Dr. Fish and Simpsons Clue

This afternoon I met up with Loren and Megan in Gangnam to go to Dr. Fish. Loren and I were planning on going to Dr. Fish a few weeks back but couldn't find it in Sinchon. We lucked out today and found it and it was an experience. First of all, it's a cafe where you go and order drinks, chill and do what people do in a cafe. However, there are two shallow baths with fish swimming in them. We chose the tank with the big fish. Once you rinse your feet you put them into the baths along with hundreds of fish waiting to eat the bottoms of your feet. I guess they are a special kind of fish who apparently help people in Turkey with psorisis. Anyway, you leave your feet in the baths for about 20 minutes while fish constantly nibble. It's not really a ticklish experience, but rather the feeling of fine sandpaper lightly rubbing your feet. Here is a video I took of the fish and the cafe. It's not very good, but it's an idea of how Dr. Fish works.



After the fish nibbling, we went to Dos Tacos for some Mexican food and margaritas. I had a rather tasty chicken burrito. We sat outside and despite the constant haze over the city the past few days, it was a pretty nice day. After dinner we went shopping at Artbox where I got some new stationary and a 2009 calendar with the Korean holidays written in English. Then went to a board game cafe. We played Simpsons Clue and had a great time trying to remember the rules of Clue. Loren won the first time and Megan the last. I'm not a very good Clue player, but it was fun.

More Cute Kids

Here are two more pictures of my Kindergarteners (from the BIS website). The first is from a presentation they had with their reading books. Some of them are dressed in the Korean hanbok, traditional clothing. The second picture is of Mike and Jane at their birthday party. Click on the pictures to make them bigger.

Mandu Guk (만두국)

I decided to try and make some Korean food, mainly because I really wanted mandu guk (dumpling soup) and the place where I normally go is closed on Sunday. So I went to the grocery store bought some mandu and green onions (among other things I needed). I didn't have a recipe before I went to the store, but mandu guk is comprised of very simple ingredients. Traditionally mandu guk is eaten on the New Year and also during colder weather. Today was chilly and seemed a perfect start of fall dinner. Anyway, I found a very simple recipe:

1/8t. sesame oil
1/8t. soy sauce
6c. water
1 egg, mixed
2 green onions, chopped
salt and pepper
Mandu dumplings

I added sliced onion and sesame seeds (as a garnish) as well because the place I eat at has onion in their soup and tops it with sesame seeds and pepper. I omitted the gim (seaweed) because I forgot to pick it up from the grocery and 4oz of beef. Essentially you make an egg drop soup and add the mandu.

Anyway, start by heating a pot and when it's hot sautée the beef and sesame oil. Add the water and bring to a boil. Drop the dumplings in (I used 6, but you can use as many as you wish) and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add the green onions and onion. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for about a minute or until onions are soft. Spread the egg, but don't stir right away. When the egg is cooked, serve the soup in a bowl and garnish with the gim (seaweed), pepper and sesame seeds.

The soup was pretty good. Very easy. However, it needs a little bit of tweaking and I am looking for other recipes to compare and possibly change it to try again. If you are looking for something quick, easy and tasty then I would suggest trying this.

Jinju Lantern Festival

Even Seoul is seemingly calm in the morning. Before the sun rises and cars and people fill the streets. The sun rising over the Han River reflects off it's calm surface. The countryside is a different calm. Clouds rolling off the hills meeting with the lifting fog from the golden rice paddies. It's hard to tell if I am trapped in a cloud or just the fog itself. The leaves are beginning to turn, faint hues of red and orange dot the hillsides. Farmers alone with their crops, I with my thoughts on this sparsely populated bus. The sun squinting my eyes illuminating the beauty of Korea.

Very early Saturday morning Megan, Loren and I got a bus bound for Jinju. Jinju is in the southeast part of Korea and the bus ride is about 4 hours. I love traveling by bus in Korea because it's cheap, relatively quick and very efficient. It also allows for views of the countryside and traditional life. We got to Jinju at 11am and walked toward the river where the Lantern Festival was taking place. We found a hotel room at the Versace Hotel and then set off to view the lanterns and find some lunch. We crossed the river on a floating bridge and found a food tent for some bibimbap and beer. A perfect lunch on the banks of the river under the clear blue sky.

Later, we wanted to check out the bullfighting and after catching a taxi and arriving at the bull ring we discovered that there would be no bullfighting on Saturday. Kind of sad, but we checked out the Jinju Fortress instead. The fortress had great views of the river and the lanterns floating on it. The day was very serene and calming and the weather was absolutely perfect. After checking out the fortress we went to a silk store to see the famous Jinju silk and then headed to MiniStop for an afternoon of soju and chatting along the roadside. Later, we took a nap and then headed to the night time festivities at the Lantern Festival.

The lanterns looked awesome lit up on the river and I wish my pictures had been better. The place was packed with people waiting for the firework show and just checking out the lanterns. All of the lanterns are made of silk and it's pretty impressive to see what people can do with a little silk and wire. We saw the Statue of Liberty, kite fliers, lotus blossoms, tigers, entire buildings made of silk. The fireworks started at 8 and lasted only about 20 minutes. However, it was possibly the best firework show I ever seen. Plus, right across the river from us, a fire broke out. It was highly entertaining. After fireworks we got samgyopsal (BBQ) and called it a night.

It was a great weekend with friends and I am so glad I have the opportunity to take weekend trips around Korea. It's so nice to get out of Seoul sometimes and breath fresh air and see how the rest of the country lives. I love it!

Here is a collage of pictures, more can be found on my Picasa page.

Quick Update

Sorry for the almost week gap in blogging. It's out of sheer laziness and a great site to watch TV on. Sorry, Desperate Housewives, Brother and Sisters and Growing Pains were calling me this weekend. Anyway, it's the eve of Wednesday and my week does seem to fly by faster and faster, but still it drags on. Wednesday is my longest day, no breaks and a rambunctious group of kids. The past few days I've been so tired because I stayed up way too late over the weekend and over compensated by sleeping in. I haven't caught up yet.

I didn't do anything over the 3 day weekend. I feel a bit guilty about it, but I did have a pleasant weekend of TV watching, writing and green tea drinking. It was gorgeous this weekend so I took advantage of that by sitting on the roof and walking around the neighborhood. I could have explored some palaces and stuff, but I am waiting until my brother comes to do a whole lot more in Seoul. I kind of want to have the first hand experience along with him. However, I am planning to go to Jinju this weekend for a Lantern Festival. It should be pretty fun. It's about 4 hours from Seoul in the south eastern part of Korea.

On another note, my dad totally hooked me and my students up! I have been in the process of preparing pen pals for five of my classes and it is a lot of fun. The kids seem to be excited about the idea, but I'm not sure they quite understand the concept. Though I'm betting they will once they get their first letters. I'm putting the first batch of letters in the mail tomorrow. I feel pretty confident using the Korean post office now, after having to buy and send a box within Korea and I completed the entire transaction in Korean! Anyway, this means that people should start looking out for surprises from Korea. It saddens me that I have yet to find adequate post cards, but I'm on the look out and maybe this weekend I'll find some.

Also, I am hoping to go on a day trip to seem some autumn foliage, explore a cave and take a ferry ride toward the end of the month. It's a good deal and I will need to see some colorful trees or I might go crazy. The leaves that Seoul has to offer are slowly changing and if they hadn't pruned all the trees on the street by my apartment, I would be able to see the gorgeous colors from my window. However, Seoul does have it's fair share of parks, including Olympic Park. I have been meaning to go there for quite some time and I think this month might be good.

New Schedule, 3 Day Weekend

My schedule has been completely changed as of tomorrow. I will no longer be teaching Science. I only had one class before, but I really liked my Science class. I got Language added to my arsenal. Thanks. I'm not much of a fan of the semantics and technicalities of language. I learned more English grammar because of Spanish class than I ever learned in an English class. Anyway, my Tuesday/Thursday schedule remains the same. The nice thing is that I now have a prep period everyday but Wednesday. I have two on Tuesday to make up for that though. The reason we are switching the schedule is because BIS hired a new teacher because our grade 2 classes are getting too big and too crazy. The new teacher will only be part-time and work Monday, Wednesday, Friday and is taking some of my most hated and most beloved classes. However, all the current teachers are dealing with the same situation. I had also planned two of the classes I lost until December so it kind of makes me feel like my work was useless. I have however designed and new lesson plan sheet which is much more efficient and visual than before.

Other than that, nothing else in the way of news. We have a three day weekend coming up because of National Foundation Day on Friday. It'll be nice to have a 3 day weekend, but other than dinner with friends on Thursday night, I don't have much planned. Maybe the HiSeoul festival, maybe palace tours, maybe a walk through Olympic Park. Perhaps swimming laps in the Olympic pool or checking out the shooting range? Who knows, but I am looking forward to a relaxing weekend and the weather looks promising thus far for a relaxing, outdoor weekend.

Noraebang

Last night was another Spanish meetup and some new people were there, which was really nice. We went to a restaurant in Sinchon that had separate conference style rooms that you can rent out, have some food, drinks and a meeting all at the same time. It was pretty kitschy, but fun. After dinner, a group of us headed to Hongdae for some dancing. On the way to the bar, Tinpin, we encountered a stand where a woman was selling cocktails in a bag. It was like a Capri Sun, but for adults and at 3,000W a pop, hard to pass up. After we hung out at Tinpin for a bit we decided to head to a noraebang. A noraebang is a karaoke room people can rent out with their friends and you can sing to your heart's content. They have a ton of songs in English, including recent hits and old ones too. I sang a lot of songs! Loren and I belted out, "Hey Jude," Megan and I sang "Goodbye Earl" and "Girls Just Want to Have Fun." I decided to solo on "Mmmbop" and "Don't Bring Me Down." It was so much fun! Afterward we hit up the street food where I tried tteokbokki for the first time, it was very spicy, but incredibly tasty.