Everland

After making plans with Katie the week before, we decided to spend Saturday night at her place so we could catch the bus early the next morning. We spent the night playing Wii, and proving that we are smarter than 5th graders. The next morning we met Angelina and Katelyn in Cheolsan, where the bus was waiting at a seemingly random spot outside a Burger King. It was a cute pink bus with curtains inside, pretty much typically Korean. The ride took about an hour and a half, with some crazy traffic (and driving!) on the way. Our bus driver decided at some point that it would be ok to change lanes into the oncoming traffic lane, to pass the traffic jam. Oh, and did we mention it was at the top of a winding mountain? Fun. Fortunately most of us slept through it. We paid once we arrived, and took pictures of our bus stop to make sure we would remember where to catch it again.

It was about 35$ to get in, and the outside was very castle-ish, what amusement parks should be like. There were flowers everywhere, and false buildings with country scenes and castles painted on them. It was Tulip Festival time, hence the flowers. We started off with some funny shops and the only sunglasses we've seen that Koreans actually buy, and caught a picture of Fake Mickey and Minnie Mouse. We're not really sure what animals they are supposed to be.

Our first ride was a spinney one, very much like Psyclone at Canada's Wonderland. Sam was apprehensive about his ride reaction, and countered this with some gravol. Perhaps not the best idea, which we realized once he started dozing off in the next couple lines. After "Psyclone," we headed for snacks, and spent some time chasing a wonderful Korean mullet/rattail with our camera's. Secretly of course, but Angelina insisted. Chloe loves pretzels, but Korean pretzels are stuffed with this really icky sweet white cheese. She keeps trying them though, and this time was no different.

Next was the Santa Maria, same as the Rage at Wonderland. Sam decided to have some ice cream and wait it out. We noticed some more Korean couple stuff; the matching outfits we've gotten used to, but this time we saw some impressive dedication. The wait in line was about half an hour, and a girlfriend made her boyfriend hold the park map above her head to shade her from the sun. Half an hour with his arm above her head.

The next ride was similar to another Canada's Wonderland ride, the Riptide. Sam and Chloe didn't feel like getting wet, so they stopped in a nearby restaurant for drinks. There were fake jukeboxes, which we poked at until we were sure they didn't work. Then another spinney ride, and on to the T Money Express, a wooden roller coaster which apparently has the steepest drop. Sam had a nap while we waited, and Chloe can't really say it was her favourite ride ever. After the ride, we stopped by the gift shop so Angelina could buy an adult size leopard pajama set for her school's PJ day, and Katie bought those animal ears that everyone was wearing.

Later in the day we walked to a food court type area, decorated with thousands of flowers, especially tulips. We ate a quick lunch, and headed to the zoo. That was Chloe's favourite park of the day, and Sam was perking up by that point. There were tiny little baby monkeys, so cute! Chimps and gorilla's and those funny ones with the red bums. There were lemurs leaping around, and a GIANT turtle, talking parrots, and weird animals to have at the zoo, like gophers. Oh, and there were tigers! We finally got to see a white tiger.

Our last stop on our way out was the gift shop, which delayed us for longer than usual when we found the toys. They had John Deere tractors! Then we caught the bus, rode to Cheolsan, and took a taxi home. Long day, but worth it. Everland, check!

Cherry Blossoms

After having heard so much about it, and seeing beautiful cherry blossoms blooming all over Ansan, Chloe and Sam decided to attend the Cherry Blossom Festival in Seoul. Korea is in mourning because of the sunken ship, so there was no festival with concerts and fireworks and airbrushed tattoo's and all that, but you'll still find trees blooming and millions of people around.

Yeouido is kind of hard to get to, but we did get to try the new express train, AND we found a sandwich shop when we arrived (FINALLY!). Chloe spotted the free shuttle bus, which took them to the 63 building, a very well known gold building that glows brilliantly during sunset and sunrise. We didn't see much going on, but we tried to explore. Our exploration ended rather abruptly when we found we weren't in a cherry blossom expo, but rather a gynecologists conference, AH! Back downstairs, we did find the wax museum and aquarium, but it was crazy busy so we avoided it.

On to the cherry blossoms! We walked to the Han river, passing under a bridge where Sam was

convinced he saw trolls. Well, think about it. They were living under a bridge, collecting things (garbage) near the big gold building. It just makes sense. We narrowly avoided being hit by tandem bikes as we crossed the path to the waterside. We found KFC on a boat! Really strange. You could also rent jet skis, and go on a cherry boat ride. Afterwards, we headed back to the walkway so Chloe could take, oh, about a million pictures of cherry trees. We checked out the vendors, and turned right back around when we hit the crowds and the bug sellers. Oh, speaking of vendors, they get creative sometimes. One guy was selling food off the back of his motorcycle!

We were feeling pretty hungry at this point, so we headed back to the sandwich shop we'd spotted by the subway station. It was a little french place, and had everything from club sandwiches to camembert panini's *mouth watering*! It was expensive, of course, but definitely worth it. Haha, and by expensive, we mean the same price as in Canada, or slightly cheaper. *sigh* Korean food is so cheap.

We took a slightly different route home, and ran into Katie and her friends. It's really weird how often we run into people we know, considering how many people live in Seoul. We made plans to go to Everland next weekend, which is touted as the best amusement park in Korea. So, while the Cherry Blossom Festival may not have been in full swing this year, we certainly enjoyed ourselves!

Beautiful trees!

KFC on the water.

Jetskis.

Cotton candy on a motorcycle.

And the usual, bugs to eat.

James Bond

Finally, an excuse to wear one of those suits I've

had made. For their seventh anni- versary, the Manhattan threw a 007-themed birthday party. And like all great seventh birthday parties, this one had half-priced martinis! So off we went in our finest British spy-wear to celebrate You Only Live Twice style.

Our first order of business was introducing our Korean friend Daniel to Vodka Martinis. He took one sip, declared "that was gross," then promptly finished it and ordered three more. Later on, he had to fend off his own Bond villain, a young woman who had obviously had a few martinis of her own.

Shortly after arriving, I was dragged behind the bar for a contest, the details of which I'm still not sure about as the instructions were in Korean. Despite the facts that 1. I had no idea what was going on, and 2. I was wearing a clip-on bow-tie (NOTE: no one in Korea has heard of a real bow-tie, they don't exist here), I apparently won a 50,000 won gift certificate! Unfortunately, we bought three rounds of shots before we realized that we couldn't use the gift certificates that night. Oops!

Gomungo

One of Jade's students had a friend who plays traditional Korean music on a traditional instrument, called the gomungo. She invited Jade, Chloe, and Sam to come and see it, so we spent another Saturday heading to Seoul, specifically the traditional village at Chungmuro. It took awhile to find it based on the directions, but Chloe has a knack for finding hidden places. We met Hannah outside the theatre, and she not only bought our tickets, but also a CD of her friends music. Before we sat down in the theatre though, Sam and Chloe spent some time scouting out these little dwarf fairies they had hidden all over the place as decorations, taking pictures. Hehe.

We had really good seats in the front, and the stage was fairly plain, adorned only with a couple instruments and a screen which played pictures of beautiful traditional paintings and Korean scripts. Obviously we missed most of the story. The show started with the gomungo, a flute, and traditional Korean drums. There were four parts which included a keyboard player, and also this weird instrument which we are convinced is some kind of magical rock. Jade says it's a kind of bamboo flute, but we have doubts. It was a fantastic performance, even though we didn't understand a lot of it.

Afterwards, we went out for dinner in Itaewon, something a bit more simple: burgers! There is a popular chain in Korea called Kraze Burgers (which Chloe pronounces as "craze", but everyone else pronounces as "crazy") which makes huge delicious burgers. You can get really weird things added to them too, like a fried egg and avocado. Mmmmmm, this is making me hungry! That about wraps up our "traditional" Korean weekend.

Road Trip!

Having had

his wanderlust stirred by the voyage to Soraksan,

Regan was eager to see more of Korea by car. Thus, on Tuesday, he and I set out to parts unknown. After braving such hazards as treacherous road-side ditches, ridiculous road

signs and a Korean War-era tank, we found our way to a secluded "beach." We then continued south-ish, intending to see all that the countryside had to offer. However, after about an hour of driving, we instead decided to stop at one of the most incredible rest-stops anyone has ever seen. Located halfway across a giant bridge, and accessible only by a 450° descending ramp, this monster had like a hundred restaurant booths, each represented by a different animal cartoon. Regan bought a sandwich from a cartoon pig, and I of course got a hot dog covered in batter covered in french fries. Awesome. I washed it down with a ginseng drink that had three inches of actual ginseng root IN THE BOTTLE. I still don't know if it was delicious or not.

Seoraksan

This morning, Regan, Chloe and I left on our adventure to the Eastern Sea (what the rest of the world calls the Sea of Japan). In order to beat the notoriously bad Seoul traffic, we left at 4:00 am. It wasn't early enough. We arrived at Chunchon (a trip that should have taken about two hours) at around noon. We stopped at this small, lakeside town for sight seeing (giant lady statue) and watched a truck "plough" a driveway for ten fascinating minutes. We then stopped for lunch at a small cafe, grabbed some snacks at a convenience store, and headed out on the road to Sokcho.

The ride through the mountains was amazing. Not only were the roads mountainous and narrow, not only was our map a year old (apparently a lot can happen to Korean roads in a year), not only did we have to deal with some "interesting" drivers, but it was during a full on blizzard. We stopped for a ten minute break at the top of the mountain, and when we got back to the car it was covered with a foot of snow. Blizzard. But we arrived safely at our destination, with no casualties. Except for the glasses Regan left at the small cafe in Chunchon.*

We then began checking out hotels:

#1. Shaped like a castle

#2. Shaped like a boat

#3. Shaped like a nice hotel.

We chose #3.

The Maremons was a very nice hotel that was probably very expensive in the summer. In February, however, we got an upper-level, beach-view room for about the price of a decent motel back home. Forget the fact that the "beach" in our "beach-view" was covered with a foot-and-a-half of snow, it was terrific. We then headed over to-

Oh wait, before that, on our way to the Castle hotel we ran into some car trouble. After heisting a blizzard in the mountains, we somehow ran over a nail in a perfectly flat road and had to deal with a punctured tire. Regan got us over to a gas station, communicated the problem to the mechanic, and got the tire fixed and inflated for like three dollars. He actually tried to haggle the price up, he felt that bad. The whole thing set us back like twenty minutes.

So we headed over to E Mart for groceries, and while we were there, grabbed a food court dinner. Food courts work differently here. You order your food by number at a central desk, then pick up your food from the corresponding restaurant when your order is up. Amazingly, we all got exactly what we expected. After that, we returned to the hotel where we watched Korean TV until calling it an early night.

We awoke the next morning just in time to catch the sunrise over the "Eastern Sea." Had the beach been white with sand instead of snow, it would have been even nicer. We then set out bright and early (again) to beat the traffic on the way to Seoraksan mountain. We didn't (again). But once we were there, we entered a winter wonderland, covered with about four feet of snow. We took a cable car up to the peak, and I made it my personal mission to climb past the farthest footprints (speed, balance, agility…). I conquered the mountain, but was in turn conquered by its snow. We then slid halfway back down the mountain to ginned a secluded temple, and somehow trudged our way back up again. We took the cable car back down, and had a traditional Korean lunch of rice, soup and fried baloney sandwiches (God dammit, Regan).

UPDATE: Regan made a special trip back there a few days later. The glasses were exactly where he left them. Korea is the safest place in the world to lose your glasses.

Before moving to Korea...

If any of you decide to come work in Korea, make sure you talk to us first. There are a lot of complicated things you need to get done, and your recruiter might not be as useful as they should be.

Before you leave, you have to get your diploma, a copy of your diploma, at least 2 transcripts, a criminal record check, a copy of your criminal record check, a health form, aaaaaaaand then make sure you have it all notarized by a lawyer (even if it's already been notarized by the police station first). All this before you even start packing.

Once in Korea, you need to make sure you have enough money for at least a month and a half. You'll be getting paid monthly, and it'll take your school awhile to get things set up. You also need to get a bank account into which you will be putting said salary. You'll need a Korean for that (trust me, it makes it a LOT easier if someone can translate). We do NOT suggest Citibank; Chloe thought it would be easier, considering it's an international bank, but she's got more restrictions on her account than Sam does with his Korean account. You only need your passport for this, not your alien card.

Then you'll need to go to the hospital and get a medical check up. Again, you'll probably need a Korean for this, because the nurses generally don't speak English. Then you'll have to wait a ridiculous amount of time for the results to come in, and take those results to immigration to get your alien card. If you're lucky, your school will do it for you, or at least send someone with you to find the immigration office. While you are there, you might as well apply for a multiple entry Visa, so you can leave the country if you get a vacation. Your contract should offer 50/50 health insurance, but you'll probably want to get a card for that. Sometimes you'll have to put money into it, roughly 70$ a month, and your company will match it. And some schools will want your diploma (your original diploma) to register you with the Ministry of Education, so don't leave it at home like Chloe did. You may have had to pay for your flight to Korea, so make sure to get your money back from your company.

Then you'll want internet- this needs an alien card so you'll have to wait until you get that. Again, your company should probably order it for you, and if it's possible, have a Korean wait with you until the installer comes. Trust us, it's really difficult trying to explain things to someone when you don't speak any Korean besides "hello" and "thank you".

It'll take roughly two months for you to get settled, and get everything done. It's definitely stressful, and you'll also be dealing with a lot of culture shock and homesickness. One of the first things you should do when exploring is finding some kind of western restaurant, so you've got some comfort food when you need it. Don't get us wrong, Korean food is delicious, but some days you just want something familiar.

But after all this, you can finally start enjoying yourself! And after this long boring post, here's a fun picture of a Bobot.

We love Korea!