Late Korea Pictures - Blowfish soup

Snack Bars the Korean way

You can see behind the counter an assortment of dried squid and other tasty treats

Last Lunch with Teachers and Principal

My Principal and I


Where did this delicous rice soupy thing come from?


Well you only use some of your rice. The rest you keep in this lovely wood boxy thing. Then you put the lid on and let it "steam" itself. To get ricey gruely soupy thing. As I am not very fond of rice I was not exactly enamoured with it but the process was fun!


Cheers with the music teacher and science teacher!


FOOD

How to eat duck in Korea

Step 1: Hot grill

Step 2: Add duck

Step 3: Prepare Sesame leaf

Step 4: Add veggie and meat goodness and ENJOY

Condoms and Potatoes

Some kid asked me what a condom was in class today. I asked him to repeat the word and use it in a sentence. I've found that asking where they heard it helps. As my friend who had a child ask her about the word sex found out. She tried to explain how when two people love each other they hug and make babies and that's sex. Turns out the girl was asking about secs, as in, "I'll be there in a few secs"

He said he had overheard it the other day. He's a good kid so I told him that a condo was like an apartment but you own it like a house. And then I assume his friend whispered the real answer in his ear in Korean. And the poor boy turned bright RED.

Poor boy!

I remember when Brad Lewis said "Coolo" in Spanish class in high school and Senor Naranjo told him that does not mean cool :-)

Or in Spain when Madeline walked into class late and said she was so "embarazado." Yes we mostly giggled. It is a bit hard not to when someone says they are a little pregnant.

And then there was the time in Spain I was trying to translate my cosmopolitan. And I was pretty sure lamed meant to lick. But I asked my teacher. She asked me to use it in a sentence (smart girl) I said "como con un dulce" like a candy. I didn't want her to know it was actually from a magazine referring to licking the sweat off your significant other's skin. Needless to say she came over to look at my sentence and began to blush. Hey I was trying to be polite lady, you were the one that had to look.

Basically, what I am saying is, learning languages is hard!

In other news. I had the Lotus root for lunch. Yes that's right the flower of enlightenment. It tastes like potatoes.

I also vacuumed yesterday. I really need to buy a mop but I keep forgetting to. Oops!

I think I like food

So I was walking to school today and I though to myself, "I wonder what we're having for lunch"

I get really excited about lunch. Moreso than I think teaching. Is that a bad sign???

Oh and I re-checked my gas bill $104.00 give or take a few in conversions.

I still have no idea how to work my bank except for taking money out of the ATM, but I can read my receipt and it says I have money so thats always a good thing :-)

PICTURES

Earlier when I posted about the

food...well

here it is


if its in a metal tray like thing its cafeteria food..it doesnt photo very well but i promise its yummy,










SamGipsal with my coteachers











The cherry plate is the meal my Dutch friends made me.

My weekend/the longest post I will probably ever post

I left my USB cord at home so for now pictures will have to wait, before I go into my weekend festivities, yes I managed to do laundry and I am quite proud of myself.

On Friday my co-teacher and her best friend (soon to be office mate) took me to a traditional Korean meal at a place called Pig House. That's right they spell it in Korean letters but it is an English name. The Pig House.

Its kind of like the Strip Club downtown where you cook the meat yourself, but its WAY different as in the waitress came over like three times to flip our meat because we forgot and she didn't want it to get overcooked.

So first you cook them meat, then you cut it (yes cut, with scissors) into smaller chunks cook a little more. Then you take a big lettuce leaf put a big mint leaf on it put some chopped veggies (like a coleslaw...not really spicy but more flavors than just mayo), then you put a slice of raw garlic, some sauce (like a chipotle kind of but not as bbqey), some onions marinated in soy sauce. and the meat. Then you shove the whole thing in your mouth and try and chew and swallow..oh yes this is NOT a date food, unless the person already knows and loves you.

So basically you make little lettuce wraps. I had them with pork (the korean word for the part of the pork translates to fat back...I don't cook so I don't know what part it corresponds to but it was delicous) and beef (kolbi, kolby?) overall quite tastey.

We had cold noodles (which was you guessed it cold noodles, in a soupy thing with a cold egg and mustard...I'd eat it but I really don't know who comes up with these things. I guess it is like their gazpacho as they eat it in the summer.

Then there was one food...I really cant describe...it was like eating soap...but not all together unpleasant. ..I guess Koreans really dig it I'll ask Gaeul sometime to spell it for me.

We also had some spicy crab which was delicous but hard to eat with chopsticks. What else? Oh a really good desert that was kind of like a snow cone, but with beans and marshmallows (kind of like what dad gets from the pho place every once in a while)

OK, so that was enough food to kill a small army, but I wanted to stock my fridge a little so I went to homeplus (like a super walmart/target but a little more expensive and LOTS more staff...yes StAff not stUff, people are yelling at you left and right about promotions and deals and thank goodness I don't understand a word of it and can easily ignore them...the food sample ladies are always nice though, they say "HOT" very loudly and slowly whenever giving me food and then they smile). I bought, cups, mugs, bowls, a strainer, some pasta, pasta sauce, cheese(like kraft singles but korean...their cheese slection is either...erm...simple plasticy lunch stuff or gouda...no just block of cheddar) , tortillas(no corn just flour :-( ) and bleach :-) My bathroom is supposed to be white and it WILL be white gosh darn it...plus some mold killer that I think is just bleach but it says mold killer and thats what I want to do so yeah I bought that.

When at homeplus one of my students saw me, I have no clue who she is but I am the only white person at the school so she has a one up on me, "Tacher, Miss English Teacher Careesa Pick" Koreans are like Mexcians as "I" means "EE" so I am CAREESSA Pick...a very short fast e for Peck almost like Pick.

Me: Hello how are you
Her: I am fine how are you
Me: I am good (three second pause) I am getting silverware
Her: Oh....Good Bye!

So yes that was my lovely exchange.

I then took the wrong way home and about...the entire legally blonde soundtrack later, was home. Once home I could not open one jar of pasta sauce luckily I bought two...the other will just have to wait.

Watched some really bad movie that wasn't that bad (I bought it for about $3) and fell asleep. Woke up and ... there's smoke outside my window...FANTASTIC!

Turns out some building near me burnt...sirens and lots of fun stuff. I stayed inside and made my bathroom whiter, made some pasta and overall had a very unproductive day....oh I watched a James Bond marathon always good times :-)

Sunday, woke up, made eggs (I have a stove...I have no idea how to use said stove, but I figured out how to poach, and scramble eggs, make pasta, potstickers and...ok so far thats it in the microwave) realized I have no bread or mustard and I forgot to buy a cutting knife.

Walk back to homeplus, NEVER AGAIN will I shop at homeplus on a Sunday. I almost died! It was so crowded!!! And everyone had shopping carts (I prefer the handbasket) and I was like darting and dodging and jumping and leaving aisles/getting stuck because I couldn't fit and it was NOT FUN! I don't usually get claustrophobic but this was BAD! However I managed to buy mustard, pepper, more silverware, bread, veggies, knife, bottle opener, can opener, and other fun stuff picked up a bottle of white wine that looked ok (by the way my college friends will probably be more amused than the family but a bottle of boons farm is like $5 over here...and why would they even import that stuff???) Yellow Tail runs about $12.

Figured I'd pick up a bottle of water near my house as I want to get a six pack but don't want to carry 12 liters of water home. Walk home (yep I took the wrong way again) nope can't stop by the store, why? Its filled with smoke! It is not on fire, but the same building that was the day before is and is filling the street with smoke. Unlike the San Diego fire however this smelled like candles or cinnamon, like a spice shop or candle shop had burnt actually quite pleasant. So I have to double back, the long way get home and put veggies away, put wine in freezer, take cold shower and open the bottle of wine...it is not awful, but it doesn't change the fact that I don't speak Korean. My apartment has a...PA system (I guess) and every once in a while the guy comes on and announces something...I never have any idea what he's saying and I assume its things like, "We're painting the stairs" since the stairs were recently painted etc. But when there's a huge fire a block away I just hope its not, "Evacuate the building". So ignorance is bliss and I go to sleep.

I wake up and hey! Smoke is gone, fire is gone, everything is good...YAY for sleeping.

Today I go get my drug test and AIDS test from the hospital, if I pass I stay if not...see you guys soon :-)

Then, once again assuming I pass, I go to register myself as a Alien Resident.

Payday is the 25th(only 9 more days, but hey who's counting), and I guess we have a spring break May 1-5th so that'll be cool.

OK, I think thats it for now :-)

Pictures from today at school

My classroom :-)

My lunch

it was yummy

Every day you get a soup, rice, some kind of meat, some kind of kimchi and some kind of green thing...seaweed???

I just had my first class ever!!!

This morning started with me being on the tv for the school (like the morning announcements) I thanked them for having me here. Told them their city was beautiful, and I looked forward to meeting them.

I have given probably a thousand speeches in my life. That one was probably the hardest!

Then I had my class it was 5th graders. They are...12? But in the states it is 11 (because in Korea when you are born you are already 1 year old) so over here I am 24 not 23.

It went ok. I am teaching WITH my co-teacher right now. She uses A LOT of Korean when she teaches. We taught prepositions. Are you exited? Yeah you should be prepositions are VERY exciting!

Then lunch. Technically we pay for it, but it comes out of ur paycheck VERY cheap. I had a delicious lunch of...rice (shocker) some seafood soup with vegetables, some sort of meet, a kimchi made with cabbage and a seaweed salad. Quite tasty. I had to use chopsticks...I did pretty well.

I go to the hospital today. If they find something really wrong with me they send me back to the States.

Tomorrow is the day to vote so it is a public holiday (my first public paid holiday).

Oh and per my father's request I changed it so anyone can comment :-) Be nice!

:)

Carissa