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
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Little France, Veggie Burgers, and Stuff Korea Does Right
Hi Everyone
This week was good, same as usual. One new thing is that, on Thursday, we had our first Korean lesson with our friends Dave, Tom, and Jonathan. A tutor came to Dave and Tom's apartment and gave us lessons for an hour and a half. Hopefully we'll continue lessons until we go and become pretty good at Korean. In our first lesson, we learned about 15 verbs and how to make statements, questions, and commands, both to friends and to important people. It's pretty tough but we're getting the hang of it.
Also, on Thursday, while you were all having Remembrance Day, Korea was celebrating a much less somber holiday. A company, called Pepero, somehow managed to create a massive holiday, solely devoted to the giving of it's product. Pepero is a long cookie/cracker stick, dipped in chocolate. There are now tons of variations on the traditional pepero, some being as long as walking sticks, some being made of a sugar-cone material, some where you dip the stick in strawberry or vanilla icing... but basically, everyone gives everyone else Pepero on 11/11 (so chosen because the number 1 looks like a Pepero stick). Ali got about thirty boxes Peperos from her students but I didn't get any. Luckily, I can eat all of hers.
Here's a pepero display at lotte mart.
Ali has finally found some Korean food she really likes, which is great because now we can go to Korean restaurants where both of us can have a full meal for about $5. Pretty great. In case you're wondering, her favorite Korean dishes are called Rak bokki (ramen noodles, dok bokki noodles (kind of super thick rice noodles), and a hard boiled egg in a super spicy sauce) and chamchi chumok bap (basically canned tuna inside a rice and seaweed ball). They sound not great but are actually really good. And I eat everything so I have fun ordering random dishes off the menu to see what they are.
So, this weekend Ali was supposed to have to work on Saturday but her director changed her mind at the last second so she had the weekend free. On Saturday, we went into Seoul because Ali really needed a new winter coat so we did some shopping in Myeong-dong (a place with American stores). Ali got a coat and some new clothes and then we headed to a new area of Seoul, which is in my book of the Top 100 Things to do in Seoul. The area was called Seorae and it is a small community of French people. There are about 600 French people, more than half of which are children. The international French school is there as well as French bakeries, cafes, and street signs.
It was a really nice neighbourhood, and it was very unlike most of Seoul just because there were lots of living space. It had tree-lined streets, all of which were changing colors, and small tri-plexes, instead of big apartment buildings. We went to a French bakery and got chocolate croissants and baguette and listened to French people talking to their kids in French - it was pretty cool to hear another language for a change. We ate our pastries and walked all over French town looking for this big park, which, after about 2 hours, we gave up looking for because it was impossible to find.
In search of a park.
After that, we went to Itaewon to meet Ali's friend, Jenn and some of her Busan buddies who were in town. We met them for dinner at a place called Gecko's Terrace where Ali finally found a Veggie burger (she was ecstatic) and I had a cheeseburger. It was fantastic. Then, we headed home. Sunday we just relaxed and cleaned and did our Korean homework together.
Now, since we've been here 8 1/2 months, we thought we'd do another post highlighting differences between Korea and Canada, only this time, it's things we've noticed here that Korea does WAY better than Canada and we think someone should work on back home:
Things Korea Does Right:
1) Movie Seats: In Korea, you can choose the seats you will sit in on a little screen when you buy your tickets. This is so nice because you don't need to go into the theatre half an hour before your movie to get the good seats. And, for really popular movies, you can go early, get your tickets and reserve your seats, and then go and have dinner or something and show up right on time and stroll into great seats. The other thing they do here is, if your movie starts at 8:00, the actual movie starts at exactly 8. The previews are before that so you know exactly when the movie will start.
2) Cell Phone Chargers: In Korea, every single cell phone (and there are a lot) all can use a universal cell phone charger. It's great because you can share chargers, have a charger in the office that everyone can use, and restaurants and bars will charge your phone for you while you eat. If you lose a charger, you can borrow from a friend or buy a new one from any company and it won't cost a fortune. It's really nice.
3) Side Dishes: Any Korean restaurant, when you order a meal, or even if you just get drinks, they bring you tons of side dishes. Like, seriously, tons. Just two people eating a $5 meal, we get an average of 6 or 7 side dishes - soups, vegetables, kimchi (of course), meats, seafoods, nuts, etc. Just tons of things. Granted, a lot of the side dishes aren't super delicious to our Western tastes but it does amount to a ton of free food.
3) No tipping: This one is obvious and so awesome. Probably not awesome for the waiters, taxi drivers, etc. but it is awesome for us
4) No taxes: Or, rather, all taxes are included in the price and prices are usually even numbers. So, when you see a price on a menu, that's exactly what the bill will be. Very handy.
4) Yo-gi-yo buttons: In Korean, "yo-gi-yo" basically means 'over here!' so, in most restaurants and bars, you can just yell 'yo-gi-yo' whenever you are ready to order or you want something else or whatever. But, even better than having to yell at someone in a crowded restaurant, most places have a button on the table you press and your waiter comes right over. It's not rude or anything and it's much easier than having to try to get someone's attention when you want the bill or wait for them to come check on you.
5) Crime: Korea is ridiculously safe. We've talked about this a few times but the crime rate is so low here that it's amazing.
6) Convenience Stores: Convenience stores here are everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. And you can buy all your normal convenience store stuff but also can buy coffee, or ramen noodles or sandwiches, kimbap (like sushi, kind of), and a bunch of other 'meal stuff' as opposed to just snacks. If you're starving, you can go buy a cup of dry noodles for, like 60 cents and then they have hot water and chopsticks and everything so you can just eat it right there. Very convenient.
7) Free Samples: At grocery stores, on every day of the week, all day long, there are millions of free sample people. At least one in every aisle. It makes grocery shopping pretty good.
8) Bringing in Outside Food: Here, no one cares if you bring your own food to the movies, to sports games, to restaurants - whatever. It's all good. In fact, some baseball stadiums have special seats with grills so you can bring your own meat and have a little BBQ at your table.
9) Shopping Carts: Here, shopping carts never have a bad wheel and they can maneuver with ease. I don't know how they do it but it's very pleasant.
Anyway, these are just some of the things we really like about Korea and that will be hard to adjust to not having when we go back home. Korea can be difficult a lot of the time with language and cultural differences but sometimes they do things that just make a lot more sense than the way we do them.
That's it for this week,
Ali and Jesse
This week was good, same as usual. One new thing is that, on Thursday, we had our first Korean lesson with our friends Dave, Tom, and Jonathan. A tutor came to Dave and Tom's apartment and gave us lessons for an hour and a half. Hopefully we'll continue lessons until we go and become pretty good at Korean. In our first lesson, we learned about 15 verbs and how to make statements, questions, and commands, both to friends and to important people. It's pretty tough but we're getting the hang of it.
Also, on Thursday, while you were all having Remembrance Day, Korea was celebrating a much less somber holiday. A company, called Pepero, somehow managed to create a massive holiday, solely devoted to the giving of it's product. Pepero is a long cookie/cracker stick, dipped in chocolate. There are now tons of variations on the traditional pepero, some being as long as walking sticks, some being made of a sugar-cone material, some where you dip the stick in strawberry or vanilla icing... but basically, everyone gives everyone else Pepero on 11/11 (so chosen because the number 1 looks like a Pepero stick). Ali got about thirty boxes Peperos from her students but I didn't get any. Luckily, I can eat all of hers.
Here's a pepero display at lotte mart.
Ali has finally found some Korean food she really likes, which is great because now we can go to Korean restaurants where both of us can have a full meal for about $5. Pretty great. In case you're wondering, her favorite Korean dishes are called Rak bokki (ramen noodles, dok bokki noodles (kind of super thick rice noodles), and a hard boiled egg in a super spicy sauce) and chamchi chumok bap (basically canned tuna inside a rice and seaweed ball). They sound not great but are actually really good. And I eat everything so I have fun ordering random dishes off the menu to see what they are.
So, this weekend Ali was supposed to have to work on Saturday but her director changed her mind at the last second so she had the weekend free. On Saturday, we went into Seoul because Ali really needed a new winter coat so we did some shopping in Myeong-dong (a place with American stores). Ali got a coat and some new clothes and then we headed to a new area of Seoul, which is in my book of the Top 100 Things to do in Seoul. The area was called Seorae and it is a small community of French people. There are about 600 French people, more than half of which are children. The international French school is there as well as French bakeries, cafes, and street signs.
It was a really nice neighbourhood, and it was very unlike most of Seoul just because there were lots of living space. It had tree-lined streets, all of which were changing colors, and small tri-plexes, instead of big apartment buildings. We went to a French bakery and got chocolate croissants and baguette and listened to French people talking to their kids in French - it was pretty cool to hear another language for a change. We ate our pastries and walked all over French town looking for this big park, which, after about 2 hours, we gave up looking for because it was impossible to find.
In search of a park.
After that, we went to Itaewon to meet Ali's friend, Jenn and some of her Busan buddies who were in town. We met them for dinner at a place called Gecko's Terrace where Ali finally found a Veggie burger (she was ecstatic) and I had a cheeseburger. It was fantastic. Then, we headed home. Sunday we just relaxed and cleaned and did our Korean homework together.
Now, since we've been here 8 1/2 months, we thought we'd do another post highlighting differences between Korea and Canada, only this time, it's things we've noticed here that Korea does WAY better than Canada and we think someone should work on back home:
Things Korea Does Right:
1) Movie Seats: In Korea, you can choose the seats you will sit in on a little screen when you buy your tickets. This is so nice because you don't need to go into the theatre half an hour before your movie to get the good seats. And, for really popular movies, you can go early, get your tickets and reserve your seats, and then go and have dinner or something and show up right on time and stroll into great seats. The other thing they do here is, if your movie starts at 8:00, the actual movie starts at exactly 8. The previews are before that so you know exactly when the movie will start.
2) Cell Phone Chargers: In Korea, every single cell phone (and there are a lot) all can use a universal cell phone charger. It's great because you can share chargers, have a charger in the office that everyone can use, and restaurants and bars will charge your phone for you while you eat. If you lose a charger, you can borrow from a friend or buy a new one from any company and it won't cost a fortune. It's really nice.
3) Side Dishes: Any Korean restaurant, when you order a meal, or even if you just get drinks, they bring you tons of side dishes. Like, seriously, tons. Just two people eating a $5 meal, we get an average of 6 or 7 side dishes - soups, vegetables, kimchi (of course), meats, seafoods, nuts, etc. Just tons of things. Granted, a lot of the side dishes aren't super delicious to our Western tastes but it does amount to a ton of free food.
3) No tipping: This one is obvious and so awesome. Probably not awesome for the waiters, taxi drivers, etc. but it is awesome for us
4) No taxes: Or, rather, all taxes are included in the price and prices are usually even numbers. So, when you see a price on a menu, that's exactly what the bill will be. Very handy.
4) Yo-gi-yo buttons: In Korean, "yo-gi-yo" basically means 'over here!' so, in most restaurants and bars, you can just yell 'yo-gi-yo' whenever you are ready to order or you want something else or whatever. But, even better than having to yell at someone in a crowded restaurant, most places have a button on the table you press and your waiter comes right over. It's not rude or anything and it's much easier than having to try to get someone's attention when you want the bill or wait for them to come check on you.
5) Crime: Korea is ridiculously safe. We've talked about this a few times but the crime rate is so low here that it's amazing.
6) Convenience Stores: Convenience stores here are everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. And you can buy all your normal convenience store stuff but also can buy coffee, or ramen noodles or sandwiches, kimbap (like sushi, kind of), and a bunch of other 'meal stuff' as opposed to just snacks. If you're starving, you can go buy a cup of dry noodles for, like 60 cents and then they have hot water and chopsticks and everything so you can just eat it right there. Very convenient.
7) Free Samples: At grocery stores, on every day of the week, all day long, there are millions of free sample people. At least one in every aisle. It makes grocery shopping pretty good.
8) Bringing in Outside Food: Here, no one cares if you bring your own food to the movies, to sports games, to restaurants - whatever. It's all good. In fact, some baseball stadiums have special seats with grills so you can bring your own meat and have a little BBQ at your table.
9) Shopping Carts: Here, shopping carts never have a bad wheel and they can maneuver with ease. I don't know how they do it but it's very pleasant.
Anyway, these are just some of the things we really like about Korea and that will be hard to adjust to not having when we go back home. Korea can be difficult a lot of the time with language and cultural differences but sometimes they do things that just make a lot more sense than the way we do them.
That's it for this week,
Ali and Jesse
Friday, November 5, 2010
hilarious birthday occurrence
So, it was Jesse's birthday on the 4th and so I got him a bunch of new clothes. He put them on and we went to the grocery store - I know, sweet birthday celebration - and, obviously, the clothes were good because, walking down an aisle, this group of three 15-year-old girls saw him and gasped.
"SO HANDSOME!"
Then they pointed to me and him and said "Love?"
And I said yes and they all started cheering and shaking my hand and yelling "Bravo!"
Pretty excellent.
"SO HANDSOME!"
Then they pointed to me and him and said "Love?"
And I said yes and they all started cheering and shaking my hand and yelling "Bravo!"
Pretty excellent.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Musicals and Meat Buffets
Hi everyone!
Well, it's now November and we've been in Korea 8 months! Time is really flying now and it feels like we'll be home before we know it.
Happy Halloween to everyone! They don't do Halloween in Korea, really, but my school had a Halloween party because of all the foreign teachers. It was really hard to find a costume here because not many people buy them so I ended up making a very unattractive giraffe costume. My kids had fun in costumes and making 'trick or treat' bags, witches brew, and doing face-painting.
This weekend wasn't too exciting. I had to work on Saturday because my kids had their huge play for their parents and families that they've been practicing for for months. My school got a huge auditorium at a nearby university and it was decorated to the nines with giant balloon sculptures and inflatable rainbows and all kinds of stuff. Each kindergarden class put on a performance. The 7-year olds (6 years old in Canada) all did musicals and the 5 and 6 year olds did ballet performances, songs, and speeches. It was really high stress for the teachers because parents approval is insanely important at hagwons (private schools). All the Korean teachers were super stressed out and were freaking out on the kids if they were doing anything wrong.
My Einstein class was doing a Snow White musical, complete with really fantastic costumes and soundtrack and my Edison class did a Pinocchio musical. My Newton class is only 6 so they did a ballet and sang 'Raindrops are Falling on my Head' and did speeches about their dreams, interests, and people they admire.
My scene in Einstein's play. Pretty sweet.
I was really proud of all my students and they did great. I think the parents were happy - at least none of them complained. And the principal, Mrs. Lyu, seemed satisfied as well. Jesse came and watched the performances and helped clean up afterwards. Then my principal paid for all the teachers do go out for dinner together.
We went to a 'meat buffet' where you could choose from lots of different kinds of meats and grill them at your table. I got rice and kimchi jigae - a spicy soup - but everyone else had a meat feast. After dinner my boss took all the teachers to a noraebong (kareoke place) and we sang songs late into the night.
Sunday we just lazed around and watched Halloween specials and went over to our friend's place in the afternoon to visit with our friends, Katelyn and Mallory, who finished here a few months ago and have been traveling South East Asia since then. They're only back for a few days before they head home so we just hung out with them and heard about their trip.
On Monday, I had the morning off, because I worked on Saturday, and Jesse had the whole day off because his school chose to celebrate the anniversary of their opening by closing. We just relaxed in the morning and didn't do much of anything.
This blog has mostly been about my stuff - not much is new with Jesse. He says his work is the same and so is everything else.
In November, Jesse and I and some friends have signed up for private Korean lessons. It's a bit late in the game but we would like to leave knowing at least a basic understanding of the language. Jesse has been studying a lot on his own so he's, by far, the most advanced out of all of us but we've all agreed to start at the beginning.
Anyway, sorry for another unexciting blog. We don't have much planned for next weekend, either, so I'm sure you're on the edge of your seat for that one.
Hope all is well! Miss you all.
Ali and Jesse
Well, it's now November and we've been in Korea 8 months! Time is really flying now and it feels like we'll be home before we know it.
Happy Halloween to everyone! They don't do Halloween in Korea, really, but my school had a Halloween party because of all the foreign teachers. It was really hard to find a costume here because not many people buy them so I ended up making a very unattractive giraffe costume. My kids had fun in costumes and making 'trick or treat' bags, witches brew, and doing face-painting.
This weekend wasn't too exciting. I had to work on Saturday because my kids had their huge play for their parents and families that they've been practicing for for months. My school got a huge auditorium at a nearby university and it was decorated to the nines with giant balloon sculptures and inflatable rainbows and all kinds of stuff. Each kindergarden class put on a performance. The 7-year olds (6 years old in Canada) all did musicals and the 5 and 6 year olds did ballet performances, songs, and speeches. It was really high stress for the teachers because parents approval is insanely important at hagwons (private schools). All the Korean teachers were super stressed out and were freaking out on the kids if they were doing anything wrong.
My Einstein class was doing a Snow White musical, complete with really fantastic costumes and soundtrack and my Edison class did a Pinocchio musical. My Newton class is only 6 so they did a ballet and sang 'Raindrops are Falling on my Head' and did speeches about their dreams, interests, and people they admire.
My scene in Einstein's play. Pretty sweet.
I was really proud of all my students and they did great. I think the parents were happy - at least none of them complained. And the principal, Mrs. Lyu, seemed satisfied as well. Jesse came and watched the performances and helped clean up afterwards. Then my principal paid for all the teachers do go out for dinner together.
We went to a 'meat buffet' where you could choose from lots of different kinds of meats and grill them at your table. I got rice and kimchi jigae - a spicy soup - but everyone else had a meat feast. After dinner my boss took all the teachers to a noraebong (kareoke place) and we sang songs late into the night.
Sunday we just lazed around and watched Halloween specials and went over to our friend's place in the afternoon to visit with our friends, Katelyn and Mallory, who finished here a few months ago and have been traveling South East Asia since then. They're only back for a few days before they head home so we just hung out with them and heard about their trip.
On Monday, I had the morning off, because I worked on Saturday, and Jesse had the whole day off because his school chose to celebrate the anniversary of their opening by closing. We just relaxed in the morning and didn't do much of anything.
This blog has mostly been about my stuff - not much is new with Jesse. He says his work is the same and so is everything else.
In November, Jesse and I and some friends have signed up for private Korean lessons. It's a bit late in the game but we would like to leave knowing at least a basic understanding of the language. Jesse has been studying a lot on his own so he's, by far, the most advanced out of all of us but we've all agreed to start at the beginning.
Anyway, sorry for another unexciting blog. We don't have much planned for next weekend, either, so I'm sure you're on the edge of your seat for that one.
Hope all is well! Miss you all.
Ali and Jesse
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Crowds and Coasters
Hello everyone,
So it's been 2 weeks since the last post, but you didn't really miss anything. Last weekend was a quiet one with no big adventures because Ali was sick. The only excitement was Ali getting a new haircut, which was a big change but that we both like now. This weekend, however, Ali and I went to the self-proclaimed happiest place on Earth, Everland.
Ali's new haircut
Now, probably like you, we'd never heard of Everland before we came to Korea. Once here, we heard that it was a big amusement park similar to Wonderland. However, when we read about it, we were surprised to see it regarded as one of the top three amusement parks in the world in terms of attendance. We'd been eager to see it for awhile, and this month they have a whole halloween theme going on so we thought now would be a good time to go. Korea doesn't really have Halloween. Some big grocery stores have in recent years put up decorations and starting selling costumes but there's still no trick-or-treating on the actual day.
Using the subway and a bus, the quickest time to get to Everland is about 2 and a half hours so we didn't make it there until 1:30pm. Once inside, it quickly lived it up to its repuation as one of the most visited theme parks in the world; there were thousands and thousands of people. We walked around for awhile and when we came near the Halloween parade, we were jam-packed with people. Ali started to lose her mind a little bit. It was the first Halloween parade we saw, though. We also saw a really nice garden with every color of flower, with halloween decorations everywhere. It did feel very un-Korea and a lot like home to be around Halloween stuff so that was nice.
Jesse in the rose garden
After some more aimless walking we decided to make our way towards the world's largest wooden roller coaster (according to Everland). We got in what looked like a long line up, but was moving at a normal pace, and waited for our first ride of the day. Well... after every corner we rounded, we saw that the line kept going, sometimes twisting and turning through railings, and never seemed to stop. Every time we thought we were close, our hopes would quickly deflate as we would see that what we thought was the end of the line was really just the beginning of a new even longer line. Definitely, the longest amusement park line we've ever been in. It was slightly longer than 2 hours and you would think that no 2 minute roller coaster ride could live up to that hype... well... as we suspected, it didn't. But it was a really good roller coaster and now we can kick off the "Been on the biggest wooden roller coaster" item from the bucket list.
Afterwards, we walked around some more and checked out some animal exhibits. Everland is also kind of like a zoo with several themed animal areas to look at. We went to a bird zoo and an African animal zoo. We saw lots of cool animals.
Jesse and some birds
After some dinner, we made our way to another ride called the Amazon Express. This was around 7pm and rides were now down to 50 minute waits. The ride was the standard, eight people sitting in a circular inter tube, bouncing off walls down a raging river.
We then went down to the Alpine Horror village, an area where the "ghouls and ghosts" come out at night. It ended up being people dressed up in various Halloween costumes, none of which seemed to be a ghost or a ghoul. By this time, it was 8:30 so we made our way back home.
The amusement park itself didn't have that many rides, and was probably comparable to Wonderland except for having way more people and way fewer rides. Not sure if we'll ever see that many people again in an amusement park. Ali's kids once told her that she should be there at 9:30 when it opens. Now we know how true that is.
Ali's school has finished building a new kindergarten floor so she'll start teaching in her new and amazing classrooms tomorrow.
In other news, school has been going good for both of us. Next week is Halloween and we're not sure if we'll get up to anything Halloween-related but we'll soon see.
Anyway, hope all is well at home,
Ali and Jesse
So it's been 2 weeks since the last post, but you didn't really miss anything. Last weekend was a quiet one with no big adventures because Ali was sick. The only excitement was Ali getting a new haircut, which was a big change but that we both like now. This weekend, however, Ali and I went to the self-proclaimed happiest place on Earth, Everland.
Ali's new haircutNow, probably like you, we'd never heard of Everland before we came to Korea. Once here, we heard that it was a big amusement park similar to Wonderland. However, when we read about it, we were surprised to see it regarded as one of the top three amusement parks in the world in terms of attendance. We'd been eager to see it for awhile, and this month they have a whole halloween theme going on so we thought now would be a good time to go. Korea doesn't really have Halloween. Some big grocery stores have in recent years put up decorations and starting selling costumes but there's still no trick-or-treating on the actual day.
Using the subway and a bus, the quickest time to get to Everland is about 2 and a half hours so we didn't make it there until 1:30pm. Once inside, it quickly lived it up to its repuation as one of the most visited theme parks in the world; there were thousands and thousands of people. We walked around for awhile and when we came near the Halloween parade, we were jam-packed with people. Ali started to lose her mind a little bit. It was the first Halloween parade we saw, though. We also saw a really nice garden with every color of flower, with halloween decorations everywhere. It did feel very un-Korea and a lot like home to be around Halloween stuff so that was nice.
Jesse in the rose gardenAfter some more aimless walking we decided to make our way towards the world's largest wooden roller coaster (according to Everland). We got in what looked like a long line up, but was moving at a normal pace, and waited for our first ride of the day. Well... after every corner we rounded, we saw that the line kept going, sometimes twisting and turning through railings, and never seemed to stop. Every time we thought we were close, our hopes would quickly deflate as we would see that what we thought was the end of the line was really just the beginning of a new even longer line. Definitely, the longest amusement park line we've ever been in. It was slightly longer than 2 hours and you would think that no 2 minute roller coaster ride could live up to that hype... well... as we suspected, it didn't. But it was a really good roller coaster and now we can kick off the "Been on the biggest wooden roller coaster" item from the bucket list.
Afterwards, we walked around some more and checked out some animal exhibits. Everland is also kind of like a zoo with several themed animal areas to look at. We went to a bird zoo and an African animal zoo. We saw lots of cool animals.
Jesse and some birdsAfter some dinner, we made our way to another ride called the Amazon Express. This was around 7pm and rides were now down to 50 minute waits. The ride was the standard, eight people sitting in a circular inter tube, bouncing off walls down a raging river.
We then went down to the Alpine Horror village, an area where the "ghouls and ghosts" come out at night. It ended up being people dressed up in various Halloween costumes, none of which seemed to be a ghost or a ghoul. By this time, it was 8:30 so we made our way back home.
The amusement park itself didn't have that many rides, and was probably comparable to Wonderland except for having way more people and way fewer rides. Not sure if we'll ever see that many people again in an amusement park. Ali's kids once told her that she should be there at 9:30 when it opens. Now we know how true that is.
Ali's school has finished building a new kindergarten floor so she'll start teaching in her new and amazing classrooms tomorrow.
In other news, school has been going good for both of us. Next week is Halloween and we're not sure if we'll get up to anything Halloween-related but we'll soon see.
Anyway, hope all is well at home,
Ali and Jesse
Monday, October 11, 2010
PIFF
Hi Everyone!
This weekend Jesse and I headed South for the Busan (formally Pusan - P and B are basically the same sound in Korean so the romanization changes) International Film Festival, or PIFF, for short. Jesse is much more of a movie buff than I am so this trip was really exciting for him. He went online the second tickets went on sale and got tickets to a bunch of movies and would check back daily and got more tickets through cancellations. He wanted to see a lot of movies each day, but I would hit my limit around two movies a day so, for a couple movies, he just went by himself.
We took the KTX (high-speed train) from Seoul to Busan on Friday night and got in to Busan around midnight. Jesse wanted to get up at 5 in the morning to line up for some extra movie tickets so we went to sleep right away. Unfortunately, Jesse forgot to set his alarm so he didn't wake up until 7, missing the morning line-up.
His first movie was Cruel Season - a documentary about Korean sanitation workers. We had actually been curious about them since we got here because the garbage here is picked up, not by garbage trucks, but by random people with these little carts that they just push through the streets. Apparently, they actually are employees of the sanitation department but the job has no respect and people constantly push them and yell at them and tell them they aren't allowed to speak - it sounds pretty awful.
The next one he saw was Son of Babylon - an Iraqi movie about a boy trying to find his father who had been missing since the Gulf War. This ended up being his favorite movie of the festival.
While he was at these first two movies, I met my friend Jenn and we had lunch and walked all around Busan, which was lots of fun.
At 5:00, we had a movie together called Archipelago. It was a British movie and I really enjoyed it. It was about a family and the son was going to Africa to volunteer - really good.
After that, we had to rush to our next movie, which was an outdoor movie, seating 5000 people. It was neat to sit outside and see a movie. It was like being at a drive-in, minus the cars. The movie was called Here Comes the Bride and it was from the Philippines. It was a totally insane movie about 5 people who switch bodies during a solar eclipse. It was a comedy and was really weird. What surprised me the most was that, Filipino sounds like English and Spanish mixed together. Half of it was just English talking but, apparently, that's what the language sounds like.
The Outdoor Theatre
After the movie we just walked around downtown and checked out Busan. We went to a casino and played some slot machines. I was pretty sure I was a slot machine expert after winning $60 my first time at a casino but this time I lost $30... oh well.
Jesse at the Canadian party, walking the red carpet... not really
The next day, we saw two movies. The first was a New Zealand film called Desert but it was about Koreans living in New Zealand so it was mainly in Korean. It was pretty good.
The next one was the weirdest and least enjoyable one we saw. It was called Little Baby Jesus of Flandr and was a Belgian movie about these three guys who see a baby being born in the forest and think it's Jesus. The actors all had Downs Syndrome and it was filmed in black and white but it was far too artistic to be interesting. It had crazy screeching music for the whole thing and the story was bizarre and it had these really long shots of trees for, like ten minutes at a time. Neither of us liked it very much but it was interesting anyway.
After that, we went to see the famous Busan fish market which is one of the sights you must see while in Korea and is arguably the smelliest place on earth. It was cool to see, just thousands and thousands of tanks with crazy sea creatures that you can just buy and have cut up on the spot.
After the fish market, we caught the train back to Seoul and that was the end of the weekend.
All in all, we had a great time!
Happy Thanksgiving, Canada!
Ali and Jesse
This weekend Jesse and I headed South for the Busan (formally Pusan - P and B are basically the same sound in Korean so the romanization changes) International Film Festival, or PIFF, for short. Jesse is much more of a movie buff than I am so this trip was really exciting for him. He went online the second tickets went on sale and got tickets to a bunch of movies and would check back daily and got more tickets through cancellations. He wanted to see a lot of movies each day, but I would hit my limit around two movies a day so, for a couple movies, he just went by himself.
We took the KTX (high-speed train) from Seoul to Busan on Friday night and got in to Busan around midnight. Jesse wanted to get up at 5 in the morning to line up for some extra movie tickets so we went to sleep right away. Unfortunately, Jesse forgot to set his alarm so he didn't wake up until 7, missing the morning line-up.
His first movie was Cruel Season - a documentary about Korean sanitation workers. We had actually been curious about them since we got here because the garbage here is picked up, not by garbage trucks, but by random people with these little carts that they just push through the streets. Apparently, they actually are employees of the sanitation department but the job has no respect and people constantly push them and yell at them and tell them they aren't allowed to speak - it sounds pretty awful.
The next one he saw was Son of Babylon - an Iraqi movie about a boy trying to find his father who had been missing since the Gulf War. This ended up being his favorite movie of the festival.
While he was at these first two movies, I met my friend Jenn and we had lunch and walked all around Busan, which was lots of fun.
At 5:00, we had a movie together called Archipelago. It was a British movie and I really enjoyed it. It was about a family and the son was going to Africa to volunteer - really good.
After that, we had to rush to our next movie, which was an outdoor movie, seating 5000 people. It was neat to sit outside and see a movie. It was like being at a drive-in, minus the cars. The movie was called Here Comes the Bride and it was from the Philippines. It was a totally insane movie about 5 people who switch bodies during a solar eclipse. It was a comedy and was really weird. What surprised me the most was that, Filipino sounds like English and Spanish mixed together. Half of it was just English talking but, apparently, that's what the language sounds like.
The Outdoor TheatreAfter the movie we just walked around downtown and checked out Busan. We went to a casino and played some slot machines. I was pretty sure I was a slot machine expert after winning $60 my first time at a casino but this time I lost $30... oh well.
Jesse at the Canadian party, walking the red carpet... not reallyThe next day, we saw two movies. The first was a New Zealand film called Desert but it was about Koreans living in New Zealand so it was mainly in Korean. It was pretty good.
The next one was the weirdest and least enjoyable one we saw. It was called Little Baby Jesus of Flandr and was a Belgian movie about these three guys who see a baby being born in the forest and think it's Jesus. The actors all had Downs Syndrome and it was filmed in black and white but it was far too artistic to be interesting. It had crazy screeching music for the whole thing and the story was bizarre and it had these really long shots of trees for, like ten minutes at a time. Neither of us liked it very much but it was interesting anyway.
After that, we went to see the famous Busan fish market which is one of the sights you must see while in Korea and is arguably the smelliest place on earth. It was cool to see, just thousands and thousands of tanks with crazy sea creatures that you can just buy and have cut up on the spot.
After the fish market, we caught the train back to Seoul and that was the end of the weekend.
All in all, we had a great time!
Happy Thanksgiving, Canada!
Ali and Jesse
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
War Memorial
Hello everyone. For those keeping count, we just finished 7 months and now only have 5 months left. I don't know it's felt for you, but I fell like it's blown by and Ali goes back and forth between feeling like 7 weeks and 7 years.
After living here this long we've developed a weekend balance between exploring everywhere and holding onto some money. We just had Chuseok in Jeju and next weekend is in Busan, so this weekend feel into the non-adventurous category, but nonetheless, we did get up to some stuff worth noting.
There's a group called "English Cafe" that is organized by a few Korean teachers to get the foreign public teachers together. They had organized 2 trips I went on before (mountain climbing and skating, which both featured English, but neither featured a cafe) and both were fun. For Saturday, they organized a trip to "The War Memorial of Korea." Despite what images that title gives you, it is not just a big statue with flowers around it (although they do have that). It is in fact a large museum that shows artifacts and exhibitions all detailing Korea's war history, which goes far beyond the Korean war. Ali and I had wanted to go here for awhile because we had heard good things about it so Ali came along on the trip too.
We met up with everyone on the subway and again, I discovered new foreigners in Uijeongbu. It seems like there's over a 100 now. They provided lunch for us, which was nice of them since Ali isn't technically part of the group.
Once we got in the museum, we were only with the group for a short time, since everyone wanders a museum at different paces. Our first part of the museum was an outside gallery showing all the countries and names of people who died from that country in the Korean war. I didn't realize how much of the world was involved in the Korean war. The Korean war was South Korea, U.S.A, Canada, Columbia, England, Luxembourg, Sweden, Ethiopia, Australia, Philippines, Turkey, Netherlands, France, New Zealand, Thailand, Greece, Belguim and South Africa vs. North Korea, China, Russia. If you can tell yet, I'm into museums and history.
Inside, we walked through various rooms that had interesting artifacts to look at from weapons to costumes to models of what the kingdoms looked like through the centuries. Korea's history is filled with fending off invasions from Mongolia, China and Japan. It's amazing that they still exist given all the attempts to invade.
The museum was also very up-to-date since it had a display looking at the sinking of the South Korean ship from March of this year.
We arrived at 3:30 and stayed until 6:00. Unfortunately, we were slow enough that we missed the War Experience room. Somehow, it recreates the atmosphere of being on the battlefield through sound, smell and scenery. We have read lots of great things about it but it closed at 5. Might have to go back next time we're in town.
Outside, we took pictures with all the weapons, tank and plane displays. It's refreshing to not see "Do not touch" signs (or at least not being able to read the ones that say that in Korean).
Ali showing her other side.
Me getting far away from Ali.
In other news, it's business as usual for me and Ali has been putting in lots of work hours this week for speech contests. If you know anyone coming to Korea, tell them to try to get a public teaching job.
We'll let you know how the Busan (or Pusan, depending on romanization) film festival goes next weekend.
Hope you're all well,
Ali and Jesse
After living here this long we've developed a weekend balance between exploring everywhere and holding onto some money. We just had Chuseok in Jeju and next weekend is in Busan, so this weekend feel into the non-adventurous category, but nonetheless, we did get up to some stuff worth noting.
There's a group called "English Cafe" that is organized by a few Korean teachers to get the foreign public teachers together. They had organized 2 trips I went on before (mountain climbing and skating, which both featured English, but neither featured a cafe) and both were fun. For Saturday, they organized a trip to "The War Memorial of Korea." Despite what images that title gives you, it is not just a big statue with flowers around it (although they do have that). It is in fact a large museum that shows artifacts and exhibitions all detailing Korea's war history, which goes far beyond the Korean war. Ali and I had wanted to go here for awhile because we had heard good things about it so Ali came along on the trip too.
We met up with everyone on the subway and again, I discovered new foreigners in Uijeongbu. It seems like there's over a 100 now. They provided lunch for us, which was nice of them since Ali isn't technically part of the group.
Once we got in the museum, we were only with the group for a short time, since everyone wanders a museum at different paces. Our first part of the museum was an outside gallery showing all the countries and names of people who died from that country in the Korean war. I didn't realize how much of the world was involved in the Korean war. The Korean war was South Korea, U.S.A, Canada, Columbia, England, Luxembourg, Sweden, Ethiopia, Australia, Philippines, Turkey, Netherlands, France, New Zealand, Thailand, Greece, Belguim and South Africa vs. North Korea, China, Russia. If you can tell yet, I'm into museums and history.
Inside, we walked through various rooms that had interesting artifacts to look at from weapons to costumes to models of what the kingdoms looked like through the centuries. Korea's history is filled with fending off invasions from Mongolia, China and Japan. It's amazing that they still exist given all the attempts to invade.
The museum was also very up-to-date since it had a display looking at the sinking of the South Korean ship from March of this year.
We arrived at 3:30 and stayed until 6:00. Unfortunately, we were slow enough that we missed the War Experience room. Somehow, it recreates the atmosphere of being on the battlefield through sound, smell and scenery. We have read lots of great things about it but it closed at 5. Might have to go back next time we're in town.
Outside, we took pictures with all the weapons, tank and plane displays. It's refreshing to not see "Do not touch" signs (or at least not being able to read the ones that say that in Korean).
Ali showing her other side.
Me getting far away from Ali. 
In other news, it's business as usual for me and Ali has been putting in lots of work hours this week for speech contests. If you know anyone coming to Korea, tell them to try to get a public teaching job.
We'll let you know how the Busan (or Pusan, depending on romanization) film festival goes next weekend.
Hope you're all well,
Ali and Jesse
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