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.

Long weekend at Mallipo Beach.

Monday was a school holiday in South Korea this week, so with our long weekend Jeremy and I decided to go on a trip. We chose to go to Mallipo Beach which is in the Taean Coast National Marine Park on the West coast of the country.
When we got up on Saturday it was pissing rain here in Miho and the forecast for the area we were headed called for rain all weekend. We have yet to buy any rain gear despite the oncoming rainy season, so we debated about whether or not it was worth going to the beach if it was going to be raining. Finally the decision was that if we are from the West coast of BC then we are pretty pathetic if we can't handle some ocean rain and we packed some warmer clothes then we originally intended and headed out the door.
What a beautiful place!
The town itself leaves something to be desired, but at least it was unlike any place we had ever been. Along the water is a street lined with seafood restaurants on one side. They eat all the seafood that we don't in Canada, so the tanks to showcase the possible meals were filled with crazy shaped shells, eels, sea cucumbers, rays, weird looking rock fish and flat bottom fish with their faces sideways and skewed. We didn't end up eating any of it, however, because Jeremy isn't the hugest fan of seafood and after we had a bad experience at our first restaurant with just feeling unwanted, we decided to save some money and have some fun and cooked the remainder of our meals in our room. Besides the bustling main street, the town had a kind of deserted ghost-town feel to it. There were lots of empty lots and abandoned buildings with hotels scattered randomly throughout. To add to the ghost-town feel was a small amusement park that was mostly abandoned and broken down. One ride was still running and that was a huge swinging boat that amounted in lots of screams from the few people who rode on it. Even that ride was looking rough though, it's sign that once said "Viking" now had "Viki" lit up in fading red lights. During the day it was all quite amusing, but Jer and I went to check it out at night and it gave me the creeps.
It turns out that there was an oil spill in the area in 2007 and we assume that this is the cause of this state of abandonment in Mallipo. They had pictures of the cleanup. There were so many people there working together to clean up the spill. It made me cry, of course, and Jeremy commented that it is clear that BP was not in charge of this one. Way to go Korea on getting it done so fast and so well!!!
Mallipo beach is really beautiful and because we were there on a semi-rainy weekend and not during peak season, it was not very crowded either. It's over 3km of sand with great rocky areas at either end. There are also some cool pine forests to walk through. The pine trees here are really cool. All the needles point upwards and the branches start high up, making them distinctly Asian compared to what I'm used to. The tide there goes out really far and the beach opens up and feels almost as wide as it is long. When the tide was really far out Jeremy and I walked along the rocks that were exposed and saw some really great rock cliffs with layers upon layers of pink, white and all shades of beige rock. The tidal pools didn't have much life to poke at, but they had plant life that was the most amazing pastel turquoise and lavender. Finally Saturday evening it rained as was promised and we strolled along the beach getting soaked head to toe.
That night Jeremy and I passed out early from a day of traveling and exploring only to be woken up by the distinct sound of the shouts of the Reds!!! Thank goodness the soccer fans are so loud or we would have missed the game. We sprung out bed after missing the first 10 minutes of the soccer game and the first goal against South Korea. The rest of the game was really fun to watch. South Korea dominated the play. They played like the deserved to move on to the top 8, but, unfortunately, they didn't score like the deserved it. I'm not sure if it is better to lose playing the best you could and knowing you were the better team or to lose to a team that outplayed you. Whatever way is the easier way to lose, it was pretty sad to watch Uruguay jumping up and down celebrating a win that they didn't deserve. So much for that soccer season.
Sunday started off cold and shrouded in mist so dense that you couldn't see the other end of the beach. Jeremy and I walked out to an island that was connected to the mainland during low tide. It was really cool and we got to watch people diving for shellfish and listen to them calling to each other across the still sea, their voices echoing against the rocks. When we walked back off the island the tide was moving in faster then we had anticipated and what had been a large bridge of land connecting island to beach was then a thin strip of jagged rocks. We were lucky to have not decided to stay another half hour or so on the island because when we watched fishermen coming back to shore after us, they had to struggle pretty badly to make the gap.
We sat and watched the mist lift and as the sun poked through the clouds the air became instantly hot and what was supposed to be a rainy Sunday turned into a sunny, beautiful day. We spent the better part of the afternoon lounging in the sun, reading, playing frisbee, wading in the ice cold water. By dinner time most of the tourists had headed home and by sunset the beach was almost empty. As the night grew dark the virtually empty streets of Mallipo really did feel like a ghost-town.

I'll post pictures when I get around to going through them. Right now, however, I have to do my homework.

The shouts of the reds!

The big news of today is that last night, well at 3:oo this morning, South Korea played Nigeria in their last game of round-robin at the World Cup. Jeremy wanted to get up and watch it, but I informed him that because we don't even actually like soccer, that was going too far. So we looked up the highlights when we woke up this morning. The game was a draw 2-2, but SOUTH KOREA IS MOVING ON! We (I like being the "we" fans of sports) are moving on to play Uruguay in the next round. They play Saturday and I am very excited! The country of South Korea is completely mad with soccer fever and I am more than happy to be a part of that. We will probably go downtown to watch the game. Some new friends have promised to take us out if we made it to the next round.

The Red Devils (Korean soccer fans) take this very seriously!


This is the official song of the World Cup... hard to imagine I'm already sick of it! Go Korea Go!!!

Here it goes!

Eva suggested that instead of writing emails I start writing them in blog form. This is a good idea for a bunch of reasons. The first is that I can easily attach pictures and, as Eva so cheekily said, that will save me a thousand words with each one. The second is that more people can read my blog; whoever wants to keep updated on me can and whoever doesn't can just not read it and I won't be offended.

So here it is, a blog of my time in Korea.