Grilled Duck and Homemade Kimchi

I really have lucked out with my co-teacher. She's basically become one of my best friends here in Korea. Even though we see each other every day at work, we still hang out lots on the weekends and after work. She's super sweet and we have tons of fun together. And today, I got to meet her family, who are also uber sweet :D

Her family took me out to this really nice grilled duck restaurant. It was my first time trying grilled duck like this, and it was really good. Think regular Korean BBQ but with duck. The restaurant first bakes the duck in their kitchen, debones it, and slices it up. Then, they bring it out, where we briefly grill the slices at our table, before we wrap it with lettuce and other vegetables into nice little roll.

The duck was really yummy, but the company made the night. My co-teacher's family are the nicest people. Even though there was a lot of back-and-forth translating going on, we still talked quite a bit. And when they dropped me back off at my apartment, they even gave me some homemade kimchi and japche to take with me :D I'm so lucky...

Got a 3 day weekend? Why not crash a wedding?

So my school decided to give everyone the day off last Friday. I found out about it a month ago, and I was super excited for the long weekend because it would mean the perfect chance for me to hop on over to China. When I told my co-teacher, though, she said I couldn't leave the country because of swine flu. (The government's enacted a policy were you have to be quarantined away from public schools for a week if you leave the country.) I was super bummed. My co-teacher, seeing how disappointed I was, wanted to make a up to me...

So she invited me to experience a Korean wedding :D One of her friends was getting married, and she got her to sent me an invite, lol. I love weddings in general, but I was super excited to see how this wedding would be different from ones in the States, even though Koreans rarely do traditional weddings anymore.

It turned out to be really nice. We when to this really gorgeous wedding hall in Gangnam (the rich, nice part of the city), and it was absolutely beautiful. The theme of the hall was kinda a winter wonderland decor, so there were white trees at every table, snowflakes and crystals hanging from the ceilings, and beautiful flower arrangements. I was very impressed.

The wedding was very Western, but there were some interesting parts.

Instead of a church, the wedding ceremony took place in this wedding hall. They set up a runway and a main stage for where the ceremony would take place, but instead of guest seats lined up in neat little rows, the seats were arranged around dinner takes. AND we actually ate during the ceremony! Right when they were saying their vows, the waiters came and brought us our own set places. I felt kinda awkward eating during the ceremony, but everyone else was just eating and chattering away like it was any normal restuarant.

The most random thing, though, happened after the vows. The couple were at the front of the stage watching the chorus sing a song, and then all of a sudden, the Shreks run up the stage and started dancing for the couple. They made dance motions to fit the song. It was really random but kinda cute. You could tell it was a surprise from their friends though cuz of the look on the couple's faces. But hey, they enjoyed it and that's all that matters.

After that, the doors opened, and my heart lept. It led to gorgeous buffet. Even the food was beautifully made to fit the occasion. There were 7 different rows of all types of different foods: cold sides, sushi and sashimi, soups, meat and seafood, and of course, desserts. Some of the food was so pretty that I didn't want to eat it, but of course, I did, lol. The food was excellent.

Oh, and another really interesting thing... You know how we have a prime rib/ham station in US buffets where the chef stands there to carve it up for you? Well, instead of that, they have a live octopus station. The chef stands next to a tank of like 50 or so small live octopuses and serves it right then and there for the wedding party. (Live octopus is a popular dish here, but I was just surprised to see it at a buffet).

I can't wait to go crash another wedding ;D

Peppero Day: a.k.a. National Love for Pocky Day

While Canada and some other Western countries have designated Nov. 11th to be Rememberance Day, Nov. 11th takes on a completely different meaning in Korea. It's called Peppero Day, which pretty much translates to a national love for Pocky (the pretzel stick snacks that are usually dipped in chocolate) day. Basically, it's a giant marketing scheme for people to buy Pocky, and it's worked...

The premise of this day is based on nothing more the amusing fact that Nov. 11th is numerically written as 11/11, which looks like a bunch of sticks. And since Pocky also looks like a stick and serves as a nice chocolatey snack, it somehow turned into a Valentine's Day-esque buy-Pocky-for-others-day.

Of course, the Pocky people have prepared "special" Pocky packages to celebrate. Everywhere you go, you'll see boxes of giant Pocky the size of your arm, Pocky boxes wrapped in baskets with stuffed teddy bears inside, and individually wrapped Pocky sticks with hearts printed on them. It's everything would you expect from Valentine's except instead of all different kinds of chocolate, it's pretty much only Pocky.

It's pretty interesting seeing a sort of Valentine's in Feb., but hey, I'm not complaining... I got some nice goodies from my kids :D

Bamboo Rice - A Damyang Specialty

Damyang is a city near the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula not far from Gwangju. They're known for their bamboo and strawberries, literally their city mascot is a Bambooman and a Strawberry man. They're also home to one of the most famous roads in Korea: Metasequoia Road (담양 메타세쿼이아 길), a beautiful tree-lined road made famous by dramas and movies. We decided to make a visit to Damyang because of Metasequoia Road, but anyways, this blurb is about the food.

So when we got to Damyang, we were told that dish that the area is most known for is their bamboo rice. It's basically rice that's been cooked in a container made from the stalk bamboo shoot with dates and beans inside. Apparently, it's very nutritious because the rice absorbs all the nutrients from the bamboo. It was delicious. The dates and nuts sweetened the rice, and the bamboo gave the rice a special aroma that was very good.

Now you may think that this rice is not much of a meal, but in the Korean fashion, it was served with a large arrray of side dishes, 16 different ones in our case. They were all very good, but the highlight of the sides was definitely the spiced bamboo shoots. I'm not normally a fan of bamboo shoots, but there was something about how they prepared it that made it taste very fresh. It was awesome.

The Rest of the Gwangju Trip

Although the love motel incident was the most outrageous incident of our weekend trip to Gwangju, it was by no means the only part worth mentioning. Here's everything else that happened on the trip...

The main reason we decided to go to Gwangju in the first place was because it was the site of the Kimchi Festival. I had heard good things about it, and I really wanted to check it out. Unfortunately though, we arrived in Gwangju pretty late in the date and at the end of the festival, so it was kinda a dud. Almost all of the cool events, like the kimchi-making contest and the make-your-own-kimchi area, were already closed. We did, however, get to see some really pretty-looking kimchi on display and some interesting kimchi art...

The next morning, my co-teacher brought me to Soswaewon Garden. It's a traditional garden where sitting pavilions are constructed in a way that's "in harmony with nature". Basically, it's positioned well and hidden within lots of beautiful trees and by a nice stream. We were really lucky because we caught it right at the nice part of fall, so all the fall leaves painted gorgeous colors of red, orange, and yellow all around us. It was really beautiful.

After that we bussed on over to Damyang, a city right new to Gwangju. It's home to one of the most famous roads in Korea: Metasequoia Road (담양 메타세쿼이아 길). Metasequoia Road is a beautiful tree-lined road made famous by dramas and movies because it's a wide pedestrian path flanked by towering trees. It also runs along the main river of the region. It's a main tourist attraction among Korean locals. It was very pretty because of the fall leaves, but unfortunately, it was a bit crowded. The best part, however, was that we got to rent bikes and go biking all around the area. It was so nice biking with such a gorgeous backdrop that this was definitely the highlight of the weekend. I forgot how much I missed biking...

After Metasequoia Road, we had a nice lunch where we tried Damyang's specialty: bamboo rice. Then, it was back to Seoul. The 3-hour train ride was a bit exhausting, but it was definitely worth it for a great weekend. :D

My Night at a Love Motel with My Female Co-teacher

Several weeks ago, I read about a Kimchi Festival that was going on in the southern Jeolla province of Korea, and it sounded really interesting. I mean, come on, a whole festival devoted to kimchi? How could it not be interesting, not to mention the prospects of eating all that kimchi, lol. Anyways, I mentioned it to my coteacher, and she was nice enough to arrange the trip for us. And so, last week we took a 3-hour long train ride all the way down to the southern tip of the peninsula to Gwangju.

When we got there, we decided that neither of us really wanted to spent the money for a decent hotel room. Neither of us are particular when it comes to living, so we decided to ask tourist information for a recommendation. That was not a good idea.

Apparently in Gwangju, the only motels that are available are love motels, and the one that tourist information recommended was this UBER cheesy one called Motel Opera. Think of the worst, most stereotypical love motel from Asian soap operas that you can imagine; that's what Motel Opera was like. No joke. The moment you walk in, you can hear really cheesy jazz music being played in the background. There's tacky vases with fake flowers all through the narrow hallway. The hallway leads to a small glass window with a super sketch guy behind the counter, and right beside the counter is a poster with pictures of three different types of rooms, all of which boast of a big queen size bed with red velvet covers.

My Female co-teacher and I were speechless. We didn't really know what to make of it, but it was cheap: 30,000 ($25) for the night, a third of the price of any hotel. We considered it, and we figured that neither of us really cared all that much; we just need a place to crash. So we payed. As we got to the elevator, though, we saw this couple come out, and that did it for us. The reality of the sketchiness of Motel Opera sank it, and we couldn't get in the elevator. We quickly asked for a refund and bolted out.

Later on in the taxi, she told the cab driver about our experience, and he just laughed. He said it was common knowledge that that was the way motels are in Gwangju. He told us we were better off getting a hotel in this one part of the city, but we still weren't ready to pay for an expensive hotel. We decided to check out the motels around the area that the cab driver mentioned because we heard that there would be better quality motels there.

Finally, we ended up in this dinky little love motel in the downtown area. It wasn't anywhere near as bad as Motel Opera though. The only thing cheesy about this place was the pink hallway lights. It was an older building, so there didn't seem to be other guests there (which in this case was a great thing). Later, my co-teacher told me she was okay with this place because the manager was a woman, lol. Unfortunately, the room was older so it was kinda gross but still tolerable. At least though it turned out to be even cheaper than Motel Opera.

So there you have it, only two months in Korea and I end up in a Korean love motel with my co-teacher. The things you'll do to save a couple bucks... ~sigh~

Trick-or-Treating in My Office

Here in Korea, all the kids know of or have heard of Halloween, but no one really celebrates it. I think their English academies do some activity or another to tell them about Halloween, but that's it. So I decided to let my kids experience trick-or-treating. For the entire week leading up to Halloween, I told all my classes about the history of Halloween, how kids celebrate it in America nowadays, and I told them that if they came to my office afterschool on the 30th and said "Trick or treat", I would give them candy. I didn't really know how many would actually remember or show up, but tt turned out to be the cutest thing...

Minutes before I even finished my last class on Friday, I could already here clamoring in the hallway, and the moment I opened to door, they all shouted trick or treat in unison. It was adorable. All my third graders, who are the cutest things, were there with the biggest smiles.

So basically almost all my kids came. One kid even drew some makeup on his face to look scary, lol. And even the ones who I swear NEVER pay attention to me in class came and who they hate English and never say a word in class unless forced, all managed to remember trick or treat.

It was really funny because I have this one sixth-grader who thinks he's super cool. He always dresses really grown up and tries to act all cool and mature. Well, he came too which suprised both me and my co-teacher. And then two minutes later, he came again and tried to cover his face with his arm as if we wouldn't recognize him, lol. It was good to see the childish side of even the "coolest" kid in school.

But the one kid who by far takes the card for being the funniest was this one weird kid. I don't really understand him cuz he acts a bit odd and he never responds to you but he's an interesting fella. Well, he came with his skeleton hoodie (In Korea, they have these awesome hoodies where they zip all the way up to your forehead and they come in Mario or skeleton prints on them, very cute). Anyways, he came in his skeleton hoodie, but he came with it zipped all the way to his forehead. He stuck out his arms for candy, and I couldn't help but laugh. The really funny part though was that when he turned to leave, he didn't unzip his hoodie, so he actually ran into the wall and fell on the ground. It was the funniest thing...

Buddhist Temple Stay at Hwagyesa Temple

A few weeks ago, a bunch of other English teachers and I decided to experience a temple stay where you live the life of a Buddhist monk for a weekend. We found a nice temple right here in Seoul that accepted foreigners, and we went. It was an interesting experience, which I myself enjoyed, but unfortunately, most of my other friends did not share my sentiment.

We got there Sat. afternoon, and first thing on our agenda was lunch. What better way to start an experience, right? Well, it turned out not to be entirely true because lunch was basically boiled vegetables with rice. Now, I've had some really great vegetarian dishes before, but this was not the case. This meal was completely bland, and it turned out, we would get the same meal 3 times a day for the duration of our trip. I was a bit disappointed by the food, but food is food, and under the right circumstances, I can basically eat anything, so it wasn't a big deal for me. For some of my other friends, however, they couldn't bear it, so they ended up sneaking out of the temple grounds to by food from a local bakery. It was really amusing because we all made a joke about the "contraband goods" that they brought back, but that kinda set the tone for the weekend.

After lunch, we met the head monk. He was an interesting fellow, to say the least. He had spent years in the States, so his English was really good. That also meant, however, that he was comfortable saying basically to us, and he had a really weird sense of humor. He tried hard to be cool, but his references to 70's and 80's pop culture left us all confused, lol.

During our session with the head monk, he taught us the proper way to bow (which we would be doing a lot of), how to meditate, and gave us our homework for the weekend: a question about the meaning of error that we should think about during our meditation.

For the rest of the day, we did several meditation sessions, which proved to be quite difficult (Sitting still Indian-style for an hour at a time is not that comfortable). We also went to a general chanting session. That was really interested because we got to here the monks sing the chants, but that was also tiring because it was the beginning of many, many bows.

The day ended at 8:00. Lights out was at 9:00, and we were all in bed by then. That may seem early, but we needed to wake up at 3:00 in the morning so...

The next morning, we started the day with another meditation session (which for most of us meant extra naptime, lol). Then we had to do the ceremonial 108 bows. For this, you were given an hour and you have to bow continuously in that hour. They stressed no breaks allowed, and the number of bows you did reflected your devoutness and sincerity. Thankfully though, this was done at our own pace, so I think we each averaged around 40 bows.

After the bowing, we went to another chanting session (which unfortunately meant even more bowing), and finally, we did the morning chores. These people have got it down! I don't know how they managed to come up with such a sweet setup, but they basically get foreigners and tourists to pay to sweep their parking lot for them!! But needless to say, we had a bit of fun and goofed around with our brooms, lol.

Anyways, all this was done before breakfast at 5:00. Can you believe that??? I still don't know how we managed to do so much. But anyways, after breakfast we did one more meditation session, and then came the really fun part. They took us on a mini-hike up the nearby mountain and we got to "meditate" and chill up there. It was such a great view. It was nice and warm and the weather was absolutely gorgeous. You could see all the fall leaves. Oh, it was by far the best part of the trip.

The hike was the official end of our trip. The head monk invited us to stay for lunch, dinner, and more sessions for free, but as you can imagine, we were all ready to leave as fast as possible to get some real food.

So that was our Buddhist temple stay experience. It was definitely an interesting one, but it was pretty exhausting. So much, that afterwards, a few of us definitely to reward ourselves by chilling out with some wine in the park. :D

Where did my Cali sunshine go???

After two months of being in Korea and loving it, I had my first breakdown earlier this week. How it happened: For the past two months, I've been a bit sleep deprived. Ever since I started taking my Korean language classes, I've been at school basically from 9 in the morning to 9 at night so that I don't get back to my apartment til 10:30. Needless to say being so busy during the week, I make sure I make the most out of my free time during the weekends. I've been running around anywhere and everywhere these past few weeks, so exhausting was sneaking up on me.

On top of that, the weather suddenly decided to drop 20 degrees overnight. It was mid-50s on day, and when I woke up the next, it was low-30s. And although I've been trying to prepare for the cold (spent a good chunk of my paycheck paying a whole new winter wardrobe), I have found that I'm not cut out for the cold. I'm the most bundled out of anyone on the streets, and yet I feel I'm still the coldest and I hate it.

As if being cold when going around outside and being sleep-deprived weren't enough, my apartment's heater has failed to work adaquately. So that night it dropped 20 degrees, even though I turned up heater up to its max, my apartment still felt like an ice box. I was so cold in my apartment that I couldn't get a wink of sleep.

The next day, I show up to work utterly miserable. Naturally, I tell my co-teacher there's something wrong with my heater, and we get the afternoon off from work to try and fix it. When we get to my apartment, my co-teacher explains that since I technically live in an Officetel and not a normal residential building, my heater is not going to be as warm. I don't know why, but this news and the thought of freezing in my apartment all winter long made me super upset. Consequently, I was a bit short with my co-teacher even though she was trying to help me as best she can translating for me to the maintanence guy.

Later on in the car on the way to our night classes (I take Korean and she takes graduate classes), my co-teacher confronts me on my attitude back at the apartment. She was completely right, but the next thing I know, I'm crying my eyes out and I can't stop. I don't know if it was the lack of sleep or the shock of being so cold for the first time in years, but for the first time, I realized just how much I missed LA and my nice warm, sunny weather that I couldn't help myself.

My co-teacher felt so bad. Poor thing. Even though I was completely wrong and out-of-line for being rude, she ended up apologizing to me for not considering my much the cold would affect me. She felt so bad that dropped by later that night after our classes to bring me a thick blanket from her house!

It's kinda sad I'm such a pansy to the cold. Both my co-teacher and I don't know how I'm going to survive the winter, but hopefully, I'll be able to toughen up a bit. We'll see...