Without thinking I mentioned that action/guy movies are sometimes referred to as 'dick flicks'. This opened a huge can of worms. So my moms now know what a dick is and a number of other 'slang' terms for that body part. It was pretty hilarious and definitely a topic that I have never discussed with any other class. The funniest part? All the moms carefully copying the new vocabulary in their notebooks. Bwahaha!