New friends!

Last sunday we started our whirlwind of new friend experiences in Korea. We started with the foreigner group party and did a some networking and found out that there is a big group of guys who play ultimate frisbee every sunday at 2, which is great since it is right after church!

We showed up to meet them around the stadium of Geoje, and though we could not get on the field or the practice field, we were able to walk up a huge hill and some even longer stairs to a Korean War Memorial, where there was plenty of open space to run around and throw discs.

Since I was still a bit sick I just sat in the sunshine and read my book, but Joseph finally got to engage in some awesome Ultimate frisbee action! Here are a few action shots I captured between pages!

Next we had an impromptu dinner with two of our co-workers, Daniel and Jenny. We have been trying to figure out how to slyly ask them to take us to a korean place for some traditional korean food, so we casually mention about 40 times that we are starving and have no idea where to go, Can they offer a suggestion, or maybe show us a cool place... since we are bad with directions and all ( mainly because there ar eno street names)... this ended up in them taking us to a place that roughly translated to "the Beehive" and they cut the meat you grilled into weird shapes that were supposed to look like beehives, but ended up looking like butchered meat with slices taken out of it... it was still delicious. Daniel ordered us some rice, and a really spicy stew with tofu and veggies in it... Jenny spoke more english than daniel, but was able to keep the conversation going pretty well! We did ask what one thing on the table was and they had to whip out their cell phone translators and tell us that the odd object on the table was sliced green onions... who would have known!

Next we went and walked around town and Daniel signed us up for movie rentals which we can watch on the computer. Awesome!

And then in true Korean fashion ( which means you hit at least three places) we decided to head up to the Ping pong room for some doubles, which ended up in an epic battle between Joseph and Daniel... with jenny and I taking turns taking pictures... below... But we have to brag a bit... Jenny told me daniel spent time in the Military, so his ping pong skills were awesome, but not awesome enough to beat Joseph! I think the final score was 21 to 15!

Joseph and Daniel showing us girls how to play. ( Joseph had a table since he was young and jenny told me Daniel did time with the Military and he played alot then too!)

Jenny Our co-teacher and new Ping Pong Buddy! She and I took turns keeping score since neither one of us had a clue how to do it!

And then this past friday Joseph and I got in touch with our foreigner friends Willow and Sean and we went to a really good restaurant where you get a bunch of meat on the bone and veggies in a somewhat spicy stew that you cook yourself. It was so nice to sit and have conversation about the randomness of Korea.

Out side shot of the restaurant.

Next blog.... Tong Yeong!!!! Tons of pictures... and now that I have internet at home... MORE BLOGS ( well as long as we keep doing interesting things!)

VIPS

Joseph and I are VIPS…. Well not really but today at our teacher meeting we ate like them. VIPS is the most American restaurant on Geoje Island. It is at the top of the D-Cube mall, the epicenter of all that is western ( well as western as you can get in Korea!). Grace our director decided we needed to have a proper “teacher meeting” at this restaurant so we could get to know each other and see how much shrimp we could stuff in our faces! It was absolutely delightful, Most all of our co-workers speak Korean and English so the ones with weaker skills can work to interpret and get info from the more experienced teachers.

Let me tell you about this restaurant. It had EVERYTHING. And seriously when I say everything, I mean everything… I am talking Golden Corral caliber, but it was really nice… Back in college, we lovingly referred to Golden Corral as “The Trough”… this was no simple trough though, Joseph and I decided it was only fitting to call this place “ The Gilded Trough”.

There was Korean and American fare to spare! Everything from varying forms of Pizza, pasta, salads, meat dishes, seafood, fried chicken, fried rice, fruit, a Mexican station with real sour cream ( Not whipped!), bread station with a quiznos like oven to heat/grill your bread of choice, jams and butter, raw fish, Sushi station, Rice noodle station, Soda bar, coffee bar, and as much tiramisu as you could eat in five sittings…. I wanted to take pictures, I really did, but the lunch rush and not wanting to look like a complete dork in front of everyone at my school prevented me from pulling out the camera to capture this epic display of decadent American sized food preparations. Everything was on nice plates too, like it was prepared for a King… Presentation really is half the battle, the other half being taste… which was delicious. So delicious in fact that I will even forgive them for putting corn in the taco meat… ( they must really love Corn here!)

We sat in our own private room, and brought in tons of plates of everything to share, as well as getting up multiple times to fill our own cups and plates. The poor waitresses did nothing but take away empty plates in a vain attempt to give us some table space.

We sat, munched, laughed, joked about students, and odd happenings in Korea from Joseph and I’s point of view, which in the Korean perspective is totally normal. ( example… Ali: Ummm the shrimp on my plate has a face…. Grace: They did in the ocean too! You can just cut it off) Honestly though, I had never seen shrimp that was not fried or already trimmed of the head and legs… I had no idea they had such big black eyes! They are pretty tasty even with a face though!

The Koreans also ate some kind of sea creature that resembled a snail, I asked Sen, a fellow teacher, who was sitting next to me what it was, but she didn’t know the English name, but she did manage to get me to try a bite… it was like a scallop but more salty and much more chewy… I probably would not order a plate of them, but I didn’t gag so that was a victory in itself ( Joseph didn’t try it!)

We met at 11:30 and didn’t leave till 1:30… and we ate the whole time… it was fabulous… the Koreans can really put away some food… Maybe it was because the place
was rumored to be expensive so they wanted to get their money’s worth… but Joseph and I were happy to simply take advantage of the Mexican station! Thankfully Grace paid for this extravaganza, another example of Korean Kindness and we all walked back to school.

Walking back to the school with a full tummy and a morning full of conversation and good times, I looked on at the crowd of Koreans walking and talking their way across the Big crosswalk and felt totally at ease. Sen, a new teacher like Joseph and I, who is so sweet, Sera, who works part time but is very knowledgeable, Grace our director who is full of life and very animated with her English, Jenny who is quiet, but very smart and graceful, Krystal, who is the receptionist and doesn’t speak much English but always has a smile and a sucker for Joseph and I in the afternoons, and the only Korean man, Daniel, our Manager who has helps us with the thermostat, washer and pretty much anything else we needed out of his own spare time and the goodness of his heart.

This is a group of people I can’t imagine not knowing. They are all so kind and in only a few short weeks have enabled Joseph and I to do so much more with their help, reassurance and occasional Korean Hangul lesson.
As Joseph and I linked arms walking back, still seeing new sights as we walk the short two blocks back to the school, I am finally starting to have a sense of home even though I am so far away. Don’t get me wrong, I miss my real family tons, and my friends, and Joseph’s family, and my car and my bed… and the list goes on and on and on, but in the time being I know I must enjoy the Korea that is now my home for the next year ( almost only 11 months). I already know that I will miss this too when I return home.

Beyond Geoje!

Saturday was a momentous day! It marked the beginning of our travels here on Geoje Island. We found the easiest way to get somewhere outside the city fast is to take a taxi. We still have not yet completely figured out the Geoje Bus system, so in order to avoid confusion and possibly spending money on a useless bus ticket we did the second best option… “Taxi!!!!”

Catching a taxi here is about a billion times easier than in the states. In the US, unless you live in NYC or a big city you usually have to call ahead, in Korea they have a wonderful post called a “Taxi Stand”… Yes, right next to the bus stop is the taxi stand… where you stand, and then a taxi will drive up to meet you. You do have to remember to avoid the Black taxis though, because they are the luxury ones and will cost quite a bit more, but the simple boring yellow and white taxis come around more often anyway.

We boarded our first yellow taxi from said taxi stand and said Okpo ( which is really pronounced Og-po…which Joseph knew! Thanks to his Hangul self teaching!) But the driver knew where we wanted to go, and in perfect English said… OK!

Not ten minutes and about 8 dollars later we arrived at said destination. We told him to drop us off at the Admiral Hotel since we knew from the map that was a place that was central and close to the International School. He dropped us off and we said our thank you!

We then headed down a long driveway hill and right in front of us, not ten feet across one street was a mini-mart labeled World Mart. Success!!!!! (we had found out that Okpo is a very big international port of Geoje, so we figured if there was anywhere on this Island that would have some home comforts this would be the place!) We walked around the very mini mini-mart, but didn’t see much except for some British stuff and some Indian stuff… it was cool but we just purchased some “throat candy” aka cough drops. Since I am still coughing a bit and then heading out back to the street…. One block down there was a another place called “foreigners mart”… thinking it was the same thing we almost passed by without a care, but something in the window caught my eye… “ Joseph Look it is the Quaker Oats Guy!!!!”… ahh that beloved childhood icon saved the day… Not only did this store contain Real Cheerios, brands we had heard of and instant oatmeal, it also had some Fiber One bars… Joseph’s Granola bar of choice. And they were fairly cheap!



I am pretty sure he would have bought every last one in the store if I had let him, but we still had tons of Okpo to see and only so much allotted money for our “spendage” and I was not going to leave at 12:30 because Joseph wanted to go home and eat himself into a granola bar induced coma! ( But I can’t blame him as he used to eat one every day in the states and here it is over three weeks later that we finally find a small supply of them) It was a small victory, but a victory none the less!

Okpo for some reason feels very different from Jeong Pyeong ( Our side of Geoje City) it felt bigger, maybe because in three weeks we have walked most of the streets and have seen most of the sights in our neighborhood, but to again feel that lost sensation brought back many feelings from our first few days here, although now we were equipped with knowledge of Hangul and some idea of how to interact with people. It was invigorating… not scary this time.

We spent most of the afternoon just seeing the sights. Okpo is famous for the International School, which we passed, and it is much more foreigner friendly than our tiny neighborhood. Almost immediately we stumbled upon a Quiznos! I had not seen one of those since I worked for the Board of Law Examiners (we had one downstairs, so convenient when you just wanted some hot soup on a rainy day!) But seeing it now in Korea after not seeing a real American restaurant ( because Baskin Robbins and Dunkin Doughnuts don’t count as restaurants…. Really) it was almost like it was too easy. There were tons of foreigner bars too, and Lounges and places that had signs saying “ Foreigners only”… which made me feel not superior but almost embarrassed!

Let me clarify, I know had we been placed in Okpo the first day, it would have been a huge relief, a bit of a “light at the end of the Korean speaking tunnel”, but seeing it now, it seemed so out of place… like it didn’t belong in the tiny fishing village ten minutes up the street. I mean, I thought embracing the culture of Korea was the entire reason for coming to Korea… if I only wanted to see White people or just drink a Budweiser, I would have gone to Ireland or England, or just stayed home! ( the much cheaper option). A nice surprise, but Joseph and I didn’t want to take advantage of those Foreigner Only places… It is meant to build camaraderie between the “foreigners” but really I feel like it may create a void in the relations with Korea. It seems a waste to spend time in Korea in only “Non-korean areas”…. maybe once we have been here 8 months and have a hard week teaching, we will change our tune, but for now, I will savor my Korean time, and try to fully appreciate the beauty in the Okpo Traditional Open Air Fish Market.

It was located at the top of a hill and the market (It was covered) worked it’s way down the hill, to the bottom holding all sorts of homegrown vegetables, choice cuts of meat and fish, live eels swimming in plastic bowls with salt water, immaculately created rice cakes and all sorts of crafts and dishes… it was a bustling place and full of new possibilities at each shop. In fact it was the tiny ajumma lady who smiled at me that made me feel most at home while we inspected her beautiful collection of beans, rice and lentals.

Feeling a bit hungry we stopped at a bakery called Paris Baguette, ( So much westernization!) we bought a small cheesecake with strawberry, A chocolate cream horn thing, a small mini-pizza and a carton of milk. It was so good! Very fresh and tasty, just enough carbo loading to keep us moving for the rest of the afternoon. ( our early breakfast didn’t stick to our ribs as well as the purchased one at the bakery!


After the fish market we just followed the tiny crowded streets, we saw fishing shops, tiny restaurants, mangy dogs running around, Kids walking from school… (Some poor darlings go to school on Saturdays here…not our school thankfully!) We found much to our excitement, A BOOKSTORE…

… unfortunately even though the name of the store was in English it failed to have adequate English books for purchase… In fact I can count on one hand the amount of books for sale that were written in English… yep folks… Five whole books in English for sale… I would have bought one if I had not read all of them already… and what five books was it? You ask…. Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone, Twilight, Phantom of the Opera, To Kill and Mocking Bird and Dead Poets Society… All of them movies, so I am sure when filling out their purchasing order the thought process went something like….”Ohh and they can watch the movie with Korean subtitles!”. Oh well, I heard there was an awesome bookstore in Seoul so maybe when we get up enough nerve to travel there we can pick up a few good reads, and the book Julie & Julia that I bought in the Atlanta Borders is almost finished… ( I have really been enjoying reading a book about a woman who cooks and writes a blog! Maybe I will try something like that when I get back to the states, I like Blogging!)



We also came across what looks to be an interior design store... this is what most of them look like and having a friend in the buisness, I wanted to take a picture to show Amanda what she would have the possiblity of working in, should she for some odd reason ever be transfered to Korea for a while! (probably not... but it would be funny)

And Joseph and I decided we wanted to tell our Director we needed this Bling Sink and toilet combo to bringthing things up in the bathroom! Wonder if it will work?

Next we decided it was too early to eat dinner but our feet were killing us, so we took a short hour break at the PC café we found. It was Atlantis themed! Joseph Approved. I answered a few e-mails to very important people ( Aka Moms! Both mine and Joseph’s!) While Joseph indulged in some Warcraft! After our coupons expired we were both hungry after walking what we figured was probably two or three miles…so we walked back to the main street and decided to chow at the Quiznos. ( It didn’t say foreigners only, and it smelled so good and not spicy) We got a bread bowl with some Country Chicken soup with Cheddar cheese and a Turkey Ranch Guacamole sandwich, we split both…

Delicious Bread Bowl above and Awesome sandwich below!

and much to our surprise what do we see they have to drink… DR. PEPPER… which we have not seen since we got here. I am fine with Pepsi and Coke, but Joseph missed Dr. Pepper, so he bought a few more to take home! ( it was very exciting…trust me)

We decided we still had not had our foreigner friendly fill so on our way to get ice cream I had to stop and get my picture taken with the giant inflateable beer mug in front of one western bar!

Next we went to Baskin Robbins and split a banana split… it was delicious. The Baskin Robbins was very hip, and they sat us down in the window with our dessert. Upon leaving the place one thing we noticed was the freezer next to the exit had a huge variety of ice cream cakes for sale. These were quite possibly the cutest ice cream cakes to ever exist. We didn’t buy one tonight but we decided for our birthdays we might indulge in one. But even if we did I have no idea how to eat something that looks like it just popped up out of a anime television show!



They are so darn cute! not that it would really stop me from eating one... I might feel bad for a minute though!

We then went to a camping store called Redface ( Like Northface stuff actually) that is fairly reasonably priced (unlike Northface) and bought a new backpack, since mine broke, and Joseph’s is two threads away from breaking. When we travel it is nice to be able to bring extra things like jackets and not have to wear them since it can be really hot during the day, but once the sun sets about 5:30 it gets really windy and cold. We figure it will be good so I won’t have to carry a purse, and we can fit more in it anyway. ( And since Joseph looks stupid carrying my purse, now we will be able to trade off)

Feeling sufficiently full and having spent all of our “spendage” ( of course that occured after one quick stop in the World Beer/wine/liquer store...They had one bottle of Malibu so we had to bring it home) we decided we had had enough fun so we hailed a taxi at the wonderful taxi stop and speeded home to Jeong Pyeong. Our driver dropped us off at the Home Plus, and we happily carried our spoils back up the short road to our apartment complex.

Our Spoils!!!

Now we sit here together listening to Billy Joel songs and talking about how much fun we had, and thinking about our future travel plans…We figured we had been here over three weeks. It is hard to believe. But we want to take advantage of our time here, and plan to see all we can see. We only have 11 more months here, which seems like forever now, but I can already feel how fast time can slip though our fingers.

Korean Kindness!

Well it is late friday night, well technically early saturday morning here, and although I already posted once about swine flu, foreigners and Lobsters, I wanted to also take a minute to write about the extreme kindness which Joseph and I have experienced tonight in the short time from leaving school to now, hitting on 2am as we are chilling in an internet cafe.

So first let me just say, I am in love with the the people of Korea!

After School tonight, both of us finally feeling better, we decided to go back to a really delicious Korean BBQ restaurant... nothing like Lexington BBQ, this BBQ involves you sitting at a table with a large flat grill ( more of a gridle) in front of you, and they bring you what looks like giant slabs of bacon, onions in some kind of vinegar, spicy sprouts, Kimchi and lettuce... you cook the bacon and sprouts and kimchi ( along with [ieces of garlic) and then wrap it up in lettuce and enjoy. You basically cook your own food but that way you get it just how you like it!

This was the first restaurant that Joseph and I tried here on the Island and so far it has still remained the best food for the best price, so since this week was a long tiring week and we didn't get to enjoy alot of food (because we were sick) we decided since we both felt well, we should go and have a great meal on friday night and go out and have an evening of fun! Got to start the weekend Right!

As always we got amazing service ( you get your food to cook shortly after you order it here..So fast!!!!Our Waiter was so patient as we tried to order in broke Korean) and while we were waiting for our food to cook, Joseph, being the smarty pants that he is, started to idly pronounce the other items on the menu. We have been studying hangul and he is far surpassing me... but he started to read some of the items, and not loudly either, but the woman at the table next to us heard him slighly mispronouncing his words and corrected him so he could properly say the name of the item we ordered. We then struck up a conversation with the table next to us. The Couple wanted to know where we were from and why we were in Korea... just small talk which ended up in them buying us another round of Hite ( the best Korean beer we have found so far) for us. They tried to get us a shot of Soju, but we were not ready for rice liquor! Just for practicing English with them, and telling them we knew who Obama was and that we were from America and teaching English here in Korea, we got a free drink. But it was not just about a free drink, We kinda bonded in that tiny restaurant near the Harbor... I think they found us different and fascinating... or maybe funny because after the hite we had already had we could not properly use chopsticks anymore... I don't know, but they were so kind. They also allowed us to practice our Korean on them!

Gam-sa-ham-nida is thank you and they didn't laugh when we thanked them for the beer, they just bowed and nodded and said Ayeong Haseyo which is something like "goodbye/go in peace"

Then, the Guy at the checkout counter at the restaurant told us to "take it easy!" in perfect English... haha, very cool.

So after leaving our friends at the restaurant we decided that nothing goes better with Korean BBQ than Family Mart Ice cream, so we headed to our favorite 24 hours store to see what was in the freezer this week. Each store has different ice cream novelties so you never know what you may find. I got a Crunch King Cone, and Joseph opted for some Strawberry filled chocolate crunch bar. Both were very tasty!

And then since we broke a 10,000 won on ice cream and had a bunch of change, we had to play a few vending machines, and as always Joseph didn't dissappoint. On this particular night He had already won a "Korean Cherry" (which is basically like a large lump of cherry fruit snack... they are actually really tasty!) And on the belt was a free movie ticket, all we needed was one more item on the belt to knock it down. Unfortunately we ran out of change, but Joseph has such an uncanny ability to win at the crane games that he sometimes draws a crowd, and tonight was no exception. There were several samsung workers who had joined us, and though they spoke no English and we spoke no Korean, they knew what was at stake, and one of the men offered up some money and made Joseph keep playing until he won! (which he did!) and then would not take the prize he paid for Joseph to win. He just wanted to see someone win and that was it. No greedy undetones, He was just genuinely happy for someone to win something cool out of a crane game...Again it was a good time to Practice our thank yous! Gam-sa-ham-nida!

After saying goodbye to our new Samsung buddies, our lucky evening took another turn up to the pool hall above our PC cafe near our apartment. We had wanted to play Pool for some time so We walked up the stairs and into a smoky room hoping to play a game of pool for an hour, but Korea had other plans for us. Instead of regular pool we find ourselves looking at a Billiard table with two red balls, one orange ball, one white ball and no pockets... we had no clue what to do... but we didn't want to look stupid and walk out, so we tried to play. Too bad we were no good at pretending we knew what we were doing. The Koreans were not fooled! But the Shining example of Kindness tonight was our new friend who worked at the "pool hall" He took us through the rules using no english, just showing us how to make moves. The only english he spoke was "From?" and we told him America, North Carolina... and he said... "oohhhh Carolina, North? Is beautiful!"

He then stayed with us, helping us through a game and brought us apple juice to drink while he continued to teach us the rules. The game, Which was very complicated, was tons of fun... I was terrible at it, although I think Joseph was pretty good at it by the time we left. Our Pool Hall manger was so patient, but he laughed with us and tried to make us understand even though he didn't have too. We stayed for over an hour with our new friend and thanked him when we decided to go.... and I am pretty sure he didn't charge us for the apple juice...
Again... Gam-sa-Ham-Nida Mr. Pool Hall Man!
So now... here we sit, one floor below about to head home for the night, playing on Blogspot and Warcraft and we are learning more from Korea everyday... not just Hangul, or new billiard games, but a breed of kindness that is hard to come by.
A kindness so overpowering that it goes beyond words or understanding... an unconditional kindness that encompasses you and makes you a better person... Korea is making us better people... I only hope that I can extend that same kindness in return, or at least show properly my graditude and my thankfulness to the kindness of strangers.

Gam-sa-ham-nida and Goodnight!

Foreigners, Swine Flu and Lobsters.

Last saturday Joseph and I trekked across much of the city to end up at a lovely Apartment owned by a cute couple who have been in korea for several years, Candice and Mike were wonderful to open their apartment ( because all foreigners live in apartments) to about 40 english speaking foreigners for a great potluck dinner. Since at the time Joseph and I were relatively new to the cooking in a tiny kitchen thing, we just brought some chips and salsa, because they said they would have tons of drinks and stuff, just bring food, so to us, nothing is a better party snack and the generic mexican chips ( no toastidos here) and salsa ( Made in KOREA!!!! I would have even taken the stuff made in New York City! )

But we found ourselves surrounded by english speakers ready to mingle... some of them had even been on the Island a shorter time than Joseph and I! ( one girl had arrived two days earlier at 2am!) so our two weeks seemed like ages in comparison. We met many very nice people from all over. Tons of Canadians, some fellow southerners, a couple from NY that lives in the same section of the city as us, as well as some Australians, New Zealanders and some South Africans... we all had one thing in common, we came to Korea to teach!

As expected, the vibe was very laid back and jovial. Everyone was sharing stories about bosses and children and miscommunications, but what amazed me was a room full of complete strangers was able to find common ground despite different upbringings, some accent barriers and though it was hard to pull the Canadians away from their Hockey talk, everyone spoke to everyone, and it was fantastic.

We shared a cab home ( since we had walked to the party) with our new friends Willow and Sean. Hopefully we will be seeing them again soon.

Which leads to the next part of the title... Swine flu..., pretty sure we don't have it, but whatever we have has got to be close to it.

It all started friday at school, Joseph started feeling a bit ill. Trying to help him out we just went to dinner and then went home for a quiet evening of reading to prep him for saturdays foreigners party. If he was very sick saturday he didn't show it, and we made it to the party, had a great time and then woke up sunday sick as a dog. ( must have been all that fun, something had to ruin it!)

Then monday, the worst happens, joseph is feeling his worst, and I start feeling sick... isn't that how it goes... tuesday and wednesday are a bit of a blur of teaching classes, coughing and using about two boxes of home plus tissues. It was not pretty.

My wonderful co-worker Sen brought me a korean nose wash thing... I am not good at inahling salt water so it probably would have been more effective if i knew how to properly use it rather than just go at it with sen's broken english direction of ' Breath water in...drip out other hole"

It was interesting though I still think there is some salt water in my sinus cavity ( gross I know) but today is friday and we both are starting to get back to normal... but I learned I am much stronger than I thought I was... and I can ingest cough drops like they are candy when I have to teach each day. I so would have liked to use a sick day, but pride and not wanting to waste it on a head cold prevented me from doing so.

We are doing much better now, and even had our first trip to the pharmacy, i got some sore throat/cough pills that I didn't need a perscription for... it was 3000 won which is about $2.50 in american money.

When have you ever heard of such a thing! I was amazed... services here are very cheap... At restaurants you have a button at your table, so when you push it your table number lights up on a big board and a waiter will come to you. You can then order more food or ask for more drink... whatever you need, and all of this is included in the price of your food... No tipping...

We were asking some of the foreigners at the party ( weird to think of myself as a foreigner) what they did when their car window broke... " Ohh I took it to the mechanic and he fixed it on the spot in an hour for 7000 won and I got to sit and watch tv in a big chair in the waiting room"... 7000 won is less than 7 dollars to fix a broken car window... that would not even cover the parts in the states... forget labor...

It is interesting to me things that I always thought were expensive are very cheap here, but the latter is true as well... Hangers... here...cost... about 3000 won... for 2 hangers... in the states you can get 20 for 10 dollars, here is is about a dollar for each hanger... very expensive. Cleaning products are also very expenisve.. luckily Adam and jennifer left us alot of their half used detergent and dish soap, but it is about 10,000 won to replace each... ( like almost ten bucks for each)... crazy.

Korea is suprising us everyday!

This saturday we are going to go to Okpo ( Pronounced --"O--gdo) which is about 15 minutes away by cab, which will cost us about 6000 won ( cabs here are cheap!) so we may try to meet up with some "foreigners" there or at least look around and try to see new things or find fun new restaurants, I hope Joseph and i both feel well enough to go out tonight since we have been sitting in and eating noodles and PRAISE JESUS!!! they have campbells chicken noodle soup here... I don't even care that I pay twice for it what I would pay in the states... I got some, and I will continue to attribute my feelings of wellness to it!!!

But anway, hopefully some fun cool new pictures will be posted soon! For now you can enjoy the cool real live lobster claw game we found. It is hard to see in the tank but there are real live lobsters walking around, and yous pend 500 won to try and catch one... I won't let Joseph play because I am afraid he might actually win one, but it is fun to watch the Local try. Willow said she saw a guy win one, and he said he was going to take it home and eat it right then! Gotta Love Korea!

There is one in the corner if you look beyond the water on the plexyglass!

Waterfall Day!

We decided last saturday that we wanted to go see the waterfall just outside of Geoje City that we had heard great things about! So we headed down the main road to make our way there, and had to stop a the only open restaurant for lunch. We went to Lotteria... They have another Lotteria in the Home Plus, but it is a fast food place so we figured it would be safe to split something before our big hike! We got a Hangoo Steak Burger, which had Broccoli and cheese on a bulgogi burger patty. It was pretty tasty and we were more than halfway through before I remembered I wanted a picture of it for the blog, so I took a picture of the inside of a Lotteria instead!

We walked about 8 miles that day ( four there and four back) but the sights were beautiful! Korea has busy city areas, but just outside the city it is calm without the constant hum of cars, beeping horns ( koreans love to honk!) and the jumble of people, it was nice to have a quiet day out of the commotion of our busy city streets!

I saw this Huge worm on the way up the big hill to the waterfall, so I put down my pepsi can to show you. I think Bugs here are alot bigger.



I also had to get a picture of this huge spider... I am not zooming at all. I would say this is the actual size. And there was a tree full of them, it was like a plant that grew my worst nightmare. Luckily any bugs we have had in our house have been mini mosquitos, but if I saw this is my bathroom I would probably faint!

When we finally got to the Entrance for the hike to the Waterfall (wait we had to hike to get to the hike... yes... it was a long day of walking, but we got tons of fresh air and my calves look awesome!) There were all these cool rocks, so Joseph being the eagle scout that he is, jumped up on them for a photo op! It was really pretty.

There, far off in the distance is quite possibly the scariest thing I have seen since coming to Korea. I thought it would be like a portable bathroom like in the states... I was wrong. It was just a hole in the ground on stilts... so gross, Joseph had to go so he braved it, but I opened the ladies room and three wasps were flying around so I decided to wait until we found other facilites... the smell was pretty bad, so I doubt would have been able to even go in there.

The hike up the waterfall trail was pretty interesting, they had brick paths and stones you were supposed to walk on to increase circulation in your feet to keep you from being sore. It was hard to walk on them, but we did for a few Kilometers just for kicks!Below is a photograph with me trying to be artsy with the camera, it looks kinda cool though! Maybe I can take a Korean Photography class here. they have so much beautiful scenery here!

Ewwww, another giant Korean Bug!

They had really cool picnic tables scattered along the hiking trail, each one had a number on it so I think you can actually call the park and reserve one, we saw a family eating a bucket of fried chicken on one! Nothing says healthy family fun like a bucket of chicken!

We finally made it to the final bridge and took a few pictures of ourselves to prove we made it to to the top of the waterfall!

You could walk over the bridge or over the rocks, I chose the bridge!

Me and the waterfall, (it had not rained much as you can tell!)

Just the waterfall!

Joseph and the waterfall!

We were kidna tired and sweaty so we took a breather on a well situation bench, and pulled out some crackers and bottled water! It was such a nice day, we ended up just chilling there for an hour or so! This park was nothing like Blue Jay, but we definitely want to come back at some point! Me trying to be artsy again...

We were tired that night so we went out, but I did want to show that I do cook at home some! Earlier this week I tried to recreate a recipe that Joseph's mom makes called Chicken Divine. It actually turned out pretty good. We accidently bought sticky rice instead of the regular kind but it was good enough... next time we will let the top brown a bit more, but it was fun to have a piece of home with us after a long school week!

And Joseph wanted me to post a picture of all the cool vending machine stuff he has won over our two weeks here. The pink kitty ( stinky pinky) a remote controlled car that came in a soda can, a cool lighter that has a green flame and a Movie card... we took it to work and asked our co-worker Jenny to translate, and apparently Joseph scored big time, because we can sign up to get 48 free movies over the next year... Apparently You buy one get one free 48 times... so basically once a week we can now go see a movie for the price of one ticket! Glad we won it our first week here! We decided we may let Jenny borrow it a few times when there are no american movies out that we can watch so she can go see Korean ones for free! Or Joseph will win her another card of her own! As long as he keeps winning stuff like that I have no problem with him spending a few won here and there each week!


Don't forget to check out the post about our apartment that I posted earlier tonight ... another two posts in one night! You guys are lucky!

Hope everyone at home is doing well, We miss you guys!

Home Sweet Home

Greetings from Geoje Island!
I have had a few requests for pictures of the apartment... so here you go! It is fairly new, but very small! It is amazing to me that people that live in a country that has the fastest internet in the world can live so simply, and in such a small space. It isn't easy, but we are working out any difficulties and making the best of this apartment situation!

Above is the entry way, you can see we take our shoes off before coming in the house, it gets really dirty really fast so this helps cut down on the sweeping and mopping you have to do. When you have a bigger house it can be a bit dirty and you don't notice, but if your small apt gets dirty you can tell really quick! Our towels were drying off on the chairs, but we were new when these photos were taken, so now we just shove them outside on the drying rack with the rest of the laundry!

We were still moving in and unpacking so that is why my make up is on the kitchen table, but this is our refrigerator and freezer and oven! haha. We can only do so much fresh produce shopping each time we go out, so at least we never over buy and let food go bad. I think right now we have bread, cheese, pepsi ( which is much cheaper than coke here... weird) and some left over pizza in there!

Ahhhh the bathroom... it is literally a shower head attached to the sink... They say you don't waste so much water this way, but I say I end up ruining alot of toilet paper this way when the shower head gets away from you! Right now it is in the storage position, but you can just take it down and wash with it durin a shower. There is just one big drain on the floor under the sink, but the floor is usually still pretty wet most of the time... That has taken alot of getting used to!

Here is the kitchen, we have some food in the cubbords, (we got rice!) since we don't have a real oven, just the one above the freezer, so we use the burners to cook alot of food! Also I do dishes pretty much every day now since we only have two of everything, and if something is dirty, it is easier to clean it right after you eat than just leave it in the sink to set.

Like our cool seventies style wall paper, it is only on one wall for some reason, I guess that is an accent wall, I know my interior design friend Amanda is gonna love this! I didn't get a good picture of it, but we had a big yellow couch on the side wall, but we had a really nice working table/desk on the porch so we moved it inside so we had somewhere to sit and work on the laptop once we get internet! Don't let the comfy blankets fool you, we have a Koreanized bed... it is very very firm.... I really don't like how I wake up after sleeping on my side and my arm is asleep and then I suffer through pins and needles for ten minutes.

This is the desk, as well as part of the drying rack on the back porch! There is a porch that runs the legnth of the apartment, and all our windows open up to it... it is somewhat of a hallway, but it is very common in all Korean style apartments to have it

And on the other end of the porch is the washer! It is in Korean, and totally electronic, so we had to get our friends from work, Daniel and jenny to come over and show us how to use it! We now have clean clothes... but they are air dried, they don't use dryers much here in Korea, which is really hard to get used to... I love warm clean clothes from the dryer, not still line dried jeans that take a day's wear to get soft again! Oh well, we are making a few sacrificies to get this amazing experience, but we will certainly appreciate warm fuzzy towels when we get back to the states!

Since our apartment is so small we try to go out as much as possible during the day! Here is a shot I took when we walked up to the big hill on the other side of the harbor, they have an abundance of beautiful wild flowers here, and since the sun was getting ready to set, this was a great shot!

We then walked over to the Geoje Pleasure Cruise Dock to see people fishing, and just sat on the benches for a bit trying to work on our hangul or telling each other funny stories from that day at work.
Here is a picture up the Boardwalk, it felt almost like being at Long Beach, but the fact that when you looked over the side you could see a motorcycle or scooter covered in barnicles makes you realize this is not a small town on the coast, it is a big city! Korea is kinda dirty sometimes. For a country as advanced in technology it would not hurt them to put a trash can out in public places, but Koreans are still very neat, if one person leaves a cup, then more and more people will put trash in the same place so there is just a small junk pile that builds up until whoever owns the area cleans it up!


I told Joseph he could have this scooter if he really wanted one!

We then stopped at a small grocery store and bought drinks, It is in Korean, but you can still tell what it is by the label. We got a pepsi and a orange fanta!

They are really into indoor golf here, we hiked up this hill to get a better look and this place had people on the roof shooting golf balls into this big green net, this place was also a hostel ( like a hotel for poor backpackers) and a restaurant. But we had other plans for dinner that day!

We decided to go the only self-declared western restaurant on the Island, it had been about two weeks since we had any mexican food, and On the Border was really calling us, so we went to the WA-BAR and had NACHOS!!!! ...kinda

They were spicy, but it was not the typical mexican spice you expect, and this was not ground beef it was technically beef, but it was Bulgogi which is a different cut and part of the cow, and the throw in the fact that you eat them with chopsticks... well the wa bar had good beer, but the nachos ( that cost 17,000) were a bit of a dissappointment. We did discover though, that Korea has a really nice beer called Hite, that is not to bad, and both of us enjoyed a small bottle and they also gave you unlimited rice crunchy things, so we pigged out on those!

Chopsticks and Nachos... who knew!