Winter in Korea: Heated Floors

I must say that the idea of heated floors is quite an amazing invention.  Since heat rises, it keeps the room warm AND keeps your feet warm (a problem I would always have in the states).

The down side: You don't have it in every room.  You'll have it in one room of your apartment, but then either need a room heater or something to keep warm in the other rooms of your apartment.

Also, in some schools Koreans will tend to leave windows open during the winter (why?  I have yet to come to the reasoning... but I have learned Korean logic is very different).  So you may be warm when you walk into the classrooms, but freeze whenever you walk in the hallway or go to the restroom.

Purple Sweet Potatoes

What I recently found at the grocery store that I didn't know existed: Purple Sweet Potatoes.  I must say, I do love the smell of them -- more than their orange cousins.

Other random trivia: Sweet potatoes are very popular in Korea, as you will find them in foods where they may not be found as commonly in the states.
For instance, there is a food here pronounced  "dun kaus", which translates to basically pork cutlet, or as many in the states would like to call a fried pork tenderloin.  Its similar, but a bit different (I actually think dun kaus is better now).  Anyway, there is an option to have sweet potato filled pork cutlet -- and it is really quite amazing!!
Another unique way of eating sweet potato (pronounced "gogok ma" in Korean) is in a latte... yes, I do mean at a coffee shop.  Right next to the green tea lattes, you will find sweet potato lattes and they are really quite good.  At most places they are a bit yellowish in color, but I did go to one place that used the purple sweet potatoes.

Citron Tea - What a great idea for the winter!!

So I've recently discovered a tea through one of my schools that I've found is GREAT for the winter time.  It is known as Citron Tea or, aka, citrus tea.  They have them in a variety of flavors and varieties, but it seems that the default is lemon and honey flavored.  I've found that it is great for soothing your throat, (since the air is VERY dry here in the winter), boosting your immune system (tons of vitamin C  - yay!  This is really needed when dealing with little kids), and its very soothing on your stomach (Got heartburn or stomach upset?  This has done wonders for me!).  The best part -- it's absolutely delicious.  Thankfully they sell it in huge jars.

Foods that I didn't know existed until I came to Korea

During my time in Korea, I've discovered many foods that I either never realized existed or knew it was something people consumed.  These include:

- Black garlic (they'll sell it in a liquid - kind of like a soy sauce)

- Purple Sweet Potatoes

- Asian pears (round and bigger than apples)

- Red ginseng (its EVERYWHERE!!)

- Asian cabbage (used to make kimchi)

Also, there are a lot of eggplants here.  A lot more than you'll ever see in the states.

Absurd facts about Kim Jung il

Upon the death of Kim Jung il here is a link of absurd facts about him: 10 Absurd facts about Kim Jung il

Happy Thanksgiving!

This week at with my kindergarten students, we did several Thanksgiving activities and crafts.  Friday we also had a thanksgiving dinner.  The dinner was Korea style of course -- it included no turkey, pumpkin pie, or mashed potatoes -- but rather fried chicken, domino's pizza, korean pancake, dok-bolgi, rice cakes, kimbop, regular frosted cake, fruits, and more.

Today we had the students share with one another something that they were thankful for.  They all did a great job, though they naturally have trouble pronouncing "thankful" as they like to say "thank you".

With my 4 year olds, I had them make turkeys out of their hand prints and gave them the chance to color it anyway they wanted.  The 6 year olds I had them make turkey's out of lunch bags.

More Fall Korea Pictures

Here is a slideshow I posted of more pictures I've taken during my visit to Seoul last weekend:

South Korea in the Fall Slideshow

Korea Articles - DMZ and Money

For any further information about Korea's DMZ and information about cost of living/handling finances in Korea, I have two articles that I have recently had posted:

Experiencing Korea's DMZ

Teaching in Korea: Managing Finances

Gyeongju in the Fall

Click here to view these pictures larger

Ordering food

I'm sure many  people that haven't gone over the seas asks the question: How do you order food?  So I thought I'd make a post to answer.

In all honesty, the majority of the time that I eat out its with a friend or group of people where someone who has been here for quite a while orders the food.  However, I have ordered on my own or with a friend before and I do not know Hangul (Korean text) yet.  In areas of Seoul, its easier to order without knowing any Korean since most people speak English, but in the smaller cities like Gyeongju you have to know some Korean.
This is how I've managed to order food (so far)...

• Most of the time if it is a typical small Korean restaurant I just ask for one of the most common Korean foods, such as Kimbop (basically a Korean sushi minus the raw fish - they can be filled with tuna, beef, veggies, etc.) or Bibimbop (rice with veggies and red pepper paste) along with a few others.  More often than not they have one of the two.
• At places where you get Shabu Shabu or some big meal of food they often times have pictures with the Korean name, so I can simply just look at the picture and point and say "juseyo" (please).
• The reason I'm holding off on learning Hangul yet is because I'm trying to learn the names of things first so I know what it is.  Think of it like this: What is the point of being able to read Korean if you read "Kimbop" on the menu but you have no idea what kimbop is?  The only thing (so far) where I have felt compelled to really learn Hangul is at coffee shops when I want a different type of tea or coffee other than my often typical nok-cha (green tea).  If I knew Hangul, I'd actually know if they had "peppermint" tea on the menu or not because even in reading Hangul it will still be pronounced as "peppermint".  I suppose I can still always just say "peppermint", "chamomile" or "rooibos" to see if they tell me "a'nyo" (no) or "nae" (yes), but it is still nice to know beforehand.

The other day I also had a foreigner friend make the comment about how in Korean everybody eats from multiple dishes.  I suppose while living here I never really thought of it this way until now -- but you hardly EVER have your own dish to eat.  Instead you order one meal as a group or order a couple dishes between two people and share.

It seems that the reasoning for this would correlate back to the whole strong community-focus of Korean culture (I'll likely get into that in a later post once I know more).

What some foreigners are amazed about is how Koreans stay so skinny despite the amount of food they eat.  Which, this is true, but I think we also forget that Koreans always eat in groups so this makes a huge difference.  Why?  If you have one big plate of food in front of you, your brain automatically thinks "I need to eat all of this", so you eat what is on your plate rather than only eat the amount of food that your stomach tells you.  When eating a group Korean meal, I feel full afterward but never REALLY full as I would eating my own individual meal -- it does seem to make a difference.

Halloween in Korea and "bongs"

To answer for those who may be wondering, Halloween is not celebrated in Korea.  However, since there are so many foreign English teachers here the schools often host halloween parties for the kids to give them the whole "western culture experience".  Kids will dress up, play games, and act out to "trick or treat" so they get to experience the holiday a bit.  As for the foreigners, we often have our own halloween party and dress up on our own, which can certainly puzzle the Koreans over why we celebrate such a crazy holiday of dressing up in costumes.  I was able to celebrate halloween with parties for the kids, a masquerade party on Friday, a halloween party on Saturday, and then a group of us foreigners watched scary movies at a DVD bong Sunday night.

So then I'm sure the next question is -- what is a DVD bong?  Well, they have several "bongs" in Korea and they're simply public sources for entertainment.  They have DVD bongs where you basically rent a movie to watch and then you watch it at the building in a mini theater with friends.  The more people you have, the cheaper the total cost.

Another option is a PC bong -- where you can use a public computer, the internet, and play some video games.  I have yet to experience this one.  The other is a Noreabong, where you pay for a room and sing karoke with a group of friends.  The other is a jinjubong, which is basically a public spa that you can go to... sometimes when traveling around people will simply stay the night at one of these since you can shower, relax, change clothes, refresh, and stay there as long as its open -- and its much cheaper than a hotel.

Additional Information About the DMZ and Trivia from the Tour

Since there is so much information about the DMZ, the Korean war, and the military in general I thought I'd make additional post with other information and facts that I gathered either from the tour or in reading.

• The DMZ is probably one of Korea's top tourist attractions.  It sounds ridiculous to have a militarized zone as a tourist attraction, but many people from around the world are very drawn to visit.  In a way, its a bit sad that people can seem more attracted to experiencing the one bad part of this peninsula rather than the other neat and cultural aspects.  However, it is obvious that Koreans are pushing tourism here in South Korea in hopes to compete with Japan and China.  When you go to a tourist type of event or location they tend to give you tons of free stuff and extra attention when they spot your a foreigner.
• The bridge of no return is located east of the JSA.  It is the spot where all prisoners of war (POWs) were repatriated after the end of the Korean war.  This is the only ground link between Seoul and Pyeongyang.  
• As stated before, the north's flag at propaganda village stands 160 km tall while the south's flag at freedom village stands 100 km tall.
• At the DMZ, some North Korean products were available for purchase.  These were mostly varieties of wine.
• One of the more disturbing and, perhaps, nauseating facts that we had explained was that the body of Kim Il-Sung, the "great leader" of North Korea (and who is technically still their president, since they consider him "eternal"), is embalmed in a glass case for citizens and visitors to see.  In order for his body to be maintained and not decompose, it is required that his body must be cleaned weekly and then extensive cleanings must be done at other times periodically throughout the year.  The costs to maintain this is something like $80,000 or more.  Do not quote me on the cost exactly, as I am not 100% positive, but it was at the very least $80,000.
• Up until the 1980s, North Korea's economy was going well but since that time it has continued to fall, resulting in famine and need for supplies.  Coincidentally, South Korea struggled in the first 20 years post-war, but is now has one of the highest economies in the world.
• The only time that South Korea has ever been in complete control of their military was the year prior to the Korean War outbreak when the two countries were separated along the 38th parallel due to conflicting economic differences once they were finally free from Japan after the Japanese defeat in WWII.  Because of the war outbreak, the US and UN forces took control of their military and have continued to do so since.
• In South Korea, all men are required to enroll in two years of military service in training (yes, that is basically just boot camp for 2 years).  They can either do this immediately after high school or after college, but this does tend to leave them a bit behind females. 
• In North Korea, all citizens (male or female) are required to be in the military starting at the age of 16/17.  The years of service that is required (I think) was about 15 years, though it has changed a bit in the last 10 years... the length requirement used to be more.
• On the border between the north and south at the JSA there is a concrete slab to show where the soldiers (or anyone) should not pass.  The south side has gravel, but the north side has dirt.  A fellow tourist during the tour asked why this is.  The answer was that the SK and UN forces did construction on both sides at one point so both were gravel.  However, the NK soldiers insisted that the dirt must be put back because "the dirt is sacred to Kim il-Sung".
• In 1962, there was a US military private who, while doing his duty at the DMZ, simply decided to drop his gun, leave his post, and deny support of the democracy ideology and cross over to live in communist North Korea.  He still lives there today.  There are several sources of information on him, but a CBS news article interviewing him is here.  The documentary about his life is called "Crossing the Line".
• The Dorason train station connecting Seoul and Pyongyang was in operation to ship goods and products from 2007 to 2008.
• Samsung and LG (both South Korean companies) have a part of all of their products made partially in North Korea.  So if you've ever owned a Samsung or LG phone, part of that phone was actually made in North Korea.

For further information: Joint Security Area

Movies/documentaries that our tour guide recommended:

Kimjongilia

JSA

The most highly militarized border on earth -- the Korean DMZ

Likely the most intense, yet most interesting place to visit on the Korean peninsula is none other than Korea's demilitarized zone (DMZ).  This is the area that current separates the two countries of completely different economic structures and way of life.  A different economic structure may not be initially appear to be a very big deal, though the reality is that the two societies separated on this peninsula do not only have a different way of living -- but they nearly live in two different worlds entirely, as their perceptions of life are completely skewed from one another.

I will not go into information on North Korea in this post and how it differs from the South or really the history of Korea, as that is something that would take several posts to even begin to explain (and even then I would be off because few outside do know the the entire truth of the north).  However, I will say that there are many documentaries that are very informative on the topic.

Symbol of Earth as a whole and unification of a nation

For this post, I will try to focus on only the DMZ itself.  For my tour I took the USO (United Service Organization) tour.  The cost for the tour (through Koridoor) was $77 USD or 92 KRW.  The USO tour is the only tour available where you can actually visit the Joint Security Area (JSA) where you can see North Korean soldiers and walk into the meeting room.  Other tours that are available that are non-USO only take you to the train station, third tunnel and other areas with the JSA excluded.  The tour lasted from 9 AM to about 4:30-5 PM so it was a full work day of just tours.  Thousands of people tour the DMZ every year.  I did see many Koreans touring areas of the DMZ (from little kids to the elderly), however, I only saw foreigners touring the JSA.  Either they may not be allowed to or many simply choose not to because it is not something they like to be reminded of.   If you mention the DMZ or North Korea to a South Korean I noticed you get one of the two reactions: 1.  They don't want to talk about it because they do not want to be reminded of the bad history and separation of families or 2. They are apathetic about North Korea and do not fear them at all.

The tunnels

The first place that we visited on our tour was the 3rd tunnel.  This tunnel is one of 4 tunnels that the North Korean soldiers have dug under the DMZ in hopes to achieve a surprise attack on Seoul, the capital of South Korea and 2nd largest city in the world.  The tunnel was discovered in 1978 and is located 52 km from Seoul.  It is 1.7 km in length, 2 m wide, and 2 m in height.  It is so large that 30,000 fully-armed North Korean soldiers and their vehicles and weapons could pass through the tunnel in an hour.  Walking through the tunnel was shallow in height, so we had to wear hard hats to watch to not hit our head.  We walked all the way down to the first blockade of 3-4 that was set up by South Korea after they discovered the tunnel.  It is suspected that it took over 800 days for the tunnel to be dug.  North Korean soldiers created the tunnel entirely by hand, walking it and using dynamite, getting away, having an explosion, and going back and doing this again.  Imagine doing this for 800 days straight and how dedicated these soldiers would have to be just to get an opportunity to attack Seoul.

Propaganda Village

The second place we visited was the Dorasan Observatory, which is the northernmost observatory in the South where you can see North Korea's Propaganda Village and farmland.  This is only one of two places where there is human inhabitants on the DMZ.  The other is South Korea's Freedom Village.  Propaganda Village is merely a village in a caretaker status.  It is referred to as "propaganda village" because they have an extensive loud speaker system that broadcasts to anyone and everyone in the area the praises of Kim Il Sung, the "great leader" of North Korea.  These announcements are made 6 to 12 hours a day, mostly at night.  The other odd part about the village is that it has no citizens.  Although there are 15 to 20 workers present each day, they merely maintain the facilities and raise and lower the flag.  The people that live in Freedom Village (also known as Daeseong-dong) is adjacent to the military demarcation line (the official line that separates).  The residents of this village are there because they requested to live in their ancestral homes rather than relocated to a safer area.  The citizens are required to live under restricted conditions, as they must be out of their fields and in their village by dark every day and must be in their homes with windows secured at 11 PM every night.  Women of the village are free to leave and wed outside of the village, but the men are not so many times women are brought in to the village.   The South Korean flag that stands at Freedom Village is 100 km tall and, in order to "trump" south korea, the North Korean flat at Propaganda Village stands 160 km tall.

The third place we visited was the Dorasan Station, which is the train station that is currently built that would connect North and South Korea.  It would allow people to transport from Seoul, the south's capitol, to Pyongyang, the north's capitol.  The railway was in use for one year from 2007 to 2008 to ship goods, though it currently remains closed.  You can walk through the train station and receive a ticket that cannot yet be used and then walk out to the train tracks.  The idea is that once reunification occurs, South Korea could then be connected easily to China and to the Trans-Siberian Railway that crosses through all of Russia and into Europe.  Until then, South Koreans must either travel by air or a ferry to get to these locations.

The final and most popular location of our tour was the Joint Security Area (JSA).  If you google DMZ this is often the location that comes up because this is the spot where meetings occur.

The most influential incident of the DMZ was the 1976 Axe Murder incident, which was heavily covered during this section of the tour.  Prior to this incident, North and South Korean soldiers were allowed to have stations on both sides of the military demarcation line.  The situation occurred when UNC (United Nations) workforce decided to prune a tree that was blocking view.  The KPA (north soldiers) told them to leave the tree alone, but they did not log a protest since they would be typical custom in this situation.  The UNC soldiers then continued to cut down the tree, but within minutes KPA soldiers arrived.  The confrontation began without an incident, though the two disagreed on the situation and two American officers were pounced upon immediately and killed.  Four US enlisted men were injured and four ROK (South Korea) were injured.  Deaths of the KPA are still unknown.

Since that incident, the soldiers of each side are not allowed to cross the line and the area between Freedom House (on the south side) and Panmungak (on the north).  The area is being watched all day every day.  The USO was very particular about tourists in this area.  We had to follow a dress code, have our passports checked, and sign a release form.  We had to stand in two single file lines and not point at anything or express any communication (verbal or non-verbal) to any North Korean soldier.  We could take pictures of the north side, but none of the south because the UN does not want pictures of their facilities spread that could potentially be found by the north.

The same tour of the DMZ is offered by North Korea and they have about 9,000 tourists annually.  However, the US military tour guide we had said that the tour to go cost $5,000, though I have heard from others different prices.  Initially everyone except for US and South Korean citizens could visit, but it is currently open for US citizens as well.  South Koreans are still unable to visit.  Visitors are unable to get there through South Korea, as they have to travel to China first.  The tour guide told us that when North Korea gives the tour, when they go into the meeting room at the JSA, tourists are asked to take off their shoes and put their bare foots on the table on the south side of the room.  If you looked at an angle, you could see all of the prints left on the table.  The room is monitored 24/7 so military can hear everything being said.

Pictures

To make uploading, organizing, and sharing my pictures easier, I've uploaded most of the pictures I've taken here so far on my shutterfly account.  What is most convenient using them is that you can just order prints of the pictures through their website if you would like copies and I can make photobooks of my pictures later on.  The only thing that I have not gone so far to do (and probably will not have the motivation to do it) is give descriptions for all of the pictures because it is such a long and tedious process.

Here is the link to my Shutterfly pictures:  Jeni Lyn's Photos

Ginseng Festival

Last week, I took a train up to Youngju to go to the nearby small town of Punggi to go to the village's annual Ginseng Festival.  I took the tour through Adventure Korea, so there was a variety of activities set up for us.  When I arrived, we started off with a peeling the ginseng contest where whoever had the most peeled first one a prize.  We then got to walk through the festival on our own to see what the vendors had.  There was a place to see different ginseng varieties and ginseng wines.  Some vendors let you try a ginseng macoli (macoli is the rice wine popular in Korea).  There was one place where it was like a mini-spa where you could put your feet or legs in a steam.  While walking around, a few of us met the guy who is president of the ginseng foundation and he gave us a bag of organic apples, apple juice, and ginseng crackers.

After exploring the festival, we took the bus over to some ginseng fields where we were able to see how ginseng grows and harvest some of it ourselves.  Ginseng takes 4-6 years to harvest and it can only be harvested by hand because the root is the part that is used and its not easy to pull out of the ground.  The best quality ginseng should be in the ground for 6 years.

 After harvesting some ginseng and seeing the fields, we went back to the festival to make our own ginseng wine.  It was very simple.  We just peeled and cleaned a piece of ginseng, filled a bottle up with soju (rice liquor), and added the ginseng to the bottle.   We now just let the bottle sit for about 3 months.

  

Hiking up Mt. Sobaek

This weekend I went to a Ginseng Festival in Punggi and then went hiking.  Because I have yet to edit and upload the pictures I took at the festival and many of the traditional Korean housing I stayed at, so these are just pictures of hiking.

I went hiking up Mt. Sobaekson.  It is about 320 km of land.  It was quite a long hike and I must say -- you've never truly gone hiking if you've never gone up a mountain.  This was challenging and it took us about 2 hours to get up to the top.  Going down was a little faster, but even then you have to watch to be sure that a rock doesn't slip out from under you (I learned this the hard way by having a little wipe out myself).

It was really nice to go in the fall because we were able to capture some of the leaves changing colors (and it wasn't NEAR as humid as it would be otherwise).

We woke up to leave for the hike at 7:30 AM and finished up to have lunch at about 2 PM, so it was a full day of hard work!!

Flat Stanley

This past week I was happy to receive some mail: Flat Stanley.  As a project for 2nd grade students at my home elementary school, Flat Stanley is sent to many faraway places.  I now get to fill out the journal and send some pictures of Flat Stanley with kids.  After this, I'll even be able to have the kids be pen pals!

Experiencing a Korean "K-Pop" Concert

Last weekend, Gyeongju had a K-Pop (short for "Korean-Pop") concert.  My friend Lauren and I decided to take advantage of this opportunity to see what a Korean concert is like.  The tickets only cost about 5 KRW (for $5) and the sound of the music is best described as "bubblegum pop".  Its basically a series of boy bands and girl bands.  

The Koreans certainly love and go all out for their K-pop concerts -- with signs and balloons of their favorite group and plenty of fireworks.  All the "band" names are in English, but the lyrics are a mixture of Korean, English, and other sounds (they are no "true" words).

They had plenty of food being sold during the event.  The most common was kimbop (as I discussed in an earlier post) and dried squid (like beef jerky, but its squid).

When you ask a Korean their age...

When you ask a Korean their age, you will often times be a bit puzzled when I girl who (to you) appears to be 6 tells you that she is 7 or 8. 

In Korean culture, ages are determined a bit differently than in western cultures.  First, when a Korean child is born they are considered to be a year old.  This reasoning for this is that Koreans count the time that the child spent in the womb as one year of life.  The second thing that Koreans do that is different in regard to age is that everyone has the same birthday, New Year's Day (as of right now I do not know if this is on the New Year's Day of the sun calendar or New Year's Day of the lunar calendar- I will have to check that).  The reason for this is because Koreans want their people to have a good sense of community.  In order to prevent a more closeness among its society, everyone has the same birthday.

So, for example, if a Korean child was born on New Years Eve they would be 2 years old by New Years day because they are considered one year at birth and then one additional year at the start of the new year.

Gyeongju World Culture Expo

During my long 4-day weekend for the Chuseok holiday, I went with my friend Steph to the Gyeongju World Culture Expo since my director gave me two free tickets.

The expo is the first cultural fair in the world and there are many artistic events that went on throughout the day.  For a little overview of attractions at the expo, I wrote an article here: Gyeongju World Culture Expo

I posted pictures from the expo here: Gyeongju World Expo Slideshow

Weather

I've had several people ask me about how the weather is here so I thought I'd make a post to explain.

The weather would probably be comparable to maybe Kentucky and other "upper" southern state in the US.  It mostly just feels either hot or cold because of the humidity.  It felt very stuffy to me when I first got here (it has just finally cooled down to 60s this week).  You'll often have little drizzles of rain.  We do get snow here, but it is light and only lasts a couple days.  One trend is that Korean kids will only make snowmen from two snowballs rather than the typical 3 that you'll do in northern state of US and Canada.

You'll hear on the news of Japan and India having earthquakes, typhoons, and tsunamis.  None of those things occur here.  We may get some rain from a typhoon that goes through Japan or India but that's it -- no high winds or anything.

If you don't really know what a typhoon is, here's an article I wrote explaining: Hurricane or Typhoon: A Look at the Difference.

My New Favorite Treats: Kimbop and Shabu Shabu

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In the last week or so, I now have a new favorite treat: Kimbop.  To explain it simply, its like the Korean version of Japanese sushi because if you order it in a restaurant or buy one at the market that's what it looks like.  The picture of one I have here is one of the 80 cent ones from 7-Eleven.  And no -- it is not raw fish.  Actually, in Korea anything wrapped in seaweed like this is called kimbap (or gimbap, in some spellings), while anything wrapped in seaweed in Japan is called sushi.  You can have it filled with just about anything - veggies, beef, tuna, chicken, cheese, etc. All have rice and seaweed at least but there is always something else added.  And no, it is not by any means a "specialty" meal as it is in western cultures (in fact, they find it amusing that we look to it as being fancy - but wouldn't you if China thought cheeseburgers were "fancy"?).  It's what you eat here instead of sandwiches.  Yes, there are some sandwiches here (had a dollar burger from 7-Eleven the other day) but this is more common.

My next few favorite treat is Shabu Shabu.  I think it was originated in Japan, but there are many different variations of it now in all countries in Asia.  They place a big bowl in front of you and fill it with water and broth.  You can choose from beef or seafood as the main dish to add (we had beef) and then they give you a variety of lettuces, mushrooms, carrots, sprouts, etc. to cook in the mix with it.  To eat, you just grab the cooked pieces with chop sticks, dip it in some sauce if you wish, and enjoy!  In Korea, of course the sauces are more spicy and they give you a side of coleslaw and kimchi.  Many restaurants here have the Vietnamese version where you take the meat, veggies, etc. out of the pot and wrap it in a clear rice paper. Once you've eaten most all of the beef and veggies, the server will then come by and fill the bowl with a little more broth and then add rice, seaweed, and an egg to finish up the meal.

Cost of Living

After living here for a month now, I have now received my first paycheck.  Along with this, I also got my bills for the month.  To give an idea what the cost of living is here (and to further explain why so many foreigners teach ESL here) here are my monthly costs in Korean won:

Gas = 4,700 KRW
Electric = 8,930 KRW
Garbage = 27,000 KRW
Pension = 67,500 KRW (which I will get back once contract is completed)
Health insurance = 45,070 KRW (the country has a public plan)
Cell phone = 13,220 KRW (with a phone given to me by the school)
Internet = 9,900 KRW

I know you're asking "But what is the conversion rate of KRW to USD?"  This is probably the easiest currency to convert.  Wherever you see a coma just replace it with a decimal point and that's the cost in USD.  So, my electric for the month was $8.93.

What about rent?  Well, the school pays for that.

Chuseok - Korea's Thanksgiving

This past weekend was Korea's Thanksgiving, also known as Chuseok.  The holiday follows the lunar calendar, so the date (according to the sun calendar) is variable each year.  Most Koreans travel throughout the peninsula to visit family, so many businesses are closed and cities are not as "busy" as they normally are.  I certainly knew it was Thanksgiving in this country when I went to HomePlus (the British version of Walmart) and you could barely move.

Here's an article I wrote about the customs and origin of Chuseok:

Celebrating Korea's Thanksgiving

Pictures from Chuseok Weekend Round 2

Ice Box

Rice Fields

Visits of my 4-day weekend

This past weekend was Chuseok, the Korean Thanksgiving.  I will explain the holiday itself in a later post, but right now I'm just going to post some of my pictures that I took around Gyeongju this weekend.

A store window of traditional Korean dresses.

The bread that Gyeongju is famous for - Hwangnam bread

Hwangnam bread!  Its basically little white bread rolls filled with beans.

A pond in a tomb park.

Other side of the pond.

A tomb

Lack of Annunciating

After learning and practicing a few Koreans words during my lesson with my great Thursday evening group of 4th graders, I have learned one main thing about the Korean language...

Annunciation does not exist. 

When I asked the kids how to say "right" in Korean (with the right turn meaning) I heard one say "orlenjo", "orango", "ordujo", etc.  I guess I'm just going to be sure to say "or" and "jo" and mumble some other sounds in the middle because that's what they do.

Everybody has said that once you get the alphabet memorized it makes it much easier.  I should probably get started on that because so far my motivation for it hasn't been there.  I would like to know enough though to interpret some signs and be able to order food the right way.

It is also a bit interesting to talk with other foreigners here and some can already tell where you are from by the accent.  According to this guy I met from Wisconsin and a girl I met from Georgia, I have a "rural, northern Illinois, Chicago mixed accent".

Accents in Learning a Language

Learning and translating between languages can really be a funny thing.  This weekend while visiting with some people who teach English at the university in town and some others that have been here for several years, I have been able to hear some humorous stories.

Today I opened my bank account and had lunch at McDonald's with a fellow Korean co-teacher.  We started talking about how to communicate with a taxi driver and we started going over a few words.

One of the biggest things I'm seeing in learning any language, is not entirely the sounds but it truly boils down to how you annunciate and where you place the accent.  For instance, I told my co-teacher how I said my neighborhood to a taxi driver.  When I said it, I had placed the accent on the second syllable when the correct way to say it is really on the first.  So what I was saying (by placing the accent on the second syllable) is a type of portable toilet.

I was also able to clear up how to say little words when giving directions.  From talking with my foreigner friends, I was told that left is "winjo" and right is "orangjo".  Saying left was correct, but how I said right was a bit off and it should be pronounced "oredjo" - or something rather similar with a "d" sound (I'll have to check on that).  The two super easy ones to say were "straight", which is basically pronounced "cheek-chin" and "stop here" that is "yogio".

Annunciation and accents is a consistent issue that I keep seeing in class.  In order to break kids of this and make them known of the error, I stole a little idea from something I did in HS.  In sophomore year English with Mrs. Skutt, we always used to "pound out" the vocabularly words in order to be more aware of where the accent mark should be placed when we took the vocab quiz.  Before she taught us this in class, I always struggled at this section of the quiz.  After pounding out the words I would easily pick up on the rhythm and then remember where to mark it on the quiz

So I started doing this with my 3rd-5th grade students after we complete a reading or I am reviewing some words with them.  With several of these students since they are at school all day already, their attention spans are fairly short so trying to keep their attention for them to learn something can also be a challenge.  The activity of pounding out words or to "make a song" out of them appears to not only help them annunciate and accent the words correctly, but keep them motivated as well.  So instead of getting the common reaction of "Agh, I have to go over more words.. can't we play a game now?" I get the reaction of "Yay - I get to pound on a desk".

What exactly is kimchi?

I'm sure after some of my posts now, some of you are left wondering "Ok, so what exactly is kimchi? Why is it such a big deal in Korae?"  I asked myself these questions a bit as well before coming here but now that I've had it I can explain.

Basically, kimchi is the traditional dish of korea.  As Russia is known for having borscht, Korea is known for kimchi.  The oldest references to kimchi were from about 3000 years ago in Chinese poetry texts.  The name was originated from the Three Kingdoms of Korea (I don't understand all the history of the kingdoms yet, but since I live in where probably 90% of the history is, I'll learn soon enough).  Kimchi was originally only made with cabbage and beef stock.

Today, kimchi is made with napa cabbage (a variety native to southeast asia).  There are other varieties available today that may include asian radishes (that are MUCH larger than the variety in the US), green onions, and cucumber.  The main vegetable of choice is then fermented by painting it with salt and then having it sit out overnight or for at least 5-6 hours, cleaning it, and then applying the sauce. Depending on the recipe, you may have some garlic and other vegetables in the sauce, but for most all of the traditional sauces used red pepper flakes is the main ingredient.

From my experience, I can't say that there is any good comparison.  Some people say that it is similar to sourkraut (since that is fermented as well), but I don't notice much similarity once you add the sauce.  Because of the red pepper flakes, some batches can be quite spicy at first but you can eaily tone it down by eating some rice or drinking some water after each bite.  In the Gyeongju area (and more southern part of the peninsula) it sounds like it tends to be on the spicier side than up on the northern part by Seoul.

Kimchi is the most common banchan (side dish) of Korea.  It is normally served before your meal or as a side treat to add with your meal.

Kimchi does also have many health benefits (more than yogurt), which I outlined in an article here: Health Benefits of Korean Kimchi


*Random trivia: In Korea, when you take a picture you do not say "Cheese!", instead you say "Kimchi!"