Prepositions

A look in to my class: The other day I needed to draw a couple of pictures for the students to practice the prepositions under and on. Being the creative artist that I am this is what I came up with.

The cat is under the car.
The snake is on the boy.

North Coast

Last Saturday I went for a ride with Annabelle and her new friend Betsy. Betsy is a friend's 50cc scooter that leaks and uses more oil than gas. We took a road North out of Gohyeon that neither of us had ever travelled. It mirrored the coast and it was lovely, it reminded me a little bit of Greece. Can't wait till it warms up a little and the real exploring begins. Along the way we picked up one more so by end of the journey we were three. Because I don't know what else to say, here are some pictures. They were all taken with my cell phone, mostly while driving.

Easter in Korea

This past weekend was Easter and so I thought you guys might want to know what Easter was like for me in Korea.

The first difference I noticed was that it was not nearly as commercialized. Walking in to the grocery store I got no indication that thousands of rabbits were forced to give up their chocolate eggs. In fact there was no indication that anything was different at all, because nothing was different, business as usual. The second, more important, difference I noticed was that I did not get a day off of work for Good Friday.

That is neither here nor there because chocolate eggs and a day off from work have very little to do with what Easter is really about. Which is remembering Jesus' death and resurrection, thus saving all who believe.

This Easter the church that I have been attending was celebrating by having a potluck in a park. I had signed up to bring apple crisp and greek salad. I was pretty excited for this time of fellowship as it would allow a chance for me to get to know the others better.

On Saturday I went for a ride with Annabelle and couple of other friends(pictures to come) and had a fantastic time but when I got home I was wiped. I went to bed just after 5:00, woke up at 9:00 walked around a bit and then slept till the morning. I was sick.

Instead of going to an Easter service and delicious potluck, I came down with the one and only coxsackie virus. It was self diagnosed so I might be wrong but all of the symptoms line up and a few kids at school had it so it makes sense. For those who don't know coxsackie virus is the human form of foot and mouth. It comes with the usual fever, aching, sinus, sore throat, mouth sores, hand boils and nausea. Fun stuff.

So if you ask me what Easter is like in Korea I will tell you that it is a restful day spent at home recuperating. Thankfully I am mostly better already and I didn't have to use any of my sick days.

New Apartment Tour

At long last, here it is. Welcome to my home.

And because you waited so patiently I have a little bonus for you.

Turbo What?

I got an oven this week.

I ordered it online from auction, Koreas version of Ebay. I picked it out over a month ago but decided to wait until I moved in case my new apartment came with an oven. It did not. So finally last week I ordered it and on Monday it arrived. It is a Wiswell Convection Oven and it says turbo on the box so it has to be good(Turbo Convection).

The first thing I decided to make was Apple Crisp. I volunteered to bring some for a potluck this Sunday, so I figured it would be good to do a test run. I used a recipe I received via a phantom message and it turned out fantastically delicious. I invited a friend over to share it with ice cream while it was still hot. Then shared the leftovers with my coworkers at school the next day.

Wednesday I decided to bake some Island cookies(because I now live on an island), they turned out alright but weren't as tasty as the last time I had them. I guess being on an island doesn't actually make them better. They were pretty tasty as ice cream sandwiches, though.

On different note, it was a beautiful day today and so I got the video for the house tour shot. It should be up tomorrow sometime for your viewing pleasure.

Wine or Whine?

On our trip to the bull fighting we stopped by the Cheongdo Wine Tunnel, an old railroad tunnel that has been turned in to sort of a wine tour. The brochure we had said that it was a great place to go on a date, hence the title(I kid). We decided that, for a date in Korea, they had done alright.

Along the tunnel they first have a shop where you can buy the wine, next they have a shop where you can buy foods like, crackers or cake. Just past that there is an area with tables and chairs to sit and talk. If you keep walking you get to a gate that guards the storage area. If you are expecting to see the wine making in process you will be disappointed as it seems that they make the wine else where and just store it here.

The fermented fruit of choice here is the persimmon. If you have never tried a persimmon, you are not missing out on much. It is a bland, orange, mushy fruit that even at its best does not have a distinct or striking flavour. This is made neither better nor worse through the process of making it in to wine. I would say that it was below average, but I am no wine connoisseur. That being said, we sampled some of it and I did notice a marked difference, for the better, from the 'Regular' to the 'Special'. Needless to say none of us bought anything.

It turned out to be a decent way to spend half an hour, (it could have been longer had we decided to stay and chat) but I wouldn't go out of my way to see it. There is no entry fee, so if you are in the area and you are looking for something to do, check it out.

The Bulls Fight - Cheongdo

Let me start off by saying every city in Korea, no matter how small, has a festival to call their own. For the most part these festivals are arbitrarily chosen, as if from a hat, seeing that for most events there are half a dozen other places that have the same claim to fame. Let me also state here that if you have seen one Korean festival you have, in fact, pretty much seen them all. The location might be different but 90% of the rest will be the same. Same food, same booths, same atmosphere.

Cheongdo's claim to fame is bull fighting. It is an art that has been passed down for generations, or so they say. This past weekend I had the privilege of attending said fighting of the bulls. When you think of bull fighting, you probably think of that cruel ritual where a guy in tights stands in the middle of the ring and taunts a bull with a red cape, all the while stabbing him in the back. But this works differently, the bull's adversary is another bull. They have been trained to push each other in a similar style to sumo wrestling. The loser is the bull that turns and runs.

The bull fights themselves were entertaining, in a boxing sort of way. It is a chess match. The foot work and the mental work done by the bull is almost more important that his strength. For a second you think that one of them has the upper hand and then the tide turns and the other looks to be the victor. But we did not get overly in to it as we we did not understand the format. Had we understood it would have been nice to be able to follow and cheer one bull to the win.

There was also a mechanical bull that was unofficially for the foreigners to entertain the Koreans. It was also nice that there were others to go with, we were five all together so it was a good time of relaxing while taking in something new. (As you can probably tell from my writing I start off alright and then as I run out of time I rush it. This is one of those times) So to wrap up it was definitely worth the 5000 won ticket price.

Field Trip Friday

Last Friday my school went on a field trip. I was told about it the week before but completely forgot about it until I went to school in the morning and looked at the schedule. This meant that I had forgotten to remind my kids about it. Thankfully we have a daily report book that the Koreans fill out and send to the parents, so my kids were prepared.

Having no idea what the plan was for the day I decided to follow the schedule which showed that I would be teaching my first class and then we would be leaving. But as is the usual with Korean communication, they assumed that I had all the details from the paper they had given me, but the paper was all in Korean. So when one of my kids asked if we had first class that morning I said yes, to which my boss promptly told him the opposite. He then told me that I could take a nap for the first class instead. Fine by me.

Our field trip, as I would find out, was going to a house in Goyheon(the are on Goeje where my old apartment was) and planting something in a garden. I might have missed something in the translation, or lack of translation but this is what we did. We pulled up at a house, unloaded the kids, went to the backyard, stood around a small rectangle of dirt that we would be planting. Four or five types of plants were passed out and planted in no particular order at all, then we washed our hands and got back in the vans. It might have taken 20 minutes, most of that being used to get the kids to line up.

Then we went to a park for a picnic lunch. A picnic with kindergarten kids, is no picnic, and although we were in a park, it was no walk in the park. But it was nice to see the kids have some freedom to run around acting like kids and having fun. There were some gold fish in a pond which the kids tried to feed by throwing in half of their snacks. We ended up staying for the whole day just playing in the park, lots of running, a bit of relaxing, and beautiful weather. It made for a good day.

I have to cut this short as my kids are coming in 5 minutes but there is still a house tour and a bull fight rundown coming. I meant to shoot the house tour this morning but it was cloudy and since I am "selling" my house to you, it needs to be sunny.

House Tour?

No, not yet. But...

I did stop by Gwangalli Beach in Busan yesterday. We had a bit of time before our next "event" and so we decided a trip to the beach would fill it nicely. Wouldn't you know it, it did the job nicely. Gwangalli Beach as you can see, is nice and clean, and could be a good way to spend the whole day once it gets a little bit warmer.

But windy as it was we stopped to take a picture and then continued on to find something to eat. We found some Mexican food and it was absolutely delicious! I very much enjoy Mexican food so this was a treat for me. I didn't take any pictures so you will have to take my word for it.

Don't change the channel! A house tour is coming in the next couple of days as well as a rundown of the Cheondo Bull Fighting Festival that I attended on Saturday.

You Are The North Korea Man

As you already know, I teach at a kindergarten which means that the students are still very much kids. As such during playtime they like to act like kids by running around yelling, causing any kind of chaos that they can think of. I very much approve of this as it is a good way to burn off extra energy that they would otherwise use during class. So I do my best to rile them up as much as possible.

This has led me to be called monster teacher during playtime. During class I am Douglas Teacher and then once they have finished their journals and I say that they can play, instantly my name changes. They decided on the name the second week after much discussion and debate(I assume) after they noticed that I did not understand the Korean they were shouting at me. 

Then other day during playtime one of my students came up and out of the blue said, "You are the North Korea man." I can only assume that by that he was talking about The Dear Leader, as he refers to himself, Kim Jong-Il.

This delighted me as it gives me a chance to share with you the fact that Kim Jong-Il and I are very similar in many ways.  I will share three of them here with you today. The first thing is the obvious, we are both male. "But Doug" you say, "That includes half the world" Sure but wait until you hear the two other similarities. Second is that, in my own way, I am a dictator as well. "Of what territory?" you ask. My classroom. Just ask my students, it is not a democracy. Still not convinced? That is why I saved the clincher for last. We both love Perrier. Shocking but true. I just hope that you and I can still be friends.

Azaleas On Mt. Daegumsan

This past Sunday I went to Mount Daegumsan to see the Azaleas. They were in full bloom and it was wonderful. There were number of reasons for its wonderfulness.

First the weather was absolutely gorgeous(why do I only hear girls using this word?), sunny and 20 degrees celsius. Second because we weren't Korean we didn't have to walk, there is a road that leads right to the flowers saving a 30+ minute hike. Third, there were about 20 others from church to talk and hang out with. Fourth the view was incredible, it was over looking the sea and from the top you could just make out Busan through the mist. Last, and certainly not least, I got to spend the time with my lovely Annabelle on a winding mountain road.(there were probably other reasons but you have to cut it off some where)

Had any of the first four variables been changed it would have made for a completely different and probably not so wonderful afternoon.

Yes flowers are flowers but this is a MUST if you are on Geoje while they are blooming, it is written in to teachers contracts(just kidding). It's worth it if you can drive up. Unfortunately because of the timing I did not have my camera with me and so I had to settle for a few shots with my cell phone. Which I will share here:

As you can see even from the poor quality, it is a fantastic place and so I want to make it back there and take some real pictures. I told my mum(British spelling) that I was going to go this morning before school, I even woke up at 5, but when I saw that the sun wasn't up I decided that I probably shouldn't be up either. Perhaps I will go another time, I will be to late for the flowers but just riding up the winding mountain road with Annabelle with definitely be worth the time.

Rubber Band Bank

Last month after I got paid I thought it would be fun to take out 1,000,000 won just to see how much it is. Now that I have spent it I can post pictures with out the fear of being robbed. 1,000,000 of anything sounds like a lot but when it is in denominations of 10,000 it is just like having $1000 in $10 bills.

Quiznos Part II

I ended up getting around to Quiznos sooner than I thought I would. I had the Honey Bourbon Chicken sandwich and it was just like I remembered it. You order the sandwich that you want and that is where your choice ends. You get what they give you. While the taste was agreeable, it was nothing worth crossing the street for. (Half way through eating I remembered to take a picture)

Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival

If the first sentence is all that you have time to read, I will tell you that the festival was not all that it was cracked up to be. That might not be entirely true as I hadn't heard what it was cracked up to be. But it didn't have a lot to live up to. To give you an idea, the best part of the festival for me was finding a washroom. Had it not been for the people that I went with the day would have been a write off.

I went with four others from the Okpo Church. Two South Africans, an American, a Swede and myself. They kept it interesting. We parked at the designated parking on a military base and after getting tired of waiting for a shuttle bus, decided it would be better to walk. Twenty minutes later we made it to the festival grounds, which consisted of a line of tents, one side being food and the other side being trinkets. We walked down the one side and arrived in the main square(it was a circle) and waited for the karate(it was tae kon do but I don't know how to spell it) that never started. So we walked down the other side of the tent and proclaimed that we were finished.

The most interesting(and worst) part of the festival happened while I was waiting for the rest to finish shopping for trinkets. I had seen many things I have never eaten and so I decided to try some new food. I decided it would have to be larva. They are mushy and taste like dirt and slime. That being said, if there would have been another adventurous soul with a strong stomach there were many other things that I would have loved to try.

Here are some pictures:

Move: This is How We

I was walking to a friends yesterday and noticed that someone was moving in to the 14th floor of an apartment and I thought that you should see how it is done here.

It is done with the help of a lift truck. Set up the truck below your apartment, extend the rails upwards and you are ready. There is a platform that travels along the rails you. You load it full of your goods, it takes everything from beds to dressers to books, if you can fit it on the platform it will get to your window. Then send it up. Unload it and send it back down.

It's No Subway But...

I just found out this week that Goyeon has a Quiznos. This is not as exciting as if there was a Subway. Actually, if I am honest, my single experience with Quiznos was quite disappointing. The main complaint I have is that they don't let you choose your toppings. Unfortunately(for the sake of this analogy) I haven't been imprisoned in a third world country, otherwise I could tell you how similar it is. The main similarity(I assume) is not be the food quality but the lack of freedom. Regardless it is a connection to home as it was a favorite of my past roommate. I will put aside my past experience and will be stopping by in the next few weeks to see if things have improved.