I Almost Died. Seriously.

I went river rafting with some friends in Gangwon-do over the weekend. Gangwon-do is a really beautiful area about two hours to the east of Seoul. We stayed at a pension next to the Naerim River.

This was the view from our balcony. See? Motherfucking beautiful, right?

Here's my boat setting out.

What's wrong with me?

Don't we look like winners? Sadly, it didn't quite end in success for us.

Our guide told us the water is crazy after rains. Definitely there was some craziness going on. Whether it was the river or him, I am unsure. Regardless, we ended up standing on a rock in the middle of a bunch of rapids as our raft filled with water and sank/floated away. No one thought to take a photo, so here is my own rendition of it.

I saved Mark but Darino was lost downstream.

After watching our guide futilely untangle a rope for a while, we came to the conclusion that he was probably not going to rescue us. So, remember, if similar circumstances befall you, lie on your back, facing downstream as if you were being crucified - the Jesus position. Don't pray, though, as closing your eyes will make it more difficult to avoid large rocks. 

Luckily, we all made it to safety without major injury. It was actually pretty exciting! The second time around was sort of annoying, though.

As I was discussing with the other Americans in the boat, I was surprised by how dangerous the rafting was. I mean, we never had to sign release waivers. The British and Canadians with us listened in semi-disgust.

Afterward, we had dinner outside our pension. Here are some Korean men cooking our samgyeopsal on a homemade grill.

Awesome. 

Such a traumatic episode forces us to confront our own terrifying fragility. It makes one stop and think about the important things in life, why we're living the lives we are and making the choices we've made. It's heavy stuff.

Contemplating life and other complex, worrying issues.

Luckily, soju is a complete mind eraser.

Why Living in Seoul is Great; Why Living in Seoul is Awful

In an effort to save more money,  I've been tracking my expenses lately.


Typical Expenses (Weekday):

Lunch - Bibimbap + juice (GS25)            2,500 won
             Sweet Chocolate bar                     200 won

Subway Fare (both ways)                        1,800 won

Dinner - Odeng                                       1,200 won
              apple                                         1,000 won

                                                 TOTAL: 6,700 won = $5.90 US

---------------------------------------------------------------

Typical Expenses (Saturday):

Snack - chocolate waffle (subway)           2,000 won

Subway Fare (both ways)                        1,800 won

Lunch - Salad (Kraze Burger)                  5,500 won

Pre-dinner Drink - whiskey (Sam Ryans)  5,000 won
Dinner - Pollack Soup (Itaewon)              6,000 won

Drinks (Queen, Stompers, etc.)               38,000 won
Drinks (GS25)                                          3,000 won

Taxi (from Itaewon)                                15,000 won

Drunken snacks (GS25)                           6,500 won

                                                TOTAL: 80,500 won = $70.84 US

;_;

Tofu and English Villages

For my winter camp, we are taking the students to Paju English Village on a field trip. So, Kyeong, Mr. Shin and I went to see it before so we could make up some activities.

To be clear, Paju is the name of the city in which the English village is located. So, what is an 'English Village,' actually? Well, I can tell you there is not much of this:

Or, any farms or verdant countryside or fields of yellow rapeseed. In actuality, an "English Village" in Korea looks much more like this:

Yes, that is a castle behind us.

Paju English Village is sort of a hybrid between Disneyland, a British boarding school (Howarts?) and the Imaginarium. In fact, there is Disney music playing constantly.

Would you like to go to Meister Burger? They produce high quality and good service!

In short, it was a bit strange. But that is okay. Kyeong told me not to worry about going so far north, to Paju (one and a half hours north of Seoul), as we would not cross the border. I told her I would not tell my mother (oops).

For lunch, Mr. Shin took us to a restaurant specializing in tofu. I know people is the U.S. do not normally think of tofu as delicious but OMG IT WAS SO GOOD OMNOMNOMNOM. They made it by hand at this place and they had several different types. My favorite was Dubu Kimchi, which is just firm tofu eaten with a warm, spicy type of kimchi.

I have been reading The Ominvore's Dilemna and was talking to Kyeong about traditonal cultural foods being healthier. Kyeong told me that Koreans have a word for this - Umshik Kunghap - which means "food harmony." Tofu and kimchi have umshik kunghap because eating them together is more delicious AND healthier for you. Tofu, while high in protein, produces a chemical that makes humans unable to absorb most of its protein. But, by eating it with fermented foods, this chemical is neutralized so all the protein can be absorbed.

Man, I should watch myself; I think I'm being converted.

Peppero!

I'm very late in posting this, but November 11th was Peppero Day here in Korea. What is Peppero?

This is peppero. 

Peppero may look familiar to you if you are a fan of this Japanese snack.

Mmm. Pocky.

On Peppero Day, kids give each other boxes of Peppero, a little like Valentine's Day. It probably says something about the market domination of Lotte, the company that makes Peppero, that they've manufactured a holiday for their snack. It's on November 11th because of the date - 11/11 looks like Peppero sticks.

I got five boxes - I love this holiday.

Demo Classes & Shabu-Shabu

This blog has been embarrassingly devoid of posting lately. I had a demo class last week which kept me very busy and was very scary. I had to do a lesson in front of a bunch of other teachers from my district who assessed my teaching ability.

The assessment was funny, though. Sometimes you feel like you might be getting discussed in a foreign language and its uncomfortable. It's much more so when you know you're being discussed. Usually when my korean colleagues talk about things in Korean, I just smile and try to look pretty without letting my eyes glaze over too obviously. I wasn't sure if this would be the appropriate response when a bunch of women were possibly telling me how awful I am.

The good news is that I'm apparently not awful. Although, I think this is mostly thanks to Kyeong. Our principal was happy though, so he took the entire English department out to shabu-shabu.

If you have never had shabu-shabu, that is very tragic because it is delicious. You get platters and platters of meat and a huge pot filled with broth to cook it at. We got the seafood and beef combo. I ate fish intestines! Surprisingly, pretty good. After you cook all your food, the server uses what's left of your broth to make jook (rice porridge), which is pretty much my favorite thing ever.

Field Day

Last week, we were going to have the school festival on Thursday and a field day on Friday until everyone came down with swine flu. So, only teachers came to school on those two days. On the upside, though, we still had field day.
Here is our badminton tournament. Isn't the gym nice-looking? It is brand spanking new - I went to the opening ceremony on Wednesday. We also played some very intense games of ping-pong.

After all that strenuous physical activity, we needed to re-energize with some nutritious food.


And, of course, rehydrate.

For the record, Chinese food in Korea is so, so different. (during an after school class on food, one of my students told me "I like Chinese food the least because they eat insects." I didn't see any insects in the chow mein but I was nonetheless a little underimpressed.

Americanos, I Miss You

Not to be a hater but Korea loves bad coffee. I thought that finally, five years down the road, the coffee snobbery instilled by my employment at Peet's Coffee & Tea had finally died. It has not. I realize that until this point I've been living in an insular community of coffee appreciators.

In Korea, the coffee of choice is Maxim.

They come in little sticks of instant coffee crystals and a shit ton of sugar and dehydrated creamer. The particular one pictured here is mocha flavored.

There are starbucks and espresso everywhere in Seoul, too. But I don't like Americanos enought to pay $4 for them (I mean, come on, it's mostly water anyway).

I admit, I am starting to enjoy the coffee here, though. I'll never like Maxim coffee sticks but my school has a coffee machine that makes supersweet mini lattes. They call this coffee but hey, potato, potahto, right?

I'll sound ignorant but before I came here I had assumed Koreans would have similar flavor palettes to my Chinese friends who don't really like sweet things. However, I've found the reverse - Koreans love sweets. I don't think Koreans actually like bad coffee, they just really like sugar and don't have much appreciation for bitter flavors. Wine isn't big here either (though this maybe more because of affordability and market dominance of soju). Most foreign foods taste sweeter here, even the ones that aren't necessarily supposed to (spaghetti sauce? garlic bread??).

God is Having a Good Time

After our school hike, we came back down and went to dinner at a grill restaurant. At grill restaurants they give you a big platter of meat and you get to cook it yourself at your table. There are lots of different types in Korea - this one specialized in pork so we had ham and samgyeopsal.
This is samgyeopsal - thick-slab bacon. It's not my favorite.

There were about 20 toasts during dinner. I'm not sure if we were actually celebrating anything in particular. Yeong Deuk was explaining that in Korea, people don't drink alone. So, there are lots of toasts so everyone drinks together, which fosters group belonging and harmony. That said, we drank a lot of mokolri and soju.

There are many Korean drinking customs. You leave your cup half full when you don't want more to drink because when your cup is empty, another person must refill it. It is considered rude to refill your own cup or to pour or accept alcohol with only one hand. And once two people have poured for each other, they have a toast and drink together. However, these rules are flexible. Especially as people drink more, it seems. After I was about four drinks in, Mr. Shin refilled my quarter-full cup and said "welcome to Korea."

It was funny to see about three quarters of the teaching staff stumbling out of the restaurant.

There was an after-party at a pub in Yeongdeungpo. Everyone was invited but I think there is a tacit understanding that only men go. And me, because I am a novelty. I'm told there is always an afterparty in Korea. You must accept the invitation, then quiety slip away during the trip to the second party if you don't want to go. But since I am tall, blonde and foreign, it is hard to quietly slip away. I dragged Kyeong along with me, though, to avoid complete awkwardness.

So, me, Kyeong and at least half the of the male teaching staff had some beers. They told me they actually have a name for their little club. They call it the Silver Bells. They told me this is an underwear brand in Korea (then, of course, asked what brand of underwear I was wearing).

After about an hour, my principal decided I must see Seonyu Island, and I must see it tonight. There is also a tacit understanding that you cannot refuse the principal. So, me, Kyeong, the principal, and two other teachers went to Seonyoo Island.
Here is us on the island. Awkward.

We went to a cafe on the island and ate Patbingsu.
Patbingsu is shaved ice topped with sweetened red bean paste, candied rice cakes and fruit. It might sound a little strange but I really enjoy it.

While we were eating, my principal told me how the first part of our school's name means 'God,' and the second part means 'to have a good time.' So, I teach at God is Having a Good Time Middle School.


This morning, Mr. Shin brought me saltines, rice cakes and a cup of coffee. I couldn't tell if this was for Chuseok or because he thought I might have a hangover.

My First Week and Dental Hygiene

I'm very excited because I bought a travel toothbrush today. All of the other teachers go to the bathroom to brush their teeth after lunch and I've felt very left out until now. I don't think Koreans are really into dental hygiene. It has more to do with the fact that kimchi is a smell that sticks with you.

If my cafeteria is anything to go off of, a traditional Korean meal consists of rice, often mixed with other grains, soup, some kind of vegetable and a curry-like dish. I got excited yesterday because, in addition to the above, they had some kind of fried oblong food. With ketchup! So, I took a big bite only to realize it was a deep-fried and breaded hot dog. Boo.

Why do Koreans love hot dogs so much? They treat them as the 4th meat after beef, pork and chicken. In addition to serving them the traditional American way, they slice them up and sautee them with vegetables or throw them into soups. I like to be adventurous and try new foods, but that's just a bad surprise.

For my ice breaker activity I am having all my classes make name cards. I told my first class 'write your name' and ended up with a bunch of name cards written in hangul. So, for the next class I said 'write your name in English' and half of the name cards had actual English names like 'Frank' and 'Jennifer.' The idea of giving them English names has always weirded me out - it seems vaguely imperialistic and culturocentric. So, I told my advanced 1st year class ''write the name you want me to call you in class.' I got 'Bush,' 'Obama,' 'Smart Boy,' and 'Asshole.'
I should have just made a slideshow.

First Day of Teaching

Today was my first day of actual teaching. And it wasn't that bad! By the fourth time of giving exactly the same lesson, it's pretty easy to just glide though.

My principal approached me today and offered to take me out to lunch for bulgogi sometime. He told me I should eat a lot so I don't become ill. In general, Koreans seem to want to shove as much food down my throat as possible. But, who can really complain about extra packages of cookies?

I haven't had the chance to take photos of my school or my neighborhood, so here's a photo of a three-story Dunkin' Donuts.

Stereotypes

I lied, I'm not posting photos of my apartment yet. I still haven't finished unpacking after 4 days.

My co-teacher told me yesterday as we were driving to get me registered at the immigration office that I am 'very like an American. And very not.' I look like a stereotypical American - blonde, tall, blue eyes - but I act very polite and dress conservatively. Hah. I will take that as a compliment, since I agree with her about a lot of Americans.

The view of Americans here makes me a little distressed, though. I think the combination of media and the fact that 33.3% of Americans that come here are total weirdos gives Koreans a very skewed view of the United States.

On an unrelated side note, today at lunch I had Ojingeochae Bokkeum, stir-fried dried squid. So good!
(photo courtesy of My Korean Kitchen)

Jeongju Fieldtrip

Last Sunday, our orientation class went to Jeongju, a city two and a half hours south of Seoul. There is a hanok (a traditional Korean village) built there. To go with the traditional Korean village we had a traditional Korean lunch.

This is bibimbap, which means vegetables and rice. All the other little plates are side dishes you can add into your bibimbap.

As you can see, Eric was very excited about lunch.

Afterward, we played on the nolttwigi, which is sort of like a seesaw except the object it to hurtle your partner into the air when you jump on your end. Eric and I tried to play but we were not very good. Two old Korean men tried to demonstrate for us, but they really just highlighted our suckiness. I'm posting a video from Youtube below to give you a better idea of the game.

Nolttwigi Demonstration

Around My Neighborhood

Eric and I went wandering yesterday around our neighborhood.



Here is a nearby street at night.



It is legal to drink alcohol on the street in Korea.



So, we bought some cocktails in plastic baggies.



Korea is a great country. Besides the street bars, they've created the chocolate Cheeto.


Mmm, familian snacks.