Hi everyone!
This week nothing very exciting happened. We're both trying to save some money for Japan so we didn't have much planned. Friday night we went to Shabu Shabu (a Japanese food that is many courses - really delicious) because two of our friends, Mallory and Jacquie, had their parents visiting because it's their summer break. It was neat to see some foreign adults for a change and everyone came out to meet them.
Saturday night Ali and I went to see Inception, which we both thought was pretty good. After that we discovered this place called German Haus downtown, which is a huge restaurant and microbrewery - totally different from every other place we've been in Korea. We had some of the beer and nachos and watched some live(ish) music - more like kareoke than live music, really.
I have been really busy working on my summer camp with the students so I worked most of the weekend and Ali went rollerblading and ran errands.
Nothing else is new and exciting. Next week is a 2-day week for me and a 3-day week for Ali and then we're heading to Japan!!! We've planned most of our trip and are getting really excited. We'll write a long blog post when we get back so I'll keep it short today.
Jesse
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Sunday, July 18, 2010
MUDFEST!
Hello again everyone!
It's technically Jesse's week to write the blog but he's been so busy trying to plan his summer camp that it's taking up every free second he has so I'm going to do it.
This week was a bit dramatic at my school. One of my friends, Alida - the South African opera singer - spanked a kid once on the bum and drew an 'X' in his book because he was spitting on his friends and not listening or doing his work. Anyway, the parents complained and she was fired so it was all very intense around the workplace. I'm sad she's leaving because she was really cool and because it's going to involve a lot more overtime and work for everyone else. Reg - my boss - has already asked me to take over her class of eight 3-year olds, which will be a little exhausting.
On Friday my kids went on a field trip to Carribean Bay, a huge water park about an hour away. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain (an unsurprising consequence of planning field trips in monsoon season) so the kids spent most of the trip shivering or playing in a boring indoor wading pool.
This weekend was a big one. Saturday morning we woke up at 4am and ran to the subway, took a 1.5 hour subway trip to the bus terminal, and then a 2.5 hour bus ride to a city called Boeryeong in Chungcheongnam province, on the West coast of Korea. MudFest is an annual festival and is, by far, Korea's most famous festival. Everyone we'd talked to who had been previously said it was the greatest thing they did while in Korea so we were very excited.
We all piled out of the bus in our swimsuits only to find that it was torrential rain and the first day under 25 degrees we've had in months. We were shivering and soaked within seconds and beginning to really wonder why the heck we were there.
Us in the pouring rain, soaked and freezing.
Eventually, the rain stopped and we spent the afternoon meeting up with friends, losing friends in the crowd, and playing mud games. We played in this massive mud wrestling pit, went on massive mud slides, and played this game where you had to run on slippery muddy plastic with a bungee cord tied around your waist. It was lots of fun.
One of the mud wrestling pits.
Afterwards, we washed off in the ocean, which was probably the best part of the weekend. The waves were gigantic and absolutely pounded you. It was so much fun but we were both battered and exhausted after a few hours in there.
Me playing in one of the smaller waves.
After that we went back to our hotel, showered and changed, and met up with our friends at a seafood restaurant for dinner. After dinner there were fireworks and beach parties and concerts. We saw Super Junior, one of Korea's most famous pop bands play, which was very exciting. Korea is still very in to the boy/girl groups and their Spice Girls equivalent is a 9-girl group called Girls Generation and their Backstreet Boys equivalent is Super Junior. Saturday night was lots of fun but we went to bed pretty early because it had been a long and exhausting day.
The hotel rooms slept 9-15 people - just on the hardwood floor with a blanket and pillow - but, surprisingly, we both slept fantastically. I think we were both so tired.
Sunday we woke up early and had some breakfast burritos and were thrilled to see the sun was shining and it was very hot. We headed for the ocean right away because it was so much fun the day before but the waves were much smaller so we went and got painted with mud instead. We spent the day watching concerts and chatting with our friends on the beach and, when we finally washed all the mud off, found we had sunburns that were splotchy and polka-dotted from the clay - not the most attractive look. We got on the bust home around 4pm and arrived back at our house around 9.
My friend Jennelle and I very muddy.
Jesse also very muddy.
The main beach.
We're gearing up for another week and are excited to head to Japan in 10 days!
Miss you all,
Ali
It's technically Jesse's week to write the blog but he's been so busy trying to plan his summer camp that it's taking up every free second he has so I'm going to do it.
This week was a bit dramatic at my school. One of my friends, Alida - the South African opera singer - spanked a kid once on the bum and drew an 'X' in his book because he was spitting on his friends and not listening or doing his work. Anyway, the parents complained and she was fired so it was all very intense around the workplace. I'm sad she's leaving because she was really cool and because it's going to involve a lot more overtime and work for everyone else. Reg - my boss - has already asked me to take over her class of eight 3-year olds, which will be a little exhausting.
On Friday my kids went on a field trip to Carribean Bay, a huge water park about an hour away. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain (an unsurprising consequence of planning field trips in monsoon season) so the kids spent most of the trip shivering or playing in a boring indoor wading pool.
This weekend was a big one. Saturday morning we woke up at 4am and ran to the subway, took a 1.5 hour subway trip to the bus terminal, and then a 2.5 hour bus ride to a city called Boeryeong in Chungcheongnam province, on the West coast of Korea. MudFest is an annual festival and is, by far, Korea's most famous festival. Everyone we'd talked to who had been previously said it was the greatest thing they did while in Korea so we were very excited.
We all piled out of the bus in our swimsuits only to find that it was torrential rain and the first day under 25 degrees we've had in months. We were shivering and soaked within seconds and beginning to really wonder why the heck we were there.
Us in the pouring rain, soaked and freezing.
Eventually, the rain stopped and we spent the afternoon meeting up with friends, losing friends in the crowd, and playing mud games. We played in this massive mud wrestling pit, went on massive mud slides, and played this game where you had to run on slippery muddy plastic with a bungee cord tied around your waist. It was lots of fun.
One of the mud wrestling pits.
Afterwards, we washed off in the ocean, which was probably the best part of the weekend. The waves were gigantic and absolutely pounded you. It was so much fun but we were both battered and exhausted after a few hours in there.
Me playing in one of the smaller waves.
After that we went back to our hotel, showered and changed, and met up with our friends at a seafood restaurant for dinner. After dinner there were fireworks and beach parties and concerts. We saw Super Junior, one of Korea's most famous pop bands play, which was very exciting. Korea is still very in to the boy/girl groups and their Spice Girls equivalent is a 9-girl group called Girls Generation and their Backstreet Boys equivalent is Super Junior. Saturday night was lots of fun but we went to bed pretty early because it had been a long and exhausting day.
The hotel rooms slept 9-15 people - just on the hardwood floor with a blanket and pillow - but, surprisingly, we both slept fantastically. I think we were both so tired.
Sunday we woke up early and had some breakfast burritos and were thrilled to see the sun was shining and it was very hot. We headed for the ocean right away because it was so much fun the day before but the waves were much smaller so we went and got painted with mud instead. We spent the day watching concerts and chatting with our friends on the beach and, when we finally washed all the mud off, found we had sunburns that were splotchy and polka-dotted from the clay - not the most attractive look. We got on the bust home around 4pm and arrived back at our house around 9.
My friend Jennelle and I very muddy.
Jesse also very muddy.
The main beach.
We're gearing up for another week and are excited to head to Japan in 10 days!
Miss you all,
Ali
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Spicy Samosas and Surplus Shoes
Hi Everyone!
How’s it going? Not much is going on here. Jesse has been really busy this week planning his summer English camps. Elementary school ends mid-July but many of the kids still come to school as usual and attend ‘camp’, which is basically just school. My kindergarten kids only get a week off in the summer and all my elementary students will still keep attending school. They don’t get much of a holiday.
Anyway, this week it was one of my friend’s birthdays so we all went to an Indian restaurant downtown, which I didn’t know about but which is awesome! So excited that we found another great place to go to. After that some of the girls and I went to see Eclipse – the new Twilight movie. It was lots of fun but poor Jesse was stuck home working.
This weekend Jesse and I tried to save some money because we’ve settled on our itinerary for Japan and it will probably be pretty expensive. On Friday night we went to that Indian place again because Jesse missed it and I was craving the samosas again and then we just walked around downtown and headed home.
Saturday we got up and decided to go ice skating again since Jesse had gone with the other public school teachers last time and I had missed it. It was lots of fun despite the skates being horribly dull. For some reason all the little Korean girls on the ice seemed to literally latch on to me and I spent a good part of the time just dragging a chain of a million screeching girls around the ice and answering the only questions they could ask in English like, ‘What is your favorite season?’ and ‘What is your hobby?’ It was pretty cute.
After that, we consulted our Korean travel guidebook and looked at the list of ’25 things to do while you’re in Korea’. One of the things we hadn’t done yet was go to Dondaemun Market, a huge market right on our subway line. We decided to check it out and ended up having a lot of fun. Dongdaemun is a huge area of the city that used to be the East Gate of the city of Seoul. Dongdaemun actually means ‘East Gate’ and the beautiful ancient gate is still there.
Here is what the East Gate looks like.
Now there are sprawling stalls selling everything you could want in every direction as well as several malls so you can wander indoors and out for hours. It’s open 24 hours a day and has all kinds of crazy foods and products. We each bought some cheap shoes and clothes and strolled by the river. It was a fun day and now we can check that off our list of things we want to do while we’re here.
These are some of the shoe vendors at Dongdaemun Market.
Here are some of the food counters.
Sunday Jesse had tons of work to do so he did that and I cleaned up and ran errands – nothing exciting.
Next weekend we will be going to MudFest – a massive festival in the South where you basically play in all different kinds of mud all weekend. I don’t totally understand what it’s all about but it’s supposed to be amazing.
Anyway, we miss you and we’ll update you next weekend!
Love,
Ali and Jesse
How’s it going? Not much is going on here. Jesse has been really busy this week planning his summer English camps. Elementary school ends mid-July but many of the kids still come to school as usual and attend ‘camp’, which is basically just school. My kindergarten kids only get a week off in the summer and all my elementary students will still keep attending school. They don’t get much of a holiday.
Anyway, this week it was one of my friend’s birthdays so we all went to an Indian restaurant downtown, which I didn’t know about but which is awesome! So excited that we found another great place to go to. After that some of the girls and I went to see Eclipse – the new Twilight movie. It was lots of fun but poor Jesse was stuck home working.
This weekend Jesse and I tried to save some money because we’ve settled on our itinerary for Japan and it will probably be pretty expensive. On Friday night we went to that Indian place again because Jesse missed it and I was craving the samosas again and then we just walked around downtown and headed home.
Saturday we got up and decided to go ice skating again since Jesse had gone with the other public school teachers last time and I had missed it. It was lots of fun despite the skates being horribly dull. For some reason all the little Korean girls on the ice seemed to literally latch on to me and I spent a good part of the time just dragging a chain of a million screeching girls around the ice and answering the only questions they could ask in English like, ‘What is your favorite season?’ and ‘What is your hobby?’ It was pretty cute.
After that, we consulted our Korean travel guidebook and looked at the list of ’25 things to do while you’re in Korea’. One of the things we hadn’t done yet was go to Dondaemun Market, a huge market right on our subway line. We decided to check it out and ended up having a lot of fun. Dongdaemun is a huge area of the city that used to be the East Gate of the city of Seoul. Dongdaemun actually means ‘East Gate’ and the beautiful ancient gate is still there.
Here is what the East Gate looks like.
Now there are sprawling stalls selling everything you could want in every direction as well as several malls so you can wander indoors and out for hours. It’s open 24 hours a day and has all kinds of crazy foods and products. We each bought some cheap shoes and clothes and strolled by the river. It was a fun day and now we can check that off our list of things we want to do while we’re here.
These are some of the shoe vendors at Dongdaemun Market.
Here are some of the food counters.
Sunday Jesse had tons of work to do so he did that and I cleaned up and ran errands – nothing exciting.
Next weekend we will be going to MudFest – a massive festival in the South where you basically play in all different kinds of mud all weekend. I don’t totally understand what it’s all about but it’s supposed to be amazing.
Anyway, we miss you and we’ll update you next weekend!
Love,
Ali and Jesse
Monday, July 5, 2010
Skating and Spaniards
So we started the rainy season here in Korea on July 1st. The month of July gets about 40% of the annual rainfall so we were expecting to see rain almost every day. It poured on July 2nd but nothing since then so maybe it will just hit us hard later. Before you consider us lucky, however, we have been in extreme heat almost every day. The temperature is in the low 30's but the humidity is pretty bad here. Worst of all, August is considered the hot month.
This week was busy at work for me because I had an open class - my second this semester. However, this time it wasn't parents watching me but teachers from other schools. Overall, I think it went okay, but these things are always a bit phony since everyone puts in an extra effort and goes all out when they know they're being evaluated.
This weekend was a bit laid back for us as we had no real big plans. Thursday, Ali and I both had our respective gender nights with girls night being spent by the river eating pizza and boy's night in a shabu shabu restaurant. On Friday we stayed in and just watched the World Cup. With Korea out of it, obviously world cup fever is gone, but there's still interest in the tournament.
On Saturday, Ali and I went separate ways; I had a get-together at an ice rink with the same group of foreign teachers I climbed a mountain with last month, and Ali went to a barbecue for two people from ECC that will be leaving in a few days. The skating was interesting as I hadn't skated since I was maybe 10 years old. The rink was crowded with kids as they were just getting out of school. (Kids in Korea go to school every other Saturday). There were even some adult speed skaters doing laps pretty fast. Despite my inexperience and the congestion, I'm happy to say that I did not fall once. I only skated for 45 minutes though because I had to leave early to go meet Ali for an opera. More on that later.
Ali had a good time at the farewell BBQ for a Calgary couple that works at ECC. It was a really hot day and amazingly not raining so everyone went onto the roof of the apartment. There was a BBQ with a variety of foods - an okay way to spend an afternoon.
That night, Ali, I and three friends went to see the popular opera "Carmen" in Seoul. One of the friends is a trained opera singer so she was eager to get people to go with her. Ali and I are glad that we saw it so that we can say we've seen an opera. But as for the actual experience. Well... we were a group of English people watching an opera set in Spain and spoken in French by a Korean cast. So I feel like a lot was lost in translation. We were both new to the opera scene so we didn't know what to expect. Alida, the trained opera singer, has seen many, and said that this was the best production she'd seen. If that's the best that opera gets, I don't think we'll be repeating the experience anytime soon. Ali, whose French is better than mine, missed a lot of what was being said due to the opera accents. There were subtitles but of course those were in Korean.
Us waiting outside the opera
The Seoul Arts Centre
Sunday was a relaxing day. We stayed at home during the afternoon and booked our flight to Japan. We will be spending 5 nights in the country starting at the end of July. We're excited about the trip since we've heard so many great things about Japan. The plan is to go from Kyoto to Tokyo. Later that evening we went to the movies and a restaurant in downtown Uijeongbu.
Overall, it was a relaxing weekend and we'll probably have a few more of those in order to save money that we're going to be spending in the most expensive city in the world.
We'll update again next weekend.
This week was busy at work for me because I had an open class - my second this semester. However, this time it wasn't parents watching me but teachers from other schools. Overall, I think it went okay, but these things are always a bit phony since everyone puts in an extra effort and goes all out when they know they're being evaluated.
This weekend was a bit laid back for us as we had no real big plans. Thursday, Ali and I both had our respective gender nights with girls night being spent by the river eating pizza and boy's night in a shabu shabu restaurant. On Friday we stayed in and just watched the World Cup. With Korea out of it, obviously world cup fever is gone, but there's still interest in the tournament.
On Saturday, Ali and I went separate ways; I had a get-together at an ice rink with the same group of foreign teachers I climbed a mountain with last month, and Ali went to a barbecue for two people from ECC that will be leaving in a few days. The skating was interesting as I hadn't skated since I was maybe 10 years old. The rink was crowded with kids as they were just getting out of school. (Kids in Korea go to school every other Saturday). There were even some adult speed skaters doing laps pretty fast. Despite my inexperience and the congestion, I'm happy to say that I did not fall once. I only skated for 45 minutes though because I had to leave early to go meet Ali for an opera. More on that later.
Ali had a good time at the farewell BBQ for a Calgary couple that works at ECC. It was a really hot day and amazingly not raining so everyone went onto the roof of the apartment. There was a BBQ with a variety of foods - an okay way to spend an afternoon.
That night, Ali, I and three friends went to see the popular opera "Carmen" in Seoul. One of the friends is a trained opera singer so she was eager to get people to go with her. Ali and I are glad that we saw it so that we can say we've seen an opera. But as for the actual experience. Well... we were a group of English people watching an opera set in Spain and spoken in French by a Korean cast. So I feel like a lot was lost in translation. We were both new to the opera scene so we didn't know what to expect. Alida, the trained opera singer, has seen many, and said that this was the best production she'd seen. If that's the best that opera gets, I don't think we'll be repeating the experience anytime soon. Ali, whose French is better than mine, missed a lot of what was being said due to the opera accents. There were subtitles but of course those were in Korean.
Us waiting outside the opera
The Seoul Arts Centre
Sunday was a relaxing day. We stayed at home during the afternoon and booked our flight to Japan. We will be spending 5 nights in the country starting at the end of July. We're excited about the trip since we've heard so many great things about Japan. The plan is to go from Kyoto to Tokyo. Later that evening we went to the movies and a restaurant in downtown Uijeongbu.
Overall, it was a relaxing weekend and we'll probably have a few more of those in order to save money that we're going to be spending in the most expensive city in the world.
We'll update again next weekend.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
