School’s out for summer…

Or at least for the month of March.  Yesterday, Adam and I finished our last day of school. We originally planned on extending our contracts till September, but our school is cutting back on the number of foreign teachers and didn’t need our services any more.  We easily found new teaching jobs in Gwangju that we will start mid April. 

So what do you do in Korea with 5 weeks off?  Get out and TRAVEL!  We leave next Tuesday for Laos and finish the trip with a week in Malaysia.  If you are geographically challenged, like my sister, Laos is landlocked between Thailand, Vietnam, China, and Myanmar.  We have heard amazing things about the country from friends that have traveled there.  We have done some research but are taking the “no plan” plan approach.  I have read that the people and culture are very relaxed; similar to “island time.”  I envision my days to be a little something like this:  eat breakfast, tour a city on bikes, break for lunch (maybe some French food, as they colonized the country), relax on hammocks, then off to dinner; maybe throw in some hikes, temples, waterfalls, a few blog posts, a cooking class, and yoga. We will end our trip with a week on a beach in Malaysia before we head back to Korea.

Below are some pictures from my last day.  It was sad saying goodbye to some of the students, but I am looking forward to our new school.  Change is good.

Pepero Day

Let's rewind to November 11th.  It's Pepero Day!  This special day takes place in Korea every year on 11/11.  It is comparable to our Valentine’s Day, with less sedimental value.  No cards are exchanged, but instead, pepero is given and received.  Pepero is a rather delicious cookie stick dipped in chocolate; very similar to pocky.  There are different variations, from basic to more fancy versions (think caramel and nuts).  It is held on “11/11”, as this date resembles four pepero sticks.  Rumor has it that Lotte (one of the largest Korean retail chains) started the holiday to boost sales of this snack.  Kinda brilliant, for them. Whatever the case, I enjoyed chowing on pepero all day.  I was a bad teacher and didn't buy any for my students; in fact one first grader was mad all class that I didn't hand any out. But many students brought in some for me.  Oink.  Oink.

  

 

Boseong Green Tea Plantation

I have come to terms that I suck at keeping a blog.  I don’t know what it is, but I can’t seem to update it on a regular basis.  Back around the 4^th grade, one of my mother’s many card readers told her that I tend to be lazy.  I am pretty sure that still holds true today.   Anyways, great things have been happening in Korea since I last wrote.  The fall weather was beautiful.  I experienced my first traditional Korean wedding, Pepero day, and celebrated my first Thanksgiving and Christmas away from home.  As the chilly winter weather sweeps in, both Adam and I have been full of holiday cheer and eager to see what and where the New Year will bring us.

I am pretty sure I was experiencing a post-Christmas high on Sunday night; we had an amazing Christmas weekend.  I was nervous about being homesick, but to my surprise I was not.  Leading up to Christmas, many of the retail stores were festively decorated, and I saw my first Korean Santa Claus walking around downtown.  We decorated an area of our apartment with a small tree and hung stockings.  Adam introduced me to Christmas movies that I haven’t seen before: Bad Santa, It’s a Wonderful Life, and A Christmas Story.  Singing Christmas carols with the kindergarteners for the past month also filled me with holiday cheer.  

I have so many things that I could write about, but I am going to focus this post on the Boseong tea plantation that we went to the weekend before Christmas.  It is the largest green tea field in Korea.  Each year they have a light festival during the holiday season.  I read that this festival is meant to send a message of hope for the New Year for those who visit.  It was about an hour away from Gwangju, and we arrived at sun set.  Perfect timing; the view was breath taking!  Once dark, the Christmas lights went on, we walked around, and even got our photo with "Santa."  We stopped in the café and treated ourselves to some green tea and green tea ice cream.  It was delicious and a well needed escape from the cold weather!  Below are some pictures.  I am off the next few days, so I am hoping to catch up on my blog.  Stay tuned.  

hearts to write a New Year wish on...

Tea Time

Lights covering rows of green tea

a very Korean Halloween

Trick or Treat!  My very first Korean Halloween was extremely fun; actually, one of the best.  Many of the foreigners got dressed up on Saturday night, and headed downtown where a few of the bars were having parties.  I would give my costume a C-; F- for originality and B+ for cuteness.  Since Halloween isn’t celebrated in Korea, there were a lack of costumes to choose from.  My original plan was to get a costume when I was home, but I never made it to a store.  So I needed to work with what I had.  I opened my closet and my first thought was a lumberjack (I have a lot of plaid shirts and a trapper hat).   Then my one friend gave me another idea when she called me Poca (I was given this nickname because my Native American inspired wardrobe); and that’s what I went with.  Adam made me felt feathers and painted my face and that’s when I transformed to Poca-kimchi.

Adam’s costume was pretty amazing.  He was Clark Kent.  I got the idea from another friend on facebook, and Adam being the super creative person that he is, made a superman logo that we had sewn to his shirt.  It was great.  When we were out, people would ask him if he was a businessman; he would just pull open his shirt to flash the logo.  Pretty. Funny. 

We also celebrated Halloween at school.  This was the only place most of them celebrated the holiday.  The teachers made a haunted house that we brought the different classes through.  We painted the students faces, they received candy, and went through the haunted house.  Some of the younger kids were soo scared that they cried before they even entered the haunted house.   Some were not scared at all. 

All in all, it was a great holiday.  This upcoming weekend should also be fun.  A group of us are heading to Seoul for a friend’s bachelorette party; should be interesting!

Before I go, I want to say happy birthday to my sister and Billy.  If you didn’t know, they both have the same birthday.  Have fun celebrating!  One more, I want to wish Liam a very happy 1^st birthday!!  Have a great weekend!

And I’m back…

Well hello there my faithful readers.  It’s been a while since I have been inspired to write.  Around month four, living in a foreign country lost its luster, and I also became preoccupied with my sister’s wedding.  BUT after seeing family and friends back home, and their desire to read, I am going to start writing again.

Below is a brief re-cap of the past few months.

Japan- Adam, I, and two of our friends went to Japan for a long weekend.  We visited the cities of Osaka and Kyoto.  Kyoto was my favorite of the two.  It was spared bombing during WWII, and the temples were breathtaking.  Japan deserves its own post that I will get to in the near future. 

Chuseok- The Korean Thanksgiving- A group of us rented a pensione (family-owned guest house) on the beach for a nice relaxing weekend.  We shared a large room, with two bathrooms, a fully equipped kitchen, and a karaoke machine (cha-ching!).  We made delicious meals, slept on mats that were surprisingly comfortable, and had some firework fun on the beach.

My first hike- May not be a big deal to you, but I am not that outdoorsy, soo going on a hike was out of my comfort zone.  Both Adam and I under estimated this trail, and there were times that I wanted to cry. It didn’t help that there were people in their 70s passing me either.  The Koreans love hiking.  I felt accomplished once we completed it, and as typical fatasses, we celebrated by sharing a pizza!

My sister’s wedding-  Ahhhh, what a beautiful day!  Adam and I flew back to Philadelphia for the big day.  My sister looked beyond beautiful and Billy so handsome.  Sounds cheesy, but it was truly a magical day.  I was very happy when my speech was over.  I spoke to the wedding gods and I am officially done giving maid of honor speeches.  The maximum is two, which I so kindly served.  It was great being home, seeing family and friends, and oinking out on delicious food each night.  I thought I would not want to come back to Korea, but surprisingly I was happy. 

 

The big question remains... when will we be coming home?

The truth is, we don't know. Our contract is up mid April, but I think we will be staying a few extra months to save money. Then we will hopefully be traveling the area before we head home for good.

Alright, I think that's enough writing for my first post back. It's Halloween weekend, and I am interested in seeing how Korea handles a bunch of crazy waygooks. 

Busan

I spent last weekend in Busan.  It is Korea's popular beach haven located in the Southeastern part of Korea, and it's about a 3 hour bus ride from Gwangju.  Margaret and I headed down on Friday night.  When we got off the subway, we were greeted by a torrential downpour.  After we found a motel and dried off, we headed downtown.  Our first stop was Eva's, which was basically all westerns.  For the first time, I felt like I was back in Philadelphia: hipsters, chucks, and my first lesbian sighting.  It was a chill venue with a live band playing; nothing special, but they added to the atmosphere.  After that we headed to Thursday Party.  This is where I met my favorite bar snack to date: fried spaghetti.  I am not sure how it is made; I am thinking they put angel hair pasta into a deep fryer and salt it after.  It is super crunchy and salty.  

On Saturday, we headed to Gwangalli Beach where we had brunch.  It was a cloudy/rainy day, but I was happy to actually see one of the beaches.  After that we headed to the world's largest department store: Shinsegae Centum City.  It was 11 floors of pure heaven.  They had EVERYTHING!!!  From Korean clothing brands, to common luxury brands sold back in the states.  They even had a movie theatre on the top floor and a gourmet supermarket in the basement.  There I found a bottle of Kendall Jackson Chardonnay (which is one of my mom's favorites) selling for $50 (usually $15 back in the states)!!!!  On Saturday night we went to see a friend's band play; the main reason we headed to Busan.  The event featured about 8 or so bands/djs from all over Korea.  It was a good time, and all the acts for the most part were really good.  All in all, good weekend, regardless of the crappy weather.

Gwanglli Beach

I loved their glasses

Korean style brunch

Shinsegae Centum City

Cheers

Fried Spaghetti

Happy Birthday to me!!!

Two weeks ago I celebrated my 28th birthday (a little late on the post, I know).  Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am kind of obsessed with my birthday, and I usually throw myself some sort of party, no matter my age.  I didn't really have any plans this year, so needless to say, I was homesick for the very first time, really missing my family and friends.  Adam did step it up, and a last minute invite from friends turned into one of the best birthdays to date.  It is up there with the animal masks.

Friday Night: Dinner with Adam

Adam and I went to dinner at Tao.  It's focus is on western food, and we wanted to give it a try after hearing good things.  I ordered roasted duck with mango chutney, and Adam got a margarita pizza.  Presentation A+++.  Food itself, B.  My duck was slightly over cooked, but  still was tasty.  They also gave us complimentary bowls of potato soup to start; who doesn't like free food?!

They say it's your birthday!

potato soup

Mmmm pizza!

How pretty?

Ran into another birthday boy!

Birthday flowers

Heart Balloons

Saturday: Part 1
I woke up early to skype with my mom, and to my surprise Alexandra and Billy were also there.  They had a piece of cake and sang Happy Birthday to me.  Being a true McNellis cryer, I cried.  It was so sweet, made my day, and made me miss home even more.  Later that day, a friend from work invited us to a Kia Tigers game.  They are Gwangju's baseball team, and one of the best in the country.  I have heard many great things about the games, but nothing prepared me for the actual experience.  Let's start with the fans, they have more spunk then back home.  It sounded like thunder as we approached the stadium, as almost everyone there was banging their inflatable clappers together.  Next, the stadium itself, a true piece of crap, BUT it's a BYOB and BYOF.  Could you image bringing in coolers and sarcones hoagies to a Phillies game?  Talk about amazing.  They don't have hoagies here, but they love fried chicken; almost everyone was eating it.  And don't worry, if you run out of beer, they have concession stands where you can buy 6 packs.  Giddy up.

I love them

Kia fans

The girls

The boys

Cute girl

Saturday: Part 2
The party continued after the baseball game.  Next stop karaoke.  In Korea, the karaoke bars are called Norebongs, and they are filled with private rooms.  The rooms are about 3 times larger than Yakitori boy, but basically the same deal.    There was about 8 of us there, and not a shy singer in the room.  The reverb on these machines made my voice a little bearable.  My confidence juice really kicked in when I decided to rap "Baby Got Back," which I have to say wasn't that bad.  Jacob also surprised me with a delicious white chocolate birthday cake from Paris Baguette (which deserves its own blog post one of these days)!!!

Maneater

Bohemian Rhapsody

Birthday serenade 

Delicious

The End

It was around 1am that my body needed some rest, but no downtown night is complete without a Kebob (picture a gyro).  Adam and I stopped at the cart on our way home.  All in all it was an amazing birthday!  Thanks to my friends in Korea for making it sooo special and my friends and family back home for all the birthday wishes!!!

One content birthday girl :)