Bad Day

Chloe: Had my first bad day today. I have two 1.5 hour classes at night, and for one of those classes the students don't like to use the book. Which means I have to spend all of my time making up lesson plans. I started the class with two awesome students who speak excellent english, and all of a sudden, my class expanded to seven, of differing levels. I spent 5 hours today creating what I thought would be an amazing lesson, which completely bombed in class. They were not interested, half of them didn't understand it, and they pretty much just refused to talk. Fantastic. I tried the book, I tried games, I tried thinking up interesting topics about their own lives to get them talking. Nothing. Oh, and one student thought it would be a good idea to explain that my backpack (a slim laptop backpack) was really unattractive and too big to be carrying around, unless I planned on going hiking. Koreans are really particular about fashion, even bags. No one carries around REAL backpacks, unless of course they are going hiking.

Goodbye Chris!

For Sam's first week, he shadowed the old teacher (Chris) at his school, and their colleagues decided to plan a going away party. They're very sweet, and invited Chloe along. We went out for Chinese, which is very different from Chinese in Canada. For one thing, they had a lot of different courses. We started with salad, then crab soup, then chili shrimp, then sweet and sour chicken, then noodles with this really cool twisted bread that you unwrap and roll your noodles in, and finally, a big bowl of soup.

Erica and Karen are the two Korean teachers, and they seemed really sweet. Jane is the boss, and is always busy on her cell phone, but also really friendly. Afterwards, and because class didn't start for awhile, Chris took us on a short tour around the area. There was a small hill with Korean gazebo's, a couple of courts for tennis, badminton, and basketball, as well as an outdoor gym. Those are found everywhere here, though I've never seen them in use.

When we got back to the school, Karen invited Chloe to stay and make Dok Bok Gi with the students. Dok, or rice cake, is hard to describe, almost like gnocchi, but shaped like a non-hollow penne. You mix a bunch of veggies with sugar and that spicy Korean sauce, dropping in the dok at the end. While the food was cooking, the kids were playing some hilarious games. After the dok, the kids helped make peanut butter sandwiches. When Chloe headed home, leaving Sam at their mercy, Sam found out that the PBJ sandwiches had an additional ingredient: ham. Later in the week, they added cheese!

Chinese restaurant with delicious food!

Outdoor gym.

Making dok bok gi.

Seemingly normal PBJ sandwiches.

Seesaw Party

Chloe: I recently attended my first Christmas party in Korea. Not sure what to expect, I joined the other teachers at the front desk when our boss came to pick us up. He seemed nice enough, didn't speak any English, but that seems to be normal with large hagwons. We all jumped into his SUV, and drove to Anyang. I wish I had known the area better; turns out, this restaurant was really close to the boulevard along which Sam walks towards the subway. However, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been allowed to invite him anyway.

So, back to the restaurant. Something which I've come to learn since I've been in Korea is the drinking culture. If your boss invites you to "dinner" (read: drinking) you go. If your boss asks you to drink a shot of soju, you do so. Again and again until you black out if need be. Eesh. Fortunately, I'm a girl, and girls aren't under the same pressure. (And fortunately, Sam's boss is a woman, so he doesn't have to worry about it). Anyway, we had a delicious Korean BBQ dinner, with beef, garlic, a kind of mini omelette, soup, rice, kimchi, and probably five other side dishes I don't remember. We drank a lot of soju (like a Korean sake) and beer. And then we left.

On the way out, I was thinking about how we would get home, taxi, subway, would our boss drive us back? But we weren't done. Koreans like to do things in rounds, usually 3. Round two was a different restaurant, with more food. I really have to learn not to eat so much during round 1, but you never know if you'll be finished after your first meal, or eating twice more! We all crowded into the loft of a restaurant, sitting on the floor, faced with frying pans of cow's intestines, liver, and some prickly stomach lining. I tried all of it (you can't have an opinion unless you try it!) and vow never to do so again. Ick.

But it was enjoyable, and I got to know my fellow colleagues a bit better. We also got to see one of the Anyang teacher propose to one of the Ansan teachers (they'd never met before). I think she agreed to date him for one year before answering his proposals, haha.

Quick note: If you're wondering about the title, Seesaw is the name of my school.

Baekse Soju (spelling is probably off- 100 year soju).

The lovely desk ladies, Hari and Yui.

Fried intestines...

Raw liver and stomach lining.

Beomgye boulevard during the Christmas season.

Boxing Day

We've established a second tradition: Lego Day. No one really wants to go out on Boxing Day; no matter how good the sales are, the stress levels are just too high! And so, a day spent at home creating Lego masterpieces.

Sam wanted a specific castle that was proving difficult to find, so we spent the morning shopping the local department stores- Lotte Mart and Home Plus. Failing in our search, Sam found the Korean Toys R Us headquarters online, and we hopped on the subway. It was a really nice day, snowy but bright, and we had some fun finding our way there. Once we arrived, it was like jumping into a kids playroom! We bought some board games (Korean Settlers of Catan!), spent a lot of time in the Lego area, and checked out the video games. To make life even easier, we got delicious cheap pizza on our way home.

It was a pretty fun day. Adventures, kids toys, pizza, and Lego!

Happy Lego Day!

The aforementioned lego!

A cute Hello Kitty toaster at Lotte Mart.

Home Plus is always busy!

The love dried fish here. Can you see the flattened squid?

The most wonderful place ever.

Gundam.

5$ for a pizza!

Christmas in Korea

One of the first things Chloe did when she got here was to find a mini Christmas tree and decorate the apartment. And so, Christmas morning, Sam and Chloe woke up to a glimmering Christmas tree with some little presents from home, and ONE big one. Can anyone guess? Lego of course! Yes, Sam managed to find it at the local Lotte Mart, and Chloe snuck back there later to buy it for his Christmas present. Sam surprised Chloe with a cake his principal had given them, and they began a new trend: Christmas breakfast cake eaten with chopsticks. We know, strange, and at first we couldn't understand why Koreans wouldn't use a fork for cake, but like anything, you get used to it.

Our plan for Christmas day was quite a busy one. Chloe wanted to show Sam a few popular tourist sites, so they headed to Gyeongbokgung, a HUGE royal palace located near Insa-Dong. It was a bit rainy, instead of snowy, and so when we arrived we decided on food instead of exploring. Mmm, cheap Korean stir fry! We explored Insa-Dong a bit, an area which is famous for being traditionally Korean. Chloe later learned that you cannot use English on any of the signs in that area- even Starbucks is written in Korean! We found an ad for Superwoman on floor 2F, about a hundred wine bottles decorating the outside of a restaurant, and a robot pointing at... well, we're not really sure. We didn't stay in the area long; being Christmas season, it was packed. We headed back to the Palace, but instead of wandering around inside (which is still outside) we decided to explore the (free) museum.

Our next stop: Bucheon! Before we came to Korea we researched a few things online, and found a fabulous site whose main purpose seemed to be helping foreigners adjust to Korean life. They talked a lot about the food, and made a video about Chicky Pub in Bucheon. Since it's not easy to get a proper Christmas dinner (chicken/turkey) in Korea, Sam thought we might try finding Chicky Pub. It was quite a long subway ride, but definitely worth it. We're fairly certain we got an entire fried chicken, not just a few pieces of one. We had to take most of it to go!

And on to our last destination: Namsan Tower. It's known as a very romantic spot, and we thought it would be a fitting end to our Christmas day. Picture the CN tower on a small mountain, overlooking the city of Seoul. They even have a revolving restaurant! The most interesting part are the locks. Couple visit this spot, and take (or buy) a lock that they've written their names on (the same kind you find in highschools). They lock them onto the fences surrounding the area, and we think it's supposed to be a kind of good luck for the couples, like carving your initials into a tree. It started to snow while we were looking down at the city of Seoul, very romantic. And on the way down, we definitely giggled at the girls in high heels trying to make it down the hill, clinging to their boyfriends for dear li

fe. They also use umbrella's in the snow, which we've never seen in Canada.

So that was Christmas in Korea. Tomorrow, we're changing Boxing Day to Lego Day :)

Our Charlie Brown tree.

Christmas Cake.

It's true.

A view of Insa Dong.

Superwoman, Floor 2F.

Chicky Pub! Most delicious chicken in Bucheon.

French fries with honey mustard, ketchup and chili sauce!

Locks at Namsan Tower.

Couple bench! Do I need to explain how it works?

Umbrella's in the snow.

Sam's First Day

Sam: After a week of intense preparation (read:

sleeping until twelve) it was finally time for me to start my job at AB Academy. And, despite the fact that I still hadn't heard from my employer and had no idea where to find her, I was excited and ready to start. Sure enough, I received a message from her a full three hours before work, leaving me plenty of time to hop on the subway with Chloe for the hour-long trip. In fact, we got to the station early, and had some time to scout the area for places of interest, seeing as how I would be working in the area. Unfortunately, it turned out that although this was the closest subway station, it was still about a ten-minute drive away from my school.

After meeting Jane and driving to the school, I met my two Korean co-teachers (Erica and Karen), as well as the English teacher whom I would be shadowing for a week before replacing (Chris). Chris was possibly the most boring person I have ever met. It was like meeting a wet towel. Also, after a year of teaching English to children, he had omitted all pronouns, adverbs and prepositions from his vocabulary. For instance: "Chris much tired. Many days little sleep." Even when speaking to me. It was terrible. So for the first few days, I sat at the back of the classroom and watched Chris wallow his way through two hundred screaming children. It was like that scene in Wrath of Khan when the worm things burrow in to Chekov's head. Only way longer.

Later that week, Karen made grilled PB and J sandwiches. At least, I assumed they were PB and J. They turned out to be PB and J and H, where H = ham. It was weird. Later on, she offered me another. When I said "no thank you, I don't really like ham," she replied "don't worry, this one doesn't have any ham in it." Excitedly, I bit into the sandwich, only to discover it was a PB and J and C, where C = cheese. Korea!

One final note on teaching Korean children. Korean children LOVE Uno. They will do anything to play it, even (God forbid) their homework. Their favourite part of the game seems to be screaming "One Card!" This leads, of course, to a rock-paper-scissors between the child with one card and everybody else. It is, therefore, almost impossible to get down to one card. So the game can go on forever.

Exploring Seoul

We are starting to get used to our surroundings, and have started to explore Seoul a bit more. It's a long subway ride, roughly 1 hour, but fairly cheap (a round trip costs less than a one way in Toronto). We decided to brave the weather (it's pretty cold here, we didn't expect that!) and head to Yongsan market. Sam is keen on buying another flatscreen TV, as we obviously couldn't bring his along from Canada. Yongsan market is the electronics market, a huge building with roughly 7 floors. First floor is camera's, second floor is computers, third floor is TVs, etc etc etc. It's quite interesting to walk in and have multiple vendors shouting at you in broken English, "Hello! Camera? You need camera?!" We explored the different floors, and found out that TVs are not at all cheaper in Korea, as we assumed they would be. We also found a tiny little pet store, with tiny little puppies! It makes sense that the dogs are so small here, considering the apartments are so small. Actually, we haven't seen anything that wouldn't fit into a purse. Sam won't let Chloe get one :p. We also found a little music section, and priced some saxophones as Sam used to play in high school, and Chloe is dying to hear it! Anyone want to chip in? ^^

After our trip through Yongsan, we traveled to Gwangmyeong for dinner with Chloe's friend, Katie. We picked her and her co-worker up at their hagwon (private school) and walked to a nearby restaurant for Shabu Shabu. Mmmm, delicious. Picture a big bowl of broth on a burner in the middle of the table. They heat it up and toss in a bunch of veggies, thin slices of beef, anything you want really. Halfway through, they add dumplings (mandu) and noodles. And at the end when you only have bit of broth left, you add rice. Koreans do love their rice.

After dinner we decided to check out the night scene in Hongdae. It's a university area in Seoul, and really popular for drinking and dancing. We started at Ho Bar III with a "set." Firstly, the bar names aren't always creative- they have Ho bar I, II, all the way until XIII I think. Same happens with Goldrush I, II (you get the idea). Secondly, a "set" is kind of like the "meal" you would order at McDonalds. Instead of buying one drink each, you buy an entire bottle of vodka, or rum, or whatever you want. It comes with little side dishes, like peanut snacks, and a plate of fruit, and a couple kinds of mixes. It's a good deal when you split it with friends. And afterwards we went dancing. The cab ride home seemed expensive, but again, not compared to Toronto taxi's.

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing; we met Chloe's co-worker and his girlfriend in the foreigner's district, Itaewon, and ate Mexican food. Itaewon is a good place to try different foods from all over the world. They even have a Canadian bar that serves poutine! It started to snow this weekend too, but snow rarely stays on the ground for more than a day. We were really amused by the Koreans sweeping up the snow with these funny neon green brooms. One department store, a centimetre of snow, and 8 people with these small brooms sweeping it clear. Customer service is clearly important.

Gundam at Yongsan.

Tiny little puppy!

Expensive (but pretty) saxophones.

Shabu Shabu.

Shabu Shabu after rice is added.

One of the Ho Bars.

Nice lights.

Fruit plate!

Costco

When we first moved here, with all the culture shock, we were really dying for north american foods. Fortunately our friend Katie had a hookup: Costco! We met her during Chloe's break, and headed to Yeongdeungpo station. It was about an hour by subway, an another 10 minute walk. And freezing cold today!

As we shopped, we noticed it was pretty much the same as home, with a few Korean products added. Mainly the giant giant containers

of that gochujang (Korean spicy sauce) and soy sauce. Also, weird fish, everywhere. The size of everything was a bit of an issue- we aren't a family of 5. We found ketchup, but we didn't need four huge bottles of it. We found laundry detergent, but we didn't need a gallon of it. We found hotdog buns, but we didn't need 20 of them (strange thing, you can find hotdogs, but not hotdog buns at the grocery stores). We found bacon, but we didn't need... well, ok, we needed bacon.

We bought a printer, so Chloe could print out her lesson plans. We bought pillows, North American size (damn those teeny tiny Korean ones!). We bought chips, because Sam gets really frustrated with Korean chips- they're really sweet, and not salty, it's odd. We bought

cheddar cheese because we can't find it anywhere else.

We ate lunch there too, these weird sandwich wrap things. It took awhile to get a table, and Koreans are really pushy, so our politeness lost us some time. It was a bit difficult to get these things home- the printer and those pillows alone were bulky enough, and we had to squish into the subway for an hour long ride home. But we managed, and were much happier for it. As soon as we get our alien cards, we're signing up!

Norebang

Chloe: My first week at school is going well, and Sam and I were invited to dinner with my co-workers. It's an interesting group of people; one native English teacher from South Africa (Jade), two Korean English teachers (Michelle and Daniel) and the front desk girls who don't know much English at all (Sunny, Yui, and Hari). But everyone is really really friendly! They took us to a chicken place (I can never remember the Korean name, it starts with a D) for dinner. Chicken in an interesting soy sauce sauce over noodles, and let me tell you, saucy noodles are ridiculously hard to eat with chopsticks!!! We were also introduced to Soju, a Korean rice wine, again and again.

And as Koreans like to do things in rounds, our next stop was the Norebang! Norebangs are hugely popular in Korea, you can find them everywhere. You rent a room for an hour or two (or three of four if you want) and sing Karaoke with your friends. There are couches, two microphones, and sometimes instruments like tambourines. There is a TV with the lyrics, but also completely random music video's that never have anything to do with the actual song. Disco lights too! You can order beer (which is necessary if you want me to sing) and lots of different snacks. One of our favourite things about pub food so far is that it usually includes fruit. Another awesome thing is the fact that Daniel loves to sing, sorry, rap, Eminem. Jade went to school for music, so he's a good vocalist, and Sam, well, he's got an amazing voice. The Korean girls kept choosing Korean pop songs, which was funny to hear. It was a pretty great night!

Front foyer of the Norebang.

Decorations inside.

Snacks.

Smoked salmon, fruit, potato skins, shrimp

tempura, and chicken wings.

Pictures of Ansan