Sayonara Korea – see you again in 2 days

Micah and I are off today to visit his sister in Tokyo, Japan.  This will be my first time to Japan (but Micah has been there before when he was a kid).  It’s going to be a REALLY short (but super fun) trip.  We wanted to visit her before she goes back to the U.S. and we don’t get any holidays until Christmas Day – so a weekend trip it is. 

Ironically, it will take us twice as long to get to the Incheon Airport in Korea than to fly to Japan.  Here’s our day:

-Subway from our house to train station (30 min)

-Express train to Seoul (1 hour 45 min)

-Bus from Seoul to Incheon Airport (1 hour 15 min)

-Wait standard 2 hours before Intl’ flight

-Fly to Narita Airport in Japan (2 hours)

-Express train into Tokyo, plus various subways to meet up with Zoe (~1 hour)

We are leaving our schools today at 11:45am and we should meet up with Zoe around 11pm (same time zone).

Summer down under!

We’ve been toying with the idea of going to Australia for our 2 week winter vacation.  But we hadn’t been able to finalize when we could go because of English Camps.  (Basically, the kids come into school and study English during their winter vacation).  We know these “camps” will be in January sometime, but that’s all we know so far.

So instead of taking our vacation during January, we are going in February (during the school’s spring break).

Side note: Yes…the students come off of 5 weeks of winter vacation, come back to school for 1.5 weeks at the beginning of Feb., and then leave for two weeks of spring break.  And when they return, that’s the beginning of the new school year.  English Teachers don’t get all that time off though – only 2 weeks.

We did some research on flights, cities, things to do, etc. And made a rough itinerary.  We ran this by our friend Jodie, who is currently living in Sydney (but only until the end of December).  And that was it – we bought tickets last night!  Two weeks in Aussie!  It’ll be freezing in Daegu, but summer down under.

We are hitting up Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane.  Technically, we fly into Brisbane, but are going to Moreton Island for a couple days.  We have a basic idea of what we want to do in each city: sightseeing, eating, beach, hiking, hold koala bears, etc. but nothing is finalized yet. We do know for sure we’ll be doing this in Sydney: http://www.bridgeclimb.com.au/  (Replace couple in photo with Micah and me )

To keep costs down, we are staying in hostels in every city (except Moreton Island). So, I’m currently researching those options.

I’d like to thank my friends Jessie and Allison for their inspiring pictures of their recent trips to Australia.

Happy Chicken Day!

We had a very successful and tasty Thanksgiving dinner with some of our good friends here in Korea.  Although we didn’t have turkey, we did have some pretty tasty rotisserie chickens.

And in usual Thanksgiving style, we ate a ton, played some games, and had some good laughs.  I reflected on how grateful we were to have this experience and to have met such awesome people along the way.

Everyone was quite resourceful with making their holiday sides.  I was quite impressed. 

• Micah: Sweet potatoes with marshmallows (all made in the microwave)
• Lisa: Yes! Was able to make Strawberry Pretzel Salad – (recipe at end of this posting).  Everyone loved it!
• Charissa: Stuffing – seriously, SOO good. She even had to toast her own bread.
• Courtney: Really buttery, mashed potatoes and gravy – made completely from scratch (i.e. no pan drippings, just flour, butter, and chicken broth).  She also indulged us with chocolate, peanut butter oatmeal no-bake cookies.  Really delicious!

 I’m not sure where this recipe originated, so I’m just going to call it
“My mom’s Strawberry Pretzel Salad”

RECIPE:

2 1/2 Cups broken or small pretzels

3/4 Cup Margarine/butter

8 Ounces of cream cheese – room temperature

1 Pkg of Dreamwhip prepared (you can find this where they have instant pudding. It’s a powder, but once you add milk and whip, it’s kind of like cool whip – see pic)

2 10 oz Pkgs of frozen strawberries – thawed

1 Cup Sugar

1 6 oz pack Strawberry Jello

1 large can crushed pineapple

Drain pineapple and collect the juice. Add enough water to the pineapple fruit juice to make 2 cups of liquid. Boil this fruit/water liquid. Once boiling, add the Jello pack – stir until dissolved. Take off heat and add 1 cup of cold water, plus the crushed pineapple and strawberries. Chill this jello mix until it is soft set (takes about 2 or 2/12 hours)

Pat pretzels and thinly sliced margarine in a 9 x 13 pan. Place in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. Then let it cool.

Mix cream cheese and sugar. Then fold it into the prepared dream whip.

Spread the cream cheese/dream whip onto the pretzel and margarine base and chill until set.

Then pour Jello mix (once it is soft set) over cream cheese layer and chill to firm.

*It may seem like a lot of steps, but I promise it’s easy to make and SOO worth it! It’s a perfect holiday salad (or dessert).

Much ado about Josh, Ken, and Alapa’i – part 2

Click here for part 1.

Day 4: Back to work for us

Since it was Monday, Micah and I had to go back to work.  But we told the boys to go check out Seomun Market.  (We’d done this a couple weeks ago).  So, no pics to show.  They did have a good time eating all the street food and partaking in the craziness of the market.  Ken got sad when he saw the dogs and cats in cages…apparently in the same cages as chickens.

We have gotten word from a Korean friend that those cats and dogs are for pets, not eating. 

Once we got off work, we headed to some yummy Korean BBQ nearby. 

Day 5: Pig intestines are yummy

Again, Micah and I had to work.  This day, the boys ventured over to Woobangland – an amusement park in Daegu.  The park was pretty much dead, but they had fun taking in the rides, bumper cars, batting cages – and no lines for any of it! (Micah and I haven’t even gone here yet!)

After work, we all met up with four of Micah’s co-workers for dinner: Young, Shinso, Sunny, and Saerom.  We decided to eat mackchang (aka pig intestines) – apparently a food for which Daegu is famous. 

The mackchang – uncooked – looked absolutely unappetizing.  But once cooked and cut up into small pieces – it was really tasty.  You dip the pieces of meat into this spicy sauce.

   Of course, along with mackchang, we had an assortment of makoli (Korean rice wine), mekjew (beer), and soju.  We had a great time eating and drinking with Micah’s teachers, and decided to continue the fun and show the boys Korean karaoke (aka norebang).  You can’t visit Korea and not norebang!

I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves.  Keep in mind, we continued to drink the mekjew throughout the night.  And the boys were loving many of the K-pop songs. 

P.S. You can’t properly norebang without tambourines.

Everyone had fun…perhaps, a little too much (for a school night).

Day 6: Hashed

Hmm…well, due to Day 5 festivities, Micah was HASHED (aka very very very hungover).  This might seem quite irresponsible for an English Teacher, but it’s actually quite common to see your Korean teachers at school a little hashed too.  Plus, it doesn’t happen often – and it’s not like we have friends visiting us all the time.  I believe Josh was a little hashed too.

We, of course, still had to go to school.  And the boys slept in…and visited Micah’s school in the afternoon. 

For our last night together, what better way to celebrate than a trip to…COSTCO!  Alapa’i wanted to check out the Costco in Korea, and the boys managed to find some good gifts to bring back home. 

Day 7: Anneyong kaseyo!

The boys took off while we were at work.  They had to spend at least 4 hours of travel time to get from Daegu to Incheon Airport + a nine hour flight back to Honolulu.

To our pleasant surprise, we came home to a clean apartment and a brand new slow cooker.  Thanks boys! 

We had such an awesome time.  Who’s coming next?

Much ado about Josh, Ken and Alapa’i – part 1

Micah’s friends from Hawaii were in Korea visiting us for about a week.  It was SO MUCH fun to see them.  There were plenty of good eats, good drinks, and poking fun at Ken.  We had a really great time and were sad to see them leave.   Here’s my attempt to condense 6 days of fun into a couple of long (but picture-filled) blog posts.

Night 1: The arrival

Took them to dinner (along with our other teacher friends’ Charissa and Gabe) to one of our favorite places.  The food was awesome and our Korean server was really nice and liked Alapai’s big arms.

After dinner, off to Hof Hama for mini-kegs and many drinking games.  Ken couldn’t last the night.  But neither could Josh (totally out of it on the taxi ride home).

A little DDC cuddle action at the end of the night. 

 

Day 2: To Busan we go!

Caught a train to Busan (Micah and I had already been there before, but this time we went to see different parts of the city).

• Stop #1: Jalgachi Fish Market

The mecca for FRESH seafood.  Creatures I’d never seen before…in varying stages of aliveness. 

After some browsing around the HUGE market, we ate an amazing seafood lunch.  Alapa’i was king. Instead of having to sit down and eat on the floor like the rest of us, the server arranged it so he could sit in a chair. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ken did some shopping.  Although there was a nice selection of VHS “entertainment” available (see circled area), he opted for a fishing pole instead.

 

• Stop #2: Gwangalli Bridge

After exploring this area and the nearby international market, we headed over to Gwangalli Bridge.  At night time it’s all lit up and really peaceful and cool to look at. 

• Stop #3: Shinsagae

It was starting to get pretty cold, so we decided to make one last stop before catching the train home.  We headed to Shinsagae – the largest department store in the world (complete with its own ice rink).  We didn’t spend much time there, but it was pretty swanky.

• Heading home

Ah…the boys were pooped.  We caught the last train back to Daegu.  Once in Daegu, we had to run to catch the last subway back to our area of the city.  Ken, barely made it – blaming it on him still being half asleep.  Although, we are quite certain his cardio (or lack thereof) is more to blame.

 

Day 3: Fishy feeding frenzy

Met up with a few of our friends and headed to Dr. Fish in downtown Daegu.  It’s an interesting place.  It’s part cafe’ (with a complete menu of coffees and teas, as well as an all-you-can-eat “bread” bar), part studying lounge (with a mini-library of books and people studying all over), and part fish pedicure (where the little fishies eat the dead skin off your feet). 

 How to get a fish pedicure:

1. Rinse off your feet – fish don’t like dirty feet

2. Stick feet in tub full of water and a hundred or so tiny carp (I believe they come from China – where this is quite popular)

3. Let fish go to town!  It doesn’t hurt at all – actually, it’s a bit ticklish.  They just nibble away on the little bits of dry skin all over you feet, toes, and ankles.

4. Fifteen minutes later – you’re done.  Clean your feet again and enjoy your soft feet. (Some places might follow this up with an actual pedicure, but not this place. It was only $2 for the fish pedicure part and about $5 for the coffee and toast).

It’s not about the turkey…

…it’s about the pumpkin pie!  Well, that’s my motto this Thanksgiving since we won’t be eating turkey. This is our first Thanksgiving in Korea..and actually, my first Thanksgiving not being with my family (be it my entire family, or just my sister and brother-in-law).  As much fun as I’m having here, I wouldn’t mind having a good ol-fashioned home-cooked Thanksgiving meal either. 

But we will have to opt for the next best thing: getting together with good friends we’ve made so far, and attempting to create a Thanksgiving meal.  So tomorrow (Friday in Korea, but 11/25 in the US), we are having some friends over for food, drinks and games. 

Our little convection oven wouldn’t be able to handle cooking a full on turkey (plus I have no idea where to buy one), so we are going with store-bought rotisserie chicken.  And everyone is making some type of Thanksgiving-related side dish. 

I’m making my mom’s absolutely delicious strawberry pretzel “salad.” I eat this every Thanksgiving.  Thanks to my sis for sending me some crucial ingredients – so I can eat it here too!  And of course, can’t forget the pumpkin pie…from Costco Daegu. Yum!

I’ll tell you later how it goes

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Teaching…igloo style

So yeah, I’m being intentionally dramatic, but it’s FREEZING at my school.  While outside, it’s not that cold (about mid-30F, but colder in the mornings), inside, it’s a different story. 

Korean schools aren’t heated. The hallways are absolutely freezing and most often the windows and doors are kept open.  And with my school (and most schools I’ve been told), the classrooms aren’t heated either.  Students and teachers alike are all bundled up in jackets, sweaters, scarves, and sometimes I even bust out the gloves – all worn while teaching.  It looks ridiculous.  We are all freezing, but we just deal with it.  I’m told the heaters in our classrooms are broken.  But I don’t feel any heat action going on in any classroom in the school. 

I feel really bad for the students.  I can’t imagine wanting to focus on learning English either when I’m literally shivering during class.  I understand that heat is expensive…but I’m actually having to create activities in class that get the students doing some physical exercise – so they don’t fall into a “cold coma.”

On the plus side, my teacher’s office is semi-heated. I say “semi” because it’s still cold, but not as cold as the rest of the school.  Sitting here at my work desk, I’m bundled up in a sweater, two fleece jackets, a scarf, warm slippers, and a fleece blanket covering my lap. And yes, I’m still cold. But it’s at least a functioning level of cold. 

Here’s a picture of one of my English classrooms.

OUCH!!!!! (아야!!!)

I told you earlier about my very cheap visit to the doctor.  I was (and still  feel certain) that I had a sinus infection.  Unfortunately, the two days worth of antibiotics prescribed by the doctor just didn’t do the job.  Still feeling like my head was a balloon, Micah’s co-teachers intervened.

They suggested (while Micah was adamant) that I go get some Korean acupuncture.  One of his co-teachers came and picked me up after school and went with us.  I simply had to give them my name and medical card and just a couple minutes later I was in to see him.

FYI: I have done acupuncture before (in Seattle) – and really felt it was helpful.  So I’m not anti when it comes to non-traditional forms of medicine/treatments.

But as the doctor explained in his limited English…"Korean acupuncture is different than Seattle acupuncture."  And then the pain began.

I tried to explain my symptoms and it looked like he understood.  He started by pushing (really really REALLY hard) on different parts of my body. And then he took three plastic finger clamps and put them around my middle fingers…but making sure the clamp pinched part of my finger skin.  And then he squeezed really hard on my fingers…this hurt like hell – and he knew it.  I didn’t cry, but the look of massive pain on my face was quite obvious.

Each time he squeezed he would ask if my head felt any better.  I would say "no." He would adjust clamps and squeeze more. I thought I should just say "Yes" to make the pain stop – but I really did want some relief.  (I think he thought I just had a headache vs head pressure).

Next up…more pain.  These little band-aid dots went on the same middle fingers.  Three on each.  I didn’t see him use them, but I sure felt it.  (Same process ensued. 1. Apply torture device 2. Try very very hard to not yell/scream/or punch him 3. He’d press down with all his might 4. Repeat step 2)

I had to keep these little "band-aid dots" on my fingers for 3 hours. I couldn’t move them and every time I hit my fingers or brush up against something, I wanted to scream. It hurt so bad.  Oh and it didn’t work – my head pressure never went away, not even a little bit.

He had me come back the next day. I really really considered not going back. I even walked about half way home before Micah convinced me to try it.  At least this time he used needles and it seemed more like the style of acupuncture I’ve had back home. 

He had needles all over…my legs, feet, hands, head, and even face.  For the most part, that didn’t hurt.  (The face did though).  The needles didn’t provide any immediate relief, so….he decided to go back to the clamps. No!!!  I even tried to get out of it.  I figured me squirming around and saying, "no, no, no" might change his mind, but no.  More pain. 

On the plus side, a few days later I did feel better.  (Could be because I would have anyway or maybe the acupuncture did help).  And…for two visits, it was less than $10.

Gingkos galore

There are TONS of Gingko trees in Korea.  And since it’s fall, the leaves are changing colors and falling down.  They are really beautiful to look at. 

I always think of my dad when I walk by them.  When I was little, I remember helping my dad plant a Gingko tree in our backyard.  Thus, we became the only house in Deer Park, WA (and really, probably all of Eastern Washington) with an authentic gingko tree.  I remember thinking it was a pretty cool thing – and…I always knew what a gingko tree looked like (while most average folks didn’t).  The fan-shaped leaves are a dead giveaway.

Side note: The Gingko is a living fossil – meaning it is a living species that matches that of known fossils – and has somehow been able to survive through major extinction events (i.e. dinosaur extinction) with very little change.  Basically, it’s one badass tree.

 

Our ‘beary’ cute cell phones

Everyone in Korea owns a cell phone…everyone.  Even the 1st and 2nd grade students in my elementary school have cell phones.  There are cell phone stores on every block…sometimes there are three or four on the same block. (For those of you from Seattle – think Starbucks – but even grander).

You can imagine, with so many cell phones, there comes the need for cutesy cell phone accessories…right?  Up until now, I had successfully avoided accessorizing my phone.  I don’t need a little teddy bear figurine dangling from my phone – or so I thought.

However, Micah’s co-teacher bought him (and me) a thank you gift.  And since he sees her everyday, it would be difficult (and rude) to not use said gift.  I resisted, until Micah got a hold of my phone.  Now look.  Yes, that is a bear hanging from our phones.  And yes, Micah carries that around.  And no, those bears don’t do anything special.  

P.S. It’s very common for couples to get matching cell phone dangly-things.  Koreans are kind of big on proclaiming to the world their couple-ness.