Trip to the Interactive Art Museum

I had seen so many pictures on the facebook pages of my friends here in Korea where it looked like they were actually involved in a painting somehow and I had to go and check it out. I picked a weekend where I had some free time (those are few and far between!) and started getting organised to head into Seoul... then I realised I didn't know where we were going... Special mention in this post goes to the lovely Rosie for providing some last minute directions (also because this time they were really good directions...this time...lol)!

 We jumped on the subway and headed for Sindorim station and found the Interactive Art Museum without any problems... finding the ticket office around the corner from it and then the right door to get in was a little challenging but even though they had very little English the people working there were happy to help. It was such a cool thing to go to, like a large winding series of rooms, full of the most amazing 3D paintings that you could interact with. It was also amazing to see the large number of people going through it and how no-one seemed to get stressed, everyone just waited for their turn, and patiently! I have had a lot of fun playing with the photo's since then so I have attached a bunch of them below. Definitely a fun day!

Butterfingers & Dr Fish

Butterfingers All I have to say is wow! Having been in South Korea for around 8 months now there are a few things that I frequently crave - a lot of which I can cook for myself with ingredients available from stores like Homeplus - but there are some things you just want to be able to have cooked for you...the way you like them! The butterfingers menu is impressive... they serve the most amazing buttermilk pancakes but you can also get Waffles, Bacon and Eggs, breakfast sausage, fried potatoes, french toast etc etc etc. There is also a massive selection of sweet pancakes, waffles and ice creams. It's not the cheapest restaurant around, though you can expect that with most places that serve Western Food, it's also not ridiculously expensive and the meals are huge. My friend and I shared 1 big breakfast and added an extra two pancakes (coz they were too good and we were being greedy) and we were both stuffed for hours afterward. Definitely worth a visit and they are open from 7am to 3am so there is plenty of time to get there! Directions: Get to Gangnam Station on the subway and look for exit six which will take you up to street level. Walk in a straight line from the top of the subway stairs till you reach the Body Shop at the first corner and then turn left. Butterfingers will be on your left on the second block, though the blocks are small in this area so you should see it just after you round the corner, it's just after the Burger King. Dr Fish Cafe Another awesome experience! Though it's a little difficult to find on the second floor of a massive building in Gangnam it is well worth he trip! It costs about 2,000won ( roughly $2) although you have to buy a cup of coffee so you are looking at about 7,000won in total...the coffee is fabulous so I had no complaints! You are also given a tray with some butter and jam and they have a station in the middle of the cafe where you can help yourself to as much fresh bread or toast as you can eat. You can choose to have your coffee before or after your Dr. Fish session. When you are ready you walk up to a little raised area right by the window where there is lots of natural light and one of the assistants directs you to take off your shoes and socks and put your feet down into a wooden sink where he hoses them down to make sure you don't contaminate the fish water. Then you have a choice of two different tanks, on with small fish, and the other with rather large fish. You sit down and drop your feet into the tank where the fish start to eat the dead skin off whatever skin is submerged in the water. It tickles for a while with the little ones then it just starts to feel like your skin is tingling. I didn't like the bigger fish because I could actually feel them eating me and I found it a little creepy. A little background: Doctor fish is the name given to two species of fish, Garra rufa, and Cyprinion macrostomus. The fish at the cafe in Gangnam are Garra Rufa. They consume the affected and dead areas of the skin leaving the healthy skin to grow - kind of like the way the cleaner fish look after sharks and whales. Directions: Get to Gangnam Station on the subway and look for exit six which will take you up to street level. Walk in a straight line from the top of the subway stairs till you can see the CGV building on the other side of the road and then you should be practically in front of it. Look up! The cafe is on the second floor but you should be able to see the sign pictured here.

Buddha's Birthday Lantern Parade

Buddha's Birthday was celebrated on May 10th this year (2011). In Korea the birthday of Buddha is celebrated according to the Lunar Calendar so the date changes each year. This day is called 석가탄신일 (Seokga tansinil), meaning "the day of Buddha's birthday". Many temples are decorated with paper Lotus Lanterns for the entire month and some even provide free meals and tea to all visitors on the actual day. This year in Seoul, in an area called Dongdaemun, there was a Lantern Parade which ran from about 7pm through to after 9:30pm - though it wasn't scheduled to run that long! We went into Seoul a little early to run a few errands and have something to eat before the Lantern Parade started. The parade itself was spectacular. It was as though a never ending stream of people were passing us in full costumes, either Hanbok's or otherwise, carrying the most amazing lanterns. The Lanterns were either hand-held, held on a stick that was raised in the air, or giant structures that were carried by a group of people. It was beautiful to watch! Buddhism in Korea Facts: Originally brought to Korea in about 372CE Original religion (Korean Shamanism) and Buddhism blended together. In many Buddhist Temples shrines are set aside for Sanshin (the Mountain Spirit), Toksong (the Recluse) and Chilsong (the Spirit of the Seven Stars, the Big Dipper) who were the three most important spirits in in Korean Shamanism. Neo-Confucian overcame Buddhism during the Joseon Dynasty. Persecution of Buddhism stopped after some Buddhist monks helped to repel Japanese forces at the end of the 16th Century. In 2005 46.5% of the population had "no religion", 22.8% were Buddhist, 18.3% were Protestant, 10.9% Catholic, and only 0.2% followed Confucianism.

My Birthday in Korea! (and Everland!)

Ok, so for those of you who know me, you know that my birthday is early April and I have been really slack (really really slack) about keeping my blog up to date in the last little while. I could blame it on having a crazily busy and fascinating life but really I have just been being lazy - I have had plenty of time and have just been practicing the fine art of procrastination! I am lucky enough to have mum here now, so I knew we could have dinner for my birthday which makes it feel a little more like home, though mum works a late shift so balancing our schedules was interesting! Then I was given a special present... a Kindle! Best present ever! I have been obsessed with the thing since I got it! In Korea it can be rather difficult to get your hands on books in English unless you want to trek all the way into somewhere like Itaewon and even then you can't always get the books that you want. Some bookstores will order them in but an e-reader just makes the whole process easier. When I got to school a couple of the teachers gave me gifts too which was so sweet and I was stunned when even the principal came to visit me with a card written half in Korean and half in English! I had been for dinner the night before with my co-teachers who had gone to all the trouble to get me a cake and really make a fuss. I had arranged with school to finish early that day so that I could make the most of mum's prezzie to me; a massage and facial, before heading home to relax for a while before dinner. That night we met up with mum and had dinner at the fanciest restaurant in Osan, don't laugh, Outback Jack's Steakhouse. I am not kidding! The food there is amazing...totally twisted by the Korean chefs but thoroughly delicious! I was spoiled rotten by mum as well who had arranged Amazon credits so that I could buy books for my kindle! My birthday was on the Friday so on the Saturday Mum and I jumped onto a bus and went to Everland - which is like the Korean version of Disneyland or Dreamworld. It's absolutely huge and beautifully decorated....and swarming with people! Everland averages about 9 million visitors a year and has a zoo and a water park as well as rides and a few other attractions. Highlights of Everland for me; Hurricane (a spinning up and down ride) Feeding the budgies in the "Africa" exhibit

The big tree that looked like what I always imagined a bunch of fairies would live in

All the couples walking around in matching fluffy ears

The completely insane Korean women that were there in stiletto heels The gorgeous flowers / spring tulip festival Trying to work out if these little fluffy animals were actually skunks Lowlights: Standing in massive lines for the rides

The "Haunted house - laser gun" ride... worst ride ever. Feeling a bit sorry for the animals in the zoo... they dont get the space that we are used to seeing the animals in at the zoo's in places like Australia. We had a fantastic day jumping on rides and looking around - the lines were a bit of a bummer but it still didn't get us down - and we were completely exhausted by the end of the day! It was a perfect birthday...and birthday weekend! Thanks to all my gorgeous friends and family for the beautiful messages on facebook and the text messages. Thanks also to my mum for spoiling me rotten!

Pet Ownership in Korea

I had been putting off getting a pet for years because I knew I was planning to travel and that it might be difficult to take a pet with me but when I got to Korea and decided I would be staying a while I gave in and bought the most adorable little Yorkie Puppy - pretty sure he is actually a teacup Yorkie because the Vet said he would only get to 3kgs. I named him Socrates because he was such a smart little thing, smart interspersed with crazy, but a delight to be around.

Once my Mum made the decision to come and work here as well getting a puppy was on the top of her list of priorities...I think seeing the video's and pictures of my lovely Socrates probably helped encourage her! Mum also got a Yorkie, a little girl, who she named Nini (pronounced like knee-knee).

Where we got the puppies from:

Socrates (Sokkies for short) came from a Vet in Osan (the town my school is in) and Nini ended up coming from the same place. I thought getting a puppy from a vet was a good idea, again I have heard some horror stories about puppy mills and that the ones you can buy at the train stations have a tendency to die, at least you know if you get them from a Vet they have had relatively good conditions. I also liked the people that worked at the Vet, they seemed super friendly, and they really loved the animals.

Hatchiko came from a pet store, also in Osan, but again the place was clean and the puppies were obviously well looked after... turns out he was also a fair bit cheaper than Sokkies and Nini...because everybody seems to want Yorkies!

Cost:

Remember the dogs are pure-breeds...so quite cheap compared to western countries.
Sokkies - 450,000 won
Nini - 630,000 won (she's a girl and can be bred from hence the cost jump.)
Hatchiko: 380,000 won

This doesn't, however take into account the cost of the vaccinations and de-sexing etc... that is a process that Nini and Hatchiko are still going through. To have Sokkies de-sexed cost me 170,000 won and then by the time they have had a gazillion vaccinations which includes conditions such as canine influenza, rabies, and "the brain disease" which I am still not 100% clear on! All of these shots are a good idea, first to protect the doggie, second because if you want to take them out of the country at any point then the vaccinations and paperwork are already done. All up I probably spent 400,000 won again on Vet bills.

Vets:

Sokkies and Nini went / go to the same Vet in Osan, Hatchiko goes to a vet in Byeongjeom which is closer to our house an the one thing I have to say about Vet's in Korea is... They are lovely! They make such an effort so speak English, translate things for you, and generally make sure you understand what is happening. The one in Byeongjeom actually has excellent English so it is a little easier for him! They also send you a text message the day before you have a scheduled visit to make sure that you don't forget and my Osan vet even sends me a message a day before I have to put the heart-worm stuff on Sokkies' neck. The Vet in Osan would also always remember both my name, the name of the dog...and then mum's name and the name of her dog too.

Clothing and accessories:

If you are anything like me this will probably be your biggest cost in the end! Clothing...e.g. jackets are a bit of a must for a tiny dog given how cold it gets here... it's an excuse but I am running with it! The vet's all sell clothing and all other possible bits and pieces that you could need, as do big department stores like Lotte Mart and E-Mart, there are pet stores spotted EVERYWHERE, but the best place to by the clothes is from the street vendors around the streets in Seoul or near the subway....sooooo much cheaper. Socks and boots are also easy to get...though I haven't tried those yet! People here are potty about their pets so you can really find anything you could ever imagine that you might need.

Because most people here also live in apartments things like "puppy pads" are easy to get. Basically they are a plastic tray, with a plastic lid full of tiny holes and on the inside you put an absorbent pad so that when the puppy does his or her business the liquid is absorbed and everything else is easy to pick up. We, unfortunately, are still at the toilet training stage so dealing with the occasional accident!

Below are the links to the video's I have been putting together of the adventures of our little puppies... starting with The adventures of Socrates, and then more recently, The adventures of Socrates Part 2!

The Adventures Of Socrates:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIM-LDFx7oM

The Adventures Of Socrates Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTW8lY-Kk7k

I had so much fun putting those video's together and I am so glad I bought a video camera to do so!

Number 130. Go ice-skating outside at night

I can't remember if I got the invitation to go ice-skating on my mobile phone or through facebook but it was arranged for one night after school, a Tuesday, because it was so cold that Osan city council had finally decided to set up the ice skating out the front of city hall. I raced home after school to get changed and have something to eat and then met the lovely Rosie and Alex on the way to city hall. It was amazingly cheap... about $1 US to skate and that included the cost of hiring the ice-skates! I havent skated outside since I was a kid and we were living in Canada so this was an awesome experience for me. There is something special about zooming around on the ice in the fresh air rather than enclosed with that icy smell that you always find that's almost overpowering. Night-time is even better because of all the lights! We stayed for an hour or so, using the time as an excuse for a catch up with other foreign teachers as much as we were using it to skate around, and then with frozen fingers and red noses we headed to the coffee shop for some maple latte's and Rotti buns!

The reality of co-teaching

I have heard good and bad things from my fellow native teachers and in fact I have had both good and bad experiences myself with co-teaching. I work at a very large school (1500 students) and so I have 5 co-teachers that I work with in different classes throughout the week. A few of my colleagues only have 1 or 2 co-teachers that they work with and from what I can gather the experience differs vastly depending on who your co-teacher is and what their attitude is toward your being there to teach. There seems to be a lot of bad reviews on the internet so let me start with the good stuff. The co-teacher I had when I first arrived as my "main co-teacher", in other words the teacher directly responsible for me, was fantastic to work with. She was organised and made sure that I got to attend all sorts of interestign programs...and wait for it... actually gave me warning about upcoming events and things I needed to do (this is surprisingly rare in Korea). She was considered to be a very strict teacher but all of the students loved her because she was fun and she really cared about them and what they were doing / achieving in class. We developed a great routine, I would do the lesson planning but she took a very active part in the lesson, questioning the students in Korean about what I had said in English and asking the kids to answer her in English. My lessons with her always felt much more in depth and like the students learned a lot more. We worked well together and we also worked well outside of class and developed a friendship. A great experience co-teaching. While this is not always the case there are wonderful co-teachers out there so do not be put off by all the bad reviews on the internet! Because I have 5 co-teachers each class is dramatically different, a few co-teachers are easy to work with, one co-teacher barely speak however the students are very advanced (compared to the rest of the school) and I feel like they probably learn more from me than many of the other classes anyway. I should also mention I am a qualified teacher and I am confident standing up in front of a class so having to manage the class and discipline does not worry me as it might worry some people...I also generally find that bribing the students with video's helps as they then start yelling at each other to be quiet! Putting it delicately I have a few classes where I have a little difficulty.... where it is clear the teacher does not like the students, does not want to be there, and so consequently the students are a nightmare. With this teacher I am constantly cut off mid sentence and frequently find myself wondering why I am even there when the attitude is that I am more trouble than I am worth. But again, this is not the case with all co-teachers! I have also had, and heard about, issues with discipline and native teachers feeling like they do not receive any support when disciplining students. In some cases the students are aware that you have very little authority and so do not offer the respect that they give to their other teachers. I have also heard a few horror stories...but I am not going to include those as you don't have to search to hard to find them on the net! Now to the "reality" side... The contract really should be re-written so we know what we are in for... it says "assistant teacher" which is why we are paid less than Korean teachers, though we do the majority if not all of the lesson planning, the majority of the classroom management and discipline and in most cases the majority of the speaking and actual teaching. It really works the other way around. Co-teaching can be fun when you work together as a team, sometimes you must expect to act as though you are teaching alone, and sometimes you may actually teach very little...it depends on the person you are teaching with, the day, their mood, the mood of the students etc etc. To be a good co-teacher you must be flexible! If it is really going to work the way it is supposed to then you must also be really comfortable with your co-teacher and both approach it as though you are working together as a team. Building some (any) kid of relationship with your Korean teacher will help somewhat! To anybody reading this...if you have had good or bad experiences co-teaching please feel free to post a comment below because I would be really interested to hear some other stories! (and suggestions perhaps on how to manage difficult co-teachers!)

Couple Holidays

The 14th of every month in Korea seems to be a special occasion for couples; or for single people so that they don't get forgotten just because they are not part of a couple as in the case of April 14th. Below is a short list of these couple holidays.





January 14th is Diary Day / Candle Day- Couples exchange journals or diaries to share wishes that the other will have a lovely year. Couples also exchange candles - something to do with staying warm in the cold weather...






February 14th is Valentines Day - with a twist as this is the day where women buy chocolates for the men. Apparently they often deploy army trucks to deliver chocolates from girlfriends to the men who are in compulsory military service.



March 14th is White Day - where the men return the favour and buy chocolates for the women.








April 14th is Black Day - where those who haven't found love console their lonely hearts by eating black noodles - apparently many university students eat loads of these noodles hoping to meet a partner through this declaration of loneliness.






May 14th is Yellow Day / Rose Day - Those who are in love by this day exchange roses. There is also suggestion that singles should wear yellow to declare their single status...and therefore hopefully find a companion...or other single people to drown their sorrows with!









June 14th is Kiss Day - obviously celebrated by kissing! I have found a few resources that suggest that everyone kisses everyone on this day (e.g. kiss everyone you meet) and others that suggest that this is a couples day... I prefer to believe that this is a couple day and intend to slap any random person that attempts to kiss me! This one is also quite interesting since kissing in public is taboo in this country...








July 14th is Silver Day - where couples exchange silver gifts... I am more of a gold girl so this one is a bit of a let down in my mind!






August 14th is Green Day - couples are supposed to dress in Green, walk in the woods and drink cheap liquor that comes in green bottles (this means soju...) though I have found a few links that suggest the couples are the ones enjoying the day and nature while it is only the single people that drink soju in order to drown their sorrows.







September 14th is photo day - where couples should take a picture of themselves together somewhere romantic and put it in a special place so it can be looked at all the time. There are also a few links that suggest that it is actually photo and music day...so the photo part is the same but the day must also end with couples in a No Rae Bang singing to each other to make their relationship public.






October 14th is wine day - where couples should enjoy a glass / bottle of wine together.

November 14th is movie day - celebrated by couples going to the movies together (just in case the name of the day left you in any doubt!).







December 14th is hug day - where couples hug each other "to chase away the winter cold"... There are a few extra's:









October 24th – Apple Day The Korean word for apple is called ‘Sa-gwa’ (사과), also means to apologize. On this day, friends, family and couples give an apple to each other to apologize for past mistakes.








First snow day - couples are supposed to celebrate the coming of snow with a romantic date.









Christmas eve is apparently a couples night in Korea - but this makes sense given that the country is not built on Christianity like a lot of Western countries. So.... the reason this is in the "could go either way list" is that if you are a part of a couple these continuous couple events may make you feel warm and fuzzy inside or give you cause for concern about the amount of money you are going to be spending on your significant other. If you are single your face will be constantly rubbed in that fact and you will be frequently reminded that you are, in fact, a little sad and pathetic for not being physically attached to someone at all times. But single people should not dispair! Their Korean co-workers will constantly try to set them up with completely innappropriate people and it is completely acceptable to drown your sorrows by drinking to the point where you are violently ill on the side of the street...so not all is lost!

Opening Hours

Generally the opening hours are from 9am to 8pm, for normal shops, bigger chain stores like E-mart and Lotte Mart are open from 10am till mid-night - which is very convenient if you suddenly need more shampoo or a hammer at quarter to 12! Though even in Osan on weeknights there seem to be a large number of stores that are still open at 10pm. From my experiences it would seem the majority of restaurants still serve till around 10 or 10:30pm though this may be later in Seoul as it is much busier than little Osan! There are even a number of restaurants that are open 24 hours meaning that if you have had a little too much to drink or are getting in from a late flight and desperately need that fix of Galbi at 3am...you can have it! A large majority of the convenience stores are open 24 hours, 7 days, and the people who do the night shifts seem to be remarkably cheerful! Convenience stores are also everywhere, 2 or 3 to a street, and on every corner (again I am referring to the area from Osan in towards Seoul I am sure there are places in Korea where they are hard to find). They sell a very random selection of items, offer facilities to re-charge your T-money public transport card, and a good friend mentioned that they will even re-charge your cell phone battery for less than 1 Aussie dollar. Basically everything here is geared around people that work long hours, my lovely co-teacher, Yun, once said to me that she liked that she finished work at 6 or 7pm and she could still have a life after work. Given a lot of people here work till 9 or 10pm then it makes sense that things would be open later!

Lunar New Year Holiday!

This was a particularly cruisey holiday, I had nothing planned, other than spending some quality time with my laptop, ps3 and puppy. I actually really felt like I needed a bit of downtime, my Winter vacation was really busy so I was looking forward to just doing nothing, which is exactly what I did for most of the week. Went out for a few quiet drinkies on the Tuesday night, after my school so kindly gave me half of Monday and all of Tuesday off work, and then met up with Rosie and her friend Lee who was over from England for lunch the next day. We decided to head all the way into Byeongjeom for "Dino meat" - which is an all-you-can-eat Galbi place - and the food there is amazing.

 I don't think I have ever left that restaurant without feeling a little sick from eating too much! The roads were ridiculously quiet and the taxi had us there in no time... I think I can speak for all of us when I say we were really excited to get there and all starving and so were thoroughly depressed when we discovered that it was closed! Most things seemed to stay open over the holiday but there were quite a few places that were closed on the Wednesday which was the official New Years Day. Either way we continued on down the road to a Galbi restaurant that was open and had a nice enough lunch! Followed by coffee and Roti which seems to have become a little bit of an obsession for me.

 Thursday I headed in to Seoul for the day, again to meet up with Rosie and Lee who were doing a bit of sightseeing, there were quite a few people on the train, big family groups carting around children and gifts. Korean children are particularly cute but there were one or two that I suspected may have been being given away as the gifts! The train seemed to take a lot longer than usual, roughly an hour and a half, which is a bit longer than normal and made to feel much longer by the Korean soldier squished in next to me who kept falling asleep on me. I made it to Seoul station in one piece and jumped off the train heading for the nearest exit, only to discover that the nearest exit bought me out somewhere I had never been before, I had been in Seoul 2 minutes and I was completely lost already!

 With a dying cell phone battery (really should have thought to charge it before I left) I called Rosie to find out where they were, the directions were a tad unique... something along the lines of "look for a KEB bank and a big white thing, near a roundabout, at the starbucks"... I adore you Rosie but really? For those of you who haven't been to Seoul there are about a million KEB banks, maybe half a million starbucks, I never saw the white thing so I couldn't tell you what that was all about, and it turns out there is more than one big roundabout!

 It took us roughly an hour to locate each other, realising the above facts along the way, and eventually meeting up in front of the main post office. We shopped around for a while, wandering through the markets, there was some big sale on in Myeongdong which was fun to check out. Then we decided to go and have a look at the "dog cafe" which was truly bizarre, it was a regular cafe except that there were half a dozen dogs and puppies roaming about freely, being patted by the guests. I guess if thats the only way you can spend time with a dog then it works...maybe...I was a little confused by the idea! It was on the fourth floor of a building, we discovered it was there when we saw a person dressed up in a dog costume, next to a sign in the middle of the market.

 We were followed up the stairs by a large group of foreigners, turned out there was quiet a bit of interest in what it was, though the people directly behind us were a fairly obnoxious group of Americans (sorry to my American friends but these were the people who give you guys a bad name!) who insisted on talking very loudly about how a dog cafe must serve dog meat, and they wonder how its cooked. Made worse by the fact that they then asked the Korean hostess much the same question... After the dog Cafe and another stroll around the market we headed off to Itaewon for a bite to eat and a drink or two, we started with the drink at a place called Gecko's, they were actually serving gluh wine (pretty average...) which I had to try!

 Then we decided on a change of venue and headed to Scrooge's for a bite to eat - I had been to scrooges before, but only for the rubgy, not for a meal. We tucked in to some Chilli Cheese Fries and Nachoes, which were fantastic, and then I established just how terrible I am at darts - with a glass of wine in hand. Not that the wine had anything to do with how terrible I am at darts! It would have been very easy to party on at that point but my poor little puppy had been at home on his own for 10 hours, the longest I have ever been away from him, so I decided to call it a night. I also decided to catch the KTX home instead of te normal subway, which meant I was actually in my apartment within an hour of leaving Seoul central, and you get an assigned seat with a little desk so its a much more pleasant way to travel - and at the cost of 4,000won (roughly $2.50 aus) it's really not a lot to pay! Spent most of the next day updating my blog (which had started to fall terribly behind) and re-writing the first couple of chapters of my book...followed by a weekend of ps3 with friends, good food, and more writing. All-in-all it was a great little break and I am unbelievably glad that I only have to teach for a day and a half this week and the rest of the time is desk-warming and graduation ceremonies!