Last Thursday I was observed by the coordinator for the Wonju Office of Education EPIK teachers. My coteacher and I were actually required to coteach (shocking! we never actually do!) and taught from the book. The lesson went fine and we got mostly positive reviews. One comment was to NOT use the book! Ah well, they never want me to, but the school thought since this was a special lesson that we should. Oh well.
Somehow I got roped into ANOTHER observation tomorrow. I thought this one is more about the school than about me, but the more I learn about Korea, the more I realized the presentation and appearance is everything. Thus I'm beginning to realize that I am going to be watched with a close eye, even though one would think that when a supervisor visits your school he would prefer to focus on the examining what the noraml teachers do, reather than some guest foreigner who is only there for one year. But that is not the case. If I do well with this evaluation class people will think I am a "good teacher" regardless of how much I prepare for every other class, or preform in every other class. I am coteachering tomorrow with a different teacher than before and today and tomorrow we are doing two "practice" classes before the real demo/observation class tomorrow. My main coteacher Mr. Byeon told me that in Korea for observation classes you are "like actors" and that "practice is good," Oh brother. So in 20 minutes or so I have to go run through the lesson with a teacher who usually doesn't even show up to class when I'm teaching. I also have to miss one of my favorite first grade classes for this practice as it is scheduled for the same time. I've already taught this lesson once so I feel like tomorrow should go fine but... I'm still not looking forward.
Otherwise this week I've been doing a Halloween lesson. I thought I had a pretty good plan. We'd watch the clip from Nightmare Before Christmas called "This is Halloween," then talk about monsters and then the students would draw their own monster. It actually was a pretty good lesson. Too bad due to finals, scheduling, demo class, etc. I've only got to do it maybe six out of 12 classes. Tuesday night Jason and I also hosted a Halloween party for our genious students class. It was pretty fun! The students, especailly the girls, really liked it! They were all very excited for Halloween, some dressed up, and some brought snacks and pizza to class. We had to race through our usual lesson so we could party! We made dirt cups (yogurt, pudding, cookie crumbs and a gummy worm) and apple cider. They thought both were really strange when they saw us make them, but after they tried it, they realized both were really tasty! We also did bobbing for apples, which was extremely difficult and entertaining for the kids! People were having so much fun we didn't even get to the the "pin the wart on the witch" game. I wanted to find a pumpkin to carve so badly but there were none in Wonju! So sad. Only super tiny green ones.
My after school class today is also getting a party. We're doing pretty much the same stuff I did on Tuesday, just with different kids. Hopefully it isn't too chaotic.
Whew. I'm tired. I did a lot of planning for Halloween. Some may so overkill. Its only because I miss it!
Saturday I am going to a Halloween party at Scott's house though, so that will be really fun! I've got to put together a good costume! I have an idea, just got to see if it is feasible. :)
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Running Around, from Wonju, to Seoul, to Yang Yang and back again!
It has been quite sometime since my last blog post. That is because it has been a busy time!
Two weeks ago I found myself in Seoul with Jason and two other friends. I had been told by a friend, a past EPIK teacher and fellow UCI alum, to contact her friend who lives in Seoul and is working for an English language Korean entertainment magazine. A few emails later she asked if I could write an exhibit review for their November issue! I jumped at the chance and two days later, was in Seoul checking out the exhibit. The museum and the exhibit focus on contemporary art, which is always confusing to "make sense" of, but it is situated in the beautifully maintained Olympic Park in Seoul. Seoul hosted the 1988 summer Olympics and the park still displays the olympic torch, flame and all, plus all the flags of the world, plus beautiful lakes and stadiums. LA could learn a thing or two... The park also contains over 200 sculptures!
The last few weeks have been busy in terms of work -- I teach Tuesday and Thursday night special "genius" classes, plus full days at school. I think one of the best times students can have to talk with me is during breaks and lunch, so I always allow them to come chat (and sometimes ditch other classes!) which is always lots of fun, we talk about music, watch music videos online, chat about life... it just leaves me with no breaks! I also discovered the owner of the school keeps a dog on campus! Right out the window of my English Room I can see this big fluffy white dog. Someone feeds him and takes care of him everyday and he has a little pen. From what the students can tell me, he was orphaned and someone took him in and now he lives at school. He is maybe three years old. He's super sweet and mellow. There are also two stray cats that live at school, one brown and one calico, they look about 6 months. I always see the girls trying to catch them, or they are feeding them, or they have caught them and wrapped them up in a blanket and carry them around like babies. The cats don't like to be caught but when you do, they are nice. Set them down and they are quick to run away though! Mrs. Kim told me the cats and the dog are on good terms. I petted the dog yesterday, and one cat, and the students thought I was crazy! It is unusual to be so bold with animals here, especially big dogs and cats (little dogs are okay.)
Last Thursday and Friday all the native English teachers also had to go to a special training on "co teaching" in the classroom. Technically in every class we teach we are supposed to share the stage 50/50 with our Korean counterparts. HAHA. This NEVER happens, two of my coteachers don't show up to class, one just had me read from the book, and the last two are good, they help me control the students and give instructions. But none of them co-plan or co-teach with me. The training was two days in the coastal town of Yang Yang. The facility we used was very beautiful, literally right on the oceon! They also fed us three meals and paid for our hotel room. It was a good opportunity to meet EPIK teachers from Wonju and close by. There are so many of us! I had no idea! Many people stay for more than one year because the pay and benefits are so nice, but it also seemed like most people were jaded with the system. We have to fit into the Korean system and cannot try to change it, which is frustrating, especially when you see the obvious problems with it. But I am a guest, not Korean. Our coteachers also went with us on this trip. We asked mine, Mr. Byeon, if he was going to start coplanning with me, he smiled and said "no." Jason and Scott's coteachers feel asleep during the lectures. The ideal is nice, but it will never happen.
The beach was a beautiful setting though and the night ended with various parties in various hotel rooms. Beer is cheap and so are fireworks. Scott, Jason and I strolled on the beach for awhile and watched people shooting off their fireworks. They bought them from the Family Mart (like AMPM, Seven Eleven, etc.) We also struck up a conversation with some Korean English teachers who were standing around watching too. Scott went on a date with one last weekend!! They were super nice and Scott asked them all sorts of questions about Korean culture, which they were ready to answer. They were elementry teachers so it was nice for us to hear about a different type of system than middle or high school. I was Scott's "wing man" -- he asked if we should talk to them and wanted me to come with him, I was hesitant but then thought, why am I hesitating?, yes let's talk to them! I'm glad we did!
The next day the training ended early. I was with my main coteacher Mr. Byeon and thought we would shortly be heading back to Wonju. Jason was headed to Chunchun with his coteacher to see an art exhibit (or so he thought...) I was excited because the school festival was Friday and I was sad to miss it. I thought I might be able to see it after all! I also mentioned that I was interested in seeing Naksan temple, a famous temple in Yang Yang. Mr. Byeon said "oh you want to go there?!" so we did. I thought it would be a quick trip. It ended up being this huge temple complex right on the oceon cliff. It was gorgeous and the weather was perfect, filled with autum breezes and bright sun. We saw many other EPIK teachers visiting as well, plus many older Koreans and Buddhist monks praying. The complex included many shrines and statues. The site is thousands of years old but actually the temple burned down a few years ago and has been compleatly rebuilt. No matter, it is still beautiful and that is what happens with wood. All the huge pine trees burned down as well. Only three survived so of course now they are considered holy. On top of the peak was the largest statue of all, about 10 stories tall, and from there you could see up the coast to Sokcho and down the coast to Yang Yang. I remarked at some huge rock formations in the mountain distance and my coteacher said that was probably Seoraksan Mountain, the most famous mountain in all of Korea! I told him we were planning to hike that and I was glad to now know where it is located.
After about an hour we got in the car and I thought finally we would head to Wonju and I could see the Sangji Festival! But then Mr. Byeon asked me if I wanted to see the opening of the trail for Seoraksan. I said yes of course. Mistake. But a pleasant one.
We drove down these beautiful, winding country roads, they were lined with trees all changing color for the fall; red, orange, yellow leaves blew in our path. As we neared the mountain we hit traffic. I thought we would soon turn around as we had come close enough. But no, we pushed on until we reached the incredibly crowded parking lot. We parked. I was confused, I thought we were just looking. Hundreds and hundreds of people were streaming out of the trail entrance, which turns out to also be a national park. The head of the trail is packed with temples, shrines and statues, plus nearly 50 different vendors selling food, coffee and souveniers. Everyone around us was dressed for hiking, in their stylish gear. I was definitely not dressed for hiking. I had on nice pants and my dress shoes. I thought we would be returning to Wonju and school, so I assumed I should dress nicely as usual. My coteacher was also wearing a tie and suit. But, that didn't stop him from buying us tickets to enter the national park. We quickly walked in the park, I marveled at the huge seated statute of Buddha just inside the main gate, as well as tried to take in the vendors and hundreds of people. We took some pictures and looked up at the huge Seoraksan mountain side. I noticed some cables for a chair life and pointed them out. I thought we would be done after this. Nope! My coteacher rushed inside a building that I realized was a cable car ride! He wanted to buy tickets for the cable car up the mountain. Unfortantely it was 2pm by this time and the car (there is one every 5 minutes that holds 50 people) was booked until 3:15. He was very sad but we relecutantly figured we'd better not. He said he just wanted to show me one thing though, before we left, some gigantic famous rocks on the mountain next to the stream. He didn't think it would take too long to get there. That's when our hike started. A quick visit turned into a mile long hike that took over an hour. It was on rough terrain too. Rocks, pebbles, stairs... I was not dressed for this! People kept staring at us!! Although I was tired and getting hungry, and had realizied I would not make the school festival, Mr. Byeon and I had a very good talk about many things. The scenery really was beautiful and I got to try some traditional Korean candy and eat roasted corn on the cob once we finished.
Another dynamic Korea day.
Around 6:30 we made it back to Wonju, after having to pull off the road at a rest stop, my coteacher was getting sleepy and needed a pick me up. He bought two ice creams and two iced coffees, one for me! He is always doing nice things like that.
Like I mentioned, at the training I had met many new foreigners. They told us some popular places to go out in Wonju. So Saturday night a group of us met up for dinner and drinks. We visited four bars, the first being "bubble" Pub, then WA (Western Alcohol) Bar, then noreabong (kareoke!!) complete with soju and beer... by then it was after 2am. We were trying to find one more place to go when this herd of foreigners appeared in the streets, we got swept up by the leader, an Irish guy who said "its my birthday! let's go!" So we followed them upstairs to the Ice Bar. There, they serve you beer in a mug made of ice! When you are finished, you throw the ice mug at a target, if you hit it, you win a free beer! The bar was empty when we got there but quickly filled with 40 or so drinking, smoking, laughing foreigners from the US, Canada, Ireland... The night ended with the three Irish people singing "Ratllin Bog" in honor of the guys birthday. Latest night for me in a long time, 5am.
The last big event was on Monday night when Jason and I were invited to a special dinner for "teachers of gifted students." Mr. Byeon asked to bring us so we could be included and meet everyone else, there were about 15 new Korean faces. Everyone was of course super nice. The resturant was also amazing, we had smoked duck! It was the BEST food I have had yet. It was a bit expensive, 35,000 won split between 2-4 people, but in true Korean style, the tab was paid by the elder, the office superintendent. The total had to be over 250,000 won with all the soju, soda and refills. Unlike previous experiences, it was completly acceptable at this dinner to not finish your soju, dump it out, or replace it with soda. Much more pleasant, but still fun! Also the first time I hadn't been the only girl!
Afterward Mr. Byeon said he wanted to show Jason and I a night view of Wonju from the mountainside. The mountainside is beutiful and covered with tons of small, chic resturants and coffee shops. We stopped at one and got gelato. (This was in exchange for Mr. Byeon preaching the gospel to us for over an hour. He is very enthusastic about Church and Jesus so we said we'd at least listen. He believes he is being told to preach to me, that he has a calling. Oh boy.) The view was beautiful.
The leaves are changing color and the air is getting cooler. Fall is here.
Two weeks ago I found myself in Seoul with Jason and two other friends. I had been told by a friend, a past EPIK teacher and fellow UCI alum, to contact her friend who lives in Seoul and is working for an English language Korean entertainment magazine. A few emails later she asked if I could write an exhibit review for their November issue! I jumped at the chance and two days later, was in Seoul checking out the exhibit. The museum and the exhibit focus on contemporary art, which is always confusing to "make sense" of, but it is situated in the beautifully maintained Olympic Park in Seoul. Seoul hosted the 1988 summer Olympics and the park still displays the olympic torch, flame and all, plus all the flags of the world, plus beautiful lakes and stadiums. LA could learn a thing or two... The park also contains over 200 sculptures!
The last few weeks have been busy in terms of work -- I teach Tuesday and Thursday night special "genius" classes, plus full days at school. I think one of the best times students can have to talk with me is during breaks and lunch, so I always allow them to come chat (and sometimes ditch other classes!) which is always lots of fun, we talk about music, watch music videos online, chat about life... it just leaves me with no breaks! I also discovered the owner of the school keeps a dog on campus! Right out the window of my English Room I can see this big fluffy white dog. Someone feeds him and takes care of him everyday and he has a little pen. From what the students can tell me, he was orphaned and someone took him in and now he lives at school. He is maybe three years old. He's super sweet and mellow. There are also two stray cats that live at school, one brown and one calico, they look about 6 months. I always see the girls trying to catch them, or they are feeding them, or they have caught them and wrapped them up in a blanket and carry them around like babies. The cats don't like to be caught but when you do, they are nice. Set them down and they are quick to run away though! Mrs. Kim told me the cats and the dog are on good terms. I petted the dog yesterday, and one cat, and the students thought I was crazy! It is unusual to be so bold with animals here, especially big dogs and cats (little dogs are okay.)
Last Thursday and Friday all the native English teachers also had to go to a special training on "co teaching" in the classroom. Technically in every class we teach we are supposed to share the stage 50/50 with our Korean counterparts. HAHA. This NEVER happens, two of my coteachers don't show up to class, one just had me read from the book, and the last two are good, they help me control the students and give instructions. But none of them co-plan or co-teach with me. The training was two days in the coastal town of Yang Yang. The facility we used was very beautiful, literally right on the oceon! They also fed us three meals and paid for our hotel room. It was a good opportunity to meet EPIK teachers from Wonju and close by. There are so many of us! I had no idea! Many people stay for more than one year because the pay and benefits are so nice, but it also seemed like most people were jaded with the system. We have to fit into the Korean system and cannot try to change it, which is frustrating, especially when you see the obvious problems with it. But I am a guest, not Korean. Our coteachers also went with us on this trip. We asked mine, Mr. Byeon, if he was going to start coplanning with me, he smiled and said "no." Jason and Scott's coteachers feel asleep during the lectures. The ideal is nice, but it will never happen.
The beach was a beautiful setting though and the night ended with various parties in various hotel rooms. Beer is cheap and so are fireworks. Scott, Jason and I strolled on the beach for awhile and watched people shooting off their fireworks. They bought them from the Family Mart (like AMPM, Seven Eleven, etc.) We also struck up a conversation with some Korean English teachers who were standing around watching too. Scott went on a date with one last weekend!! They were super nice and Scott asked them all sorts of questions about Korean culture, which they were ready to answer. They were elementry teachers so it was nice for us to hear about a different type of system than middle or high school. I was Scott's "wing man" -- he asked if we should talk to them and wanted me to come with him, I was hesitant but then thought, why am I hesitating?, yes let's talk to them! I'm glad we did!
The next day the training ended early. I was with my main coteacher Mr. Byeon and thought we would shortly be heading back to Wonju. Jason was headed to Chunchun with his coteacher to see an art exhibit (or so he thought...) I was excited because the school festival was Friday and I was sad to miss it. I thought I might be able to see it after all! I also mentioned that I was interested in seeing Naksan temple, a famous temple in Yang Yang. Mr. Byeon said "oh you want to go there?!" so we did. I thought it would be a quick trip. It ended up being this huge temple complex right on the oceon cliff. It was gorgeous and the weather was perfect, filled with autum breezes and bright sun. We saw many other EPIK teachers visiting as well, plus many older Koreans and Buddhist monks praying. The complex included many shrines and statues. The site is thousands of years old but actually the temple burned down a few years ago and has been compleatly rebuilt. No matter, it is still beautiful and that is what happens with wood. All the huge pine trees burned down as well. Only three survived so of course now they are considered holy. On top of the peak was the largest statue of all, about 10 stories tall, and from there you could see up the coast to Sokcho and down the coast to Yang Yang. I remarked at some huge rock formations in the mountain distance and my coteacher said that was probably Seoraksan Mountain, the most famous mountain in all of Korea! I told him we were planning to hike that and I was glad to now know where it is located.
After about an hour we got in the car and I thought finally we would head to Wonju and I could see the Sangji Festival! But then Mr. Byeon asked me if I wanted to see the opening of the trail for Seoraksan. I said yes of course. Mistake. But a pleasant one.
We drove down these beautiful, winding country roads, they were lined with trees all changing color for the fall; red, orange, yellow leaves blew in our path. As we neared the mountain we hit traffic. I thought we would soon turn around as we had come close enough. But no, we pushed on until we reached the incredibly crowded parking lot. We parked. I was confused, I thought we were just looking. Hundreds and hundreds of people were streaming out of the trail entrance, which turns out to also be a national park. The head of the trail is packed with temples, shrines and statues, plus nearly 50 different vendors selling food, coffee and souveniers. Everyone around us was dressed for hiking, in their stylish gear. I was definitely not dressed for hiking. I had on nice pants and my dress shoes. I thought we would be returning to Wonju and school, so I assumed I should dress nicely as usual. My coteacher was also wearing a tie and suit. But, that didn't stop him from buying us tickets to enter the national park. We quickly walked in the park, I marveled at the huge seated statute of Buddha just inside the main gate, as well as tried to take in the vendors and hundreds of people. We took some pictures and looked up at the huge Seoraksan mountain side. I noticed some cables for a chair life and pointed them out. I thought we would be done after this. Nope! My coteacher rushed inside a building that I realized was a cable car ride! He wanted to buy tickets for the cable car up the mountain. Unfortantely it was 2pm by this time and the car (there is one every 5 minutes that holds 50 people) was booked until 3:15. He was very sad but we relecutantly figured we'd better not. He said he just wanted to show me one thing though, before we left, some gigantic famous rocks on the mountain next to the stream. He didn't think it would take too long to get there. That's when our hike started. A quick visit turned into a mile long hike that took over an hour. It was on rough terrain too. Rocks, pebbles, stairs... I was not dressed for this! People kept staring at us!! Although I was tired and getting hungry, and had realizied I would not make the school festival, Mr. Byeon and I had a very good talk about many things. The scenery really was beautiful and I got to try some traditional Korean candy and eat roasted corn on the cob once we finished.
Another dynamic Korea day.
Around 6:30 we made it back to Wonju, after having to pull off the road at a rest stop, my coteacher was getting sleepy and needed a pick me up. He bought two ice creams and two iced coffees, one for me! He is always doing nice things like that.
Like I mentioned, at the training I had met many new foreigners. They told us some popular places to go out in Wonju. So Saturday night a group of us met up for dinner and drinks. We visited four bars, the first being "bubble" Pub, then WA (Western Alcohol) Bar, then noreabong (kareoke!!) complete with soju and beer... by then it was after 2am. We were trying to find one more place to go when this herd of foreigners appeared in the streets, we got swept up by the leader, an Irish guy who said "its my birthday! let's go!" So we followed them upstairs to the Ice Bar. There, they serve you beer in a mug made of ice! When you are finished, you throw the ice mug at a target, if you hit it, you win a free beer! The bar was empty when we got there but quickly filled with 40 or so drinking, smoking, laughing foreigners from the US, Canada, Ireland... The night ended with the three Irish people singing "Ratllin Bog" in honor of the guys birthday. Latest night for me in a long time, 5am.
The last big event was on Monday night when Jason and I were invited to a special dinner for "teachers of gifted students." Mr. Byeon asked to bring us so we could be included and meet everyone else, there were about 15 new Korean faces. Everyone was of course super nice. The resturant was also amazing, we had smoked duck! It was the BEST food I have had yet. It was a bit expensive, 35,000 won split between 2-4 people, but in true Korean style, the tab was paid by the elder, the office superintendent. The total had to be over 250,000 won with all the soju, soda and refills. Unlike previous experiences, it was completly acceptable at this dinner to not finish your soju, dump it out, or replace it with soda. Much more pleasant, but still fun! Also the first time I hadn't been the only girl!
Afterward Mr. Byeon said he wanted to show Jason and I a night view of Wonju from the mountainside. The mountainside is beutiful and covered with tons of small, chic resturants and coffee shops. We stopped at one and got gelato. (This was in exchange for Mr. Byeon preaching the gospel to us for over an hour. He is very enthusastic about Church and Jesus so we said we'd at least listen. He believes he is being told to preach to me, that he has a calling. Oh boy.) The view was beautiful.
The leaves are changing color and the air is getting cooler. Fall is here.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
So that's how they get the STING in STING-ray!
Koreans seem to have this uncanny ability to justify why one should eat some of the most unappetizing food out there. Fermented soy bean soup that even Korean's tell you smells bad? It prevents cancer. Kimchi at every meal? It burns fat. Ginseng? Gives you stamina. Raw trout? It makes woman's skin nice. Rotting sting ray? It cures the common cold.
Let me back up a little... I have been sick all this week. Two days ago it hit me hard, stuffy nose, coughing, I haven't been able to sleep well. I got some medicine from the pharmacy, drank a lot of Theraflu and have been trying to take it easy. Yesterday Jason's coteacher invited the two of us to lunch with him, and then to watch a badmiton match. Various teachers from Sangji middle and high school were compeating in the match. We had a simple enough lunch and the entire time Jason's coteacher was conserned that I wasn't feeling well, or should go to the clinic. I told him I was okay but he wanted to reiterate that if I wasn't well, I didn't have to come to the match. (Even though it would be an "excellent cultural opportunity.")
After learning the match would last no more than an hour I felt confident that I could attend and still be home early enough to laze about. Yesterday was a day of midterms for both schools so everyone got done at noon instead of the usual 4:30pm. The three of us took a taxi to the match, which was at a different school, and settled in to the bleachers to cheer for the Sangji teachers. These were definitely the most intense badmiton matches I have ever seen! Apparently most of the teachers there had been playing on a semi professional level for at least 10 years! The birdies were flying and it was honestly pretty exciting! At one point some teachers called Jason and I down to play with them, and then just handed the court over to the two of us. Everyone went to watch the real match while the two of us attempted to play. We were not very good. We did work up a sweat though and soon after we had pooped out, the matches were done. It was time to leave. Instead of taking a taxi back to the school one of the teachers offered to drive us.
That was our mistake.
As we were nearing Sangji I wondered why the teacher didn't turn down the road we usually take. Instead he passed it. I thought maybe he would turn at the next intersection but he didn't turn their either. That's when I realized who we were in the car with. It was me, Jason, his coteacher Notau and one of the gifted students teachers from my school. The same group (minus one) that had taken us out drinking weeks before, on that fateful night. At that moment I knew we were in for more than just a ride back to school.
There were so many clues! We could hear them refrencing our names in Korean, they asked us if we had any further plans and we said no, I insisted I was okay (I was pretty okay, just stuffy) -- those were our outs! Instead Notau told us we would get a caffe and then have dinner. After dinner he said I could go home and rest since I was sick. He said not to worry because he would watch out for me. Dinner and coffee sounded great to me! I could be home by 5pm and watching TV sipping Theraflu by 5:05!
The caffe that we went to was magnificiant! It was up in the foothills near Mt. Chiak, where we had hiked earlier. All the of the resturants and caffes around it were very ritzy, as was the one we went to. It was built right on the side of the mountain base and had this amazing large wood terrace that we sat out on. The weather was very pleasant, a cool fall day and we could see Wonju before us. Our drinks were great and we had a lively discussion of politics. Well, basically we tried to explain how laws were made in the US but Notau just wanted to keep asking us, "which is better, senator or congressman? Which is better, senator or govener?" We realized its kind of a confusing system to explain!
After that we headed back into the main of Wonju to grab dinner. Again I was reassured by Notau that I could go home after that, no worries. The other teacher we were with doesn't speak English, but he can understand almost perfectly. We drove to his apartment, which is right next to Jason's, and dropped off the car. As soon as he made that move I knew soju was soon to be involved with our night. In Korea it is extremely bad to be caught drunk driving, you are thrown in jail for a year, no question. If you are are foreigner, you are kicked out the of the country immediatly and put on the "black list" never to be allowed in again. I'm not joking. So basically the rule is don't ever, never, drink and drive, you just don't do it.
Even though I was sick, and Notau told the other teacher so, he ordered soju. At first they only gave me the smallest amount, Notau was saying he was a "body guard" and he would watch out for me. He also ordered soda just for Jason and I because he knew we didn't want to drink very much. Jason obliged by having soju, but Notau seemed determined that Jason wouldn't have to drink too much. On the other hand, my teacher didn't care one bit that I was sick or that Jason didn't want to drink. He did turn cup with us both a few times and always filled our shot glasses to the brim! They started saying soju was a cure-all and I would be so much better the next day! (Also that the sashimi would make my skin nice.) Notau started saying that he was the Korean army, we were the US and the other teacher was Iraq and we had to unite against our common against enemy! Thus we started giving him more drinks and filling his cup! It sort of worked.
We escaped dinner with little harm. Suddenly though there was no talk of me being able to go home after the first round due to illness. I think if I'd really played it up I would have been off the hook. But I really was feeling okay except for my nose. I guess Notau and my teacher thought I was okay too since they said I was ready for round two. I don't know if I should be hurt that they didn't care more for my well being or just accept that maybe they did care, but it still didn't matter.
To get back to where I started... We taxied over to another resturant and they told me to get out when they saw a dog on the street. They had been talking about eating dog earlier and we said we did not want to try it. I honestly started freaking out when I saw the dog because I thought that they wanted to go in a dog resturant!! (They eat dog in Korea.) I was pointing at the chained up dog gasping a little going "food...? or pet?" Notau glanced over and was like "oh, that's a pet!" It was only a coincidence the taxi stopped next to the dog, it was chained up outside a market waiting for its owner. Crisis averted!
In the resturant we entered we were the only customers. When we sat down Notau told us we were in for a real treat, a real traditional Korean dish, like nothing we had ever tasted before, something with a really unique flavor. He told us it would feel "like riding a roller coaster." The cooks brought over some sidedishes, pickled hard boiled eggs, a couple different kinds of kimchi and some cooked slices of pork, sam gip sal style. Soon after the main dish arrived: a tray of raw fish, thinly sliced and decoratively arranged around the dish. When we entered the restaurant I noticed its sign, there was a picture of a sting ray on it, I put two and two together, we were eating raw sting ray. Although you will never find a table knife in Korea, table scissors are okay. So to cut the fish and pork into smaller pieces we just used scissors. Even though the pieces were already bite sized, my teacher thought we needed to start with something smaller. I wondered why, we had already had the raw trout and it was good, and this fish was white, it looked light and fluffy. (I couldn't smell much because my nose was stuffy but Jason did tell me there was a strange odor coming from the fish.) My teacher showed us the proper way to eat the sting ray, to take some very aged kimchi, place the fish on top, top that with cooked pork, garlic, onion and pepper sauce. Then you use your chopsticks to wrap it all up in the kimchi and take a bite. We all got our wraps ready, the teacher did "cheers" to us, food in chopsticks, and we took a bite.
I don't know how to describe what happened next. My entire mouth was swathed in flavor, my tongue felt numb, my sinuses were singing, I was squeeking, my mouth was puckering, my eyes bursting out, shutting tight, rolling back in my head. I looked over at Jason and Notau, they were turning red, our mouths were full. We were chewing somethng slimy, yet hard and stringy. Sting ray is the most "interesting" tasting food I have ever had, hands down. I didn't think I would ever get it swallowed, the bite was so big and the fish was so hard to chew. If it is supposed to be an experience everytime, if you want your taste buds rocked, try some raw sting ray. It was as if time slowed down while I was chewing. My only consilation was looking over at Notau and Jason struggling as well. Our eyes were watering, we were almost gagging. Somehow I managed to swallow. My teacher, on the other hand, just looked pleased, he loves the taste and had little problem eating it. Jason was shrinking into himself, as if he hoped no one would offer him anymore if they only couldn't see him, Notau was sitting in stumper, eyes blank. I was glad to have some soju at this point.
Suddenly my teacher placed more kimchi and sting ray in front of me. He grinned. How could I refuse, the wrap was being made right in front of me, by someone else's hands. I somehow ate another bite. Jason and Notau lucked out and missed this round. Round 3: my teacher made each of them their own wraps, as well as one for me. There was no escaping for the two of them. This time Notau was almost down for the count. HE was probably the worst sting ray eater out of us. He looked like he was going to pass out. At this point he ran for the bathroom and I'm pretty sure he puked. It was at test of manliness (why was I there?!), of stamina! Notau kept telling Jason "you are man!! Do it!!" even though he was pratically puking on the table himself. My teacher told Natua he was bring him shame by not eating more. I ate between 8-9 peieces of the fish. Jason had a few less. Every time we thought we were safe from having more, my teacher would start another oh so delicious kimchi wrap for me on my plate. I couldn't refuse. At one point we all said no more, and he looked so hurt, we quickly said "okay maybe one more!!" and he smiled big time. My coteacher was fine, enjoying himself. At one point he went to the bathroom, compleatly composed, and Notau quickly told us to spit out what we were eating into our napkins and hide it from the teacher before he got back!
We did an internet search on sting rays this morning and discovered that the smell of rotting or "fermenting" sting ray flesh is that of ammonia, thus why Jason thought it smelled like bleech in the resturant. Additionally, the bowel system on a sting ray works different than on most animals, including humans. When it is killed its bladder releases, but it releases into its entire body, basically lacing its flesh with uric acid.. So we were basically eating rotting sting ray laced with pee. It was like biting into bleech. Or bitting a ant, while it continues to sting you. I thought we were eating sting ray poision or something. Truly no description I come up with can do the taste justice, it was so unique and unlike anything I have ever had. I am really happy to have tried it, I almost want to try it again... in a tortureous kind of way! It was exhillirating, a rush, like riding a roller coaster... (I also read online it can make you feel high because of the rawness, maybe that was it... or the soju?)
It was quite the cultural experience, as Notau liked to point out. And I should give it more credit, I'm trying to be dramatic, not offensive, but to Koreans, it is indeed a delicacy and is very well liked by some (but not all!) It does supposedly cure you of illness too. (You know what, I WAS feeling better the next day... although not totally cured.)
Our night wasn't over yet, we had one more stop, a roof top bar overlooking Wonju for some beer and more food. The view was beautiful and we indeed felt lucky to have such wonderful hosts, and to be able to visit such a wonderful place and not shell out hundreds of dollars such as would be necessary in the OC/LA area. (Although, the total cost for the night was well over 150,000 won (~$150.00!!!) Jason and I saw nachos on the menu and had to have them! Both of our Korean hosts had never had them before.
My champion sting ray eater of a coteacher took one bite of his nacho, almost gagged, downed some beer to wash out the taste and declared they were the "worst food" he had ever eaten! WHAT?!?!
Let me back up a little... I have been sick all this week. Two days ago it hit me hard, stuffy nose, coughing, I haven't been able to sleep well. I got some medicine from the pharmacy, drank a lot of Theraflu and have been trying to take it easy. Yesterday Jason's coteacher invited the two of us to lunch with him, and then to watch a badmiton match. Various teachers from Sangji middle and high school were compeating in the match. We had a simple enough lunch and the entire time Jason's coteacher was conserned that I wasn't feeling well, or should go to the clinic. I told him I was okay but he wanted to reiterate that if I wasn't well, I didn't have to come to the match. (Even though it would be an "excellent cultural opportunity.")
After learning the match would last no more than an hour I felt confident that I could attend and still be home early enough to laze about. Yesterday was a day of midterms for both schools so everyone got done at noon instead of the usual 4:30pm. The three of us took a taxi to the match, which was at a different school, and settled in to the bleachers to cheer for the Sangji teachers. These were definitely the most intense badmiton matches I have ever seen! Apparently most of the teachers there had been playing on a semi professional level for at least 10 years! The birdies were flying and it was honestly pretty exciting! At one point some teachers called Jason and I down to play with them, and then just handed the court over to the two of us. Everyone went to watch the real match while the two of us attempted to play. We were not very good. We did work up a sweat though and soon after we had pooped out, the matches were done. It was time to leave. Instead of taking a taxi back to the school one of the teachers offered to drive us.
That was our mistake.
As we were nearing Sangji I wondered why the teacher didn't turn down the road we usually take. Instead he passed it. I thought maybe he would turn at the next intersection but he didn't turn their either. That's when I realized who we were in the car with. It was me, Jason, his coteacher Notau and one of the gifted students teachers from my school. The same group (minus one) that had taken us out drinking weeks before, on that fateful night. At that moment I knew we were in for more than just a ride back to school.
There were so many clues! We could hear them refrencing our names in Korean, they asked us if we had any further plans and we said no, I insisted I was okay (I was pretty okay, just stuffy) -- those were our outs! Instead Notau told us we would get a caffe and then have dinner. After dinner he said I could go home and rest since I was sick. He said not to worry because he would watch out for me. Dinner and coffee sounded great to me! I could be home by 5pm and watching TV sipping Theraflu by 5:05!
The caffe that we went to was magnificiant! It was up in the foothills near Mt. Chiak, where we had hiked earlier. All the of the resturants and caffes around it were very ritzy, as was the one we went to. It was built right on the side of the mountain base and had this amazing large wood terrace that we sat out on. The weather was very pleasant, a cool fall day and we could see Wonju before us. Our drinks were great and we had a lively discussion of politics. Well, basically we tried to explain how laws were made in the US but Notau just wanted to keep asking us, "which is better, senator or congressman? Which is better, senator or govener?" We realized its kind of a confusing system to explain!
After that we headed back into the main of Wonju to grab dinner. Again I was reassured by Notau that I could go home after that, no worries. The other teacher we were with doesn't speak English, but he can understand almost perfectly. We drove to his apartment, which is right next to Jason's, and dropped off the car. As soon as he made that move I knew soju was soon to be involved with our night. In Korea it is extremely bad to be caught drunk driving, you are thrown in jail for a year, no question. If you are are foreigner, you are kicked out the of the country immediatly and put on the "black list" never to be allowed in again. I'm not joking. So basically the rule is don't ever, never, drink and drive, you just don't do it.
Even though I was sick, and Notau told the other teacher so, he ordered soju. At first they only gave me the smallest amount, Notau was saying he was a "body guard" and he would watch out for me. He also ordered soda just for Jason and I because he knew we didn't want to drink very much. Jason obliged by having soju, but Notau seemed determined that Jason wouldn't have to drink too much. On the other hand, my teacher didn't care one bit that I was sick or that Jason didn't want to drink. He did turn cup with us both a few times and always filled our shot glasses to the brim! They started saying soju was a cure-all and I would be so much better the next day! (Also that the sashimi would make my skin nice.) Notau started saying that he was the Korean army, we were the US and the other teacher was Iraq and we had to unite against our common against enemy! Thus we started giving him more drinks and filling his cup! It sort of worked.
We escaped dinner with little harm. Suddenly though there was no talk of me being able to go home after the first round due to illness. I think if I'd really played it up I would have been off the hook. But I really was feeling okay except for my nose. I guess Notau and my teacher thought I was okay too since they said I was ready for round two. I don't know if I should be hurt that they didn't care more for my well being or just accept that maybe they did care, but it still didn't matter.
To get back to where I started... We taxied over to another resturant and they told me to get out when they saw a dog on the street. They had been talking about eating dog earlier and we said we did not want to try it. I honestly started freaking out when I saw the dog because I thought that they wanted to go in a dog resturant!! (They eat dog in Korea.) I was pointing at the chained up dog gasping a little going "food...? or pet?" Notau glanced over and was like "oh, that's a pet!" It was only a coincidence the taxi stopped next to the dog, it was chained up outside a market waiting for its owner. Crisis averted!
In the resturant we entered we were the only customers. When we sat down Notau told us we were in for a real treat, a real traditional Korean dish, like nothing we had ever tasted before, something with a really unique flavor. He told us it would feel "like riding a roller coaster." The cooks brought over some sidedishes, pickled hard boiled eggs, a couple different kinds of kimchi and some cooked slices of pork, sam gip sal style. Soon after the main dish arrived: a tray of raw fish, thinly sliced and decoratively arranged around the dish. When we entered the restaurant I noticed its sign, there was a picture of a sting ray on it, I put two and two together, we were eating raw sting ray. Although you will never find a table knife in Korea, table scissors are okay. So to cut the fish and pork into smaller pieces we just used scissors. Even though the pieces were already bite sized, my teacher thought we needed to start with something smaller. I wondered why, we had already had the raw trout and it was good, and this fish was white, it looked light and fluffy. (I couldn't smell much because my nose was stuffy but Jason did tell me there was a strange odor coming from the fish.) My teacher showed us the proper way to eat the sting ray, to take some very aged kimchi, place the fish on top, top that with cooked pork, garlic, onion and pepper sauce. Then you use your chopsticks to wrap it all up in the kimchi and take a bite. We all got our wraps ready, the teacher did "cheers" to us, food in chopsticks, and we took a bite.
I don't know how to describe what happened next. My entire mouth was swathed in flavor, my tongue felt numb, my sinuses were singing, I was squeeking, my mouth was puckering, my eyes bursting out, shutting tight, rolling back in my head. I looked over at Jason and Notau, they were turning red, our mouths were full. We were chewing somethng slimy, yet hard and stringy. Sting ray is the most "interesting" tasting food I have ever had, hands down. I didn't think I would ever get it swallowed, the bite was so big and the fish was so hard to chew. If it is supposed to be an experience everytime, if you want your taste buds rocked, try some raw sting ray. It was as if time slowed down while I was chewing. My only consilation was looking over at Notau and Jason struggling as well. Our eyes were watering, we were almost gagging. Somehow I managed to swallow. My teacher, on the other hand, just looked pleased, he loves the taste and had little problem eating it. Jason was shrinking into himself, as if he hoped no one would offer him anymore if they only couldn't see him, Notau was sitting in stumper, eyes blank. I was glad to have some soju at this point.
Suddenly my teacher placed more kimchi and sting ray in front of me. He grinned. How could I refuse, the wrap was being made right in front of me, by someone else's hands. I somehow ate another bite. Jason and Notau lucked out and missed this round. Round 3: my teacher made each of them their own wraps, as well as one for me. There was no escaping for the two of them. This time Notau was almost down for the count. HE was probably the worst sting ray eater out of us. He looked like he was going to pass out. At this point he ran for the bathroom and I'm pretty sure he puked. It was at test of manliness (why was I there?!), of stamina! Notau kept telling Jason "you are man!! Do it!!" even though he was pratically puking on the table himself. My teacher told Natua he was bring him shame by not eating more. I ate between 8-9 peieces of the fish. Jason had a few less. Every time we thought we were safe from having more, my teacher would start another oh so delicious kimchi wrap for me on my plate. I couldn't refuse. At one point we all said no more, and he looked so hurt, we quickly said "okay maybe one more!!" and he smiled big time. My coteacher was fine, enjoying himself. At one point he went to the bathroom, compleatly composed, and Notau quickly told us to spit out what we were eating into our napkins and hide it from the teacher before he got back!
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| My coteacher, the champion eater, on the left. Camera shy. Notau with soju and kimchi-sting ray wrap. |
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| Ummm good. |
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| Skate fish aka sting ray aka honguhhwe in Korean. |
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| The whole spread. |
We did an internet search on sting rays this morning and discovered that the smell of rotting or "fermenting" sting ray flesh is that of ammonia, thus why Jason thought it smelled like bleech in the resturant. Additionally, the bowel system on a sting ray works different than on most animals, including humans. When it is killed its bladder releases, but it releases into its entire body, basically lacing its flesh with uric acid.. So we were basically eating rotting sting ray laced with pee. It was like biting into bleech. Or bitting a ant, while it continues to sting you. I thought we were eating sting ray poision or something. Truly no description I come up with can do the taste justice, it was so unique and unlike anything I have ever had. I am really happy to have tried it, I almost want to try it again... in a tortureous kind of way! It was exhillirating, a rush, like riding a roller coaster... (I also read online it can make you feel high because of the rawness, maybe that was it... or the soju?)
It was quite the cultural experience, as Notau liked to point out. And I should give it more credit, I'm trying to be dramatic, not offensive, but to Koreans, it is indeed a delicacy and is very well liked by some (but not all!) It does supposedly cure you of illness too. (You know what, I WAS feeling better the next day... although not totally cured.)
Our night wasn't over yet, we had one more stop, a roof top bar overlooking Wonju for some beer and more food. The view was beautiful and we indeed felt lucky to have such wonderful hosts, and to be able to visit such a wonderful place and not shell out hundreds of dollars such as would be necessary in the OC/LA area. (Although, the total cost for the night was well over 150,000 won (~$150.00!!!) Jason and I saw nachos on the menu and had to have them! Both of our Korean hosts had never had them before.
My champion sting ray eater of a coteacher took one bite of his nacho, almost gagged, downed some beer to wash out the taste and declared they were the "worst food" he had ever eaten! WHAT?!?!
Monday, October 4, 2010
Wonju Apartment Tour
I'm sure I've said it before, but I am so fortunate to live in such a wonderful apartment this year! As part of my contract my school provides me with housing, they pay the rent, I pay the utility bills. Although I don't have air conditioning, I do have awesome floor heating called ondol. I turned part of the floor heating on last night to see how it worked and the place got very warm, very quickly!
Here is a quick tour of my place:
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| View of the kitchen. Nice big sink, medium sized refrigerator, lots of space.The door on the left leads to the storage/trash room. The door on the right is the bathroom. |
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| View opposite the kitchen. You can see the dining table, couch, ottoman, TV, the door to the second bedroom/office is on the left, and the glass doors in the center lead to the patio/washing area. |
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| Another view of the living space. To the right is the front door/entryway. |
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| View when standing next to the dining room table. The cabinet in the entry way is for your shoes. The door leads to the bedroom. |
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| Bathroom. No tub but enough space. The floor is submerged and tiled. |
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| The view of my street (it was raining). My apartment building is the gray one on the right, its only 2 years old. I'm on the second floor out of three, on the right, you can see my patio windows. |
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| For contrast, a glimpse of what Jason's apartment looks like. He's on the 11th floor and its nearer the river. Yet only 15 minutes from mine. (Ok this isn't really his apartment, his are actually to the left, but close enough, they all look the same.) |
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Seoul-fulfilling Weekend
I know it is a cliche, but I had to say it: we had a "Seoul-fulfilling weekend." Get it? We went to Seoul, capital of Korea! One of the great things about Wonju is its location. It is only an 1 1/2 to the beach, or an 1 1/2 to Seoul. Having already visited the beach, on Saturday Jason and I decided to take advantage of our proximity to Seoul. Buses leave Wonju every 15-20 minutes and only cost 6500 won each. Saturday morning we hopped in a taxi, hopped out at the Express Bus Terminal, stumbled over to Dunkin Doughnuts for some nourishment, quickly bought our tickets and soon settled onto the 10:30 bus to Seoul.
Although Yahoo weather predicted "sun and 75 degrees F" it was severely mistaken as the day was cool and most definitely cloudy. We both conked out on the bus although I did wake up soon enough to the see the entrance to "Everland" Korea's most famous theme park. When we arrived at the Seoul Express Bus Terminal we knew we were in the big city! There were tons of people, tons of buses, large streets and lots of big buildings! I was so excited to finally get to see what this city was all about!
Although Yahoo weather predicted "sun and 75 degrees F" it was severely mistaken as the day was cool and most definitely cloudy. We both conked out on the bus although I did wake up soon enough to the see the entrance to "Everland" Korea's most famous theme park. When we arrived at the Seoul Express Bus Terminal we knew we were in the big city! There were tons of people, tons of buses, large streets and lots of big buildings! I was so excited to finally get to see what this city was all about!
One of our main goals for this trip was, bashfully, to visit the newly opened Taco Ball in the district of the city known as Itaewon. We had heard tale of lines out the door with an hour wait and already one of my coteachers was talking about how she hoped to visit it next time she went to Seoul. Jason was super thrilled as he had been missing home a bit the day before. We easily found the entrance to the subway, easily bought our affordable 1000 won tickets, and again quite easily found our way to the correct line and entrance. The Seoul subway system is super easy to use, very clean, very fast and affordable. To our benefit everything is also written in English. Inside the metro system you can find not only the subway, but many shops and vendors! Things were crowded and very rush-rush (but still not nearly as much as in Tokyo!)
Our first stop was Itaewon. As soon as we emerged we spotted Taco Bell. It is within eye distance of the metro entrance, a good location. We suddenly realized we were in foreigner heaven as we spotted: Quiznos, Subway, KFC, McDonalds, Burger King, Starbucks, etc. Plus lots of other ethnic restaurants including Thai, Indian and more Mexican. We hurried over to Taco Bell but were disappointed to find no line. Inside the place was three stories, but not nearly as swanky and large as we'd hoped. The menu is pretty much exactly the same as home, as is the worker's attire and the cost of food.
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| Has Taco Bell ever looked this good? Are YOU ready to combo?! |
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| Do you notice that Jason got a haircut?! Everyone at school told him "OOOHHH handsome man!" |
Additionally, our mood came down a little when we noticed that at least half, if not more, of the Taco Bell patrons were Americans. We started to feel super lame for eating there. Not surprisingly most of the Americans were dressed down. One overweight American lady was super rude to us on the stairs and was wearing a solid colored sweat suit with her hair pulled up in a messy bun. But it was pretty funny to watch some Koreans try to figure out how to eat the tacos they ordered! The couple next to us was obviously on a date and the girl kept daintily picking up her taco and taking little bites, the whole time looking super confused as to if she was doing it right or not. Nachos were similarly puzzling for she and her boyfriend. Jason and I realized that Korean's don't really eat many things with just their hands, or if they do, they usually have a towel or wet wipe to clean them off first. The Taco Bell was neat, but we'll pass on it for now. I still hope that it will do well in Korea though! Read the article I posted in my last blog for some good insight into Korean dining culture.
After eating we browed the main street of Itaewon, which was filled with many souvenir vendors, American chain stores, men trying to sell Jason custom suits and a cute shoe store that I had to go in. At the end of the street was a large brick wall, we started to walk by it and got to an almost hidden door, we realized it was a US Army base! We didn't know anything about Itaewon before, but since than have read that the US base has been there since the Korean War, as have some other foreign embassies. Thus it made sense why there were so many American chains and why we kept seeing so many Americans!
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| We call this "girl on cellphone" plus Itaewon in the background. |
Maybe we are still in the "honeymoon" phase of culture shock, the phase where we think everything in Korea is really cool, because Jason and I really started to resent all the Americans we saw. They were getting in the way, they were loud, they were (we thought obviously) only staying close the base and then hurrying back in. At one point this overweight family of eight stopped in front of us on the sidewalk, blocking everyone's way, they were looking at souvenirs, with cameras around their necks, sweatpants and t-shirts. We were so annoyed. We started to realize why American army personnel sometimes get bad reputations. We did see lots of young families though and tried to be sympathetic to people who, most likely without choice, had to move half way across the world to a place that is totally foreign to them. In six months I will be comforted to see them, but now, so early on, many people just seemed to remind me of the things about America I don't like.
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| New hat and umbrella! |
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| High fashion. And when I say high, I mean prices. |
As we walked by the Italian place I looked longingly inside, it looked and smelled delicious. We checked out the menu and most pasta dishes were about 20,000 won. Jason was a true gentleman and said firmly that we were going in!! We decided to split a dish because we weren't that hungry and it was a little pricey. They had a great set menu that we went with. The food was amazing, the best Italian food I have had out of Italy! For only 28,000 won we received impeccable, polite and attentive service (and you don't have to tip in Korea, yay!) -- our glasses were always full, we had the full array of silverware by course, our plates were always cleared. Our meal started with something to snack on, sweet pickled cucumbers and a variety of fresh bread with oil and vinegar. Next came the fresh salad with Parmesan cheese coupled with a cream soup. Then came our scrumptious pasta cooked perfectly in a olive oil and garlic sauce, mixed with steamed clams. This was followed by steak and grilled vegetables. To top it all off we had high quality chamomile tea plus fresh tiramisu and fruit for dessert! I can definitely understand why people get used to this kind of life style while in Korea! Our dinner was an example of how service and product should always be, regardless of how much you tip or how inflated a price is. The place was simply yet cleanly decorated and the manager was on hand the entire time to make sure people were being served properly. You could also see the cooks cooking right behind the counter!
After stuffing ourselves with dinner we were ready to head back to Wonju. We took the short metro ride back to the Bus Terminal, bought our tickets for Wonju and made it home by 10pm. It was definitely a fun day and I am so ready to go back to Seoul for many more fun visits! There is so much more to see!
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