Winter Break!

Hey everyone,

I'm in a little bit of a retrospective mood as I write this latest post. Today was my last day of teaching in 2009; my winter vacation begins bright and early tomorrow morning and I'm really excited for Japan and a little Wolfish family trip. I can't believe I'm basically at the halfway point of my year of teaching, all of the sudden the days have begun to fly by. It's been a tremendous experience so far and I'm definitely glad with the decision I made. That being said, I'm definitely ready for a little break and I'm looking forward to all that Japan has to offer in the week we're there. The last three days of classes have been pretty fun to teach, mostly games, which is easy for both the students and myself. My special class had a lot of fun with Twister and Apples to Apples today. All the teachers and students were definitely excited for the short week because of Christmas. I'm hoping we can still enjoy our usual Christmas tradition of Chinese food and a movie, but substitute Japanese food for the Chinese. Speaking of movies, I saw Avatar last night and thought it was pretty good overall. I knew going into the movie that I really wasn't going for the plot, definitely paid to see the ridiculous over-the-top CGI creations and they didn't disappoint. I had hoped the story would be a little better given that James Cameron spent 9 years on the movie, but overall the movie was enjoyable.

In other news, I finished my workbooks and they'll get printed and binded over winter vacation, which is great, but I'm glad with that project. I'm currently waiting on a last minute load of laundry that I hope dries before the morning. It definitely helps to have heated floors to speed up the process. I may or may not be blogging from Japan, we'll see if anyone brought their computers, I'm leaning towards not bringing mine, but I'll have a notebook to jot down all the important stuff. That's about it from my end, if I don't blog in Japan there should be a new post up on New Year's Eve.

iPod A-Z Song update: "One Headlight" by the Wallflowers

School Field Trip/Snow Jam

Hey everyone, here's a new post that's certified grade-A pleasure reading at its finest.

This past weekend was pretty fantastic to say the least. Friday after school I continued my badminton lessons, which have turned into 45 minutes of working on my footwork on the court, or as I like to refer to it, ballet class. Coming from a tennis background it's hard to imagine that movement on the court would be much different in badminton, but I was surprised by how much it is. I've been trying to master a 7-step sequence, which I can do when I'm not trying to hit the birdie, but still have a lot of trouble doing when actually going through the motions with the birdie in the air. Most of the time I end up falling over myself or have my Korean teacher yelling at me that I'm doing the steps in the wrong order, but I'm definitely enjoying it. It ends up being a pretty decent workout. I even got to bed pretty early by Friday night standards in preparation for my Saturday field trip with my special English class.

Saturday's field trip was pretty awesome to say the least. We started off at the LG Science Hall in Yeouido, an island on the Han River in Seoul. The exhibits were pretty interesting. First, we got a background on LG, including some amazing black and white commercials from the 1960s, before TV was prominent in South Korea. Next, we went to the renewable energies room, complete with solar energy, wind energy, fuel cells, and a model future city. The life science exhibit was next and the kids got a kick out of the child predictor machine. Basically the machine took two images of the students and fused them together to predict what their child would look like. There were dancing robo-dogs as well. We also got to go in a 3-d simulator, have a robot painter paint our pictures and we got some goodies when we left. After the LG Science Hall, we made our way to Bucheon and Aiin's World. Aiin's World is like Mini Israel for those who have been there. It is basically an open space filled with smaller replicas of world famous buildings, castles, etc... We also took in a magic show performed by clowns and another 3-d movie. All in all it was a pretty successful afternoon. Saturday night was spent in Seoul with all the usual fanfare.

On Sunday, a few of us went to Gwanghamum Plaza in downtown Seoul to watch Snow Jam, an aerial ski and snowboard competition. It was really interesting to see how they fit the ramp for the jump onto the plaza. Unfortunately the event planners probably didn't count on warmer weather; it was around 8 degrees Celsius, a little warm for skiing or snowboarding. In addition to the competition they also had a makeshift ice rink set up and a bunny hill run, which looked painful since most of the fake snow had melted away. Earlier in the week, Andrew Gruen, the son of our good family friends, who is also here in Korea, invited me over for a little Hanukkah celebration on Sunday afternoon. So, after Snow Jam, we made our way to Andrew's for some latkes and noodle kugel, which both turned out well. It was a nice gathering and I know we all really appreciated it. We even lit the menorah and sang Maoz Tzur. It was a nice end to the weekend.

Yesterday night I finally tried the Indian restaurant a few blocks away from me with my friend Rebecca and it did not disappoint. Great samosa, curry, tandoori chicken, and naan. No Kahili unfortunately, but maybe I'll find him next time. I am a little jealous that Robyn is done with her first semester of university and got to go to the Vikings game with Dad on Sunday. I'm definitely counting down the days until next Thursday, I'm ready to be on vacation and so far, I've been busy putting the finishing touches on my winter camp schedule and workbooks. I've added some pictures of my school and the field trip. I can't believe I haven't mentioned this yet in any posts, but Koreans like to compare foreigners to other celebrities. Throughout the years, there is one celebrity that I'm constantly being compared to, whether its waiters at restaurants or people i meet for the first time they always seem to arrive at the same person. That person is Adam Sandler. Personally I don't see it and neither does anyone that knows me (family, friends, etc...) but it's been fairly consistent and especially here in Korea. A few weekends ago on the way home from Seoul a couple was taking pictures of me on their cell-phone for obvious reasons (Do I really look like him?) Then this past weekend at Andrew's, one of his Korean friends told me I reminded him of Adam Sandler as well. It's happening so much that I've come up with my own phrase for it, "I've been Sandlered." Well, with that, I'll end this post, but expect another post after this weekend or early next week.

iPod A-Z song update: "Norwegian Wood" by the Beatles

Is It Really Snowing?

By the title you can safely assume that winter has finally arrived in Korea. Over the weekend there were some light snow flurries and even some reports of people skiing on some wonderful artificial stuff. The past week went by relatively quickly, as most do now; I turned in my winter camp plans, which were approved so now I have to gather all my materials and over the course of the camp, I will put together a workbook in addition to the current workbook I am working on for my special class. Compared to other teachers I know I am doing a lot more work, which will be rewarding in the end, but at the moment is adding a little stress to every day. It's good to know I'll be done with one of the workbooks in two weeks and it's even better to know that means it will be winter vacation! I am counting down the days, as I'm sure Mom, Dad, and Robyn all are, until our trip to Japan. Vacation will be sweet but also short; for the first time in four years I don't have really have a month off in January, but the school semester schedule is a little different here. After my winter English camp finishes at the end of January, school is back on for the first week in February and then it's the end of the semester and the spring semester begins in March. I still haven't been given a clear answer on whether I have to be at school every day in February or if it's another break period for teachers as well.

Last Wednesday my Korean class ended for this semester. Overall it was an enjoyable class. I was able to meet some other English teachers, not surprisingly I was the youngest out of the group (I'm used to this by now). We had a nice end of class potluck and review and it was a good introduction to Korean but I think I will try and study on my own over winter vacation to learn more since the class didn't really focus on conversational vocabulary, but more on culture and vocabulary associated with the theme of each class.

On Thursday I saw Ninja Assassin which was a pretty awesome movie. The main actor is Rain, a Korean pop star (K-pop), basically the equivalent of Justin Timberlake. While I never thought I would get sucked into the world of K-pop it's literally unavoidable when you're here. They play the songs everywhere and everyone from my students to my co-workers loves the music. The movie was more gruesome than I thought it would be, along the lines of Tarantino at times, but it was definitely very enjoyable. Anyways, that's all from my end, I'm currently waiting on my usual Monday load of colors to finish their cycle and praying they dry quickly, which is never the case.

iPod A-Z song update: "My Mirror Speaks" by Death Cab for Cutie

Thanksgiving

Another shorter post, no traveling means less to report on, but still plenty of good stuff to read. While part of the Wolfish-Bick clan were celebrating Thanksgiving in Minneapolis last Thursday, I was patiently waiting for the weekend. Saturday was the day for our Thanksgiving feast. Jessie graciously played hostess in Bucheon (a little over an hour away by subway from Suwon) and dinner was a great success. Once the men arrived in Bucheon, we immediately made our way to the closest HomePlus to pikc up our end of the meal. Like so many grocery stores worldwide, HomePlus has an array of samples as you trek through the aisles, but we were men on a mission and I can personally say that I have never made it through a grocery store that served samples as fast as I did last Saturday while still enjoying some of the tasty and free treats. Right as we entered the store, we made a beeline for the rotisserie and fried chicken that was our substitute for turkey (no one had an oven to cook one in). Next we darted over to the wine section and grabbed two "not-so-great taste wise but great deal" bottles of wine, a Chilean cab sav and I forget what the other one was, but I do remember it earned the distinct nickname, the "Guiness of wines," not for its rich flavor, but for its thick texture. From the wines we made our way to the bread, chips, and canned corn. When we got back to Jessie's, the rest of the meal was almost finished. The meal itself was great! In addition to the chicken and corn, we had stuffing, steamed broccoli, carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, and cheesecake. Oh, and how could I forget the Monkberry Moon Delight and the Savoy Truffle? Sunday was the usual R & R.

In other news, I can't believe it's already December, 23 days until vacation begins, which I am definitely looking forward to. Good to see the Vikings keep on rolling and congrats to Mr. Joe Mauer on the MVP award, hopefully the Twins can keep him, it'd be a shame to see him go. I have a busy week this week; I'm finishing up my workbook and I also have to organize my Winter English camp plans and submit them. And how could I forget the big concert news: Earth, Wind, and Fire are playing in Seoul, Dec. 18th, Muse are here January 7th and Green Day are here January 16th. Hopefully I can make it to one of them. That's all from this end.

iPod A-Z update: "Monkey Bars" by Jurassic 5

The Weekend

Back with another new post, albeit much shorter than the last few. Friday night was spent in Ilsan with Dave and Alex, a very typical guys night out. On Saturday, Alex and I met up with Mika in Seoul and we went to check out the Seoul Museum of Art, which was interesting, but also quite small. The current feature exhibit is modern art from Beijing, Seoul, Istanbul, and Tokyo. Some of it was interesting, some of it went way over my head. I definitely don't have the most refined knowledge of what is good art and there are some things like the mannequin in a bodybag that I don't think I will ever understand or interpret as art, that's more along the lines of Yoko art. Anyways, the gift shop at the museum was awesome! They had everything from a extensive Korean cuisine cookbook to Thomas the Tank Engine models (very exciting to see!). In the end, Robyn ended up with a nice trinket, which I hope she'll enjoy when I see her in a month. After the art museum we headed to Insa-dong, a very artsy, Uptown-ish area with lots of small coffeeshops and smaller galleries. By this point in the day I was famished and after grabbing a drink and warming up we made our way to Kraze Burger, the best burger in Korea. It's not something we have all the time so when we do go there, it makes it that much better, which probably elevates its place on my food pedestal. Regardless, the K.O. burger was excellent. From Insa-dong we made our way to Dongdaemum, one of many areas in Seoul filled with endless shopping markets. I figured I could do some scouting for Mom and Robyn and the other guys were in the market for peacoats. All of us accomplished our goals (except Dave, but he still ended up with a jacket). Saturday night was spent in Hongdae with the usual crowd and Sunday was the usual low-key, relaxed affair. I'd love to write more but that's all I can think of from the past weekend, but stay tuned, I'm willing to bet there will be some good material from Thanksgiving weekend.

iPod A-Z update: "Maybe Baby" by Buddy Holly

Brand Spanking New, brought to you by the letter L.

Hi everyone,

I apologize for the long delay between blog posts lately, and no, I wasn't honoring the Vikings bye week by not writing, I've been very busy lately. I've been charged with the task of making a workbook for next year's students and it is a long, arduous process (thank you Mr. Priemesberger for the 10th grade AP English vocab words). So far the project is going slowly, mostly because I don't have a copier/printer/scanner in my apartment, but I still have a month to finish it so hopefully I'll be able to finish it in time. And yes, there is a cash incentive for me to finish this project. Anyways, I suppose you'd like to know what I've been doing the last two weeks.

Over my birthday weekend, Alex, Dave, and Mika came into Suwon on Saturday to do some exploring. We spent Saturday afternoon at Hwaseong Fortress, the most famous attraction in Suwon (aside from the world renown public toilets, but we'll save that for another post). The weather was surprisingly warm during the weekend after a week of colder weather and we all worked up a nice sweat climbing to the top after taking in the fortress grounds. At the top we took in some nice views of Suwon-si (Korean for city) right before the rain came. Fun fact #1 about Suwon: It remains the only entirely walled in city in Korea. When we got back to downtown Suwon we enjoyed some cake, ice cream, and coffee at one of the numerous ridiculously over-the-top cafes in my neighborhood. On a side note, South Korea is fascinated with these ridiculous cafes and coffee shops. Many of them have private booths with a door and outrageously ornate decorations like chandeliers hanging from the celings. I don't understand why all of this is necessary, but I guess if you are going for coffee and dessert you like to indulge so these places cater to that? To cut a long rant short, we indulged ourselves in one of these private booths. Saturday night we headed to Hongdae for the Madison quadruple birthday celebration. Sunday the weekend traditions continued with the usual bagel and coffee from Dunkin Donuts and an afternoon of relaxation.

This past weekend was a little more low-key than the last few have been. On Saturday, Alex, Mika, Jessie, and I went to Hongdae during the day to check out the university art fair, which was very interesting. We went to a small gallery, which had some interesting paintings. It also had a Beatles-ABBA-Queen exhibit that was showing last weekend but unfortunately not on Saturday (I can't believed I missed it!). We grabbed some snacks and drinks at an awesome cafe that had a very cool chair exhibit in the basement. After Hongdae, the gang headed to Itaewon to check out the War Museum of Korea, which was very powerful and interesting, I regret not bringing my camera. On the grounds there are planes, tanks, and naval guns used during the Korean War on display. The exhibits on the inside cover all the wars in Korea's history. We had Mexican food for dinner on Sat. night at a pretty good restaurant. Itaewon is a pretty Westernized area of Korea, mostly due to the U.S. military base that's located there. Sunday was the usual again: bagel and hot chocolate from DD's, afternoon full of relaxation.

Last week school was back on and the kids were as perky as ever. I can't believe it's only been 3 months since I've been here, I feel like I've adjusted pretty well and it seems like I've been here much longer. That being said I am definitely looking forward to winter vacation and traveling Japan with Mom, Dad, and Robyn and then giving them the grand tour of South Korea. The weather has finally turned to winter and the heat is finally on in my apartment. I can't tell you how awesome heated floors are, but the contrast with ice-cold tiles is a little much at times. At school I have to wear a jacket when I teach because the heat is rarely on, to save energy costs.

For all the Americans or duals reading the blog, I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving next week. I know Bubba, Auntie Holly, and Na will have a good time in Minneapolis and Robyn and Mom will enjoy the shopping companions. As far as celebrations planned here, a group of us are going to get together next weekend and celebrate, since Thursday night would be a little too hectic for all of us. Most of the ingredients for the usual delicacies can be found at Costco, so we should have turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce (Thanks, John), pumpkin pie, and maybe even cornbread. That's all for now.

iPod A-Z update: "Lover Man" by Jimi Hendrix

Jeonju/My Birthday

Hi everyone,

First off I'd like to thank everyone for the birthday wishes. I really appreciate all of them and it has been great to hear from you all. Secondly, I'd like to wish Bubba and Auntie Sherri belated Happy Birthdays, it sounds like it was a wonderful Sunday! Third, I'd like to wish cousin Karen a very happy birthday, I hope you have a great day! The first week in November is always a busy one for birthdays!

As far as other news goes, not too much from my end, except that classes were cancelled last Thursday for a week due to a small outbreak of swine flu at my school. Last week was a bad week for Korean schools and swine flu in general. Thankfully only a few kids at my school contracted the virus and I've stayed healthy, I know other teachers here (not at my school) that weren't so lucky. No classes has meant plenty of free time to plan ahead and I've been very successful, finishing lesson plans as far ahead as May for some classes. But, it can get pretty boring as well and I'm hoping classes aren't delayed any further.

This past weekend, Dave, Alex and I went down to Jeonju in Jeollabuk-do to visit one of Dave's good friends from Boston who is teaching at a hagwon (private school). We did our usual routine, leaving from the Express Bus Terminal in Seoul a little after 9:30 pm and we got in a little after midnight on Friday. We stayed at the most luxurious jjingjibang I've ever seen. It had everything, a coffee/wine bar, a pool table, a DVD room, a small library, board games, a ball pit, arcade games, a good cafeteria, a "healing house," a hot sauna, a cold sauna, a really hot sauna, an open air stream, Thai massage, foot treatment, massage chairs, an open air bath, a gym where little Korean kids work out, and the typical hot baths. It was by far the best jjingjibang we've enjoyed the pleasure of staying at so far. The uniforms fit and the sleeping mats were actually comfortable! On Saturday we met up with Danny (Dave's friend) and Dana and ate some bibimbap (a rice dish with mixed vegetables, a little hot sauce, and trace amounts of beef or seafood). Jeonju is known throughout South Korea for its bibimbap and lunch was delicious. After lunch we went to the Jeonju Hanok Village (basically a traditional Korean village). But, the Hanok village wasn't just a traditional Korean village, it was basically a little art colony as well, with street art and coffee shops a plenty. After looking at some art we mosied on down to a nice, relaxed coffee shop for some caffeine and Euchre. Before leaving the village we went on a little mini hike and saw some excellent views of the city. For dinner on Sat. night, we met up with a few of Danny and Dana's Korean friends from Jeonju and partook in a "Maekoli meal." Maekoli is a Korean rice wine and at the restaurant we went to, each time you order they bring out plates of food. Over the course of dinner we had omelettes, seafood pancakes, kimchi and hamburger meat, a very good chicken broth, squid, and live octopus. Needless to say dinner was excellent. Sunday we decided to take it easy and went to the gym for some badminton followed by an excellent meal of shabu shabu before the Three Amigos headed back to Gyeonggi-do.

Today was great; although my co-teacher has been sick, some of the other teachers from my school took me out for a birthday lunch of sundubu chigae (spicy soft tofu soup) and I brought in some cakes for everyone. Once again, thank you to everyone for your birthday wishes, more to come in the blog over the weekend.

DMZ Docs/Kimchi Love Festival

Hey everyone,

A brand new post for you to enjoy. To start off I'm still surviving and in the daily grind of teaching and as with any job some days are better than others. This past weekend Dave, Mika, and myself made our way north to Paju, an area larger than Seoul, where Alex lives and teaches. Paju is the last area of South Korea before the DMZ that separates North from South Korea. This past weekend was the 1st annual DMZ documentary film festival in Paju and after a relatively early night on Friday, we made our way to the film festival early Saturday morning. The first film we saw was a documentary called "Welcome to North Korea!," a Czech film about a group of Czech tourists who are allowed into North Korea on a sightseeing tour. It was a very unique film that allowed us to see what North Korea actually looks like and see how the Czech group responded, a unique experience given that most of the group lived in Czechoslovakia during its Communist period. It was interesting to see how the group was told that certain things weren't allowed like 300 mm camera lenses or camcorders but they were allowed to bring them into North Korea and use them once they were there. But, you could also see some of the stark realities of North Korea. For instance, tourists walk on one side of the street and locals walk on another side, with no interaction between the two. There are soldiers everywhere and potential secret police disguised as citizens around every corner. At the end of the movie, some in the group noted how sad it was to leave their tour guides, knowing they were going home to something better, while the tour guides, who slept in luxury hotels and ate well with the group, were going back to dire situations. Overall, it was a very interesting film. After the movie we walked around the festival tents, taking in all the free samples, making rice cake, and experiencing the Flugen, an area where sanitizing spray is misted on you like the cool misting fans at music festivals. The second film we saw was called "My Neighbor, My Killer," a documentary on the gacaca trial process in Rwanda in the aftermath of the genocide in 1994. I studied this genocide at university last year in my Politics of Human Rights course. The gacaca trials try to bring justice to villages by having open-air hearings with citizen-judges in an effort to bring truth and reconciliation to the victims and also ease the transition back into society for the perpetrators of the genocide. The trials didn't officially begin until 2005 and so far their success has been limited and it remains to be seen how effective they will be for Rwanda. After the Q & A session with the director, I found out that she knew one of my professors from Madison, who I had for International Studies and who usually teaches the Politics of Human Rights course, which was neat to find out.

The third film we saw was called "The Yes Men Fix the World." The Yes Men are a couple of political activists who infiltrate the world of big business by posing as fake members of different corporations like Dow Chemical, the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, Haliburton, etc... They pull these pranks to highlight how corporate greed is destroying the majority of the world. The humor in the film was a nice switch from the first two films, but ultimately, the outlook of the film wasn't too bright. We had a great day of movies and went back near Alex's place to grab a delicious meal of shabu-shabu, basically tons of veggies, thinly cut beef, and stew with noodles and rice, covering all the important bases.

Sunday morning we set out for the Unification Observatory, located right against the DMZ. It was very eerie peering through a set of binoculars into North Korea, or basically a model town the North Koreans set up a la Rock Ridge. It is very hard to describe the feelings you get when you look at North Korea and realize how close it is and yet how different it is from South Korea. The Observatory was a very well done building with many interesting artifacts from North Korea and some very interesting exhibits. After our time at the Observatory we headed south back into Seoul to hit the back end of the Kimchi Love Festival. The festival, which advertised 192 + varieties of kimchi did not disappoint. There was kimchi everywhere and lots of free samples (my favorite). Fine kimchi is similar to fine cheese and wine, it gets better with age, although there isn't anything quite as aged as 12 year old cheddar; the oldest kimchi we tried was 3 years old and had a very different taste from the other kimchi strands. They also had a gourmet kimchi creation competition, which we unfortunately missed the end of. Overall it was a very enjoyable weekend.

Korean Drum Class and more...

I can't believe I forgot to put this in last night when i was writing but last Wednesday at my Korean Language and Culture class we had a private Korean drum lesson, which was great. I remember for the longest time when I was younger I wanted to play drums (Ringo definitely didn't influence that at all) but Mom and Dad were completely against the idea, so I moved on to guitar, which they were also against. Anyways, I got to showcase my rhythm last week and it was great. The drum is shaped like an hourglass and you it it with a mallet on one drum head and a very thin wooden spatula on the other. This afternoon my special advanced class had their monthly magic + English lesson. This basically consists of a Korean magician and myself, acting as the magician's assistant, basically teaching the trick in English. The kids loved it and it's just another reason why I love elementary school. Looking forward to this weekend, the annual Kimchi Festival is being held in Seoul, which means an extraordinary amount of various kimchi strands to taste, I'm not sure how anyone could possibly pass this up. That's all from here.

Fresh Out The Oven...

Hey all,

Not too much to post in this update but still plenty to enjoy. Pretty quiet week at school, although the English room I teach in moved on Thursday and in the process I learned what my school does with old furniture. I was assuming that the tables the students sit at and their chairs were moving with us into the new room but instead some of the furniture from the old room was thrown out the window on the 2nd floor by the school janitors to be broken down and thrown away. I'm not sure if this was done because the school's getting new furniture or simply because this is how it's done in Korea but it was shocking at first. It gets even better though. The head janitor pulled me over and had me throw a desk out the window. It's pretty exhilirating to push a desk out of a window and watching it shatter into pieces. Later on Thursday I got to teach my Special Advanced class how to tie-dye, which was awesome and they definitely enjoyed that. I always thought organizing a tie-dye project was pretty simple but I learned that it's definitely a lot of work, which made me appreciate the art specialists at camp that ran tie-dye activities for me when I was a camper.

This past weekend was much less active than the last few. I thoroughly enjoyed relaxing and taking it easy. Dave, Alex, and I saw a very popular Korean movie on Saturday called "Old Boy." To keep things short and simple I'll just say that the plot was very crazy; a man is kidnapped and held in a prison for 15 years never knowing why he was imprisoned, then he's released and he has to figure out why he was imprisoned. There are some very ridiculous turns in the plot but it was definitely a very entertaining movie. That's all from here, Go Vikings! and hopefully the Wild and Leafs can turn things around soon.

Pusan International Film Festival

Hi everyone,

I know it's been a week since the last post. Last week was pretty uneventful, I'm battling a stuffy nose right now, which seems to happen every year when summer becomes fall. This past weekend the same gang from the Chuseok trip plus two more ventured out to Busan (formerly Pusan) in southeast South Korea to celebrate Jessie's birthday and attend the 14th annual Pusan International Film Festival. 5 of us caught a 9 pm bus on Friday from the Express Bus Terminal in Seoul and all proceeded to sleep the entire 4.5 hours to Busan. Once in Busan we hastily made our way to the closest jjingjibang, which was much smaller than the ones we stayed at over Chuseok. We woke up early the next day to check out the huge fish markets by the water and then made our way to the PIFF zone to pick up our reserved tickets for our movie on Saturday. After grabbing our tickets we went to a large market place where the men let the women enjoy their shopping while we grabbed some food from one of the many stands in the market. We headed towards Haeundae beach after the market, which was the other location for the film festival. There were some cool sand sculptures and we grabbed a nice spot on the beach in the sun and waited for the rest of our group to arrive. From the beach we made tracks to the theater to see "Five Minutes of Heaven," an Irish film produced by BBC Films, starring Liam Neeson. The film is set in the middle of the violence in Northern Ireland in the mid-1970s and focuses on a teenager who is part of a Protestant terrorist group who murders a Catholic in front of the man's younger brother. 30 years later, a TV program tries to bring the two together to meet and hopefully find "truth and reconciliation" in the process, but the victim's brother, haunted by 30 years of guilt, is out for revenge. The film was very good, but also very heavy.

After the movie we had a nice birthday dinner and further festivities, providing many memories and eventually we ended up at a another jjingjibang by the beach. Some of us woke up early Sunday morning to get try and get tickets for a mid-morning movie. Unfortunately they didn't have 5 tickets for one movie so we had to split up. Dave and I went to see Tetsuo: The Bullet Man, a Japanese film that I can't really describe with words. The plot centers around an American businessman living in Tokyo whose young son is murdered, which leads to a number of secrets being revealed to the man, including a large mystery surrounding his mother and his birth as well as his father's work. Definitely one of the stranger films I've ever seen. After the movie we decided it was time for us to head back home after a quick but very exhausting visit. Once again, the bus ride back consisted of some wonderful rest time for all.

In other news, it was very disappointing to see the Badgers outgain Ohio St. only to fall apart because of turnovers and special teams, but I'm not surprised. Also, Twins fans couldn't have asked for a better last month to the season but I don't think anyone expected them to make it past the $$$ Yankees. Hopefully the Wild and Leafs will start to pile up W's in the wins column. It's great to see the Vikings undefeated, even better if their record is 7-0 two weeks from now. Oh and how could I forget, I had my first official visit to a Korean hospital today, but nothing to worry about, I have had a skin infection on my right index finger for the last two weeks and went to get it checked out and got plenty of prescription pills and cream so hopefully it will go away by the end of the week. Anyways, that's all from here, hope everyone that's reading this is well.

National Lampoon's Chuseok Vacation: A Griswald Family Trip through Gang-won do

Hi everyone,

Here's the new blog post you've all been waiting for! Hope everyone is ready to settle in because this is going to be a long one so pop that popcord, grab a nice ice cold beverage of your choice and enjoy this massive blog post.

My Chuseok vacation began last Thursday morning. I woke up at 9 am, turned on the Slingbox (much thanks again Stephen) and proceeded to watch the Twins lose to the Tigers, effectively starting my break off on the wrong foot. Little did I know that my loss of faith would be rewarded by the end of the weekend. I took the subway in from Suwon to Ilsan to meet up with Dave, Mika, and Alex who had all returned from their GEPIK orientation earlier in the day. With plenty of time to kill, we headed to the CGV to see "Surrogates," the new Bruce Willis movie. Most of my readers know that I am not the biggest fan of sci-fi movies but this movie kept my attention for the most part, although I should've known the only reason Dave and Alex wanted to see it was the Boston screenscapes. After the movie the boys took in some Winning Eleven, where I was victorious in shootouts twice thanks to Alex's expert shooting. We had dinner in Ilsan and then proceeded to make our way to the Express Bus Terminal in Seoul. 4/5 of us made our bus but our fifth, Jessie got held up and wound up meeting us the next day in Gangneung. As soon as we got on the bus we all proceeded to fall asleep (a recurring theme for Dave) and we arrived in Gangneung around 3 am. We made our way to the jjingjiban, a Korean bath house where travellers and locals can take in a spa, sauna, and sleep overnight for very cheap. Unfortunately I forgot to ask for a larger uniform and spent most of my night worrying whether I was gonna turn from Doc Bruce Banner into the Incredible Hulk and rip through my clothes. Needless to say I was relieved to find that nothing had torn the next morning. After a quick dip in the baths and some time in the sauna, we made our way back to the Gangneung bus terminal to meet up with Jessie and continue our travels.

We decided to go to Jinbu, where Mt. Odaesan National Park is located, for the day on Friday. The park was beautiful and we got to see the two large Buddhist temples there, Woljeongsa and Sal-wongsa. After a full day of hiking we made our way to Jeongdongjin, a beachside town located on the East Sea. We got in right around sunset and hung around the beach for a little bit before grabbing dinner. As you can imagine, a seaside town, especially in Korea, has a plethora of fresh seafood dining options and we settled on a restaurant known for their clams. We had every size of clam imaginable for dinner; babyneck clams, medium clams, large clams, mega clams, you name it, we probably had it for dinner. The meal was fantastic and if you couldn't tell already, I was overly enthusiastic for it. Of course, those of you that know me well know how much I enjoy seafood, especially fresh seafood. After dinner we explored the town a little bit and we ended up at the massive cruise ship hotel at the top of the town hill where they had a revolving bar, a norabang (karoke), and a cool sculpture garden that overlooked the sea. While we were tempted to find a room here, we opted for the much cheaper option of a motel in town. The next morning Dave, Jessie, and myself decided to test the temperature of the water but were told to get out by the police who were afraid of people swimming due to the lack of lifeguards on the beach. After our little dip into the East Sea, we hung out on the beach and played some Euchre before making our way to our next destination, Samcheok.

Samcheok is a decent size city located further down the coast in Gang-won do, but when we got there it was like a ghost town. We explored the city a little bit, including a visit to the wedding-cake shaped Cave Museum before grabbing dinner at another seafood restaurant where we met some very cute Korean kids that were all too excited to speak English with us. After dinner we made our way to another jjingjiban, this one was much nicer than the one in Gangneung. While we were in the hot tub, I heard someone call my name and after a few moments I realized I was talking to one of my third grade students. It was definitely a very humorous moment, something that would never happen in the West but is apparently somewhat frequent in Korea, teachers running into students at the bath houses. After our night spent in the jjingjiban we woke up early Sunday morning to go to Hwaseon Donggul, one of the largest caves in Asia. The cave was very cool, it was massive and seemed to go on forever. Our next stop was Sinnam, a small fishing town with a very unique story. Legend has it that a young virgin drowned within sight of her boyfriend and soon after the local fishermen noticed their catch was dwindling, believing that this girl had cursed the sea. But, after one fisherman relieved himself in the sea, the catch began to come back and ever since this town has revered phallic symbols. In short, Sinnam is known for Haesindang Park, a beautiful park with the highest quantity of phallic statues in one area. While the shock value of the statues is definitely prevalent when you first enter the park, most of the statues are expertly crafted and are works of art. Adjacent to the park is a Folk Fishing Museum, which we also visited before heading back to Samcheok to spend the night in a beach villa. The night and the trip weren't complete without a visit to the local Beatles bar, which was a let down, and the norabang for an epic hour of hoarse voices and twirling mics.

Monday morning we hung out on the beach in Samcheok for a little bit before heading back to Gangneung to catch our respective buses back to our cities. Much to my surprise, I arrived back in Suwon to find that the Twins and Tigers were headed to Game 163. I also saw that both the Leafs and Wild are both winless still but it's early on and the Badgers held on to Paul Bunyan's Axe for another year. Glad to see that Grandpa Favre was able to beat the Packers on MNF to keep the Vikings undefeated. That's all for now, expect more from me next week, a weekend trip to Busan for the International Film Festival is in store.

Happy Chuseok!

Hi everyone,

Here's my first mid-week post in a while due in part to the long weekend I have for the Chuseok break. Chuseok is one of two major Korean holidays that is a celebration of the fall harvest and families honor their ancestors. I have school off Thursday, Friday and the following Monday, which is nice because it means I get to travel. A few friends and myself are going to Korea's east coast to do some exploring, possibly hike parts of Seoraksan National Park, which is supposed to be absolutely breath taking. I hope everyone's fast went well, mine was fine and the rest of this week the teachers at my school kept on asking me more questions about Judaism; I'm pretty sure I'm the first Jew they have ever met, which isn't surprising. I have also been keeping up with the Twins playoff push, thanks in part to my friend Stephen's Slingbox account. I woke up at 9 am this morning to catch the game, but unfortunately the Twins played themselves basically out of the race losing 7-2 to the Tigers. Better luck next year, but now I can move on emotionally to the NFL and NHL seasons. It was awesome to have vintage Brett Favre on our side for once and I can't imagine how much attention the Monday night game this week is getting, might be the loudest the Metrodome will ever get. I'm also very excited for the Leafs and the Wild to start their seasons and hopefully this year my dream scenario for the Stanley Cup will finally come true, although it would be tough to choose who to root for.

Alright that's all from here, you can expect plenty of new pictures and a new blog post next Monday.

My 1st Korean Wedding and Other Weekend Adventures

Hey everyone,

I'm back with a new post chock full of goodies! From Wednesday-Friday of this past week I had teaching orientation at a resort in Osan, about 40 minutes away from Suwon. The orientation was nice, most of the lectures were pretty useful and it was nice meeting some more English speakers and network a little bit. Unfortunately I really didn't meet many people who live in Suwon so it looks like I'll be doing some more weekend travelling to meet up with new friends, but that's fine with me, the subway in Korea is really inexpensive. On Friday night I met up with a few people from my orientation and we went for Mexican food near a U.S. Air Force base. It was authentic, the chefs were from Mexico City and the food was pretty good, definitely worth the trip to feed my craving. Saturday was my co-teacher's daughter's wedding and I was very excited for my 1st experience at a Korean wedding. The ceremony was very nice, short and concise but very interesting. The wedding wasn't extremely traditional but they did retain some aspects of Korean traditions in the ceremonial process. For example, my co-teacher and the groom's mother were both wearing traditional Korean dresses called hanbok. Also, the bride and groom bowed before their respective in-laws as a symbol of acceptance into the family. After the ceremony we were ushered into a huge banquet hall for lunch, which was incredible. There were vast quantities of traditional Korean food and soooo much fruit. It was great and later on Saturday I went back into Seoul to meet up with Dave and one of his good friends from Boston. We hung out around Ilsan on Saturday night and rested up for Sunday. Today we went to Gangnam, which is an area in southeast Seoul. We ended up at a cafe and spa known for a very special kind of treatment called Dr. Fish. This basically consists of sitting in a pool of water filled with little fish, roughly the size of minnows, that nibble at your feet eating off all your dead skin. Supposedly it's a very healthy and theraputic method of cleaning one's feet. Dr. Fish is not for the very ticklish. The sensation of little fish nibbling at your feet is overwhelming and I couldn't help but burst out laughing. It was definitely a unique experience but my feet felt great afterwards.

That's all for now, next week is one of the two biggest holidays in Korea, Chuseok, which is a holiday celebrating the fall harvest and the honor of family ancestors, so I have Thurs., Friday, and the following Monday off from school. My tentative plans are to go out east to the coast and explore a few national parks, which I'm very excited to do. I hope everyone has a good fast, I know I'll have to explain myself to every teacher tomorrow as to why I'm not eating lunch.

Shana Tovah from Eretz Korea!

I'm back with a week full of thoughts just for my lovely audience. I'll begin by wishing everyone a very wonderful Shana Tovah, I hope your New Years have all had great beginnings, I know mine has despite battling a sore throat. Some things I definitely missed out on were Charlotte's brisket, along with all the other delicious side dishes; since we moved to Minneapolis, the 1st night of Rosh Hashanah is a evening that is always circled on my calendar because of the many culinary delights that are always to be had at the Bermans. Of course I also miss Rosh Hashanah meals with Bubba and the Wolfish side of the family and with Bubbie and Papa and the Winston family. This year I celebrated the High Holidays differently than in the past but it was still a very nice, enjoyable, and spiritual celebration.

On Saturday, part of our Madison group made the trek from our homes to Dobongsan, a mountain in northeast Seoul that is a popular destination for hikers. I was very excited for the hike; the last time I went on a legitimate hike was in Israel back in high school. We started our ascent around 11:30 am and along the way we stopped at a Buddhist temple about halfway up the mountain, which was really neat. There were a lot of hikers who stopped to meditate and pray and the temple had a stone basin filled with fresh spring water for all to drink. It was nice break from the challenging hike. We continued up the mountain and stopped for lunch about 3/4 of the way up the mountain. I brought along an apple (no honey unfortunately) in honor of the holiday and with our newfound energy we made our final climb to the peak. The last stretch of the hike was literally equivalent to scaling the mountain up to the top where the claustrophobic were not welcome. There were probably close to 100 people in a very restricted space, all snapping pictures. The hike up was definitely challenging and tough on the legs but well worth the view from the top. The way down was almost as much fun as going up, getting secure footing was very difficult! In addition to our timidness, the Korean hikers were over zealous in their abilities and would leap over you on the narrow path if you paused for a second (Don't worry Mom, I'm definitely taking you on this hike when you come). We finished our hike around 4:30 pm and that night we went to Hongdae to celebrate Mika's birthday with the majority of our Madison group and it was nice catching up with everyone and comparing our experiences so far.

Last Wednesday I had my first Korean class which was great. It was 2 hours and by the end I felt semi-confident in my ability to read Korean. It's a phonetic language, which makes it much easier when learning to read. I have a short week of teaching this week because of orientation from Wednesday-Friday, but I'm ok with that. Unfortunately that means I'm missing the school production of "The Sound of Music" on Friday, but I was lucky enough to get my own special performance last week. Not quite Broadway, but almost at camp play levels, which is pretty impressive.

In other good news, I finally got a cell phone and a stable internet connection in my apartment so I'm now free to Skype, which is great as Mom and Dad and Bubbie and Papa can attest to. My cell # is 010-4917-1103, but I would recommend Skype if you want to talk since it's free! I've also reached the middle of the letter H of all the songs on my iPod. I was inspired by Dad to try this out; as I type this I'm listening to "Heaven and Hell" by The Who. I'm glad to see the Vikings are 2-0 and that the Twins put up a fight against the Tigers over the weekend, hopefully they'll be able to catch them by the end of the month. That's all from here, enjoy the pics!

2nd Week of Teaching/Weekend in Seoul

Hi all,

Sorry for the longer delay in posts, I was relatively busy last week creating lesson plans and trying to avoid going to the PC bangs (internet cafes) now that my laptop is working again. Unfortunately a healthy computer doesn't equal instant wireless connections as Papa and I found out yesterday. Thankfully I've picked up a stronger signal tonight so here comes a big new entry to the blog.

The 2nd week of teaching went even better than the first week. I'm beginning get more familiar with the students, not so much their names as much as recognizing their faces and associating that with their English levels. It's funny because the more talkative kids in some of the classes aren't necessarily the best English speakers. One thing I've realized is how much the kids love Jeopardy, almost as much as yours truly. If only Mom and Dad had captured my Jeopardy dance on video, they could blackmail me for any amount to keep that video a secret. This week I start all my special and advanced classes, which I'm excited for because the students' English levels are higher and I feel I can be more engaging in my teaching style with more interesting material. All in all I'm beginning to settle into a routine but there will be little surprises, like last week when we were served crab soup for lunch or last Friday when we had a staff badminton tournament and afterwards I played soccer with some of my students for a while. Also, last Wednesday night a group of people from the Madison group and another friend from home, Paul Chodosh, got together for dinner in Paul's town, Byeongjeom, only 2 subway stops away from Suwon. It was nice to meet other people and see how everyone was getting along so far and a few of us were planning out future weekends, trips, etc...

This past weekend I made the long trek via subway up to Ilsan to stay with Dave. Alex also came in again from Paju and we both claimed our respective spots on Dave's floor. I didn't get in until late Friday night so we kept the night low-key. We spent the night playing Winning Eleven, a soccer video game, which I'm sure the parents and grandparents aren't too happy to hear, but we all needed something less taxing after long weeks of teaching. Anyways, Jinhan, Dave's co-teacher, and myself were dominant, winning all but one of the matches, mostly due to Jinhan's skill and much less to my timely passes and stellar defense. Saturday was a much more eventful day thankfully. We took the subway to Insa-dong, a nice neighborhood in greater Seoul, to meet up with Mika, another friend from our Madison group. We walked around through a fairly new area of Insa-dong, which had a very European feel and reminded me of walking in Uptown; there were art galleries, coffee shops, and tea houses everywhere! After our mini-tour of the neighborhood, we met up with Jinhan at the National Folk Museum, which is located at the palace ground of Gyeongbokgung Palace. The palace was first built in 1395 to signify the moving of the ancient capitial of the Joseon Dynasty from Gaeseong to Seoul (known as Hanyang). The palace was destroyed by fire during the Japanese invasion in 1592 and wasn't reconstructed until 1868. An effort to fully restore the palace has been ongoing since 1990. In short, the palace and the grounds in their entirety were amazing! The architecture is so interesting and so different from other historical palaces I've seen. We all enjoyed the excursion and took many pictures. Afterwards we went to check out a little flower sculpture garden across the street and made our way to a picturesque stream, both in an area of downtown Seoul. After dinner, we made our way to the Seoul World Cup Stadium to see FC Seoul take on FC Jeonbuk in soccer. I can't remember the last time I attended a soccer game, but for 4,000 won (roughly $3) who could turn down a ticket? The game was great, the fans are as rabid as any soccer fans worldwide and we really enjoyed ourselves. For a nightcap we went to Itaewon, a very Westernized area of Seoul, to check out Dave's co-worker Andy's friend's band, a British cover band playing everything from Clapton to the Stones, Oasis (sorry Jed) to Zeppelin. They were great and overall, Saturday and the weekend were a great success. On Sunday I made my way to Ichon, right on the Han River for my ultimate frisbee league and arrived back in Suwon around 6:30 pm, exhausted from a wonderful weekend.

I am looking forward to my Hangul class (the Korean language) which starts this Wednesday after school. Hopefully I can pick up the characters fairly quickly; I've already begun to teach myself a little bit. I also hope to have my apartment wired for Internet by the end of the week; I have to wait to pick up my Alien Regisitration Card, which won't be ready till Wednesday. I also hope to get a cell phone either later this week or early next week and will keep you all informed to the status of both. For now that's all from my end, hope everyone is well back home in Canada and the States.

First Week Thoughts

Hi all,

The first week of teaching went great! The kids are mostly wonderful and they definitely seem to enjoy English class. I can tell that it's going to be a good school year. Their English speaking levels aren't great but they are good listeners and it's fun for me because I get to play a lot of games and teach them simple songs (soon we'll move on to the Beatles).

This weekend I ended up going to Goyang in northwestern Seoul to visit my good friend from Madison, Dave. It was an excellent weekend. On Friday night, another friend from our Madison group, Alex, also came in for the night and we got to explore Dave's neighborhood, which was great. We went for dak kalbi on Saturday with some of Dave's co-teachers from his high school who are closer in age to us than my co-teachers. It was delicious as usual and afterward we went bowling. I'm not any better than I was at home. Alex went back to his place in Paju on Sat. night and Dave and I met up with his dad, who was in Seoul for business, for dinner, which was great. My first time having spaghetti in Korea but it was very good. Last night Dave and I went to Hondae to explore the famous nightlife. I can't recall the last time I've seen so many restaurants and watering holes in such a little area but it was a great weekend overall.

I'm hoping to get my computer fixed and then get in touch via Skype and post some pictures of Suwon and travels. I think I'm going to stay in Suwon next weekend to explore the area some more; I've realized it's much larger than I originally thought. That's all for now!

Thoughts on Korean Cuisine

Hi everyone,



While I know I have mentioned some foods that I've tried since I've been here in Korea, I thought I'd take the time to describe some foods that I've really enjoyed. I forgot to mention in my last post that I have now met the teacher I'm replacing. His name is Dan and he taught at Maesong Elementary for 2 years so he has been very good at giving my pointers as well as his lesson plans for each class. Yesterday he actually came to the school and I was able to observe him teaching in the afternoon which was extremely helpful for me. Today definitely went a lot smoother since I began incorporating some of Dan's teaching techniques. Back to the food...On Monday night, Dan took me out to dinner with our friend Hanjoon for Korean barbeque, sum gyeop sal. It was delicious but not as good as the meal we had last night. Dan and I went to his favorite restaurant in Suwon, for dak galbi, which is a Korean-style spicy barbeque chicken with vegetables. It was by far my favorite meal I've had since I've been here. Tonight I went to a Vietnamese restaurant right up the street from me called Pho Tien. I had Vietnamese spring rolls and a seafood noodle soup, both which were great. I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on my surroundings now and every day it is starting to feel more like home to me.

This weekend I'm planning on going on a little trip with some friends to an island off the coast of Incheon. I will post more later.

1st Teaching Day in Korea

Hi everyone,

This blog post comes late in the evening on Monday. I had a great weekend in Seoul; I stayed at my friend Adam's place in Gwangmyeong (southwest Seoul) on Saturday night. I have figured out the Korean subway system pretty well; it's relatively easy to get from Suwon to mostly anywhere in Seoul. We went to the Dongdaemun market on Sat. afternoon and explored, lots of food and plants; street vendors sold sausages, tempura vegetables and corn on the cob. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera so no pictures to post but soon I promise I will. After the market, Adam and I went to an UN World Heritage site in downtown Seoul, a temple built in the 16th century. Very cool display, hopefully I'll go back with my camera the next time. We went to the Hyundai department store for dinner, I had some spicy dumplings, similar to cha shu bau. Afterward we enjoyed the downtown Seoul nightlife.

On Sunday, Adam and I went to go check out a pickup ultimate frisbee league. It was very cool, the field was near the Han River in Seoul and there was a nice mix of ex-pats and Koreans playing. After a few hours of frisbee, we went to Costco, where we stocked up on some American products. I bought some Skippy, Einstein Bagels, Bisquick, Prego, etc... I had a nice warm feeling as I walked through the colossal warehouse. I had a hour long subway ride back to Suwon.

Today I had my first day of teaching. I had three 6th grade classes today, all were pretty good, It was a pretty short work day, tomorrow is a long day, I have 7 classes so a pretty full day. I finally got furniture so I have a bed, microwave,etc... and I will post more later in the week.

Take care,

Jonathan

First Day At School

Hey everyone,

I realized in my latest post I was a little brief on my living situation, etc.... I am living in a single room apartment with a bathroom in Suwon, conveniently located right across the street from Suwon Station, where I can catch a bus, the subway, or a train. Attached to Suwon Station is the AK plaza. AK is a large Korean department store and there are numerous places to eat inside. So far, I've enjoyed a Western-style breakfast at both Dunkin' Donuts and another coffee shop. There is also a McDonald's, Burger King and the Korean version, Lotteria, but seeing as how I don't eat that at home I have seen no reason thus far to partake in any of that here. There is also a Smoothie King and a Baskin Robbins in the food court. I forgot how much I enjoyed Jamocha Almond Fudge! I've also found some strange flavors of ice cream and yogurt such as Apple Mint. For the most part, I've tried to immerse myself in Korean cuisine, which has meant lots of kimchi (which is beginning to taste like the Kaplan pickles) and a variety of other foods. I've really enjoyed bibimbap, which is rice-based and comes with different kinds of vegetables, a fried egg, and the option of beef, squid, or vegetarian. I've also had seafood ramyon (ramen noodles), which was also very good, but made me sweat.

On Monday, my co-teacher took me to the hospital for my health exam. I don't get the results until next Monday, but everything should be fine. Afterwards we went out for lunch to a traditional Korean restaurant where I met another American who is teaching English, but not near me. He is from Chicago and is teaching in Yong'in.

Today (Wednesday) I got to go to my school, Maesong Elementary, and meet my fellow colleagues. I was pleasantly surprised at the warmth they showed me, although I was pretty lost during the morning announcements. The room I will be teaching in is a fairly decent size room with a TV larger than the one in our basement at home. I have my own desk and computer and was busy making lesson plans for the better part of today. The principal took all of us teachers out to lunch today to an amazing Korean restaurant about 20 minutes from school. I was amazed at the vast amount of dishes being brought to the table. When I got back to Suwon my co-teacher took me to the LotteMart (equivalent to Wal-Mart) to pick up some things for the apartment. I can now safely say that I own a frying pan, a pot, a saucepan, some silverware and chopsticks, bowls, plates, glasses, and even some food and drink in the fridge.

All in all, Suwon is beginning to feel a little like home. I will begin my actual teaching on Monday and I am planning a trip to Seoul over the weekend. That's all from here.

Arrival in Korea

Hi all,

I arrived in Korea yesterday (Friday, Aug. 21) afternoon a little before 4pm local time. The flight was 13 1/2 hours long and I had the unfortunate discomfort of sitting in a middle seat. Luckily, the person sitting in front of me chose not to recline their seat until the last 2 hours of the flight so I was able to enjoy what little leg room I had. I was able to sleep for a few hours during the flight but crashed as soon as I returned from dinner last night.

Orientation in Chicago on Thursday was nice. We enjoyed a nice Korean-style dinner at the hotel featuring two kinds of kimchi, traditional and served with cucumbers, bulgogi (grilled beef with garlic, green onions and sesame oil), sushi and a seaweed soup. They also served a sweet tea with ginger and cinammon. Apres dinner most us took in a few drinks in the hotel bar and some of us ventured down to the pool to swim and take in a nice soak in the hot tub and drain out in the sauna. Later in the evening a few friends from Wisconsin who live in the northern suburbs of Chicago came to visit and say goodbye, which was very nice. Thanks again Robyn and Lauren!

Upon arrival at the Seoul-Incheon airport, I was met by my co-teacher, who thankfully had a car and we embarked on our drive to Suwon, where I will be living for the year. Unfortunately, my official apartment wasn't ready to be lived in until Monday so I am living in a temporary apartment for the weekend. So far Korea has been very good, the scenery is great and the food has been delicious. I will post more when I get settled in my new apartment.

It's Official!

Finally got the good news I have been waiting for all summer long, I'm officially going to South Korea. I am teaching at Maesong Elementary School in Hwaseong city. This is very exciting news, slowly beginning to count down the days.

The Very 1st Entry

This blog is for everyone who is interested in receiving updates from me on my year abroad teaching English in South Korea.

As a first-time blogger I thought that creating a blog would be an easy and efficient way for me post updates on my life in South Korea for friends and family. I am thinking that once a week (maybe more if there are more interesting things to post) I will post an update on what I've done, any unique things about culture, cuisine, travel, etc... that I think you guys will appreciate hearing about. I hope everyone will enjoy the blog!