Who Needs GoodLife

When we cancelled our gym membership in August, we were left wondering when our next workouts would be. We didn't know if there were gyms in Korea or if we would want to join them anyway. On our last visit to Seoul, we came across this outdoor gym on the side of the mountain in Namsam Park. It was full of people pumping iron and doing calisthentics. It seemed like a great place to workout in the fresh air surrounded by outdoor scenery. But we didn't bother using it ourselves for a few reasons. First of all, in order to find this gym we had already walked up hundreds of stairs and had hundreds more to go to reach the summit. This was already after walking from our apartment to the bus terminal, from the bus station to the subway, from the subway to the park, through the park and up the mountain. We were well on our way to getting our cardio quota for the day. This park also seemed to be a mecca for runners, they were everywhere, running up and down the sloping trails and rocky steps. So we seem to have found the place to come when we need to feel fit, even if we don't do anything about it except watch other people workout and run. We would be quite happy just walking the stairs.


Plus we are very active at school with the kids. They are putting us through strenuous work which we translate into exercise. For one, the kids love to dance. Jenn is always playing the Sesame Street song and strutting her stuff. This is Jenn and Annie dancing. Annie loves having Jenn as her dance partner so she can jump high in the air. The kids have also taken to using me as a jungle gym so I am getting to flex my muscles once in a while.

Arm wrestling is also a big thing between the kids. So I'm getting in on that action. One brazen little gaffer in Jenn's Bamboo class who thought he was the toughest kid at school thought he would challenge me, because he had already beaten everyone else in his class. Well, I put him in his place. And I used my left hand. And then Jenn arm wrestled him and she beat him too, so we knocked his tough guy status down a few notches and maybe he'll be better behaved in class now.

We will most likely join a gym when we return to Canada, but for now we are getting our fair share of exercise. Not to even mention the stairmaster of our apartment building that we have to climb every day after work. Did Jenn mention there are 74 stairs to get to the sixth floor? And she plans on conquering every one of them.

The Smartest Kid in Class

It's only Day 31 but already Jenn and I are caught up in one of the most important duties of teachers everywhere. That's right, it's report card time. We're supposed to have all our report cards done tomorrow, so the Korean teachers have time to translate our comments before they have to be handed out at the beginning of the month. So we were going to bring the rest home and finish them tonight. And then this package arrived for us and things changed pretty quickly. Jenn's mom sent our winter coats and some sweaters in the mail for us, stuff that wouldn't fit in our luggage, so we were excited to get our new coats (Thanks for sending them Mom Iorio and thanks for buying them Mom Cook). But even more exciting were some magazines that were in the box. Jenn's mom slipped in 8 magazines from home. This is especially exciting since we saw English magazines on the weekend in Seoul and they were outrageously priced: normal mags like Time and People were $10 and I think the cheapest one we saw was Reader's Digest for $8. Jenn and I are magazine junkies, so this was a jackpot for us and we knew right away that we wouldn't be getting any work done at home tonight. I have my 2 favourite magazines (Utne and Outpost) to leaf through and Jenn has plenty of Hollywood trash to get caught up on (People, In Touch, Us). So the report cards are going to wait until tomorrow. I started out with 88 cards to complete and I have about 30 left; Jenn has 72 students all together but she is a little further behind then I am, so we have our work cut out for us tomorrow. Here is Jenn in our dining room working very hard at getting through our new stash of magazines.

I've got Seoul, but I'm not a Seouldier

It's easy to play word games with the name of Korea's capital city and I always get this Killers' song (with a few letter changes) in my head when we visit Seoul. This weekend was our third trip to Seoul and it looks like we will never run out of things to do there (Also very important is that Jenn will never run out of places to shop - the malls and markets and street vendors all converge into one never-ending shopping extravaganza. I guess there needs to be a lot of stuff available to sell to this 30 million population.)

We had a late start on Saturday, because we had a late night on Friday. That tends to happen when you go to a pub with 2 Irish people. We went out for a few drinks with Stephanie and Malachy even though we were wiped out from work; we perked up a bit once we were away from school and got a few beers in us. And those few beers didn't stop until 2:30 a.m. It helped that our first few rounds were paid for by an overly-friendly and overly-drunk Korean man. This man (name unknown) was the landlord of Stephanie and Malachy's building and as soon as he recognized them he invited himself to our table for the next hour and a half. He knew very broken English and he was more than willing to practice it on us (we had the same conversation about how he was going to visit us in Canada and Ireland about 20 times). And that actually turned out to be the point of him sitting with us: he kept buying rounds of beer and snacks and we had to keep talking English with him; then he brought his daughter into the bar and we had to speak English to her. This is the Koreans way to get more practice with their English, even though for 4 ESL teachers who spent the last 5 days in our classrooms, we wanted to have a conversation with other English speakers without one-word questions and answers. We were able to drag ourselves away and find another bar that served imported beer and had less people that were interested in us. There wasn't any Canadian brands, so I had a Miller Genuine Draft. Jenn had some Vodka based drink called KGB. They even had Jack Daniels, but we weren't about to spend the $200 price tag. We don't know what one drink of Jack cost, but it seems to be the normal procedure to buy the bottle for your table instead of ordering by the glass. We also learned another Korean custom about drinking: You aren't supposed to pour your own drink into your own glass; someone pours for you and you pour for them and then you drink together. We didn't know that until now, so we may have offended some Koreans in our first month. Same goes for the removing of the shoes rule - we're not sure when we are supposed to and we may be breaking the rules all the time but not know it.

The next afternoon we caught our bus and made it to Seoul around 1:30. Our first stop was lunch and this is where we gave in to not so much a craving, but a taste of the familiar. We partly blame Carrie for this. She has made numerous references to Filet o' fish in her comments and Jenn knew she wouldn't last much longer before she had to get her favourite McDonalds sandwich. So our first experience in McDonalds was the same as anywhere else in the world, except we were 2 white people in a sea of hamburger-eating Asians. No kimchi to be seen. We both agree that it was tasty. After that we went straight to Namsam Park, which is the biggest park in Seoul with the highest mountain in the city. Atop the mountain stands The Seoul Tower, which is remarkably similar to another slender tower we all know as the CN Tower. The park is a beautiful arrangement of sprawling greenery, babbling brooks, traditional Korean architecture, and paved walkways. And there are stairs - thousands and thousands of stairs that lead up to the summit. We had the time and the ambition so we took the stairs to the top, expecting that the sights would be worth the effort of getting there. It was worth it, except for one huge letdown. The Tower was under renovation and closed to the public (kind of like going to Paris and not being able to go up the Eiffel Tower, hoping this doesn't happen to you this week Michelle and Paul). There may have been signs along the way that warned visitors of this, but of course, signs in Korean don't help us one bit. So we enjoyed the scenery from the mountaintop and it was still spectacular.

After our afternoon in the park, complete with a downpour (and us umbrella-less again), we went to Itaewon street. This is the area of Seoul where you see a high percentage of people that are not Asian. It was still raining when we got there, so we had no choice but to take a break in the 3-storey Starbucks (the biggest one in the wordl) until it stopped. Then a bit of walking around and a motel for the night.

The next day we left early to attend a Christian church in the city. On our way to the subway, we passed another McDonalds. We both looked at each other and said "Egg McMuffins??" We knew it was a bad idea to have McDonalds food twice in 24 hours but that didn't stop us. What did stop us was the fact that McDonalds in Korea does not serve breakfast food. So we were saved from going through our own personal version of the "Supersize Me" experiment, but we were slightly disappointed. After a while, we realized we didn't have good enough directions to find the church so after wandering a bit, we finally gave up. We bought an English newspaper called the Korean Times to pass the time while we road the subway trying to figure out what to do next. Jenn had the sports section (oddly enough) and she read that there was a tennis tournament at the Olympic Park. After a quick study of the subway maps, we realized we could get there relatively easily, switched subways, and after a few wrong turns stumbled upon the tennis stadium in Olympic Park. It was quite spectacular. The schedule and draw from the 1988 Olympics were still posted in the parking lot. Steffi Graf won the Women's final and Miloslav Mecir (nicknamed "The Cat") won the Men's, for all you tennis fans who forgot. The tournament that was going on was a professional WTA event, but it was the qualifying rounds only so the tournament was not fully underway yet. We were able to walk around the grounds and check out the qualifying matches that were being played. I checked out the draw, but there weren't any big names. No one ranked higher than 20th in the world was playing this event. We got to see a Korean play against a Japanese on Stadium Court, and even though there were no tennis superstars there, it was still very cool.

T.G.I.F.

We've reached the end of four weeks (Day 26 of 365 for those of you counting). Even though we are having a great time for the most part, we have learned that being an ESL teacher in a foreign land is a lot of work and by Friday evening we are wiped out. T.G.I.F. applies as much in Korea as it does in Canada. This acronym has meaning again. It means 3 nights and 2 days of freedom from your job. As you all know, I chose to work at Chapters and Starbucks for the past 3 years and weekends didn't mean as much to me as they did when I was working a 9-5 desk job. Now Saturday and Sunday are the weekly Holy Grail once again. Jenn and I were in the same boat with our 2 jobs and even though we loved making triple grande soy no-foam vanilla lattes and harassing unsuspecting customers into buying our favourite books (I think Jenn sold a record number of The Little Prince), working at Chapters and Starbucks was unforgiving. A weekend off at Chapters meant we were most likely at Starbucks, and vice versa. And forget holidays. That mall we worked at rarely closed. National Statutory holidays in our country also stands for National Shopping holidays, so if you work in retail forget celebrating Canada Day or Boxing Day or any other prized civic holidays we have as Canadians. As for Starbucks, I think they are closed on Christmas Day and that's it. I remember last year, I was silly enough to assume I would have New Year's Day off, so I didn't bother writing in the time-off book. Of course, I was scheduled for a 7:00 a.m. shift after a night of New Year's Eve debauchery.
So here we are in a different type of job dealing with throngs of kids who don't understand us very well, realizing how wiped out we are on a Friday afternoon. Kids are kids no matter what language they are speaking (we often hear our names being rattled off amid a cluster of Korean gibberish - not knowing what is being said, but realizing that we are the topic of their conversation). And sometimes these kids tire us out way before it's time to go home. Just like anywhere in the world these kids run the gamut: there are studious kids, mischievous kids, ignorant kids, kind kids, violent kids, affectionate kids, intelligent kids, defiant kids, endearing kids, and a select few who are just plain fun kids. We deal with them on a daily basis and it has its moments of complete frustration, but overall it is proving to be rewarding. But we will relish our weekends. To prove it, we are off for a few pints with our Irish friends for the night and then are leaving early Saturday to spend the rest of the weekend in Seoul.

Other Uses for Dogs

This is for all the dog lovers out there. And dont' be afraid, this is not an offensive blog nor is it for animal activists - it's just the facts as we see them. There are plenty of rumours that Koreans eat dogs; so far we have had no bad news or surprises and we hope to prove that it is all a myth. We have eaten some pretty weird things, but we haven't seen or tasted evidence that dog meat is used in the cooking. We hope it stays that way. We've seen plenty of pet dogs and they are all tiny - not just puppies, but the tiny breeds of dogs, like teacup poodles, chihuahuas, and what have you (a dog enthusiast may be able to provide more examples of breeds, but I can't). They are often decked out in some weird way. We've seen a dog with purple ears and tail. We've seen dogs with tiny running shoes. We seen a dog owner teaching his dog to use a skateboard. We've seen dogs in shirts and hats. Tiny dogs are a huge novelty item over here (the Paris Hilton / Britney Spears mini-dog accesory fad must have started here). Maybe they give extra attention to tiny dogs, to cover up any guilt that the larger breeds are used for cooking. I hope not.

Another thing about dogs over here, is that even they look at us funny. Remember how we talked about how people stare at us. Well, dogs stare at us too. It's like they know we are out of place and they look at us as if thinking, "You're not from my country and why do you look so weird." But we could say the same thing about a dog with purple ears.

The Walled City

Monday was the last day of our long weekend so we made the most of it by heading out of town for the day (Have we mentioned that there really isn't a whole lot to do in Yeoju??) The day took us 1.5 hours out of our little city into the slighty larger one of Suwon (at 950,000 people, Suwon is the 8th largest city in Korea). In the late 1600's the military established a garrison here to protect the approaches to Seoul and with the intentions of moving the national capital from Seoul to Suwon, King Jeongjo (the 22nd Josen Dynasty King) had the fortress wall constructed. The wall itself is over 5 km in length and averages about 9 metres high. Along the length of the wall are 4 principle gates and numerous parapets, pavilions, towers, sentry positions, command posts, gun batteries, and 1 fire beacon site. The wall was the last and most modern of the great Joseon Dynasty fortresses and is considered a masterpiece of Korean construction. Although there were great plans for this city, the King died before he could see them through and the decision was made to keep Seoul the nations capital, however, Suwon is the provincial capital of Gyeonggi-do (the province we live in, Seoul is also part of this province.) The Hwaseong Fortress (the proper title for the Suwon fortress) was designated a World Heritage Site in 1997. There is your history lesson for today. What, did you think this was all fun and games??

The attraction is you can walk along the entire wall and go inside the towers and such, at least that is what brought us to Suwon. As is the case lately, the weather was not cooperating with us and we cut the day slightly short. We only walked the North to South gates, taking us about 2 hours (the actual walk is shorter than this but when you stop to look, take pictures, and get out of the rain, it tends to take a little longer.) We plan to return to the fortress in the spring to walk the other side when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom.


Of course it would not be an adventure if we didn't get lost and seek the aid of any English-speaking Koreans we could find. The bus system I'm sure is very efficient for the natives but when you have no idea, you really need help. Finally we decided on a cab to take us back to the bus terminal which was a good idea because as it turns our they changed the location of the main terminal but didn't bother to change it on any of the maps throughout the city. {You may be wondering how we made it to the fortress in the first place and it really is just a blur to us. I happened to be sitting next to a wonderful English speaker on the bus into Suwon who as soon as he found out where we were headed simply had to help us get there. We rushed out of the bus terminal (most Koreans are always in a hurry, unless you are and you are walking behind them) and rounded the corner to be put on a city bus with no idea of where we were or where we were going. Once again trust is a big thing. He got us to our destination, we just forgot to ask how to get back.}


We had about an hour and a bit to wait for our bus at the end of the day so we decided to have dinner at the (so called) famous BBQ restaurant (not even sure what it is called - there was not a lick of English on any of the signs.) We think there was only one thing in the menu (at least we didn't get a choice, a man came over, spoke in Korean, nodded and said okay, and dinner was brought to us) and it was pork ribs prepared sutbul galbi (the traditional way, over a charcoal brazier) right at the table. On the way out there was a giant chest freezer so you could self serve an ice cream cone (do we ever pass on ice cream?) Despite the rain, and the getting lost, the trip was well worth it. Another good thing about long weekends is short work weeks. Our explorations are going well and we can't wait to explore Seoul some more next week.

Hot Tub!!

On Saturday, we took a trip to a nearby city called Icheon. This is the city we were originally supposed to end up when our contracts were set up. The same director oversees both schools in Icheon and Yeoju, and for reasons unknown to us we were switched to the Yeoju school. The population of Icheon is double that of Yeoju, but from walking around it felt ten times larger than our little town of 100,000 people. (When we told a Korean that we were from Yeoju, he responded by saying, "Oh yes, the countryside." So it appears that where we live is not considered to be much of a city from outsiders.) Our reason for going to Icheon was to check out a hot springs resort. There are hot springs all throughout Korea and Icheon is reported to be one of the best. What we ended up going to is called a "spa" over here, but not what North Americans would consider a spa (not like the spa we went to in Joshua Tree on our honeymoon). This spa has many parts: a huge water park for kids with slides and games, a sauna area with many types of saunas (everything from what looked like a huge pizza oven to a "cold" arctic sauna with white pebbles on the floor to look like snow), a workout area, and a food court. But the main feature of the spa is 2 large public bath houses, one for men and one for women. These bath houses are somewhat of a pasttime over here, so we decided to partake in a Korean tradition. Jenn and I separated into our corresponding bath houses and agreed to meet up in 1 hour.

In this bath house, you get prepared in a normal change room that you would see in any gym. Then you go into this enormous room full of people showering, lathering up, loofahing each other, and soaking in any of the ten huge hot tubs - there were herb hot tubs, rice wine hot tubs, there was even a cold tub that was a frigid 17 degrees Celcius. But there was no bathing suits to be seen. (After conferring with Jenn, it seems our experiences were similar, just different nude body parts). People spend a few hours in this big room moving from one tub to another, soaking in mineral waters of varying temperatures, and getting very clean. It is a very weird scene for a Canadian, it's like a community bath house, but the hot tubs are fantastic and very therapeutic. After that you can put on a suit (a bathing suit, not a birthday suit) and go outside into a common area with men and women together where there are similar hot tubs, minus the soaps and loofahs, but with more clothes.

A note from Jenn: Let me just say that I think the whole experience here is different for men. Darin apparently had no problems with the experience in the bath house and rather enjoyed the tubs as they should be. On the other hand, I spent the last 3 weeks being pointed at, stared at, laughed at, and who knows what else. I was not about to go through that experience alone and naked. I was hopeful that the "no suit rule" was optional so I left mine on, only to be yelled at by some lady in Korean and then banished to the outdoors where I found a spot in a little tub in a far off corner and read peacefully alone until it was time to meet up with Darin. We do plan on going here again as the tubs really are beautiful and relaxing. I think it would be lovely outside in the dead of winter sitting in the hot spring pools, with my suit on.

We don't have any pictures from inside of the spa. We hope you understand.

Happy Chusok

We have some catching up to do from our long weekend and first on the agenda is the Activity Day we had at school on Friday. It was Korean Thanksgiving so the point of the day was to dress up in traditional Korean clothing (called hanbok) and make Thanksgiving food (unfortunately, no turkey or stuffing to be seen). The food here that symbolizes Thanksgiving is called songpyon. We spent part of the morning making this with the kindergarten classes (we had 2 Korean teachers with us with the recipe and the proper cooking utensils - we weren't left to our own devices, or else we would have made turkey). We rolled up little pieces of rice dough, filled them with raisins, and folded them into half moon shapes (or as the kids were good at - folding them into blobs of dough). Once we finished rolling them, they went into a double boiler of some sort and while they cooked we went for a walk with the kids in the park.

This is the pagoda park that Jenn and I have been looking at for the past three weeks from our hallway window. We've never ventured over to look at it yet, until today, with 6 little munchkins as our escorts. We finally got to see it close up and it is lovely and peaceful - we will be spending more relaxing time here in between classes. Here are some pictures from the park with the kids. There were very few hanboks this year for us to see - only Julie in the pink and blue and Cindy Teacher in the hot pink. We didn't go out and buy our own hanbok for the occasion, but we did wear our new matching yellow Wonderland shirts.


Next we tried the songpyon that we made. Raisins aren't my favourite, but they were okay. We've had better ones with honey and sesame seeds in them, but those weren't on the menu today. After the kindergarten classes were over, we weren't sure what the rest of the Activity Day would involve, and we were told by the Korean teachers that we didn't have to prepare anything, so we were just going with it. What ended up happening was the students brought their own snacks and we were to facilitate a "party." The party consisted up dumping the snacks in the middle of the table and everyone digging in. Jenn made her party a bit more fun by playing a Yo-Yo-Ma CD (not the most rocking music for a party, but the kids liked it and Chad - one of Jenn's favourite little boys - started doing tai chi and yoga moves). Remember the days when a student would give an apple to the teacher?? Today we got some roasted chestnuts, some crab-flavoured chips, and rice cakes. And the absolutely most disgusting Korean treat - candied octopus tentacles. They smell repulsive and they taste worse. The kids suck on it like it's candy, but it's a dead fish. I don't get it.

The Pictures Are In!!!

Finally!!! We have the internet at home!!! It only took three weeks of asking everyday, but they pulled through for us, so now we can pull through for you. You may want to start at the beginning as we have gone through and added all our pictures throughout the blog (ok, not all of them as anyone who knows me knows that I take far more pictures than is ever necessary.) For some reason Blogger does not like us today and it took almost four hours to add these pictures in (actually, it took the ever calm, ever patient Darin almost four hours to do this. If it was me trying to do this, you would not have any pictures just yet!) So please enjoy and we will keep you posted .

Working for a Living

Today marks the end of our second week of school. Even though we don't have everything figured out yet, we have found ourselves in somewhat of a routine for our work week. Some of you are even wondering if we do any work at all over here, so we offer you an entry about a day in the life of Darin Teacher and Jennifer Teacher at Wonderland School.

7:30
Wake up (or rather Darin wakes up and for the next 15 minutes tries to get Jenn to wake up).

*Edit from Jenn* In my defence, it is not that I won't or can't get up it is more like I choose not to. Darin has always been an early riser and goes immediately into the shower and does his thing, which takes around 15-20 minutes. I see no point to rising until I can get in the bathroom to do my thing. Whouldn't you rather stay and stretch out in the bed by yourself too!

*Edit from Darin* I will confer with Jenn's mom and dad on whether choose is the right word for how Jenn gets out of bed??

7:45-8:45
Shower, shave, get dressed, and eat breakfast (so far this has consisted of toast, bagels, oatmeal, Corn Flakes, Frosted Flakes, and on one occasion I even made my secret family recipe of sporng - not a Korean word, but some weird name my mom made up).

8:45-9:15
Leave the apartment, take 6 flights of stairs (or 74 steps - Jenn counted) and walk to work. We expected a 10 minute walk, but it takes more like 30. It helps to wake us up before facing the day. There is also a school shuttle bus that we can catch at 9:00 if we need to. We did that on our first day because we didn't know how to get to school, but since then we have been walking and we are enjoying the exercise. In the case of emergencies (if Jenn ever chooses not to get out of bed until 8:30) or if it's raining, we can call a taxi and it takes 3-5 minutes (the driving over here is out-of-control-crazy) and it costs about 3,000 won (or $3.00).

9:15-9:30
Arrive at school and have a coffee or tea before the onslaught of children.

9:30-11:50
Jenn has 2 kindergarten classes in a row with 3 students each. I usually spend this time planning lessons or reading email or blogging or studying Korean (not learning too much yet, but I am confident things will pick up).

11:50-1:40
Lunch time. We either go to one of our favourite cheap restaurants or bring some ramen noodles (we have been reaquainted with the magic of Mr.Noodles, though slightly more sophisticated, over here. You would think that years of living as students would have turned us off those things, but we seem to be eating them on a daily basis and not minding it one bit).

1:40-6:35
This is the bulk of our day. We either start the afternoon at 1:40 or 2:30 or 3:20 depending on the rotating schedule of classes. For the most part, Jenn has 4 or 5 classes in this time frame and I have 5 or 6. Jenn and I each have our own classroom and they are "themed" rooms. Mine is called the McDonalds/7-11 room and is decked out in empty McDonald's containers and Big Gulps. There are even a few Starbucks cups floating about. It has menus on the wall and plastic food in a display case. Jenn's room is called The Airport and has model airplanes, maps, and clocks with times from different countries in the world. The students we teach in these classrooms are kindergarten to grade 5. Each class is 45 minutes, then we have a 5 minute break before the next class comes in (and 5 minutes is not enough of a break with these kids - you have one group going out the door and the next rushing in). It is in these 5 minutes that Jenn and I sneak away to the hallway to get away from the noise and we have taken to hanging out in the staircase near an open window where we can look at a pagoda in the park across the street - that is our respite before we face the next class.

6:40-7:25
I have to teach a middle school class (grade 6-8) in the evening. Jenn does not, but she waits around for 45 minutes reading or emailing or blogging, so that we can walk home together. One night a week I have middle school until 8:15 so that extends our day a bit.

7:30-8:00
We take the 30 minute walk home and if we don't stop at the grocery store (which we pass on the way) we are home by 8:00 just over 11 hours after we left in the morning. So yes, we are saying that our work day is 11 hours long, but that includes 1 hour of walking time and at least a 2 hour lunch break (sometimes 3). Actual teaching time for me is 4.5 or 5 hours and for Jenn is 5 or 5.5 hours each day, and it looks like we'll be averaging just under 30 hours per week of class time. But this could change anytime, as we have already had some schedule changes, with no notice or explanation.

8:00-10:00
When we get home Jenn puts rice on to cook (we just got a rice cooker so she is extremely happy, no more unsticky or too-sticky sticky rice) and chops a few veggies for our favourite meal (yup, that's it, rice, stirfried veggies, sesame seeds and soy sauce - it's delicious and we eat it just about every night.) Dessert is a ration of those M&M's we were lucky to find (which are almost gone, by the way) After dinner we read, write, and listen to music (thank goodness we packed the ipod with the new Bose speaker, all our favourite tunes with superior sound!) And as sad as it is for two young people like us, bedtime is 10:00.

There are also Activity Days once a month, usually on a Friday. Today is Chusok (Korean Thanksgiving) Activity Day, so there is more of a casual atmosphere and more informal talking with the kids instead of actual lessons. In the morning we will be making songpyon (some kind of rice dough thing) with the kindergartens and in the afternoon we will be having a snack party with the older kids (what a snack party consists of, other than snacks, we have no idea.) More to come on how our Activity Day goes, but it is bound to be full of fun because the motto at our school is: EVERYONE SMILES AT WONDERLAND!!

Welcome to the Freak Show

We have become the stars of our own little freak show over here. Everywhere we go - every street we walk down, every building we enter, every classroom we teach in - Koreans of all ages (adults to newborns) look at us as if we come from another planet. All for the simple reason that our hair isn't black, our skin is lighter, we have freckles, we are much taller, and in Jenn's case she has big boobs. Those of you who have been through this in Asian countries know what I'm talking about (Cory & Megan in Japan; Merv & Kathy in China). And those who plan on visiting us here, be prepared to be stared at, laughed at, pointed at, and gawked at. Being stared at is becoming a way of life for us, but being laughed at can be a bit degrading and humiliating. We think the laughing is because they are amazed at how different we look and we think it's harmless, but who knows what is going on inside their heads as they act like a three-headed monster just walked by.

There is one girl at school who giggles uncontrollably, interspersed with a few English words, every time she talks to Jenn. Something like this: Heehee ... pretty ... heeheehee ... beautiful ... heehee ... pretty girl. This is always followed by a few strokes of Jenn's curly hair before she runs off in a frenzy of more giggling. This girl's name is Evelyn, by the way, but we weren't responsible for naming her. (As a side note, there is also a Chad in one of Jenn's kindergarten classes that was also named before we arrived.) Aside from Jenn's curly locks, the star attraction of our freak show is my hairy arms. To the Korean kids I am the equivalent of a werewolf. At least once in every class, I have kids stroking my arms. It doesn't matter if they are kindergartens or teenagers, it is highly amusing to them to see such hairy arms.

We also get swarmed in the streets by Koreans who want to show off their English words to us. In most cases, with much enthusiasm, they simply say "Hello!!!" They simply want us, and any other Koreans around, to know they can speak English, even if it's just one word. One way we are sure to meet these English speakers is to stare blankly at a map of the city (or the subway, or a mall) and they will approach us gladly with a "Can I help you?" and we always end up following them blindly to our destination (why is it that one is so trusting in a foreign place? Shouldn't it have the opposite effect?)

To live comfortably in this foreign land, we are learning to live with the gawking and laughing, but we think it will subside after a while. And we will glady accept any help that comes our way. This especially works well in Seoul when we don't have the faintest idea where to go (if only this had worked when we almost missed our bus last weekend). There is also a store near our school that likes to accomodate us in their own special way: when we walk through their door, they change the TV channel to an English station and last week Jenn was able to catch a few minutes of Desperate Housewives, making her feel right at home.

Your mission, should you choose to accept!

While thinking of ways to make our home here a little more, well, homey, I made a discovery at school which has led to a little project for me. Thanks to the blogs that I read daily (blogs that actually have pictures - thank you Carrie and Megan!) I was able to print at school some pictures of our favourite little people. I took those pictures and hand-coated them (hand-coating? you ask - just the Koreans translating laminating to English) and voila a framed picture (OK, a poor mans framed picture, but it will do the trick!) I plan on making a photo collage on one of our walls, something akin to what you would see gracing the pages of a Martha Stewart magazine (or Megan's upstairs hallway!) I just need some help! While I love them dearly (and can't get enough of them) I was hoping for pictures of people other than the Cooks and the MacBarrs! No, you do not need your own blog to share your photos with me (although reading a new blog would be a welcome addition to my day!) Darin and I so kindly supplied you all with our new email address and we are on high speed at school (where there is the handy hp photosmart printer) PLEASE send a favourite picture (or two, or three...) and help us feel like we are not that far away. We did select a bunch of pictures to make the journey with us but we found we did not bring enough. There are more pictures of family and friends on the outside of our little pink fridge than there is food on the inside and the few frames we did bring are covering the furniture in the dressing room (that is what we have taken to calling the spare bedroom where all clothing has been banished to unless it is hanging on the balcony to dry - it makes us feel our home is more spacious and who wouldn't want a dressing room anyways!) If you would be so kind to share your pictures with us, I promise to share our pictures with you (just as soon as we can, we're getting closer, I can feel it!)

( * If anyone has a copy of the group picture from Willistead could you send it along. I thought Darin packed it, he thought I packed it...it didn't get packed * )

Seoul, Part II

Sunday we ventured into the big city again. This time we were on our own to fend for ourselves. Surprisingly transportation was very easy. We had all the apropriate maps in advance, we studied them and decided on our plan of attack. We were on our way and on schedule (which in itself is amazing for me.) The actual point of going into the city on this occasion was the house warming party at Dan and Karin's new home. Our big chance to mingle among the foreigners and not have to speak in broken English (which we find ourselves doing a lot! ) The party was not until later in the evening and it is a waste to go into the city for only a few hours so we made the trip earlier in the morning so we could explore a little and go to Costco. Yes, we went to Costo again but like I said, last time we only made our mental list, this time we purchased. We still had to be somewhat conservative in our spending becasue we still have to lug the stuff home, a little different than stuffing your trunk and making several trips into the house to unload! The necessities were instant oatmeal, granola bars, baby carrots (with no dill dip *sad*) , babybel cheese, popcorn and the favourite find - a three pound bag of M&M's! They sell the exact bag back home and I was never allowed to purchase it, suddenly we are in a foreign country and that made it OK, I guess! I know it must not be very exciting to read our grocery list but finding this stuff was very exciting for us!

After the Costco adventure was over we headed back to the main subway station to store our stuff and kill some time before the party. They have giant lockers at the subway station which are life savers (shopping can get heavy!) After tucking our stuff safely away we went exploring underground. I swear it is an entire other city down there! We came across yet another mall which was busier than Devonshire at Christmas and walked and walked and walked some more (I honestly don't think we even saw the whole thing!) We checked out some cool stores, a music store among others, that keeps a better stock of English music than HMV or Music World. All four Rufus Wainwright CD's were in and they were cheaper than at home! We dicovered that CD's will work in our players (DVD's will not) so hopefully we will discover some cool Korean music to introduce everyone to!

After grabbing a Starbucks (did you think we wouldn't) we headed to the party. We met people from England, the U.S. and Canada. They all live in Seoul and most are on there second or third year of teaching (we still promise one year!) Real hamburgers were barbecued on a real barbeque, veggies and dip were enjoyed, chips and salsa even! For desert - apple and pumpkin pie with ice cream (If you thought the ice cream from Kawartha Dairy was good...) We really enjoyed learning about everyone else's Hogwans (Korean for private school) and learned a few tricks on how to handle our kids and our school!

Darin and I had a bus curfew so we had to leave early. The last bus leaves Seoul at 10:00 and to ensure we get a spot on that bus we buy tickets when we arrive in Seoul (Dan and Karin missed the last bus once and had to take an $80 cab home!) We said our goodbyes, walked briskly to the subway and made it with 3 minutes to spare. We were still on schedule and quite proud of ourselves! The ride to the terminal was 10 minutes and that was leaving us 20 minutes to get our groceries out of the locker and make it to the bus - all of which should take 5 minutes.

Boy, were we wrong! We were getting off a differnt subway line then before so getting off and turning left did not lead us to our stuff. A little under 10 minutes later we were at the locker frantically grabbing our things so we could make it to the bus, only, where was the bus? I think we took a wrong turn (OK, we did take a wrong turn) and that led us to the complete other side of the subway station. We literally broke into a run, leaping up (and down) thousands of stairs (and no, that is not an exageration!) and all the while trying to read signs that would point us in the right direction. We finally made it with mere seconds to spare and sank into our seats, hearts beating wildly and sweat dripping freely. But, no, this will not discourage us from venturing into this wonderful city again. Our plans will take us back in a short two weeks, and this time the adventure will be overnight.

What's with the corn??

On Friday, we followed through with getting our pizza, so here's our experience with that. Little did we know that ordering pizza could turn into an entertaining story, but of course, that was before blogs came around. Now, everytime we brush our teeth or drink some water - or in Liam's case, roll around on the floor for naked playtime - can be shared with everyone. Our Korean teaching partner, Brian, talked us out of going to Domino's. He wanted to set us up with something he said would be better. (We failed to ask what "better" meant.) So instead of finding the pizza place ourselves and carrying it home, Brian called for us, ordered a combination pizza in Korean, and had it delivered to our apartment. It turned out to be quite easy for us. And to make it even easier, he left instructions at this pizza place for future orders - from now on, whenever we (the English ones) call KIM SUNG RAY PIZZA, we only have to say "Pizza!" into the phone and we will get a delivery to our apartment. No further instructions in Korean or English are necessary, it's just a one word order. Whether we get more from Kim Sung Ray has yet to be decided.

While we waited at home for the delivery guy, we were skeptical about what could be on this combination pizza. Maybe some rice or kimchi. Remembering our "ice cream" experience, Jenn joked that they might throw on some red beans and corn. We spoke too soon. Or to quote Carrie from her blog: "Spoken like a true idiot." Our pizza arrived and the main ingredient was corn. There were a few pepperonis, a few mushrooms, a few onions, but it was plastered with corn. That didn't stop us from eating the whole thing though and it wasn't bad, just quite corny. There was also a side order of sweet pickles and Tajun (not Cajun) hot sauce. So that was our Friday night pizza experience, but we didn't stop there.

On Saturday, we were out walking the streets of Yeoju with our new friends, Stephanie and Malachi from Ireland who started teaching at a nearby school the same time we did. We didn't plan on having pizza two days in a row, but they suggested stopping at a place called PIZZA HOT. This menu was in Korean and English, so we assumed we would be safe with ordering a Hawaiian. The one problem was that pineapple and ham were not the only ingredients on it. You guessed it - corn everywhere. And not only that, but along with the canned pineapple, there was also canned peaches and some sort of melon. They have quite the combinations over here - fruit on pizza and vegetables on ice cream!! And there was also a side order of sweet pickles - we're not sure how pizza and pickles got paired together, but it seems to be common.

Enough about pizza, here's a little bit about the other food over here. At restaurants, our favourite dishes so far are called bi-bam-bap and bulgogi. The first one is a mixture of rice and veggies with hot pepper sauce. The second is beef (we think), veggies, rice, noodles, and seaweed with a milder sauce. They are both very tasty. We've also had kimbap which is the Korean version of sushi with veggies and rice rolled in seaweed - there's no fish in it but the seaweed makes it taste fishy. We've also found a dumpling soup that we like very much. And of course, luckliy for us, there is an excellent ice cream parlour downtown, which we treat ourselves to about 3 times a week.

And then we get into the Fear Factor stuff. On our journey through the outdoor market on Saturday we came across a vendor selling bondegi. This is silkworm larvae boiled in a large pot. They are big disgusting bugs. But they are seasoned, so maybe they don't taste like bugs. And they are dead, which is not the case for the small eels that are swimming around in buckets in the seafood section of the market, right alongside the slimy squids and the mini sharks. We also saw baskets full of chicken feet, which Malachi said he tried by accident at a restaurant and advised us to stay away from. To top off our visit to the market, we saw three cow heads sitting outside the butcher, right alongside two vats of congealed blood. We wil not be eating this stuff, unless we are forced fed or offered a large sum of money. Call us unadventurous if you will.

Korean Jackpot!!

Today Jenn and I became millionaires. In Korean funds anyway. When we convert it over to Canadian dollars, it won't look quite as impressive. We opened a bank account this week at KB Star bank and we got our first deposit from the school in the amount of 1,740,000 won (pronounced WAN - as in Obi WAN Kenobi for you Star Wars fans). Our contract stipulated that we would be reimbursed for our plane tickets when we got here, so that is what our first payment is. This should tide us over until we get our first pay cheque which won't come until October 1st. Living expenses here are turning out to be quite reasonable. We usually go out for lunch and only have to spend the equivalent of $5-8 dollars for two meals. And another cultural difference in Korea that is having an immediate impact on our finances is no tax or tip. We live in a world with no GST or PST - and I know you are all jealous of that. And tipping is frowned upon (which doesn't bother us one bit). Even if the service you received was impeccable, which it usualy is, the wait staff will not accept a tip. It is actually insulting to them to leave one. They will even chase you down the street to give you back change if you left 6,000 won for a 5,900 won bill (that's like a waiter giving you back a dime). The Koreans are steadfast about not accepting handouts. So when we go out and each order a dish that is 3,000 won, we leave the restaurant paying 6,000 won. No more, no less. It's amazing to look at a menu, see a price and know that is what the final amount will be, with no hidden taxes or no expectation to hand over extra money. So to celebrate our newfound wealth, we are going out for pizza tonight. A Domino's pizza!! There are plenty of Westernized establishments to chose from in Seoul, but Domino's is the only one we have seen so far in our own city of Yeoju. From what we gather, the pizza will be between $10-12 dollars, which is more than we normally have to spend at a restaurant. But hey, we're millionaires for a short while so we can afford it.

New Names for Everyone

We promised no children of our own while in Korea (and believe us after controlling 50 kids throughout the day, we don't want any of our own just yet). But that doesn't stop us from having to think about baby names. If you're wondering what I'm talking about, let's just say that naming children is not only the duty of new parents in Korea. Foriegn teachers in ESL classes must give English names to students who are new to the class or don't already have an English name. On my first day of class, I had a new student and I was told by my Korean teaching partner to give him a name. Just like that. No planning or negotiating with the kid's parents. I was given the sole responsibility of naming a kid that wasn't my own. And I found myself without my handy Baby Name book. So, I named him Willy. For no other reason that it sounded good and I was under pressure to come up with a name on the spot. Since then I have named Wendy and Enid.

One trick we have come up with is to ask their Korean name and make an English name that sounds similar. Or sometimes the Korean name has a meaning and we can formulate an English name from that. For instance, the one new student that Jenn has had so far has a Korean name that means pearl; she is now called Pearl. This doesn't always work, of course, and we will have to be creative sometimes because every new studnet from hereafter will need to be named by us. It's one thing to name your own baby, but we have to come up with an English identity for dozens of kids. Oh, the pressure. I wouldn't be surprised if our school starts sounding like Chatham and Windsor, with Liams and Evelyns and Keelys and Audreys and Jacks and Aidans and Venessas and Andrews and so on. Maybe a little Korean who seems to have an unusual gift with making money will be called The Donald. And it's not out of the question that sooner or later there will be The Patrick walking around in our school. So I guess we don't need a Baby Name book after all, we'll just draw from the names of our family and friends back home.

And speaking of names, Jenn and I have acquired our own new names at school. On our first day, we were introduced as Darin Teacher and Jennifer Teacher and that is what we are known as. "Teacher" has become our new last name. From what I gather, being a teacher is a respected position, so it won't harm us to forfeit our real last names for a year.

I Scream, You Scream

We all scream for ... Ice cream???? On our second day at the school, before we even started teaching and were still learning the ropes with our predecessors, Dan & Karin, we were invited to an ice cream party at a local bakery that was owned by the parents of one of the kindergarten students. (As a side note, they do have bakeries here - with bread and pastries and cheese buns and bagels - it was surprising to see. This bakery is called Tous Les Jours, all in Western letters and French words, no Korean letters to be seen). Our trip included 5 teachers, 5 students and what we thought was an ice cream sundae. It turned out to be a Korean dessert called pepinsu and it was definitely not ice cream. In our sundae dish was crushed ice, condensed milk, red soy beans, whey powder, pineapple, corn, green melon, and jujubes. It was very bizarre, but a common Korean treat. The kids loved it, and we may have liked it a bit better if we stopped thinking that we were eating pineapple and corn together. It was edible though and maybe we'll acquire a taste for it.

These kindergarten kids though could not be cuter. Contrary to what I was expecting, I do have one kindergarten class, but I don't mind because it is the most fun and the 6 students I have are adorable. Jenn has 2 classes in the morning, each with 3 students and then another in the afternoon with 5 students. These kids are 5 or 6 years old, but in Canada would be 4 or 5. The difference is that Koreans are considered to be 1 on the day they are born and turn 2 on what we would consider to be their first birthday. Just a minor cultural difference - one of many that we are learning about.

Unofficially speaking with no free time...

We do send our heartfelt apologies to all of you hard core bloggers out there for not keeping up our end of things. We came here expecting to have much more free time on our hands and that is not really the case. Also, it doesn't help matters that this computer is in Korean and I am pretty hopeless beyond hotmail, which I have memorized.

We are at the school for 10 hours a day (mind you that is not all teaching time) and all our free time is sucked into making lesson plans. You see, we were given a wack load of books and students all at once with really no explanation as what to do with either. Our classes are 45 minutes long and the material we have to cover takes up all of 5 minutes. Games are really frowned upon because "Mother doesn't like." (but that doesn't stop us, come on, we have to do something with them) The children are paying a hefty tuition to attend here and parents want to see lots of work done but they complain when you go to fast because they have to buy new books. It is up to us to stretch it out. I really think things are looking up for next week. We are familiar enough with the kids and we will be following our lesson plans. Up until now we were finishing off what Dan and Karin had planned and while I'm sure it made a lot of sense to them...

We still do not have a computer at home so we will be off line for the weekend. Saturday will be spent in Seoul and Sunday will consist of figuring out the washing machine and doing some grocery shopping (sounds like fun, eh!)

By the way, this is an unofficial blog post, treat it more like a mass email to let you know what is up on our end. More articulate things to follow (we are still jet lagged) Stay tuned....