Andong: Part 2

Well Tausha told you a little bit about our visit to Andong, but I just want to add in a few things that she forgot about.Once we arrived at Andong we decided to get something to eat. We were drawn in to one particular restaurant because of the aroma that we smelled from half a block away. The restaurant had a picture menu so we thought that we would be alright. We ordered some fries and what seemed to be pork of some type. We waited patiently for our food, but were skeptical once the food arrived. I was brave enough to try the meat (which Tausha didn't try) and found the meat type to be indiscernible!  I'm guessing that it was some type of squid of octopus, but the only way that I can describe the sensation was that it was both chewy and crunchy. The taste however, was similar to a ball of rubber marinated in the chili-sause and the cook's gym sock!
After that we grabbed a popsicle to get rid of the taste and went back to our hotel. The hotel was nice the first night, but the the 2nd night's motel was even better. It had nice showers and a big screen tv, so I was in heaven. Tausha already spoke of the bus ride to the Hahoe Village, which was when I envied any sardines in a can. We did see a Mask Museum as well that was pretty cool though. It had a collection of masks from all over the world. Andong hosts a mask festival every September that that is supposed to be quite the spectacle. Tausha and I thought that it was interesting that Halloween masks made the stage next to the Venician and. African Masks. 

Once we decided to head back to Pyongtaek we found that all of the seats were taken from our transfer city to Pyongtaek. (a 3 hour train ride). We got some tickets, but we either stood or sat on the floor for the three hours. We did manage to get into the back of the cart, where we had slightly ghetto private seats.. Overall, we faced 95+ degree temperatures, bad food, and crowded transportation, but we had the time of our lives doing it. 

This was our super awesome motel on our 2nd night

This is me forging the river. I thought the umbrella was pretty flattering

This was our private train compartment. It's pretty fancy I know, but
 it's only the best when we're on vacation!

Mask Museum #1

Mask Museum #2

Mask Museum #3

Mask Museum #4: Watch out behind you!

Mask Museum #5

Mask Museum #6: My new buddy

Looks like plumber butt was a still a
problem 600 years ago.

Traditional-style Korean home.  The homes in this village are over 600 years old.

5-story pagoda

Andong chicken.  It's not the greatest picture, but it gives you an idea of how huge the plate was!

Our school has a week off for summer vacation so we decided to go to Andong.  It is a city where there are traditional style homes that are about 600 years old.  We took a train there and we had to transfer in Dong-degu.  So the screen on the train says "next stop Degu."  We got off the train and started looking for our next transfer.  We couldn't see it on any of the screens so we showed a worker our ticket and asked him what track we needed to be on.  He looked at our ticket and showed us that we were at Degu station, not Dong-degu.  At that time, we had about 15 minutes until our next train would leave at Dong-degu.  He told us to take a taxi and it would be about 10-15 minutes.  
He motioned us to follow him and we started sprinting through the station.  He took us outside to the taxi stop and told the taxi driver where to take us.  The driver looked at our tickets and kept laughing at us.  It was the kind of laugh that said, "Wow you kids are never going to make it.  You're crazy."  We were laughing with him because we couldn't believe we got off at the wrong station.  He showed us where the station was on his GPS.  We were stuck in traffic and thought we'd never make it.  We started making plans to just spend the night in Dong-degu and catch another train to Andong in the morning.  
The cab driver pulled up to the station at 1:57 and our train was going to leave at 1:58.  We flew through that station and found the right track.  Luckily, the train was delayed three minutes so we made it just in the nick of time.  Just barely.  
We made it to Andong and got a lot of maps and pamphlets from the tourist station.  We got a hotel and the next day we went to the folk village.  There is only one bus that goes to the village, and it only leaves every hour or so.  It was VERY packed.  But we got to the village and it was cool!  They let you stay in the old houses, but we decided not to because it didn't look like they were air conditioned.  And it was super hot. We had to keep sitting down in the shade.  I think we ate around 5 popsicles each for the couple hours we were there.  
We tried the Andong chicken.  I guess it's a big deal in that part of town.  I think you were supposed to share the meal with about 6 people though because it came out on a gigantic plate.  It was chicken, potatoes, vegetables, clear noodles, and a spicy sauce.  Pretty good!  
It's been awesome not having to go to work.  We've been working on decorating our apartment and it's actually starting to feel like a home now.  We got some picture frames and hung a couple pictures up.  And we got a little couch so we don't always have to sit on the bed.  The apartments here have a recycling area where people put their old furniture.  You can just take whatever you want.  It's kind of a cool idea because there's no way we'd be able to buy a couch here.  We don't know where to buy one and if we did, we'd have to take it home on the bus.  

Birthday party

Every month we have a birthday party for all the kids who had a birthday that month.  You can't really see the kids because they're so short but they're wearing traditional, formal Korean clothing.  Pretty much what happens is everyone comes into the room and one of the teachers takes a million pictures (the guy in the pink shirt with a camera).  He gets a picture of each kid individually, each kid with his class, each kid with his teacher, a picture of all kids with all teachers, a picture of all kids with just the foreign teachers... you get the idea.  Then we all go back to class for lunch.  After lunch, they bring in all the chicken and fruit that we had at the party.  Not a whole lot has really happened since we last blogged.  We're keeping busy with work and that's about it!

A few things that you just can't help noticing when you visit South Korea:

1. The biggest towels that you will find are about the size of two wash cloths sewn together.

2. No one really believes in using napkins.

3. A trash can on the street is a rare find. You are expected to take your trash with you.

4. You do not shake hands in Korean culture, a simple bow is the the proper greeting.

5. Everything is made by LG (Life's Good). You will see the logo on everything from dish soap to electronics.

6. Even though a cereal box or a beverage may seem large because of it's container. It is rarely more than 3/4 of the way full.

 7. Mirrors are everywhere. You will see them in every elevator and every entrance way! It may be a vanity thing, but you will always know if you look bad. I keep finding myself more and more attractive every day!

8. Kim Chi is in everything! If you don't like it you better learn. It comes as a side dish with every meal or is just mixed in with the main course.

9. Every thing in the grocery store has a bonus product. If you want to buy a box of chocolate, you may also get a free yoga pad that is taped to the package professionally with scotch tape.

10. Even though we don't understand Korean Television we still find ourselves singing jingles from commercials. They are very catchy and often in broken English.

11. As you walk down the street you will smell the splendid aroma of bakeries and restaurants which is cut off abruptly by the sewer and stagnant water just outside it's door.

12. Dogs are just accessories here! Everyone is scared of big dogs, but the little rat looking dogs will have their hair dyed blue or pink. It seems like having only the ears and tail dyed is in style right now though.

13. Even though rice is grown in Asia, it is surprisingly expensive in South Korea.

There are many other things and I will probably add to this list in the new future. 

Field Trip

Today the kindergarten kids went on a field trip to the water park, Caribbean Bay.  The male foreign teachers got to go because there is only one Korean male teacher.  But Carson and I had to go to the hospital for our medical stuff in order to get an alien registration card.  Then we went and set up a bank account (with our director of course.  We're not that good at Korean).  
We got back to the school just in time for lunch.  We ate with all of the Korean teachers.  One teacher asked us if we had ever been to Route 66.  He was saying how there was a restaurant there that had a 2 kg steak that if you eat it all, it's free.  So Carson and I told the teachers that there are actually a lot of restaurants like that in the States.  Then this tiny Korean teacher, Spring, said to me, "Tausha, I can eat two big Macs."  So I told her she should move to the US.  
Another funny thing that we have noticed here is that we speak English really clearly now.  All the foreign teachers make fun of each other because we use hand motions when we speak. E.g. fanning ourselves when we say hot... stuff like that.  We don't even notice it.  Even when we're at home, Carson will enunciate every syllable and speak a little slower.  I do it too.  
At lunch one of the Korean teachers commented on how good Carson's pronunciation was.  She had an app on her phone that grades your pronunciation so she had me try it.  It just has you read 15 words then it grades you.  I only got 75%.  The Korean teacher was saying she got a higher score than me.  I got hung up on the word "read."  The phone kept not recognizing what I was saying so I'd switch back and forth between (reed and red).  Anyway, that was funny.
At the end of the day, we practice speech with a few kids.  The Korean teacher said that the kids were saying that one teacher would tell them a certain pronunciation, then another teacher would tell them to say it another way.  We have teachers from the US, England, and Scotland so we all have different accents.  The teacher said to try to teach them more of an American accent.  So we each took a kid and practiced in a different room.  Two minutes later one of the teachers from Scotland came in and asked me how I pronounce "neglect."  I just think it would be hard to learn another language from people that have different accents.  Sometimes I can't even understand all of the English.  It's all good though.  These kids are smart.

I haven't taken any cool pictures lately so here's a picture of the cereal we just bought.  Cereal is pretty expensive here (maybe 6 or 7 dollars a box), but this box was about $3 so we bought it.  I'm pretty sure the Korean translation is "Puffed sugar."  What do you think?

Carson in Pyeongtaek

Pyeongtaek Market

We went to Seoul yesterday, but first we went to downtown Pyeongtaek.  That's where we caught the subway.  I think I enjoyed Pyeongtaek more than Seoul because there were less people.  In Pyeongtaek we walked around an outdoor market.  It was mostly food.  We saw little octopi swimming around in tanks, and the most disgusting thing that we saw were pig heads.  Just the full pig head.  They even had eyelashes.  One of the places had a few soaking in a big tub of water.  I'm not sure what you'd use a pig head for.  

After exploring downtown, we took the metro to Seoul.  The KTX or a bus would have been faster, but we weren't quite sure how to take one.  The subway ride was about an hour and forty-five minutes, and it got crowded!  But we finally made it.  First we walked up a really steep hill to a park.  It was surrounded by a fortress wall that was built in the 1300s.  Here's a video from the top of the hill.  

Seoul market

Then we went to an outdoor market.  It was gigantic!  It was just a huge labyrinth of knock of gucci and chanel stuff.  There was also food and tee shirts and other little trinkets.  I've never seen anything like this.  There were little tents set up everywhere.  It was packed too.  Not only were there tents, but there were little alley ways and you could go inside buildings and in the basement too.  We definitely got lost in there.  

Just a picture of Carson sitting on the bus

I do beleive it's rainy season.  Supposedly it only lasts through July.  It started raining last night, and we had an awesome thunderstorm.  There were flashes of lightning, and the thunder woke us up this morning.  It was so loud that it set some car alarms off.  So that was cool, but now it's annoying.  We are starting to get the hang of teaching.  Yesterday we had activity day with the kindergarten classes.  Instead of teaching the usual 40-minute classes, we had 10 minute rotations with each class where we did an activity.  The theme was summer so my activity was pretty much pin the tail on the donkey.  Except it was pin the sharks in the swimming pool.  Carson played the orange relay game.  The one where you pass an orange to the next person using only your neck.  He said the kids liked it, but he couldn't play it with the youngest class, Oxford.  The kindergarten classes are named after universities.  Oxford class is the little 5-year olds.  They are so cute! 
I teach class of 15-year olds in the afternoon, and they are helping me learn a little bit of Korean.  After we finish our lessons, they like to teach me.  Their english is really good so they're actually really helpful.  I sometimes have to plan ahead for their lessons because they are learning about the stuff you learn in Jr. high and high school and then forget.  We learn about dependent clauses and verbal phrases and things like that.  We work from 9:30-7 so we're pretty much at work all day.  We don't teach every period so sometimes we get 40 minute breaks.  The only time we really get to get out and explore is on the weekends.  So I don't have any new pictures.  But we'll be here for a year so don't you worry.  We'll post some soon!