Perhentian islands (east coast Malaysia) & Singapore

***I have been waiting to find time and a computer where I can add pictures to the blog.  I thought I could at our current hostel, but the computer has worms, so we can't/don't want to plug in our usb to add pictures.  I promise to add pictures once we get a chance.  Sorry everyone.***

We left Kuala Lumpur and flew to the Perhentian Islands on Sunday, March 6.  We had to fly into Khota Bharu, then take an hour taxi to the Kuala Besut jetty, and then about a 30 minute boat ride to the islands.  The boat was by far the worst form of transportation we have taken so far.  The sea was very rough and our boat would go up on a big wave and then thump very painfully back down.  Some of the thumps were brutal!  Knock the wind right out of you and make your entire body ache.  We ended up getting to the island around 6:30pm and then searched for a hostel.  Kyle was trying to find a treehouse hostel that sounded great, but after finding out that it was an hour trek, through the jungle, in the dark, I put my foot down and we stayed at a nice hostel in a dorm and met some other nice travellers.  We had a delicious seafood buffet for dinner and then went to bed.  The next day was a beach day.  We found a nice quiet beach, read, and snorkeled.  Within the first 10 minutes of snorkeling we saw a 5ft long black tipped reef shark, along with tons of other fish.  After our day at the beach, Kyle and I were both very sunburnt and very mosquito bitten.  Then on Tuesday, we signed up for 2 dives and went to the NW of Perhentian Kecil and dove.  The highlight of our dive was seeing a sea turtle.  Once we got back on the boat, the weather started to get bad.  We headed back to the dive shop to get new oxygen tanks but we were too late, the storm had already been unleashed.  THAT boat ride was the worst boat ride, and those thumps did not help a very painful sunburnt bum.  I was almost launched out of the boat at one time.  It was a little terrifying.  Once safely back to shore we ended up not getting to do our second dive because it continued to rain all of Tuesday and Wednesday.  We had an early flight out of Khota Bharu on Thursday, but we were afraid the rain would prevent the last ferry from leaving, so we left the island at noon on Wednesday and spent the night in Khota Bharu. Nothing really special about Khota Bharu, but our hostel was super cheap and very decent.  We left Khota Bharu Thursday and flew back to Kuala Lumpur where we bought train tickets to Singapore and ended up in Singapore a day earlier than expected.

We arrived in Singapore at 10pm an hour later than expected because our train had been late.  At the train station we tried to get a taxi to Chinatown, but there were no taxis available and there were 2 groups of elderly people waiting in front of us, so we decided that we could ask for directions and walk.  It had started to rain lightly, but within 10 minutes of walking, one of the people we asked for directions offered to give us a ride to Chinatown since it was far and raining.  I was hesitant, but Kyle quickly agreed and took the man up on his offer.  The gentleman was a very nice and helpful guy named Mark.  He gave us some suggestions on things to do and dropped us off in Chinatown.  From there we began the dreadful and extremely tiring search for a hostel.  After a good 2 hour hunt in the rain we still had no place to spend the night.  Everywhere was full (little did we know that some shopping fair was taking place at the neighboring stop and there were no vacancies anywhere).  We finally had to give up and get a hotel.  An expensive purchase and the hotel was by no means worth what we paid for it.  Oh well.

The next day we switched to a hostel and stayed in a 20 person dorm.  I would NOT recommend this for anyone.  We were woken up at 5am by a group of Germans coming back from the bars and then again at 7am by a fresh arrival of a huge Chinese group that showed up and didn't seem to realize people were still sleeping.  Why does Chinese always seem to be shouted?  Anyway, we spent the day walking around the city and seeing what there was to see.  The food in Singapore is definitely amazing and the people are very friendly and far less rude then some of their Asian neighbors.

Then on Saturday the 12 we went to the Singapore Zoo, which was an amazing zoo!  We saw Komodo dragons, even a baby, and a lot of orangutans and a few babies which were very entertaining to watch play.  At dinner we got to watch a fire show which was pretty great and quite funny.  Then we went to the night safari, which was an entirely diferent zoo, but next to the other zoo and got to see some nocturnal animals.  Kyle's favorite was the slow lapis, one of the few poisonous mammals and the only poisonous primate.  We also got to ride the night tram and see other animals that you couldn't get to on the paths.  Kyle's highlight of the day was when we went into the flying squirrel exhibit and were looking around for awhile beacsue we couldn't find the squirrels.  Another gentleman in the exhibit pointed one out to us.  All of a sudden the flying squirrel jumped off of the tree branch and flew right at me.  I was convinced that the squirrel, who was quite large, was going to land on me, thus I let out a scream of terror.  I probably scared the squirrle more than it scared me, but Kyle proceeded to laugh at me for the rest of the evening.  We didn't get back to the hostel until late and then had to be up really early Sunday morning to catch our flight to Phuket, Thailand!!

Miss you all!  Love, K & M

Malaysia

After leaving Korea on Feb 27, in a bit of a rush, we arrived safe and sound in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Thursday morning. We stayed in the airport for a few hours and caught a flight from KL to Kota Kinabalu, one of the bigger cities on Borneo Island.  (Borneo Island is the 3rd largest island in the world and has 3 different countries on it; there is the Malaysian part, where we were, a tiny part on the northern side that is Brunei, and the southern half which is part of Indonesia).

We were recommended a scuba instructor named Neville in KK by friends from Korea (Jamie & Blaine). After what seemed like a wild goose chase, we finally found Neville and signed up for scuba lessons. After 3 days of scuba, Kyle and I are now scuba certified!  Hooray!  We saw many cute things while diving, the best being a couple of nudibranches, 2 lion fish, 2 blue spotted sting rays, some puffer fish, and numerous reef fish. By the way, sign language is quite handy for diving.

After we finished our scuba course on Sunday, we encountered a problem with our money situation Monday (2/28) as we were trying to get money out of the atm for our river cruise. We had planned to use Kyle's atm card since mine could not get mailed to Korea in time before we left. This was a fine plan until Kyle's pin number decided to not work. After about a week of semi-panic waiting for the new pin to get mailed to NJ, we broke down and had Beth & Gregg wire us money. Actually not as difficult as we imagined, you can do it online, and the fee is only $30, much cheaper than we had anticipated. Just make sure that you include the entire name of the person you are sending it to so that it matches their passport exactly.  :)   We got the money March 5, just in time for my birthday!!! And all seemed well with the world again!

River Cruise

Baby proboscis monkey

Back to KK, on Wednesday (3/2), we signed up for a river cruise on the Klias River to search for proboscious monkeys (the ones with the big noses) in their natural habitat. It was a 2hr drive South, on a one way winding road which was a little scary at times, but well worth it. Once we got to the base camp we had tea and some banana fritters (yummy!) and some Malaysian sticky rice (not as good as the Thai's). We then got in our little boat and started looking for monkeys. Within 10 minutes we had already found several monkeys and continued to see many more monkeys, macaques and proboscous, along with a monitor lizard and water buffalo throughout the duration of the cruise. After the cruise, we went back to the base camp, had a delicious dinner, and then went back in the boat after dinner (once it was dark) and looked for fireflies which lite up the mangrove trees like Christmas trees. It was beautiful and very peaceful.

Adult male proboscis monkey

Monitor Lizard, this guy was small but they can grow to be huge.

Buffet dinner

The next morning we flew back to KL which was a rather tiring day. We ended up spending 60RM on a taxi to the airport because our taxi driver dropped us off at the wrong terminal. (The airport terminals in Malaysia are not connected or even located near one another).   :(   Once we got to KL we wandered arounf for about 3 hours searching for a hostel.   :(   After being exhausted and weary we settled for one that was alright. We walked around KL trying to follow the Petronas Towers, but got exhausted after awhile and just went back to the hostel to go to sleep.

Friday (3/4), we went to the Batu Caves, a Hindu pilgrimage site. It was pretty cool and once you climb the 300 stairs there are small shrines inside to differnt dieties and TONS of macaques. They're mostly after the leftover food the visitors have brought with them, but we were right next to live, uncaged monkeys. It was a little scary.... We then moved to our worst hostel yet, the Oasis, which fortunately did not have bedbugs, bit it had termites and ants instead. The bathroom didn't even have a sink. After waking up with ants and termites crawling over us, we decided that if we got money the next morning we were upgrading.

Batu Cave

Inside the Caves

Fortunately we did get money on Saturday, which was my birthday. We moved to a MUCH better hostel with a comfy, bug free bed. We are going to have a delicious dinner, compliments to Beth & Gregg for the birthday treat included in the wire.  :)    Kyle is then going to take me to Chinatown and let me do some shopping on his budget.  :D

Chinatown at night

Tomorrow we leave for the Perhentian Islands. Jamie & Blaine told us that they are the most beautiful islands they have ever been to (and they've been all over), so we're excited. Hopefully we can get another dive in and maybe see some cuttlefish.    :)

Hope all is well with you. Good luck Matt as Joseph! Wish we could be there to see you live. I've heard only wonderful comments so far!

Thanks again to Beth & Gregg for helping us out of our money situation!

On the River Cruise

We love you all!  Love, K & M

♫ OH HAPPY DAY!!! OH HAPPY DAY! ! ♫

We went to school to talk to Kwon, she paid me, but then left out $350.  She then started charging us since we stayed in the apartment, even though the only reason we stayed in this shit hole was because we were waiting to get paid!!!  Stupid &%#$%*#$.  Anyway, we basically said, screw it, and bought our flights this morning to leave tonight.  It's been a little crazy here today with many last minute things to do before leaving tonight, but we are very excited.  After a long and mostly painful year, it is finally over.  Thank the gods!

We are FINALLY done working for one of the worst directors in Ilsan, South Korea!  After the past 2 weeks' emotional & financial roller coaster we never have to deal with Kwon's bullshit ever again!  HOORAY!

We can finally go on our trip now!!!  :D  :D  We are going to backpack through Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia for the next 2 months!  We will probably only get wifi sporadically, but if we have time we will try and update you all on where we are and all of the amazing things we've seen as frequently as possible.

Don't worry too much about us, as I know some of you will.  *cough cough*  Moms.  We're smart travelers and we'll be fine.

We will finally return to the US on April 14 to be very happily greeted by Kyle's family in NJ!

We'll try and update you when we can.  We hope all is well with you!  Miss you all.  Love, K & M

Farewell Eaton School

Oh man!  These last 2 weeks have been one huge headache with an enormous side of frustration.  Just thinking about it all makes my brain hurt….

We need 3 final things from Mrs. Kwon before we could finally say goodbye to Eaton School and be done with her FOREVER!!!!  (Don't forget, I have been waiting 355 days for this moment)!  The 3 things we need: money for flights home, final paycheck, and our bonus.   Needless to say, she put up a fight and was late in paying every single item.  To make a long story short: We finally got paid the money for our flights home, and it was even enough money to actually cover our flights back to the US (we were a little nervous she hadn't paid us enough, but I found a super deal and it ended up working out).  Final paycheck, actually not too much of a hassle.  And our bonus.

Oh the bonus.  She was supposed to pay us our bonus with our final paycheck, but said that she hadn't realized Friday the 18th was our last day of work (even though we had met with her several times during the week when discussing flight money issues and she had repeatedly told us, "Friday last day, pay you Friday").   Friday rolls around, no money.  We send her a friendly e-mail reminder.  She responds that she has to calculate our bonus.  We e-mailed her back saying that our bonus is 2,100,000₩.  (She was trying to deduct our utilities from our bonus, even though we had already given her a $400 security deposit in April which covered this.  And thank God I saved the piece of paper she had written that deduction on!!)!   Then we got an e-mail from her saying that it takes a week to get our bonuses because she has to come and inspect our apartment for damages.  That's fine, come inspect our apartment, but this should have been done a week ago!  We arranged for her to come to our apartment Monday night at 5:00.  She showed up an hour and 45 minutes late.  RUDE!  Then she offered to take us out to dinner, so we said yes, free meal.  We were at the restaurant, and 10 minutes after we received our food, she got up, grabbed her purse, and said, "10 minutes waiting," and then left the restaurant.  She was gone for about 15 minutes and Kyle & I started to wonder if she had pulled a dine and dash.  (In reality, we think she left to go to the bank).  We decided to check the bank on our way home, just in case.  Kyle & I put our bank books into the atm (where it prints an update for you) and Kyle beat me by about 30 seconds.  He looked at his bank book and saw that he'd been paid!  "We got paid! We got paid!"  We started doing a happy dance, only to then get my update and see that she had only paid me 21,000₩.  She had left off two zeros!  We texted here letting her know that she didn't pay me enough, while also thanking her for paying Kyle.  She apologized and said she'd fix it, her mistake.  I reminded her 3 times today, Tuesday, to remember to pay me by tonight.  At 9pm, I checked, no money.  I texted her, her response, "I'm very sick. Pay you tomorrow."  We'll see if she pays me tomorrow.  :(

Since we anticipated problems with Kwon, we decided not to buy any of our plane tickets until we had been paid.  While this was a good idea because we had planned to leave Monday and it's now Wednesday, the tickets for our flights have increased significantly.   :(   Stupid Kwon and her waiting around until the last minute for everything.  Hopefully we can buy those tomorrow morning because we still have to go to the Pension Office & close our bank accounts.

We'll post again once everything is taken care of.  We hope all is well with you!  Love, K & M

Christmas, 2 Months Notice, & the DMZ

Matt (12), Jenny (19), me (22), Kelly (16), Danny (21), & Kona

It has been awhile since our last post and as most of you now know our last entry was filled with one tiny, white lie: spending our winter vacation snowboarding.  I prefer to call it a cover story now that the secret is out, but I was able to go home and spend Christmas with my family.  Although Kyle would have loved to go home as well, he opted to stay in Korea since his flight back to NJ added an extra 12 hrs to his trip and he felt it just wasn’t worth all of the travel for only 7 days at home.  Kyle has also adjusted much better to life in Korea than I have, and even though I was only home for 8 days, it was so incredibly worth it.  Definitely one of my best and most memorable Christmases ever, especially since only a few people, Mom, Dad, Danny, and Kyle’s family, knew about the surprise.  I will spare you the details of the surprise, but everyone was very shocked and in disbelief when I magically appeared to them on Christmas Eve and many happy tears were shed. I do want to give Kelly Merritt & Amy Withey a big shout out for best reactions.  And a special thanks to my parents, who while I’m sure they know how ecstatic I was to be home, made the Christmas miracle possible.  I am not allowed to go into detail about all of the delicious food I gorged myself on while I was home because I will make Kyle sad, but I did return to Korea with 10 cans of tomato soup, an obscene amount of Christmas cookies, and other treats for Kyle to make up for abandoning him for a week.  Kyle enjoyed spending time with the guys while also finishing his second TESOL course.


Shortly after being back in Korea, we needed to give Mrs. Kwon our 2 months notice that we were not renewing our contract.  We had been very anxious about how she would react since she doesn’t have the best record when it comes to dealing with foreign teachers.  We had Nadia translate our letter into Korean since Mrs. Kwon really doesn’t speak English and we wanted to make sure there were no misunderstandings.  Afterwards, everyone wanted to know what her reaction was. Mrs. Kwon’s reaction: "It’s in Korean!”  That’s what we got.  About a week later we had a meeting with her and one of the other Korean teachers, Anna, played translator.  She told us that we could leave 2 weeks earlier than planned since the kindergarten was on leave before the new school year started.  We said that we would be happy to leave early, as long as it didn’t jeopardize our bonus.   (Legally, we have to have worked for exactly 356 days, so if she didn’t/doesn’t pay us we can no longer go to the Labor Board and argue it since she now doesn’t have to pay us).  While this makes us a little nervous since we know she’s sneaky, we haven’t actually had any problems with her specifically.  We will keep you posted on how everything turns out.   She should be paying us our bonuses asap, and we should be getting our money for plane tickets and our last paycheck by Feb 14.  Fingers crossed that everything goes well and that our final weeks in Korea end on a happy note.

With 2 weeks taken off of our sentence we can really start to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Only 13 teaching days left!  We’re almost down to the single digits, and yet some of our classes seem to last an eternity.  With so little time left in Korea, Kyle and I realized that we still had some unfinished business in the ROK.

For instance, we hadn’t been to the DMZ yet, a must for all foreigners living here.  So, this morning, we woke up at 5am, to catch a bus into Seoul and arrived at the military base by 7am.  We took a tour bus to the Joint Security Area (JSA) where we watched a short slide show on the history of the DMZ and then toured around the JSA area.  We were able to see Taesongdong (SK), one of 2 heavily guarded villages in the DMZ where the residents have a curfew of midnight and don’t have to pay taxes, and the North Korean village, Gijungdong, which is a propaganda town and has the largest flag pole in the world.

The world's largest flagpole in Gijungdon, DPRK.

Then we went to Checkpoint 3, where we were surrounded by North Korea on three sides.  After that we drove by the Bridge of No Return 

The Bridge of No Return

and then went to the Freedom House, which was built so that families who were separated could be reunited with their loved ones although the North has yet to send any of their people over to the South. Behind the Freedom House is the Military Armistice Commission (MAC) where meetings between the North and South take place.  It is in this building that you are able to cross over into North Korea.   For most people, the northern inside part of the MAC building is as much of North Korea as we will ever see.

I'm in the DPRK - aka North Korea

The MAC building is located in between the Freedom House and North Korea's Panmungak Pavilion building which is used as a waiting room for North Korean representatives.

Our tour guide and behind him a North Korean soldier who is watching us through binoculars, and standing on the Panmungak Pavilion.

North Korean soldier in the back and 2 South Korean soldiers on the right.  They stand very close to the wall.  I'm still not sure why, maybe to protect 1/2 of their body if there was an attack?

Then we left the JSA and went down into the Third Infiltration Tunnel, the South has only found 4 tunnels that the North has dug to Seoul, but they expect that there are still several more out there. After the tunnel we went to the Dora observatory and got to have a closer look, through binoculars, of 

Dora Observatory

Gijungdong and Gaeseong, an area where factories are located that employ both North and South Korean workers.  Lastly our tour took us to Dorasan Station, which is a train station connected to North Korea.

Dorasan Station

If and when the Koreas are reconciled, the train station is ready to go with the quote/slogan, "Not the last station from the South, but the first station toward the North.

She's got a ticket to ride. . . to North Korea.

That is all for now.  We hope you are all doing well and staying warm.  We miss you!  Love, K & M

It was insanely cold & windy

Gyeongju, Thanksgiving, TESOL, Aquarium, Torture by small children and redemption from the least likely of places

Editorial complaint: Blame Kyle for taking so long to write this entry and therefore making the entry super long since we have SO many stories to share with you all. It reminds me of a scenario when I was younger. We would go to restaurants and Jenny would order a meal with fries, and I would ask Jenny, “Hey, can I have some of your fries?” “No. They’re my fries. Go away.” At the end of the meal, Jenny would then say, “Monica, do you want some of my fries?” “No, Jenny. I don’t want your fries now. Now they’re cold. “ *Grumble* How does this remind me of Kyle? Because he complains about how it’s OUR blog, but that he never gets to write any entries, but when he gets to write an entry it takes him a month and a half to write it. *sigh*

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:

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.

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

Halloween, Move to Baekseok, Lantern Festival,

Kangaroo class

Panda class

The week of Halloween was very fun for all of our students and us. Monica and her students made dancing skeletons, tissue ghosts, paper jack-o-lanterns, and masks. On Friday, students at both schools dressed up in costumes (mostly princesses, power rangers, and witches) and were ready to eat as much candy as possible. Halloween isn’t a big holiday in Korea, it’s really only the foreigners who dress up and go out and the little kids if they are at a school that has foreign teachers. This is why so many students have the same costume because the big department stores only sell 3 different costumes.

On Friday, Kyle brought a big bag of toilet paper to school and had his students do mummy races, which all of the kids really enjoyed. We found it somewhat odd that all of the students brought their own candy that was then put into each homeroom teachers’ bag of candy and then redistributed to all of the kids, but we think teachers may have sent out a notice telling parents to send their kids to school with candy. Who knows?

Mike, Monica, Hannah

Danny as a mummy

Jade had the best costume; he was a gangster

Parrot/Dolphin class

Baekseok's Parrot, Dolphin, & Kangaroo class

Friday evening marked a very sad moment for Kyle, who was the only person at Daehwa school (all of the Korean teachers were at Baekseok setting up/cleaning their new classrooms). Kyle stayed to take down all of the Halloween decorations and said a last good-bye to the place he learned to teach in. A neglected building, whose heat had been permanently turned off because Kwon refused to pay the heating bills, whose halls and rooms were filled with fond memories, countless frustrating phone calls and conversations, moments of students grasping the English language, an organized and smoothly run school, and an overall good time had by all of those who have been inside its walls. It was a very sad day indeed for our story’s hero. Would he survive Baekseok and all of the unorganized hell that it rains upon those caught in its path? Would the chaos that surrounds Baekseok destroy our hero’s positive outlook of Korea as it has already destroyed our once happy and joyful heroine’s? Only time will tell dear readers, only time will tell….

At a traditional Korean style restaurant

That Saturday night we went to an International Food & Wine Festival with Kyle’s friend Blaine, who has lived in Korea for 7 years, his wife, Jamie, who is Korean, Canadian Monica, and some of Blaine’s & Jamie’s friends. The IF&WF was $30 for all you can eat and drink for 3 hours. Not a bad deal, except that we hit awful traffic getting into Seoul and what should have been a 45 minute trip took us 2 hours!! However, we showed up ready to wine and dine and had lox for the first time since being in Korea and it was delicious! There was also delicious sangria and Kyle enjoyed a ginger cocktail. After the IF&WF ended, we suited up in our hanboks, the traditional Korean garb, and were ready for a night on the town. We went as Koreans for Halloween.  Needless to say, we had the best costumes out of anyone we encountered that evening. We went to a part of Seoul called Sinchon and actually got us and everyone in our party into a club (that was charging $30/person) for free because the owner liked our costumes so much. Random Koreans kept coming up to us and asking us to take pictures with them. Come on, our hanboks are pretty sweet.


On Monday, Nov 1, Kyle joined me in hell. It didn’t take too long for him to experience the kind of shit I have been dealing with for 8.5 months. For example, Kyle teaches a story telling class and Joann (the manager of Baekseok) just threw a random kid into Kyle’s class without saying a word to Kyle or the student. Fortunately, I arrived at the scene seconds after this happened and knew the student because he should have been up in my class at this time. I introduced Kyle to James and was able to give Kyle a quick rundown on James. 2.5 hours later, Joann does this again to Kyle, except that she tells him, “Elementary class now. 3:30-5:00pm,” and puts Kyle in a room with a sobbing little boy. By this point in time Kyle is furious. The little boy, Daniel, happens to be one of my student’s younger brothers, but he doesn’t speak, he clearly had no idea what was going on because we found out that Joann had put him in Mike’s class initially, but that Daniel then just started crying because he was so overwhelmed (Mike’s kids speak a fair amount of English and Daniel is just a beginner). Then Daniel was given a book that was ½ finished and another book that was way too difficult for his level. :/


Last weekend, Nov 6, we went into Seoul to see a Lantern Festival. There were lanterns from Korea, China, and Japan, although not as many as we were expecting. The lanterns were all set up in this river that runs through Seoul. It is kind of like a canal because there are walls on both sides of the river, but it’s about 40 ft wide and goes on for miles.  While we were perusing the lanterns and making our way down the river, we saw a hot air balloon being set-up. We thought it would be exciting to sit and watch the hot air balloon inflate especially since it was being done in such a tiny space. We also noticed that Koreans are attracted to fire like moths to light. We were quickly surrounded by hundreds of Koreans wanting to watch the hot air balloon. This is fine, except that even the Koreans who were much father away and unable to see anything had to stop and look whenever they heard a blast of fire inflating the balloon. The festival was fun except that we got caught in a ridiculous crowd when trying to leave. It took us an hour to walk about a block because there were SOOO many people. And Koreans are pretty pushy. We had ajumas, old Korean woman, trying to push people forward even though there was no place to go. There was even a moment when I became temporarily claustrophobic because there were so many people pushing me from all sides that I was actually being crushed. Korean crowds are a thing to avoid we have decided.

Horde of people

Japanese Lantern

Interesting cultural note:  Many countries celebrate November 11 by honoring veterans or by remembering the signing of the Armistice.  In Korea, however, they celebrate Pepero day.  Peperos are Korea's equivalent to pocky.  (For those of you who may not know what pocky is, it is a biscuit stick dipped in chocolate).  Koreans celebrate Pepero day on Nov. 11 because two pepero sticks next to each other make an 11.  *shakes head*  Oh Korea....    


We are off to Gyeongju this weekend. The original capital of Korea before it was changed to Seoul. We are going to catch the subway straight from work and head into Seoul (about an hour long subway ride) and then catch a bus that will take us straight to Gyeongju (4 hours). It should be a fun weekend filled with authentic Korean landmarks, something that is rare in Korea since most original things were destroyed by the Japanese and North Korea.


We hope all of you are well!   Miss you!   Love, K & M