Happy New Year from Korea!

We went to a cool boardgame cafe in Cheongju and played Ticket to Ride!

Happy New Year from South Korea! It's officially 1/1/2013 here and we're hoping to weather some school issues and have everything work out in our favor. If not then it's off to greener pastures (hopefully) with a sprinkling of trouble for what we'll be leaving behind.

The new year means several things though, including remembering to write 2013 instead of 2012 and the approach of the year that means we'll be homeward yet again. Here's hoping that the rest of the time we have here goes well and will provide us with lots of fun times and good memories.

While our New Years celebration has been pretty low key, we did get to spend time with our friends who will be in Seoul for a few months longer before backpacking through Europe and heading homeward. We had dinner at a local foreigner bar (which always has delicious Western food), and ice skated our way to the board game cafe. By ice skated I mean that they do a poor job of sidewalk and road clearing and we literally shuffled/skated our way down the completely icy roads. Afterward we came back and played some Minecraft before heading to bed.

Then tonight (New Year's Eve, though we've already passed that time) we came back after hanging out and eating/shopping in Shinae and relaxed before they headed off to the bars for a New Year's celebration. A good night to consider the future and what things hold. :)

Happy New Year everyone. May 2013 bring you good things in all shapes and forms!

Crazy Antics (or, Wow, We're Busy!)

It seems appropriate to start out with a wintery picture, because it's certainly winter here in South Korea. While the temperature has risen above freezing on occasion, it's mostly not above freezing and we've been quite cold! I intend to make an update about being cold and surviving the winter in Korea, but I'm sure I'll have plenty of time for that in January or February.

Mostly, I wanted to make mention of the fact that we haven't been all that active with posting here, because it's just been one thing after another. I do have some pictures and information though. One big reason we've been busy has been due to work and sorting out some things with our director. Another has been preparation for the big Christmas Party on Christmas Eve, which is mostly a show/performance for the parents. There for about a week I was also working 10 1/2 hour days because I was helping out at another local school too. We also can't forget the part where we've been trying to prep for our own gift giving for the winter holidays.

On my walk home from the other school I was at for a week after my normal classes I saw this display.

If you follow the path here that runs between apartments you reach Homeplus!

This is the entrance of the school I was at from 5:30 to 8:30pm each night. I even rode my first taxi home.

Among other things we got to see election campaigning and promotion (and also had off work!) This man lost by a very slim margin. Also, the woman third from the left was very enthused about dancing for this.

Stumbled upon an amazing bakery with some of the most delicious cupcakes I have ever tasted. 

Did I mention that it's a cake decorating cafe too? You buy a cake and the things you want to decorate with and have at it. I want to make one sometime! You can also make cookies with a variety of cookie cutters.

We also have our own little Christmas/holiday set up at home. We aren't really doing gifts, but we did decide to do stockings for each other at least.

Oh yes, I mentioned a Christmas party. We've spent 3 full days of preparation for this, not including half days and the other miscellaneous periods of time over the course of 2 weeks. We've been sitting in the cold downstairs while they practice reading, singing and dancing, and playing piano. Is it over yet?

This past weekend (12/22 to be precise) we went and participated in a local photo scavenger hunt for Christmas with a bunch of other foreigners in Cheongju. (The above sign was outside of the CGV theater where we met up at the start.) We had the pleasure of running around in the cold, being yelled at by an old ajumma outside her fortune telling shop, participating in a flash mob outside of a shoe store in Shinae, trying to get random Koreans to help us by joining our pictures, running around Homeplus, etc. Our team of 8 (with our additional helper) won the game and got "gold". Unfortunately I was feeling very sick (and now have another cold) and getting home was the bad part. I'm glad we went though, it was fun.

Woooo, gooo team! I'm hoping to post a few of the pictures on the blog once they're uploaded to Facebook. We took some wacky pictures. Highlights being Homeplus workers looking at us very oddly, being yelled at by an old man for being too close to his cart while singing Christmas carols to a random Korean couple, dancing Gangnam Style with a few electronics employees, fitting all 8 of us into an elevator, Zach and I kissing under "mistletoe" (which they said was cheating since we're married), taking a picture together in front of a historic pole downtown, building a "snowman", and other crazy antics. Good times.

Prizes to help warm us up after all the running around in the cold!

Oh, I almost forgot! We were given a microwave and a toaster oven by the boss lady. It's so exciting!

For now though I'm just stuck with another cold (I seem to have bad luck with that in Korea, but I think it's partly stress related) and Zach's got a mild cold too. Since it's Sunday already we're gearing up for another day long practice tomorrow on Christmas Eve. We're supposed to be having dinner before the "party" and then it will start and last for several hours. I'll hopefully get a few pictures. Zach will be MC-ing the whole thing while I run around and make "stage" adjustments and help out the kids with remembering things and words they may have trouble with. 

I have also sampled corn tea, which is, in fact, a thing. It tastes like corn and I will not ingest it again, definitely. I have also been offered cold medicine (for kids) and awkwardly stood around being watched while I took it, despite not knowing what I was just taking. On the bright side, we got Domino's today and it was amazing! Just looking forward to Christmas off work now and a few Skype calls. :)

Field Trip to Cheonan: A Milk Factory

A few weeks ago, on November 22nd, I went with the boss lady and the kindy kids on on a field trip to Cheonan to visit a milk factory. It was an interesting experience, though surprising since Zach didn't go along too. Instead he was stuck here since he had to be here for the elementary age kids for their classes.

We started out watching an informational video about milk processing and how the factory works which the kids probably didn't understand, but I understood it even less since I don't know Korean. The lady was nice and gave us a tour of the place and we took the elevator up and down through the whole process to see the different parts of the factory.

We arrived at a good time to see the milk starting to pass in the cartons along the conveyor belts.

The tour lady had a little mic and speaker during the tour.

I think she was talking about all the products that they make.

Because they were so short and couldn't see into the lab she had them jump, it was cute.

I drink these milk coffee things! Despite not being a huge coffee fan I like them since they're more milk and sweet instead of bitter.

Hey, I drink these too. This is yogurt and it is delicious.

Milk, milk, and more milk. Not for the lactose intolerant.

This section of the wall was covered in unlabeled cartons and a mirror. Cool.

This was the welcome sign that had been placed out front for us.

Tour complete, time to sample the product. 

She brought us all strawberry milk, it was so good. Not that the kids needed the sugar.

After the milk and the tour they did some running around while the boss took pictures. Me? I took a classy picture of all our empty milk cartons. 

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. 

Urban Decay and the modern Korean City

Over the weekend Amanda and I took a merry jaunt to Shinae the downtown area of Cheongju to grab some lunch and check out a Buddhist temple we had seen when on the bus going past the area before.  We grabbed a healthy and delicious lunch at McDonalds and then walked around for a little to get us ready because we had planned on walking out way home the 3 to 4 mile stretch.  Now like most cities the main stretches of cities in Korea are very glamorous with lots of flashing lights, loud music playing from shops, and tons of small markets to peruse, filled with life and very shiny.  Things are well maintained because frankly that is how to attract business and tourists and make those silly waygooks feel comfortable (not that the entire thing should revolve around foreigners).

Two blocks from the main strip

When you get off the main drag however a new story is painted by a modern city.  This is really the case in every city, but I thought it was interesting since we are in a very different region.  Abandoned buildings, decaying ruins of once prosperous spots just left to rot.  Lots that are sometimes completely filled with garbage and overgrown with weeds.  The actual decay of the buildings is interesting to me specifically, while these buildings are certainly not new, they can't be more than 10-20 years old.  I was told by a foreign teacher named Dylan that it is normal for buildings to be build and be torn down in a few years.  Much like the Korean lifestyle in general houses and other buildings live fast and die young, unless they are a historic landmark obviously.

For example there are apartments being built behind/in front/ right next to and all around our school.  They are being built frightfully fast, in a matter of two months a building has been torn down, and a four story apartment building has been thrown up.  Right now they are working on bricking the exterior of the building, if I am correct in my thinking it should be open by summer.  They are doing that with at least four buildings all around, and making amazing progress.  The building materials have been extremely sparse, only really a bit of wood, a lot of concrete, and a bunch of Styrofoam for insulation.

The windows on the second floor were all broken/missing

\It is just part of the modern city experience I guess, but what seems to shock me is that people actually live in these houses.  The places that look so rundown, and some that have broken/missing windows have people living inside them, even during the freezing winter.  There is a house across from our school which looked abandoned when we first came to Korea, but we noticed lights on in the evening and a well taken care of dog that was in the yard.

Now I can venture to guess that it is the older generation that lives in these houses, while the younger generation are all probably in apartments instead of family homes like these.  It still shocks me though that people would live in these dilapidated houses even if that is just my privileged American speaking I can't imagine it is comfortable living without windows. Although humans are used to living in harsher conditions than this, and I am sure there are people in rural areas probably worse off even here in Korea.  Still it was something that made me think on the quick weekend walk.

One cool thing is these businesses used small bridges to make a 2nd story shop

We're on the Map!

Oh hi! We're at that purple dot on the southern side of the map.

We're on this map anyway! I thought I'd give everyone back at home (and anyone else that's curious) a better idea of life around Cheongju-si, especially in relation to where we live/work. I took a few screenshots of Cheongju, zoomed in to give you a better idea with a few highlights.

Cheongju is a decently sized city. In the map above, we live in Juklim-dong which is approximately where that purple dot is on the southern side of the city. Why purple? Because I happen to like purple, its a nice color. I would consider Cheongju to be a pretty large city, though it's no Daejeon or Seoul by any means. The most recent population numbers I remember seeing on Wikipedia for Cheongju put it around 700k, so it's not what I would call small.

Some people that we've talked to have come to understand part of the difficulty of living "out in the boonies" if you will. We can hop on any number of buses at our bus stop down the road, but you also have to wait for the buses and that can be trying in the cold. We're actually one bus stop away from one of the bus end points/rest areas for the drivers. It's also quite hard to catch a taxi out here too. The bus takes approximately 15 minutes to get from our closest stop to the bus terminal and closer to 45 minutes to get from home to Shinae (Downtown) if things work in your favor.

Riding the bus is kind of an adventure though. Sometimes the bus drivers are crazy, you see interesting people filtering off and on, they drive all crazy sometimes, you just never know. There was the one time where there was a person in a car behind us with major crazy bass going on (we're talking rattling windows here) and all the ajummas (older women) freaked out and the bus driver stopped and gave everyone their money back because they thought it was a problem with the bus.

Here is my other handy dandy map, complete with numbered purple dots. After some consulting with Zach I think I got it all figured out. As I said before, we live in that area in the far south on the map in Juklim-dong (1).

The small square to the north that is not numbered is the approximate region of two small convenience stores we sometimes visit to stock up on snacks and food for the week. The prices are reasonable at these places and we've even become familiar faces to those that work there. 

North of the small square is our second dot, Homeplus (2). This is where we shop for all our needs. Homeplus has pretty much anything and we end up there somewhat frequently. It's also next to the chicken place we like to go to. There for a while we would just walk up the road toward Homeplus and walk on the sidewalk. Then we discovered that we could cut through by going between some apartments and a school and take a bridge above the road and it really saved us some time. This area has several blocks worth of restaurants, cafes, and small shops. There's also a street vendor with delicious waffles.

If you head toward dot number 3 you hit the bus terminal area (3) in Gagyeong-dong. If you take the time to walk to and from there to home down at (1) it's approximately 30 minutes. We've walked it many times and will probably walk it many more. There's a nice park that we started exploring when we first got here, but didn't get the opportunity to look much otherwise. The bus terminal area is also bustling. There's a Lotte Mart, DreamPlus, a bookstore, lots of restaurants, a local street market and many other things. We sometimes hit up this area and go to Pizza Hut for dates! Also near the bus terminal is a fantastic cultural store where I hope to buy gifts to send/bring home and a man who is almost always selling battery powered toy dogs that walk around.

Dot number 4 is up to the northeast. This is Shinae or Downtown (4), which we frequent somewhat often. The spot I marked is just the start of the downtown area as it's quite large. This is the home area of the cat cafe we visited. There are tons of restaurants ranging from KFC and McDonalds to Italian to traditional Korean and more. There are many street vendors here and it's always bustling. Teens, kids, ajummas, you name it you see it all. Near a small video game store we visit sometimes there are typically people out selling their crafts and they're very well done. We also ran into the talent contest thing the one time. And there was the time we saw a small parade of people dressed as clowns that were handing out some sort of flier that we couldn't read. 

Number 5 in the middle area on the map is BCM (5). This is where Zach teaches the adult classes and I've visited the place a few times too. Yet another area we've walked to and from several times before. Taking the bus from home is about 20 minutes and the stop is just after the stop for Chungbuk University (which is huge and we intend to explore soon) but before you hit the huge stadium off to the left. Chungbuk University is that big area just South of the dot. There is a strip near the school for blocks and blocks that is all outdoor wear and hiking gear because Koreans love hiking.

As we discover more I might make a more detailed map (or make the ones above more exciting). Since it's getting cold out I'm not anticipating a whole lot of traveling until springtime, but I'm sure we'll be doing some local exploring.

Halloween at the Hagwon

At this point Halloween has come and gone (and now we're past Thanksgiving), but there are always fun pictures floating around! Halloween isn't as big a deal here in Korea, but the schools like to highlight the holiday and apparently it's just another excuse for older Koreans to go drinking. That said, we had a good time at our hagwon's celebration.

The timing was quite interesting though as we were told that some of the parents would be coming in to observe class before our "party". So we each had a couple of parents who had come in to see how class works and we, of course, had to be on our best behavior and show off.

Zach had planned ahead (I'm not sure if this was intentional or not, or at least not how intentional) and had brought his horse head mask, as you can see above. This was a hit with the kids and our director. I, however, did not plan ahead, but before we left the States I did manage to snag a few silly things from Party City. Thus, I donned a silly moustache which everyone seemed to love. I also managed to remember the pirate hat that had been left by one of the teachers before us. A pirate with a moustache, it worked!

The kids dressed up and we were instructed twice during the day to hand out candy. The parents helped earlier in the day for the first round, the kids would knock on the door and come to all of us for treats. They knew to say trick or treat, but I used the time to advise them to also say thank you! The later round of trick or treating with the older kids was just 3 teachers each in a classroom and that was different in its own way.