Cold in Korea

It's cold, cold, cold here in South Korea right now. If the frost on the windows wasn't any sort of indication, the frigid outside and the numbers from the weather websites I follow certainly confirm it. In fact, per Yonhap News (in English of course), Record cold snap grips Korean Peninsula.

As of right now, which is 10:52AM here in Korea (that would be 8:52PM in the EST time zone) the temperature is -15 °C and the high is -2 °C. Last night's low temperature was also -18 °C. Needless to say it's extremely cold. 
The bus is a welcome change from the cold temperatures, but we still do a lot of walking to and from certain 
places due to our location. We've also run into issues of frozen pipes downstairs in the school kitchen due to
the temperature. Fortunately, our boiler seems to be doing well enough that we get water for showers and have
water for the upstairs plumbing. It's the little things.

Speaking of little things, a McDonald's opened up near us (a few blocks walk away) which we've visited once
and will probably be frequenting since it's convenient, in addition to being cheaper than back in the US. We think
the quality is better too. :)

Another little thing, for me anyway... I tried these prize machines back when we first got here, but only recently 
have I actually played them more. Basically, in the bottom left corner there is a rod with a white cap on the end
and you use the pink joystick on the left side to move it to the right or left and then use the big white button to 
raise the rod upward from wherever you moved it horizontally. Then you cross your fingers and hope that it
pushes your desired item to the back to drop down at the bottom for you to take home. 

I have come to greatly enjoy these games because they're cheap, have entertaining things in them oftentimes, and 
they're just kind of fun and something kind of neat to do when there isn't much else in winter. I even won this cute 
little husky (also known as Brownie) for 2000won or two tries. 

Otherwise, we've visited the foreigner bars around here for Western food, but have been inside much more. Our
current pastimes? Video games, reading, browsing various websites (I'm on Pinterest a lot lately), and going out 
for things we may need or want. Someone posted a picture in the local Facebook group with the text "Apart 
from drinking, there is absolutely nothing to do here" and it is a sentiment that I feel is pretty accurate. That said, 
if skiing or snowboarding is your thing I know that is something to do. With the frigid temperatures lately I think I
prefer to stay inside though!

On a final note before we head out to do a little bit of shopping. I was given this adorable card(??) by one of my students, James, for the new year. It is adorable and sweet and I will have to get a better picture of it.

Otherwise, I hope everyone's 2013 is off to a good start! We're off to trudge into the snow to pick up a few things, including lunch (and if I'm lucky a play on those fun games, even if it is cold).

Making Kimchi (sort of)

A few weeks ago the school (Chef Teacher, mostly) got into gear for making and storing kimchi away for the winter months since we'll need a good supply until spring time. That meant that we got to leave class early in the afternoon so that the kids could help with preparations. The picture above is the setup that was on the floor in the kitchen. Yes, that is a huge vat full of a spicy pepper mixture for the kimchi. There were also cabbages galore.

Following the usual minimal instructions and guidance we just went downstairs to pretty much watch and make sure no one got too crazy. The kids got gloves on though and went to work slathering the pepper mixture all over the cabbages that had already been soaking in (most likely) a water and salt mixture for several hours.

The kimchi, after lavishly being bathed in the spicy marinade, was then placed in plastic bins like the one above and then refrigerated so that it can ferment. Everyone got to try their hand at it, though we chose to just watch the process and keep an eye on the kiddos that had already finished with their turn. 

Because it was snack time though, Chef Teacher had whipped up some pork and rice for snack which everyone shared. That was an interesting process due to the fact that she grabbed a head of the cabbage and cut it up with the food scissors (after putting on a pair of gloves), took a piece of the cabbage, and then wrapped it around small pieces of pork and some rice. Instead of offering it though, it goes straight in your mouth, one person after another. (I'll get into food safety over here later.)

The pork, kimchi, and rice was so delicious though. The kids were running around after they'd have a bite saying "hot, hot!" but it really wasn't too bad. Zach didn't think it was spicy, but I thought it had a little bit of a burn to it. It was certainly a filling snack though, yum! It was also kind of unique knowing that we'd just seen (part of) the process of how kimchi is made.

Winter has come to Cheongju

It's that time of year up here in the Northern Hemisphere, and that means snow and the rest of the fun that winter brings here in South Korea. We had one light snow previously, but we had two days with a decent amount of snow later in the week. The snow late Wednesday meant no older elementary class, which was nice.

The snow also meant that we got to do something not in our job descriptions and that was helping clear out the snow on Thursday morning. We got a good 2 to 2 1/2 inches of snow, but the worst part was the icy layer underneath. We were summoned downstairs at 8am to help with the snow clearing and with the help of a few small students got things as clear as we could. It took about an hour and a half which put us right around time for class to start.

Sarah wanted to try sweeping, despite the broom being much taller than she is. 

Chris, Sarah, and Stella got in some play time too.

Most students had made it to school at that point so we went inside and were instructed that we would have class for about an hour and then at 11am we would go outside to play in the snow instead of having class. Class was not the most productive time as I did not have time to prepare, nor did Zach so we had a brief morning message and some story time and then let them do whatever for the hour or so that we were waiting. There were some picture shenanigans with the camera on my phone, which was fun, then we went out to play in the snow!

Sarah drew me, I guess? And she wanted me to write my name underneath. 

Sarah takes surprisingly good pictures, I'm shocked. Kids are so good with electronics now though.

After our attempted hour of class, we got ready and went downstairs to get ready to go play outside. This meant that Zach and I were back upstairs to get our coats and gloves and for me to grab my camera too. 

It was so beautiful!

After we all got inside from the snow we had lunch time. Chef teacher had the rice cooker on while we were out and lunch was a delicious chicken and rice porridge type thing. It was wonderful, especially with the spicy kimchi radishes. I was anticipating eating upstairs after lunch, but instead we ate in the open area downstairs that serves as a gym and party room. The floor was nice and warm with the ondol heating on and the sun shining in patches from the windows. 

A wonderful warm lunch after the snow with some spicy flavor added.