I Believe the Unofficial Name Would Be "Fish Gut Soup"

Hello everyone! Here is a quick update before we tell you of our adventures in Tokyo!

Last Saturday for dinner we went to the Garak Seafood Market (가락수산물 시장) with our Korean friends. I didn't have too much time to look around (I plan to go back), but the things I saw were awesome! Huge sting-ray for sale, giant octopus tentacles, tanks upon tanks of live fish and other squirming delicacies. It was a curious-fish lovers paradise, and dinner didn't disappoint either!

We ate huge plates of sashimi (raw fish slices including such fish as flatfish 광어, sea bass 농어), whole crabs in a sweet soy type sauce, and ark clam 꼬막, and a soup filled with EVERY part of fish and shell. So I got to experience eating fish intestine and goodness knows what else, which led me to call the soup "fish gut" soup, even though I'm sure there is a much more appetizing name for it!

On the way out of dinner, I saw a couple with a plate of squirming baby octopus tentacle. I had heard about this - apparently they cut up the baby octopus and serve it right away, so its still wriggling all over your plate. I was so entertained by it that the lady picked up a squirming tentacle with her chopsticks, dipped it in the sesame oil and fed it to me! The best part was - it was delicious! I'm definitely going back to get a plate of my own!

On Sunday we went to Seoul Tower located in Namsan Park. We hiked up a bunch of stairs surrounded by trees and plant life (a nice break from the city) to get a great view of the city! Its too bad it was kinda cloudy when we went but we plan to go back and go to the observatory.

One of the most interesting things about the tower was that the fences surrounding the tower were covered in little padlocks. Apparently, sometime, someone hooked a padlock to the fence and wrote on it a declaration of his/her love for their significant other and then threw the key over the edge. Now, the fences are covered with padlocks with messages such as "Bob and Sue forever" or "Billy + Amy = Love" (except usually in Korean).

After the hike, we headed over to the 2009 Lotus Lantern Festival where they had a 2 hour long parade of lanterns in honor of Budda's birthday. The parade was very impressive with hundreds of people and lantern floats marching down one of the busiest roads of the city (obviously closed to traffic at this point). We were able to snatch one of the best seats in the house after climbing onto a subway station overhang. Rach and I were on a mission to get a lantern to take home so after the parade we searched the streets and found...well, quite a few!

That's about it for now - stay tuned for Tokyo! We will be there from early Saturday to late Tuesday!

New PICTURES on webshots!

Lets Do Some "Science"!

It has been a pretty slow week here in Korea (at least, slow for Meg and Me!) We have gotten so used to running around day and night that it seems strange to have had some down time lately. Of course, we will probably be looking back on this week fondly come May! As we have mentioned we have a lot of trips booked for May. We are spending the first weekend in Tokyo and the second on our hiking trip that Meg mentioned last time. We will be in Seoul for the third weekend (although I have to work on that Sunday for Gym Day so it isn't a completely free weekend for me) and then will be visiting the DMZ on the fourth weekend. At the moment we will be spending the fifth weekend in May around here, but as we have discovered, that could change rather quickly! It is exciting to look at our calendar and see all these plans and I am sure it will make June come rather fast!

Last Thursday I experienced the wonderful day we call "Science Day" at CIS. The name is a bit misleading as there is really very little science that takes place (or at least, that is taught and learned). Instead of doing a field trip this month, a company brings in all kinds of science items and "experiments" for us to do for an entire day. Sounds fun right? The problem is, the science curriculum we use for the kindergartners at CIS is designed by Koreans. This would be okay, except for the fact that the Koreans have a very skewed idea of what is developmentally appropriate. You may have already gathered this from some of our other posts, as it is very evident in their schooling. For example, putting "five" year olds in school for 5 hours a day. And in my case, expecting them to be able to read and write in English by the end of the school year (I mean honestly, my babies can't even read and write in their first language yet!) Thus, our science curriculum is based on concepts way over our their heads (for example, my babies have a lesson on centrifugal force coming up) and the students don't possess the fine motor skills to create the items. Speaking of which, these aren't science experiments as we think of them in the States. The science here is basically build some kind of toy that uses science to work (for example, a car that moves by the wind power of a paper fan). So science basically turns into Ms. Gaard building 12 toys, taping up ripped pieces that break, and being frustrated in general by 12 kids yelling "helpa may plaze!"

So on science day I constructed 12 of the following: alligator cars (you blew up a balloon to make it move), a dragonfly that balanced on your finger, a boomerang, soda bottle rocket and a capsule race. The only real science part of the day was when we went down to the gym to play with all the cool toys the company had brought in. There were things like a stringless harp, noise making machines, a hovercraft, tornado in a bottle, etc. So although the kids had fun on this day, no real science was taught.

On Saturday we convinced some of our Korean friends to come down to our neighborhood instead of hanging out in Gangnam (which is where we usually spend our Saturday nights). They took us to an awesome little place where we had grilled lamb skewers and mandu. It was super delicious and both Meg and I would love to go to it again...but probably won't be able to find it amongst all the back alleyways! Then a group of us went to noreabong at one of our local places. Now that we can read Korean we have discovered that noreabongs are all over the place in our neighborhood. Speaking of which, at Korean lessons this week I successfully wrote 'Rachel' and 'Meghan' in Korean! It was a very exciting moment for me and rather difficult because you can't directly translate sounds from English to Korean. For example, my name is read as Ray-E-Chayl and Meg's as May-Gawn in Korean.

We promised to touch on beauty in Korea, so here is a little snippet for you. We always thought America was completely obsessed with thin and beauty but coming here it seems just as bad, just in a different sense. The pressure to be thin is enormous over here! It is mind boggling seeing as Koreans eat a lot, but there are very few overweight people. In fact, they are also very vocal about people being overweight and discuss it at length. One of the former Western teachers at CIS was told by a student that the student's mom and her decided she was overweight because she "drinks coffee, eats doughnuts and doesn't play soccer" (and this teacher is considered slender in the States). Another kindergarten student at CIS told her teacher that she goes running every morning because her dad told her she is getting fat. Besides the weight issue, Koreans are also very blunt with how you look. The Korean staff has been known to tell Western teachers they look "not good" on days when they put less effort into their appearance.

Korean females are almost always in heels, no matter what the weather or what they are wearing. We have seen maybe one female in sweatpants in the two months we have been here. Seeing women spending an entire subway ride looking in their compact mirror, fixing their hair and makeup is not uncommon. Men are in suits 7 days a week for the most part (however this might be more of a generational thing because it is not as common among younger men). Many of the younger guys would be termed "high-maintenance" in America (that is, they look like they spend more time getting ready in the morning than most girls). We have also learned that Korea is the plastic-surgery capital of the world. Typical lunch-time conversation between the Koreans at my school is about who has had/wants/is getting what procedure. All said and done though, I don't feel like I am constantly being bombarded by beautiful people in ads and on TV. Perhaps this is do to the fact that everyone looks relatively similar (as far as being black haired, black eyed and skinny) so "beauty" is less noticeable.

Anyway, I am sure we will write more on this topic throughout the year, we just wanted to give you a quick overview. The Koreans are taking us out on Sunday for our monthly sightseeing trip so keep an eye out for pictures from that! As of now, the plan is to go to the Seoul Tower so we should have great pictures of the city for you to view in the near future!

Wednesday = 2 months in Korea! Say whaaaaat?

New pictures HERE and HERE in webshots!

Last Saturday I went to my Korean coworker Sunny's wedding. It was about an hour and a half south of Seoul, so some of the teachers from Froebel took a van down. Sunny was marrying a British guy so we weren't sure if it was going to be super traditional or not. From what we gathered it was a bit of both. I received my invite to this wedding about 3 weeks in advance (which for a wedding invitation seemed a bit last minute) but apparently weddings are usually not as big of a production here as they are in the states. The actual ceremony lasted a little less than an hour, and in general was pretty casual. She wore a traditional white wedding dress, and he was in a tux, but his mom and her parents were dressed in traditional Korean clothing, with the mothers wearing a hanbok. After the ceremony we all gathered in a giant cafeteria like place that had an all you can eat buffet with about 50 different dishes. I got to try jellyfish! All in all it was a fun experience to be a part of!

Jimjilbang. Something we were determined to try when we were here...but one of the experiences we were more apprehensive about. These are the bathhouses where everyone just takes it all off and enjoys the spa (separated by gender at least). We went with a few of our Korean girlfriends and it was a lot of fun! We relaxed in a green tea water hot tub and went to the sauna where we had girl talk and ate some traditional Korean spa food (yes they even are able to eat in the sauna...its ridiculous!) and drank some traditional rice drink as well. These places have everything...massages, scrub downs (more detail about that in a minute), an outside deck (at least at the one we were at), a place to sleep/watch tv, some have a place to get your nails done, and even a bar. Rach and I decided to get a scrub down since it was our first time and we had heard so much about it. Basically we had to lie on a table while a middle aged Korean woman (in her underwear nonetheless) put on two exfoliating gloves and scrubbed down our entire body. It was absolutely disgusting all the dead skin and dirt that came off of my seemingly clean body! Afterwards I had never felt so soft and radiant and just clean. We will definitely be going back for another scrub at some point, and probably a massage in the near future!

This past Friday I went on a retreat with some of the Froebel staff. We went to a nearby island called 강화도 (Gangwha-do). When we drove there on Friday night it got so dark we were all amazed. It reminded me of MN and Wisconsin (particularly the cabin) and I got pretty homesick for about 20 minutes. It was just an interesting realization that I hadn't seen it that dark in quite a while living in such a big city. Once we got there though I started feeling better. The Korean staff made us a huge home-made dinner which was phenomenal! After dinner we played some games and went to bed. The next day we got up and went hiking at a nearby temple in the mountain. The air was so fresh it was a very nice break from city life.


That's about it for now - we have ALOT of fun things planned though so hopefully we will be able to keep up with the blog while they all happen! One of the biggest trips is coming up in just a couple weeks....TOKYO! We have an extended weekend so we booked a trip to Tokyo and also plan on visiting Mt. Fuji. One of the things I'm most looking forward to is the world famous fish market/auctions that happen at dawn and where you can get the freshest authentic sushi you will probably ever eat! Sushi for breakfast...what a wonderful concept :)

Also we are going to the DMZ on an overnight trip and bunjee jumping on that trip as well! Here is a link describing this trip in more detail: http://www.adventurekorea.com/ (click on "Overnight DMZ Trip and Bungee Jump")

Through the same people we are going on a hiking trip to Seoraksan National Park. To look at this trip go again to http://www.adventurekorea.com/and click on "Seoraksan National Park."

Life Is More Fun As A Millionaire...


Since the last post both Meg and I have become official millionaires! It is nice to finally have some breathing room since we had been living for about 6 weeks on the last of our American money. Having money means that we can also start booking fun trips! We have already booked a trip to a less commonly visited area of the DMZ in late May and to Daecheon Beach, Boryeong City (which is on the west coast of Korea) for the annual mud festival in mid-July. Obviously, we will be writing about these when they happen. Now that we have money we have also started discussing travel plans for our first school vacation (which occurs in late July) so we will be sure to share details as they pan out!

Last Thursday I had my first birthday party at CIS. As I previously mentioned, CIS has monthly birthday parties. If anyone in your class has a birthday that month, you have a party. The parties are ridiculously over the top (just like many things in Korea). The moms bring in food, cake(s), and generally thank-you gifts for the students. Each student also brings in a gift for the birthday kid(s). I had 4 kids with birthdays in April so it was quite a show. 44 presents rolled in last week for the birthday kids (which was quite fun to keep organized). The moms all got together and chatted so there wasn't as much food as usual, but still a fair amount. We had fresh strawberries, oranges, fancy rice cakes, ice cream cake, and juice boxes (all at 11am!) All the kids (birthday ones included) received a stuffed gift bag. It was kinda nerve-wracking having 4 moms all in the classroom at once (this was the first time I have had parents in there with me) so I am glad that from here on out I never have more than 2 kids with a birthday in the same month!

We were told that when the seasons change here it is an instant switch. This is dead on. Two weeks ago it was low 50s and gray every day. Lately, it has been mid 70s and sunny everyday (as sunny as it can get with all the smog). I have taken to eating my lunch on the roof of CIS which is a nice change and Meg and I have been able to do some outdoor running which is nice (sorta!) Since the weather is so nice now the Koreans that we hang out with decided that once a month instead of going out to eat after lessons we will go hang out by the Han River. We did this for the first time on Saturday and it was awesome! We got pizza delivered to the river and drank beer while enjoying the view.

One of the Korean guys who comes out with us every week, Juun, always wears a Detroit Tigers baseball hat. I had made fun of him in the past (being a Twins fan and all) but he is relatively new at learning English and I don't think really understands my jokes. Two weeks ago Meg stole his hat to wear for some pictures and he was joking about how she couldn't do that because of his hat hair. Meg jokingly made a comment that he should buy us our own hats if he didn't want his stolen. Low and behold this Saturday during English class, Juun walks into our room with two MLB bags with MLB boxes inside. Meg and I are pretty shocked at this and give each other a look. Sure enough, we are now the "proud" owners of Chicago White Sox baseball hats. Why CWS hats? Well, one of the other foriegn guys who comes out with us is from Boston. He and I are always going back and forth about baseball, specifically the Twins and Red Sox. Anyway, Juun thought it would be funny to get us Boston hats but mixed up his sox and got us the White Sox instead! Meg and I rocked the hats most of Saturday night (which might have been a mistake since the Twins played the Sox that night and lost) and are still slightly shocked that Juun actually got them for us!

Speaking of baseball, Sunday afternoon Meg and I had our first experience with Korean baseball. One of the Korean teams is the LG Twins, so Meg and I decided that it was fate and we must be their fans. Conveniently, the Twins home field is also in Jamsil, only about 15 minutes walking distance from our place. Not only are they named the Twins, but they also have the exact same logo as the MN Twins! Thus, I am able to wear my Mauer shirt to game and fit right in (and any apparel we get here will work in the US!)

We decided to head over to the stadium for the LG Twins vs Doosan Bears game. Think Twins vs Brewers rivalry only these two teams share a home stadium. The place was nuts!! We got there about 30 minutes early and had to wait 15 minutes to buy our tickets. Everything was sold out except the "cheap seats" which are actually pretty awesome seats! We ended up in right center field, about 5 rows back and it only cost us 6,000w (about $4.50). However, the best part of the game was the atmosphere. The stadium is basically split in half, with the LG fans sitting on one half and the Doosan fans on the other. Pretty much everyone has thunder sticks (which we are now proud owners of) so that they can participate in the choreographed cheers. Yes, you read that right. They have a slew of cheers that they do in unison, complete with motions. At one point most of the LG fans also whipped out sparklers and there were bright yellow LG signs passed out to all the fans as well. Usually, whoever is batting gets to cheer, but all bets are off when the game gets really intense. LG was winning for most of the game, but true to their name, they fell apart in the 8th inning. LG ended up losing 3-4. However, we are now hooked and are planning on attending many games throughout the next few months! The best part, is it is outdoor baseball which has gotten us stoked for Target Field when we return!

We are finally making a trip to the jjimjilbang (bathhouse) tomorrow, so we will be sure to fill you in on this unique aspect of Korean culture. We are also planning on posting a short entry about beauty in Korea (similar to Meg's post about love) as image and looks are looked upon very different here than we are used to. Anyway, much more to come from our side of the world as we wrap up our second month abroad!




Thunderstick Choreography

Back in the "swing" of things...

Lets see..last Thursday I went swing dancing with a Korean friend named Song. She brought me to a ballroom called "Sky" and once I walked inside I was right at home! The lindy hop is what they dance at this particular place and once I heard the music I couldn't help but start to move. I guess it was a bit naive to think that the Koreans wouldn't swing! But they can dance - and how! Song introduced me to some of the instructors and her personal friends at the ballroom since she's been a member for a while now and everyone was very nice. Only one of them spoke English, the others knew a little bit but hey - you don't need to talk while you dance, am I right? Anyway it was a really good time and I am going to be taking intermediate lindy lessons starting in May! I've always wanted to take formal lessons so I'm pretty excited.

Saturday night we had Korean lessons and then as usual, we went out to dinner with our Korean friends. After dinner, a few of us went to nora-bong (karaoke where you rent out a small room for you and your friends) and it was a blast! Then after, we went out to a local seafood restaurant, which Bin and Ian claim is the best in town. They are friends with some of the wait staff as well so I got to take some pictures with them, haha. Anyway we had an amazing meal where you grill oysters, clams, mussels, abalone and all sorts of stuff on a grill at your table. One of our abalones was still alive and was squirming in its shell!


My squirming dinner


Sunday Rach and I decided to check out a Cherry Blossom festival since spring is coming on very quickly here. It was really nice out and we walked around and looked at all the trees. Since it was pretty early in the festival (the festival lasts a while) not all the trees were in bloom but it was still really pretty.


Tuesday we went out for Sharon's (one of our Korean friends) birthday. We walked along Cheonggyecheon stream for a while which was really nice and we plan to go back eventually. Then we went out to dinner at a traditional Korean restaurant where you grill meat and wrap it in lettuce with bean sprouts, kimchee, garlic, etc. Birthdays are really fun because you can bring your own cake into a bar/restaurant and they shut off all the lights and everyone in the whole restaurant hears the happy birthday song played over the speakers :D


More pictures HERE on webshots!

I think that's all for now - stay tuned for more fun times had in the Seoul of Asia!

Can I Get Some Blood With My Soup?

As usual, Meg and I decided to go on a sightseeing adventure last Sunday. The weather was fairly nice (sunny and about 55 degrees) so we decided an outdoor venue would be a fun thing. As you may recall, we live very close to the 1988 main Olympic stadium and some of the other arenas they used. However, a couple of subway stops in the other direction is Olympic Park. This area holds things like the swimming pool, tennis courts, three Olympic gymnasiums, and so forth. We thought it would be a fun place to wander for a hour or two before dinner. Little did we know the park is HUGE! We spent a good 5 hours walking around and didn't even make a complete loop! Some highlights included seeing the World Peace Gate and the Seoul Olympic Museum. We also had our first taste of street food (similar to a corn dog), took a walk on the acupressure walk, and did some weightlifting. Yes, weightlifting. All throughout the park are different machines that use your body weight for the amount you lift. So the good news is, an outdoor workout center is only about 15 minutes away!

After leaving the park we decided to go to Coex Mall to grab dinner (since there is a large selection). After wandering the mall for a hour or two (honestly, this mall has the most confusing floor layout I have ever seen) we couldn't find anything that grabbed our interest (or was within our quickly dwindling budgets!) We ended up at our local "hole-in-the-wall" Korean place (I say that term with affection, this place is awesome!) at about 8 pm for a 7,500 won dinner (yes, that amount is the total bill for both our meals). On the way home, we hit a furniture jackpot. Our street has been pretty poor for furniture hunting lately, but apparently someone has been listening in on our prays because we were rewarded handsomely! We found a desk for Meg (she has been wishing since day 1), a metal rolling rack which works great for drying clothes, and a closet for me. Yes, a closet. In the middle of the street. I. Love. This. City. However, our best find of the night actually came when we opened the closet. Inside was a Chinese checkers game, a calligraphy set and a ratty purse. Nothing to thrilling. However, there was also a bucket of magnetic letters and another bucket of plastic dinosaurs. We now have plastic toy dinosaurs randomly placed around the apartment to add some color (i.e. windowsill, toilet tank, top of cupboards) and have an array of colorful letters and words on our fridge! Honestly, this could have been the best furniture find yet. We also meet our new neighbors as they helped us haul the closet up the three flights of stairs!

Thursday night I had a hello/goodbye staff party at work. We had 4 new staff members (including myself) start in March and we are losing a staff member next week who has been at the school for 2 years. So, the whole staff (about 11 Western teachers and about 10 Korean teachers) were going out to dinner. The whole thing was a big occasion because the school director (Mr. Kim) was going to make it out for dinner as well (this is a big deal since he actually lives in China). Turns out, he was really only down in Seoul to meet with some parents who were a bit irate because their student got left on the bus alone for a hour one morning and no one, including the school, knew where he was, but that is neither here nor there. Anyway, because of this meeting, we didn't have dinner reservations until 7:30pm. Unfortunately, Thursday is one of my early days (I get off at 4:20) but there was no point to take the subway home and then come back to school. So a co-worker and I headed over to Dr. Fish for awhile. It is a really nice little coffee shop where you can drink your beverage and then dip your feet in a tank of fish for 15 minutes and have them nibble away at your dead skin. It was a really odd feeling...not really a tickle but just weird nibbling. It is pretty indescribable. I am really excited to bring Meg there as I am sure she will giggle happily the entire time :)

So, we finally make it to dinner and let me tell you, the Koreans went all out. We went to a pretty typical place where you grill your own meat and can wrap it in lettuce or eat it plain. But we didn't stop there, we also got 3 kinds of soup, rice, pears, and lots of soju and beer. As we have mentioned before, drinking in Korea, especially at meals, is very common. Seeing multiple soju bottles on tables at 7 pm on a Tuesday night is nothing to take a second glance at. We actually recently learned that South Korea has the highest drinking level per capita, and I can see why. Also, unlike America it is not inappropriate to drink at company functions. While the night was not out of control (we did all have to work on Friday after all) Mr. Kim himself probably drank the most of all of us and was always making sure no one had empty glasses. He also made sure to make all the westerners a special "treat" to try. It was meat wrapped in lettuce with spicy bean sprouts, kimchi, garlic, onion and about half of a hot pepper. Not one for very hot food, but unable to turn him down, I shoved one in my mouth (as you are supposed to cram the whole thing in there at once) and thanked him. I was doing pretty good until about 30 seconds later when my eyes began to water slightly. Luckily, he had moved on to his next victim so I was able to wash it down with some beer, wipe my eyes, and eat some soup to cool my mouth. Speaking of, I was the only westerner to try the soup because it was ox blood soup. Yes, real congealed blood. It looked almost like chucks of meat, had the texture of tofu and didn't really taste like much of anything. I was pretty proud of myself, especially because I tried something weird before Meg for once!

It has been a pretty stressful week at school for me, but those weeks are bound to come up now and then. I have fallen completely in love with my babies, and thoroughly enjoy every moment with them! I can already see the huge improvements they have made in one month and although they still speak in Korean most of the time and don't understand a lot of what I am saying, it is rewarding to know that everything they do say in English I have taught them! One of my cutest students, Shine, came up today and held her shoes up to me (black shinny patent leather things with a buckle). She pointed to the shoes and said "Shinny". Then she pointed to herself and said "Shine". As I laughed she told me "Shinny for Shine." It was probably the cutest thing ever! I also have been reading "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" to my students everyday and they each made their own copy of the book. Today we "read" the story (they all have it memorized with the picture cues) and it just melted my heart. These are the moments that remind me why I spent all that money on becoming a teacher! Next Thursday I have my first birthday party (CIS has monthly birthday parties) and I have 4 kids (a third of my kindergartners!) with April birthdays. Birthday parties are quite the big deal here, so I will be sure to fill you in more next week!

Meg and I are planning on going to a cherry blossom festival this weekend if the weather stays nice so we will be sure to share more with you about that next week! Also in the upcoming weeks you can look forward to hearing about Korean baseball games, weddings, and what it is like to be a millionaire!