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

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~

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...

Gift from the Pear Farms

Yet another reason why my co-teacher is the sweetest person ever. Korean teachers here have to work a lot because they only get two Saturdays off a month. With that said, my co-teacher spent one of her free Saturdays off leaving pears for me at my apartment. We were talking earlier in the week, and I just happened to mention that I couldn't believe how big the pears were here and that they were really good. Next thing I know, I get a text from her on Saturday telling me to pick up the pears she dropped off for me from my building's security guard. Apparently, she went to the pear farms nearby to get me some :D

Ice Cream Fondue!

Baskin Robbins is kinda a big deal here in Korea. You can find a store every other block or so, and some big hangout spots even have a posh Baskin Robbins Cafe. So in order to live to their high-profile rep, the Baskin Robbins here have many specialties not found in the US, one of which is their ice cream fondue. Basically, it's a wonderful plate of various bits of frozen ice cream, cakes, and even tomatoes set around a nice warm bowl of melted chocolate fondue.

After hearing about it for several weeks, I decided to take advantage of Ning's visit as a good excuse to try it out. The first attempt was a complete fail because I couldn't understand the staff's response after ordering it in my broken Korean, so we ended up settling for a regular cone. The second time, however, I brought my Korean co-teacher with us, and... Success!! It's was bit expensive even for Korean cafe standards (12,000 won for a set), but it's a delicious dessert nonetheless and well worth the experience. So if you're craving something sweet, pick a nicely decorated Baskin Robbins Cafe and chill out with their ice cream fondue.

Owned by the Korean ATM

So after finally getting paid, my coteacher was nice enough to go to my bank with me to show me how to pay my bills with the ATM machine. (Korea is super nice in that everyone pays all their bills through the ATM. Takes like a sec and bam, instant payment.) Well, the process turns out to be super easy. This ATM, however, is a special ATM that's different from the normal cash withdrawal ATMS and is only available in Korean.

I basically memorized which buttons and in what order to push, so no problem. But my sweet coteacher, worrying that I would be confused next time, actually introduced me to one the Korean staff at the bank. (There's staff that stands around these ATMs to help old people work the machines, lol.) So the person she picked doesn't speak English, but she told him my situation and asked him to remember what I looked like so next time I come in, he'll know what to do, LOL. (My coteacher's uber cute, and she constantly worries whether I can handle living in Korea)

Here comes the really funny/sad part of my ramble. After we paid my bills, we were heading back to the school. I mentioned how I was suprised my phone bill actually ended up to be less than what I remember her telling me at the store. I thought that I had just lucked out in that the phone company made a mistake. She asked to see my bill, and it turned out it was less because the bill wasn't mine!!!

It was addressed to me, but it was a bill for the previous tenant. So I actually ended up paying someone else's bill! Then my coteacher, bless her heart, asks me in all sincerity why I didn't read it and just paid it. Cuz the entire bill was in Korean and I couldn't understand it, lol!!!

I felt SO silly! In the end, everything turned out to be okay because my coteacher called the phone company and got them to reimburse me. But for someone who's been so independent the past few years, I kinda feel like I've gone back to being like a child. So utterly dependedent on my coteacher for so many different aspects of my day-to-day life...

Mexican Birthday Dinner in Korea???

I'm super lucky to have an awesome co-teacher. (A co-teacher is a local English teacher at the school who serves as your liason to your school. He/She basically is the one who can make your year wonderful or miserable.) I super lucked out with my co-teacher. She's been helping me take care of my apartment, showing me how to take the bus, and basically, setting up my ID and accounts for me. She's SO sweet.

She noticed on my application that my birthday was Friday, so she wanted to take me out to dinner. Earlier in the week, we had talked about checking out Itaewon together (Itaewon is basically the foreigners district of Seoul. It's like you're not even in Korea anymore cuz it's so different and everyone speaks almost perfect English there) Neither of us had ever been, so on Friday, she asked me if I wanted to go. Of course, I say yes, and she tells me to pick a place online.

When I asked her what kind of food she wants to eat, though, she says she's never had Mexican before and really wanted to have Mexican. Uh-oh! Korea is known for having expensive but terrible Mexican food! She really wanted to try it though, so I found a Mexican place in Itaewon. A taco, enchilada, and this tiny burrito ended up costing $30, and it was terrible! It was like going to a fancy-looking Taco Bell.

But my co-teacher was cute; she was so interested in Mexican food, that it just made the dinner wonderful. So I ended up having Mexican for my birthday dinner this year all the way in Korea, and while the food was awful, it turned out to be such a fun night with my co-teacher ~^__^~