bubbly bubbles

I was wandering around my neighborhood looking for dinner when I made a new discovery.  There is an outdoor ice rink about two blocks from my house.  I knew there was one down town, but this one is well hidden because it is below street level but with an open top and walls around the hole so people don't fall in.  I may need to take advantage of this while it is still cold.  Hopefully their rental skates will be somewhat decent.

I managed to drop a half used bar of soap in the toilet today while I was taking a shower.  How did I manage to do this you ask?  Well my bathroom is basically a large shower with a sink and a toilet thrown in.  If I don't want the toilet seat to be eternally wet, I have to life the whole seat up when I take a shower.  If you are not familiar with soap, it can be quite the slippery little devil.  And plop, into the toilet it goes.  So now I have a chunk of soap sitting at the bottom making the water bubbly and pineapple scented.

A ten year old girl beat me at arm wrestling today.  Ouch.  There goes my street cred.  She then proceeded to beat her classmate who is a skinny 10 year old boy.  At least I have that.

I wonder all the time what people are talking about when they speak Korean.  I feel like because I don't understand and it sounds so nice they're probably saying really unusual and interesting things.  I would probably be disappointed because I'm sure it's just as stupid as some of the things that people talk about in English.

Fun with Art

I found Yogurtland style froyo in Seoul today.  It was amazing.  Lovely plain tart yogurt and a bar full of toppings which you then pay for by the gram.  WIN.  This may become a regular haunt.

Trickeye Museum is loads of fun for the whole family.  Basically it's a museum full of renditions of famous paintings in which you can participate.  It is quite entertaining to take pictures of yourself, for example, getting eaten by a cyclops,

maybe being stabbed by a rhinoceros,

or maybe that you grew wings and flew away.

I made my way over to the Nation Museum of Korea as well, but it wasn't nearly as entertaining picture wise.  It was ridiculously huge though.  There were three floors of things to see and it took me about an hour a floor of browsing quickly and not reading too much.  I did skip a floor and a half because my feet were starting to hurt.  It was mostly about the history of Korea and there was quite a large amount of pottery from all over Asia.  Admission was free so even though I didn't see everything, I can always go back and not worry about having to pay.

Vacation = Love

Interesting (/gross) experience of the day:  I was walking around downtown Seoul when a guy walking in the opposite direction stops to look at something in a store window and lets rip a loud, wet one.  Luckily, I wasn't in any position to smell anything.

I spent my first tourist vacation day wandering around down town Seoul in below freezing weather for 4 to 5 hours today.   One of my small children definitely gave me a cold which made my wanderings quite a bit less comfortable.  I tried to go to the National Museum of Korea but was unsuccessful.  I shall have to try again, seeing as how they have a very large statue of Buddha which I would like to see.  I wonder if they let you rub its belly for good luck.....

I attempted to go to a falafel place that I was told is excellent, but it was closed, I'm hoping just because of the holiday, and not for good.  I ended up getting a burger instead, my first burger in probably six months.  Since I eat them so infrequently, I don't want to taint the experience by getting a Whopper or a Big Mac.  I went for the good stuff, ie $8 burger.  Yay lots of garlic and real meat.  Surprisingly, Korea has a very good burger chain, called Kraze Burger.  They've started exporting it to the US, I think the first one is near DC.  Unlike with Mr. Pizza, where they took the pizza and added all kinds of weird stuff to it making it wholly unlike American pizza, Kraze Burger just makes pretty standard burgers with lots of topping choices and fairly good quality meat.  Now the only problem is my mouth has the metallic-y post-garlic-consumption taste.

While I was walking down town, I wandered up towards the area where "the Blue House" (read, 'Korean White House) is and some how still didn't see it.  This is like my fourth time up there hoping to see it and just missing it completely.  On the plus side, there were lots of old style Korean houses, or 'hanok' 한옥 in the area which I got to see.  On the negative side, I forgot my camera at home on my bed.  Not that I would have enjoyed exposing my fingers to the air long enough to take a decent picture.

I love vacation.  I can sleep in tomorrow and go to the Trickeye Museum and eat gastronomic ice cream.  Very exciting.

On a random note, I received a box of cup cake mix in a care package.  Seeing as how I have neither a conventional oven or a toaster oven, I shall be attempting to make cupcakes via microwave.  Apparently, it has been done before.  Wish me luck.

Happy Lunar New Year!

Monday is Lunar New Year, otherwise known as Chinese New Year.  In celebration of this holiday, I have a glorious five day weekend.  I shall be spending this weekend relaxing and being a tourist in a rotating schedule.  First order of business, pajama day.

For some reason, in Korea, eggs come in packs of ten.  Why this is, or why in America it would be a dozen, I have no idea.  Who decides these things?  Is it an arbitrary number?  Are there commitees that decide how many eggs should be in a carton in different countries?

I recieved a lovely care package this week from a one, Ms. Erika Hartley.  She is fabulous.  I now have Cheez-its, orange Milanos, a cute hat, some warm socks, glass markers, an assortment of other wonderful things and these things called Magic Milk straws.  Magic Milk straws are amazing.  I don't know when they came out but basically it's a straw you stick in a cup of milk and use like a normal straw but it makes your milk flavored.  It makes any milk awesome.  I have strawberry and they're almost gone.  I may be buying in bulk soon.  Yum yum yum.

Another thing that was added to my collection of random stuff this week was a tub of that fart noise making goo.  Kelsey got some in a package from on of her friends.  I really want to give it to one of my kindergartners who is a little cheeky monkey and see what happens.

Speaking of kindergartners, I believe one of them has given my a runny nose considering she had a river going for like two days this week and now I'm finding myself needing to blow mine every half hour or so.  Booo getting a cold again.

Somebody ate my mandarin orange.  It was in a baggy at work with a hard boiled egg for a couple of days.  When I looked on Friday, there were other oranges in the fridge, but only a hard boiled egg in my bag.  Momentary sadness.  Luckily, oranges do grow on trees.

I'm getting bored of short hair, so until further notice, I am growing it out.  I will probably get bored of long hair in like five months and cut it again, because that's how I roll.

A Little Taste of the Past

Some experiences are beyond explanation that anyone else will really understand fully.  I had one of these on Thursday.  While she was here, my mom had mentioned a vegetarian restaurant run by a buddhist monk, but we didn't have time to go.  So Kelsey and I decided to go for dinner just for an interesting experience. The restaurant is called Sanchon 산천 and it is tucked away in a little alley in the more traditional part of the city called Insadong 인사동. It was set up like a traditional tea house inside with lots of plants and old wood work and was really quite lovely. The best description I can give you is that it looked like the inside of a Japanese building or house you'd see in a movie set before the modern era.  We sat at a floor table and at first the floor heat was really nice, but the longer we sat there the more boiling hot it got.  Booty melting temperatures.  We were the presented with a 23 plate meal of mostly unidentifiable green things.  There was a plate of appetizers that was more familiar, with things such as mushrooms, fried kelp, acorn jelly, some kimchi and spicy lettuce and Korean pancakes 파전.

Then came the plate of mysterious green things, one of which smelled like feet. We were very amused by the whole situation and spent most of it giggling. It wasn't a bad meal, in fact, some of it actually tasted pretty good, it was just very unusual and not something where I would wake up one day and be like "I really feel like eating monk food today." Next, came the dancing.

There were three different performers who each did two dances a piece.  A couple of them were really interesting, but I swear there was one where all she did was walk around the stage and play with her skirt like you would right before you curtsy.  There was about a half hour of dancing followed by about 10 minutes of drumming.  The three women came out with drums and played them over a drum and flute track playing in the background.  It wouldn't have been so painfully funny if they had rhythm or decided not to use a background track.  They would get off and you would hear two sets of drumming off beat from each other and it just sounded horrible.  The girl playing the pan was particularly bad and she had the loudest instrument.

For some reason we can't explain, Kelsey and I found this night ridiculously entertaining.  We spent the whole way home bursting out in laughter from the whole ordeal.  In any case, if you are either really serious of have a good sense of humor I would totally recommend doing it.  It's a nice look at traditional Korean culture although it is a little on the pricey side.

I had my first brush with duck last night.  At least I think it was a first, I can't really remember if I've had it before.  We had to have reservations because they had to cook the duck in a clay pot for three hours before we got there.  It's basically like chicken.  It had seasoned rice for stuffing and several different kinds of spicy kimchi for side dishes.  Altogether, it was quite good, and something I probably wouldn't have thought to try by myself.

Starting next Saturday, I have my second longest vacation ever, through the following Wednesday.  We get this time off for Lunar New Year, which is technically when every Korean citizen turns one year older according to their age system.  Interestingly, all of the major theme parks have discounted tickets right after this holiday.  Totally taking advantage of that.  Some of them are indoors so it's not as bad as it sounds.  I'm definitely not planning to go on any outdoor roller coasters in below freezing weather.

Strangely, I may be adjusting to the cold.  I was a little bit to warm on my walk to work.  This is extremely weird for me.  For those of you that know me, I have a high aversion to cold.  I avoid it like the plague.  Hence part of my marvelous four year excursion to Miami and my probably one to Los Angeles for graduate school.  I mean yes, I was wearing a sweater, but I was wearing one less shirt than normal and leggings instead of pants.  I could get used to this.  I hope this doesn't make summer suck even more than last year with all of it's sticky sweaty rainy-ness.

Another interesting thing about winter: apparently all of my layers makes be appear more Asian because it covers most of my whiteness and I like to hide 80% of my face beneath a scarf and hat.  Since the winter season started, I've had more than one person come up to me and start blathering in Korean even as I'm trying to tell them that I don't really speak it.

Korean number of the day: 십이 (shib-ee) or 열둘 (yeol-dool) - twelve
Korean word/phrase of the day: 만두 (mahn-doo) - dumpling

I finally got my winter sweaters and boots and it's freaking awesome!!!  So much warmer.  I also have amazing fleece leggings that are warmer than my pants.

For some reason, my apartment has obscene amounts of dust in it.  I dusted my head board yesterday and there is already visible dust on it again.  I had to buy a dust cover for my computer to keep it out of the keyboard.  The heat is all done in under floor water pipes and I haven't had the air condition on in ages.  I have no idea where it's coming from.  It's maddening.  I know, I'm a little bit of a clean freak.

I can very happily say that I now own a nice, authentic little tea set.  I'm very excited.  I do love tea quite a bit.  I'm going to have to wait to use it though because if I open it here, I will never get it back home in one piece.  The lady packed it very nicely and I'm going to ship it home and pine after it until I return in July.

Since I mentioned it, I will officially announce that I have extended my contract and will be here until the end of July unless things go badly with grad school applications.  If things do go badly, I am unsure as to my plan of action at that times.  But as for now, Korea, I will be seeing you for another 6 months.

I got new glasses.  I look super nerdy.  I kind of like it.  So do my small children who have glasses.  It has encouraged one of my smaller kindergartners to reveal that he even had them and now he wears them and looks like Asian Harry Potter.  Super cute.

We recently finished remodeling a new floor for the school.  This floor is specifically being used for the teeny tiny kids, the ones who are preschool age.  In the last two weeks, the three preschool classes have been moved upstairs to the fourth floor, vacating more than half of the second floor.  As a result, my class has moved down to the second floor from the third.  This move has really tripped my kids out.  They keep wandering out into the hallway and just staring at the other classrooms because the new floor is completely full, while the previous floor was not.  It's also making them super moody.  I really hope they perk up.

Snow today?  Maybe it will stick.  That would be marvelous.

Korean number of the day:  십일 (shib-eel) or 열하나 (yeol-ha-na)
Korean word/phrase of the day:  차 (cha) - car or tea

메리 크리스마스!!!

In other words, Merry Christmas!!!!! A little bit late but ish happens.

For example, last week my mom and brother came to visit. Therefore, I obviously didn't have time to blog while preparing for their arrival or after they got here. I did all of my end of the month grading and tests the week before so that I wouldn't have to worry about them during the visit. I also had to thoroughly clean my apartment.

Anyway, Mom and Phil came to visit for a whole week! It was most excellent. We did a lot of touristy stiff which I probably wouldn't have thought to do if left on my own. We went to see the main palace, Gyeongbok 경복궁, near where the president's Blue House is, walked around in a traditional part of the city called Insadong, went to the Korean Folk Museum and a bunch of other random things. Two of my favorites were going to a bath house and going to N Seoul Tower.

If you have never experienced a traditional Asian bath house you are missing out. Okay, so you have to be naked, but let's face it: in western society people are generally overly uptight about nudity. Here, they are more uptight about some of the things you are allowed to show when you wear clothing, but in more private circumstances with only one gender, such as a bathhouse or a gym locker room, they let it all hang out. It's a very weird juxtaposition between are to cultures. In one, you should never be completely naked but you can be pretty damn close as long as you're wearing something, and in the other you should not show any excessive skin in public but can go completely nude at appropriate times. If you can stand being naked in front of others of your own sex, going to a bathhouse is quite literally like being given your choice of multiple giant hot tubs and a sauna on the side for around $10. There are sometimes tubs outside too and it's quite odd (but still amazing) to use them in the winter.  When you're done with the tubs you have your choice of food and snacks and even spa services such as massages and facials, but these come at an extra cost.

N Seoul Tower is probably the most iconic part of the Seoul skyline, and it is one heck of a tourist place.  It's at the top of a large hill in a park near downtown Seoul and it has a great panoramic view of the city, when it's not cloudy out that is.  It also has a very unique museum at the base of the tower.  It features the history of Korea modeled by teddy bears.  Every display moves, too.  It is quite entertaining simply in its ridiculousness.  I highly enjoyed it.  N Seoul Tower is something neat to see on any day, but what made this one of my favorites (besides the teddy bear museum) was that we went on New Year's Day.  To celebrate the New Year (at least I assume that's what it was for), there was an exhibition of various cultural things.  There was a group of drummers, who did a performance that was at least 15 minutes long and hella awesome, followed by a demonstration of traditional Korean weaponry and fighting techniques.  I got some awesome air shots of a sword fight.

Something else that is very unique to Asia is the fish doctor.  I took my mom and brother to a nice little cafe with coffee, tea, etc, normal things you would find at a coffee shop.  What makes this cafe special is that you can also have a 15 minutes session with little fish eating away the dead skin on your feet after you've finished your drink.  It's like having an organic pedicure.  Apparently my brother had the grossest feet because they all swarmed around him.

On a side note, have I mentioned that I finished my graduate school apps?  WOOO!!!

Korean number of the day:  십 (sheeb) or 열 (yeol) - ten
Korean word/phrase of the day: 발 (baal) - foot