Skiing in Korea

When I first came over here, I was definitely dreading the winter. Coming from Florida, and not even owning a winter coat, I knew it was going to be a cold winter. The one thing I was looking forward to was skiing. I love to ski, and I was really excited about going. The first time I went was back in November, and I went with Whitney, Erica, Jason, and 3 of the Korean teachers (which was good because they helped us with the bus, ski rental, and everything). We got up at 5am and met everyone in front of Dunkin Donuts to catch the bus. About 2 hours later we made it to Muju. There was not a lot of snow on the ground, but the slopes were fine thanks to the artificial stuff. We all got our skis and snowboards and were ready to hit the slopes. Unfortunately, everyone in Korea thought it was a good day to go skiing too. There were so many people, or I should say there were so many snowboarders. I would say the ratio of snowboarders to skiers was probably 80-20. That made it a little uncomfortable going down the slopes and hearing the snowboarders buzzing by on both sides, I almost got ran into many times. The ski lifts all had really long lines. We waited about 40 minutes in the longest line. The best thing about the ski lifts was the guy standing at the end of the lift, when it was time to get off. He would bow at everyone getting off. I mean, I know it’s a normal thing here, but man that must get pretty annoying to bow every 7 seconds.


After about only 3 runs (because we waited so long in the lines) it was time for lunch. They don’t have lodges here with cozy fireplaces, instead they just have a cafeteria that serves lots of kimchi and rice. Luckily there also have a Popeyes there too! So, greasy fried chicken and french fries it was for me. After a few more times down the slopes it was time to head back to the bus and back to Gwangju.



I went skiing another time in January, and then again this past weekend. We had a 4 day vacation for the Lunar New Year. So we decided to spend 2 of those days in Muju; Me, Whitney, Jake, Devon, and the new teachers Matt and Melissa. It was a lot of fun and we were pleasantly surprised to see the slopes practically empty! Totally opposite from the past 2 times I went. The Lunar New Year is such a big family holiday for Koreans, that everyone was at home and not on the slopes. It was fantastic. No lines, no crazy snowboarders, and no fog. It was a really clear and we could see all the mountains. We stayed at a hostel in the ski resort, which was literally just a room with blankets, a fridge, and a TV: no beds. On the down side the floor was hard and it was a small room for all of us, but on the up side the floors were heated, so it was nice and warm. It was a good weekend, and hopefully I can go skiing again before the winter is over.

Korean wedding and mystery meat

Last month I got the opportunity to go to a Korean wedding. One of the Korean teachers at my school was getting married. I was expecting to see a traditional Korean style wedding, but it was actually more western style. The ceremony was held in a place called “Marriot Wedding”, which is apparently where many weddings take place. When we arrived there, we didn’t really know where to go, luckily some of the other teachers got there at the same time. We followed them into this little room, and the bride was in there – just sitting there – with everyone taking pictures around her. It was very different; because it seemed like that should have just been a room for family and a few close friends to come in. It’s a great idea though, because she didn’t have to move, and anyone who wanted to see her and take a picture with her had the opportunity to do so. And oddly enough they even brought the groom in there to take pictures before the ceremony.

After everyone got their pictures, it was time for the ceremony to start. We took our seats in the nicely decorated wedding hall and got our cameras ready. The mothers were both wearing Hanboks (traditional Korean dress) but other than that, the bride was wearing a dress and the groom was wearing a tux. From there on everything was pretty much the same, the bride walked down the aisle with her father. Then the priest started talking for a long time. There were a lot of camera men, and they didn’t hesitate to get a good picture, they just got right up there and snapped away in their faces. When the priest finished talking they went to both parents and bowed, then another one of the bride’s friends, also a Korean teacher at my school sang a song. The weirdest thing was that as the ceremony was going on there were a whole bunch of people in the back, in the foyer near the entrance, just talking away, almost to the point where I couldn’t hear the priest (not like I could understand what he was saying anyway). Come to find out that all those people were waiting for the next wedding to start, because as soon as her wedding was finished another bride was already lining up with her father ready to walk down the aisle. Koreans don’t waste time.

Once the ceremony was over, there was buffet. Sort of like a reception, but without the dancing, cake cutting, etc. The food was really good! There was a lot of it too. The bride came to the buffet dressed in her Hanbok.

Ok, so changing the subject to food. Which to say the least is always interesting. I never considered myself a picky eater, but back home I never really ate spicy food or fish or anything that didn’t look appetizing. But living here has changed my “view” on different foods. I usually try everything now and eat things I probably never would have tried back home. You really cannot be a picky eater here, you could but you would starve. So to sound cliché, I’ve definitely broadened my horizons, food wise. There’s been many time where I’ve eaten things, and had no clue of what it was, which brings me to last weekend.

It was a pretty lazy and relaxing weekend. Did a little shopping downtown, and hung around the apartment. On Sunday Whitney, Erica, and I decided to go out for lunch, since we weren’t doing much and well it’s cheap to go out to eat. We wanted to try something new, so we went to this one restaurant which we’ve seen before, that looked pretty good. We walked in, sat down and did the usual language barrier sign language. The menu was all in Korean of course, but we usually can read something and figure out what it is, but this time none of the characters looked familiar. So we basically just pointed to something that looked good and hoped for the best. It was a barbeque place, so there was a grill on our table for us to cook it. Our waitress brought out our “mystery meat” and we all kind of looked at with confusion, and I guess the waitress caught on and decided that she needed to cook it for us, since we looked hopeless. As she put it on the grill, our big American eyes got even bigger when we saw the “mystery meat” curl up on the sides, looking like sausage. It smelt good, and was apparently not sausage because our waitress said “no sausage”. We kept asking her what it was, but she didn’t really speak any English, so she just smiled and nodded.

When it was finished cooking, we were a little hesitant at first, but went ahead and tried it. It didn’t taste too bad. The texture was a little strange, but with it seasoned and barbequed, I thought it tasted pretty good. The texture was very fatty. Erica kept saying it was just pure fat we were eating, but the waitress caught on to that word and said “no fat”. So we sat there eating this “meat” and had no idea what it was. Before we left the restaurant we took a picture of the meat and the menu to take to school and ask one of the Korean teachers what it was. Come to find out the next day that what we had eaten was…… pig intestines.

Awesome.

This is not a drill.

Last Friday was just a regular day. I was happy to be teaching my last class of the day – my 5:40 class. A class full of loud 4th grade boys. It was about 6:05, 15 minutes until the end of class, and strangely enough they were all quiet while we were reading our storybook. That was when a very, VERY faint sound of a fire alarm went off. My kids still all jumped out of their chairs, ran to the window, and started screaming “Teacher..fire!” I went over to the window expecting to see a small bonfire or something. Nope. Instead I saw the brightest orange glow I’ve ever seen, along with big pieces of fire embers flying in the wind. I couldn’t see the fire and I wasn’t sure where it was, but I knew it was big. I told my kids to grab their shoes and their backpacks and lineup. That was when I panicked a little bit, I had no idea where I was going to take them. So I stood there for a second and looked out the door to see if any of the other classes were leaving. I saw one teacher leave her classroom and run down the hallway, I waited to see what she was going to do. She came running back and told me the building next door was on fire, I turned back to my panicked kids and tried to calm them down, telling them that our school was not on fire, just the other building. I took my kids quickly down the hallway and down the stairs. We were on the fifth floor and there are windows all along the staircase facing the burning building. That is when I realized exactly how big the fire was. Never in my life had I seen flames that big. I got to the second floor, where our lobby is, and Whitney was at the bottom holding my stuff. I get my kids in the lobby, trying to keep them all together, in the chaos of all the other classes coming in. I saw the other teachers getting their coats and etc. So I quickly grabbed my coat – didn’t think to get my shoes though (We wear slippers in school).

As I was getting my coat on, the Korean teachers are running everywhere and the secretary is trying to scream into a megaphone that doesn’t work. Then finally my boss screams over all the noise, telling the kids to be quiet, and continues to tell them what do. Which didn’t help me, since everything she was saying was in Korean. She apparently told the kids to put their arm over their mouth and to start heading out. A few kids went downstairs and out the door, but came running back up due to all the falling embers from the fire. That’s when a firefighter came halfway up and told everyone to start getting out. We went down the stairs and began running down the sidewalk, there was no way to keep all the kids together. I was holding the hands of two of my girls and just following the other kids and teachers. The wind was blowing in the direction we were going, so all of the ashes and embers were falling down on us. One fell on my coat and luckily Whitney was running beside me and screamed “Caroline there’s fire on you!” and patted it off. There was one point where we thought we went far enough away and stopped, just to look up and see more coming, so we kept going. My kids were crying, at least the ones I still had with me and other kids were slipping on the snowy/icy sidewalk. Once we got far enough the buses came and they started putting kids on. I stayed with one of my girls for a long time because she was waiting for her mom to come pick her up. Once all the kids were on buses and/or picked up some of the teachers went back to look at the fire and take some pictures.

The building next door was empty and I guess they were beginning to tear it down. We think the fire may have started from electrical wires. Apparently over 100 firefighters came and about 50 fire trucks came to and from the fire. At some point when the fire trucks first arrived, they ran the hose across the street, without blocking off traffic first and a bus drove over the hose, busting it open. Luckily our school didn’t catch on fire and no one was hurt. It was definitely a scary experience, leaving many of the kids and the Korean teachers balling their eyes out.

We went back the next morning to check out the damage and help clean up. Our school didn’t have too much damage. Some of the windows broke and one of the rooms has holes in the ceiling from firefighters having to drain water out.

Can I get some fries with that?

Happy New Year!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful time bringing in 2010! I turned a year older over here. Along with every one else in Korea. Their age system is quite different. When Koreans are born they are 1 year old. Then instead of turning a year older on their birthday, they all turn a year older on January 1st, the new year. Every time one of my students has a birthday, it's just a reaction for me to ask "how old are you turning?" ..and thats when I get a blank stare, "uh I'm still 7 teacher." It's just a weird concept. So I am pretty old over here - 25. (23 American age)

I thought I would share a little of what I eat every day at school. Keep in mind these are a few of the things that I eat. There are many odd things I don't eat, such as sardines, kimchi soup, rice cakes with red sauce (which tastes like spicy marshmellows) It changes every day and theres no schedule of whats for lunch - it varies between about 15 options. Every meal comes with rice, kimchi, vegatable of somesort (usually seaweed stuff or bean sprouts), a main dish, and soup. I never eat the soup though because it's usually tofu soup, or a fishy soup.

Rice and curry, with bean sprouts.

Quail eggs, dried seaweed, and kimchi

Tuna and potatoes.

Spicy, but delicious bulgogi (pork)

Egg omelet square things.

Donkansa (fried pork cutlet) and a very yummy egg/apple salad.

Christmas in the mountains.

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! This was my first Christmas away from home. And to be perfectly honest, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. Of course I missed being at home and spending time with my family, but thanks to wonderful technology, I was able to video chat with both Jen and Court in England and the rest of the fam in Tallahassee. It definitely wasn’t the same through a web cam, but it was good to see everyone’s faces and chat for a while. It’s really a bitter sweet feeling, because while I would love to be with my family during the holidays, right now I am perfectly happily being over here. I say it all the time, but I am truly having the greatest time here in Korea. It’s a mixture of great travel spots, great friends, and just once in a lifetime opportunities, and I’m trying to soak up every moment of it. (Oh and it doesn't hurt that I love going to work every day.)

Soeraksan National Park in Sokcho, Korea was our destination over Christmas break. Whitney, her friend Austin, Erica, Jason, Steve, and I all got on a bus toward Sokcho at 8:30 on Thursday morning. 5 and a half hours later we made it and we were all starving, so we decided to find the nearest restaurant and eat whatever they would serve us. We found a Chinese place and had some delicious chicken and fried rice. Once we were all full and happy we set out to find our hostel, which was a little bit of a challenge, but we eventually found it. It’s a long story but we ended up getting one room with one bed for all 6 of us. Luckily they heat the floors here, so most people opted to sleep on the floor anyway. I ended up getting to sleep on the bed due to my butt injury. Let’s just say I don’t walk well on slick ice.

On Friday we explored the National Park a little bit. We saw a giant Buddha, which looked almost the same as the Great Buddha in Japan. It was really neat, especially with the mountains in the background. Then we took a cable car up to the top of the mountain, and according to the pamphlet it’s “one of the most unique adventure attractions on Earth.” I don’t know about that, but it was really pretty. We could even see the waterfalls – frozen waterfalls that is. The view was beautiful and the weather was nice too. It even started snowing a little bit, and I got really excited – because it was a “White Christmas!” It only snowed for about 3 minutes though. :(

After that we took a hiking trail up to one of the waterfalls. It was a lot of fun. The waterfall was really pretty and it was neat to see it half frozen and half not. The sound of the waterfall is so relaxing and it’s just one of those places where I could just spend the whole day. Well, except in the winter. On our way back down we decided to go off the trail and take a quicker way to our hostel. It was fun hiking through the woods and across a rocky river.

That night for dinner, we all wanted a nice Christmas meal, so we went up the hill from our tiny hostel to a nice hotel with a western style restaurant. It was by far one of the best dinners I had eaten in a while. Even though we were pretty bummed that they were out of French onion soup, they did have a nice side salad with Italian dressing and also butter rolls. I had the chicken cordon blue, and it was delicious. After dinner we walked back to our hostel and got all cozy in our slumber party room. It was a good day, and a nice Christmas. I stayed up and talked to my family on video chat for a while and then went to bed.

The next day we walked around the park a little more and saw a temple and just enjoyed the scenery. We planned on going to a hot springs later that day, but then we found out that there was only one bus that was going back to Gwangju that day and it was leaving at 3:30. So, Erica, Jason, and I were tired and ready to go home so we bought our bus tickets and headed back that day, while Whitney, Austin, and Steve stayed back and went to the hot springs and stayed overnight an extra day. The bus ride was really long, but it was nice to get home after a long weekend, and sleep in on Sunday.

Well, I hope everyone had a great Christmas! I’m headed back up the country on another bus to Seoul for New Years! Love you all! Happy Holidays! :) Enjoy this little video I made of my kids singing:

It's hard to eat Thanksgiving dinner with chopsticks

So last Thursday was Thanksgiving, and it was a little depressing to be working and not spending it with family, eating turkey, and watching football. I spent the whole day trying to explain to 5 and 6 year olds what Thanksgiving and turkey was. So anyways, all the foreign teachers, which are all Americans, decided to have our own Thanksgiving dinner that Sunday. We also thought it would be fun to invite all the Korean teachers too, so they could get a little glimpse of what we eat on Thanksgiving. After much debate we decided to have it at our place. That day Erica (another Kinder teacher) came over and we all cooked our assigned dish. Unfortunately none of the apartments have ovens, so that kind of put a cramp in our cooking. We made the mashed potatoes and corn, and Erica also made yummy carrots and deviled eggs :) So since they don’t have turkey here, we opted for the next closest thing – chicken. And well, since we don’t have ovens to cook a chicken, we decided to order it. Now, usually at school when we want to get food we have the Korean teachers order it for us, which works perfectly. But since we ordered it ourselves, it didn’t go as smoothly. We called and Erica ordered what we wanted and how many, it took a little while for her to understand and then she kept talking and saying stuff in Korean, and then I got on the phone and told her where we lived (which was an accomplishment in itself). We hung up and weren't really sure what happened, but knew we ordered something. A little while later the delivery man was at our door and he had one tiny little box of chicken in his hand. Well, we got the chicken we wanted but we needed a little more than one tiny box to feed 20 people – we thought we ordered 4 boxes. So then we ordered again from another place and somehow ordered 3 more boxes correctly. :) The feast turned out pretty good. Everything tasted great. We had a lot of the Korean teachers show up too. After eating we played this fun Korean game, which is sort of like jacks.

Our Thanksgiving spread

Playing the Korean jacks game

On Saturday a few of the other teachers and I went to this store called Home Plus, which I don’t know why we hadn’t discovered sooner. It’s a big grocery/home goods store that has more American food than anywhere else. Not a whole lot, but they have things like block cheese, American beers, salad dressing, and the thing I was most excited about - GOLDFISH!!! :)

On Sunday we went to the “Wii Bong”, which is this cool place where you pick out a game, order a coke or hot chocolate, and then they take you to your own personal room and just play Wii. It was a lot of fun. We played Mario party, and it was hard to decipher a lot of the directions since everything was in Korean.

On a side note, an example of some corporal punishment in the Korean schools. Last week one of my afternoon elementary students told me that her friend got in a fight and so the teacher grabbed her by the hair and threw her on the ground and kicked her….She might have been trying to say that the other girl did that – but I’m pretty sure she said the teacher did. I asked her like 3 times. And it surprises me a little, but Korean teachers don't mess around with punishment - they can do whatever they want to the students. They like to pick them up by their ears too.

Top 5 things I miss (besides friends and family):

5. Real pizza. (you know without mayonnaise and corn)

4. Macaroni and cheese.

3. Driving (though sometimes it’s kinda nice not having a car)

2. A soft comfy bed

1. A Dryer! (I've never appreciated dryers as much as I do now. I hate hanging my clothes, and they are always so stiff.)

Dinner at a new restaurant - Delicious galbi!

China video