Take me out to the ballgame.

Last week the first and second years got to go away for a few days to play. I think they went to a water park. The third years had to stay and study, but, despite there still being kids at the school, Jeremy didn't have to teach. He doesn't have any third year classes. When he doesn't have classes, he still has to be at school 9-5, but there is no planning or any real work. He gets a lot of reading done on those days. We went to the school just as they were headed off and there were 7 busses packed with very excited teenagers all in matching jerseys. They all work so hard, it must blow their minds to get some days off once in a while.
Friday was the last full day for this round of student teachers, so with most of the kids gone, they got the day to play too. They invited Jeremy and me to play games with them. I dreaded the thought of playing dodgeball or something like that, but when we got there they were playing a game of t-ball. After a quick game of rock-paper-scissors (the traditional way to make any decisions in Korea) we were assigned to teams and the game was on. One of the girls explained to me that we had to play hard because the losing team had to buy icecream for the winning team - high stakes. It was super hot and Jeremy and I totally roasted in the sun getting a burnt nose each and a little bit of nausea from the heat, but we had fun anyway. Most of the girls were terrible at t-ball, but everyone was good natured and people who were struggling got second tries and no one made fun. My team had a very big comeback to tie the game and we held them off for the last inning; no one got icecream. Then a third year PE class came out and challenged us to a game. Jeremy and I were both picked to be on the "all-star" team to play them and we both lived up to the responsibility with some good hits to the outfield. All said and done, it was a great day.

You say to-mae-to, I'll say to-ma-to.

Yesterday I went for lunch with my new friend, Staci. She is very nice and we had a very good time. She is eager to practice her English and even more eager to help me with my Korean. She says that she has to sweat over her speaking now, but soon she will make our conversations all in Korean and then it will be me who has to sweat. I don't think it will be soon, but I look forward to a day when I can converse in a new language, even if only conversing like a child. Some Korean words are easier to learn then others, for example, tomato is tomato with a slight Korean accent on it. I like words like that. Jeremy and I sometimes try to get away with only speaking English by putting a "u" on the end of words and hoping someone understands. When we were shopping for camp cookware it was easy enough to find a gas stove, it was gasu burner. I'm really bad at getting pronunciation. I find that their b's and p's sound the same often and their g's and c's and ch's. Staci spells things out for me and it helps a lot. That is why I am trying to learn the characters for the language, then it won't have to be translated to English spelling.

Just when you thought you were ripped off.

Last night Jeremy and I didn't get around to dinner until we were so hungry that we both felt sick, so instead of cooking we decided to go out for jajang. Jajang is a sort of Chinese-Korean food unlike any Chinese food I've ever had in Canada. It is a big bowl of wheat noodles with a thick dark brown sauce that I think is made of black soybeans. At the restaurant we go to it has peas, onions and some type of meat in it. It is really really tasty. As side dishes our restaurant serves raw white onions that you dip in a black paste, kimchi (of course) and the most delicious mondoo (Korean dumplings) that are baked not boiled. Mr Che says baking them like that makes them Japanese style, but whatever style they are, they are to die for. Anyway, this wasn't meant to be a drool over delicious food post. When we paid for our meal, we were charged 10,000 won, but usually it is only 7000. We assumed they must have charged us for our mondoo. That annoyed us especially because we only get 4 of them and usually we get 6. So to go from 6 free mondoo to 4 mondoo that we had to pay for was more then a little lame. We didn't feel like arguing the point so we just left. As we walked away we discussed being ripped off and that it would be a while before we returned. Then a scooter started to come up behind us and Jeremy said "it's probably them going to give us our change". I laughed, but sure enough the guy that served us our food (not the guy who charged us for it) drove up to us and handed us 3000 won, with many apologies! Very cool. We will definitely be going back for jajang again soon.

Summer tastes.

Last night for desert we decided to get some fruit from the truck that parks outside of our building sometimes. However, the store we get icecream at just got a new shipment that included a few cone icecreams with a chocolate wafer in the middle. They are particularly delicious and I was scared they were going to sell out before we got our greedy little hands on them. So we decided to go get two icecreams and store them in the freezer when we went out to get melons from the truck. When we got into the store we were hit with something unexpected. The smell of plums. The man that works there was setting up a display of plums that had just come in. In the heat the smell hung sweet and intoxicating in the air. We bought them instead of melons from the truck. As Jeremy said, "melons are ubiquitous" and it isn't often we are knocked off our feet by the smell of summer direct from the flesh of ripe fruit.I'm glad we made the icecream trip last night, otherwise I would not have plum juice running down my arms today.

Froggy went a courtin

Last night when Jeremy and I were walking home from ordering at our favourite chicken restaurant, he got startled by something on the sidewalk. With the amount of garbage that is thrown onto the ground here, I immediately assumed he had stepped in something squishy or sticky. But then he reached down to grab something. His first try was a miss and so was his second or third. What he was trying to pick up was the tiniest, cutest, greenest frog I have ever seen. It was about the size of a nickel and was apple green and absolutely perfect. Finally he snatched it up off the pavement. In our excitement over being able to save the frog from almost certain death on the busy road, we ran around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to find the best place to put him. Finally we settled on one of the rice paddies in the area. We walked down to one and Jeremy let the little guy go into the water. It took two quick kicks and he made it to the closest patch of rice and climbed up. Once he was clinging to the rice he blended in almost perfectly. Even looking right at him and knowing he was there it was hard to see him. Camouflage is very cool. That was the second frog I have seen since I have been here. At night the rice paddies are deafening with their croaks so we know they are there. Seeing how well that frog was adapted to his environment it was no wonder we don't see them more often.
Way to go Jer. Saving a frog is your good deed for the day.

Mallipo pictures!!!

I finally got around to looking at and going through all the pictures from our weekend trip. Waiting at the bus station. We had to transfer busses about a bazillion times to get there, making a short trip in distance a long trip in time.
At the beach!!!!!We walked out to the rocks and the view was to die for. It was also fun to see all the fishermen out trying to make the kill of the century. Note to Dad: there is lots of fishing here!!!!
The tide went out super far and the wind and rain made it feel a little Westcoasty... if you ignored the humidity that is even apparent when it is pissing rain.
We went to the next town over (less than a half hour walk). It was called Chollipo. The beach there wasn't as nice, but there were lots of fishing boats and people digging around in the sand looking for tasty treats.Watching the mist rise was really incredible.Here is Jeremy taking advantage of the fantistic sun!!! We felt like we had gotten away with murder after that nasty forcast!The sun here is so different then the sun at home. Sometimes it is hard to believe it is the same sun. I have never seen it nearly as round or as red in Canada as I have in Asia.Here is the half-abandoned fair ground, and the one ride that is still up and running.We never actually saw anyone play these games. They added to the creepy feel that was definately present in this town.