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.