A few tasty tidbits..

For me, just writing a blog (or diary, if you will) is challenge enough. Somehow, I always find a way to overbook myself... in this case, I am not just attempting this one blog, but three! As a joke related to my talent for overbooking myself, I have been taking a few pictures of the food we've been eating lately and telling Julia that they are for her "Korean Food Blog" that she has not begun to write, nor committed herself to writing... On that note, I thought I'd share a few food pics and notes since the likelihood that she is as crazy as I am and will actually take on a korean food blog is, well, remains to be seen. So, feast your eyes upon our feasts of late:

Tonight's menu was Shabu-Shabu followed up by Tea and this donut thing, its sweet and tastes like a pancake with syrup (but lighter)

SHABU-SHABU

First, you have the pot of super tasty brew and vegetables which is basically two kinds of mushrooms, some green - uh - grass, and a few potato wedges..

Then, you take your plate of thinly sliced raw beef and you place your slices of beef into your boiling pot of yummy veggie stew... wait a little bit until the meat cooks, and then remove it, dip into super yummy meat dip and eat - preferably with veggies!

Above: Lucy, a fellow GnB teacher, and Crista showing off their thinly slice Shabu beef...

Even though eating Shabu-Shabu leaves us all full in our tummies, there is a tasty bun place that just opened up downstairs from our favorite Shabu-Shabu restaurant, so we stopped in to split a few buns and have some tea and coffee..

Here's Julia with the rose colored, yummy tea.  If I had been more thorough, I would have gotten pictures of the whole bun and the super cool tea pot contraption that you are given with your tea so that you basically brew your own tea at your table and siphon it into your own cup... super fun!

Next there's everyone's favorite hangover cure, Pork Bone Soup.   This soup sounds scary and kind of looks scary, but tastes DELICIOUS... makes you want to say "Just give me a pig and I'll suck on its back!"

PORK BONE SOUP (korean name coming soon)

Here's Julia and Crista at the table cooking their pig spine and anticipating the yummy meat taste...  Below is a close up of the pot as it cooks the pork spine.  If you are looking closely enough, you can see the big chunks of spinal bone.  We've eaten this a few times and when you first arrive, it looks like it is all bone chunks in a pot and you wonder where the meat is... well.. you have to pick it off of the bone.  Its awesome!  But the meat is so good and tender, you usually see people closely inspecting their pot of bones for more meat.  Its truly a way to get back in touch with our more animalistic nature..haha!

Here is my bowl, the end product.  You can see all of the carefully retrieved meat chunks along with some sparce veggies (onion and potato mostly) and a dumpling.  And, if you're paying attention, you'll see a few of the many side dishes available to me in the above photo... 

There are many other meals that we've tried - both food we've loved and food that has failed to impress us.  But for now, I will let you savor these tasty morsels... 

AND

Of course, when you in a jam, there is always a Shin-cup! Julia loves these guys, but they are a tiny bit too spicy for me to eat all the time..

Intro to my kids, part 1

Kristina, Wendy and Dion.  If any picture could accurately sum up the diversity in personalities I teach each day, this can.  Kristina is smart, outgoing, polite and considerate.  She likes to have a good time and show that she knows something but she doesn't get too out of hand.  Bonus: she gives a killer back massage.

Then we have Wendy.  She is average in skill and her behavior swings wildly between good (where she'll pick up trash and do the lesson) to really bad (where she becomes a boy and screams and goes crazy).  Bonus: she likes to play with my hair. 

Finally Dion.  This kid has WAAAY too much energy and prefers to be the center of attention regardless of what he needs to do to get it.  He's very very strong too - so although he's not too bad, he does tend to get physical with the other boys leaving them crying.  He loud and spunky.  Bonus: he can sometimes be entertaining.

Ah, Sally.  This girl is kind of like a girl version of Dion but quieter.  She's Mrs. Mischief, capital S.  Its kind of funny because she is tiny but full of energy and always squirming around and getting things behind your back before you realize she's out of her chair.  Honestly, she can wear on you, but most of the time she just makes me laugh.  I think its because she's really smart so i don't have to worry that she isn't grasping the material  - she's probably just bored.  Bonus: she's so light that i can pick her up, hold her upside down and tickle torture her until she behaves.

This is me watching Jane finish her test while the other kids, who have already finished, run wild around the classroom - totally distracting her.  Its awesome.

Early in the day I have younger kids or kids who are just beginning to learn English.  For me it is more difficult to teach them because i can't tell what they are understanding and what they don't - and they often forget what you just taught them a few days later.  So, because I'm currently teaching them things like "make a line" "skip" "clap your hands" and "jump" - I actually spend most of this class running around with them screaming a command until they all perform it.  I'm sure it doesn't look like a proper class at all ;)

Pictured: Aaron, sweet kid who tries really hard.  Calvin, very smart and pensive but likes to have fun when he can tell its okay to.  And below: Ted.  This kid is smart but super quiet, unless you can get him riled up - and then you have to deal with the monster you've created.  I think he's a slow-to-warm-up to you kind of kid.  But he's probably the smartest in the class.

As I've mentioned previously, I teach a different set of classes every other day.  This means that I have a set of the same six classes on monday, wednesday and friday and another set of six classes on tuesday and thursday.  Whether a set is MWF or TTH alternates each week.  So, I've labeled the sets thus: my good set and my challenging set.   The first (and last) pictures are my challenging set, the rest of these pictures are actually my good kids!

Below is Bruce, Andy and Leah.  Leah, being strong for a girl, tends to beat up on the boys - i think she likes Andy because she's usually chasing him around before class starts.  Andy is so cute - he has this innocent look to his face.  But he definitely likes to goof off.  In fact, the most involved I got him to be was in saying the names of the planets... it was fun to see him actually trying hard to say pluto, venus, etc..   Bruce is a super genius.  I don't think he should be in my class but i wouldn't want to lose him either..  It presents a bit of a problem because he finishes everything in ten minutes while the rest of the class takes a whole hour and doesn't even finish!  ugh.  smart kids.  The good thing is that he is super mellow and doesn't get agitated to be idle.  I often just give him the UNO deck and I'm trying to teach him to shuffle western style.  Now THAT he finds challenging!

I just had to finish this post with a reminder that this is what I experience all day long.  Just in case you wonder why I'm too tired to write a thesis or emails or whatever.  But I'm working on it guys, and its amazing how endearing THIS can be:

Official Alien and MAPS

That's right!  I'm officially recognized as an ALIEN.  After all the years of my mother denying that I'm actually from Venus, I have proof!  Now I just need to find my twin....

Just to give ya'll an idea of where we are (since we just found out ourselves), I've taken the liberty of posting these here maps..  The first is of Ulsan, the area that we live in.  The heart marks the location of our apartments and the checkmark is a downtown area called "Samsan dong" that we have visited several times already.  If you are able to view the map well enough to read it, you can see Hogye Station where we catch the train to Busan (I put an R symbol there) and the starburst is Ajin Plaza, where we work.

And for everyone who kept asking exactly WHERE in Korea Ulsan was located, here is a map of South Korea...  I've marked where we live (Ulsan) and for all of you who were inquiring, I've also marked the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) so that you can gauge just how close to "danger" we are.  

Ok, goodnight for now.  I've got to contact my homeland... (Venus of course)...  

What??? There's no movie theatre in this town??

Yep.  You read it right.  This town ain't got no flix house.  Not even a DVD bong...  To watch any movie outside of your home (or someone else's), you have to travel about 20 minutes to the nearest city center area.  And.. get this madness: you can't even play Korean DVDs on your computer or you will permenately lock your computer's DVD settings to Korean formatting!  WTF mate??  Dang copywrite infringement protection crap.  Now I'm going to have to buy a DVD player if i want to rent or buy movies here and watch them at home.  Can I live without movies???  hmm... lets explore this further...

What is there to do here if you can't watch movies?  Well.. there's the trampolines.  Julia and I are dying to get on them and give them a good hard bouncing, but we're not sure if they are "only for kids" or not.  Be assured, we'll be using them too - i mean, we are all just kids at heart anyway, right? - it'll just be funny if we get chased off of them every time.



The other option is video games, as they are everywhere...  but how long will i be able to crouch up against those tiny game consoles...??

Finally, there's cooking and/or eating.  Do I even need to go into this?  We all know that i'm going to have to cook occasionally anyway if I want to stay alive (this is on days that Julia leaves me to fend for myself of course)...  and the idea of handling some of those narly fish and sealife species I've never heard of before scares the living daylights out of me.  And eating... well, same answer.  Besides, if i spend all my time eating, that could be bad.  Cause if this country has anything in abundance - its ice cream.  yeah baby.

So, yes, there is always reading, writing, working on thesis, etc.  And I am talking about home-ish activities of course... cheap entertainment type stuff.  Sure there's camping/hiking, traveling, visiting historic places, etc... but what do i do on those nights that my brain has hit children-overload and i need to veg out without thinking and be somewhat entertained???  what i ask you!?  

yeah yeah.. but even writing blogs takes some intellectual effort you know!

The blog challenge

A diary is something I've always wanted to have but never found the diligence to create.  Now that I'm many miles away from my friends and family, and in the face of new technology, I have the option to create a sort of online public diary and am running into familiar patterns of neglect and withdrawal.  So, here before you now, I challenge myself to break this silly old pattern and keep my goal of at least one blog a week.  And, even more inspiring, a friend back home is challenging me further by creating a blog of her day to day thoughts for me to feel included in as well.  Now I think I am sufficiently motivated...  read away ~ if you dare!

Market day: Redux  and ...  Teacher's day! 

Today was market day near our school, as is every thursday.  We saw vendors who were both new and ones that we recognized from two weeks ago.  We also saw several new items for sale - which is great because it promises that market day will not always be the same boring items... maybe its seasonal... maybe its like the swap meet and it depends on who booked sidewalk space or who got their first that morning... maybe it depends on if a "farmer" has sold all his crop (or its gone bad) and he has nothing left to sell for a while... who knows?

Today we saw a large swath of garlic.  Made me think of Loree and her dad and the garlic - also the garlic festival i've gone to with my dad.  And, last but not least, the gianormous amount of garlic i've been eating since i got here.  you might be thinking - oh, they put a lot of garlic in food there?  Nah - they make it available though and with all the meat (pork mostly) they serve, i end up eating mostly garlic to disguise the fact that i'm not knawshing on loads of meat like everyone else... garlic and onions... yep - good thing i ain't got a lover here!  har har...

I also saw some chicken which isn't very common, and, from what i understand, expensive.  Last weekend, while Julia, Crista and I ate some chicken, we discussed whether the chickens here are smaller than at home or not and whether that had to do with the hormones pumped into chicken in the USA...  what do you think?

We left the market rather abruptly because an old (possibly drunk) korean man approached us and grabbed a hold of our shoulders and wouldn't let go... we had to run away.  It was terrible and all these other korean vendors nearby were laughing.  However, we did run into our boss buying us little flower arrangements for todays holiday: teacher's day.  (Holy crap - I'm a teacher???)  And she asked what flower i liked, so i got a few lillies in my arrangement for that coincidence..

but, as Jimmy Buffett says, I've got good days and bad days and going half mad days...  and my tuesday/thursday kids are, lets just say, a challenge - and then some.  So, while i did receive a chocolate bar and a rose/wand thing, I also had to deal with a lot of behavioral challenges and general discipline - type stress.  However, spending a full hour singing "head, shoulders, knees and toes" and making it into a simon-says kind of thing where I say "head" but point to my shoulders to see who is paying attention and who's "out" -- that was fun.  But now i have that damn tune stuck in my head.  

Ok, must sleep - its 3 am.  (is that a song?) 

Dominos

The flight was long.  I was seated in the center aisle, one seat in on the right side of the plane.  Although I was able to drift to sleep a few times, it didn't last long and I was awake again.  My legs were cramped because my leg room was all but non-existent due to the presence of my backpack with laptop ensconced inside.  Usually I love flying and I often work through my book of sudoku or cryptograms, but this time I didn't feel into it.  Luckily, although i had seen them before, i liked the movies that were playing and killed a good four hours enjoying them again.  So much for my dreams of learning a few korean phrases on the long flight, working through my thesis statistics or some other resourceful use of the 13+ hours of flying time that faced me - I watched Enchanted and Becoming Jane.  

Stopping in Japan allowed me a small respite from my cramped condition and I was happily bouncing along to my next terminal when I realized that I had left the hats I was wearing (both of them!) in the airplane!  Surrounded largely by people who did not speak english, and having already  gone through customs for Japan, I worried that they were lost forever.  But alas, the lady working at my new terminal spoke english and I reached her in time for her to call the people cleaning my previous plane to retrieve the hats.  Thank goodness!  One of those hats doesn't even belong to me, but to my best friend back home. 

Finally I hear that we are descending into Busan.  I look out of the window, feeling a sudden sense of excitement or panic - I am actually about to be in Korea!  Other than extremely tired, I wasn't sure how I felt at this pivotal moment.  My first impression: Korea, land of dominos!  All I could make out in the night sky from the plane above Busan were dozens of tall, skinny buildings arranged in a flowing fashion around the landscape, winding out with the peninsulas and back in, circling the dark hills and gathering in circled bunches.  The land looked littered with glowing domino's waiting for some giant hand to tip one over and begin the entertainment.  Very interesting.

Once off the airplane and in the car headed toward Ulsan, the city looked more like Las Vegas on crack.  The neon lights glowing absurdly bright for 10pm, many places stacked upon one another, people wandering around as if they weren't nearly as tired as I was.  I slid down in the back seat and tried to fall asleep for the hour long drive - and I would have if the recruiters didn't ask me a question everytime my eyes closed!  Do I think Korean men are handsome?  Honestly, that's the only question I remember now... I'm sure I mumbled odd answers to their other questions!  So much for making a stunning first impression!

The Home Connect

Greetings from my new home internet connection!  

Suffice it to say that this step has taken some challenge when the tech guy doesn't speak a hint of english and i don't speak techie in korean...  i did encounter some minor setbacks, but i seem to be up and running.   Its late now, but tune in soon for the "domino arrival," "my apartment in pictures," "first day of school (aka - damn these kids can SCREAM)," and other exciting tales from abroad.  I hope to hear from all of you back home as well, but for now, it is long past my bedtime.

Goodnight, annyonghaseyo!

=)