So there is a holiday here much similar to our Thanksgiving called Chuseok. I get Sunday, September 19, to Thursday the 23 off from work. My other co-workers are going to Thailand, China, or Japan. I am still determined to be saving money for Jeff's Trip to Europe: The Sequel, but also feel like I may be left out of the holiday fun. I will get one week off in another 3-6 months to do some traveling and I feel like I can do a bit more once my contract is up next June (Thailand is sounding pretty awesome via cousin Bill).
My thoughts now are either go to Busan to hang out with Amber for the week before she heads back to Washington next month, or go to Busan then take a boat to Japan with Ethan and Mandy. Decisions decisions.
I will be writing more of food and maybe do some interviews with my students in the next post.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Well it has been far too long since my last blog so here are the highlights:
I got my TV!! A nice 42 inch plasma, and we've already broken it in with a couple good nights of New Super Mario Bros on the Wii and some fantastic programming (we put together the old ABC TGIF Line-up, Boy Meets World, Family Matters, Saved by the Bell, etc).
So last month Jonathan, Anne, and I went to a deserted island on the Yellow Sea: Sa Seong Bong Do through a group of fellow expats and adventurous Koreans.
After a long day at work we jumped on the subway and head to Incheon to stay at a jimjilbong for the night. What's a jimjilbong right? its a Korean sauna/bathhouse. A good place to spend the night for around $6. The one in Incheon was good, not too crowded at all as John and I went au naturel in the guy's area where they have many different kinds of hot-tubs whirlpools jets and saunas. We got there at about 2 AM and left at around 7 where we more people who were going to the island. We took a crazy bus ride to the ferry in Incheon and took a crowded ferry ride to Seong Bong Do, where we got on a smaller boat (25 people max) and headed to a smaller island.
I was very tired but managed to set up a tent with my tent-mates (two Koreans whom I was able to pronounce their names by the end of the weekend but have since forgot) Then went on a walk down the very empty beach. I swam in the Ocean for a bit and played around with the sea creatures that the tide brought in and made it back to the tents for a nap. However my two new room-mates were already there and I didn't want to wake them by walking all over them so I took a quick nap on the beach.....
An unknown amount of time later I woke up and realized that I'm a pasty white kid and should have applied sunscreen.
That night we made a campfire and had a great time cooking food that people caught and brought and telling stories. People from all over the world were there. Teachers, students, locals and just travelers. It is the people that i meet that make me love traveling so much! This is key.
So the next morning I woke up feeling quite burned and sandy and spent the rest of the day, still tired so i sat in the yellow sea for about an hour just bobbing around trying to stay chilled.
Well that's all for now, I will write about my first week of the new quarter sometime soon.
I got my TV!! A nice 42 inch plasma, and we've already broken it in with a couple good nights of New Super Mario Bros on the Wii and some fantastic programming (we put together the old ABC TGIF Line-up, Boy Meets World, Family Matters, Saved by the Bell, etc).
After a long day at work we jumped on the subway and head to Incheon to stay at a jimjilbong for the night. What's a jimjilbong right? its a Korean sauna/bathhouse. A good place to spend the night for around $6. The one in Incheon was good, not too crowded at all as John and I went au naturel in the guy's area where they have many different kinds of hot-tubs whirlpools jets and saunas. We got there at about 2 AM and left at around 7 where we more people who were going to the island. We took a crazy bus ride to the ferry in Incheon and took a crowded ferry ride to Seong Bong Do, where we got on a smaller boat (25 people max) and headed to a smaller island.
I was very tired but managed to set up a tent with my tent-mates (two Koreans whom I was able to pronounce their names by the end of the weekend but have since forgot) Then went on a walk down the very empty beach. I swam in the Ocean for a bit and played around with the sea creatures that the tide brought in and made it back to the tents for a nap. However my two new room-mates were already there and I didn't want to wake them by walking all over them so I took a quick nap on the beach.....
An unknown amount of time later I woke up and realized that I'm a pasty white kid and should have applied sunscreen. That night we made a campfire and had a great time cooking food that people caught and brought and telling stories. People from all over the world were there. Teachers, students, locals and just travelers. It is the people that i meet that make me love traveling so much! This is key.
So the next morning I woke up feeling quite burned and sandy and spent the rest of the day, still tired so i sat in the yellow sea for about an hour just bobbing around trying to stay chilled.
So after that adventure I have kept it fairly low-key on the weekends. Biking around with John to Ansan Station, the international area or Ansan where they have really good Indian and other non-Korean-Foreign food, and a fun place to bike to.
The other weekend we went to another jimjilbong and got to spend more time just relaxing and chilling in the co-ed part of the complex with John, Anne, Ethan (a fellow co-worker who is Korean-American and is fluent in both English and Korean, he is also my after work food buddy, he stopped asking me if I want to get food after work and now just comes to my classroom and asks where I want to go) and Ethan's girlfriend Mandy. It was very good and relaxing.
Well that's all for now, I will write about my first week of the new quarter sometime soon.
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