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!

My coteacher, the champion eater, on the left. Camera shy.
Notau with soju and kimchi-sting ray wrap. 

Ummm good.

Skate fish aka sting ray aka honguhhwe in Korean.

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?!?!

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: 

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.

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.

Another view of the living space. To the right is the front door/entryway.

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. 

Bathroom. No tub but enough space. The floor is submerged and tiled.

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. 

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.) 

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!

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.

Has Taco Bell ever looked this good? Are YOU ready to combo?! 

Do you notice that Jason got a haircut?! Everyone at school told him "OOOHHH handsome man!"

 Regrettably, Taco Bell was -gasp- not as satisfying as we thought it would be! The best thing about Taco Bell is the sauce and both the sauce in the meat and in the packets was slightly different than home. Don't get me wrong, the food was good, but not -exactly- the same as we thought it would be. Who were we kidding? Surprisingly Jason was not as thrilled to eat his stuffed burrito as he originally thought he would be. He was super excited when we arrived, but half way through the burrito he confessed that maybe he didn't miss Taco Bell as much as he thought. I told him we'd come back in six months.

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!

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.

New hat and umbrella! 

By the time we had finished browsing Itaewon it had started raining, I had bough a pair of shoes, Jason a hat and bag and both of us two new umbrellas. (Curse you Yahoo Weather!) We decided to head back underground and travel to a part of town I had read was filled with back alley galleries and artists. But, when we emerged from the metro it was raining hard and all we could find was a coffee shop, for which we were thankful to relax in. There we poured over the new tourists maps I had got from the metro tourist center. We realized we were in a very posh area of town (and the people around us definitely looked the part!) We were going to head over to the National Museum of Korea to beat the rain, but decided to run into the huge Hyundai Department Store before we left. We had seen on the tourist maps that it was something to see. And boy was it!

High fashion. And when I say high, I mean prices.

We thought South Coast Plaza in Orange County was something special, but this place was amazing! It was the most high fashion mall I had ever visited! And the metro entrance led right into it, we didn't even have to go out into the rain! They had every major designer label from the US, Europe and Asia. And I mean EVERYONE! Each floor got better and better, there were wood pianos, gowns, suits, real furs, alligator purses... Each floor was different, one was just makeup and jewelry from the likes of Chanel to Cartier. The store was six floors, the top having individual boutiques devoted to individual designers. One floor was the fanciest "food court" I'd ever seen with designer cheeses and wines mingled with international cuisine (plus the Apple Store!) -- we ate some gourmet chicken wraps (mmm tortillas!) The top floor contained just one store that I longed to go into it looked so posh and exclusive: Chanel. Everything in this mall was literally thousands of dollars. Jason picked out a Calvin Klein jacket $2,500. I didn't even want to look. The rest of the top floor was filled with really nice restaurants, Korean, Japanese, Italian.

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!

Lazy day at school...

So as I've said, next week is midterms, so the students are mostly in study mode this week. Which means that today, while I would usually teach six classes, I only taught one class. And then actually when I went to that class my coteacher asked the students "who wants to talk with Madeline teacher?" -- only about 10 of them raised their hand. So he said, "okay, you guys can go to the English Zone and talk with her while the rest of us stay here and study from the book." They were so excited!!!! We went down to the English Zone, put our chairs in a circle and just talked. This is probably one of the highest level classes at Sangji, it is third grade class, and they girls were very excited to talk with me and ask questions. I love hanging out with the students, that's how I learn the most about Korea! They told me they wanted to be a nurse, a hairdresser, a social worker, an accountant, one jokingly said a professional taekwondo artist! They asked me to bring in my makeup to show them (I've never thought how I do my makeup was anything special, but since they are not allowed to wear makeup, and really wish they could, they were so interested!) Two of the girls also asked me "teacher, hair, touch?" so I said "you want to touch my hair? I think it feels the same as yours." And they said "YES!!" and bouth came up to tentatively touch a few strands. They screamed with delight "OOOHHHHHH" and ran back to their seats! What a celebrity I am! The other students also asked for advise on how to get better at English, one student asked specifically how she could become better at grammar because she is good at speaking, usually things are reversed. I felt so lame answering them, I didn't know what to say! I told them to keep talking with me and said if they want to practice grammar they should write to me and gave them my email. I need to come up with some better advise. I'm not sure they quite understood what I was saying the whole time either... but I really do think those are good ways to improve, better than if you just sit and try to memorize! I tried to convey that I think they should study for a half hour and then take a break instead of just sitting and sitting and sitting like I know they do! One student who writes me notes a lot told me she spent three hours writing me a note last night!! She wanted it to be perfect so I'm pretty sure she looked up everything in the dictionary! Her note was great, I wish I could convey to her that for a 14 year old her writing is better than some American children. Maybe I should ask if I can start an English club at school, that might be a fun alternative to classtime, it would mean less students, and only those really interested...

Last night Jason and I also experienced our first Korean bathhouse, or jimjilbang. Our sweet tooths got the best of us again and we hit up Ti Amo for another yogurt smoothie (soooo good). That brought us to Scott's neighborhood. While we were eating he called and asked if we'd like to join him at the jimjilbang since there is one very close to Ti Amo. It is called "bo sock sa u na" and is actually the landmark we give the taxi drives to take us from Sangji to Ti Amo (to get home we always just have the taxi drivers take us to the front of Sangji, its easier than if we tried to give them our addresses!) Scott is an experienced patron of the jimjilbang, having studied abroad in Korea last summer, and was a great guide for us novices.

For only 6000 won you have access to the baths and the sauna. Apparently some jimjilbang's are very elaberate, but this one was a little smaller. Still the 6000 won gets you in the door, a locker, a sweatsuit to wear, access to three sauna rooms, all at different temperatures, access to the communal baths (seperated by gender) and best of all if you want to make a night of it, they are 24 hours so you can stay in them all night! There are dim rooms for you to sleep in on pull out mats, water coolers and even a big flat screen TV! Inside a small shop also sells a variety of simple snacks and drinks, plus some clothes and underwear.

The three of us got changed and met again in the sauna rooms, which are not divided by sex. First we started in the 42 degrees celcius room. The room was very pretty, with different colored stones covering the walls and ceiling in a mosaic style, hidden on the walls were the shapes of animals and plants. This room was a perfect temperature, definitely warm but comfortable. We laid on a bead of little beads that perfectly comformed to our backs. I pretended I was in an ancient cavern.

The next room was a 82 degrees C, which is about 160 degrees F. This room had mats covering boards to lay on. It was so hot. Scott told us the Korean way was to last 15 minutes. I only made it to 8 but he and Jason stayed in for the entire 15. I was sweaty when I got out but the two of them were worse, they were red and looked like they'd been working out! We then went in the cool room which was around 30 degrees C. In that room there was a large tarp that covered small, unpolished rocks. After we stopped sweating it started to feel pretty average in the room so we switched back to the first one. Our bodies had left sweat marks on the tarp, eww. We made sure to keep drinking water every time we switched rooms since our bodies were letting it all out.

Finally we decided to head out. We told Scott we would pass on the baths this time and he seemed a little dissapointed. But it being my first time and all, and it being very cold outside, I didn't want to strip down or have wet hair for the taxi ride home. Jason told me later that the last he saw of Scott he had decided to check out the baths on his own. I quickly changed in the locker rooms, which were empty. Suddenly the doors to the baths opened a six year old Korean girl appeared, totally naked. She was followed by her younger brother, also nude, but covering himself. Maybe he knew he was really in the girls side and was a little bashful? Then came their Mom, in the flesh. She just walked around the locker room like it was nothing. I tried not to stare. As I made my way outside I realized she was browsing through the racks of cloths for sale, still totally nude!!!!

All in all my first jimjilbang experience was really fun! I will definitely be going back, especially when it gets colder out because it really warms you up.

The rest of the week has consited of school days with little work. Answering emails. Cooking. Eating sweets (Jason and I decided we have to cut back because we're gaining back the weight we lost.) We also realized the fall TV season had started so we had to download How I Met Your Mother, Big Bang, NCIS, Vampire Diaries and Smallville. Yep, those are my shows of choice. It doesn't feel like we are so far away when we can download shows, put them on a USB drive, plug the drive into the DVD player and watch everything on the TV. We are totally caught up with the US! (And my goodness, VD is as thrilling as ever! Smallville is finally in its last season too!)

This weekend we might head out to Seoul, we have a lot to explore there. Plus my Dad informed me that they just opened a Taco Bell and we are SO excited to check it out! Read about it in this great article I found here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/24/AR2010092402715.html

Chiaksan Mountain

On Friday morning Jason and I got up early to meet our friends Scott and Amber at the bus stop. The 40 minute bus ride dropped us at the beginning of the trail to climb Mt. Chiaksan, one of the highest point peaks in the Wonju area. There we met one of Scott's coteachers who also joined on the hike. She was really nice and fun to talk with, she'd traveled to New Zealand and is only a second year teacher so she had lots of good stories. Also, exactly like in the US, she told us how the high school boys she teachs had tormented her last year, they made fun of her, they brought bugs and frogs into the classroom to freak her out. She said this year things are better because she is more strict but her first year was really difficult. See, things aren't so different! Kids are kids and new teachers are new teachers.

The climb was beautiful, we were surrounded by lush forest and followed a stream up the entire time. It kind of reminded me of area's we've camped in at home, but this forest also had some vines and bamboo which was the biggest difference. We unknowgly chose to hike the hardest of the three trails to the top, so the incline was huge and the stone steps were steep. We were huffing and puffing. At one point we lost the trail and all began to trudge up the side of the mountain where the ground was covered in shrubs and loose dirt until Scott, who was in front, finally concluded this could not be the way to go. Jason at the bottom went back down to scout, followed some other hikers and discovered the trail went behind a huge rock and basically became the stream. If there hadn't been some Korean hikers on the trail too, who knows where we would have ended up! A Korean woman started to follow us too until Scott's friend told her in Korean that we were lost!

A note on Korean hikers as well. They are super stylish. Everyone wears bright cloths, especially made for hiking. There are hiking stores all over Wonju. There are like three within a 5 minute walk of my apartment (but no coffee shops so close!) The gear is all really pricey too because it is specialty made. People had on hats (the woman's hats were sparkly, pink, decorated with flowers), bandanas around their necks, hiking poles, hiking boots, backpacks, gloves... You can definitely be underdressed when hiking! Who knew? Jason and I didn't really bring hiking attire so the day before we went to E-Mart and bought some outfits. Mine was pink and gray, matching. Jason wore a hat. We really looked the part.

The top of the mountain contained an amazing view and luckily the weather was just perfect that day, no rain, and not too cold or too hot. We had lunch at the top and peanut butter never tasted so good! There were three man made stone pillars at the top. They were created in the 60's by a man who believed he had been told in a dream to honor Buddha in this way. It took him years to carry up the small rocks and create three massive rock pillars. We could also see all of Wonju.

The way down was brutal on our knees, but we did take a slightly easier path, the last portion of which turned into a road that dropped us into a new and ritzy area of town, filled with fancy resturants, a sort of "rustic" mountain getaway. We were no where near the bus when we emerged from the trail and so instead called a taxi to take us to Wonju. Somehow we had come down the other side of the mountain and were only 10 minutes from Sangji! The taxi split 5 ways was super cheap! Scott's friend took off but he and Amber came to check out my apartment, where we had the taxi drop us. After that we went to dinner at a random resturant near my place where we got some kind of boiled pork dish. It was good but a little hard to eat straight off the bone! Jason and I followed Scott and Amber to their neck of the woods because we were craving yogurt smoothies from the Italian place "Ti Amo." We finished off the night with lattes.

Our lazy weekend continued, with the addition of super sore muscles. We looked like dorks hobbling up and down stairs. Luckily we felt okay by the start of school on Monday.

Time to Recap: Photobooth, the Eastern Sea and Chuseok

Today is one of those days at school when I feel like I should be doing more/should have been doing more, but I'm not quite sure... what I mean is Korean's don't like to be very direct about things, so instead of saying "you will do this" they will often say "it would be nice if..." -- so today I usually teach four classes, but midterms are next week so many of the teachers want to power through their lessons or give the students time for self study. Although no one told me before hand, I had a sneaking suspecion that when I arrived at school today I would be told I wasn't teaching. Right away one coteacher said, "you will not teach," then my other teacher said, "you teach grade 2 but I'll teach grade 3." So I taught one class and offered to help with the other but my coteacher just told me I could go to the office. Then just now I was supposed to teach, I asked my coteacher before he went in if I should teach or if he wanted to... here is where I get confused and unsure if I did something right or wrong... He said, "whatever you want," and I said, "well what do you think is better?" And he said, "well I'd like to study with them, but I want you to decide," so I said, "if you think that's better than that's fine, I have a lesson but I can hold onto it," he then said, "okay good, thank you, I think that is good, I will see you next Thursday then" (in a week and a half, when midterms are over...) I offered to help but he just sent me on my way... So I guess that's what he wanted in the end? What if I'd insisted on teaching?!

Photobooth:
Two weeks ago on Wednesday one of my students insisted we hang out after school. I told her I was busy but she wouldn't take no for an answer. After I convinced her we could only hang out for about an hour, right after school, and only if we went somewhere close to school, that was fine. I wasn't sure (and am still not quite sure...) if this kind of thing is allowed or frowned upon, hanging out with students outside of school. The girl is super sweet and only 12 and was so excited! She told me this was the first time she was going to "play with a foreign friend" -- she was in elementry last year and still seems very young, which I think is why she kept saying we were going to "play" (hang out.) We walked to one of the local markets/downtown shopping areas and decided to get food at Lotteria, Korea's fast food resturant. We got Tornados (which are just like Blizzards or Twisters) mine had cookies, her's had pop rocks. I paid for her's. Another student saw us sitting and eating together and came and begged me to buy her something too. Oh boy. Next we went to a Photobooth and took silly pictures. Photobooth is really common here, and there were many mom's and daughters and small groups of friends taking pictures. Afterward you can decorate the picture with all kinds of clip art right on the machine. Then they print in duplicates, you can cut them up and they are stickers. Again I don't know if its considered okay to take photos with your students, but it was totally innocent and we were in public places the entire time. I found out later the student's sister goes to Sangji High School, Jason told me the next day that the girl came up to him, showed him two of the pictures and said "your girlfriend? Cute!" or something like that. So I guess it was okay. The entire time my student kept saying, "very excited" and told me "everyone looks at you because you are so beautiful" -- haha, like I said, flattery is in abundance here. It was a nice little hang out. I don't want to keep this up though because, as another teacher warned me, everyone will want to go out and get ice cream with me!

Chuseok:
Last week was Chuseok, a big holiday in the Korean calendar. This year it fell righ in the middle of the week and our school decided to take the entire week off because of it. Its a national holiday. Its a day to celebrate the Harvest, to visit the graves of your ancestors, get together with family, give gifts, eat lots of traditional foods (like rice cakes with honey.) Many people travel on Chuseok to be with family. (Read more on Chuseok here.) For us foreigners, it meant a huge vacation, nine whole days, and we'd only been working for three weeks! The break was nice of course, but definitely has gotten me out of the swing of things.

Eastern Sea:
For our Chuseok, Jason and I traveled to the Eastern Sea (or Sea of Japan for all you non-Korean's.) We originally were thinking of being really bold and going to Japan via ferry (sounds fun right?!) but decided we didn't have enough time, didn't want to make ourselves super exhasted and didn't really want to spend the money just yet. Our second plan was to visit the ocean town of Busan in the south of Korea. We were just looking into hotels and things to do when my coteacher Mr. Byeon invited us both the Eastern Sea with his family. This year they weren't doing the whole Chuseok thing, they weren't visiting family or going far away, they just decided to stay pretty close to Wonju and be together. Mr. Byeon has a wife and two boys, one is about 11 the other 14. He seemed like he really wanted Jason and I to join he and his family at the sea. He told us how the Gangwon-do Office of Education runs a seaside resort (hotel) that is only for Gangwon-do teachers. The resort is extremely cheap (rooms go from 10,000-30,000 won, so less than $30 at max) and provides a room with bathroom, full kitchen, bedroom and all the appliances and sheets you need. The more my coteacher talked to us about it, the more it became evident he wanted us to go. I don't think if I were here alone he would have invited me because he is a little conservative and old fashioned and I think he would have thought it improper to invite a girl, but because Jason is here and he could invite a couple, he was excited! We agreed and he made the necessary reservations for us. Due to "Korean standards of morality" we had to make a reservation for two rooms, even though we only used one. (When he told another coteacher about the trip, and today when he told the principal he made sure to say "hana room for Jason and hana room for Madeline." Hana means one in Korean so I figured that's what he said at least!) We tried to get some friends to fill the other room, but everyone was busy. (Maybe next time!)

My coteacher bought our bus tickets for us because he was worried they would sell out because of Chuseok and then drove us to the bus terminal on Friday night to show us where it was and how to buy tickets. To get a little off track, we discovered the area around the bus terminal is very happening! There were tons of bars and new buildings just waiting for stores to arrive. We ate dinner at "New York, New York" -- Jason was really excited to have a steak! We ordered two of the cheaper options which were pretty good. The salad had balsamic vinagerette on it and the steak was plain steak with sauce, it was nice to eat something non spicy, haha! We also found a billards place, shooting gallery, arcade... there was even a bar called "WA Ice Bar" WA=Western Alcohol! We were excited because we hadn't seen a bar with anything but beer and soju since we arrived. (We found out later our friend Scott lives next to the same bar, so we guess its a chain after all...) Jason pulled me inside and we had a quike drink. The place was really nice, it had a blue "ice" bar and was really pretty yet hip. The next night we went out for Sam Gip Sal, pork that you grill on your own bed of hot coals! It was really fun! We called it my birthday dinner since in August things were really busy and Jason didn't have a chance to take just me out. We didn't have soju, but we followed up with beer and fruit and then went back to WA Bar because I liked it so much.

Then came Monday, we got up early and made it to the bus terminal no problem. We started out the day right with Dunkin Doughnuts and coffee. Our bus was really plush and I was excited to see out the windows. We were headed to the town of Gangneeung, which is only about an 1 hour and 20 minutes away. One of my old friends/residents from UCI who is also an EPIK teacher is living in that town, he is doing his second year with the program. I didn't get to see much out the window though because of all the rain clouds, but between the mist I did glimpse some rolling green hills. Soon enough we were in town. We attempted to do some exploring but really just walked in a huge circle and ended up back at the bus terminal. LOL. Jason dragged me into H Mart, which turned out to be a huge electonic store. He was happy to buy a wireless internet router there. I was eying the toaster ovens but the smallest one was 80,000 won! (Real oven's were 500,000 won and up!) After poking around H Mart we caught a local bus to Jumunjin Beach, a smaller town 20 minutes north of Gangneung. We tried not to hit the locals with our giant backpack and learned first hand that some older Koreans do not value personal space... I was sitting and Jason was standing and an old lady managed to slide between us on the bus, she was so sly! I couldn't tell if she was trying to get me to move or if she just wanted a better spot to hold onto the rail! Either way, she made no gesture, asked no question, she just slid right between us! Akward.

The bus dropped us next to Jumunjin Harbor. We walked through it and saw all the super fresh fish! There were live octopus in tubs filled with water, fish big and small, bright red crabs... we were in a real harbor where fishing boats were pulled up the dock and workers were pulling buckets and barrols of fish right from them. Water was sloshing everywhere and people were decked out in rain boots, overalls and visors. I was super enthralled! As we were walking through a man stopped us and asked where we were from, told me I was cute and Jason must be the luckiest, mentioned he was 70 years old (no way, he looked 50!) and that he used to be a liasion officer between Korea and the US Navy; so that's why his English was so good! Foreigners, we're so easy to spot.

The beach resort was only a short taxi ride away but we decided to walk up the beach from the harbor to the resort instead. The resort was literally right on the beach so we knew we'd have to run into, plus we had maps. The walk up the coast was really pretty, we saw lots and lots of drying squid, it hung on cloths lines mingled with clean laundry. Jason spotted a cafe with Nescape logos in the window and we went in. The place offered comfortable couches to lounge on with beautiful ocean views. I ordered an latte and he a coffee. It was the best coffee we have had here! The woman who made it used a real machine, instead of just a pot or instant! It was such a good find!

A short while later we made it tothe resort, checked in (with the help of my coteacher via phone, he and his family would meet us later) and gawked at our literally ocean front view. Jason and I were talking about how fortunate we were to be able to come to Korea, to stay in a place like this, to have such welcoming coteachers... we truely are.

Jason convinced me to play some tennis and then we checked out the beach. It was hot that day and the water was warm! We put our feet in and had a good time running around and taking pictures. Families were out and people were riding quads on the sand. Very soon after my coteacher arrived and we met his wife and sons. They were very nice but the sons were super shy. His wife made us a truely scrumptus dinner of sam gip sal (she just whipped it up!) complete with side dishes, rice, fruit and coffee. We talked and learned more about them. We decided that the next day we would meet and in the morning and do some sightseeing.

When we woke up Tuesday morning it was a bit cloudy, I think it had begun to rain during the night. At first Jason and I thought we would have been able to swim in the ocean (if we hadn't forgotten our suits!) but by 10am the weather had quickly changed to dark rain clouds. We met my coteacher and his wife (their sons did not want to sightsee with us, go fiture) and they drove us into town and back towards Gangneung to look around. My coteacher was so nice that he made sure to drive next to the beach the entire time instead of taking the faster highways so we could look out. We stopped at beautiful Gyeongpodae Pavilion, one of the eight scenic wonders of Gwandong lake. The Pavilion was really amazing, I love how traditional Korean structures are decorated with such bright colors! There were dragons painted on the pillars inside and you took your shoes off to walk around it. It was/is a spot to hang out and view the beautiful lake, and beyond that, the ocean. Although when we were there it was cloudy. We also learned that the woman on the 50000 won bill is considered the ideal mother and is the one girls should aspire to be like.

After that we headed down to the lake to see more of the eight wonders, but we stopped after only one site because of the rain. I'd like to go back because people were still out biking, walking and renting those little carts where everyone pedals that you find at the beach. Maybe next time! We -almost- stopped at the Gramaphone Museum, or we could have checked out the Edison Museum (bizzarre museums here we come!) but due to a communication mix up we headed to the beach instead! It was pouring by now and while Jason and I got out with our umbrellas and walked around the beautiful boardwalk, flanked by pine trees, bright flowers and smooth sand, my coteacher and his wife stayed in the car. Again, it looked like a great place to go in the sunshine! As we were climbing back in the car my coteacher jumped out, grabbed Jason and they ran over to a vendor's cart. He bought us ice cream, in the rain! Mmm good.

After that my coteacher decided it was too hard to sightsee in the rain so we headed to E-Mart to do some food (and clothes?) shopping. He told us to stock up on whatever we needed because everything would be closed the next day for Chuseok. We bought some long sleeves shirt, bread and cheese. We were thrilled to find the cheese! It was only 5000 won for 6 six slices! (I'm kidding, that is SUPER expensive for cheese!) For lunch my coteacher's wife made Japchae, a traditional Chuseok dish. It was super yummy!! She showed me how to make it and I took notes the entire time, so I'll have to try to reproduce it!

After we finished eating my coteacher dragged his super shy sons out of the second room and plopped them down in front of us. He claimed his elder son wants to study in America and told us "tell him about Disneyland, so he will want to go to the US!" Ummm... it was one of the most awkward situations... we four just sat there staring at each other. We tried to ask the sons questions but they either didn't understand or gave us one word answers. Finally after an agonizing 10 minutes (for all of us) Jason said "okay I think we better be going..." HAHA.

It was still early afternoon at this time but the storm was raging outside. Sheets of rain were coming down in diagonals. I decided we should go for a walk. We grapped our umbrellas and headed out. We walked down the beach, our umbrellas shielding our faces but our legs and torsos were left to the elements. We were getting soaked and people inside the shops and resturants on the beach, the few that were open, with the few customers (who arrived in cars) looking at us like we were crazy. We walked about 20 minutes and made it back to the caffe we had visted the day before. We were the only people in the place and they lady recongized us! She was kind of laughing and shaking her head but again made us a great cup of coffee! As night began to fall we made our way back to the resort, effectively soaking the other side of our bodies as we walked into the wind.

That night we just hung out and watched TV. We saw on the news that Seoul was flooded there was so much rain and Wonju got about 9 inches between Monday and Tuesday! The next morning we headed home and made it to Wonju by noon. The following days were spent scrubbing clean the last of my apartment, eating, sleeping and watching the X-Files.

New Pictures posted!

New pictures posted here!

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