Seoraksan

Happy December everyone! It is officially the day where I would fully decorate for Christmas. Although I had already put up my tree here, I did get to open a few gifts from my sister that were Christmas decorations which was fun. She sent me window stickies, which I love, some lights, an advent calendar, a pumpkin candle and a small tree (which I will use in my classroom). My place is as Christmasy as it's going to get now and I'm happy to have some decorations in my place. Although today was overwhelming hard for me at the same time because this is always an exciting day that I look forward to and to spend it alone was sad. But I suppose this is only the beginning of it.

A few weekends ago, I visited Seoraksan. It is the third highest mountain in Korea and is park of one of the bigger national parks here. I went through a company called Adventure Korea and Chris decided to join me in the adventure as well. We started the Saturday morning bright and early at 6am got onto the bus then the subway to our pick up point. We ended up getting there quite early so we wandered around and bought the freshest bagels I have ever eaten from Paris Croissant. On the website where you sign up it showed that 29 seats were available for the trip - they must advertise elsewhere too though as there were three bus fulls of us, each bus fitting probably around 50 people. There was a good chunk of people going. What I find interesting about the chartered buses here is that they don't have toilets on them like they do back home, therefore are reliant on rest stops, which is not a bad thing, but I don't understand why it is.

The drive there was mostly relaxing, except the trip organizer on our bus decided to play ACDC at 8:30 while everyone was trying to sleep. Yet later when we were on the bus at 5pm they turned off the lights and did not play any music - what?! Before arriving at the park we stopped for lunch which was a bibimbap buffet (rice, with veggies and a spicy sauce with egg). It was good, but the restaurant that my co-workers and I usually go to for bibimbap near our school is much better! Here is a picture of me with my self made bibimbap.

 There were two options for hiking when we got to Seoraksan - Ulsanbawi which is the longer hike and includes several stairs or Biryong Falls, which is easier and you get to see a waterfall. We opted to do Biryong Falls, but I would like to go back in the spring and hike Ulsanbawi. Here are some pictures from that part of the hike.

The park is gorgeous, and some of the trees still had their leaves which added to the beauty. It's supposed to be really beautiful during the peak of Fall when the leaves begin to change. When we first arrived we purchased tickets to take the cable car up to another part of the mountain, so we headed back and checked out a massive Buddha and a temple before getting on the cable car.

We climbed up to the top most part of this section of the mountain using rope and crevices for our footing. 

As you can see from the pictures, the weather began to change during this second half but it didn't start to rain until we were in line for the cable car to go back down. The rest of the day was sunny and I wore my t-shirt for most of the time. We also played in the leaves. 

This second half of the hike is called Geongumseong walking course, though it wasn't really a walking course. It started to get dark so everyone piled back onto the buses and we headed to our accommodations for the night - which were a lot nicer than expected! I figured we would be staying in a pension (a room with mats on the floor), but we stayed in a motel and Chris and I got to share a legitimate bed! I also had my first jjimjilbang experience. A jjimjilbang is a Korean public bathhouse, which are super popular here! They are cheap (under ten dollars) and you are given special clothes to wear while inside. We used the pools first. This consisted of a huge room filled with several different pools (there were at least six at the one we went to) and each pool is a different temperature. There were hot ones, moderate ones, cool ones, an outdoor one, one with minerals (looked like mud water). This room is segregated so it was female only, the men have their own on the other side of the building. This is because you go in completely naked! You get undressed, walk in, shower yourself then use the pools at your leisure. This was such a weird experience as you would never find something like this at home and it was especially weird as there were so many of us foreigners and we all just met. I got over though and enjoyed the hot pools and saunas. Afterwards we put on our special clothes and checked out the co-ed room, which is a big room with mats that you can sleep on, there is a big TV, and several smaller rooms that are different temperatures again. We didn't' stay in this area for too long as we had not eaten yet. 

A small group of us girls that just met grabbed food at a restaurant nearby which only served Samgyeopsal (pork belly). Not my favourite, as you can imagine it's very fatty, but I ate some anyways as my body needed something after hiking during the day. Afterwards, Chris and I grabbed some snacks and chung-ha (a nice tasting rice wine) and went back to our room and watched Korea's Next Top Model before passing out. 

We stayed in Osaek Valley which was about an hour away but still part of the national park. The next morning everyone headed out to walk and explore Heulimgol Valley - which was also very gorgeous and we had excellent weather again. Below is Chris and I with Dana, our new friend from Toronto. We also met and have kept in touch with a couple who lives nearby us. He is Indian/Korean and she is from Germany. 

The water was so blue!!

For lunch we had a tofu soup, so yummy then headed back to Seoul. There was a lot of traffic and it took ages, we ended up getting out the bus and took the subway the rest of the way home. On a side note, I tried to like tofu so much back at home, cooked it different ways etc. And not, here, I love it, I even crave it sometimes! Tofu in soup is so good!

It was a really great weekend and nice to spend some time completely submersed in nature. I will be posting more pictures on Facebook, so check those out! Here is a group shot:

<3

Lotte World

As of this week, I have started to get sick. I'm hoping that I will be able to suppress it before it gets worse than it is, like I was able to do when I started to get sick after my Japan trip. I was told that winter is quite dry in Korea, and so far it is true. It is so so dry. I think this is partly why I'm getting sick. Being sick makes me homesick. Though every time I say "home" I feel ridiculous because I truly don't know where that is anymore. But I do know, that right now, especially being sick, there is a particular and familiar couch and bed I'd like to be curled up on which always included my favourite company.  Luckily for me, my co-worker Hayley was getting rid of her humidifier and offered it to me. I'm going to try it out tonight. I'm a bit hesitant because my apartment is small and doesn't have any ventilation, so I'm worried things will stay too moist. I don't want to have a mildew issue. But I do sleep with my window open so hopefully that will combat it. It is getting really cold, yet I still get really hot at night which is why I sleep with my window open. I have sort of learned how to use my heat and am enjoying the floor heating. But I think my thermostat might be broken? Maybe? When I wake up it's 15 degrees in my apartment, and after having the heat on for an hour or longer it barley reaches 18/19 degrees. I have never seen it get higher despite leaving the heat on. I am usually way to hot by that point anyways though. So this whole heat thing is a work in progress. 

Yesterday Chris, Ben, SY (a korean guy, who they met through a teacher who worked at LCI in the past. He lived in the states for most of his childhood), Cindy (SY's friend) and I went to the trivia night at Gecko's (a bar somewhat in the area). It was a great time and we came in second place! I am going to get filled with random trivia and was able to contribute more than I thought I would be able to. I also don't understand how I have never gone to a trivia night before, because I enjoyed it and I know they did them at SFU. We will likely be going weekly now though! Did you know that honey bees have hair on their eyes? And that bananas share 50% of our DNA?

Christmas is not totally in full swing in my life here yet, but it definitely has begun. Which reminds me, it snowed a few days ago, not enough to stick but, snow. I put up my Christmas tree already and have been listening to Christmas music in class and in my apartment (including right now). While it's nice to have some elements of it here, I am missing all that Christmas is in Vancouver. Three foods that I know for sure I will miss at Christmas, and in no particular order: Nonna's gnocci, Claudia's candied yams and my Dad's stuffing. And I could write for days about the events, moments, people and other special things that I will miss a lot this year. Although I have made plans to go to the Philippines over my Christmas holiday, it will not completely fill that void. I am looking forward to the trip though. I am going with Chris and another co-worker, Sarah. Nate and Chuck are also going to the Philippines but we might be going to different areas. My friend Kyle is also going with another group of people to another area as well. It's a hot spot apparently. My favourite Christmas song if you'd like to enjoy it:

And one that is closer to my heart this year:

The first weekend of this month, Chris, Kyle and I went to Lotte World which is the biggest amusement park in Korea? in Seoul? (I believe.) It was so much fun! We had a late start to the day so we decided to get there at 4pm and took advantage of the discounted afternoon rate. While that seemed wise, you definitely need the full day there and I will totally be going back. I never realized how much I enjoyed amusement parks. It was great too because it was already decorated for Christmas. The parades were Christmas themed and they were playing Christmas music. While it did seem a little early for all this, it was enjoyable nonetheless. It was quite big and we didn't get to go on many rides (long lines) but we did a few, checked out the Folk Museum, and went ice skating. 

Chris and I decided to get outrageous hairband bows as all of the girls at amusement parks/the zoo/anywhere, where these. 

Lotte World

I love fair food!

In the Folk Museum 

Merry Christmas! Probably the only decent tree I will see this season!

More from the Folk Museum 

Ice Skating

 

I believe Lotte World is four floors. 

It was a super fun day which was exactly what I was in the mood for. The next day, Chris, her friend Erin, and I went shopping at Forever 21 and H&M and then went out for Mexican food. It was delicious but the Kimchi fries are worth mentioning. They were amazing. It was sort of like poutine but instead of gravy and cheese it was kimchi, cheese, pulled beef or pork?, and other yumminess. I will be going back for more of those! 

This week I have just finished writing my report cards for the term. It's been busy! I will be posting soon about my weekend away at Seoraksan - keep your eyes out because it was gorgeous there!

Miss and love you all. <3

Halloween In Korea

Before I jump into details about Halloween, which now seems so long ago, I need to comment on something that happened tonight that I feel is something strictly Korean. Most places that you go to (restaurants, coffee shops etc) do not have bathrooms in their establishments. I suppose I should also add that finding toilet paper and soap in a bathroom is uncommon, and if you do its a real treat. Paper towels to dry your hands do not exist. Anyways, normally you have to out into the hallway of the building and find a bathroom. Tonight I went for coffee with a couple that I met last weekend when I went to Seoraksan (which I will post about later) and I went to use the bathroom, so naturally opened the door that said "toilet" on it, expecting to find a bathroom behind it, only to find myself outside! It was a totally fake out. Okay, not exactly, you had to go outside and find another door that said "toilet" and you were home free. But still, it was so odd, I totally thought I was being tricked at first. I will say though that all of the subway stations have several bathrooms which I appreciate and think Vancouver should adopt that. 

Halloween. 

Halloween lasted the entire month of October - which is not unusual for me, but it was exhausting this year as it was more planning for things instead of enjoying activities. I definitely missed going to Fright Nights, different haunted houses, the corn maze, handing out candy and all of the other wonderful activities that I normally do. For Halloween at school we had a classroom decorating contest, a song contest and a big Halloween festival that was preceded by spirit week. 

I taught and choreographed the Monster Mash for my class and they did so awesome! I was very proud of them. There is a video on Facebook that you can check out. Unfortunately because I didn't record it myself and I don't know how to take videos off of Facebook I can't post it on here. Leading up the big Halloween festival as I said before, we had spirit week. Monday was crazy hair day. Originally I wanted to do something using helium balloons that I saw on Pinterest but helium balloons are impossible to find here (which is so strange because they are so common at home) and to order them online was cheap but the delivery was outrageous. So this is what I came up with:

The next day was sports day - which of course everyone thinks of the "sports day" we have back at home where students do relays, but that is not the case here. Sports day is when everyone dresses up in sports attire. Apparently I neglected to pack my Canucks Tshirt so I borrowed Nate's basketball jersey and represented Bryant and the MPLS for the day. Some of the students looked super awesome - a golfer, one girl dressed in her rollerblading gear, helmet, knees pads and all etc.

We also had backwards day, followed by pyjama day - which was probably my favourite and definitely the most comfortable! 

We celebrated Halloween on October 25th, so on the 24th (pyjama day) we carved pumpkins with our classes. Each class was given one pumpkin and as a class we decided what face to carve. The students took turns taking out the pumpkin guts and then I carved our face. I like how it turned out. The pumpkins are a bit different here though. Very flat as you can see in the pictures and they felt different too. We were also warned that it was possible they would have maggots inside of them (thankfully none actually did though). 

 

My students are really good at taking pictures - I promise they aren't always miserable like they always seem to look in pictures! 

Thursday night everyone stayed late at work and we ate pizza, drank beer and decorated the entire school. The transformation was amazing. We also created a haunted house in our play gym room. Here are some pictures of some of my classroom decorations. My theme was ghosts. 

 

The class also make these monsters out of recycled items earlier in the week.

 

 

And here are some select photos of some of the other classrooms:

 

 

 The actual Halloween Festival on the Friday was a fun day. Everyone dressed up, in the morning, the students went through the haunted house, had their faces painted, ate snacks, went tricker treating to another classroom and played games in the gym. I hosted one of the game and played "pin the head on the skeleton". After lunch we awarded the students with the best costumes and performed our Halloween songs then voted on that as well. Here is a picture of all of us teachers.

This was my favourite costume of the day!

My class all dressed up! 

We did a smaller scale festival the day before for my afternoon kindergarten class (which started as four students and has now grown to ten!!) Here are some pictures of them. They are the same age as my morning kindergarten class but they are only beginning to learn English. 

We made paper pumpkins, coloured tricker treat bags, tricker treated, did face painting, it was fun.

From left to right: Kate, Benjamin, William, Peter, Jenny, Jaden and Chan

Peter is probably my favourite student in this class and also probably the smartest. 

My coworkers and I went out for Halloween that weekend. I decided to be a cat since Korea seems to be obsessed with cats and it was the easiest thing to do. We started our night in Itaewon at a place called Bull and Barrel as my friend Emmalee was going there with some of her friends. There was also supposed to be some sort of performance but the place was over capacity so we stayed for a drink then left. From there we went to another area called Hongdae and had a few drinks at a Korean bar. Korean bars are always so full of character and the drinks are always so cheap. We left there and grabbed some bag drinks and pizza and went to the park (where everyone chats and drinks). I ran into my dance instructor/friend Jin and the guy she was with and after being there for a while we went to a bar called Thursday Party. I love the music they play there and that night was no exception. We stayed there for quite some time then went to another club (forget the name). And for the last stop of the night, we went out for food because we were all hungry but also so that we could waste time until the subway opened up again so that Kyle wouldn't have to cab home alone. The food was delicious. Chris and I went home together and when we walked by the school next to my apartment it was already 6am. Long night but a lot of fun!

Chris and I as cat and Ariel. 

Myself, Chris, Ben, Bo and Kyle (who foolishly did not dress up)

I though this was hilarious - it's on the side of the tissue box at the restaurant we ate at. "Yes! I'm your (dream boat)!" 

Halloween is not really celebrated in Korea, but of course because there are so many expats here, I think it's becoming more and more common to see. But that being said, many people were not dressed up (including many foreigners). A decent amount of venues hosted Halloween events though and overall it was probably one of the best and most fun nights out I have had in Korea so far. 

<3