The Jones' Korean Adventure

Saying Goodbye...

2007-06-25T10:38:00.000+09:00

This past week has been full of goodbyes and "lasts":
- our last Korean BBQ
- our last time in Seoul
- our last trip to church
- our last post-church meal at Dos Tacos (the best Mexican food this side of the Pacific)
- our last class (for some of our classes...we still have to teach today)
- our last hang-out session with David and Jerra
You get the idea...here are some pictures of some of those "lasts":

The best part about icecream parties: when you hand the kids their icecream, the room falls silent and for the 5 minutes that they're eating their treat, there's no screaming! It's a beautiful thing.
This is Sam's essay-writing class...they threw a little surprise party for him :0)
This is my favourite class...we had a great party on Friday night, complete with pizza, pop, icecream and games!
Our last lunch at Dos Tacos...Korean style Mexican food is delicious!

Sam's last meal that includes a "fat dish". We didn't really eat this, but a Korean friend told us they actually serve a plate of pig fat with this meal...gross!

Our Last Weekend

2007-06-25T10:21:00.000+09:00

As some of you know, this is our last full day in Korea. On June 26th, we'll be flying home to the great west! Since it was our last weekend here, we decided to go out in style and spend one last day sight-seeing in Seoul. We joined our partners-in-crime, David and Jerra, and headed to a beautiful palace. This palace is only accesible by tour, and we turned out to be quite the tour delinquents...we really wanted to get pictures and weren't in a rush, so we ended up WAY behind the tour group. Every time we got to a new spot, the lady was already finished her informational speal and was moving everyone off to the next site. Pretty funny! The palace highlight was the "Forbidden Gardens" (don't worry...no longer forbidden!), where we saw a beautiful pond that was full of lotus flower leaves and some blossoms. The blossoms weren't in full bloom, but the green leaves and occassional blossoms floating on the water was pretty cool to see!
After the palace, we headed over to the Han River. We wanted to go boating, but weren't able to find any reasonable places to do it. We found one dock owner that wanted to charge us $30 for a 5 minute boat ride...ummmm, NO! So, we contended ourselves with a nice walk along the river instead.
Our final destination was Seoul Tower...a space-needle/CN tower'ish structure on a small mountain in the middle of Seoul. We got to see the lights of the whole city one last time. It was really beautiful! Unfortunately, I accidentally left our camera on all day and the battery was drained by that time, so we have no pictures. You'll have to imagine it :0)
Here are some pictures from the earlier part of our day:

Sam and David with the main throne room in the distance. This was near the beginning of our tour, before we started to seriously lag behind.
Jerra and I in front of the throne room.
A pretty shot...I felt very artistic taking this.
Me with the lotus flower pond.
Sam and I outside of the concubine's quarters. No, I was not trying to seduce young Samuel ;0)
Our walk along the Han River.

Baekundae

2007-06-11T00:02:00.000+09:00

This past Thursday was a holiday in Korea - the equivalent of Memorial (if you're Canadian)/Veteran's (if you're American) Day. Seeing as we had the day off, we decided the best way to spend it was hiking. We headed into Seoul, met up with David and Jerra, and...proceeded to wander the streets aimlessly for 20 minutes looking for our bus. We decided to ask someone where we should go, and chose a sporty looking man with white running shoes on. He was so nice - hummed and hawwed, asked store owners and finally led us to the correct bus stop. That's when he proceeded to tell us that he was going to come with us and be our guide that day (he probably figured that if our luck navigating the mountain corresponded to our luck navigating the bus system, we would be goners out there). And that's what he did. We found out that our new friend's English name was David, and get this - he hikes barefoot! He's been doing it for a year, and says it helps with blood circulation. Let me just say that this was not an easy, barefoot-able hike! The last 30 minutes of it was up a cliff face, where we had to pull ourselves up with a wire cable...he was still barefooted. Extremely hardcore!
Here are some pictures from our day:

A pretty guard post we came across.
You might want to click on this picture to make it bigger. Can you see the little black line that looks like a bunch of ants marching single file? Those are people! You're looking at the final part of the hike...up the cliff face to the top. I have never before had to wait in a line of people for my turn to reach the top!Sam on his way up the crazy rock part of this hike.
Sam and David...our fabulous guide (this guy even shared his food with us and taught us some history of the mountain).
Heading back down the scary rock face...extremely steep!
Enjoying a little snack on our way down. (Notice that David is still barefooted).
Sidenote: this is a fabulous new dessert we've discovered. It's called bing-su, and it's basically crushed ice with frozen yogurt and fruit on it. You mash it all up and then enjoy. It's so good and addictive. The traditional Korean stuff comes with red beans and rice cakes in it...also delicious, but the fruit is my favorite!

Happy Birthday Sam!

2007-06-02T23:47:00.000+09:00

Tomorrow (June 3rd) is Sam's 27th birthday, so today I decided to surprise him with a trip to a water themepark called "Caribbean Bay".
We had a great time. The sun was out, the lines weren't too bad, and the slides were really fun! Also, we found out something new about Korea - at waterslide parks it's imperative that everybody wears a swimming cap. We had just made our way to our first slide, grabbed inner tubes, and were about to head up the stairs when a lifeguard blocked us, pointed at his head and said "cap". Our response: "huh?". After more gestures and a quick look around, we realized that every single person was wearing either a ball cap, a doo-rag (I'm sure I didn't spell that right), a towel, or a swimming cap on their head. We still have no idea why. We don't think it was to keep hair out of the water, because people didn't tuck their hair into the caps. We don't think it was for sun-stroke, because the water kept everybody cool. We don't think it was for fashion, because we all looked ridiculous. It's just one of those things that we've come to terms with never understanding. We had to run down to the nearest souvenir shop and buy two of the most fashionable swimming caps that we could find (see pictures below).
We had a great time in the wave pool...the waves were so powerful that there was an actual "danger zone" where noone was allowed to stand because that was where the wave crashed over. It was very fun! Extreme body surfing.
Another funny thing: everyone (not just kids...everyone) wore life jackets...everywhere. Even if they were sitting in a hot-tub, they wore a lifejacket. Even if they were only up to their knees in the wave pool, they wore a lifejacket. Even if they were going on a slide, where it would be absolutely impossible to drown unless someone knocked them out and held their face in the 1 inch of water that flowed down the tube...even then, they wore a lifejacket. Hmmm...
Anyways, enjoy the pictures of our funny, fun-filled day...

Sam enjoying his pre-waterpark breakfast of bacon, eggs, scones, fruit salad, orange juice, and green tea...we knew we'd need lots of energy for a day on the slides!
This is Sam outside of the entrance to Caribbean Bay.
The birthday boy in the lunch-line. We ordered burgers and fries from one of the snack shops.
Here we are in front of the wave-pool.
This was the Adventure Park. That huge skull in the background would fill with water and then tip over and dump galloons of water on whoever was standing below...very fun!
Sam with his ultra-hot swimming cap.
As you can see, I picked a cap that went with my outfit.

A Weekend at the Coast

2007-05-18T11:25:00.001+09:00

This past weekend we headed over to the east coast for a little R & R. We went to Seokcho, which is a town at the base of Seorak mountain. We left EARLY on Saturday morning (we're talking 5 a.m. wake up call), and arrived at the coast by 12:30. Funny thing: most of the ride there was sunny, however once we got to Seokcho, found a hotel, and found a beach, we had about 15 minutes before hurricane weather rolled in and we were faced with blowing winds and drenching rains. Pretty funny, and we managed to enjoy the beach anyways.
We hiked Seoraksan on Sunday. It was a beautiful day, and the mountain was absolutely beautiful. I have never seen shades of green like we saw there. A lot of people were out, as hiking season is already full blown over here. The finale of the hike involved about 800 metal steps that were bolted into the side of a huge rock face...very cool, but a little scary, as the steps were pretty steep, and who knows how long ago they were bolted there. But, we managed to survive, and we've got the pictures to show for it. Enjoy!

This is a picture of what we saw out of our bus window for most of our trip over to the coast. It's planting season and the rice paddies have all been flooded.
Here we are on the beach: powdered sand, smiles on our faces, and dark clouds looming.
This body of water is known as the "Sea of Japan" to everyone in the world except Koreans. They call this water the "East Sea" because they don't think it's fair that it's named after Japan. I call it both.
Despite the chilly water temperature, the guys decided to take a dip. They are so tough!
This is what you have to do if you want to order pizza in Korea. Step 1: Make an elaborate drawing of exactly what you want. Step 2: Look up all the words in the Korean/English dictionary, and write them down too. Step 3: Find someone with a cellphone. Step 4: Show them this paper. Step 5: Let them call. Step 6: Wait for your pizza. It worked!
This is a pre-hike picture. Sam enjoying some energy food...chicken on a stick.
This statue was at the bottom of the mountain. We've found that most mountains here have a temple and a huge statue right before the trailhead.
I thought this dragon sort of looks like the one of "The Never-ending Story", so I made friends with it.
Some of the beautiful scenery. You can't see them, but this is the rock face that the stairs are bolted to.
Here we are getting closer and closer to the rock face. Sam posing as a friendly mountain man.

Starting up the stairs.
The views we had were amazing. Still hiking the stairs...quite the workout!
Here we are at the top.
Some of the rock formations were unreal. The one behind us just looked like slabs of rock that had been set against each other.
Here I am hanging on for dear life. This could have been a very bad accident!

(Note: the above picture is staged. No hikers were hurt in the production of this photograph)

Some Funny Signs...

2007-05-08T00:38:00.000+09:00

We aren't exactly sure why this man is being spanked by the police officer. Funny that the cop is wearing gloves, eh! We think it's either a poster to warn against drinking and driving (since the man's holding a bottle of something and there's a car in the background), or to prevent people from jumping the turn-styles to get on the subway (as it was set up right by the turn-styles). Either way, I do not want what is happening to him to happen to me, so I will always pay my 80 cents before riding the train, and I will never drink and drive!
I think a little something was lost in the translation of this dish name. Kimchi jigae (the dish shown in the picture) is really delicious, however un-appetizing the name may be!
I think they must have had a German lady help them with this translation work.

Coming Soon to a North American City Near You...

2007-05-08T00:05:00.000+09:00

It's official...we're coming home! Our contract is up at the end of June, and we'll be flying home on June 26th. Hard to believe that a year has already almost come and gone...but it has, and so we're getting ready to move on to the next adventure.

Some things we're looking forward to about North America:

1. Seeing family and friends

2. Tim Hortons (notice this is second only to family and friends...I don't think Sam shares my obsession, but I miss anything and everything about my favourite coffee shop!)

3. Food (it would take too long to mention everything we're craving right now...things like steak, salt and vinegar chips, pie, vegetables -sounds funny, but vegetables are really expensive here, brownies, feta cheese, Doritos, salad, pitas, English muffins...you get the picture)

4. Being able to understand the signs. Not just read them, but UNDERSTAND them!!

5. Driving

We have about 7 weeks left to pack as many Korean activities in as we can, and then we're off. We're looking forward to seeing everybody again soon.

Some Pictures from the Weekend

2007-05-01T00:53:00.000+09:00

This weekend Sam and I re-visited some of the sites in Seoul that we have been to before. We went to a prison where the Japanese held many Korean freedom-fighters during their occupation in the earlier half of the 20th century. After we had toured around and left the facilities, an older Korean man walked up to us, told us a bit about the prison, and then thanked us for taking the time to visit such an important site. He was really happy that we wanted to learn about what had happened to the Korean people. I was pretty touched by that. We also hit up a palace in Seoul to check out the grounds with their newly acquired blossoms and greenery...very pretty! Here are a few pictures of things we saw...

Just in case some of you have forgotten where exactly we are, let this extremely over-sized flag serve as a friendly reminder...we're in Korea.
Here I am in one of the holding cells in Seodaemun Prison.
Sam and David, through the cell door.
Sam in front of the throne building at Gyeongbukgung Palace.
Sam took this cool artistic shot. This building is also on the palace grounds. As you can see, everything is green and flowering and beautiful!

Masks, Summits, and Industrial Staples

2007-04-24T10:09:00.000+09:00

We went on an awesome hike this weekend in Bukhansan Park. You might remember that a few weeks ago we hiked in the same park. This place is huge...tons of trails and summits...a great playground for us!
This particular hike led us through the forest, along lantern lined paths (see picture below), and then to a final rocky and steep section which required use of the iron rails that were provided to pull yourself up (very fun!). The view from the top was amazing...a 360 degrees, top of the world feeling.
After our trek out, all four of us were STARVING, as we definitely did not pack enough food to energize the entire trip. We decided to stop at a little road-side restaurant (they have them leading up to all of the mountains here...very smart!) and grab a bite to eat. Sam saw one that served a chicken/potato/veggie soup with rice that we love, so we headed in and took our seat. This soup is cool because it cooks on a burner on the table in front of you. It smelled delicious, looked delicious, tasted delicious, so we heartily dug in. A few minutes later, David stopped chewing, got a weird look on his face, and pulled a large industrial staple out of his mouth. The prongs were not folded over...they stuck straight out like a little death trap. We have no idea how that thing got into our soup...craziness. Luckily he felt it before swallowing! After that, we were more cautious with each bite, but still enjoyed the delicious Korean cooking.
Here are a few pictures from the day:

This is on the subway. The spring season brings with it dust that blows over from the Gobi dessert in China/Mongolia. Supposedly horrible for the lungs. Saturday was a high risk day, so we had every intention of wearing our masks (like the locals), but it was just too hot for hiking!
Some of the trails were lined with these little lanterns...as we neared a temple or a hermitage. We're not sure why they're up, but they're everywhere, and definitely add a nice, festive feeling (we think it might be for Buddha's birthday, but don't quote us on that!).
This is nearing the end of our hike...right before the super steep part to the summit. The rock formations were unreal...looked like they had just been stacked into huge piles.
Here are the helpful rails...difficult to do with a heavy backpack on, but really fun!
A few from the peak in one direction.
Seoul is behind us, but again is a little hazy (we think because of the Gobi dessert dust)
Here's Sam with the view in another direction from the peak...that was the rock peak that was beside ours (we'll do that one next time ;0). Cool rocks, eh!
This picture was taken by a funny little drunk man. That's his finger in the top, left corner. It was hilarious because at first he was pointing the camera at himself and trying to look backwards through the view-place (can't think of the technical term). He was pretty shaky and wobbly and unsteady, and I was afraid he was going to drop the camera. But hey, the picture turned out pretty good anyways!
Most mountains have a temple at the bottom of them. This one was all decked out with the lanterns...very pretty colors!
Here's another one of the decorated temple buildings.

Paddle Boating & Gelato

2007-04-18T21:56:00.000+09:00

This past weekend we had the opportunity to spend some time at Yeouido Park. Yeouido Park is on an island in the middle of the Han River...a big island...with lots of the city on it, too. We met up with David and Jerra and decided to explore the park area a little. It was an extremely crowded day! Because it was so nice outside, EVERYONE wanted to be at Yeouido Park...bike riders, roller bladers, soccer players, walkers, runner, S-boarders (see picture below)...and paddle-boaters!
That's right...we were fortunate enough to stumble across a place that rented swan, whale, and ugly duckling paddle boats. Of course, I wanted the ugly duckling one, but when our turn came up, we were shown to one of the beautiful (and life-like) swans :0)
Here's the thing: paddle boats are cool, but if you just paddle around like normal people, they lose their coolness after 4.5 minutes. So, we decided to turn our swan into a bumper paddle boat...much more risky and enjoyable! The funny thing is that none of the other paddle-boaters knew the "bumper" thing was our planned idea. Every time we "accidentally" rammed into someone, we'd bow our heads and say "sorry, sorry, sorry", give an apologetic smile, and then paddle away. Good times. After awhile we decided to push our paddle boating experience even more to the limit and exit the buoyed area into the unknowns of the Han River. Don't worry, we didn't get very far before our Christian consciences made us turn around :0)
After our paddle boating, we walked around some more, and then headed to find some dinner and dessert...Italian gelato, anyone? That's right, we found an excellent gelato store in one of the buildings on the island...a little spendy, but tasty delicious!
Enjoy the pictures!

David, Jerra, and Sam in front of a humongous Korean flag.
We found some beautiful blossoms during our park exploration time.
Here I am learning how to s-board from one of the superstar s-boarding kids. He rolled by and Jerra yelled out, "Can we try?". Surprisingly, he understood us, and let us each have a turn. He was even a trooper and let us use his shoulders as support so we didn't fall...nice kid (oh, and s-boarding is harder then it looks...you would have needed the support shoulders too!).
One of the beautiful and well-planned gardens we saw.
Here's the view from inside our paddle-boat. Jerra and I had a free-ride, while the guys did all the hard paddle work. Target spotted, straight ahead!
This picture was taken after we "accidentally" crossed the buoyed area into un-charted waters.
Just wanted you to see how crowded it was that day!

Bomunsa Temple

2007-04-08T23:08:00.000+09:00

This weekend Sam and I joined our friends, David and Jerra, for a trip to Bomunsa Temple. The cool thing was that this temple was located on an island off of the north-west coast of South Korea, which means that we got to take a short ferry ride over to our destination.
Funny thing about Korea...it seems like everyone loves seagulls! Most people on our boat had bought a bag of shrimp chips with the sole purpose of feeding them to the "flying rats", as I so fondly refer to them. Our boat was surrounded by swirling and squawking in something that resembled a very scary scene from the movie "Birds". After about 2 minutes, I got used to the fact that the birds were there. That's when Mr. Man about 2 feet from where I was standing decided to snatch one of the birds out of the sky. Seriously, the bird came in for a shrimp chip and found himself clutched in the hands of a man who was far too interested in this feathery friend. The bird freaked out, pooped everywhere, bit the man (who didn't let go), and then proceeded to bite his own wing (I have no idea what that was about...a scheme to make Mr. Man release him?) Very bizarre. I remember growing up with warnings like, "don't touch the seagull, it's dirty...chase those birds away...don't feed them, they're scavengers", etc. Obviously, people do not feel the same way here!
Back to the temple: it was a neat place to visit. We took a bus from the ferry terminal to the temple site and then spent a couple hours exploring the grounds there. There was a Buddhist carving up on the mountain that we read was an important spiritual place for Buddhists. A monk and some women were chanting and doing their prayer beads in front of it. We also saw some cool buildings and a neat stone dragon, and got reprimanded by a monk for sitting on the ground (I guess it's not allowed...we had no idea and felt pretty bad...oops!). We managed to make it back to the ferry in time for one of the last runs back to the mainland, and then headed to Ilsan, where David and Jerra were gracious enough to put us up for the night so we didn't have to trek back to Osan. All in all, a great Saturday!

Mr. Man with his captured bird...crazy!
Here's Sam and I on the ferry ride...this doesn't give the best picture of how thick the birds were...seriously, mentally add 20 more birds to this picture and that's what it felt like.
Sam in front of the temple bell pavillion. This is actually a pretty popular pose here. We see lots of kids doing it...I think it makes Sam look dashing and distinguishe!
This is the Buddhist carving at the top of the mountain. Oh, and another popular pose :0)
These are our friends, David and Jerra. This is the rock path that led to the Buddhist image.
We hadn't seen a cool stone dragon like this one at any of the other temples so far. Pretty neat.
This rock was in front of one of the worship rooms. I think that people must bring small Buddha statues and leave them here as an offering. There was a rock ledge behind this circle rock that had tons more on it.

The Blossoms are Here!!

2007-04-08T23:01:00.000+09:00

Spring is definitely a beautiful season in South Korea. The blossoms are just starting to come out in full force, and they are breath-taking. We've seen a few different types of blossoms in Osan and Seoul. Here are some pictures I took today as Sam and I walked from church to Costco. We didn't need groceries, just wanted the $1 icecream deal, and figured that an hour of walking in the sun wasn't too bad of a trade-off for the delicious treat :0) Enjoy the pictures.

Changdeokgung

2007-04-01T20:36:00.000+09:00

This Saturday Lailani (the new teacher at our school), Sam, and I headed into Seoul for a tour of Changdeok Palace. This palace is different then the others in that it can only be visited on a tour. We signed up for the English speaking tour, since we figured we'd learn the most that way!
The palace was beautiful. Originally built in the early 1400's, burnt down by the Japanese (just like everything else) in the late 1500's, and rebuilt in the early 1600's. The palace was built as an "alternative home" in case the main palace that the royal family lived in was destroyed...which it was...thank you Japan! It was interesting, because we were told that members of the Joseon dynasty family actually lived in parts of this palace until 1989. Crazy, eh!
The grounds were beautiful, as you'll be able to see from the pictures.

This is me in front of the main gate enterance.
This is Sam and I in front of Injeongjeon Hall. This building was a throne room, used for official ceremonies. You can see that the road leading up to the building is tiered. The top tier (where we're standing) was the road for royalty. The right side was for civil officials, and the left side was for military officials.
This building served as the Queen's day chambers (men and women were kept separate during the day because of the Confucian influence at the time), and the royal couple's night chambers (they were allowed to be together at night so that the Korean race did not simply die out). The Chinese symbols above the entrance say "Chamber for Creating Great Things" (or something close to that). As you've probably figured out, the "great thing" they were trying to create was an heir for the throne. No pressure, though!
As you can see from the blossoms behind us, spring has semi-sprung! Some of the trees are just starting to get their blossoms...beautiful, beautiful!
This is Sam standing in the "Secret Garden"...named that because only the royal family was allowed to come to this area...giving it a feeling of mystery for the rest of us common folk. It was supposed to be a place of peace and relaxation. In June this pond is supposedly full of lotus blossoms, which will be worth a trip back to see.
And here we are in front of the pavillion that looks out onto the lotus blossom pond.

Mask Please!

2007-03-25T19:33:00.000+09:00

As the note suggests, Sam and I have once again come down with the flu! We're seriously considering wearing the white SARS masks everywhere we go...subways, buses, our classrooms...you get the idea! I guess Korea's really getting into our system ;0)

We blame this round of bugs on our subway ride last week. We have never experienced a crammed subway as we did on Saturday. The train pulled up to the station already bursting at the seams. The doors opened and the people behind us were gracious enough to push us through the doors and into the mass of humanity on the inside.

Now, some subway drivers are nice and smooth, and if you're standing, it's really easy to keep your footing. This driver, however, was not one of those. He started abruptly, changed speeds abruptly, and braked abruptly. The cool thing was that none of that mattered. No matter how abrupt a start or stop was, noone was going anywhere...we were so tightly wedged together that I probably could have lifted my feet and been held up by the pressure on my shoulders. As a North American, I am definitely used to a tad bit more personal space then was offered to me on that ride.

Nothing like a cheery note on a piece of toilet paper to turn a grey sky blue! Our students are great :0)

A Hiking We Will Go...

2007-03-18T18:12:00.000+09:00

This weekend we had the opportunity to meet up with a really cool couple (David and Jerra from the U.S, who we hadn't met before...we have mutual friends back home) and go hiking with them. We decided to meet bright and early (ie. 10 a.m.) on Saturday and hike up Bukhansan peak, a mountain just north of Seoul. We consulted our Lonely Planet Korea travel guide, and found out what subway to take, and what bus to connect with to take us “directly to the front gate of the national park”. According to the book, if we exited from the subway station via exit 1, walked to the front of the art centre building across the street and got on bus 156, we’d be home free. The only thing is that bus 156 does not exist. We checked every sign, asked various people, and waited for a good 20 minutes before we concluded that the phantom bus was never coming. We decided to cross the road and see if the bus maybe went in the other direction. As we approached the bus stop, we noticed a Korean couple dressed in hiking fatigues. We asked them if they knew bus 156, and of course they hadn’t heard of it (thanks Lonely Planet!). We then asked if they knew how to get to Bukhansan peak from where we were…they didn’t. Finally, with no hopes left for hiking Bukhansan, I asked, “ummmm, where are you guys going?”. Of course, they were going for a hike, and graciously allowed us to follow them to the trail head. They then gave us their map of the mountain and sent us on our merry way.
It was a great hike…the trail was clearly marked, the sun was shining, and the view we got of Seoul from the top was well worth the effort to get there. It was the best view of Seoul we’ve had…the city just goes on forever! At the top we came across a cute little temple, and about 5 minutes later we found a fortress gate and wall, which we followed for a good stretch. A bit muddy (probably from all the traffic…EVERYONE and their dog was on the mountain this weekend), but nothing unmanageable.
Probably the perfect Saturday…great to meet up with new friends, and replace the sounds of car horns and construction with the sounds of birds and the odd Korean yelling - “Yaho” - from the top of the mountain.

Sam and I with David and Jerra - resting at the temple site.

Jerra and I with the fortress gate in the background.

I included this picture because I think I look a bit hardcore. This was part of the fortress wall...I wanted to climb up and get a better view of Seoul
The large peak directly behind us is Bukhansan...next time we'll figure out a way to get there!
That's Seoul in the background...it also keeps going for miles to the left and right of what you can see in this picture...it's a crazy big city!
I loved the warning to watch for the sole forest fire on the mountain. Very helpful, thank you!
Sam contemplating the order to "No Dump Garbage".

Samuel Beckham

2007-03-08T00:04:00.000+09:00

Sam usually has about one person per week comment on the fact that they think he looks "exactly like" David Beckham...some even ask if he IS Beckham. We found this massive Beckham poster down in Gyeongju and couldn't resist doing a little comparison. Let me know what you think...
(Could just be a Korea thing...he's also been told that he looks like Jim Carrey, Brad Pitt, and Russell Crowe...none of whom look like each other!)

A Visit with Mom and Laura

2007-03-05T23:16:00.000+09:00

As some of you know, my sister (Laura) and my Mom were here to visit for 10 days. They left just this morning, and I wanted to post some of the pictures from their fabulous visit. The days just whizzed by as we toured a palace, a fortress, temples, markets, royal tombs, museums, and the DMZ. In between all the trips we found time to laugh our heads off, entertain ourselves at the karaoke room, play lots of games, and sample delicious Korean cuisine.
Mom and Lor, your visit meant so much to me. You put a fresh smile on my face! I love you both very much :0)

Here's Mom at Gyeongbukgung Palace, posing by one of the "title" markers. Whenever there were important events at the palace, the royal court would assemble by the marker that indicated their title, or position. I have decided that this marker is for "beautiful mamas" (that's a direct translation from the characters on the stone).
Here are Mom and Lor by the chimneys that are behind the Queen's residence (you'll notice that in each of these pictures, Laura is doing some rendition of the typical Asian victory sign).
Getting up close and personal with the palace wild life.
Posing on the pillar walkway.
This picture was taken at the Suwon Fortress. I'm pretty sure the sign in front of us says "Do not climb on the ancient canon", but we couldn't resist!
On the pathway of Suwon Fortress. This fortress is huge, and we walked around (almost) the whole thing. Lots of guard towers, pagodas, and gateways to keep us entertained.

This picture was taken at Bulguksa temple down in Gyeongu (towards the bottom of Korea). A lovely fountain that, although not running, was a beautiful photo op.
Mom and Sam got all "Fear Factor" on us and decided to try the boiled silk worm larvaes that are for sale on most street corners in Korea. Lor and I couldn't handle the smell of them, and graciously offered to be the multi-media experts during this ordeal, capturing the event in both picture and video format. Sam ate 2, and Mom ate 1. They both "claimed" they weren't bad, said they could have eaten the whole cup, and then 5 minutes later begged for something to get the taste out of their mouth. Fear is definitely NOT a factor for them.
Here we are at a stone pagoda that we found at a small temple in Gyeongju. There was a little statue of Buddha inside the doors behind us...different from any other pagoda we've seen here before. Kinda cool.
I love the lights in this picture. This site used to be a summer palace before the Japanese burnt it down during one of their many invasions. All that's been rebuilt are three pagodas like this one..beautiful.
This is one of the stone pagodas at Bulguksa Temple. The sign by it said that the design used in this pagoda is different from any other that was built.

The night before our DMZ tour, we stayed in a Jimjibang (one of Korea's famous "sauna hotels"). For $10 you get a place to sleep, pajamas to wear, and access to all the facilities.
Although it kind of feels like a "Kool-Aid cult" with everyone walking around barefoot in the same clothes, you can't beat the price!

One of the stops on our DMZ (de-militarized zone between North and South Korea) tour was at a tunnel that the North dug to try to infiltrate the South. These are the funky hard hats we got to wear to protect our heads from the low ceilings (obviously, we are much taller then the North Koreans, as our helmets frequently bashed into the rocks overhead).

This look of fear on Laura's face is real. Out the window is a North Korean (KPA) soldier. Usually on this tour, there is one or two KPA soldiers standing at a distance from where we visit. During this tour, four KPA soldiers suddenly came marching down to the building we were touring. Their commander also came down, and there were about 9 other soldiers outside their main building, about 150 feet away from where we were. Our hearts were definitely pounding, as it felt like we were being surrounded. Freaky!
Mom with a friendly ROK (Republic of Korea) soldier, who is making sure she does not decide to defect from the free world into a communist dictatorship (the door behind him opens into North Korea).
This was our DMZ tour bus...we were on bus number 1.

Here we are at a Norae Bang (singing room)...complete with microphones, tambourines, and a spinning disco ball. If this doesn't make a person feel like a star, I don't know what would!
Our last meal together in Korea. Look at how Mom and Lor handle the chopsticks like pros!

Working Hard or Hardly Working???

2007-02-20T00:45:00.000+09:00

Working hard or hardly working? You decide!

New York Fries and Royal Tombs

2007-02-11T21:19:00.000+09:00

Poutine. That word, for some, means absolutely nothing. But for a Canadian, that word brings with it a mouth-watering mental picture of french fries, cheese curds, and gravy. Pretty much a heart attack on a plate, but I hear obesity is the latest fad, so all aboard the grease wagon!

I had pretty much written off my chances of eating a good dish of poutine in Korea. I figured that if the Americans don't know about it, how could the Koreans know about it. That was, until we stumbled across a New York Fries franchise. This little restaurant was located in an underground shopping mall area that led to a subway station. A misguided turn down a wrong corridor led us to the black and white checkered sign that screamed, "NEW YORK FRIES" in my direction. And lo-and-behold, poutine was on the menu.

Here we are with Josh, Bethany and Erin (some friends from our new church), enjoying our fabulous taste-of-home lunch!

After we had our fill at New York Fries, Sam and I decided to head to some royal tombs that were in the area. We saw the tombs of King Seongjong (he ruled from 1469 to 1494) and his second wife, Queen Jeonghyeonwanghu (imagine learning to spell that in kindergarten...huge disadvantage!). They both had lots of statues surrounding them, which was pretty cool. Everything from sheep and horses to what looked like a warrior and a priest were carved, and set up around the mounds that held their bodies. The graves were on two separate hills in the same park area. Both were set up exactly the same, with the same stone carvings around them. It was neat to be in a serene, park environment, and then look up and see the huge skyscrapers all around us. The old world meets the new world.
Here are some pictures.

This is Sam with the backside of one of the sheep carvings. As you can see, even the backsides were very realistic, and well done.

Here I am with one of the protective warrior statues.

You have to understand that we NEVER see grass. The grass on these tomb mounds was the most grass we have seen in a long time. Even though it was dead winter grass, I had to lie on it.

Here's Sam giving a larger shot of what the tombs look like. The statues and tomb mound was on top of this larger mound. You can kinda see the statue heads peaking up at the top of the hill.

Here's what I meant by "old world meets new world". The one side of this road led to an old building in front of one of the tombs...

The other side led to the downtown city area. Old meets new.

Crazy!!

2007-02-04T16:32:00.000+09:00

Crazy.
I have never said that 5 letter word as much in my whole life as I have in the past 7 months in Korea. For some reason, that word has the power to send Korean kids into fits of laughter. Whenever a class seems a little dull, and I can tell the kids aren't listening, I work the word 'crazy' into my lesson, they die laughing, and then I have their attention again.
Here's the story of how that one little word changed a class:

At our school we have one class that DOES NOT talk. Seems like a good thing, right? If they're not talking, that must mean they're listening. Believe me, it's not a good thing. This is one of our upper level classes, where they kids really need to be talking and practicing their English so we can know if they're learning or not. Sam, Mel, and I all teach this class, and we all have problems with them. Whenever one of us asks a questions we usually have to wait 2 awkward and painful minutes before someone in the class croaks out a half-hearted answer and returns to their silence. It feels awkward. It IS awkward. We hate it!
One day I decided to take things into my own hands. I wanted them to feel a bit of the awkwardness that I feel when they don't talk to me. I also wanted them to realize that it is, in fact, a good thing to communicate with one another and with me. Here's what I did. Class started at 10 past. I walked in, said hello, and then told them that I wasn't going to talk to them for half of class (25 minutes). I said, "You don't talk to me, so I'm not going to talk to you. You can talk to each other in English. If I hear you speak Korean, your name is going on the board. If you speak Korean twice, you have to leave my class". I then sat down, and started quietly taking attendance. You have to realize, that in any other class this "free talk" time would be celebrated and enjoyed. Friends would chat and laugh...they'd have a grand time. Not in this class. NO ONE SPOKE. Kids were tapping their fingers on their desks. One kid's head was going back and forth as he watched the heating fan move on the wall. The rest were staring at their hands, with eyes glazed over. I couldn't believe it! No one uttered a word for 15 MINUTES! I used that time to look at each kid in the room with a "why aren't you talking" look. It was unbelievably awkward, but I wasn't about to give in and be the first one to crack the silence. After about 17 minutes of silence, I stood up, went to the board, wrote "CRAZY" in huge letters, pointed at each kid, pointed at the board, and sat down. Worked like a charm - small giggles in the class, followed by whispered talking, following by bolder voices. Still quiet, compared to everyone else in the school. But a small step.
After the alloted 25 minutes of "free talk" time, I stood up and left the room. I'm sure that by this point they were all thinking I was off my rocker. I went and got an icecream bar and then returned to class to give it to Tim, who had spoken the most during the 25 minutes. That got the message across. All the kids were sighing, and huffing over the fact that they didn't get the icecream. I spent the rest of class telling them how crazy they were, and how they needed to talk, and why don't they talk, etc.
Besides the fact that the kids now truly do believe that one of their teachers is a bit mental, they have started answering more questions and actually say, "hello" when I walk through the door. Crazy baby steps!

Cookie Slogans

2007-02-04T16:26:00.000+09:00

I love cookie boxes in Korea! Sometimes the slogans are translated into English, which is a real treat. They make every cookie sound like it was baked by angels in God's kitchen, and sent to earth to give us an other-worldly experience.

Here are a few examples:

Walnut Cookie Bars: "The walnut cake, just what you have wanted. Taste harmony of tender feeling and savory walnut. This cake will lead you to sweet time." (Come again? The CAKE will lead me???)

Chocolate Cookie Bars: "It's a special gift only for you who are so romantic and luxury." (sounds like they're selling bubble bath or lingerie right? Nope - cookies!!)

Chocolate Cookies: "Your joyful biscuit! Just to everyone's liking at your home - children and adults all alike." (can't you just picture your 'joyful biscuit' smiling at you as you eat it?)

I love it!

My Gym Story

2007-01-16T21:53:00.000+09:00

So, I've signed up at the gym again. After a month of laziness, I decided that I should pull out my dusty gym clothes, and give working out another chance.

My first day back was this past Saturday. It was great...treadmill, cross-trainer, weights, stretching, ab exercises...Fantastic. I arrived at the gym feeling exhausted, and finished my workout feeling energized.

As I headed into the back locker room to pick up my jacket and lock up my gym shoes, I noticed that the air was slightly foggy. There was also a faint "smoke" smell in the room. Being the nosy person that I am, I of course wanted to know what was going on.

Sidenote: The gym manager and his wife actually live in the back room of the gym. I figured this out one day when I saw their laundry drying through the door that connects to the locker room, and smelled their lunch cooking in their kitchen.

Back to the present: having been trained in the fine art of fire safety from a young age (ie. get below the smoke level, stop-drop-and roll, etc.), I wanted to see if I could lend a hand. I went to the manager's apartment door and yelled out "Anyeong Haseyo" (hello)...then I yelled it a couple more times for good measure. No answer. I pushed open the door a bit and smoke poured out into the locker room. I did not panic...I kept my cool. Well, not really...the first thing I did was run away in search of someone else. Here was the problem: I couldn't find the manager anywhere, I couldn't find the manager's wife anywhere, and I had no idea how to say "Fire" in Korean to the one other man who chose to work out on a Saturday.

Running away was obviously not the best course of action, so I returned to the scene of the smoke. I pushed the door open a little more, and looked in. The smoke was pretty thick, starting at the ceiling, and coming down about 3 feet into the room. I looked over at the stove and saw that the gas was indeed on, and the pot on the burner was spouting out tons of smoke...the source. I ran over, turned off the gas, opened the nearest window, and searched the apartment for dead bodies. Fortunately, I found none.

With that, my work was done. Seeing as there was noone to discuss the fire with at the gym, I headed home. When I got home, I told Sam about my adventure. He congratulated my quick thinking, but then mentioned one little thing: in Korea, when companies are going bankrupt, they will often "accidentally" burn down the buildings in order to collect the insurance and bow-out gracefully.

I guess I'll never know if I'm a hero to the gym, or a hero to the insurance company. Either way...I'll just focus on the "hero" part :0)

I'm contemplating taking my new "gym fire safety" message on the road. Even coined this little slogan...thought of it all by myself!

Outback Steakhouse!!

2007-01-11T21:04:00.000+09:00

Proven fact: You will never truly know just how good a steak tastes until you've gone 6 months without one!! The reality that a piece of meat could be bigger then a mini-Snickers had pretty much left our minds. In light of that fact, we (Tim, Sam, Mel, and I) decided to take the subway ride into Suwon for a little "Outback Steakhouse" experience.

Koreans know how to make an Outback experience quite enjoyable. Yes, the wait was about 45 minutes. However, while we were waiting for our table, we were treated to free appetizer samples. A waitress came around and gave us mini chicken drumsticks to enjoy before our meal. The guys were especially hungry! The waitress gave us two little bowls with 2 drumsticks in each...one for each of us. Sam was sitting beside a Korean family who also received a little bowl of drumsticks. Just as the waitress put the bowl into their hands, their "reservation light disk thingy" (that's the technical name) went off. The mom stood up, put their bowl of chicken down on the ledge behind the bench, and walked about 6 feet to the hostess' pulpit. As soon as Tim saw the woman abandon her chicken, he leaned over and whispered, "Sam, she left her chicken...grab it!!". Sam reached over, took the chicken, and was just about to celebrate our great luck, when the woman turned around and started heading back for her chicken bowl. Awkward!! She looked shocked to see Sam holding her chicken, and Sam looked like he wanted the floor to open up and eat him alive! He quickly put her chicken down, she walked over, picked up the chicken, and pretended like nothing had happened. I'm sure her thought pattern was something like, "Crazy, no-good foreigners...coming in here and stealing my free chicken....". ("In my defense, she shouldn't have left it" - Sam...he wanted me to add that when he read this portion of the story)

Anyways, the rest of our meal went a lot smoother! I can honestly say we met the best waiter in Korea. His name was Huni (Hoo-knee), he looked like he was about 16 or 17 (see the picture below). His English wasn't perfect, and so we'd see him hovering around the corner from our table, trying to think of what he was going to say before he walked up. He got really excited over the littlest things. Example:
Huni: You want more bread?
Us: Yes, please.
Huni: More and more! Ya! YAAAA!
He brought us tons of bread with various dipping sauces. He filled our drinks, he frequently made sure we didn't need anything. The amazing thing is that there's no such thing as "tipping" in Korea, and so we knew he was genuinely awesome, and not just trying to score a larger percentage of the meal price for himself. At the end of our meal he walked up and asked: "You enjoy with me" (English teacher translation: Did you enjoy your evening with me as your server?). We ended up writing him a little thank you note so he'd know how much we defnitely "enjoyed with him".
We've decided to not let another 6 months go by before we head back.

Sam, Huni, and Tim. Huni looked a little scared when Sam and Tim stood up and he realized how much bigger they were then him.
Sam and I with our salad bowls. Our first salad in Korea that didn't come with either Mayonaisse & Ketchup, or peanut sauce as a dressing (Koreans can do food, but they can't do salads!!) (Sorry about the weird lighting...this was taken on Mel's phone camera cause we forgot ours)

More China Pics...

2007-01-03T23:55:00.000+09:00

A few more pictures, for your viewing pleasure...

This pretty shot was taken at the Summer Palace. Even in winter, the grounds were gorgeous.
Here's Tim in front of a concrete paddle boat at the Summer Palace.
This was the Christmas tree in our hotel lobby. They definitely tried to create a feeling of Christmas for us westerners...they even had two Christmas carols that they would play on a loop in the hallways..."Frosty the Snowman" and "All I Want for Christmas" :0)
This was taken at the Silk Factory. The white stuff above the ladies head is the silk strands, and the little white balls at her elbow level are silk worm larvae. It was really neat to see the process of going from worm to silk blanket.
Soldiers marching in perfect formation outside the Forbidden City.

Quote from Sam when he saw this sign: "Ummm, I don't even know how to speak cellphone". Good thing it's STRICTLY prohibited when thunderstorm, eh!
The Jones boys trying to prove that the "Tourist Stops" signs couldn't hold them back.
I don't think Sam was too impressed with his Christmas Eve milkshake at McDonalds.

'Twas a Jolly Commi Christmas

2006-12-27T17:56:00.000+09:00

What can I say? Christmas in China was awesome.
Sam, Tim (Sam's brother), and I were able to spend 4 days, and 3 nights touring around Beijing and it's outskirts...we only saw a drop of what China has to offer, but it was a great first introduction to Chinese culture.

Some highlights:
- spending Christmas Eve day hiking the Great Wall

- bartering with the local market vendors ("Hey lady, come in my shop", "Special deal for a special customer", "This price, just for you", "This is authentic leater, hand painted")

- a run-in with Communist soldiers, in which our bus driver was punched through the bus window, and almost dragged out of his seat. Tim's response: running to the front of the bus, opening a window, and yelling "NO" at the soldiers, while waving his hands back and forth...probably not the smartest thing to do, but a valiant effort on his part. The other guys also all ran to the front to try and hold the bus driver in, while us girls just sat shocked in our seats. Corruption at its finest.

- a 30 minute free foot massage at the Tibetan Medicine Center

- visiting a jade factory, a pearl factory, a silk factory, and a cloisonne factory (where they decorate brass vases, pots, plates, rings, etc.)

- viewing a Chinese circus, where performers bent, twisted, and threw their bodies around the stage...I never knew people could balance and stretch the ways that they did

- Western breakfasts with a Chinese flare (at our hotel) - we could have toast, yogurt and fruit, OR egg rolls, fried noodles, and curry

- and a glimpse at parts of the 5000 years of Chinese history

Here are a few pictures from our trip...Enjoy!!
Merry Christmas :0)

Our first night, at the Chinese Circus, where we saw amazing acrobatic stunts.
Here's Sam and I on the Great Wall. We climbed all the way up to the little building you can see at the top...45 minutes of stairs. This was probably the half way point.
Sam and Tim...a little higher up.
Here's Tim at the top, looking down on where we came from.
This is us at the high point of the wall (the top of where we climbed to). We had quite the view...beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!

This is the main building at the Ming Tombs...where an emperor was buried. Inside was a huge statue of him, and tons of artifacts from his burial site.
Sam...making friends with a local dragon.
One of the very pretty buildings at the Ming Tombs
This was one of our dinners. The food was delicious, but very greasy (seems like everything was fried). We got to sample duck, lots of fish dishes, as much Jasmine tea as we could take, and tons of delicious stir-fries and meat dishes.

Here we are at the Temple of Heaven. The building structure was so cool, and the colors were beautiful. This site is where the Emperor would come 4 times per year to pray for rain. Inside this main building were lots of water buffalo statues (since they were an animal that could retain a lot of water), and other altars and such.

Tim in front of the main Temple...you can see the colors a little clearer.
Outside the Temple walls was a big park where lots of elderly Chinese people hang out each day. They were playing music, singing opera, playing games, dancing, twirling ribbons, playing ball games, and practicing sword techniques. It was neat to see some of the local culture.

Here are the boys in Tianamen Square. Tim made this little "Communist pose" at the last second before I took the picture. Luckily, no plain-clothes policeman chose to punish him!

One of the Chinese soldiers at the square. I had asked our tour guide to tell me more about the stand-off between the Chinese students and the soldiers that took place in this square, but he told me it wasn't safe for him to talk about it in case he was overheard by one of these guys. A glimpse into Communist life.

Sam and I in front of the big picture of Chairman Mao that hangs in Tianamen Square.

Here we are in front of the entrance to the Forbidden City. We were told that many, many people were beaten to death outside of this gate. No common people were allowed to enter the Forbidden City...it was strictly for the Emperor, his wife, his servants, and the 3000 concubines that kept him company.

Yellow is the Emperor's color. We found this pretty mural in the Forbidden City. Supposedly, any common person who used yellow to decorate their house was put to death. Only the Emperor was allowed to use this colour.

This is the longest corridor in the world, and it's at the Summer Palace in Beijing. The Empress who lived here had her dreams painted on the eaves of this corridor...14,000 paintings in all.

The Summer Palace was beautiful...here's Sam in front of one of the pretty decorations on the palace grounds.

These were our tour buddies...a great group of people. The man in the middle was our tour guide, David (he was awesome!)

It's Beginning to Look A LOT Like...

2006-12-02T23:05:00.000+09:00

Christmas!!!
Our apartment is officially decked out for the holidays!
Today we decided that it was high time to get our little place lookin' festive. We went over to Lotte Mart and were able to find a cute little tree, lights, bulbs and stars for our tree, and paper to make snowflakes. The decorating, combined with the Christmas music we were blaring made for a "Christmas-Spirit-Igniting" day! Here's what our place looks like now...

A Hiking We Will Go...

2006-12-02T10:56:00.000+09:00

This past weekend we decided to get away from Osan, and headed south-east with Saralyn. Our bus ride was definitely not the most comfortable we've had. The bus company must have over-booked, and we were some of the unfortunate ones who stood the whole way. It was bizarre...imagine Greyhound back home over-booking and making people stand the couple hours to their destination...pretty funny, eh! There must have been 20 different safety laws that we broke as we crowded the aisles (I ended up just sitting down in the aisle and falling asleep with my head drooping down).

We spent Saturday in Cheongju, and were able to see a cool tomb museum, and a fortress. We decided to hike the fortress wall (about 4.2 km of up and down hiking), and by the time we were almost back to the start, we were starving! Fortunately, we stumbled across a random little outdoor restaurant, and knew it had to be good because of all the people sitting at the little umbrella'd tables. We sat down, viewed the menu, and placed our orders. Sam decided to go out on a limb, and order something random. We thought we recognized the word "potato", and figured he was getting some kind of potato soup. Saralyn's bean paste stew came, as did my kimchi stew with rice, but Sam was still waiting. After a bit, our waitress came and placed a plate of fried eggs by Sam, and we just figured that it was another one of the free side dishes that come with every meal. Nope - that was Sam's meal! It was hilarious...a starving guy orders a little plate of eggs (I have no idea where we got the word potato from!). Here's the kicker...my stew bowl was huge, so I was full and offered it to Sam to finish off. He accepted, I slid the bowl over, he took his first bite, and then a fly flew into the stew and died amidst the kimchi. It was like everything was trying to keep Sam from eating his fill :0) Don't worry, though, back in town we found a Baskin Robbins, and Sam made up for it by ordering TWO scoops :0)

That night we took a bus over to Songnisan ("san" means "mountain", so "Songni" is the mountain name...a little Korean lesson). There is a little town at the bottom of the hill, and as soon as we got off the bus a man approached us, wanting us to stay in his guest house...he offered us a price of $10 each, so we couldn't refuse that!

We got good sleep that night, and were up early the next day to start our hike. There is usually a Buddhist temple at the bottom of each mountain here, so we headed there first to check out the buildings. Very pretty place...check out the pictures below. There was a giant Buddha statue, and a beautiful wooden pagoda (pretty rare around here), plus the usual drums, stone carvings, etc. We looked around for awhile and then started up the mountain. It was a great hike...pretty intense with lots of stairs! Unfortunately, it was really cloudy and misty at the top, so we didn't get the greatest view, but the experience itself was worth the hike. We had brought great snacks with us...nuts, dried persimon, pretzels, chocolate...so we were well fed on our trip.

After we got back down, we caught a bus into Daejun and had a nice soak in the local sauna...a great chance to clean up too before the bus ride home. Oh, and we were able to get seats on the bus ride home, so it was a lot more relaxing! Here are some pictures:

This is us and Saralyn on one of the Songnisan peaks. If you look at the stone, the big symbols on the right say "Munjangdae" (that's right, I can read them!!!). Most of the peaks in Korea have big stones like this with the peak name on it...great photo-op to prove that you made it! This was my favorite building at the Songnisan temple. This is a wooden pagoda. Normally, the pagodas are smaller and made out of stone. This is the first wooden one we've seen.
The ceilings of temples, palaces, and pretty much any traditional Korean building are absolutely beautiful! I wanted to show you this picture so you could get an idea of the intricate work that goes into making these buildings into works of art.
Here's Sam at Songnisan temple. You can see the gigiantic Buddha behind him. It's covered in bronze, and is the biggest one we've seen so far!
And here we are along the fortress wall that we hiked on Saturday in Cheongju. This wall was the division line between two ancient dynasties, back before the country was unified.

"I'm Sorry Teacher"

2006-11-22T22:56:00.000+09:00

My last class today was a Conversation class. This class has been the bane of my existence. The kids pretty much refuse to speak English, and so much Korean is thrown around that it ends up driving me crazy! I feel like I should change the name from "English Conversation" class to "Come Chat with Your Friends in Korean" class.
Anyways, today I warned the kids right from the get-go that they had 5 chances. I told them that if I heard them speaking Korean, I was going to put a check on the board, and if they got 5 checks, they were going to write me a "sorry" essay.
Of course, they got 5 checks, and so the last 10 minutes of the class was essay time. I thought I'd share some of the writing I got. The subject was: "Why I'm sorry for speaking Korean in Becky's class":

(p.s This is typed exactly as it was written)

Ben said:
"I'm sorry because I said Korean talking in your class and made crazy. We said Korean talking. You gave us five chance but we violated your rules. I tryed but It's very hard. We born country called Korean. So we learned about Korean anything any where. I tryed but Korean were talked unconscious when I don't want too. I'm so sorry. After I do not Korean talking. I will try who I can English".

Paul wrote:
"I go to another contry. in my class student their's language I'm also angree to student. So maybe teacher was angree to us. and I'm disobey to teacher that "please talk English". It is not good acition".

Kiara said:
"I am very sorry for speaking Korean in your class, Beky. I am very sorry. Because I was spoke Korean. I am Korean. So I am Korea speaking. I want don't speaking Korean but I was unconsciousness. Beky, please you understaning about me. I am very stuffy. I am very carefully. But I'm not fixed that. Sorry. Sorry".

Hilarious...what more can I say?

Cheongwadae - The President's House

2006-11-22T22:54:00.000+09:00

This past Friday, Sam and I joined Saralyn (our fellow teacher), and Joy & Jen (our director's daughters) for a tour of Cheongwadae...also known as the "Blue House". The tour was completely in Korean, so Jen & Joy helped us out by translating the tour guide's information into English.
Cheongwadae is the building complex where the Korean President lives and works. The grounds were absolutely beautiful, and the buildings were pretty spectacular too! Our tour group was made up of us, about 15 older Korean adults, and 80 screaming elementary kids. My favourite moment by far was when one of the security agents who was trying to give us some tour information, pulled two of the kids out of the screaming crowd and made them stand by him. He was upset that they had been screaming and fighting with each other, so he lectured them, and then made them shake hands. The look on the little girl's face was one of pure disgust at the thought of having to touch a boy. They then gave each other the most limp, resistant handshake I have ever seen...hilarious (the security agent actually had to pull her hand out of her coat pocket, and hold it in place for the "handshake")! I couldn't help it, and burst out laughing, which probably made it MUCH worse for them!
Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure:

This is one of the cool statues outside of a building that is used for banquets.
Sam and I in front of some of the trees that are changing colour.
The main buildings where the President does his work (and the place that inspired the nickname, "the Blue House").
Our little group of tourists (Saralyn's in the red, and beside her is Jen and then Joy)
I loved this tree...our guide said it is 148 years old.

Some Random Pictures

2006-11-21T21:49:00.000+09:00

This one's for UJ:

Uncle John, remember when we were kids, and you'd always joke about a Chinese restaurant named "Ho Lee Chow"? Well, I found one for you! When I saw this I started laughing, and thought of you right away!

Oh, and I got a new dryer!! With the weather getting colder, our drying rack on the balcony just isn't working anymore...the clothes stay damp for days! Anyways, luckily I have this new state-of-the-art dryer to get me through the winter months ;0)

This is a sad story...

2006-11-13T00:45:00.000+09:00

I laugh about this now...

As many of you know, I'm the type of person who gets really, really excited about the littlest things. So, when I found out that Korea has a holiday called, "Pepero Day", I was really looking forward to celebrating it! Pepero Day is kind of like Valentine's Day, but with cookies instead of paper valentines. Peperos are chocolate covered cookie sticks, and the kids take them to school and give them to their friends, or boys and girls may give them to that "special someone"...it's great! Fabulous holiday, right?

Pepero Day broke bright and sunny, and it was stacking up to be a great day. Sam and I had gone shopping the night before to get peperos for all our students, so we were prepared! The other teachers at our school had told us that the kids are CRAZY on Pepero Day...on an intense sugar high that lasts forever! They also told us that the teachers get mounds and mounds of peperos.

My first class started, and I handed out my peperos to my kids. They're my favourite class, so I also gave them each a smiley face pencil...just to really get into celebrating mode! They loved the peperos and the pencils, AND they really were on a sugar high...it was extremely hard to get them to sit still and learn anything. I didn't get any peperos that class, but I figured that maybe the little kids didn't give out as many.

That's what I thought until I went back to the teacher's room after class and saw Sam and Saralyn's mound of peperos. Mel and I both didn't have any, so we had a good laugh about being the "bottom feeders" of the school, and not getting any peperos. That joke was pretty funny until I came back from my second class, still with no peperos, and saw Mel with an armful. It's funny to be "A" bottom feeder, if you're stuck there with someone else, but to be "THE" bottom feeder is an entirely different story!

And that's pretty much how the rest of the day went...each class I would hope that I would get my "mother load" of peperos, and each class I'd come back with a smile and a laugh to report that I didn't get any, while the other teachers added their latest peperos to their piles.

The low point of my day happened when a student came in, looked at Sam's desk and commented on how many peperos he had. S he then looked at my desk, and said, "Becky, no peperos?". To which, I laughed and said, "Nope, Sam's winning, haha". She then dug through her bag, and handed me a box of peperos before leaving the teacher room. Receiving PITY peperos brought me to another place altogether :0)

Luckily for me, Sam is extremely generous and has been sharing his drawer full of peperos with me (seriously, we have a drawer in our apartment dedicated to keeping his peperos safe). What have I learned? Shared peperos taste just as sweet! :0)

Here I am, looking sad with my peperos.

Sam, with some of his pepero stash.
Here are my kiddies...crazy about those peperos! (p.s. They're not as short as this picture makes it seem...I was actually standing on a chair when I took this)

Biking by the Han River

2006-11-13T00:14:00.000+09:00

This Saturday, Sam and I decided to go biking by the Han River in Seoul. It was FREEZING outside, so we bundled up as best as we could before heading out. We found a great trail, and a bike stand that only charged $3 for an hour of biking fun...not bad! Here's a short video:
(Sorry the words don't match the lips...I don't know how to fix it)

Fun with Pastels

2006-11-12T23:43:00.000+09:00

A few weeks ago Sam and I had an "arts and crafts" night. We wanted to be artistic and create some masterpieces for our walls (the white wall paper was getting a bit boring). Here's what we came up with:

I love, love, love Sam's picture. He was so proud of it, and that first night that it was hung up, I'd catch him just standing and staring at his work...so cute!

And here's what I came up with...I was trying to copy a picture I had taken of a pagoda at one of the temples here.

Sushi, anyone?

2006-11-08T23:13:00.000+09:00

Every Wednesday, we get taken out for lunch by our director's wife. It's our weekly "meeting", meaning that we talk about classes and students for about 5 minutes, and spend the rest of the time eating delicious Korean foods and chatting about non-school related things.

Today we had sushi! Now, I've known for awhile that this Wednesday's lunch was going to be of the raw variety, and I have to say that I woke up this morning with a sense of dread. I've never had sushi before, and being a real "weird textures gross me out" person, the thought of it has always, quite frankly, turned my stomach.

1:00 rolled around, and we were summoned to the elevator to begin our descent to the 2nd floor sushi joint. Initial impression of the restaurant: cute decor (low tables, sliding doors, etc.) and a delicious fried smell. We sat down at our table and our waitress almost immediatly brought in the first course. Everybody got three pieces of sushi, and one little fried-batter covered ball (still not sure what was in it). The sushi looked like little balls of rice with wasabi sauce on it, covered by a long strip of raw flesh. There was one pink one, and two white ones for each.

Trying to appear brave and confident, I picked up my chopsticks, grabbed my pink piece and tossed it in my mouth. Not bad...different texture, but not the strong fishy taste I was expecting. I swallowed, smiled, and then moved on to piece number two. Piece number two didn't go down so well: chew, chew, chew, chew, chew, chew. No progress. Chew, chew, chew, chew, chew. My thoughts: "If I swallow this now, I will choke and die. If I keep chewing this piece I could potentially vomit all over the table". Chew, chew, chew, chew, chew. By this time, our director's wife was starting to notice that I wasn't talking, and that I was just continuously chewing with a blank expression (blank because I was trying to win my own mental battle with the fish). That's when the laughing started. Everybody at the table thought it was pretty funny that I COULD NOT, for the life of me, get that piece of sushi down. Five minutes later, I managed to choke the still-rubbery-as-all-get-out piece down my throat. Victory!

I thought that was the end of the raw sushi, until the doors slid open, and our waitress brought in what appeared to be large plates of noodles. Then, I again noticed the white flesh on top of the noodles. "Oh well", I thought, "at least there are noodles with it". Wrong. Apparently you DON'T eat the noodles...they're just for decoration, and when you've finished your plate of raw fish, and only raw fish, they take the noodles back, wash them, and use them for the next visitor. I felt extreme disappointment as my body broke out into a "I don't know if I can do this" sweat. Again, I managed to work my way through my 5 pieces of rawness.

The doors once again opened, our noodles were cleared away, and many more dishes were placed on our table. We were each given a bowl of rice with what appeared to be seasoning and a bunch of salt on top. I started to mix mine together, and then heard Sam say, "Are these fish eggs on top of the rice?". Of course they were fish eggs, but why couldn't it have been salt? Or, why couldn't I have found out it was fish eggs AFTER I had eaten it. Yes, I still ate it, and was only weirded out once, when I bit an egg straight on and it popped in my mouth.

I bet you want to know if I'd ever go out for sushi again, right? I'd probably go...if I wasn't paying for it, and if I could stay miles away from the chewy white piece.

Our Trip to Daegu

2006-11-01T22:26:00.000+09:00

This weekend Sam and I were invited to go with Saralyn, a fellow teacher at our school, to Daegu, a city that is south-east of Osan. Our plan was to check out a "World Heritage Site" in the area. There is a Buddhist Temple in Daegu that houses 80,000 wooden tablets that have ancient Buddhist writings carved onto them. These writings include various prayers, scriptures, and teachings.

We headed down on Saturday, and spent the day looking around the city. Daegu is famous for its shopping, and the markets and shopping districts were unreal! Anything you could possible need had a street dedicated to its sale. For example...if you ever found yourself in need of a safe, you could head over to the "safes district", and check out the numerous stores, all in a row, that were filled with safes...and only safes!

Some random things we saw on Saturday:
1. An Anti-American protest that was displaying various super-imposed pictures of George Bush...my favorite: George Bush's head on an Asian chef's body, holding a hatchet, about to chop a chicken...hmmm.
2. Another protest with 2 people wearing yellow rain-jackets with face masks covering their mouths that had little red X's on them. Oh ya, AND they were doing a dance routine. Not sure what they were protesting: "We won't speak until it rains, and to prove it, here's our rain dance". A random watcher: "Ummm, it rained this morning".
3. A body-building competition for Daegu's most muscular men...complete with tiny bikini bottoms, and oily skin...sick!

On Saturday night we stayed in another Jimjibang. Now, many of you are probably remembering my profession of love for Jimjibangs in one of the last posts, and are most likely thinking, "how nice that Becky and Sam got to revisit such a wonderful place". Let me first say that I now love SOME Jimjibangs, and this weekend's Jimjibang was definitely not a lovable one. It was much smaller, and therefore only had one hot pool, and one cold pool. Also, it had more of a "warehouse" feel...cement walls, metal stairs, and so on. There were no quiet sleeping rooms; instead, people who wanted to sleep would either fall asleep where they were or go up to an open platform to sleep. The platforms were wood floors on top of metal beams. There were no sleeping mats to use, but there were a few WOODEN pillows (???) around. Sam tried to use the wooden pillow, but then ended up just having to tilt his head back a bit so the flat spot on his head was flat against the floor...poor guy! We had to pay if we wanted to use a blanket (Sam got us 4 blankets so we could try to fold them into a sleeping pad). Here's the kicker: the night we were there, a HUGE group of teenage boys decided they would all go to the Jimjibang for a night of fun...with no parents. Of course, they wanted to stay up really, really late, and talk really, really loud. Luckily, I had ear-plugs! I guess us foreigners were the "cool thing" at the Jimjibang that night, because Sam told me that soon after we went to sleep a big group of kids all came and lied down right close to where our heads where...how funny! At one point in the night I was woken up by a loud noise, looked up and saw some random kid rolling around the floor from one end of the platform to the other for fun. I sat up, looked at him, said "No!" in my teacher voice, and he ran away...it was awesome :0) And that pretty much sums up our second-ever experience at the Jimjibang.

Sunday was great. The scenery on our bus ride to the temple was beautiful. The leaves are just starting to turn here, and the mountains were starting to show some yellows and reds! The temple was extremely busy this weekend...there was actually a festival going on that we didn't know about. The wood blocks were neat to see. I took a picture of one, and then got severely yelled at for using my flash. Luckily, because I'm a foreigner, I just had to bow politely a few times, and say "sorry, sorry, sorry", and it was like nothing had happened. The weirdest thing that day happened at the bus stop when a Korean woman sat down beside me, said something, poked me in the face, said something else, poked me in the face again, and then touched/pulled my hair. Very weird...I still have no idea what that was about! All in all, though, a great trip!

Here's Sam in front of some of the numerous shelfs of wooden blocks.

Just a friendly little snack stand - squid anyone?

Here's what the carved blocks looked like (this is the picture that got me the tongue lashing).

Honestly...who named this bus?
An artistic shot at the temple...aren't the trees beautiful?

DMZ Tour

2006-10-23T14:02:00.000+09:00

This Saturday, Sam and I joined some friends (Trent and Emily, who worked with Young Life when I was in the main office...they're teaching in a town that's northeast of Osan) for a tour of the DMZ, the de-militarized zone between North and South Korea. We wanted to go see the DMZ now, in case things were to heat up with the North. (Sidenote: To put many of your minds at ease, while we were in the DMZ, one person in our group asked our soldier-guide if the nuclear happenings up north have changed things at the DMZ. Nothing has changed, and the U.S. and South Korean soldiers are not at all fazed. They realize that this is yet another desperate attempt for Kim Jong-Il to try to gain the power he craves.)

Our bus started north at 11:00. After about an hour of driving, we arrived at our first stop: a military building outside of the DMZ. We were taken into a large room with a huge window that looked out over the DMZ, and North Korea. We were given a brief description of the various landmarks that we could see, and then were able to go outside to look through some binoculars and "take pictures". Funny thing is that we were only allowed to take pictures from behind a yellow line that was about 20 feet back from the viewing area wall...we weren't sure why, must have just been protocol! The views were a bit hazy, but it was neat to have our first view of the North.

Second stop was "Tunnel 3". After the war, North Korea started to dig numerous tunnels that were supposed to take them underneath the border and into the South. Fortunately, 4 of these tunnels have been found. We put on our hard hats, and headed underground. The South built 3 barrier walls in this tunnel, once they discovered it, and then opened it to the public. The tunnel walls were black, and we learned that the North Koreans had painted the walls with coal on their retreat out of the tunnel. They then tried to convince the south that they were simply mining, even though there isn't ANY coal in that region. When that explanation was turned down, the North Koreans changed their story and accussed the South of digging the tunnel (which was proven false because the direction of drilling for the dynamite holes went from North to South). Interesting fact: if the tunnels had been completed, the North would have been able to transport 10,000 troops into the South in one hour.

Our third area to visit was the Dorasan Railway station. This station was built by the South in hopes of unifying the Northern and Southern railways. The dream is to one day be able to take a train from Dorasan to Pyeongyang (the capital of North Korea). The North was originally on-board for the railway project;however, now that the South has completed the track, Kim Jong-Il refuses to allow a test of the railway to take place. Dorasan was a ghost-station. It was uncanny to see the ticket booths, waiting room, screening area, and arrival/departure board...ready, but empty.

This is a picture of the MDL (military demarcation line). Every 100 yards, a yellow sign on a white post is placed (like the one on the far right), along the entire length of the DMZ border. The shorter white posts are placed every 50 feet in the JSA (see the second blog post below for more explanation)

Here is a shot of "Propaganda Village", a village on the northern side of the DMZ. It was given this name because NOBODY lives here...but, the North is trying to give an appearance of prosperity. The tall structure is a massive flag pole...built to ensure that the North's flag pole stood taller then the South's.

Here are Emily and I in our hard hats...having just emerged from Tunnel 3. The tunnel was pretty short and wet...we had to walk stooped over. It was interesting to see the dynamite holes, and the black "coal" on the walls.

Here's Sam all ready to head through the doors for a trip to Pyeongyang (North Korea's capital)...maybe someday!

Here is the line that we had to take pictures behind at our first stop on the tour. You can notice that it's pretty far back, and impossible to get a good shot. The guy to the right of Sam is doing what we all did. I actually got up on Sam's shoulders to try to get a better shot, but a Korean soldier quickly came over and made me get down...oh well!

DMZ Tour...continued

2006-10-23T01:13:00.000+09:00

Here's where the tour got exciting. Sam and I had no idea that we would actually be going INTO the DMZ when we signed up for this tour. We didn't know that civilian groups were even allowed in. But, that's where we headed next. We arrived at "Camp Bonifas", the military base on the outer, southern border of the DMZ. Our passports were checked, and then we were taken to a meeting hall, where we were "briefed" on the situation at the DMZ. We were given release forms to sign, and badges that we had to wear for the duration of the trip. Our military-guide was amazing. He was incredibly knowledgable, and the information he gave us was very eye-opening.

After the briefing, we headed out to the military buses, and were on our way. We knew we were actually entering the DMZ when we passed through a series of two large fences with barbed-wire twisted along the top. These fences run along the entire border of the DMZ. All along the fences, painted-white rocks were pushed between the links, and lined along the ground. We were told that these rocks are monitored frequently, and if anyone tries to mess with the fence, the rocks will be moved and the guards will know exactly where the line was breeched...a little primative, but sounds like it would be effective.

We weren't allowed to take pictures between our departure from Camp Bonifas and our arrival at the JSA. On our way, we saw the barracks of a special tactics response team who are able to be fully decked out in their equipment, in their vehichles, and anywhere in the JSA within 60 to 90 seconds...very fast! The JSA is the "Joint Security Area". It is in the dead-centre of the DMZ, and it is an area where the two sides meet to discuss the cease-fire agreement, relations and border issues. The ROK (South) soldiers have to remain on the Southern side, and the KPA (North) soldiers have to stay on the Northern side. In fact, there is a cement slab that runs the entire border length in the JSA. We were taken into the building where the armistice (cease-fire agreement) was signed at the end of the Korean War. Two Korean soldiers were standing guard. One of them was at the head of the table, and the other was by a door at the far-end of the building. We were told to stand around the table, and then our guide pointed to the side we were standing on, and told us that we were officially standing in North Korea. In the very middle of the table were three microphones (they were placed along the border line of the two countries), which recorded every word spoken in the building. Both North and South Korea had access to the audio feeds. We were told not to obstruct the ROK soldier's guard in any way. We were further instructed not to pass behind the guard who was by the far-side door. The door led to North Korea, and if we made a move to pass him, he would assume we were trying to enter the North, and would take us down.

After our time in the building, we headed back outside to a platform facing the North side of the border. We then had 7 ROK soldiers guarding us. While we were standing there, a KPA soldier came out of the building across from us, and stood post at the door. Our soldier-guide let us know that there was also another KPA soldier at the window watching us with binoculars, and then pointed at a guard tower beside their building, where another soldier was also watching us. Wenwere told not to try to speak with the North Korean soldiers, not to make any gestures, and not to try to non-verbally communicate with them. This was probably the most intense part of our tour. We could actually "feel" the tension in the air, making us very aware that these two countries are technically still at war. Sam said that at that moment he felt like he had a gun aimed at his chest (to give you an idea of what it was like to stand there).

Next we headed to a place in the JSA where we were surrounded by North Korea on 3 sides. We had an excellent view of "Propaganda Village". Both the Southern and Northern sides are allowed to have one village in the DMZ. On the south side, these villagers are only allowed to live in the village if they are born there, or have ancestors who lived there before the war. Women are allowed to marry into the village, but men are not. This is because members of the village are given complete tax exemption by the government, and the men in the village are also exempt from the 2 years of military service that is mandatory for other South Korean men. The village in the southern side is called "Freedom Village", and the residents actually make a good living from the rice paddies that surround it. The soldiers have tagged the village in the North, "Progaganda Village", because NOONE lives there, and loud-speakers used to spout out propaganda all throughout the night. People are never seen in the village, and the lights are on timers to go on and off at the same time every day. North Korea built this city to give an appearance of wealth and prosperity. They also placed an enormous flag pole in the middle of the village that holds a 600 lb. flag (supposedly they have to take it down when it rains, because the extra weight of the water causes the flag to rip!). It seems like everything they do is done with the intention of trying to appear bigger and better then the South.

Our last stop in the JSA was at the "Bridge of No Return". At the end of the Korean War, North and South Korean POW's were brought to the middle of this bridge. They were then given the option to go North or South, but were told that once they chose, they were never allowed to return to the other side. This story highlighted the fact that there are numerous families who have been divided by the border. Although South Korea has tried to open a famiy reunion centre, again, the North is unwilling to have their citizens exposed to anything outside of their borders.

This trip opened our eyes in so many ways. This was the first time that we have ever come face-to-face with communisim. We have also been reminded of the true plight of the North Korean people, and the suffering they go through because of shortages of food, and the dictatorship of such an extreme leader. Our USO tour-guide encouraged us to remember the North Koreans in our prayers, and we encourage you to do the same.

At this point, we were surrounded by North Korea on three sides.

Here is Sam with the concrete slab that separates the JSA into North and South areas. Sam's face is on the North side of the line.

The Bridge of No Return

In this picture, I am standing in North Korea. (notice that I am standing in front of this guard...definitely did NOT want him to take me down...his is a ROK soldier).

The blue building on the left is where the Armistice was signed. Notice that the guard is standing half concealed by the building (in case gun fire was to break out). It's hard to see in this small picture, but a KPA soldier is standing at the top of the stairs of the cream-coloured building (which is on the North side)

The Amazing Jimjibang

2006-10-22T22:40:00.000+09:00

After our DMZ tour, Trent and Emily, and Sam and I headed to a Jimjibang in Seoul to spend the night. What are Jimjibangs, you ask? Well, they're my new favorite thing about Korea! To put it simply, a Jimjibang is a sauna hotel. Here's how it works...a weary traveler enters the Jimjibang, pays 10 bucks, receives a Jimjibang uniform, and free access to all of the Jimjibang amenities. They are thus able to leave the hustle and bustle behind, and enter a small utopia in the middle of the city.

Our Jimjibang had 5 floors, and a basement. The basement held the separate male and female bath and sauna rooms. We're talking every kind of bath imagineable: jade baths, charcoal baths, mugwort baths, massage baths, cold baths, steam baths, waterfall baths, yellow soil baths...you get the idea! I won't say much about this...but here's why the men and women are separate...everybody's naked...and everybody's fine with it. The North American traveler has no choice but to become "fine with it" too...kind of freaky, kind of freeing (enough said).

The first floor of the Jimjibang was the locker room floor. When we walked through the doors we were given a shoe locker and a normal locker for our bags and clothes. No one is allowed to leave the locker room unless they are: a) naked, and heading down to the sauna area, or b) wearing the given "uniform" and heading up to the other floors of the building. The second floor had a restaurant, a snack shop, a large screen tv, bookshelves with tons of books (unfortunately, no English copies available), and massage chairs. We had dinner in the restaurant on this floor, and I have to say that I really enjoyed their bibimbap and seaweed soup. Sam had the bulgogi (a meat dish), which came with rice and lettuce leafs to wrap it in.

On to floor 3 - known as the "entertainment floor". This floor had a workout room, another snack shop, another big TV, internet access rooms, and a PC room (video game room). Floor 4 had tons of cool relaxation rooms...a limestone room (where you could lie on limestone), a pebble room (where you could lie on warm pebbles, or bury yourself in them...I loved it!), an oxygen room (where you could lie down and breath in oxygen-rich air), and a mud-dugout room (where you could lie in a little cave-like tunnel and have a bright, red light shine on you). Notice that most of the rooms involved "lying down"...it was great! The fourth floor also had another big TV, another snackshop, more massage chairs, and some tables and chairs (which came in handy for some fantastic game playing). I have to say that the massage chairs weren't that great. I decided to try one, put my 1000 won in, and then had my back beaten by the chair for 2 minutes, before I'd had enough and had to jump out. Sam was gracious enough to finish off my remaining 8 minutes...and he actually liked it!

On to the fifth floor...the sleeping floor. This floor had a men's sleeping room, a women's sleeping room, and a snore room (which is kind of stupid...even if a person was aware that they were a snorer, why would they choose to go to a room where they knew they'd be kept awake by everyone else's snoring...hmmm). The men's and women's rooms had about 160 beds in each...sort of bunk bed style. The beds were really just mats, some were in little cubbies on the floor, and some were on higher, raised "bunks". They came equipped with a towel-like blanket, and a hard, square pillow. I opted to use another towel-blanket as my pillow, and then slept like a baby in my cubbie until morning. Sam had a harder time sleeping because he chose one of the raised platform bunks, and it was too short for him to completely stretch out. We live and learn! Although floor 5 is the "designated" sleeping floor, the Koreans pretty much sleep anywhere, on all of the floors...very funny to see!

We now know how to travel in Korea in style. Every city has one of these saunas...even Osan. Although I have to say I will NEVER visit the Osan sauna. One thing I don't want to hear while sitting in the baths is, "Teacher, teacher...hi!".

This is Sam in the oxygen room, breathing in the intense oxygen (direct from the source).

Here are Sam and Trent, enjoying the delicious food in one of the restaurants.

Sam is demonstrating what most people do when they are at the Jimjibang...people were sprawled out on the floor EVERYWHERE...even in places that didn't seem comfortable to sleep.

This was my favourite room...the stone pebble room...a room full of little, warm pebbles that you could lie on, or bury yourself in. It was like one of those "ball rooms" that you play in as a kid...but better, cause noone's throwing the balls around.

Here we are in our Jimjibang "uniforms". This photo was taken outside the oxygen room.

Reading Partners

2006-10-17T00:20:00.000+09:00

Laura liked this story, so I thought I'd post it for her...

One of the things we do a lot of in our classrooms is "copycat" reading. Basically, the whole class turns to a page in the textbook and reads it together with the teacher - the teacher says a few words, and then the students copy the teacher and say the same words. This is how the whole page gets read.

I've been trying to teach my kids how to actually look at the words on the page when they are "reading after me". Seems kinda obvious...there are the words, please look at them while you read...but most of the kids look half dazed, stare at the ceiling, or play with their pencils while we "read" the English words together.

The other day I was looking around the room and noticing how few students were looking at the book's pages, and how few students were even turned to the right page in their book. Here's the thing: if you don't look at the English word when you say it, you're not gonna know how to say it next time you see it. Makes sense, right? How do you explain that to a little ESL student?

I came up with the plan that we would all pretend there was a little person living in our finger who wanted to learn how to read. To make my point, I picked up my pen, and proceeded to draw a happy face on my finger. Then I demonstrated that if I held my finger over the words, my little friend could read them too. When I looked up from my demonstration, there were 13 little hands all raised in the air, with the pointer finger extended, waiting for me to draw a face for their new "friend" and reading partner. When everyone had freshly drawn finger-faces, we continued with the lesson.

You know what? Not only was it completely adorable to watch the kids skim their fingers over the English words so that the little smiley face could "read"...it actually worked! The kids are now looking at the words as the read them. This little victory made me feel like a million bucks!

Seoul Tower

2006-10-14T22:03:00.000+09:00

Sam and I went to Seoul Tower today. Seoul Tower is, as the name suggests, a huge tower on Namsan Mountain, in the middle of Seoul. Our Korea book said that the best views of Seoul were from this tower, so we decided to check it out for ourselves.

Our journey began with a sandwich at the subway station. We were fortunate enough to stumble across an Isaac Toast (pronounced "Isaac Toast-ah" by the Koreans), and enjoyed our "VIP" sandwiches (eggs, baloney, cheese, cabbage, red sauce, and orange sauce on toast...surprisingly delicious!). Then, with food in our bellies, we set out to find the trail.

Unfortunately, we first of all stumbled across the wrong trail. It was heading up the mountain, so we thought it could be exactly what we were looking for. It was extremely wide and paved, and there were tons of people jogging on it. Hmmm. After about 5 minutes of walking upwards, our trail started heading downwards...which is exactly when we decided this couldn't be our path. 5 minute climb, no tower, path going downward = not the right path!

We headed back the way we had come and were able to set out on the RIGHT path shortly after that (confirmed by some foreigners who were coming down the path). This path was pretty much stairs the whole way to the top. The views we had from the top, however, were definitely worth the work-out! Seoul is gigantic...a huge city with mountains surrounding it. The city stretches back into every possible piece of land in the valley.

Some other highlights from the top: a nice viewing deck, a man entertaining the crowds with his guitar and microphone, the smell of popcorn, a surprise "run-in" with other former Trinity students (how do we run into people we recognize in a city this huge??), and a little old woman selling cotton candy that she made in a foot-pedal powered cotton-candy machine and twisted onto a wooden chopstick (it was delicious, and only cost a dollar).

When we were all viewed out, we decided to catch the mountain gondola back down...for the experience. It was beautiful to see the lights of Seoul shinning out into the night...very pretty! The book was right...best views of Seoul we've seen!

Here we are at the top of Namsan Mountain. Seoul is huge! It stretched on and on...what you see behind us is just a little piece.
This is the gondola that brought us safely down the mountain.
Here's Sam on the "wrong trail"...luckily we figured out it was the wrong trail pretty quickly.
Here I am, looking half dazed as I scan the Seoul skyline (this was half way up the mountain).
Sam, enjoying his Isaac Toast-ah on the subway.

A Note to Aunt Jo...

2006-10-06T21:06:00.000+09:00

We absolutely loved having you here! Your visit brightened our hearts :0) Thank you so much for coming, for bringing so many treats, and for adventuring with us.

We'll never forget:
- the bus driver who was able to make you sea-sick, even though we never left dry ground
- racing through the subway station, trying desperately to make our next train
- Patrick (need we say more?)
- learning new card games
- the Chestnut jelly treat(???) we all received as a "welcome" to Korea
- the little Korean girl in a hanbok asking if you like "hot todays"
- our inability to eat Isaac Toast
- sliding down the mountain on the "trail of death"
- getting you to eat all kinds of food, and your willingness to try a bite of everything
AND
- tears at the airport ("ya big baby")

We love you, and we miss you already.
Know that you're always welcome...if you ever want to come back, there's a comfy "yo" with your name on it.

Love,
Sam and Becky

Our Trip to Gyeongju

2006-10-02T14:36:00.000+09:00

As many of you know, Aunt JoJo is here visiting. We wanted to show her a good time, so we decided to head down to Gyeongju (pronounced "Key-Ong-Jew"...for those of you who were wondering how to pronounce a 'g' when it's right next to a 'j') for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We packed a lot of sight-seeing into those three days...here's the story and some pictures...

Friday broke bright and early...at precisely 9:00 a.m, for those of us in apartment 1206. We knew that there was a bus from Osan to Gyeongju that left at 10:30, and one that left at 11:10...guess which one we caught? Sam and I aren't the best at morning starts, and fortunately for us, JoJo isn't much of a morning person either...so the 11:10 bus suited us just fine. The ride down was semi-uneventful, besides the fact that our bus driver had the annoying habit or jerking the bus back and forth as he sped up and then slowed down and then sped up again (I'm sure this was his thought process: "Gotta give it more gas. Oh, too much gas. Slowing down. Too slow - need more gas. Not that much gas...", and on and on it went).
When we arrived in Gyeongju, we were dismayed to realize that we had been dropped off at the "Inner-city Bus Terminal", when we in fact wanted the "Express Bus Terminal". Sam looked in our Korea book, and from the map we gathered that the two terminals were about 4 blocks apart, so we decided that we would pay for a taxi to take us to the right spot. We approached one driver, showed him the name of the terminal we wanted to get too, and were about to get into his cab when he pointed at the building right behind him, and then turned away. Much to our surprise, the "Express Terminal" was only about a 5 second walk from the "Inner-City" one. Cab ride definitely not needed. What did we learn from this? Never trust the maps in the Korea book!
Next on the agenda: find accomodation. We had only walked about 20 feet when we were approached by a man with a business card, asking us if we needed a place to stay. Then, another man with a patch over one eye, told us he was the owner of a backpacker's guest house (the first guy must have been his round-up guy...round up the tourists and bring them to me). Being a little sketched out at first, we weren't sure whether to follow him or not. That's when
he told us, "Why not come and see and then decide", which made perfect sense, so we followed him. The rooms were average looking, and "Mr. Park" (as we came to know him) gave us the deal of $25/night for all three of us (roughly $8 each isn't bad, eh!). We decided to stay, which was a great decision because Mr. Park used to be a tour guide, and the information he gave us on where to go, what to see, and how to get there was worth it's weight in gold! Within 30 minutes of our arrival, he had helped us plan out our tourist activities for the next three days.

Day One: First on our list was a trip to Gyeongju National Museum. On our way there, we passed a number of ancient royal tombs (the pyramids of Korea, if you will). They looked like perfectly symmetrical hills...but they were, in fact, the resting grounds of ancient dynasties. Here's how they did it: dig a hole, put down gravel, build a wooden room, put the deceased in the room, cover it with tons of rocks until it is shaped like a hill, cover the rocks with dirt and clay, and finally, plant grass on the dirt. On to the museum, where we were able to see tons of old statutes and pagodas, as well as the "Divine Bell" (Story of the bell: rumour has it that the sound of the bell can be heard for 3 kilometers when rung...I heard the bell, it sounded divine, but I can't tell you if the 3 kms is accurate, as we were standing approximately 50 feet away when it rang). Next up, we saw an ice-storage room that had been dug into a hill around 640 A.D. The sight used to have an entire palace with a fortress wall around it, but now all that's left is the one ice-storage room. By that time it was dark, but on our way back towards town (and dinner) we
stopped to view an old Observatory that had been built around 50 A.D. It was all lit up and was beautiful to see. As for dinner, we somehow ended up wandering around an area of town that had extremely limited restaurant options. We managed to find a place and had a pretty good meal before heading back to our guest house and crashing into bed.

JoJo in front of the ancient observatory.

Here I am in front of the old ice-storage building...the room underground was huge!

Sam and JoJo in front of one of the pagodas at the museum.

Here's my artistic shot of the pagodas and the sunset.

Sam and I in front of one of the ancient statues of Buddha at the museum.

Day Two - Hike Day

2006-10-02T13:48:00.000+09:00

Our second day was "Hike Day". We had been told, by Mr. Park, that there were tons of ancient buddhist relics along a trail on Namsan Mountain, so we headed out to see what we could find. On our way, we stopped at "historic site #1", an old royal pleasure ground. The palace isn't there anymore, but we saw a cool water canal that the kings and nobles used to float their drinking cups in while they wrote poetry. Next stop on the way to the mountain, a temple, where we saw 3 buddhist statues, and spoke briefly with a monk who was trying to learn English (he gave us each a free postcard of the site...very nice!). Then...the mountain! JoJo now says that we were trying to kill her that day, but Sam and I had NO idea how intense the hike was going to be! We call it our "treasure hunt hike" because every half an hour, or so, we'd come across a cool relic. Some things we saw: a headless Buddha, rock carvings of Buddha, a statue of a cross-legged Buddha sitting on a lotus leaf, and an old hermitage (like a temple, but extremely removed from society). The trail was pretty intense...lots of steep parts and lots of rocks to climb over. We had been told that there was a large Buddha carving in rock at the top of the mountain, however, so we pressed on. The view from the top was well worth the climb (JoJo agrees!!), and the large statue at the top was cool to see.

After we made it to the top, the next challenge was getting down. We didn't want to go back down the same way we had come up, because frankly, that's boring. So we set out in search of an alternative path down. Well, we found one: I will herein refer to the trail down as "the death path". Let me first say that none of us had good hiking shoes on...we were all wearing sneaker-type shoes with no tread. The path down was incredibly steep! JoJo and I were slipping and sliding all over the place, grabbing on to trees for dear life (Sam did a bit better then us girls). There were even parts of the trail where a rope was provided and we had to repel down the rocks...very cool! We eventually made it down, and headed back to our guest house for a brief nap. That evening was taken up by a visit to more royal tombs (we were allowed to enter one, and saw the cross-section of how they made it), and a trip to a park to see part of a Korean opera...interesting costumes, but it got a little boring since we had no idea what was happening in the story. After the opera, we had a fabulous dinner of dalk galbi (spicy chicken stir-fry), and then went home to rest our weary bodies.

JoJo and I in front of the headless Buddha...one of our first finds on the trail.

Here's Sam with the cross-legged Buddha on a lotus leaf.

This Buddha image was carved right into the stone...not sure if you can make it out, but Sam's holding his hand the same way as the Buddha.

Here I am at the top of Namsan mountain. The large carved Buddha is behind me (look to the right of me, and up a little bit from my shoulder, and you can see the round head).

Here's JoJo repeling down one of the steepest parts of "the death path".

Day Three - Bulguksa Temple

2006-10-02T12:55:00.000+09:00

On our last day in Gyeongju, we headed to Bulguksa Temple, a famous temple in the area. The architecture was beautiful! We spent a good amount of time just wandering around and looking at all the different shrines. A lot of them had "No Photo" signs outside, but we managed to get a few by playing the "dumb foreigner who didn't see the sign" card. After our time at the temple, we caught a bus up the mountain to the "Buddhist Grotto", which we found out is a famous "World Historical Site". We walked down a long path to an area that had a temple-looking building that was built right up against the mountain side. When we walked in, we saw that part of the mountain had been dug out, and a huge stone Buddha was in the niche, with tons of statues carved into the walls around him. It was really cool to see, because it had been there since 751 A.D. It felt like we were standing in history. After that, we hiked back up to the bus, and rode back to town. We had a little time to kill before our bus ride back to Osan, so we walked around Gyeongju for a bit, bought some snacks, and then headed to the terminal. Our ride back was great...we had a different bus driver - one who knew how to maintain a steady speed. All in all, a great weekend!

Here I am outside of one of the main buildings at Bulguksa.

Sam and I in front of one of the two big pagodas on the temple grounds.

Here's JoJo in front of a cool drum that was sitting on the back of a big turtle.

Here, Sam and JoJo are in front of the other big pagoda on the temple grounds.

Here's Sam in front of part of the main building.

Market Day

2006-09-24T17:58:00.000+09:00

Sam and I have recently gone to two of the many markets in Seoul. We love going and seeing all the cool things that people are selling. Some of the most interesting things we've seen: 1) big buckets of little fish just swimming and squirming all over each other (definitely not enough water for each fish to feel comfortably at home!), 2) those same buckets of fish but with no squirming or swimming - I guess the fish had expired, 3) pig's feet that are cooked up and for sale, 4) big pots of bug larvae that students especially love to snack on, 5) huge varieties of sea food (sting rays, squids, shrimps, massive amounts of fish - pretty much anything that lives in the water and is remotely edible), and tons more! Here are some pictures from our marketing days.

A lot of the market alleys are covered by tin roofs or tarps, giving a cool "underground" feeling.
Here's Sam checking out this stand of dried fish. There are lots of shops like this with TONS of different varieties of dried sea food, just piled up in bins, waiting for a hungry buyer. We found this cool gate when we were wandering through Namdaemun Market this weekend. It was the south gate of the Seoul fortress. No more fortress, but the gate's still standing. Here's one of the many local butchers in the markets. Those are pigs that he's cutting up. A lot of you know how I feel about raw meat, so seeing this sight and hearing the knife scratching across the bones was a growing experience! I don't think they have the same "food safety" laws here because there are lots of stands and shops that have raw meat just sitting out in the open waiting to be taken home. Very different. This is a little food stand in the market. There are tons of these...pretty much a grill on a cart with a couple of stools around it. The food smells so good...the women who run these little stands definitely know how to cook!

Teaching English - Psychology Degree Required

2006-09-14T22:19:00.000+09:00

After graduating from University, I often wondered if my Psychology degree would ever come in handy...would my knowledge of the human mind ever be useful? Today I found out just what could be accomplished by a person with a major in "the study of the mind".

I have recently introduced the idea of a "Spelling Test" to my youngest class. Their spelling is absolutely atrocious, and I thought it would be beneficial to work on it.

Today I let the kids know that I would be giving them their second list of ten words, and that they needed to study the words for a test tomorrow. That did NOT go over well!! The whining and the "teacher, teacher - no study" started almost immediately. The negative response from the kids would have made any by-passer think that I was the most hated teacher in the world! Then the bartering began: "Teacher, 5 word", "Teacher only 1 word", "Ten word, no", and on and on it went in broken English.

So, I pulled back into my reservoir of "people skills", put on my best smile, and said, "I will let you choose. We can do 100 words, OR we can do 10". A few blank stares, a few looks of "what is she talking about?". I said, "Ok, who would rather have 100 words?"...to which one kid slowly raised his hand. Then I said, "Who would rather have 10 words?"...one other kid raised his hand to that. "I guess 100 words is what we'll do...since it's a tie", I said. "On second thought, lets raise our hands one more time". "Who would rather have 100 words?"...no hands raised. "Who would like to have 10 words?"...every hand raised.

I made a big show of humming and hawwing, and thinking, and then announced - "We will have only 10 words tomorrow". The cheering in the class was incredibly loud! The kids were all leaning forward, looking at me as if I was the best teacher they had ever had. I wrote the words on the board, and they happily copied them into their notebooks.

Thank goodness they're too young to know that they had just cheered for the exact same thing they had whined about 2 minutes earlier - how good is that?

Hike Day in Osan

2006-09-10T15:55:00.000+09:00

Sam and I declared this past Saturday, "Hike Day in Osan". Our little city is surrounded by hills, and we decided it was time to explore them a bit. So we left our building, and headed to the right. The walk to the hills took us through some more rural-ish areas of town, which were neat to see. We also learned something about fishing in Korea. People here fish in STYLE!! We passed a pond on our way, which was surrounded by little platforms that had been built all along the water's edge. On each platform was a car seat...literally a seat that had been taken from an old car and placed around the pond...some were even in the recline position. I guess when you feel like fishing here, you can head to the pond, rent a car seat, and fish in comfort!

Our path was relatively easy to find, and at the trailhead, Sam had the great idea to take a picture of the map (even though we didn't understand the words on it), so that we could at least have an idea of the layout of the mountain if we were to get lost. What a smart guy! There were 6 "peaks" that our trail went to, with other smaller paths veering off from the main path every now and then. We decided to stay on the main path, and we managed to visit each of the six peaks.

Peak three was a real highlight for us. As we were approaching the top of the peak, we could see a Korean man through the trees, standing on a wooden bench, doing a little dance. We even managed to get a short video of it! When we reached the top, we better understood what the "happy dance" was all about, for lo-and-behold this peak was furnished with a fabulous hula-hoop that hung in the trees, waiting for hikers who wished to hula. Of course we both gave it a try!

Other highlights: we were able to get a view of all of Osan from peak two...very pretty to see our city in another perspective! Also, at the end of the trail, after we had come out of the mountains, we found a great outdoor gym...complete with highbars, bench press, and reclining benches for ab work.

When we were walking back through the rural area to get to Osan, we passed by three adorable Korean girls who were playing with a bike that one girl had. When we walked by, one little girl must have decided that we were much more interesting then the game they were playing, and she started to follow us. Every time I'd glance back, I'd see her skipping, closer and closer. Then the little bike rolled up with the other two girls, and they all got bolder. They start asking things to us in Korean, to which we responded..."What's your name?", "Do you like to bike?"...but the communication barrier was hard to breech. After about 1/2 a kilometre, the English teachers in us broke out, and we started counting with the girls - Them: "one, two, three", Us: "very good, four, five, six". Sam had some fun reciting the ABC's with them...I think they made it to "D". After about a kilometre, we started to wonder why it was that the girl's parents hadn't come looking for them. They were pretty far from home for such a young age. That's when we noticed that one girl had a cellphone hanging around her neck. It cracked me up because I could picture her Mom putting it on her in the morning and saying, "Honey, you can go anywhere you want today...you can follow people you don't know, and talk to strangers...just always keep this cellphone around your neck for safety, ok!" Extremely strange! We began to think those girls would have followed us all the way back home, so we turned around, started waving and said, "bye-bye". It took about 3 minutes of waving, and 50 "bye-byes" before they finally realized that they should probably stop following the weird blonde people and go back home.

All in all, a great day outside...the hills of Osan are beautiful, and we managed to see some things we hadn't seen before. I'm sure there will be many more "Hike Days" to come.

These are the little munchins that followed us back from the hike...so cute, eh!

Here's Sam at the local fishing hole. These seats went all the way around the pond.
Here's the trail map. The picture we took came in really handy...we had to refer to it six or seven times over the course of the hike.
One of our rest breaks on the trail.
Here's the view of Osan through the hills...isn't our city pretty? We live in the big buildings right in the middle of the picture.

Our Anniversary

2006-09-06T12:02:00.000+09:00

As many of you know, Sam and I celebrated our first anniversary on Sept. 3. We had a great day! Like most people our age, we figured the best way to celebrate one year of marriage was by going to an amusement park and defying death on the crazy rides! We were told that Lotte World is the Korean version of Disneyland...only much smaller. Having never been to Disneyland, I can't tell you if it's exactly the same, but Sam said that it had a similar "feel" to it.

Like always, our adventures began at the subway station...only this time we didn't get lost or miss a train. We arrived at the appropriate station, at the right time, and proceeded to the turn-stiles to exit the station. Here's how the subway system works in Korea: 1) buy a ticket, 2) put your ticket through the turn-stile where it stamps where you get on the subway, 3) collect your ticket on the other side of the turn-stile, 4) ride the subway, 5) get off, 6) put your ticket through the turn-stile where it stamps where you got off, and calculates if you paid enough for the ride. It's genius, really. Much to our surprise, when we put our tickets into the turn-stile at the Lotte World station, the machine made a loud "unhhh" sound, and wouldn't let us through. We attempted the same thing a number of times, thinking maybe there was some mistake - but each time we were denied. So, we just stood there...not sure what to do. We looked around for anyone who looked semi-official, but the station just had other passengers hurrying on their way. Suddenly, from the other side of the turn-stiles we hear, "can I help you with something?". Again, right when we need an English speaker, God provided one! We told the man that we couldn't get through and showed him our tickets. He told us that we had only paid 1500 won when we should have paid 1600 won (all this trouble over ten cents??). The ticket purchasing machine was on his side of the turn-stile so he took some of our money and bought another ticket for us to try. Unfortunately, since the ticket hadn't been stamped on entrance, it wouldn't let us out the exit. Back to square one. Suddenly, the Korean man leaned over the turn-stile and whispered, "Don't tell anyone I told you, but lots of Koreans just go under the turn-stile". My immediate thought was, "Who would I tell? I don't speak Korean, I don't know your name, and I probably couldn't pick you out in a line-up"...but, we were grateful for the tip. Since we had already purchased another ticket that more then covered our 20 cent short-comings, we looked around, slid under the bars, and walked away! We noticed that a security camera had captured our every move, so we won't be surprised to find a "Wanted" poster of us if we ever return to that station!

The picture above is the entrance to Lotte World...just wanted to show you that we were indeed there on our actual anniversary date! This place was really cool - half of the amusement park is inside, and half of it is outside on an island in the middle of a small lake. They had tons of rides - the viking ship, a carousel, different theme rides (ie. Pharoah's fury - where you travel in a "jeep" and explore the pyramids - on one part of the ride you go through a room with tons of fake spiders on the wall...at that moment they blow air on your legs that feels like spiders crawling on you - I screamed bloody murder! Sam had long pants on, though, so he didn't feel anything and couldn't understand why I was freaking out!!), two roller coasters, rides that drop you, rides that spin you...you get the idea!
One of the big differences between Lotte World and DisneyLand was the snack foods that you could buy. As you can see in this picture, "Peanut Buttered Roast Sqid (ie. Squid)" was a big hit - this little snack stand could be found all over the park! (The way that English words are spelled here sometimes really cracks me up - one day we were walking and saw a sign that informed us that we were entering a "school zoon"...keeps us laughing, that's for sure!). Other different snacks...they had octopus cakes, where they cut a piece of octopus into each little dough ball, and roast corn - which seems far too healthy for an amusement park!

Here we are waiting for the "World Carnival Parade" to begin...you can see the excitement on our faces! The parade was amazing...beautiful costumes for different countries of the world - Korea, China, Spain, Jamaica, Egypt (to name a few). I have to say, when the parade started it was so beautiful, and I was so excited, that I got a little teary eyed...that's the magic of Lotte World!

After lunch, the subway police finally caught up with us, and threw Sam in the stocks! This is where the bad foreigners go!! Just kiddin'...a perfect photo-op at Lotte World!

And here I am in front of the Lotte World castle. This was on the walkway to "Magic Island"...the outdoor part of the park. Sam's favourite ride was out here. It's called the "Gyro Drop", and it takes you 70 metres up, and then drops you in a free fall back to earth. Freaky!! I was trying to be a cool wife, so I said, "Hey, we should try the Gyro Drop", inside I was thinking "No, no, no, no!!"...but Sam was all for it, so we got in line. During our 15 minute wait, I timed everything out perfectly so I would know what to expect. The ride spins as it take you up, and when you stop going up, it spins for two more seconds, stops, and then waits 3 seconds before dropping you for 3 seconds. The three seconds wait at the top was the worst! Here's what was going on in my mind: "Oh no, we just stopped spinning. Oh no...only 3 seconds. Oh gosh, only 2 seconds! No, only one more second!!! AHhhhhhhhh!". The drop definitely felt like more then 3 seconds. I think it played on Sam's mind too...his first words after the ride (a direct quote): "That fall felt like forever! I was like 'ahhhhh' and then 'ahhhhhh' again". Cracked me up...so profound!

Anyways, as you can tell, the rides were a blast! When we got home, we watched our wedding video and re-read our vows, which was really special! Then, we toasted each other with a precious bottle of Jones' Soda...left over from our reception one year ago!

One year down...many more to come :0)

A Korean Wedding

2006-09-04T14:16:00.000+09:00

On Saturday, Sam and I had the opportunity to go to a Korean wedding. Xuan (pronounced "Schwen"), the Korean teacher at our school, was getting married. The wedding was VERY different from any wedding we've ever been to before, so we thought we'd fill you in on what we saw! (Disclaimer: sorry that the pictures aren't in order...still haven't figured that out!)

The wedding took place in Seoul at one of the wedding chapels there. When we arrived, everyone was milling around outside of the hall entrance. I figured that people just wanted to talk before being seated, but when I looked through the hall doors, I realized that another wedding was going on. Here's the weird part...people outside the hall waiting for the next wedding weren't being quiet...they were talking and laughing, and there weren't doors to close on the other ceremony. I felt kinda bad for the first couple!!

We realized two things about weddings here: First, in Korea it's all about speed...in and out, in and out! In a country with such a large population in relation to land space, you don't have the luxury of having a wedding chapel to yourself for your special day...you just take the time slot that's available to you, and make it work! After a while, the service before Xuan's ended, and the couple was having pictures taken at the front. Here's the weird part...their wedding guests weren't even completely out of the room yet, and the couple was still at the front taking pictures when Xuan's guests started filing in. It seemed so crazy to me, like we were invading their special moment! Second, because Koreans put such an emphasis on appearances, the wedding felt more like a show, where they were trying to create a perfect video, even if it meant sacrificing the sacredness of the ceremony itself.

When Xuan's ceremony began, the lights went down, and a spotlight followed the two Moms down the aisle to the front where...they were met by wedding chapel employees with nametags on who led them to the candles they had to light (I was thinking...who are those people and where did they come from?). The Moms were dressed in traditional handboks...the bride's mother wearing pink, and the groom's mother wearing blue. The gowns were beautiful! They bowed to each other, and then bowed to the guests, welcoming us to the ceremony. Next, the spotlight went back to the groom who was standing in front of the bride at the back...the music changed and he did a quick march to the front of the hall. He bowed to the man who was doing the ceremony, bowed to the bride's parents, bowed to his parents, and then bowed to the guests. Finally, the spotlight went back to Xuan, and she came down the aisle with her dad. Her hubby-to-be, met them near the front, and the two were guided by wedding hall employees to the front.

Here's where the "dress lady" came in. I guess in Korea you hire a lady who is responsible for your dress. Every 1 or 2 minutes she would go up to Xuan and fiddle with her dress until she was satisfied that it was sitting properly. At first I was thinking, "Kinda distracting, but ok"...THEN she stepped over the line. Xuan had to turn around for one part of the ceremony and the dress lady walked up to Xuan, grabbed the bust area of her dress and jiggled it around trying to pull it up a little...in front of everyone! I had to blink, and ask Sam if he had seen what I had just seen, cause I couldn't believe it. It's not like she was trying to be inconspicuous! Before the ceremony was over she had done the "bust shuffle" FIVE more times! Talk about ruining a moment...I wanted to go and stand in front of Xuan to protect her from the dress lady so she could enjoy her moment!

During the ceremony, the couple didn't exchanged any vows or speak to each other at all. They both stood with solemn expressions, Xuan with her eyes kept down the whole time, in front of the man who was leading the ceremony. The man spoke for about 20 minutes, but since it was in Korean, we didn't understand what he was saying. I asked afterwards, and found out that he was telling Xuan's family background, and then her husband's family background. He then wished the couple health and happiness. After he was done speaking, the couple turned to Xuan's parents and bowed to them (the husband actually got down and prostrated himself in front of them). They then did the same thing for his parents. Then a friend came and sang them a song, and the wedding hall provided "mood smoke" during the song...so the couple was standing in swirling smoke while they were being serenaded...another great video shot! After the song, Xuan's new husband had to do a "feat of strength" where he picked up his new wife and did a squat while holding her. She then had to yell out a phrase a number of times, which we found out was saying how good of a husband he was. Then, they walked back down the aisle...and after the video captured the moment, turned right back around and walked up to the front for pictures. The moment they were back at the front, and before the guests had even had a chance to think, "What a nice wedding", the wedding hall employees were removing the white aisle runner, and moving all the flowers and candles away. It was crazy!

The brides in Korea don't wear just one dress...they wear FOUR different outfits (Dad, aren't you glad you only had to pay for one???). There's one dress for the ceremony, which is the typical white, Western dress. Then, she changes into a second outfit for the cutting of the cake and to greet the guests while they eat a meal. After about 20 minutes in this second outfit, she runs off and changes into a very traditional outfit for the "bowing ceremony", where the bride and groom again bow to their parents. Finally, she changes into one more dress (kind of like a prom dress) as a "going away" outfit. Lots of changing!

The meal we were served was delicious! It was all traditional Korean food...and I loved all of it except the jellyfish! I tried it, so I could say I had tried it, but the "jelly" texture really turned my stomach! In a way, it was kind of a healing moment (I got stung by a jellyfish when I was living in Venezuela, which hurt like a mother...so I kept thinking, "who's laughing now Jelly?"), but I don't think I'll ever eat it again! Sam had two mouthfuls, so I think he enjoyed it more then I did! The couple didn't get to eat. They came in, cut the wedding cake with a sword and the help of the two mothers, greeted their guests, and then left. As for the cake...it left too...and nobody got a piece (a great disappointment for me). I guess the majority of the cake was fake, and the top part isn't served anyways, it's just for cutting!

We left shortly after the meal. People kind of come and go as they please. After the food is served, the couple is largely ignored as they go about their different outfit changes and ceremonies while people eat and then leave the wedding hall. Very different! Some parts very strange, but very cool to see!

Here's Xuan in her first dress...that's her new hubby by her side.

This is the cake cutting ceremony...you can't really see a good shot of the sword, but it's there. This was Xuan and her husband's second outfit.

This is the third outfit, for the bowing ceremony. We didn't get to see the actual ceremony, since the room was pretty small, and we figured that family should get first priority!

This is a picture of both families with the bride and groom. You can see some of the beautiful hanboks (traditional Korean dresses) on the women in the front...they were beautiful!

And here's a closer shot of Xuan and her hubby's second outfit...this is when they were going around and greeting each table as we ate.

Some Random Pictures...

2006-08-27T23:15:00.000+09:00

You know what? This weekend was pretty quiet! Sam and I did some Christmas shopping yesterday in Insadong, which is a cute part of Seoul that has tons of street vendors and little shops selling Korean arts and crafts. Awesome area to visit...anyone who comes to see us, we promise we'll take you there (if that isn't insentive to come, I don't know what is!!). Today Sam and I made a trip in to Costco to stock up on some fabulous North American food...here's the best part: Sam figured out a bus route that has a stop almost directly outside of Costco's front door - no more long walks with heavy bags for us!!

So, because there were no "adventures" to write about, I thought I'd share some ramdom pictures, that otherwise might not have made it on to the blog. Enjoy!

This is what Sam and I call a "squattie" toilet. Probably 80% of the bathroom stalls offer this kind of set-up. At first glance, you're probably thinking, "There is no way I would use that!"...and I admit that I thought that at first too. However, I am now a huge fan and advocate for the squattie toilet...seems much more sanitary to me...no need to sit where everyone else has already been!
This is one of Sam's favourite past-times! Some of the restaurants here have showcases that hold plastic replicas of the foods they offer. We all know that Sam loves his food...and he loves looking at all the options that he could order. I think I took this picture during his second time of looking through the display case...yep, both times on the same day :0)

This is one of the newest additions to our growing list of things we know how to order. Just ordered it for the first time yesterday - dalk bokki. It's so good. The long things that look like penne noddles are actually pounded rice. There's egg in there, and spaghetti noodles, plus some kind of flat noodle, and some kind of meat. It's the sauce that's to die for...delicious!

Here's Sam on the streets of Osan. It's really cool to go for a walk at night because of all the neon signs...really lights up the sky!!

Here I am on one of the side streets of Insadong. We took this picture because there's a Baskin Robbins down this alley (the "31 Flavours" sign is the pink circle that's behind my head...the picture's a little small, so you can't really see it). I thought it was random that Baskin Robbins would set up shop down such a skinny, random street!

The Experience of Banking in Korea

2006-08-27T21:57:00.000+09:00

Banking in Korea is not just an errand...it's an experience!!

The number one best thing about our bank is that our teller's name is Don Ki (pronounced "Donkey")...tell me, where else would it be kosher to call your bank teller Donkey without receiving nasty comments and really poor service? Exactly...our bank is awesome!

We have a bank account here with KB Bank. The other day, Sam and I went in to transfer money home, and Don Ki immediately thanked us - as he ALWAYS does - for choosing KB. We were then treated to little cups of coffee while we waited. That's when the gifts started rolling in. Banking here does take longer then banking at home, but it seems like the number of gifts you receive from the bank is directly related to how long you wait! For example, when we opened our account 2 months ago, it took some time, but not too long...so we received a bottle of shampoo and a bottle of conditioner. The money transfer we did took a bit longer, so we received two big containers of dish-soap, and some zip-loc bags. Then, Don Ki realized that the transfer would take even longer then he thought, so he threw in a map of Korea. The best thing is how the gifts were presented. Don Ki came up to us and said, "I have gift for Sam and Rebecca"...and then proceeded to show us each thing the bank was offering. Once we had ewwed and awwed over them a bit, he pulled out a KB Bank gift bag and carefully placed our "gratitude" items into it, before presenting it to us with a flourish.

I love that the gifts are so practical...Sam and I will never have to buy dish-soap again...we're covered for the next 10 months! The zip-locs are great! As for the map, it's all in Korean, but it's the thought that counts right?

Here I am, modeling the gifts we received from the bank.

Biking ???

2006-08-20T18:43:00.000+09:00

This weekend Sam and I were in the mood for a little exercise. A few of our friends had told us about a place by the Jamsil subway station where you could rent a bike for free - you just have to leave a piece of ID behind as collateral. Biking sounded perfect!

We headed out in the early afternoon...around 2 or so. We knew the route to Jamsil required 3 different trains...the dark blue line, with a transfer to the light blue line, and a transfer to the green line. Now, I know you're thinking that since we've been in Korea now for almost two months, we should be getting pretty good at taking the subway, right? Wrong!! Yesterday we learned about the difference that the letter "e" makes. For example, "Sincheon" and "Sinchon" are not the same place, even though they look the same when you don't understand the word anyways and are just glancing at it as you run to the next train! Unfortunately, we got on the green line heading towards "Sinchon" when we really wanted to be heading the other direction towards "Sincheon". After about 8 stops we realized that the station names weren't matching the names on our little guide (we're pretty quick, eh - only took us 8 stops)...and finally figured out that we had to get off and head back the way we had come. Here's the sad part of the story - about 45 to 50 minutes after getting on the wrong train we finally arrived at the right station, ran up the stairs to get outside, and found that...the bike rental stands had already closed for the day!!

Sam at the closed and "locked down" bike rental booths.

Fortunately, Sam and I would never let a little something like getting lost and finding closed and locked bike rental stands ruin our day, so we decided to explore that part of the city. We saw some cool things...there was an amusement park on an island, so we watched the rides for awhile. We'll probably go back and ride them sometime! Then we walked around this great little lake, which just so happened to be date central! Everywhere we looked we saw couples on the park benches...the girl sitting up, and the guy lying on the bench with his head resting on his girlfriend's lap while she played with his hair. So, we did that for awhile so we could fit in with the locals! We found a Burger King and splurged on burgers and fries for dinner, which was fabulous (sidenote: here's a great thing about Asia - the serving sizes at fast food places are smaller...the fries are small, the drinks are small, and the burgers are small...so you don't leave feeling like you've got gut rot from all the grease...end of sidenote).

We found this pretty pagoda when we were walking around the lake.

We had just decided to head back to the subway station, when we started to feel a few sprinkles of rain...perfect timing! The subway ride was pretty uneventful on the first two trains...it was when we were waiting for our last train that the "fun" began. We were approached by a short, drunk man who wanted to practice his English on us. We get this everywhere we go - adults want to see if we understand them, teens want to see if we'll talk back, and parents want their kids to say "hi", just so they know that the English lessons they're paying for are actually doing some good! Anyways, this man walks up to us and asked us where we're from. We told him and then he started talking away (we understood probably 1 out of every 10 words), telling us about how his "English is very short" (we think he meant that he didn't speak a lot), and that "comnication" was his big problem (communication?). He said he knew American movies, and that Sam looked just like Jim Carrey, and I looked exactly like Meg Ryan (which I thought was hilarious...I love hearing who people think we look like!). Our train finally came, and it was obvious that he was waiting for us to get on so that he could follow and continue the conversation. With quick thinking, we started walking towards one entrance, allowed him to get on first, and then turned and got on another car. Once aboard, we quickly ran through two more crowded cars, until we had a good 3 cars between us and him. It was good for everyone - we had a nice peaceful ride, and he found someone else to talk to (when we got off at Osan we saw him through a window, chatting away with someone else). All in all - a great Saturday!

The "Black Market"

2006-08-15T22:43:00.000+09:00

Today was a holiday - August 15th - Korea's "Independence from Japan" day - so we had the day off from school. Unfortunately, nothing "holidayish" was happening in Osan (besides a few Korean flags hung from windows), so Sam and I decided to make our own holiday fun, and headed into Songtan (2 subway stops down from Osan...the little town right near the U.S. air base). We had heard that there was a "black market" of sorts in Songtan...with tons of American items that had been smuggled off of the army base. With visions of "Dr. Pepper" and "oatmeal" in our heads, we started wandering through the streets.

This is near where we entered the elusive "Black Market" district. Not all of the shops sold contraband...this shope had tons of cool Korean dishes for sale. Not sure what they were, but they were neat to look at.
We also stumbled across a fabulous looking karaoke club...the only one I've seen where you can actually sing AND song!!

Here's Sam surrounded by many foods that we haven't seen in awhile! There were hotdogs, Cheetos, Ruffles, Dr. Pepper, tons of American candy, and even oatmeal. What did we buy, you ask? Absolutely nothing...hard to believe, I know! The oatmeal was ridiculously expensive, and we couldn't justify buying it. And as for the Dr. Pepper, we decided that Sam would buy some for my birthday...so if we had some today, it wouldn't be as special. We both agreed, though, that even though we didn't buy and eat anything, it was great to just SEE things from home, and know that they're only a short subway ride away!

Food

2006-08-15T21:11:00.000+09:00

Sam and I wanted to show you some of our favourite foods over here. Honestly, Korean food is awesome! The more we try, the more we like!

This is dolsot bibimbap. It comes in a ceramic bowl that is pipping hot! It has a raw egg on top of it, but as you stir it all together, the ceramic bowl cooks the egg...very inventive, eh! It's tasty, and FUN to eat!! This dish has rice, beansprouts, lettuce, "little brown sticks" (we don't know what they are), carrot, and egg in it. They put a great red hot sauce on it too. Very delicious!

This is kimbap...I think I've mentioned it before in other blog entries. Like a sushi roll, but without the raw fish. It has rice, egg, carrot, spam (surprisingly ok tasting), some kind of grass, and another "brown" thing that is unidentifiable. All together, tastes great! The traditional kimbap also comes with a pickled radish in it, but we always point at the radish and make a "no" sign with our hands...don't really like the taste. A roll of kimbap only costs $1!! (I also wanted to show you in this picture how good I'm getting at using chopsticks) :0)

And here's Sam showing off his chopstick skills while eating Mandu...little dumplings. The ones on the left that are more reddish have kimchi in them (the spicy pickled cabbage that Korea is famous for). The ones on the right have meat in them. We like to get a box of each for a little variety. This was the first thing we learned how to order...we had it A LOT that first week!

And here's a dish of "sides" that come with every meal. Restaurants are awesome here...you go in, order your meat (which is all you pay for), and the waitress brings you lots of free side dishes to go with your meal. Usually they include kimchi, soup, different spicy vegetable dishes, rice pancakes...actually there are too many possibilites to name here. We're not exactly sure what everything on this plate is...the yellow things on the right are pickled radishes, and the red stuff on the left is kimchi...the other two things are "mystery sides". These sides are from the cheap little restaurant we like to go to, which is why there are only four, and they're all in one dish. A more expensive restaurant will bring lots and lots of little dishes to try!

Hiking!!

2006-08-06T18:49:00.000+09:00

Sam and I are learning that it is impossible to "plan on" anything here! For example, as you know, a couple of weeks ago we "planned on" going on a 4 hour excursion to Costco - which turned into 8 hours! A week ago we "planned on" paying $20 for a meal, and ended up being charged $36 instead. Well, yesterday it happened again! We woke up to a beautiful Saturday morning (11:30 is still technically morning, right?)...blue sky, sun shining, humid as anything. We decided we'd go on a hike. It had been a long week of classroom confinement, so an adventure in the great outdoors was exactly what we needed! We had seen a map for a trail around "Seoul Grand Park" when we had been there a few weeks ago at the zoo. So, we decided that the 7.5 km path was perfect - we knew where it was and how to get there. We set out, and found that it was in fact so humid that we were sweating by the time we walked the 10 minutes to the subway station!

When we arrived at the park, we noticed that it was a bit clouded over in that part of Seoul - and a few little rain drops were falling...nothing major, just one every 10 seconds or so. We ate our kimbap that we had brought for lunch and set out to find our trail. Here's something interesting about hiking in Korea - it's mostly senior citizens who use the trails. We saw a total of two kids and two people our age while we were on the trail...the rest of the people we saw were definitely at least 55 or 60! And some of them were passing us!

We had a little confusion as to where our trail was, but after about 10 minutes we found a path that looked "hike-ish", figured that it had to be the one around the park, and decided to take it! It was great...beautiful scenery, a well kept and well marked trail to follow, and friendly people who responded to our "anyeong haseyo" (hello) as we passed them. After about an hour, the humidity was really taking its toll...we were both pretty much drenched in sweat...it was at the point where your energy level starts to wain. At that moment, what do we hear but thunder? I was in the middle of telling Sam how humidity can often cause "heat thunder" to occur even when a rainstorm isn't on its way (I'm pretty sure I've heard that somewhere before), when the first rainsdrops started to fall. And boy did they fall!! It became some of the hardest rain that I have ever been in, in my life! And did it ever feel good! The Korean hikers either whipped out an umbrella and continued hiking (who hikes with an umbrella?) or took cover under the trees. We considered taking cover under the trees, but seeing as it was a thunderstorm, decided that wasn't the safest plan of action, because we all know that thunder = lightning. Plus, the rain was exactly what we needed to refresh us. So, we kept on going. It felt like we were treking through the Brazilian rain forest - pouring down water, with beautiful green vegetation all around us. We decided that God had sent the rain at that moment cause he knew we needed it and that it would make us laugh (if you remember from a previous posting, the last time we were at Seoul Grand Park - at the zoo - it poured all day, and we weren't prepared for it then either!).

The rain eventually stopped, I rung out my shirt, and we kept on our way! We were absolutely drenched...not just wet - drenched...water was continually dripping off of us! The trail kept going up and up and up. Every so often we'd come to a little marker that had some Korean symbols on it and then a number - like 0.7 km. So we kept thinking we were almost back to our starting point. Then we'd walk the 0.7 km. and would come to another sign that said 1.5 km. Very confusing!! So we'd walk the 1.5 km. and come to a sign that said 1.2 km. (you get the point - lots of walking, lots of signs, then lots more walking). We did this for awhile, and then we started getting the feeling like something was wrong...it didn't feel like we were going "around" a park, it felt like we were going straight "away" from the park, and straight up a mountain. So we decided to try to ask other hikers where we were going. We'd point up the trail and say "Seoul Grand Park", and they'd nod and point in the direction we were going. That made us feel better for awhile, and then we realized that we still weren't getting anywhere (and 7.5 km had defnitely come and gone). So, we took more extreme measures and whipped out our "Survival Korean phrases" sheet, pointed to the Korean for "How do I get to..." and showed the hikers who passed us our subway map (the intent being that they would understand that we were trying to say "How do I get to the subway"...pretty clear, right? Wrong. Everyone that we tried our technique on kept pointing up the mountain, as if to say "To get to the subway station, keep going up the mountain"...we thought it was crazy, but figured it's their country, and they must know where the subway station is! What they really must have been thinking was, "I'm sure the foreigners want to see the view, otherwise why would they be out here?".

Well, we finally reached the look-out at the top of the mountain...and that was when we realized that we had a problem. We could see the zoo tent (which we thought we were heading around) far, far away in the distance. That's when we realized that the trail hadn't "felt" right because it WASN'T the right trail. At this point it was about 5:30 and we knew that there was no way we could hike back to the park before it got dark. Being the brilliant boy and girl scouts that we are, we had completely forgotten to bring anything "survival-ish"...no flashlight, no extra clothes, no matches...Nothing! We had a camera, a small pack of crackers, a frisbee, and our sunglasses.

At that moment, I turned to Sam and said, "What are we going to do?"...and 2 seconds later we heard a man say, "Can I help you with something?". It honestly feels like every single time we are completely lost or in a bad situation (both of which applied to this situation), God sends us someone who speaks English, and who can look at us and know that we have no idea what we're doing. With huge relief (it's always so nice to hear English!), we started asking the man how we could get back to Seoul Grand Park and to the subway. He was pretty surprised that we had hiked all the way from the park, and kept clarifying - "You came from Seoul Grand Park???". We were informed that there was no way we could make it back in time (which wasn't new information to us), and that the best thing would be to go back the way we had come for a little ways and then take a different trail out. I think he could tell from our blank stares that we had no idea where the path was that he was talking about, nor what to do once we were finally "out". So, he offered to lead us down!!

This was no small task...he led us for a good two hours...and boy did he ever walk fast! The Koreans are very sure-footed, and Sam and I were barely keeping up with him as he "ran" down the mountain. After the two hours, we came to a small town. He led us to a bus stop, told us to wait in the line and then ride the bus to Yangjae station, said his goodbyes (which included us thanking him profusely!!) and then was off on his way again. We took a 25 minute bus ride to the subway station, where we had to transfer from the orange line to the green line to the blue line to the purple line (which took about an hour and a half). We finally fell through the door of our apartment sometime after 9! What can we say? Just another brilliantly "planned" day in Korea!

I honestly felt like we were in Narnia at this point of our trip! We came up a small hill and found a lampost right in the middle of the forest. So random!

You can't really tell from this picture, but we were absolutely soaking wet when this was taken! The torrential downpour had just finished at this point. Lets just say it was the worst possible day to wear a white tanktop!

After walking FOREVER and not finding the end of our path we figured we must have walked to North Korea. Here's Sam pretending to cross the border into the North. (Note: we still have no idea why there was a double-fence guarded area with barbed wire on the top out in the forest!).

Here's Sam with Mr. Lee - the wonderful man who led us down the mountain and kept us from a night of "survival camping" in the Korean outback.

Just enjoying a fabulous "granola bar" break on the trail (sorry the pictures are out of order!).

Our trip to Busan - The East China Sea

2006-07-30T15:07:00.000+09:00

This past week we had three days off for summer vacation. Just to let you know - we have the best directors in the world!! They gave each teacher at our school $100 to spend on our vacation. So, with $200 in our pockets, and a smile on our faces, we decided to head down to Busan (a beach town on the south-east tip of Korea) for some fun in the sun. We took a 5 hour train ride, and went from rainy, over-cast weather to beautiful sunshine.

Here's Sam enjoying the view on Gwangalli Beach. The motel room that we found was one street over from the beach - awesome location!! The bridge in the background made us think of the Golden Gate bridge (wrong colour, but we felt like we were in Cali!).
This is one of the many little motels we looked at before settling on ours. This one smelled like smoke and beer, and was pretty sketchy. Needless to say, I convinced Sam we should keep looking! And we're so glad we did! Ours was a couple bucks more, but we had our own bathroom, a real bed, and air-conditioning in our room.
Here we are exploring the streets around Busan. This was our first night in town, and we were looking for dinner. We really wanted to find a dakgalbi place (really spicy chicken stir fry), and knew that the first Korean symbol in the word looked like a C+ with the number 27 under it. We wandered for an hour, and couldn't find a dakgalbi restaurant, so we finally settled on a Korean barbq joint, similar to a restaurant we enjoy at home in Osan. We went in, sat down, and the waitress came over to take our order. We pointed at "beef" in our book, and she pointed at a picture of beef on the wall and we nodded. Then she said some words and we thought we heard "sauce", so we nodded that yes, we would like sauce on our meat. Little did we know that she was actually saying something like, "Hi foreigners, would you like the most expensive meat we have in this restaurant?".

Our meal came, and we were both pretty disappointed with our cut of meat. I'd say it was 25% meat, and 75% fat...disgusting! We figured we had ordered the cheapest cut, so we just ate what we wanted, and finished off our "so-so" meal pretty quick. We headed for the door to pay our bill...figuring it would be about $12 to $20...the normal price at home. We were pretty shocked when we were charged $36 for fatty meat (we didn't even get rice with it!!). But, what could we do? We had already eaten, and didn't know the words for "you're ripping us off!". So we paid, and left, feeling completely scammed. (I know $36 doesn't sound that expensive when compared to North American prices, but you have to remember that we're used to paying $2 for a good lunch!). We did what any normal person would do, and drowned our sorrows in some Baskin Robbins icecream :0) But, don't worry - all of our meals at Busan were not complete gong-shows...the next day we ate at a chain that we eat at here in Osan. They had an English translation of their entire menu, so we were able to copy out a bunch of meals that looked awesome. Now, we have more then 2 options at that restaurant!
Here Sam and I are displaying our train tickets to Busan...the first we purchased on our own...we were proud! Here's the view on Gwagalli Beach...beautiful, eh! There was about 1.5 km of sand to walk on, so that was fun...we walked the whole thing a couple of times.

East China Sea Trip - Beomosa Buddhist Temple

2006-07-30T14:04:00.000+09:00

On Friday, we decided to go and see Beomosa Temple. After a subway trip, and a harrowing taxi ride up the mountain (the driver didn't understand that the center line in the middle of the road shouldn't be crossed when going around tight corners), we arrived.

This was the first building we came to after entering through the gates of the temple. On the inside were beautiful paintings. I don't know if you can see it clearly, but on the right of this building, really tall bamboo was growing. It looked really neat!

There were tons of little shrine buildings all over the temple grounds. Most of them looked like this on the inside. There was usually a gold buddha in the middle with two statues of his "attendants" on either side. There were a lot of people at the temple grounds, and we saw them in the various shrines, bowing down and praying to the statues. This is me in front of the 3-tiered pagoda. All of the buddhists who passed by this structure would stop, bow at it, and then continue. We found out that this is actually the centre of their worship. This pagoda is thought to embody the Buddha and all of his teachings.
As you can see from this picture, it was definitely beautiful up at the temple. It was green all around, with rolling hills and mountains in the distance. Most of the shrine rooms looked like this building, and were placed around the temple grounds. The white statue in this picture is a 9-tiered pagoda.
This is Sam in front of what we thought must have been a meeting room for the monks at this temple. It was an open room on the inside with a painting of Buddha on the wall, and various pillows to sit on around the room.

East China Sea Trip - Our Hike

2006-07-30T11:44:00.000+09:00

While we were at Beomosa Temple, we ran into two guys who were from California. They were travelling around Korea, on their way to China. They were planning on hiking from the temple to a fortress that was a 3 hour hike away. We were invited to go along, and it sounded pretty fun, so we went.

This is Sam with Dan (in the blue shirt) and Sam (in the black shirt). We had bought some kimbap that morning to have for lunch, so we decided to have a snack break along the way. We only had two pairs of chopsticks, though - they quickly became communal chopsticks :0)
This was part of the trail up to the North Gate of the fortress. It was REALLY humid in the forest...no air movement at all...we were all feeling it! The trail was really beautiful.
This is me at the North Gate of Geumjeong Fortress. This is actually the only part of the fortress that we saw. After seeing this gate, we consulted a map that had no English on it, tried to figure out where to go, and then headed in that direction. Needless to say, like many of our other trips here, we got completely lost and ended up in a small village in the country somewhere (we still don't know where we were!). Fortunately, a bus drove by. We got on and hoped that the bus driver was going somewhere with a subway station. He drove down the mountain (the roads here are so narrow, and yet they still drive at crazy, break-neck speeds!) and ended up in the city. One of his stops was at a subway station. We said goodbye to our hiking buddies, and headed to Haeundae Beach.

East China Sea - Haeundae Beach

2006-07-30T02:24:00.000+09:00

This is Haeundae Beach...and it was sooo crowded. This picture doesn't really do it justice! We came here after our hike in order to get in the water and cool down!

When we first got to the beach we didn't really know where to go. There were people everywhere! Kinda felt like we had gone to the beach with 500,000 of our closest friends!

Once we found a spot, we decided to rent a yellow inner tube and ride the waves a bit. You can see in the picture that the tubes are a BIG hit! Everybody had them in the water, so each wave would jostle us and push us into other inner-tubers! The waves were great, and it was a fun way to cool off!
The lifeguards here are crazy intense...blowing their whistle every 5 seconds, and getting really nervous if anyone gets remotely close to the buoy lines (we've been told that many Koreans aren't great at swimming). Anyways, it was funny cause at 6:00 pm on the dot, everybody got out of the water...and noone was allowed back in! If people tried to sneak in, the lifeguards would freak out and blow their whistles and wave people back to shore. It was like there was some unspoken rule that "swimming after 6 is extremely dangerous". We couldn't believe how fast people cleared out...still not sure what that was about :0)

East China Sea Trip Cont...

2006-07-30T01:02:00.000+09:00

Here we are at Gwanglli Beach...this is the beach that we stayed at. It was way less crowded then Haeundae Beach, and had awesome atmosphere! At night there were tons of neon lights along the main beach strip. People were out, sitting on the sand in little groups until past midnight. Lots of kids had sparklers and glow sticks and little old grandmas were selling rice cakes at 10:30 at night. It was awesome!
Here we are under our umbrella. We rented this little space of shade for $5...well worth it, considering we forgot our sunscreen at home, and were a bit burnt from our hike the day before. We pretty much hung out under this umbrella for all of Saturday, until we had to leave to catch our train home.
Here's Sam...commemorating our trip to the East China Sea. The water was pretty cool, but felt so good after the hot sun and humid weather!
I have to say that Sam is acting more and more Asian every day...here he is doing his "squat" sit under our umbrella. It seems like every time I turn around, he's sitting like this!
Oops...we first thought we were at the South China Sea...and did our little "staring off into the water" photo shoot with this little message in the sand. Luckily, our Lonely Planet Guide to Korea was on hand and we were able to verify that it was in fact the "East China Sea". A little ways down from this message we wrote the right name in the sand and shot our pictures all over again :0)

Hwaseong Fortress

2006-07-22T22:34:00.000+09:00

Today, Sam and I went to Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon (4 subway stops from Osan). If I could think of one word to describe today (besides "fun") it would be - WALKING!! Here's how much walking we did: We left our apartment and walked to the subway station. After arriving in Suwon, we decided we were to cheap to pay $1.50 for the bus, and that we'd rather walk from the station to the fortress...turned out to be about 3 km. Once there, we walked around the entire fortress wall - 5.7 km. Then, we walked back to the station - another 3 km. And once back in Osan, back to our apartment. What a great, active day, eh! The walking was definitely worth it though, because we found a Dunkin Donuts, and used the money we saved on bus fare to buy ourselves a little treat...so good!!

The fortress was awesome...very old (originally built in 1794, but a lot of it has been restored since then), and very pretty!

This is near the start of our walk around the fortress wall. Behind Sam is the "West Gate" - called "Hwaseomun".

This is me in front of the fortress floodgate. It was so hot out today that I was tempted to get in the water. There were actually a few kids on the other side of the building behind me who were playing around in the stream.

It was kind of funny because we were walking around this super old structure, and yet, on either side of the wall the city was bustling around us. This is Sam looking down on some Suwon traffic.

This was my favourite place of the fortress. We had to take our shoes off in order to go up the stairs to this pavillion, where we enjoyed a little shade and a granola bar. The view from this place was spectacular - a beautiful pond and willow trees were directly behind and below. Could have stayed here all day!

Here we are in front of one of the many other pavilions...a self-portrait using the camera timer...sorry about the fact that it's a little crooked!

Hwaseong Fortress Cont...

2006-07-22T21:47:00.000+09:00

Sam and I felt it was only appropriate to have an "empty water bottle sword fight" down the entire East Gate staircase. We were pretty evenly matched, however Sam managed to disarm me once, and so I have to give the title of "grand champion" to him.

This is a shot we took after walking down the steps from the "Namporu" lookout...soldiers would hide in the pavilion (you can see the roof of it at the middle of the top of this picture) and watch for enemies.

This is Sam, exhausted, after we climbed about a million stairs to get to this point (you can sort of see the city sky line in the background to get an idea of how high we were). We figured this little marker was either the grave stone of a fellow tourist who actually died from the climb, or an invitation to rest in Korean.

This is Sam on one of the many lookouts...searching the fort perimeter for enemies. You'll be happy to know that none were spotted while he was on watch.

Ok, I know I'm tall, but come on...this door is tiny!!! Sam and I felt like we were taping an episode of "Big People, Little World"!!!

"English?" "Costco?"

2006-07-17T01:13:00.000+09:00

Costco. The word brings with it images of massive quantities of food, samples gallore, large shopping carts, and discount hotdogs. It's almost magical, really!

That is, unless you're Sam and Becky Jones trying to figure out Korea...and then the word musters up images of rain soaked clothes, lost wanderings in Seoul, and throbbing muscles. Let me explain...

This afternoon at around 2:45, Sam and I decided to go to Costco. We looked up "Costco Korea" on the internet, found out what subway station was closest to the nearest store, viewed a simple looking map that showed Costco as being one block down and one block over from "Yangjae" station, and set out with high hopes of bringing home delicious food that we knew how to prepare. It was a rainy day, but we figured we'd be fine with our new umbrella.

The subway ride there was great. We only got on a wrong train once, and it only took us one stop to realize what we had done and fix our mistake. Not a bad trip :0) It was when we got to Yangjae that our troubles began. We knew Costco was supposedly "one block down and one block over" from the station...however, there were tons of station exits leading to various street corners and starting points in the world above the tracks. We took one that we thought sounded familiar, and stepped out onto the streets of Seoul. Our plan was to try every "one block down and one block over" combination until we randomly stumbled across Costco. Our first 15 minutes were mostly us walking the ways we "felt" would lead to Costco ("Becky, I feel like Costco is to the left", "Ok, Sam...but if it's not, then I feel like it's back that way"). After about 20 minutes with no luck, Sam had the great idea of pulling out our Costco card, showing it to people who were walking by, or people in the stores, saying "English?", and then "Costco", and hoping for some look of recognition and a pointing in the right direction. We tried that plan only to find out that people had no idea what we were saying or why we were waving a card around. Slightly frustrating...keep in mind that it's pouring the entire time, and although sharing an umbrella is fun and romantic at first, it doesn't really do the greatest job of keeping both parties dry!

When we reached the hour mark of "feeling" our way to Costco, it wasn't fun anymore! In fact, it was down right frustrating. Noone understood us, we had no idea where we were, or where we wanted to go. We came to a "Fedex" store that looked promising because all the words on the sign were in English. We went in, asked if anyone knew how to get to Costco, showed the membership card (we were still using that plan), and were told that noone knew. We went outside, crossed the street, and decided to call our friend Dave to see if he knew how to get to Costco (he's been here in Korea much longer then us!). He told us he didn't know, but that it was within 10 minutes walk of the station, and told us to try to catch a cab. When we hung up the phone we heard someone yelling "Costco" behind us, so we turned around and one of the Fedex guys was waving us back. I guess he had gotten on his phone and figured out where it was. Then - get this - him and his friend decided they would drive us there! Isn't that amazing!! It took them about 20 minutes to drive us to the store...so much for the 10 minute "one block down, one block over" map on the internet!!

Funny story - when we got to Costco, the first thing we saw was a dad run out of the entrance with his son, who abruptly whipped down his pants and starting peeing on the Costco wall right near the door. We were so shocked, and didn't know whether we wanted to hug the greeter since we were finally there, or pee on the walls too, because of the fact that it had taken us 4 hours of travel time to make it to the entrance! We opted for neither and entered the wonderland that was Costco!

We had tons of fun...and were able to find things that aren't in any of the grocery stores in Osan. We now have spaghetti and spaghetti sauce! We got 12 boxes of Kraft Dinner...so fun! We got Curry packages, chicken, fruit for smoothies, pickles, real cheese, and even granola bars! We also found bagels, tortilla chips and salsa. It feels more normal in our kitchen now! And best of all - we treated ourselves to some food in the Costco food court - a hotdog for Sam and a chicken bake for me - tasted great!

Now, in any Costco in North America, you'd never expect someone to enter the store, buy a bunch of "warehouse sized" items and then carry them home. SUV's and hummers grace the parking lots...waiting to drive home the massive purchases. But, this isn't a Costco in North America...and we don't have a car, and so we carry home our purchases! They even sell "Costco" cloth bags to make the carrying more "fun"! Lets just say 60 pounds of food gets pretty heavy when you have to walk for 50 minutes to get to the subway station, switch from the orange subway line to the green subway line to the blue subway line and then the purple subway line, and then walk 15 minutes from the station to our apartment (Sam had both big Costco bags thrown over his shoulder and would run through each of the stations to try to get to our next train before his arms gave out...I was always trailing him by a few meters...not able to keep up because the heavy backpack kept throwing off my run...it was probably the pickles sloshing around). All in all the trip to Costco took us 8 hours...not 8 minutes like at home...8 hours (we got in at 11 p.m).
You know what? Looking at our full cupboards, I can honestly say - it was worth it :0)

Seoul Grand Park

2006-07-15T22:31:00.000+09:00

Today being Saturday, Sam and I decided that we would embark on our second "weekend adventure" in Korea. We want to try to get out of Osan every weekend and see something cool in Korea. Gives us something to look forward to each week!

This weekend we decided to go to Seould Grand Park, which has a zoo that only costs $1.50 to get into...couldn't pass up a deal like that! Makes for a pretty cheap day!

Most of the zoo was awesome...we saw elephants, tigers, lions (we were there at feeding time), giraffes, snakes, water buffalos, lots of deer and elk-like animals, wolves, pumas, leopards, lots of birds, ostriches, crocodiles, and tons more. We pretty much had the whole zoo to ourselves...probably because it rained ALL day. But that's ok!

This picture was the only sad thing about the zoo, hence the fact that Sam's looking sad in front of one of the monkey cages. This part of the zoo broke my heart. All the monkeys were in little glass cages that were so dirty. They all looked bored out of their minds and pretty sickly. I wish they had been outside at least!

Here's Sam in one of the thatched roof wooden rest areas on the way to the zoo. At this point of the day we thought the rain would be ending soon, and were trying to wait it out under cover. We eventually gave up and just got wet!

Here's me with the giraffes...one of the best animals we saw at the zoo (I thought)!

Here's the sign directing us to the zoo. It was nice that the sign was both Korean and English so we knew which way to walk! Sorry the pictures are out of order...I couldn't figure out how to put them in order on this blog...that'll be next week's project ;0)

Here we are in the "Asian Animals Pavilion"...lots of cool monkeys and crocodiles and snakes in this place. We didn't get many pictures of the two of us, so I wanted to include this one for your viewing pleasure!

Zoo Pictures Continued...

2006-07-15T20:13:00.000+09:00

Ok, I don't know if you can see what's in this picture...but it was pretty graphic for a kid's zoo! This was in the snake pavilion...a nice picture demo of how a snake eats a mouse. Yuck!

After our time at the zoo, and when we were thoroughly drenched (as you can see from Sam's hair)...we found a KFC on our way to the subway, and figured we'd give Korean Chicken a try. We realized that we hadn't had lunch yet (it was 6 p.m)...talk about starving! The food was pretty good...tasted like home :0)

Sam wanted his picture taken with the massive tiger on the way out of the zoo, and wanted the picture title to simply be "No Fear"...need I say more?

The rest of our Apartment Pictures

2006-07-12T12:57:00.000+09:00

Here they are...the long awaited "apartment" pictures :0) We were pleasantly surprised by our apartment...a lot bigger then we thought it would be. We went and visited our friend Nicky in Sanbon, and her apartment was about the size of our washroom in Langley...just enough room for a bed, a toilet, and a shower head!!

This is our Computer / "Walk-in Closet" room. The black and white things behind Sam are our "wardrobes"...no built in closets in Korea...you have to bring them with you when you move.

This is our eating area and living room. The couch is fantastic...brown leather (I don't think it's real leather though). Definitely the nicest couch we've had since we've been married :0) The door way you see to the left goes into our bedroom, and behind where you're looking from is the kitchen.

This is the kitchen area. The thing above the sink (to the left of Sam's head) is a dish dryer. I was really excited when we first saw it because I thought it was a toaster oven, or something similar. I had wonderful thoughts of all the cookies and cakes I would be able to make. After unsuccesfully trying to boil water in it, I realized I should ask before using it again.

And here's our faboulous washroom. No shower curtain...usually no tubs in most Korean houses...ours is a little more Western. The water sprays everywhere and then we just let it dry. Took a little getting used to, but we like it now.

And finally, our bedroom. The massive window to the balcony is really fun...a quick and easy route to the washing machine!

And there you have it! I hope you enjoyed our little tour :0)

Some Interesting Things We've Found

2006-07-11T12:28:00.000+09:00

I know that I've e-mailed some of you with these interesting little tidbits, but wanted to post them so that everyone can see some of the different things we've found out about Korea:

1. We have sen red Nazi swastika hung from many buildings around our neighbourhood. Because we were a little concerned about a possible Neo-Nazi presence in Osan, we asked what the signs were about and found out that they're actually the symbol for Buddhism over here. Huge sigh of relief on that one!
2. The number 4 here means death...for that reason, our building has renamed our fourth floor, Floor F.
3. In Korea, if you write a student's name in red it means you wish they would die (!!). HUGE faux pas the other day when I (Becky) started writing a student's name on the board with my red marker, thinking nothing of it, just wanting to make sure I had the correct spelling. Halfway through I realized what I was doing, grabbed my eraser, and rewrote it in black. Sam just informed me that the other day he wrote ALL of his student's names on the board in red. He realized it right them, but figured the scare might calm them down and make them listen...so mean!!
4. We've noticed that most teenage dating couples here match their clothes to one another. One of the best ones we've seen - both were wearing the same pink and white stripped polo, jean shorts, and matching socks and shoes. Kinda cute, but Sam and I are definitely not going to start doing that!
5. We've been warned that most of the soaps and creams here come with an added bleaching element. We think we know what happened to Michael Jackson...
6. We had to get some pictures taken to hang in the school, and I was slightly stressed by it because I always kinda freeze when I'm getting my picture taken and then I look dazed. Anyways, supposedly every picture that you have taken here is airbrushed before it's returned to you. Saralyn (one of the other teachers at our school) had to get a passport picture taken recently. We all know how bad passport pictures turn out right? She went in with no makeup and messy hair, but when she got the pictures back they were perfect - perfect skin, great makeup, and good hair. Is that legal?

And there you have it...some of the things that have made us laugh!

Gyeongbokgung Palace

2006-07-10T13:19:00.000+09:00

This weekend we decided we wanted to see some of the sights of Seoul. After consulting our "Lonely Planet" book on Korea, we figured it would be fun to check out one of the many old palaces that Seoul has to offer. We settled on Gyeongbokgung - originally built in 1392, but burned down by the Japanese in 1592. Rebuilt in 1868.

This is the front gate entrance to the palace. When we arrived, there was a "changing of the guard" ceremony reenactment going on. Pretty cool - lots of colorful flags and uniforms...the red men behind me are the new guards who had just taken over.

This is the main building of the palace. Inside was beautiful...a throne and tons of decorative pieces around the throne. The ceiling was all painted in bright colours...and in the middle were two gold dragons. Sam and I both wished that we had been the royalty who had lived here!

This is Sam making friends with one of the dragon gargoyle statues. They had tons of statues all over the palace grounds...really beautiful stone work!

Ok, so I was trying to be artistic in this shot. "Sam, go walk through the pillars...it'll look awesome!".

This was my favouroite part of the palace. I guess one of the kings had built this little pavilion on an island so he could go there and relax. It was named "Hyangwonjeong", which means "far reaching fragrance pavilion". We weren't allowed to cross the bridge and get closer...but we wanted to!

After the palace, we went into the Korean Folk Museum that was on the same grounds. When we came out we ran into our friends, Brandon and Rachel, who we had knows at Trinity (how do you accidentally "run into" people in a city this big?). Anyways, they told us about this great street a few blocks over that had tons of street vendors and food carts, etc. It was really cool...a great place for souvenirs and Christmas present ideas to send back home :0) We also got to try a new food selection - bi bim bap. It's basically rice, lettuce, some kind of grass, bean sprouts, something we refer to as "little brown sticks" (no idea what they are), hot sauce, and an egg on top. Sounds weird, but when you mix it all together, it actually tastes pretty good!

Oh, and we didn't get lost on the way home!

Eyelid Surgery

2006-07-10T12:31:00.000+09:00

Ok, this picture deserves a post all its own!
First things first - did you know that "Western" eyelids have a crease in them, whereas "Asian" eyelids don't?
We found out there's a surgery here that is gaining popularity. The surgery actually puts a crease in the eyelid. Appearance is HUGE over here. We're judged on appearance every day...our students make great comments (Sidenote: Sam's comments - "You look like David Beckham", "You are so strong"; Becky's comments - "You are so tall", "You have a pinnochio nose").
We walked by a store that actually offered the surgery...check out the pictures that were hanging in the window.

SOME Pictures of our Place

2006-07-10T10:43:00.000+09:00

This is our apartment building. We live on the 12th floor. The hut at the bottom is the guard hut. Note: the guards here are some of the oldest, most frail looking men that I have ever seen. Warm, safe feelings when we see them? No! But, they look like nice Grandpas, and we're trying to work up the nerve to say "Anyeong Haseyo" ("hello") to them.

This is the view from our front door. The walkway to our apartment is open-air, so we get a nice view of our surroundings every time we leave the house. It's been cloudy, like in this picture, almost every day (except 2) that we've been here. We're told it's because it's "monsoon" season (rainy season)...the humidity is crazy!

This is what it looks like on our balcony on laundry day...I was trying to look Asian by doing the "squat sit" and making the victory sign.

We'll post more pictures of our apartment soon. Today wasn't a good day to take them...Sam's hard at work with lesson prep, and I'm still in my pajamas. Coming soon...