A party, a wedding and many shots of soju

Last weekend was jam packed with festivities.  I was happy that I stayed in last weekend and recovered from my cold.  On Friday I was expecting to have a nice, quiet night with my puzzle and a cup of tea, but when I went to work, I was told we'd be going out for a late dinner after work.  After about 7 shots of soju and a large consumption of raw fish with my co-workers, it turned out to be a pretty good night.

The next morning was a little painful, but I managed to make it to Korean class. It was the last day of classes, so we just played games, ate pizza and had a graduation ceremony.  We all received little certificates that said we completed the course.  It's a good thing there's no final exam or I would have failed for sure.

Me and my teachers

After class, some friends and I went shopping for a present for the wedding the day after.  We ended up getting a gift set from the body shop.  In the evening, I went out for dinner with some of the teachers and students from the YMCA.  We went to a great Korean BBQ place.  It was definitely one of the best ones I've been to so far.  After dinner, I went to my friend Walita's house for a Christmas party.  I didn't know too many people there, but it was a nice crowd to hang out with.

On Sunday, I got all dressed up and went to the wedding.  Korean wedding are really short.  The whole thing is about an hour and a half.  That includes the wedding ceremony  and the reception.  When we got there, they informed us that'd we'd be singing a song during the ceremony.  We sang a Korean winter song we learned in class.  After the ceremony, there was an all-you-can-eat buffet.  It was pretty good.  Nothing like the buffets back home though.

Election Day in Busan

On Wednesday work was canceled, so Diana, her friend Rebecca and I went to the south of Korea to the city of Busan.  Busan is the second largest city in Korea and is popular for its beaches.  We took the high-speed train there from Daegu.  One-way is only 11,000 won and takes about 1 hour. 

 

When we arrived in Busan, we searched the Russian district for some pierogies.  With the help of my friend back home and some friendly Russian people, we managed to find the pierogie restaurant after looking around and walking in circles for about an hour.  They were worth the effort.  We even managed to get some sour cream.  The Russian district was very nice during the day, but I've been told it's not very safe at night.  There were quite a few Filipino restaurants in that area too.

After the delicious pierogies, we took the subway to Haeundae beach.  It's very popular in the summer and I've been told up to 1 million people cram onto this small beach during the busy season.  It was  a beautiful day, but still a little chilly so not too many people were there.

Haeundae Beach, Busan

We walked along the beach and took pictures.  I took off my shoes and rolled up my pants so I could test how cold the water was.  It surprisingly wasn't too bad.  I think Wasaga beach in the summer is much colder.  Unfortunately, my efforts to spare my clothes from getting wet were unsuccessful and my pants got soaked.

Me in the chilly waters of the South Sea

Later on, we checked out the Busan Aquarium.  It's really neat.  The whole thing is underground and right next to the beach.  The highlights for me were the penguins, the zebra eel and the gigantic crabs.  They also let you pick up jellyfish and there are tunnels surrounded with water so the sharks and stingrays swim all around you.  It was definitely worth the visit.

  

After catching the sunset on the beach, we went to a Turkish restaurant called Saray.  It turned out to be ridiculously expensive for mediocre food we received.  I ordered a plate of humus for 6,000 won.  It ended up being a very small plate and they didn't even give me  anything to dip in the humus.  They told me I had to buy the bread, which was another 4,000 won.  $10 for humus and bread is absolutely ridiculous.  I told them that that was stupid and after some convincing, they gave me some bread to dip in the humus.  Definitely never going to eat there ever again.      

Sunset at Haeundae Beach

Introduction into Korean food 101

I've been talking about some foods I've been trying during my stay here.  Some people have been asking about these weird new foods, so I'll try to post more pictures to show you some of the odd and cool stuff that Korea has to offer.

Exhibit A:  Typical dinner for me.  A gimbap roll and on this particular night, a fried pastry fish filled with red bean paste given to me by my boss, Samson.

Exhibit B:  "Red bean pastry fish" - Note the crispy deep-fried goodness of the pastry.  The dark brown spots are red bean paste.  It can be bought on many street corners for about 500 won or 50 cents.

Exhibit C:  "Gimbap role" - The dark orange thing is carrot, the dark yellow thing is pickled radish, the pink thing is ham, the light yellow thing is egg (yes, egg) and the green stuff I haven't figured out yet.  It is obviously wrapped in rice and seaweed (or Gim) with sesame seeds sprinkled on top.  There's supposed to be fish in there too, but it is not visible in this photo.  One roll of gimbap can be bought at most Korean restaurants.  A regular roll is about 1000 won or a little over $1.00.  You can get rolls specially made with cheese, tuna, ham or even kim chi.  One roll is a typical dinner for me during the work week.

New Apartment!!!

I moved into my new apartment on Saturday morning.  Simon and Samson came to help me move all my big stuff like the fridge, washing machine and sofa.  The move was pretty smooth.  I saran wrapped my puzzle so I wouldn't lose pieces when I moved upstairs.  I'm loving my new place.  There's so much more space in the kitchen and in the bedroom.  I have access to the roof where I can hang out and hang my clothes in the summer.  Best of all, the washroom is INSIDE!  It's a million times warmer than my other bathroom and there's no manhole cover in the middle of it. 

 

 

My new living room.  The set-up is very similar to my old living room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kitchen:  much more spacious and clean

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bathroom: still no sink, but no manhole cover either

 

 

 

 

 

My bedroom: it was hard to get a good angle of it

 

 

 

 

 

 

Entrance way:  I have that cool fancy door.  Once you go in the kitchen is on the right and the bathroom is on the left.

 

 

 

 

 

View from the roof

Fun times at Oedae

On Thursday, I was teaching a class of 3 students because the other middle school kids were still writing their tests.  I decided to do an improv class to help them with their speaking skills.  We did a mock job interview and pretend phone calls.  I made them call 911 and this is how one of the conversations went:

Me:  Emergency services, how can I help you?

Dana: There is a fire in my house.

Me:  Is there anyone in the house?

Dana:  My mom.  (smiling and giggling)

Me:  Is it a big fire?

Dana: No.

Me: Where is the fire?

Dana: It's in the bathroom.

Me: And where is your mom?

Dana:  She's in the bathroom.  (smiling and giggling)

She had me cracking up by the end.  The class went really well, better than I expected.  The 3 students said they found it very interesting too.

My 6 and 7 year olds are ridiculously cute.  It's sometimes hard to discipline them.  Sometimes if I'm focused on one kid, another will come up and hide behind me.  One little boy named Mike has gotten into the habit of yelling "EXCELLENT".  I said that a lot when I first started teaching them and now it has really caught on.  The other day I was sitting at my desk working on lesson plans and he came up to me and was like:

Mike: Teacher? (in his cute, innocent voice)

Me: Yes Mike?

Mike:  EXCELLENT!!!!!!!! (yelling)

I had to apologize to the other teachers for starting that trend because they yell it out when other teachers are teaching them too.  Little episodes like those really make me love teaching here.

Hookah weekend

This past weekend was jam packed as always. Saturday morning I went to Korean classes and didn't do half bad, especially considering I missed last week's class. After class, a bunch of us went out for our weekly lunch. I had to get back to Ansim for 3pm for a Taekwondo lesson, but when I was walking to the subway, I got tempted by the Krispy Kreme free donuts and ended up being a little bit late for Taekwondo. After the lesson, I met up with some friends and we went to the Ariana Hotel in another part of town. This hotel has an all-you-can-eat-and-drink buffet for only $17. The band that plays there is Filipino and amazing good. There were a lot of Filipinos at the restaurant too. The most I've seen in Daegu so far.

Marla, Danielle and Sarai at the Ariana Hotel

Afterwards we went downtown to a hookah bar and smoked some shisha.
The place was pretty hard to find and every time we asked people, they thought we were talking about pot and bongs, which is very illegal here. It was a really cool place. It was really relaxed and dark. Definitely worth going back to.

Sarai and I at the Hookah bar

On Sunday, I went out for brunch with Walita and some of her friends. We went to the Holy Grill for their first weekend of all day breakfast. The owner there knows me now, well he knows I'm a Leafs fan. I walked in and he looked at me and said "The Leaf game isn't on till 3, Ottawa is playing the first game". He's a cool guy, but a Red Wing's fan. For brunch, I had french toast stuffed with peanut butter, cream cheese and bananas with a side of french toast. It was amazingly good. Afterwards we did some shopping. I only bought a pair of penguin socks for a dollar, but Walita went all out and bought a pair of really nice boots. After shopping, I went home and slept on the couch for most of the evening. I'm finding that I'm spending less and less time in my apartment and more time hanging around downtown. Once January hits and intensives start I'll have no social life, so I might as well get it out of my system now.

In other big news, I'm moving apartments. I'm getting the apartment above mine, which has 2 bedrooms, a living room and a bathroom that's more indoors than mine. It probably doesn't have a manhole cover either. I have no idea what I'm going to do with an extra bedroom. Perhaps I can make it into a room solely for my puzzles (my new obsession). I'm dreading moving all my stuff, but it will definitely be worth it. I'm sure Samson and Simon will be doing most of the heavy lifting anyway.

Weekday outings and DVD rooms

This week the middle school kids have tests and are doing test prep with the Korean teachers, so my schedule has been exceptionally light.  As a result, I've been going out more during the week to battle the monotony of the daily grind.  On Wednesday night, I finished work at 8:30 and headed downtown to meet my friend Scott for a late dinner.  He took me to a great cheap burger place (They're hard to find in Korea).  Afterwards, we went to Thunderbirds for drinks and foosball.  A bunch of people I knew were there because my friend Meg was leaving the next day for home and everyone came out to say goodbye.  She'll be back in a month because she got a contract with a new school that starts in January.  It was a really good time.  I actually won at foosball, but ended up hurting Scott's pride a bit.  Later on, I got killed in a doubles game.  I think I'm getting a lot better though.

Afterwards, I headed to Commune's for open mic night.  Commune's is a cool bar, but it really makes me miss the smoking laws back home.  The air was saturated with smoke and I couldn't stop coughing.  It doesn't help that Communes is really small and in a basement with no air circulation.  I like the bars back home, where you can hang out there and not end up smelling like smoke when you get home.

I decided to check out a DVD room.  There are tons of these DVD rooms all over the place.  You pretty much go in, pick a DVD, buy some snacks, then you get a comfy  couch and big screen TV in a private room to watch the movie.  I watched Shrek 2.  It's really cool because you'd never see anything like that at home and here they're everywhere.

School has been good lately.  It's not too hard because we're giving out the monthly tests right now.  The kids are really cute and many times they have gifts for me.  One of my six year olds named Suzy gave me a bracelet.  Other kids are like "Teacher...gum", "Teacher...jelly", or "Teacher....candy".  One little girl named Michelle gave me a fish-shaped pastry filled with red bean paste. It was delicious. 

Thanksgiving dinner and Mom's visit

I haven't written in awhile because I've been busy being sick, going out and hanging out with my mom.  Last Thursday was American Thanksgiving and some of my friends were able to buy a turkey dinner from one of the army bases in Daegu.  I think there are about 3 bases around the city.  Eight of us gathered for Thanksgiving dinner (6 Canadians and 2 Americans).  We had turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, roasted veggies and ice cream for dessert.  It was amazingly good, especially after eating gimbap for the last month and a half.  It was a good night of hanging out, eating turkey and watching Labyrinth. 

On Friday after classes, Samson and I went to pick up my mom from the bus station.  She took an airport limousine from Incheon Airport in Seoul to Daegu.  It took about 4 and a half hours, but it was only $35.  When we got there, her bus hadn't arrived yet, so we had some soup at a restaurant across the street.  After the soup, I looked out the window and my mom was standing there about to call me at a payphone.  I was so happy to see her.  I didn't realize how much I missed my mom until I saw her.  When we got back to my apartment, she showed me all the stuff she brought me.  It was mostly clothes and food from home and the Philippines.  Lipton sidekicks never looked so good.

The next day, my mom and I went downtown and did some shopping.  I got a purse, a book, a puzzle, a shirt and some bunny slippers for my cold apartment.  There wasn't much to buy there because I'm not really into Korean fashion.  We hung out in the Kyobo bookstore for awhile, which has a decent sized English section and a Starbucks.  Afterwards, we ate at the Outback Steakhouse (the medium steak there is really medium rare) then we went home and just relaxed.

On Sunday, we went to E-mart and bought a ton of stuff for my apartment.  My apartment is a lot more organized and efficient now.  I'll post pictures of the changes soon.  After shopping we ate at Pizza Hut and then spent more money at the Adidas outlet store.  Usually I wouldn't be caught dead in an Adidas tracksuit, but there isn't anyone to laugh at me and call me a gina in Korea, so I'm okay with it for now.  Afterwards, we went back to my apartment and set everything up we bought then went out to dinner at an authentic Korean BBQ.  It was a lot of fun and we had some good pork.  All the food in the picture was only $10.  On Monday morning, mom caught the bus back to the airport.  I'm so happy she came to see me, especially since I probably won't see her again until I get home.  10 more months!!!!

Writing in red

My tiny cold has gone to my sinuses and it's really starting to bother me.  There's a lot of pressure in my head and I'm congested and coughing all the time.  It's really crappy and I'm hoping I feel better by the time my mom gets here. 

Yesterday while feeling sick and teaching, I started writing the names of my kids on the whiteboard.  I do that so I can give them stars if they get participate.  If they get enough stars, they can get play money to buy pens and notebooks.  This time when I started writing their names, tiny gasps came from the students behind me after every name I wrote.  By the time, I got to the 4th or 5th name, I realized that I was writing their names in red (something you only do for dead people here in Korea).  I apologized to the kids.  Thankfully, they seemed to forget about it by the end of class.  It was a rather minor incident, but a cultural faux pas nonetheless.

Friends, Crispy Creme, and Hockey

The past couple weeks finally caught up with me and this weekend I started to feel a bit sick.  Mostly just a little congestion and coughing, nothing seriously.  It's more annoying than anything else.  I decided to just take it a bit easier this weekend and take a break from the bars. 

After Korean class on Saturday, a bunch of us went out for our weekly lunch.  I learned how to say "I don't like spicy food" and "I don't like eggs", so I was able to order my bibimbap (hot rice dish usually served very spicy with a raw egg on top) the way I like it.  It was a bit bland, but at least I could eat more of it.  Afterwards, we went in search of donuts and ended up at Crispy Creme.  Koreans love their Crispy Creme.  You can see them walking around downtown with boxes of that stuff.  I decided to have a cookie, chocolate, NY cheesecake donut.  Some things in life are worth being fat for and that donut certainly is one of them.  It was totally worth the calories, which I'll be working off at Taekwondo for the next 2 weeks.

After that delicious donut, I went home, did some laundry and crashed for a couple hours.  Then I went to meet up with my friend, Walita, who lives about an hour away by subway.  The plan for the night was a sleepover filled with pizza, wine, watching Friends, popcorn, and catching up on each other's lives.  It was a really great time.  Walita is about 12 years older than me, but she's really cool to hang out with and we have tons in common.  She's definitely one of the best people I've met here so far.

The next day, we watched some more friends and then made our way downtown.  It was a pretty cold day and the crisp air reminded me of home. We went to the Kyobo bookstore downtown, which has a decent sized English section then looked at all the weird Korean fashions in the stores.  The most ridiculous thing we found was a pair of ballet flats with built-in leg warmers.  I think they go with the tights with stirrups that are so popular here.   For lunch, we had some good pasta at Italy and Italy.  Then Walita had to go home.  She's still recovering from a bad kidney infection and was a bit sore. 

I wandered over to The Holy Grill, which is a restaurant owned by a Canadian.  Every Sunday at 4 pm, they play hockey night in Canada from the night before.  I met a bunch of really cool Canadians and a couple of Americans there.  We talked about how much we miss Tim Horton's commercials and the voice of the commentators during the hockey game.  It was great to have a little bit of home in Korea and really great to see the Leafs beat the Sens.

Bad sushi, wii and ginger ale

Thursday was a slight break from the same monotonous routine of waking up, going to taekwondo, eating lunch, going to work, watching TV and sleeping.  I missed taekwondo to go to a teaching seminar that taught us how to introduce books to our kids and the different activities to do with them.  It was interesting, but I doubt I'll be doing that any time soon since I teach speaking and listening, not reading.  Teaching from all the Oedae schools in Daegu were there.  I met a couple guys from Ontario.  One was from Oakville and another from Orillia.  The guy from Orillia went to school with Tracy's sister.  It's a small world.

After the seminar, Diana, 2 of the Korean teachers from my school and I went to get some sushi.  It was probably the worst sushi I ever had.  There was a weird looking bright yellow piece of sushi.  I thought it was pickled radish at first, but we asked the people who worked there and they said it was jellyfish.  I gave it a try and it was way too chewy for my liking.  I gagged on it and felt sick to my stomach the rest of the day.

Luckily, Thursday is my easy day.  I have a 2 hour break and I get to leave at 8:30.  In one of my classes, there's this boy, Peter, who makes me so mad.  He walks in late every class with no good excuse and never has his homework done.  The same thing happened today and it was the first time I ever made a kid stand and hold his hands in the air.  Afterwards, I made him stay late and finish his homework too.  Aside from that kid, the rest of the kids were great and it was a good teaching day. 

Even though I felt a bit sick to my stomach, I decided to meander downtown after work.  I walked over to Thunderbirds, an expat bar.  It was pretty dead when I got there and I felt a little dumb sitting there not knowing anyone, but then it picked up as people came to play foosball and Wii on the big TV.  I ended up having a great night making friends, playing Wii, and sipping on ginger ale to calm my poor stomach.  I ended up doing really well and won 2 out of 3 bowling games at the end of the night.  Lessons learned that day:  it's good to break the routine to venture out to find new things and also, always stay away from jellyfish sushi.

Here goes...

I've been avoiding writing lately because I really don't know what to say.  The weekend started out good.  Korean class was a lot of fun.  I went out for lunch with people from class and then some of us went shopping at the Lotte Department Store downtown.  It is known for it's high prices, but I found a decent winter jacket for only 35,000 won or about $37.  I also bought a shirt for about $13.  I've been getting really tired of my clothes lately and I also wanted to celebrate my first real paycheck.  Afterwards we got some coffee and just hung out.   

After coffee, I headed home and only ended up staying there for about an hour, then I head back downtown to meet some people for dinner.  One of my friends, Leo, invited me to dinner with a bunch of his friends.  They were a nice bunch and lots of them were Canadian.  After dinner, we went to a couple bars for drinks and foosball.  It was a really nice night.

The next morning, my mom called me and told me my grandfather died.  He was old and suffering and I know it was probably for the best that he passed, but I really wanted one last time to see him.  It's hard to think about how I won't see him anymore playing ma-jong or sitting there counting his money.  I spent the day really upset.  I was still upset the next morning when I went to Taekwondo.  I just too emotionally drained to put much effort into it.  There were a couple exercises Sa Beom Nim tried to make us do, I just couldn't do it.  I'm doing better now.  Still a little sad sometimes when I think about my grandpa and not being able to see him ever again.  I really wish I could go there for the weekend, but that would be too expensive for me. 

My mom is going to the Philippines on Tuesday morning and after a coup le weeks there, she's going to spend a weekend in Daegu with me.  I'm really excited about seeing her.  She's bringing some of the clothes I miss and we're going to do some shopping here.  I guess that's the silver lining in a very crappy situation.

 

 

My grandpa (Lolo) - R.I.P.

So much Pepero!

November 11th here is a cookie day or something like that here in Korea.  While Canada and the U.S. honour the people who died in wars, Koreans celebrate yummy sweet food.  Since November 11th is on a Sunday, today many students brought the teachers presents.  I've gotten presents before from students, such as coffee and cookies, but never so much.  The majority of the gifts was Pepero, which is a Korean name for the Pocky sticks back home.  We also got some sweet bread.  I'm really impressed with how much they appreciate their teachers here.  In the spring, there's a Teacher's Day when I can expect even more goodies.  Can't wait!

 

 

Gifts from my kiddies

 

 

 

 

 

 

This kid obviously didn't realize what the box said.

The ups and downs of teaching

Since this is my first teaching gig, I've been learning a lot as I go along.  Luckily Gwen was there for the first month, so I could watch her and try to follow her lead as much as possible.  There are some times where a particular class is just completely brutal to teach, especially when you have an entire class of students who don't do their homework.  Some of the classes with older students have little cliques.  I'll walk into a class and there will 3 pairs of girls sitting as far as possible from each other.  Of course, I make them move closer so it's easier to teach.  Stuff like that makes me happy I'm not a teenage girl anymore.  In one of my classes today, one girl was so determined to sit next to her friend that she picked up a desk and tried to cram it into an already full row of desks.  I wasn't impressed so I told her if she makes trouble about where she sits, I'm going to pick her seat for every class and she's not going to be happy about it.  Sometimes I get tired of yelling at these kids, but I'd rather have them scared of me than let think they can walk all over me.

Some of my classes go really well.  My class of really little kids was really fun today.  We did a game where I described a girl or boy in their book and they had to find the right picture.  (Right now I'm teaching them "thin", "fat", "tall", "short", etc.).  They really liked this game and were incredibly enthusiastic.  Their little hands were in the air and they were screaming trying to volunteer their answer.  It was a lot of fun.

On Thursdays, I get a 2 hour break and get to go home early.  During my break, I went to a store to buy and iron and ironing board.  While I was there, I ran into one of my students and her mom, who also does Taekwando with me sometimes.  She bought me dinner, which was meat that looked like liver or a kidney and soup.  It was okay.  The meat was a bit weird though.  Afterwards, she bought me some chocolate muffins and drove me home.  The generosity I experience here never ceases to amaze me.

Another crazy weekend

Sorry I haven't written in awhile. This past weekend was very exhausting, but also incredibly fun. After Korean class, some of the class and most of the teachers took a bus to Mt. Palgong just outside Daegu. We visited a Buddhist temple called Doughwa-sa with many complexes and a huge statue of a Buddha. It was very pretty especially with the fall colours and surrounding mountains. I tried to bow like the Buddhists do in front of the statue, but your butt and your head are supposed to touch the ground at the same time. My body doesn't let me do that, especially in low-rise jeans. We had a picnic under the pillars of the big temple and took a tour of the different buildings. It was a good day of learning history and getting to know the people in my class.

Big Buddha Statue

Gorgeous fall colour of the Mt. Palgong area

Me in front of a Buddhist temple.

Saturday night, I met up with some friends from class downtown. One of the girls has a Korean boyfriend, named Jason, and his friend owns a bar in another part of town. Apparently, Jason's friends were at the bar and excited to meet a bunch of foreign girls. It was really fun, although communicating was very difficult at times. We picked out English names for them, but they didn't really take to them. After lots of interesting food, like kim chi pizza with octopus and way too much soju (kind of Korean whiskey sold for about 2 dollars a bottle), we went to join the downtown scene. I made friends with this guy named Cyrus from LA. He's the first Filipino I've met in Korea. It was an instant bond. It was a very long, but very fun night.

Early Sunday morning, I had to get up and go hiking with my friend Walita and her friends. I was still feeling off from the previous night, but I knew it would be a great time. Very slowly, I dragged my haggard-looking self to Walita's side of town. We met up with 4 other girls. There were 3 Canadians, 2 Irish and 1 American in our little group. The hike was really fun. We separated into the 2 groups. I was in the straggler group, partly because my chest gets tight with the asthma and because I was still a little tired from the night before. Koreans love their hiking. The hill was packed with families and groups of old ladies just hiking along. All in all, it was a terrific time and definitely worth getting up for.

Walita from Toronto and Sabina from Ireland, my new hiking buddies.

After hiking, I had a shower, a 30 minute nap, and had to head downtown for a book club meeting at a restaurant called Italy and Italy. I didn't reach my goal of reading half the book, but other people were worse off than me. We had some good Italian food and chatted about books and life. They were a nice bunch of people. Some of the girls even invited me to a Christmas dinner they were planning. I was dead tired by the end of the meeting at ended up crashing at 10pm when I got home.

In other news, it's my first full week teaching all of Gwen's schedule. I teach between 6 to 8 classes a day. It's been going okay so far. We had a little incident last week with my little kids when little Danny punched little Stacy in the stomach when she wouldn't let him cut in line. Most of the kids are nice though and relatively well-behaved.

Halloween Party!!!

On Wednesday, we had a Halloween party for all the kids at the Oedae academy. I dressed up as a witch again. The kids seemed to like it. Some of the girls said "Oh, teacher cute". We had tons of games and food. I ended up eating way too much junk food, but I was grateful to get my hands on some pizza and fried chicken. It was a nice change from the healthy food I've been eating. The kids really enjoyed the day. Some came in costume but the vast majority didn't. I don't really blame them. It's hard to find a Halloween costume in a country that doesn't celebrate Halloween. Scream masks seemed to be a crowd favourite. Anyway, I'll just let the pictures do the talking.

Suzy playing pass the lifesaver

Judy looking for gum under a bunch of whip cream

The wiggle worm race!

Henney's zombie impression

Halloween weekend in Korea

Note: I inserted a picture of the costume for all to see.

This weekend was packed with adventures and festivities as usual. On Saturday after Korean class, I strolled down to the Seomun market in search of a jacket. It took about 15 minutes. The Seomun market is huge. Some of it is indoors and some of it is outside. You can buy anything there from traditional clothes to fresh squid. The mixture of sounds and smells is impossible to describe. I found a winter jacket that was only about $33, I couldn't buy it because I had limited funds for the weekend. I'll have to go back there next weekend if I have time. I didn't take any pictures of the market because I get self-conscious taking pictures in busy, crowded areas. People stare at the silly foreigner when I do that.

Afterwards I went to E-mart to find a costume for the Halloween party. With the help of the kids at E-mart, I picked out a black and gold witch's hat. Lame, I know, but I didn't feel like putting much effort into it.

I tried to go for "sophisticated" witch this Halloween.

Diana and I headed downtown later that night for the Halloween festivities at an expat bar called Thunderbird. We split up afterwards as we met different people to hang out with. The cocktails there were only 3,500 won, which is less than $4. After Thunderbird, I went to another bar called Commune. They had live music there and a costume contest. I met up with my friend Meg there. She was dressed as kimbap (think of someone dressed as a sushi roll). She ended up winning of course.

Some guy dressed as an ajumma (old Korean woman)

Afterwards, my new friend, Scott from Ottawa, and I went wandering around looking for some bar called Old School. We never found it, but we found a huge movie theatre that was still playing movies at 2:30 am. We saw Resident Evil 3...well we bought tickets for it. I ended up sleeping through most of it. There was some girl killing zombies. That's pretty much all I remember. We had some fries at Burger King then I took a cab home at about 5:30 am.

Sunday was spent mostly sleeping and grocery shopping. I bought the ingredients to make stir-fry and pasta, so that will be a change from the bagels and cheerios I've been eating. Sunday night, Diana and I went to Jinny's sister's house (Jinny is one of the Korean teachers). Most of her family was there and we had a huge meal. Her nieces and nephew were absolutely adorable.

Jinny's nieces

In other news, I got my yellow belt today in Taekwondo. Hooray for me!!! At school, we are giving out the kids' monthly tests so everything is pretty relaxed. We're planning a Halloween party for them on Wednesday. It should be tons of fun. I also got my bank card yesterday and I'm super excited about getting my first paycheck on Monday. Right now, I need to get reading. The book club I joined is meeting on Sunday and I'm on page 93 of about 500. My goal is to get to about page 200 so I don't look like a complete slacker. The book is Korea's Place in the Sun. It's pretty much the entire history of Korea with some funny anecdotes along the way. I'm enjoying it, but it's not exactly a page turner.

Sam-Sam

Lately I've noticed that the Korean teachers have been calling each other "sam" or something close to that. It has been tripping me out, because I hear my naming being called and other teachers are answering. Today, I talked to one of the Korean teachers, Jinny, about it and she explained that "sam" is shortened version of teacher, which is really "sonsengneem." Since the children call me "Samantha-Teacher", it can be shortened to "Sam-Sam." This came up in one of the classes today and all the kids found it really funny. I hope it doesn't catch on though. I don't think anyone will take me seriously if they refer to me as Sam-Sam.

In other news, Gwen bought me a coffee table today, which will make eating in front of the TV a lot easier. After a couple nights of sleeping on my new comfy sofa, I've moved back to my hard Korean mattress. The light from the street is too bright and my neighbours, who are loud in the morning, seem louder from the living room. Today in Taekwondo, I was completely exhausted and not in the mood to do anything, but I did my poomsae half decently for once. (A poomsae is a series of steps, kicks, blocks, and punches. It's a bit like a choreographed dance). Afterwards, Sa Beom Nim mentioned we'd be getting our next belt soon. I'm super excited. My last piece of news is that the pomegranate tree outside my window was finally harvested and my neighbours gave me some tasty pomegranates. They are orange and small compared to the ones in Canada, but still delicious. Since moving here, I've found Koreans to be incredibly generous people. I love it, especially when their generosity involves yummy food.

Here's a photo of me, just for fun: It's by the Sincheon River in downtown Daegu.

A new feeling

This past Sunday, Diana and I went to Gyeongju, which is east of Daegu. The bus there only costs about $4. I'm loving how cheap travelling is in this country. The city is known for its temples, mountains, and resorts, but Diana and I went to the World Culture Expo that's held there every 3 years. We were both pretty tired so just meandered around the entire day. The highlights were the sculpture park, the dance performances, and for me, the entire section dedicated to anime characters. I thought it was cute, but Diana referred to it as her hell. She preferred the puppet exhibit, which I think would be my hell.

Taekwondo has been good this week. On Monday, Sa Beom Nim showed us a video of the Korean Tigers, who an amazing taekwondo group. They are definitely better than I will ever be. On Tuesday, Diana and I were practicing our sparring moves and accidentally ended up punching each other in the ribs on different occasions. Of course we were like "Oh my god, I'm sorry!" and just laughed it off. I can feel myself getting a lot more toned, especially my legs where there's more muscle and less flab. It makes me happy.

I've enjoyed teaching this week. Today I taught 2 new classes of older kids with Gwen's help. When I walked into the first class, a girl (I think her name is Julia) kept saying "feeling, new feeling". I gave Gwen a confused look and she explained that Julia was saying that I bring a new feeling to the class. I hope it's a good feeling. They were a good class, but the second class is a little clueless and not enthusiastic at all. I think they're going to be one of my tougher classes to teach. Both classes went well for my first time. I find it hard when I'm first starting out with a new class because I don't have a feeling of where they are in terms of ability. It gets easier though, so I just have to keep working hard. On the way home from school tonight, some man , who we've never met, came up to Diana and I on a bike and started talking to us in English (not a rare occurrence). He talked to us and started asking questions, then out of the blue said "You are Samantha." Even though, Diana and I are the only foreigners in our neighbourhood, it's really weird when complete strangers know your name. To spin it in a positive light, we just think of ourselves as the neighbourhood rock stars.

Korea = good food, taekwondo, and soju

My Saturday was exceptionally busy, but also very fun. In Korean class, they taught us how to sing Happy Birthday in Korean (obviously). The teachers went around the room and sang it to every student. You would think the repetition would solidify it into my memory, but no, I've forgotten it already. They also taught us a winter song that roughly translates into: "Cold hands, ice. Cold feet, ice. Winter wind because of ice ice ice. Hands, ice ice ice. Feet, ice ice ice. Winter wind because of ice ice ice". It was good times.

As you can tell by the song, it's getting cold here. The leaves are starting to change colour too. I've begun my search for a winter jacket. After Korean class, I went to Dong-A department store near the YMCA. Maybe it was the location, but I wasn't successful at all. First of all, the vast majority of the jackets I found were not practical. They were either super thin, old lady jackets or were ridiculous (who buys a winter jacket with 3/4 length sleeves?). Also, a regular size in Korea would a small or extra small back in Canada. I found a couple jackets I liked, but they were all between $500 and $700. Forget that!! I'll have to check out some other department stores or maybe a sports store where they sell ski jackets. Hopefully I can find something decent before it starts getting really cold.

After shopping, Diana and I had our taekwondo lesson. At the lesson, there was a group of black belt kids there. I think they were in grade 3 or 4. Sa Beom Nim had them show off for us. They were cute little killing machines. Diana and I sat there, ate Korean twinkies and drank juice while they impressed us with their energy and TKD moves.

Saturday night, Diana, Sa Beom Nim, his wife, the parents of one of my students, and I went out for dinner. We went to one restaurant where we ate tons of Korean food. Some stuff was super spicy, which still scares me a bit, but I still try it. We had this ginseng alcohol drink. It was okay, just very very strong. After we stuffed ourselves there, they took us to ANOTHER restaurant. This time it was seafood. We had BBQ shellfish and soju (type of liquor). I loved the shellfish. It was amazingly good. I'm definitely going back for more! I think Sa Beom Nim's wife was a little drunk. She was hilarious though and we were lucky because she knew a lot of English and could translate for us.

Here's some more pics of my apartment too: