My Weekend

This past Friday I was invited to join a few South African girls I had met a few weeks ago for dinner, great gals. As it turned out their co-worker's girlfriend had come out form Hawaii, and so the two of them joined us as well as another couple that they knew. This was great as it allowed me to meet a bunch of people who not only spoke English but were also were also rad. We ended up going out for Korean barbecue, and once again it was delicious. Also I forgot my camera, one of these days I will have pictures of Korean food for you.

After supper after looking in a number of places we managed to find a place with a pool table(with pockets) and played some cut throat(a great team pool game). Great night.

You might be asking yourself, do pool tables ever not have pockets? Yes, yes they do, here in Korea the popular game is something called Four Ball or Danggu. Of the four balls that you have two are white and two are red. It is a two player game and each player "gets" a white ball, on their turn they must shoot their cue ball and hit both red balls with out hitting the other player's cue ball. Not sure how the scoring works but the little that we watched seemed pretty confusing.

Saturday I had planned to go to Okpo where they were having a bazaar at the church to raise money to help a group of handicapped people in Korea. So after cleaning my apartment and making pancakes I headed off to the bus station. Having never been to Okpo before one of the South African girls offered to show me, which was super nice of her and really appreciated. 

They had some great deals and I ended up coming home with a can opener, a cheese grater, a vegetable peeler and an assortment of canned goods. Even better than good deals I met a group of people that(like yesterday) speak English and are rad. 

Today is Sunday and it has been raining so other than going to church and out for coffee I have been doing my best to stay warm and dry.

Side note, if any one knows where to get a cheap motorcycle/scooter in Korea let me know. I am in the market for one... 

Saturday Walk About

I went for a walk on Saturday and took a couple of some pictures:

This is the canal that I walk along on my way to work.

This sign is also on the way to work, apparently in Korea and other Asian countries the swastika is used to signify that there is a temple near by. This is interesting to me because for my whole life I have only known of other things it was used for.

This is Mr. Pizza's advertising...

Here is my favorite picture of the day: I was just walking along in the canal worried that the grass/reeds would break through and my shoes would be wet when I stumble across this gem.

Pancakes

As I mentioned earlier this week, I have had a craving for pancakes and so today I finally made some and am satisfied. In the earlier post I put up a picture of pancakes from the internet with which I was trying to show how my breakfast would look. You be the judge but I would say it is an exact match.
Here is a picture from my breakfast this morning:

They tasted as good as they look.

April Fools?

I am learning more and more everyday in Korea, as I have already mentioned, when you are asked a question it is already expected that your answer will be yes. It is just the beginning but I think I am starting to get the hang of it.

Another thing that I am finding out is that it is common to be asked to do something only a few minutes before it needs to be done. A few examples from the past few days:

5 minutes till, "Could you do an English assessment on these two children?"
10 minutes till, "Could you interview another person for the teaching job?"
10 seconds till, "Could you teach cooking class today?"
3 minutes till, "Could you teach my craft class?"

Those of you who know me, know that I like to brood over even the simplest decisions and so this Korean way, while a little uncomfortable, has been great. I know what my expected answer is even if I don't know what is expected of me.

I tell you all this to give you a taste of what I am slowing learning about Korean culture and to tell you this story.

The other day when we were on our way to get my phone the director and I were talking and the topic of my apartment came up, "Was it alright?" "Yes" "Did I like it? "Yes" "Well just to give you a heads up you might be moving." "Okay..."

Not sure what to make of this I forgot about it until today when we were talking about buying a motorcycle my boss said, "You don't need one, soon you will live close." "Oh, ok."

She went on to tell me that the word on the street is that my landlord doesn't want to claim my rent in his taxes and they don't want to support him in that so I will be moving in to a new place April 1(April Fools?). From what I have been told it is a 5 minute walk from work and it is bigger, a one bedroom instead of a studio. I guess we'll wait and see what happens.

Sweet!

I have been contemplating what to do with all 10 pounds of the pancake mix I have and the conclusion that I have come to is(I think) quite logical. I will eat it. The problem with that is that I like syrup on my pancakes, it them taste at least as good as a Porsche is fast, which is definitely above average.  "So buy some syrup!", you may be inclined to say. The problem with that is that Korea does not consume very much syrup and so you pay a high premium. At Costco less than a litre of Maple Syrup was $35.

Not having $35 in my budget for syrup and not wanting to let my mix go to waste I looked for an alternative. I mentioned this when talking to my mom the other day and wouldn't you know it she had a recipe for syrup memorized. Amazing!

One trip to the grocery store and I was in syrup making business. Actually that might not be a bad idea, if this teaching thing falls through I will start making and selling syrup. Anyway, I bought this great little pot and went to work.

The syrup was done cooking before I could learn how to say, "Your child is very smart but where are his manners?" in Korea.(yeoleobun-ui janyeoga eodie geuui maeneojiman maeu yeonglihago) I let it cool and then filled up my new syrup container.

I cannot wait to show you pictures of the pancakes I am going to eat on the weekend with this syrup so here is a picture of some pancakes from the internet.

Thanks KLM!

You may remember reading here, that on the way to Korea there was a bit of confusion at the Toronto airport over access to the KLM lounge. While it was not a big deal I thought that I would send them an email and let them know about my experience.

They returned my email this week saying that they would look in to it and as a gesture of thanks they gave me 7500 bonus miles. Cool! Thanks KLM.

Costco

First to answer all of your questions: Yes they have Costco in Korea and you can use your Costco card from North America in Korea.(don't forget them at home when you come visit)

The first week that I got to Korea the principle at my school mentioned that we should go to Costco to get as he called it, "your people food." We talked on and off about it and finally we decided at lunch that we should go after work that day. We turned out to be the principle, the co-teacher, the 5 year old teacher and her 3 year old son and I.

Let me tell you if you are looking for adventure just mention a Costco trip and adventure is right there with it. The first part was travelling with a three year old, thankfully one of the others lend him their phone to keep him occupied, unfortunately he occupied himself with a game that I called Copy Cat(I don't know the actual name). Calling it a game is some what misleading in that it is not a game at all, it is a cat that stands there and repeats, in a different tone, any sound that it hears. This caused much yelling and squealing that I got to hear not once but twice! This in it's self was not terrible but it was compounded by taking a wrong turn and getting stuck in rush hour traffic making a 45 minute trip take 2 hours. At least one of us had a good trip.

After a quick stop by the food court(very similar to home) to grab some delicious and cheap pizza and a bulgogi bake(think lots of beef and lots of cheese wrapped in dough Costco size) we were shopping.

I had a number of items on my list but it was filled for the most part with suggestions of what I wanted.
This is a picture of what I ended up coming home with:

As you can see I bought only the essentials, a 10 pound bag of pancake mix(10000), 5 pound of margarine(10000), cheese(great deal)(11000 each), a dozen muffins(8000), 1.3 kg of oatmeal(13000) alfredo sauce(10000), tomato sauce(11000), jam(11000), peanut butter(expensive but essential)(15000) and a few other things to balance out the rest.(numbers = price in won)

Altogether I ended up spending 140,000 won, completely blowing any budget I had but the hope is that the majority of this food will last me until my next Costco trip in 6 months.

Welcome and "Great Idea Korea"

Hello and welcome to you who's first time it is visiting this site. I am assuming that if this is your first time you have found your way here as a result of this picture:

Huge thanks to my good friend Jadyn Klassen for the superb design of the card. Unfortunately due to my delay of the card you are a few weeks behind and have a lot to read if you want to catch up. (Don't worry it won't take long, after all if it is interesting enough for me to write, it is interesting enough for you to look at the pictures)

Great Idea Korea(rhymes as well as Bad Idea Korea)


It is pretty self explanatory but this column is where I will showcase things that I see in Korea that I think are a good idea. The first of which I encountered when I got my phone. My cell phone(and everyone else's in Korea) came with a generic charger in a box that looks like this:

Anygood? Great question! Better name might have been Reallygood.

I also got an adapter to fit my phone. What it is is a wall plug with a cord but on the end of it is a universal plug that you plug your phone's adapter on to and voila you can charge your phone. This means that if you loose you charger you can get another one for about $1. The adapter for your phone is also about $1. In North America for example every phone comes with a different type of charger meaning that if you get a new phone you have to replace your old charger. Plus they are not only harder to find but also cost a lot more than they should. This makes me say, "Great idea Korea!"

Water from the Spring

For the past while I have had a real hankering for pizza and so for the past week I have been making trips to the local grocery store to pick up ingredients as I remember them. First was flour, and ingredients for the dough, then was ingredients for the sauce and lastly I remembered that I wanted something on top of the pizza besides sauce. Thankfully it is close, I don't want to get too much exercise after all.

This Friday I decided it was time to finally make the pizza. Armed with a recipe for dough from my mother and a recipe for sauce that found online but modified to suit my ingredients, I started mixing. It took a bit of time and a bit of ingenuity as I don't have an oven to bake the pizza. I made the dough just large enough to fit my frying pan, fried the one side and when I flipped it over I threw on the meat(processed meat discs), then the cheese and the hot and fresh sauce on top to melt the cheese. This is what it looked like.

It was fantastic, the best meal I have made myself in Korea by far.

Saturday I was looking to clean up around the house and recharge, due to an alarm error I woke up earlier than planned which meant that I had more time to get my list done. So by 9:00 I had finished doing my laundry, cleaning my house and making crepes, my second best meal.

After breakfast I did the dishes and decided that it would be a good idea to climb the mountain today. I wanted to climb the mountain for two reasons, first was exercise and the second was that I was hoping climbing the mountain would have is that I wouldn't have to buy water.

Let me explain: the water in Korea is iffy, depending on who you ask the tap water is bad for you so most people buy water. While this if quite affordable I am always looking for a way to save money so when I climbed the mountain the other day with Mr. Ock and we stopped at a spring, I thought to myself, 'I could climb up here and get free water for the whole year.'  So with that in mind I put all of my empty water bottles(3 2L bottles is all I have drank so far) in my backpack and headed out.

Climbing today was much busier than it had been the last climb, we had only met one other man at the spring, this time when I got to the spring there were about 50 people there resting. After seeing this I decided that buying water is an expense that I will gladly pay for assuming that they filter the water before putting it in the bottle.

The spring

On a completely unrelated topic, Koreans love to spit. (maybe not completely unrelated)

Moving right along... I climbed to the top and sought out a quite area to hang out. As they say, "The harder it is to get to, the quieter it will be." I found a nice out cropping and this was my view:

I had brought along a little snack that I called lunch as well as my Bible and had quite a refreshing time. My trip down was much quicker than the way up, it took almost a quarter of the time.

A snippet from my reading:

Isaiah 41:9-10
"I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you.
I said, 'You are my servant; I have chosen you and have not rejected you.
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you' I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

Text Me!

The last few days have been pretty low key here. I am getting in to a bit of a rhythm of knowing how much time I have before work and how much time I have after work so that I know a little bit better when I can do something if there is anything that needs to be done.

Four days in to school and I am still enjoying it, although I hope that more kids come in March. I found out yesterday that the girl that was going to join my class will only start in March and that the guy in my class would be gone Thursday and Friday. This just means that I have time to work ahead, getting the things for next week done early so that when our material for March comes in next week I can start preparing right away.

I made a kid cry today. 

I tell you this only because it was the only thing of note to happen during class today. I was teaching the 5 year olds a little bit of English in English class and we were playing a fishing game where there is a magnet on the end of a string and it picks up flashcards that have paperclips on them. We are learning colors so they catch a flashcard and say the name of the color for practice. Well today class was almost done, we were transitioning from fishing to reading a book and then class would be over. In this transition one kid decided that he wanted to fish more so when I took his fishing rod he burst in to tears. 

When kids cry in Korea it is out of control, they go off, so as a result class was over. (more on Korean parenting later)

I also conducted a second interview, this time with someone who is looking at teaching only half the year, from March till the end of August. Excitement, excitement, excitement.

Then this afternoon Sangmoon took me to get a cell phone, what a great time. I went in wanting the cheapest phone but when I saw the options I just couldn't help myself and I got an iPhone. Oh the capabilities! FaceTime anyone?

That last paragraph was written before I went to get a phone. I now have it and it is a Samsung SHW-A250K. It is a touch screen and as you can see it is pretty stylish.(if you don't think it's stylish just pretend) I am not sure what type of contract I am on because Sangmoon took care of it all. From what I know the phone is under Sangmoon's name so that I could get some sort of deal. We will see at the end of the month I guess...

Feel free to text me any time!

Also on the way home I stopped by this street stand that sells these deep fried dough fish that smell really nice and so finally I decided to try one. Buying them I wasn't sure how much they were and so when the guy held up 3 fingers I thought 3000($3) won which is expensive but I figured I had to try it at least once might as well be now. So I held out 5000($5) won and he grabbed a bag and put 3 fish in, alright I guess it is 3 fish for 5000. Then held up one finger, wait what? I get 3 fish for 1000($1) won? Great! It got even better, they taste like waffles and are filled with something that tastes like waffle sauce! I will definitely be back!  They also have fish with brown filling, chocolate maybe? I will let you know.

The First Day of School! (Sort of)

Yesterday (February 14) the first day children came to school to learn, sort of. Because school is big business in Korea and this is the school's first year they are holding two weeks of "exhibition school" to give children a chance to come and see what it is like. The aim is that they have lots of fun and they tell all of their friends, then when school starts for real(March 2) their friends will come too. This is nice for me to ease in to leading the kids because my boss has stressed that we should make having fun priority and learning secondary.

This is my white board (students use the name of the teacher and then the word teacher so students call me Douglas Teacher):

As it turned out half of my class was sick so I was left with just one who's name was Alex. It was a good day as it seemed like he enjoyed the things that I had prepared. The other student, a girl, will be coming on Wednesday. I am not sure about this but I am assuming that I will have more student come March, I will keep you posted.

For lunch the teacher for 5 year olds, In Ju, made lasagna and brought it for lunch. It was incredibly delicious and then she gave me two pieces to take home, so good. It was also Valentine's Day which is celebrated here in Korea by the woman giving the man chocolates. Sangmoon had joked that we should get girlfriends(plural, I assume) so that we could get chocolates, but being pretty busy I hadn't gotten around to it yet. Thankfully In Ju, the 5 year old class teacher who is married, is super nice and got both of us chocolate.

Also it snowed again here overnight which made for a nice surprise when I opened up my balcony to decide what I would wear today.

Tuesday, classes were good, led a cooking class and the kids learned how to put m&m's on cookie dough and got watch me make macaroni and cheese. It was interesting to see their reaction to the mac and cheese, most of them didn't like it and so they fed it to me. Also as of today I am officially an alien. I got my Certificate of Alien Registration, which means that I can now open a bank account and get a cell phone.

2 Weeks(but who's counting)

This weekend marked two weeks since I landed in South Korea, unfortunately it snuck up on me so quickly I didn't have a chance to plan a party so I just let it plan it's self. Let me tell you it was fantastic. First, after being at work for almost 1 full week my director asked me if it worked for me to preform an interview. First you need to understand about Korean culture is that, as I understand it, people ask a question assuming they will receive an affirmative answer. Second when he said interview I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. I soon found out that there was an interview set up for after work on Friday but he would be on a bus and he needed some one else to lead it, so it fell to me.

Waiting for the interview, seeing what the camera will see.

After that was over Caleb and Martha a young couple from my the States that go to my church had offered to go for supper and show me the hot spots of Geoje. Due to a miscommunication and my lack of knowing Geoje we missed each other.

On Saturday my roommates had arranged to Skype me. It was fantastic to "hang out" with them. While we talked I made kimbap for the first time, kim means seaweed and bap means rice. To make kimbap lay out a sheet of seaweed then spread a thin layer of rice(that has been mixed with salt and sesame seed oil) over the seaweed and put whatever cooked vegetables you have in the middle and then roll it up. I only had tomatoes and so that is what I put in and it tasted plain but alright.

Then in the afternoon Pastor Lucas came over with a welcoming committee from the church to share a short devotional with me. While I know they mean well, I have to admit that it was quite awkward but the lovely baked goods and a large framed plaque with Genesis 22:2 were appreciated.

Even after missing each other yesterday Caleb and Martha were down to try meeting again Saturday for supper which was more than I could have asked for. We did find each other this time and they took me to a place that served shabu shabu(and I think was called Shabu Shabu, maybe?). I would describe shabu shabu(and half of all Korean food) as soup-ish. Made by mixing vegetables, shaved meat(in this case beef), and noodles in the fryer on your table. The food was very good but what I appreciated even more was Caleb and Martha's insight in to Geoje and it's workings that they shared with me. They have been here for almost a year which means that they have a very good idea of what I am in for. While I didn't retain all of it, the wisdom they shared definitely gave me a heads up as to what is to come. Class act.

Last week after climbing the mountain I said that I wanted to climbed it every Sunday, I didn't climb it this week. My excuse is that I was invited to the Korean service at church, they said I only had to come once so I decided to experience it right away. It was as expected, all in Korea, but one thing I did not expect was to have to stand up in the middle of the service while the pastor welcomed me, then take a picture with the pastor after the service. If I am honest I felt quite uncomfortable with all of it, first I didn't understand anything that was said and then I was asked to dance(not literally). I know that it was out of the kindness of their heart but it made me wonder if this is how those unfamiliar with the church feel when they turn up at a church. I certainly hope not! While not a positive experience in my books it has made me think about how we as a church welcome others. Perhaps more on that another day.

Then was the English service, it was nice to worship in English. After the service there was a nice time of fellowship over strawberries and cake.

This next section is for Ryan and Richelle(but you can read it too),

This is what a Samsung car looks like:

Richelle, Q. What happens when an artist gets angry?
               A. She loses her temperas.

Good one right?

House Tour!

The day has finally come for me to give you a tour of my apartment. Here it is I hope you enjoy it!

If you want a private tour we might be able to arrange one via Skype and then I would be able to give you more details. If you have any questions feel free to ask and I will try and get you the answer.

Garden Out Take

Learning the Market

While I was at the school yesterday I was washing my hands after using the washroom and heard a bit of a commotion outside. I opened the window to see what it was all about and to my surprise the parking lot behind the school had turned in to a full fledged market complete with coloured tents selling their wonderful wares. I asked the others at the school and they said that the market happens on every day that has a 4 or a 9 in it. So this month February 4, 9, 14, 19, and 24 or every 5 days. Great system.

Having not had a true market experience in Korea yet, so I was eager to look around and see what they had. By the time work ended at 6:00 I rushed down hoping that there would still be some vendors left in the market. Sure enough it appeared that there were still some vendors left.

Going in I knew that I wanted to buy some oranges as I was just out and I also wanted to find some vegetables as I hadn't bought any since arriving in Korea. But as I have found on other market experiences it is good to know what you want and how much you want of that item. I didn't have a game plan today nor did I stop to make one and so at the first stall I found some oranges and so I stopped to look at them. They looked a little small but other than that they looked great and beside the oranges were some really nice looking small tomatoes. They gave me a tomato to try and I knew that I would be buying some so I asked the price.  Not having shopped in a market yet in Korea I didn't know quantities or what I should be expecting so when I asked price they pointed to two oranges and said 5, I assumed 500 which is $0.50 and though it was alright so I asked about the tomatoes, same price. 

Great, "I'll take some of both," I told him and he grabbed the whole basket that they were in and dumped it in to a bag, then he grabbed another and did the same thing. Hmm... ok, I knew this would be more than 500, but it would also offer a learning experience. It turned out that they were sold by the basket, as was almost everything else in the market. 

In the end for two baskets tomatoes and oranges I payed 10000 won($10), which is more than I was looking to spend but there were enough of them that I still felt like I got a good deal. Also more valuably I now have a better idea of how the market works in Korea. I used that knowledge right away to get a basket of carrots and potatoes. After that, knowing I had a long walk ahead, I called it a day. Next I am looking to get some onions and then I should have enough vegetables to last me for a while.

Today was Thursday and  it snowed, I was very excited about this as it felt very familiar. I was told that it snows here in Geoje once every 10 years. Cool. This picture is taken looking out of one of the windows in my classroom(doesn't really show the snow but you already know what snow looks like).

30 days

30 days ago I was in Mexico enjoying live blues on the beach and the company of some fine friends.

Where will the next 30 days take me? Where will the next 30 days take you?

Once in a Lifetime Opportunity!

Today at school I found out that because this is probably the first time many of the children will be going to an English school, it will be my job to give them English names that will(potentially) stay with them for the rest of their lives. My first thought was, "This is a huge responsibility Doug are you sure that you can handle it? Well you don't really have a choice so..." Then my next thought was, "There is a lot of potential here." If you have studied business and marketing trends or if you have been to a sporting event you will see the advertising value of naming something.

Let's pretend that the managers of a newly built sporting facility are in charge of naming the building but while they may be excellent managers abstract creativity is not their strong point. This worries them because for the next 20+ years that the facility is around, it will bear the name that they will come up with, which they already know will not be as good as Fenway Park or Yankee Stadium or Wrigley Field. But then out of the blue after looking at other stadium names they have a brilliant idea. Get a company to name it, first that will earn some money to put toward the ol' mortgage, and we will have some one to blame if the name is not very clever.

If you are still with me I want to ask you, "Are you thinking what I am thinking?" probably not, I am thinking about the hodoks I had this afternoon, it is like the bun from a McGriddle, a Korean pancake with sugar in the middle of it! Maybe the second best Korean food I have eaten.

Enough beating around the bush, I am offering you a once in a life time opportunity to name a child that you don't have to be responsible for. Perhaps you have more good names than you have children, or maybe you want to name one after your special someone ;), the possibilities are endless but unfortunately there is limited supply. There will be at most 36 children at the school and I might not even get to name all of them so make sure you sign up right away. 36/7000000000 is a pretty exclusive club to be in.(Now to name that club...)

I will start the suggested donation off at low $30 and if there is more interest than I expect the price will only go up. Think of it as sponsoring a child only you don't have to pay monthly and the money doesn't go to help a child in need. As a little bonus, the first 10 people to sign up will get a postcard with a picture and some writing on it delivered to an address somewhere. Please consider helping out a child in this way, it may save them from a life of being called Samsung or Haeundae.



On a more serious note the director of the school found out that the other teacher who had signed a contract to come at the end of next week quit and will no longer be coming. This leaves a big hole with only 3 weeks till the start of classes. Please pray that God would provide the teacher that the school needs as only He can. Thanks.

Gohyeon Church

Sunday was church and so for my first service Mrs. Kim, my boss, insisted that she pick me up even though I can see the steeple from my building. Either way they came and, like every other time they have come, dropped off a bunch of stuff for my house. This time it was a dish rack, chair booties, a toilet cleaner and other stuff. Last time it was a bunch of food, some extension cords and dishes, they really have been so kind to me.

Here is the church from the window of my apartment building, not a long walk. (the red cross)

Because of the holidays the people from the church's foreigners service were challenged to invite others and so there were many other people who were there for the first time. There were about 30-40 people in attendance and we worshiped together in English! It was very refreshing. Then after the service the church had prepared some food and some games in which we could take part in and so it was a great time of fellowship, talking with some of the other Christians who are teaching in Geoje and learning about what life has been like for there here. For the games there were prizes and the team I was on ended up winnipeg every game so I got a hand full of stuff including a toiletries box, some socks and thanks to Caleb Button a large box of treats.

It was neat in that I wasn't the only one coming for the first time. What I only thought of later was that many of the people that I met might have just come to this church for this special event and not attend regularly.  This means that I am not sure who will be there next Sunday, I guess I will have to go and find out. Continue to pray that I would be intentional about my role in the church and willing when there is a need.

What starts with Bus and ends with an?

Before I came to Korea there were two Korean people that I knew from Canada, one is still in Canada and the other is living in Gumi, South Korea. Knowing that it would be holidays the friend in Gumi invited me to come for a visit, which I thought would be a good idea so we had planned to meet on Friday and I would stay with her family till Saturday.  Due to a miscommunication this was no longer the plan and so still  wanting to see part of Korea I decided to head out to Busan.

Busan is in the south east corner of South Korea, it has a population of 3.6 million people, a 4 line subway, the fifth largest port in the world, and it is only a 1 hour bus ride from Geoje. So after checking a few details out before I left I hopped on a bus. On the way we crossed over the Busan-Geoje Fixed Link which is a 8.2 km long bridge-tunnel combination in the north east corner of the island. The route shortens the journey to Busan from what was 3 hours down to a mere 1 hour. (In the picture you can see that after the second bridge the road tunnels under the water)

I reached Busan a little later than expected due to holiday traffic and took the subway to Haeundae Beach where I wanted to take a picture of the sunset for my old roommate Jon Monkman. Being winter it was dead but he said that in summer you can call in your order to a restaurant and they deliver it to you on the beach, I will have to try that.

My father had asked if I had found any Mexican restaurants in Korea and so I had planned to go to a place called Taco al Puebla for supper but unfortunately my directions did not lead me to any taco places.(as I found out later it has moved to a new location). I will get you a picture one day dad. So as a back up I found a place with a picture menu and pointed to what I wanted, some kind of breaded fish that tasted pretty alright. I also passed a History of Photography Museum and was going to take a picture for you Ryan Bergen but then I didn't. Next time.

Before coming to Busan I looked at affordable accommodations for the night and found something that was very affordable but possibly a bit uncomfortable but I decided to give it a try. In Korea they have something called jjimjilbang, which is a public bath, from what I have heard it is an important tradition and many people go as a family once a week. You might be saying to yourself, "Doug that doesn't sound like a place to sleep." you are very observant. 

Let me tell you about it, I went to a place called Haeundae Spa Center it is a 24 hour jjimjilbang and was near the beach. Fourth floor was for women, fifth floor was men. They had several different temperatures of baths, showers and saunas that you can bath in. After you are finished bathing you are given a baggy shirt and baggy shorts to wear and you go upstairs to a large common room where people were hanging out with their families/friends watching tv, playing games and talking. You are given two thin sheets and a soft block, this is your mattress, blanket and pillow. I went to sleep early and the room was about a quarter full but when I woke up just before 6 the room was full, I had to step over bodies to get out. As it worked out for about $8.00 I had a hot bath and a place to sleep.

Then it was on to Gumi, I caught the sunrise at the train station in Busan

Took the train the two hours to Gumi.

Hyekyoung met me at the train station and it was off to check out Gumi. We went to a park with a lake:

It was nice to speak English with some one who understood Manitoba, and she is teaching right now so she gave me some heads up. For lunch/supper we went to this incredible barbecue place and had duck and pork, with a side of jellyfish and squid. I really wish I would have taken a picture of the food, it has to be the BEST food that I have eaten since arriving in Korea! Whoever comes to visit be warned/excited, we are going for Korean barbecue! We toured Gumi which has huge LG and Samsung factories, I met her family, they gave me a very large box of seaweed to eat with my rice. Then because I wanted to be in church in Goeje on Sunday it was out for the trek back home.

NOTE: If any one has any questions about Korea or my experience feel free to ask, I will do my best to respond. If have something that you would like me to do(location, event, food) while in Korea let me know and I will try and fit it in and take a picture for you.

HOUSE TOUR COMING: I have not forgotten about the video tour of my apartment, I just want to do it while the sun is up so it is brighter, this might end up being next week Saturday or Sunday. Stay tuned!

Mountain Climbing with Mr. Ock

As you already know it is Lunar Holiday in Korea, everything is closed and the streets are quiet which means I don't see a lot when I go for a walks. This also means that I have had very little to do but Friday Mr. Ock my boss invited me to go climb one of the mountains in the area with him so I agreed. Though his English is not great we managed to talk for a bit and he taught me a bit of Korean. I am finding that in order for the Korean to stick I need to see it written down, if I just hear it I will only remember it for a few minutes. Needless to say if there was a test on what Mr. Ock taught me I would do very well.

This is a picture of the forest we walked through, while this picture doesn't show it very well, it reminded me of a combination of a place Josh Morris took me hiking South Carolina and the Pembina Valley.

The first two thirds of elevation were in the forest and the last thirds was on rocks that reminded me of the Whiteshell. The mountain was 566 meters high as this marker will attest to.

Also had we taken a different trail we would have started about 3 blocks from my apartment so I plan to climb it at least once or twice this year. Right now I am thinking that it might be nice to climb it every Sunday morning seeing that the English service at my church starts at 1:00 but don't hold me to that. From this point I could see my apartment but as you can see it is a little foggy, had it been clear we would have been able to see the ocean.

This is Mr. Ock.

Well maybe next time...

Is it just me or do all English teachers who come to Korea put the word adventure in the title some where. I have just started looking at some blogs from other teachers in Korea and it seems to be a trend, that would have been great to know a month ago when I chose the name for this blog. Well maybe next time...

It has been a couple of days and I am settling in to my apartment. This means that I am unpacked and familiar with where everything is in the apartment but I am still learning what everything does. Take the thermostat for example it has many different lights and buttons but I am not sure which button does what which is partly(wholly) to blame for me having cold showers the past three days. I have to push the right buttons to get hot water for the shower and I haven't got the combination right yet. Well maybe next time...

It has been a quite couple of days for me as there have been holidays and so I decided to see how long it takes to walk to the school from my house, a 25 minute brisk walk, which means I will need to give at least 30 minutes to get to school.

Having been here a few days and eating virtually only rice I decided to get some take out yesterday, I knew it was holidays but I saw that some places were still open. While working at Tim Hortons I had often looked at people who had minimal English and joked with my co-workers, "that will be me in Korea" well today was that day. I had wanted to go to a shop just down the street from my house that had pictures with prices on them so what I planned to do was point to what I wanted, easy. Well that place was closed so I went to a restaurant that had people in it across the street. I walked in said hello and realized it didn't have any pictures to point at, also the people that were in the restaurant were the owners, they were just planning what to do for their supper. As it turned out they did not speak any English, they tried speaking to me in Korean but I don't understand any Korea. So I did the only thing I could think to do, I said the three words of Korean that I know, "Hello, thank-you, good-bye" and left. I went home and made myself a bowl of ramen. Well maybe next time...

Today my boss invited me over to their house for lunch, when they picked me up they dropped off a bunch of great stuff, some food(already made) and housewares I was needing. At their place we took the elevator to their floor and there were only two doors, they had half of a floor in this building, their apartment was huge, their kitchen is bigger than my whole apartment, their living room was almost the size of two of my apartments, then 4 bedrooms and two bathrooms and some storage space. Needless to say I was blown away! Oh yeah, lunch was good too.

Hospital Trip

Today was my first day in Geoje and was picked up before school by my Boss and family. They are incredible, the mother Mrs. Kim was the one to get my apartment ready for me, her son Sungmoon who picked me up from Ilsan, and the father Mr. Ock, who drives us where we need to go. Inju was the only other person at the school she will be teaching the 5 year old. As you probably guessed by her name she is Korean but has great English.

I got the tour of the building which is purposely very similar to it's sister school in Ilsan and then it was down to business. As I thought I am the first westerner to arrive at school, there will be one more coming possibly in two weeks or so. As I thought school will start in the beginning of March. But I just found out that because this is the first year the school is open we will be doing a pre-start school meaning that for the last two weeks of February we will be running classes. But as I was told they are to be fun classes so that the kids are excited to come to school when it actually starts in March. This would be great except for the fact that I have to write the curriculum for these two weeks, I have one week to prepare my classroom and two weeks of school. I won't be looking for things to do that is for sure.

Also today I got my Korean medical test over with, as Mrs. Kim told me, "Many teacher who come to Korea have AIDS, that is not good, we will find them." For the test I got to pee in a cup, it was my first time, it is quite the experience. Side note it looked like I was dehydrated but when I put it next to the Korean cups mine was the clearest. It made me wonder, "What are the Koreans drinking?" Not enough water that is for sure.(to much information... maybe)

On with the test, they have this scale that you stand on with a pole and a bar comes down and hits your head, it measures height and weight. Took the hearing test which was just a rhythmic beep that got quieter with every beep, they said I had excellent hearing, more like excellent timing. Then a blood test and an x-ray for TB and I was back at school working.

Lunch was a trip to the bakery that is located the floor below the school, I will tell you more about it another day.

We called it quits around 5 and went to Home Plus which is similar to a WalMart or Superstore to get groceries and then off home. Sungmoon came with me and helped me with the shopping and then walked me home. Class act.

Wednesday till Sunday Korea celebrates Lunar Holiday(Chinese New Year) so after two days of work I have the rest of the week off. What to do?

North Korea!

I forgot to post this earlier but here it is! This is a picture taken from the plane in the direction of North Korea, the lights you see are a small town on the ground.

Unfortunately this is just a town in China, we were headed straight for North Korea and then with out warning changed course to go around. Sorry to disappoint you, maybe next time.

Train(ing)

So it may look as if there are two blogs in a row with a similar theme but trust me it's not plus if you read the last one I can (30 day money back guarantee) you will enjoy this one just as much or more.

Today was training day so armed with the address of the school that I got from my boss I headed out to look for a taxi. I went to the main road where I thought they would be a plenty but all of them were full. Now I don't know very much about Korea but I assume that it was prime time for a taxi and so I started walking. I had a general idea of where the school was and I had left early but not early enough to walk to the school. After about 15 minutes of walking I managed to corner a taxi as the other passenger was getting out and claimed it. I showed him the paper and we were off.

Now I had been at the school the day before and so on exiting I made note that there was a Catholic Church with fancy lights across the road from the school. Now on the way to school the taxi driver was having a bit of trouble, we were on the right street but where was the school.

Korean Lesson: In Korea as I have been told when they number the buildings they give the oldest building the lowest number and so if a new building was built between two older buildings it will have a higher number. Logically I don't know about that system but that is the way it is.

Thankfully I spotted the church across the road and I hopped out just in time for school.

Upon arrival I was greeted by Michael a native of British Columbia who has taught in Korea for 10 years or so, I would be his shadow for the day. The school year here runs from the beginning of March to the middle of February so the class was advanced and wrapping up for the year. Between activities Michael would explain different workings of the class. As it turns out he wrote the curriculum for the school and because I will be teaching at a sister school he wrote my curriculum too. School ran till 2:30 but just as we were about to look in to what I needed to know the director from the school at Geoje Island showed up and said that my training was over and that we would be leaving by 4:30.

While I have to admit that I have not been told a lot of details I expected more than 1 day of training, so Michael and I went down stairs to talk over coffee. Talk we did, he tried to jam everything I would need to know in to the next hour.

4:30 and off we were, back to the apartment to change and pack then it was walking the mile to the subway with my 100+ pounds of life for a year. We caught the subway just in time to connect with our bus to Geoje. 4.5 hours later we were in the room that I will be calling my home for the year.

Wallpaper in my apartment (stay tuned for a video tour)