Summer vacation wrap up

Today is Sunday and after having nearly 2 weeks off for summer vacation I will return to work tomorrow. What a crazy time I have had the last couple of weeks, they went something like this...

Monday (2 weeks ago) was my last day of summer English camp. I was supposed to have nearly 17 girls every day for 2 hours. I ended up having at most 10 but usually 4 -6 girls in class where we would listen to American pop music and watch movies in English. My room was so hot that they had little energy (me included) to do much else.

I came home from work pondering what I should do for the next 2 weeks. Most of my other ESL teacher friends had gone off on exotic vacations and I didn't want to just sit around. Tuesday morning I had decided that I would go to Taiwan. Within 24 hours I had booked a ticket and hotel to a country I hadn't ever been to and hadn't really thought of going to before.

Weds am, I set off for the airport (about 2 hours away via car), I had planned on taking the buses as I felt fairly confident that I knew which to take... WRONG! Just when I think I have the public transport system down, the language barrier goes and messes that all up. So, after 2 taxi rides and 1 bus ride I arrived at the airport where I would wait for nearly 4 hours. I had taken into account that the bus would take longer but ended up taking a taxi. While in the airport I got to have one of my first non Korean meals... fajitas! YUM! I also happen to meet another ESL teacher from the States who was headed to Taipei too. Yay! A new friend and someone to hang out with on my spontaneous adventure.

Amanda and I shared a taxi from the airport to our respective hotels. I could not have gotten a nicer hotel. It had a/c, tv, HUGE bathroom and most of all a HUGE comfy bed! I was in heaven!

The trip was full of wonderful food... I got to have an awesome cheese tray with brie, cheddar, Gouda, fruits.... it was divine!  By day Amanda would do her thing, seeing as she had been planning this trip for quite some time, while I would lounge around just enjoying being somewhere new. The people in Taiwan are WONDERFUL! Very helpful and genuinely happy to help a stranger.

We went on a pretty cool night tour of Taipei which included: a Mongolian BBQ dinner, going to a Buddhist Temple, 2 night markets, and Taipei 101 (the 2nd tallest building in the world, the first being in Dubai.). The night markets in Taiwan are AMAZING! So many people, food, clothing, and oddities... reptiles, fruits that I had never heard of nor seen. I am glad I got to experience them one time because that is about all that I could handle.
 
One of my favorite places was the jade market. I am not a huge fan of wearing a lot of jewelery however I did indulge on some pretty cool pieces. The market is huge and vendors have everything from inexpensive simple rings to pendants, earrings, stamps and custom made pieces. Another cool place, Modern Toilet.... you have to see it to believe it. A restaurant where you sit on toilets, and are served out of smaller toilet bowls. We didn't' eat here because we had just eaten at TGI Friday's and didn't realize that it was nearly next door. I did get a couple of pics and souvenirs.

A few things of note: There are scooters everywhere! Also it is a fine not to wear a helmet so everyone has them. China still rules Taiwan so it isn't its own country. There are over 7400 7-11s which means Taiwan has the most per capita in the world.  I also had my first movie theater experience since leaving Oregon. Here in SK and Taiwan they give you assigned seating at the movies. Almost all of the dogs that I saw out for walks had been shaved and their owners left shapes on their sides like hearts or smiley faces. SO FUNNY and of course I didnt' get a pic!

For not having planned this trip it turned out to be quite a good time. Making new friends, exploring a new country, and having wonderful food and drinks. I highly recommend that if given an opportunity one should def make the trip to Taiwan.

One of the stranger things, at least for me, is that I didn't bother to take my good camera and only packed my backpack for the 5 days I spent there. Anyone who knows me, knows that packing for 5 days usually requires at least 2 suitcases and several shoes! haha :)  And as my mother can attest to, I tend to take HUNDREDS of photos, so not taking my camera was a BIG DEAL but I still managed to get some pics on my fabulous phone. :)

Here is a link to the pics that I took.
Taiwan Pics

Good times with new friends

It's been a few weeks since my last post which if you read my blog is about how things go for me. Since then I have managed to get out and have quite a bit of a social life. A couple of weeks ago went out with other EFL teachers from New Zeland, South Africa, and Canada to a bar called USA 99. The drinks in bars here are far more expensive than in the states unless you are having a beer  but with the conversion rate they end up being about the same. Instead of serving pretzels or popcorn, many of the bars serve what look like Fruit Loop balls that are slightly stale yet quite addictive if you like that fake fruit taste. Believe it or not it goes quite well with the beer. After several hours in Songuri drinking we headed back to Pocheon where we did a bit of Noreabang (karaoke).

Saturday the girls and I headed to anther city to go clubbing. After having some yummy pasta and Korean pizza (like American but the crust is more like a tortilla), we headed off to enjoy the nightlife in Uijeongbu. This is a larger city south of my about an hour by bus. There are several Army & Air Force bases close by so this is where the soldier boys come to let loose. As one of the older people out for the night, I had a great time watching these "kids" party. Seriously I am a good 13 years older than the girls I go out with but one wouldn't know by my actions! haha

Here in SK one can walk around with an open container drinking and having a good time. I am not sure that they actually have public drunk laws if they did one would never know. I find it funny that the construction workers at my place have a refrigerator with beer and Soju that they drink throughout the day instead of water. Fun was had by all as we drank, got free drinks and danced the night away... well at least until 12:30 when we had to catch our bus. The bases have curfew here which is at 1 am. So the soldiers have to be back on base or in a private residence. The clubs start to die down around 12:30 because of this.

This past weekend I had plans that just fell through and was quite disappointed. So I ended up in "The Bu" (Uijeongbu) again, this time I was alone and a bit peeved and sad. What did I decide to do? Find the closest bar and drink of course! haha   Well this isn't as easy as one would think especially when one does not read Hangul. I even went to a taxi driver and asked for him to take me to the closest bar, but without an address he wouldn't. <sigh> I eventually just got in a cab wich drove me to a destination unknown. I told him to stop when I thought I was somewhere familiar (it wasn't!). I ended up just walking almost aimlessly until I remembered there was a Dunkin Donuts near the area I had been to before. Thank GOD for my cell phone!

I found a 7-11, where you can sit outside and drink or whatnot. I went in and bought a KGB while noticing a couple of Army guys inside. While I was drinking outside I noticed them playing a Korean game, one of those claw games that you try to get a prize, and they were not winning a thing. We eventually struck up a conversation and they invited me to hang out with them for the night. What a great night! They are my age, married and been here about the same amount of time as I have been. We hit up a couple of bars and eventually I even got McDonald's!

After having talked to them for several hours, I have an even greater appreciation for what our soldiers do and go through. Even as cooks they are required to do what ever other soldier does. These men and women do something that us civilians will never comprehend. I give them much appreciation and many thanks that words can never express. To my new friends... Thank you OC & E! I also have a new hook up for getting from from home! YAY!!!!

Summertime, friends, and spaghetti

Ok, so first off I apologize for being such a bad blogger. I sometimes lead quite a boring life so there isn't much to share, then there are those times that I get crazy busy. The last couple of weeks have been a bit of both.  Summer is in full swing here with temps in the mid to high 80s and many days with humidity over 90%. It is AWESOME! I feel like I am in a living sauna. I am learning to love sweating. haha :)  The girls go on their summer break next week and I will begin summer camp. Here's a short wrap up of the last couple of weeks....

2 weeks ago the girls' all had their final exams, this led me having no classes all week. I did get to go have dinner with my guitar lesson group at a traditional Korean restaurant. Mr. Na, the guitar teacher, drove 3 of us there and we met another teacher. Now, on the way there we passed through "downtown" Pocheon and went into what I would consider a residential neighborhood. This is the building we pulled up to:

I am pretty sure this was run out of someone's house, or at least the living quarters were a part of the restaurant. At any rate, the food was very good and I had an interesting time. The non English speaking teachers really want to practice their English with me. I find it quite like a game of riddles that I am constantly trying to piece together. A combination of hand gestures, body language, and Kranglish (my new word for Korean mixed with English) help us to communicate. The meals here are surprisingly cheap. For the 5 of us, plus one bottle of Makoli (Korean rice wine that is a specialty in Pocheon) and 2 bottles of soda, the cost was around $50 USD. We had traditional kimchi, pickled radish, pickles, and other accoutrements such as marinated mushrooms (also a specialty in Pocheon). The main dish was bibimbap (a combo of rice (hot), veggies, usually an egg, and meat topped with red pepper paste). It is pretty good and easy to order when dining out and you have no idea what anything else is.

Guitar lesson group counter clockwise Lisa Park (one of my English co-teachers, Mr. Na, Ms. Yurina, and I do not know the young male teachers name (I am bad!) Sitting on the floor is traditional in most restaurants here.

Kimchi, pickled radish, green beans, onion, etc..

Green Onion pancake... YUM!

Scramble bean curd I think... at least that is what was communicated to me. It tasted like scrambled eggs. The brownish stuff is tofu soup.

 This same week I also managed a night out with more of the English Teachers of Pocheon group, some of the same people that I have been to karaoke with the week before. This time we ate and then hit up the Family Mart, which is like a Dari Mart or 7-11. It was here that I discovered the goodness of KGB, an alcoholic beverage that is NOT Soju! hahaha It is actually Australian and comes in Vodka lemon or Vodka cranberry flavors. I also tried this black raspberry wine that is tasty. As I got a taxi to take me home, I realized it was the same driver that I have had a few other times and who knows exactly where to take me. I LOVE it!! :)

L to R- Alyssa, May, Kyra, Lilly

My lunch time English Club girls and I had been planning on a swim party at my house last weekend but the weather here is about as cooperative as Oregon's. The heat and humidity have been just gross. The girls don't want to study and I don't really blame them. The rains have started in and I almost canceled the party but it was one of the girls' birthday so they decided to come anyway and play games and eat.

OMG!!! These girls can eat! I made quite a giant batch of spaghetti and it turned out really yummy. Thank you to my mom & dad who sent a care package with some spices! :)  The girls absolutely loved it too! I had also purchased an ice cream cake from Baskin Robins. The girls devoured that after 2 HUGE plate fulls of spaghetti. THEN.... they also brought a cheesecake which they ate at least 3/4 of. I have no idea where they put it! They are such sweet girls. We played a card game called golf which they really enjoyed and stuck around for about 4 1/2 hours. It was really fun.

Alyssa

May

Lilly the birthday girl

Kyra

On a sadder note, there was a death in my family and when my co workers found out about it they were so wonderful. They were all quite concerned. I had many teachers stopping my my room to bring me candies, and drinks. My guitar group ordered pizza for dinner that night. We may not speak the same language however consoling a person no matter the barriers is pretty much the same. I am quite fortunate to have such a wonderful caring group of people to work with and some pretty awesome students!

Let there be rain!

You know that saying, "When it rains, it pours."? Well, we had just that this past weekend. Friday brought yet another day with no students as my girls have all been preparing for their final exams that are taking place all this week. I set out on an adventure Friday evening after work to join other EFL/ESL teachers in my area for dinner and adult beverages (aka beer and soju).

After a lengthy discussion of where we should go, we finally just set out walking about trying to find a place to eat seeing as none of us is that familiar with the places to eat here in Pocheon. One of the teachers is a vegetarian which makes eating here slightly difficult seeing as there is either pork or fish in almost everything. I could only imagine a vegan trying to live up here... Seoul is a different story though as I know they have vegan restaurants and such. Anyway, we did manage to get somewhere to eat, just as it began to rain. **Note to self, ALWAYS no matter what carry my umbrella!**  <sigh> I forgot my umbrella today! lol

We had a nice dinner with a salad bar consisting of almost no salad but items such as corn kernels, pickled radish, kimchi, sweet pickles, lychee (it's a fruit maybe misspelled), some sort of marinated beef, an overly mayonnaised pasta type salad, and I think ice berg lettuce. I had, what seems to be my typical at this point, chicken cutlet which was accompanied by 2 french fries. Very specific! haha   Had my first Korean beer. I never was much of a beer drinker but on these hot humid days it actually tastes pretty good.

Upon finishing dinner we decided to meet another teacher at a coffee shop that serves this yummy dish (don't  know the name) it is like Texas toast with honey inside, sounds odd but oh so good! They also had iced milk which basically looked like a milk shake. While here the rain really started in.

We decided that we needed to drink more and find a noori bar (not sure of the spelling), but basically a karaoke bar. This is when the fun really started because we had NO idea of where to go, it was pouring and not just rain drops but more like rain puddles were falling from the sky. I was SOAKED and I didn't mind it one bit. Actually I felt like I was at home in the Oregon liquid sunshine. Now, the major difference in these places here and the US, is that here anyone can go because there is no age limit. Also the noori bars have several rooms with screens, sound systems, etc for you and your friends. The one we went to cost 20,000 won an hour, roughly $20 hr. They also sell juice and beer, or you can do like we do at home and smuggle in your own beverage just make sure to take the bottles with you when you leave!

What an amazing night! We sang for at least 2 hours, I think they kept giving us free time though because the timer kept hitting 15 minutes and going back to 20. We sang and sang, drank and sang some more. Normally I am not a fan of karaoke because you are up in front of all these people in a bar, but here being so private, makes it so much fun! I will def be doing this again.

When we left it was still pouring. I parted ways with my teaching cohorts to grab a cab, at this point it was just after 2 am. The streets looked like mini rivers. I made it home safely but was still too hyped to go to bed, which led me to being up until 9 am Saturday morning.... Yeah, I am not a kid anymore and can't be doing that! haha

 I was supposed to go clubbing with the other ladies Saturday night in Seoul but my staying up all night kind of put the kibosh on that! When I am 10 years older than the other teachers it shows at times when sleep is most needed! lol  So, that was my weekend and my fantastic night of singing, losing my voice, and finally drinking here in SK! Oh, and that night, we ended up getting 3 inches of rain... welcome to monsoon season!

Good times!

Karaoke bar, Kish singing

Looking for a karaoke bar in the rain

ESL teacher dinner. Me, Lisha, Elliot, Chaitra, Charise, Kishmir

Thierry's (in the glasses and hat) birthday at Baskin Robbins the first time we got together. Then Charise, me, the owner of  the store, Chaitra, Elliot, and Kish.

New Photos

This is of my trip to Everland with the 9th grade girls. it is an amusement park like Disneyland.
Everland

Soyosan, my first trip out of Pocheon with one of my co teacahers.
Soyo Mountain

Herb Island in Pocheon (my city)
Herb Island 20 May 2012

Road trippin'

This past weekend I decided that it was about time I tried going somewhere. I have spent almost every weekend at home on my computer talking with friends or watching movies. Things can be daunting in a foreign country especially when one does not know the language as you can all imagine. After a lot of planning and getting help from my fellow co-teachers who showed me which buses I needed to take, I set off early Saturday morning for the city of Gunsan.

Gunsan is on the west coast near the Yellow Sea. The bus ride there consisted of taking a bus from my town of Pocheon to Seoul which was about a 1 hour ride. Firstly I had to walk to the Pocheon bus terminal which is about a 45 minute walk from my house. I set out at around 5:20 am because the first bus to Seoul was due at 6:20. I wanted to make sure that I had plenty of time to get there. As I was walking down the quite morning streets of Pocheon I decided that the cobblestone sidewalk needed some company, I decided to gracefully fall and give it a hug. My knees were quite thankful for this as was my right foot who suffered a bit of a sprain that has kept the taxis busy taking me to and from school this week.

I successfully got to the East Seoul bus terminal and with the aid of my handwritten notes and the kind help of a couple of men asking if I needed help, was able to get a ticket and onto the bus to Gunsan. This trip was about 3 1/2 hours. We made a couple of pit stops along the way, one of which was at a rest area. The rest areas here are crazy. They have stores, restaurants, food stands.. Dunkin Donuts! Of course I didn't dare get off the bus for fear of being left behind, I don't care that I had to use the restroom and it would be another hour and a half at the least... I.. was.. NOT... getting... off... the ... bus!!! I can see it now, American woman abandon at bus stop, tries walking home and wanders into the DMZ where she is being held by the North Koreans. I am sure that is exactly what my mother is thinking anyway! :)

Rest assured, I arrived at the Gunsan bus station and not the North Korean border. In fact Gunsan is at least 5 hours in the opposite direction so I was safe! It is also located close to a military base.. SCORE! I was able to find a hotel and get a taxi to take me there. I will not let this language barrier stop me! Or will I??? Ok so it may have some affects on what I do, but I am slowly learning to deal with it. It really does help having this cell phone. I can look up hotels, GPS, translate from English to Korean, and check my email. Every once in a while I can even use it to make a phone call! Go figure!!! :)

Seeing as I had decided to injure myself the weekend was spent in a nicely air conditioned room, laying on a moderately comfortable bed watching the only American tv channel I could find which was playing movies. Oh and I got to have room service. I was pretty much in heaven. The shower was one of those rainfall types and a huge bathtub which is not usual here.

The trip home was uneventful, no falling or missing the bus. Overall it was a nice mini vacation. It was good for me to do something on my own and to experience going somewhere not many people even where I live have gone.

I did it!

I have finally gone to the grocery store all on my own! Yes, I know, again this doesn't seem like such a big deal... let me tell you what... IT IS!!! So much of my grocery store experience has become a game of guess what's in the package. I lucked out one night with some spicy raman noodles that had no hint of fish or seaweed in them. I am slowly going out of my comfort zone of pb&j  and grilled cheese. Although I always pick up any jam & pb that is at the store when I go. One never knows when it will not be there.

One of my favorite finds was some Hillshire Farms smoked brats that i paid about $9 for and yes they are worth it!. Now at home I woudln't be quite so thrilled about this, but OMG!!!!!! Not to mention that I have actual Heinz ketchup and mustard! WIN!!! Yeah, it's the little things that have to keep a girl going. So after filling my hand cart with some very much needed items... (I had spent the previous 3 day weekend eating nothing but rice and oranges.) I headed to the check out. All I can say is that bless the checker's heart. What an understanding person she was! I used my debit card for the first time and that of course was no easy feat. After several tries and her trying to show me when to sign, I made it out of the store. Oh another interesting note, they give you the first grocery bag free, after that it is about 56 won, so less 6 cents. Of course I had to repay using my debit card... practice makes perfect right? haha

Then I got to try using the atm for the first time. Things are a bit different with the banking system here. Their ATMs do not have a daily limit of how much you can w/ draw. Instead a person sets the daily limit with the bank on how much can be taken from their account. One must be careful when doing this because if you go shopping for a high priced item you may not be able to get it depending on what you have set up... very odd if ya ask me! Then again.... lol Without any problems I took out the cash that I needed then attempted to get a hold of one of my English teaching friends to call a cab for me. I was unsuccessful in this and began my walk home.

I would say that the walk is about 2.5 -3 miles. Of course it happened to be about 85 that day and humidity around 78%... I melted!!! Having jeans on did not help either! haha   On the way home I passed three older women who were out for a walk. They looked somewhat familiar but I didn't really pay too much attention to them until I stopped to drink some water. They came up to me and tried to help me carry my bags, and gestured that I should call a taxi. I thought that was awful nice but how do I say, "would you please call a taxi for me? I do not speak Korean.". hahaha  I continued walking as did the women, all the way up the hill towards my place, they just laughed at me. I am sure they are thinking, "Crazy American!!!". I know that half the time that is what I am thinking when I look at myself and think.. What the heck am I doing here?!?!

On the work front I am loving my job. It is very different than I was preparing myself for. I am basically here to speak English (for the students to listen to). I have yet to teach a full 5 days of class. Last week on Memorial Day in the US it was Budah's birthday so no school. Then this week Weds was Memorial Day in SK (commemorating the Korean war). Then today (Thursday) there was testing for the 8th graders (2nd years) which is all that I teach on Thursday, so no teaching. I do however have a group of 4 girls who have started coming in during my lunch hour for English conversation. They are really fun and ask if they can come in even on days that they don't technically need to. :)

This weekend I am going to go on a big adventure all by myself so stay tuned! :)  Cheers!