Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Lunar New Year

This weekend was the Lunar New Year. It is the year of the Ox. The Lunar New Year is not the festival it is in China. In Korea businesses were closed Monday and Tuesday. Everyone goes back to their home towns and visits family. On Monday the yound people in the family have to bow to all of the elders in the family. There is a teacher here who is Korean and he showed us how to bow. First you have to form a diamond with your hands, then get down on both knees, then stretch your arms out in front of you and put your head down. After that the elders give young kids (under 18) money. There is a meal and all the food and table settings are white.

Since everyone was leaving Seoul, we couldn't get tickets out of the city. Instead we got a room at the Shila Hotel. It's one of the nicest hotels in the city. There was a nice pool and a spa. We went swimming and snuck into the spa. In the spa there was an area to shower. There were indiviual areas this a hand held shower, mirror, and body washes. There were different grained salts that we could use to rub on our bodies. After lots of scrubing we went to the pools. There were three different temperatures and each pool had a waterfall you could go under. It was nice jumping from hot to cold, or cold, warm, hot. I went in the cold pool and then went into the dry sauna. After that I would run out and hop in the cold pool. It was very refreshing! There was also an infared sauna. I had never heard of that before. It was only 70 degrees, and had infared lights. It's supposed to be very good for your skin. After the saunas we went and scrubed down some more. It was a very relaxing day!


This is Anglea, Judy, Heidi, and Trevor in our hotel room.



These are some Christmas lights in Seoul. They are made out of paper.

Students

I teach kindergartners here in Korea. On Friday we went on a field trip to a place called Seoul Land. There we watched a magic show. It was awful. The magician was from Chicago. He did not dress up couldn't use his props, and it was freezing cold out. My home room class is the Chickadees. I teach writing to all of the other kindergarten classes, but on field trip days I hang out with the Chickadees.


These are the Chickadees.


This is Charlie playing with the magic necklace after the show.



The Robins (another kindergarten class, they all have bird names) were really good last week, so we had a party. We had treats and watched Tom and Jerry. This is Ethan.



The boys liked putting the Bugles on their fingers. This is Thomas. He is crazy. Every story he writes has to do with killing or fighting robots and aliens.


This is Thomas. He is very nice and a really good worker.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Noryangjin Fish Market

Today I went to the fish market in Seoul. I love fish markets. It was huge and full of many strange sea creatures. This market is interesting because you can buy whatever you want, carry it to a resturant in the market and they'll cook it up for you! We bought a fish, crab, and shrimp.


This is a photo of the fish market from above.




I love taking photos of all the fish and things. Another teacher said that these are very delicous, but I haven't tried them.




Squid is very popular here. In convience stores you can buy dried squid, I guess it's like squid jerky. Apparently a very good way to eat it is to eat it raw. Baby squid is supposed to be very good. When you eat it raw it's still wiggling and will suction to your mouth. This one obviously isn't alive still.




We bought two crabs for dinner. These are the ones that we chose. They were delicous! We had it steamed. Instead of giving us nut crackers for the legs, like in the States, we were given scissors. Scissors are used quite often in eating here. If you get noodles or anything, you can use scissors to cut it up.




This is a big fish that we chose for dinner. It was served raw. It came sliced, and then we had some sauces to dip it in. After dipping it in sauce, we could eat it or wrap it in lettuce or sesame leaves and then eat it. Sesame leaves have a very strong favor to them.




This is a photo of our dinner. We sat on the floor and had lots of soju and beer to drink.




Another dinner picture.




This soup was served last. It was cooked at our table. It was very spicy and had, fish, mushrooms, green things, and duk (it's like a rice noodle).

Monday, January 19, 2009

Seoul International Photography Festival

I went to this on my first Sunday in Korea with a fellow teacher named Judy. It was really great, and really huge. It was in an old biulding attached to Seoul Station. The building was falling apart, and as a result, very hip. Koreans take photography very seriously. Everyone has huge cameras on them at all times, I am not even joking.


This is a toliet I encountered. Suprisingly, very clean.


Everyone was taking photos of the exhibit so I decided to join in the fun and take photos of strangers in the exhibit.


Another photo of strangers.


In the beginning there was a found art thing. I thouht this one was funny.
Here are some photos of my first day out in Seoul. I went to the Deoksugung Palace. I also went to an art exhibit called rediscovering Korea. It was put together to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Republic of South Korea. I really enjoyed it.



This is a pot at the palace. It was pretty great because it was in the middle of the city.



This is the palace.


This in Beomgye, the area with the subway station. Its also where the closest nightlife to my apartment is.


Beomgye again. It is on subway line 4.
Here are some photos of the school and my neighborhood



Here is a stack of used Pepsi bottles. I thought it looked kind of cool.







This is where I work. The school is called Poly. In March it is changing to Knox. The area I work in is full of English schools, so there are foreigners everywhere.






A view down the street from the school. There are also many resturants in the area. I love trying them all on my lunch breaks.








A view down the other way.I joined a health club across the street and have been going to yoga classes. I like having everthing I need so close! My apartment is about a 15 minute walk from the school. There is also a really nice organic grocery behind the school.






View of my neighborhho, on the way to the market.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Market

There is a market very near to my house. There is meat, produce, fish, and clothes. You can even buy homemade tofu and fresh dumplings to take home and steam. It's very handy having so much so close! Here are some photos.




There is very interesting street food here. French fry encrusted hotdogs, pastry shaped fish filled wth bean paste, and meat on a stick.


Korean food is very spicey. Peppers are used in everything.


Here are some of the many tiny, dried fish and other sea creatures used in cooking.



Seaweed is called kim in Korean. There is a good dish called kimbap which is rice and veggies rolled in seaweed, similiar to a cailifornia roll only with pickled radish instead of avacado. Kim is also served as a side dish to eat with white rice to add more flavor. It's salty, I like it. I'm not so good at rolling the rice in it with chopsticks. Give me time, I'll be a pro soon enough!



These salty dried fish are very expensive. There are also alot of infomercials about these fish. I haven't tried them yet, but I'm sure I will.

Friday, January 16, 2009


Me in front of Deok Su Gung Palace in Seoul.



My Apartment


My Apartment


My Apartment



My Bed



Near Hotel Bobos



Bobos


I have been in Korea for 5 days now. Everyday here is an adventure!

Getting to Korea:
I arrived at Incheon International Airport around noon on Monday. It was a nice flight, but started with a scare. I had my flight booked out of London because I was visiting Raph. When the school sent me my flight information I saw that there was a 20-kilo weight limit. I assumed this was for two bags since it was an international flight, and all of my past flights always had a 2 bag limit with each bag weighing something like 40lbs. Apparently those limits are only for flights to and from the States. At Heathrow Airport I was informed that I was 15 kilos over my limit. Apparently there is no bag limit, but 20 kilos is the max weight. I went to the baggage desk to pay the overage and was told that it would be almost $900! I couldn't believe it. I almost cried and must have a good panic look. The baggage guy explained that I was over, but he would check my bag as hand luggage. He reprinted my ticket and on the bottom it said max hand luggage reached. I wasn’t supposed to bring anything with me to the gate, but I had my laptop. He said, "Oh that's okay, no one will even look at that." So, I made it with out breaking the bank. On my return flight, I already know that I will not be flying to Europe!

Temporary Housing:
Since I was replacing an existing teacher, I had to wait for her (Janet) to leave move out, so that I could move into her apartment. The school put me up at a hotel called Bobos. It seems that adultery is a big industry here. There are many hotels that cater to these couples and I had the pleasure of staying in one! My room was pink. It even had a pink phone. The bed had curtains around it and a blue orb in the corner. Very classy. The bathroom had the best toilet ever. It had a heated seat, three bidet options, and an air dryer for your bum. The TV was close to being the largest I have ever seen in doors, it even had free porn. Again, this was a classy place. It was in a nice area. There was a restaurant across the road with the best dumplings ever. I love dumplings! And crossing the street in the area was great because there were pedestrian bridges everywhere.

Poly School:
My first few days at the school were training. I followed Janet to her classes and learned about the classes. I will be teaching kinder gardeners in the morning. In the afternoons I will be teaching older students. The students here are so incredibly smart! The kinder gardeners can write really well, and read pretty advanced books. I couldn't imagine half of the kinder gardeners in the States being able to keep up in these classes. If the class starts acting up, control is easy to regain. All you have to do is start counting and the kids will knock each other down to be first. Everything is a competition here. The teachers are all very nice and helpful. It seems like it will be a good year. Friday was my first day teaching by myself was on Friday. It went well, but was exhausting.

Medical:
In order to live and work here and I had to go and get a medical check. This was an interesting experience. I had to go around to eight different stations with each doing different things. It seemed very inefficient. One person checks my weight, another my height, on and on. Two strange things I noticed, working with blood does not require gloves and smoking is okay in hospitals. Assuming my test went okay, I should have an alien registration card soon. After that I get free health care, can buy a cell phone, and rent movies!