Halloween

Yesterday we had a big Halloween party at Mirae. The only one in the city, I think. And I'm convinced that Tracy, Cori and I were the only ones in the city who dressed up for it... especially considering all the stares we got on the way to work and at the Supermarket!!! :-) See the pictures in the October folder.

The Latest

Hello Everyone, Yesterday was the 26th of October, marking exactly 4 months that I've been in Korea. Weird. Was it really that long ago that I got here? A third of the way through... In other news, Mirae has hired a replacement for Cori (whose term is up in December) from CA. We're excited to have a new foreigner around to get to know (and an American, too... we're already making plans for an American Thanksgiving!). So that's new... Today I made some girls really mad and they drew nasty pictures of me. That was sad. Discipline, etc continues to be a challenge. I don't like being hated... And, God's still good. That's all for today!

More Pics

I haven't added some for awhile, so here's the end of Jason's visit and some of what's happened since.

You know you've lived in Korea for awhile when...

-luxury is a public restroom with Western-style toilets, soap, and paper towels to dry your hands on (warm water is still asking too much, though ;) ) -you actually choose things from the menu that have the word (kimchi) in them to be certain the taste will be familiar -it bothers you to see someone on tv pass something to another person using only one hand -the word ("miguk") grabs your attention -your computer can read the Korean font :) -you talk is no good grammar. More easy for Koreans to understand. -you add syllables to the ends of your words (as in "finish-ie," "English-ie," "orange-y," "friend-uh"). -you whine like a Korean -you can hum along to the Korean pop songs on the radio -it doesn't faze you to share a pot of soup with 6 other people digging in with their own spoons -you snack on potatos or sweet potatos- cooked, but eaten with your hands -you're excited when there's seaweed for dinner -you're miffed when someone doesn't remark that you're beautiful when they first meet you -it's a reflex to remove your shoes upon entering a house -you don't notice how long you've been sitting on the floor -you instictively bow when greeting someone or saying goodbye -you stare at foreigners you don't recognize, wondering all the same things about them that the Koreans wonder about you -using a fork feels strange I'm sure there are tons more, but that's a start!

"Sad movies make me cry"

(That's one of the songs Rainy always does at norebang) I'm still teaching (imagine that). There have been a variety of schedules going on. I don't think I've had the same schedule for 2 weeks in a row since early September. Teachers have been coming and going and others taking vacations. Now it looks like we're in another change for next week. A new teacher quit after her first week. So, we'll probably all be back up to 30 hours again and Mrs. Baek has to change the schedule yet again. She's done it so many times and it always gives her a lot of stress. I feel so bad for her! Prayer for Mirae's teacher situation would be great. Both for a Korean teacher to stick around and for God's hand in choosing a foreign teacher to replace Cori in December. Discipline with the kids continues to be a challenge. Some of my formerly good classes now seem quite monstrous sometimes. Maybe the kids are just too used to me now. I'm sure I'm getting good lessons through this, but I still wish I could speak Korean!! The weather here is getting colder. But we've had beautiful blue skies the past week. Today was rainy and I guess it's supposed to be much colder tomorrow. Time to pull out the sweaters! We were surprised yesterday to come home from shopping in the market to find a table and 4 chairs in our kitchen! Now we're really living like westerners! Mind you, the colors are quite 80's-ish, but it's still cool. :) Oh, we also got a couple of rugs. I was going to look for one for my room, but now I don't have to. Last evening I hung out with a new Korean friend from my church. After showing her some pictures, she really wanted to go see a movie at the theater. Unfortunately there were no English movies showing, so we went to a Korean Movie called ("sae-duh moo-bi" or "sad movie"). Koreans like their movies emotional and actually like sad movies. I should've known better, but I felt a little trapped. Anyway, I didn't understand very much of the dialogue at all (just "now what?" "mom," "dad," "really?"), but it's amazing what you can pick up just through acting. And I thought everything was going to wrap up well, but it didn't! It was SO SAD!! I was crying and I didn't even fully understand what was happening or what was being said! So, for future reference, movies entitled "Sad Movie" don't have happy endings.

T-Shirts

In Korea, it's very popular to have English writing on your clothing. It's all over. Actually, it's close to impossible to find clothing with Korean writing on it unless it's some sort of a uniform. However, the English they put on T-shirts doesn't always make sense. It often seems like they just found some quote from a song lyric or web page... and then spelled it wrong :). There's one store in Dangjin, called "Wellness," that is especially good for strange shirts. I'd compare it to Old Navy or something similar in the U.S. Jason picked up a couple shirts when he was here, one of which had a strange combination of French, German and Spanish written on it about a big buddha statue. Today I stopped there for a little shopping and came across a particularly fun shirt that I couldn't pass up. First off, in HUGE silver letters it says: "Chair." Underneath that are silhouettes of various styles of chairs and tons of little black words: "ALBANS WELLS YORK HEADACHES KENSINGTON OSTEOPOROSIS LEICESTER Coventry Canterbury Lichfield training stress management Lancaster therapies seated chelsea Peterborough health tpi professional Carlisle skin complaints association onsite energise Winchester." I have no idea what that's supposed to mean. :)

What a Weekend

Saturday started off normal- English language Bible study. We had some good discussion. Then, after a phone call with the parents, we were off to Seoul- we meaning Tracy, Sue, Sam and I. Sunday was Tracy's birthday, so she wanted to have a big party Saturday night. The night (and morning) consisted of Korean version Greek food, a super fancy norebang, several bars, hot dogs, and a PC bang. Yeah, we were up all night. At about 3 am I was tired, and sick of being around drunk people, so Sue and I were going to go. But then she suggested that rather than searching around for a hotel we just wait 2 more hours for the subways to be running again and go back to Dangjin. Well, rather than staying in the noisy bar, I went upstairs to the PC bang to do some email and such. Once 5 am rolled around, Sue and I made our way to the bus station and slept the 1.5 hours back to Dangjin. There, I slept a few more hours before heading to 1:00 service. Then, another nap before the evening entertainment. For evening entertainment, I met up with Rainy and Jane with a collection of foreigners and Red Cross staff to go to the Sangnok Culture Festival that was finishing up in Dangjin. It was quite the happenin' place! It was pretty much the Korean version of a county fair. All kinds of food booths set up- some more like restaurants, others with fried food and food on a stick. Well, after getting free noodle soup from the Red Cross, they roped me into a singing contest. Thankfully Rainy agreed to do it, too. So, after waiting a couple hours "preparing," I sang. It was like norebang- the screen and bad canned music- except in front of a couple thousand people on a stage with lights! Crazy. I didn't win, but everyone got a consolation prize of 50,000 won ($50). It was cool. I finished out the day with Cori and Tracy, treating Tracy to some food for her birthday. Anyway, it was quite a weekend. Seems like I did more than possible in one weekend.

Birthday 'till Now

The next day (Wednesday) was my birthday! It was SO nice to have someone from "home" here, and he had even brought presents from my family and his. I felt so special :). In some of my classes we played "Pin the Tail on the Donkey." They had fun with that. For dinner we ate takgalbi (my favorite), and after adult class my roommates and co-workers came out for coffee and bought me a cake. It was fun to blow out the candles and everything. They gave me a gift certificate for a local store where I've been admiring a certain blouse for a long time. That was really nice. Friday I went to the store and spent it all :). I don't remember exactly when it was, but sometime while Jason was here we were walking down the street and a random Korean man started talking to us. Now, it's normal for people to say "Hi!" "Nice to meet you," "Where are you from," etc, but this guy actually stopped us. He beckoned us into a local coffee shop and bought us coffee while trying to communicate with us. He knew very little English but was sensitive enough to use really simple Korean words so that I could understand a little. While I get attention here on my own just for being a white foreigner, it seemed like Jason got even more. Something about being a guy, I guess. Don't worry, I'm not complaining! Everyone we met told him he was handsome, too. If you ever need a boost of your self-esteem, come to Korea. They're always telling me I'm beautiful or a good singer or smart or whatever. It'll be tough to go back to just being average ;). Other things we did in Dangjin included playing pool, seeing a Korean movie (a romantic comedy about blood-types, go figure!), visiting a Buddhist temple, eating kimbop and mandu soup at 5 am, visiting the market, walking, meeting everyone at church, singing at norebang (2 times!), playing cards, shopping for souvenirs, and watching dvds Jason brought. With working in between, it made for a very full 3 weeks. They went really fast. Monday night we took the Moons and the Ohs out for dinner to thank them for their help having Jason here. That was nice, although communication was difficult. There was so much that we could have talked about if we knew each others language. Tuesday night we left right after adult class to go to Seoul. We found a really nice hostel there, run by a Christian couple who have spent a lot of time in Europe. We got there after midnight, but still went out for some coffee and exploration. This time we were in a university area, so there was a lot of activity, even at 3 am. Wednesday morning we made our way to the airport by bus, got some Burger King, and said goodbye. We didn't even cry too much. I don't know why. I guess it didn't sink in. Still, I felt the need to get Baskin Robbins after he left. Then I was back to Dangjin for a full day of work. And that's what I've been doing the past two days- working and catching up with people from home. I got to talk to my mom, my sister and Laura, all within 2 days. This weekend is Tracy's birthday and we're off to celebrate it in Seoul. Should be fun.

Jeju-do, Part 3

On Monday we decided to head back to Udo. We hadn't gotten to explore much of the island, but really liked what we had seen of it. But, we took a different route to get there. We stopped by a traditional village and took a few pics, then stopped at a bakery and convenience store for pastry and coffee. From there it was a beautiful drive along the coast to Udo. This time we got there earlier and we took the car across with us (well, truck, really. It turned out to be a Ford Explorer that Young-Gin had brought over from the US). We took the road around the island to see what else there was to see. We stopped a few times to take pictures of a lighthouse and the ocean. Then we reached the end of the coastal road where there were seaside caves to explore. That was really neat. There is one that is really easy to get to where all the Koreans were stopping for their picture. But if you went into that cave and out on some rocks you could get to another cave. They really made me think of pirates or something! Very, very fun. After the caves we got some food (ordered a couple random things on the menu- ended up with noodle soup and a sort of bibimbop with snails in it), and went back to the coral beach. We finished our time at Udo there (this time in proper beach attire ;) ). After taking the ferry back to the mainland, we set off in pursuit of a sunset-watching spot again. This time we wanted to get up a hill or something. On the way, we ran across "The Mysterious Road," so we had to give it a try. The story goes that a taxi driver discovered it one time when he put his car in neutral in this certain spot. Now there are signs indcating where to start and bathrooms and a food stand. What you do is stop your car at one spot, put it in neutral, and let it roll. Because of the surrounding land features or something, it appears that your car is rolling up hill! It's pretty weird. Anyway, we tried to get to the western side of Hallasan and up a hill, but traffic was in our way. We ended up at a public cemetary. It was actually really pretty, though. We had a great view of the city and the sea. It was neat to watch it all light up as it got dark. From there we headed to Jeju-si to get some food, and then smoothies, and then we went back to the hostel. Because it was out in the country and on a hill, it was a great spot to see the stars when it was clear out. Tuesday morning we got up early to meet Young-Gin for breakfast. We got a traditional Korean beef-bone soup with rice and kimchi. We thanked him again profusely and headed to the airport. The trip back went smoothly. Our time in Jejudo went way too fast, though. It was tough to get back to teaching that day :).

Jeju-do, Part 2

When we got back to the hostel on Saturday night, there was a note for us that Young-Gin had left there. Attached was a set of keys! We still don't know what happened on Saturday, but we were able to use the car on Sunday and Monday. That was really nice. On Sunday we headed down to the southern city of Jeju- Seogwipo. To get there we drove through some neat looking forests (voted the most beautiful stretch of road in Jejudo) and got a good view of Hallasan (Mt. Halla) and Seogwipo. First we went to a waterfall (another attraction that you have to pay to see), then got some mandu and kimbop for brunch. The kimbop house we stopped at was right by a local market, so we walked around that a bit afterwards to see what interesting things were being sold. The only thing we bought was a dragon fruit. It's a pretty strange looking fruit. It doesn't taste like much, but the skin is thick and bright magenta with green leaves sticking off of it. From there we sought out a beach. In an effort to avoid crowds, we went to a less touristy area. The beach we ended up at had a really pretty view in one direction and a big cement pier with ugly buildings in the other direction. But, we had it all to ourselves, so we couldn't complain. The sand there was dark and much more sticky then the stuff in Udo. We spent several hours just relaxing there. Then, we went in pursuit of a yellow submarine. We had seen pictures advertising submarine rides, and we really wanted to see it (we're always singing that song). We found the place, but we couldn't actually see the submarine. You have to take a ferry out to it, and we didn't really want to go on a submarine ride. Oh well. We took a video by a mural of it instead :). From there we headed inland to see a tea plantation. The O'Sulloc Tea Museum had a few displays of tea cups and the history of tea. Most of the explanations were only in Korean, however. They have a nice gift shop there where we bought some souvenirs and some green tea and green tea flavored ice cream. Green tea is used to flavor everything here in Korea--bread, cookies, ice cream.... strange. After our snack, we walked around the tea fields (great view of Hallasan). The sun was sinking, and we decided to drive to the sea to see the sunset. It looked a lot closer than it turned out to be. We ended up on a bunch of itty-bitty backroads (which were really cool, actually) and finally wound our way to the coast. The sun was just sinking behind the horizon when we got there. We literally just saw the last 1-2 minutes of it. The sky and the water still looked pretty, though. As it got dark, we made our way back to Jeju-si. On the way we surfed the radio stations. The variety of music on the couple English stations was amusing. In Jeju-si we met up with Young-Gin to treat him for dinner. We had a good time getting to know him and finding out all kinds of interesting things about Korean culture and Jejudo culture. He knows a lot about languages and a lot of other stuff as well. The restaurant he chose was a "California Roll" restaurant (Japanese-American). We ate some interesting things there, including salmon, eel, and caviar. After dinner we went for coffee and talked some more before going back to the hostel for the night.

Jeju-do, Part 1

(Literally, Jeju island) What a cool place. I really, really enjoyed it. I'm pretty sure it's my favorite place in Korea. Let me start at the beginning of our adventure.... Friday morning, September 23, we got up early to catch the 7:40 bus to the airport. Once we got to the airport to check in, the people at Korean Air said our confirmation number had been cancelled online a week before! Yikes! So, after some phone calls to Mrs. Baek (who ordered the tickets for me), we got everything taken care of and just had to wait for a flight an hour later. It was so nice to get on an airplane with Jason. The flight was short, just one hour. Upon arrival in Jeju, I was very excited to see some palm trees. They always make me happy. We decided to check into the youth hostel first so that we wouldn't have to carry our backpacks everywhere (that was really draining in Seoul). The hostel was a ways out of the city, so we tried taking a bus closer, but that didn't work out too well. We ended up with a taxi and found the hostel. It was a really big building, that must specialize in school groups or something. But, because it wasn't peak tourist season, we were the only ones in the huge building. We each had a room of 18 beds to ourselves. When we were first checking in, we were having trouble communicating, so another man, Young-Gin, was brought over to translate. It turns out that he used to live in the US, so his English was really good. As he was asking us about our travel plans, etc, he offered to let us borrow his car! After thinking about it, we thought it would be a real treat. The bus system in Jeju isn't the best. So, we planned to meet him the next morning to get the car. We also mentioned how we were interested in trying some new food while in Jeju. One special Jeju food we had heard of was horse meat. We mentioned it, and another man there called a friend he had that worked at a restaurant that specialized in that. So, we planned to show up there at 7:00 to eat horse. Until then, we headed back to the city (Jeju-Si) to walk around the sea and explore. We saw a rock formation that looks like a dragon head. I just loved seeing how blue the ocean was and the neat contrast with the black rocks. We pretty much just wandered around taking pictures and exploring until the time came to go to the White Horse Restaurant. The place was packed, but they were expecting us. The man from the hostel had pre-arranged some sort of special deal for us for 20,000 won a piece (about $20). But, we didn't really know what we had ordered. As we were waiting for our food, we noticed the people next to us eating raw meat. We really hoped that wasn't what we had ordered. But, lo and behold, they brought us out a similar plate of raw meat--apparently different horse organs (you can see it in my pictures). Being the adventurous types, we gave it a try. We weren't too impressed, especially considering we were paying $40 for it. So, I asked them to turn on the grill so we could cook it. It turned out that this was only the appetizer. It was a four course meal- raw meat, grilled meat, horse soup, and then another noodle soup with horse. The cooked horse wasn't bad at all. I especially liked the soup. So, we got our money's worth. I still think that raw horse has to top the list of strange foods I've eaten. Raw fish was nothing compared to that. After that we returned to the hostel for the night. Saturday we got up early, expecting to meet Young-Gin at 7:30 am. He was flying to Seoul that day and wanted to meet us fairly early. However, he didn't show up. So, we tried calling him, but couldn't get ahold of him. We decided to go back to the city and try to reach him again before catching a bus. We were going to walk to find a taxi, but the older gentleman who runs the hostel gave us a ride instead! In Jeju-si we got some Dunkin' Donuts, used a bunch of pay phones to try to reach Young-Gin, and finally resigned ourselves to using the bus. The bus station was almost entirely in Korean. I found this strange because it's such a tourist destination. However, our ride on the bus made it apparent that tourists wouldn't want to use it. There are SO many stops that it takes a really long time to get anywhere. Our destination for the day was on the East side of the island near a town called Seongsan-ri. First we hiked up the crater for which the town is named (Seongsan Illchulbong- "Sunrise Peak"). A pretty popular place. There were many other people there as well. We paid 2,000 won to get in and climbed the stairs to get to the top. What was especially amusing to me was that there were little speakers the entire way up that played relaxing music as you climbed. At the top we took a bunch of pictures and Jason served as the photographer for a few other groups of people- A Korean family, a Spaniard, and a Korean-American from CA who spoke very little Korean. After climbing down, taking more pictures of the sea, and looking at souvenirs, we went to the ferry station to go to U-do (literally, Cow Island). By this time, the weather had cleared up and it was a beautiful day. Udo is a small island (about 17 km circumference) off the coast of Jejudo. We ate lunch upon arrival there (bibimbop- always good) and rented a couple bikes. Unfortunatly, the last ferry back to Jejudo was at 5:30, so we only had 2 hours left to explore the island. Udo is really beautiful. There are a few touristy restaurants and hotels, but much of it seems unspoiled. There were tons of lava rock walls stretched all over the place. We even saw a few of the famous women divers in their black diving suits and diving masks. They dive for different types of shellfish. It's a dying art, though. The younger women don't learn it anymore. We hadn't biked very far before finding what I was really hoping to see-- a beach of crushed coral. It's really neat. It's small pieces of coral that have been rounded by the sea so that they don't hurt at all. And unlike regular sand beaches, it doesn't stick to you at all. Because it had been cooler in the morning and our plans were unsure, neither Jason or I had brought swimming clothes. So, I was just going to wade, but, if you know Jason at all, you'll know that couldn't last. We both ended up soaked. The water was really nice, though! So clear and blue. And the contrast between the white of the coral beach and the black rocks is quite striking. After messing around there, we bought a couple towels, biked a bit further, and then headed back to the port just in time to make the ferry. Back on Jeju we thought we'd try a different bus route to get back quicker. Well, that didn't work. After lots of help from Koreans, "dinner" from a convenience store, and a couple different buses and a taxi, we finally got back to the hostel.

Click Here for Pictures!

They even have captions. I can't take credit for many of them, though. Jason's quite the photographer. A digital camera is pretty much a staple of our times together. Stories about our travels are soon to follow.... really....