Fall Seoul Lah...

It's another chilly day here in Seoul. According to the internet, the temperature is 50 degrees with 87% humidity. The 50 degrees isn't so bad for the middle of October. But it doesn't feel like 50 degrees! This is an autumn I have never experienced before! It is like it is humid enough that the cold seeps through the clothes and into every part of your body, yet my skin is dry and chapped. Thankfully it is so cold that I don't have to wash my hair every day, otherwise it would be dry and brittle. My contacts get dry pretty fast and I hear that it gets worsethe colder it gets. It is dry enough that a hand-washed heavy sweater was dry in less than 24 hours. It is not cold enough to turn all of the leaves yet... some trees are orange and gold, but many are still brillant green. Maybe I am just pansy. And it is true, that teachers leave their windows open. My co-teacher thankfully leaves the windows shut in our classroom until the sun is shining on the windows. But all the windows in the halls are open, so I feel that I have to putt on a jacket and a scarf just to go to the bathroom. I am so dreading winter.

On a brighter note, I learned to make bimimbap last night. Bimimbap means mixed rice. You cook various veggetables in sauces and then mix it together with rice. Usually you use bean sprouts, bracken, bellflower roots, ground beef, eggs, seaweed, and onion. But you can mix any thing in there. This is kind of what I made, only we used the egg as coating for cod, so we fried the rest of the egg and put it on top, instead of sunny side up.

Another version that I like has a soft cooked egg served on top of the rice in a very hot bowl. You break the yolk and stir it around in the bimimbap and the egg finishes cooking in the bowl. Bimimbap is very hard work. Every thing must be sauted separately with a differnt sauce. Good, but not worth the effort, I'd much rather just get it from a restaurant. Ok, time to finish getting ready for school!

Outcasts

Once upon a time, my friend, Amber and I were watching Diary of a Wimpy Kid. We laughed and pooh poohed this whole bit about the cheese:

Sadly, in Korea, the cheese exists. It has to exist somewhere in the far reaches of the playground. It just has to. It is the only way I can explain the fact that in every single class room there is a poor kid who is ostracized. If this kid has to sit next to you, you shove his chair to the far reaches of the desk and you put your chair as far away as possible. Many times the poor kid is shoved back and forth because he/she is stuck in the middle between two people. That kid's stuff cannot touch any one else's. One teeny, tiny mistake on any thing and the rest of the class taunts him/her. Their pictures are scratched out. Any thing that can be done to torment the kid without physically touching them is practiced regularly--I have a feeling that even physical violence is sometimes used.

I say there has to be cheese because I can never figure out how these children are picked as outcasts. Maybe it has to do with families, I don't know. But handicap children are accepted into groups, the little runts are accepted, and most of the time the fat kids or those kids who have reached puberty faster are all accepted. I am greatful that the children take care of the handicap children and accept those kids that are different, but I don't understand why they shun one kid that appears perfectly normal.

I know of course, this goes on in the United States, but this is my first encounter with it. It makes me very sad and quite disapointed! Especially since I feel so sorry for the poor kids that I want to make them teacher's pet and that will just get them beat up (at least it would in the U.S.).

On a lighter note, I went had to teach in the students' home rooms these last couple of days. It was a nice change for all of us. Their home room teacher could go outside and relax, I got to see some other walls, and the students were so happy to show me their things. I was bombarded with "Teahcer look at my pencil case! Teacher look at my math book! Teacher look, this is my drawing. Teacher look, this is my potato!" It was very cute and it was amazing how great their English became when they were excited, plus the constant fear that their homeroom teacher might come back kept them pretty quiet. I actually didn't start class until well after we were supposed to because I figured that the students were speaking more English than they usually do, so why stop. And they were asking me how to say things in English, like mask, or a certain plant, etc. So the last couple of days I have been feeling like an awesome teacher. We'll see how long that lasts!

Changdeok Palace

Finally, it lets me post a picture! Wow! How are the comments working?

Well this weekend was a nice weekend at home in Seoul. Mainly because I had signed up for a class that included a free tour of Changdeok Palace on Saturday. Plus it was the fireworks festival. M came to do some much needed shopping, and failed. He just couldn't be moved to spend money on useful items (I know the feeling all to well).  But I sweet talked the tour guides into letting M come on the tour, so his weekend wasn't a total loss.

The palace was pretty cool, but much the same as Gyeongbok Palace. This time however, I had some history of the period that these palaces were built, who commissioned their building, and had a tour guide to tell us what buildings were what. This made it more interesting. However, we were not allowed to stop and take pictures. Always some one ushering use here or there. Annoying.

Changdeok is one of five palaces in Seoul and it is one of those UNESCO World Heritage sites. And when it was built (in the 15th C), it was outside of Seoul (believe it or not). It is still hard to believe it is in the middle of Seoul. Once you enter it is as if you are in a biodome, there is a visable line between the clean air surrounding the palace garden and the smog of the city. Also the palace walls block out the noise. The palace was destroyed  in the 16th C during the Japanese invasion. IT was burned and destroyed several times through fires (didn't mention anything about the Korean War though) and has since been rennovated. Actually the royal family lived at this palace until 1989.

I mentioned the garden, it is called the "Secret Garden," I think mainly because it has only just recently opened up to visitors and costs quite a bit of money to get into. It is a forest, full of trees and bushes, and ponds. The most beautiful part of the garden (apparently) was quite disapointing. The stream had just a tiny little trickle of water in it. So much for feng shui. This rock is supposed to be a waterfall. Sigh.

Cooking Challenge

My new life in Korea has many challenges. One of those is cooking. I have no counter space, no oven, and hardly any dishes. I have a toaster that barely works, a microwave, and two gas burners, but half the time I can only use one because of the pan sizes.

On top of that there isn't so much western food available in local markets. I could go down to Itaewon and get some things in the international market, but that is expensive. I challenge myself to make foods based on what I have available. Surprisingly enough, I don't eat a lot of rice or pasta. Unfortuneately, I eat a lot of bread. Most nights consists of stirfry, sometimes fried rice, fritattas, or celery/pork soup. Meat is always pork, as it is the cheapest next to chicken and fish.

My new challenge is to make pasta carbonara. Alfredo sauce is available, but it is expensive. Ham is not available, but bacon is. Also, cream is solid, so we'll see what happens. Anther challenge is to make flour tortillas. I can get baking powder or soda here, but apparently, it is quite different from the America and Europe. With all this challenge and probably what I spend on gas and ingredients, I can go to Pizza School and get carbonara for $5 and go to Itaewon Taco Bell, but what is the fun in that?

Soon though, I think I will order a table-top stove from gmart. Or a toaster oven. Donno which yet. But I cannot fry and boil things all the time haha. I still cannot stand the taste of boiled meats.

Andong Mask Festival

Some of you know that the awesome weekend of festivals got off to a rocky start. It never occurred to me to reserve my bus ticket ahead of time. So when I arrived at the bus terminal at 5:55 AM and got my ticket to Cheongsong, I was surprised when my ticket said my departure time wasn't until 10:20. I asked the ticket lady and apparently all the busses for Andong and Cheongsong were sold out until then. Defeated, I went back home (and quite angry). This meant that I wouldn't get to Cheongsong until 14:40 compared to 10:50 as I had originally planned.

When I did arrive back at the bus terminal, the amount of people that is normally there was triple. It was insane! I pushed my way onto the bus platform and searched for my bus, as the busses were all out of order thanks to the Daegu and Andong festivals. A bus driver started shouting off destinations in rapid Korean and he didn't have a sign on his bus (I can at least read Andong and Cheongsong in Korean). I was about to approach him with my ticket (as every Korean mistakes my pronunciation of "Cheongsong" to be "Jeungsong," a very different city further south), when I noticed a group of white boys speaking with a Korean. So I did what I do best, I butted in. And as luck would have it, this Korean spoke both English and Korean! And he was roommates to these white guys, who were also going to Cheongsong. Small world!

We passed the time, chatting about why we were in Seoul. I assumed they were English teachers, I mean, why else would you come to Korea? Right? But they are on a six month study abroad program with their universities. Two guys are from Florida and the other one is from Sweden. So we were able to pass some time in the bus until all of us got fed up with the traffic jam, so we drifted to sleep. I of course, was up again in an hour and a half. Luckily I had a Stephanie Plum mystery to keep me going.

About 4 hours and 50 minutes total traveling time, we finally fell out of the bus at Cheongsong.  M had given up on me and was not waiting at the bus stop. The guys wanted to get food. I pointed them in the direction of food and went to M's new apartment. The guys asked if they can tag a long for a bit. I agreed and we wandered towards M's. Imagine his surprise when he opens the door to see me and three other guys. But he was welcoming and inviting. We all went out to eat and enjoyed ourselves, especially after M realized that he didn't have to put up all these guys for a night. We then pointed the guys in the right direction of a taxi to find their hotel and M and I set up a game plan for the weekend.

We caught the Andong bus around 11, and an hour later we arrived in Andong. Only problem with Korea is that it boasts about having so many foreign tourists at various places, but Korea cannot be bothered to put out bilingual signs, maps, and information workers. We spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out when the bus left for the festival, which was going to be in an hour--hurry up and wait. But a Chinese couple approached us and asked if we'd share a taxi to the village! Sure! The taxi driver decided we didn't need to go to the village and took us to the other festival site, which was fine, as we wanted to be there for the dances. M and I poked around and ate American fair food: hamburger, soda, corndog, ice cream, and a donut that tasted just like those elephant ear fry bread!

The festival was full of people, at first it was fun, but after awhile and after no water I got pretty cranky. But there were masks everywhere (only kids were wearing them though), elaborate lanterns everywhere, sculptures, and craft booths for the kids where they could make soap, tye dye, masks, puzzle sculptures, etc--pretty cool deal if you are a kid! We waited in line forever to get in to see the Isreal, Nanta, Thailand, and India dances, but we didn't make it in time and they closed the sale of the tickets. We tried to sneak in, but dang that amphitheatre is fortified!

We perked up a bit after we stumbled onto some local pottery. M bought a mug and I bought a soap dish for $6 total-- and that is why I like Korea, pottery at these things is cheap. I saw lots of things to buy for people, but realized nothing would make it home safely. After we got tired of that festival site, we tried to get a bus to the other site... there was no bus to the other festival site. WTF? I think Andong needs to work on their tourism. A man who spoke some English guided us to the bus stop and on our way we discovered the games section of the festival. So of course we tried our hand (I got a consolation prize of some kind of back scratcher) and M got nothing. We stalked people and just could not figure out the scoring or prizing system. I guess it was whenever the game guy felt like giving you something.



The next day, we got up early and headed to Mt. Juwangsan park, about a twenty minute bus ride from Cheongsong. By the time we got up there and wound our way through the little row of shops and restaurants, we were starving. And we kept seeing these barrels of white liquid, apples, and dried fruit, women were out front of their restaurants cooking omeletes and making noodles. Well, of course we stopped to eat and get some of that mystery liquid... it was rice wine and it was strong. We left the restaurant quite giggly and wobbly.But it burned off as we started climbing towards the waterfalls, and it was gone by the time I reached my first bridge and looked down at the water way below--except for the wobbly part that is. It would be so bad, if the trails weren't so crowded, but I kept getting jostled so I could just see myself getting knocked over a bridge. Luckily it didn't happen and I held my ground.

We hiked to all three waterfalls, not so spectacular in the fall, but still pretty. The mountains were amazing! Up at the top, I looked at my watch and realized we had 45 minutes to get to the bus so I could catch my bus back to Seoul. We ran and sped walked down that mountain. Not so pleasant, let me tell you! But some how we made it, 3 something km down a steep mountain through old people and strollers and children and women in high heels,  in 45 minutes, not too shabby. We made the bus. And have enough time back home to eat and award myself with an ice cream and a candy bar.

I arrived in Seoul at 22:15 and made it home at 23:00... long day. But well worth the trip!