Chuseok Games Night, Chez Jo & Pete

Thursday night was a potluck party at Jo and Pete's (Needless to say I felt very much at home). Lots of good food and games, as well as;

My first shot of Soju
As you can see, it had a profound effect on me:

Our lovely hosts

Eventually we decided to partake in Korean Karaoke. Here, Rupali asks, "WTF?? I thought I asked for the DELUXE Karaoke room!?" (Rupali and Jo in our Karaoke cave. Sooo much better than Western Karaoke, b/c every group gets their own little room)

Collin and Pete 'aoking
A "candid" photo of me choosing a song

Pete's sexy pose

Chris, Rupali, Todd and Jo singing their little hearts out

Korean Folk Village

On Wednesday afternoon several of the teachers and I headed over to the Korean Folk Village, located (I believe) just outside of Suwon. It was quite the place. The first thing we saw was a "Farmer's Band"which "Combines dance and music and is representative of the joyful comradeship farmers traditionally enjoyed while working in co-operation with each other. The instruments they played included a small gong (kkwaenggari), a large gong, an hourglass-shaped drum (changgo), a barrel drum (puk), and a small handheld frame drum (sogo)." It was pretty good, if a bit repetitive.


The next performance we saw were female acrobats on a teeter-totter, whereby they would catapult each other into the air and do flips and tricks with streamers and hoola-hoops and such. The final performance were acrobats on horses, who continually yelled "HEY, HEY" as if were watching something else and they needed to reclaim our attention.




After all of the performances we got our names written in Korean by a very cute elderly couple. As we were walking away from the stand, the woman rang out with the Korean character for "Luck" and handed it to Collin. I guess she felt that Collin, a Korean, would need it, hanging out with all of us whiteys. Oh and Rupali. Haha.


The rest of the day at the village was spent wandering around and looking at the architecture, the houses of the peasants and of the noblemen. and we spent a fair amount of time at the various shops, where I bought a pair of reflexology slippers, which I believe will feel amazing after standing all day at school.



On the way home, as we sat waiting for the bus, three Koreans squeezed onto the bus bench next to Chris' friend Todd, who is visiting from the US for Chuseok. Out of nowhere one of the ladies started pounding Todd on the back, quite inexplicably, until Collin, who speaks Korean, was able to translate and inform us that she was giving him a "Motherly pat". She then proceeded to try to scratch off his tattoo with her fingernail as her husband stroked his leg and proclaimed at how nice and manly his hairy legs looked. Oh Koreans, they will never fail to keep us amused :)

South Indian in a hotel basement

On Tuesday a few of the other teachers introduced me to the only source of Indian food around these parts – the Indian food made in a hotel basement which houses the Indian workers from Samsung. Or maybe it's LG... not sure. Anyway, for $8 we got all of the South Indian food we could stuff in, and it was gooooood! The cook is from Pakistan, even though he cooks South Indian food for the Indians at the hotel, and he orders all of his spices in bulk from Pakistan. Maybe someday I'll go over and see if I can buy some off of him, since Turmeric, Chili Powder and Cumin can't be found here. Apparently chickpeas and couscous are also impossible to find. Except perhaps in the foreign areas of Seoul.

After dinner we wandered around our part of Suwon and I got to see the gym where most of the teachers go, and I think I may join for a couple of months while I scout out Taekwondo classes. I was really hoping to keep up with my Yoga, but the only place around here is Hot Yoga and costs about $300/month (unlimited, but still)!

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My first trip to Seoul

On Monday I took my first trip to Seoul to meet my friend Seung-Yeon, who I originally met at a YMCA camp near Halifax 10 yrs ago!

The subway bus system here is crazy:

It ended up taking me 2 hrs to get there, and 2 1/2 to get back b/c I got lost :( But, it was great to see Seung-Yeon. First we took a bus tour around the city, although if I were to do it again I would try to find one that stopped at each site so that I could get off and look around and take pictures.

Next we had lunch at a lovely little restaurant, then went to a department store in search of unscented laundry detergent and mildly-scented shampoo. I found it, but it nearly broke the bank, at just over $38!!

After the department store we wandered around a couple of markets, then went to Seoul River, and to the old King's palace, although we couldn't get a good look due to renovations.

All in all though, a good day.

A gate with the mountain behind.
A pretty restaurant in Seoul.

Our lunch.(Beef dumplings, scallions, several kinds of mushrooms, hot peppers all cooked in a soupy sauce)
Our lunch part 2 (Pork and rice rolled in leaves with spicy fermented veggies) Side dishes inlcude spicy cuttlefish, little dried fish, cucumber and lettuce soup, kimchi and hot sauce)

Seung-Yeon, my Korean friend who I met at a YMCA camp in Halifax 10 years ago!

A Seoul market.

Snack time!

Man bags for everyone!
Seoul Tower. Remind you of anything?

Exploring Suwon

Strange Korean statue women with fruit baskets

The park behind my apt building. The white building to the left is my place.
Pizza Farm!
Korean Coke can!
My Apartment building.
Rupali and I out on the street in Suwon after dinner.

A street in Suwon.

Konglish on my Kitchenware!

I bought a new Milk Pan yesterday and this is what it says, ahem:

"With the modern look and functionality, this product redefines the "Sophistication". And its simplicity and timeless beauty that reflect the taste of housewives enchances its nobility. For this reason, it is highly recommended to those who purse the best. Homechef Kitchenware is product that is correct on request of modern family which harmonize to electricity oven, gas.
The Kitchen is Delicious!"

Good times.

My first Korean Groceries

Enzo I keep forgetting to tell you that I found mint tea, so you won't have to send any :)

The POWER from my window (slightly blurry)

These images really don't explain the magnitude of the Where has all of the world's power gone post, as they are only taken from my window, but it gives you an idea of the possibilities.

Where has all of the world's power gone?

Asia. The answer is Asia. One day I will have to remember to go and take pictures so I can visually explain this post. Collin, Ripali and I went walking last night, and man-oh-man, we thought we had stumbled upon the Nevada strip! Everything here has florescent lights and blinking signs, and you go over, excited to think that it's a really cool club or bar, and it turns out to be an Easy-Mart or something. Very odd, and though it pains my environmental heart to say it, I really like it. It's just so... foreign!

Last night I had three gastronomic firsts. The first first was real Korean Bibimbop, which was my favourite meal here so far. It was basically lots of fresh veggies (which have been so far severely lacking) with spciy sauce and sticky rice, as well as side dishes. It was delicious, and only 5,500 Won ($5.50)!

The second was my first taste of Soju, (Korean vodka) and this was real-fruit Soju. It tasted sort of like a daiquiri, but you could get it in pineapple, kiwi, mango or strawberry, and it was the size of a half-litre of wine, for only 5,000 Won ( $5.00) ! Delicious!

Lastly was a little shop called "Purely Decadent" which it was indeed! A completely dairy-free soy icecream store! I had chocolate brownie, and it was divine, although the most expensive item of the night at 3,000 Won ($3.00) Understanding the conversion yet? (Just knock off three zeros)

Unscented... ?

Well, I was in for a rude awakening yesterday when I went to TESCO looking for shampoo and laundry detergent. I had caught wind of the problem the day before, when I was presented with a Tusoc (Korean Thanksgiving) gift from the school, which turned out to be 8 tubes of toothpaste, 2 toothbrushes and several bodywashes, shampoos, conditioners and soaps that, when opened, hit me with a noxious blend of fragrances reminiscent of the Bay Cosmetics section. Oh god, I thought, this could be a problem.

Sure enough, there seems to be no such thing as unscented, and even Pantene Pro-V and Head and Shoulders seem to have EXTRA perfume added to them. Collin, the American-Korean teacher told me that usually there is so much perfume in any one product that they don't really clean your hair – they just dry it out and make it smell "nice". Grrrrreat. Although I finally found a Herbal Essence-type brand that had a semi-naturual flower smell, laundry detergent was a no-go, and even the baby detergent smelled like asthma and itchiness. So sad.

Before my TESCO fiasco on Friday, English Village ended for the week, complete with drama rehearsals, performances, and graduation. Graduation was an interesting affair, whereby the teachers all give little goodbye speeches and then they play sad music and give out awards and completion certificates, play an endless slide show of pictures, and the children cry and ask for our autographs. A bit disturbing really.

An Exchange

On Thursday I met up with a Korean teacher and her friend so that we could arrange an exchange of English for Korean. We met at Suwon station, which appears to be surrounded by a very large mall and many many places to eat.

As we waited for her friend to arrive, April and I went into a mall, and April explained the Korean obsession with the latest fashions. She said that even more than in North America, Koreans MUST have all of the latest fashions. They want all of the most expensive brands and the newest styles, and they don't care how much it costs. She also told me that the big brand names are more expensive here than in North American because Koreans won't buy the brand if it isn't very expensive. They figure it's not worth buying if it doesn't break the bank!

Upon meeting her friend (who's name I can never remember) we went for Tak Galbi (sp?) Tak is chicken, and galbi is a mixture of cabbage, hard rice noodles, green onions and very spicy sauce, all mixed and cooked at your table in a big skillet. With every Korean meal there are side dishes, usually including Kimchi (fermented spicy cabbage), cabbage salad, and sometimes macaroni salad or hot peppers, depending.

So, I will be meeting for Korean lessons every Sunday now, except during Tusoc. I just hope that we will be able to understand each other!

First good food day in the cafeteria!!

Just when I was about to despair about the crappy food situation in the cafeteria, we had a good day! A Kimchi pancake, dumplings of some sort, salad, rice and a lollipop! Although the alphabet fries left a bit to be desired as they were cold and soggy – I was told by the other teachers that rarely are alphabet fries served warm and crispy. They also told me that I will have corn soup sprinkled with cornflakes to look forward to in the near future! Yum!

After lunch I went to the Korean bank and I now have my first Korean bank account and bank card! Yay! I said "Thank You" in Korean as I left and the lady giggled at me. The Korean teacher I was with assured me that it was a happy giggle, not a "Oh my god what a Western moron" giggle.

It was another fun day of class observation today, including "Animation," "Olympics," "Homeroom," and "Drama". It was great, b/c all we did was make an animation, then play dodgeball, limbo, stella-ella-ola, duck-duck-goose and then practiced the play which the little kids will perform for their last day tomorrow.

Oh and I now know that my homeroom will be the little kids (10-12 I think). It's good b/c we get to play lots of games, but exhausting b/c they really don't understand much English. They were the kids Sarah had last year, I'll have to ask her how she did it.

Well, I am off now to meet my new Korean buddy who I will be teaching English to in exchange for Korean! So exciting!

Flight and Arrival

Well, I must say that despite my worst fears and apprehensions, the flight was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Although it was 14.5 hrs, I had two seats to myself, and between in-flight movies, my own movies, a couple of books, hours spent failing to sleep and computer games, the time past quite quickly. Oh yes, and eating crappy airplane food. That took up some time too...


Upon landing, the first thing I noticed was that the bathrooms here are indeed very modern and clean. (They have some sort of strange "We have the best bathrooms" claim to fame here) The airport was in fact eerily like Pearson, except with cooler trees and better signage.


The Incheon (pronounced Inch'on) airport bus took an hr & 1/2 to get to Suwon, but was very comfortable, with great big leather seats!

I was picked up at the bus stop by one of the Korean admin guys at Happy Suwon (the name of the whole city, not just the school!) English Village. We caught a school bus that took us to my apartment, which is a large white block on top of a convenience store and bar. The strangest thing about the apt is that the lights in the hallway are all motion censored, so it's completely dark when you first walk in – a wee bit creepy, but great for the environment!!

I met four teachers on my first night, and they were all great, especially Jo and her bf Pete, who gave me water and a mug and tea from England! This may not seem like such a big deal, but considering that I had no cups and can't drink the tap water and you can't find Tetley tea in Korea, it was a BIG deal!

I was supposed to go down for a drink with the teachers, but it was 9pm Korean time, 8am Toronto time, and I hadn't slept more than 2 hrs in the past 24, so I passed out instead.

The School

My first full day in Korea started at noon when the school director picked me up to take me to the school, where I spent the afternoon observing the other teachers teach "Airplane," "Drama," and "Homeroom".

After school I went with Jo, who is from Edinburgh, and Ripalu, who is from Seattle, to the market. The market consisted of an alleyway draped in different canvases to keep the rain out, and there was everything imaginable for sale, although I was very very disappointed to learn that fruit and vegetables are expensive and hard to come by here! Almost all veggies are fermented in spicy sauce, and the only things that are consistently cheap are cabbage, onions, garlic, bean sprouts and carrots.

I didn't make it very far in the market before jet lag and lack of food forced me home to bed.

Posted by Jaya at 14:31 0 comments

Navigating the Grocery Store

The next day I walked to the school and spent my first full 9:30 - 5:15 day, watching classes, which included "Hospital," "Dance," "Homestay," "Drama" and "Spelling Bee". OH and cafeteria food which was a disappointing medley of not quite Korean/not quite Western food.

After school I got directions to TESCO, the big Loblaws/Walmart store here, where you can buy everything it seems. I wandered around the food court for awhile before deciding on something familiar: a chicken burger and fries! Or not... the fries were what I'm used to, but the chicken burger was deep fried and taste-wise completely ambiguous, and had a lot of very sweet soy type sauce on it, as well as mayonnaise and lettuce. It makes me shudder to recall it.

Anyway, shopping was an experience, as most things are Korean with perhaps a word or two in English. It must have taken me two hours of wandering and miming and pointing and mumbling "Gam.sa.ham.ni.da" (thank you) before I had the ten or so items I came for.

At the checkout counter I shrugged and nodded and smiled my way through accepting bags and paying, but for some reason my broccoli was taken away from me, and I'm not sure if I will ever know why.

On the way home, a torrential downpour began. (Summer is monsoon season here, and I suppose we are still getting the tail end of it now) As I stood at the crosswalk waiting for the light to change, absolutely drenched but happy that it was about 30 degrees out, a middle aged woman came up to me, put her umbrella over my head and attempted to extract one of my grocery bags from my hand. Somewhat startled I resisted, smiling and nodding and shrugging away, until she relented, but she continued to hold the umbrella over my head and then, when the light turned, angrily grabbed the bag from me in a flood of Korean, and then, using gestures and nods and pointing, walked me all the way home! I was shocked! I don't think that would happen anywhere else in the world, and sadly all I could do at our parting in thank you was to say my only Korean word, Gam.sa.ham.ni.da about fourteen times and to bow. She seemed to be happy with this though, and walked off into the night.