A View from Songdo

On Tuesday I get off work at 6, my early night, and since it's still light at that time I decided to rush over to the park across from my apartment and take some pictures! At the entrance to the park is the map:

Yes, that's my reflection in it. I was only able to go through half of the park before it got dark, so some other time I will bring my camera and take pictures of the other half. So The main entrance (and where I'm standing) is at the bottom right of the map, where the little red dot is. I did a loop right after the lake where the big tan circle is and came back up the other side. So you can see it is a pretty large park by my pictures below, and this is only half of it!We have some random sand digging machines below:

And a pirate ship playground for the kids, with my apartment complex in the background:

The beautiful lake, and again you can see my apartment complex:

This was the big tan circle on the map, you can't really see how large it is by this picture but it's massive, and they hold concerts here on the weekends sometimes:

Ah yes, there are these exercise machines all throughout the park, so not only can you get your cardio in on the track, but also your strength exercise:

There is a hill they built is the park, the one I see from my apartment, so I ran up there and took these pictures. This is my apartment complex, called 1st World, and as you can see there are all sizes of buildings in it. Mine is the minature rectangular tan one:

Here's a closer shot of it, you can see that the first floor is all restaurants and bars on the outside, this is how it is on every building in the complex that faces the outside block. My apartment is on the second floor, and yes, the noise does sometimes keep me up. At night they have tables and chairs set up outside on the sidewalk so people are out these until 2:30 am sometimes! It's all older businessmen though, because the business culture in Korea is all about going out with your bosses after work and drinking, and you literally can't say no if they ask you because otherwise it's a sign of disrespect. Kids also stay up much later here than at home, so even around midnight there will be young kids out there playing on tricycles while their parents eat and drink. Even with all of that there's so much I LOVE about my apartment that I would never move even if someone offered me a different one. But needless to say I look forward to when the weather is cold and they can't sit outside, and until then I've invested in some earplugs that do the trick.

View from the hill again, but this time in the opposite direction, you can even see one of the mountains that surround the city:

Oh and here is the Songdo Convention Center, and you can see the edge of my apartment complex, and it's on the next block over! So close! They were setting up the small tents you see right in front of it all week, because for the next 2 weeks is the  World Beer Festival!

So there's half of the park at least

This week at work is going to be slightly crazy and different, Report cards are due for every class, and I have four hours of phone classes this week. Which is where we call the kids at home after we finish up with our classes (so 7:30 pm on up for me) and ask them questions. Weird and don't understand it, but it's also only once a month luckily! Also, new teacher comes from America tomorrow so I'll let you know what she's like!

Nothing exciting ever happens on a Monday...

I was thinking to myself this morning after I talked to my parents on skype, nothing exciting ever happens on a Monday. They were encouraging me to continue writing my blog regularly, and I said I had to wait until something was worth writing about, right?
Well, my Monday got a surge of excitement after I left work today. Right now in Songdo it feels like fall is right around the corner. The air is nice and cool, and all the humidity is gone. As I was walking home tonight the breeze felt wonderful, but all of a sudden I hear people yelling (in Korean of course) and I turn around and a giant white umbrella, the heavy-duty type you put in the middle of patio tables, is heading straight for me blowing sporadically about by the wind. Haha so I'm on this narrow sidewalk with the busy street on my right and buildings on my left and I have that fight or flight question in my head. My first instinct is to dodge left and right, but the wind is bouncing the umbrella too much so there's no telling where it's going to be next. Then I start trying to outrun it, but it seems to sense that those are my intentions and takes a giant leap forward. I see this woman gesturing frantically from an open doorway up ahead, so I sprint toward her and she grabs me and pulls me inside just as the umbrella slams past me on the pavement. Saved by the GS Supermarket Lady! By the way, looked back out after the umbrella and it had blown into the street and caused a fender-bender. Needless to say prior to the umbrella excitement I had been so tired, but the whole experience definitely got my adrenalin pumping. And I was laughing really hard as all of these Koreans were shouting at me and watching me dodging and trying to outrun an umbrella.
Since I was in GS Supermarket anyway, I decided to pick up a few things, toilet paper being one of them. In Korea, you can't just buy a roll of 4 or 6 like in the US. Oh no, the smallest it comes in is a pack of 24 if your lucky, but normally 30 is the smallest. Basically buying toilet paper is a trip to the store in itself, because you can't carry anything else. It's so weird!!

It doesn't look so large in the is picture, but trust me, it is. It also has pink teddy bears all over it. Weirdly cute toilet paper.

On another note, as a teacher you get tons of free food. I don't know if it's because I teach kids 15 yrs old and younger, but I am constantly being handed food. Sometimes I wrap it in a napkin and say I'm saving it for later (and toss it), but sometimes I try it out. Today I was given a Korean brand potato chip, which was so good. It was a lot thicker than a regular chip, and very crunchy. I was also handed a fish shaped cheeto textured cracker/chip, I tried it, and it was delicious! Not fish flavored luckily. I say that because I've learned you have to ask if something is fish flavored, because they love that flavor here. I bought these crackers last week in the store:

Thinking they were going to be like the cheese whale crackers we buy back home, I was pretty excited with my purchase. Got home, popped a few in my mouth and realized they were fish flavored!! When you're not expecting it, it is a shockingly awful taste. Not that it's great to begin with. So ye be warned.

In saying that, they have tons of great food here. This past weekend I had a Wang Mandu (wang=king), which was so so good! I've had the smaller version before, which I actually posted pictures of on here, but this time it was just one giant bread dumpling, which the bread on the outside tasted like a chicken and dumpling, amazing. On the inside is a mixture of beef, onions, peppers, and some spices. And you dip it in soy sauce if you want. So here's a picture of where it's made:

And here's a closer view of the mandu itself:

Huge right? And then the center:

Completely delicious and so cheap: 1,000 won -which is less than a dollar! Not exactly good for you, but once in a while is fine. A whole meal in itself too. Ok that's it for now, a bit of a random post but you know, just a day in the life of a teacher in Korea!

Korean Baseball

How to even begin to describe Korean baseball- it's more about entertainment than the sport itself!

Here's their stadium before the game, South Korea has 8 professional baseball teams so they just rotate playing each other. Incheon's team is called the Wyverns, some type of sea-dragon. And there's actually a girl and boy version of the mascot, so the whole yin/yang thing going on even in baseball:

That's the boy, and the girl is hot pink. Each team has two foreigners on it, one of ours was Brian Gordon, who has played for the Yankees and also the Texas Rangers at one point. The South Koreans LOVE him, they nicknamed him the Golden Pitcher! 

So funny. Anyways, while your home team is batting there are CONSTANT coordinated cheers and songs going on the entire time, one after another. It is so weird! You can't even watch your own team bat because of the craziness that is going on! There are cheerleaders and then a main yell leader organizing it all! Here's a few pics, yell leader up in the boat:

Cheerleaders:

Oh and you stand the entire time your team bats also. Those red bats people are holding and banging together aren't given away for free like back in the US, they buy them here and then actually deflate them, fold them up, and bring them to each game. Here are a few short videos of some of the chants/songs:

And of course for snacks baseball wouldn't be the same without some dried squid right?!! But don't worry, they have Burger King there also and your traditional ballpark hotdog:

And don't forget about the random large cutouts of the team:

The score for the game was 12-0 (our team won) so even though it was a complete shut out, the game was tons of fun and very entertaining. It was perfect weather, it had rained all morning but by the time 5 pm rolled around it had lost all the humidity and had that crisp and a bit cool feeling that makes you think fall is just around the corner.  Their baseball season is actually supposed to be over by now, but since they've gotten an unusually large amount of rain this summer their season is going through November 5th right now! So I'll probably be going to another game, especially once fall really gets here.

After the game we were going to get lamb kebobs, but the restaurant apparently closed overnight (something that happens a lot here) so we went and had Korean BBQ instead. Here's a pic of our group, most of them are teachers I work with:

Another picture of the Korean BBQ setup:

Not all of the side dishes were on the table yet, but you can se some of them, and your scissors to cut the meat. Close up of the grill:

You cook your meat, mushrooms, garlic, kimchi on there and pull it off when it's ready!

EXTREMELY hot peppers. I mean, I accidentally dropped one of my pieces of meat in them and just got a little bit of pepper juice on it, thought it would be fine, but literally my eyes were watering up involuntarily. The Korean teachers I work with were playing a game to see who would have to eat a pepper, and if Koreans think something is unbelievably spicy, than that's a good heads up to steer clear of it! 

After dinner we all went and had a drink at WaBar, and then we went out to a Norebang, which is Korean style karaoke! You rent a room for an hour and they have hundreds of songs to choose from, pretty much every song you can think of and a bunch of random ones that you have no idea how they found the record to. Here's Emma, Jemma, and Cassy singing away:

Oh yes, they also give you about 5 tambourines and there are disco and strobe lights going if you want, so random but so much fun! This is them telling me I have to pick a song to sing next:

So it was a really great weekend, and I realize it's already thursday and I'm still writing about last weekend, but so much has been happening I want to document as much as I can! I'm in the midst of planning a trip to Busan/Pusan (same city, goes by 2 names because of Korean pronunciation) for Chuseok next month, which is their version of Thanksgiving. EVERYONE travels during this time though, so most of the train, bus, and plane tickets are sold out! So hopefully that works out, it's a four day weekend so it's a really great opportunity to see other parts of Korea as long as I can get there!

Ok that's all for now, I'll leave you with a Korean word of the day:

Gunbae (pronounced gun-bay) = cheers!

First Trip to Seoul

So to continue my post on this past weekend, I went to Seoul on Saturday! It takes about 40 minutes to 1 hour to get there from Songdo by the Metro. Or Subway. Or Underground. Whichever you want to call it. And it is extremely cheap to travel within South Korea, I have no idea why, but it is so nice.
Anyways, Cassy and I were up bright and early on Saturday to go into Seoul. First stop: Hongdae Area.
This is where a major university is so think University town kind of shops, restaurants, bars, etc. It is definitely one of my favorite areas of Seoul that I saw. Very fun, unique shops and cafes, along with some very familiar ones (Auntie Ann's Pretzel, Del Taco, Nike, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Taco Bell, Zara, Mango, etc). So they have a little bit of everything for everyone. Spotted a really cute Hello Kitty cafe there, here's some pics:

Cute little drink menu:

Fun mirrors:

Didn't eat or get a drink there, but plan to once it get's cooler out. They have really cute souvenirs too of the kitty dressed in the Korean Hanbok and such.

Next we traveled to the Business District of Seoul where Gyeongbok Palace is preserved right in the heart of a modern area:

It's hard to see how massive this place is by these pictures, but this is just the inner courtyard, beyond that building is an even larger courtyard with the main palace area. And as you can see, just like Songdo, Seoul has woodsy mountains surrounding it.

If you've ever seen the changing of the British guard in London, this is the South Korean version of that:

And me with the guard:

And I took a video of it, not sure it will work but worth a shot:

After the palace we went to an area called Myeongdong, which is a HUGE shopping area. When you think of Asian countries and all the bright flashing neon lights, thousands of people, street food and store vendors, this is that place. They have all kinds of stores, from american and european brands (Forever 21, Adidas, H&M, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, London Calling) to all the korean brand stores, shoes, knockoff stores, just everything you could possible imagine. I also took a picture of some street food:

Corn dogs fried in french fries:

Fruit on a stick:

Every kind of sausage:

It was starting to rain again at this point so I couldn't take any pictures of the dried seaweed and squid, or of the live octopus. Next time. It rained pretty much off and on the entire day, but it didn't slow us down at all. So after Myeongdong we tried to walk to Itaewon but ended up hiking accidentally up this massive hill almost to Seoul Tower, which is the highest point of Seoul and it is absolutely beautiful up there. It's all hiking and nature trails, so I will definitely be going back there in the fall once it cools off. But Cassy and I were literally dripping buckets of sweat (lovely) by the time we got up there, it was ridiculous. We decided after that we would just catch a cab to Itaewon from there haha. Just like all Korean transportation, it's really cheap, so it wasn't a big deal.

Itaewon is known as the place where the foreigners hangout. There's a large US military base nearby it, so that's how it started catering to English speakers in the first place. So it has very big US chain restaurants and stores also, along with English book stores and foreign food (black) markets. And a lot of foreign food restaurants. Saw an Austrian Deli/restaurant:

Looks slightly sketchy and old, but everyone says it is reaaally good and worth trying. I also saw a greek restaurant there that I would love to go back to.

 We had some Coldstone Ice Cream in Itaewon (yummy) and hit up 2 different black market foreign food shops. Yes so they have American goods for a price (a box of Kraft Mac & Cheese is $3) but if you're really craving something from back home this is where you go. Since Cassy has been here almost 3 months now, she was the one who really wanted some food from back home, and I picked up a few things as well.

Nice blacked out bag they give it to you in:

And my goods (which I'm saving for those future days when rice just won't cut it anymore):

Notice the pretzels. Pretzels are non-existent here. I look for them everywhere I go, but they are one thing that they just don't have here, and it makes me sad because I love snacking on pretzels!

Some more random pictures from around Seoul:

Cassy in the subway station:

Found a Texas bar (old west theme: check!):

If I pass through this arch it says I will live a long time but never age:

Ah and a random sign with my name:

We passed this building on the street in Hongdae and Cassy says: "Look, it's Azkaban!" (from the Harry Potter books). I knew there was a reason we clicked:

So it was a very long and very fun day, and I can't wait to go back! But this is a long enough post for now, next time I will tell yall about the baseball game we went to! Sorry if there are a lot of typos in these posts, I'm just trying to get them out as quick as I can! (Mostly that was for you Lindsay, I know how much incorrect grammar and spelling bother the English teacher in you!)