"Where in the World"

Were going to Japan

An early start on the 28th, we were up at about 5.30am, I am definitly not a morning person and neither is Jenna but we were excited. After packing a few last minute essentials we got in a taxi and headed to the airport. Are flight left at 9.30am and on top of having to be there two hours early we also had to get our re-entry visas. This part went pretty smoothly as there wasn't a massive que and we didn't get charged at all, bonus. However Emily was running late and we began to panic she wasn't going to make it on time. Luckily we had picked up a ticket for her before so when she arrived her number was called straight away.

After we had checked our luggage in and had discussed how on earth we were going to fit all our stuff into our bags when we leave, seeing as we managed to fill them for less than a week away. We boarded the plane and set off. An hour into the flight we recieved our meals which I know is sad by I actually quite like plane food. However this was probably the worst one I ever had. I think it was supposed to be breakfast, it contained some meaty sausage thing, battered fish, rice, an egg/tofu thing and a raddish. Emily and I picked at it, while Jenna was asleep and decided we would wait and try some proper Japenese food.

We arrived at the hostel about 3pm, to find that it was closed and that we wouldn't be able to check in until 4pm. So off we went to try and find some food, little did we know this would be a lot harder than we thought. After trawling the streets asking randomers (when I say asking I really mean playing sharards with complete strangers). Everything looked closed it was like when a cowboy rides into town and the streets are empty. When I asked one woman to help us, I suddenly found this guy in my face with a microphone and the rest of his camera crew in tow. Wonder if we ended up some documentary? 

Eventually we found this quant little place that was minute we crambed ourselves in with all our luggage and once we'd all sat down, we simply orderd three of what the guy next to us was having. It turned out to be very nice, it was a noodle soup with vegtables on top, but it was a huge and not one of us managed to finish it.

 
                                                     Our cosy little Japanese resteraunt

 

 
                                                         Ramen, Japense Noodle Soup

At around 4pm we headed back to the hostel where we were checked in by a vending machine, no im not joking. We had to pay this machine for how ever many nights we wanted to stay and recieved a ticket. I went first and had no real problems, just took a while to feed in the notes. Emily's turn came and I dont know how she managed it but the machine spat out all her money in coins, which she had to re-feed into it.

Once we'd settled into our room which was really nice but extremely warm we changed and headed out into the streets of Tokyo. Now we were all expecting Japan to be expensive but the subway prices were very similar to London so it wasn't too much of a shock. We arrived at Tokyo Tower which looks rather like an orange Eifel Tower.

                                        Tokyo Tower 2006

It stands at 333m, with a 360 degree observation platform at 250m. It had an amazing view at night with the lights of Tokyo making it look like a theme park. Apparently during the day you can see as far as Mt. Fuji. It even had a section of glass floor which you can stand on. It was extremely scratched but you could see through it enough to see the floor.  

 

It had been a long day so we headed home for bed pretty early ready for a fun packed week in Tokyo! 

Christmas Day

The lead up to Christmas has been quite uneventful and although I appreciate Christmas not being shoved in my face mid October, but I do miss everywhere being decorated with tinsel, Santa Clauses and trees. A couple of weeks ago things did start popping up outside Paris Bagetter and Baskin Robbins which did get me in the Christmas spirit. It was all our first Christmas away from home, family and friends and although we are all somewhere in our twenties were still big kids at heart. Because of this factor we decided to make it as traditional as we could. So thanks to some home made snowflakes (inspired by one of Jenna's kindergarton lessons) and a display of our cards the flat looked pretty good.

Jenna and I had been to the grey market the weekend before to get all the things you just can't buy in Korea to make Christmas dinner like stuffing and gravy. No I hate gravy which was a good thing because the Americans just can't make it comes out all yellow and runny, aparently they call bread sauce gravy, weirdo's.

Now we don't have an oven and neither does Emily or in fact most of the people we know. Koreans do all their cooking on hobs which is a problem when you want to a cook a roast chicken. Luckily for us we have a local chicken man who parks up at the bottom of our road. It did however take a while for us to ask him whether he would be there Christmas day. After using basic, basic Korean "yogi (here) Christmas day, 25th" we walked away feeling pretty confident that it was a yes.

Chrisrtmas day arrived and due to have an early start and late night Christmas eve Emily and I didn't crawl out of bed till 11.30am. Very unchristmassy of us. Jenna had been up cooked herself breakfast and sat waiting for us to emerge. After a quick outing to the pc room to do a few christmas emails we came back and opened our presents. Jenna was surrounded by packages most of them turning out to be chocolate which she was very happy with. Emily got some oats which doesn't sound very exciting but as far as I know you can't get them over here (found them in the grey market). When I lived with Emily thats all she ate for breakfast.

 
                         Emily and her Quackers

 
                    Jenna unwrapping her Take That cd

As for me, I got a lovely feather pillow (which you also can't get over here) from my mum. Thanks mum. After presents we set about making Christmas dinner with our fingers crossed that it would actually turn out ok. After a few hours of cooking and my first attempt of making mauld wine, which actually tasted pretty good we sat down to a feast.

After dinner in traditional christmas style we sat around and watched a dvd (Ice age 2), drank and ate chocies, to full to move. Thanks to Jenna's sister we even got to play 'tell me', we had a really great day are looking forward to going to Japan.

Watch this space!

 

Christmas Eve

On Christmas eve we decided to go snowboarding, we had originally planned to go for the whole weekend but all the resort hotels were fully booked. Koreans dont really celebrate Chritmas so for them it's just a long weekend which would explain why it was so busy. We had an early start on Sunday, about 6.30 am this was so that we could get into to Seoul to catch the resort bus. The resort we went to is called Bears Town, which is mainly a begginers resort. This was perfect for us as none of us had been in a long time and we had a virgin snowboarder in tow, Sam.
Once we got there we got sorted with the rental gear, blunt boards and smelly boots all wishing we had our own kit with us.

First we took Sam to this small slope (when I say slope I really mean a little patch of snow that kids sledge on) but it was a great place to strap Sam in for the first time. After a few wobbles he was off and we were all really impressed with him, he'd managed to show up all our first attempt on a board. So seeing as Sam was so confident and talent we decided to take him up on a proper slope.

Video of Sam's first run http://www.mediamax.com/katrinaleanne/Hosted/MOV01965.MPG

 
                                        The beginers slope

Now when we were queing we realised that no one was strapped into their board. For anyone that doesn't board your supposed to strap your front foot into the board so that when you get off the chair lift at the other end you can glide off smoothly. Well that is the myth I don't recall seeing any of gliding at any point just trying to maneuver ourselves out of the way of the other one, with unlady like effort. So we follow the trend and carry our boards on. When we get to the top, we lift the bar up and then the Korean lifty starts yelling at us. Luckily for us one of the few words he knew in English was run! Other wise we would of been hit from behind with the swinging chair lift, which is very painful as I found out a bit later.
Emily and I were a bit nervous not only because it had been a while since we'd been boarding but we have also had a few falls the last couple of times weve been. Jenna sets off first and we take it slow and steady behind her, with Sam still in figuring out mode behind us. After a few more runs confidence grew and we headed up to the black slope. A black slope is supposed to be quite difficult but this resort didn't have any red runs so we agreed this would probably be a red slope if you were in Europe. As I was saying earlier chair lifts do hurt, I found this out whilst getting off the lift with Emily. We raise the bar preparing to get off and the next minute I find Emily lying at my feet with no where to go and a Korean man yelling run. I couldn't really do anything and before I knew it I had been hit in the backside by the chair lift, nearly collapsed over Emily who was in a heap tangled in her board and all we could do was laugh.

The slope was nice but a bit to small for us and although it was too warm for real snow to settle it was a nice soft landing thanks to the fake snow. One last thing I have to coment on before finishing this post is that since weve been here we have noticed that young Korean couples often wear the same outfits, jackets, hats etc. But nothing could have prepared us for the slopes of Korea, they had eveything matching, hats, jackets, whole ski suits even boards and it wasn't just a few there were hundreds of them.

 
                                The three us doing the Korean victory sign

We all had a really good day and once we'd taken some Chritmas photo's in the snow and listened to Christmas music sang in Korean it really did feel like the holiday season.     

The Paper Museum

The paper museum had been opened in 2004 and although are guide book had implied that the building was actually made out of paper (which I can hear you saying how stupid we must have been) but in our defense parts of it are made out of paper. It is completely environmentally friendly it is constructed of thick paper tubes and old steel containers, with no cement.

                                                  Inside the Paper Museum

Papertainer (which means paper and container) opened to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Design House, a well-known publishing company in Korea located in Olympic Park.

The container part of the gallery that held all the marketing displays was really good, in each container, an artist has created an image of each particular brand, some were easier to figure out than others. There were however interactive rooms that produced lights in darkend rooms, and enough mirrors to make you stand there for ten minutes deciding which is your better side and do I really look like this from behind. A lot of them were hands on displays but a couple weren't which I found after I'd ripped this plastic ball of its velcro. No harm done though and no one noticed luckily. It had 30 brands altogether including Samsung Anycall, Nike Korea, Bean Pole and Home Plus (a Korean version of Tesco and I think one owns the other as they have the same classic red and blue design). 

  
         The Home Plus Display

The Paper Gallery features an exhibition called ‘Spotlight on 30 Women,’ which sheds new light on historical and legendary Korean female figures including Empress Myeongseong, Yu Gwan-Sun, Hwang Jin-I, and Na Hye-seok. Featuring images, photos and paintings, the exhibition aims for a visual portrayal of famous female figures and an interpretation that differs from male-centric historical accounts. Thirty participating artists include well-known names such as Nancy Lang, Kim Jung-man, and Jung Kuho.

This exhibition was really well done and we spent ages in there taking photo's sneakily when the curator wasn't looking.

 
                Lady with flower                              The Pretzel of peace

 
                                        This was one of our favourites

 

Olympic Park

It was two weeks before Christmas and were were thoroughly fed up of Christmas shopping. I haven't actually managed to do very much of the tourist bit so we opted for a whole weekend of it. On Saturday 9th December we went to Olympic Park situated in Seoul near Dongdaemun. It took a fair while to get there on the subway but we found it ok and we entered the park through the grand entrance of the Peace Gate.

"This Gate was built to celebrate the triumphant Seoul Olympics, which showed the strength, power and growth of Korea to the whole world. The eaves-shaped roof, eaves, portraits of four Korean gods and 3 representative colors - white, blue, and red - express Korean sentiments and traditions. The four Korean gods of the right and left side of the Gate were inspired from Janggunchong's murals of Goguryeo Dynasty and they are believed to rule the four cardinal points - north, south, east and west - for heavenly peace. By symbolizing traditional Korean peace philosophy, it also illustrates hopes for world peace."

 
A rather wet looking picture of the Peace Gate, the grand entrance of Olympic Park.

The Peace Gate was beautiful and the main causeway leading up to the gate had hundreds of pillars topped with sculpted heads. Some were painted and some had faded badely from the seasons but most of them were extremely ugly. The Christmas trees were beautifully lit up at night and I promise pictures will be added a soon as I can upload them.

"Olympic Park preserves the spirit of the 1988 Seoul Olympics. The stadiums, arranged in a fan-shaped pattern around the park, were the main stages for the sports events. With extensive grassy fields, sculpture gardens, walking paths, and rest areas, the park is open all day as a multi-purpose area for leisure, sports, and cultural activities. Over 200 sculptures made by 155 world-renowned artists are scattered around the park. The main attractions of the park include the World Peace Gate, "Rendezvous in Seoul," and the "Wall of Glory" along with various other items in the Seoul Olympic Museum which will remain as a great legacy to the Korean descendants and competitors."

Under the peace gate sits the Olympic flame, burning vividly above the Seoul Peace Declaration.

                                Emily and I warming our freezing hands

Due to it being nearly Christmas an ice skating rink had been set up with hundreds of kids in pink and white skates. We vowed we would do the museum first and then if there was time hit the rink. So we wandered through the park and contemplated riding one or those four seater buggy's with pedals because the grounds were so extensive but after the museums there wasn't enough time left.

Luckily for us we had plenty of time but after I saw a girl with blood all over her white and pink skate I was some what put off. We bumped into this really sweet Korean man that had his grand children with him. He helped us get the right size skates and then paid for the locker because we didn't have enough change (Koreans get very offended if you refuse something that is offered to you). He also took these lovely photo's of us.

                                                  2012 Olympics here we come

 
                                         It had been a few years

Snacks

One of the things I have noticed most about Korean children is the things they love to eat. I understand that this is what they have been brought up on and therefore know nothing else but it makes you think about the kids back home and how fussy weve all become. Including me as my mum would say.

I have been meaning to blog this for a while but have never had the opportunity until i walked into my first lesson on a wednesday. This is my Basic Fantasy class of Jennifer's of all boys, 9 of them and one of them arrived late. He walked in with three massive crap legs, one hanging out the side of his mouth like a lollipop. I couldn't believe it I was stood teaching a lesson and three of them were quite happily sucking on the end of a crab leg. Non the wiser that if they had done that back home all the kids in class would of screamed with digust and you would of probably been labelled the class weirdo.

So i spent the whole lesson taking pictures of them and trying not to wretch, here's the result.

      
Sonny with his crab leg  
              

  
Tom with his crab leg
                   

 
The whole fishy smelling class

The Lourve visits Korea

After a busy saturday shopping we thought it was high time we went and did something cultural. So where do you go when you want to feel educated, the museum. The Korean National Museum to be precise, where the Lourve exhibition had come to visit. I had presumed that France wouldn't let the Mona Lisa out of its sight, but I had expected a few of the big names. Now I'm no art critic so I apologise if there were some wonderful paintings there but none of them were that nice.

 
                             Me being a poser

 
Me being a poser Outside the Korea National Museum

After the museum we got a taxi up to Itawon where we did a little more shopping on the street stalls (Jenna bought a poncho, she's turning into a right girly girl). Caroline and Steph (Caroline is a friend from Australia that has helped us endlessly since weve been her, Steph is her New Zealand friend that has lived in Korea for several years which is also handy) took us to a grey market. Now from what I've been told this is not illegal but not quite on the straight and narrow either. It is a small shop hunderds of yeard down this small road that sells all kinds of American products which you just can't get in Korea. Like deodorants, wetern medicine where you can actually read the instructions and of course the all important pop-tart. They buy it all off the American soliders who get it from their base shops, so as you can imagine its all well over priced but might be worth going for a little treat every so often.
For dinner we were then taken to this really nice Thai restaurant, which was a treat compared to Korean food. To be honest I haven't really eaten much Korean food out, which suits me because most of it has fish in and unless you have pictures we haven't got a hope of telling what it is. Emily seems to do alright at trying stuff because she gets school dinners but she's told me some horror stories like fish head soup and nothing but stewed fish bones. 
I will have to be more daring. 
   

Chinese with the teachers

The director Mr Kwack (said Gwock who you may in future posts hear me refer to as slick, dick and probably worse) had been promising to take all the teachers out as my welcome meal. This should have happened on the first night I arrived like Jenna, but I was quite glad it had been pusponed because of my jet lag. So two to three weeks after my arrival he announced we would be going out for lunch. Luckily due to a previous conversation on the way to get my alien card I had told him how much I hated fish and how much I loved Chinese food. As you can imagine I was very happy when they brought the kinda chinese food we get back home to the table, sweet and sour pork, sweet chilli chicken etc.
It was really nice to sit down with the other Korean teachers (Anne, Henry and Cindy) socially as I hadn't had much of a chance to get to know them in the school. Although Koreans table manners leave much to be desired. Now I'm not talking elbows on the table jobby like I used to get bollocked for, but full on drinking out of their soup bowl, hideous slurping noises and talking while they had noodles hanging out their mouths. Jenna and I couldn't help but stare and look at each other across the table.
All in all the food was lovely but you wouldn't believe how much these tiny Korean women could put away. About half way through Jenna and I were comenting on how full we were, to which Cindy pipped up and ordered another bowl of rice because she was still starving. I just can't quite work out where they put it all.
The best bit was that Kwack paid for it and disapeared half way through so I didn't feel like I had to be on my best behaviour.
We'll definitley go out with the teachers again but maybe not the boss. 

Pepero Day

"Pepero Day is a unofficial holiday in South Korea similar to Valentine's Day or Sweetest Day. It is named after the Korean snack Pepero and held on November 11, since the date "11/11" resemble four sticks of Pepero. The holiday is observed mostly by young people and couples, who exchange Pepero sticks, other candies, and romantic gifts.

According to the story, Pepero Day was started in 1994 by students at a girls' middle school in Busan, where they exchanged Pepero sticks as gifts to wish one another to grow "as tall and slender as a Pepero" (Pepero means "thin like a stick"). However, it is more likely it was initiated by Lotte, the company which produces Pepero."

Jenna and I spent the whole day receiving these chocolate sticks and it became a bit of a competition, after each class we would compare our hoards. Although after about 5pm I was loosing badly as one of Jenna’s students had given her a whole box. This came in very handy when we needed to suppress our chocolate cravings later that night.

Below is a picture of a girl on the subway with a heart made out of Pepero boxes. I couldn’t help but take a photo representing the extreme lengths they go to. It reminded me of being back home on Valentines Day. We saw variations of this all day; everyone was carrying them men, women and children.

   
   A lady on the subway with her gigantic Pepero heart 

                                

   A collection of various Pepero (unfortunatly it's not mine)                 

Chicken Feet

After a long week at work Jenna and I met with Caroline another Hokwon victim from New Zealand for dinner. We headed out for Galbi which I have been told is a popular Korean dish.

Galbi or kalbi is a Korean dish made from beef short ribs, though it can also be made with pork ribs. Galbi is generally served in restaurants known as "galbi houses", and the meat is cooked right at customers' tables on grills set in the tables. It is typically served with lettuce, spinach, perilla, or other leafy vegetables used to wrap the meat, which is then dipped in ssamjang, a sauce made of fermented bean curd and red pepper paste.

So we ordered Sam-gyup-sal becuase despite our efforts she couldn't understand us when we said Galbi. Sam-gyup-sal is served very similar to Galbi but is pork and marinated slightly different, it is served with side dishes and a salty oil sauce. The waitress then came over and put hot coals into a pit in the middle of our table with a grill on the top. Then the meat and side dishes were brought to us, the side dishes consisted of various types of vegtables like Kimchi and some sort of spiced bean sprouts. The meat cooked quickly and soon enought the woman came over and cut it up into sizes perect to pick up with your chop sticks. However since I had very little practice in that department the woman obviously took pity on me and brought me a fork, although I was determind to use them soon my hunger took over and I surrenderd.

After tackling the meat, lettuce leaf sandwich and making it look very unlady like we moved onto a dish Caroline and I had spotted on another table. It looked lovely, like some sort of crispy beef you would get at Millenium Chicken (my local chinese take away) how wrong we were. It arrived on our newly cleaned grill looking rather orange and after a few minutes of silent studying we realised it was chicken feet. Now as they were cooking they did look better and the bones had been removed but they were stil scaly looking chicken feet. I came to the decision that how often do you have an oppotunity to try something new and when will I ever order chicken feet again, so decided to brave one.

 
                                            The tasty looking chicken feet

'It's all in the tasting' I've heard many a t.v. chef say and ill have to admit once they were lathered in the red pepper paste and followed by a swig of beer they weren't quite as bad as I had imagined. For anyone that wants to know they were like chewing on a large peice of chewy fat that you couldn't quite break down. Ovrerall it was ok, I wouldn't choose it again but at least Ive got a story to tell.

 
                   Jenna looking very unimpressed with mine and Carolines choice  

 

 
                                            Proof! For all of you who doubted me

After the waitress had taken the chicken feet away laughing at our mistake we tucked into some beef Galbi seeing as we were still so hungry. It was delicios and I am sure we will be going out to eat it again soon.