Gyeongju
Monica and I decided we were bored with staying in Ilsan every weekend and we decided to take a trip somewhere in Korea. One of my friends recommended Gyeongju, the original capitol of Korea. So we started to plan a weekend vacation. Planning went something like this:
The street we were on was all love motels. There were about 6 or 7 and ranged in price from ₩40,000-₩60,000 per night. Monica and I did some quick re-con on a few hotels before making a final decision. While inquiring we had to wake a few people up that were sleeping on the office floor. There is only one word that can describe the inside of our hotel: "Tacky." The hallways were covered in glowing filigree. The rooms had some very nice red and blue mood lighting and a bed that felt like sleeping on your dining room table. They provide you with bubble bath, hair products, facial masks, toothpaste, and some… protection.
Thanksgiving
As thanksgiving came closer, we were wondering what to do when Monica's Uncle Craig called and invited us to have turkey dinner on the military base. The weekend before Thanksgiving, we were invited to a friend’s for a pre-thanksgiving turkey dinner. He placed an order to the military base and was able to buy stuffing, potatoes, turkey, veggies, gravy, and cranberry sauce. A few days later on Thanksgiving Day we went to the base to celebrate with Monica’s family. Monica's Aunt Jin put together a great homemade turkey dinner and since Jin's omma (mother) was there too, we even had the option of kimchi with our turkey, we however chose to keep it traditional.
TESOL
Monica and I are now certified ESL teachers. We finished our TESOLs and we can now start looking for jobs in greener pastures!!! :D
Latkes
In honor of Hanukkah, Monica persuaded me into making latkes. They were delicious and we enjoyed a real Jewish feast in Korea, even though there are no Jews in Korea. Funny story: Nadia asked me what games we play in the US on Christmas, and I said, “I don’t know any Christmas games. I’m Jewish, I don’t celebrate Christmas.” “You don’t celebrate Christmas?! Why?” “Because I’m Jewish. We celebrate Hanukkah.” Nadia looked confused and then asked me if I believed in Jesus. When I said no, Nadia looked intrigued as if I was a new species she was discovering for the first time. I am waiting for Nadia to come ask me questions about Judaism.
Aquarium
We had been hearing good things about the COEX mall aquarium, the largest mall in Korea and Korea’s largest aquarium. So, last weekend we decided to pay the aquarium a visit. The aquarium had some fun exhibits on fish native to Korea and some fish, which can only be found in the Han River. They had a great exhibit where they made aquariums out of everything from vending machines to washing machines to toilets (that’s right a toilet). They also had a two-headed turtle, which was the highlight of the trip! We finished the aquarium in about 2 hrs and had some time to kill so we saw Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The movie was really good and we both recommend anyone to go see it. We went to a really good Italian restaurant and browsed the bookstore, Bandis & Lunis, which has the largest English book selection in Seoul.
Monica: I'm bored.
Kyle: Ok.
Monica: Let's go somewhere this weekend.
Kyle: Ok.
Monica: Where should we go?
Kyle: Gyeongju, I heard it's nice.
Monica: Sweet! Let’s go!!!
We planned what we wanted to do in Gyeongju Thursday night, but had no hotel reservations because we were told that there is a street just lined with hotels right next to the bus stop. Friday after work, we grabbed a bus to Seoul’s Bus station, got bus tickets to Gyeongju, waited 2 hrs for our bus, got on the bus to Gyeongju, and arrived four hours later in Gyeongju at 1:00am. Upon stepping off of the bus, we were immediately greeted by "Tackshi! Tackshi! Tackshi!" which is kongrish for "Taxi! Taxi! Taxi!" After we ran away from the swarm of drivers we found the hotel street.
Love Motel Commentary:
In addition to the typical hotels, motels, and youth hostels, Korea and Japan have another type of overnight stay. Many Korean & Japanese young adults live at home until they get married. The typical apartment is quite small, maybe one or two bedrooms, and houses grandma, grandpa, mom, dad, and 2+ children. Obviously in a close living situation such as this, privacy becomes nonexistent and finishing the night at home isn't really an option unless you want grandma giving you pointers. So the love motel industry was formed. These motels are all about discretion. You go in, hand them money, get a key, a toothbrush, and a razor (since nobody plans to stay at a love motel), and continue with your night.
Back to Gyeongju -The street we were on was all love motels. There were about 6 or 7 and ranged in price from ₩40,000-₩60,000 per night. Monica and I did some quick re-con on a few hotels before making a final decision. While inquiring we had to wake a few people up that were sleeping on the office floor. There is only one word that can describe the inside of our hotel: "Tacky." The hallways were covered in glowing filigree. The rooms had some very nice red and blue mood lighting and a bed that felt like sleeping on your dining room table. They provide you with bubble bath, hair products, facial masks, toothpaste, and some… protection.
The next day we woke up, grabbed a meager breakfast, and took a bus to the Bulguksa temple. The city was beautiful with a backdrop of fall leaves over traditional Korean rooftops. The temple was gorgeous and the entrance way lead to a lake surrounded by autumn leaves and great scenery. I was pretty happy to be using my camera for something other than my students. We walked through the temple and saw some neat stuff. There were monks inside a few pagodas and you could pray, but because we had no idea how to do so we opted just to watch.
We left the temple and headed to the real reason we wanted to go to Gyeongju, the Seokguram Grotto. Inside the grotto is a huge, stone Buddha and the most famous Buddha statue in Korea. One can get to the Grotto by either taking a bus or hiking. We found the bus was coming in and hour and that the trail took about an hour to hike, so we decided to get some exercise. The hike was pretty grueling at a constant up hill grade with no switchbacks. As we neared the top of the mountain we could hear bells ringing and we couldn't wait to get up to the top and see the monks that were ringing them. Although our legs were weak, once we caught sight of the temple we were motivated to make it to the top. Then we saw who was responsible for ringing the bells. A line of tourists stood in front of the bell to ring it, and for only ₩1,000, we could have had our chance to ring the bell too. We were a little disappointed that there were no monks, but we still had the Grotto to look forward to. Monica was unimpressed (after seeing the Buddhist statues in Bhutan everything else seems to be a let down) and we expected the statue to be bigger. The UNESCO World Heritage Organization had put up a glass wall in front of the grotto so that was impossible to walk around the statue and see the other carvings inside. I thought the Buddha was pretty impressive, but it would have been nice to see more of it. We walked back down the mountain, grabbed a bus, and headed to our next destination. 
We headed to an area that was made up of a few large parks. These parks weren't really parks though, but graveyards for ancient Korean kings. When Koreans bury their dead, they usually cremate the body and build a small funeral mound for them on a mountain somewhere. As you drive around Korea you can see little man-made mounds all over the mountains. The size of the mound is related to how important you were. These mounds were HUGE! Some were smaller than others, but there were about 30 mounds all over the parks. Among them was also Asia's oldest observatory. About 30ft high and made up of 365 stones representing the days in the year. We wanted to see the observatory at night, so we hung around the park and relaxed for a little bit, and when we got cold we found a coffee shop and waited until it was time for dinner.
Monica and I always seem to have difficulty when we want to eat. Whether we get too hungry or it's just bad luck whenever we go out for something special we can't find what we want immediately and we usually spend an hour wandering around until we find what we want or give up trying. On this occasion, I was not giving up and Monica was getting angry as both of our stomachs were complaining. We were looking for Ssambap, a meal that is famous in the area. Most Korean meals are made up of the main course, beef, pork, or soup, and a few side dishes. Ssambap is just the sides. They give you some rice and sides and you wrap them together in lettuce, cabbage, or seaweed. We were wandering through dark alleyways around the block trying to find "ssambap alley," which was featured on our map and in our guidebook. (From the term “Ssambap Alley, one would think that it was an alley filled with different restaurants that serve ssambap. ERR! WRONG!). We asked people where to go, but fate was against us and we wandered for a long time, circling the 1 Ssambap restaurant in the area countless times. (During our wandering, I pointed to a place that was quite busy and said "I think that’s it." Monica said, “No, there are too many cacti in the windows. It doesn't look traditional and we’re looking for an alley of restaurants.” She should have listened to me the first time because that was the ssambap restaurant). We got seated immediately and we watched the waiters shuffle by with trays stacked high with little dishes. The meal consisted of about 30 different dishes containing, fish pork, vegetables, invertebrates, egg, kimchi pancakes, and soup. Some dishes were delicious, some edible, a few unrecognizable, and one or two that weren't touched after the first try. The notable dishes were the small raw crabs cut in half and served in a spicy sauce (one of my favorite Korean sides), little baby squid (raw with eyes and everything) in a red sauce, and the worst dish on the table which was a whole fish in a black sauce that tasted like eating a tin of sardines that had been soaked in extra salt. I tried everything on the table, whereas Monica picked at some stuff, but mostly ate the pork and a few other things. I made a deal that if she ate one baby squid I would pay for dinner. She did and I was out ₩9,000 (that’s right the entire meal of 30 side dishes cost a total of $18).
The next day we were tired, Korean hotel beds are not very comfortable, sore from our hike, and had no place to keep our bags so we went and got some Famous Gyeongju Pancakes to bring home and took the bus back.
Monica and I always seem to have difficulty when we want to eat. Whether we get too hungry or it's just bad luck whenever we go out for something special we can't find what we want immediately and we usually spend an hour wandering around until we find what we want or give up trying. On this occasion, I was not giving up and Monica was getting angry as both of our stomachs were complaining. We were looking for Ssambap, a meal that is famous in the area. Most Korean meals are made up of the main course, beef, pork, or soup, and a few side dishes. Ssambap is just the sides. They give you some rice and sides and you wrap them together in lettuce, cabbage, or seaweed. We were wandering through dark alleyways around the block trying to find "ssambap alley," which was featured on our map and in our guidebook. (From the term “Ssambap Alley, one would think that it was an alley filled with different restaurants that serve ssambap. ERR! WRONG!). We asked people where to go, but fate was against us and we wandered for a long time, circling the 1 Ssambap restaurant in the area countless times. (During our wandering, I pointed to a place that was quite busy and said "I think that’s it." Monica said, “No, there are too many cacti in the windows. It doesn't look traditional and we’re looking for an alley of restaurants.” She should have listened to me the first time because that was the ssambap restaurant). We got seated immediately and we watched the waiters shuffle by with trays stacked high with little dishes. The meal consisted of about 30 different dishes containing, fish pork, vegetables, invertebrates, egg, kimchi pancakes, and soup. Some dishes were delicious, some edible, a few unrecognizable, and one or two that weren't touched after the first try. The notable dishes were the small raw crabs cut in half and served in a spicy sauce (one of my favorite Korean sides), little baby squid (raw with eyes and everything) in a red sauce, and the worst dish on the table which was a whole fish in a black sauce that tasted like eating a tin of sardines that had been soaked in extra salt. I tried everything on the table, whereas Monica picked at some stuff, but mostly ate the pork and a few other things. I made a deal that if she ate one baby squid I would pay for dinner. She did and I was out ₩9,000 (that’s right the entire meal of 30 side dishes cost a total of $18).
The next day we were tired, Korean hotel beds are not very comfortable, sore from our hike, and had no place to keep our bags so we went and got some Famous Gyeongju Pancakes to bring home and took the bus back.
Thanksgiving
As thanksgiving came closer, we were wondering what to do when Monica's Uncle Craig called and invited us to have turkey dinner on the military base. The weekend before Thanksgiving, we were invited to a friend’s for a pre-thanksgiving turkey dinner. He placed an order to the military base and was able to buy stuffing, potatoes, turkey, veggies, gravy, and cranberry sauce. A few days later on Thanksgiving Day we went to the base to celebrate with Monica’s family. Monica's Aunt Jin put together a great homemade turkey dinner and since Jin's omma (mother) was there too, we even had the option of kimchi with our turkey, we however chose to keep it traditional.
TESOL
Monica and I are now certified ESL teachers. We finished our TESOLs and we can now start looking for jobs in greener pastures!!! :D
Latkes
In honor of Hanukkah, Monica persuaded me into making latkes. They were delicious and we enjoyed a real Jewish feast in Korea, even though there are no Jews in Korea. Funny story: Nadia asked me what games we play in the US on Christmas, and I said, “I don’t know any Christmas games. I’m Jewish, I don’t celebrate Christmas.” “You don’t celebrate Christmas?! Why?” “Because I’m Jewish. We celebrate Hanukkah.” Nadia looked confused and then asked me if I believed in Jesus. When I said no, Nadia looked intrigued as if I was a new species she was discovering for the first time. I am waiting for Nadia to come ask me questions about Judaism.
Aquarium
We had been hearing good things about the COEX mall aquarium, the largest mall in Korea and Korea’s largest aquarium. So, last weekend we decided to pay the aquarium a visit. The aquarium had some fun exhibits on fish native to Korea and some fish, which can only be found in the Han River. They had a great exhibit where they made aquariums out of everything from vending machines to washing machines to toilets (that’s right a toilet). They also had a two-headed turtle, which was the highlight of the trip! We finished the aquarium in about 2 hrs and had some time to kill so we saw Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The movie was really good and we both recommend anyone to go see it. We went to a really good Italian restaurant and browsed the bookstore, Bandis & Lunis, which has the largest English book selection in Seoul.
Torture by small children and redemption from the least likely of places
For about a month now the kids at school, minus the students from my old school (Daehwa), have been practicing for a music concert. We have been tortured by having to listen to Edelweiss all day, every day, for a month and we finally saw the finished product Friday night. For three hours we watched the kids perform. First the Korean Kindergarten went and then our students. The show may have been somewhat more bearable except that it was the same show twice! The Korean classes did the same skits as the English classes! Monica narrated the story of a giant radish. A few of the funnier moments involved a group of students telling a story in English, but each time there was one kid who screamed into the microphone causing eardrums to bleed. Mrs. Kwon rented a theater and a DJ for the event. The DJ had a "special talent" and we found out why he was hired. After each school finished had did a "Magic Dance."
Probably the most painful performance I have ever seen. He danced using poorly choreographed K-pop moves while pausing to pull out every store bought magic trick imaginable. If you have seen the end dance of Napoleon Dynamite, it was worse than that. Monica and I tried to pinpoint the moments the DJ started to hate his life. Mrs. Kwon watched with a huge grin on her face that could only be translated to "DANCE MONKEY!! DANCE!!"
After the show we helped bring the drums and instruments back to the school and Mrs. Kwon treated all of the teachers to dinner. As we are walking to the restaurant, one of the Korean teachers, who doesn't speak a lot of English, says "We are going to eat Korean people cat." I replied, "Cat?!? Like meow meow?" She was trying to say "cattle" and that we are going to a Korean beef restaurant. It was one of the best meals we have had in Korea and Mrs. Kwon paid at least ₩200,000 ($200) per table for 3 tables. Our friend, Hannah, kept asking me if I wanted more which I was more than happy to have and we spent as much of Kwon’s money as we could eat. Dessert was a cinnamon and boiled persimmon tea, which was fantastic! The Korean teachers wanted to go to norebong (karaoke) after dinner and Mrs. Kwon didn't want them talking bad about her to us, so she shuffled us to her car and gave us a ride home. I was a little disappointed to miss out on spending time with the other teachers since they don't know us very well and even after 9 months some of them still aren't very friendly. Maybe next time….
My Uncle Steve recently passed and Monica and I send our love and support to his family. He will be missed.
Only 1 more week of classes and then winter vacation!!! We are looking forward to a week of rest and relaxation. We have plans to go snowboarding with friends who are also staying here for the holidays. Since we probably won’t be posting within the next week, we hope that everyone enjoys the holidays and has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We miss you all and wish we could be home to celebrate it with you.
Lots of Love, Monica and Kyle
Kyle, it was a long time for the blog but it was worth it. What beautiful pictures and great fun. I am glad you get to explore a bit and see these wonderful sights. It sounds like the music concert went well since Kwon invited everyone to such a meal. I am glad it wasn't cat. lol. love mom
ReplyDelete