Irish Pubs & Ice Hockey

Hey everyone, it's been awhile since a proper update, so we'll give one this time with all of the latest shenanigans that we're involved in.

As you've probably heard, North Korea fired artillery shells at a South Korean island that's only 12 km away from North Korea's coast. As it stands now, U.S.A. has just started going through some drills and war games with South Korea, which had been planned well ahead of the attack. North Korea is saying that if these drills go one inch into their waters than they will attack. Since U.S. has a lot of firepower here for these drills, South Korea is not too worried. South Korea really doesn't want a war. When they were originally attacked, they waited for 13 mins before firing one third of what North Korea fired at them and the government is coming under pressure that they should've responded much heavier to North Korea. So that fact might help ease your mind.

Anyway, on to less missile-heavy matters, last weekend I went into Seoul early on Friday because I was going to see a show with other public teachers called "Miso" (Korean for beautiful smile) and my co-teacher told me to go in early and see this traditional palace where they do a ceremony of changing the guards. So I went in early, took some pictures, and did some sightseeing all by myself, a first time thing for me here.




The show was really good and there was no language problem since it was pretty much non-verbal. At the beginning the screen laid out the whole story in multiple languages so you could understand what would be coming. The performers were dressed in the traditional Korean attire and did a lot of dancing and acrobatic moves.


The next night was Ali's co-worker's boyfriend's birthday so we went into Seoul again (well again for me) and went to this Irish pub. The birthday boy's friend owned the pub and had just opened it so we had a private room with lots of free food. We met some new people including a really nice couple, Ryan and Katie, who had been in Korea for a few months and didn't know that many people based on being the only teachers at their school. We hit it off and made plans to do some stuff in the future. Normally, we just kind of like pub food, but being somewhere where you don't eat it much just makes the times you do eat it so much better.

Sunday, we went to a double feature at the movies. "Let Me In" and "The Social Network" both really good. It was a good weekend as we did some stuff we hadn't done before, which had been becoming rare lately.

This weekend had a few more new things for us to experience. First though, we did an American Thanksgiving dinner with our American friends at VIPS, our go-to buffet restaurant in Uijeongbu. They don't have turkey, but there's lots of other Western food which is probably the best you can do down here for a Thanksgiving imitation.

Saturday was a day we'd been looking forward to for awhile: the hockey game. Now no one would think they have hockey in Korea and well... they kind of don't. There's an Asia Hockey League between Japan, South Korea and China comprised of 7 teams. South Korea has 2 of those 7 and neither of them are in Seoul, so hockey is still under the radar in this country. We went to Anyang which is South of Seoul and a 90 min ride on the subway for us. The arena is small and only seats roughly 1200 fans and 20% of those are probably foreigners. We went with 2 of our friends from Ali's work plus Ryan and Katie, the couple we met the week before. It was actually a pretty fun game with Anyang Halla (don't know what Halla is supposed to mean) losing to the Japanese team, Oji Eagles, 3-2 in overtime. Of course the skill level wasn't up to the same standard as the NHL but it wasn't bad. It was a pretty competitive game throughout. Both teams have a few Foreign players as well so you can still boo someone knowing that they probably understood you.


Work is still the same. I have 13 weeks left and 3 of those are vacation weeks, so that should be fun. Christmas is just around the corner so we bought a Christmas tree. Nothing too big. The weather is around -4 as a low and +8 as a high so pretty close to back home.

The not-so-big tree.

Well that's all for now. Bye!

Yeonpyeong Island

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11825445

Hi everyone!

I don't know if you've heard the recent developments between the North and South but I posted the BBC link above if you haven't followed it. We're all safe and sound here. The island is really far North, right up by North Korea and it's been disputed for ages, it doesn't seem like anywhere else is in danger right now. My South Korean colleagues are, once again, displaying great skepticism about the whole thing and they are positive it won't result in a response from the South. They were right with the sinking of the Korean warship in March so they are probably right again. Anyway, the Canadian embassy is on the alert and will contact us if things begin to escalate so don't worry!

Other than that, everything here is still just peachy.

All the best,

Ali and Jesse

Tying the Knot and Tensions

Hi everyone!
I hope you’re all doing well. As of the 1st, we will have been in Korea for 3 months – a quarter of the way through.
So, what happened to us this week? School was the same as it usually is.
My mom sent me my rollerblades about a week ago because there is a big river that goes through Uijeongbu and amazing smooth bike paths all along it. Jesse has never been much of a skater or rollerblader but he was a good sport and actually bought some rollerblades so I’ve been teaching him how and we’ve been going rollerblading, which has been a lot of fun.
Friday night was a teacher from the other ECC in Uijeongbu’s last night. Everyone went out for galbi, as usual, but Jesse was feeling sort of galbied-out and I never eat galbi anyway so we just went over to our friends’ apartment and hung out on their roof and played cards while everyone else was at dinner and then we met up with them later. It weird here because you have a group of about 20 people who are all friends but, every month, some people leave and new people arrive so the dynamic of the group is always changing. Jesse and I are already seeming like veterans because a lot of people who have been here longer than us have already gone home. Anyway, Friday night was a fun night out with all the teachers from the three main foreign hogwans in Uijeongbu (the two ECCs and another big hogwan chain called SLP).
Saturday Jesse and I got all dressed up because we’d been invited to one of his colleague’s weddings. We were researching Korean weddings all week trying to figure out what was appropriate as gifts, and dress code and stuff and were all excited because we’d read that a lot of weddings had crazy stuff like smoke machines, bubble machines, laser lights, people in crazy costumes (like Darth Vader) and lots of other awesome stuff. We met with one of Jesse’s colleagues at the subway station (her nick-name is ‘Froggy’ – a questionable choice). Froggy showed us the way to the church. Apparently it’s rare for Korean weddings to happen in churches, and that is maybe why we didn't see any of the awesome wedding features we'd read about. Usually people get married in wedding halls that are designed to look like castles and have the reception in the same place. We arrived late, which I was all stressed out about, but it turned out I was worrying for nothing. All through the ceremony, people were arriving late, answering cell phones, and just generally not paying much attention. It wasn’t a ‘traditonal Korean ceremony’. The bride wore a white ‘western style’ dress and the groom was in a suit. There were performances by a singer and then a group of kids (many of whom Jesse recognized as his students).

The bride and groom and a massive screen showing the ceremony.


Here is a video of some the kids' performance.

Lots of people weren’t dressed up at all. Lots were in jeans, cut off jean shorts, t-shirts, running shoes, etc. Jesse and I were the most over-dressed for sure. After the ceremony, people went to take pictures with the couple and then headed to another floor in the building for lunch. Lunch was buffet style with lots of choices but there weren’t nearly enough seats for all the guests so you were expected to kind of wolf down your food and then give up your chair and go home. The whole thing lasted maybe an hour and then we went home. It was an interesting experience but one I probably wouldn’t repeat unless there were definitely going to be some bubble machines and Darth Vader impersonations.


Today we’re just running errands and getting organized for another week. This week they are having elections on Wednesday so there is no school. Another 4-day week will be fantastic but it the last holiday for awhile.

One final thing that has been big news here is obviously the escalating tensions with North Korea. We know it’s been all over the press lately and I’m sure you know as much about the news as we do. From an on-the-ground perspective, though, I can tell you that no Koreans seem worried at all. They all seem convinced that it’s all being blown totally out of proportion and that we’re all really safe. To be honest, I feel like it is very unlikely that the tension will escalate to conflict but, to be safe, we’ve registered ourselves with the Canadian embassy and, if conflict arises, they are obligated to give us safe passage to the nearest neutral country. Bottom line: no one is scared here, we’re still safe and are confident we’ll continue to be so, and are taking measures to make sure we’ll be fine even if the worst happens.

Anyway, that’s all for this week! Just in case you ever need to reach us urgently and we’re not on the internet, here are our cell numbers (you need to dial 011 +82 + 1 before the number)
Ali: 3145-4958
Jesse: 3981-0890

Miss you all!
Ali and Jesse

Hot Tubs and Land Mines

Hello everyone. As of today, we've been in Korea for 2 months exactly! Time's gone by fast.

It's been two weeks since our last update because last weekend we really didn’t do anything exciting since Ali had a bad flu. However, it was kind of nice to have a quiet weekend with no travel on overly crowded subway cars.

In work related news, Ali's school just got two new teachers. Hopefully that will lighten her work schedule for May.

Both Ali and I had open classes this week. An open class is when the parents come in and sit in the back of the class to watch the lesson. It's a bit crazy for Ali's school because she has to spend a couple of weeks rehearsing with the kids what the lesson will be like. It's almost like they are rehearsing a script so when the parents come in it looks like the teacher runs great classes and all the kids are learning. My open classes are a bit stressful too but there's not as much prepearation and practicing as Ali's school.

I went out Wednesday night with a bunch of teachers from her school for a ‘guys’ night’ and we went out for galbi (which is what we do all the time) but then we went to a jimjilbong, which was quite a unique experience. A jimjilbong is basically a public bathhouse with hot tubs, cold pools, saunas, areas to relax, and even rooms you can stay overnight. It is separated by gender and everyone walks around nude. Some of the hot tubs were hotter than any hot tub I've ever been in but the Koreans love it. It was a bit weird but an interesting cultural experience none-the-less.

We also went to see Ironman 2 this week (not bad but definitely not a must-see) because it was a rare event that a movie comes out here weeks before it does in America. It only did so that it’s opening wouldn’t conflict with the World Cup but they know Americans don’t care about soccer so they aren’t so worried.

Today was pretty exiting. We got up early and met a tour group going to the DMZ (de-militarized zone). A quick history about the DMZ for those who don’t know: The DMZ is the border between North and South Korea and holds the distinction of being the most heavily fortified and guarded border in the world. It was created just after the Korean war. However, it's not just a line separating the countries, but rather a buffer zone to make sure the countries aren't too close together. It is mostly an untouched piece of land (full of landmines, of course) 4km wide that spans the width of the country. It is very heavily armed and guarded on both sides and there are places where armed men from both countries just stand and stare at each other all day trying to intimidate each other. Because no one is allowed in the DMZ, it’s become a pretty unique wildlife reserve as well with animals able to thrive without human influence. Since the ‘70s, 4 tunnels have been discovered that run under the DMZ and into South Korea from the North. The tunnels are big enough so tens of thousands of men with heavy artillery can get through in an hour for a surprise attack on South Korea. The last tunnel was discovered in ’95 and many suspect there are other tunnels still to be discovered.

Because the DMZ runs across the entire width of the country, there's different areas to check out, and not all of them can be seen in a day. On our tour of the DMZ, we first went to Cheol Won, which is a more quiet area with less tourist fanfare. During the drive up there, there was wire on both sides of the road with signs indicating the presence of land mines so we knew when we were close. Once there, we went to an observation point where you could see posts from both North and South Korea, as well as a large area of the DMZ. Tensions don't seem too high here as we observed South Korean soliders playing volleyball in the distance.

South Korean guard tower at the DMZ

We then went to the 2nd tunnel, put hard hats on, and went right in. This might have been the best part of the trip, walking through a tunnel dug by the North Koreans for the sole purpose of attacking the South. When the South first discovered them and sent people in to investigate, several lives were lost due to hidden mines and dynamite, but it seems like they cleared all those out now. The tunnel was very low (the hard hats saved us several times) and wet but incredibly cool. You obviously can only walk so far before you’re gated off to prevent you from reaching North Korea.

Inside the tunnel


Us inside the tunnel. Looking good...


Ali with a South Korean soldier


Counting the days since the Korean war ended

From there we saw an old Labor Party building where lots of prisoners were kept and tortured under the North Koreans. (it’s been bombed since then and is now only a ruin).

Labor Party Building

We then went to a place called "White Horse Hill" and we were lucky enough to have a Korean soldier who spoke almost perfect English act as our tour guide and fill us in on the history of the location. It was a large hill that was a pivotal point to control since you had a view of where attacking forces would be coming from. Over a period of ten days, control of the hill went back and forth between the North and South 24 times. All of the craters in the hill created from countless bombings apparently resemble a white horse from above. Our tour guide also showed us a building and stated that after losing the White Horse Hill battle, the North Korean general in charge went there and cried for 3 days. I guess there's still some hard feelings over the conflict...

This is a statue of hands praying supposed to honour Korean soldiers's sacrifces.

After we left the hill, we did an 80 min bus ride to Im Jin Gak, a more touristy area of the DMZ. Little did we know that touristy meant carnivals, souvenir shops, art exhibits, parks, kids flying kites, pinwheels, and cotton candy. It was very weird to see how an area so close to a massive amount of weaponry was a place for wholesome family fun. Not to say it was all like that. It was the location of the ‘Freedom Bridge’ – the only bridge between North and South Korea.

Freedom Bridge

After that we got on the bus and headed home. A notable area we didn't see is the village of Panmunjeom. This is a village actually located inside the DMZ buffer zone. Apparently, it's an area where farmers are permitted to live and must observe a curfew. I think it's under watch by the South as the North have thier own small village in the DMZ. Only certain tours are permitted there (I think only US army ones) and a dress code is observed. Maybe another time.

Not much else is new here. Of course you’ve heard about the South Korean boat that was sunk due to an ‘exterior explosion’ but it’s beginning to look more and more like a North Korean torpedo hit it. There are lots of questions here about whether the South will retaliate to send a message or keep it cool to avoid damaging their economy so it’s really interesting being here for all this. Here is an article with more information if you haven't been following the story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8648970.stm

Next Wednesday is Children's day, a national holiday. I remember in North America when kids would complain about Mother's Day and Father's day and ask why isn't there a Kid's day. Well, they have that here but no Mom and Dad day, instead opting for the joint "Parents Day." It looks like parents got the short end of the stick here. Anyway, it also happens to be Cinco De Mayo, so we have plans to go to a Mexican restuarant and see a soccer game, which should be very cool, so we’ll keep you posted on that. I get the Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off but Ali has to teach Thursday and Friday.

We’re both still doing well and having a great time!

Love,
Ali and Jesse