Horray for the weekend! Especially since both Brendan and I are getting over colds. We could probably win a "most mucus" contest. Gross! I slept a lot today and felt guilty about not experiencing Korea every minute of the day. But, I feel better now as a result. Actually, this PC bang is really smoky, so I'll feel better when I'm done writing this.
Luckily, one of the students who interviewed us the other day gave Brendan a whole box of vitamin C suppliments. He said it was from the pharmacy. It was really nice of him. Is that wierd? He must have been psychic and known we were gross and mucus-y.
So we found this bar called Canada Buddy. Its a short bus ride from our part of Bucheon. It has veggie burgers. I hope they aren't piled with kim chi. Brendan loves it. I am getting overwhelmed by it. Its everywhere. In dumplings, in soup, by it self as a side dish...ahhh! I still eat it though. Everyday for lunch. Anyway, we plan on going there for dinner tonight. We will let you know how canandian it is!
Oh yes. Eunice, the director at our school has invited everyone over to her house in October for a dinner! Yummy. She said she told her husband that Brendan really likes alchohal, so he is prepared for him with strawberry liquor. Cool! I hope Brendan is prepared...He looked kind of scared when she told him that yesterday.
Brendan and I tired playing rock paper scissors with both hands at the same time last night. Its really difficult! You should try it sometime.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Tired Legs and Surveys!
Hello!
*We are not sure how many people are reading this blog, but just to let you know we have had complaints about some of you not being able to leave comments. We would love, love love, to fix this problem, but everything is written in Korean on the computer. So, until we find our own computer with an english operating system, you should email us or send us a facebook message.*
Okay, and now for the interesting stuff.
We successfully hiked up, around and down a huge moutain near our house. We were out for a good 3 hours. I think I am lying when I say we hiked around it. We hiked for a while around the top and it just kept going so we turned back. The views were amazing. We have never seen real mountains before, let alone hiked up them! It was really "a breath of fresh air" to get a breath of fresh air. We aren't too sore either. This is quite surprising.
We went back to Seoul yesterday. What did we do? We went to the Seoul Museum of Art and took in a Monet exhibition. It was actually pretty nice not having to read what the curator wanted to blab at us (it was in Korean). Instead we pushed out way through the crowds of people, and they pushed us, and we all tried really hard to appreciate the works. Its crazy, having famous lillypad paintings exposed on the walls of a jam packed gallery. They had dehumidifiers going. I guess that might protect the work, a little bit, anyway.
Actually, the best part about the museum was the contemporary gallery. It was quite a lot less packed with people. The show featured artists from around the world who incorporated their travels into their work. It was really interesting. My favourite piece was called "A-Z in Korea." This video work used patterns in historic Korean palaces to find each letter of the alphabet. It was kind of humerous at first, but as I sat with the 16 minute piece I realized that finding english letters in korea, in a palace where king sejong's (he invented the hangul alphabet) statue is, made me feel strange about teaching english. I know that people want to learn, and they asked us to come and teach here, but it is something that I struggle with. English being a prime language. I don't know.
Oh! Funny story. I (Tara) posed for a photo with a cardboard cutout of Monet. His lips were pursed to the side, so I decided to kiss him! Two girls giggled and then one girl wanted to pose with Monet. She hugged him, but didn't kiss him. So I yelled out, "Kiss him! Bo Bo (kiss in korean)" She looked at me and kissed him!
Oh yes. Surveys!
We were approached by two college students, doing a project on foreingers in Korea. They asked us if we would do an interview for them. I said yes, Brendan was hungry, but agreed. They were so sweet! They bough us each a smoothie, which was very nice, and proceeded to tape record an interview with each of us. They took pictures with us and said the would send them to our email. They were really excited to have us as email friends and invited us to ask them for any advice, or help about korea! They were so great.
*We are not sure how many people are reading this blog, but just to let you know we have had complaints about some of you not being able to leave comments. We would love, love love, to fix this problem, but everything is written in Korean on the computer. So, until we find our own computer with an english operating system, you should email us or send us a facebook message.*
Okay, and now for the interesting stuff.
We successfully hiked up, around and down a huge moutain near our house. We were out for a good 3 hours. I think I am lying when I say we hiked around it. We hiked for a while around the top and it just kept going so we turned back. The views were amazing. We have never seen real mountains before, let alone hiked up them! It was really "a breath of fresh air" to get a breath of fresh air. We aren't too sore either. This is quite surprising.
We went back to Seoul yesterday. What did we do? We went to the Seoul Museum of Art and took in a Monet exhibition. It was actually pretty nice not having to read what the curator wanted to blab at us (it was in Korean). Instead we pushed out way through the crowds of people, and they pushed us, and we all tried really hard to appreciate the works. Its crazy, having famous lillypad paintings exposed on the walls of a jam packed gallery. They had dehumidifiers going. I guess that might protect the work, a little bit, anyway.
Actually, the best part about the museum was the contemporary gallery. It was quite a lot less packed with people. The show featured artists from around the world who incorporated their travels into their work. It was really interesting. My favourite piece was called "A-Z in Korea." This video work used patterns in historic Korean palaces to find each letter of the alphabet. It was kind of humerous at first, but as I sat with the 16 minute piece I realized that finding english letters in korea, in a palace where king sejong's (he invented the hangul alphabet) statue is, made me feel strange about teaching english. I know that people want to learn, and they asked us to come and teach here, but it is something that I struggle with. English being a prime language. I don't know.
Oh! Funny story. I (Tara) posed for a photo with a cardboard cutout of Monet. His lips were pursed to the side, so I decided to kiss him! Two girls giggled and then one girl wanted to pose with Monet. She hugged him, but didn't kiss him. So I yelled out, "Kiss him! Bo Bo (kiss in korean)" She looked at me and kissed him!
Oh yes. Surveys!
We were approached by two college students, doing a project on foreingers in Korea. They asked us if we would do an interview for them. I said yes, Brendan was hungry, but agreed. They were so sweet! They bough us each a smoothie, which was very nice, and proceeded to tape record an interview with each of us. They took pictures with us and said the would send them to our email. They were really excited to have us as email friends and invited us to ask them for any advice, or help about korea! They were so great.
Monday, September 24, 2007
A Seoul-ful good time!
Hey all.
So we finally went to Seoul yesterday, with another teacher at the school who is also our bosses' daughter. It's only about 40 minutes on the "subway" which doesn't actually go underground until we get to Seoul. I didn't think it was that close. We started out at City Hall, apparently an "Art Nouveau" building (thanks, Tara), probably built in the early 20th century. We then met some friends of Ellisa, and went to a palace right across the street. It was a big complex, with 10 or 11 buildings, some of which initially built before the 16th century, but rebuilt in the early 20th. It was beautiful. Simply amazing. Once we can get pictures off of my camera, we'll show everyone. It's Chuseok right now, which is Korean Thanksgiving, a three-day holiday from work that involves memorial services for ancestors and a celebration of the harvest. Thus, there were traditional ceremonies all over Seoul, such as a changing of the guard at the Palace, and other parades in more traditional areas such as Insa-dong, a small preserved community in Seoul that forbids the use of English on signs, even at Starbucks. Insa-dong was full of tourists, though, and we heard more English there than almost everywhere else put together, a paradox that we both thoguht interesting. Before Insa-dong we walked through a stream in the heart of the financial district, recently restored after it was paved over. They did an amazing job at creating currents and making it seem natural, given that it's downtown in the second biggest metropolis in the world.
We then had some delicious Korean food, and the servers gave us a lot of extra food because Tara haggled with them and told them it was too expensive in Korean! The guy was really nice, and was trying his best to speak English to us. He kept calling me teacher, and was really impressed when Tara said good-bye and thank you in Korean to him.
After, we walked through the busiest, most insanely crammed-full-of-people area I've ever seen. It's called Myung-dong, a shopping district in Seoul, and we have no desire to ever go back. It took us to a mountain in the heart of the city, called Nam-san, where we took a cable car to the top and looked over the vast expanse of lights, buildings, and traffic. What a massive place! It was gorgeous, though, as there are many mountains surrounding the valley where Seoul lies. There's a tower at the top, called Seoul tower, that we didn't go up, but someday I'm sure we will.
So we finally went to Seoul yesterday, with another teacher at the school who is also our bosses' daughter. It's only about 40 minutes on the "subway" which doesn't actually go underground until we get to Seoul. I didn't think it was that close. We started out at City Hall, apparently an "Art Nouveau" building (thanks, Tara), probably built in the early 20th century. We then met some friends of Ellisa, and went to a palace right across the street. It was a big complex, with 10 or 11 buildings, some of which initially built before the 16th century, but rebuilt in the early 20th. It was beautiful. Simply amazing. Once we can get pictures off of my camera, we'll show everyone. It's Chuseok right now, which is Korean Thanksgiving, a three-day holiday from work that involves memorial services for ancestors and a celebration of the harvest. Thus, there were traditional ceremonies all over Seoul, such as a changing of the guard at the Palace, and other parades in more traditional areas such as Insa-dong, a small preserved community in Seoul that forbids the use of English on signs, even at Starbucks. Insa-dong was full of tourists, though, and we heard more English there than almost everywhere else put together, a paradox that we both thoguht interesting. Before Insa-dong we walked through a stream in the heart of the financial district, recently restored after it was paved over. They did an amazing job at creating currents and making it seem natural, given that it's downtown in the second biggest metropolis in the world.
We then had some delicious Korean food, and the servers gave us a lot of extra food because Tara haggled with them and told them it was too expensive in Korean! The guy was really nice, and was trying his best to speak English to us. He kept calling me teacher, and was really impressed when Tara said good-bye and thank you in Korean to him.
After, we walked through the busiest, most insanely crammed-full-of-people area I've ever seen. It's called Myung-dong, a shopping district in Seoul, and we have no desire to ever go back. It took us to a mountain in the heart of the city, called Nam-san, where we took a cable car to the top and looked over the vast expanse of lights, buildings, and traffic. What a massive place! It was gorgeous, though, as there are many mountains surrounding the valley where Seoul lies. There's a tower at the top, called Seoul tower, that we didn't go up, but someday I'm sure we will.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Millenium Friend Internet Paradise!
English signs in Korea are pretty interesting. One, for a place called Prints says "The Poor Design Seriously Threats your Soul." The above one is the name of our new favourite PC 방 (internet cafe). They offer complimentary green tea or iced coffee, which is MUCH better than the hot coffee I've had so far. There is a Starbucks near Bucheon subway station, but it costs 3000 won for a coffee. That's like 4$! No, thank you! We brought our own coffee, but it's slowly running out....
Korean food is very, very good, but ordering it is not the easiest thing to do. We've managed to find what we want, and ask for it in Korean, but we hardly know what anything is and the servers tend to ask us a whole bunch of things that we can't possibly understand. They also stare at us. A lot. Everyone seems to, though. Tara thinks we should take pictures of everyone that stares at us, so we might start posting those when we figure out how. We might need our own computer first (hopefully when we get paid, whenever that will be).
Tomorrow, we're going to the bank! Hooray for banks. We need the help of another teacher at the school, but at least we'll be able to deposit money and send it home. Next step, a phone line!
Note from Tara: The Korean girls really do think Brendan is hot. Okay, he is, but they really do. This one group of school girls (all kilted up) saw him in this clothing store. They all ogled him with huge smiles all over them! They turned as he walked by and one girl mustered up the courage to say "hiiiiiiiiii!!!" He didn't really notice. I did though! ha.
Still missing everyone. Maybe tonight we'll figure out how to call home...
Korean food is very, very good, but ordering it is not the easiest thing to do. We've managed to find what we want, and ask for it in Korean, but we hardly know what anything is and the servers tend to ask us a whole bunch of things that we can't possibly understand. They also stare at us. A lot. Everyone seems to, though. Tara thinks we should take pictures of everyone that stares at us, so we might start posting those when we figure out how. We might need our own computer first (hopefully when we get paid, whenever that will be).
Tomorrow, we're going to the bank! Hooray for banks. We need the help of another teacher at the school, but at least we'll be able to deposit money and send it home. Next step, a phone line!
Note from Tara: The Korean girls really do think Brendan is hot. Okay, he is, but they really do. This one group of school girls (all kilted up) saw him in this clothing store. They all ogled him with huge smiles all over them! They turned as he walked by and one girl mustered up the courage to say "hiiiiiiiiii!!!" He didn't really notice. I did though! ha.
Still missing everyone. Maybe tonight we'll figure out how to call home...
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Tomorrow is a new day
Today was pretty long.
At school they told us to bring our toothbrushes "starting tomorrow."
They also told Brendan he scared the kindergarten class upstairs. Oooooo scary foreigner!
We didn't teach any classes today. We will tomorrow. Thank goodness.
We went out for dinner all by ourselves tonight. We were staring at a menu outside of a restaurant and a lady came out and brought us in the restaurant. We chose some food from picutres on the menu. We had no idea what we had ordered. It turned out okay though. Brendan had some udon noodle soup and....ummm...well there was kimchi and pickled radish on the table? I had a tofu broth like dish that you apparently add rice to. Hmm. I wish I knew! It was pretty good though. People eat a lot of food here with their meals. We only spent 8,000 won for both of us. Thats about 10 canadian dollars.
Our next goal is to buy some garbage bags, which is a lot harder than you might think. They're regulated by the government, and we have no idea where they're located in E-Mart, our new favourite store! We tried to ask where bags were in Korean to a woman who works there, but she sent us upstairs to the purses....oh well, we tried.
Tomorrow is a new day indeed.
At school they told us to bring our toothbrushes "starting tomorrow."
They also told Brendan he scared the kindergarten class upstairs. Oooooo scary foreigner!
We didn't teach any classes today. We will tomorrow. Thank goodness.
We went out for dinner all by ourselves tonight. We were staring at a menu outside of a restaurant and a lady came out and brought us in the restaurant. We chose some food from picutres on the menu. We had no idea what we had ordered. It turned out okay though. Brendan had some udon noodle soup and....ummm...well there was kimchi and pickled radish on the table? I had a tofu broth like dish that you apparently add rice to. Hmm. I wish I knew! It was pretty good though. People eat a lot of food here with their meals. We only spent 8,000 won for both of us. Thats about 10 canadian dollars.
Our next goal is to buy some garbage bags, which is a lot harder than you might think. They're regulated by the government, and we have no idea where they're located in E-Mart, our new favourite store! We tried to ask where bags were in Korean to a woman who works there, but she sent us upstairs to the purses....oh well, we tried.
Tomorrow is a new day indeed.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
E-Mart and Leg Room.
Oh god...And we had trouble going to Wal-mart in Canada. For the unaware, E-Mart is an insanely huge superstore, where it took us a few hours to buy a small amount of food last night.
We arrived in Korea on Monday at around 5:30, then spent the next couple of hours in line for immigration and customs.
What do E Mart and Leg room have in common? They're crowded. They're frustrating. Economy class is frustrating. Especially when they only want to feed you chicken and beef. Well, Brendan liked it. Kind of. Did you like it? He said Kind of.
So we found an internet cafe. We had to search for a while. There is so much around where we live. Its slightly overwhelming, considering we don't understand most of what it is, or what people are shouting at us in E mart.
People like to stare at us. (But we'd stare at us too!) haha. Just kidding.
Okay. Basics.
Apartment is nice. New stuff. Long bed.
Bathroom is korean style. Wet. Waterproof washing machine located beside "shower" faucet. (note: bathroom is the shower)
kitchen is low, no counter space. (Brendan is obsessed with counter space.)
School is good. Free korean style lunch. No expectations, really. Our co workers are nice, and we are the only foreign teachers. Kids are wayyyyy too cute.
We start seriously teaching tomorrow. It should be fun. I think Brendan is nervous. But he will be fine.
We really miss everybody. But its been pretty good so far.
We'll try to update as soon as we can!
We arrived in Korea on Monday at around 5:30, then spent the next couple of hours in line for immigration and customs.
What do E Mart and Leg room have in common? They're crowded. They're frustrating. Economy class is frustrating. Especially when they only want to feed you chicken and beef. Well, Brendan liked it. Kind of. Did you like it? He said Kind of.
So we found an internet cafe. We had to search for a while. There is so much around where we live. Its slightly overwhelming, considering we don't understand most of what it is, or what people are shouting at us in E mart.
People like to stare at us. (But we'd stare at us too!) haha. Just kidding.
Okay. Basics.
Apartment is nice. New stuff. Long bed.
Bathroom is korean style. Wet. Waterproof washing machine located beside "shower" faucet. (note: bathroom is the shower)
kitchen is low, no counter space. (Brendan is obsessed with counter space.)
School is good. Free korean style lunch. No expectations, really. Our co workers are nice, and we are the only foreign teachers. Kids are wayyyyy too cute.
We start seriously teaching tomorrow. It should be fun. I think Brendan is nervous. But he will be fine.
We really miss everybody. But its been pretty good so far.
We'll try to update as soon as we can!
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
VISA paradise!
Well, it actually happened, if you can believe it. We picked up our VISAS this morning, without any problems at the consulate other than the usual snarky counter-person. Hooray! Now, we just need official confirmation of the flight, and a definite itinerary that won't change and we're set.
On a side note, why did the cucumber need a lawyer?
(scroll further to see the answer: we have to keep you reading somehow)
As it stands now, the flight was changed to 7:15am Sunday the 9th, from Toronto to San Francisco to Seoul. The trip should take around 17hrs or so. We'll see if it changes once more. If not, we'll be in Korea by Monday afternoon. Check back next week for exciting news about our arrival!
Any guesses?
The answer is, because it was in a pickle! Ha ha ha. We can hear the laughter.
On a side note, why did the cucumber need a lawyer?
(scroll further to see the answer: we have to keep you reading somehow)
As it stands now, the flight was changed to 7:15am Sunday the 9th, from Toronto to San Francisco to Seoul. The trip should take around 17hrs or so. We'll see if it changes once more. If not, we'll be in Korea by Monday afternoon. Check back next week for exciting news about our arrival!
Any guesses?
The answer is, because it was in a pickle! Ha ha ha. We can hear the laughter.
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