Hello's & Goodbye's: Dinner # 2

We had our first day of classes, starting a new year on Wednesday March 2nd. On the Friday we had a welcome meal to say hello to all the new faces replacing the old ones. Although it wasn't as fantastic and drawn out as the goodbye meal, it was fun in its own special way... read on.

Dinner # 2

The 'type' of restaurant we went to for the welcome meal was a samgyupsal one. Samgyupsal is basically really fatty pork, similar to strips of bacon but way chunkier, and fattier. At this restaurant we were served both marinated pork and plain pork. Every table has it's own bbq grill and is served trays of raw meat, and then, well, Bob's your uncle. There are both pork and beef (galbi) restaurants here (and probably some that do both). The beef ones are one of my favorite things in Korea, but because the pork is so fatty, I am not the biggest fan. But luckily, with all the banchal, I still walked away from this meal full to the brim. The selection was not as extensive as at the raw fish restaurant, but still delicious. We had spring rolls, vegetable patties, kimchi, onions, garlic, sweet potato, green salad, and lots of sauces for dipping. The traditional way to eat both galbi and samgyupsal is to take a leaf of lettuce and wrap it up with onions, kimchi or any sauce and just pop it down the hatch in one bite (the strips of meat are cut with scissors into bite size pieces after they're cooked). Going to a Korean BBQ restaurant is such a fun meal, especially with lots of people.

So what set this dinner apart from the goodbye dinner was the noriebang element (noriebang literally translates to singing room = karaoke, OUCH!).  At the front of all  the tables was a discreet little stage, and as the evening progressed and the soju flowed, that's where all the action was.

Towards the end of the meal I could see a little commotion going on (this was before I even noticed the karaoke). I asked my co-teachers what all the fuss was about and she said the singing starts soon and pretty much from that point forward, I knew I was doomed. I have heard stories from my friends that the english teachers are always picked on and zeroed in on to come up and sing under the spotlight and in front of curious eyes. My school is so big so I don't have any interaction with the majority of the teachers  on a day to day basis, so what better way to examine and check out the foreigner, than on stage? Ouch, ouch, ouch! I think I started blushing before anyone even entertained the notion of me going up. I was quick to beg my co-teacher not to make me go and she lovingly reassured me I wouldn't have to. Ha! 

First off, there is always lots of soju at these events. My vice principal, who speaks no english was making the rounds talking to people and was hovering ever so close to me. I heard my name being called and down he squats about 3 inches from my face to have a full on conversation with me, in Korean.  There are so many rules regarding soju drinking etiquette, especially with someone older than you. How you sit, where you face, how you pour, how many hands you hold the bottle or glass with.... it goes on. Needless to say I was nervous. But he was a happy camper and with some coaching from my co-teacher,  the ritual was done. Unfortunately I didn't get off that easily. By this time the karaoke was in full swing and people were dancing on the stage and my VP took me up ON STAGE to dance with him (scroll down to the series of 4 photos illustrating this).  Fun times, hahaha. It was actually really amazing, because both the pricipal and vice principal of my school are nice guys but very proper and pretty intimidating men. But this evening, they had let their hair down! It was so great to see the flip side of them, especially when I was being swung and twirled on the stage, boogying to Korean tunes. 

Does the embarrassment stop there? I think not. Before I even had time to get off the stage and scurry back to my seat I was swarmed by other teachers throwing the song book at me to choose my song. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I hate singing. Let me rephrase, I hate MY singing. Honestly, you have never heard anything so bad. Karaoke has never caught my interest for this reason. I like watching other people, but have avoided it most of my life, so I didn't have to look like the spoil sport who wouldn't join in. And actually, in Korea, I have overcome my phobia of singing a little bit. I have been pretty much forced to cause I have to sing songs with the kids in class, and a lot of them I have to teach them the lyrics. It is painful but it must be done, just like my 5 minutes of fame at the staff dinner. Oh ya, karaoke when I am really intoxicated isn't that bad either. But I was sober here, obviously. So I picked Kokomo, by The Beach Boys, not only cause I have always had a soft spot for that song, but I know all the words and how it is supposed to sound. Anyways..... thank god the lights were dimmed because I was giggling the whole time I was so nervous, and my face MUST have been a beautiful 10 shades of red.  I sang, I danced a little, I conquered. And of course, for 5 full minutes all the teachers got to unabashedly stare at me, but it was all in good fun. The following are my photos to prove it (the first photo I had to include, take notice of the painful look on my face when being introduced). 

And on one final note, the highlight of the evening for me was watching my VP drag the Principal of my school up on stage for a good old fashioned dance. It was awesome. Korea = Fun!

Hello's & Goodbye's: Dinner # 1

The academic school year officially ended on February 16th. We had a staff dinner that evening as an official farewell to the 10 or so teachers who were leaving the school. (Note: The pictures below are taken just in our section of the restaurant, it is only one of the many big rooms that could fit huge parties. I tried to squeeze everyone in the photo, but with over 1000 kids in my school, we have a HUGE staff).


Dinner # 1.

The goodbye meal was held in a sushi restaurant, and though it was delicious, sushi is done a little differently here, (typical, as Korea always puts its very own twist on things). So in essence, we went to a raw fish restaurant. It seems most restaurants in Korea specialize in something, so it's either a galbi/samgyupsal (beef and fatty pork on a grill) resto, or a crab resto, or an eel resto..... you get the picture.  So raw fish it was. Unfortunately everything happens in Korean so, I didn't understand any of the speeches or thank you's or general table talk, but we have so many teachers in our school that even with just the sheer number of us, it made for a festive atmosphere. In typical Korean fashion, first an onslaught of banchan (small side dishes) were served as we arrived. There was cooked (whole) fish, fish heads, salad with cubed raw salmon, cole slaw, tofu, mini hard boiled eggs, corn (fun to eat kernel by kernel with chopsticks), kimchi (but of course), mini frozen yams, small pork pieces, mussels, mandu (dumplings), donkatsu (breaded pork cutlet), garlic cloves and hot peppers, amongst a few dozen others I was sure to miss out on, and not to mention all the sauces. Although everything was served in mini portions, there was enough food to feed an army. I love all (okay, most) of the Korean side dishes, it's so fun to just pick and choose and snack on them all, like going out for tapas in Spain. Because I don't really do a lot of talking, I was full so quickly. Wrongly I assumed this was it.

Next, massive platters of seafood were brought out. There were lots of different shells in a variety of sizes. Some looked like oysters, some clams, maybe more mussels? Some of the jumbo sized ones I didn't even know what they were. There was also a selection of octopus, shrimp, salmon, and (ugh!) sea cucumber. So much fooooood!

Next, each person was served a little seaweed cone filled with rice, cause really, what's a meal in Korea without rice?  Like kimchi, they go hand in hand. Because this was presented so beautifully and there was a nice gap of time after the seafood, again I wrongly assumed this was it. I was informed the main dish, the raw fish hadn't even come out yet (I just assumed it was the raw bits interspersed throughout the meal).

Next course, the fish. I was stuffed but still had some of everything. It was presented really nicely, laid out on a bed of white sea-something (weed?) but it looked like noodles, and eaten wrapped in lettuce with a sauce or just on it's own. No clue what the fish was, but it was really nice and delicate.

Finished? So soon. Nope, not yet. Along with some white rice bowls, out came the mini burners and soup pots.  Soup was a combination of mushrooms, greens, fish, and noodles. Unbelievable. Everything was delicious but I felt like I could've been wheeled out of there I was so full, I have no idea how Koreans stay so damn skinny, they have amazing appetites.

Moving Day!

Not mine, but it was someone's moving day in Osan today. This is just an awesome piece of Korean random information, and it is entitled to its very own blog entry.

Today is Korea's Independence Day and a national holiday. I was invited to a fellow Canadians place for a magnificent breakfast of pancakes, fruit salad, maple syrup and some hometown coffee. This is one thing Korea does not do, breakfast. I miss the greasy spoon joints that were so much a part of my life at home. I can make it all at home in my kitchen, but it just doesn't taste the same as my eggs ordered over easy, home fries, brown toast, sausages & bottomless coffee, usually for in and around 5 bucks. I digress. Moving Day. So on the way to my friends this morning for breakfast, I stumbled upon 2 moving day operations. In Korea everyone lives in shoebox housing complexes. These are massive high rise apartment buildings and almost all of them have glassed in balconies. The purpose of these balconies is mostly for moving.  A moving truck here is not only one that can carry all your junk from A to B, but also one with a retractable arm and a platform. It zips (literally zips, they're so quick!) to the top, the doors slide open, load 'em up and back down it zips to the truck, whether you're on the 2nd floor or the 52nd floor.  No taking doors off hinges, unscrewing banisters, jamming things through stair wells (yelling "PIVOT!", hahahaha), cramming things into elevators, scratching walls, chipping paint, and the last resort of sawing things in half in a desperate attempt of removal. Having been through a combination of some or all of these things during one move or another, I can definitely say Korea has it right. Once your belongings are safely down and transfered from the platform to the bed of the truck, you just need to get to your next destination and repeat process in the opposite order. Brilliant, I think the rest of the world could learn from this process.

Spring has Sprung in Korea

Strawberries. I feel this is a necessary thing to blog about because it has become such a part of my life in the last few weeks. I was shying away from buying strawberries in Korea for 2 reasons. First because they were pretty expensive and secondly because they were so bright and big and perfect looking they looked fake, or at least genetically modified. I ended up trying one at school and sank my teeth into possibly the tastiest fruit I've ever tried. I am now hooked. My fridge has a constant supply of them and I think I've uttered the sentence 'They MUST be injected with sugar', about a million times already (that was for you Garry!) They're that good. The best part is, apparently in the summer they get even better. Right now these are 'winter strawberries'. And they all are grown right here in K-Town, in green houses and are even exported to other countries. Absolutely amazing.

My girlfriend has even found a strawberry festival going on at the beginning of April that we're going to. Some of the bizarre events we can take part in there are making clay strawberries, sampling strawberry hot sauce and rice cakes, a strawberry sketch contest, and obviously picking and eating strawberries till your heart's content! Cannot wait.

http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_2_1.jsp?cat=0&area&dateStart=04-01-2011&startDate=20110401&dateEnd=04-30-2011&endDate=20110430&keyword&category&areaCode&gotoPage=2&stype=1&cid=708055&out_service

The temperature in Korea has been hovering around 10 degrees celsius this week and it feels glorious. As happy as I am to have missed out on a Canadian snowy, slushy icey winter, it has still been really cold the past few months here. I also keep hearing stories of how long and cold last winter was in Korea. I have kept the faith though that this isn't just a tease and I have hung my winter jacket up for good. I have looked at the forecast for my mini-break in Busan this weekend and it is supposed to be a wet but mild 17 degrees, I've almost forgotten what that feels like that. (Side Note: Janelle I miss living with someone who cares as much about the weather as I do... there is no one to talk about it with all the way over here in Korea. *sigh* it's the little things).

Because this week is still Spring Camp, not regular school I have been leaving early afternoon and walking home. I usually take the bus, but have been really enjoying the warm 45 minute stroll back into the city centre where I live. There isn't a trace of snow around and I know any day know green things are going to start sprouting out of the ground.

Another warm and happy feeling is going swimming :) It has been years since my lifeguarding days and swimming lengths, and it feels so nice to be back in the water. The Osan sports complex is really nice and going there lends to the feeling that warmer weather is on its way.

Tomorrow night is my staff dinner and I am a little scared there will be alcohol and karaoke involved and as the token foreigner I am sure I will be targeted. Hopefully more fun stories to come. Then Friday is here and off to Busan for the weekend. A new place to explore, watch out Busan, here we come!

Jimjilbang Sundays

February has been a fun and busy month. According to the lunar calendar, we just started a new year - The Year of the Rabbit. Happy New Year to all, saehae bok man-hi ba-deu saeyo. Seolnal is the most important holiday in Korea and is usually celebrated by spending the 3 day affair with family. There are traditional dishes served for new year celebrations and people wear Hanbok, which is the beautiful traditional Korean dress. A typical gift people give to celebrate Seolnal is Spam. Not the kind that you receive electronically but the kind made up of a variety of mystery meats, which is ever so popular here. On a regular day Spam gets its own aisle in the grocery store, but leading up to Seolnal it was designated to practically the whole front of the store, on top of its regular stomping ground. It was amazing. Lotte Mart (big Korean chain store) employees were decked out in Hanbok and gift wrapping package after package of spam, olive oils and other festive treats.

            

Enough about New Years for now. I went away on a 5 day mini break but we did so much over the holiday it is taking me forever to blog about it. Because I was getting behind on my regular blogs, I thought I'd switch things up out of order and post now, and then eventually get around to publishing the New Year adventures. Sometimes it's nice to to look at things in an unexpected sequence.

It seems a lot of people are coming and going in Osan. The new academic year starts in Korea on March 2nd, so a lot of teachers are finishing their contracts. Out with the old and in with the new, I suppose. This is one of the downfalls of living as a contracted teacher. Friends are always coming and going, and we all come from different parts of the globe so there is no guarantee to see anyone again. I guess it's all part of the package we signed up for.  A bonus to this, selfishly, is that my collection of 'stuff' is growing. I now have a bike for myself and for Garry when he gets here, my kitchen is slowly coming up to par with a few more dishes and glasses and the exciting addition of a toaster oven! A Canadian girl in my apartment has left with the intention of coming back in a few months for a new contract so I have scored lots of her stuff. Add in the beautiful Bonsai tree Joanna sent me, a growing collection of books on my shelf and maybe some new pieces of clothing here and there (!) and my little apartment is really starting to feel like home.  It's amazing what I can do with such a little space to really make it feel like my own. The only thing that's missing is a certain someone, and then I'll feel like everything has lined up exactly where I want it to be. 

On the website for KOCIS, Korean Culture and Information Services, there is an opportunity be part of a project called the KOREA BLOG, as well as a contest to submit photos containing the word Korea in an interesting way. I spent an afternoon wandering around Osan looking for Korea eye candy but came out with nothing so I decided to do my own. These were my 2 entries. As for the blog part of it, I find out this week and am 'holding thumbs' I get an opportunity to take part. (Note: Holding thumbs is the South African version of 'fingers crossed'. I find random cultural bits like this so amusing!!!)

Yesterday was Jimjilbang Sunday. Such a great way to kill a few hours and rejuvenate the body. I woke up and met my girlfriend for a coffee and off we headed. I think I've mentioned jimjilbangs in my blog before. But for those who aren't faithful readers (um, why aren't you?) or don't live in Korea, a jimjilbang is a wonderfully unique korean experience. It is a public bathhouse with a huge variety of things to entertain oneself (the top of my list is people watching). You can use it as a crash pad over night, some have hairdresser facilities, computer rooms, snack bars and huge common tv/lounge areas. But the best part is the bath and saunas. The one is Osan has 3 different unisex saunas of varying degrees of BOILING HOT! Then on the female floor (the place is huge, as they tend to be) there is a selection of hot and cold jacuzzis, communal shower  areas and my favorite part - massage tables for body scrubs. 

It being Sunday, the place was packed yesterday. When you come into the bath house you are given a baggy pair of pink shorts and a tee as your uniform, but obviously in the bath part everyone is naked. Koreans stare at foreigners clothed and naked it's even more intense. But I'm over it, sometimes I stare back too. It's so liberating strutting about and such a treat to hop from bath to bath. My girlfriend even ran into a few of her elementary school students, and after the initial shock of a naked greeting, it is so part of their life here they were just thrilled to see their 'Jenna Teacher' outside of school. Some of the bathes are hot, one was frigid, and some have added minerals like jade to make them even healthier (the jade makes the tub green and there is another tub that is purple but I am not sure what's added to it to make it that colour). We had to lounge in the bathes for ages waiting for the scrub, but once we got there it was well worth the wait. The women scrape you down to a level that is borderline painful for almost 45 minutes and they get every single inch of your body, really, every nook and cranny is attended to. It's so amazingly bizarre  but completely part of their day to day lives here to go to the jimjilbang. It is actually pretty spectacular when you see 3 generations of women all together, washing, chatting, just doing there thing, or a group of gossipy old ladies, or even little kiddies just mucking about.  

So that was yesterday and today I feel like I weigh a few pounds lighter after shedding some layers and am as smooth as a baby's bottom from tip to toe! It is definitely becoming part of my routine in Korea. Did I mention it only costs 7000 won (about $6.5) to get into a jimjilbang, and you could stay all weekend if you felt the urge. The scrubs are an extra 15 but a few hours spent like that at home would probably cost closer to $150, than 15. Amazing places. 

Today was Day 3 of English Spring Camp and it was easy peasy. Only 5 days left to go, but after 5 weeks of Winter Camp I feel like I am an old hand at this. I had a lovely dinner of galbi, and am now just about ready to tuck in and call it a night. I have a busy week ahead, with plans almost every night and then I'm headed to Busan for the weekend. I can't wait for Busan. Three of us are headed to the complete opposite end of the country for a Shark Dive! Oh Korea, how you excite me.... so much to do and so much to see!  

Play-Doh Here, There & Everywhere

Fish Food... before I forget, I am playing around with a few new blog templates because I was sick of the plain, old blue one. I like this orange one because it's simple and well, it's ORANGE. There are lots of amazing ones with beautiful patterns that I prefer (and suit me a little better I think), but I worry they are too busy with all the text on the page and will distract you, the lovely reader, from reading all my wonderful words. I will switch up again soon and give one of the fun, busy ones a test run. But in the mean time, fish food. I added the cute little orange fish tank to the top of my page. Click on it a bunch of times and watch the fish cluster to their food where you drop it.

Today was a very memorable day at school. My grade 1/2 class put me to tears, in the middle of the classroom, in front of everyone. They weren't too sure what to make of Alex Teacher and her escapades. To set the scene, I was being brave and decided to attempt to make play-doh with the kiddies. I was hoping to put some sort of educational twist on it but to be honest, I am on week 5 of amusing about fifteen 6 - 8 yr old kids that barely understand the language I speak to them, so this was a great time killer. There are some gems in the class and some real shit disturbers, but I have even taken a shining to the worst of the bunch, the class bully (who is really just a sheep in wolfs clothing).

Anyways, more to the point of my hysterical breakdown. I divided the kids into groups and handed out all the necessary supplies (bowls, spoons, flour, salt, oil and water), and then the trouble started. My vision of a classroom full of mini Picasso's quickly fell. The concoctions they mixed together (frommy measurements) were soggy, runny, gloopy, gross blobs. I tried so hard to salvage the recipe but the more ingredients I added the worse it became. Not only was the consistency way off but it made the biggest mess EVER. The kids were covered in flour and had the chewing gum like substance stuck all over their hands, hair and clothing, the tables and chairs were covered and they were grinding it into our nice clean classroom carpets (that the students aren't even allowed to wear outside shoes on). To add insult to injury, I usually teach camp on my own, with no Korean teacher, but a few of them occasionally pop their head in for attendance or just to make sure everything is okay. Today, the teacher was really late and came in at the exact climax of mayhem in my classroom. She took a survey of the classroom and then looked at me and without a word of english, managed to convey in her facial expressions, the words wtf is going on in here? It was pretty awesome. It was at this moment I broke out into the biggest fit of giggles and basically couldn't stop. I really wanted this to work and it was so blatantly a huge failure but the kids were having a gay old time, and it was just hilarious. Anyone who has witnessed or been part of one of my giggle fits knows there are a lot of tears involved, and once they start its tough to stop. I must've looked like such a site; the kids were loving it and even the Korean teacher couldn't keep a straight face. She rolled up her sleeves and pretty much dove in. I think she thought I may have lost the plot a little but was a great sport about it. She managed to corral the kids and work the dough into a somewhat workable substance. After pulling myself together in the last 10 minutes of class, I think I managed to get a few kids to form the letters "o" and "i", just for a little educational content.
After 80 minutes of the 1/2 class I teach a 3/4 split. Usually there is a 10 minute break but today it was a little longer in order to reconstruct the classroom. Again, the Korean teacher was great and pitched in and we swept, vacuumed, and wiped away as much gloopy, gross blobby stuff as possible. Parents are probably cursing me as we speak. None of the kids would part with their over sized wads of gum so I just barely convinced them to let me bag them, write their names on it and take it home. Out of sight out of mind.

What a day, my sides were sore from the giggles. Although it was a massive fail in the attempt to make play-doh I think fun was had all around. The kids got a kick out of me and I most definitely got a kick out of them.

The pictures below are NOT from today. I was dying to stop and take pictures, there were some major Kodak Moments but everything I touched was encrusted in goop so I dared not reach for my lens. But these pics are of my 1's and 2's. As much of a pain in the butt that they are, they're also pretty freakin' cute. I've learned to love them all in the last 5 weeks.

This is Tonya. I have hatched a plan with Garry to kidnap her and take her home to Canada when we leave. She may be the cutest thing I have ever laid eyes on. She is obsessed with holding my hand, and tries to seek it out in any activity we do outside of our chairs. It is my goal in the next 3 classes to take a video of her giggling. No matter how tired, angry or frazzled I feel when she giggles, it is so amazing I can't help but join in. It doesn't hurt she wears this orange suit to school everyday, her favorite color is pink, her hair is usually in ribbons, and she almost always wears an awesome skirt and pant combo. The kid has style. Did I mention she doesn't speak a word of english with the exception of the stuff she has learned in the last few weeks?

On the other side of the spectrum, is Joon. He is the class bully, and the biggest pain in my butt. He gives the word disruptive a new meaning. He doesn't sit still, barely pays attention to lessons and pisses all the other kids off. He used to drive me nuts but until I learned how to deal with him and now he is actually pretty cool. I always assign him special tasks and responsibilities and he tries so hard to please me (while still managing to annoy everyone else). He is the sheep in wolfs clothing.

A few more snaps of some of the other little characters I get to hang out with on a daily basis.....