weekend around town

The forecast for this weekend was all rain. On Thursday it was 100% rain for Saturday, however by Saturday morning it was down to 30%. It was still very nasty and chilly weather, I think it was smart that we didn't make any serious travel plans. Instead we hung around Gangneung; us teachers took in the sights around town, visited foreigner bars, and did some shopping downtown.

On Friday night we had dinner at a ssabu-ssabu place. Ssabu-ssabu... Probably my favorite meal in Korea. It is a real experience. First water is poured into the pot in the middle of the grill, a different type of pink water is poured into those smaller pots that hook into the grill. Next a plate of meat or seafood is brought out along with rice paper, greens, sides, and sauces. We ordered both meat and seafood. The seafood we got was pealed shrimp, whole shrimp, calamari, octopus halves, little squids, clams, and sea squirts. Before I continue... let me say something about sea squirts. They are gross, they are the only food that I have eaten so far that I have not been able to even eat. I had to spit it out, I almost vomited. I have no idea why anyone would want to eat a sea squirt. I boiled one in the pot, popped it into my mouth and bit down. When I bit into it, it popped loudly and squirted a rancid sea water taste into my mouth. The texture is unlike anything I can even begin to describe. So be sure to stay away from sea squirts. All the other seafood was delicious. The little squids were my favorite, followed by the calamari.
Ok so, back to the process. The shredded beef is usually thrown into the pot(but you could grill it too if you want), along with some greens, mushrooms, and spices. The pork is cooked on the grill around the pot. Using a pair of tongs, you take a sheet of rice paper and dip it into the pink water. Then you put in on your plate and fill it with pork from the grill, things from the pot, vegetables(carrots, beets, onions, green stuffs, bean sprouts, etc) and roll it up and eat with chopsticks. The sauces are used for dipping, they are good. But don't fill up on the rice paper rolls! The meal isn't over once you are done with all the meat grilling. The waitress then brings either noodles(the best) or rice. Noodles are poured into the pot around the grill. Then you scoop out the noodles into little bowls and eat whatever is left over in the pot and drink the broth like soup. So good, I think this meal cost us less than $10 each.

After dinner we went back to our places to get ready for the evening. I played some accordion for Stephanie while waiting for Chris. It felt good to play in front of someone else other than 6 year olds. I appreciated her input and compliments. Finally Chris showed up and he wanted to hear me play too. Eventually we head out. Our first stop was a bar called 'Gansta.' I actually really liked this place, I hate most bars, but this place felt comfortable. We sat around on sofas and chatted and people-watched the young Koreans around us. Our server then brought out a hamburger and fries as a gift for us, Koreans are so hospitable and generous. Next we went to a big foreigner hot spot, I cannot remember it's name though. I met some new people, but most were probably too "happy" to remember me much. Everyone knew the guy that I've replaced, he was really popular. My kids are still saying "Jacob is my teacher!" even though I'm like "No, he was your teacher, I'm sorry but I'm your teacher now!" I wish I could of met him, I jumped right into teaching here while the other teachers had weeks of observing. I probably could have learned some good techniques from him. Most of the people I talked to wanted to talk Hurricane Katrina, it was weird having to talk about it again. In New Orleans, we don't talk about it anymore for the most part, moving on and rebuilding.. Coming back strong. I don't mind talking about it now like I did in Europe, I think maybe enough time has passed for me and that I've healed. I can share my experiences without feeling sad, I understand that people want to know about it and that it was an interesting thing to have experienced. Anyway, I'm not really into to drinking, but it seems like that is something most of the foreigners here like to do... every night. I want to meet new people and make friends, going to bars is depressing but its something that I must endure until I find more friends and get some digits. We left at around 3am and wandered the streets a bit. It was rainy, but the lights from the signs reflected in the puddles were alluring.

This picture came out too dark in the original, after some mac editing it is now kinda cool. I like it.

Found a McDonalds. Chris ordered us something, I didn't get to eat most of it because he said I was eating to slow and ate it off my plate! I'm in no hurry to back to Mcdonalds.

On Saturday we went downtown to see the city and do some shopping. We rode to the top of the elevator and took some pictures of the city. It was a rainy and cold day, the clouds look so menacing.



We walked through the market area. There is a part for clothes and random things. A section for fish and meat. Then another part for veggies and food. It was huge, I've seen it from the streets a few times but this was my first time going through it. Talk about strange food overload.

Kimchi Vendor

Some birds pigging out at a nut/grain store. You think they would bring it inside or stand outside to keep the birds out.

Next we walked around the trendy shopping area. I got some new Converse, they are SO cute! I saw them in Seoul and almost bought them there. I'm glad I waited because they were 12,000 won cheaper here and about $10 cheaper than Converse website. They are pale yellow with bees and bee flight path stitching. I also got some Totoro socks for 75 cents, a Konglish(this is the term for when Koreans misuse English in funny or interesting ways) t-shirt, a gift for Ryan, a lotus lantern, and a more portable music stand so I won't have to lug the huge one from school back and forth anymore. Its actually a really nice stand for the $14 I paid for it. Shopping in Korea is a lot of fun and manni ssan(very inexpensive). I saw so many cute dresses, I can't wait for it to warm up a little bit. I might go back and get a couple. I think that I can probably fit into most Korean fashions, although it is iffy because not everywhere lets you try things on. I feel like I'm slimming down a little more due to the healthy food, yoga, teaching "exercise" to the kids, walking, and mountain climbing. So hopefully by the time summer comes I'll for sure be able to wear all the cute outfits. I'm really liking the Korean style.
For lunch we ate at an all you can eat sushi place for 6,000 won($4.50) each. It was really good and they had an amazing selection.
The last thing I saw was this scooter. I love it! I would be the coolest oeguk that anyone ever laid eyes on if I had this scooter. It even has a speaker system.


At night we went to another foreigner hotspot for dinner. We didn't see any foreigners though. I had a philly cheesesteak sandwich. Bread! This was the first bread I've had since being here except for a grill cheese and honey snack at school that we had one time.
I spent the rest of last night checking out K-pop on Youtube. I'm really getting into the music here, everywhere you go you hear the same catchy songs playing. I think my favorite groups so far are Super Junior, BoA, and Super Kidd. The girl I tutor at night is going to be really happy that I learned some more stuff about Korean music. She is really fun, I'm going to miss tutoring her this week as she studies for a big exam instead of meeting with me.
Ok. I know this entry is getting long. But I want to share the music video for the most popular song in South Korea. This song is king here right now. I hear it at least 5 times a day. Saying 'sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry' is part of every Korean's vocab.

Readers not familiar with Youtube, hit the play button in the middle. I suggest letting it load a little first.. After hitting play button in the middle, look at the bar on the bottom and hit pause button located all the way on the left. Wait till the red line reaches the end and then hit play/pause button on the bar again.

Deokgu Spa World and Samcheok "rape" fest

It was a beautiful 62 degree day when we left early Saturday morning for our longest scooter ride yet. Last weekend was a grueling climb... This weekend was a relaxing stay at a spa resort up in the mountains. We headed down to Deokgu Spa World, a really fancy resort located in the middle of shapely mountains. Its normally about a 2 hour drive by car, it took us close to 4 hours on the scooter. The ride was breathtaking. The road changed from mountain scenery to seaside mountains once we crossed into a different province, Gyeongsangbuk. We had to stop a few times to consult the map, but other than that it was a pretty straight forward ride. We also stopped for some pictures.










Lanterns mean that there is a temple nearby. We checked this one out, but it wasn't any where near as impressive as the last one.











We took Route 7 for most of the journey. This is at 7, 7km. Chris loves the number 7 so we had to stop and take pictures in front of this sign.

I practiced reading Korean signs for most of the trip, I feel like I'm very close to being the 1st able to read Korean. I could usually pick out the first couple of syllables before the sign got passed up. There are still some letters that confuse me, and then there are the nuisances of pronunciation like when to use r or l, g or k, etc. Its not like everything would be much easier once I can read it, I still won't know what it means... but one step at a time.
We arrived at SpaWorld right during check in.



We asked for a Eastern style room (mats on the floor and low tables) but they gave us a Western room anyway. It was a nice room, we had 2 huge beds, a large "sunroom," fridge, bathtub, everything that a nice hotel would have back home. Because we went during the off season we got a discount too. After check in we went exploring the hotel. It was eerily empty, it reminded me of The Shinning a little bit. We got some snacks and drinks at the store, then sat around chatting and taking it in on picnic tables that over looked the nearby mountains. It smelled great there! All the pine trees and fresh mountain air.
After that we went back to the room and changed into our suits to hit up the hot springs. This part was a little difficult. Chris had somehow lost the free tickets we got, so we had to buy tickets. We also had to rent a swimming cap. Figuring out the cost and all that was a little rough, the only useful Korean I had for this was part was bee-ssan(expensive!) and olmaeyo(how much?) The men were suppose to go one way and women the other, we didn't want to split up and it took awhile to figure out how/if we could met up after the locker room. There was one lady who could speak a few words of English and eventually we got it out of her that you could meet outside after lots of miming and "odee's"(where?). So we went for it. Lots of nakedness in the separate sections. Both men and women have their own indoor naked only pools. We both skipped out on that option.
I hurried through nakedland and waited outside for Chris to show up. It took him awhile, but he figured it out and we checked out the pools.
The first pool was a colder one with a massage waterfall. It felt sooooooo good on my back, head, legs. Like getting a massage... but with water.

The next pool was a little warmer, we didn't spend much time in that one because it was sorta boring compared to the others.
The last two pools were green colored and very hot.



The first one was a lemon scented one with no bubbles. The other was jasmine scented with bubbles, this one was my favorite. It was really relaxing and made me feel great inside and out. After the outdoor pools, we went inside to check out the family area.


This area had 3 large pools. One was a kiddy pool with a waterslide, the other two were larger and had jazzuci jet areas all around the sides. The jets were lined up in different positions and each one was suppose to target a certain part of your body. There was one for arms, thighs, back, feet, etc.
After awhile we got out, changed, and met up outside the place. We jumped on the scooter to go explore the nearby town and beach.
Took a road up into the hills to see the view.

Then we got some drinks and hung out in a gazebo for awhile, then walked to the beach. At the beach we found an old bunker up on some rocks. We climbed up and sat around in there for a bit admiring the view.

Lunch/dinner was really really really good. One of my favorites so far (I know I say that every time!). We stumbled into an empty restaurant, kicked off our shoes and sat at a table on the floor. We just pointed to whatever and it ended up being delicious.



It was a pot of golden mushrooms, clear noodles, green stuff, and beef. We got some very delicious sides too. The best was a mushroom one, the first time I've seen this one. So good, she gave us 2 refills. I think the lady was really happy that we ate just about everything she put in front of us.

After dinner we headed back to the Spa for some soaking. There were also 3 different saunas there. An "elvan stone," "yellow clay," and "misty." My favorite was the yellow clay, it felt like home. Very hot in there, I think like 150 degrees.

"Phewwww so hot!"

We were the only foreigners here, a little awkward because people stare so much- especially at Chris because he is so tall. But nice because everywhere we went would empty out as soon as we showed up so we always had the pools and saunas all to ourselves. The spa closed ridiculously early, 8pm. So we headed back to the room and watched some BBC for a bit then had an early night. Woke up early and started the trek back.

On the way we home we saw festival tents and bright yellow flower fields, so we pulled over to check it out. It was in a town called Samcheok, they were celebrating the "rape" flower... whatever that means. There were huge fields of these yellow flowers with balloons flying and many pinwheels.












At the tents there were some vendors and food. I bought honey from a very friendly lady, she let us taste a billion different honeys. While I was buying honey, a older soju (liquor of choice in Korea, tastes like watered down vodka) influenced man freaked out and starting throwing food from the vendors up in the air and down the street and at other vendors, chestnuts were raining down and meat sticks went flying. The honey lady was really worried for us and made us come into her tent to wait it out. She apologized a lot for his behavior. A bunch of Korean men caught hold of him and dragged him off. Very strange. I also got a crab corndog.
Ride back was really long, but we made good time. Got back around noon, then I took a really long nap. Feeling good! I don't feel that sick anymore. I have some congestion, but no longer coughing or feeling miserable.
Can't believe its almost Monday already! The weekends go by so fast.

Andong and Easter Sunday

Sorry that I haven't written anything in so long. I have been busy with school. Being a teacher is a lot more work than I thought it would be. As a new teacher there is so much I don't know yet and it takes me longer to do things. A lot of my time is spent writing lesson plans, writing definitions, thinking of fun art projects, and making lyric posters for music. At night I've been tutoring the director's daughter. I also go to yoga 2-3 times a week. Internet at my place is sometimes down, so even if I do have free time.. I might not get to use the internet during it.


Last weekend was a lot of fun.
On Saturday I went on a bus tour of Andong with the other teachers, ladies from the school, and their families. There were also many other Koreans on the tour that we didn't know.
Andong is about 3 hours by bus away from Gangneung, it took us a lot longer than that to get there because we had 2 rest area stops on the way there and coming back. That seemed like too many stops to me.
The first place we went in Andong was to a cliff that over looks Hahoe traditional village. The view was really nice, you could see people taking little boats back and forth across the river.


Next we went to the "starter" village and had lunch. Us teachers and the ladies from school split Andong Chicken. It was delicious! It was chicken, clear noodles, mushrooms, and other veggies in a very mild sesame seed sauce. One my new favorites, but I doubt I'll get to have it again since its an Andong specialty. After that we took a very crowded shuttle bus to the real village.
The first thing they took us to was a special museum dedicated to Queen Elizabeth, she spent one of her birthdays in the village and they set up a museum to keep everything related to that visit in.
We had a guided tour, but it was very boring for us English speakers because we couldn't understand anything. The ladies from the school were bored too so we all just wandered off and explored.











Somewhere along the line a Korean lady from the bus befriended Chris and hung around him for the whole day. That became a really big joke for the rest of us and kept us laughing all day long. We are still making jokes about it.
One thing that I did get out of the tour was that the rich people live under the black roof homes and the poor live under the straw roofs.










My favorite part was seeing this 600 year old tree. Those pieces of paper tied up around it are wishes and prayers.












We caught up with the group and walked along the river back to the bus. You can see the beautiful cliff where we were when we first looked down on the city.
Director family.
I tutor the girl at night and

the boy is in my returnee(advanced) class. Teacher family.

The next place we went was to a museum. Only us teachers had the strength to go on, everyone else from the school stayed on the bus and napped. At the museum we watched a really cool 3-d movie that told about the history of Andong. Then the curator pulled us teachers aside and gave a special tour in English. The museum wasn't like any I've ever seen before. All the exhibits were digital and interactive. You could put on a mask and dance in front of a blue screen and see an image of it on a monitor. Or you could make a digital block print, or walk over a map of the area and it would zoom in and out and show pictures. And there were many games and things like that.
The bus ride home was very long. This was a classic bus tour and had everything that I don't like about bus tours. The director said "No more bus tour," I guess she isn't a fan either. She said that maybe sometime in the summer we could go to the Korean version of Disneyland. I think Korean buses make me more sick, maybe the air circulation isn't very good. Anyway, I'm still sick. I feel ok but am having serious mucus and snot problems.


On Easter Sunday Chris and I went hiking together. The plan was to go to Odae-ssan, a nearby national park. However Chris ended up seeing a stream on the side of the rode on the way there and decided we should hike up it. I agreed because I thought eventually it would become impossible and that we'd give up and move on to the park.



Well, it did get impossible but we kept going and we actually made it to the top of a freaking mountain by pulling ourselves up on tree roots and hanging onto rocks. The scenery was really pretty, there were many little waterfalls and peaceful pools.











I wanted to jump in many times but the water is still too cold.
















On the way up I got scratched up nice and good on my arms (they are already mostly healed), Chris's legs got a lot of scratches because he wore shorts for some reason. My face ended up getting the worse of it, I ran/fell into a pine tree. It looks a lot better now thanks to neosporian but I was feeling ugly for awhile.


The view from the top was anticlimactic. Mostly we could just see trees and more mountains. At the top we had a small lunch of rice cakes and yogurt.


The way down was scary. We went down a different way than we came up so I was worried that we wouldn't be able to find the road again even though Chris had a compass.

"Which way down, Chris?"

The way down was extremely steep. I had to use a branch.



We had to slide down on some parts. There was some ice and snow under the leaves making things slippery. Finally the steep ravine turned into a little stream and we started jumping from rock to rock. Eventually we came out to the road at an area that we had stopped to take pictures at before we started the climb.



It was about a 15 minute walk back to the bike. We checked the time.. We spent 5 hours up in the mountains!
Here's a picture of the legendary "bike" if you were wondering about it. I really like this scooter, we have a lot of fun riding around on it. I don't think my adventures in Korea would be anywhere near as fun if there wasn't a scooter. I may buy it from Chris once I get a paycheck, he wants to get a zippier one.



It was a memorable way to spend Easter (although I do wish I could have had some crawfish). I climbed a mountain! Climbing a mountain leaves you with such a good feeling.
No plans for this weekend yet. Stephanie is going to visit some friends in Seoul, so it will be just me and Chris again if we do anything. I've only briefly met 2 other oeguk (foreigners) here. I'd like to meet some more people, but I think my co-workers are really awesome so I'm not dying for company.