Being a beautiful weekend here in Seoul, Ashley, Dani and I wanted to take advantage of it and spend a lot of time outdoors. On Saturday morning we all met at our favorite lunch spot (On the Border) and planned a stellar weekend! After lunch we headed over to Olympic Park and took advantage of the bike rentals. We decided to get a bike for 4 people and we peddled that thing around Olympic Park two times! I have been to Olympic Park before, but I have never explored it in it's entirety. I was able to see all of the gymnasiums and the swimming pool complex as well as the various statues contained within the park. Saturday is a busy day at the park and people of all ages are riding bikes, running, rollerblading and lazying about in the grass. After bike riding we laid in the talking and reading and taking in the sights of the park. Children were having exercise classes and rollerbladers were falling while a group practiced their dancing moves. As the sun began to set we headed out towards Ashley's neck of the woods in Godeok. We had a delicious Pizza Hut dinner and headed to noraebang (or singing room). Generally we seek out a noraebang after a night out and have had a few drinks, but Dani and I convinced Ashley (who isn't a huge fan of singing in front of people) that noraebang can be just as fun sober as it can after a few drinks. We had a blast singing songs together and solo and the man running the noraebang even gave us a free 30 minutes! It was quite late after we finished and we all headed our separate directions.
Sunday we decided to check out a baseball game at the Jamsil Sports Complex (where Olympic Stadium is located). I really wanted to go to an LG Twins game because I'm a Minnesota Twins fan and I thought it would be fun to cheer on the Twins in Korea too. Luckily, the Twins had a 3 game series with the KIA Tigers this weekend and we were able to catch a game. We bought tickets for a mere 6,000W and ended up having pretty good seats in the outfield, between 1st and 2nd base. Baseball games in Korea are a bit different from games at home, but the affection for baseball and the teams is very much the same. One thing that struck me as odd, right away, was the lack of a seat number on our tickets. We bought the Yellow-Green tickets which meant we could sit anywhere within the Yellow OR Green sections. We chose Green because we were able to get 3 seats together and it was nice to sit in the outfield. Another difference is the fact that you can bring in anything you want to the ballpark. People had KFC, Burger King, whole Dominos pizzas and beer and snacks purchased outside the venue. Next time I go I'm bringing a picnic lunch/dinner like most of the Koreans did. Korean baseball is very noisy and the fans cheer on their teams with chants and banging on inter tubes. Each team has different chants and seemingly, each player has some sort of chant. We didn't stay for the whole game as Dani and Ashley aren't huge baseball fans and we were getting hungry. Next time I go I'll stay the whole time as I really do miss going to baseball games. When we left the LG Twins were trailing the KIA Tigers 3 to 1 and I'm not sure who ended up winning. Overall, it was a great weekend and I crossed two things off my to do list! Tomorrow is June, can you believe it? I've been here almost 11 months!
Thanks to the generosity of my amazing boss, our whole school got a lovely four day weekend. We asked to have this weekend because May 5th is Children's Day in Korea and as the 5th fell on a Tuesday we thought it would be nice to have the 4th off as well. Once I found out we would indeed have the weekend off, I booked my ticket to China!
On May 2nd Chris, Lauren and I set off for Beijing. We got up super early, caught a bus to the airport and landed in Beijing at 10am. After catching a bus from the airport we ended up at the Beijing Railway Station. Our hostel claimed to be within walking distance of the train station, but as we had no idea which way to head, we caught a taxi. After arriving at Saga Youth Hostel we headed towards the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. After quite a long walk, we stumbled upon the Forbidden City in all its massive glory. The Forbidden City is on 7,800,000 square feet of ground and has 980 surviving buildings. Needless to say, this is certainly a whole day experience. We got there around 2 and stayed until the complex closed, but we merely scratched the surface. If we had had time, I would have gone back to see what I missed because I'm positive I didn't see or experience the entire breadth of the Forbidden City. The beautiful buildings and gargantuan gates were truly a new and exciting experience. The whole time I kept thinking about what it must have been like to live within the city's walls. Incredible.
After a lengthy exploration of the Forbidden City we decided to head to Wanfujing Snack Street. I had seen this on Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Foods and I just had to check it out. What we eventually found were grasshoppers, cicadas, mini and giant scorpions, seahorses, hearts, whole fish and starfish on skewers waiting to be someone's snack. The mini scorpions were still moving and I wouldn't doubt if the hearts were still beating. Unrecognizable meats and creepy crawlers were enough to make me shudder. I didn't try any of these delectable creatures, but I did have some sugared strawberries on a stick. These fresh, plump berries were coated with hard sugar that stuck to every tooth. The crunch on the outside and the soft berry on the inside was quite the culinary experience.
Our second day in Beijing we headed out to Olympic Park. Getting off the subway and laying eyes on the Bird's Nest and Water Cube was a bit of an emotional experience for me. I love watching the Olympics and like any other child, I always dreamed I'd be on one of the podiums receiving my Olympic medal. Seeing the sheer size of both venues was enough to make my jaw drop in awe. We opted not to pay the hefty entrance fees to go inside of the venues (50CNY for the Bird's Nest and another 20CNY for the Water Cube), but it was enough of an experience to see the outside and meander around the park. After a good 2 hours at the park we found a restaurant to eat at courtesy of my Beijing Encounter from Lonely Planet. The place wasn't quite what we expected, but after a bowl of Chinese noodles ladled with a pork chili, we didn't care anymore. The food was pretty good and all together it was a great afternoon. After we returned to the hostel we drank a few beers and headed to an acrobatics show. We got to the venue a bit early but we found an amazing street snack. A crepe filled with egg, sauces, cilantro, onions and a crunchy piece of wanton made for a very delicious, almost Mexican snack. The show itself was incredible. I don't understand how people can contort their bodies in ways to flip through hoops, move their legs fast enough to run on a barrel or even fly from pole to pole. The show blew my mind and still makes me wonder how they do it. If you are ever in Beijing, you have to see an acrobatic show.
On May 4th, I climbed the Great Wall of China at Mutianyu. First built in the mid-6th century, the Mutianyu Great Wall is older than the Badaling (the main tourist part) section of the Great Wall. I seriously can't believe I did it and I am so proud of myself for making it not only to the wall, but through a decent part of it. The climb up took about 35 minutes and then I spent another 2 hours on the wall. I walked through watch towers and up and down centuries old stairs. To me, the most incredible thing about the Great Wall is how massive it is and again, I only scratched the surface. The views of the wall, on top, were breathtaking and the whole time I thought I was dreaming. I never thought I'd be in China let alone climbing the greatest wall in the world. I'm sure a lot of the wall has been restored, but some of the stairs I climbed (ones that were so heavily trafficked that they had become smooth and part of other bricks) were most definitely original. The history surrounding the wall, the countless people who worked on it and died building it, everything about the wall is astounding. After our courageous and tiring climb, we decided to toboggan down. We were treated to lunch, through our tour we booked at the hostel, which was delicious. We had rice (of course) chicken, veggies, potatoes and all sorts of other things. It was fantastic. The 90 minute drive back to Beijing took us through some more rural areas of China and it was fun to people watch as we zipped through in out tiny bus. Once back in Beijing we took a nap and then headed to Tiananmen Square for a flag lowering ceremony. The soldiers march perfectly in step and arrive at the flag pole right at dusk. They do this every day of the year just to lower the flag. It was fun to watch and while we waited we acted like locals playing cards and eating an ice pop that tasted like a banana popsicle.
The last day in Beijing was spent at the Temple of Heaven Park and the Pearl Market. We decided to walk around the park that surrounds the Temple of Heaven and we discovered that this enormous park was filled with local flavor. People were dancing to music, playing something like hacky sack, exercising and playing music. Once inside the Temple of Heaven complex, we were greeted by a circular temple reaching toward the sky. I had read somewhere that the temple itself was held together with nothing more than braces and joints. No glue or nails were needed to construct it. I'm not sure if that's correct, but it didn't look like nails played a role. We left the complex to find a rose garden which was sadly not in full bloom, but when it is, I'm sure it's absolutely gorgeous. We also found the 100 Flower Garden that had rows upon rows of peony bushes almost ready to bloom. It would have been nice to see the flowers in bloom, but the park was gorgeous nonetheless. After the park we headed to the Pearl Market where I bought a pearl necklace for about $30. I've never owned pearls before and I have to say, I'm quite satisfied with my purchase. We left for the airport shortly after and returned to Seoul at 9:45pm.
Beijing was an incredible experience. I can't even put into words how much I enjoyed Beijing. Beijing is nothing like Seoul. Neon lights were hard to come by and the people were much different. In Seoul I am surrounded by hardworking men and women, fast paced life and soju. Beijing was more laid back (maybe because it was a holiday, I don't know), side games of mah jong and seemingly friendly conversation. I'm not really in a position to compare, but Tokyo and Seoul seem almost the same to me and Beijing is truly in its own element. I fell in love with Beijing and China while I was visiting and I can see myself coming back to experience more in the very near future.
This is going to be a long one, if you're brave you may even venture through the pictures on Picasa. Maybe grab yourself a cup of tea or coffee. Maybe a light snack. Don't say I didn't warn you. We will start with the arrival of the brother. He (Joseph, Joe for short) got here on the 14th and while the day was seemingly uneventful, it was a day of kimchi trying and spicy ramyeon noodle eating. Joe didn't like the kimchi, but I still attest that it was not very good kimchi to start with. I didn't even like it and I'm pretty keen on the stuff. On Saturday we filled out day with Namdaemun Market and Noryangjin Fish Market. The day turned rainy so we spent the rest of the day at COEX. I have been to Namdaemun before, but I didn't buy anything. This time I bought some things for my family and also started my Christmas shopping. We went relatively early in the morning so the market wasn't too crowded. We also opted to not eat there, which would have probably been a good idea, but at 10am we weren't ready for kimchi or various pork stews.
After we left Namdaemun we took the bus to Noryangjin Fish Market. While we had a hard time finding it at first, Joe came through and suggest we walk over the bridge. Genius idea. Noryangjin sits right beside 63 Building so we had a nice view (amid the haze and rain of the day) of that as well. The fish market is unlike anything I have ever been too. The only one I have been to is Pike Place in Seattle. Noryangjin is cluster after cluster of live fish, crabs, and octopus. Slabs of tuna are ready to be purchased and one can even buy a shark or a smiling sting ray. Plenty of unidentifiable sea creatures are on offer as well. Pick what you want and they pack it in a styrofoam box. You can even watch as they remove the scales and gut your purchase. Blood runs on the floor and while that may seem disgusting, it is also pretty cool. After we went to Noryangjin, we came home and Joe had his first kimbap. He enjoyed that and I think it may have been his favorite food of the trip (besides something coming up a little later). The day had turned rainy and gross so we decided to finish our exploring at COEX. Later in the evening we joined Loren, Dani and Woon Ha in Itaewon.
Sunday was dubbed Palace Day. We got up early (again) and started at Changdeok Palace with a guided tour. The only way to see this palace is with a guided tour and it is supposed to be one of the better palaces to visit while in Seoul. It was very nice and the day was perfect as well. The palace itself was like many of the others I have visited, but the addition of a blue tiled building and some more intimate housing quarters was a nice move from ordinary. Also, the gardens were nicely framed by the multitude of fiery trees. I might go back in spring to see the ponds filled with lotus blossoms. However, not being one for guided tours, we ducked out early and headed to Insadong. Insadong is where you can find Korean relics and replicas of those relics and also satisfy about any kind of Korean food craving you might have. It is supposed to be more of a traditional neighborhood and the Starbucks sign was written in Hangul to reflect that. We explored Insadong for awhile, but we were getting hungry. We headed to a place I had been before and had some delicious dolsop bibimbap (hot pot rice mixture). After lunch we also had Red Mango and then headed to Gyeongbok Palace. We were able to arrive at Gyeongbok right before changing of the guard started and it was pretty cool to see that as well. All in all, it was a great day. Tons of walking, but a great way to spend a sunny Sunday.
Monday morning I had to work so I wasn't able to go with Joe anywhere. However, he took Monday off and rested and played with his new silver Nintendo DS. He almost surpassed me on Mario. Almost. He also made me dinner that night. It was incredibly awesome to come home to a prepared meal. I don't get that living alone unless I eat leftovers. Not quite the same thing. Tuesday was a work day for me as well, but Joe found his way to Techno Mart and bought an iPod nano. Not the new version, but he really likes the older model and honestly, I do too. Although the new ones are so pretty. On Wednesday Joe checked out the aquarium at COEX and he said it was pretty cool. Apparently they have a lot of different sharks and he was able to identify most of them. I've never been to the aquarium so that's something I'll have to take a gander at eventually. On Thursday he went to the Korean War Museum and had a great time as well. He loves history and all that jazz so the museum was a perfect choice for him. I kind of wish he had a blog to talk about his vacation so I could see it through his eyes too. Friday Joe came to school with me and sat in on all of my classes. I think he had fun.
Friday was also Joe's 19th birthday so we decided to go to N Seoul Tower to check out the night view of Seoul. We had a little difficulty finding the cable car place at the beginning, but once again Joe prevailed and found our way (I'm not usually bad with figuring things out, but this past week I was off my game.) The cable car ride was awesome and the view was incredible. The bathroom even has a view! We spent about 2 hours there walking around and enjoying the view. We headed to Itaewon after N Seoul Tower for dinner and drinks. It was 10pm by the time we actually got to Itaewon and we were looking to have to Thai food. I knew of a great place, but they were closing for the evening when we got there. Then we went to Hard Rock Cafe and they weren't serving food so we settled for Outback Steakhouse. I had a delicious plate of pasta primavera and a sub par strawberry margarita. It ended up being a tiring night, but we were able to catch the bus home so we didn't have to pay for a cab.
Saturday we woke up late and decided to ax a trip to the Suwon Folk Village. Instead, we explored Olympic Park and World Cup Stadium. Olympic Park is so nice and a few weeks ago it was even more gorgeous as the leaves were changing. A lot of the leaves had dropped and the grass was brown, but thankfully there is more to Olympic Park than trees and grass. The flame burns under the peace gate and the flag plaza was pretty cool. We grabbed a quick snack and warm drink at Starbucks and took the long subway ride to World Cup Stadium. Joe was more enamored by the stadium than I was, but I still found it pretty cool. They had a museum there and everything. We got to go inside of the stadium and though the playing field was roped off, Joe managed to get a foot on the playing field. After World Cup we went back to Techno Mart so Joe could buy a digital camera and I was in search of an iPod Touch. We found a few at Techno Mart, but since we have to stop at COEX on the way home we went to a# and I got a 16GB iPod Touch. I am in love with it and I'm so happy I finally bought an iPod. I now have the internet in my pocket. It's a beautiful thing.
Saturday night was Joe's last night here so we decided to have a nice dinner. Joe had wanted to try blowfish since before he came and I was not to crazy about the idea. However since Joe really wanted to try it I inquired about a place to eat from Daniel at Seoul Eats. He recommended a place in Gangnam, which thankfully is close. We couldn't find the place, but after walking around a bit we found another place. Blowfish were happily swimming in the nicest fish tanks I've ever seen. We decided this would be an adequate place to cheat death. For the first time at a restaurant in Seoul, nobody spoke English. It was ok though, I was able to communicate (minimally) and I was able to read the Korean menu. We had our own little room, just the two of us and our table of food and ondol floors. We decided on Blowfish Sashimi (복 사시미). I wasn't going to try any, but I caved. I made Joe try it first and I decided that if he didn't die I too would try some. I've never had sashimi before, but I'm really excited to try more in the near future. Anyway, the blowfish was delicious and the service at the restaurant was impeccable. Lots of banchan (side dishes) and we got blowfish soup, blowfish juk (porridge) and a desert of Asian pear. It was a fantastic dinner. Joe and I even felt a little numbness in our mouths and quite possible the arms. However, it could have been in our heads. Either way, dinner was amazing and a great way to spend the last evening together.
Joe left on Sunday and we had to get up really early to catch the bus to Incheon. We hung out at the airport before he went through security and then I took the AREX to Gimpo to catch the subway. A very convenient and cheap way to get from the airport to the subway. I'll be traveling that way when I leave for Japan next month. I'm glad Joe came to visit and we had a great time. I only wish my whole family could have come, but Joe came bearing gifts. I got some macaroni and cheese (yes, the blue box, Kraft kind), Mrs. Grass' chicken soup and Stride gum. My favorite thing from home was the quilt my mom surprised me with. She made it and it is absolutely gorgeous. I'm incredibly lucky to have such a talented mother.
This weekend was pretty busy, but fun nonetheless. On Saturday morning I got up at 8 and took the bus to Olympic Park so I could run. It was incredibly beautiful as the leaves are in the process of changing. There were many people on the walking/running paths, but it was still very peaceful. I didn't run as much as I would have liked, but then again I only started running three weeks ago. I am planning on running a 5K in December, but on Saturday I made it (running) about 1.5K and not all at the same time. I guess I'm more out of shape than I thought. However, I did walk the other 3.5K so I would know what this is going to entail. It's only 3 miles, I've never ran that much in my life, but I am very determined to do this 5K. I wasn't going to write about it until later, but with the cold I have, I haven't ran (or is it run...this is where English confuses me too) in 3 days and I need more motivation. What better way than telling the blog world about my intent.
After my "run" I came home and got ready to meet Kristin in Itaewon so we could go to the the travel agent. We booked our tickets to Japan! I am leaving Christmas Day for Osaka/Kyoto where I'll be until the 28th. Then its on to Tokyo, meeting up with a few Cottey girls and then spending the New Year in Tokyo. I'm pretty stoked. I've wanted to go to Japan since 8th grade where I learned a lot about the culture and I even did a Powerpoint (it was BRAND new then!) on Buddhism. Oh, and I also had my first and last sushi in 8th grade. However, I am planning on venturing down the sushi road while in Japan. It would be like coming to Korea and not trying kimchi.
After the travel agent, we went to lunch at a Mexican restaurant where I had the best margarita I've ever had. Yes, mom it was better than the ones at Papitos in Oxford! Then I headed to my first Korean class. It was the last class in the series so it was review, but I am excited to go again on Saturday. I meet some really awesome people and after class we all went to dinner and the bar. I called it an early evening, but promised to hang out more this coming weekend. It had been a long, rainy Saturday.
This week has already proved challenging. However, I am learning more and more everyday about how to deal with students. My main complaints/issues are my own lack of patience. In one of my classes I have to give directions about 10 times before one of them understands. Then it is a barrage of questions they would have the answer to if they had listened the first 10 times. It's incredibly frustrating to try to talk over these little monkeys. However they are improving from when I first started teaching them. I just need to practice more patience with them and I think they will start to listen/understand more. I think they can sense my frustration and they of course feed off of it. Not that I blame them, I'm almost certain I was the same way as a child.
I have a student, in grade 4 who reminds me so much of myself at age 11 so I can sympathize with her a little. I was not the best student, not in a sense of academics, but behavior wise. I'm sure mom and dad are laughing as they read this. This little girl is an outcast in her class. She is smart (she informed me that her IQ is 155 and I don't doubt it), but incredibly strange. She has major behavior problems, i.e. she doesn't listen, she is out of her chair constantly, etc. Today I had to put her in the hall for 1 minute (because she broke the first tier of my "no Korean" rule) and she came back and sat in her chair. When class had started, I told her to sit down 3 times and told her if she got out of her chair again I would stick her in the hall for the rest of class. We had a test today so she was in her chair for a good 20 minutes. However, she got out of her chair with about 15 minutes left in class. I gave her one more warning about being in the hall until class was over and she sat back down. Two minutes later, she was out of the chair. I told her to go stand in the hall. She was fine until the Korean teacher asked her what had happened. The rest of the class and I heard an uproar of crying and dry heaving and foot stomping. Typical behavior for this girl. Anyway, after class Ms. Grace (the principal) came in to talk to me and apparently the student told her that I had said she'd only have to be in the hall for 2 minutes (which is the punishment for the second tier of my "no Korean" rule.) When I explained to Ms. Grace what had really happened, with the student still present, she went insane. Stomping her feet, crying and dry heaving. Ahhh, it was a scene. I left shortly after Ms. Grace probably said something along the lines of "why did you lie to me?" and "stop crying, you are making a scene." I don't know if Ms. Grace wanted to talk to me more, but I had to get out of there.
So, I have to learn to deal with myself from 12 years ago. This of course goes right along with my "everything happens for a reason" theory. I was a horrible child so that I would have to face horrible children and feel really bad for the way I acted. Before this student, I did feel bad, but now I am appalled by my own behavior. If any of my elementary teachers happen upon this blog, this is my formal apology. I'm surprised that none of you were driven to drink. I was a pain in the ass. Many of the other teachers wish this student were removed from the school, but I kind of hope she sticks around. To teach me and to help me learn to deal with similar students. While she isn't a pleasure to teach and makes everyone uncomfortable, I still feel bad for her. I can identify with her. It has been yet another eventful week and it is only Tuesday.
We decided to get a bike for 4 people and we peddled that thing around Olympic Park two times! I have been to Olympic Park before, but I have never explored it in it's entirety. I was able to see all of the gymnasiums and the swimming pool complex as well as the various statues contained within the park. Saturday is a busy day at the park and people of all ages are riding bikes, running, rollerblading and lazying about in the grass. After bike riding we laid in the talking and reading and taking in the sights of the park. Children were having exercise classes and rollerbladers were falling while a group practiced their dancing moves. As the sun began to set we headed out towards Ashley's neck of the woods in Godeok. We had a delicious Pizza Hut dinner and headed to noraebang (or singing room). Generally we seek out a noraebang after a night out and have had a few drinks, but Dani and I convinced Ashley (who isn't a huge fan of singing in front of people) that noraebang can be just as fun sober as it can after a few drinks. We had a blast singing songs together and solo and the man running the noraebang even gave us a free 30 minutes! It was quite late after we finished and we all headed our separate directions.
that you can bring in anything you want to the ballpark. People had KFC, Burger King, whole Dominos pizzas and beer and snacks purchased outside the venue. Next time I go I'm bringing a picnic lunch/dinner like most of the Koreans did. Korean baseball is very noisy and the fans cheer on their teams with chants and banging on inter tubes. Each team has different chants and seemingly, each player has some sort of chant. We didn't stay for the whole game as Dani and Ashley aren't huge baseball fans and we were getting hungry. Next time I go I'll stay the whole time as I really do miss going to baseball games. When we left the LG Twins were trailing the KIA Tigers 3 to 1 and I'm not sure who ended up winning. Overall, it was a great weekend and I crossed two things off my to do list! Tomorrow is June, can you believe it? I've been here almost 11 months!
