Of food and other things.

Blogs are great until they lose everthing you wrote. Then they are  EXCELLENT. I seriously had my blog all written, and I was trying to add a few photos from my phone for ya, and my text was deleted. Instead of throwing my computer out the window, i’m going to buckle down and try to type this out with the next 15 minutes I have before we have to walk to class (it’s about a 10-15 min walk).

Well, we made it through week one! We’re still happy, healthy, and excited to see what’s around the corner! You’d think since we’ve been here a week we’d have the city pretty much down. That’s a lie…we know how to get to school, a few good restaurants and coffee shops, and to HomePlus (the biggest supermarket you’ve ever seen). We are however getting the lay of the land when it comes to food available around the area.

Our first coffee shop experience (they’re all over the island):

Second coffee shop experience:

We’ve been getting the real Korean experience right off the bat; eating Korean BBQ (you grill your own meat on the miniature grill sitting in the middle of your table…its quite fascinating), traditional Korean (super spicy, rice, noodles, eggs), and westernized Korean (alfredo with a twist…seafood like you’ve never seen it-things that resemble clams, octopus tentacles, and who knows what else). It’s all been fantastic.

There are things I’m hesitant to try, including the octopus tentacles, dried fish, and seafood wraps.  I have to say I’ve had kimchi. It’s not the greatest. It tastes like a combination between something super spicy and rotten; wait it is. The Koreans eat so much kimchi, I swear the island smells like it. Sometimes we’ll come in to our apartment, and the smell has drifted down through the vents. That’s when we cook bacon. Nothing can out-rule the smell of bacon…then again bacon is 8 bucks a package, not something you want to buy everyday.

We make plenty of things at home, just not what I’d typically make back in America. Lots and lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, tuna, and thankfully chicken. It’s really tough to find good quality meat, and when you go into a store it’s slightly overwhelming not knowing what any of the meat is on the shelves. Jeremy introduced us to this great site called G-mart which is a mix between Korean Ebay, and a hybrid version of Walmart online. We were able to order a huge box of chicken tenders that were delivered right to our desk at school.

Fresh fruit for breakfast:

>>>I’m desperately trying to figure out what I wrote about in the blog that got erased<<<

Yesterday we had a fantastic Sunday with Jeremy and Chelsea. It was quite Americanized, complete with a movie theater experience and it finished off with spaghetti (with chicken, beef is way to expensive to buy here). We went to see ‘Man on a Ledge’ which was actually a pretty good movie. It was in English with Korean subtitles, so it was actually almost like being back in the US. The second I started to think I was back in the states watching that movie: I look over to the couple sitting next to Derik, and what are they munching on but dried squid?! No joke…and it smells.

In a few minutes Derik and I will trek to school, type out our lesson plans for March, then sit in on a few classes to observe the teachers. Pretty easy day. We begin teaching March 2. I get the little ones, 5-6 years old Korean age (about 3-4 American age). The five year olds will be coming to school for the first time, and will not know any English. That does pose as a challenge for me, but we’ll get through it. Derik also has kindergarden, but he has the 6-7 year olds.

March 1st marks our first Korean holiday, where we will be spending it in the company of Jeremy and Chelsea. We’ve decided to take a trip up to Busan, do a little shopping, taste testing, and just have an overall good time. My fingers are itching to take some serious pictures here soon, and I think this trip will pose for a great opportunity.

A view right outside our place at night. The big white building on the right is our apartment, and a river divides us from the rest of the city. :)

Please pray for Derik, he has a pretty bad sinus cold and has been feeling under the weather for the last couple days.