dragon queen

annyong!

so, nothing terribly exciting has been going on this week. although, i did attempt to cook my korean vegetarian recipes. i took a little trip to the home plus and managed to buy all of these things for 70,000 won. sweet deal.

if i had attempted to buy these things in the states it would have been outrageous. i decided to try to find a lot of korean recipes so that i know what i'm buying will be here and it will be extremely cheap. i made mandu, mushroom satay, and a korean salad which is kind of like coleslaw but a different dressing. i had a severe problem with the mandu because whatever oil i happened to buy ended up burning everything and giving it this sticky, black film. it was really disgusting and slightly annoying because i spent a very long time making the mandu by hand. imagine making perogies for the first time, not knowing what you're doing, figuring it out, being really proud, and having someone throw them into a fire for no reason. now you understand my plight.

however, i did end up succeeding with both the salad and the satay. i think the satay will end up being a staple for me. extremely delicious. to you, it may look like dog food. hahaha.

the pictures my camera takes are not very high quality, as you can see. but i know what it tastes like. :) i was very proud of myself for cutting the green onions properly. thank you, papa joes!

on friday, i received the package my mom sent me. sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeets!!!!!!!! i have never been so excited to see sheets in my whole life. i don't think you will understand until you spend some quality time on a korean bed. after i got my sheets, i couldn't just keep the same comforter i had because: A. it wasn't pretty and B. it wasn't a very good blanket. so, i once again, traveled to the good ol' home plus to find something to cover myself with. i wandered around and couldn't find anything under 70,000 won, let alone a queen sized anything. resigned to using the purple blanket i had, i went back up the moving sidewalk where i saw blankets on sale... i went over and found a duvet cover for 40,000 marked down from 90,000. plus, it is so pretty i can't even stand it. after i picked it up, i wandered around trying to find someone who spoke english. when this proved impossible, i went up to a group of koreans at a desk and said, "anyone, english?" some lady came over to me. she spoke a little bit of english but i got the point across that i wanted to know if i could return the blanket if i didn't like it. there was much acting and some air drawing but we managed and she said that i could and showed me where to take it if anneeyo (no). haha.

here is the beautiful duvet that i decided to keep because i just love it that much. also, note the SHEETS!!! this picture does not do how much i love the sheets and duvet justice.

yesterday, margaret, kevin, and i went to korean class. it went MUCH better this week. i studied a lot this week and am pleased to say that it definitely paid off. i was able to participate a lot more and it helped me to remember what i had been studying. we don't have class next week because of chuseok, a korean holiday.

*a student explained that his family goes to grandmother's house. after they get there, everybody makes rice cakes. they take the rice cakes up the mountain where they bow to a tree. while bowing, they cook the rice cakes. when their respects have been paid to their ancestors, they take the cakes back to grandmother's house. the women stand in a circle, hold hands, and sing a song. he couldn't tell me why they did this but margaret later told me it has something to do with the war between korea and japan. apparently, the women did this while the men were at war and it confused the japanese. the japanese, believing themselves to be outnumbered, retreated and the koreans won! after all of this singing, everyone eats.*

after korean class, we went to maya, which is the new delicious hang out. we are planning on asking the owners if we can buy some cilantro off of them. then, it is time to make delicious salsa. haha!

jen and i were planning on going to some mountain where there is a temple, unfortunately it was getting too late. i had to be home at 8:00 for my landlord to come fix my toilet. instead, we wandered around downtown with jen's friend, anne. she has been in korea for 7 years so she took us to some really cool spots. first, we went to this herbal medicine street. i can't remember what it is called.

this is the entrance of the herbal medicine street. it says something in chinese at the top. there are many wonders down this street, such as:

scary dog, fox creature. we think this was stuffed in the 60's.

big turtle. i'm not sure: the weirder the thing, the more likely to buy?pretty church that has nothing to do with the unusual animals. this church was actually pretty old for koreans. it was built in 1898 and the bell tower was added in the 30's. most things are just torn down to build something new. everywhere you walk there is a construction site, normally for apartments.

we continued to wander and found an indian store where they sell incense!!!!! my mom would be thrilled about this store! ha! anyways, i have to go back because i didn't have any money on me to buy anything. to get to the indian store, we went through this back alley way of all these tiny shops. i would like to take some pictures next time but i'm not sure if it's a good idea. they have all kinds of things all over the place.

these are traditional hanboks. many people will wear them on chuseok. the bride and groom's parents wear them to weddings. obviously the mothers wear these ones. haha. they are very beautiful and can be rented. anne has tried to buy them but i guess you just can't do it from these places.

well, the adventures continue. i will hopefully be writing more frequently when the internet at work has been repaired.

laceface

so, this is going to be a long one. ha. when have they not been? however, it IS complete with pictures!!!!

on saturday, margaret and i went to korean class. we were supposed to have kevin with us but he was mia. haha. we ended up figuring out where we were supposed to be and it was all good in the hood. when we got there, we had to be put on a waiting list but it was no big deal because we got right in. i think this might be part of the koreans' "never say no" mentality but it works for me. the class was pretty good. some of the time i had no idea what was going on but i could generally follow. after class, margaret and i went up to the teacher to ask where the samsung lions baseball stadium was. as we were talking, some girl came up and asked if she could join our excursion. of course, we said, "yes!"

so, we added jennifer on to the group and proceeded to find some lunch. we found a cute little place with many koreans so we decided that would be good. this was after we wandered around trying to find a restaurant that would accomodate me (no landwalking meat) and jen (no dairy). haha.

the koreans have this sweet thing i like to call the dinner doorbell. when you sit at the table, instead of the waiter immediately coming over and asking you 80 times if you are ready to order, you simply push a little doorbell and they come right over. brilliant! a+ for the koreans.

we ordered and our meals came and they were masheesahyo! (my version of how to spell delicious in korean. ha!)

so, this was raw fish on top of some kind of salad-y thing. the little dish had eggplant kimchi which was the best i have eaten so far. that red sauce was really spice and extremely delicious.

after eating, we went to a bookstore called kyobo. love it. obviously, they sell english books there. they weren't terribly expensive. everyone was making it out like the books here are way out of control but if you're into reading classics, no problem! i did manage to buy a planner with some fun konglish. (english "phrases" written by koreans) most of the time, these konglish phrases make little to no sense. this makes them all the funnier.

we got into the taxi and proceeded to SAMSUNG LIONS STADIUM!!!! after, of course, we bought beers to take in with us. let me just tell you, this is an amazing place of insane baseball fans.
this is one of the lions mascots. there were many running around and doing silly things. we got there at 4:00 and the stadium was almost full; the game didn't start until 5:00. it is first come first serve seating. after we found seats, i went on the hunt for thundersticks. if you don't know what these are, they are blown up sticks that you smack together to make an extraordinarily loud and obnoxious clapping noise. of course, i love this. i asked the man behind me and he pointed to where the insane crowd was sitting. i found the line and jumped in. i reached this counter and tried to buy some but the woman pointed forward like i should stay in the line. needless to say, i should not have stayed in the line. it was a self-fill thunderstick line. damn! so, i had to get in a line across from the one i had been waiting in for 20 minutes. but, it was ok because i ended up getting the coveted stick of thunder!!!


so, we sat and watched the game and talked and cheered and drank. it was super fun. i am under the impression that the fans are much more important than the actual players. compared to u.s. baseball, these people are high school players. although, it doesn't seem to matter because everyone has a great time. the people on 3rd base had memorized cheers and songs which were being led by a crazy man on top of the lions' dugout. next time i go, i am definitely sitting in that section. hopefully by that time, i will speak enough korean to be able to actually participate in the cheers and know what is being said. (the next game is the beginning of the next season, unfortunately :()

the lions ended up winning 7-0!!! 1st baseball game? great success!!!

following the game, we walked back downtown to find somewhere to eat. we ended up eating at a restaurant called rana. it was a fusion place. i had gorgonzola pizza that came with a honey sauce. it was reallllly good. while at dinner, we decided to go to go go vinyl, my new favorite place on earth. at go go vinyl, you are given a juice box with alcohol!!! it actually looks more like a capri sun but what's more fun to say? obviously, juice box.

so, when i received aforementioned juice box, i was handed a sparkler by that man in a jumpsuit!!! awesome! this was the nicest and happiest thing. i love this place. after go go vinyl, we went to a nooribon which was the next greatest invention EVER!!! basically, you pay to go into a room with your friends and sing karaoke. by this point, we had about 25 people with us packed into a tiny room. we sang for an hour. during this hour, you are scored on how well you do on each song similar to guitar hero. needless to say, there was a great cacophony coming from our room. a great deal of cheering for our 100 and much booing, dismay, and flipping off at the 78 we received for singing Queen.

at the next place, we got glasses made of ice. after you drank your poison, you went up and threw the ice at a target where you can win prizes. my first trip to ice, FREE ice beer!!! woohoo! it's silly. i got a certificate because i wasn't really drinking.

this was my whole saturday. i think it was the best day so far in korea. i also think that i will try to update more frequently so that these aren't so long. however, it's difficult because i don't have internet in my apartment, yet. so, i guess i will just have to keep typing until i have calluses and you will just have to keep reading until your eyeballs are glazed over.

i love everyone and miss you all!!!

laceface

hello, friends! things are really hot in korea, today. it's probably around 90 degrees...better than any day i saw of the "summer" that erie had. ha. the elevator is broken in this building but i was not aware of this situation because i refuse to get in it because of the little incident we had on the first day i was here. the other people were bitching but i don't even care. ha. i win!

last night, we went to this AMAZING indian restaurant. surely, it will turn into my new haunt. muahaha. i've always wanted to say that. so, it was REALLY awesome because they had a vegetarian portion of the menu!!!! i ate so much food. omg. it was the best thing of my life. everybody has been really grilling (hahha.) me about this vegetarian/pescetarian thing. i'm constantly asked why i don't eat not seafood. blah blah. it gets old but i've been calm (surprising). so, one of the guys that works upstairs, eric, sat across from me and was asking me about it. meanwhile, i'm thinking, "oh, this old chestnut." (compliments to chrissy) anyways, he said that he grew up in california with big hippie parents and he was raised vegetarian. thank you for someone else!!!!!!! wooot! however, he's been pretty lax (sp?) because it's pretty difficult to be a strict vegetarian here, which i am not doing. he said this first time he ate pork was in korea. haha. so, there's this other girl and she's like, "yea, but you have to at least TRY everything because then you can say you did." perhaps, i will. however, this girl is the person who was bitching at my welcome dinner that she wasn't going to be able to eat anything and everything would be too spicy. i should tell that girl shut the hell up. ha. or maybe, i'll just shove a chile in her mouth and she'll zipper the lipper. enough.

tomorrow, we are going to korean class!!! i'm so excited. i hope that i don't suck. i have a feeling i may. haha. no, really, i've already learned the alphabet and both sets of number up to 10. i've learned some phrases and try to remember things. after we go to class, we're going to lunch and then.... SAMSUNG LIONS BASEBALL!!!! THUNDERSTICKS!!!! oh yes, thundersticks. i will be getting some. i will be taking my $2.00 bottles of beer into the stadium, sitting on the third base line with the super fans, and beating the crap out of my thundersticks. once i can figure out how to load certain pictures on my computer, there will be many. haha. i'm super pumped for the baseball game despite the fact that the lions are nooooooooo good. oh well, neither are the seawolves. can i get an amen from the erie-ites? what is important is the screaming, beers, and popcorn.

i have found the mystery items: hairspray, nail polish remover, and mops. they are located at the british version of walmart: home plus. it is my new favorite place, regardless of how much i despise walmart. i know that it's bad but you would understand if you were here and couldn't find anything, anywhere. haha. i try to mostly buy my goodies from the wolbae market but that can't always happen because i don't see any little, old ladies growing hairspray trees. these women, by the way, sit in the market all day. you can buy freshly peeled onions if it's too much of a hassle for you to peel them yourself. pretty tricky situation, i'd say. plus, these women have severely bent backs, some bend over at almost a 90 degree angle. it's pretty bad.

well, i'm going to continue sit here with my tracy chapman and my korean workbook that robert just gave me. perhaps i will learn something, maybe not. haha.

oh yes, "look me in the eye" is a good book about asperger's. check it out. (random thoughts)

THE face.

things have been going well here. i have shadowed the teachers at all of the stations: dance, police, kitchen, and telephone. today, we took away kitchen and are replacing it with art gallery. i'm a little concerned because apparently i am teaching art gallery today. my boss was like oh by the way you need to memorize these scripts in two hours but then, she didn't tell me that i was actually teaching...interesting...korea. anyways, the kids are hysterical and are constantly yelling, "teach-a! teach-a!" a little girl showed me her phone which had a picture of a blonde hair, blue eyed anime character. she said, "teach-a, it's teach-a!" haha. oh man. also, these kids never stop touching each other. there is constant poking, prodding, picking, hitting, slapping, etc. it's ridiculous. they love the game telephone and get really upset when they don't beat teach-a.

the other day, we went to my welcome dinner. We had to take our shoes off when we went into the restaurant. They seated us in the back in our own special room. They had those tiny tables and we sat on the floor on these black pillows. That was cool enough but then Kris ordered ALL this food. First, the lady brought shrimp in this pan and there were burners built into the table. Oh man, she put the pans on the burners and the shrimp were still ALIVE!!! They started hopping around all over the place. We were all freaking out and laughing. The people I was with took a video of it. It was pretty disgusting. So then, while the shrimp were dying they brought about 40 dishes worth of sides (no exaggeration). So, there's food all over the table and everybody just kind of shares and eats out of all the dishes. We ate the shrimp after they were all cooked up. THEN, this lady brought BIG pans with all kinds of seafood: octopi, shrimp, crabs, scallops, squid, random other things. And THOSE animals were alive, too. The octopi kept trying to get out of the pan. Oh my God, sick. That's when everybody really started videotaping. Kris was laughing at all of us because we were seriously freaking out. So, it was pretty vile but I ate it and it was really good. We kept asking Kris and Danny what everything was and they were laughing. There was something that looked like brains but really we thought it was intestines. Megan said, "I've been her almost a year and this is pretty intense for me. How do you feel on your first day?" haha. So, I guess I got one of the crazier things out of the way. While we were eating they were playing this game with a soju bottle top. Soju is kind of like vodka and apparently extremely popular. So, if you flick the twisty thing off the top, the people beside you have to drink. Kris was the first person to have to drink and we were all laughing at her. While we were doing this they just kept bringing more and more dishes and more and more drinks all the time. It was pretty ridiculous. I guess the Koreans give you things for free just to say thanks for eating at our restaurant. Margaret told me that a coffee shop gave her a free cookie once just for coming back to buy another coffee. Anyways, that dinner was probably the most insane thing I have ever seen in my life. I don't think that would be a good place to go for you. hahaha. Oh yea, and Kris payed for everybody so that was nice and everybody liked that. Afterwards, we went to the Fish and Grill and met a table of Koreans. They were really nice and we talked to them. We gave them American names: Sue, Mel, Sunny, and Lena. They liked that and thought that was funny. Everybody here thinks everything is funny. And they really do that thing like on Iron Chef, where they cover their mouths and laugh. It's cute. haha.

this weekend, margaret and i went climbing up three pencil mountain. oh man, i thought i was going to die. it was actually really fun but extremely tiring. the whole thing took almost 7 hours. we could have kept hiking but i think we might have died on the mountain and been eaten. hahaha.

yesterday, i went shopping at the grocery store. it is nearly impossible to find anything that is "normal". this is probably because, unlike the U.S., shipping products in from every point on the globe is not a popular thing to do. it took me about two hours to find almost everything that i wanted. i have yet to find hairspray. it is apparently a mystery object. i've been trying to make my apartment look nicer. it's been going pretty well. at the store, i bought a new pillow and a tablecloth. i will post my pictures when i have more time and i'm not trying to memorize scripts. :(

so, i have finally arrived in korea and today is my first day of school. i'm going to be shadowing the other teachers for a couple of weeks. we have too many people right now so we have to double up until one of the other teachers leaves. she will be going home at the end of october. i'm not sure who i am working with today but it doesn't really matter because everyone seems really nice. i guess we are going to dinner tonight. i messed kris's, my boss, plans up for tonight. they told her that i don't eat meat i thought she was going to seriously freak out. haha. i don't know what she wants from me. oh yes, i decided that it might be a good idea to get stuck in the school's elevator with two other koreans today. that sucked. thankfully, the woman spoke english, however, she decided to say that she was scared that the elevator was going to fall. of all the things she could have said in english, that was her choice? HA.

i've mostly been wandering around daegu breathing through my mouth. it would seem that nobody else is affected by the smells that are roaming around this place. i guess they're just used to it. although, it is pretty interesting how everyone just lays their food out on the sidewalk and you can walk right up and buy it. there are people sitting EVERYWHERE on the sidewalk. they basically have everything you could imagine, some appetizing, some not so much.

it's a little difficult to communicate with people but if you just smile and nod, everything is cool. i think some guy was trying to tell me that i was pretty today and gave me a discount on a bag i was buying. haha. i have no idea. i just say "i don't know" and shake my head then they smile at me. also, little kids say hello to me everywhere i go. they get really excited about it. i thought that this would just be popular among children but no, the old women like to do the same thing. lol.

hopefully, today goes well and my first day of school is fun.