새해 복 많이 받으세요

romanized:
sae hae bok manhi baduseyo
loose translation:
happy new year
actual translation:
new year luck many receive it

only lasted a day

half way through 32 hours of sleep
punctuated with 3 hours of vomit.
i think food poisoning. don't worry,
i'm better now.

sha bu sha bu for xmas

this is sha bu sha bu. this was the second portion of my xmas dinner. the first portion was at a different restaurant only an hour prior and was vegetable curry and rice. i don't even know where to start for sha bu sha bu. this was just some of the food for a table of four. they brought all of this out and on the far left there's a huge tray of a variety of mushrooms which come planted in glass 'mason' like jars and they cut them off in front of you. doesn't get fresher than that. also that's only about half of the mushrooms they brought through the entire meal. all of the small dishes are the sides. starting from the left there's some type of pickled mushrooms, i believe macaroni salad, boiled quail eggs and an acorn tofu type thing, seaweed, kimchi, behind the ladle handle is fried mashed sweet potatoes and kimchi wrapped in fried mashed potatoes, chop chae which is clear noodles, pickled turnips in the red chili paste, salad with sesame dressing. the smallest dishes have a chilled soy sauce and wasabi. the big one on the right has lettuce, scallions, pumpkin or some winter squash, more mushrooms, some wonton like things, hand made noodles (green) and beef. the big pot is broth with the red chili paste over a gas burner. mushrooms went in first with lettuce and scallions, then the pumpkin. all of the mushrooms weren't that bad, they weren't that weird chewy consistency that i don't like about mushrooms. quail eggs were ok, only a slightly different taste than chicken eggs. after we ate most of the mushrooms and other vegetables put in the pot they put the wontons and beef in. i didn't try either of those because i was getting bae bulla. bae means stomach or pear, bulla means full. last to go in the big pot was the noodles. i tried those but they tasted like the beef so i wasn't thrilled. then they took a bit of the broth and put it in a different pan over the burner and added rice, some greens, carrots, onions, etc. had a few bites, but i couldn't eat any more. all in all everything was delicious. i was told that the restaurant kept trying to bring more food out because i was there. i didn't pay for any of it so i don't know how much it cost.

don't run around like a chicken with its head cut off

so i've been eating a lot at this kimbap place near work and i've been having dolsot bibimbap quite often. the vegetables they put in this version are a little different because it's served in a hot stone pot. they put a raw egg on top and you mix it up and the egg cooks. last week in addition to the usual kimchi, seaweed and pickled turnip side dishes, they brought out some curry potatoes, onions and carrots. i was super excited so the next day i went back and ordered the curry on rice dish assuming it would be the same. it was except it had chicken. it was my fault for not asking or saying no meat and i was not going to send it back, so i ate it. eating it reaffirmed what i've known for a very long time, that chicken doesn't taste like anything at all and it's only a texture and completely pointless to eat.

every korean family has their own kimchi recipe and my coworker richard brought me a whole bunch of his kimchi. it's the hottest kimchi i've had here. nose running, cheeks burning and some sweating. so good. pindaettok is the name of the scallion pancake type thing that i get at a restaurant in my neighborhood. i've been wanting to try one made with kimchi instead of scallion but have not seen it anywhere, so hyunjoo came by and made it for me with richard's kimchi. it's one of my favorite things to eat with a beer after i get out of work. now i know how to make it.

one more thing.....it's been snowing for a few hours now. hopefully snowboarding somewhere soon.

teleportation is crazy

last night i teleported to broad and south st. i start walking east on south st and i say to myself 'i don't remember this' there are public swimming pools everywhere. i continue walking and run in to mat wyble from florida, why he's there i don't know, but he has dreads again and i realize i have dreads again too. i'm only wearing shorts and i'm walking with a football inbetween my legs. we decide to walk down to front st and when we get there it's a pristine beach on the delaware, no blvd, no condos, just restaurants whose front decks go down to the sand. mat stops at one of these which has a huge line outside and i continue walking south down the beach/front st heading to fran's. as i cross over washington ave south philly becomes something like the peruvian jungle in raiders of the lost ark. no more streets just earth. i start walking down the alleys, which are even more over grown than the streets, and i come upon an iron gate that i can barely see through the undergrowth and i walk through it. the terrain becomes really hilly, huge tropical trees are all around and the ground is covered in soft green moss. i guess i'm barefoot as i'm walking very lightly through this place. i see that most of the row homes' first floors are underwater, i look to see where the source is and realize that about 75 yards ahead blocking my path, the hills push right down into a swamp. people start coming out on their back porches and for some reason i don't want to be seen, so i lay down on the moss. i notice that there are numerous bags of perfectly ripe bananas and bags of red apples on the ground. i guess the apples and bananas grow pre-bagged in the trees here. as i'm thinking about grabbing a bag of bananas, who walks up but fran. his face and cheeks are puffy and swollen and he's talking like the godfather. i start to ask him about the pre-bagged fruit and dave face walks up looking dapper as usual. fran motions for us to creep down to the swamp and swim to his back porch so we can go in. as we get there my doorbell rings. i get up super confused and open the door to see this little korean lady running up and down the stairs ringing all the bells. i can't understand anything she is saying, but she has some type of device in her hand so i figure maybe she's with the gas company. she's motioning to come in and i realize that i did laundry last night and the floor in my entire apartment is covered in my clothes as i have no dryer, but a heated floor. i start throwing clothes out of the way trying to figure out where she's going. it seems like i can't get them out of the way fast enough. she's only there for about 60 seconds and she has me sign the device and tells me 'kamsa hamnida' i know that one it means thank you. so i say it as well, then she says it again only this time she adds 'mani' to the end. i haven't heard this before so i say 'mani?' i think she then makes an little laugh and runs out the door. i'm super confused as to what exactly happened and just decide to make some coffee and listen to clutch before i get in the shower to go to work. i just found out that mani means much, very or many. i should have figured that out.

yeongtong, predators, mandarins and not falling

a grey saturday from the foot bridge. the buildings in the distance are yeongtong, which is where avalon is located. to walk to this point and catch a bus to work takes about twenty minutes total.

once again, the gock on the right and rice paddies.

in the gock the most we do is walk a few blocks, eat scallion pancakes, kimchi omelets and drink beer. so friday night after work i got on a bus and went to seohyeon which is another part of bundang i guess. we went to a margarita party that some people from another avalon campus were having. well i think they were drinking lemonade and jose cuervo, i had red wine. we went to some bar/club whose name escapes me, full of foreigners and the predacious type of male local. i thought those types were bad in the states, it was just outright stupid here. we ended up telling every guy that tried to hit on or dance with hyunjoo that she was my wife and they all backed off really quick, then tried to give me some kind of compliment. so much for being divorced. they even work in packs, three blocking the guy out of the way so a fourth can get close to the girl. we were all pretty inebriated by the end and it started to become really funny. we caught a cab back to the gock and i was stoked to see a female driver. she was talking to us, in korean of course so hyunjoo translated. even though it wasn't necessary we rolled with the marriage thing laughing the entire way. the cab driver was excited about that and gave us a tangerine, at the time i swore it was a mandarin, but whatever they're related. i don't know if it means anything beyond generosity. most koreans that i've talked to are very nice and humble so it just seemed natural.

sunday i went to jamsil, in southwestern seoul, to lotte (low-tay) world and went ice skating. there's a big amusement park there also, some of it's indoors, some out. might do that next weekend. it was too crowded to get a shot of me bent over on one skate with my leg up and arms out, so this is the best i have. it was fun but exhausting.

in case you thought i had become a vagabond

i've only taught two this week as the kids are still in holding, but i do have one class tomorrow. it's given me time to make syllabi for next session. i'll be teaching the speaking classes and an applied english class where history is the subject to nokjiwon students as well as another applied english class dealing with current issues and speaking to ivy students.
tomorrow i go pick up my health check. i hope they don't try and tell me i have pneumonia. once i have the documentation, it and my passport will be sent to headquarters where they will apply for my alien registration card. it should take 3 weeks to get, then i'll go apply for a china visa because i've already made plans at the end of january to go to shanghai for chinese new year.

here's the living room/kitchen/laundry room/closet and in the back is the bathroom. your shoes aren't actually supposed to be on the floor, but the space just inside the door is not large enough for my shoes, but i do take them off as soon as i come in, as is custom, i just put them along the wall.

and here's the bedroom. the blanket and comfortor they provided look like something you would find in a 7 year old girls sleeping beauty themed bedroom. as nate said earlier as we got in a cab to come home to gockbanjung-dong, "what's with the gock blockin'?"

oh man, you should hide those

last week most of the students were in holding. holding is when the parents tell their children not to go to the hagwons and other area specific after school programs, so they can cram for finals. i only taught two classes, but it worked out good because i was able to do some preparations for the next session which starts in two weeks.

the best dish i've had here was a sesame noodle soup, i don't remember what it was called. it had kind of fat noodles in a sesame based thick broth with some seaweed. i thought it was similar to fettuccine alfredo, but better, with more liquid than noodles. this is dubu kimchi. dubu is korean for tofu. this was the spiciest kimchi i've had. it was really good, maybe because it had pork in it. i just ate around that though. usually if you go somewhere and have a beer they serve little rice snacks like chips. this was the first time i had seen the colorful ones. i thought fruit loops, i tasted fruit loops.
saturday i went to bundang again, but this time i went to the area called yatap and this is what i left with.
my coworker hyunjoo was going to take me to seoul and show me around, but first she was going to get a facial, so i went as well. i was looking around and saw these cups and asked if i could get a back and neck massage and if i could try the cups. obviously i couldn't see the exact proccess, but i'll do my best to explain. first my back was oiled down and massaged by hand, then a flame was used to create suction in a large cup which was moved up and down my back. next 18-20 cups were placed on my back using the same flame action and left for about 5 minutes. then the cups were taken off and reapplied, except this time they were cold and wet, and left for a few more minutes. then they were reapplied with the heat. it was finished up with more hand massaging. i enjoyed it and will probably have it done again.
after that we went to an area in northern seoul called insa-dong. walked around, went into a couple art galleries, had some tea. then we went to gangnam in southern seoul. it is a heavily populated area. all of the streets were super crowded. we ended up in a hooka bar called rainbow, had some beer and a cinnamon hooka. delicious.

gockbanjung-dong

nate and i went to bundang saturday to see sarah. it took two buses, 1800 won, 45 minutes. coming back it took the subway, two buses, 2700 won, 2 hours. bundang seemed liked a super expensive place to be. it is where many of the hagwon headquarters are located. hagwon is what they call the private english institutions. both avalon and yes youngdo headquarters are in the same building, plus a few others. the actual school that sarah teaches at is in that building as well. her studio apartment is on the 15th floor of a 25 story building with a nice view of some mountains.
here are some photos of the foot bridge that i have to cross when i come home. from this view point the buildings on the right are the start of the neighborhood that i'm in which is called gockbanjung-dong. to the left are rice fields and a mountain in the distance. to the left of the bridge, not visible in this but the next, is a large church. both photos are taken facing a southern direction.

the last is a shot from the bridge looking east at another foot bridge which has four paths that make a circle around an intersection.

the state of pumpkin pie and coffee

for thanksgiving a group of the foreign teachers went to a buffet called vips. i thought it was kind of expensive, but once again i had bi bim bop. this time it was all i could eat, so i made a breakfast version with fruit, then a more traditional version, then one with other things from the bar. i had some brewed coffee too. coffee is kind of hard to come by here. there is a french pastry shop on the ground floor of the building that i work in and they have what's called americano. i think they make an espresso then add hot water. i've been told that the dunkin' donuts here have the closest thing to black coffee in the area. don't care too much for those places but i'll deal with it. if you go to a starbucks, you can buy their bags of coffee for about the equivalent of $20. but a coffee maker cost $100 and a french press cost $40. i don't know about that either. they do brew coffee at work, but they make super, i mean suuuppppeeeerrrrrr diluted hazelnut coffee, it's basically mildly sweet tea. i guess i'll have to start drinking real tea more frequently then.
tomorrow at 11 someone from the school is coming by the motel to pick me up and take me to my new apartment. oh, that's in 6 hours. i should repack and go to sleep. after i get my things moved, i'm catching a bus to bundang to see miss neville and have a late thanksgiving with her and her teacher friends from yes youngdo. it should be super fun. she just told me that we'll be drinking white grape wine and not soju. that will be nice. well this will be the last time i get to look out the hite (yes, the cheap korean beer) motel at the sign for the white club across the street, of course there is a photo of a pasty skin white girl on it. don't think the korean club seen frequents that place too much.
annyonghi kyeseyo.

when pickings are slim and feeling jet lag, go for cass and soju

so i've been in korea for a day and a half now. it is good. the company that i work for is called avalon. from what other teachers here have told me it is an excellent first contract school. it has elementary and middle school age classes. there is also an advanced middle school program called nok ji won, which is where i am. currently there are four english teachers in nok ji won. nate and i are the new ones and we are replacing karen and dan who will be leaving saturday. yesterday i sat in on a few classes. they seem pretty straight forward. the elementary and middle school classes are very structured, the nok ji won is not. we have to make all of our lesson plans. nate has worked for avalon for a year now, he was teaching at a different school, so his experience will be helpful. karen and dan have been teaching for a few years and have been giving us a good idea of how it works.














yesterday morning i got up and went for an hour walk around the neighborhood. i stopped by a small mart and bought some apples, oranges, cucumbers and pickled radish, which then became my first meal. it was nothing new. later after coming to work, the four of us went to lunch and i had my first bi bimp bap, a bowl of rice with a plethora of different kimchi, pickled and peppered vegetables. it was very good. i'm learning real fast that the concept of vegetarian does not exist here. i'll get through it. today karen and i went to a lotte mart, it's like walmart, and she showed me all of my options, which were a bit slim. the lotte mart is close to the school, but there is a small independent mart near the apartment that i can get some things at. last night we went and checked out the apartments, they are nice, definitely doable size one bedrooms, with two gas burners on top of the washing machine, there is no bathtub or stall shower, the shower head just comes out of the wall and there is a drain in the floor. i think the neighborhood looks fine, they say it's the hood, but coming from philly's grime probably has something to do with that. a group of us went to a bar there and had cass beer, the pitcher said hite though, and soju, a rice wine which kind of tastes like vodka. fun stuff.