Small Town Girl's Adventure Living Abroad

Summer Vacation

2009-08-19T06:55:00.001-07:00

Oldest astronomical observatory in Asia

Lotus Flowers

My room at the guesthouse

Hangover Soup

Bulguska Temple

Outside the Grotto

Roof tiles with messages from around the world

My instructor with my final product

Ok, I'm just going to force myself to write an entire post with the highlights of my summer vacation. After taking in the fireworks festival in Pohang, my friends and I departed. They returned to Seoul and I continued on the rest of my journey by myself. I have to say that there is something amazingly exhilarating about travelling by yourself. It also makes for some hilarious experiences.

The next leg of my journey led me to Gyeongju. The city's motto is, "An Open Air Museum." It turned out this is pretty true. There were royal tombs that dated back to 600 BC. These tombs are the final resting place of the royalty of the Silla dynasty-the first ruler of Korea many, many years ago. The tombs were rather beautiful. They looked like giant hills but they were so simple and green.

Royal Tombs in Tumuli Park Anjapi Pond

I saw the oldest observatory in Asia. The Anapji Ponds were also a stop on the journey. I read my book and watched the sunset fall over this beautiful garden that used to be the vacation get away for the royalty of the Silla dynasty. After walking through many of the beautiful gardens, I decided to call it a night and head to my accommodation.

I stayed at an amazing traditional Korean guesthouse. By traditional Korean, they mean sleeping on the floor in a small room. The doors were made of thin pieces of wood covered in oiled paper. It had been updated to the extent that there was a bathroom and electricity. The hosts of the guest house were an older couple that loved hosting travelers. They provided breakfast each morning, sat around the campfire with us at night and made traditional crafts. It was a great experience! I've come to almost enjoy sleeping on the floor! I paid 60,000 won for 3 nights (around $45-$50).

My second day I sat out to explore some of the religious sights. I left the guesthouse in search of some breakfast. Gyeongju is a fairly small town and hasn't been tainted too much with the desire to become "Western." I was wandering down the street and this little, old halmoney (Korean grandmother) took my hand and led me into her restaurant. I figured what the heck I'll give it a go. There were 3 items on the menu so I asked her in my very, very broken Korean which one was delicious and of course she pointed to the most expensive one. By expensive I mean 5,000 won ($3.00). I told her okay and she got my meal started. I started reading the Korean characters and recognized the word soup. I thought, "Okay, fair enough. Soup isn't my choice for breakfast but Koreans love it so it must be good." Then it occurred to me that the travel brochure said that Gyeongju is famous for their "Hangover Soup" street. I began to get an uneasy feeling so I broke out my guide book and sounded out the Korean for the meal that had just been presented to me. Sure enough, my breakfast of champions was you guessed it, Hangover Soup. It might not sound so bad but here's the ingredients, pork spine, coagulated blood and some vegetables. I ate the broth and vegetables which were pretty decent but then the halmoney came over and showed me how to pick the meat of the spine. I tried it but the texture of this stuff was just not right. I ate my rice and while she was outside sweeping the sidewalk, I stuffed all of the pork spine under one of the side dishes, so it looked like I had eaten more than I actually did and walked outside and presented her with the money. She was really adorable and I didn't want to hurt her feelings.

(Side note-the formatting for this blog is really irritating me so I'm going to upload all of the photos to the top of the blog and put captions on them. My patience is running thin).

I then took a bus up to Bulguska Temple which is a Buddhist temple that was built in 751 BC and was destroyed during the Japanese invasions of the 1500's. It has restored been restored to its original glory. There are many Buddhist relics and many, many giant Buddha statues. Unfortunately, you are only allowed to take pictures of the buildings. The temple sits way up in the mountains and the drive/hike up is very beautiful and scenic. It almost made me feel like I was back home in the Colorado mountains. This temple is the UNESCO list of world heritage sites.

I took a bus to the Seokguram Grotto which is a giant Buddha statue that was carved out of marble. It was very beautiful but once again no pictures were allowed. Here's the Wikipedia article about it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seokguram As you leave the temple, you can purchase traditional roof, shingles and leave a message for Korea or for other visitors. It was very cool to see all of the visitors' messages from around the world.

I had read that you could take hot air balloon rides so I set out on a quest to find the air balloon. I could see it floating off in the distance so I decided to just walk towards it. Well the short story is, I walked for 3 1/2 hours and never got to ride the air balloon. Sad day. Those things sure look closer than they really are in real life.

On my 3 1/2 hour walk, I found a "Place for Traditional Korean Paper Making." I thought, "Awesome. I get to make some paper"...wrong. I got to make something out of traditional paper. It was a good experience though. The little, old lady that helped me didn't speak any English so there were lots of hand motions and the use of my horrible Korean. She laughed at me quite a bit so I don't think she was too impressed with my artistic ability. Oh well, I've always known it is non-existent.

I took the bus back down the mountain and I must have caught the last bus of the evening because there really wasn't room for me on it but they still let me get on. I had to stand in the front window next to the bus driver. I can't say that it's a moment I felt very safe but it was an adventure nonetheless.

I'll try to get the rest of the trip up very soon. I know I've been slacking lately. I promise there are many more hilarious stories to be told. Oh, and as always you can check out my pictures on my Picasa album. http://picasaweb.google.com/christinestroup Peace!

Pohang Fireworks Festival

2009-07-31T07:50:00.000-07:00

One of my goals I had when I came to Korea was to see fireworks here. Two friends and I traveled to the Pohang Fireworks Festival to kick off our summer vacation. We flew to Pohang from Seoul. The flight was only 1 hour and it only cost us around $50.00.

We knew the trip was going to be eventful when we discovered 10 minutes prior to boarding that my friend had thrown away her boarding pass. This is not a big deal in Korea. The just issued her a new one no questions asked and we were on our way. Domestic flights in Korea are pretty relaxed. There's no liquid restriction in carry on luggage and I made it on the plane with a razor.

We arrived and asked a cab to take us to a love hotel near the fireworks festival. He didn't understand the word fireworks and none of us know the Korean word so we showed him a picture and 2 of his cab driver friends helped clarify. They started making a sound like "Pop, pop!"

We went rode into town and the roads near the festival were closed off. The cab driver drove up to a volunteer who was manning the barrier and told him, "I have foreigners in my car that need help finding a hotel can I drive through?" The volunteer let us through so we were the only people in a car on this strip of the street. I tell ya being a foreigner here has its perks sometimes.

We went to check into a hotel and the man was really excited to have us there. He started yelling at his middle school aged son to speak English to us but his son refused. It was pretty funny because the dad was really angry at the kid.

We then set out to find a cheap t-shirt. One of my friends that came with me, had just returned from Malaysia and didn't have any clean clothes. We went to the Lotte Department store and things were grossly over priced. There were a group of policeman who were dancing and eating kimbap on the street so we decided to ask them were to find a cheap t-shirt.

My friend asked them in English first but none of them responded so she resorted to the Korean she knows (cheap, t-shirt, where). She rambled about Lotte not being cheap and finally the police officer interrupted her with, "Excuse me, do you speak English?" This is by far my favorite quote of the trip. I guess he didn't like the butchering she was doing in Korean. He then advised us to go to the traditional market to find the shirt. We wandered over there and found a t-shirt for 3,000 ($2.00). They even had t-shirts from the Athens Olympic games although I doubt that they are authentic. We headed back to our hotel only to discover that my friend had left the shirt in the cab.

We tried to buy a shirt from the volunteers at the festival but they didn't understand what we wanted and it ended up being a big photo shoot. We had to take pictures with lots of volunteers and children. I really have no idea what was going on.

The search for a t-shirt left us hungry so we decided to get something to eat and were enticed by a whole pig that was being roasted on the side of the street. It was absolutely delicious but midway through the meal we saw his brother hanging on the pole covered in black trash bags ready to be thrown on the fire next. Sad day. See picture above. If you look closely, you can see one of its hooves.

We were now ready to enjoy the fireworks. They were amazing! They were all set to music and were lit off over the ocean. There were two teams that participated. One team was from France and the other was from Korea. They lit off over 48,000 fireworks! I was told by my Korean friends that the festival was much smaller this year than in previous years but it was still a great show. Here's a sample of what we saw. The video quality isn't the greatest but what can you expect from a digital camera.

I'll be blogging more about my vacation over the next week. I managed to cram a lot of stuff into one week!

Celebrating America's Birthday in Korea

2009-07-14T07:15:00.000-07:00

So most of you that know me from back home know that I love my country. I felt a bit sad to be outside of America for the 4th of July. Never fear, I came up with a battle plan to combine the two cultures. One of my fellow co-workers is married to a US Air Force guy. She lives very close to the US Army base and has access to almost all of the conveniences of America. We invited all of our Korean co-workers. They kept asking us why we were so excited to celebrate our countries birthday. I found this to be a bit odd since they are a fairly new democracy but we promised them a good time.

I started the festivities on Friday by having my classes sing "Happy Birthday" to America. Here's a video of my favorite class.

We gathered at my friends house and her husband went to Taco Bell to get us some food. There's nothing like eating American junk food on America's birthday. Also you add the fact that Mexican food is non-existent in this country and it made for a pretty nice treat. Our Korean co-workers showed up shortly have that and made the Korean "junk food" called ddeokbokki which is a spicy, rice cake, ramen noodle, fish cake filled, soup-like mixture. I think we really mixed up the cultures!

We also taught the Koreans American drinking games. It was really fun to teach them about America!

When it was time for the fireworks we headed to the roof...I mean helipad to watch them. Yes, my friend's house is so posh it has a place for helipads to land. There were signs everywhere that were written in Korean that I'm sure told us to, "Keep Out." We disobeyed them and went up there anyway. I managed to fall up the stairs since I'm special like that but they view from the top was amazing. You could see the entire city! We watched the fireworks and sang patriotic songs with the fellow military people who also broke the rules.

On a side note, when I returned to school on Monday my kids asked what I had done that weekend. They all knew I was excited about America's birthday and I told them I had celebrated it. I asked them what they will do to celebrate Korea's Independence day on August 15th and they told me they would just stay at home and relax. One girl told me, "Teacher, I think that people in the west like to party a lot on holidays and people in the east just like to relax." My response was, "I think you're probably right. Fair enough."

Comparison--Korea v. Western Countries

2009-07-14T07:03:00.001-07:00

Here is a list of things I have seen in Korea that wouldn't or rarely happen back home. I mean there are exceptions to every situation but this is what I've come up with.

1. A 8 year old kid brought a toy gun to school and was running down the hallway pointing it at his class mates. At first, I really freaked out but I had to take a step back and remind myself I'm not in America.

2. Children walking by themselves. By children, I mean first and second graders walking home from school without an adult. There are days I can barely manage to not get hit by a car. I can't imagine being that young and navigating the city by yourself.

3. Children out until all hours of the night. See picture above of a young child who was out for a walk with his parents around 11:30 pm. Here's another example. It was around 10:30 on a school night and we were playing poker at the park near our house and two girls came up to us and started talking to us in Korean. We managed to hear the term "Waygook" which means foreigner and "Migook" which means America, so we told them where we were all from. Around 12:30, they appeared again and tried to talk to us some more. We finally saw one of them go home with her dad around 1:00 am.

3. Having a probation office located within a 1/2 mile of 5 elementary and middle schools. The Seoul Probation office is literally a 5-10 minute walk from my school.

4. Always knowing who the foreigners are. In America, you can hardly ever tell if someone if a foreigner until they speak. Here you can tell instantly since Korea is one of the homogeneous countries in the world. This leads to a lot of stares. The other extreme is people talking to you to practice their English. The other night I was out with my Korean friends and a group of other Koreans started yelling, "Hello!" "Where are you from?"...All the typical questions. I responded and my Korean friend told me that it's not fair that I'm treated like a celebrity in Korea and when she studied in America no one cared that she was a foreigner. My response was that's kind of the beauty of America. You can't tell the difference between natives and foreigners. Anyway, I digress.

5. Crazy superstitions and rules... a) don't fall asleep with a fan on. It will suck all of the air out the room and you will die. All of the fans in this country have timers on them to prevent an unfortunate "fan death." b) Using vinegar to take the sting out of a sunburn will cause worse burning. One of my fellow co-workers got sunburned on the beach last weekend. He was asking for advice on how to cure it from the rest of us pasty, fair headed foreigners. A few of us suggested vinegar and one of our Korean co-workers freaked and told us it would make his burn even worse.

6. Kids going to school or private lessons until 11 pm. I know that the US's education system leaves a lot to be desired but having kids stay in school that late can't be good for them either. If you ask my students what they did on the weekend, they all say something to the effect of, "I went to science academy, math academy, piano academy, Chinese lessons, and another English school. When do these kids get to have fun? They asked me how many academies I went to when I was a kid and I blew their minds by telling them zero!

7) South Koreans don't seem to be the least bit phased by North Korea. Granted, I grew up in America and have been told that North Korea is evil and blah, blah, blah. The first few times my not-so-friendly northern neighbor threatened to set of missiles most of the westerners in the office started freaking out. The Korean co-teachers assured us that there is nothing to worry about and that good old Kim Jong is just trying to test America and specifically our new President Obama but he's not really going to do anything. The threat is always in the back of my mind but I've kind of started to accept their mentality. After all, if something happens, they don't have a place to run. I can at least go back to America. I've talked to my Korean friends and quite a few of them have told me that they don't really think about North Korea and don't really care. Fair enough, I suppose.

This is my list I've compiled so far. I'm sure there will be more to come after I've been here a while longer.

Seodaemun Prison & Inwangsan Shrine

2009-06-21T07:45:00.000-07:00

The Execution Stool

This tree is outside the execution chambers. It was the final thing many prisoners saw before they were executed. It's the oldest tree on the site.

The prisoners were responsible for making bricks while they were incarcerated. These are bricks that are in the courtyard today.

View of the prison from the top of the mountain/shrine.

Zen Rock

Today was unlike any other I have had in Korea. My friend and I headed out to Seodaemun Prison. This prison was built by the Japanese during their occupation of Korea. It was built in the late 1910's to house Koreans who were trying to start an independence movement. The prison was used to house Korean criminals all the way up until 1987.

The prison has numerous buildings that housed different types of prisoners. They showed prisoners being tortured in various ways including by electrocution. As we were going through the exhibit about how the independence fighters were tortured, one of the Korean workers came up to us and explained how the torture devices worked. There was a wooden box that had spikes in it that they would put people in and have the guards kick the box over and over, so the person would be punctured by the spikes many times.

The cells looked pretty large but as I read more I discovered that they would house up to 40 prisoners at a time and the prisoners had to take turns sleeping at night since there wasn't enough room for everyone.

There was also a reenactment of the Japanese court that independence fighters faced. The Koreans were not represented by attorneys and the only Korean that was in the room was the one that as on trial.

When it came to executing the prisoners, the prisoner would sit on a box with a noose around their neck and the box would fall through the floor killing the person. The Japanese would then take the bodies out of a secret tunnel to be buried.

It was a pretty intense experience. I have to keep reminding myself that all of these memories are still fresh in people's mind since the Japanese occupation only ended in 1945.

After this we headed to the Inwangsan Shamanism/Buddhist shrine which is at the top of the mountain next to the prison. It was quite a vertical climb. The tour book called it a walk so we were in flip flops which were not the right shoes for this hike. We made it up to the temple and drank some water and chilled out. A Korean woman came up and gave us tissues to to wipe our sweat away and offered us cigarettes. She was super cute. We headed further up the mountain and encountered many shrines and people praying along the way. There was a natural spring that we stopped at and we ran into the Korean woman again. She gave us some incense and showed us how we should whirl it around our head before sticking it in the shrine.

We passed the Seounbawi Rock or "Zen Rock" which is supposed to have the power to give sons to pregnant women. Most of the people that were praying here were women.

We made it to near the top and sat and looked out over the city. It was a beautiful view and was very peaceful and quiet. I was able to pick out some different neighborhoods (Gus) within in the city.

We climbed down and had some dinner and headed home for the night.

Soccer, Noraebong and more Randomness

2009-06-21T07:16:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday night, I met up with one of my Korean friends for dinner and to celebrate the end of her semester and beginning of summer break. We ended up at our neighborhood chicken hof which is normally rather busy. We wanted to sit outside since it was a beautiful night. However when we arrived, there was only one table left inside. We sat down and there was a huge projector playing the Iran v. South Korea soccer game that was taking place in Seoul. The score was 1-0 in favor of Iran towards the end of the game. (Sorry my knowledge of soccer is rather limited).

South Korea ended up scoring a goal in the final minutes to tie the game. The restaurant exploded. It was a pretty amazing site to see everyone in a place cheering for the same team since this doesn't seem to happen back home too much.

Another one of our friends met up with us but we had finished eating and he was hungry. We decided to try out the "New Zealand House" which is just around the corner from my apartment. They served some delicious ribs that hadn't been "Koreanized" (translation: has something funky added to it) and soju (the Korean traditional liquor) in a CO2 powered bottle. They also had some international beers which doesn't happen too often in my neighborhood. I'll definitely go back.

On Thursday, I met another group of Korean friends in the Kunkuk University area. The areas around universities here are always really trendy and there's lots to do. We went to Ho Bar II and played darts. I have no idea why it's called Ho Bar but it's an interesting name nonetheless.

The night ended at a noraebong or "singing room." Each group gets your own room to sing to your hearts content. The room comes with all of the essential equipment like a TV, microphones, tambourines, and maracas. They had quite a few English songs. We had a blast!

One of the guys I was with speaks about as much English as I do Korean. I always seem to have a great time when I am with him though. We communicate through hand motions and our extensive 20 word vocabularies in both languages. I told his "Canchunayo" which means "it's okay" and I blew his mind. He told me my Korean has improved by 100% (this was translated through our mutual friend who speaks both languages) since I last met him. This isn't too much of an accomplishment since I could like two words last time a hung out with him.

All and all, it was a pretty awesome couple of days. I love Korea!

Another Random Saturday in Seoul

2009-06-14T07:10:00.000-07:00

I had an awesome Saturday and one that shows how completely random Korea can be. My friend Madigan (who has only been in Korea for three weeks) and I set out to visit Changdeok Palace and Biwon Gardens. At this palace you are required to take a guided tour, so we purchased our tickets for the next English speaking tour, bought some coffee and waited for our tour to begin.

In the meantime a guy from the Netherlands came up to us and asked if we knew where the tour began. He ended up waiting with us and we started chatting it up. We took the tour together. More on this later.

The palace was interesting because it contained a secret garden and this was the first tour I took that was guided so I got a better understanding of why the palace is designed in certain ways. The gardens were absolutely gorgeous. They had lots of trees and ponds. It was amazing to see so much green in the city.

We finished up the tour and decided to head to Insadong to get some food and check out the stuff people had for sale. The Dutch guy came along with us. As we were trying to figure out how to get there, an American guy stopped us and asked us how to get to Insadong. We told him to join our group. We tried to go to a vegetarian restaurant but went in the wrong door and ended up at an awesome tea house. It was literally a hole in the wall place you had to duck in order to walk through it. We tried some amazing tea and ate the traditional Korean rice cakes.

We then sat out to find the doll for the Dutch guy's grandma. While we were walking to the market, I mentioned that I needed to get back to the baseball stadium to buy some gear for my Grandpa and told the guy how amazing Korean baseball is. He asked if there was a game and turns out there was one that was about to start in 30 minutes. (As with most Europeans, he loves soccer and was disappointed there wasn't a soccer match and he decided he wanted to see some sort of club sport in Korea.) We all jumped in a cab and headed to the baseball game.

We decided to cheer for the travelling team and the game turned out to be amazing. All the newbies loved the game and we had Koreans stopping and asking if they could take their picture with us. It's still so funny that they think we're something special.

Our team lost in the 9th inning after leading 2-0 throughout the game. We stayed behind for a while talking and had trouble leaving the stadium. It was a strange feeling knowing that we might be locked in the big stadium for the night. We finally found an open exit and decided to head to Gangnam to get some dinner.

The night before I had been to a Czechoslovakian bar (shout out to Uncle Larry!) and I decided I should take them back there. They brew their own beer and site and it is far superior to the light beer that is standard here. We order the meter of beer which is 10 beers that the Dutch guy told us really is a meter. (I still have know idea about the metric system!)

The Dutch guy and I moved on to another bar and discussed U.S. politics and how he feels the US is viewed right now in Europe and throughout the world. I was very happy to hear that he had a bad image of Americans and told us that the 3 of us changed his mind.

It was pretty awesome to meet such intellectually stimulating people in such a random way. We had some pretty deep conversations that you usually don't have until you've known someone for a while. I'm glad we stumbled across these people and it showed me that I should put myself out there more in more non-bar and club related places and I can meet some more awesome people!

I'm back!!!!!

2009-06-09T06:20:00.000-07:00

So I have fast forwarded back into the 21st century. It was a rough week. I hope this stupid computer doesn't break again. It's only 2 months out of warranty. As my dad would say, "That's the story of my life."

Anyway, moving on. On June 2, I have been here three months. It's hard to believe I'm already 1/3 of the way into my year here. Some days I feel like I just got here, and other days it feels like I have been here forever.

I had an incredible weekend in a small town of Sokcho on the far Northeast corner of the country. It is still much bigger than Yuma but you can walk out in front of cars and they stop for you. There were a total of 7 of us that went and we drew quite a few stares from the locals.

It was one of the fellow teachers birthday's and her birthday wish was for us to all dress in "jorts" (jean shorts) and anything ridiculous we had. I don't any ridiculous clothes but the other teachers really went to town. Their outfits were amazing.

We left Seoul Friday night. We made it on the last bus which left at 11:00 pm. We made it to the bus station at 8:30 so we had some time to kill. We decided to play card games outside the station. We drew large crowds of Koreans who were trying to figure out what we were doing. Koreans love betting so if they would have spoke English I think they would have joined us.

We arrived in Sokcho at 2 am and headed to this awesome bar. It feels like you're some place really tropical. It's very relaxed and you can request music. The birthday girl's favorite song is "We Built This City" by Jefferson Starship. One guy made us all tank tops that had "We Built This City" printed on the front. We sang and danced to this song to pretty early in the morning.

We ended up at a Noraebang (Korean Karaoke bar) and started singing our hearts out. We tried to get out own room so we wouldn't subject the Koreans to our horrible singing and English songs but they kept telling us we couldn't have one. We ended up clearing the bar and seeing the sunrise from the Noraebang. We finally made it home at 6:30 am.

Since our late (early) night, we didn't start our day until around 1 pm on Saturday. There was a big beach party that had been organized by the expats who live in Sokcho. The weather was cool, and gray so we didn't head to the beach until later in the night. We couldn't find a cab to take us. My suggestion was we stop one of the Koreans who was driving an empty truck or van to take us. This guy Joe ran after this van and was screaming, "Take us to the beach-y!" The Koreans were scared to death and couldn't get away from us quick enough. So we hopped on the bus to see if we would end up at the beach.

On the bus, J brought out his guitar and we had an improv sing along. We scared the Koreans again. My favorite moment was this Korean girl who had her head out of the window talking on her cell phone to try to avoid us.

We ended up at the beach where the was a camp fire, fireworks and lots of ex-pats. I met people from all over the world and had a blast. I went swimming in the ocean. They water was really choppy but I had a blast.

We were getting cold so we went back to the amazing bar and danced some more. Around 4 am, we decided to head back to the beach where we watched the sun come up and met some more people. Once again, we made it home around 6:30.

Sunday we started our day at a great Italian restaurant playing card games. We moved to "Miller Time" and continued on endeavor.

We almost missed the last bus to Seoul. It left at 10:05 and we made it to the bus station at 10:00. We were really lucky.

All in all, it was an amazing weekend!

My Computer Died

2009-06-03T21:53:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone. Greetings from crazy Korea.

I'm still alive over here, but my computer isn't. It seems as though the hard drive crashed. My only e-mail and internet access is at work.

I'll let you know when I'm back among the 21st century!

Paranoia!

2009-05-25T06:45:00.000-07:00

So, I write this to you from the quarantine of my neighborhood. You may ask, "Why?" Well here's the story.

Evidently there is an English teacher who brought swine flu over to South Korea and spent a week in training with around 20+ other foreigners. It is suspected that they passed it on to the others. You can read one of their blogs here. http://underquarantine.tumblr.com/post/112182291

So how does this effect me? Well, my director is super paranoid and has told us that since a foreigner brought the flu in and so many other foreigners now have it that we MUST stay out of foreign areas like Itaewon and Hongdae and if we don't abide by this rule they will terminate our contracts. They have also advised us not to leave our neighborhood and run the risk of becoming infected.

This infuriates me on so many levels. First, since when do only foreigners in South Korea carry swine flu? If my memory serves me correctly, the first person to bring swine flu to Korea was (wait for it)...a South Korean who had travelled to Mexico. Now that some foreigners have it, they think that we all are carriers.

Another is I am not familiar with the South Korean laws but they claim to be a democracy. You see that they don't quite have everything figured out (detaining bloggers who say bad things about the government, curtailing Internet freedom, police brutally beating protesters) but for the most part you would like to believe that they live by the basic principles of human rights.

Can an employer really tell you where you can and can not travel or risk being fired? My first thoughts are no. I know this would not fly in America. It also feels as if they are targeting us as foreigners. They nonchalantly were like, "Oh and this applies to the Korean teachers, too." However, one of the Korean teachers lives in Hongdae and she was allowed to go home tonight.

I understand the concern but seriously this is taking it too far. The director needs to stop and think about where his school will be without any foreign teachers and if he can really afford to fly 9 new teachers out here to replace us . This is my rant of the week. I'll keep you updated on how it unfolds.

What a nice beautiful day in Korea...swine flu paranoia, North Korea launches a missile and the country is mourning the loss of a politician who committed suicide because he partook in the corruption that he was on a mission to end. At this moment, I can say, I am so thankful to be an American! Ok, I'm done now.

Cultural Day

2009-05-18T07:48:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, we ventured to Gyeongbokgung Palace. I had been here before but it's by far the most "grand" of the palaces and it's the easiest one to find. When the name is translated into English it means "Palace Greatly Blessed by Heaven." The Palace was oringailly built in the 1300's but was completely destroyed by the Japanese during their last occupation of Korea. They are working on restoring everything back to its original state.

We checked out the National Folk Museum. They had an exhibit on the "Multicultral Families" of Korea. They must not of had a native English speaker read their information before they published it because it said there are 890 million foreigners living in Korea. Considering the whole country only has around 50 million, I somehow think they got it wrong. The other intersting thing was they only showed multicultural familes from other Asian countries, Russia, and a middle eastern country I couldn't remember the name of. The exhibit did not mention anything about the western influence on Korea or mention anything about the numerous westerners that have married Koreans and had children. Once again, interesting.

There was a multicultural fair that was taking place and was connected to the "Hi Seoul Festival." There was a stage where people from other countries performed their traditional dances or entertainment. There was a pretty awesome dragon dance, some twirling yo-yo looking things, and a girl that could twirl tables, other humans and pots with her legs. It was absolutely amazing. The girl probably weighed 100 pounds and she was throwing the table around like it was nothing. When she twirled her two assistants on a long pole with her feet I almost fell over. Now that's some talent!

We then wandered into Insadong which is very touristy and has lots of stuff to buy. We found Starbucks and bought a few trinkets. We also had lunch and ate some delicious pork. At the table next to us were some Americans that were here working on some project for the US government. They had ordered fried baby octopus and were mesmerized by it. It was fun to watch them try to eat with chopsticks and freak out about eating a whole baby octopus. I'm kind of amazed how this eating and seeing weird stuff doesn't even phase me too much any more. Oh and may I add, I'm pretty killer at chopsticks now!

We came back to my neighborhood and went bowling with my Korean friends. The bowling alley is a straight throwback to the late 80's. It still beats the old Yuma bowling alley though because it keeps score for you. The bowling alley is super close to my house and it is also cheap (appx $1.50 to rent shoes and $3.00 a game). I came out the victorious winner as I had some mad skills and opened the game with two strikes.

We then went to see the new X-Men movie which I hated and thought was a big waste of time. Anyway, the night ended by us not being able to find our way out of the movie theatre as it is on the 15th floor of the department store next to my house. Since the department store was closed when the movie was over, there wasn't access to the escalators and the elevator wasn't stopping on certain floors. We ended up getting into the underground parking garage and hiking our way out through the in-ramp. Oops!

Stayed tuned. There's definitely more stories to be told!

And always, you can check out all of my photos on my Picasa web album here...http://picasaweb.google.com/christinestroup

Throwing Sebastian Into All Things Korean!

2009-05-18T06:40:00.000-07:00

After leaving the hotel, we headed to my neighborhood. As I've told you all before my neighborhood is about authentic Korean as it can get. We started at the galbi restaurant by my house. Which is absolutely delicious!

You walk in, take your shoes off at the door, and go sit on the floor at your table. We had the galbi which is beef that has been marinated for a long period of time. They bring out a ring of burning charcoals and stick it into the designated hole in the table. Then comes the meat! There's a nifty pipe that hangs from the ceiling takes the smoke out of the building. My favorite description of this is "The Snuffalufagus" pipe (gotta love Sesame Street)!

Along with the meat, you get the numerous free side dishes that include kimchi, pasta salad, radish (not the radishes you and I know), and some other stuff I can't remember. Oh and did I mention that this whole dinner only cost $15.00 total! I love Korea so much!

After leaving the restaurant, my Korean friend, Alfred, called and wanted us to hang out. We headed over to his neighborhood, Hoegi, which is 10 minutes by bus from my house. My Korean friend was hanging out with 3 of his Korean friends who spoke very little English. We were a bit worried how the night would turn out but we ended up having a blast. Alfred did quite a bit of translating for us but by the end of the night we were speaking or 12 words of Korean and using hand gestures and everyone seemed to understand each other. It's amazing how uncomplicated things become! We were the first foreigners that these Koreans had ever been around so they were super nervous.

We were at this bar called "Dorothy's Diary" which gives you your own room with and air conditioning to eat and drink in. Pretty amazing! We broke out some card games and they taught us Korean drinking games. It was a blast. I definitely want to hang out with them again.

Here's a cultural tidbit for you. Since Korea is a Confucian society everything is about respect. You have to give things to people with two hands and there's lots of rules that we foreigners don't know about and I'm sure we break often. Another is no one can pour their own drinks. It's consider extremely rude. On that I noticed this night was the Koreans turning away from us when they drank. I guess it shows respect (obviously) to someone you hold in high regard, is older, or is in higher rank than yourself. Kind of interesting. I tell you...there are so many rules I could not even possibly begin to type them all out for you!

Oh and you've probably noticed me throwing the "Peace Sign" in my pictures. I've heard different schools of thought on this but some people say it means "V" for Victory. That's the one I'm sticking with cause it just sounds cool!

My Birthday

2009-05-10T07:42:00.000-07:00

Wow, long time...no blog, eh? Life has been a little on the crazy side lately. Sebastian came to visit me for my Birthday and we also had a four day weekend that weekend which meant no school. We crammed a lot of fun and awesome things into this time. I could write a ton but I'll give you the Cliff Notes and post lots of smaller blogs rather than one big one.

As many of you know, Sebastian has an obsession with Hyatt Hotels. His flight arrived an hour before I had to be at work and the airport is an hour and a half away from my house. He decided to stay at Grand Hyatt and take the shuttle bus into the city since I would still be at work. I met him at the hotel and he managed to get the room upgraded to a Junior Suite. It was definitely the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in. We had a great view of the city and there was a bathtub that overlooked the city too! My friend Carina, that I knew back home came too. We just chilled in the hotel, ate cake, drank wine, and had "Real Talk." (This is my new phrase I picked up from the other teachers. It involves having some beers and trying to solve the problems of the world or just our own problems. I love "Real Talk!"Carina and I both concluded we felt more out of place at the 5 star hotel than we do on the streets of Korea!

Oh and on a bit of a side note, I've started watching this Korean drama called, "Boys Over Flowers" which as about a "commoner" girl that takes on the rich kids at her school. There are quite a few scenes that are filmed at Hyatt! It's super fun to see the different locations around Seoul that I have been to and recognize. This drama is super addicting. I just keep telling myself it's helping me with my Korean.

A Walk to Work...

2009-04-28T08:02:00.000-07:00

Today, I decided to take pictures of all the the random stuff I see on my way to work everyday. My apartment is a 15 minute walk from the school. I think I've mentioned before that Koreans love English and use it quite a bit but most of the time it is not grammatically correct and doesn't make sense. There are many times when I find myself thinking way too hard about what they are trying to advertise and how exactly they came up with that combination of words. You can click on the photos to see them in their original size.

So here it is. They'll be many more of these posts to come.

Toilet seat display outside a store. These toilet seats have warmers and bidets.

Yes, this store has a "Fashion Address."

Korean Gas Station

The pumps come from the ceiling. See them hanging?

This is a advertisement for a photographer's shop. Mixing French and English bad combination. It says, "Petit Diable. if only we could see what baby sees. if only we could hear what baby hears. if only we knew what baby knew. then the problems of the world wouldn't hold us down." Wow, those babies must really know something the rest of us don't.

An entire store dedicated to rice cookers.

One of the many hardware stores on this street. Look at the beautiful paint in the front window.

One of the bigger hardware stores.

Troy. The bar. What more could you ask for?

The lumber yard. The product is just sitting out on the sidewalk.

Another hardware store with gigantic sliding windows.

Umm...organized chaos.

Your dinner is swimming around in the tanks outside. Probably some of the freshest seafood you'll eat. By the way, it's delicious and cheap!

The clams, mussels, and their other shell friends.

Anyone need some hose? I think this is a version of a hardware store. It seems to sell large quantities of stuff like hose and chain.

It is pretty common practice for restaurants in Korea to put pictures of the animal they serve on their sign outside. Why wouldn't you want to see the animal you're about to eat jumping out of the ocean or running in the farm yard?

Beerseason anyone?

One of like fifteen animal hospitals in the neighborhood and yes it's called Zoo Zoo Puppy.

The yellow sign on top says, "Computer, Imagineer, Graphiss." Umm....okay?

One of the many camping/hiking stores. Hiking is a sport in this country. I love riding the subway on the weekend and seeing the little old men and women with their hiking poles and matching outfits. Yes, there are outfits to go hiking in.

Recycling is a big deal here.

A Weekend in Seoul

2009-04-27T19:01:00.001-07:00

Fire Breathing Dragons

This elephant even trumpeted as he carried Buddha down the parade route. (Yes, I had to google the sound elephants make).

I've managed to make some Korean friends which is extremely helpful. I spent Saturday with them. We went to Saemi's university to some conference she thought was going to be in English. There was only one section that was in English and it was about the "Untranslatability of Poetry." Yawn! Not my type of thing. We did get free lunch though.

We then wandered to a pool hall and met up with our friend Yehwa. Alfred lost four games to us girls which was amazing! The pool hall was pretty relaxed. It was filled with guys playing billiards. I think this was the first time I've seen billiards played. The Koreans told me that guys play billiards in Korea and girls play pool. When then headed to a coffee shop which served "free" cake with your coffee. I had some pretty great chocolate mousse.

Here is where the fun begins. We were talking about playing cards and miraculously I had a deck of cards in my backpack. We started playing poker (not that I really know how to play) and my Korean friends taught me some Korean card games. In exchange, I taught them "B.S." They loved it! Yehwa is horrible at lying so she constantly ended up with most of the cards.

We then moved to Alfred's house where he made us Kimchi Bokkeumbap which is Kimchi Fried Rice. Kimchi is spicy fermented cabbage that Koreans eat with every meal. It's kind of like spicy saurkraut. Alfred's food was delicous! We continued playing card games and Alfred broke out the Korean version of monopoly. I have to say the Korean version is much more fun! The "Chance" and "Community Chest" cards were combined and were called "The Golden Key Cards." I didn't find anything "golden" about them. I think there is more bad cards than good cards in the deck. Anyway, the best property you can buy is Seoul. I wish I would have taken a picture of the game board. Next time I will for sure.

Sunday, I spent the morning doing laundry and hanging out. Alfred and Saemi were in the neighborhood so they stopped by my apartment. Our plan was to sit on my roof and order some food (delivery people will go anywhere in Korea) but it was cold so we decided to leave the neighborhood. We sat out to eat Mexican food at a new restaurant in Jungkuk. It didn't happen as we stumbled upon something even cooler than Mexican food...The Lotus Lantern Festival. This festival celebrates Buddha's birthday.

There was a huge parade with some amazing floats. It took place at night. My camera died shortly after the parade started so I'm a little sad but I'll share the pictures I did take. I experienced even more Korean hospitality. I was standing front and got an excellent view of everything. We were waving at the people walking by and as I've said before most Koreans are amazed by foreigners. I was given two lanterns, candy, and a pin. It was pretty awesome.

This parade definitely puts Denver's parade of lights to shame. There were huge dragons that breathed fired, pigs on motorcycles that shot fire from guns, and LED peacocks that raised and lowered their feathers. Ahh...I'm so mad my camera died! I know you're thinking pigs shooting guns? What does that have to do with Buddha? The answer is, "I don't know." One thing I've come to realize is Korea is pretty random and I think this is just another example of it.

All in all, it was a pretty amazing weekend!

My Students Rock!

2009-04-24T06:06:00.001-07:00

As promised, I took pictures of my students. I am only missing one class. As I was looking at the pictures, I realized how much I like them. I caught myself smiling. So without further ado, here they are....

Tuesday Thursday Hi Kids 2-3

Tuesday Thursday Hi Kids 1-7 (They didn't want their picture taken).

Tuesday Thursday Fly High 2-4

MWF Hi Kids 2-1 (They are pretty much my favorite students). I really love both of the boys. The both raise their eyebrows a lot when the speak English. It is super adorable.

MWF Hi Kids 2-1 These kids are really smart and really rambunctious. You can see Ban (the second boy from the right holding up his stack of SLP dollar bills).

The girls. They are so cute!

MWF Hi Kids 2-6

This is my Aim High Junior class. They are the most advanced English speakers at the school.

My Fly High 3-4 class. I love these girls. As you can see, they are a ton of fun.

My Five Year Olds. (Not all of them were here today). These are the kids I see everyday and are my biggest challenge.

I'll end this with another story. Today in my Fly High 3-4 class (which is the three older girls) we were studying past tense and we were using vacations to talk about where we went and what we packed. I asked one of them, "Linda, where did you go on vacation?" She responded, "I went to (some Korean city I haven't heard of) and we stayed at a condom." It took everything I had not to burst out laughing. It was priceless.

Priceless Classroom Moments

2009-04-20T07:34:00.000-07:00

I thought I would write a quick blog of my favorite classroom moments so far.

I teach a group of three older girls who have little experience with English but they are very eager to learn and are always asking me questions to improve their vocabulary. They draw pictures on the board and I try to figure out what they are talking about and give them the English word. On one occasion, a girl drew a picture of a stick picture of a person which seemed innocent enough, and then she drew three bubbles coming out of the stick person's back side. She asked me, "Teacher, stomach, (made an sick looking face and pointed at the bubbles), What is this?" I tried to contain my laughter but couldn't. I ended up turning bright red and told her it was called passing gas. I felt like I kind of cheated them by not teaching them "fart" but I didn't want them to go home and tell their parents that is what they had learned in English school that day.

On the other end of the spectrum is my 5 year olds who have been in English school for 2 years and have a pretty great grasp on the language. We teach them from the same books that first graders in America would use. These kids can create sentences and describe the word they are looking for. We had just finished reading "Little Red Hen" and I told them they needed to draw a picture of an animal and write me a story about it. This super cute and smart boy was like, "Teacher what is a pig with horns on his face called?" I told him it was a boar. He then was like, "If my car is hungry, what do I feed it?" as he was patting his stomach. I was confused by this at first but the rest of the kid's assured me this is what he wanted to know. I told him, "You feed your car gas." Then he wanted to know, "Where you feed your car gas?" I told him at the gas station. He wrote this awesome story about a boar who worked at the gas station and how much fun he had it his job. I love this kid. Today, he came to school with his hair permed. I told him I liked his hair and he told me, "I went to the barber and he just made it curly." He cracks me up!

This has story has got to be my all time favorite so far. I was teaching a class of 8 year olds about nationalities. I told them that they are Korean and asked them what my nationality is. One kid told me I was American (good answer, kid) and one kid slipped and told me I was from Africa. I started laughing and told him, Africa are you sure? The smartest kid in the class piped up and was like, "Teacher, you can't be from Africa, you don't have enough melanin in your skin." I wasn't sure I heard him correctly so I made him repeat it and sure enough that is what he had said. I was amazed that he not only used the word correctly but in that context. Some days, I am just utterly amazed.

I'm sure I'll have many more to share with you over the next 11 months. I'll try to take pictures of my students soon and post them.

Korean Healthcare

2009-04-13T18:11:00.000-07:00

I had my first experience with a Korean hospital last Friday. The four new teachers all had to go to the National Medical Center to get our health checks which are a required part of our visa. The process went quickly but they definitely don't have Patient Privacy Laws here. The exam rooms for eyes, teeth, blood pressure, height and weight are all open and near the waiting room. There was a big group of high school age girls that were also getting health checks.

Most of the staff spoke enough English to tell us what they were doing to us or what they needed us to do but we had a Korean co-worker there to translate for us just in case. In one room, a lady asked us if we had or ever had various types of diseases. Most of the questions she asked, I had never heard of so I told her no.

To pee in the cup we had to use a non-western style toilet (a/k/a a squat toilet). Not an easy thing! We then carried our samples through the busy hallways to the lab. It was so funny! After we filled our cups we took them to the lab and sat them on a table out in the open (something else that I don't think happens in America). The lady gave us stickers to put underneath our samples and then took three vials of blood. We were then off to the x-ray department to have our chest x-rayed to ensure we don't have tuberculosis.

At the top is a picture of my identification card for this particular hospital. I have no idea what the first line of numbers means. The second line is my first name written in Korean. It doesn't have my last name...very interesting. The last line is my date of birth written year first with a -6 at the end.

We should have the results by the end of the week and then we'll have to send all of our documents to immigration to be processed. After this is completed, we will finally get our alien registration cards. This card acts both as a Social Security Card and a national identification so we don't have to carry our passports with us all the time. This also leads to getting a bank account and other things we all take for granted.

Cherry Blossoms!

2009-04-13T07:06:00.000-07:00

Over the past week, I've made some Korean friends that are around my age. Their English is very good and one of them has offered to help me learn Korean. I need to finish teaching myself the alphabet and then I'll set up some time to practice with him. Two of them lived in Florida for a year while in a language exchange program. Another learned English in college and wants to travel but has never been on an airplane. I'm going to try to change this!

On Saturday, Alfred and Saemi took me to Kyung Hee University to see the cherry blossoms. Saemi is a student there. The university was founded in 1949 but it feels much older. The campus is beautiful and the cherry blossoms make it amazing! Check out a few of the pictures. There were many festivities going on. There were people performing Taekwondo and traditional dances among other things. The most amusing performance we found was "The Hip Hop Club" performances. Evidently, The Hip Hop Club is a group on campus who get together and sing hip hop. This was one of the better groups. There was one group where my Korean friends asked me if they were singing English and I told them, "No." They didn't think they were singing Korean either, so who knows what was being sung.

There was also a museum that we walked through that had many artifacts of the many years of Korean history. At one point, there was an entire hallway of paintings that were painted on silk from around 600 B.C. They were amazing. Sorry, I couldn't take pictures there.

I was even approached by a Jehovah's Witness while I was there. She approached Alfred first in Korean and I could tell they were talking about me. I asked him what she wanted and she asked me if she could talk to me. She asked me if I was a foreigner, (Duh!) and told me they were with a group on campus called "Friends for Foreigners." She then asked if I was interested in Bible Study that I could attend in over 160 countries around the world. She then tried to give me the infamous "Watchtower" brochure. I politely told her ,"No" but then I had to try to explain to Alfred what a Jehovah's witness is and what they believe in. Not an easy task!

We also visited Sushi 1000. At this restaurant the sushi was placed on a revolving belt that went by every table in the restaurant. If you saw something you wanted to eat, you just took it off they conveyor belt. The best part is each plate is only 1,000 won ($.70). There were other options besides sushi, like little deserts, Korean rice dishes, tempura, and fruit bowls. It was yummy!

They also took me to get my haircut. The lady did a great job and it only cost me 12,000 won (like $9.00). On a side note, tipping is not customary here. If you tip someone they take it as an insult. Their mindset is that they make good enough money doing whatever it is they do (cutting hair, waiting tables, etc.) that they don't need you to supplement their income. If you try to give them more money, they think you're insulting their chosen profession or taking pity on them for doing the job they have chosen.

I'm looking forward to spending more time with my Korean friends and learning Korean. I'll keep you updated! You can see many more photos of my day in my Picasa web album. http://picasaweb.google.com/christinestroup

Look here in the next few days about my visit to the "Boulder of Seoul."

They launched it...

2009-04-04T22:26:00.000-07:00

Well, North Korea launched there missile/satellite/rocket, whatever you want to call it at 11:30 am local time. From the sound of it, it was not shot down and landed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.

It is 2:30 pm and all is quiet here. Japan has called an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. I guess we will all have to wait and see what comes of it.

Here's the article. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/04/04/north.korea.rocket/index.html

Take Me Out to...Yes, That's Right...The Ball Game

2009-04-04T07:40:00.000-07:00

Who knew that baseball is so popular in Korea? Not me. Not that I am an expert on sports abroad (or at home for that matter). I spent my Saturday afternoon at the season opener of the Doosan Bears v. Kia Tigers.

Apparently, South Korea has 8 major league baseball teams. They are all sponsored by large companies so their names all begin with a company name. Seoul has two major league teams: the Doosan Bears and the LG Twins. They both play at the baseball field that was used and built for the 1988 Olympics. The Olympic Stadium sits right behind the baseball stadium. Here's a picture for your viewing pleasure.

We travelled down to the Sports Complex and stood in line for our tickets. Tickets ranged from 3,000-20,000 won (like $2.00-$15.00). As we were standing in line for our tickets, a TV station recorded us. Not too bad for a professional league game. In America we have stands that sell soda, peanuts, and hotdogs. Not in Korea, you can get whole dried squid, kimbap (Korean sushi), beer, soju (Korea's favorite liquor), hard boiled eggs, and fish pancake things. Amazing! You can take all of this into the stadium. Here's a picture of one of the vendors with her goods she is selling.

The South Korean Military performed some pre-game entertainment. It was really good. There was also some traditional Korean dancers that we missed and of course cheerleaders. Wait a second, I guess in America baseball does not have cheerleaders.

The players are a good range of ages. The youngest was only 18 while the oldest was 38. The Doosan Bears even had a "Waygook" (foreigner) playing for them. His name is Matt Watson from Philadelphia. They also don't have an obscure entrance to the building. They get off the bus and walk right along with the fans into the stadium. Quite a few of the home team players had "theme songs" that would play every time they were up to bat. One of the songs was set to the tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb." I wish I knew what the words to it were.

Koreans really get into their baseball! They clap these long skinny tubes together in unison, sings songs, and really enjoy themselves. I was mesmerized by the whole scene. Fans are led in chants by a guy standing on top a platform in the seats. Each team has their own guy to lead them. The fans throw confetti onto the field when they see something they like and aren't quiet until after the pitch is caught by the catcher and even then it's not that quiet. When the bases were loaded they would chant something that sounded to me like "Need home run" but then again I don't speak Korean so I just make things up as I go along. Here's a video of the awesome fans.

One of the most amusing things is the "6th Inning Stretch." I know, in America it's the "7th Inning Stretch" but come on they had to spice it up a bit. This 6th Innining Stretch is for the players not the fans. The players literally go on to the field for a bit and stretch and roll around like baseball players do when they warm up.

I was rooting for the Kia Tigers for no other reason than they had red uniforms and their fans seemed more into the game. They were behind 1-6 until 7th inning when they rallied and scored 4 runs to bring the game within one. Sadly, Doosan got two runs in the 8th and sealed the deal for a final score of 5-7 in favor of Doosan. I was a bit sad but I will definitely be back for another Korean Baseball experience. At that at a cheap price, how could you pass it up?

Here I am trying out my authentic Korean picture taking pose. They always show the peace sign (which to them means victory) in photos.

Hmmm.....

2009-04-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

So this is what someone thinks about America? Hmm...

The United States Embassy is pretty old and outdated. It's guarded but lots of Korean police officers.

The sun at about 5:00 in the afternoon. God bless pollution!

I've been super busy. The end of the month equals a lot of work. The kids all take their monthly tests on the last day of the month and we had to make our monthly lesson plans. I've graded all of the tests so now I need to write evaluations for all of my students.

I've still found time to have fun! This last weekend I ventured to another palace with Zach, one of Sebastian's friends that is also in Korea for one year. It was beautiful. The cherry trees are just beginning to bloom. Spring is in the air!

Here's a video of one of the busiest intersections in Seoul.

You can see the rest of my pictures on my Picasa album.

Last night, I went out with the teacher from Canada. We made some more Korean friends. We are always sitting at a table by ourselves and they come ask us to join them. Two of them were also English teachers. It's so fun to hang out with the locals.

On a side note, I started teaching myself to read Korean. It's actually not that hard. I just need to memorize the symbols and I'll be able to sound words out but I won't know what they mean. There's a free Korean class offered at one the colleges here, I think I'll check it out after I can read.

Oh the Views!

2009-03-25T18:48:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to post some pictures of the view from the roof of my apartment building. It's pretty cool. With city and mountains, it can't get much better than that! The pictures don't do it justice.

More New Experiences

2009-03-23T06:53:00.000-07:00

So I'm a bit delayed on posting my week 3 recap. I need to get better about writing on here. The week started out relatively slow. Wednesday night I was in the grocery store and another co-worker came in. We bought our groceries and walked home together. As we were walking home, we met another co-worker in the alley and decided to go for a drink. What started as a
"Let's grab a beer" turned into a rather fun night. We wander off to "Beatles"--a neighborhood bar which still plays vinyl records and can find almost any "old song" you can dream of. As you can see in the pictures, they pin up the songs that have been requested over the years on the wall in the bar. Have a mentioned that this place rocks?

We were recapping our day and talking about the our worst children we teach. A Korean man came up to our table and said in broken English, I've overheard your conversation and I'd like to pick up your tab. We argued with him and told him it wasn't necessary but he walked away offended. The teacher who spoke the most Korean determined that they guy really wanted to buy our drinks. We then moved to the table with him and his brother and ended up having a great time. He ordered us a plate of squid jerky and began talking. (I don't recommend it. I ate it until I got to the tentacles and then had to stop!). We would try to throw out the random words of Korean that we know and they would get mad and tell us "No, no Korean. English only!" We lasted until 3 a.m. and then decided we better get home since we would have classrooms full of children waiting for us in the morning. It was a lot of fun to mingle with the locals! We all took pictures with them. I don't look so great but what are you gonna do?

My Saturday was rather uneventful. I deep cleaned my apartment and wrote evaluations for my kids. I've found the part of the job I don't like. It's writing these evaluations. I'm hoping that it becomes easier as I get to know the kids more but after two weeks of teaching on my own, I feel like I don't know enough about them to write these, but I gave it my best shot. Oh and being me I of course checked the internet out to find a tool to help me. I found one and the process became much easier. God bless the internet!

Sunday, I ventured out with my friend Carina and a group of her friends. We all met up in Hungdae (one of the college areas of town). We ate at a great Indian restaurant and took pictures in front of these random cement blocks that we painted with crazy things. They all decided I needed my first experience in a Korean Photo Sticker booth. You can easily get five people in the booth, you dress up however you want, pick the backgrounds you're going to be in front of, and act like you're five again. It was super fun! I chose a ratty red wig as my accessory. Once you're done taking the photos, you get to add even more designs like glasses, bows, stars, food, etc., to them with a computer. I've attached some photos.

We then were on to a DVD Bong another awesome thing Korea has that is not in the US. So you go to this DVD bong everyone pays 5000 won (like $3.00), pick a movie you want to see that is out on DVD, and you get you're own private room with a big projector screen to watch it in. It has super comfortable couches that you can relax and watch the movie. Talk about cheap entertainment. We watched "The Life of David Gale." If you haven't seen this, it's definitely worth your time. I attached a picture of Carina and I in front of the big screen.

There you have it Week number 3!

Week Two = Many Firsts

2009-03-15T07:02:00.000-07:00

Week two has now officially come to an end. I have made many accomplishments although many of them are small, I am still proud of them.

To begin, I taught the entire week by myself. The class of five year olds continue to be my daily challenge. Someday, I hope they can learn to behave. On an exciting note, my oldest, most advanced class just finished our Western Cultures book and I get to chose the next thing I teach them. My supervisor said that I can chose because if the teacher isn't teaching something they're are passionate about, the kids won't learn as much. I pitched Government/American Politics to the kids. They seemed interested and my supervisor thought it would be a good idea. I'm super excited to be able to teach this. These kids have already asked me many questions about Obama so I think it will be great. My supervisor also told me I'm doing a great job so that is always good to hear.

I also ate traditional Korean BBQ this week. When you enter the restaurant you take off your shoes, leave them at the front door, and you sit on the floor to eat. They bring hot coals and stick it in the table in front of you and start grilling the meat. It was amazing. When you eat the meat you take it from the grill, place it in some sauce that's supposed to take the fat off of it, and then eat it. I will go back for this!

This weekend there was a St. Patrick's Day Festival. In previous years, it has been much bigger but I guess due to lack of corporate sponsorship it wasn't as good as previous years. I can officially say that this is the greatest amount of true Irish (really from Ireland) I have celebrated St. Patrick's Day with. It's crazy to think that I have this experience in South Korea. Overall it was fun to see the many cultures celebrate this event. There was free Guinness and live Irish bands. There's something to be said about a little Korean boy dancing with a stuffed Guinness bottle. You have to love the clash of cultures!

Another first I'm proud of is successfully navigating the subway system by myself. I went to pick up a friend of Sebastian's down in Gangnam and brought him up to the St. Patrick's Day festival without making any mistakes. I have to say his subway line is super cool because you get to cross over the river and get an awesome view of the city. Next time, I'll take pictures.

After being able to navigate the subway system by myself, I decided I would tell my friend that has been here for a year and a half that I'm here. She was super surprised and on Sunday we went and visited Gyeongbok Palace which was beautiful. We spent the afternoon catching up and exchanging teaching stories. She's so cool. We went to a coffee shop and I found my first representation of Colorado which warmed my heart a bit and I of course had to take a picture!

One thing I've learned about Korea is you never know what you're going to encounter. On the subway ride to the palace I had to transfer from my line to another line. I walked down the station and I was doubling checking if I was headed the right way on the train. This older Korean man walked up to me and asked me if I was Canadian and I told him "No, American." He asked me where I was going and I told him. His English was limited and my Korean is even more limited but he was genuinely concerned about me. He confirmed I was headed in the right direction and told me I had two stops to go. In Korean culture, it is customary for younger people to give up seats to their elders. A few younger Korean guys got up and offered their seats to him and he pointed at me and I think he told them he needed to make sure I got to where I was going. We established that I was here teaching English and he asked me if I was from New York. I told him Colorado but he didn't know it, so he started naming every major city he could think of and tried to get a Korean girl to help him figure out where I am from. When I came to my stop, He said, "Here and bye, bye." It was so cute. I told him thank you in Korean and left. I wish I could have communicated more with him.

Being a foreigner here, it's hard to blend in. You get stared at a lot especially by older people. It was so nice to see and older man who was interested in me and where I came from and was genuinely concerned that I made it safely. Those moments make everything worth it.

So here I am growing, teaching, learning and finding myself in....South Korea.

P.S. I've started a Picasa album so you all can see all of my pictures. Check it out!

http://picasaweb.google.com/christinestroup