Birthday!

Today was my 23rd birthday.  And, no, I don't feel any different.  :)

I got up around 8:30, talked to the family and then we started our day.

We started our day with pastries and coffee at Paris Baguette in the downtown shopping district.  Everything was pretty good, the coffee was a bit on the sweet side, though.  We were just happy for the taste of espresso.

Where we sat to eat breakfast had a view of this strange (read: slightly racist) little cafe called Africa.

As we walked through the center, we found this rather large collection of rubber flip flops...

It was a little warm out, so we had some Coke Zero (in honor of Rob).  As we walked around and explored more, we found some familiar things:

And some more unfamiliar things:

It says "BooBoo Dental Clinic."  I hope I never have a dental-related boo boo.

After walking around for a bit, we had lunch at the tiniest restaurant I've ever been in.  There was literally one table and some counter seats along the wall.  We ordered veggie Kimbop and the first set was served with ham.  We ordered another one and it was deliciously meat free.  Three full rolls (think of the full sized nori sheets) of kimbop, soup and a side of pickled radishes was only 3,000 won ($2.30).

After lunch, we headed into a park/school ground and played around for a little while.

Ian is too tall for the monkey bars.

Swings are fun!  But, they kind of hurt your butt.

Then we headed over to the Techno Town Cinema to watch "9."  When we first went in, the times weren't the same as we'd seen online, so we were worried, but it all worked out.

Some shots inside the theatre lobby:

There are many things attached to the movie theatre, like a restaurant, a hair salon and some sort of boutique.

Self explanatory.  :)

They don't have Diet Coke of Coke Zero, so I got "Cider" (it's pretty much Sprite) and Ian got Orange Soda.

We got some popcorn, too.

All together it was about $18.  Not bad, considering you'd only get in to see the movie for that in the states.

A close up of the popcorn box.  An interesting note:  at this theatre, the tickets have seat assignments.  We'd didn't follow them.  But, even thought the theatre was mostly empty, all the Korean patrons stared at their tickets and followed the rules.

After the movie we went to Mr. Pizza for dinner.  It seems to be the most popular pizza place in town.

We don't know why it's "made for women."  Their main slogan is "Love for women."  ???

We were given an English menu, which was very helpful.  The menu tries to explain why women love Mr. Pizza, but, like Ian at being in photos, it fails.

The cheese sticks were served with honey mustard.  May sound weird to you, but I was pleased, as that's how I order them stateside.

The pizza was... okay.  We ordered a cheese and potato pizza.  The cheese is a little rubbery and the sauce is closer to spaghetti than it is to pizza.  But, like the coffee, we're just happy for familiar flavors and textures.

(Sorry for the blurry photo, the camera started to die)  We wondered why we were served this yellow sauce with our pizza.  Ian tried it and it turned out to be butter.  Ick.  A group of Koreans (about our age) sat next to us.  I thought that maybe you just use it for the crust or something, but they were dipping their pizza in it with each bits. Granted, their pizza had seafood on it, but come on.  Also, it sucks to be a foreigner here.  People have no shame and will stare, and stare and stare.  Tough to eat dinner through that.  When we first got here, we thought we were being paranoid, but the quiet comments and staring are real. At least little kids just opening gape and say "Whoa!"

They had yogurt and stuff to put in it (mostly cereal) at the salad bar, so Ian and I tried a little.  It wasn't bad, but the yogurt wasn't so great without mixing in the jam and cereal.

We decided to walk home.  It was a nice night and it's a pretty nice walk.

Dickies Ingrish on the way home.  ("Dickies didn't invent fashion cothes/ We stronger-quality/ Cloth service for you")

We rounded a corner near the theatre and found a little arcade.  Later we discovered that it was actually attached to the theatre.  Mostly they had your typical arcade games, but they also had little karaoke booths.

We couldn't resist.  We did Barbara Ann and Gold Digger.  A good mix, I think.

Gold Digger was about twice the speed it should be.  This made it impossible, yet humorous, to sing.

It was fun, awkward and gross.  Those booths are not so clean.

When we were done at the arcade we finished our walk back to the apartment.

My present from Ian: maroon, low-top Chucks.  They don't give you the box when you buy them hear, they just put them in that cute pink bag.  I laced them so they'd be easy to slip on and off since we live in Asia and shoes are not a constant.

The cake!  Two big candles for "20" and three small ones to add "3."

Blowing out the candles in our tiny kitchen.

Success!

Unfortunately, the cake was pretty terrible.  It tasted like white bread, only less flavor.  It's like the baker ran out of sugar and vanilla.  Not so great, considering it was apparently a vanilla cake.

Oh well, it was pretty!

P.S. Family, have some Papa Murphy's for me tonight.  After all, it's still my birthday there. :)

볼링!

Today, we went grocery shopping and bowling ("polling" in Korean, it's what the subject says).  The street market was a fabulous experience.  They were very helpful to us, I'm afraid they didn't learn as much from us; I want to figure out how to remedy that.  Here's an old picture to remind you what the market looks like:

It was very busy today (so was Lotte Mart when we went there for spices and sauces later).  It's so busy because Chuseok ( 추석 ) is coming up on October 3rd.  People are out stocking up on food to feed their extended families (a lot like our Thanksgiving only they give gifts on this day).  The prices at the street market are about half of what we were paying at Home or Lotte Mart.  From now on, we'll get all of our produce at the traditional market.

Some key phrases we learned (written as phonetically as possible):

How much is this?   ---   Olma-eyo? 

Discount, please.   ---   Gaka, chuseyo.

More, please.   ---   Pa, chuseyo.

One more, please.   ---   Hana man the, chuseyo.

What is this?   ---  I da m/boy-eyo? (the sound is a cross between the m and b.  Rosetta Stone actually taught me how to say this).

After our street market adventure, we went bowling (it turned out to be regular 10-pin... I don't know about this 9-pin Korean bowling people talk about on the internet).  The alley we went to is near Jecheon Station.  It's on the second floor of a building.  The place itself waws nice, but there was a lot of garbage and a bit of a construction mess to make your way through before you got into the building.  Upon arrival, we learn that Michelle is actually on a bowling team.  Despite all of Michelle's good natured attempts to help me, I still proved terrible at real life bowling.  Ian and I should really stick to Wii bowling.  THe first game he bowled a 79 and I bowled a 51.  The second game I beat him 74 to 55.  Michelle bowled a 127 the second game and Iris scores stayed in the high 70s.  It was shameful, but very fun.  They found our "blow it up" fist bump to be amusing and I'm pretty sure I saw them attempt their own.

Ian's awesome shirt did not improve his game.

Michelle has excellent form and a snazzy colored ball that she actually owns.

I have terrible form.

Iris has given up on her throw before the ball hits any pins (you can still see the ball).

Ian throws the ball way before the line.  He throws it so hard it hits the lane with a "THUMP!" every time.  The girls always reacted to his throws with a vague "Ohhh!"

Iris and I are super cool.  Iris is married and has a super cute 3 year old little girl.  I'm glad we met another young married person.  It's pretty unusual to marry in Korea before your mid to late twenties.  The photo with both of us throwing the "V for victory" (Asians don't see it as "peace") is too blurry to post.  Oh, and Koreans don't smile much in photos.  These people do like us, I promise!

Party shot of the four of us.  Ian's head is floating (as usual) and I'm giving my best Little Foot impression for some unknown reason.

Bowling shoes in Korea are not nearly as stylish as the ones in the States.  Mine were a little too big and Ian's were WAY too small.  Our Korean shoe sizes are around 100 (Ian) and 40 (me).

I took some pictures of our fridge (after shopping today).  I wanted to show you all that we have food.  Many of you have asked how we eat here, and some of you have seemed a little concerned.  We're getting better at shopping in Korea and knowing what we need.  No longer are we eating primarily soup, but we are trying to balance feeling full and eating heathfully (as in, not eating two whole cups of rice in one sitting).^^  <------ Korean internet smiley.

Our sad freezer.  Frozen french fries on top and bananas (for pancakes) on the bottom.

The door of our fridge.  Top:  butter, jam and mustard.  Second: garlic cloves and rice cake candies.  Third: soymilk, Coke Light (absolutely necessary!), dressings and condiments.  Bottom:  juice (it's juice that made like soymilk is, so it's a bit thicker and bottles of filtered water.

The package of rice cake candies.  They're covered in coconut and sliced jujubes (apparently, they're not just a candy in the states, in real life they're a Chinese date!).  Inside each is a red bean.  They are pretty yummy, but not as flavorful as the Western palate is used to.

Our fridge!  Top: veggies and fruit. Second: extra batter (like tempura and pancakes), tubu (that's Korean for tofu [which is Japanese]), and eggs.  We go through a surprising amount of eggs. Third: potatoes, sweet potatoes and bellflower root.  There are more fruit and vegetables in the crispers and on top of the fridge.

Cupboard #1.  On top there is ramen, noodles, "oatmeal," flour, pancake mix, peanut butter and brown sugar. On the bottom shelf is all the junk food that we've been acquiring.  We only bought the crackers.  The rest was given to us.

Cupboard #2!  Rice and cereal.  Underneath is our "spice cabinet."

Now you know way more about our eating habits then you needed or probably wanted.

Tomorrow is my 23rd birthday!  We bought a cake tonight from a little shop in our neighborhood.  It looks like its some sort of chocolate/coconut combination, so it should be great.

I'll be sure to tell you all about our celebratings tomorrow.

One for the road:

Delicious rice candy! Nom nom nom.

Another Week Down

Well, I had a good day yesterday, too.  I think Thursdays are both of our favorites.  Today was good, too.  For me, at least.  My Friday students (on the whole) are less interested in class, but there are some good exceptions.

So, I talked to Michelle and Iris (the two teachers from Sinback) and we are going to the market tomorrow and then bowling.  I think they want to hang out occasionally and use the social time to teach us conversational Korean as they learn better conversational English from us.  I tried to get a picture of them today for the blog, but Michelle said I had to wait until tomorrow because Iris was "busy."  I had to laugh to myself because those girls spend the majority of their days surfing the internet.  Their students learn from audiotapes and language software.  I must have caught them during the 10% of the day in which they actually work.  I like all the people I work with, but I'm certain that Hagwon teaching is considered "women's work" in Korea.  Not very difficult and lots of social interaction (like a fifties housewife joining a city club, something to do with your time and "skill set").  It requires a university degree, but I've read some interesting things about Korean universities.  Apparently, college is a time for social and civic involvement rather than classroom learning.  I was surprised to learn that because we (Americans) have such a blanketed view of education in the East. There's not really anything wrong with that type of learning, but I think many US universities do a great job of balancing the two. 

So, it looks like this weekend's posts will be fun.  Saturday we'll learn how to navigate the street market and then learn the rules of nine-pin bowling.  Sunday is my birthday, so you'll hear all about the Korean version of the pizza-and-a-movie experience.

Random:  my outfit today was particularly professional.  I try to dress professionally everyday (I don't have many clothes here), but today's outfit is one of my favorites, so I took a picture.  Ian wears pretty much the same thing every day, so I didn't take a picture of him.  He wears a button-down, collared shirt (varies in color), slacks and chucks.  It's much easier to be a man and be stylish/ professional.

I do what I can.

Ian had a couple of interesting happenings in his classes today.  I let him tell the stories:

"My Basic 1 class was going just fine, but one of the kids began to draw in his book.  I didn't worry about it because he wasn't disturbing anyone, so I didn't care.  However, another student decided that it was wrong for him to draw and by wrong I mean WRONG!  He hit the pencil away from his hands and they began a minor bout back and forth. When I decided to actually do something the artist slammed his head down on the desk and began to cry.  This continued for the next twenty minutes.

The other class  was for more interesting.  A child decides that the basic functions of a human being are beneath him and he begins to crawl around under the desks and make various animal sounds.  I ask him to stop, which only gained me a growl.  So I move to step two, I grab his hand and pull him from under the desk.  He stands up and throws his arms in the air with some degree of frustration and runs, not from me, not from the class, but the entire school.  The principle sees him run out and I merely lift my hands in the air (in a gesture of "I dunno") and shut the door again.  Class was rather calm after that."

So, compared to that, my day was pretty dull.  I did have a 30 minute battle with the copy machine, however.  None of the machines function properly, but Sinback is definitely the worst.  It doesn't help that they turn the machine off between uses.  The poor machine never reaches any type of "printer homeostasis."  It's all or nothing.  Today, it decided it would take every fifth or sixth copy hostage.

It's ancient and in Korean!

When you open the beast up, this is what you are greeted with.  Luckily, it's not nearly as complicated as it looks.

Ian made a fabulous dinner tonight.  He made bean burgers using random things from our cupboard (including a can of not-so-great baked beans).  They turned out very well, but next time we're going to try to make them less calorie-laden.

The burgers cooking away on the stove.  They look burnt in this photo, but they weren't.

Delicious!  Except for the "wonder bread."  We couldn't find the wheat bread last time we went shopping.  :(

Frozen fries without an oven.  First, they must be microwaved.  Second, you must brown the outside of the fries in a pan.  They are varying levels of delicious depending on the exact circumstances.

Yay!  It's the weekend!