Monday, February 20, 2012

favorites

            I’ve been meaning to post a blog with pictures from my everyday life here in small town Korea, Hongcheon. I am so happy that I got placed in my town; it is very quaint and beautiful with the surrounding mountains in every direction! There is a very homey feel to it. Adam and I always talk about how relieved and relaxed we feel when we get back to Hongcheon from a long trip or just a day in Seoul.




The tiny alley I walk everyday to town from my apartment. It looks super sketchy but it isn't at all, it doesn't even phase me anymore.

I like to call this street "waygook alley" (foreigner alley) I even have Adam calling it that now, it's funny. It is the street that has the only "western" food in Hongcheon. We really don't have any western food here but some of the restaurants slightly resemble it...

Isaacs Toast lady, she's amazing. I never have to tell her what my order is... she knows! I just tell her one or two. Haha! 

The local bakery that is everywhere in Korea! 

I love the atmosphere of this Caffe Bene, they have so many places to sit and the chairs are very comfy. Plus, the owner speaks a bit of English, that's always a plus! 

Daiso... the Korean "dollar store." You can get anything you really want for very cheap. I also know the owner, he's so cute! 

My bank, Kb Star! 

WaBar - one of the bars I go to with friends, I happen to teach the owner's son... having one too many on a school night is never an issue though here in Korea. It's almost encouraged at some schools (not mine).

I love Pizza School. The owners are so nice, it's good pizza, and it's only 5 bucks for a pizza! 

Max, above the "buy the way" (which just actually turned into a "7/11" yesterday... go figure) is where my teammates coworker works and owns. My soccer team used to take me there a lot to eat and drink. They had my bday party there actually! 

The local FamilyMart. The girl that works the night shift is awesome, she loves me and always gives me servicE's (free things)! 

A duck bbq restaurant. I've eaten here a couple of times with my teammates. I guess it's a little pricey but it's pretty good. 

Von's Chicken... This the the chicken and beer place that I have always talked about in the past where I would go after practice with my teammates! The owner loves me. 

Good ole Gimbab Sarang. It's a go-to place to "Korean Fast Food" nothing like American Fast Food. I get bibimbap, kimbap, mondo, all different soups, etc here! It's very tasty.

coming to an end...

My time is Korea is quickly dwindling. I can’t believe how fast time has flown by here. It has been one hell of a year here. I have had such an amazing experience here. My school has begged me to stay longer throwing tons of offers my way but I just had to say no, I need a change. However, I am in love with my kids and will miss them dearly. I have had a couple of them cry in my lap after telling them that I was leaving. It’s going to be hard to leave them and everyone I have met in Korea. I will miss so many things about Korea; I made a list of the top things I will miss most:

-Not having to pay tip on anything
-Koreans; they really are wonderful people
-Transportation
-Being able to go for a hike wherever I am
-My crazy students. I love them! (Especially 6 year-old Dylan)
-Health care in Korea. I opted not to pay for insurance, which was $30 a month. Even without it I pay not even ten bucks to go to the hospital.
-Makgolli (Korean rice wine)
-Being able to walk to a familymart or 7/11 on any given street corner in Korea
-People watching from the third floor of a coffee shop (people watching here is spectacular)
-How little money I pay for food/everything
-Side dishes during meals with free refills
-Feeling extremely safe everywhere I go in this country
-Meeting random awesome people from all over the world
-Awesome Korean contraptions such as their tape dispenser, umbrella bags, “bing bong” table service button…
-How easy life is here, I understand why people come here and never leave
-ServiceE (when Koreans give a small gift with something you buy like they’ll give a pair of socks with shoes or little lotions when you buy face wash. My personal favorite is the food serviceE’s, they’ll bring nuts or fresh fruit when you’re out enjoying a few beers at a bar/restaurant with friends.)

It’s really going to be hard to leave this country. I have really come to love and appreciate Korean culture. It truly has been a wonderful place to live in for a year. Coming to Korea was the craziest yet best decision I have ever made in my life so far. I’m so happy I came here to live and experience a completely different culture than what I am accustomed to. I’ve met some incredible people here whom I don’t want to leave. But like Sharon teacher once told me; when one person leaves your life, a new one enters. I like that. I am very grateful to have been surrounded by great people here. My soccer teammates, coworkers, best friends from home, and random new friends I’ve met along the way.

My last few weeks I have been pretty busy. I have been trying to meet up with friends for the last time before I leave and packing my life away here. The new teacher gets here on Thursday this week, which is exciting. That also means that I have to be out of my apartment next week. Yes, I will be homeless… Haha. I have had so many people wanting me to stay with them though. Sharon, Jessica, Sally, Adam, my soccer teammate Jonglan (who already made a list of all the foods I like to prepare meals for me…). My director, Amy, really wants me to stay at her apartment with her son Joseph who I teach. She told me this morning that she cleaned out “my room” in her apartment… haha. So, it looks like I’ll be doing some couch surfing for the last week of my stay in Korea. It will be interesting for sure. I fly home on March 5th in the morning and arrive in Minneapolis on March 5th in the evening!
Here are a couple pictures from the last couple weekends....

Jinwoo and I at Butterfinger Pancakes!

Kalie and I with Hyundeok- Jessica's friend who's an actor. We went to watch his play, it was really good but we didn't understand anything because it was all in Korean! haha

Kalie and I went to a wine bar on the 8th floor in Seoul and people watched all night... it was pretty great!

This is what it looks like in any given intersection in Seoul... this is not even that busy of an intersection. So many people!

Jen and I (she a fellow Minnesotan and works in my town, Hongcheon, at the girls middle school) We're at WaBar, one of the local bars that all the foreigners meet up at...


Last weekend I met up with Clayton, Mike, Mike’s coworker Sally, and Sally’s Korean friend who loves Clayton and I. We walked around Hyehwa, an area in Seoul I hadn’t really spent any time before. We went to see the fortress wall and ate at a cute little restaurant. Later that evening we went to go see a dance musical. It was really cool; it was just a bunch of people hip-hop dancing. I enjoyed it a lot!

Seoul Fortress Wall.

Clayton and Mike 


If this pole falls down everyone in town will be screwed! 

The dance musical

Our Korean BBQ after the musical. I love the little turtle grill, he was so cute! 

            I’m looking forward to relaxing for a bit. It has been pretty crazy at school while we are trying to prepare things for next year. They have no days off in between the school years. Oh, and I have to give a speech next week for the 7 year olds, that should be fun… Not! I hate speeches, wish me luck! 

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Sachoom

            Last weekend Clayton and I went to Seoul to hang out with our Korean friend Sally teacher who teaches at our friend Mike’s school in Suwon. She had a whole day trip planned for us in Seoul – super Korean of her. It was so cute, she had this itinerary printed out and then English explanations about all the places we were going to. It was a lot of fun. Her friend joined us as well. We first hung out at the Hanok Villages, which are traditional Korean houses. I had never been there before so it was fun to go see it especially with a Korean who could explain everything to me. Sally took a lot of pictures of us there…


The paper was to make a wish for the new year

A traditional game

We got to wear hanboks (traditional Korean clothes)

Bae Sungmoon bought us all "pokju money" coin purse for the new year




Old school treadmill

Yummy Kimchi pots!



The houses are heated from the floors; Clay pretending to light a fire

Bae Sungmoon, Sally teacher, Clayton

One of the temple areas

After the villages we walked around some temples and ate dinner at a really cute area that I am definitely going back to before I leave Korea. Our night ended with an amazing play/dance musical called Sachoom. It was done using very few words and they were more expressive words that any idiot could figure out what was going on. They also had two screens depicting what the next scene dance was going to be about, it was shown in English/Korean/Chinese/Thai. It was really good to go to. At home I enjoy going to plays with my family a lot. Clayton and I had a really good time with Sally and her friend. 


This hoddok man was SO funny!


In the theater

He was a really funny actor, I liked him

The star female actress

Sunday I spent the day hanging out with my friend Claire/Hyemin. It had been a little while since I’d seen her. She’s my friend that I met while working at Disneyworld. She wanted to spend the day in Paju (essentially North Korea). It was so far north, the second to last stop on the train and very close to the DMZ. Anyways, there is a huge premium outlet mall there that she wanted to go to and pretend she was in the states, not in Korea. It was fun, I was just happy to hang out with her for the day.

Our Korean snacks at a famous Korean little shop

Claire and I at Paju Premium Outlet 

This is probably the thing that bugs me the most about South Korea. There is so much plastic surgery that is performed here and it drives me nuts. All girls want to get it done and look "Western". I don't know how many times I've been complimented on my nose or jaw line or big eyes... Well thanks I really try. It's sooo dumb! 


Speech contest


A couple weeks ago my school director Amy asked me to help them interview for my replacement, I of course said yes. She was so happy that I helped her that the next day she bought me a present. It was a puma sweatshirt/jacket. It’s something I would totally buy. Later, I found out that the owner had recommended it to her for me. He said, “Oh Julie, I know her. I think she’d like this.” Apparently I’ve had some beers with him at the bar before… who knew!? I don’t know who this guy is but I plan on going to Puma soon to see if I recognize him. Small town for ya! 

The puma sweatshirt from my director Amy


            My coworkers at Wonderland are all pretty awesome. We all get along really well. I hang out with them a lot. During the week, Adam and I cook (and by that I mean, I sit on the couch while Adam cooks) dinner for our Korean coteachers a couple times a week. We plan to do it once a week but it doesn’t really work out that way.  Anyways, we used to go to Sharon’s apartment but she’s been really busy lately so we’ve just been cooking food at my apartment. Last meal we had was some sort of Italian pasta dish with chicken that was delicious. Even Sharon and her baby came over to enjoy the food. It was really fun. 

Enjoying some hot chocolate on a chilly winter evening

Sharon's baby loves typing on my comp

His English name will be William!


            Some fun things to mention about Wonderland lately is first of all a field trip to an indoor play place. It was a lot of fun. We went for the whole morning. The kids loved it. The other thing is last week we had a speech contest that the kids have been preparing for. They wanted a foreigner to host it, and by foreigner they made me and not Adam. I don’t know why they love me so much but they have me do all the announcing of things for the kids. It was fun, all the kids did a good job and got presents at the end!


Indoor playplace

Dylan showing me his soccer moves

7 year old Kyle

5 year old Sean

Balls are so fun!

I like to call this the beehive

All of our kindergarteners

I was put in charge of announcing...

Ellen and Jenny

The best speech went to little Julie! 

Alex Lee... Haha