Chuseok & more

So, last weekend was Chuseok, the Korean version of Thanksgiving... so we had a 4-day holiday from school that was very nice :) On Thursday night I was able to go out to dinner with some of the teachers in town that I don't get to see very often- Sarah and Scott, a couple from the Boston area, and Jessica and Julian, a couple from South Africa. We went to a new restaurant for me and had lots of fun sitting and talking til late in the night! I'll try to post pictures of them if they post to facebook... Then Friday, my neighbor Dan and I went to dinner at a restaurant our co-teachers had told us about that supposedly serves both Western and Korean foods. It's in a really cool looking old-style mud and timber building that reminds me of the very old buildings in Mexico or the Southwest... Once we were seated we realized that their menus were entirely in Korean- no English and no pictures- and since neither of us knows much Korean we were only able to ask the waiter to bring us "what's good" :) We ended up with chicken wings and mustard sauce... apparently our waiter's favorite- and it was quite good. I suppose we were lucky that his favorite wasn't pig intestine soup or some such thing! We went for coffee afterwards at the favorite coffee shop of all our local expats- a little place with big soft couches (not easy to find here in Asia!), great coffee, and good music, usually old time jazz but sometimes more modern things too, that night it was Nirvana and assorted 90's music :) A very fun and mellow night! Saturday we decided not too be quite so lazy and went hiking here in town. E-Mart is our local version of target- about a ten minute walk from our apartment building- and behind it there's a quite spectacular little mountain with trails for hiking and mountain biking. It takes about an hour to get up to the top and an hour back down (maybe a little less for people in better shape than I am!) It was a gorgeous day in the woods and since it was a holiday weekend, there were lots of families out hiking and picnicking along the trails. We made it all the way to the top where there are spectacular views of our whole little town and a couple neighboring towns as well, along with the nearby mountains and our little river that winds through the rice paddies. We got back down to the bottom just in time as it was starting to get dark, went home for showers and new clothes, then out to dinner again- 3 nights in a row for me! We decided to stop into a little place we had seen on our walk back to the apartment that looked nice and served beef and pork dishes (you can tell by the signs on each restaurant of big smiling animals- whatever their specialty is there.) It turned out be one of my favorite places so far! We were smart this time and brought a phrasebook with us, but still decided to ask the waitresses helping us what their favorite was. They brought us a huge plate of very thickly sliced bacon and sliced mushrooms that we were able to grill ourselves on our little tabletop griddle along with whole cloves of garlic and sliced onions and, being Korea, about 20 little side dishes with vegetables, sauces, salads, and the like. Once the bacon was cooked, we cut it into bite size pieces with the scissors they gave us and dipped it in a sweet sesame sauce, then wrapped it with the mushrooms, garlic, onions, and red chili paste in leaves of lettuce or sesame- sort of taco style. It was a lot like the pork ribs I had eaten with my co-teachers, very tasty! After dinner we went to one of our favorite bars (which really means one of the only bars we've been to in town!) for a couple beers and to listen to the live music that the owner plays. All Korean this time- sometimes he plays English or American rock music- but very beautiful. Another very nice evening. Sunday I decided to be lazy again, but did make it back down to E-Mart to get some shopping done. Then Monday I spent a few hours wandering around town taking pictures and that night Kelsey, Dan, Sarah, and I all went to yoga at a studio here in town. Kelsey has been going for a while (she got here about 6 months before the rest of us) and Dan had been before, but it was the first time for Sarah and I. We joined for the month and are trying to go together about three times a week. We all went Monday and Tuesday, then Dan and Sarah went Wednesday, and Kelsey and I went Thursday. I was very proud of us (and only a little sore!) It's a little more intense than the yoga classes I've been to in the states- at one point she had us leaning on our shoulders and necks with our backs arched up in the air and said okay, I'll be back in 15 minutes :) Right now I'm just one of the clumsy foreigners, but we're all hoping to get better over time! :D School's still going great as well. I'm still trying to get a feel for which lesson plans work really well and which ones get the kids too excited to concentrate, but for the most part it seems to depend on their moods at the time! English Town switched over to new lessons for October, so no more pizza snacks Thursday mornings but I get to teach Halloween games now and make masks with the kids! Very fun! We'll see how quickly I get tired of the Monster Mash song after an entire month of it! :) I stayed home from the Film Festival this weekend since I'm sick- finally caught that cold that's been circling through all the teachers at school the last few weeks. So instead of artsy movies and famous celebrities I got to learn how to ask for medicine at the pharmacy and sleep in layers of warm clothing... equally exciting, I'm sure :) It's turned out to be a nice and relaxing weekend. This coming week I'll only be teaching 3 days... I have my lessons planned to make my 6th graders tell each others fortunes (they're learning future tense) and my 5th graders learn how to play vocabulary battleship! Should be fun :) Then I'm off to Gyeongju with my co-teacher and nearly all the foreign English teachers in our region for 2 days of teacher training with EPIK. It will be nice to be able to see everyone all together again. Haven't decided yet what I'll do with my weekend... maybe hang out an extra day in Gyeongju to see the local historical sites, maybe head down to Pusan to catch the end of the film festival since I missed it this weekend, or maybe head back home depending on what other people are doing. Should be a nice relaxing week in any case, which will be good while I'm getting over my cold. I'll post pictures of our hiking adventure and there are more on facebook too.

Seoul pics

Seoul & Chuseok

Seoul last weekend was awesome! I think mostly I was just impressed with how well we all did getting around and figuring things out without being able to communicate because we didn't actually do that much. :) Friday was payday, so Friday night after work I was able to walk to the bus station in our little town and buy a ticket to get to Seoul. It was a little tricky because all the schedules are written in Hangul and the people working that night didn't speak any English, but some very nice girls walking through heard me trying to explain what I wanted and offered to translate for me so I was able to get my ticket and feel fairly confidant that it would take me to the right place! So, bright and early Saturday morning I walked back to the bus station and took my first solo trip through Korea. My friends that I was meeting there were all coming different ways and at different times, so we were meeting across town from where I had arrived. I took the easy way out and paid for a taxi to take me to our meeting spot so I was sure I got to the right place in time. I'm getting spoiled, I think, by the taxis here... my taxi ride halfway across Seoul came to less than $10.00 US. Can you imagine that in L.A.?! Once we had met up with everyone that was able to arrive in the morning we shopped a little in Yongsan- where they have an enormous electronics mall- mostly cameras, cell phones, and mp3 players- and then all braved the subway system together and learned how to get to Itaewon (after, I think, 3 or 4 transfers.) :) Itaewon is the foreigner portion of the city filled with Western bars and restaurants and is where most of the American military personnel in Seoul spend their time, as well as the many Hagwon (private or after school) teachers that stay in Seoul. It's also rumored to be the only place in Korea where you can buy clothes and shoes big enough to fit a Western sized person so we were all excited to make it there after our first paycheck. Unfortunately, other than a couple hats, some backpacks, and shoes, no one found too much that they were looking for. We did however find a nice little foreigner run used bookstore called 'What the Book' that many foreigners flock to to trade in the books they brought with them for some that someone else was done with. The Korean bookstores here not having any English language books makes this little place our only option other than Amazon. And they very nicely deliver throughout the country. :) After we'd seen a bit of Itaewon we ended up taking the subway back to Yongsan to meet up with a couple more people who were coming on later trains and then went back to Itaewon so they could see it too. By this time it was afternoon and we'd been walking all morning, so we went to lunch- a nice little bibimbap restaurant- and then found a place where we could all stay for the night (after many many phone calls- must have been a busy weekend in Seoul!) We were all very glad to drop off our full backpacks that we'd been lugging around all day and felt better knowing we had a place to stay and wouldn't have to travel back home that night. Next we took a taxi over to Namsan where Seoul tower is. By this time there were enough of us that we had to take two taxis everywhere we went the rest of the weekend and Dan quickly took to hopping in the second cab, pointing dramatically and yelling out in his thick English accent 'follow that cab!' the rest of the weekend like we were on a perpetual car chase! It was pretty funny :) We had a nice long hike up the mountain to where the tower is (before discovering that there were cable cars that would have taken us up!) and then bought tickets to ride the elevator up the actual tower. I believe Seoul tower is the second tallest tower in Korea, but it's very famous for having amazing views of the city and has cities throughout the world painted on the windows so you can know which direction and how far away San Francisco or the South Pole is. (San Francisco is 9,040.09km away for anyone curious.) We looked at the incredible views for a little while, then took the cable cars back down the mountain and a taxi across the river to another little neighborhood that Frank remembered from his time when he was stationed in Seoul. Turns out he didn't remember it that well and we never found what he was looking for, but had wandered long enough that we decided to stop in a little Japanese restaurant for dinner. It was funny trying to order by picture and guess what we might end up with. Dan asked me what I was getting and I pointed to the picture and couldn't say- I was pretty sure it was either chicken or pork cutlet, turned out to be pork and was very tasty :) After dinner we headed back to Itaewon, spent some time at the bars there. It turns out Soju punch is never a good idea, but we had a lot of fun playing pool and hanging out together since (except for Dan and I who live in the same building) we are all in different towns most of the time and can only talk on facebook. We stayed out pretty late considering how early we'd all gotten up to catch buses and trains into the city, had a late night snack at one of the street stands, and headed back to our motel. The next morning was rough on everyone (again, Soju punch=liquid evil) so we slept in, walked around Itaewon a bit, then Frank went home, I stayed to try to find a sweater (no luck) and the rest went on to Insadong which I will have to see another time. I wanted to take an early bus home so I could get plenty of sleep and make sure my lessons were ready for the next morning.

This week at school was a crazy one. It was a short holiday week (this weekend is Chuseok- the Korean Thanksgiving) so the kids were all riled up, the Korean teachers were frazzled, and I was very very tired by the end- even being a short week. :) So, I changed my Chuseok plans, and instead of braving the very busy trains this weekend and heading to Daegu to visit friends, I decided to stay home, rest, and get ahead on my lesson plans. I was able to go out for dinner last night with some of the other EPIK teachers here in Sangju who I hadn't been able to spend much time with before. Jessica and Julian are a couple from South Africa who have been here a year already and are very nice (and informative!) and Scott and Sarah are another nice couple who I had met at orientation and then not run into again since we'd all moved here to Sangju. Turns out they live in the apartments across the street from me, so I think I'll be seeing much more of them now :) Dan has been going to yoga quite regularly with Kelsey (also in our building, she got here 6 months ahead of us and is a lot of fun to hang out with) and Sarah and I think we might start tagging along with them. And Sarah, Scott, and I might go hiking here in town this weekend since we've all decided to be lazy and stay here :D So, I think my 4-day weekend in my deserted town will turn out well after all.

Next weekend, I have plans to go to Pusan (a city in the South on the beach!) for their big International Film Festival. Still trying to pick through all the movies and see what looks good- and hoping tickets are still available. But we know enough people down there that we may be able to stay for free on someones floor, so I think that should be an exciting weekend. Then that next week I have a business trip to Gyeongju. Two days away from school and a sort of reunion of all of us EPIK teachers in the province, including many of the teachers that have been here longer than us. We're doing teacher training during the day, and it sounds like we'll be able to hang out at night which should be lots of fun. Gyeongju also has a number of cultural sites nearby, like the old silla palace and such so maybe we'll be able to site see some before coming back home or maybe I'll stay the weekend and take a train back.

All in all I'm keeping very busy, but having lots of fun. I miss everyone back home! And I'll try to post more pictures soon.

September

I'm having a difficult time accessing this site... I can get on maybe once every week or two and otherwise my computer decides to block me out! So, sorry about not posting more frequently, but I'll keep trying to work with it! :D

I guess a lot must have happened since the last post I got on here, but the time's been flying by so fast it seems like it's only been a few days! I've been teaching classes for 3 weeks now, and am finally starting to get all the students to pay attention in class. They've been having a lot of fun and learning the lessons, but now I'm getting them to stay quieter and really listen too which is a kind of amazing feeling :) I'm getting to write my own lesson plans for for my classes which is good but a LOT of work. I'm running around all the time and still trying to get things together at home nights and weekends. But it's really nice to be able to make lessons that are specific enough to get the kids excited and involved in the class- I'm getting to use schoolhouse rock, K-Pop bands, short videos on youtube, and all kinds of games which makes class fun for me too. I keep hearing good things back from their teachers, so it must be working out alright :D

I was able to go out with a group of my co-teachers last weekend- the young ones who don't have families yet. We had dinner Korean style which is a lot like Spanish tapas, some chicken and duck dishes at the first restaurant, pork ribs at the second restaurant, and Japanese style fish and used rice dishes at the third. All served with a LOT of soju, beer, and a new one for me- bamboo liquor (I don't remember the name right now) that tasted just like apple juice. The second restaurant was my favorite, they brought a plate of par-cooked pork ribs and let us grill them ourselves on charcoal bbq pits built into the middle of our tables. We grilled the ribs and whole cloves of garlic and then ate them with marinated onions, sesame oil, and red chili sauce wrapped in lettuce leaves taco style. SOOOO tasty! The third restaurant was interesting too. We had some sort of a fish dish that was topped with paper thin slices of salmon that was dried and blowing around on the plate because it was so thin and light. When you chewed on the fish slices they had no flavor and the texture of chewing on paper, very different but good with the rest of the dish. We also had used rice soup which was really good. Apparently rice was traditionally cooked in cast iron pots, so the crust of rice that stuck to the pan was made into a soup by adding water back to the pot and boiling it with fish or chicken and vegetables and spices. They think of it like doing dishes and getting an extra meal all in one, but I have to say it was pretty tasty! :D So, last Friday night was my night of good food, good drinks, and new friends :D

Saturday and Sunday last weekend I spent hanging out with another EPIK teacher that I had met at orientation. She came over from Daegu (a town about an hour and a half's drive away, I think) where she's working. Daegu is the "big town" in our region, so I'll probably be headed that way to check things out soon enough. We had lots of fun eating out, going back to the jazzless jazz bar (piano this time), hanging out at our favorite coffee shop (which surprisingly does have jazz music), and getting to speak in English at a very rapid pace for an extended period of time :D

This weekend Susan (the teacher from Daegu), and I were planning on going to Andong (another city in our region) for their annual Mask Festival, but I heard it was cancelled due to H1N1 fears. So She, Dan (one of the other teachers that lives in my building), and I are all going to Seoul to meet up with a number of other teachers we met at orientation. Celebrating our first paycheck (which we got today) with a trip to the city, some shopping, and a little exploring. Sorry to be missing a bbq with other some of the other EPIK teachers in Sangju, but I think Seoul should be a fun time! And I'll try to get pictures of Seoul up when I get back on Sunday. Then next weekend's Chuseok, the Korean harvest festival (like our Thanksgiving) where everyone goes home to spend time with their families and eat lots of good food. Not sure what I'll be doing yet, but at least I'll have a 3-day weekend! (some schools get 4, but I'm not sure about ours yet)

market pics

Sangju

Hello again!

I'm posting pictures of my apartment. It's definitely different than at home... no oven, a camp stove that runs on a gas switch like a barbeque, an Asian style bathroom which means that the whole thing is like one big shower stall- everything gets wet! But I actually really like the apartment and I'm getting used to things a little better now... only 5 days of cold showers before I realized that the control panel by the front door that looks like it should control the air conditioner is actually how you turn on the hot water (and back off anytime you're not actively using it or you'll have astronomical heating bills!) I'm very grateful that my bathroom has a western style toilet- Asian toilets are on the floor- even though I can't flush any toilet paper down it (reminds me of old trips to Mexico!) And I'm even learning to flip the switch back from shower to sink as soon as I've finished with it... nothing like going to wash your hands hours later and drench yourself and all your clothes because the shower part was still on! :D

I had last week (my first in Sangju) "to prepare" a.k.a. I wasn't allowed to teach or sit in on classes while they made sure I didn't have swine flu or anything else to pass on- they check everyone's (students and teachers) temperatures each day as they enter campus. I've started teaching now- had my first classes yesterday- and so far they're going alright. The students are having fun with the games and things that I found and actually getting involved, which is good since I was worried I'd have a sea of blank faces staring back at me, but keeping them quiet and well behaved is difficult through the language barrier. Luckily I got some good advice from a lot of people both here and back home so that hopefully next week will be better. I'm teaching 18 different classes a week- 5 each of 4th, 5th, and 6th graders, 2 teacher's classes, and on Thursdays I go to a different school and teach at "English Town" a sort of mock-up of a variety of situations in which the students role play in English. English Town operates like an in-town field trip- classes from all the schools in the area come once a year and do a cooking lesson, pretend to order in a restaurant, learn how to buy tickets at the theatre or for an airplane, go on pretend shopping trips, etc. It sounds like it gets a bit tedious for the teachers after a while, but the kids love it and it gives me one day a week that I don't have to worry about making lesson plans which is nice.

It's about a 30 minute walk to and from school each morning (less on Thursdays since English Town is a little closer to where I live) so I'm getting to know the town pretty well. I've found three or four pizza places so far (I've only eaten at two of them) but no pepperoni... their idea of pizza toppings involves things like shellfish, boiled potatoes, curried chicken and beef, and fruit and sweetened yogurt. Luckily they also really like ham which is what I've been getting :D The open market is amazing. Stalls are set up every day, but every fifth day it gets really big since some of the farmers and merchants travel from town to town or back home in between. It has normal farmers market kinds of things plus live fish and eels in tanks, blankets, clothes, shoes, fresh doughnuts fried to order, all kinds of differents foods made fresh and a lot of really great people. I've also been able to go out a few nights with people around town. Went out to pizza one night with a group of teachers from English Town, another dinner and noryeabang (the Korean version of karaoke in private rented rooms) with one of my co-teachers, and went out one night with a couple of English teachers who live in my building and found a new "jazz" club which had no jazz music but a very friendly owner who took the stage to play electric guitar and sing and then came and joined us at our table with some of his friends (probably since we were the only people in the bar.) Turns out soju is Pretty good, especially when mixed with a little fresh kiwi juice.

I still feel a little out of place and I'm sure I have a lot more to figure out, but I'm really enjoying my time here. Maybe soon I'll get comfortable enough to travel around and see some of the festivals and other parts of Korea. I even found a travel agency run by the U.S. military that takes civilians on tours of the DMZ and North Korea! (don't worry Mom, I think I'll skip that one) :D

Address Time!

Got moved in to my new place in Sangju! Here's the address:

105/401
Hyundai Pistel
Nagyang-Dong
Sangju 742-903
Gyeongsangbuk-do
South Korea

It's a 4th floor walk-up, studio apartment and as soon as I can figure out how to turn on the hot water in the shower I think it'll be great :D I'll post some pics soon...