I update this about as much as I clean my apartment. Which is sadly, not often enough. Today I did some major cleaning, so a post sounds good.
Following up on the orphanage post, what an experience that was. There were 60 or so kids and they all had a great time. One of the foreigners dressed up as Santa and hammed it up before he gave each kid a present. After the presents were distributed we all stuck around for a while and played with the kids. I ended up playing catch with this little boy that for about 20 minutes. He got bored after a while and some middle school kids challenged me to arm wrestle. I was 2 and 1.
Last week was orientation. Basically 4 days of Korea 101 and Teaching 101. The intro to Korea was a little pointless but the teaching seminars weren't all that bad. The most important things we got out of them were the lesson planning ideas.
Christmas in Korea is also interesting. On the 24th we all did a white elephant/yankee/dirty santa swap at Hugo and Denise's. Following some classy red wine we did the obligatory noraebang. On Christmas Day, a couple of us had a brunch, then it was naptime. For dinner we got Chinese and then following the Katie/Ray/whoever else is around, we went to the movies. The movie we saw was The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, the last movie Heath Ledger made. I'm not sure if it came out in the US or not but it was really good. Some of the story didn't make sense but in the end it was an awesome movie.
Saturday we checked out 7 Club, the new foreigner bar. At least thats what they call themselves. The drinks are a little on the pricey side but they did give us a ton of free food, drinks, and drove us home. They also told us to call them next time and they'll pick us up. Talk about service! 7 Club...or S Club 7 as it was called more often with every drink also has FREE NORAEBANG. The selection is better than My Show, where we usually go. It felt weird going there and not Elle Lui and LSG. I think it'll be fine though. We all pump enough money into both establishments.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
A little goes a long way.
Tonight when I was at dinner, a really nice thing happened. I was eating at Bob Kim, my favorite restaurant in Yeosu. Bob Kim is a little family run Korean fast food restaurant. Probably the equivalent of a diner back home. They have all the standard Korean fare. Mandu, kimbap, deop bap, chigae, ramen, and various toast sandwiches, just to name a few. I have never eaten something there that I haven't liked. Whats better than the food is the family that works there. A couple and one of their mothers works there, day in and day out. Their little 4 year old daughter can sometimes be seen running around greeting foreigners with an "Annyong haseyo!". Bob Kim is fast, delicious, and cheap. The most expensive thing on the menu is 5,000 won. About $4.30 US. I go there so much because if I'm going to eat food that is pretty standard all across town, I'd rather support the hardworking family that greets me everyday with a smile.
Tonight I got some chamchi deop bap, which is tuna (chamchi) in a tangy spicy sauce with kimchi, over rice. Bob Kim goes and makes it better by putting some kim (seaweed) flakes and a little shredded lettuce on it. Its hardy, hot, spicy, sour, and delicious. Perfect for a freezing night like tonight. Halfway through my dinner, the wife comes over to my table, smiles at me, and sets down a plate of 2 fried eggs. In Korea, this is called "service" (said like service-uh). Tons of places will service you a little something extra with your purchase. I've never heard of Bob Kim servicing anything before. Maybe they were concerned about my health and wellbeing or just wanted to thank me for being a repeat customer. I'll never know. All I do know is that it made me feel really good that these people who I can barely speak to (outside of hi, bye, thank you, and delicious) are that friendly to me.
On that same thought, next week a bunch of us are going to the orphanage to give the kids christmas presents. I haven't been there yet but I've seen peoples' pictures and the kids seem to have so much fun when everyone comes to visit. Its really nice that so many foreigners take time out of their lives to spend some time with kids that otherwise don't get that kind of attention.
And on a sort of a tangent, my students make me smile day in and day out. I found out that for winter camp I'll be teaching the first grade (7th grade) students. Today one of the first graders who always sits at the desk closest to where I stand, ran up to me and said he was in my winter camp group and how excited he was. The other day another one of my favorite first graders told me that he was going to be in my extra class next semester and that he was excited. I'm glad that my class brings fun to their study centric lives. Even though I know I'm not reaching all of my students, the ones that I do impact are extremely appreciative.
Tonight I got some chamchi deop bap, which is tuna (chamchi) in a tangy spicy sauce with kimchi, over rice. Bob Kim goes and makes it better by putting some kim (seaweed) flakes and a little shredded lettuce on it. Its hardy, hot, spicy, sour, and delicious. Perfect for a freezing night like tonight. Halfway through my dinner, the wife comes over to my table, smiles at me, and sets down a plate of 2 fried eggs. In Korea, this is called "service" (said like service-uh). Tons of places will service you a little something extra with your purchase. I've never heard of Bob Kim servicing anything before. Maybe they were concerned about my health and wellbeing or just wanted to thank me for being a repeat customer. I'll never know. All I do know is that it made me feel really good that these people who I can barely speak to (outside of hi, bye, thank you, and delicious) are that friendly to me.
On that same thought, next week a bunch of us are going to the orphanage to give the kids christmas presents. I haven't been there yet but I've seen peoples' pictures and the kids seem to have so much fun when everyone comes to visit. Its really nice that so many foreigners take time out of their lives to spend some time with kids that otherwise don't get that kind of attention.
And on a sort of a tangent, my students make me smile day in and day out. I found out that for winter camp I'll be teaching the first grade (7th grade) students. Today one of the first graders who always sits at the desk closest to where I stand, ran up to me and said he was in my winter camp group and how excited he was. The other day another one of my favorite first graders told me that he was going to be in my extra class next semester and that he was excited. I'm glad that my class brings fun to their study centric lives. Even though I know I'm not reaching all of my students, the ones that I do impact are extremely appreciative.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Almost Done
Second semester is coming to a close. Yes, second semester. In Korea, 1st semester starts in march and goes till July, while 2nd semester starts in August and goes till December. I can't believe I've been here that long. 3 1/2 months. And it flew by. As it stands I have 7 teaching days left, then on the 21st I start orientation. Why they have orientation in December I don't know. By then I'll have been here 4 months. I think by that time I have a handle on kimchi. I've even made my own kimchi. The orientation schedule is part teaching and part Korea 101. Everyone's contract says that they must attend the orientation. Cool. I'm fine with that. But why hold it 4 months after people arrive? By then everyone's been teaching and has started to decide what works and what doesn't. And if you don't have a handle on life in Korea 4 months in then you probably have to re-evaluate some things.
There's also orientation part 2. In February. It covers sightseeing around Busan and Gyeongju, the old capital of Korea. Sounds good to me but oh by the way, its when I'm supposed to be in Hong Kong. My school got a notice saying that it is mandatory and that they need to pay 1,000,000 won (about $850) for me to attend. If I skip it, then I get blacklisted from all of Jeollanamdo Province. Looks like I'm changing my flight plans. My school approved my vacation then I got the orientation notice. I think i'm gonna see if I can leave a few days earlier in January that way I can still do Hong Kong. Granted it'll be by myself, but it'll only be 4 days or so. I think I can handle it.
There's also orientation part 2. In February. It covers sightseeing around Busan and Gyeongju, the old capital of Korea. Sounds good to me but oh by the way, its when I'm supposed to be in Hong Kong. My school got a notice saying that it is mandatory and that they need to pay 1,000,000 won (about $850) for me to attend. If I skip it, then I get blacklisted from all of Jeollanamdo Province. Looks like I'm changing my flight plans. My school approved my vacation then I got the orientation notice. I think i'm gonna see if I can leave a few days earlier in January that way I can still do Hong Kong. Granted it'll be by myself, but it'll only be 4 days or so. I think I can handle it.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Achieving Nirvana
This weekend was very painful. And cultural. But mostly painful. Such is the life of a Buddhist monk. I did a temple stay at Beomeosa Temple this past weekend. It was a great experience, but definitely painful. The point of a temple stay is to experience a little more of Korean culture and learn about the life of a Buddhist monk. My friends and I got to Beomeosa at 1pm on Saturday and began monkification. First up was the training suit. It was the most comfortable set of clothes I've ever worn. I had no qualms about wearing it for the whole weekend.
After we were changed a monk came in to tell us about temple manners. There is a special way to walk in and out of a shrine as to never turn your back to Buddha. We also learned how to do the dreaded bows. These aren't normal "bow at the waist" bows. These are 5 points on the floor bows. We had to get down on our hands and knees with our elbows touching the floor, rest our left foot on our right foot, forehead on the floor, and palms upturned as to hold the feet of Buddha. A normal bowing requires 3 bows. No big deal right? Sometimes. I'll get to that later.
The temple tour was pretty cool. I had no idea just how big a temple compound could be. There were at least 5 halls that you could worship in. Following the tour came dinner. A traditional 4 bowl vegan meal. We had to assemble our bowls, napkins, and such in a specifc way and put only specific foods in each bowl. I wish they explained the reasoning behind this. To wash the bowls we poured a little water in and scrubbed the bowl with a yellow radish. Once all the bowls were clean, we had to drink the water and eat the radish. Not one grain of rice was to be wasted at this meal.
The 4 percussions came next. Beomeosa has a HUGE drum hanging in a pavillion that they beat twice a day. There's also a temple bell, a wooden fish bell, and anoter smaller bell. We saw a cool 10 minute performance before evening service. The service wasn't so bad if you don't think about all the kneeling. We had to kneel as flat as we could with our butts resting on our heels. It was brutal. When service was over we went back to the sleeping hall for some bowing. Not 3 bows, but 108. 108 bows. One hundred-eight forehead to the ground on your elbows and knees bows. It was torture. While we were on the floor in bow position we strung a bead on a string. When we were done we had our very own set of prayer beads. It was cool to make them while bowing because they have more meaning to us.
The significance of 108 is interesting. The Buddhists see that you sense things through your eyes, ears, mouth, nose, mind, and body. I forget the next step but its something like each sense affects another sense....so somehow you have the number 36. Then you can sin in your past life, present life, and future lives. So now you have 108, which is why you bow 108 times.
By the time we were done bowing it was bedtime at 9pm. Makes sense when wake up was at 3. Ugh. We got up for another percussion performance and morning service at 3:30. Following sercvice was a lesson on how to meditate and then breakfast. After breakfast we had tea with the head monk. He was a really insightful person. Every question we asked he answered with a really good metaphor. Next came a nature hike and community work. Then home. Then sleep. Lots of sleep.
I got a lot out of the temple stay but I wish it went a little more in depth into what Buddhism was all about. Yeah the program covered a little, but it focused more on the life of a monk and not the fundamentals of the Buddhist philosophy. Regardless, it was a great experience and I absolutely recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity.
After we were changed a monk came in to tell us about temple manners. There is a special way to walk in and out of a shrine as to never turn your back to Buddha. We also learned how to do the dreaded bows. These aren't normal "bow at the waist" bows. These are 5 points on the floor bows. We had to get down on our hands and knees with our elbows touching the floor, rest our left foot on our right foot, forehead on the floor, and palms upturned as to hold the feet of Buddha. A normal bowing requires 3 bows. No big deal right? Sometimes. I'll get to that later.
The temple tour was pretty cool. I had no idea just how big a temple compound could be. There were at least 5 halls that you could worship in. Following the tour came dinner. A traditional 4 bowl vegan meal. We had to assemble our bowls, napkins, and such in a specifc way and put only specific foods in each bowl. I wish they explained the reasoning behind this. To wash the bowls we poured a little water in and scrubbed the bowl with a yellow radish. Once all the bowls were clean, we had to drink the water and eat the radish. Not one grain of rice was to be wasted at this meal.
The 4 percussions came next. Beomeosa has a HUGE drum hanging in a pavillion that they beat twice a day. There's also a temple bell, a wooden fish bell, and anoter smaller bell. We saw a cool 10 minute performance before evening service. The service wasn't so bad if you don't think about all the kneeling. We had to kneel as flat as we could with our butts resting on our heels. It was brutal. When service was over we went back to the sleeping hall for some bowing. Not 3 bows, but 108. 108 bows. One hundred-eight forehead to the ground on your elbows and knees bows. It was torture. While we were on the floor in bow position we strung a bead on a string. When we were done we had our very own set of prayer beads. It was cool to make them while bowing because they have more meaning to us.
The significance of 108 is interesting. The Buddhists see that you sense things through your eyes, ears, mouth, nose, mind, and body. I forget the next step but its something like each sense affects another sense....so somehow you have the number 36. Then you can sin in your past life, present life, and future lives. So now you have 108, which is why you bow 108 times.
By the time we were done bowing it was bedtime at 9pm. Makes sense when wake up was at 3. Ugh. We got up for another percussion performance and morning service at 3:30. Following sercvice was a lesson on how to meditate and then breakfast. After breakfast we had tea with the head monk. He was a really insightful person. Every question we asked he answered with a really good metaphor. Next came a nature hike and community work. Then home. Then sleep. Lots of sleep.
I got a lot out of the temple stay but I wish it went a little more in depth into what Buddhism was all about. Yeah the program covered a little, but it focused more on the life of a monk and not the fundamentals of the Buddhist philosophy. Regardless, it was a great experience and I absolutely recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity.
Seoul: Take 2
Two weekends ago I gave Seoul another chance. This time we left on Friday night and arrived at about 1am. Our first stop was Dongdaemun for the night market. Julie wanted to get a new coat and I was contemplating the same. 3 hours later I walked out with a new pea coat which I was able to haggle the price down 40,000 won. At 4am we decided we should probably sleep because Julie had an interview the next morning. We found a wicked sketchy love motel with rooms for 25,000 won each. I've seen closets bigger than the rooms we had and college dorm rooms that were much cleaner. The room rivals the Sea Pine Motor Inn from the Sonic or Bust road trip.
In the A.M. Julie left for her interview and the rest of us set off to find a hostel of better quality to stay for Saturday night. We chose Hongdae, the neighborhood where Hongik University is. Aka the same hostel that I stayed in last time. Too bad that there was only 1 bed available. We parked it at Starbucks and searched online for another hostel close by and waited for Julie to come back. The hostel we ended up staying at was called Stay Korea. It wasn't far from where we already were and the price was really reasonable. 20,000 won per person.
For lunch we got some Italian and cupcakes then went to Dr. Fish. Julie and April wanted to try the fish pedicure. The cafe was out of control. I never would've expected a coffee shop with prices like that being so crowded. Korea never fails to amaze me. Dinner was Mexican in Itaewon (stuffing western food down our throats is a common theme when going to a bigger city). Paper Planes came on on the restaurant's radio and at least 1 person from every table started doing the guns hand motions. When we were going up to pay (the song was still on and I was shooting) some girl shouted "HEY YOU" and we had a 241 style shoot out. God bless America.
After dinner we went back to Hongdae because our hostel gives us free admission to a party with free beer. By the time we got there, there was only about a half hour of beer left so we went on in search of a bar that we heard sold drinks out of plastic bags. We walked just about every inch of Hongdae but we found the bar. 5,000 won ($4.30) for a plastic bag cocktail is alright with me. We stayed at Vinyl (the bar) for a bit then decided to explore. The street art in Hongdae is awesome. We took a ton of pictures with the various paintings on walls.
While chilling in a little park listening to some people play guitar I bought 2 big bottles of makkoli (Korean rice wine) off of some guy's cart for 5,000 won. The next hour was spent walking up to random Koreans and pouring them a cup of makkoli. I made a lot of friends that night. My favorite was when we made a pit stop at Burger King. I offered some makkoli to a couple that had no extra cup. The girl started yelling at her boyfriend to chug their jumbo orange soda so that they could use the cup for makkoli. After I filled their cup we had a brief discussion about Obama and I left them to their french fries. But not before they both shouted "I LOVE USA!".
On sunday morning we ventured back to Itaewon for some western breakfast. All of us ordered a different dish and we just shared them. Our feast was eggs benedict, french toast, eggs and bacon, and cherry crepes. It was expensive but good. From there we went to Insa-dong to check out the arty neighborhood in Seoul. Insa-dong reminded me a lot of NYC. After an hour or so there we were wicked tired and decided to catch a train home.
Julie and I had THE WORST seats on the train. We had the first seats in our car. Every time someone entered or left the car this loud sliding door would open and close waking us up and blowing cold air in. Dealing with that for 5 hours was NOT fun. In all, this trip to Seoul was definitely a success. No playing catch up, no spending hours alone on the subway. We spent hours on the subway, but together. In all reality, any weekend with plastic bag cocktails can't be that bad at all.
In the A.M. Julie left for her interview and the rest of us set off to find a hostel of better quality to stay for Saturday night. We chose Hongdae, the neighborhood where Hongik University is. Aka the same hostel that I stayed in last time. Too bad that there was only 1 bed available. We parked it at Starbucks and searched online for another hostel close by and waited for Julie to come back. The hostel we ended up staying at was called Stay Korea. It wasn't far from where we already were and the price was really reasonable. 20,000 won per person.
For lunch we got some Italian and cupcakes then went to Dr. Fish. Julie and April wanted to try the fish pedicure. The cafe was out of control. I never would've expected a coffee shop with prices like that being so crowded. Korea never fails to amaze me. Dinner was Mexican in Itaewon (stuffing western food down our throats is a common theme when going to a bigger city). Paper Planes came on on the restaurant's radio and at least 1 person from every table started doing the guns hand motions. When we were going up to pay (the song was still on and I was shooting) some girl shouted "HEY YOU" and we had a 241 style shoot out. God bless America.
After dinner we went back to Hongdae because our hostel gives us free admission to a party with free beer. By the time we got there, there was only about a half hour of beer left so we went on in search of a bar that we heard sold drinks out of plastic bags. We walked just about every inch of Hongdae but we found the bar. 5,000 won ($4.30) for a plastic bag cocktail is alright with me. We stayed at Vinyl (the bar) for a bit then decided to explore. The street art in Hongdae is awesome. We took a ton of pictures with the various paintings on walls.
While chilling in a little park listening to some people play guitar I bought 2 big bottles of makkoli (Korean rice wine) off of some guy's cart for 5,000 won. The next hour was spent walking up to random Koreans and pouring them a cup of makkoli. I made a lot of friends that night. My favorite was when we made a pit stop at Burger King. I offered some makkoli to a couple that had no extra cup. The girl started yelling at her boyfriend to chug their jumbo orange soda so that they could use the cup for makkoli. After I filled their cup we had a brief discussion about Obama and I left them to their french fries. But not before they both shouted "I LOVE USA!".
On sunday morning we ventured back to Itaewon for some western breakfast. All of us ordered a different dish and we just shared them. Our feast was eggs benedict, french toast, eggs and bacon, and cherry crepes. It was expensive but good. From there we went to Insa-dong to check out the arty neighborhood in Seoul. Insa-dong reminded me a lot of NYC. After an hour or so there we were wicked tired and decided to catch a train home.
Julie and I had THE WORST seats on the train. We had the first seats in our car. Every time someone entered or left the car this loud sliding door would open and close waking us up and blowing cold air in. Dealing with that for 5 hours was NOT fun. In all, this trip to Seoul was definitely a success. No playing catch up, no spending hours alone on the subway. We spent hours on the subway, but together. In all reality, any weekend with plastic bag cocktails can't be that bad at all.
They Know Me So Well.
I need to update this thing more often, its so easy to fall behind with everything that's happening.
Two weeks ago the best thing happened to me at school. I came back to the teacher's room after class and there was a little envelope on my desk. Although it was written in Korean, i could tell that it was in invitation to something. My co-teacher read it and said that it was an invitation for foreign English teachers to eat Korean food.
Lets pause here for a minute. "Please come sample traditional Korean cuisine". You don't have to ask me twice. My goal in life is to experience everything the food world has to offer and here I am getting invited to an afternoon of eating food. There was one little problem however. The tasting was scheduled for 3pm. I have classes till 5. Damn. My Mrs. Lee said that she would call the restaurant and see if I could come at 5 when I'm done teaching.
The next day when I got to school Mrs. Lee came up to me and told me that the City of Yeosu had called the school and said that it was mandatory that I attend the food tasting. SCORE! My school rearranged my schedule and canceled my 4:15 class so that I could go. Yet another reason why I love my school.
The food tasting, or "Food Festival for Foreigners" was awesome. There were a bunch of teachers there and a lot of city officials. The main purpose of the tasting was for us westerners to try Korean food and make note of what we did and did not like about it. This was all for the 2012 Expo. Yeosu wants to know what the average foreigner thinks of Korean food so that they're ready to please western palates when the time comes. Some foods were good, like the spicy roasted eel, the raw flounder, the bulgogi (marinated beef), and espically the "Korean broth for hangover". Some foods were not so good. I found out that steamed abalone does not sit well with me. Not as bad as the sea squirt, but definitely something I will not be eating again. The plum brandy they gave us to wash it down with was much better.
Two weeks ago the best thing happened to me at school. I came back to the teacher's room after class and there was a little envelope on my desk. Although it was written in Korean, i could tell that it was in invitation to something. My co-teacher read it and said that it was an invitation for foreign English teachers to eat Korean food.
Lets pause here for a minute. "Please come sample traditional Korean cuisine". You don't have to ask me twice. My goal in life is to experience everything the food world has to offer and here I am getting invited to an afternoon of eating food. There was one little problem however. The tasting was scheduled for 3pm. I have classes till 5. Damn. My Mrs. Lee said that she would call the restaurant and see if I could come at 5 when I'm done teaching.
The next day when I got to school Mrs. Lee came up to me and told me that the City of Yeosu had called the school and said that it was mandatory that I attend the food tasting. SCORE! My school rearranged my schedule and canceled my 4:15 class so that I could go. Yet another reason why I love my school.
The food tasting, or "Food Festival for Foreigners" was awesome. There were a bunch of teachers there and a lot of city officials. The main purpose of the tasting was for us westerners to try Korean food and make note of what we did and did not like about it. This was all for the 2012 Expo. Yeosu wants to know what the average foreigner thinks of Korean food so that they're ready to please western palates when the time comes. Some foods were good, like the spicy roasted eel, the raw flounder, the bulgogi (marinated beef), and espically the "Korean broth for hangover". Some foods were not so good. I found out that steamed abalone does not sit well with me. Not as bad as the sea squirt, but definitely something I will not be eating again. The plum brandy they gave us to wash it down with was much better.
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