Mt. Seoraksan

This past weekend, Jenn and I got the chance to hike Mt. Seoraksan. We went with a couple of friends as well. We were very excited, because the Fall scenery at Mt. Seoraksan is supposed to be some of the best that you can see in South Korea. 

How we got there from Daegu:

- There are many options to get to Seoraksan. This is how we did it.

- We took a KTX to Seoul Friday night. 

- Saturday morning, we took a bus from the Seoul Express Bus Terminal (It's a subway stop) at 6:00 AM to Sokcho. We had already bought tickets in advance by asking one of our Korean co-workers to help us translate the website.

- The ride took 2 and half hours and once at Sokcho Express Bus terminal, we crossed the street outside, turned right, found the nearest bus stop, and took Bus 7 to Mt. Seoraksan. Get off at the last stop (or when all the other hikers do). This took about 20 minutes. 

- We got back the same way as well. Although this time, we took a taxi from Mt. Seoraksan back to Sokcho Express Bus terminal. (Cost about 12,000 Won). We had also bought our return tickets in advance as well. Note: Our bus back to Seoul left at 8 PM, but it's really easy to change the departure time to something earlier if you need to.

What we thought of Mt.Seoraksan:

- It rained on and off all day.

- This didn't ruin the experience for us at all. The rain actually made some parts of the mountain look really moody. With the fog peeking over the mountain tops, it definitely made for some cool pictures.

- I wouldn't say this was a tough hike. Of course, this depends on the route you take. We went to Bisondea rock, and then a cave. The hike to the rock was about 3 kilometers of which most of it was paved. There is a big Buddha statue on the way there, and a couple of bathrooms/restaurants along the way. In short, if you get hungry or have to use the bathroom, don't worry. 

- The hike to the cave was about 0.6 kilometers from Bisondae rock. This took about 35 minutes. This was more like the hiking that we are used to in S.Korea. It was all rocks, steep, slippery, and dangerous. Tiring, exciting, and frustrating at the same time.

- The Fall foliage was simply amazing. So many colors, and I felt that the rain emphasized the colors. It made them deeper and pop out more. If you were thinking about checking out Mt.Seoraksan because of this, I can say with confidence that you will not be disappointed. 

- Oh, and despite the rain, there were still a large number of people there. And they had Ponchos for 3 dollars. So we hardly got wet. Except for our shoes. That was terrible. Wet feet suck.

All credit for the awesome photos goes to our friend. Thank you!!!

2012 Nonsan Strawberry Festival!

Hello all!


Last weekend, Jenn and I decided to take a trip down to Nonsan for their annual Strawberry festival! It varies on how to get there, depending on where you are located in Korea, but we took a train from Daegu-Sintanjin, and then Sintanjin-Nonsan. It took about 3 hours total, so it was a long ride, but completely worth it!

Waiting for our train...

When we got to Nonsan, we had to walk to the actual fairgrounds. It was about 20 minutes, and we just followed the crowd and a map that we had printed out from earlier. I suppose you could take the taxi, but we were glad we didn't, because when we got to the actual festival, the traffic was insane!

Festival Grounds!

What to do at a Strawberry festival? Eat strawberries! We wandered the festival grounds, ate strawberries, ate the usual Korean festival food (corn dogs covered in french fries, sausages, kebab wraps, etc.). We were really surprised and happy at all the Strawberry themed food. Take a look at some of them!

Strawberry Slushee!

Roast Pig?

Strawberry Hotteok (Yummy, fried pancake filled with Strawberry Jam!) and Ice Cream

The festival itself was chock full of activities. Some of the ones that Jenn and I saw and liked were: Make your own strawberry jam, Put frosting and strawberries onto a cake (yum!), dip strawberries into a chocolate fountain (double yum!), and a ton of arts and crafts aimed around Strawberries. These were aimed mainly toward the kids though. Unfortunately, Jenn and I only had time to dip strawberries into a chocolate fountain. We wanted to make Jam and do the cake thing, but we were out of time because...we were busy picking and eating our own strawberries!

Strawberry Jam!

Getting some chocolate dipped strawberries!

Yup, the main attraction for us was picking and eating our own strawberries. On the website, it said you could pick and eat as much as you wanted. However, it took us a little while to figure out how to do it. We had to find a main booth, sign up for a time to pick strawberries, and then take a 20 minute bus ride out to the actual strawberry picking site. It cost 10,000 won each! And then, when we got there, we were ready to pick and eat a ton of strawberries! What really happens though is that you get one normal sized plastic box to hold strawberries in...and that's it! We were a little disappointed that the box was so small. But...we brought ziploc bags, and snuck a few extra strawberries into them. :) Not that it was hard to do so, we saw other people doing it as well. This was definitely the best part of our trip, mainly because I probably ate a pound or so of strawberries. (The eat as much as you want part was definitely true!) I did much more eating than picking, because I couldn't resist eating the big ones fresh! Take a look at some pics!

Yum!

One of our boxes. Before we emptied it for a refill. :)

After about 5 hours at the strawberry festival, we called it a day and headed back to Nonsan station to catch the trains back to Daegu. For anyone who is looking to go to the 2013 Strawberry festival, I definitely recommend a day-trip. 5 hours was the perfect amount of time to soak in the sights and get some strawberry picking done. Stay tuned for our next travel update, we're going to Boseong! :) 

Jeju Part II

So I know we haven't updated for a while, but I think Jenn and I are finally about to get back into the swing of things. We did have a very long vacation, and for the first part of it, while we did have sporadic moments of teaching, we didn't really have too much on our plate. Anyway, school officially starts today, and so we will be updating with more stories about teaching, random outings in Korea, and just Korea in general. Let's get this year started with a post about our second trip to beautiful Jeju island!

After a wonderful month in California, we went to Jeju for 4 days. It was mainly to see our friends one more time before they headed home. Their contracts ended last week, so it was our last chance to see them before we all eventually re-unite in California sometime in the future. We got there, and well, we were really surprised, because...it was snowing! On Jeju island! A place that in August had us commenting about the beautiful beaches and warm, tropical weather. I mean, it didn't even snow in Daegu that much! So we got there, it was freezing, but we still decided to go out and do something touristy.

After a really horrible bus ride through the mountains, we arrived at our destination. Sunrise peak. It was supposed to be the best place in Korea to view the sunset. And, it was the place that everyone sees when they google Jeju, for example:

We headed up a little hiking path starting from the left side, and after about 30-40 minutes, we got to the top. It was definitely a sight to see, although, I wish that it was greener than it was. Enough talking, check out the pics and see for yourself!

Before our hike. IT WAS COLD!!

A pretty nice view!

Our not so green view of the crater

After we finished hiking, we headed back down. Later that night, we tried something that ended up being pretty fun. We went Screen Golfing!! Which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. You use a real golf club, hit it a real golf ball, except that you're indoors. And hitting it at a screen. But sensors (I'm assuming), read your swing, and trace the ball as it flies toward the screen. So it's like you're playing golf, but virtual reality I guess? Although since this was the first time I've ever played golf (along with a general lack of skill all around), we got a double par on pretty much every hole. Wait. Scratch that, we didn't finish one hole. But it was still a really fun experience. They let you order drinks and snacks, and its more of a way to just relax and hang with friends. Although, in a room down from us, there were actual golfers, and they were much more impressive than we were!


We were also able to make it out to two very cool tourist spots. The first place we went to was called Gimyoung Maze Park. It is exactly what you think it is. A maze! I thought it was cool, but that was mainly because I felt like Harry Potter ;). The goal of the maze was to reach the silver bell, and it took me and Jenn half an hour, and 4-5 retries! Here are some pics!

The Maze!

Making our way through...

Made it to the bell!

After our Maze trip, we walked about ten minutes down the road to the UNESCO Lava tube. It was, well, a lava tube. I don't really have much to say about it, but it was definitely a good experience, and I really liked how they set up the tour!

At the entrance!

Those were the highlights of our Jeju trip! We didn't do as much this time because we mainly went there to spend some time with our friends before they left for California. We spent a lot more time relaxing and hanging out with one another; which Jenn and I really enjoyed! It was good seeing them one more time, and they will definitely be missed. If you guys are reading this, we miss ya, and we'll see you both in a year!

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 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!

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!