Wedding

Yesterday, Saturday, we went to a Korean wedding! Charis's supervisor was getting married and she told her to invite whoever she wanted, so she invited me and Ronald. It was so weird. We took the bus to Daejong and when we got there we went into the building and there was a huge crowd of people on every floor. The couple first sits in a room and you can come in and take pictures with them. 

Then you go into the ceremony hall. This is the crazy part. It's really informal in a way because it's almost like you're watching their dress rehearsal. We came in when the couple before was leaving...they book these halls for about 45 minute stretches and the next couple and guests are already coming in if you go over your time. It's like a weird sort of business. There were banquet tables set up with a flower decor in the middle and an unlit candle in the middle of that. There were eight glasses, two ciders (like sprite), and two pepsis waiting on the table. 

There was an announcer who announces the family and the bride and groom. The first to go were the mothers. They walked down the runway holding hands, bowed to each other when they got to the front (everyone clapped) and then went up the steps to light a candle on either side of the stage. The weird thing about this was that they were being led by these two women who worked at the hall -- basically, the mothers had no idea what they were going to do, so these women showed them right then and there -- that is what I mean by it seemed like a dress rehearsal. When the bride was up there, one of the girls was constantly rearranging her dress! She got in a ton of pictures because she was always there. There was also some other dude with a huge camera and enormous light on top. It was so bright we couldn't look at the stage when he had it turned on and was filming. People were not really paying attention most of the time and kind of chatting throughout the whole ceremony.

Then they had some weird Korean singer serenade them on stage and pretty much it was over -- it took like 40 minutes total and then we were herded to the buffet floor. Here we were with whoever went to the other weddings that day and we all sat down and got some plates of food, cheap beer, and soju. Then we left. We were there for two hours, the bus ride in total was 5.5 hours...crazy.

The National Cemetery

Yesterday, Sunday, Charis, Ronald, and I went to the National Cemetery. This was after I went to Insadong and bought mom 100 lanterns. I lugged them around for the rest of the day...anyways, the cemetery was nice. It would be a nice place to go hang out at or have a picnic. If I lived closer, I totally would go there. It has grass and it sorta just seems like a park. There are a ton of gravestones though, but they are separated in a different section. After the cemetery we went to Gangnam and at at Taco Rico, a really good Mexican restaurant. The chef is Mexican and doesn't speak Korean or too much English. It was so nice to have guacamole and corn tortillas...I got the flautas -- so yummy! It was pretty cheap too.

Did I ever mention that they have ashtrays in the bathroom stalls? I don't know if I did, but it's gross.

Vietnam visa

Went to the Vietnam Embassy yesterday to get our visas for our trip. So funny...it was like a tiny, pre-fab home with about a billion people waiting. We walked right in, filled out the forms, and Ronald is going to go pick them up tomorrow, with 84,000...each! I hope really he meant total, because that's expensive for a one month, one entry visa. Oh well, I guess we'll just see.

No students showed up today for my last class...had time to correct essays!

Jeju, day 6 (Monday)

On Monday at 7:18 we took a cab to the airport because bus 100 didn't go there. Bus 100 was the bus we took the first day from the airport to this stop, so we don't know why it doesn't go there. Bus 300 goes to the airport, but we didn't have time to wait for the next one, so we just hopped in a taxi.

We got there at 7:25, so we checked in and had until about 8:20 (our plane left at 8:40). We got breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts -- I got a bagel and Ronald got a donut and we both got some coffee. The whiskey in the duty free was too expensive so we got on the plane and arrived safely in Seoul at 9:45.

We raced to the metro, hopped on, waited till our stop, ran out, I took a speed shower and headed to work. Long day.

Jeju, day 5 (Sunday)

 On Sunday we got up, and at about 9:25 went to the GS to heat up pizza, buy some water, and get directions to Moseulpo port. We walked there pretty fast because we knew that the boat left at 10:00. We got there just before ten and were told the boat had already left. So we walked to where there was another boat and asked if it was going to Marado. It was, but we didn't have tickets. So we got in the police's car because they wanted to drive us to the ticket booth. It was 15,500 for the Marado Express ferry + park fee.

The ferry left at 10 and we got there 25 minutes later. We ended up renting a golf cart for 30,000, a total ripoff. We were looking for the "park", and the drivers didn't understand us. There was, however, one woman who communicated to us that it would be 30 to have our own until noon, so we decided to just do that.

The "park" turned out to be the entire island. We saw the lighthouse first with little lighthouse replicas from all over the world  in front of it. Then we saw the chocolate museum (the museum was closed, maybe because of the rain?) but left pretty quickly and found the snail building, got sort of lost between the locals' houses, found the road again, and found a buddhist temple. There was a monk in there leading prayer that could be heard on the street through the speakers. There were people praying inside and in the hut to the left there was a man doing I think calligraphy on some tiles. 

We ended up circling the island three times, not understanding we'd already made it the whole way. We passed the southernmost point two times before realizing what it was. We took pictures there and then caught an earlier ferry back to Jeju Island at 12:32, to be exact. We arrived at 13:00. 

10 minutes later, we caught a bus. At 14:15 we were in Jeju-si. We checked into the Olympia Hotel (we paid 20,000, the normal standard room rate, for a 30,000 special room -- no idea why we got that discount), right across from the bus terminal. We then decided to walk around a bit to try to find a place to eat, but we had no luck, so we hopped in a cab at 15:50 and got to Loveland at 16:11. We got sandwiches and coffee there and then paid our 7,700 to get into Loveland. 

When we got back to the hotel we decided to go out for some beer and dinner. We found the restaurant Cobaco. It was super yummy! I got sushi (a california roll) for 6,000 and Ronald got a curry dongass and noodles for 8,000. After we started looking for a bar but decided to just buy some beer and soju and go back to the room -- we had to get up early to go to the airport!

Jeju, day 4 (Saturday)

We woke up at 11 or 12 and had to pay an extra 10,000 for leaving after 12:00. Boo. We headed to the three famous waterfalls in Jeju (Jeongbang, Cheonjaeyeon, and Cheonjiyeon), one of which is the only waterfall to reach the sea. This turned out to be a strange marketing point as the three waterfalls were connected. We bought our tickets (2,000 I think). Before going in we asked the tourist information lady about the ferry to Marado Island as well as the yacht tour. Today was apparently too late to take the ferry (she told us too windy, but we found out later we were just too late), so we went in to see the falls (nothing too spectacular, though there were a TON of spiders hanging out in their webs that we took pictures of) and then went over the Seven Nymphs Bridge to the other side.

From there we walked down to Jungmun Marine Park to see about the yacht tours we could take. We could have either taken the SpeedJet (20,000 for 20 minutes) or the yacht tour (60,000 for an hour). We chose the yacht tour at sunset (this one left at 17:50, boarding 10 minutes before).

At this point we had some time to kill because we had called and found out there were no more ferries to Marado Island (the southernmost island in South Korea) and that we would have to wait until tomorrow. We ended up taking a taxi to a place to eat black pig samgyupsal. It was very expensive and a little different. I don't think I would eat that again. She wanted us to eat the black hairs that were still on it. Yuck.

After this we walked back towards the Marine park and picked up a couple of beers before taking a taxi all the way down. We took our yacht ride and it was really nice. They give you some food (which we missed) and there is soju and wine available inside, which is sort of stupid seeing as how everyone spends the whole ride outside.

At 19:20 we hopped on a bus to Moseulpo, the village where we would have to catch the ferry to Marado. This was some sort of adventure in itself. We had to ask about a billion bus drivers for the place we wanted to go. I caused quite a backup of 3 or 4 buses when I was asking one driver. He ended up saying no, but that the bus we needed was the one behind him. We got on that bus and then showed the driver that map and he gave a strange look and said no. Then he held down the horn to pass the bus in front of him through an intersection to let him know that we actually needed that bus! So he stopped and we got off, thanked him, and hopped on the other one. We got there at 19:48 to be exact, charged our phone, went to GS where one of the girls showed us to a nearby motel (30,000). We had a brief stay in the motel where we found some crazy animal shows -- one was a family that had two huge snakes (pythons maybe? boa constrictors?) which slithered all over the place; over their food, in their baby boy's bath water. So we dropped off our bags and headed out to grab some dinner. We charged our T-money (metro) cards at the ATM and then decided to search for pizza. We had both seen a pizza delivery place coming into Moseulpo, so we thought there might be hope. We were sent down one street and then back down another until we came upon a grocery store. Here some random guy overheard us asking the woman that worked there about pizza and pointed us in the direction we had come for "Chicago Pizza". We said thank you and started walking that way when he came up behind us in his car and offered us a ride. We hopped in the back and he and his friend in the front seat debated on where the pizza place was. They called to some girls on the street from the car and they pointed us east. They debated a bit more and then we found it! It was the same place we'd seen on the bus! We got out and the guy, an engineer he tells us, was going to wait for us to take us back, but we decided to eat there. We didn't finish it all, so we took some back with us to save for the morning.

Wake up call at 8:50. Ferry at 10:00.

Jeju, day 3 (Friday)

Friday was a day to hike Mt. Hallasan. Clair and Rob picked us up in Clair's car at the E-Mart that was connected to the World Cup Stadium where our jjimjilbang was. They had picked us up some kimbap too, thank goodness. We bought a sandwich and some water and hopped in the car to get on our way.

At 10:00 we started our hike with them as well as Faye and Seth, another couple we'd met in Jeju. We reached the "halfway" point (it was about 7 km up out of the whole 9 km) at five to 12 and took about 10 minutes to eat and rest a bit. You are not allowed to keep going up if you don't make it by 12:30) Ronald and I got to the top after the others at about 13:20, taking some good photos on our way up. We spent about 15 minutes up there, took some pictures, and headed back down. You have to leave the peak by 14:00, which I assume is so you aren't still walking down when the sun sets.

Ronald and I had not packed hiking shoes, so we were in pain! My knees were killing me on the way down and I got myself some nice looking blisters too. It was super rocky (volcanic rock which is black and sporous) so it was a difficult day. When we made it back down to the bottom we all celebrated with a nice cold Cass and hopped back in the car to go back to Jungmun Beach. Clair and Rob had been staying at a motel there for a few days so we wanted to try to book a room for the night.

When we got there they had one available, so we paid the 30,000, showered, and headed back out for dinner and drinks where we were joined by another couple, Grat and Leslie, that was staying in the same motel. I went straight to the pharmacy for some ibuprofen and bandaids. Then we went to a kimbap place and ate before looking for a place to hang out for the night. We found a hof (a bar where you have to order food), but somehow we didn't have to order anything which was wonderful because we were all stuffed. We got some Hallasan soju and some beer. This soju is much tastier than the regular soju. I wish they had it on the mainland, but oh well.

After the bar Clair and Rob went to bed and the four of us went to another bar. There we sat down and Ronald was slightly accosted by an older drunken woman who might or might not have worked at the bar. She apparently harassed the other guys the night before, so they were eager to leave. Leslie suggested Yahtzee in their room and I was pretty excited about that so we left immediately, bought some beer from the convenience store, and headed to their room to play. Me and Gret won! Yay! We all had a great time and I'm glad we got the chance to hang out with them.

That was pretty much it for day 3. Ronald headed to the PC bang and I headed to the room to be in a prone position (my poor body!) and passed out after a very exhausting day.

Jeju, day 2 (Thursday)

Something I didn't mention about Wednesday was our dinner. We were at the jjimjilbang, with limited to no Korean, and ended up ordering hard-boiled eggs and Ronald got some ramen noodles that ended up being kinda spicy. They give you the eggs on a plastic tray with sections, one of which has very potent salt. I mean, it is crazy salty.

Anyways, we left at 10:30 and started walking towards Sunrise Peak (Seongsan Ilchulbong), a large crater off the east coast. We bought some stuff at the bakery (weird, gooey bread that was hard on the outside, and sweet garlic bread -- they don't ever have it salty, sadly) and kept on our way, stopping to apply the needed sunscreen. We got a call from the policeman. He and I had an interesting conversation about my wallet. He said 12 o'clock, 10 o'clock, bus, police station Seongsan (the city where our jjimjilbang was close to). I was slightly confused and after a while ended up saying 2 pm, police station. We hung up and just to make sure, I sent him a text message saying, "2 pm Seongsan police station...thanks!" to which he responded, *^^*. I thought that was pretty hysterical and so very Korean.

We kept on walking and ended up at the police station around 11:40. I soon discovered my wallet was coming on the bus that arrived there at 12:10, so I needed to wait or come back. Ronald and I decided to go ahead and climb Sunrise Peak and then come back. We got back to the station at five till one and they had my wallet! Yay! I bought them little bottles of orange juice as a thank you and they gave me some fruit (two apples and two pear-like fruits that are rather large) and then asked us to pose with them for some photos. During the photo shoot, someone touched my butt a few times and Ronald says it wasn't him, so thank you, Jeju policeman, for that.

Then we took a bus to Manjanggal Lavatube (this took 30 minutes) that dropped us off on the side of the highway where the intersecting road began. We started walking up the road and after a while decided to hitchhike and the second car I tried pulled over and took us up there, so that was nice. I was hungry, so we stopped at the restaurant and got mandu (dumplings, 5,000), kimbap (sushi roll with no fish, 2,500), and a hot dog (1,500). A bit expensive, but that's how it is in touristy spots so oh well.

We bought our tickets for the lavatube (2,000 each) and I think it took about 45 minutes to walk it.No one checked our tickets before going in. It's pretty neat and you can see the world's largest lava column at the end of the tunnel.

We left (taking a taxi down the road) and hopped on the bus bound for Seogwipo (3,000) in the south. We got on the bus at 16:55 and got there at 18:42. From there we took a 15 minute bus ride to Poonglim where there was supposedly a jjimjilbang. It ended up being a resort with the cheapest room at 200,000 won. The guy at the front desk called us a cab that would take us to a real jjimjilbang in Waterworld at the World Cup Stadium.

It was a standard 7,000 to get in, but the PC bang (room with computers) was locked, so Ronald had to walk outside in his jjimjilbang uniform to work (he has to be connected to the internet every night until 2 am). These uniforms are like thick scrubs, but shorts, not pants.

That was the end of that -- ate a dongass and mandu there before finding a spot to pass out in.

Jeju Island for Chuseok

For those of you who don't know, this Tuesday through Thursday is Chuseok in Korea, their Thanksgiving basically. For this holiday I get Friday off at work, so Ronald and I decided to come down to Jeju Island, an island in the south of South Korea. Right now I'm writing from a jjimjilbang (씸실방) that we found.

To get to Jeju from Seoul, you take a plane from the domestic terminal of Gimpo airport. There we ate lunch at a place that had Korean fast food. We ordered a hamburger and a ddongass, the breaded pork cutlet dish they stole from the Japanese (dongatsu there). When the burger came, Ronald lifted the bun to check out the fixins and found there to be no meat...anyways, they were embarrassed and took the plate and added the hamburger to the hamburger.

Then we went through security where you are allowed to bring liquids...I had my nalgene full of water and they didn't even look twice at it. However, they did stop me and ask me if I had anything "spray". I couldn't think of anything so I said no and asked where in the backpack the "spray" was. I opened my backpack and pulled out a small bottle of perfume, "This?" I asked.
"No," she replied and proceeded to say "spray" and make strange gestures around her nose. I opened it a bit further and we found a tremendous bottle of bug spray that I had totally forgotten about! I'd left it in my backpack from the last time I'd used it and just didn't think about it. As it turns out, that bottle is also allowed...news to me. Why would they ask to see it if it doesn't matter?

To get to our flight (JejuAir which has a winking face as its logo) we had to take a shuttle bus, but the plane took off at about 16:30 and landed one hour later. We were nervous about the weather because in Seoul it had been raining a bit but when we landed in Jeju it was clear.

Our first stop was Tourist Information in the airport. We got a nice map that has a ton of stuff marked, and asked the women about some of the things I had already researched or gotten suggestions about. We've planned to stay around the island in a clockwise motion, ending with our last night (Sunday) back in Jeju-si (the northern city where the airport is located) because then we can see some of the things that are around that area and not have to travel far on Monday morning because our flight leaves early.

We took bus 100 to the Jeju Intercity Bus Terminal (the first stop the bus made, though the bus driver knew what we were asking when we said it in English) and then went up to the window and asked for a ticket to Seongsan, a city in the east. The woman gave us a ticket for 19:00 (cost: 3,000 so we had about 30 minutes to kill. I bought a popsicle and Ronald bought a drink and some crackers. Took a picture of the amazing bathroom sign (I'll upload this when I get back home) and then got on the bus at five to seven. The bus left about two minutes later -- they actually leave early here, not late!

We arrived in Seongsan (or nearby...) at 20:30 and asked the bus driver about a jjimjilbang in the area that the Tourist Information lady had given us. He knew about this one and the bus stop was not even a block away. We thanked him and headed up the small hill/driveway to Pilican 빌리켄 Jjimjilbang. Just before walking in I felt in my right pants pocket and noticed my wallet was no longer there. I knew it had fallen in the bus, but I searched through my purse anyways and didn't find anything.

We walked in the jjimjilbang, Ronald paid the 7,ooo per person, and I tried to call information in Jeju, and the woman told me I needed to call the Seogwipo bus station because that's where my bus would have been heading. I got disconnected and so tried to ask the woman at the jjimjilbong to use her phone to call the terminal. There was a man standing there too, so I managed to communicate to them (through pictures and gestures) that I had left my wallet on the bus and needed to call the terminal. The woman took my notebook with the number (which turned out to be a fax number, thanks information lady) and when she got off the phone she told us that the police were on their way.

So we put away our bags, changed into our uniforms, and by the time I came out, the police officer was there talking to Ronald about what happened. We gave him all the information we had to give and he told us that the bus companies were already closed for the day so he'd have to call tomorrow.

He called a couple hours later and told me they'd found my wallet! They have it at Seogwipo Bus Terminal and he wanted to give it to me at 6pm tomorrow. Since we are on vacation, we don't have much time to see everything, so he asked where we would be tomorrow. I told him and he said that maybe I could just go to the terminal myself and ask for the wallet. I'm not really sure what he decided, but I know he is going to call me tomorrow. Either way, my wallet seems to be safe and under supervision -- yay Korea! If this had happened in South America, I would have had to kiss all that goodbye. No way would that be returned to me.

So tomorrow we're going to see what things we can get to before the policeman calls. Will update later.

Chao!

DMZ

Today we went to the DMZ, JSA, 3rd tunnel, and a train station (I don't remember its name...). We went with USO (paid 79,000 won) and had to be at their office at 7:10 this morning. We were a bit late getting there, but there was no problem -- we just got on the bus and headed out. We were on bus A and bus B followed us there. I put pictures up on picasa, and I think those pretty much show what we did. Except for the tunnel where we had to take out everything and put it in lockers, wear hard hats, and climb up and down the tunnel. Basically, you couldn't get close to North Korea besides the conference rooms, and you couldn't really take pictures either. I pretty much just hope they reunite soon, though I can't imagine how hard that's gonna be on those poor North Koreans...

Here's a short video of part of the briefing we had. Or you can go here to see it a bit bigger if you're interested.

Daegu

So this past weekend we went down to Daegu to meet up with some friends from Chile. Turns out that going in bus vs. train takes the same amount of time (three hours and forty minutes)! So we went for the cheaper bus route, but ended up paying like 24,000 for each way, per person...we didn't have time to wait for the cheaper bus because we only had Saturday and Sunday to get there and back.

So we took the bus down there and took the metro to stop #131 (there are only two short metro lines in Daegu) and met them under a stage. We all immediately went to the love motel we were staying at, took showers, left our stuff there, and headed out for food and booze. We ate at The Holy Grill, a Mexican food restaurant owned by some Canadians. Ronald and I had gone there the one other time we were in Daegu, and it was super good, so we had no trouble convincing the group to eat there. Sorta pricey, but totally worth it.

After that we bought drinks in a plastic bag-like thing and walked around looking for the bar where all of their other friends were. It was an imitation English pub and before entering I snuck into the shop next door and bought some really cute vintage earrings -- success! Anyways, after that we bar-hopped and then ended up at a noraebong (karaoke room) and after just heading back to sleep, but not without the obligatory stop at the pizza-in-a-cup lady. She serves little pizzas in a cup from her little food stand and they are delicious.

The next morning around noon we checked out (doing this by leaving the large plastic key in a box glued to one wall of the elevator) and went to a breakfast place (on the same street as The Holy Grill, one block down) that some of the kids had been to the day before. It was an American style breakfast restaurant. I ordered a berry smoothie and Ronald and I shared the "breakfast" and "ham cheese sandwich". The "breakfast" consisted of a salad with balsamic dressing placed in the middle of: toast, scrambled eggs, sausage, and french fries. The "ham cheese sandwich" was a club sandwich basically. Strange sauce, though.

After we decided to walk around a bit and go shopping, but after about 20 minutes we just headed to the bus station and caught the next bus back to Seoul.

Anyways, it was nice to hang out with our Chile contacts before they leave for the states and England.

Off to the DMZ on Saturday and Jeju Island next Tuesday for Chuseok. Hopefully we'll get to meet up with some of the people we met in Daegu (one is a Sewanee grad C'07!)

Too long...

Ok well I know it's been a ridiculously long time since my last update, so I'll do my best here to fill in the gaps.

As for japan, we took the cheapest bus from Tokyo to Kyoto, which was not cheap, and it was like 60 for a normal bus. Whatever. It's cheaper than the trains. It was super hot and humid when we were there, so that cut down our enthusiasm a bit.

For tokyo, i thought kinda the only cool part was Akibahara, their technocenter. It;s really big and you can buy tons of stuff there (duty free if you have your passport with you...like 5% off or something). Not everything is super cheap, but for the most part there are pretty good prices. Ronald liked tokyo better I think, because he has quite a background in animae, whereas I have no idea apart from pokemon (is that even animae?). So anyways, we went in a few Taito places and stuff...pretty much I would say to go to the technomart and then get the hell out of that city. There is a famous fish market there though, and we tried to go the last day only to find out its closed on Sundays...sad day.

I thought Kyoto was nice and wish we'd had more time there. There are cool side trips like going to Nara or Hiroshima (was sick about missing this one!). From kyoto you can also go down to Osaka. Anyways, for Kyoto, you have to hit the main palaces. The city buses and metro are really easy to use, though the JR line is operated by an independent company, so they have separate tickets. There are tons of tours offered, but unless you want to know the history, it would be pretty worthless. We did it on our own and just saw the places, which was fine for us. The main ones I can remember that we saw were the Golden Pavillion and one that is a famous scene with the water in front...

Also we went to Harajuku to try to get a glimpse of the Japanese that dress in crazy baby doll or emo outfits. Gion was another place we visited which is the area that Geisha traditionally live in. We only saw one and then went to the river restaurants. There are probably about a billion and they have outside patios over the water. We didn't sit outside because you had to order one of their set menus and they were all filled with fish, of course.

Japan in general is expensive. You can get some cheap street food in some places, but other than that it's sort of ridiculous. Basically, you just have to prepare yourself before going that you're gonna spend a lot of money and to not let it get you down. It was hard sometimes, like when we stayed in a capsule hotel...I paid like 50 for one night, but had to rationalize it...only in Japan, ya know? The capsule was SUPER comfortable (it's like a jjimjjilbang...but for sleeping it has capsules or the open area). The ryokans are the traditional housings in Japan, but if you go to a traditional one, they're in the country and like 300 a night! That was too much for me, but mainly we just wouldn't have had the time to travel there and back because our trip was so short. In Kyoto we stayed in a hostel called Capsule Ryokan and it was really nice -- no curfew, the people spoke English, free internet, a common kitchenette, storage. It was nice. I cant remember how much that was though.

The money was a little hard for me at first but I figured out a trick: 1,000 yen = 10.00. You just put the period after two of the digits and add a bit. So really 1,000 is more like 13 dollars. Our bus tickets were like 5,000, so they were around 60.

Back in Korea, I just finished my intensive month and am very glad that is over now. I spend way too much time at that school and it's nice to have more time to sleep and just not be stuck at that place. A new teacher arrived this week, Amanda, and will be taking over for Nhi, who leaves in the next few days. She's from Michigan and is half Korean (but looks white) and is trying to learn Korean. She has some family here and will be moving into Nhi's apartment tomorrow. She's never taught before and is a bit nervous, but I think she'll be a great teacher because she's really excited and enthusiastic about it. Today was the last day of classes for this month so on Monday I'll be getting some new students which will be nice. Today we played Apples to Apples in my Social 3 class and they loved it...success!

Ronald and I are going to take a music class here starting September 4th, every Saturday for two hours until November 20th or something like that. That day is the concert...in costume. Pretty excited about the costume part. Other than that the biggest thing we've been trying to figure out is how to send back our luggage to the US before we go around southeast Asia. It's sorta tough to figure out because the biggest box you can send from the post office is pretty small. Next week Sora will call about shipping it there in a boat and see what that's all about.

Last night after I got home from work I skyped with Meaghan and her eighth grade class...pretty crazy. One kid asked if I'd eaten mei...have no idea what that is and must look it up...

Can't wait for the humidity to disperse...

Japan

We went to Japan for the 5 days of break I had...I was sticky the whole time from the humidity, but it was very pretty...I'll try to update later, but right now I'm swamped with intensives (we added a 3-hour daily class for a month) and report cards...

Random stuff

Chile lost. :( very sad.

Went to Caribbean Bay today -- it's part of the Everland theme parks. This one is a water park. I showed the woman my expired Chilean ID card and Ronald gave her his driver's licence to get us in with a student discount, so it was 25,000 won instead of 45,000. The lines were long even today and it's just some random day of the week!! It was sorta hot but got cold when the gray clouds came and started sprinkling. We only went on like 4 rides and I scraped my knees and some of my foot on the bottom of the pool of water when our tube tumped over at the end. Tomorrow is another work day, so I've been finishing report cards and grading essays -- bo-ring. This weekend is the Canada Day/4th of July BBQ cruise thing hosted by the Canadian Embassy...I'm pretty excited about that!

World Cup, Korea vs. Nigeria

For this game, we went to the Olympic Park. I made tuna sandwiches, bought some wine, and put it all in my backpack. We walked from Cheonho to the park and a nice guard guided us to where they were showing the game. We got there around 1:30 I think (the game started at 3:30 am -- Tuesday night/Wednesday morning). It was pretty incredible to be walking through an absolutely silent park for about 15 minutes because when we finally got to the screening area, there were a ton of people.

First we decided to try and enter. They had set up a large screen with four sections of fenced-off grass. We tried to just walk in but the guard indicated to us that we needed a wristband, so we waited in a short line and walked up to the woman. She said something to me and proceeded to chuckle in an embarrassed way and give me a wristband after my grunt and giggle saying something like "I don't know". We walked up to the front section and sat down and waited basically. We found out later that the people in the back two sections had blue wristbands, so we don't really know what was going on there because it was free. Whatever.

So we ate sandwiches, poured the wine, and waited. They started a pre-game pep-up show basically around 2 am. The people went crazy and everybody was cheering and singing their little anthem. They were also dancing. Or was it cheerleading? I'm not sure what to call it, but they had pretty effeminate dance moves to go along with their song. They literally played this on repeat and people continued for about 15 minutes.

When the game finally started...excuse me, when they finally showed the TV station showing the game, people started cheering and when they showed the players waiting to go out onto the field it sounded as if they had just won the game. After the singing and the kickoff, the moment one of the Korean players got the ball, the crowd absolutely exploded with cheers. They were so excited about everything -- it was hysterical. Literally one time they showed the goalie in the goal yelling at one of his teammates and screams erupted from the crowd.

We left at halftime to go home...I had to work today!

I think the most interesting thing, besides the way they cheer, is the way they watch the game. We were in a park, an open field, and EVERYBODY was sitting down, watching the game. I think if I'd seen it in the states, we'd be standing up.

Anyways, I'm tired, so I'm off, chao!

World Cup

We went to a bar in Itaewon to watch the first world cup game of Korea vs. Greece and it was crazy. The Koreans go absolutely nuts when anything happens. They scored a goal and the people celebrated as if they'd won the game. Pretty great. So when they did win the game, it was even more insane!

Monday we watched the Chile vs. Honduras game and the people in the bar asked who we were rooting for and then joined us in cheering on the Chilean team. Near the end of the game, a couple of Koreans wanted to share a table with us and a drink, so they joined us at our table and we talked (sort of) for about 10 minutes. They left just before the game ended, and when we were leaving we went up to pay, and they told us that the two guys had already paid for us...pretty amazing! We didn't even know them and they picked up a decent sized tab for us!

I have the 29th off, so I'm looking forward to that. Other than that, it's been the same ol same ol....It's really really hot here and our fan is on constantly and it's super humid. Pretty gross.

Off to class!

This weekend

On Saturday we had a picnic at Seoul Grand Park with Minsoo and a Venezuelan, Arturo. Then we checked out the zoo a bit and headed home...it was really nice to just hang out and the weather was nice. Hot, but nice.

On Sunday we took a tour with RAS to a cave a little bit south of the city and it was super lame! Haha...well, from my point of view it was because at Sewanee we could actually explore the caves, but here it was just like Rock City...there was a metal pathway you had to follow. Big cave, pretty cool, but super annoying and stupid to just be on that one pathway. After that we took a little boat ride and got to see some pretty scenery. Then we headed to a traditional village where we saw traditional houses and we got to walk up to their lookout place (I'm assuming this is what it was, but everything was written in Korean, so....) with a really spectacular 360 view. After that we headed home and Ronald and I went to see the movie Dragons. We liked it! I thought it was good.

June

We have new classes! I keep my oldest class and my youngest class. Tom had to quit! I'm so sad. His mom was angry because he never wanted to do his homework. Sad. And Peter is gone now to his new school.

This past weekend we went to Namdaemun market. Pretty neat. And Saturday we made another Costco trip, this time taking along my suitcase. Bought more Dr. Pepper and some cheddar cheese! I made fajitas last night and it's just not the same without guacamole/avocado *sigh.

July 28-August 1 is a holiday for me, so I don't have work. Ronald and I are gonna go to Tokyo! I'm excited for that. It'll be nice to have a real break and not just a weekend. On the 29th we're gonna see Zed, a Cirque du Soleil show. Sorta pricey flight-wise, but it's high season.

Other than that, it's been sorta busy with report cards and essays -- I just finished today. It's been sorta hectic getting the new classes ready, but once we settle in, it'll be fine. Can't wait for the weekend though! Today we have to work when nobody else does -- it's a national holiday, Election Day. The kids don't even go to school. Grr.

Lotus Lantern Festival/Buddha's 2554th Birthday

Ok so I know I haven't written in a bit, but I've been sort of busy...I had open class with my Social 3 class and Jerry's parents came. Last weekend there was a Lotus Lantern Festival. I uploaded pictures on picasa of that...it was pretty and there were just a TON of people. The parade on Sunday lasted about 2.5 hours!

This weekend, Ronald and I took the KTX train from Seoul Station to Busan. We spent Friday there in Busan. The first thing we did was find a jimjilbang (like Dragon Hill Spa I talked about earlier...a bath house of sorts) and take a nap. We'd stayed up all night to wait for the train. So we slept and then wandered around a bit and found the beach and then we went to Beomesa Temple. You just take the metro to the stop and when you come out, it directs you to where the buses take you up to the temple. So it was very easy getting to and from there. This was Buddha's 2554th birthday, so the temple was open 24 hours. When we got there, they were putting on a show and all the lanterns were hung. When it got dark, they lit all the lanterns. Very pretty. What was also cool was that there was a natural spring fountain they drank from...I will put up pictures of this, but we also saw this at the Seokguram Temple. But I'm getting ahead of myself...we stayed to watch the show and people kept adding little bookmark looking things to the lanterns -- each lantern had one and I assume it was some type of prayer.

After the show was over, we headed back down and they started some little fireworks. The line to wait for the bus was HUGE. The bus we did get on got stuck going down because a car was parked badly. What ended up happening was that some men came and they lifted the car and moved it a little bit towards the curb so the bus could squeeze by. After this we went to bed.

On Saturday we went to Gyeonju to see the Seokguram grotto. Something that was apparently very cool that Ronald had seen advertised. It was raining pretty hard, but we took a bus from Busan (pretty nice for 4,000!!!) and then had to take a local bus to another part of the city. I had to go to the bathroom so we got off the bus too early and used public restrooms at a museum. Then we waited about 30 min for the next bus to come and that one took us to the stopping point for the bus that takes people up to the grotto. After taking that bus, the driver told us that the next bus was at 6:20. At this point it was about 5 pm. So Ronald went back to ask about the last bus and that was synonymous with next for the driver. Anyways, we went to see the grotto and it turned out to be just one Buddha. Apparently pretty historical, with a lot of religious significance. But that was it. So we headed back to where the bus was coming -- but it was already 6:24. So basically we missed the last bus. So we started walking down the mountain in the pouring rain. What would have taken literally 2 hours to walk was cut down to about 20 minutes because a nice Korean family stopped to ask if we wanted a ride -- yes. So after this we hopped on a bus to Daegu. When we got there it wasn't raining too badly, and we took a cab to what we thought was a jimjilbang. It wasn't. So we paid a whole lot of money and the taxi driver just took us to some other one.

So we spent the night there and on Sunday we walked around a bit and went to eat at The Holy Grill, a mexican food restaurant. It was really good. Owned by Canadians. After that, it was time to head back to Busan. So we took the bus back, walked around in Busan some more, and spent our last night at a pretty nice jimjilbang. Monday morning we caught a taxi and took the train back to Seoul.

Today one of my students, Sehoon, tied himself to his chair today with his backpack strings. That knot was pretty hard to get out and he couldn't move...pretty funny.

Otherwise work is pretty monotonous. Same thing every day except for today and tomorrow...speaking and writing tests!

Speaking and writing test days are so nice. You take an hour of class to do them. Apparently they took almost the whole class period a few months ago, but they changed the exam. Now, there are four prompts: 2 speaking, 2 writing. We give them an hour, but it doesn't take that long. They hardly know the vocabulary anyways, so they can't really answer the questions.

Teacher's day is on Saturday. What a bummer...why couldn't it be on a Tuesday or Thursday? Those days are so long.

Tickets to Busan have been purchased for the weekend of the 21st. Tomorrow I have to see if I can buy the return via internet...I hope so! If they're all out, I'm screwed. Reena and Mark will be staying here...sorta funny...we're trading cities for the weekend basically. They live in Masan though, which is about an hour away from Busan. We'll be staying in Busan and I think will have a full day to see the grotto, a huge castle/temple thing hanging off a mountain. I sure hope the weather's good.

Today the AC has officially been turned on. It's hot and sticky. Yikes...what am I gonna do when summer is finally here!? I think I'll melt away.

Children's Day

Apparently you cannot upload videos to youtube if you are in Korea. Weird.

Today was Children's Day which meant that there was no school and no academies. Today, we visited the Costco on the eastern side of the city at the Sangbong metro station (line 7). The membership costs 35,000 won a year...pretty nice! So we bought tortillas, chicken, shampoo, cups, cranberry juice, hot sauce, and DR PEPPER! So exciting. Pete was in the apartment the whole day basically because he's job searching and doesn't have a computer so I said he could come over and use one of ours for free. So when we got back we took his photo and he uploaded it to wherever he'd been applying to. Then I made fajitas/burritos, though it's very sad to not have guacamole or cheese.

It was too smoggy/foggy/cloudy to go to the glass cafe on the Dongjak bridge, so maybe Saturday instead...

This past week

Thursday I had the day off because it was a school holiday. It was really nice not to have to go to work on that long day! So Wednesday night Ronald and I met up with Pete to check out Hunter bar and MTB bar.

On Thursday Ronald and I decided we would go to a spa and swim in a pool or hang out in a jacuzzi if available. First we went to the Happy Day spa, but it turned out that they had renovated the whole top floor where the pool was to a wedding ceremony center. So we left there and walked back to the metro. I bought a pair of cheap hiking shoes from the side of the road, and we were off to the next spa! I knew that Dragon Hill Spa had a common area pool because I had been there with Charis, so we headed there to the Yongsan metro stop. We hung out in the pool for a while then decided to get massages and with that came a free hour in their jacuzzi. Or so we thought. We ended up fighting the guy at the end because he had told us the wrong price, which was way more money. So we made a deal and paid a little bit more than we had wanted to.

We were going to go to Cafe Cloud on the Donjak bridge to watch the sunset, but after fighting with the guy at DHS, we missed it. So we went back home.

Friday we went out to Hongik University/Hongdae and went to a hookah bar there that Pete knew of. After that we went to another bar around there but decided to leave after that because there were a ton of foreigners there and most of the places there were clubs. Back in Cheonho we went to California bar that had black lights and after one drink decided to go back home and watch a movie. It was about 5 am at this time, so we watched part of a movie and then went to bed around 7 am.

Saturday we had planned to go to Itaewon to see if we could get Ronald a phone (he needs one with emailing capabilities) so we rolled out around 3 pm. Once we got there it turned out there was only one phone place (this had been a recommendation from a language exchange friend of his) and prepaid phones don't have internet. So we walked around for a bit before heading over to Gangnam. We were going to meet Sheena and her husband there at the metro around 8 pm, so we decided to just go there and hang out for a bit. First we went to a Paris Baguette to have a snack and sit for a while and then we went to the Book and Spa cafe again. There we had hot chocolate and then did the Dr. Fish.

After that, it was time to meet Sheena, so we met up with them and went to a bar nearby. We hung out there for about 2 hours and then they decided they should go because they needed to catch the metro back home. So we did the same thing and ended up catching the very last train of the night at 11:30 (lucky!). We were hungry since we hadn't eaten dinner, so we went to a restaurant across the street and had pizza. Then we went home. We watched another movie and fell asleep.

Sunday we went to Yongsan to buy tickets to see Ironman 2 in 4D, but it turned out Ironman 1 was in 4D or Avatar. So we bought tickets to see Avatar in another theater at 3:15. We were going to meet Charis in her neighborhood to go to a spa for a scrubdown, but she woke up pretty sick, so we had about 4 hours to kill. We bought a cable for the TV and looked around for microwaves, but they were all too expensive. Still the cheapest one we've seen was in E-Mart for 59,000 won. We decided to just go to the metro stop where the movie theater was to look around and hang out for a while. It turned out there was a huge Lotte shopping mall so we looked around for shoes for Ronald and then went to try to find the movie theater. The movie theater was in the Times Square mall. It was enormous. Very pretty architecture too. At the bottom of the mall was E-Mart, so we went there to verify the microwave price and we ended up looking at a little wooden floor table. So after the movie we went back and bought that and a couple of floor cushions to have a place to sit and chill on the floor and eat dinner, etc.

The movie was sorta strange. Your chair moved, and sometimes they would blow out flower smells or a thing would hit your feet. It was pretty hot in there, so we were always glad when a windy part was coming.

We went home after that and made mashed potatoes and omelettes for dinner and went to bed. I think I'm getting sick again, so I'm taking lots of vitamin C and I took some sudafed and advil. We shall see...

I get Wednesday off, so we will be going to Cafe Cloud!

Ok I think my enteritis is almost gone...yay! Yesterday I only had one student in my last class because they are all taking exams in their high schools...yuck.

Tomorrow I don't have to work! Yay! I think Ronald and I are gonna try to check out a hot springs spa...it's like 6,000 won and you can stay there for 15 hours without repaying...nice.

Ok off to work. Yesterday it was raining but the day before was beautiful. I hope it gets some consistency soon...

Boo.

I have enteritis. Stupid bacteria. Stupid food.

I finally went to the doctor yesterday after having bad/sharp stomach pains for around 4 days. What happened was I felt so terrible and Sora asked me what was wrong and I just broke down sobbing as if a family member had died. So she took me across the sidewalk to a shopping center that has an internal medicine clinic on the 4th floor and the doctor diagnosed me with enteritis, gave me a shot in the behind, and sent me on my way. Basically I can't eat anything but rice and steamed veggies. So I'm eating this pretty gross porridge thing they have here...it's basically watery rice and they add finely chopped veggies. Super bland. Just now I added some ketchup to give it some flavor...much better.

*sigh.

Cherry Blossoms

I didn't understand why everyone was making such a big deal out of the cherry blossoms blooming until I realized yesterday or today that they bloom and then the pink/white falls off and you're left with a normal green tree.

So hopefully this weekend I can catch sight of some cherry blossoms!

A dude came today and put up the curtains! They're orange, almost burnt orange, and they clash terrifically with the orange comforter. Nice.

Today and yesterday we gave our classes a speaking and writing test. Super boring and super awful. They can't speak OR write. *Sigh.

Last night Ronald and I tried two new restaurants and they were both busts. Bummer. Tonight we went and had Sangyupsa, Korean barbeque, and it was extremely expensive. Good, but way too pricey. Then we found a spa! Much like the Dragon Hill Spa I went to with Charis a while back, but less fancy. This costs 7,000 to get in, and I have no idea what all they have because we didn't pay. Downstairs where we found the spa there was also a place for bowling! In bowling alleys here, you can't drink. Strange. You can drink on the street, in the metro, in a taxi, but not in a bowling alley? Whatever...

Ok I'm tired so I'm going to bed now. Chao!

HomePlus

The discovery Ronald and I made about HomePlus: it has a good variety of things and a wider selection, but is much more expensive than E-Mart. We took two days to write down the prices of the different items we were eyeing and E-Mart definitely won. Except for the fact that HomePlus gave me a pepper grinder! For that I must never forsake it...

An exciting thing: I bought an internet subscription for a year (am I a grownup yet?) and now have my own cable and we are in the process of searching for a router.

Another exciting thing: Winter is leaving! It's getting warmer, though Seoul still has desert-like qualities of intense temperature drops at night. It also has the oh-so-endearing quality of perpetual gusty winds.

Another exciting thing: we're going on an island bike tour this weekend with Adventure Korea. I hope we meet some cool people

Yet another exciting thing: we bought curtains! They're orange, and the lady is going to install them on the 28th, who knows at what time...(now am I a grownup?). Basically I can't sleep past 6 30 am and have decided to finally remedy this situation.

Ok, one more and I swear I'm done: Tom, the bad boy in my basic class (7 years old) told his mom that he only wants to study with me and he wants to do it forever. ajaj...I felt appreciated...

Ok off to pack my bag for the weekend trip! Chao

Oh, and, they love spam here. They give it as gifts to each other.

Still haven't gotten used to looking up for places to go...I'm still looking at the ground level...must work on this.

E-Mart doesn't have pepper grinders.

Yet another week...

Work is the same, so I won't bore you with trivial details.

On the way home from work I stopped at Gubeundari to go to Home Plus. It's a British company I think and has a lot of TESCO stuff there. I think it's better than E-Mart, so I may be stopping there regularly. I bought quite a bit of stuff there that I've been wanting to get and I found chips and hot sauce! Yay! I need to go there again to get a pepper grinder because the pepper I bought at E-Mart didn't have a build in grinder like I thought it would! What am I supposed to do with pepper balls...so I think I'll stop by on my way home tomorrow after work.

Thursday morning I woke up and went to Insadong and walked barefoot and handed out flyers with two other girls and then I went to work. Boy did my feet hurt! And I was only barefoot for like 3 hours! I can't imagine...

Friday after work I stopped off to pick up a book and a bottle of wine that I bought from a guy on Craigslist. That night I went out to a bar with Pete, my co-worker that I go to Korean class with, and we hung out there and I caught the metro home.

Saturday I woke up and went to meet a dude at a metro station to pick up a toaster oven I bought from him for 20,000 won. So now I have a toaster oven...yay! I want to get a microwave, a blender, and a rice cooker, but the rice cookers here are so expensive! I just want what Meg has from Target that's $15 but they don't ship internationally. Sad day. Anyways, then I met Pete and his friend Mike to grab a drink before Korean class. Well, instead of grabbing a drink we went to a market by Jogno 5-ga...it was really neat. It was inside, but there were no doors really. Sort of like a covered market. In the center of it were a bunch of little stands that you could eat at. I want to go back and explore more! There were also a lot of foreign products there and I found out that they have my perfume there! Yay! The bottle of Jack was still too expensive though, so I didn't get it. Basically, Pete and I skipped class and then walked around with Mike. It was pretty crazy around that area because you could buy whatever you wanted, but it would literally be like 3 blocks of stores selling purely stools or lamps. Very random. Then we saw the puppies and kitties part. I had to leave the store because I almost cried...I thought it was sad to see the kitties there. They seemed to be too young to be away from their mothers and there was one in a store we passed that looked like it had literally been driven crazy from being in the cage. Really sad.

Then we went to eat at samgyupsa which is the thing where you cook your own meat on the grill that's in the center of your table. They put a bucket of coals in a hole in the table and then the grill over it. They replace the grill whenever it gets too dirty. We drank something that I can't remember the name of, but it was rice wine. The same stuff I had with Charis and her friend on the night before Easter. After that we went to a bar called Beer Market that had a good variety of beer and we sat at the table with beer in the middle. There's a hole in the middle of the table where they put different beer and ice so you just take out the one you want to drink. After that we went to a bar by Mike's apartment and hung out there. We played darts and some Koreans sang karaoke. A lot of the songs were sung by the Filipino bartender. Apparently a ton of them come to Korea on entertainment visas and sing in bars and stuff. We slept at Mike's on the futon and this morning we went to Smoothie King and then came back home. I immediately took a shower and I cleaned a bit. I need to organize some stuff and correct the kids' essays, so I'm out!

To see

some pics

Saturday, the day before Easter

So on Saturday I met up with Andy and we went to go meet Charis and her two friends, Forest and Paige. We met them at the Gangnam station and went to a café nearby (called something like Book and Café) and ordered coffee and Dr. Fish. So we drank our coffee and then it was time for doctor fish....first the guy rinses off your feet.

Then you stick your feet in the pool (here's me and Andy in the "extreme" pool...these were some big ones).

This cost 2,ooo won and it was supposed to be for only 15 minutes, but we were there longer because it wasn't crowded. Basically these fish just eat the dead skin off your feet (so I understand).

Here was an artsy shot of a fish poking its head out:

After that we walked to the pancake restaurant (Butterfinger's) and put our names down for a reservation. We had an hour to kill, so we went to an enormous bookstore nearby. I bought 3 books (including The Little Prince, which I've already finished and loved) and then we went back to eat. The food was amazing. Then I met Pete at Korean class at 4:oo (1,000 won again) and after that went out to a restaurant with the teacher and him and a girl from another class. There I had sushi and then went out to where Charis lives because we had decided earlier that I was just gonna crash at her place so I could go to church with her and Paige the next morning. So I went out there and met her and we brought down the extra mattress Paige and Forest had, and were chatting when her neighbor/coworker/friend knocked on the door. He'd been celebrating someone's birthday but had left early and wanted to hang out. So we chatted for a while and then finally made it out to get some dinner around 11 pm. He took us to an authentic Korean place...pretty cool. They give you a metal teapot filled with fermented rice wine (not bad, actually) and some Koreans joined our table so we sat and ate and chatted.

Sunday morning we met Paige and headed over to the church across the street. After some searching we followed some other white people to what we correctly assumed was the English service. It was on the 10th floor and they had a projector, band, stadium seating, etc. This church was humongous, but anyways, we attended the service (part of it was some weird/really bad and boring interpretive dancing that made no sense) and then I headed back home. On the way to the metro I picked up some mandu (dumplings) and accidentally bought 8 instead of 2. So I'll be taking those to work tomorrow for lunch...

When I got home I was dismayed to find that my free internet had vanished. The network I'd been stealing from is gone. So I'm down at Holly's Coffee a the bottom of my building. I'll have to ask about internet tomorrow and a package that didn't get delivered...*sigh. I didn't want to have to pay for internet. Hopefully I'll be able to find something cheap. I need the internet because every Sunday the students submit essays online. These can only be accessed via Internet Explorer (only the worst browser known to man which Korea seems to prioritize) so I have to use my parallels every time.

Also, I signed up for internet banking with Woori bank and you have to use Internet Explorer. I downloaded the security software, but it still was giving me an error message after I had entered my password to login, so I called the help line. They basically had me reinstall all of the programs but it still didn't work. So their "expert" advice was to try a different computer. Awesome. I'll just have to use Paposo's when he gets here...fome.

I made Korean flashcards. We shall see...

You know something's wrong when...

I saw a couple today. His purse was cuter.

Class

On Saturday I went to Korean class with Pete, a co-worker. We went to the level zero class (this is 3 classes long) and we can't go to the level one class until May. I guess really we could go, but that would mean we were going in in the middle of the course (it's 10 classes long). You pay 1,000 won at the end of the class which basically just covers the cost of the paper copies. We came to the third class, so we were a bit slower than some, but we plan to go until we can hop up to level 1.

Tomorrow I'm going to meet with Andy again. We're gonna go to lunch and after that I'm heading to class. At night I'm meeting Charis to go to an apparently amazing pancake place that her friends are obsessed with.

Today was really nice and sunny though the wind definitely makes it rather chilly. Today I went to school then picked up some things at E-Mart (potatoes, fabric softener, towels. was going to get some Jack or champagne, but it's outrageously expensive....$50 for a fifth, $20 for the cheapest sparkling wine) and another random store, picked up a pizza (not too delicious) for dinner, and headed home.

Tomorrow is the 3rd which means I have to write a number outside my door that corresponds to my gas usage for the month. Sora told me today that my health insurance should be coming soon. I have my phone, so I'm pretty much set.

The Korean education system is pretty crazy. Elementary school is the same as ours, where the kids can play and learn, etc. But once they hit middle school, it is all work and no play. They go to middle school around age 14 I believe. Every day (including Saturdays) they go to school and then usually go to 3 or 4 academies after. I work at an English one. So the kids might have gone to a math one and a science one before coming to mine. So it's pretty hard to get them to do their homework because they're so unbelievably busy. A lot of the older ones don't even want to be attending class, but come because their parents force them to. Pretty much when they hit high school they stop coming because they have too much schoolwork. At the end of high school you have to pass this huge exam that basically tells you where you are going to go to college. From what I hear, college is sort of a joke and they don't really have to do much. So they climax in high school basically. Pretty much everyone I've talked to hates the system but Andy tells me that the man in charge will be there for a while. Well, I hope they figure it out...

Today Nhi showed me the stationary store, basically Office Depot but Korean style. It makes me want to paint! They had tons of great stuff there, but art is way too expensive of a hobby. So I'm banning myself from that place in order to not go bankrupt.

I think I'm going to try to go to Japan in September. Korean Thanksgiving is in September and it's really the only substancial break I get. Mainly I just get random days throughout the week which really sucks because it means I can't really go anywhere. Oh well. If I save enough money I can just go after I finish the year's contract.

April 8th! Do a good deed...

http://www.onedaywithoutshoes.com/

Sunday

Today I met up with Charis at the City Hall metro station and we went to the palace nearby that also had a museum inside. It was fun and we saw the work of Noosan Pak or something like that. We were going to go to the contemporary museum after to check out the Andy Warhol exhibit, but the line was insane, so we got back on the metro and went to Seoul Station metro station. There we thought we would find a ton of stuff because we always hear that name, but really it was just the train station and a department store. So we ate around there and then headed to the Express Bus Terminal metro station. There we shopped underground...lots of stuff down there and pretty cheap. I bought a bag/purse and a couple headbands, a scarf, and a sweatshirt for 35,000. Then we decided it was time to head home (we have report cards to do this weekend).

An entertaining game: whose purse is that? This is a fun game because a lot of men wear purses. And not like...man purses, like a woman's purse.

Something cool: on the way to switch lines to line 7, we saw a cool glass restaurant on the side of the highway/river. I will try to go in the future...

more on korean culture

When they get an answer right, they circle it.

When they get an answer wrong, they put a check mark or a slash

This creates some confusion...

I'm getting a cell phone! It'll be here on Tuesday. I went to the Seoul Global Center. Their website does a good job of describing how to get there, so I had no problem finding it. What I didn't know was that the only phone company offered there is LG, which I think is the biggest, and the only bank there is KEB. I had read somewhere that they can link your Korean bank account to a foreign one and you can transfer money back and forth for free, but this is not true. First of all, you need a bank account with KEB and second, it costs 8,ooo per transaction. So I got the information for my bank, Woori, from the girl there so I can call and talk to someone in English.

As for the phone, I bought the standard plan and it's for a year. If I decide to terminate early, I'll have to pay 7,500 for every month early I cancel. So if I complete 10 months, I'll have to pay 15,000. On this plan I pay 11/12,000 and 18 won per talking minute and 20 per text message. If most of the people I know end up having LG too, there's a cheaper plan that has like 200 free minutes a month for calls to LG users. Receiving is free.

The funniest thing I saw though was coming out of the metro. You have to walk a decent ways underground, an while I was doing this I saw a bunch of policemen crowded around a tiny square area, almost as if they were having a meeting. But it turned out that they were trying to detain a man in a motorized wheelchair! When I came out of the SGC, I saw them trying to stop him above ground! I don't know how it could have possibly been so difficult...I mean, the man can't walk...

I also saw some musicians, but that was about all that happened to me during the day.

Last night we ate dinner across from my apartment at a chicken place. They have one huge round plate in the center of the table and everyone takes from that communal dish. It was very good. Then we went to a karaoke place (nori bung it sounds like to me, but I don't really know how to spell it). Here the karaoke is in a private room and you just sing there with the TVs. First you pay for how long you want, then they take you to your room (you take off your shoes and they put them in cubbies for you before you step up to the place where all the rooms are). We had fun, stayed for about an hour.

Then I came back and worked on some report cards. These things are absolutely obnoxious. It's a terrible interface and only works with Internet Explorer, the worst browser known to man. It's super finicky and right now it won't even pull up the website for me. We have to enter in all the test scores for every student, all their homework information, and evaluate them using these drop boxes and then put in comments. It takes a lifetime. Terrible system. Oh well, hopefully I'll get used to it. But I really wish it was available in another browser. I hate IE.

Today, Saturday, I'm going with a co-worker, Peter, to have lunch and go to Korean class. Hope it's a good one...

It's snowing again. I have to take another three days of medicine...the weekend was uneventful as I was in bed for most of it. I got my ARC today though, which is exciting, so I'm going tomorrow to the Seoul Global Center to get a phone.

So it turns out I need to wait until after I get a bank account (which I'm going to do tomorrow with Sora and Mindy) before I go get a phone. I think it'll be easier that way.

Also forgot to mention that the reason I went back today for more medicine was that I thought I had gone on Friday originally...this makes a difference because they give you your medicine per dose, meaning each dose is in its own little paperish like sack. I got 12 but thought I had only gotten 9 or that I had gotten all 12 but lost the other 3. So I went back because I thought today, Monday, was supposed to be my last day of treatment instead of yesterday. I ended up having to go back up to the clinic where she checked me out and said I'd need another 3 days worth of medicine, they shot me one in the buttocks again and sent me on my way. Now that I look, it's sort of bruised, but whatever.

It started snowing like crazy during class, but petered off by the time we'd gotten out so we walked back in a nice wet slush. Gosh...isn't winter supposed to be over already?

Now it's a bright, sunny day, and apparently I have brochitis. I went back to the woman I saw about my throat and she told me that. Then they gave me a shot of something and pills to take for the next 4 days. So I feel sort of loopy. And I'm exhausted. And today is a long day. Go team!

it's snowing on my gmail page. guess why. yup, it's snowing in Seoul. wtf, i thought winter was over

Seoul Immigration Office

On Tuesday morning, I went to the Seoul Immigration Office. Before this you must have your health examination (as I talked about before), the application forms (usually given to you by your employer), 2 passport photos, your passport obviously, and 10,000 or 50,000 won (10 for Americans because we initially get a multiple entry visa. I know if you're Canadian and want multiple entry you need to pay 50,000. If you just want single entry, I think it's only 10).

I left at 7:55 am, stopped in the metro to buy a waffle (yum) and got on the purple line. The office is at the Omokgyo station (exit 7) in the west of the city. It took me 55 minutes on the metro and then you have to walk a few blocks. The metro shoots you out onto a street that you just walk straight on for a few blocks before it curves to the right. Pictures to follow, but they have a couple of signs on the street that let you know you're on the right track. Also, when you see the SK gas station (red and orange logo), you're close. You'll have to cross the street. The curve turns into a dead end and you cross the street and the Immigration office is practically right there.

I got a number first (the room to the right with everyone waiting), then went downstairs to take my photos (6,000 won!) and buy my stamps (I bought one, 10,000 won). I didn't know the booth was about to take my picture so I had to pay another 6,000 to redo it. I heard hana (one) and was like uh-oh. Apparently they only count to two...

I should have then gone to the 2nd floor on the right to sign up/buy delivery. They will mail everything to you for 4,000. I didn't though, and waited downstairs. I was called up and she took my papers and then I had to go to the 2nd floor and pay for delivery. I went straight to her and handed her the confirmation and I was done!

On the way back to the metro I stopped at a bakery. The bakeries here are strange and don't sell too much bread. They have pastries and strange things....

Found out this is what I saw in Insadong the other week:

eondaegi (번데기), stewed silkworm pupa, or you can try sucking the insides out of boiled sea shells.

also, the cherry blossom festivals are soon! yay!

Saturday

Last night I went out with Sheena, a friend I met in Chile, and we had dinner and then met up with Charis and her friends. I met Charis when we were both waiting for the plane in Seoul. So we went to Gecko's in Itaewon, a place where there are a ton of foreigners. After that we went to another bar in Hangae that was underground and decorated like a cave. There we sat on pillows on the floor and they brought us a hookah. After that some of the group went to a rock club and the rest of us stayed for a bit before walking to the next bar, a hidden place that Jason knew about.

We hung out there for a bit and then finally Charis and I left with Jason in a cab...he dropped us off at Dragon Hill Spa by the Yongsan metro station. The metro wasn't open and neither one of us wanted to take a cab home, so we decided to go here. You go inside, pay 12,000 won, and they give you a locker key. The first locker is where you put your shoes. Then you keep going and the women go up one elevator and the men another. This takes you to the dressing rooms. Once inside, we then went to find our locker, took off all of our clothes, and went downstairs to shower. After you shower you are then allowed to go into the hot pools, sauna, etc. They offer a full body scrub which I wanted to try, but didn't have enough money for (20,000). We sat in a couple of the hot pools for a few minutes with the jets on. After that we put our scrubs on (they give you shorts and a shirt) and sat in a massage chair to try to catch some z's. Basically it was too hot, so we explored the rest of the place and then headed out to the now-open metro. I got home around 8 and then slept, woke up around 1 and then showered, etc. I feel fine actually and had a great time! Very cool to see the spa. EVERYONE is naked. That is, until you get to the Main Hall, where everyone has to wear their scrubs.

Odd things

When they raise their hands in class, it's always a fist.

If you write someone's name in red, it means they're dead.

You hail pets here the way we beckon people at home (palm up). To motion to a person or taxi, you do it with your palm down...sort of awkward.

Health Exam

I'm currently battling various diseases it seems...I was feeling pretty sick Monday and Tuesday, and yesterday I went to the Seoul Medical Center to get my health exam so I can apply for my ARC. It was super fast. First they weighed me, took my blood pressure, checked my hearing and eyesight, and...measured my chest. Don't know why. Then I had a chest x-ray, then they took blood and urine samples. I was out of there in a jiffy. Had to bring 2 passport photos, 65,000 won, and my passport. There were 2 old guys that spoke English-very friendly and probably very bored.

Last night I noticed some white stuff (exudate as Dad said in his email...) on one of my tonsils so I took some pretty awesome macro photos and sent it to Dr. Dad. So tomorrow morning I'm going to go to the clinic near my school to get a throat culture done to make sure I don't have strep. Exhilarating, I know.

This week has gone by pretty slow because I've been feeling so bad. Also, I'm so ready to stop having to turn in my lesson preps! It takes me the full two hours to do them the way Sora wants them, so I have no time to come up with fun things to do with the kids. So that sucks. Today I did have a little extra time and printed up some items so the young ones could move them around on the board to make sentences (i.e. "The green building is taller than the blue house.").

For lunch today I went to Pizza School where pizzas are 5,000 won. I think I might have accidentally conveyed to them that I am British...hmm...more on this later, I think.pictures of the aforementioned snow. this was the day after

also...

oh, I can't believe I didn't already say this, but 7-11 is here! like all over. yay Dallas!

First full week

Well today's Tuesday and I haven't been feeling well since yesterday morning, but here's a mini update: classes are long, students are mostly bored or don't want to be there, my shower will get replaced tomorrow as it still has yet to stop dripping, and tomorrow morning I will go to the hospital for my health exam! This time I will bring my passport...

it's snowing!

E-mart

Today I went back to E-mart to try to exchange the water heater I bought for one that would turn off automatically when the water was boiling. I went there with a note Sora wrote for me, no receipt, with the box torn at the top. I brought it back in, showed the note to the girl who then explained to me that I needed to get a number and wait to exchange. I couldn't find the number machine, so I showed it to another man standing nearby and he showed it to a pregnant woman and basically they said I couldn't exchange it because the box was torn on top. So I pretended not to understand (played the wei-guk/gringo card) and opened the box to show the heater. Then they got another guy to come over and he asked me what I wanted to do and I said exchange it. So he talked to the woman and he nodded and I knew he would let me exchange it...so then the woman gave me cash and I went upstairs and bought another one! Success!