Catching Up!

Hi!

I apologize profusely for not writing here for weeks. It was with good intentions. What is it they say, something about the road to somewhere being paved with good intentions...?

I was helping my niece Emma Erickson with a project for 1st grade class. They read the book Flat Stanley which features the main character Stanley, who is flattened by a falling bulletin board. Stanley then travels the world by means of an envelope to visit his friends and have adventures in foreign places.

Emma sent me a flat version of herself, which was so wonderful. She did an excellent job detailing "Flat Emma" with her current hairstyle and a smile that I always love.

I brought Flat Emma with me everywhere to have adventures, try new foods and see what Busan has to offer.

Here is the Flat Emma Chronicles, which detail the adventures that we had together.

March 21, 2012

Dear Emma,

Today, I arrived at Keonkuk Middle School in Saha-gu, Busan, South Korea. Auntie Jayna was very excited to see me and I was very glad to be free of my envelope. It was a long journey!

Busan is a huge metropolitan city on the south east coast of South Korea. The population of Busan is about 3,600,000. It is not the largest city in South Korea however, the capital, Seoul is larger and much more fast-paced.

South Korea is a fairly small country, when combined with North Korea the two countries are about the same size as Minnesota. So, South Korea itself would be about half the size of Minnesota.

I had lunch with Auntie Jayna and her friend Hee Jung. Hee Jung is an English teacher just like Auntie Jayna and she is really nice! In the afternoon I went to an After School Class with Auntie Jayna, there are students from middle school grades 1-3 (similar to grades 7-9 in America.)

For dinner, we went to a “burger joint” called Farmer’s Burgers with Georgina, Laura and Caroline. Auntie Jayna ordered our burger, the Honolulu, which had a ring of pineapple and some balsamic vinegar on it. The burger also came with a drink and fries. It was delicious!

We rode the subway home and called it a night!

March 22, 2012

Dear Emma,

Today was rainy. Auntie Jayna and I were very tired at school, but we made it through the day! We made some Fried Rice after school which was delicious!

The locals tell us that it will rain often during the summer, which is typically hot and very humid. Spring is coming, the weather is similar to a spring in Minnesota with cool, fresh mornings, warm afternoons and very chilly nights. In the winter the average low is freezing, which is 32° Fahrenheit or 0° Celsius. It may snow here occasionally during the winter, but it doesn’t last long.

March 23, 2012

Dear Emma,

After school today, Auntie Jayna’s friend Yu Na came over to help us set up the new microwave. It is red and pretty basic, but Auntie Jayna is very excited at the thought of possibly being able to make ‘cupcakes’, it would literally be cake in a cup, in the microwave. Like the instant desserts that you can buy at the grocery store in America. After leaving the apartment we went to Starbucks and Auntie Jayna and I shared a Soy Green Tea Latte. It was delicious. Yu Na speaks English very well, but she is hoping to get better. We had a great time!

After we left Starbucks, we went to the Supermarket. Auntie Jayna got lots of exciting things, so she can make pancakes and some sort of chocolate cake and soup.

We went out to meet some friends and had some strawberry-kiwi juice. After that we called it an early night, heading home in the rain.

Yu Na said that she would like

to take Auntie Jayna to a Lotte Giants Baseball game here in Busan. Their biggest rival is the Seoul Twins and it is the kind of competition that the Koreans love. J The students love sports, especially soccer and basketball.

Hiking is also very big in Korea, where there are lots of mountains that surround the countryside. Spring is an exciting time here in Busan, the cherry blossoms should start blooming in late March or early April. There is a Cherry Blossom Festival that is coming up soon, I will be sad to miss it.

March 24, 2012

Dear Emma,

We woke up this morning ready to take on the world! After breakfast, we worked a little bit. Then we got ready to go and left to meet up with some friends at Haeundae Beach. We had lunch at a Chinese restaurant, where Auntie Jayna ordered a coca cola and Chop Suey with rice. It was delicious!

After lunch we got on a bus and held on tight! The bus drivers are wild here in South Korea! It is hard to hold on, and there are not very many seats so you have to stand up. After we got off the bus, we walked up the hill to get to Yonggungsa Temple. There was a market on the way to the temple, selling lots of different things. Things like prayer beads and trinkets to bring home, silkworm larvae and boiled seashells for eating.

As we walked up to the temple there were many statues around and a staircase that lead down into the valley where the land meets the sea and the temple is located. It was beautiful, the sun was out and the shadows encased the valley just right. The sea was gorgeous, it was very exciting to see the sea.

We climbed the staircase behind the main temple to an elevated platform with a huge statue, and lots of little statues surrounding the platform. There were great views from such a high position!

After we left the temple, our friend Mark decided to try to eat some of the silkworm larvae. He said that they were not very good, and didn’t eat very many. Ewww!

We took the bus back to Haeundae and then a subway back to our neighborhood. We were so tired that we just put in a movie and relaxed for the rest of the night!

March 25, 2012

Hi! We started off today with banana pancakes topped with fresh pineapple. Hmm, it was so delicious! After breakfast, we finished up a little work and then left the apartment to meet our friend Hee Jung to do a little shopping. We rode the subway and got to chat with Danielle, she is also an English teacher in Busan like Auntie Jayna. We got off the subway at Nampo, a good area for shopping. There is a huge area under the streets of Busan that is great for shopping and sometimes you can find a good deal there. Auntie Jayna bought a new purse for 10,000 won, which is a little less than $10.00 US dollars.

After buying a new purse, we went to the Lotte Department store near the coast in Busan. Georgina met us there and we shopped around for a bit.

We decided to mosey out onto the street to find other stores. There were people everywhere, the streets were packed! Hee Jung offered to buy us a little snack, so she brought us to her favorite street vendor. We ate our snacks standing at the edge of the vendors stand, there were people nudging past us the whole time. The food was delicious and ready to eat quickly.

It was coffee time, we walked a couple blocks until we could turn off the block to get to a quieter street. We had coffee at a café called Tom n Toms. Auntie Jayna let me try some of her iced green tea latte, and it was delicious!

Hee Jung brought us to this wonderful restaurant that is well known for the pork that they prepare for their guests. There was a grill in the center of the round table, and when you sit down they bring hot coals for your meat to cook on. Hee Jung and her friend Su Jin ordered pork, and then grilled it; it was delicious! The server brought out a soup that was bubbling because it was so hot. It tasted delicious, but it was almost too spicy to eat. After the pork, they ordered something else that is supposed to be really good for your skin. It was pig skin. When we finished the pork, they grilled the pig skin and then we ate that. It was a little rubbery, and very strange. Neither Auntie Jayna or I had ever eaten anything like it before.

After that the girls took us to the Saha-gu neighborhood, which is closer to where Auntie Jayna’s apartment is. They ordered something that tasted good but very rubbery and was strange. It was the large intestine of a chicken. There is a first time for everything, right?

We went home a little while later, it had been such a long day of shopping and friends that we were really tired.

March 26, 2012

I have so many plans to visit other temples in South Korea, Beomosa temple looks wonderful, but I will have to cut my trip here short. Auntie Jayna said that she loves how beautiful Busan is with all of the mountains and there are always so many things to see and do.

Today, we went to work at Keonkuk school and then came home. Auntie Jayna was sure that she could try to bake a cake in the apartment. After doing some reading online, she thought it was absolutely possible to use the rice cooker to bake the cake.

She mixed up a homemade chocolate cake and then poured the batter in the rice cooker, keeping her fingers crossed.

It took nearly two hours for the cake to bake, but it worked! The texture of the cake is a little strange, but it was chocolate and delicious.

Just as the cake was finished, we had to leave to go meet up with Georgina. We met at Home Plus, which is like a large Walmart that is 4 floors tall. We only made it to two floors though, it was too big. We found all the things that we needed and got on the subway with Georgina for the trip home.

These last two pictures are from an evening that we went to a Mexican restaurant with friends. It was so much fun!

I had so much fun with Flat Emma that it was sad to see her leave. Now I will just have to remember that she is always with me!

My first walkabout in Busan.

Hi again!

It seems that the weekend is always busy, which is good because that's what I'm used to from home as well. On Thursday night the school that I work at had a dinner for all of the faculty. We went to a buffet very near my house. I am not always one for buffets, having been inducted by Old Country Buffet at home where everything looks different but somehow tastes exactly the same. This was different. They had all sorts of delightful things, sushi (best that I've had in Korea so far), pizza (why waste valuable space in my stomach when there are so many other things to have?) spaghetti, beef bulgogi, shrimp, and a variety of meats and seafood cooked to order.

This is my friend Hi-Jun. And this is Yu-Yu.

Both of whom work at the school with me and have been very friendly and helpful!

The pic below shows my first attempt at potato soup in Korea. I tried to mash up some of the potato bits to get a little more of a creamy consistency but no go. It still tasted very good. Very near to what I would make at home, which is extremely comforting.

In fact, I liked it so much that I made it again, better in fact, yesterday for lunch.

The photo above shows the view that is outside the end of my hallway. There is a little balcony out there, which is lovely. However I think that people have put their food waste out there, it smells fishy (even in 50 degree weather) and I saw little bones everywhere in the soil. Eww. I can't imagine that will smell very good once it gets nice and humid and hot. Oh well, I will hope for the best.

The photo below shows the balcony view into the hallway of my floor.

I live about halfway down on the left.

I went for a two hour walk yesterday, this is one of the main roads as I got closer to the river. Those trees are a little creepy if you ask me. I am definitely glad that I went this route though, I found a Daiso, which is sort of like a dollar store. They definitely had some things that my local grocery store doesn't have, or at least they had them cheaper. :) I will most likely be heading there for things as the weeks progress.

These boys were really funny, they had been biking as I walked across the bridge. I was trying to get some pictures looking to the south (where the river meets the sea). If you have a chance and want to get an idea of where I was, you can go to google maps, type saha-gu, busan, south korea (or just copy and paste). The road is marked as 2 and I headed west to the island, then back. Anyways, the boys were making faces and silly gestures at the oncoming traffic. Definitely a dangerous idea, but it was not my place to say anything, so I just laughed and prayed that they wouldn't hurt themselves.

This picture shows the mountain that I live on. In fact you can see the school that I work at, which is kind of exciting to me for some reason. The building in the middle of the picture is marked Park 103. Just to the left of where those words are is the middle school that I work at.

This is interesting to my MN friends and family because 3M is a MN company! These are little hooks that stick to the wall, make it unnecessary to make holes in the wall.

Above is a picture of the school that I work at. This is taken from the 6th floor (the floor I live on) of my apartment building. I at least live on the opposite side of the apartment building, so I don't have to see it all the time.

The pic below is also taken from my floor of my apartment building. This is a little store that I go to nearly every day. There is a woman there who is really nice and we always giggle a little bit about how I just don't understand any Korean. We do manage to communicate a little bit, today she said something about how long my hair was. It sounded like something nice, so I'll just think that it was. Anways, I buy my water here. I could get it for cheaper (think $0.25 cheaper) at the bottom of the hill, but that would require bringing at least 1-2 2L bottles up the mountain to my apartment every day. It is much more convenient to stop and get them at this little shop. :)

I did make it out last night to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. There was a bar on Gwangali Beach called Beached that is run by New Zealanders or Kiwis. I don't think that they were quite prepared for the takeover that happened. In fact, I felt kind of bad for the bartenders, and nearly wished that they would let me stand in the corner and pour beers for them. At least then I would have had a little personal space. The place was overrun with Westerners. I had no intention of getting crazy and wanted to enjoy seeing some of my friends from orientation who I haven't yet seen in Busan. It was so wild in the bar that at least half of the people were buying beer from the 7-11 or Family Mart (nearly the same thing) and drinking it on the beach across the street. I myself moved out to the beach after purchasing a Guinness at said 7-11. It was a little chilly, but much more of a relaxed atmosphere.

It was a great St. Patrick's Day!

Building a new home

Sorry that it's been so long since I've posted. It has been an interesting few weeks. I got a wicked cold the first weekend in March, so I spent as much time sleeping as possible.

I did get out of the house a little bit last week to have dinner at a lovely restaurant that served a delightful roast chicken. We wandered our way back on one of the side streets to try to orient ourselves in our new neighborhood. Lucky for us I have an excellent sense of direction and we ended up right where we were supposed to!

On Thursday the 8th of March I joined up with a group of foreigners who live in my neighborhood. We had Chicken Stir Fry (I will have to find out the proper Korean name) and rice with beer and soju. I met some wonderful new people and look forward to seeing them again soon! I won't be able to meet up with them tomorrow, but hopefully next Thursday I'll get out to meet them.

Friday night I met up with a huge group of people. A group of 6 or 7 of us girls split off and had some seafood. It was a spicy mix of mussels, chicken, squid, spam, a hard boiled egg, and lots of other things that we weren't sure what they were. It was delicious, but one of the spiciest things that I've eaten so far in Korea.

On Saturday I got the chance to catch up with some of my family via skype or through instant message. It is great to see them as always! We had some video issues at first, but it got a little better towards the end, so that worked out well.

Sunday morning I met up with a couple friends and we went to Busan Tower. It was built in the 70's and was at one point the tallest building in Busan. At the top there are two floors. The top floor is for viewing, with a 360 degree view of the city. With the buildings going off into the valleys it seems like this city might go on forever. The lower floor at the top is also for viewing, but is a little more comfortable with small tables that you can sit at, as well as a cafe where you can get something to drink while you enjoy the scenery. Georgina, Ethan (a fellow Minneapolitan) and I fully enjoyed our drinks and our view during our chat. In fact we might have stayed a little too long... ^^

This week I have been trying to stay in to work on lesson plans and working out how to make my afterschool class more enjoyable for the 30 middle school boys that are there with me. Ahhh!!!!

Tomorrow night I have a faculty dinner at a restaurant in our area to attend! I'm a little nervous, but excited too. I haven't had a chance to spend time with any of the other teachers outside of the school. Wish me luck!

Settling In.

Hello Friends & Family!

I am mostly settled into my new apartment in Saha-gu, Busan, South Korea. It is a studio apartment, but it's bigger than I expected, so that's a happy surprise. I think that it is definitely a place that I will be happy in for the next year. It needed a little rearranging, but I think it will work just fine.

Our last night in Jeonju was a lot of fun. There was a closing ceremony, with a talent show, and a huge buffet. Our class participated in the talent show, a few of us danced to Michael Jackson's ABC 123, holding up little signs when our letter/number/word was sung. It was a lot of fun and we were glad that we decided to be involved in the talent show.

After the closing ceremony, we packed our suitcases on the truck and then went out to have some drinks. It was a wonderful night, but I was a little tired the next day!

I start teaching on Friday, March 2nd. That is the first day of the new semester/school year. I'm a little nervous, but I hope that I can remember all the things that I learned at orientation!

Nearly There!

On Thursday we got to skip our classes and go on a field trip. It was a nice respite from our lectures, which were informative but tiring.

We visited the Jeonju Hanok Village, which according to Wikipedia is a traditional-style village located in the heart of Jeonju. It was a little chilly, but a glimpse of how a traditional village would look.

The photo on the left is a man working to make hanji (paper) in the traditional way. We also got to do some crafts using hanji, we covered a box made of hanji with hanji paper however we liked. It was a bit of a mess, but a lot of fun to try something new.

Today was our last day of classes. I'm really glad to be done, but a little nervous about all that the next week will bring. Tomorrow we get to find out where we will be teaching and living!

Day 1

Yesterday was a long day of traveling, but I made it safely to Incheon (just outside of Seoul). I am very glad that I don't have to get on any airplanes in the near future. Today I joined up with some of the other EPIK teachers who will be teaching in the Southern Region, the group that was on the bus this morning seemed really nice and I'm already looking forward to getting to know them better as well as those that I haven't met yet.

We are staying at Jeonju University for the duration of orientation. It will be a jam packed week with lectures and lots of information to take in. Our orientation packet is about 2 centimeters thick, so there will be a lot of cramming this week.

I haven't even seen very many things to take pictures of yet, but here is a picture of my corner of our dorm room and a picture of the view outside our room, not in that order. I think it's a view that I can deal with over the next few days.