We are not at War

With Andrew currently at the hospital for the flu, our kitchen in ruins, and being sleep deprived, I am about a week behind in blogging. There is so much I want to be blogging about, but matters of North vs South Korea have knocked on our doors. I found a video from the New York Times that sums everything up pretty well.

Click Here For Video!

  I do want to say that WE have not been affected in any way at this point.  We are safe and sound, besides the flu. Becky and Nick and us have been discussing canceling our trip to Seoul over New Years though.  I was suppose to book the tickets last weekend, but with everything going on I never got to it.  Call it fate or not (andrew doesn't believe fate or Karma) it could have been a sign that we are not meant to be in Seoul over New Years.

Rumor has it...

Excited to move to a different country for 12 months I wanted to be fully prepared for my trip.  So I researched all the things I couldn't get in Korea and brought all my American amenities with me.  Including an entire year's supply of tampons. Which included 9 1/2 boxes, approximately 350 in count and 6 different sizes.  This also included an 8 pack of bar soap, 7 bars of deodorant, and 4 different types of face washes.  Yes I would say that I'm well prepared for this trip.  Not only did all of that put me over on the scale as a checked in my baggage 3 weeks ago, but I learned today that if my mom is to send me a 10 lb box from home it will cost roughly 150 dollars!!!   Needless to say we are all happy I packed 350 tampons in my bags.

As I was reading what can not be bought in Korean E Marts, I read that it is very common for public toilets to not supply toilet paper.  It is expected that you carry a roll of toilet paper around with you, pretty much at all times.  That being the rumor, I even informed Andrew of this, and considered doing just that and bringing toilet paper with me.  Well to give you all the facts (because learning about how many tampons I brought just wasn't personal enough)  this rumor is TRUE!  Andrew and I went to Masan last weekend and we walked 8.5 miles from the train station, down to the ports, and back up through the fish market.  With 8 minutes to spare before we boarded the train home we both ran to the bathroom.  Luckily I only had to do number one, because to my horror there was NO toilet paper in the stales.  Not even a paper dispenser.  I'll let you use your imagination as to what I had to use for toilet paper instead.

Korean Style

Friday we experienced life Korean style- fast and busy.  We had another seminar in a different city, Masan.  We had to get up before 7 am.  I know your thinking, oh wow hard life, but we have been sleeping Korean style, which is stay-up-late and get-up-late, especially since we don't work until 1 pm.  Our seminar was at 9 am and with traffic it was going to take us about an hour to get there.  We barely had time to eat breakfast as we ran out the door.  The seminar was what was expected, but went by quicker than usual.  We had  a good Korean lunch and then ran back to our school to start teaching.  Teaching always goes by fast, and right now we only have a few students and at most teach 3 classes in a row, but some day soon we will have 6-7 classes in a row, and that will for sure take a toll on us.  Andrew's only class was at 3 pm and I was done teaching by 6 pm, though we stay at the school till it closes at 8:20. 

After work we had our first Jinyeong foreigner interaction on our way to dinner. I was beyond gitty over discovering this person and may have put him in shock, for they seemed to forget how to have a normal conversation in English.  We asked his name and how long he had lived here - he said 3 years!  Andrew told him his name and the boy's responds was ,"oh cool".  Needless to say, as we bid farewell we ended the conversation with, "maybe we'll see you again". 

Glen took us to dinner with her husband, our friend Kang and his son Xavier - who is one of our students, and I gave him the awesome name Xavier. It was a traditional Korean restaurant where they bring out pork or beef and you cook it at the table on coals they give you.  This has been our favorite meal so far in Jinyeong.  They bring out about 6 little dishes for each person and more big bowls for everyone to share.  The little bowls are dipping sauces and vegetables, while the big bowls are salads and lettuce leaves to wrap your meat in.  There's Kimchi, soup, sweet potatoes, garlic, onions and wasabi.

Glen's husband, Luke, cooked the pork and everyone then individually pulls the pork off the coals as it gets done cooking.  I was quite sad because I haven't yet accomplished how to use metal chopsticks.  Me and the wood chopsticks are in like Flin, but those metal suckers and I don't have a good understanding yet.

Everything at the table was very good, and the pork was even better than back home.  They marinate it in some kind of maple sugar syrup, which makes it very sweet and savory when cooked over coals - not to mention juicy!

After this course they clear most of the things away and we had some cold noodle soup.  I'm not sure on what the names are for all the different foods we had, though.  This soup's noodles were long and elastic.  It came with a hard boiled egg and some shaved cabbage.  

We also tried our first Korean soju.  It's pretty much the only liquor I've seen here that doesn't cost a ridiculous amount, in fact you can get a bottle of it for just a dollar at any store. I had one sip and was done.  It reminded me too much of vodka.  It's 20% alcohol and is very smooth like water.  I took a better liking to the cider which tastes exactly like sierra mist.

After dinner we went and hung signs in the streets of Jinyeong.  Glen asked us to help, but we were more than happy too.  It was quite fun-funny mostly because we looked quite ridiculous doing it, and there was a fair amount of drunk adult men wandering the streets - by themselves - that kept us entertained.  It is illegal to hang banners from telephone poles and gates, etc. but apparently most businesses do it anyways on weekends.  Glen told us that it's because the cops don't work on weekends, and if we take them down Sunday night then it's like it never happened.  We did this for about an hour, hung 8 signs, until it was about 11:15  pm, when Glen and Luke dropped us off at home.  We were so exhausted we just brushed our teeth and went straight to bed. 

second weekend adventures

So like I said in my last post I don't have any new and exciting photos to share.  But I will work on it this weekend and make up for it over time. Last weekend though was very exciting for us.  Saturday morning we cleaned our apartment from head to toe -ceiling to floor- tried out our broom/mop and our washer and clothes line.  After the first load we discovered we had to buy some softener. Andrew being the test rat, most of his clothes stayed in the same shape after the were done drying as they were hanging up. 

That night we went to the sweet persimmon festival.  We saw lots of different food to eat - fried silk worm larva, a whole pig being roasted, roasted chestnuts, chicken teriyaki (what I think was chicken anyways), many different ways to eat a hot dog, gyros, bean donut things, lots of fish, octopus, chinese food, and b-bimbop.

They had 4-5 different "pop singers" for staged entertainment that were being broadcast for tv.  There were lots of people there for that.  When one singer would arrive they would try to drive down the middle of the crowd to get to the stage.  After a few attempts they would go to the shoulder and had much more success.  People were also swarming the cars to see who was in them, and looking in with flashlights.  We couldn't understand the singers at all but had a good laugh or two.  The way korean singers perform would never fly back home.  The background dancers extent of choreography was waving their arms in all different directions and jumping from side to side, while the singers just stood there.  Comparing this to a lady gaga or brittni spears concert it feels like we traveled back in time to the  60's or 70's - maybe this is why Asians love Micheal Jackson so much.

We also had a lot to look at and buy.  They had a 1,000 won sale (less than 1 dollar) where we bought lots of little things we needed for our apartment - rug, hangers, towels, hammer, nails, mugs.  Kang (our friend) took us to make soap.  I'm sure I was the only one over the age of 10 doing it, but it was fun and we learned that the "color sand stuff" was ash from a Japanese volcano.  Andrew also bought little tea cups, not like american cups, to put all of our Korean change in.  At the same vendor I purchased the one thing I wanted from Korea - an authentic Korean tea set; many pictures to come.  I had about four to choose from but Andrew talked me into the nicest and more expensive one, but it was worth it.  I believe it is white ceramic thrown on the wheel - because you can see the finger pull marks, and it's glazed in a snow white with a pink flower ornament.  It came with one teapot, a teapot stand, small container with lid, 5 cups, a big bowl and a small bowl with spout.  I drink tea, especially with my tea set, about once a day.

After our shopping experience at the festival we went home and rested for round two at the department store!  The department store was about 30-45 mins away from Jinyeong in Changwon.  Our director's husband's sister and husband took us to the E Mart.  I must say I love E Mart, but not the business of them.  It seems that everyone goes shopping at the E Mart on weekends.  To give you a picture - imagine the day after Thanksgiving shopping, minus the sales.  And only having to travel to one store, instead of going to all the stores.  E Mart is like Ikea, Best Buy, JC Penny's, Target, Toys R Us, a small book store, and your local grocery store, all wrapped into one 3 story building with 6 levels of parking.  Though you can't find American amenities such as incandescent light fixtures and memory foam, you can get wine from around the world and about a Target store filled with just kitchen supplies.  We purchase end tables, a laundry basket, wine, cooking utensils, wine glasses, a tie, a broom, 2 clocks, Korean beer, a mirror and most important of all a rice cooker.  Why is a rice cooker so important you ask, because I can not cook rice without burning it, due to our extremely high heat burners. A rice cooker is a very smart home appliance because "it just knows" how long to cook it for, it doesn't even have a timer!  So after that shopping spree we felt  little bit more at home.

mountain side

I'm not going to lie,  I have been slacking on my photos on Flickr and my blog.  I feel bad for my readers, especially the ones on facebook that have said they try to keep reading.  So I will try to be very detailed in my next few blogs, and get some good photos taken for Flickr in the new future.  

Not that this is any excuse but we have not had any Internet the past couple of days.  We realized how much we really depend on it.  Especially since neither of us have phones to text or call anyone.  Email and skype are as good as it gets here.  It was quite funny for some time it seemed like we had some bad karma.  One day our gas didn't work - no hot water or oven to cook with,  then the water line busted - that was the first day we were suppose to start teaching and we couldn't take showers, then our blinds fell from the ceiling - I laughed pretty hard at this point, and then our Internet just stopped working Saturday morning.  All is up and running now though.  To make things even better we got a microwave today, and our director ordered a memory foam pad for our rock hard bed - instead of a sofa.

Weekends here go by very fast.  Our first weekend we walked around and sized up Jinyeong, and then we climbed the local hill-mountain.  We have a very old Buddhist temple seen on the right, overlooking our city.  This is about a 1/3 way up the hill.  Climbing this reminded me that I am way out of shape!  From the picture at the right you can see the very tall skyscrapers where  thousands of people live.  On the hill there are also lots of sweet persimmon, which is a very famous fruit that is exported to the world, including the U.S.  Below are two more photos of what can be seen from the top of the mountain.  The first photo below is a pretty good representation of Jinyeong, while the second is a stopping place for hikers. When we went it was about their second day of building the additional building and they said it would take about another 4 days to finish.

This was a very skinny looking bug that was almost stepped on, before and after I pointed it out.  It laid very still and reminded me of a walking stick with eyes.

You can see the additional photos from our hike on my Flickr page - mountain side.

This is all for now I think, it is about 12:30 at night and so  Goodnight :)

becoming a teacher

okay class, is everyone ready??? repeat after me _________.   The next 365 days will start with this.  Am I ready? I think so.  As of right now we only have 5 students, and 4 classes to teach.  We have been training for about a week and half and have been given a great deal of information to use.  Some schools are not laid out for the teachers like ours.  Some schools the teachers have to come up with the material to use, get the books for the students, grade lots of homework, and come up with there own lesson plan.  We just have to know our material for the day and follow the steps and timeline.  Though there is a lot of information to know, I feel it will be much nicer than having the pressure of doing everything ourselves.  Specially since I didn't major in child education. 

There are lots of students here, and our school is estimated to have 200, if not more, students in about 6-7 months.  We live in such a small town we were finding this hard to believe, but today we saw the public schools and the elementary school has about 1,000 students and the middle school has about 3,300 students.  From what I can see there are 3-4 other English schools, but we think that Koreans teach at them.  So from what we have learned, Koreans really like Americans and so our school will have no problem herding in the students.  

This is also a great school for us, because our teaching skills get to advance at the same rate as our student population increases.  So wish me luck on becoming a teacher!! Tomorrow is our first day :)

a little piece of normalcy

Not that I'm ready to come home, but it is hard to get a little bit of normalcy in Korea.  I use to bake, lay in my comfy bed, watch all my favorite tv shows, drive in my car to see pretty landscape, understand the language everyone is speaking, and be alone in the big world of America...

For the first time in my life I am the minority.  Most other cities have other "expats" - other foreign teachers- but we are in a small city and haven't yet run into any other English speaking teachers. Most people, when we walk down the street or through the grocery store, stare.  It's like my face is where my butt is and I'm walking on my hands.  Though everyone is extremely nice to us.  The owner of the building our school is in, Kang, took us hiking this weekend. He has offered to take us shopping, go out to eat with us, and has even bought us stuff.  They are all very generous, and as far as I know it's mostly because we are American. We are very grateful for their hospitality, being as it is very hard to make friends around here, but it is all out of the norm for us.  Today after dinner I took a walk and decided to go get milk while I was out.  As I picked up some brown sugar and a baking dish first, I headed towards the milk aisle and who did I see ....  Andrew. Also picking up milk.  In all the grocery stores in our block, and him not even knowing I was there, we walked into the same aisle at the same place at the same time... I feel like this was Karma saying we should probably stick together - not that where we live is too dangerous to walk around by ourselves - just ironic.

 So today I longed for a little normalcy... after we got milk I attempted to make a tasty pear-apple strudel baked in a  dish with brown sugar and butter.  Sounds good right?? well it wasn't. lol. I think to make delicious food I will need more than three ingredients, and maybe an oven.  I did have a toaster oven, of course, but somehow it's just not the same.  So to go with our butter tasting warm fruit we had tea and about 5 games of sequence.  And I won 3 of the 5 :)