Getting New Glasses in Korea!

After hearing about how cheap and easy it was to get new glasses here, Jenn and I finally decided to get some for ourselves. We headed to the nearest store near our homes, called Davich Optical chain store. We think they mean DaVinci, because the Korean lettering translates to: "Davichi." 

So we walked in, and told the store guy we wanted new glasses. After giving the both of us free eye exams, he showed us how the store was organized. There were glass displays of eyeglass frames, and each display had a different value. Jenn and I looked at the cheapest displays first of course. =D 

It took a while for us to decide what frames we wanted, because there were so many, but eventually we did. Afterwards, the store guy asked us what kind of quality lens we wanted. I showed him my old glasses lenses to compare, and he just kind of looked at it in disgust and said, "No, low quality." (How did he know I got it from Wal-Mart?!?). Anyway, when we found out how cheap it was to get the highest quality lenses, we did! 

After that, the only thing left to do was wait while they made our glasses for us. We sat down, they made us some coffee, and after about half an hour, they were ready. Here is the cool part, the guy had this tub full of beads? and using that, he was able to change the frame of the glasses to match our face. So he would put the glasses on our faces, see if it fit, and then dump the glasses into the tub of beads to adjust it accordingly. Jenn and I just thought that was really cool. Afterwards, they gave us a membership card, a free calendar, and a free coffee mug! We love free stuff! Oh, and best of all? How much did we pay for this? Let's recap: Eye exam, new frame, new lenses, and all high quality? 70 bucks! That's it! What can I say, there are some things Korea just does better, and this is one of them. We also highly recommend DaVich Optical (http://www.davich.co.kr/index.html) to anyone who is in Korea and thinking about new glasses. The store guy was incredibly nice, and everyone was so helpful. 

Things my students say part III

Hi everyone! Fluke and I got new glasses!! (Post about that later...) and since my new glasses are much different than my old ones, I had some pretty funny reactions from my students. 


Student reactions on my first day of wearing my new glasses...


Student: Oh, teacher! new glasses!
Me: Yes! I have new glasses. Do you like them?
Student: Yes, of course! They look like mine :)


S: Oh! (points to glasses) Nice! (thumbs up)
Me: Thank you!


S: Oh, Jennipa teacha...you have new glasses.
Me: Yes!
S: talks in Korean to friends...and doesn't say anything else to me :)


S: Teacher! Why new glass?
Me: Why do I wear new glasses?
S: Yes.
Me: I wanted new glasses...and now I see better!
S: Oh... Good!


S: Looks at me for an awkward amount of time trying to figure out what is different....and then walks away.


S1: (points to glasses) glass? (looks to friend)
S2: new glass? (S1 and S2 look to S3)
S3: New glasses!
Me: Yes! I have new glasses! (I knew they would figure out what to say, so I waited for them to figure it out together)


Ok...that's all the ones I can remember! Because the students come to my classroom, I am able to welcome them at the start of every class. I always say, "good morning!" or "hello!" A few of the students and I have special routine greetings. Because I welcome the students this way and they are used to it, whenever they want to tell me something, or ask me something, they have the opportunity to do so before the bell rings. When they noticed my new glasses, they were able to speak enough English/use body language to have a short conversation. Overall, my favorite conversations are when a small group of students work together to say what's on their minds. Between 2-3 of them, they are always able to tell me what they want or ask me their question. It makes me feel good too because they work so hard to tell me in English instead of going to my Korean co-teacher for help to translate. 


I always learn something from the students during the conversations too. In the past two days, I've realized that the students need to learn the word... "glasses!" ^-^*


And here's a pic of us in our new glasses!

Thanksgiving in Korea!

I know this post is a little late...but better late than never, right?!!? So...how do a group of English teachers manage to have a Thanksgiving dinner?


First, someone sees an advertisement in a Daegu English magazine on Facebook advertising turkey delivery Thanksgiving weekend. This makes the idea of having a real turkey dinner possible! Next, we decide whose tiny apartment would fit all of us (mine), plan to make a trip to Costco the Friday before our celebration, pay for the turkey, and wait for over a month for the holiday to arrive! Here's pictures from our party!!

The feast!

My plate...

Fluke's plate...

Pumpkin pie, apple pie, cheesecake, and a ton of whipped cream!!
Oh, and you should know that dessert was after a 2hr movie break after dinner!
This is what everyone's dessert plate looked like! ^-^*

Amazing apple pie from Costco!!

We bought the dinner rolls, pumpkin pie, apple pie, and Caesar salad dressing from Costco. We used gravy packets and stuffing mix sent from home. I made garlic mashed potatoes in 2 batches because I don't have a pot large enough to make it in one. Fluke carved the turkey, which was delivered right on time. And that basically covers our Thanksgiving meal~


Now we have to think about our Christmas plans! I'm thinking a nice dinner out...because then there's no dishes! heehee Anyway, Thanksgiving was a huge success! The best part was that we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving in October at a Canadian owned restaurant/store and then U.S. Thanksgiving about a month later :)


Ok, now I have to think about funny things my students say! Fluke's stories are awesome, and I know I have some good ones too...if only I can remember them!


Bye everyone!
~Jennifer

Things my Students Say No.2

Back with some more!


Walking through the hallways today, a 7th grade girls stops me and says
Student: "Teacher You! Saturday, I see you. Glasses. No!" 
Me: Ummm...
Student: "You...no glasses today?"
Me: (Aaah, she saw me on Saturday getting new glasses!) "Yes, no glasses today...contact lenses!!"
Student: "Ah, very good. Lenses!?! Teacher, you no wear glasses. Lenses only ok?" 
Me: Ok....?
I guess she didn't like me in my new glasses :(


In class last week, I finally taught a student to say "Nice to see you again." The past year or so, he has been saying "Nice to meet you" every time I see him. First thing he says to me when I walk in today, "Nice to meet you Teacher!" Sigh...


Talking to another English teacher about class, we look up and see an 8th grade girl looking at us intensely. She notices us looking and nods her head wisely at what we just said and says, "Yes...I understand Teachers." We weren't even talking to her!


Bad students have to carry a little slip of paper, and teachers in each of their periods mark down whether or not they are great, good, average, bad, or very bad. At the end of the day, I assume they show their parents? Anyways, one of my better students in 2nd period asked me to sign his, and I did, marking down "good." I noticed that the teacher for 1st period had put down "bad" and I asked him why.
 He said: "Oh, Art is 1st period. Very terrible. I don't like." 


Teaching my 9th grade class about how to use the word "recommend." 
Me: Can anyone recommend a good Korean singer for me to listen to?
Boy: Yes! I recommend G.NA.
Me: Great. Why do you recommend G.NA? 
Boy: (looks at all of his friends before saying this) She is very glamorous! (At which point, the whole class starts to laugh...)
Me: Ummm. (I turn to my Korean co-teacher and ask her what "glamorous" means). Blushing furiously, she says that it means that G.Na has a very big "chest." ^__^

Things my Students Say Part I

Sometimes my students say the funniest things. I thought I'd start writing some of them down!


1. A little bit of context first. This student is lower-level, and has never spoken to me directly before...until today. After I explained the directions for our first activity, he gives me a really intense look and says, "Teacher. I don't understand. Speak Korean. Please." ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


2. Right after class today, one of my students comes up to me and says, "Teacher, I miss you." Even though she literally just saw me 5 seconds ago.


3. Every day, without fail, if this particular student sees me, she will always say, "Teacher how are you? This is good morning!" Every day! In the morning, afternoon, after-school. It is always a good morning to her and it always made me smile. I was very sad to find out this week that she moved to the Phillipines to study abroad for a year. :(


4. "Teacher, do you know Cleveland Indians? My favorite team!" I just thought it was random that one of my students liked a baseball team from Cleveland. 




That's it for now. Bye!

Today Was a Good Day Volume III

Well...it wasn't really today, but I didn't have time to write about it on that day, so here it is now! Today was a good day volume III:


I have this particular class of 5th graders who, let's just say, are very difficult to teach. They are usually 5-7 mins late to class (not really their fault), which makes my lesson more rushed. When I only have 40 minutes, being 5-7 minutes late (plus 1 minute to get seated and organized) is a significant time to lose. They are a noisy bunch so it takes me (and my co-teacher) longer to get through the required textbook exercises (really boring, but apparently necessary to learning English). They know when they finish the textbook exercises, there is a game/activity. Yet, they still take forever to do the textbook exercises. Basically, this class is challenging in many ways. The part that is significant to why this day was a good day, is the part where...they walked into class 4 minutes early. Yes, I looked at the clock because I was SHOCKED they were early.


I always have a short interesting/entertaining video to show classes when they arrive to my classroom early. Some classes are always early (because in the previous period they were only next door and not in P.E. or a classroom 2 buildings away) and after giving them a couple minutes of playing/chatting/whatever it is those boys do, I start a video. Some students choose to talk quietly, go to the bathroom, or whatever. For the most part, all the students want to watch the video. 


Let's just say...this particular class hasn't seen a video in months. So when they walked in early, I said, "everyone sit down...I have a fun video to watch!" They looked at me like I was crazy...they weren't really sure what I meant. I pressed play on the "art with sand video" (Check them out--they are amazing) and watched the students watching the screen. The entire class was focused on the screen. They were quiet. They were entertained.  The best part is...when the video finished...I told them, "I always have a video before class. If you come to English class early, you can watch a video." Then the bell rang. We started class right on time. They finished the textbook exercises in record speed and efficiency. I gave them a "+1" on their class point chart for being such a good class. They had plenty of time to play the game. It was an amazing class. I reminded them that when they come to English class early, they get to watch a video. 


Cross your fingers that the next time I teach this class, they are at least 2 minutes early.

Happy Pepero Day!!!

Today is November 11th in Korea, which means that...it's Pepero Day! Pepero is a type of candy that is really popular here. And I can't honestly tell you what or why it is celebrated as a holiday here. It's sort of like, one of those holidays that are celebrated, but not a National holiday. Anyway, I'm not really sure how it works, but basically, teachers get a ton of pepero candy, and so do students? 

For Pepero day, Jenn made out good. She got a ton of Pepero from her students, and even had some of her students asking her for Pepero. Which is why I'm not sure which way it is supposed to go! Regardless, here is a pic of just HALF of the Pepero candy that she received. Pretty nice huh? 

However, since I work at a Middle school, I was preparing myself to get absolutely no Pepero. Probably because I'd heard from some of my other friends who had been here last year that Middle school and up usually get no love. Middle school kids are too "cool" to give Pepero on Pepero day. Anyway, long story short, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of Pepero I got! Check it out! Nice huh? So...Happy Pepero day. Just thought I'd share this new Holiday with you all, and hey, I'm probably going to celebrate this back when I get home. Because I LOVE Pepero!!! :)

Also, not to forget Veterans day back home, much thanks and appreciation for all the Veterans back in the USA today! 


*Update: So, after talking to my co-workers, Pepero day is also a day where the boys get their girlfriends/crushes a really elaborate Pepero construction. Seriously. I'll try to find a pic later, but some of them are arranged in flower bouquets or mini-houses of Pepero.


Also, teachers apparently really dislike Pepero after Pepero day, because students give them so much. At the same time, some students will ask for Pepero too (knowing that teachers will have a surplus), so the Pepero flow goes both ways. And lastly, Pepero day has been known to be banned at some Elementary schools b/c the Principal is well, just no fun. 

Busan 2011 Fireworks Festival

Last Saturday,


We went to the Busan 2011 Fireworks Festival. And was it worth it?? Definitely! The show started at 8 PM, and we got to Gwangali beach at 4:00 PM to get good seats. I know, how do you get good seats for a fireworks show?? Trust me...it got crowded. Gwangali beach is a pretty awesome area in Busan. It has a really sweet view. Basically, there is a bridge in the background of the beach, and at night, it lights up and changes color. This time, there would also be fireworks!


What I liked about the Busan 2011 Fireworks Festival:
- The fireworks show!
It was about 50 minutes long, and I saw some pretty spectacular displays. 
- The backdrop
Sitting on the beach, watching the fireworks go off from the bridge in the distance. Pretty awesome.
- Good friends and food
Went with two of our good friends, and of course, it was always nice to get a break from school lunch and whatnot.
- Easy to find a motel
We thought we might have some trouble finding a place to stay, but we were able to get a place right next to Gwangali beach!

What I didn't like about the Busan 2011 Fireworks Festival:
- The people
Oh my gosh, the people. The place was insanely packed. Like...everywhere. There literally was no spot on the beach that someone hadn't taken. And I don't like to complain, but wow, Koreans really don't have any regard for personal space or manners really. Jenn and I repeatedly got sand on us from Koreans stomping past us, and we had to constantly fight off people who wanted to sit next to us. Like, on the 5 inch spot of sand separating our blanket from the other groups blanket. To be fair, the Korean couple sitting next to us were just as annoyed! This was by far the most irritating aspect of the whole festival.
- The rain
Unfortunately...it was raining. And well, rain kinda sucks! But Jenn and I were prepared, and we brought our ponchos and umbrellas.


That's it!


Some things I'd do differently? 
Definitely look into watching the fireworks from a different area of Busan. I looked it up online beforehand, and apparently there were some different areas to see the fireworks from. I would rather be farther away than have to deal with all the pushing, shoving, and just general rudeness.


Overall, Jenn and I (and our friends) had a really good time. Sure, it got a little crazy with the over-crowding, but hey, once the fireworks started, it didn't really matter that it was raining or that there were way too many people crammed into one place. They were that amazing. And hey, you can't really beat a free 50 minute firework show. Just look at our clips! And these weren't even our favorite parts. I didn't film our favorite parts, because, well, I was too busy enjoying it! Anyway, talk to you all later!

Cooking yummy dinners in my really small kitchen!

So basically, ever since we got packages from home containing taco seasoning, ranch dressing, hot sauce, pasta sauce packets, gravy packets, more ranch, more taco seasoning, and more hot sauce...our dinners have greatly improved. (THANKS FAMILY--YOU ARE THE BEST!!!) Then after about a month of being here, we got a Costco membership. Yes--it was necessary. Everything not part of Korean cuisine is expensive in the stores. Makes sense since it has to be imported. So everything we want to eat for dinner (we rarely eat Korean food for dinner--I mean, we have Korean food every day at lunch) would cost us a fortune if we bought it at the local E-Mart. Anyway, we buy pretty much everything we want that can be stored in the freezer or pantry at Costco once a month. Because of family-sent seasoning/sauces and our Costco food, Fluke and I have made some amazing dinners. Sometimes, we even impress ourselves with our cooking skills! We only take photos of the good-looking dinners though. We even have a "homemade food" picture album! I thought it was time to share some of these dinner pics with you!

After we bought the huge cheddar cheese block from Costco ^^

That's right...we made french fries!

Guess what the holiday was??

Happy 4th of July dinner!!!

Chicken parmigiana sandwiches 

The salad has amazing balsamic dressing (thanks dad)

Ravioli courtesy of Costco, pork chop courtesy of Costco,
and tomato/lettuce  courtesy of the local grocery store.
Yes, that silver thing is the space next to the sink meant for drying dishes,
but when we cook, it's where we put the cutting board/assemble our dinner plates. 

Taco night!!! We even fried the tortillas!!
Guess whose plate that was? heehee

Mashed potatoes and gravy!!!
The other stuff was good too, but the highlight was definitely the potatoes.
That's the space in front of my laptop. It's our "dinner table" when we eat! We could eat somewhere else, but then we couldn't watch our T.V. episodes haha

That's mozzarella cheese that hadn't melted yet haha 

Flowers from Fluke...just because! and those blue things are  like thunder sticks!
We bought them at the Samsung Lions baseball game. 

Jinju Lantern Festival October 2011

Let's talk Jinju. Now, you may or may not remember, but Jenn and I have gone to a Lantern festival already. It was in Seoul, and it was pretty awesome. It was basically a big parade at night, down one of the main streets, and incredibly long. So what makes Jinju different? It's a lantern festival, on water! Yup, basically it consisted of a bunch of lanterns, floating in a river, in Jinju. 

It sounded pretty cool, so Jenn, me, and some of our friends headed down there for the weekend. When we got there, we were pretty much overwhelmed at the insane amount of lanterns. Not only were there lanterns in the water, there were lanterns all along the riverside, lanterns in the temple, and lanterns on the street! There were so many things to see and do. And for once, there were a variety of eats! Not to get down on Korea, but at pretty much every festival we've gone to, they offer the same kinds of food. In the beginning, it was awesome getting a corn dog with french fries. But when we saw it at every single festival? Along with 5 or 6 other main dishes? Nah. Not as awesome. But here, they had Vietnamese and Japanese food! 

Some highlights of our day:
- We made a lantern and put some of our wishes on it!

- At night, we lit them and floated them on the river.

- We saw some sweet lanterns. Disney, Comic book characters, random movies, UNICORNS (What?).

- The lantern tunnel. During the day, and during the night. Awesome!

- Our hotel! Right next to the river, and about a 5 minute walk to the main festival area. Lotte Motel. Highly recommend it!


- Made some personalized stamps! Mine said "Ati Teacher" and Jenn's said "Jennifer Teacher."


- Firework show above the water 

- And of course, the lanterns lit up at night were amazing. I don't think I could ever get tired of looking at them.


After one day and night there, we headed back home to Daegu. It was a great weekend! 

Today Was a Good Day Vol. 2

Hi everyone! This is my first "Today was a good day" blog entry! Enjoy :)


I have a student who last semester was extremely difficult to control and this semester, still refuses to do anything, but is more quiet about it. Today I said, "Please open your book to page 132." I know he understands me. He opens his book and then says, "No, teacher. I won't do." Instead of *trying* to make him complete the exercises by staying beside him the entire time, I decide to do something new. I looked at his drawings on the inside of his torn book cover. I asked, "What's this?" He proceeds to tell me all about the monsters. I ask him to name the body parts, to count the body parts (I think there were 6 arms and 3 eyes???) and to label his monsters. We have a short conversation about his life. (I knew his living situation was far from ideal.) And he told me he is happy living with his grandparents (I don't know what exactly happened to his parents, except that under their care, he was not happy.) He walks to school (like most of the students) and has breakfast every morning.


I always knew that connecting with students and having meaningful conversations with them is the best way to motivate and teach them. Until today, I had not done that with this child. I'm embarrassed to admit this because it should have happened much, much earlier in the school year. Anyway, later in the period, during a partner creative writing activity, his partner asked me how to spell a word. I always ask the students to try to spell the word first and then I will help them. Well, this boy blurted out the correct spelling! (For a difficult word too!!!) Partners are supposed to help each other and learn from each other. Until this activity, I had never seen this boy be a "partner" or participate in a cooperative learning activity voluntarily. No, I don't think he will suddenly do all the textbook exercises without being prompted. No, I don't think he will suddenly be volunteering and raising his hand all the time. BUT, I do hope that his participation improves and he has more of a desire to learn English. I look forward to the next time I teach him. I wonder what short 2-minute conversation I will have next time???

Today was a Good Day Vol.1

I thought I'd try something new and maybe start a series of posts about a good day that Jenn or I have had. It'll give us a little break from writing about our super awesome weekends, and give you guys a little more info about what goes on in our lives daily. Let's begin!


Today was a good day,
                 I started off the morning with a nice cup of coffee, and had my favourite 7th grade girls class. I taught them how to use the "Would you like to ______" phrase, and then we played a Pokemon review game about it. They were really into it, and were shouting out Pokemon names and yelling "oooh, so cute!" every time they saw Pikachu. It was definitely a great way to start the morning. After their class, I had 2nd period with one of my 8th grade boys classes. They are one of my favourites, and I had a good time teaching them, "What's the matter? My blah blah blah." I always like my 8th grade boys, because even though they can get a little rowdy sometimes, they always have the most energy and enthusiasm out of all my classes. The trick is to get them to focus all that energy and enthusiasm into learning English.  After 2nd period, our school had an English festival for the next two hours. I judged a student presentation contest, in which they made awesome powerpoints and speeches about what they wanted to do with their future. (Mostly awesome. Haha). One student even talked about a popular PC game called Minecraft which I thought was really creative! 
                  After a solid lunch with corndogs (nice!), I had 5th period off so I used that time to prep for next week. Ok. So really, I used that time to relax and do some Fantasy Football. Which was so much more important! Hehe. Then in 6th period, I got to play a music trivia game with some more of my 8th grade boys. I was a little nervous at first because I thought boys wouldn't be as into music as my girls classes were, but they loved it! It's probably one of the benefits of having an all-boys/girls class? The boys can be boys, and not have to worry about acting "manly" all the time for the girls. School gets out in an hour, and after grading a couple newspaper articles, I should be able to use the rest of my time to just relax and maybe grab a cup of  coffee. All in all, not a bad day at the office! 

One of the few pics I have of me teaching!

Seoul for the Weekend!

Hello everyone!!! Monday, October 3rd was a holiday which means...we had a 3-day weekend! So what do we do on a 3-day weekend that also happens to be our friend's bday weekend??? We go to Seoul of course!


We caught a KTX Friday right after work, checked into our 6-person room in Hongdae, and went to Namsan Seoul Tower. Fluke and I went there before, but our friends hadn't and it's definitely something you have to do in Seoul. We rode the cable car, which was fun, and got to the ticketing office at 10:32. Guess what time they close the ticketing office even though the tower is open until midnight??? 10:30!!!! Even though we didn't go up to the top, we took pictures at the base of the tower and got some good pictures (but not with my camera because it is terrible with night photos :( Anyway, we did all this without eating dinner (unless you count coffees and Dunkin Donuts from Dongdaegu as our train snacks at 6pm). And we still had to walk down back into the city. After a walk down many, many, many stairs, we arrived at the subway stop and went back to Hongdae for none other than....Taco Bell!! Now, my family and friends know that I don't eat fast food at home (I still don't in Korea overall), but occasionally, I do have to bend my "no fast food" rule. I don't eat Taco Bell at home because I've gotten sick a couple times. I've had it twice now in Seoul....and not gotten sick!

Everland group pic!

Saturday was our Everland day! Everland is the largest amusement park in Korea. After a long bus ride, we arrived to Everland and saw Halloween decorations everywhere! It cost 35,000w to get in and it was TOTALLY worth it! We went on a few rollercoasters, but by far the best rollercoaster was the SK Express. SK Express is the steepest wooden rollercoaster in the world!!!!!!! I've been on a lot of rollercoasters, but I think SK Express has to be my favorite. It's a wooden coaster, so there aren't any upside-down loops (which are fun) or corkscrew turns (not so fun)--it's all about the super steep drop, twists and turns. We waited an hour for this ride and it was worth the wait. Then it was time for lunch (hamburgers) and back to SK Express  we went! We had seen people with what looked like Disney fastpasses, but we couldn't figure out how to get them. I asked one of the workers who said to go inside the SK Lounge so we went there (SK is a phone company). Apparently, if you have an SK cell phone, you can get the pass. We asked the lounge guy and he gave us 6 passes without showing any cell phones!!! We think he was being nice ^^ So we got to ride the coaster again and we only waited maybe 5 minutes!!! And that would have been 2 minutes if our friend didn't lose her pass in her bag ^^ Everland was a ton of fun, but we still had another amazing part of our Saturday left!! A place called, "Mercados." Mercados is a Brazilian BBQ place, which means all-you-can-eat delicious meat!!We were so hungry by dinnertime and the food was soooo good that--are you ready for this?--not one person took a food picture! It was our friend's bday dinner and we were so busy eating and enjoying our meal that we don't have any pictures because no one thought to take any! :(

Rollercoaster pic-round 2. We definitely were NOT ready the first time!

Sunday was our hiking day! We hiked Mount Bukhansan which is really easy to get to from one of the subway lines. We didn't have all day to hike, so we chose the shortest and easiest trail to one of the peaks. It still took us a while and it definitely was NOT easy (a LOT of stone stairs), but the view of Seoul beneath us was breathtaking. Check out the pictures to see what I mean...

After Bukhansan we went to a Mexican place called "Tomatillo." Tomatillo is set up like a Chipotle restaurant and it serves really good Mexican food. We love Mexican food (duh) and Daegu doesn't have the best Mexican restaurants (duh), but this is the second place we found in Seoul that has really good Mexican food! If we had time to go there twice, we would have. haha After an amazing lunch, we went back to the room to change into nicer clothes to go see a play! We saw the non-verbal dance play called, "Ballerina Who Loves Bboy." The dancing was so cool! The best part is...they encouraged everyone to take videos and pictures during the performance! I'm guessing to help promote it. Anyway, the show was really cool. It was in a theatre in Lotte World...which has an ice skating rink! So of course we decided to go ice skating after the show! We had pho for dinner and then called it a night--we were exhausted!

Monday we had to come back to Daegu, but first, Fluke and I had a dim sum lunch with a friend from UCI! The dumplings were really yummy and then we had boba for dessert! And that was really yummy too! Since we were in Myeongdong, a really popular shopping area, we did some shopping. We bought our first "couple clothing" item and met up with our friends when they finished their shopping sprees in Forever 21. A side note about couples clothing--it is really popular in Korea for a couple to wear matching clothes. We've seen couples with the same shoes, backpacks, pants, shirts, hats, sweatshirts, everything. I guess we figured it was time for us? Mostly, we just found super cute sweatshirts!

Boba!

Kyoto, Japan Chuseok Vacation!!!

Jenn and I decided to celebrate Chuseok weekend in Korea by getting out of Korea! We had 4 days, so we thought, why not hop over to Japan, and check it out? We booked our flights, and decided to visit Kyoto, one of the more culturally-rich cities of Japan. When we first got there, we were amazed at how hot it was, especially because Daegu had started cooling down for the fall season. But dang, Kyoto was hot! At least mid 80s, but we weren't complaining, because we loved it.


Another observation about Kyoto...the sky was so clear. Daegu is a city, and heavily industrialized, so very rarely do we get a blue sky sort of day. But in Kyoto? For the 4 days we were there, the sky was clear and blue. It was beautiful, and we loved it. We landed at Kansai airport, which is actually in Osaka. From there, we had to take a train to Kyoto. Once there, we got to our hotel, which was right next to the station. The location was perfect, especially because we were right next to the train station, and also right next to the main bus stops. Jenn and I had no trouble getting anywhere when we were in Kyoto.

At Kyoto Station. You can see Kyoto Tower in the background!

We arrived to Kyoto late Saturday afternoon. The first thing we did was go check out Gion Corner. This place was famous because it had a lot of old  traditional Japanese restaurants (also very expensive!), and Geishas! So Jenn and I went here to see if we could spot one. And we did! We almost didn't want to take pictures though, because they looked so uncomfortable with all the looks that we, and other tourists were giving them. I don't blame them though, they're just trying to go about their daily lives and here we are ogling at them. So we took a picture anyways! Hahahaha. But we tried our best to be sneaky about it, and it really didn't turn out that well.

Geisha!!!

After Gion corner, we headed back to our hotel. Right next to our hotel was Kyoto tower! So we went up to the top, and caught some pretty sweet views of the city at night. This was of course, after we had our first Japanese meal. And I have to say, it was delicious. I love Japanese food, and my time in Kyoto made me love it even more. I'll post some pics, but I don't want to talk about it too much because then I'll just get sad. :( Anyways, after Kyoto tower, we headed back to our hotel to get some rest.

Dinner #1!

Sunday was a blur of temples, shrines, and cultural-ness. Seriously. We went to maybe 5-6 or cultural sites. Kyoto has a large number UNESCO World Heritage sites (17 I think?). Did some quick Wiki research...that makes up for 20% of Japan's national treasures. In one city!!! So...I won't tell you about all of them, because honestly, we went to so many I kinda forgot their names! Hehe. But we started off our morning with a World Heritage site called Nijo Castle. It was pretty awesome. The day was so nice, blue skies, and perfect weather. The castle had a couple moats, which I thought was pretty cool. 

Nijo Castle!

After Nijo castle, we went and got our bikes! Yup. We wented bikes for the whole day, and biked to another couple destinations. After about a 10 minute ride, we got to Kiyomizu temple (I might be spelling these all wrong). Anyways, this temple was sweet. It was on top of a hill, and we got to see some great skylines of Kyoto. The wind was also blowing, and since it was such a hot day, it felt really good. After Kiyomizu temple, we kept biking and saw a bunch more temples and shrines. I'll post some of those pics now. Oh, and we stopped to eat lunch! I had Unagi over rice, and Jenn had cold udon noodles. Delicious! 

Ryoanji  Memorial/Temple

Ok. So...you make X amount of wishes, and then, touching the ball with your hand, you circle it
however many wishes you had. (2 wishes = circle twice around the ball) and it will come true! Supposedly. :)

Unagi over rice lunch!

Actually got a pic of us while riding our bikes!

Riding along the river. So pretty ^^

After our bike ride, we went back and chilled for a while. Then...we headed over to one of night life areas. Not gonna lie, we were a little disappointed. It was more of like a street with a bunch of bars. That was it. BUT, luckily, that street was next to a main street, with a bunch of restaurants, shops, and best of all, a ROUND 1!! What is Round 1? Well, my little brother and sis might know, but if you don't, it's basically a huge arcade/bowling/whatever building. After another delicious dinner, a mini-Benihanas type place where they made our yakisoba noodles and beef slices right in front of us, we headed over to Round 1. And I won!! One of those machines where you can get stuffed animals. Okay, it was more of like a stuffed animal key chain...but...check it out! Then we played a couple of games, one in particular was very fun. Imagine a big pit filled with cheap plastic balls in front of you. Kinda like the balls in those big pits you used to play in as a kid (at Chuck-E-Cheese ya?). Basically, you took those balls, and chucked them at the screen at things that appeared. It was definitely Jenn and I's favorite game of the night. I could see it being really good for stress relief! After Round 1, we kinda just wandered and headed back to the hotel. We were tired!

Victory!!

On Monday, we headed over to Philosophers road. Philosophers road is this beautiful path alongside a creek that was named by the, you guessed it, Philosopher who used to walk on it everyday. It took us straight to Ginjuku Pavilion, also known as the Silver pavilion. We looked at it. It was nice :) Afterwards, we took the bus to see the GOLDEN Pavilion, which was...just amazing. The pictures we took looked exactly like some of the postcards that were on sale. It was just that perfect of a day. Check them out! Afterwards, we visited a lot more temples. One had a famous Zen garden, another had a famous Zen Rock garden, and we took a lot of pics. Check out the pics!

Tempura snack!

On the Philosopher's Road

Golden Pavilion! Our favorite picture

Lunch!

Famous Zen rock garden. 

Moon Crossing Bridge. It was raining, but the sun was out!

For dinner on Monday night, we had all you can eat meat! The meat was sooooo good, super flavorful, and cut really thinly. Tuesday, we woke up...and went home :(


Japan, you were good to us. It was an amazing time, and I blame you completely for making me feel miserable at work for the first week that we went back. You were that awesome. We hope to go back soon!


Closing thoughts about Japan...


- Food was amazing
- People were so nice. One man stopped to help us when we looked lost (we were!), which we really appreciated!
- Lines EVERYWHERE. To the subway, to the bus, and guess what? No CUTTING.
- Weather was beautiful, the sky was clear and blue.
- Culture everywhere. Kyoto was truly a city filled with contrasting views. Temples right in the middle of the city, and traditional Japan everywhere.
- Awesome hotel. Perfect location. Clean, and a really nice...bathroom. Seriously. The toilet was super fancy.