February 28 - Term Break

Today was the last day of the term. Now I have three days off plus the weekend. Looking forward to some sleeping in!! And the chance to go to the hairdressers!!!!!

This evening my kids had to finish a test and then I had them making syllable pyramids using food words. The challenge was to see who could make the biggest pyramid.

I was rather enjoying reading their creations - until I got to number 5 - that just sounds terrible!!!!! (They're really into meat!!)

ham

chic-ken

po-ta-to

chic-ken-sa-lad

chic-ken-cur-ry-cake

I won't put down everything but the team that won got eleven syllables. That sounds like not much, but they weren't allowed to use dictionaries, just their heads, and no Korean foods. Here is their invention;

po-ta-to-chips-with-on-ion-and-gar-lic-sauce

It sounds rather wonderful. I am assuming they are talking about hot chips - New Zealand style.

February 27 - Gardening Korean Style

I've shown a few pictures of Korean style gardens before - basically some flowers in a wide and shallow bowl shaped pot. On Sunday Vickey and I stumbled across these! The best potted gardens I've ever seen. The only thing that could make one of these better would be to put it on the back of four elephants that just happen to be standing on the back of a giant turtle that is swimming through space ... Medieval world in miniature - and if there was a castle nestled in the middle of the garden, and maybe a dragon or a unicorn ... then my fantasy would be complete!! LOL!! I've read way too many Sci-Fi/Fantasy books but I still love these gardens - little miniature worlds!!

February 26 - Friends from Abroad

This has been one of the best weekends. We had Korean GYC meetings, they were wonderful. Justin Kim was the main speaker and then there were several other speakers.

One of the other speakers was Chad, the principal of the high school that is attached to the Bible College I was at in the fall of 2010. He and his wife Melinda accompanied a group of the high school students.  I first met Melinda at the health retreat I was at at the start of 2010, then again at the Bible College and now this weekend we've had a wonderful time fellowshipping together :-) I only found out a week ago that they were coming. They were supposed to accompany another group of students to England but then plans changed. I'm very happy they changed!!!

Things I will be mulling over as a result of this weekends meetings:

Freedom: The ability to choose to say yes or no.
Slavery: Only being able to say yes.
A person who is addicted to smoking is forced by the cravings to only say yes to cigarettes. Thy are a slave. A non-smoker can say yes or no - their choice. (Course they'd be a fool if they said yes, but they still have the choice.)
Someone who is under the law can only say yes to sin, someone who is under grace can say yes or no. Jesus gives us His victory power and the ability to say no.


Imagine the important things of life as a dart board. Love is the bulls eye at the centre. Doctrine or teaching is the next ring out, lifestyle issues are the ring after that. Doctrine and lifestyle are important but without love they are meaningless.


The fruit of the spirit is singular. The Bible records love, joy, peace, long-suffering, etc, but still calls it fruit - not fruits. So these are all different aspects of one fruit.


Love comes from the Holy Spirit, everyday we must be recharged. The only way we can reach a dying world is with love. The only way fear can be cast out is by filling up on love. When we say no to love we are saying no to the Holy Spirit.

February 25 - Korea's Best Toilet

I found Korea's best toilet. It is in the Seongbuk train station. They proudly display a sign announcing that in 2003 they were they had the best toilet in Korea.

They also had the ubiquitous 'soap on a stick' that you will find in any public bathroom in Korea. For some reason these just tickle my fancy!!

February 24 - Innocence

Found this in a shop.

I often find the choice of words that the Koreans use to translate a concept amusing  ... exactly what is 'innocent tableware'??

I suspect they mean clean.

February 23 - More Street Food

Another kind of street food I gathered the courage to try recently is Fish Bread (Bungeoppang) it is similar to Banana Bread but shaped like a fish. Inside is a sweet red bean paste, so no fish is actually involved in the making of this bread. It is quite delicious. 

Prices vary, can be anything from 3 for 1000 won to 5 for 2000 won, also sizes can vary too. (1000 won is approximately NZ$1.06)

February 22 - Street Food

On just about any street in Seoul you can find a small stall selling some kind of street food. I'm getting braver about trying it. Today's offering is Banana Bread (banana bbang) - you can tell it's Banana bread because it's shaped like a banana.

Also, in case you get confused the word Banana is stamped on it ... which is just as well as it tastes nothing like a banana  at all!! Tastes like some kind of sweet vanillary cake that has been lightly fried.

February 21 - Really??

So we were walking home at 9pm tonight. Taking the same route we take every morning, and every night, and every other time we traverse the distance between out apartment and the institute. When suddenly Vickey stopped and stared at a wall.

For the first time, one of us noticed that the garage we were passing was indeed abnormally short ...

We had to test it. Using the time honoured method of holding a hand up to the height of the door, and then carefully crossing the street, all the while keeping the hand at exactly the same height, I was able to determine that yes in fact a normal car could fit into this garage - with about 2 cm to spare - if it kept very close to the left side of the door ...

The sign above the door says "Parking garage in front of" according to my electronic dictionary. I suspect this actually means, "No parking in front of the garage."

February 20 - More Randomness ...

Actually today is really really random ...

hahahahahahaha - That is a picture of the inside of my pocket ;-)  I put my camera away but forgot to turn it off so now I know what the inside of my pocket looks like - and so do you ... aren't you lucky!!

February 19 - Random Explorations

Sunday - I went exploring again :-)  After a brief stop in a book shop - only bought 2 books could have bought so many more ...

Here are some of the things I found.

Decorative cabbages. I see planters full of flowers everywhere - although currently most of them are covered with straw - to stop them freezing I think. However these ones they left uncovered, apparently cabbages are still decorative, even when they are frozen.

I've heard of the Alpha Dog aka Top Dog and the Alpha Male aka the man who thinks he's top dog, but this is the first time I've seen an Alpha Building ... it wasn't even the biggest building around ... actually it was the smallest ...

Given my discovery that restaurants generally serve whatever is pictured on the sign I think I can be safe in assuming that this is an octopus restaurant and can also be fairly certain that I will never ever eat there!!

And then I was walking down the street and this shop picture caught my eye ... "Is that pastry??? I think that's the first pastry I've seen since I've been in Korea ... " Then I took a closer look at the fillings and decided I wasn't missing pastry that much after all ...

The fillings ... sweet potato and green tea?????

February 18 - Eating Out, Part 2

Today marks 10 months of my being in Korea :-) No Regrets!!!

One thing that has continually amused me about Korea is one particular restaurant chain. Other countries have fast food. Actually Korea does too. But, Korea also has Slow Food.

Slow food is healthy - well it claims to be healthy and I think some of the dishes actually are healthy - just not the ones with octopus and such in it. Essentially it is boiled rice and other grains mixed in with various seasonings and finely chopped vegetables and other stuff.

This is what slow food looks like. With, of course, the requisite kim chee pickled something as an accompaniment!

I pinched this pic off the internet, but I have actually eaten slow food and it was quite tasty.

February 17 - Weekend Activities

A few weeks back we had a competition to see who could build the highest tower out of rubbish. The moral of the activity was that nothing is without value and that working together can produce amazing results. My team won :-)

Here is the team and the tower.

And here is Gil and Lucus making things balance.

February 16 - Hangul

The Korean writing system and alphabet is called Hangul. I learned to read it when I arrived in Korea because I discovered that with my accent I was pretty much unintelligible when I tried to pronounce Korean words that were written with English characters.

A few weeks back Vickey and I went exploring a seredipitously discovered a museum where we could paint our names in Hangul. The museum was under a statue of a famous king. We actually thought it was going to be his tomb or something, and only went in because we were freezing cold. As with many places in Korea it turned out to be like the Tardis - much bigger on the inside than appears possible from the outside. The outside was about 5m x 5m. The inside was huge!!! Basically what we could see on the outside was simply a stairwell going down to a very large museum.

This is Vickey painting her name - behind her is a selection of other foreigners names and country of origins. We each painted two - one for us to take and one to leave at the museum.

My name in Hangul. When we got there I wrote on a slip of paper how I wanted to write my name in Korean. The lady who was in charge very politely and firmly told me it was wrong and made me write it this way. I didn't have the heart to tell her that while this way may follow the rules of Korean writing it doesn't sound anything like my name!

A Kiwi that I couldn't resist painting, it's been soooooo long since I painted anything.  (We had another meeting of our art group today - my flower is developing nicely!!!!!)

February 15 - Car Sales Yards

One thing I have found a complete lack of in Korea, is Car Sales Yards. Which is odd given the number of cars on the roads.

What you do find is lots of little Car 'Shops.'

This one is a big one, it has three cars. Most of them only have room for one or two cars. Apparently the person goes and views the car, has the chance to take a test drive - I assume, hence the ramp - and then they order a brand spanking new one of their own. (In any colour, as long as it's black, white or grey.) The car - complete with new car smell - is then delivered to it's proud owner who covers it all over with those little blue blocks and drives it everywhere further clogging Seoul's already congested streets. I have not yet discovered what happens to second hand cars - all though I have been assured that some where there is a whole district of second hand car yards.

And don't worry I'm not planning to buy a car - driving is at the top of the 'Thing's I don't want to do in Korea' List.

February 14 - Incorrect Things

I'm really enjoying my Debator class this term. They are young enough that they are still in the 'We love you teacher stage.' Although I'm sure they will turn into monsters in a year or two when puberty strikes!! But these kids also have ideas! They think about stuff. And, their English is good.

Today's picture is an essay from one of them ... love the odd mixture of formality and naivety. A little repetitive, we've been studying essay structure and they haven't quite grasped the idea that a supporting detail is not a repetition of the same thing you just wrote one line ago for the topic sentence ...

Worth a read ...

February 13 - Fashion Victim or Fashion Queen??

I've seen some really interesting choices of clothing since I've been in Korea, sometimes I think 'Now that is rather neat!' Like with this hat I saw in a shop window yesterday.

And then, other times I shake my head in a combination of shock, horror and disbelief and wonder, 'What were they thinking when they designed that?' or even 'Were they thinking??' ... like, for example, this disaster I saw within seconds of the cool hat - in fact 'Crime' is probably not a strong enough word to describe this outfit ... the person wearing it would look like they had a giant ill-fitting nappy on!

February 12 - Convict Culture ...

Last night while eating Mexican food I was telling my friends about the classic fish and chips from New Zealand and Australia. I rashly suggested that we had the next meeting of the International Food Club at a place I have heard about called the Aussie Bar. Thinking for sure I would be able to get fish and chips there. Today it crossed my mind that perhaps I should check this place out before I actually took my students there. So Vickey (one of my fellow teachers) and I headed to Itaewon and found the Aussie Bar. It is a classic Aussie Pub. Well except for the fact that the whole thing is about 5 metres wide and 10 metres long and you have to walk across the stage if you want to use the loo - also the cook who is also the waiter and the barman - and Korean, not Australian, makes the food in the building next door which has no internal access to the bar, so he is ducking in and out of the bar and kitchen via the street.

Was an interesting experience to say the least. Vickey and I spent an amusing half hour chatting with some half drunk Americans and an old Korean man who have chosen the bar as their 'local.' While the food was authentic - mmmmmm pineapple fritters - there is no way I can take my students there, and I won't be going back myself either.

There is an Irish Pub I've heard about that will hopefully be a little more genteel where I can treat my students to fish and chips - otherwise I may have to give up on that idea ... I'll check out the Irish place next weekend.

After I took Vickey to the Aussie Bar, she took me to Jail!
Which is somehow appropriate seeing as the evening began in an Aussie themed bar.

Jail is a theme coffee house in the basement of one of the buildings near where we live.

Inside each table is decorated like a cell.

Vickey longing for freedom ...

... and inspecting the graffitee left by past inmates ...

... then while we were in Jail I took the opportunity to teach her about TimTamSlams!

A successful introduction to 'downunder' culture :-)

February 11 - Eating Out

Again today I'm talking about food. About 3 months ago I formed an International Food Club with some of my students from Junggye. And now, even though I'm not at Junggye anymore we are still meeting.

Tonight I took two of them to a Mexican restaurant. It was very delicious! (That is a very Korean expression!) Here is Inna and Amy having their first ever taste of Mexican food. Inna has a dream of eating Mexican food in Mexico.

They were still smiling after that first mouthful - a good sign :-)

 A common sight during our conversations - where they are either trying to figure out how to explain something to me or trying to figure out what I just said ...

All of us enjoying a wonderful meal.

February 10 - Hidey Holes

The one thing I've been having difficulty with my new school is the lack of time being quietly and completely alone. I live and work with both of my work colleagues and while they are both lovely sometimes I just need to be on my own.

 Today I found a cute little restaurant that had one dish in English that was obviously vegetarian. As it turned out it was also delicious!! Plus, the waitress spoke excellent English, Plus Plus they made me another dish that wasn't even on the menu that was also vegetarian. Plus Plus Plus as I'm eating my meal it suddenly occurred to me that the stuffed toy poking it's nose out of a nearby plant looked amazingly familiar.

It was a Kiwi!!!

Think I've found my Hidey Hole for when I need alone time!

February 9 - Art Group

Finally I have an art group :-D 

One of the ex-students at my new school is an art teacher so she and I and two other students have formed a club. We get together once a week for a couple of hours to draw/paint etc. Loving it!!!!!  

Here is the first step in finally getting out some ideas I've had in my head for a while now. It is a single flower from a flax plant - and of course the finished project is going to look nothing like this!!!

February 8 - Our Rice Cooker

This is a photo of our rice cooker. Last week Vickey and I tried to cook rice in it. The problem is that all the buttons are labelled in Korean. We put the rice in. We added water. We sealed the cooker, plugged it in and pressed buttons until the light turned on. But, we must have done something wrong because the rice took three days to cook ...

Tomorrow one of my classes is going to translate the meanings of the buttons for me and tell me how to actually use this appliance.

February 7 - Car Protection

You know those people who buy new sofa's and then leave the plastic cover on them forever? Well Korea's version of those people have cars. They buy lovely new cars and then they put these nasty blue rubbery protective thingees on the doors to stop them bumping other cars and getting chips. I understand the logic behind the action, but it is just so ugly!!!

Very nice new car - ugly blue blocks.

Side view, look how they totally spoil the lines of the car!!

This car has expensive black and blue blocks ...

... but they are still ugly.

February 6 - Gold Therapy

Another advertisement from the elevator - anyone want to try Gold Therapy - no idea what it's supposed to be good for but must be good for something seeing as it's so expensive!!!!!  ;-)

Guessing this is aimed at those same people who do the flying yoga.

February 3 - Time Travel and Flight

Today's first Blog post is to make up for the one I missed on Friday. Hence the time travel - just pretend the numbers aren't out of order that today really is the third.

The topic of today's post is flight. For hundred of years humans have been trying to learn the secrets of flight. Now Yoga has revealed it :-)

An advertisement in the elevator of my school for the gym that is also in my institute's building is for Flying Yoga - I'd love to give it a go, but given my lack of coordination, (Which is getting worse as I lose more weight - becoming slimmer is making me exceedingly clumsy!!!), I'm afraid I would end up landing on my head ...

February 5 - Ummmmmm, Really?? I Don't Think So!!

On my way home from Daegu, (where I had a lovely time thank you; Luleka, Kamala, Andrew and Daniel,) I stopped in at Lotte Mart at Seoul Station. Often Foreign products or close approximations of Foreign products can be found there that you can't get other places. They have started their Valentine's Sales and there were piles of chocolate everywhere, all wrapped up fancily with ribbons and bows.

As I walked past a rather larger than usual display in a glass case one sales lady started talking to me in English. "Korean chocolate, would you like to try some?" and she pointed to a particular packet on the display, and urged, "Try some Seaweed Chocolate." I pasted on a smile to try (unsuccessfully I fear) to hide my horror at the thought of that 'unique' combination "Ummm, no thank you" I replied and then added "But can I take a picture?"

So here it is, today's picture: Made in Korea, Seaweed Chocolate! Anyone want to try? It's only 12,500 won.

February 4 - KTX

So right now I'm on the train from Seoul, heading to Daegu. Going to visit my lovely friend and indulge in girl talk for a few hours before heading home again tomorrow. Am writing this on my phone and I haven't figured out how to take and add pictures to my blog using the phone yet so I'm using one from the Internet. It's a map of my travels. I'm on the blue line traveling from Seoul to Dondaegu.

Talk to you again tomorrow. PS I know I missed out Feb 3, planning to do some time traveling when I get back to Seoul.

February 2 - Compliments, Speed Dating and Marshmallows.

Today was Fun Day at our Institute. Fun Day is an innovation of our Director to encourage the students to remember that English is fun and not all about drills. After all, I have to admit that while drills are very important for learning they are also boring!!!!

For our Fun Day we combined the classes at each hour together and they participated in various activities. 

First we had them play Bingo. Basically they had to introduce themselves to each other and then write their name and their first impression of the other person onto a blank square on the Bingo board the other person was carrying. Everybody wrote things like 'cute', 'pretty', 'handsome', and 'intelligent'. Is funny, from listening to students speak you would think that everybody in Korea is handsome or beautiful or cute and intelligent. Occasionally you get someone original who writes things like 'tall.' Once everybody had finished collecting compliments and their boards were filled they sat down and we began playing the actual bingo, the person who had collected a board full of compliments first called out whatever they had the most of and everybody who had that thing on their board crossed it out. Then the second person called out their most prolific compliment, then the third, etc. The first person to make three lines of compliments yelled Bingo and they were the winner!!

Speed Dating - Very Serious Business

After Bingo we played Speed Dating. Two lines of students facing each other, a sheet of prepared questions for each person and they have four minutes to talk before the line moves on. The twist was that every minute the teacher in charge would call out a random word and the students had to use that word in a sentence while still staying on topic. Some very interesting sentences when the question being answered was "Describe your ideal date." and the word is alligator.

Demonstrating Toasting Technique

Finally we finished up by teaching the students to toast marshmallows. Also highly amusing for me :-) But having demonstrated cooking technique 5 times today I am entirely sick of toasted Marshmallows!!!