Afternoon in Insadong

Dukgalbi: Chicken, Cabbage, Green Onion, Rice Cake (it's called dokbokkie), and some unidentifyable leaf mixed with a spicy sauce that almost tasted curry-esque. Yum.

Before I went on my Baengnyeong Do adventure I thought I'd meet Clint in Insadong for some lunch and some possible shopping. When I got there his phone had been malfunctioning so he didn't even know where we were supposed to meet. I waited for him in a cafe and studied my Korean book (my Hangeuil is slowly coming along) and eventually, Clint arrived with his pal Joe and we went for Dokgalbi and delicious ice cream, and then people watched on the street and window shopped for awhile until I had to go to Incheon to meet up with Scott. Everything being on the same subway line is so convenient!

This was a first: I was the only person in my subway compartment. Why? Because it was Chuseok, and every single Korean was on their way to see their family in some distant region of the country, leaving Seoul virtually empty- except for the ex-pats, of course. One of my ESL students asked me, "Miss Janine, you go to Canada Chuseok?", to which I sadly replied no, we don't celebrate Chuseok in Canada.

I've got a tip for YOU, restaurant. Learn some French and THEN make the sign.

A bar combining two of my most favourite things: sexy AND whiskey. Finally, someone has been able to isolate sexy, bottle it, and sell it at a seedy bar.

Old man sweeping the street.

Clint was the coke pourer, and Joe was the Dukgalbi stirrer.

Happy Chuseok!

Starting last Friday was the Korean holiday known as Chuseok. The Chuseok vacation, which is the 2nd most important in Korean culture next to Lunar New Years in February, lasts about 5 days with the main day being on the 25th. Or, at least, this year it was on the 25th. The holiday itself varies from year to year, just like Easter in Canada. Anyway, on Chuseok Koreans everywhere gather with their families in their hometowns and they eat lots of food, get lots of gifts (teachers also get lots of gifts from their employers and their students- score.), and I believe, worship their anscestors. Sometimes they wear their traditional Hanboks, which are beautiful to say the least. On the last Friday of school before Chuseok, our kids showed up wearing their hanboks and we talked about Chuseok and made traditional "songpyeong", which are Korean sweet dumplings made from steamed rice dough and fillings- in our case, raisins and chocolate covered sunflower seeds (which are so, so good by the way). Usually the filling involves some kind of honey and sesame seeds, I think. Seriously though, my kids were soo cute in their hanboks. Check out the pictures!


My Afternoon Kindergarten:

Posing with Miss Amy

Posing with Miss Janine

Eddie, aka Devil Child. He is a trial.

Dylan: funny but rambunctious

Somi: Sweet but difficult. She doesn't want to speak English. She is such a princess though!

Miss Janine's airways are being cut off by her little hellraiser.

Fiona and Somi, being traditionally cute.

Somi, showing how to properly bow to one's anscestors.

Adorable Michelle with Miss Amy

Shy, quiet Lucy in the back, crazy Princess Fiona in front.

Morning Kindergarten:

My two little angels: Ha Jin (left) and Lily, in her pure silk, hand woven hanbok. It was breathtaking.

Can you tell why I prefer my morning kidlets? They are so cuddly! Left to right: Tiger, Eric, Ha Jin, Joshua, Daniel, and Lily.

Songpyeong preparations! They're getting ansty in anticipation of chocolate.

Ha Jin is a skilled songpyeong maker- she makes it with her mom every Chuseok!

Daniel is a skilled songpyeong eater.

Eric is just adorable.

Joshua, indulging in the songpyeong goodness.

Tiger, wanting more (he loves to eat).

All of our beautiful, handmade songpyeong! Miss Faye told me I was a natural. I told Miss Faye I was going to start celebrating Chuseok every year if it meant making songpyeong. So much fun.

Lily liked eating the pink ones.

Miss Faye discussing the art and philsospical relevance of songpyeong in modern society with Eric. My kids have mad skills.

Daniel calls for more grape juice. I say, "Don't you think you've had enough?" He replies, "I'll TELL you when I've had enough, Miss Janine Teacher". Or something like that.

Miss Faye and Joshua. Full and content.

And then it's lunch time! No more songpyeong, instead we have Korean pancake and kimchi and rice and soup! At least they eat healthy.

The End.

Night/Day Out in Suwon

My life is so busy here I don't even have time to be homesick. There, I said it! This past week I went to Woncheon Amusement Park with Alan, Kim and Drew (and Fozzie). I hadn't heard great things about it- I heard it was dilapidated, run down, and uber spooky- but Kim actually thought it was supposed to be a good place to go so I kept my mouth shut. When we arrived, the things I had heard turned out to be absolutely correct- what a craphole that place is! But still, we made the most of it, and even in the rain we went out on the gross resevoir in one of the paddleboats. And we saw a crane! Then we left (as quickly as possible).

On Wednesday night, Kerri, Kim and I went out for Chinese food with two of our teaching partners- Amy and Rachel. We had a really good time and the food was sooooo delicious. Please, accept my invitation to live vicariously through me by enjoying these photos of my journeys (and meals).

Kerri got some fried pork dumplings- amazing, as all fried things tend to be.

Amy (left) and Rachel (right) with their massive, six dollar bowls of noodles. Amy's was spicy and full of baby octopus, while Rachel enjoyed the dish that people in Korea eat for "Black Day" in April- apprently, it's what single people eat when they haven't recieved any Valentine's from a significant other. The noodles are really good!

Kim was so mad that I made her get her picture taken!

Kerri looks a little tired! But still very cute.

I thought Amy's shirt said "Happy HIV". But really, it says "Happy, Hi (with a heart)". She probably won't ever wear this shirt again because I mentioned it.

The Woncheon Amusement Park: scenery from the water. What even happened to this place?

Beautiful crane in dirty water. I doubt fish can live in this water.

For a deserted amusement park they sure have a lot of paddleboats. Expecting swarms much?

As we ventured out in the rain... Kim said it might have been better if it had been sunny; I maintain that the rain at least gave it an air of spookiness. The sunshine would just make the ugliness stand out.

We took Fozzie on the paddleboat with us... we have since made the decision that he is not a swimmer. But in that water, I wouldn't really blame him.

Traditional Korean Lunch

The appetizer: I'm still not quite sure what this is, but it didn't tast bad! I think it might be made from soy and gelatin (the brown bits) and then was tossed into a cucmber salad of sorts. I forgot the name of the dish, but it was pretty good!

Update: I have since discovered that it is actually an acorn-based gelatin. Interesting!

Alllllllll the side dishes... and I'm still not sure how to correctly eat them. I didn't want to look silly by eating them the wrong way, but I probably did regardless. Actually, the thing in the front that looks like soup was delicious- cold radish kimchi; not too spicy, and very refreshing! Almost like eating a savoury watermelon.

This is one half of the table, and as you can see, it was completely covered! My rice was so perfectly cooked; it was delicious.

These were the piece de resistance. Potato pancakes with chili peppers, served with a nice soy sauce. Honestly, I want to learn how to make these. They were sooooooo good, like spicy fried potatoes, and the soy was great with the chili flavour.

The 2nd piece de resistance: Bulgogi. From my "Learn Korean" textbook, I now know that "gogi" means meat in Korean. I'm not so sure about the "bul" part. My only guess is that it must mean "scrumtralescent" in Korean, because this dish was to die for. I guess Bulgogi is kind of like galbi, in the sense that it comes sizzling to your table and it's really well marinated and spiced, but I think the meat in bulgogi (which is very good beef) is chopped and mixed with different flavours and then fried up. It was so good; my mouth is watering even as I write this.

Kerri and Ally's sister with our elaborate spread.

Me, Ally, and Kerri. Seriously, look at all the food! And I'm proud to say we ate most of it. Except I didn't eat from that plate of vegetables to the left. Can you guess why? Bibimbap. Even though it's nice and colourful, there's just something not right about that dish!

Kerri and Ally's sister enjoying our meal.

Annnnnnd for dessert: non fat frozen yoghurt, topped with delicious fruit and granola! A perfect way to feel not so guilty about all that food we had just consumed.

Last week while sitting at my desk planning my day, my friend Ally who works at the front desk of the school approached me and asked if I would like to have lunch with her, her sister, and Kerri in Gangnam on the upcoming Saturday. Gangnam is a really nice neighbourhood in Seoul where one can find American Apparel, Body Shop, and other fine shopping venues (my brother will be glad to hear that I bought his birthday presents here). I was excited because I hadn't been to Gangnam before and had heard it was really nice, and I was also quite honoured because this was my first invite out by one of my Korean friends.

Ally asked me if there was a particular kind of food I liked or disliked and I told her ANYTHING but kimbap. Or bibimbap. I can't do either; just thinking about them makes my stomach turn. Oh, bibimbap is a conglomerate of raw vegetables nicely arranged over a bowl of rice, topped with red pepper sauce and a fried egg. You're supposed to mix everything all up and enjoy, but I just can't do it. It's either the raw vegetables with the hot rice and runny egg yolk, or just the taste, but I threw up after eating it for the first time.

When Kerri, who had also been invited to lunch, and I arrived in Gangnam I was a little nervous when Ally and her sister told us we were going for traditional "healthy" Korean food because I haven't been overly impressed by the taste of Korean food up to this point. But, never wanting to offend or be rude I said I would enjoy Korean food very much and off we went!

When we got there, Ally's sister did all the ordering and it seemed she ordered a little bit of everything. From what I've gathered so far, traditional Korean meals are all about sharing from several different dishes. This rings true when we go out for Galbi (Korean BBQ) and the table becomes littered with all the side dishes which are being shared, and the lunch with Ally and her sister were no exception. The table was so crowded with so many side unknown side dishes and three or four main dishes that I barely had room to maneuver my chopsticks. Check out the pics!

Senseless in Itaewon

No night in Itaewon is complete without the following:


Deep fried mandhu and chicken skewers from the street food lady,

This was Alan's first Itaewon/street food experience. As you can see he's enjoying himself (too much to look at the camera, even),

Taking pictures of random, passed out people on the street. Too bad this picture doesn't capture all the glory of this guy's bum crack.

Rose flavoured hookah at B1...

Again, serious concentration from the boys...

Clint making kissy faces,

The glory and awesomeness that is the Red Room at B1

Unbelievably bizarre menus. What exactly is Blind Gut anyway?

And finally, no evening (or in our case, early morning) is complete without Norabang. As you can see, we score quite high. We take our Norabang very seriously.

Alan and Clint, singing their little hearts out.

100% NO WAY!!!!!! We are Noarbang professionals. Even after our Soju is taken away!

Clint, scanning the song lists for a good one.

And there you have it. In the wee hours of the morning, Itaewon is overrun by interesting characters and odd images, but one cannot deny the charm and multiculturalism that it embodies. Except for all the army guys- they lack culture. And manners. Mostly manners.