Last post from Korea

Wow...it's already been a whole year since I came to Korea!  I can't believe how fast time has flown by this year.  These past few weeks I've been busy planning for my upcoming trip around SE Asia and India as well as doing some last minute things in Korea that I've been wanting to do (except I never made it to the DMZ; I wanted to do Panmunjom, but it was closed today and last Saturday for military training days.  I guess that's what I get for waiting until my last week to go there).  My last day of work was last Friday.  I had to first say goodbye to Yule (one of my favorite kindergartners) on Wednesday because he went to go live in Vietnam.  Then I had to say goodbye to the rest of my kids, which was really hard.  I have grown to love them over this year, and I hope they are happy with their new teacher.  It was hard to say goodbye to everyone in the office as well, so after a tearful last couple of days of work, it felt so strange to never be going back there again.

Right now I'm staying with my friend Chris Teacher (which is what I call her) and finishing up some trip preparations (like sending my money home, getting malaria pills, trying to make my pack lighter...) and then I'm off to Malaysia tomorrow!  It's weird that as of tomorrow, I'm going to leave with just a backpack on my back and live out of it for two months.  It is very exciting and kind of scary!  I will be traveling with my friend Christine, and first we're going to Malaysia for two days just because it was cheaper to fly to Cambodia that way.  Then we're off to Cambodia for about a week and a half, then Thailand for about a week, then Myanmar for 12 days, and then off to India for our last three weeks!  I know it will go by super fast, and I definitely don't feel prepared for places like Myanmar, but I know everything will work out or at least be an adventure!

I am so grateful to have had this opportunity to travel and live in a different culture for a whole year.  It's been an amazing experience, and I will miss Korea and my kids very much!

Dr. Fish

We decided to go to Dr. Fish one night.  It's a cafe where they have two tanks of fish to put your feet in and the fish eat off your dead skin.  You are required to buy an expensive drink, but it comes with unlimited bread.  It costs $2 extra to use the fish tanks for 15 minutes, and that was long enough for my ticklish feet!  There was one tank with very tiny fish, and one tank with bigger fish.  We went for the bigger fish tank first, but when all the fish came to the top of the water opening and closing their mouths, ready to attack our feet, we decided to start with the smaller fish.

Being tickled by the tiny fish

I was determined to try the larger fish tank, even though I am extremely ticklish and the small fish were too much to handle.  A few of us went over to the large fish for the last few minutes.  I could only handle having my feet in there for a few seconds at a time.  The fish just attacked our feet!  It didn't hurt, it just felt weird and tickled a lot at the same time.  

The fish nomming on my heel

I don't think they have these anywhere in the US, since it would probably be pretty unsanitary.  But I recommend everyone to try it once!  Once was enough for me though, I'm way too ticklish!

Taiwan

I am really feeling fortunate lately to have had the opportunity to travel this year.  While in Taiwan over summer break, I realized how lucky I am to know English and how much more accessible things are to me.  If I didn't know English, traveling the world would be so much more difficult.  I went to Taiwan with just two of my coworkers (Christine and Tristan) without much of a plan.  We had a very enjoyable time and got to experience different aspects of Taiwan.

The first night we got to Taiwan it started raining pretty hard.  We still ventured out and got some bubble tea and a beer.  The next morning the guy who ran the hostel told us we should stay in Taipei because the typhoon was coming, but we were planning on going to a small town on the East coast.  We didn't listen to the guy and went to a town called Fulong, and I'm glad we went there.  We rented bikes when we got there and rode up the coast, watching the huge waves(from the upcoming storm) crashing into the rocks.

A guy boarding up his house before the typhoon hit

A neat temple along our bike ride

The next day we took a day trip to a town called Jiufen.  It was a very cute little area on a mountain overlooking the sea.  We ate lunch on a patio with a view of the ocean down below.  It was fantastic!  There were many little shops and lots of free samples of different food.  

In Jiufen, ready to battle the storm!

We hung out at our hotel that night, and since we were the only ones in the whole (small) hotel, it seemed like everyone was leaving town because of the storm.  The next day we planned on heading out in the morning, but a Typhoon day was declared in Taiwan so most places (including the trains) shut down for the day.  The earliest train was at 6pm, so we walked around and tried to go see the beach, but the guard wouldn't let us through because the beach was closed.  It makes sense, I guess. 

Preparing for the typhoon

A beautifully intricate temple in Fulong

A man who talked to us and took our picture, so we took his picture. 

We finally got on our train headed for Taipei, and then got on an express train to Taichung.  The express train ended up taking about an hour longer than it should have because it kept stopping due to the weather, so that was a bit scary.  But, we made it so that's the important part!  An old friend from college who is living in Taichung offered to have us stay at his mom's place while we were in Taiwan, so I decided to take him up on the offer.  I'm really glad I did, because we got to actually experience more of the Taiwanese culture and food that we would have missed out on.  Plus, none of us knew the language beyond hello and thank you, so it was a welcome relief to have native speakers around.  They were all really hospitable towards us and very generous.  

The first day in Taichung we went to a place called Rainbow Village.  It's a small village that an old man spent two years painting in order to save it from being demolished.  We got to meet the painter, who was a really nice old man.  He gave us some copies of pictures that he made.  It was an interesting little place.  Then, we went to the jade market and later to a night market where I got to try some stinky tofu (a popular food item in Taiwan).  I was satisfied after that, because the one thing I really wanted to try in Taiwan was the stinky tofu.  It was actually pretty delicious, although I'm not a big fan of tofu in the first place so I didn't eat very much of it.  

Rainbow Village

The stinky tofu ladies

Night market

The next day we went to Sun Moon Lake, which is a beautiful, large lake near Taichung.  We rented bikes and rode around for a while, admiring the beautiful blue-green color of the lake.  I really wanted to go swimming, since it was a lake, but there was nowhere to swim.  Ethan's mom took us out for hot pot for dinner which was really really delicious.  It's kind of like shabu-shabu in Korea, but not crazy burn-your-insides spicy.  After that we thanked our gracious hosts and headed back to Taipei for our last night in Taiwan.  

Our tour guides outside the hot pot place

For our last night in Taiwan (it went by way too fast!), we went out to check out the nightlife.  It was a lot different than Korea, but I guess all of Taiwan is much different than Korea.  The people there seem much more laid-back and less stressed.  The women generally wear more normal shoes and not crazy high heels everywhere, and people were much more friendly and open.  While I was there, I realized that I was comparing everything with Korea.  I remember when I first got to Korea, I compared everything in Korea with the US.  Overall, it was a great trip to Taiwan and I hope to go back someday when there's not a typhoon!

Jisan music festival!

The last weekend in July was the start of our one week summer break.  A long time ago we decided to go to this Jisan music festival for the first weekend and then spend the rest of break in Taiwan.  Jisan is a ski resort about an hour east of where I live now.  We took a taxi straight from work on that Friday so we could make it in time for Radiohead.  Since we were camping out the whole weekend, we went straight to set up our tent when we got there and found out that we would be camping right on the ski slope!  It wasn't too bad, just a bit of a surprise and a bit slanted haha.  The music festival had three different stages and we were camped right in the middle.  We rushed over to see Radiohead, and I realized I didn't know much of his music.  He put on a good concert though.

We went and saw some other performances after, and when we went back to the tent all the bright ski slope lights were still on and the music was booming.  We were all like, how in the world are we going to sleep with this?  But, somehow I passed out right away anyways...and in the morning here's the view from the tent:

And yes we were sleeping on the long grass/plants/flowers.  It was decently comfortable.  Temperature -wise, the morning was unbearably hot.  I got up and drenched myself with sink water both mornings just so I could go back to sleep.

On Saturday we went to watch some Korean bands during the day.  It was super hot, and sadly they had filled in the two pools that used to be there last year.  We left the band area for a bit and found a river to cool off in which was heavenly.  

Concerts during the day.  I want his outfit.

The way Koreans do camping: no personal space.  At least they got to have flat ground in this area!

Here's the little swimming hole we found along the river.  Glorious!

To beat the heat, there was a tent giving out these white "cooling patches" you stick on.  They actually worked fairly well and made you feel cooler because they were really tingly.  Everyone was walking around with these patches on their legs.  Oh Korea, what else will you think of?

Cooling patches on a random person

Later that night, we first went to the Motion City Soundtrack concert and then Owl City.  I got up to the second row for both concerts!  It was crazy how easy it was to get up to the front.  I'm used to everyone pushing and shoving so much that I can't move, but here, everyone was giving each other space and not trying to get as close as possible.  I took advantage of that, of course!  Motion City was awesome of course, and I really enjoyed the Owl City performance.  It's much more fun to see bands when you know the songs!

Excited for Motion City!!

Motion City!

Owl City!!

The next day(Sunday) we were pretty exhausted and the only band I really wanted to see was Los Lonely Boys, but they weren't playing until about 9:30pm and we were leaving for Taiwan on Monday. So we decided to hang out for a bit and then head back to Suji.

Oh and we started our own band while we were hanging out.  No big deal or anything.

I would say it was a very successful first music festival experience.  Now I want to go to more music festivals!!

Dog cafe and mudfest

A couple of weekends ago, Meghan and I went to a dog cafe.  It's a cafe where dogs roam freely and walk on tables, sit in chairs, and get fed lots of treats from customers.  There were about 20 dogs who lived there at the cafe, and then other people brought in their own dogs to play as well.  I just really miss my dog, so it was fun to play with dogs for a little bit.  Most of the dogs were not at all interested in you unless you had treats, because that is what they are used to.  I didn't want to buy any treats because a lot of the dogs who live there were pretty large from all the treats already.  They had a few staff people constantly ready to clean up any messes left from the dogs.  It was a really fun experience and it was nice to see big dogs for once, since it's really rare to see a dog much bigger than a rat on the street.

Waiting for their treats

A Britney Spaniel!  Not as cute as Sally though.

A little puppy someone brought in

This little one came and slept on our table the whole time.

He thinks he's human

Last weekend, a group of my coworkers and I went to mudfest, which is a festival on the west coast that happens every year.  There is a mud section that you pay to get into with blow up slides, mud pits, and other muddy activities.  It was super crowded so we ended up having to wait in line for an hour to go down one slide.  There's also a free mud area where everyone is just throwing mud on everyone else, so I preferred that area because there was no waiting involved.  It was a lot of fun even though we had to cram 10 people into a minbak (like a hostel, but where you sleep on mats on the floor) into a room obviously for 4 people.  My favorite part of the trip was a random street dance party later in the night.  

Mud festival parade we watched from our minbak

So many sailboats all in a row!

When we went out to eat, the woman working there handed us a puppy to hold until our food got there.

This weekend, we went to a hookah bar on Friday called Rainbow bar.  It was a really neat place with different little areas to sit in.  We ended the night with some noraebong (singing room) which is always a good time, and I sang Wonderwall of course:)

Our little hookah area

  

Then on Saturday we had a birthday celebration for Meghan, even though her birthday isn't until August 2nd but we'll all be on break then and in different countries.  We got some delicious hamburgers in Itaewon (the foreign area) and checked out some fun places.  We also walked up "hooker hill" just to see what it was all about, and there were definitely plenty of hookers around in little shops.  It was kinda weird to see that, but hookers are more acceptable in Korea.  

Next weekend, I'm headed off to Jisan music festival to camp out and see Radiohead, Owl City, Motion City Soundtrack, and lots more.  Then we're going to Taiwan for the rest of the week since it's our summer vacation.  I should probably start planning for Taiwan!

 

June in Korea

June has been a lovely month with some of the best weather I've had in Korea.  And since I know it's not going to last (the monsoon season is coming in less than a week), I've appreciated the nice weather as much as possible.  At the beginning of June, we went to Seoul's version of a gay pride festival.  It's kind of sad how small it was (2,000 people) with a parade that only lasted about 10 minutes with a couple of floats.  In a city as big as Seoul (10 million people, 15 including surrounding suburbs) you would think they would have a much bigger festival, at least like Minneapolis.  But at least they have something, since Korea doesn't exactly accept glbt...at all.  Anyways, I read on the website before we went that we weren't allowed to take pictures, and that we shouldn't post any pics because the people in the festival could potentially get fired from their jobs or disowned from their families, which is horrible.  So I definitely didn't even take that chance.  It was neat to see a gathering of open-minded people, but it made me happy to be from a place that is far more open and accepting to anyone and everyone.

We also had our staff party this month after everyone was done with their open class.  I had mine all alone back in January, so I got to sit back and watch everyone else go through it.  We went to a place we call green galbi (because the sign outside is green) and it was delicious as always.  Our director proceeded to buy us countless bottles of beer and soju as is the custom at a Korean staff party.

Our staff party, after everyone's starting to get a bit tipsy.  I was at the head of the table, taking the picture. 

The next day we went to a baseball game.  It was at an outdoor stadium, so it reminded me of the Twins stadium without the $8 beers.  They had normal priced beer but no nachos supreme (which is the real reason I ever go to baseball games).  The game was a lot of fun though, complete with our own dancing pep man.

Dancing man riling up the crowd.  I really wanted some of those red noise makers. 

We also went to Caribbean Bay, which I guess is the largest indoor/outdoor waterpark or something like that.  It wasn't really my thing because we had to wait in really long lines to go down any of the slides.  I would rather be laying in the sun or constantly going down slides one after the other.  It seems like a waste to wait in the shaded line (because Koreans hate the sun) for 45 minutes just to go down a slide for 8 seconds.  But that's just my opinion.  One thing I did notice was that almost everyone walking around the waterpark was either wearing or carrying a life jacket.  You could rent them at the park, and they were required for the wavepool.  Many people were also wearing some form of clothing to swim in, mostly over their swim suit.  

The entrance to Caribbean Bay.  Notice the strange fake town behind me.

At school, we had a field trip to an 'agricultural theme park,' which was really just a big garden with little open huts to eat lunch at.  My kids had a good time trying out traditional ways of life, and then playing on the up-to-date playground.

Anthony in a traditional hut.  He is just so cute!

Sohee trying out traditional tools.

This is probably my favorite pic of my class.  It was at the end of the trip so they were all tired and making ridiculous faces haha.  

  We went to Muuido again, the little island off of Incheon.  It was a lot of fun and so nice to get away from the city.  I miss having closely accessible beaches whenever I want!  My favorite part was probably walking around the squishy mud flats when the tide was out and looking at all the little sea creatures living in the mud.  We had a bonfire, some chocolate diget s'mores, went hiking the next day, and laid out on the beach.  It was a different beach experience than I'm used to, since everyone there had set up a tent for the day and was fully clothed, even in the water.  We were the only ones on the whole beach just laying out on towels in our swim suits.  I continuously applied sunblock, of course, because the one small patch that I missed got burnt.

A different beach experience than I'm used to, but everyone was still having a good time.

This last weekend we hiked up what I like to call Suji mountain, since it is the main mountain in Suji.  Our plan was to get to the top to see the beautiful sunset, but when we got to the top we realized there was just way too much smog and we weren't going to be able to see anything.  There are good and bad things about living in a busy city, and smog is definitely one of the bad things.  Then, today I had a parents meeting.  I feel like it was the last stressful thing I will have to go through at LCI, and it wasn't even that bad.  I had to go into a room full of all of my Kindergartner's moms and say good things about each kid individually.  It lasted less than ten minutes, and the only question they asked me is, "Do you have to leave?"  So I guess they all like me and don't want me to go, which is a good thing.  There's only two months left of Korea...it is going by way too fast, and it keeps going faster and faster!    

Buddah's B-day in Busan

Last weekend we had a three-day weekend for Buddah's Birthday.  It seemed to be a big deal here, although none of my kids (including my second graders) knew who Buddah was when I told them it was his birthday.  We headed down to Busan on Saturday morning, taking the 5-hour slow train there.  We booked a jimjilbang (Korean spa) to sleep in, since everywhere else was booked and it said they would have bunk beds reserved for us.  On Saturday we walked around and saw a UN memorial graveyard from the Korean war.  I had no idea there were so many Americans who had died in that war.  Then we went for a long walk to a beach just to hang out, even though it was too late to go swimming.

Me, Christine and Meghan walking around a random park

A wall of flowers

Strange little doggie by the beach

After that we went to a bar called Fuzzy Navel that overlooked the beach which was beautiful.  I ordered a raspberry daquiri, which came in a martini glass without any ice crushed up in it.  I learned my lesson not to order fancy drinks in Korea, since my daquiri was like drinking syrup.  A little bit later the bartenders put on a show of tossing bottles and twirling fire, and ended with setting part of the bar on fire (on purpose).  It was very entertaining!  It was also some guy across the bar's b-day, so they made a tower of glasses with a flaming shot on top for him.

The b-day guy looking at his shot being made

We went out to some bars in Busan that night and when we got back to the jimjilbang, Korean people had taken over our "bunk beds," which were really just sleeping cubbies with the same mats and hard square pillows that everyone else had.  We ended up having to sleep on the floor in the middle of everything with bright lights on the whole night and people walking by all the time.  I was not so happy to say the least.  It was also super hot in there so we were all sweating the entire night.  We ended up getting a small refund because of the bunk bed situation, and the next night we all ended up getting cubbies.  It was still really hot sleeping in the jimjilbang so we were all sticking to our mats the whole night.  Next time I hope to plan ahead and book a hostel, but hey it was an experience and we got through it.  

On Sunday we headed out to haeundae beach, which is the most popular beach in Busan for everyone to go to.  I guess in the summer it is crazy crowded and the beach is literally filled with huge beach umbrellas, since Koreans don't like the sun because they want to be white (you always want what you don't have, right?).  This time it really wasn't too crowded, probably because the water was freezing like Lake Superior.  There was a man standing by us that just stood in his little speedo-shorts swim suit facing the sun all day.  He ended up to be nice and took our picture for us, but I still thought it was strange that he choose to stand the whole time.  There were also jet ski people patrolling the shore line, making sure nobody went out too far.  One older man on a jet ski was only wearing a green thong which was really disturbing.  It was so nice to hang out at a real beach; I miss it so much!

Us about to leave the beach-I wasn't ready to go!

After that we headed to a temple that was all decorated with lanterns for Buddah's B-day.  It was pretty amazing with all the different colored lanterns everywhere you look.  

A happy golden Buddah

A sea of lanterns

Me and Tristan riding elephants

The next day we went to the Jagalchi fish market and ended up choosing a nice crab and a couple of eels to share.  The way it works is you walk along all the different sellers and choose what you want from the tank, and then they bring it upstairs and cook it for you.  The crab was so delicious!  The meat came off in strips and was the best crab I've ever tasted.  The eel was pretty tasty too, but it had way too many bones in it to be very enjoyable.  

The guy cutting up our eel while our poor crab waited on his back

After our meal, we decided to get a baby octopus since most people had never tried live octopus before. I already tried live squid in Seoraksan, so I didn't really need to try octopus.  I had a little bite still, since the plate of squirming tentacles was right in front of me.  Everyone had a couple of pieces and that was enough haha.  The guy running the place, Jackie, was really funny and showed us pictures of him on the news and in magazines because he was so proud of it.  

Live octopus

Us and our new friend Jackie

Overall it was a great weekend, and I definitely want to go back to Busan!