A TRAM! And The North Seoul Tower

Our adventure into Seoul today began with an aerial tramway!

I was itching with excitement.

This bad boy has a capacity of 48 people, it travels at about 6 meters per second and passes over two tower, sounds familiar, eh? The tragic part is that the tram operators only shut the doors and pressed the buttons -no speech!

Still.

I pushed Michelle to the best spot and we got a sick view on the way up.

When we got to the top there was a stampede of people heading to the viewing tower. We were heading up at the perfect time. It was sort of late evening and we got to the top of the tower at setting of the sun. The shadows cast by the buildings showed a clear view and the light turned the Han river gold.

It always looks better in real life.

We also look better in real life.

We stayed up while sipping a cup of hot chocolate while the sun went down so we could marvel at the city lights. It was worth it. Even though this screaming bratty kid who headbutted Michelle in line kept showing up to punch something.

We were, like, lined up for photo taking.

After we went down on the cable car we wondered around and found a really good restaurant where Michelle had her first-ever bread bowl and I got the Japanese cutlet I was craving.

Food coma.

Rogue One and Raccoon Reunion

After a big day of walking around the world's most heavily defended border we opted for an easy day today.

It has snowed the night before so we walked to the movie theatre to see if we could get tickets to the new Star Wars movie. What luck! There was one starting in a minute. There wasn't much negotiation with the lady at the ticket booth who had us selecting our seat right away.

The ticket office is on the 4th floor and the theatres are on the 7th. So we really had to hurry if we wanted to see any ads.

It was opening day and there were six people in the theatre, including us.

After the movie we walked over to the pet cafe for the evening. We got in just befor six and stayed until just after eight. I discovered that evening seem to be the ideal time to go since there are so few people there. I was also impressed that the lady remembered us from last time and asked for our point card!

Oh, there was a whole whippet family there.

Michelle held both the meercats at once.

We met up with the raccoons again.

This whippet remembered me and this white dog loved both of us because we would play fetch with him.

The meercat also cuddle the white dog.

I feel as though the hounds know that I am a hound person.

Awesome day.

Demilitarized Zone

It's all been building to this, the DMZ.

Michelle and I are a couple of politics-loving history-interested travellers and this tour was a total feast for our minds.

After our complementary breakfast I went to checkout while Michelle found our tour guide in the lobby. He was a former Colonel for the Republic of Korea (better known as South Korea) who would be taking us to the DMZ in his own -quite classy- car.

WE hit some traffic on the way up, which was no worry since he was giving us a background information on the progression of the Korean War.

If you are familiar with the Korean War you can scroll to the next part written in bold, if not you can read my own quick briefing of it.

It was the end of World War II and Japan was having to return what treasures it had taken around the Pacific. Finally, after ages of occupations and wars Korea was looking as through it could finally have its freedom.

The South had been liberated by the American forces and the North was liberated by the Soviet Union and China. A bit unsure of how to continue from this point, two Koreas proclaimed independence. First in the South claiming Seoul as the capital, and one in the North claiming Pyongyang as the capital -but both caliming all of Korea.

Kim Il-Sung called up his buddy Stalin looking for some support for caliming the entirely of his version of Korea. But Stalin was actually pretty reluctant because of the American presence in the South and the whole thing with them having atomic bombs. When the US forces left, as they sometimes do, this was the perfect moment for the North to invade the South. Stalin changed his mind, since now he too developed an atomic bomb, and Mao got on board since they were gonna be one big happy communist family.

Then there was this push and pull sort of movement. The North invaded straight down leaving only a small part at the very Southwestern tip, near Busan, to be left in South Korean hands. Then the UN got involved. US and allied forces took Seoul from the sea in a very risky maneuver and pushed back up North to the 38th parallel. From there there was this big question about, "Woah, do we continue? Isn't that kind of invading another country?" But the Koreans fighting for the South were believed to go even without orders to since they see themselves as part of a unified Korea.

So everyone kept going right up to the far reaches of North Korea.

Then with a wave of poorly armed soldiers from China, they pushed back down. Lost Seoul again. Push and pull, push and pull.

But the worst was at the end. Both sides knew that a two states solution was coming with whatever peace agreement would be drawn up. The border would be where each side met in battle, so they fought with whatever they had just to gain a little more ground for where the border would be drawn. Now that border is the center line (the demarcation line).

Now back to us in the car. We arrived at a park, actually a kind of amusement park. The position was intended to give families something fun to do while they went to see the DMZ.

There's four lines to the DMZ. The centeral demarcation line, the Northern limit line (which should be 2 km North of the demarcation line), the Southern limit line (which should be obvious), and the civilian control line. This last one is interesting. South Koreans can exactly press their faces up against the fence of the Southern limit line to peer into the DMZ (and chance are they can't cross that Southern limit line at all). The civilian control area may have part where people are restricted from entering, must show passports, or are advised they can't take photos.

This is where regular old South Korea meets the civilian control line. First, on the civilian side, we entered an old bunker where we watched a film that gave a very interesting interpretation of the DMZ...

Me and our tour guide in the bunker.

...a nature preserve. Since most of that land isn't getting much use anyways, the land has been left for wildlife to flourish. Not exactly the first thing that comes to mind whe I think of the DMZ, but then when we saw all the deer just roaming freely -it kind of makes sense. 

Like, if wild animals had their own lobby group in South Korea, I feel as through they would be firmily against reunification.

We entered in the control area, without flashing any passports. Although our guide did say something (not hello) to the border guard. We walked along the old bridge site for the railway connecting Korea. If there was a symbol for reunification in Korea I feel as though it should be the train. This sad bridge was torn apart, along with any dreams of boarding a train in Seoul and riding to Paris.

IR-geeks geeking over IR-stuff.

Next we moved toward a more militarized site on a so called 'de'militarized border. Keep reading to find out why that title doesn't really work anymore...

Again we passed into the civilian controled area. This time we had to show passports, and we got a military escort (we have a picture with him). Our tour guide definitely knew the drill here and seemed almost amused by the escort. We pulled the car over right next to the fence which is actually built up on a tank-proof wall.From there you can see right into the DMZ and a suspicious number of miliatry installations.

We walked along the border, waving hello at the soldiers occupying stations at the guard towers. Our tour guide always introucing us as Swedish and Canadian. We did serious win the lottery on favourable nationalities for travelling.

We walked right to a central looking out station manned by a couple of military personel who gave us a full breifing over a light up map -all translated by our tour guide. The installations we had seen were first put in between the Northern limit line and the demarcation line by the North Koreans. The agreement prohibited building within the DMZ but they straight-up broke that rule. In response South Korea first got permission from the UN then built some really nice towers to mirror the towers the North Korean forces had put int (which appeared as concrete-lemonade stands).

And just like that, the Demilitarized Zone became militarized. 

Infact we couldn't take any photos from this location in the direction of the DMZ, but here's one we took looking South where life carries on as normal.

Ta-dah.

Next we moved on the famous site were a group of 31 North Koreans infilitrated the Southern Limit Line through a hole cut in the fence along the post. Like so...

It seems simple, but it took ages for anyone to find the hole.

The group invaded in the winter so they could walk across any rivers, and they used blankets as to not make marks in the snow. They travelled along the mountain ridges as to not get caught.

However they did encounter a group of wood cutters in the forests. They had changed their uniforms to South Korean uniforms in order to go by unnoticed. So they asked the woodcutters for directions, contemplated killing them afterwards, but ulimately let them go. The woodcutters found their accents suspicious and reported them to the police.

By the time they were near Seoul they were confronted by the police and claimed they were sent to protect the president. Again hearing their accents the police move in but they ignited bombs killing one officer and explodinga bus nearby. Only two weren't killed. One was reformed and is now a pastor at a South Korean church. The other, somehow, made it back to North Korea where he is a general.

They made it only 700m from the Blue House -where the president they were sent to assassinate lives.

Here we are beating up a North Korean spy with our military escort in the background.

He probably does this all the time.

After leaving the site we moved on to a restaurant in a heavily militarized nearby town. The tour description had said the the BBQ'd duck we would have is a North Korean speciality, but when I asked our guide responded with "How can it be? They have no ducks."

The South Korean duck was pretty yummy though. Both Michelle and I ate way too much. Michelle usually has a stomach the size of a coin purse but she ate a lot. What could I say? It was good duck.

Our last stop on the border wasa pretty cool one. This viewing tower was dedicated to the idea of reunifying Korea. 

First we were just in time to watch a video explaining the specific site we were over looking. This is where the rivers meet and on the opposite side is a North Korean village. The documentary explained different parts of the village such as the communal thresher, the non-paved roads, and a building for the glorification of their leader -a proganda hall. Using the binoculars you could easily see people in the town. Most were walking, one or two on bikes. 

I was most fascinated that South Korea uses a very developed speaker system to boardcast across the border into North Korea. For awhile they believed that maybe they could not hear -since South Koreans could hardly understand the blur of noise coming from the North Korean speakers- but now they have noticed if the weather report forcasts rain you can watch the North Korean people in that village bringing their laundry inside.

So what do they broadcast? I heard they blast K-pop, which is tru in a sense. They just play radio, regular South Korean radio. No messages of truth or propaganda, just normal radio. I figure over time it must develop some sense of trust between them -here's hoping those weather reports are accurate. But also, know your audience, 65% of the people in that village are connected to the North Korean military. On second thought, maybe they are the perfect audience.

Reunification. For the South Korean people, this is how it is done, through the transfer of information. As much as the North Korean regime giggled with joy over the impechment of President Park Geun Hye the feedback from their boardcast of the protests in Seoul was not as they had hoped. Instead of laughing over how democracy was failing in South Korea they were asking where all these screens and big buiding had come from -this was not how the proganda had told them Seoul would look. Then they are better poised to question reality.

My prediction in that the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang could be the start of reunification. North Korea probably would want to miss out on an opportunity to win medals, so they would have to send their athletes into South Korea. South Korea has been the vulnerable yet warm-hearted one, they will happily allow in North Korean athletes. Then, South Korea better put on a good show so that those North Korean athletes may go home and spread stories of what South Korea actually is.

Here is Niki and Michelle with the small North Korean village in the background.

 

That's it, just behind my tuque.

And when I had said that thing about reunification and the train, here it is. If any South Koreans are opposed to reunification (and some are) everyone seems to be keen on this idea.

South Korea is actually standing by ready to construct this thing at amoments notice.

The tour guide then showed us a full room experience designed to give you a feel for what a reunified Korea would look like. Driving from Seoul, seeing all the mjor cities.

Next we had a long long ride back into Seoul. Strangely we followed the Southern limit line, with its barbed wire fence, most of the way. Then before going into Seoul they even have some more defense systems against tanks coming by road into the city!

They are so prepared.

We then went to the War Memorial, which I had visited before and written about before. But this time our tour guide focused a bit on showing us the contributions from our countries.

Michelle is a rare moment of nationalistic pride.

Sweden contributed oughly 1,700  medical service professionals, and after the war ended up starting up South Korea main medical authority for public healthcare. 

Canada contibuted 26,000 soldiers and they were responsible for four major battles around Seoul. The uniforms were displayed around the museum.

It is impossible to think of this war without allies. If they were left to their own devices North Korea would not have had the weaponry for the intial invasion. But if the US-allied forces hadn't stepped in then there would be no South Korea at all.

It was a fascinating history. I actually have so much more I would like to write, but hardly the time for it.

We stopped by a market on the way home to buy some postcards and nibbles.

Incredible day.

Sugar Gliders, Haneul Park, and A Massive Bowl

We packed our bags in the morning nd took off for Seoul. We didn't want to go straight to the hotel (DMZ tour the next day) so we tracked down the cafe in Seoul that has the sugar gliders.

It's called The Galapagos. A fitting name since it is also home to some giant tortoises that roam around the cafe dragging chairs and tables with them.

I got a candy bar smoothie which had basically Pop Rocks in it. Michelle's reaction was unforgettable, she had never experienced popping candies before.

We got called up to feed and pet the gliders. It was so exciting. You really have to pinch the mandarin orange or their tiny hands will just take it.

Such cuteness, all in one place.

Michelle earned some seriosu traveller points. Two ladies came in while we were feeding seeds to the gliders and Michelle did the polite thing and offered her some of her seeds. Then after the gliders, half the cafe watched in fascination as one of the tortoises got stuck under a table nearly toppling it over before Michelle rescued it. The woman who came in later immediately asked if she had been here before, since she seemed so knowledgable. Then was really surprised to hear that Michelle was only travelling through Korea.

We left the cafe in Hongdae and took the train to Haneul Park (the garbaege dump turned beautiful park). Except this time it was insanely cold.

Two good looking icicles.

Then we took the train to the stop nearest to the hotel. Can you spot the hotel?

There were light-up fireworks going off.

We got some fried chicken, checked into the hotel, and woah, it was nice. I mean, you can be a human sized ramen noodle in this bowl-bath.

Of course it takes along time to fill.

Next day, DMZ

That Boxing Day Where I Worked

This work-week is one day. Just Monday, and just everyone carrying on as normal.

The highlight of this day still had to be with my older elementary class. They were working on Posters last class and they all did an amaing job. The assignment was just to make a title page from a folktale, but they all actually wrote folk tales.

So, we have four students, and one teacher, in the class, here are the short versions of our stories:

1. Why Kangaroo Has A Pouch
Kangaroo used to be a rabbit. She was always losing her babies so one night a bear came an gave her a pouch to keep them in so she would no lose them.

2. Why Bear is Brown
Bear used to be white. He was bragging that he was the biggest thing in the forest. Squirrels said, "No, trees are bigger". So Bear planted himself in the ground to grow like a tree, but it only turned his fur brown.

3. Why The Rabbit Has Long Ears
Rabbit used to have short ears. He always teased the birds that they had big silly looking wings. One night the birds scattered feathers everywhere, even in Rabbit's ears. Those long feathers bacame his ears and now the bird like to tease him about how silly they look.

4. Why Panda is Black and White
Panda used to be a polar bear. He was very smart ans studied often. One day he was coming back from the library and he saw his friends playing with fire. He couldn't resist and he played with it too. But the fire burnt him, and he couldn't wash it off. Now Panda is foolish.

5. Why Fox Has a Fluffy Tail
Fox used to have a hard, boney tail -like a stick. He used to hit other animals with it. But then none of them liked him and he couldn't stay in their shelters during one very cold winter. He stayed in a cave with Spider. Spider was lonely since everyone was scared of her. The two talked all winter and Spider wove Fox a fluffy tail to say thank you, and to keep him warm.

I laminated them and put them up in the hallway. One of the words we learned in the second class was "proud". One student saw me holding them and showing them to the other teachers, he pointed and said "Oh! Teacher is proud!"

Damn right.

Christmas Day!

We started the day by opening our stockings in bed. Michelle-Santa got me some awesome flag stickers and I got her a ton of chocolate.

Our bunch was a full leftover set of last nights dinner.

The morning was lazily spent on playing video games. Then we agreed on a little bike ride and possibily a trip back to the pet cafe.

We cycled along the river to the park next to the big Ansan stadium. There were some exhibits about countries in Asia that we looked at. Obviously dreaming of future travel plans. We began to bike back in the direction of the pet cafe and stopped at a Macca's that I had never seen before. Paying tribute to Mick, and all Australians for that matter, we went inside to try out whatever speciality featured on Koreas menu.

Michelle had a bulgogi beef burger, and I had a beef and shrimp burger.

We accidently went into the wrong building while looking for the pet cafe. But weirder still, this building was like the mirror image of the one with the cafe. On the second floor they also had a pet cafe featuring raccoons. How weird is that? Upon further inspection we discovered both cafes were full of people and we will instead go back on a weekday.

We stopped at Diaso on the way home and bought a puzzle. It was a world map in Korean. Our evening was consumed by it and one last meal of leftovers.

Christmas Eve

Michelle is showcasing the reindeer hat I made yesterday.

We aimed to stay home today. We had a pancake breakfast.

We exchanged gifts and Michelle go me POKEMON SUN! I was super excited until we discovered it's region locked to Australia and can't be played on a North American 3DS. So we spent some of the morning trying to work around this. Then we settled on Michelle will get a 3DS in Australia to play it and we'll download the North American version from the e-shop. Unfortunately there wasn't space on the SD card so first Michelle went to the corner store to buy one. Came back after they said they didn't have one. Then she tried Diaso and it felt like South Korea might just not sell SD cards because she check out two otehr places (including an electronics store). Then I went out and check three stores before finding a rinter store that sold me a 16Gb card for 12,000 won -which is actually a pretty good deal.

We watched classic Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and the Swedish Kalle Anka (Donald Duck). We had an early Christmas dinner at like 4 o'clock; pickles for the Swede, gravy for the Canadian, and blueberry Soju because were in Korea.

The last thing we did before going to bed was to hang up our stockings and silently and secretively stuff them with tiny gifts.

All in all and amazing Christmas Eve!

Santa is Here

Today was our big Christmas party day.

For the morning I acted as "Santa's Helper". Since our Santa didn't speak English, I got to talk to the students. "Were you good this year? "What do you want from Santa?" "Here's your present from Santa, what do you say?"

The students were all sitting on the maps in the library watching classic Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. The the screen turned off and only the lights on the Christmas tree are on. The director comes in to say Santa's sleigh will be arriving shortly.

I lead the children in a chant of "Where are you Santa?"

Then the door open and from a cloudof smoke (thanks, fog machine) Santa emerges.

Most of the kids were way to nervous to be able to speak in front of Santa, but everyone got a present. That present was of course bought by their parents, and they didn't actually get to open it yet.

The afternoon classes were expected to carry on as normal, but instead we lined up all our most fun classes into the last two classes of the day. We played dodgeball and then made a craft of little reindeer hats.

The afternoon elementary students and highschool students got one class of learning an one of pizza, bingo and prizes. I must've had aboout four pieces of pizza throughout the afternoon.

I was so proud of my older elementay student class who were working on posters and opted to wait until they were done before starting their pizza -talk about self control!

After work I took my bike to Home Plus to meet Michelle to pick out some food for our Christmas dinner. It turns out that she found a Home Plus closer to home and we were at two different stores. I quickly biked to hers and I'm glad I did -at least now I know it's closer. But most important: the pet shop there had a sugar glider which is one of my most desired pets.

We struggled to find just a ham, and ended up with three of these sorts cube-shaped garlic hams and a bag of mini garlic sausages. We go carrots and mashed potatos, a selection of Korean alcohol and we each bought a few things for the others stocking. I even picked up some beef stock to make some gravy -I do love gravy.

Social Studies Test Day

My Social Studies class is insanely keen for the subject (this is the class formerly known as the democracy, though we do still vote on things). Between classes they ask me about places on the giant world map outside of the teachers room -especially after I gave them country-themed nicknames.

They like to see where their country is on the map.

Today was their monthly test specially for social studies. I was so pleased to hear them giggling and laughing over how easy the questions were. Then it came time for the writing section which really slowed everyone down. They had to think of a couple of ways to help the environment.

One of my star-students got so deep into the writing she wrote right up until the bell rang. Unfortunately she was already out the door by the time I discovered she missed a whole page of multiple choice questions. I  asked the other teachers if we could possibly give her a chance to finish, since I knew she really cared about it.

After much hum-ing and ha-ing they agreed that if she came into tomorrow she would have a chance to finish the page. But it was kind of unlikely since her whole family was getting the flu.

We finished off the day with a sort of company Christmas party. We all went out to a BBQ meat place -even Michelle was invited!

Monthly Test Day!

I actually do love the test days.

The students are pretty well behaved, the room is quiet, and after the test we are free to do games, colouring sheets, or word searches.

For my younger elementary class I printed some Pokemon card templates for them. They all seem to really like Pokemon (our class mascot is a Pikachu), and they got so into making the cards.

My older elementary class played Scrabble after. One student even played the word "exit" on a double word score, connecting the 't' to the word "table" making "tablet" and racking up like 36 points.

So really, after the tests I guess we just do things I love.

순도부 지깨

After work I was feeling for some hot soup.

It been that kind of wet cold lately, and I just really wanted some soup. Unfortunately, Lonsdale Quay's Soupmiester is out of the question.

But thankfully, Korea is teeming with soup restaurants. They are hot pot-style with a hot plate embedded in the centre of the table to keep the soup hot and cooking while you help yourself to small bowls and side dishes.

Michelle and I went to one place rcommended to us by the other foreign teachers.

We had the spicy tofu soup that I had on Saturday (the same soup that had actually stained my favourite shirt the day before). But this soup was crazy spicy. It occured to me that the version I've been served at school is made way more mild for the tongues of children -and me,

It was a good soup, but I kept accidently spilling some water into my bowl.

The side dishes were quite good too. There was some crab, seaweed (kim), noodles, kimchi, lots of tasty things. Always free.

This blog is named after the soup, so if I ever need it I will be able to find it here.

FTAs and Open Class

My older elementary class had their Open Class today -not what I expected.

I've already done one Open Class with my younger elementary class, and that went great. This class has lost a couple of students since I started with them. Now we have four.

The day of, I find out that two of them are not coming, because their families can't make it. For the two that showed up their levels are polar opposites. I think the director sensed this and opted to go for "teams". Our students would be on a team with their families.

But, there was a serious imbalance. One of the students has a father who is an English teacher, thus. Wow. It was hard to watch.

I felt a low of sympathy for the other student.

Later that day I had debate with the highschooler and they were debating, my favourite subject: Free Trade Agreements. We've been talking about them for about two weeks now, and I think a lot of my ideals must've spilled into theirs.

I started with a class of economic nationalists saying that they would only buy Korean products and they're not interested in FTAs. Now we went into the debate with a heavy defense for the value of FTAs. I must've pushed them too hard to my side, haha.

I had to Oppose, along with the student who lost rock-paper-scissors, and talk about how bad FTAs are. I tried, but my heart wasn't in it.

Most importantly, I was impressed by their questions and answers.

One unique question looked at how pork was cheaper than beef and if consumers want affordabe pork we need to end tariffs from beef-exporting countries. This is because, of course, we always talk about food in this class. But then we started talking about poor meat standards in other countries, and the time Korea imported American beef during the whole mad cow thing. Yeah, the debate got intense. It was the first time I had to moderate the speaking order, there was a line up of three students all wanting to talk at once (which is REALLY saying something because they are only three students in the class).

It eventually got down to my favourite argument: Strengthened trade relations and economic dependence is a tool for maintaining peace.

Thanks, IR degree.

After-spa: Coffee and Gyeongbokgung

I maybe got five hours of sleep.

Michelle, probably less.

We got up at 6am to go back to the hot baths. It helped with the whole waking up thing. We hatched a plan whle waking up in a 42 degree pool that we would leave, get some coffee, charge my phone, go to the palace, get some lunch and head back home to go to sleep at like 5pm. And we pretty much kept to that schedule.

We took the train to city hall, where I had seens some cool things on a past Seoulmate tour that I wanted to share with Michelle. Seoul is very interesting so early on a Sunday -it's so silent. 

We walked in the direction of the main road (where the protest had been) and I accidently discovered the Canadian Embassy!

I could work here someday!

We eventually found ourselves a nice two story coffee place with comfy seats, heating, and charging ports. OH! And nice drinks of course. We stayed there until the battery got back up to 90%. Then we could move on to our next spot.

Feeling a bit hungry, we split a burger from Korea's McDonalds, Lotteria. This is a delicious meatless burger with a fried cheese patty on a hashbrown. Michell and I are great at sharing thigs, but no one will eat the last piece. It's a battle of politeness, I would bite off half than, Michelle would bite half of my half, this will continue until it bacomes the tiniest crumb left -which no one will touch. But it was so early, no one was there to give us weird looks for it.

We moved along the main road watching remnants of the protest still alive and active. Then on to the place.

I had visited here once before over Chu-seok while the admission was free, I didn't give a second thought to paying as it is such a significant location. 

A man and his family had cheerfully greeted us just after this picture was taken..

..he had a young Korean tour guide and I took the chance and asked him if the tour guide was free, he said yes, and I asked if we could join. He was delighted! He was very excited to meet us and his family from Malaysia invited us to come stay with them (I think he hasa guesthouse), he gave me his card and promised a discount. One of his daughters is studying here, the other is studying in Australia, so we all had a lot ot talk about and the guide was very friendly too! We are so lucky!

After the palace, we were starting to get hungry, and maybe soon, tired. 

Michelle recalled that I had had a dream about Greek food -not my favourite food, but I suddenly had wanted it after this dream. And she insisted that if we were going to Itaewon (the international village of Seoul), we should track down some Greek food. And we did.

We also found lots of other cool restaurants and even a Canadian bar!

Window seat, delicious pita. Awesome.

Then the race was on to get home before falling asleep entirely on the train.

We crashed the second we got in.

Weirder still was waking up just before midnight to make some noodles and discovering none of the water was flowing to the apartment. I found out the next day that a sign had been posted in the elevator about the scheduled shut-off but it was only in Korean. It has been on and off for most of the weekend -so actually this was the perfect weekend to not stay in the apartment!

Time well spent.

Seoulmate: Temple and the City - Gangnam Tour

I'm totally feeling like an honourary Seoulmate right now.

Michelle and I picked up some mundu (dumplings) and took the train to Gangnam. Yup, that's the Gangnam you may have heard in 2012 on the radio -Gangnam Style. It also a trendy suburb of Seoul, hence why it would have some mentionable style.

This was my ninth tour and I was rewarded beautifully. The Seoulmates presented me with a gift back containing a little statue of a Korean horn player (he is sitting on my bookshelf). I love these sort of things.

We checked out a nearby tomb, yet another of Seoul's UNESCO World Heritage sites. This one was wonderfully restored and maintained, but actually housed no bodies. During the Japanese occupation all the tombs were dug up and ruined. What has been restored speaks more to the resilance of the Korean people to maintain their own distinct culture.

We took a cab from there to a Buddhist temple. It houses Korea's largest Buddha statue. We walked around the temple and the Seoulmates filled us in on the history and significance.

If you're thinking that, remember, Buddhism had it first and the Nazi's is different.

Afterwards we went for a meal at the shopping centre across the road. I ordered my favourite soup with some help from a Seoulmate. The English translation was something like "uncurded bean curd soup" even though the Korea called it tofu -it was tofu.

It was getting dark but Michelle was keen to do an overnight at the jjimjilbang -so that's what we did.

We hopped on a train and headed for Dragon Hill. The admission fee covers 12 hours so if you're doing an overnight your checkin time should be the time you are willing to leave. We were too early for 8pm so we went to get some drinks across the road.

The bathhouse itself was quite full.  The absense of decent hot water, or water pressure at all, in my apartment makes the baths even more special. Since I had been there last, the construction on the outdoor pools had finished. It kind of reminded me of our old hot tub back in North Van. The hot water, cold air, and stars above.

Michelle was a natural pro when we went to the sauna -Swedes.

Michelle was not a natural pro at the crowded snore filled sleeping room. Sigh.

Jolly

Michelle and I celebrated the end of the week in the most Korean way possible -drinks.

They call it fire Friday -it's the night you light a fire in your belly I suppose.

We'll we mixed our soju (rice liquor), with out maeju (beer), to create some somaek.

This was all in beautiful preparation for Skyping our family in Australia.

We love you Sarah. Thanks for reading.

New English Speaker Class

My class of new English speakers has been around for roughly a month now. They're grown from 4 students to 6, and they've got a good chunk of vocabulary down pat.

Today's lesson was the concept of same and different.

After introducing shapes, I had a same column and a different column.

Same, circle, circle. Fish, fish. Six, six.

I spoke as I drew the pictures.

Different, circle, triangle. Fish, jelly fish. Six, two.

They picked up the concept and we went around the class compairing things. They even used full sentence answers:

"They are the same!"

"They are different!"

Then the director came in to give them lollipops. As she passed them out the kids held theirs together "They are the same!" Then after unwrapping "They are different!"

I felt like a good english teacher in that moment.

Stories From The Kimbap Shop

After classes I took Michelle to the Kimbap shop, which was shown to me by the previous teachers because of its English menu.

I ordered us way too much food.

We each had an udon soup, a tonkatsu cutlet, coleslaw, and three rolls of kimbap between us.

The owner speaks English and he came up to talk to us. It started with the whole, "where are your from?" business. After Michelle said Sweden he told us how he'd been to Finland, and after I said Canada he told us how he has a trip to Nanaimo coming up where he will be "jumping out of a plane."

Sounds pretty bad ass, but that is actually this guys hobby -he into paragliding and skydiving. It turns out he was pretty high up there in the Korean armed forces and his job included jumping out of planes. He then tld us how he had trained with UN peace keeping forces with was how he wound up in Finland. Pretty crazy.

He then helped us make sense of the news on TV, which was all related to the downfall of Park Geun Hye. I mentioned how Michelle and I both studied politics and why we were so fascinated by this.

It ended up being a great meal even if we finished only just over half what I order.

Next time, we will only get one of those combo meals.

BBQ

The food adventure continues with the celebration of Michelle's birthday in the Swedish timezone. It might be a bit excessive, but we need to make up for lost time.

I brought her cake and coffee in bed

After work we went to one of those Korean BBQ places. I tried to translate the menu using my phone app, but found it was just easier to listen to the waiter -who spoke basic English.

We had some pork and beef, and a ton of side dishes. The sides at this place were more fancy: crab, salmon, the good stuff. Typically we bbq our own meat, but something about two non-korean ladies had waiters buzzing to flip our meat.

The meat was insanely soft too. We ate al the meat, but there was no way we could get throught all the side dishes. It was awesome.

Until I found out I left my bank card in my other pants.

Thankfully Michelle had some cash on her. I'm certain there will be more food adventures to come!

Michelle's Actual Birthday

Michelle came to visit the school this morning. One of the students thought she was my mom.

Then she came at the end of the day to pick me up. One of the students thought she was another teacher.

We went off to buy a nice cake for Michelle's birthday. The bakery we went to had lots of little cakes -but only two of great interest to Michelle. When the lady came over to ask which one we wanted I just had to go with the one that was easier to point at.

We went home to put in in the fridge before going out to get some kyckling (chicken). It was the chicken place below the apartment. Michelle's favorite food is tacos, but Ansan doesn't really have tacos -this was the closest thing I could suggest.

The taco shell is a very thinnly sliced radish. The salsa is a ranch or spicy sauce. Baked, juicy, rotiserie chicken was the filling, along with many fresh cut vegetables.

I think it was a success.

She's probably sick of me taking her photo while she eats.

Next we went home were I lit every candle I had -apparently only 24.

Ansan-Sunday for Michelle's Birthday!

Seeing as Michelle's actual birthday is the Monday where I will be working, we opted to celebrate on the Sunday.

Michelle had seen a video of some french toast style nutella rolls that orning, which inspired us to try to make them for breakfast. They didn't look as pretty but they tasted quite good.

We thought we had slept in, but really it was just an illusion from how hard we had skiied yesterday. In reality we were out the door a little after 10am.

Which does explain why our first stop, one of two pet cafes, was closed. Then the ther was two.

I put a pillow in the trap at the back of the bike that Michelle sat on and I peddled. It worked pretty well, except when there was a big bump. So I was pretty tired by the time we arrived at the arcade!

We played some games where I learned that Michelle is incredibly skilled at smashing buttons, playing air hockey, and shooting baskets. We both suck at claw machine games.

We left to get some lunch. I spotted a 24h pork place. I wasn't confident on what would be open, so this one was guaranteed, I assumed it would be bbq but again, I found it to be hot pot. That being said, some warm soup was exactly what I needed on a chilly clear sky-ed day.

Michelle even ate this hot pepper like it was no big deal.

Okay, so it wasn't spicy at all.

Then we left and got some of these fishy pancakes -5 for 2000 won.

We walked up to the waterfall park, where I can report that it is open, but there is no water flowing yet. We flew back down past the arcade heading towards the one of the pet cafes.

The first one was on the first floor of a main road, and looked really trendy. However it appeared as though people might bring their own dogs into the cafe, because there was only one dog per person.

I whispered to Michelle that we should check the other one too.

And I'm glad we did.

This one was on the second floor off the main road, but wow, what an experience. For one, the girl at the front spoke perfect English. This place was packed with dogs. After we order some drinks, we went in  to meet the dogs.

This whippet, chose me. I sat on the floor and she sat on me.

She wore a beautiful coat on her beautiful coat.

I cautiously wondered over to inspect the cage home to two meercats. The girl saw me watching and took them out for me to hold. Naturally, Michelle came over to share in the meercat love.

He saught protection from Michelle, but he only tried to climb into my mouth.

Next was the raccon room. Usually home to three semi-domesticated raccoons, but one was in time out. Wow, Michelle was a Coon-magnet. They were all over her. Look at the passion.

It may have been because of the scraf and jacket she was wearing but they could even share her and a figh broke out between two of the raccoons. When the girl came in to move one to time out, the coon wouldn't release Michelle. So intsead Michelle transported the raccoon to time out.

We stayed there for about 3 hours.

We went home, and ate our leftover fried chicken. 

The birthday cake will be on Monday, seeing as it is the actual day.

Welli Hilli Ski Resort

Sure enough, waking up before 5am sucked, Like it really sucked. We ate some nutella on bread and ran out the door wearing our snowpants and everything.

We met up with the other teachers and got a taxi to the shuttle pick up area.

There was some confusion there as a buss arrived before the director showed up. We weren't sure if tha was going to the same resort or if we should get on it. It reminded me the purpose behind working  as the shuttle host at Grouse Mountain -people need guidance.

She did arrive and thankfully, that was not our shuttle. Ours was better.

The bus was decked out with recliner style chairs and it was heated to a temperature that is perfect for sleeping. I am so thankful that it was easy to fall asleep of else I would be stuck trying to overcome car sickness from the bumpy roads during the 2 hour and 20 minute journey to Welli Hilli Ski Resort.

Welli Hilli is closer to the East coast of Korea (we are on the West), and it just outside of Pyeongchang (site for the 2018 Winter Olympics). The resort itself is not really visible from the entrance as the hotels block most of the recreation area.

But once inside, it was winter concentrated in one location. The surrounding area was all green except for this resort which had an impressive snow making fleet. They even opened up several runs while we were there.

We started out with the basic run, since it has been a long time for Michelle and me. It turns out it is like riding a bike -you really don't forget much.

Under the director's guidance we took the gondola to the top run. It turns out the only one open was the most difficult on the hill. Which would've been fine, if my bindings weren't acting up.

The before shot.

My ski detached half way down the steepest part. The patrol officer came to put it back on. Again and again and again, everytime telling me it was good.

The patroller asked me where my friend was and I pointed at Michelle. "No," she said. "Korean friend?" "Yes."

She was ordered to return me to the director. Afterwhich, we got me some new skiis from the rental shop.

We breaked for lunch which the director treated us to -black bean noodles, tteokboki, and fried rice.

Michelle and I breaked for hot chocolate a couple times in the afternoon, but mostly we skiied until dusk.

I kept comparing operations to Grouse in my head. The lifties weren't very skilled. The was a massive line up -mostly ski school kids- and there were chairs going up empty or with only 1 or 2 people on them.

I then realised that when I needed help with the bindings and I was escorted by patrol -I was the troublesome guest, it was me!

The day was sealed with a great photo of Michelle and I in this giant heart that the director took. 

So platonic.

Early night!

We ate up the last of our leftovers for dinner on Friday night knowing we would have to be up before 5am in order to get the shuttle to the ski resort.

We kept the night simple, watching a movie and snacking on our leftovers and some snacks from the grocery store.

I even went out  at night and bought a selfie-stick because I wanted to be sure I would have lots of skiing.

We were asleep by 10pm.

Dak Galbi Round Two

I took Michelle to the Dak Galbi restaurant after work to properly celebrate her arrival.

Spontaneously, I ordered some soju for her to try. Which lead to us both getting slightly intoxicated for dinner. This was further confirmed when the waitress brought us forks. Being white is already a sign to them that we might not be great with chopsticks, but apparently being kind of drunk will get you a fork for sure.

We were still to proud to use it.

Michelle insisted she could get back to the apartment without help. Which was true. The restaurnt is on the bottom floor of the apartment, so yeah. Totally achievable.

Michelle Is Here!

I started the day by going to the clinic to check my thumb. The reults were not what I was hoping for.

I was assessed and they thought it was a mass of blood, but the ultrasound show a mass that is either a tumor or a ball of nerve endings. To test this, I had a serious of electrial tests. Sensors were placed in differnt parts of my thumb and I was given electric shocks farther down my hand.

They were pretty painful.

And there was a shock carried by every heart beat, but the pain made my heart beat faster thus causing a rapid series of shocks.

Unfortunately the whole thing ended with me finding out the ultrasounds are not covered by insurance.

The day improved drastically after finishing up with a never-ending test and dashing home to find Michelle in my apartment! We ordered pizza and spaghetti. It's so amazing to have her here -it feels like a dream.

I think that was a fight...

I taught gym class to the first-time-speaking-English class. During a game of capture the flag something seemed off between two of the boys.

Then three of the boys.

It was just aggressive behavior, but then it turned into words -Korean words.

Since I wasn't going to be able to understand them, I went to tell one of the Korean teachers, but the director came back with me as well.

It was like watching a Korean version of Dr. Phil. There was some healing going on, but I still have no idea what the fight was about. There were some tears, I heard a 'mian' or two (sorry). And all was solved.

It must've been draining for the thers since the energy just disappeared after that. That gave us the opportunity to play really simple games on the mat since there was no desire left to run around. Kind of a bummer, but it actually got them speaking more English than previous classes.

Snowpants Scavenger

I brough my bike to school in order to race over to the mall after work to try to buy some snowpants.

The director got a a discount on a shuttle, gear rental, and a days lift pass for this Saturday. However, I have no snowpants, and she has nothing in my size. The other foreign teachers had recommeneded the mall to me for buying snowpamts after they purchased coats from there.

Each level of the mall gave me a little more hope. The first level was like The Bay or Myer, just fancy stuff.

 The next floor had a massive sale on coats, but strangely nothing at all for legs. It was a culture shock moment like shopping for hockey sticks in Brisbane -they just aren't there. I gather people only wear snowpants if their about t go skiing or snowboarding. Not as a part of everyday winter dress.

The next floor confirmed that. I found fleece lined jeans. Look sylish, stay warm. I guess no one wants the bulky pants.

Then the next floor I found some! The price was 285,000 won but marked down to 29,000 won. I don't think I could get used snowpants that cheap in Canada. The best part is that they even fit!

It was a steal. I'm excited for Michelle on Wednesday and skiing on Saturday!

Preparation Sunday

I had a simple Sunday spent preparing for Michelle's arrival on Wednesday.

I cleaned the whole place top to bottom, and only left to buy groceries. Not an exciting day, but definitely a productive one. I have a  lot more stuff than I realised.

I can't wait until she gets here!

(Don't Be Alarmed but) Hospital

Ugh.


There are many other ways I would've liked to have spent this Saturday.

But, this was important.

Instead of going on the Seoulmate tour to the palace, I went instead to the hospital.

I had talked to the director yesterday about something that had been bothering me. Almost two months ago I was washing dishes and a big knife slid off the counter and I instinctually grabbed it. It cut deeply into my thumb. It has long since healed, but there is a hard bump, visibly raised, farther down my thumb that has not gone away and it is causing some pain when writing or carrying things. I thought is was a bit silly to complain, but it is probably best to not ignore these things.

The director was wonderfully understanding and called around to make a game plan.

I'm really emabarassed about what happened.

The hospital takes names at 9, so I went at 8:45 to be early. I found then that they had been open since 8, so I was actually their 20th patient.

The lady at the desk greeted me in English and took my information, and a description of what had happened. She ended by saying  "two", "so come back at two?" She nodded, and I left.

There must've been a misunderstanding since I went home to wait and the director contacted me and said she had spoken to the people at the hospital. I still can't figure out what happened:

1. I book an appointment for something else, something that takes names before 9.

2. She actually asked if I would like an appointment at 2 and I never confirmed and just walked out the door.

Either way. The director rescued me. We went to another hospital where there was no wait.

The doctor saw me instantly. The director came in with me and told me I could speak in English to the doctor. I told him was happened and he saw and felt the difference between my thumbs.

Then they talked for what felt like a really really long time, in Korean. Only just before we left did the director speak in English "Yes, I will tell her."

The doctor had recommended another clinic with x-rays, ultrasounds, and muscle specialists. Ufortunately the director discovery upon calling that clinic that they stop taking names at 1pm. So she plans to book for Tuesday when I have two free blocks.

After the medical stuff we detoured by the stationary store to get somethings for the school.

I wrapped up my day with some chicken. Oh Korea, your medical services are complicated, but your chicken is so delicious.

Science-ing

We finished off the week with a sweet science experiment for the kindergartners. They've been learning about solids, liquids, and gases, and the experiment was fairly relevant -and insanely cool.

It nearly didn't happen though.

The materials needed included white vinegar which is very hard to find. Wheat vinegar is easy to find, but after a very underwhelming volcano experiment we were hesitant to use the fermented vinegar.

To make matters worse, we needed four tea candles, a lighter, and a measuring cup. Once we had identified what we needed, we only had about 30 mins to acquire it or we would have to cancel the experiment. Then it hit me, other than the vinegar, I have all of those things at home. I used the break to rush back to my apartment where I have two lighters, a measuring cup that looks exactly like the one in the picture and exactly 4 tea candles.

When I got back we tested different amounts of vinegar and baking soda to come up with a ratio that would work.

The experiment goes like this, feel free to try it -we were impressed.

Mix 20ml of vinegar with a spoonful of baking soda, let the reaction calm a little (but not too much!!).

Then hold just the edge of the container over each of the tea candles. Without pouring any of the liquid out the flame is put out since the gas given off by the reaction prevents oxygen from feeding the flame. The kids loved it.

There was a bit of a panic when one student believed we didn't have enough candles. She read four tea candles as fourty candles.

Since the experiment itself is so quick there is usually 20-25mins more of class to fill in. We played a guessing game.

"I am a solid. You can find me at the beach."

"I am a liquid. I give cars energy."

"I am a gas. You can see me in the night sky and the day sky."

The Secret Bird

So during my spare classes I was fixing up some of the Christmas decorations when the power when out at our reception desk. At the reception desk there are four computers, three of which were impacted, and the entire set-up for the internet -all lost.

I had visited the fuse box once before but this time was quite different.

There is a sliding bookshelf in the library with a door behind it. Behind that door is a small cooridor leading to a locked room. The room has many windows with slats left open, so it was cold.

After fiddling around I went to close the window and that was when I discovered the bird.

A pigeon flew out from some leftover tubing and couldn't escape out the window.

It's no surprise there's a bird in there, it was cover in feathers and bird droppings.

I suggested to the director that we build a bird house in there. She agreed. Construction of the bird house will probably begin not long after Christmas.

The Exercise Bike Affair

We've been steadily cleanining out the storage room over the past few weeks. I had come across an old exercise bike in there. With future dreams of cycling trips I asked the director if it could be relocated to my apartment. It was taking up space there and would not suit the students anyways. She agreed, but eventually kind of changed her mind. Instead she asked for me to take her exercise bike and she would take the one from the storage room.

All three foreign teachers went home with the director tonight to pick up the exercise bike. We got to meet her cats, dog and rabbit! I felt like her house was Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory but for adorable animals.

Awkwardly the three of us carry the bike through the streets of Ansan at night -getting many strange looks. It is now resting in my living room, parked in front of the TV.

I think my real bike is jealous.