The Other Side of the World

Korean Chess

2009-12-13T22:38:00.008+09:00

There is a version of chess native to Korea called Janggi (장기). Despite the fact that Korea claims this game, it is based around the battle between two Chinese dynasties, the Han and Cho. The pieces in the game include elephants (象), horses (馬), chariots (車), soldiers (兵), cannons (包), royal guards (士), and Han and Cho kings (漢 and 楚, respectively). In terms of moves and compared to the chess you and I are familiar with, elephants and horses are similar to knights, chariots are similar to bishops, and soldiers are similar to pawns. Cannons, royal guards, and kings are unique to janggi.

Cordia and I, having seen old men playing it on sidewalks, have always found it interesting, mostly drawn in by the attractiveness of the Chinese characters engraved on the pieces. On our most recent trip to Seoul, we visited a park full of retired men spending their afternoon socializing and practicing their janggi strategies, needless to say, a favorite park of ours. This time we were approached by a man well versed in English, and I expressed my interest in the game. He offered to teach me.

We rented a game board and pieces ($1 for a 24-hour rental) and grabbed a bench. For the next 90 minutes, I was a student, and he taught me the legal moves of each piece and basic strategies. Soon there was a crowd of curious Koreans around our bench watching the action. With his guidance, I was able to beat him 2 times. Then he decided to take a break and a new challenger sat down. Instant defeat. It turns out you need more than the knowledge of legal moves and basic strategies to beat these people.

I made a promise to practice and on my next trip to Seoul bring more competition to the table. Given that I leave for my final trip to Seoul in exactly 7 days, I had better start practicing.

One for the road

2009-12-10T22:10:00.005+09:00

Last night one of our managers took us out to eat after work. The seven of us stuffed ourselves full of samgyupsal (grilled pork), boiled egg, dwenjong jigae (soybean soup), rice, beer, soju, and coke. After a 2 hour party in the restaurant, our bill was only around ₩100,000 ($100). In Korea it's customary for restaurant owners to bring service (free) soju, beer, or coke to customers who stay a while, come often, or spend lots of money. We had been getting service drinks throughout our meal, and when we were paying out, the owner offered us some more soju. Instead of taking him up on the soju, we asked for a discount. Sure. He gave us a little discout.

This is normal in Korea. And there's no tip. Can you imagine this happening in America? Shoot no! Free drinks, a discount, and no tip...?!

This is just one thing we will miss....

Packing Up

2009-12-08T10:01:00.008+09:00

Our time in Korea is coming to an end quickly, and while we're excited to see our families, friends, and some real texmex, we can't help being sentimental as we pack our year into boxes and put them on a boat to Texas. We have grown quite fond of this little country and its strange ways, and leaving it brings the same anxiety and sadness that leaving home brought. In an odd way, we've become comfortable being out of our element. This year has been full of lessons, tears, laughs, and love. We have been confused, lost, homesick, bewildered, stared at and laughed at so many times this year and have learned a lot about ourselves, our relationship, people, traveling, and of course Korea.

But not only will we be leaving behind a beautiful country with friendly people and delicious food, we will also have to say goodbye to our compadres. We've stuck to Mike and Diana since the day we met them (Mike in January, and Diana in August), and they've become two of our closest friends. We've gone on trips, eaten mandu, played cards, laughed about work, looked like weird foreigners, danced, sang in the noraebang until 5:30am, and drank tea together. They're both incredible people and great friends, and we'll be sad to move away from their neighborhood.

Our last day of work is December 16. Mom and Lindsey will be here December 18. We will depart Korea on December 22.

Let's eat lots of kimchi and mandu in the next two weeks!!

Names

2009-11-30T14:14:00.002+09:00

The majority of Korean names are 3 syllables. The family name comes before the given name instead of at the end like we're use to. Some of my students names are Kim Min Hee, Bae Dae Gun, Park Soo Jin, Lee Young Min. I call them by their given name...Min Hee, Dae Gun, Soo Jin, and Young Min. Getting use to saying and memorizing names like this was a real challenge when we first got here, but now the names sound normal to us. They often have an English name that they use during class, and some common ones are Jenny, Sally, Tom, Peter, Kevin, and Julie. While the English names are much easier to remember, I would rather them use their Korean name in class...I think they're cool.

A Favorite Meal

2009-11-07T16:11:00.002+09:00

A Strange Halloween

2009-11-02T13:31:00.008+09:00

We spent October 31 doing a particularly strange and spooky tour of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea. We took a tour with an American company which was lead by Koreans for part of the way and American soldiers for the other part.

Not only were we able to go into the DMZ which stretches across the Korean peninsula and is 4km wide (2km on either side of the border where no Korean civilians are allowed), but also we were able to step foot on North Korean ground. Before entering the DMZ, we were given a Visitors Delcaration to read and sign, stating that we understood that we were "entering a hostile area and [there was a] possibility of injury or death as a direct result of enemy action." We had to follow a strict and conservative dress code, and we were warned more than once not to make any kind of gesture or body communication towards North Korea. We were taken right up to the actual line that divides the two worlds. On one side of the line stood South Korean and American soldiers on guard, and 50 feet away stood North Korean soldiers on guard. When we arrived to this area where North and South Korea both have buildings, we were taken into South Korea's Reunification Building, built for divided families to come and meet. However, this building was entirely vacant, and it has never been used save for the third floor in which the Red Cross has an office.

In this picture, you can see tourists, South Korean soldiers (in the black hardhats), American soldiers (in camo), and North Korean soldiers (taking pictures of us). You can also see the cement line that divides the Koreas. The building on the left is a conference room where meetings between N. Korea and the UN take place. Half is on N.Korean soil, and half on S.Korean. We were able to go into this building.

Before entering the building, a S. Korean soldier takes special measures checking the security of the room: locking the door into N. Korea, and standing guard the entire time visitors are present.

While in the conference room, North Korean soldiers came up near the windows to take pictures.

This guard is standing in a "modified Taekwondo stance" with half of his body behind the blue building. He is always on guard when visitors are there, and he stands in that position so that he can take quick cover if he needs to.

After leaving the dividing line, we were taken back out to the edge of the DMZ to a place where one of four tunnels into South Korea dug by North Korea have been discovered. We went down into the tunnel. Usually, when you do stuff like this, it's part of a history exhibit or something that is of the past. This is not of the past yet. Tourists are required to turn around and head back south about 170 meters from the border at the first of 3 barricades in place to keep North Koreans from entering South Korea. Soldiers expect that there are more tunnels being dug at this moment, but they don't know where yet.

We have limited pictures because of all the rules, but I think these give a pretty good idea of how intense the situation is. We even saw the world's most dangerous golf course!

Fall

2009-10-20T11:00:00.007+09:00

It is certainly fall here now. The leaves are changing, and the air is no longer thick and humid. It's chilly and crisp. We took a trip to a Korean traditional folk village last weekend called Hahoe (pronounced Ha-whay). With the fall colors and the traditional housing, it was beautiful. Maybe the most beautiful place I've seen in Korea. The rice fields were golden, the air was clear, the trees were changing from green to red and yellow, the houses have thatch roofs and neat stucco walls and walkways. While we were there, we were able to watch a Korean Mask Dance, during which, of course, we the foreigners were called to the front to dance with the actors. We had fun dancing like fools in front of a couple hundred Koreans all laughing and taking our picture. Since we were all involved in the entertainment, we weren't able to capture on photo or video our sweet moves, but don't worry, our crowd was pleased :)

Mitch and Diana discussing the sweet dance techniques we used during our performance:

We made wishes and tied them to line that surrounds this tree that is over 600 years old:

Traditional housing with thatch roofing:

Our puppets!

What? We always walk like this:

Standing in the rice fields with Mr. Turnip Head:

China!

2009-10-19T15:35:00.002+09:00

Hey! We went to China a few weeks ago, and we still haven't told you about it! It seems like there was a lot to to when we got back, and we both felt a little under the weather. Anyways, we'll still work on a posting, but until then, we've posted some pictures to our picasa website. I tried to label some of them, but I'm not finished with that yet.

Click here for the pictures!

Black Belt Test

2009-09-28T09:32:00.008+09:00

Enjoy!

-Us

Things to do today...

2009-09-26T16:38:00.002+09:00

Clean the bathroom
Wash the dishes
Finish The Hobbit and Two Towers
Pay the bills
Get our black belts in Hapkido

what's been on our plate

2009-09-10T10:56:00.002+09:00

Our friend Mike, who arrived to Korea the same time we did, told us that we have 14 weekends left in Korea. 14 weekends!!@## There's so much to be seen still! It's coming to an end quickly, and we've been ridiculously busy for the past month which makes the days go by too fast. Here's an idea of what we fill our days with:

1. planning a trip for October 3-11 to Beijing and Xi'an in China. wooo.
2. reading The Lord of the Rings
3. studying Spanish and Korean
4. hapkido- may have our black belts by the end of the month!
5. planning our vacation in December/January before we head home. We'll pick Debbie and Lindsey up from the airport on Dec. 18, head to Vietnam for ~3 weeks, from there go to Tokyo for a few days, then TEXAS around Jan. 15!
6. talking to Lindsey on Skype (it's her first semester in college :)
7. work
8. still keeping to our vow to travel somewhere different in Korea every weekend
9. searching for jobs in Costa Rica
10. eating lots of ice cream while its still hot here

The best part about all of these things is that we're doing them together! It's so much fun making big plans with your best friend. :)

It's Nice To Have Some Familiar Shoes At Our Door

2009-08-28T15:08:00.012+09:00

Well, our friends left Korea last Thursday morning after an almost 2 week stay here. We had an awesome time hanging out with some familiar faces and seeing parts of Korea that we had never seen before. Below is a photographic journal of our vacation.

Day 1: Bukbu Beach in Pohang. Since most people swim fully clothed, we enjoyed taking our shirts off and sprinting into the water just to turn some heads...

This picture is from just 40 minutes of the cumulative 5 1/2 hours we spent in noraebangs (karaoke rooms) across Korea...

Day 2: An early rise in the Motel Hole In One...

Mingling with the locals, waiting for the bus to Sokcho outside the terminal...

On the bus to Sokcho with some tasty dried squid...

Rest stop...

Finally, after 4 1/2 hours on the bus, we are in Sokcho eating "dog mandu" and kalguksu...

Noraebang!!!

Day 3: Seoraksan National Park, with its Buddha statues, temples, and waterfalls...

Shhh... Don't tell anyone we swam here...

The raw fish market in Sokcho. Point to the fish you want, negotiate the price, then watch it get scooped out of the water and bashed on the head with a baseball bat...

Our choice: shellfish smorgasbord...

Day 4: On the streets of Seoul...

Day 5: Walking around Gwanghwamun square...

Changdeokgung, an ancient palace in Seoul. A nice escape from the city in the middle of town...

Day 6: The train ride to Dacheon Beach on the west coast...

We are inspecting a dead starfish we found in the surf...

Waiting on the train to head home, and, once again, mingling with the locals...

In order to save floorspace, Hadden and Will created bunk beds with our air mattresses.

Day 7 or 8: We hiked to the top of Hamji Mountain (the neighborhood mountain). Once at the top, the sun decided to go down, and we had to hike down in the dark, losing Will in the process. We found him a few minutes after getting to the bottom, once again, mingling with the locals...

Having these two here along with our break from work and the chance to see a lot of Korea was completely refreshing. We really loved having them here, and look forward to going home in January. Korea is great! But it's not home.

Peace!
Or, in Korean, "Soju!"

Rafting Trip

2009-08-10T14:45:00.003+09:00

We went with Nick and Mike on a rafting trip this weekend. In Korea if you want to go on a trip--whether it be sightseeing, hiking, or rafting --you go on an organized tour. It's not necessary for all things, but most people do it. We do most things independently, but this weekend we signed up to go on a rafting tour. They picked us up in this fancy bus, gave us rice cake for breakfast, took us to do some sightseeing, fed us lunch, and took us down the river for less than 50 bucks. Pretty good deal, we thought! We were the only foreigners on the tour, so we were watched after all day and asked by numerous people to have their picture taken with us. It's weird how you just get used to all the unwanted attention you receive here for being a foreigner. This is the last weekend of summer vacation for the schools and companies, so the river was packed! It was a lot of fun though. The river wasn't too big, but it was so beautiful. I wish I would have been able to bring my camera on the boat (we had a few close calls though, so it's good I didn't have it). One thing we thought was interesting (and a little funny) was that not only was nobody wearing their swimming suit, but about half the people there were wearing jeans. Our favorite though was the girl wearing a skirt and high heels. Korean women do love their heels, but wearing them on a raft might be a little overboard.

Here we are sightseeing and following around our tour guide. We had no idea what she was talking about, so we mostly just goofed off in the back of the crowd.

Here's a glimpse of how much commotion was going on on the river. The river was crowded, and they squeezed 12 people in each raft.

Will and Hadden will be here Friday! We're so excited, we could wet ourselves!

Beaches

2009-08-06T14:41:00.007+09:00

Sorry we've been lazy with our posts. It's not because we've been idle...quite the opposite. The past 2 weekends we have visited a beach on the east coast--Bukbu Beach-- and a beach on the west coast--Daechon Beach. Both were really nice and pretty.

It was a little chilly at Bukbu, so Mike and Mitch were the only two who braved the water in our party. Nick and Cordia Stayed ashore. We like this video because of the epic music in the background. There was a sound system set up all along the beach playing this sort of music all afternoon and evening.

After hanging out on the beach for a few hours, we enjoyed some fresh seafood. Yum!

To end this excellent day at the beach, we were treated with a fireworks display.

The next day we went hiking along a river with lots of waterfalls. It was a gorgeous hike.

At Daechon we took it easy. The weather was so perfect that we just laid on the beach, read, and napped all afternoon. It was exactly how a beach should be. Except that they had a loud speaker with some woman calling names and phone numbers the entire time (we thought it was for people who were lost, but maybe it was lotto winners).

Hapkido Red Belt Test

2009-07-23T23:25:00.005+09:00

We got our red belts this week. Here's a video of the test we took for them. The last bit is a martial art that we've been practicing called Taegukgwon. It's supposed to help your body maintain rhythm and patience. Enjoy!

Cordia's Crazy Class

2009-07-03T11:24:00.004+09:00

I took this video of my kids yesterday. This is one of my more rambunctious classes. They are Intermediate 2 level which is one level above the beginners. You may recognize some of the from the video of the 4 boys singing and dancing. They were being pretty good until they noticed I was videoing them...then they got a little crazy.

The "magic tricks" that they were showing off are a regular part of class...they think they're so tricky. Also, little Jung does his eye trick every day while I'm teaching them. He's also the kid who always taps the girl next to him while I'm teaching to show her his muscles....as you can see, they're quite big.

Beating the Heat

2009-06-26T11:48:00.007+09:00

So we're not living in Texas heat anymore, but Daegu's weather is definitely what I would call "muggy." Combine that with mid-90's highs, and it's enough to make me sweat just stepping out the front door. But since we spend most of our time during the day indoors, we needed something to beat the heat in the apartment. We spent a couple of nights with the air conditioner on, which made it nice and chilly in here, but we couldn't help wondering how much our electric bill would go up from that. Solution! Buy a fan. Sounds simple, right? Well, it turns out that buying a fan in Korea may make you sweat even more because, suddenly, you have to worry about Fan Death.

Popular media sources (and even a statement from the government) say that Fan Death is one of the top 5 most common summertime injuries. According to these, when fans operate in a closed room, they can be responsible for suffocation, asphyxiation, and even chopping up the oxygen molecules in the air, making it useless to breathe. Even with adequate ventilation in a room, they can be responsible for hypothermia and hyperthermia if blown directly on the future victim.

So, it is believed to be extremely dangerous to sleep with a fan on in a closed room. This belief has even led to the addition of a "life-saving" device included on most fans sold in Korea: a sleep timer. Just like the clock/radio you have beside your bed, you can program your fan to turn off after up to 2 hours of running. If you feel so inclined, there is a wealth of information about this topic on the net just waiting to be read. Give it a look, and decide for yourself.

As for now, we will continue to live on the edge and sleep with our fan on. Full blast.

Here is one of the many warning messages inside the operator's manual supplied with the fan.

And thank God for this thing. The knob on the left is the life-saving sleep timer. Up to two whole hours of non-threatening breezy bliss.

-Us

Half-time Entertainment

2009-06-19T12:16:00.005+09:00

These students graced us with songs and dances during one of our breaks yesterday at work. The group of four boys are Cordia's students. Now I know what really goes on in her classes.

A Lively Meal

2009-06-08T11:09:00.005+09:00

One of our Korean friends will be moving to Canada this week. Before she left, she wanted to make sure that we had tried live octopus. It's not actually alive. The tentacles have been chopped off and are still pretty lively, much like a snake still squirms after it's been killed. You'll see in the video that we had quite a time picking up a bite to eat because their suction cups would stick to the plate! We thought eating with chopsticks was a chore! Eating squirmy food that sticks to the plate with chopsticks is a whole different story.

We had fun eating it, but we didn't find it too tasty. We've discovered that that is not really the most important part of a meal while traveling...sometimes even the food is just about the experience and adventure!

-Us

Cordia's Birthday!

2009-05-26T12:19:00.009+09:00

It's fun having a birthday in a country that's 14 hours ahead of your home country...then it's like it's your birthday for 2 days! My 24th birthday wasn't too wild. It didn't really get out of hand, but it was certainly meaningful. It started out on Wednesday when we got a package from Becky. And you may not believe me when I say that THERE WAS A CAKE IN THE PACKAGE! That's right...a delicious, moist cake mailed all the way from home! And it was scrumptious. It really was moist and perfect. It even came with birthday candles, so of course, even though I had several days to go, we went ahead an lit the candles, enjoyed a solo rendition of "Happy Birthday," and dug into the cake. Yummy!

Then on Sunday, Mitch baked me my favorite chocolate cake recipe ever: Perfectly Chocolate Hershey's Cake. It was perfectly chocolately, but it wasn't too cakey. Turns out, baking in a toaster oven doesn't produce the same results as you would expect from a regular oven.

Despite what it looks like, I had actually been awake for several hours in this photo. Ha! I guess I just hadn't looked in the mirror.

On Monday, I got a strange looking package from my family....my co-workers guessed that it was a nice painting, but I assured them that it was probably just shaped like that because Mom and Will had duck taped a recycled box together....

Looks like we were both right! The box was made from random pieces of boxes and duck tape, but it had a painting inside!....along with other surprises. Ha! Mom's bag lady habits came in handy! What an awesome display of gifts...they were all super glued, hot glued or taped to the board. Candy, snacks, a Texas Rangers baseball cap from Gavin, some new pants, my sister's regional track video and one act play video, sunglasses, and letters...

A double layered gift. Under all the goodies was a painting my mom made for me. :)

Believe it or not, this was the first of Cordia's birthdays that we have been able to spend together since we met.

May 24, 2006 - Mitch is taking summer classes in College Station, TX, and Cordia is on a vacation to Oregon
May 24, 2007 - Cordia is at home in Sunray, TX, and Mitch is studying abroad in Australia
May 24, 2008 - Cordia is at home again, and Mitch is at the Grand Canyon
May 24, 2009 - Cordia and Mitch are together, in their cozy little apartment in Daegu, South Korea.

I'm very happy that Cordia and I were able to spend this one together finally. I hadn't realized how special celebrating the birthday of the one you love, actually in the presence of that one, is. Given all my adventurous excuses for missing her previous birthdays, I'll say that this was my most favorite May 24 in all my life.

-Us

Strangers

2009-05-24T12:48:00.008+09:00

Back home, you don't think too much about how many different colors of skin, different styles, and different languages are spoken every day around you. Really there are so many different kinds of people....different in all different ways...

Here, we've found that a person of a different background is quite a spectical. Since being here, we have had people stop in their tracks to stare at us, take pictures of us, and kids scared off by us. Most of the time, it is not done in a demeaning manor....just out of curiosity.

A few months ago, we went on a field trip with our Hapkido gym. There were about 100 hapkido kidos who went on the trip, and boy howdy were we the center of attention! Especially Mitch. We had a group of 10 or so kids at our heals most of the day...reciting every English word they could possibly think of, taking pictures of us, getting our autographs, giving us snacks, and just standing by us to look cool. :) It was pretty funny....and fun!

Here we are sitting on a bench with our new friends. As we sat on this bench (probably for about 20 minutes) 3 different groups of kids came and sat across from us to talk to us or just look at us if they didn't know English. It was like they had a rotating schedule...."Okay! Your 7 minutes is up! Now it's our turn to sit by the foreigners!"

At the end of the day, we were asked to be in every single hapkido group picture! Even with the kids who don't go do our gym! HaHa! What a fun day....

In addition: It's funny that we made this post today because later this afternoon, we went to play frisbee at a nearby park, and we saw the main kid who was obsessed with Mitch! We had stopped in to get some ice cream at a convenient store, and the kid was there too. He got so excited. He offered to buy Mitch's ice cream, and he stood by us the entire time we were looking at the ice cream selections, making several suggestions. Ha! Ha! What a funny kid..

Shooty!

2009-05-19T22:49:00.002+09:00

Well, we missed getting our hapkido award by 2 points, but we are proud to announce that our yellow belts have officially retired. No longer Yellow Bellies!

Now we will work for our red belts...

-Us

Hapkido Blue Belt Test

2009-05-16T10:06:00.006+09:00

We took our blue belt test on Friday. Our Master said that we did so well that we'll receive a certificate! Everything wasn't perfect, but after watching this video and comparing it to our first test, we can really see an improvement in the way we move. Hope you enjoy the video.

We posted an entry a few days ago too, so don't miss it down below!

-Us

Gyeongju, Geoje-do, Oe-do, and Haeinsa (a rather overdue update)

2009-05-11T11:29:00.008+09:00

So we've finally realized that we don't need to spend 2 hours writing a blog, making sure every detail is perfect. That belief combined with the fact that we've done something new every weekend left no time to update. Since the beginning of April, we have been busy busy enjoying this great weather. Before we got to Korea, we vowed to go somewhere different every weekend. The first few months made that difficult because the weather was not desirable traveling weather. But since the first day of Spring, we have stuck to our vow, traveling somewhere different every weekend!

A few of the highlights are two trips to Gyeongju (the capital of the Korean peninsula during the Silla Dynasty), a tour to Geoje-do and Oe-do (two scenic islands in the South Sea), and yet another Buddhist temple, Haeinsa.

We'll start with our first trip to Gyeongju. It was the beginning of Spring, and the Cherry Blossoms were in full bloom. Here we are celebrating this happening at the Cherry Blossom Festival.

On our second trip to Gyeongju, we went to a famous temple here in Korea, Bulguksa.

This structure houses an 8ft. bell at the entrance to the Seokguram (a Buddhist grotto in the mountains).

A few weekends ago, we went on a tour of a couple islands in the South Sea of Korea. It was strictly sight-seeing, and the sights were beautiful. The next 4 shots are of this tour.

After hiking all around this beautiful island, you can sit down on the rocky coast and enjoy some fresh sushi snacks!

This island (Oe-do) is privately owned by a couple who bought it about 30 years ago and have spent those years transforming it into this magnificent garden. It felt as though we were walking in a Dr. Suess book.

Here we are with our friend who stopped us on the path to offer us some soju (korean rice wine). He also gave us his business card and told us to come visit him! Perhaps we will....
Last weekend, we made a trip to another temple complex, Haeinsa. Here, we were able to help paint the intricate designs on one of the shrines.

Not really. But we were able to watch the artists at work. They are truly talented.

Here is a photo of one of the Buddha statues in one of the shrines. You are not supposed to take close up pictures of these statues, so since this was taken at a distance, it doesn't do it justice. Actually, even the best photo would not be able to reinvent the true feeling of seeing it. Use the person's noggin' at the bottom of the photo as a size reference.

And here we are at the top of Gaya Mountain. It was a long and tiresome trek, but man was it worth it!

And that's our past few weeks in a nutshell. Sorry for the delay, but as you can see, there is much to be done in this small country, and it keeps us busy.

-Us

The Sauna

2009-04-12T09:35:00.002+09:00

One night last weekend a few of us from work were on our way out to have a few drinks. We were all dragging a bit because it had been a long day, so we were looking forward to relaxing. We were about half way there when Kim Hye Jeong and Kwon Hye Jung sprung their idea on us: Let's go to a jjimjilbang (luxury sauna)!

I have seen them everywhere, and I know they a regular part of the Korean culture. People of all ages go. I have read about them on the internet and in my LonelyPlanet travel guide. They sound great: relaxing and cheap. There's only one tiny detail that has steered me clear of them since being here: nakedness! Ah! The rules are simple: you pay at the front desk where they hand you a pair of pj looking clothes, go up to either the men or women's locker room, put ALL your belongings in a locker, and shower in a huge public shower room covered with mirrors (no stalls or anything). There are also hot tubs in the shower room that many people lounge in. After your finished showering and hot tubbing, you put your provided clothes on and go up to the sauna which is co-ed. After sitting in the saunas for a while, you do the whole showering thing again.

If you're a man reading this, you may not see any problem in this. Mitch didn't feel nearly as awkward about it as I did. Locker room rituals are much different for men than for women (atleast in the tiny town I grew up in). Sure, we changed clothes in front of each other, but walking around naked, showering, and sitting in a hot tub together naked was not really something that we did in a locker room. I don't know if you can quite imagine the feelings I had upon hearing that little suggestion the Hye Jeongs' sprung on us. On one hand I wanted to fake appendicitis and dash home. On the bigger hand, everyone else was very excited about the idea, and there was no way I was going to be the one to back out. Before I crossed that big sea, many people asked me if I was scared. No! I wasn't scared. I was excited (I still am excited). When someone asked my mom if I was scared about moving so far away from home, she simply said "no". When they asked her why, she simply said "because she's my daughter". It's true. I have her blood, and so I knew that no matter how scattered and spun my feelings were on our walk to the jjimjilbang, I was going to soon be walking around naked with lots of other Korean women.

It happened exactly how I expected, exactly what I read about. There were people of all ages: Small children were running around, and grandmothers were sitting around scrubbing each other's backs. Hye Jeong, Hye Jung, and I took our time in bathing. We even sat in the hot tub for a while. And after we were there, I don't' know if my nerves went numb or if they actually were calmed by all the steam, but I did feel better. As with many things, thinking about it was the hardest part. I didn't even care when I heard a few people talking about me. I'll say it again that there aren't many foreigners here, so we are often a spectical everywhere we go. All in all, the experience was relaxing. I'm not sure that I'll go again on my own will, but Mitch has already mentioned several times that he'd like to go back.

Our Hapkido Yellow Belly Test

2009-03-29T16:34:00.005+09:00

If you were not aware, we started taking Hapkido lessons around 2 months ago. Well, the time came for us to receive our yellow belts. But, not without a test first.

The order of persons from closest to farthest goes me (Mitch), Hyo Jin, Hye Jung, and Cordia. Hyo Jin and Hye Jung have already received their black belts. They just participated in the test for "kicks."

-Us

갓바위 (Gatbawi)

2009-03-22T16:09:00.006+09:00

We hiked up Palgongsan to the 1000 year old Buddha statue named Gatbawi yesterday. Another moving experience added to the list.

And we posted some pictures of the hike and following festivities on our picasaweb.

Please enjoy!

-Us

갈비

2009-03-02T13:18:00.006+09:00

Galbi is one of the many new foods we have enjoyed while being here. It very popular in Korea, and it's actually the first food that we had when we arrived in Daegu (the first pictures we posted on our blog). We thought some of you might like a little taste of our delicious world.

This is a recipe we found on this website. You may have to alter it a little depending on what you can find in the grocery store, but I think you'll be able to find most things. They refer to Kai bi many times...it's the same as Galbi. The Galbi Ssanju Ssam is what we had in the photos: Galbi wrapped in lettuce leaves with rice, garlic, really whatever you think would be good in it. We always grill the garlic with the meat. We haven't experimented with this recipe, so I hope it turns out okay....let us know.

INGREDIENTS
2 pounds of either: 1/4 inch flanken cut beef short ribs or 1 inch cross cut beef short ribs, separated and butterflied.
salt

Marinade
1/2 cup natural brewed soy sauce
1 small onion
1 small Nashi (Asian) pear or semi sweet apple
6 cloves garlic
1 inch fresh ginger
2 tablespoons brown sugar or 3 tablespoons honey
4 spring/green onion
2 teaspoons pure toasted sesame seed oil
1 tablespoon rice wine
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
water as needed

Additional Ingredients for Galbi Ssanju Ssam
4 bunches red leaf lettuce
“sticky” rice
6 cloves garlic
5 fresh jalapeño peppers

Ssamjang
4 tablespoon of soybean paste (Korean-doenjang/Japanese-Miso)
4 tablespoon medium ground red chili powder
1 teaspoon sugar
2 green/spring onion
4 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon of sesame seeds
1/2 tablespoon of sesame oil
1 tablespoon rice wine
1 tablespoon soy sauce
water

INSTRUCTIONS

Mix Marinade:
Cut onion, pear/apple, and ginger into small pieces and place in blender with garlic and just enough water to blend into a smooth pourable paste. Pour into medium mixing bowl.
Trim root and top 1/8 inch of green onion, rinse in cold water, and finely chop. Add to bowl.
Add all other ingredients. Mix well and let stand for at least fifteen minutes.Note: If marinade is very thick, you can thin it by adding water and soy sauce in a 1 to 1 ratio.

Prepare Meat:
1/4 inch flanken cut: (L. A. Style)Very lightly salt each slice on both sides and let stand for ten minutes.
1 inch crosscut ribs:(Traditional Style)If your meat counter can not butterfly the ribs;Separate the ribs by slicing down the center between ribs.Next, with a small thin knife, slice into the “meaty” side at the center of the rib section, stopping just before cutting through the membrane. Turn your knife 90º (perpendicular or flat to the bone) right and carefully slice the meat at roughly 1/8 inch thickness outward until just short of slicing through, roll the loosened flap of meat away from the knife, and continue slicing until again just short of slicing through.Repeat until you reach the “end” of the meat. Do the same for the left side and repeat this with each rib section.Very lightly salt each section on both sides and let stand for ten minutes.
Place meat into a bowl, pour in enough marinade to just cover the meat and mix well. (Any leftover marinade may be refrigerated for later use)
Cover and place in refrigerator. Let meat stand in marinade for at least one hour.Meat may now be placed in zip lock style bags and frozen for later use. If not freezing at this point, let stand in marinade for 6 to 24 hours.

Cooking:Heat grill on high heat. Grill until well browned on both sides.(about two minutes per side)Serve with steamed white rice and ban chan.

Kai Bi Sangjju Ssam (Kai Bi in loose leaf lettuce rolls)Prepare Kai bi as above.

While marinating:Mix the Ssam jang -Finely chop the garlic and green onion. In a small mixing bowl, add all Ssam jang ingredients and mix well. Add a small amount of water if needed to maintain a mixable paste. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 1 hour.
Separate lettuce leaves, rinse, and drain. Gently pat dry and place on a serving plate.Thin slice the garlic and peppers, and place in separate small dishes.
Cook the kai bi as above.Serve with one bowl of rice for each person.

How to Eat -Put one leaf of lettuce in one hand, add a little rice, a piece of kai bi (cut from the bone), some sliced pepper and garlic, a bit of kimchi, and a bit of the Ssam jang. Carefully close your hand, forming the lettuce into a ball around the “stuffing”, and eat the whole roll in one bite. A little practice may be needed to get that “one mouth full” size right.

Let it be known...

2009-02-28T12:54:00.002+09:00

...that I (Cordia) tried 번데기 (bondegi) last night.

a little late, but.....

2009-02-26T11:59:00.003+09:00

Valentine’s Day is a little different in Korea: the girls are responsible with showering the boys with chocolates and flowers. It’s true. We saw many couples walking around hand in hand with the boys carrying gifts and flowers that they had just received.

I guess our Valentine’s Day was not traditional on Korean standards (or on American standards, really). It was great though. We practiced our new Hapkido moves on each other (more details about our Hapkido lessons in another blog). Then we headed to the Daegu Tourist Information Center and gathered all kinds of fun information about different tours we can take around the city and vicinity. We tried signing up for Kite Building Class, but the woman and the help desk said she didn’t think it was for us (not sure why). Plus, it was getting very cold, so kite flying probably wouldn’t have been that enjoyable. Maybe we’ll try taking the class in the spring. After we walked around the DTIC for a while, we decided to head downtown to grab a bite to eat. We had a restaurant in mind that we were interested in testing, but we hadn’t the slightest clue where it was. Since there are no street names in Korea, asking someone how to get there wasn’t too advantageous either. We knew it was a 20 second walk from The Holy Grill, and that was all. So we walked around the maze of downtown for a while, finally stopping a group of foreigners to ask them if they knew where The Holy Grill was (it’s a popular restaurant for foreigners because they serve food from back home, whether that be Canada or America). They did, but they weren’t able to tell us exactly because of the lack of street signs; however, they were able to point us in the right direction which was amazing…go straight and take a right. We finally stumbled upon it after going straight and taking every right before the right right. The Italian was delicious. We had pasta with crab, pizza, and a bottle of wine. After dinner, we were pretty full, a little tipsy, and very contempt. We decided to catch the bus home. The bus rides always make us a little drowsy, but on this night, with a little wine in our bellies, the ride knocked us out. We awoke 30 minutes later to the bus diver yelling something to us (we were the only ones left on the bus), so we got off the bus to realize we were at the end of the line. The bus went to park, and we had gone 2 stops past our own. It wasn’t too far of a walk though. When we got home we watched The Royal Tenenbaums.

Then last week we were able to celebrate Valentine’s Day again because we got so many cards in the mail!

That was it, and it was great.

코디아 괴 미첼

2009-02-22T15:37:00.011+09:00

I will ask your forgiveness in advance—I just learned how to switch the language of my keyboard, so I will probably be typing some words here and there in Hangul (Korean). If you do not have a language pack installed on your system, these words will show up as question marks or a series of little squares. If you don't know whether you have a language pack installed or not, here is a test:

시험 일 이 삼, 시험 일 이 삼

Not to worry! If all you see are question marks, do not fret. Luckily for you, my Korean language skills are equivalent to that of a newborn puppy, so there will only be infrequent Hangul words followed by a parenthesized pronunciation and translation. Now, on to the important stuff.

~~

We took a long break from blogging but for no apparent reason. We have still been thoroughly enjoying our time on foreign ground and discovering something new every day. Preview: since our last update we have eaten 번대기 (bondegi/silkworm larvae), had our first 노래방 (noraebang/karaoke room) experience, went ice skating, had several productive wanders downtown, and started taking 합기도 (hapkido/a Korean martial art) lessons.

The Friday following our 동화사 (Donghwasa/Donghwa Temple) adventure, the teachers at 문깡 (MoonKkang, our language academy) were ready for a long night, and the fact that the bars never close here very well accommodated that desire. We started the evening at Beer Kaiser where we ordered a wealth of Korean/Western fusion cuisine including octopus soup, pumpkin stuffed with seafood and cheese (diappointingly not a common food item here), and, of course, the whole slate of traditional Korean side dishes. Here, we were introduced to 기위 소주 (kiwi soju/kiwi soju), which is like an alcoholic smoothie. Soju, a weak spirit made by fermenting rice and/or sweet potatoes, is THE drink of Korea. At any restaurant on any given evening, there is a very good chance that every single table will have at least one empty bottle, sometimes seven or eight.

Later, we migrated to 궁 (Goong, a different bar), and this is where I (Mitch) tried 본데기 (bondegi/silkworm larvae). Strangely, the servers bring it out on a little snack plate when you sit down at a table, as if it is something that everyone desires before piling on 맥주 (maekchu/beer) and the sweetness of strawberry or kiwi soju. Since the little bug didn't really have a flavor, I have been describing only the texture to those inquiring. Here it goes: it felt like a slimy gummy bear filled with a gritty paste. Very appetizing.

Conveniently, the 노래방 (noraebang/karaoke room) was just a climb up the stairs of the same building, so we had to go. Karaoke is a favorite here. When your crew feels like belting out some tunes, you get your own private room complete with a huge couch, a table capable of holding the weight of several people (for obvious reasons), a multi-colored disco ball, a super fancy karaoke machine chock full of songs in English and Hangul, and two tambourines. The songlist: Queen, The Beatles, Neil Diamond, The Who, several others whom I have forgotten, and some Korean artists, probably Big Bang, WonderGirls, etc. Private karaoke rooms make for a very special experience because people toss away all inhibitions provoked by singing in front of strangers. The attitude was, "Hey, we're all friends, but I can still laugh at you."

Hope you enjoyed!

안녕히 가세유 (Annyeonghi kaseyo/Goodbye [to person leaving])

-Us

Dongwhasa

2009-02-04T11:08:00.012+09:00

It is somewhat of a unique feeling; Korea is seeming more and more like home after completing one month of residency. But from time to time we will look at the map of the Korean Peninsula tacked to our living room wall and say, "Look at that map. We live there," and an invigorating feeling of disbelief will set in for a few moments.

We finally have our very own internet connection! No longer do we have to dangle our computer out the window in hopes of pirating a neighbor's wireless connection. Actually, we have had the internet for the past week but no one bothered to tell us. So, after being patient for several days, we finally decided to ask again and were told that we already have it, and all we need now is a cable (which took several more days to find its way to us). But, here we are now, world! Permanently connected!

We took a trip to a Buddhist Temple named Donghwasa in the Mt. Palgong Provincial Park during our Lunar New Year holiday. This mountain and its accompanying temple complex is just a one hour bus ride from our apartment, and after paying for a round trip in bus fares and admission into the park and the museum, Cordia and I were out a total of $7. And not at all did the total cost of our day reflect the experience we had...

We passed through the entrance gate and between the Four Guardians, wooden statues of fierce-looking warriors whose duties are to protect the north, south, east, and west sides of the temple from evil. The Guardian of the North stands holding a pagoda as a tribute to passed monks. The Guardian of the South carries a lute with which he can control the weather. The Guardian of the West keeps with him a sword capable of multiplying whenever needed. And the Guardian of the East holds a dragon for good fortune. We made it past the guardians and followed a paved road across a small pond and into the first complex of temples. Here we found a small building with an open door and three golden Buddha's perched on their thrones inside. Koreans in casual attire and monks wearing their traditional dress were entering and exiting the building, and we decided to remove our shoes like everyone else and step inside. We took a seat on one of the many floor pads available and let our senses take over. The cool floor pad, the smell of incense, the sound of whispered prayers, the sight of ornate interior and delicately crafted homages to the Buddha. We noticed that everyone but the two foreigners in the building was placing a small monetary contribution into a donation box placed in front of the statues prior to sitting down. Feeling guilty for not doing so, we took this as our cue to leave. Upon exiting, two monks walked past us, one of which who spoke excellent English. He asked us where we were from and made some small talk and assured us that we were welcome there. Making our way further down the road, we found Donghwasa, the largest of a complex of temples scattered on the southern face of Mt. Palgong. The intricate architecture and painting on these buildings is something to marvel. I tried to get some shots of what I am describing, but I feel my photographs don't nearly represent seeing it in first person. Behind Dongwhasa is a 33 meter granite Buddha erected in hopes of a re-unification of North and South Korea. After some photographs of this giant, we toured the Donghwasa museum, inside which all the the text was written in Korean. So, we mostly just looked at the pictures and formed our own assumptions about the trinkets and statues they had on display. We left the museum, and this is when it started to snow. Our original intention was to hike to Gwanbong Peak to see a 1000-year old seated Buddha statue named Gatbawi. But when it started snowing, we looked up toward the peak and couldn't actually see it, meaning it was probably a full-on blizzard up there. We decided to come back on a warmer day to try again. On our way out, we took some photographs of the stone pagodas lining the road and talked to a very nice Korean couple (who had a brother living in San Antonio, small world, I know) about those pagodas and Daegu's Buddhist culture, and they shared the names of some of their favorite temples nearby. Then we boarded the Red No. 1 bus, and we were on our merry way home.

After sharing our experiences with one of our Korean partner teachers at work, specifically the awkward feeling in the Buddha room, she told us that a donation is not necessary and to feel welcome to sit without giving money. We will heed this information next time.

Not bad for a $7 holiday.

I will end this with my favorite photograph from the trip.

-Us

New Photographs

2009-01-30T10:28:00.002+09:00

We have posted some new photographs here. The last 50 or so are new, and they are from our recent trips to Hamjisan (a local mountain) and Donghwasa (a Buddhist temple). We will write about our trips in a post soon.

Good morning!

-Us

Hamjisan

2009-01-23T11:19:00.000+09:00

The last two mornings, we rose early to hike Hamjisan. We are waiting for the sun to come out this morning before we go for a third visit.

On our first expedition, we randomly chose paths and found our way to a small peak with an accompanying small gazebo. This path did an exceptional job of telling us how out of hiking-shape we are. It offered a nice view of Chilgok despite the haze slithering between all the hills and buildings. Chilgok consists mainly of the tall, skinny apartment buildings occupying most of the groundspace in the photographs you see. That is how everyone lives. No one has their own mansion with front and back yard. What do you call that? Overpopulation or space efficiency?

Yesterday's hike was completely different. The sun was shining nice and bright, and we took a different path that climbed to the same elevation but over a much longer distance. Therefore, this hike was not as intense as the previous one. It took us past a fully equipped outdoor weight room to another peak but on the backside of the mountain, offering a nice view of the South Korean mountain-scape sans skyscrapers. There were even some locals doing aerobic stretches on the peak who would occasionally belt a long shout, sending it echoing through the mountains.

On our walk home, we pass a small Buddhist temple. Yesterday, a lady was leaving the temple as we were walking past. She took several steps outside when she turned around, faced us directly, brought her hands together as if to pray, and bowed politely. I took this as an awfully nice gesture and smiled and sort of half-bowed back to her. Then common sense kicked in and I wondered why she would bow to two foreigners minding their own business, walking down the street. I turned to Cordia to question this and a tall concrete structure caught my eyes. Yes, it was Buddha himself, wishing a peaceful journey to those departing the temple. Feeling somewhat wrongfully for intercepting his bow, we just turned and continued walking.

-Us

Gifts!

2009-01-20T13:17:00.000+09:00

We received our first care package! Oh how great it is! Mama Drennan sent us a box full of delightful treats: 2 voltage converters (now Mitch can shave his face again, and Cordia can finally do something with her hair!), socks, incense burner (which we were in dire need of since we have been cooking with kimchi--the pickled cabbage), Emergen-C, vitamin C pills, a headlamp (which will certainly come in useful some day), two sweaters for Mitch that fit him perfectly, lotion, Dayquil, and Chapstick.

So to answer your question: yes, we can, and would love to, receive packages and snail mail at the address to Moon Kkang posted on the previous blog. Just make it to Mitch and Cordia.

To Downtown We Go

2009-01-18T19:06:00.000+09:00

We took a bus with Maggie to downtown Daegu today. Cordia and I had been planning on going, then Maggie walked by our apartment and saw our computer hanging out the window and decided to shout our names. Through some small talk we were able to determine that she was also planning on going downtown to make an exchange and work out a plan for us to make the trip together. She was a wonderful tour guide.

We boarded the pink #2 bus, dropped in our 3000 Won (the combined fare for Cordia and I), and claimed some empty seats. It is about a 25-30 minute bus ride to downtown from our apartment. Upon our arrival, we followed Maggie to American Apparel, and she made her exchange. There are hundreds of clothing stores and hair salons and restaurants and fish spas lining the alleys, but I'll get to that later. She then showed us the way to the massive Kyobo department store which contains the only bookstore in Daegu with a section of English books. This section is around 15 feet long and around 7 shelves high. Yeah. Not quite a Barnes & Noble. I signed up for a membership, Cordia bought a book, and we left Kyobo. Finally, she helped Cordia and I purchase a bus card, which gets us a cheaper bus fare, is re-loadable, and saves the hassle of needing exact change. Maggie decided to go home after that, but we decided to stick around and try to get to know downtown Daegu a little more.

Our first stop was Herbal Medicine Alley, an alley for which Daegu is famous. Just a walk down this street through all the smells of the herbs seeping through the cracks between the doors and their sills is enough to cure your stuffy nose or sore throat. We didn't know what anything was or what anything said, but it sure looked like an interesting place. We meandered through a very small alley structured like a might market that only sold fresh vegetables, nuts, fish, and an occasional blanket. Once through, we headed towards all the trendy clothing stores. This mostly included a lot of browsing and window-shopping for two main reasons: we won't receive our first paycheck until the end of January, and Korean salespersons function in a very close proximity manner. When you walk in a store, they usually bow as they say "hello" in Korean, then simply follow you around keeping you within arms reach just so they can catch you looking at a particular product for more than 5 or 6 seconds and proceed to tell you how wonderful it would look on you. I don't want to use the word annoying, but, hmm, I'll just have to get used to it. Besides all of the clothing stores, there are hair salons, jewelry stores, restaurants galore, bars, coffee/wine houses, and even a Dr. Fish Spa where small fish take up the task of nibbling the dead skin off your feet while you relax in a... well it doesn't really matter. What could be more relaxing than having fish eat your feet?

The diner of choice for us was called Burnham's Burgers. They served burgers. Cordia and I have loved the Korean food so far, but after nearly a month outside of the U.S., one of Burnham's burgers sounded very delicious. And it was decent. We decided we've had better, but it satisfied our craving.

Oh yes. And tonight we saw more foreigners (non-Koreans) than we have seen since we arrived. I would think it would make one feel a little more comfortable, seeing so many faces so similar to my own, but that wasn't the case. The Koreans have been so hospitable and accepting that seeing so many foreigners tonight just made me feel a little less special than I do in Chilgok.

I should go to bed. We have plans to hike Hamjisan tomorrow. Or, later today since it is currently 2:45am. Hamjisan is a mountain just outside of the hustle-and-bustle of Chilgok that offers a wonderful view of the city so I hear. Maybe we'll get some new photographs.

Good afternoon!

Dog Soup

2009-01-17T11:54:00.000+09:00

This morning when the alarm clock went off at 8:31, it said "8:31am, negative 66 degrees fahrenheight." After the hitting the snooze, it went off again 10 minutes later saying "8:41am, 111 degrees fahrenheight." It's funny to wake up to that.

Here's a few observations we've made since being here:

1. Couples dress alike. Many couples wear identical coats, shirts, jeans, shoes, and backpacks.
2. If you think your wardrobe is uncool in America, don't come here hoping to be a trend-setter. People here are very trendy. Even the elementary students that I teach dress cooler than I (Cordia) do.
3. Dog is an item on some resaurant menus, but it is not common. We haven't had it, but a Korean girl we work with told us she knows of a good place to get it. This girl has never had it because she loves dogs. I think that it's generally served as Dog Meat Soup. And I think that these dogs are raised on dog farms (much like a pig farm or chicken farm), so they're not just stray dogs.
4. They really don't have deodorant or tampons. We buy our groceries at a huge store called Home Plus (like a Super Walmart), and neither of those items can be found. They don't sell women's shaving gel either, which is only an issue for those of us with especially sensitive skin.
5. If you get caught putting out unsorted trash, you will be fined 500,000won (about $400). The trash must be sorted into recyclables, food, and garbage (non recyclable).
6. It smells normal here. Just like any other big city might smell.
7. People are very affectionate with one another (peers and family).
8. A favorite food here is Kimchi: pickled cabbage with red pepper paste. It's very delicious. We looked up a recipe to make it, but it requires an entire day and big bowls (like sweet pickles!).
9. There are not many whole wheat products in the grocery store. The bread section is a quarter of Sunray's Thriftway bread section, and there is only a small package that looks like wheat.
10. Rice is sold in dog-food sized bags.

I apologize if you were under the impression from the title that you were going to be reading about our experiences dining on canine.

-Mostly Cordia

Explorations and Cookies

2009-01-12T00:24:00.000+09:00

Our alarm clock is funny. It's one of those that when the alarm goes off, it tells you the time and temperature. The first few times we used it, it seemed to be fairly accurate with the temperature, but for the past few mornings it has been saying that the temperature is "negative 66 degrees Fahrenheit". Ha! that's cold! But then when we hit the snooze button and it goes off ten minutes later, it will say "78 degrees Fahrenheit".

The plans for this weekend looked quite a bit more romantic than the actual weekend played out. Before work on Friday, we planned to have a fairly quiet night so that we could get up early on Saturday and go explore Chilgok. For some reason, we have been setting our alarm for 8:30 every morning, but we're too exhausted to get up that early (which isn't early at all). So Friday night was very quiet. We ate cheese and crackers while we played cards. Then we watched a few episodes of Seinfeld and were asleep by midnight. But when our alarm went off at 8:31, we could not drag ourselves out of bed. Our eyes wouldn't even open. We slept until 9:30, got up, ate breakfast, sat down on the couch to read and study Korean, and took a nice hour or so long nap. We're thinking that maybe we're not sleeping very well at night, and that's why we can't get up in the mornings. Needless to say, we didn't get out of the house until 2:45 to go exploring, and when we walked outside it was freezing! And windy! We walked around for a while...a couple hours at least...and took a few videos and pictures. Exploring in a foreign country is different than exploring San Francisco or Austin. We walked around and didn't know what an opened the bag to find not candied nuts, but small, donut-hole like treats but without any glaze. They were quite delicious, and we enjoyed these mystery treats as we "exploredything was that we were walking past. We did buy a small bag of candy from a sidewalk vendor. When we walked past the first time, the smell and the look of the sign indicated candied nuts. So after one trip past the small portable candy shack, I decided to turn around and make a purchase. I handed the lady my 1000 won and she asked which one I wanted (I think). This was a surprise because I didn't even know there were two varieties of the product she was selling. So, I looked at the bags she had ready and just pointed to one. She smiled and handed me that one, and we were on our merry way. I" Chilgok.

Saturday night we cooked a hodge-podge meal, consisting of fried potatoes, shredded beef with tomatoes and mushrooms, and scrambled eggs. Weird, I know. We were super hungry and didn't really want leftovers, so we just had to cook something. Potatoes, beef, and eggs were the result. It was not too bad, except Korean ketchup tastes a little funnier than American ketchup (assuming American ketchup is even funny). But this small obstacle didn't stop us from devouring a full plate and thoroughly enjoying it. After dinner, we started talking about all the desserts we loved and how we couldn't have them now because we don't have a full-size oven, only a large convection toaster oven. Even if we had a full-size oven, finding the proper ingredients at the grocery store would prove to be a larger problem. After several proclamations about how much we loved and missed chocolate chip cookies, we decided to make a trip to Home Plus to see if we could sniff out all the required ingredients. So, we arrived at Home Plus and walked to the aisle that we thought would contain the flour. As we were walking down this aisle I happened to look up and see a bag of (my favorite) Hershey's Dark Chocolate Chips. Success! Then we began searching for everything else we needed: flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, and vanilla. Praise to be Home Plus for designating a 10 foot section of Aisle 3 strictly to making chocolate chip cookies. We found everything we needed right there! The vanilla was in powder form and labelled "vanilla flavor," but that was OK. We rounded up these ingredients plus a few others and headed home, eager to experiment with toaster oven cookies.

On the walk home we realized that we didn't have a mixing bowl, so we decided to cut the recipe in half and use the teflon bowl that goes in the rice cooker. It worked like a champ! We also don't have any small measuring utensils, so we had to guess at all the Ts/ts measurements which can make or break chocolate chip cookies. We made it home and immediately began mixing up the dough. After combining and mixing all the ingredients, the dough looked pleasingly normal. Now the next challenge was deciphering all the Korean symbols on the toaster oven to determine which was the right setting for baking cookies... Well, we didn't have any luck with that and just ended up just picking a setting with a picture. We popped the cookies in and let them bake! Or maybe it was broil, or roast, or toast. I'm not certain. Whatever it was, the cookies turned out decent, and we had a nice dessert before bed. We saved most of the dough to cook the next day.

~

It is Sunday now, and I didn't get out of bed until 11am. WHY?! Oh yeah, I stayed up until after 3am eating cereal and trying to decipher the back of our orange juice carton. That may be why. Today we must clean out our shower drain. It has been having difficulties draining all the water from our showers, and sometimes it even gives a little back accompanied by bubbles and gurgling sounds. We've been told the only way to do this is to dig in and remove all the small furry animals causing the clog. Rubber gloves? Something we forgot to pick up at Home Plus last night.

-Us

Week 2

2009-01-10T17:30:00.000+09:00

I think that it's safe to say that this week of teaching was fifty times better than our first two days. We're beginning to feel more comfortable in a classroom, and we've been talking about what we think our role in the classroom is. Since this is not the children's main school, we are not responsible for shaping them into uplifted citizens of the community. Our job is to teach them English only. This idea makes teaching some of the out of control students a little easier. Below is a picture of our school building, which looks like a typical Korean business building. On the 2nd floor is Espresso Bar Felice, on the 5th floor is a virtual driving range/golf course, and MoonKkang is on the 3rd and 4th floors. The blue sign with white Korean symbols on the far left edge of the image says "MoonKkang Language Academy."

Things are actually starting to feel surprisingly normal here. We have met a number of other foreigners who are friendly and helpful. I'm getting more used to the fact that we cannot read a single sign on the street or understand when the worker at Home Plus tries to explain the difference between two kinds of rice. It's not a comfortable feeling that I have in this situation...more of just an acceptance. It is also motivation to learn Korean. Mitch and I have been studying the alphabet a little every day, but we're finding that things are still hard to translate even if we know the letters. I have thought that translating was an interesting concept for some time now because it relies so heavily on the perception of the translator. No language can be truely translated into another language. I have a different appreciation for that concept now. Mitch had a time trying to translate the three words on our rice cooker this morning; Anyone who sits down to translate ancient transcripts or the Bible is awfully brave. Certainly our lives are different now than they were just weeks before, but we still tell silly jokes, we still listen to Sam Cooke while we cook, we still make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for late night snacks, and we still dance like dorks when we're all alone. Plus, the internet makes the world seem so much smaller than it looks on a map! The first week we were here, I missed home so badly that I felt as though I could cry at any point throughout the week at the snap of a finger. I hated not being able to hear familiar voices or even see the the words "Good morning sweetie pie" (from my mom) in an email. With the internet, I can call home and talk to Mom and Lindsey on Skype like we live right down the street from one another. If anyone else has Skype, you should add Mitch and I as friends so that we can hang out! (cordia.ferguson, mitchell.drennan)

We have a mailing address. It is not to our apartment because we don't really have a mail box here. Rather, it is to our school:

Moon Kkang English School
905-3 JangWon Building, 3rd & 4th Floor
DongChonDong, BukGu
Daegu, South Korea
702 886

We would love to get letters! We have a few letters to mail out, but we haven't found the post office yet.

And, we posted some new pictures here.

-Us

Week 1

2009-01-08T13:25:00.000+09:00

We had an exceptionally chill weekend. The week started out ridiculously crazy and confusing and awkward, but on Thursday we were able to move our stuff into our permanent apartment in Chilgok. We began teaching our classes on Thursday. With the exception of a few instances, I think our classes went pretty well. Mitch teaches upper level students who are around the ages of 13 to 16. Those students are much more quiet, and some of them have attitudes...much like teens in the States. I teach mostly younger students around the ages of 8 to 11. These students are pretty rowdy and cute. The first two days of teaching were definitely challenging for both of us (as it probably is for most beginning teachers). "Teacher! you are so little!", "Teacher! you have big eyes!", "Teacher! You have big nose!" were some of the comments that the jokesters directed towards me. "Teacher! You have big ears...like monkey!" is what Mitch heard. We got quite a chuckle out of these comments...they are pretty much right on!

After our first day of work, one of the guys we work with (Nick from Wisconsin) was eager to introduce us to a few of his friends and a cool place to eat. His friends, Maggie and Noah (also both from Wisconsin) live just a hop, skip, and a jump away from us. The place we went to eat at is called "orange" by the foreigners. I'm not sure what it's real name is. I'm guessing it's called "orange" by the foreigners because it has an orange sign. Nick, Noah, and Maggie were great to have with us at a restaurant because for the first time in several days, we had translators. They read the menu to us and explained what a few of the plates were. We decided on bibimbap and bulgogi. They were delicious. The food here is very spicy--a different kind of spicy than even Texans are used to. It's very good though...well...the few dishes that we've tried have been good.

The next day, Nick, Noah, and Maggie took us to Home Plus. It's about a 10 minute walk from our apartment, and I would say it's the equivalent to Walmart back home. Once again, it was nice to have translators there because every item was written in Korean, few had English subtitles. We picked up some milk and cereal, bread, tea, oranges, peanut butter, jam, and a few other odds and ends and trekked home.

Aaah, the weekend. What a nice time. We finally unpacked our suitcases and got settled in our apartment. Maggie called us and invited us on a trip to downtown Daegu that night, but we opted not to go since we still had some things to straighten up and we were pretty exhausted. We had a lovely night, cooked spaghetti, had tea, and watched several episodes of Seinfeld. Sunday, we talked to our friends and families for quite a while (with the computer hanging out of the window) and took some pictures of the apartment to put online (we posted the link below).

Pictures

2009-01-04T13:52:00.000+09:00

our pictures will be posted here.

Update!

2009-01-03T22:55:00.000+09:00

We're here! We've been here for almost a week, but we've had a very limited time with the internet. We won't have a stable connection to the world until the end of January. We have to wait to get our Alien Registration Cards before we can get internet, cell phones, or bank accounts. It takes 15 business days to get the ARCs, and they haven't sent off for them yet. We're able to get internet tonight by opening our window and holding our computer outside. It's freezing outside, so it's not really an ideal way to get the internet. We miss everyone though! And are so excited to get to tell you that we're here, and we're okay!

This week has been a bit of a whirlwind! We left Dallas at 9am on Saturday morning and followed the sun all the way to Seoul, arriving at 3pm on Sunday afternoon. From there, we flew to Daegu, where we were picked up by Tae Won who took us to our temporary apartment. He left us there with a sack of breakfast foods: pancake newtons (which we vowed never to eat again), bananas, almond cereal, orange juice, water, and milk (that was soured when we opened it). The apartment wasn't really equipt for guests. No toiletpaper(luckily I had thrown a roll in my bag before we boarded the plane), no dishes or silverware (which would have really made it interesting to eat our cereal, had the milk not been soured), and no address or map or any way to tell where the heck we were.

The next afternoon, Tae Won picked us up to take us to our first day of training. It was fun. We met several people who were very nice. The company that we are working for is going to be great. Many of the teachers who work for MoonKkang have been with them for several years (which is unusual in a job like this). After training, we were starving because the only meal we had had was breakfast, so we asked Tae Won where we should go to eat. He pointed out a place that was close to our apartment and told us what we should order -- Wang-Galbi (Korean barbecued pork). As soon as he dropped us off, we walked there, not really thinking about what it would be like...not really thinkng about how monumental this experience would be to our trip. Our first Korean restaurant experience...

We walked up to the entrance and saw a shoe rack just outside the door with about 6 or 7 pairs of shoes on it. So, we removed our shoes and added them to the collection. Once we did this we realized it was a traditional Korean restaurant with the short tables and no chairs. Very neat. A waitress approached us and spoke to us something in Korean. We didn't know whether she was telling us to leave or asking us where we wanted to sit. Luckily, she was only asking us where we wanted to sit. I think. We sat, and she brought us a large bottle of water and two cups. Then she started speaking to us again in Korean, asking us what we wanted to eat. Cordia and I looked at each other, confused, and kind of mumbled "Wang-Galbi?" It seemed like she knew what we wanted without even having to tell her. Apparently this is a popular meal with the foreigners. Soon she brought out some raw pork and threw it on the grill in the middle of the table. She also sat about 13 or 14 side dishes down in front of us. Once the meat was cooked she tried to show us how to properly eat it by wrapping it in a leaf of lettuce along with some rice and gimchi (pickled cabbage, a traditional Korean food) with little success. So she just grabbed Cordia's hand, placed a piece of lettuce in it, then the galbi and some gimchi. She even wrapped it in the lettuce and then motioned "eat it!" We did, and it was delicious. Since that night we've had galbi twice more.

That is all for now. A lot more has happened, but we're pretty tired, so expect another update soon!

-Cordia and Mitch

Pre-Departure

2008-12-08T03:29:00.000+09:00

We will be leaving the comforts of the United States on December 27, 2008 and beginning a new adventure in South Korea. This is something we have wanted to do for more than a year and a half now, and I can't describe the feelings I have. Should I choose to try, I would use words like excitement, love, nervousness, uncertainty and certainty, and rejuvenation.

We will be living nearly 7,500 miles away from home, but thanks to the internet, we will really only be a click and a keystroke away. Keep an eye on this blog for updates.

Lunch time!

-Mitchell