I Like Ya, Honey

On Saturday, I went to Insadong, which is a touristy area full of various food stands, trinket stands, independent shops, and tea rooms.



Right outside the main strip was a park with gazebos built in traditional Korean style. In the park there was also a stone monument inside glass (to preserve it) that was part of an original palace, dating back to the 15th century.




We walked around and sampled a bunch of street food, all of which were delicious. Spicy chicken and vegetables on a stick, rice cakes filled with bulgogi and sweet potato, as well as other things that I cannot explain because I do not know what they were. They looked and smelled good, so I ate them.





The last picture is one of those that can't really be described because again, I have no idea what it consists of. It was some sort of seafood and cabbage mix, I believe, on the inside, coated in a crepe-like batter with something similar to a plum sauce on top. A ball of goodness....that's all you need to know. What really took the cake though, was the honey candy--referred to as Dragon Beard candy--that Insadong is actually known for. It is honey stretched so thin that there are supposedly 16,000 or so strands within a piece. The strands were so thin the candy was hair-like (you can hear the men making the candy say so even). Inside are seven different types of nuts, consolidated into a nugget by the honey. The construction of the treat is quite a process and there are several workers basically putting on a show at the counter for the tourists. It was totally entertaining:



It was really cold on Saturday so our tourist adventure did not last long before we went into a tea house to warm up. A cup of tea is not cheap at these places: around 7,000 won/cup. The warm room combined with the warm delicious Jujube tea that I ordered was well worth the cost in my mind. It was much thicker than regular tea, Jujube chunks and flakes were floating in it. It tasted a bit like sweet potatoes and spice. The decor of the place was pretty interesting:



Lots of new food=weekend success.

Adventures in Food

On Friday night, I went to dinner at a place that we thought served various types of chicken dishes. We randomly ordered two dishes on the menu. A few minutes later, we were presented with what we had ordered: ta-dah! Intestines! They actually looked quite appetizing, accompanied by noodles and some vegetables along with two different types of sauce. The one dish was actually pretty tasty, and that particular intestines' texture was not so bad: a bit chewy, but good. The other dish was doused in a spicy sauce. The sauce was delicious, but the texture of this dish was much tougher, and took quite a few bites to get down. The overall flavor was good, but after a while, chewing that much just got old.

Saturday night rolled around...different place, same story. We attempted to order spicy boneless chicken. Out comes spicy boneless chicken FEET. Oops. These, too, were not so bad but did not have the most appetizing texture. They were fairly fatty and strangely chewy. I was not in the mood to put the effort in to break down this food, so I ordered something else. An experience, if nothing else.

No pictures sorry, don't know what I was thinking.

Ski and Sing

Last weekend I went to Kangwon-do with my entire branch to ski for the weekend. I hadn't skied since 8th grade in the ski club Trolls, in which case I "taught myself." A more appropriate way to put it would be that I threw a pair of skis on and flew straight down the mountain. Oh right, and Wilmot, the place we went every weekend for ski club, was no mountain. I actually think it was a landfill with manufactured snow on top of it. I mostly did it for social purposes. Needless to say, I was a bit intimidated by some of my coworkers who were practically expert skiers. My boss walked me through the first run just to ensure I didn't kill myself. He was extremely helpful and I felt comfortable within about 5-10 minutes to go off on my own.






The last picture is actually from the top of the mountain, which took about 45 minutes to get to. I am so hardcore.

Later, we went back to our condo and rested a bit before dinner. Koreans tend to encourage separating sexes in social situations, so at dinner, myself and the 4 Korean girls sat at one table. They taught me some new drinking games that I had not learned yet. I decided it would be a good idea to teach them how to play flip-cup. We slowly recruited the boys over, and in the end, had the entire staff playing an intense game of flippy cup. My coworker, Kyle and I, are the only two fresh out of college so we totally thought we had this game in the bag. Well our cockiness got the best of us, and our team ended up having to pay for the Noraebong later as penalty for losing.

The Noraebong was right inside our hotel. I sang" Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Don't Stop Believing." I am incredibly predictable. The last time I went, I sang these songs as well. I took a video of my boss singing some sort of love song:



I'm not sure if this is only funny to me because I know my boss, or if it is just universally good. Nevertheless it sums up a lot of my night.

Little Bit of a Mishap

I was following my usual routine today while getting ready for work. I will usually plug my curling iron into the bathroom outlet, and then do other things in my apartment while waiting for it to heat up. I got distracted watching Dexter, (Trinity... wtf?) and left it alone for 15 minutes or so (which is not that long and usually completely fine). I suddenly started to smell something burning. I walked into my bathroom to find my curling iron literally melting away before my eyes. I had plugged it in directly to the adapter without using the voltage converter. This, by the way, is not the first time I have done this. The other times I just singed my hair off and realized my mistake.





Who knew that this is what would happen when you forget to plug in the stupid voltage converter? Well, probably a lot of people....
Many singed hairs, a completely bent and melted curling iron, and coming very close to setting my apartment on fire: lesson learned (hopefully).

It's Love...

I have officially developed a head-over-heels obsession with the newest condiment addition to my life: ssamjang. Ssamjang is served with many Korean dishes, particularly barbecue. It is made of doenjang, gochujang, sesame oil, onion, garlic, green onions and brown sugar (should I site Wikipedia?). Doenjang is a fermented bean paste and gochujang is a type of red chili pepper vinegar paste--which is delicious in and of itself. The combination is heavenly and takes any meal to a whole other level. Considering it is served in a small dish, I assume it is meant to be used sparingly. I obviously do not follow that rule ever when it comes to condiments, why would I start now? Not sure the availability of ssamjang in the states, but it is definitely worth searching for, which I will do to no end when I return to the states.

Pay It Forward

This weekend, Juliet introduced me to her young friend who she said I would have a lot in common with. She goes by the English name Jessica, and I did indeed get along with her quite well. She is extremely sweet and outgoing. She is 23 in "Korean" years, but she was born in 1988, making her 21 in "American" years. I will explain this whole age discrepancy some other time. She is still in college--or university as they call it here. When we got to talking, she explained to me that she studied for a year in Orange County, in California, at a small college. I prodded her with questions about her experience in the US, curious to see how her observations and culture shock compared to my own in coming here. Some of the things she pointed out:

"Food is so expensive! You have to tip and tax?! And you barely even get any food!"

"Everyone talks so fast and uses lots of words I don't know the meaning of (aka slang)." She congratulated me on my annunciation and slow pace several times.

"You are actually kind of slim. Most of my American friends are fat"

And finally, she talked about how cruel and impatient so many Americans were toward her. She told me that after that experience, she vowed to wholeheartedly help any foreigner she came across, as she had been in their shoes at one point. I am, in a way, benefitting from the fact that she was treated poorly by some asshole Californians because she now is proverbially taking me under her wing, planning all sorts of things to do together. However, I am not in the same position as she was when living in California. First of all, she spoke English, whereas I am worthless; I do not speak Korean. Secondly, the majority of Koreans I have interacted with have been nothing but genuinely kind. It's really kind of pathetic how unwilling we are to welcome foreigners into our circle unless they speak perfect English and are totally acclimated with western culture and norms. So now that Jessica has pointed out her mission after returning from California, I, following the guidelines of Haley Joel Osment, have no choice but to pay it forward when I return to the states.

A Plague o' Both Your Houses!!!!

I won't lie, the title that I chose for this post is completely deceiving. I used the Shakespearian reference to introduce the newest character in my life: Juliet, my Korean tutor. I was referred to her by my boss, who met with her for quite some time during his stay here, in Incheon. He gave me her name and number and told me her name was "May." The entire time I was communicating with her via phone calls, I had been calling her May, oblivious to the fact that she had changed her English name to Juliet. I was completely confused when I received an email from the address "Korean Juliet," and thought that maybe May had set me up with another tutor. When I finally met Juliet, I realized through voice recognition that May and Juliet were one in the same.
Anyway, she had sent me some websites to get started on my own, practicing reading and writing mostly. She was impressed that I had actually listened, and studied before meeting with her. She also was saying that she is very happy to teach people like me because there are many foreigners in Korea that come to this country and have absolutely no intention of learning the language. I have come across many expats who have that exact mantra: something to the effect of, "I'm just going to basically party in another country with other westerners, and not bother learning the culture while I'm here." I hope to show Juliet that we are not all that way.
My boss described her English as being "good enough." That choice of wording is definitely not generous enough for Juliet's capabilities. Her accent is very minimal and she has very few grammatical errors; her English is phenomenal in my opinion. We are now going to meet once a week for about two hours. She said if I am doing well that we can change it to twice a week. She charges 40,000 won/month. This is less than $40/month...for a private tutor. That is insanely cheap. Not to mention that she gave me a book and a syllabus. She told me she had a feeling that I would be very good at speaking Korean. Not exactly sure how she would have gathered that, but I took it as a compliment nevertheless.
I'm very excited that I met Juliet because she not only will help me learn Korean, but is another opportunity to have some local friends. I don't think I would get as much out of this experience if I did not meet more Korean friends. Her and I are having lunch together on Saturday and then going to a yoga class together. She works for a Cultural Activities center and this will be the center's first go at yoga. She wants me to meet her young friend who teaches the class, she apparently also is 22 and "has the same hair style and fashion as me." She said that we would really like each other. Who knows? I'm always down for yoga.
We met at Juan station--which looks like the Spanish name for John, I know, but is pronounced "Chuwon." I left early because I wasn't sure exactly how long it would take me to get there. It ended up taking less than 10 minutes by cab. I had a lot of time before we were supposed to meet so I shopped around a little bit in the underground shopping center. The stands in the subway stations and markets have loads of knockoff designer things that have something just a little bit off about them. For example "Marc by Marc" sans Jacobs is everywhere. While leafing through the bargain sweatshirts today, I came across a Boston Masschubatts sweatshirt. That is not my typo, that is what it said. Then I came across a cubs sweatshirt:



Click on the image if you cannot see the small print. Note: Major League Baseboll. 5,000 won? Don't mind if I do! This way I can wear this awkward Cubs knock-off if I ever (for what reason? I don't know) venture to Wrigley. I know half my family is probably yelling at the computer screen for this blasphemous post about the Chicago Cubs. It's not even real, get over it.

Snow Day

I found out today at around 12:30 that due to the snow, classes that night would be cancelled. According to my boss, this was the first snow day in the history of our branch, possibly even in the history of CDI. My initial reaction was utter relief and excitement, just as I would have felt growing up, after incessantly calling the emergency weather hotline and finding out I would not have to attend school that day. After the initial elation, I realized I had absolutely nothing to do all day; no plans, no errands I needed to run, and no one to hang out with...oh yeah, and no TV. Hence, I am writing my second blog post of the day.

A lot of my family members have asked me questions directed more specifically about my job. So here is a basic breakdown of my week. I have 5 different sets of classes, at 4 different levels. My biggest class has 16 kids and my smallest has 6. Because the classes are by level, I have a wide range of ages within the classes. My lowest level class is definitely my easiest because they are more than willing to talk, and they are actually very competent speakers and thinkers. That particular class is also the most fun, I laugh and joke with the kids all the time.

Each day, I have two classes; 4:30-7:30 and 7:40-10:40. The three hours goes by quite quickly with a small break in between each hour. Every teacher at every branch follows a specific curriculum and structure for each class. This makes my own workload quite light; I have maybe about 30 minutes of prep work per day. It also allows for only a week of training to be sufficient to start solo in the classroom the following week. We do various activities ranging from speaking, listening, reading stories, answering comprehension questions, and critical thinking projects. It’s not much different than a grammar school foreign language class in the states. The only difference is that the teacher, myself, does not speak the students’ first language.

The policy of “no Korean in the classroom” is hard on the kids because many times they get extremely frustrated when they are trying to get a point across, but are unable to find the vocabulary to do so. However, they are extremely compliant about following this policy. I was shocked to see how willing the kids are to speak solely in English, even on their breaks. One of my students wrote a love note to a student in another class and used another teacher as the messenger. He showed the letter to me (which is a whole other story) and the entire thing was in English. They will even refer to each other by their English names. Overall, the kids have really amazing attitudes considering that they are in a 3-hour “extracurricular class.” The last 3-hour lecture that I had to sit through in college I watched dvds on my laptop throughout each class and it was STILL boring and tedious. In other words, I keep that in mind, and therefore very rarely get frustrated with the kids that aren’t completely enthusiastic to see me. I can empathize. Although I really hope they don’t think of me the way I thought of Professor Trach...yikes.

A Whole New Meaning to Variety

This weekend I went to Dongdaemun market which is right outside the East Gate of Seoul.




From what I had read of the market, it was supposedly bigger than what I saw, so we may have only hit the outskirts of it. Being a tourist is very much a trial-and-error experience. We followed these people with the giant garbage bags full of stuff, assuming they had gathered items from the market.



We came across all sorts of things: clothes, electronics, shoes, artwork, basically anything under the sun.






A lot of it consisted of piles of junk on a blanket or towel that were up for sale: old cell phones, cameras, key boards, nintendo remotes, etc.



The market even had a "pet" strip. I seriously considered buying one of these little bunnies...