New Years Eve

For New Year's Eve, we decided to go out for some steak as our special treat. Since being in Korea, we haven't really been able to eat a lot of red meat. Mostly because it's super expensive. A piece of steak can easily cost $30 and it's not even a huge piece. That same amount of meat would be about $5-$6 in Vancouver. See the difference? We've mainly stuck to pork and chicken. 

We went to Outback Steak House - an Australian chain. We thought we'd see a lot of foreigners in there but it was mostly Korean. When we ordered our food, we got really confused. There was an item that said "for two" and we thought "wow, what a deal! such a cheap price for two!". We tried to order it and almost ended up order two orders of it! Apparently it was only for one person, but perhaps the ad wanted to suggest you should order two for you and your date. Luckily there was a staff that was able to speak English and helped clarify it for us before the order was put and we quickly rectified the order to something less extravagant. 

The steak was delicious. It was thick and made the way we liked it. The side of mashed potato was also great. As we left, they told us that they're giving away bread for free so we got some. 

After that dinner, we went to do some grocery shopping at E-mart (across the street). Then we went home and watched tv. Neil did some work and a minute before nye, we sat and down and did our count down together. Not the most exciting, but I'd much prefer to be with loved ones at home where I'm safe and warm than be with a bunch of strangers and get my drink spilled on me. It was a nice and comforting way to move on to the next year. 

I heard somewhere, how you spend your last night of the year is how you'll spend the rest of your next year. 

Christmas Party

This is my first Christmas away but not Neil's. We decided to ask our co-workers to join us for dinner at our place to celebrate. I convinced Neil to make his oh-so-yummy mulled wine and I wanted everyone else to try it as well. The cover charge was a bottle of red wine. We had 10 in total that night and all the bottles were emptied.

(Didn't get a chance to take any pictures cause we were so busy, but here's a picture of my diy decorations)

On the menu that night was oven-roasted chicken, mashed potatoes with homemade gravy, pasta, fried rice, blanched broccoli and carrots. The main feature was the mulled wine. Our guests brought an array of appies such as cheese, crackers, cakes, and fruits. Our main concern was not enough food so we were very happy when people were stuffed! We even had leftovers. 

We put on Christmas music and movies as people were arriving and eating. After dinner, we decided to play some wii games, namely the dancing game. It was gold! Some people were reluctant to make a food of themselves, but the boys really showed off their dancing skills. I wonder if these are the same skills they showcase in the clubs.

It was a tiring and fun day. Who knows where we will be next Christmas, but I believe it's a time where there should be lots of people!

Stand Up in Busan

Neil discovered a open mic for stand up in Busan, so needless to say, that's where we headed. I've always wanted to check out Busan. We booked a guesthouse near Gwangalli Beach since the venue is located there. Our stay was very short because it's only a weekend.

It takes the same amount of time for us to go to Busan as it does for Seoul (3.5 to 4 hours). It was snowing as we boarded the bus and for more than half the trip there was snow everywhere. However, as we got closer to Busan, there was no snow. I guess because it's near the ocean, it doesn't snow as much? Like Vancouver? 

I didn't realize how big Busan was, granted I do know that it's one of the biggest city - I think second? I expected a fishing village, but it's known for it's seafood there, but it's definitely a metropolitan city. Although their bus terminal was a bit less modern. There's a different vibe to the city and I can't quite put my finger on it. Their subway is pretty good and we made it to our cute guesthouse. This is our first time in one and it's super cute! It reminds me of a house that's in one of those k-drama. Tons of cute wall deco and furnishings. 

Our first night was the night of the open mic. We made our way to the beach and popped into a seafood restaurant right away. It was okay. The presentation was better than the food because there was a lot of food we're not quite sure what it was and the shells took up way too much space. I'd like to try other types of seafood though, so we'll definitely come back. It was a very very cold night and we walked back and forth on the boardwalk trying to find this venue, which we did.

This place had a window that overlooked the beach and the Gwangalli bridge and it was gorgeous! The evening went great as well. There were a lot of comedians, mostly amateur and some were funny. Neil went up and did his thing and he was great! The voting was buy the number of drinks you buy and there were over 10+ comedians that night, it would've been hard to keep track. Two local guys and a guy from Seoul won the top three positions. I still prefer Neil's edgier stuff compared to the safe and self depreciating ones. But then I am a little bias. 

It's a shame we didn't get to stay longer in Busan, we would've loved to look around more but alas work calls and we had to get back before Monday.

Winter Clothes and Shoes

Since we're limited by the amount of clothes we can pack, a lot of the thicker clothes were obviously missing. So after our payday in December, we decided to do some shopping. I was in dire need of a nice pair of winter boots since the roads were becoming slick. With my history of balance it would be best for me to be safe than sorry. At the beginning, my rain boots were sufficient but I started slipping on the ice so I had to get winter boots. 

In downtown, Neil and I wandered to H&M. He has expressed many times in the past how he does not enjoy shopping and would much rather I do it and then call him to join me. In fact, that day Neil didn't really plan on doing any shopping but I dragged him to H&M. We headed downstairs to the men's section and we saw some really nice pullovers. There was a sale so it was a really good deal. Before we knew it, Neil has picked up 3 sweaters, a scarf and a hat. After leaving him to pay for his stuff, I ventured upstairs to see what kind of deals I can get. I ended up getting two sweaters, a scarf and a pair of sneakers. 

Next we went to a few more shops but didn't see anything. I finally laid my eyes on a pair of boots that looked sensible and only cost me thirty bucks! Since I'm not sure where I'll be next year, I don't want to pay anything too exorbitant for any stuff I may or may not bring with me, so I just snapped it up. 

Shopping in Korea isn't so bad :) Next stop to try one of those Korean shops!

Neil's Parent's Visit

In the middle of November, Neil's lovely parents paid us a visit. They stayed with us the entire time they were here. It was a shame we didn't have much time to show them around or take them anywhere nice since we had to work. They had to do a lot of solo activities and enjoy our Netflix at home. 

They arrived at U-square on Friday night and we picked them up. Unfortunately the taxis here don't seem to have a lot of trunk space so we had to take two separate taxis home. They had just come from Australia and we were suddenly hit with a cold snap, so it was unfortunately very cold when they were here. 

We had two weekends with them and for the first one we went to Damyang to check out the Bamboo forest and museum. It was nice but I feel like that place really didn't have much to do. Ahh but Neil was super fascinated by the multiple penis totem poles that was randomly there and I was reined to take pictures for him. After we got back from Damyang, we took them to Ashley's at U-Square for some all-you-can drink wine and buffet.

The other weekend we went to Jeonju to check out their Hanok village. Basically it's an area of restored ancient style homes, buildings and restaurants. There's a lot of people there and we had a quick bite before heading home. Because we headed so late we didn't have much time to try their famous bibimbap. Next time.

While they were here, we took them to a samgulpsal restaurant (pork belly restaurant), The First Alleyway for brunch and boardgames (I won Settlers of Catan twice!), and Chocolat Village for their yummy chocolate cake. We also ate at home where we had fried chicken delivered and I made my thai coconut soup and they really seemed to enjoy congee. 

It was great having them here and they gave me a very valuable advice: find a big stick to hit Neil with when he's being a brat or pull his ears. Yup! 

Halloween

So for Halloween this year, our school decided to celebrate it! They encouraged all of us to wear costumes and hand out candies to the students. We're also encouraged to do fun activities with the younger students in lieu of a regular class.

I really enjoy these celebrations and any time I can get out of teaching a regular class and have fun instead. However, it does mess up with our strict schedule of getting workbook pages done so that means the next class, we'll have to condense it and include all the things we missed before. Still, I think the good outweighs the bad.

Neil and I decided to dress up, him as a devil-vampire and me as a witch. Finding a costume here in Korea is not that easy and with what little time we had, we did the best we could ;P I youtubed some really dark makeup I could do to go with my costume and I think it turned out pretty good. I looked a bit scary but not too ugly. Some students were surprised with my dark makeup and a teacher thought it was more a club look lol. Thanks Kelly. Neil's costume got a look of attention because he wore a short sleeved shirt that showed off his tattoo and he did a dark eye liner around his eyes to look more devilish. Plus the mask he got already made him scary. It was great! 

The school went all out and gave us all a jack-o-lantern bucket to put candies in and gave us a bunch of candies to give to the kids. Some of us decided to supplement these candies as well - which turned out to be an ingenious idea because the school ran out of candies after the first three classes and we were all scrambling to find candies to give to the kids! A lot of the middle school students didn't get the handful of candies. I think they would've benefited more since those students seem to lack more energy than the younger ones anyways.

I really wanted to take pictures but was so busy that I could only get a few in. I'm hoping to get some from other teachers. It was a fun day but absolutely exhausting! We were both beat and couldn't wait to rest. Since all the teachers were bombarded by students asking for candies we barely had time to sit between classes.

Seoul Anniversary Getaway

For our anniversary, Neil booked us a quick weekend trip to Seoul. He had an itinerary planned out and wanted to surprise me the night before but because we weren't sure if we could go (a seminar was scheduled for all teachers that weekend) he had to tell me early. Luckily the seminar was cancelled. Phew!

We got up early and made our way to the U-Square terminal. The bus runs every 10 minutes so we didn't have to book ahead, plus there's nothing special going on that weekend for everybody except us. 

This time, we stayed in a place in Itaewon. It's a place full of foreigners indeed. It actually looks a bit sketchy to me. So many side-street stands and very busy. It's not as clean as I thought it would be, and things were super busy everywhere. One thing I disliked were the non-existent sidewalks. You need to walk on the street with the cars. It's rather scary.

After we checked in, we went out to look for some food. We came upon a very BC-themed restaurant. I even got to order a caesar! Neil had his fish and chips (which were okay). Next we set out to our next attraction: the Aquarium at Building 63.

They had penguins! It was nice, but a bit strange because rather than look like their normal habitat, there's some spongebob squarepants decorations in the tanks with some of the animals. It's been a while since I've been to the aquarium. Neil thought it was only okay. We did see some kind of underwater performance. After that we set out to our main attraction this weekend: Namsam tower via cable cars.

Another surprise from Neil included an inscribed purple lock with our names and anniversary date. I don't know how he got it, but I loved it! After the cab driver knew where we were going, he kept trying to tell us it's better to take the bus next time because it's super busy there. He was right, the line up was very very long! We waited at least 1.5 hours to take that 7-minute cable car to the top of Namsan. It was something we had to experience, but next time I'd rather walk. After walking around and taking pictures and finally putting our lock on the fence, we decided to walk down instead of taking the cable car (huge lineup again!) The walk maybe took half an hour and it was a nice night and I had awesome company. After we got down, we hailed a taxi to head back to Itaewon for dinner.

After walking around, we decided on restaurant that serves steak and a self-serve appies bar. Both Neil and I had our own steak and it was sooooooo yummy. We have not had steak in Korea much because it's super expensive so that dinner was one of the best we've had! Since neither of us are really into partying, we decided to call it a night and head back. Unfortunately because the walls are paper thin and we're situated right by the entrance, I heard people talking all night long and coming in and out. I could not sleep a wink :( I don't think we'll stay there again - I'm too much of a light sleeper.

The next day, we walked around to see if there's anything we need before heading back to Gwangju. Perhaps something we could only find in Seoul, but we didn't. 

The weekend trip was short but it was absolutely wonderful! We had a really nice time doing the things we set out to do. I can't wait to go back to see even more stuff. And I can't wait to celebrate with Neil again in another year! <3 

Ella's Wedding - First Korean Wedding

On October 18th, we were invited to one of our Korean co-worker's wedding. It was our first wedding and I was really excited! The wedding took place at a church and it was a mass ceremony. It's a shame everything was in Korean so we just sat there looking and trying to decipher what is happening. After the ceremony we took pictures with the bride and groom.

With Korean weddings, people usually give money in lieu of gifts for the couple. When we gave our envelope 'gift' we received tickets for the meal later. The meal turns out to be a buffet and you can sit anywhere you like. Quite a few of our co-workers were also there so we chatted and ate with them. It was an interesting experience and I can't wait to go to more!

After the wedding, Neil and I headed to Home Plus to check out their foreign goods. We spent almost two hours at the store and bought a lot of stuff. It was like Christmas! 

Yangdong Market and Dog Cafe

During the week we had one day off on Wednesday so I decided to meet up with Lily to check out Yangdong market. I wanted to find some cloths to make some pillow cases and some yarn for knitting. Yangdong market is an outdoor/indoor market that sells a lot of fresh produce and seafood and meat. It reminds me of the "see cheurn" (markets) in China. It was really big and a lot of the food looked the same. However, it felt like these places are meant for vendors because all the food you can buy are in really big quantities. I didn't find any cloth I needed but I did find some yarn.

After walking around Lily and I walked from there to downtown along the river. It was a nice and pleasant enough walk and it didn't take long. We did a bit of shopping in H&M and I got a polka dot dress and a zip up hoodie. We also went to Innisfree and got some hand creams and Skin Food for some cleanser. There was a parade downtown so we went to see it for a bit while waiting for our coworkers Tyler and Rosa to join us. Neil wanted to work on his surprise for our anniversary and he didn't join us. When they came, we decided to grab some food before heading to the puppy cafe. A place where puppies are running around that you can play with.

We headed to Oh My Burrito! and enjoyed some Mexican food. We bumped into another co-worker Steve and joined us as well. While waiting to get into the restaurant, I popped into Tony Moly and got their egg blackhead cleanser which I wanted to try for a long time. I also got a membership card :) 

After eating, we made our way to the puppy cafe. It was two stories and most drinks cost about $4-$ each. The whole concept of it was pretty cool but it doesn't seem like any of the puppies were properly trained because the place smelled like dog pee. I think they do try to mask it but you can still smell it. It doesn't seem like the puppies were mistreated but I can't get past the smell, I'm a bit sensitive to smells. I'm not sure I'd got back again to be quite honest.

Gwangju Kimchi Festival

In October, I convinced Neil to go to the Kimchi Festival in Gwangju. He's not exactly a fan of kimchi at all, so needless to say this was as appealing to him as picking up dog poop for complete strangers. We were going to take a bus there but it was a bit complicated ad we were running late so we grabbed a taxi instead. The ride was about $5 and took us like 15 minutes to get there. It's amazing how inexpensive taxi rides are here. It's awesome. 

When we got there, it was super busy! I wanted to try all the different kimichis and there was a row of tents that lets you sample it. Some were spicy, some were sweet-ish and some were pretty sour. It's pretty yummy. But unfortunately nothing really stood out for me. And I can't buy that much kimchi since I'm the only one that will eat it.

Neil got stopped by some university students to ask him some questions about Japanese and Korean food and then took a picture with us. Next to the highlight of the festival, I paid a few bucks and made my own kimchi and put it in a super cute container! Once I am done this kimchi I can use the container to put rice or something. 

There was a lot of mascots at the kimchi festival, they were mascots of vegetables used in kimchi making.

Cousin's Visit

In the middle of September, my cousin Joanne came for a visit. She had planned a three week trip to South Korea and decided to visit us for a part of it. While she was here, she came for a brief visit one weekend and joined our house party. She got a tour of our place and the room where she would stay. After the weekend, she went back to Seoul to continue her tour. A week later, she came back down to join us. 

One of the best part about Korea is it's transportation system. It's so easy to take day trips across the country. On the KTX it took Joanne about 3 hours to get to Gwangju (4 hours on the bus). We took her to Yumsem for breakfast and she did a daytrip to Mokpo. While she was here, unfortunately our working hours left her a lot of alone time. We did manage to show her the joy of home delivery - mmmm chicken. On the weekend, we went downtown and had sol bing and did some make up shopping at Innisfree and Etude House.

I absolutely love the free samples from these makeup stores! I got 10 free samples of paper face masks, some serums, some lotion, some cotton pads and make up samples too! It's so amazing. One day I'm going to collect all my samples and take pictures of them. 

House Warming Party!

After settling into our new place, Neil and I decided to have a house warming party. We invited all our foreign and Korean co-workers to come. Unfortunately because it was on a Sunday and it was the only day the Korean teachers had the day off so none of them showed up. But all the foreign teachers showed up! Lily even bought a homemade chocolate cake. It was really delicious. The other teachers also bought some drinks to share. 

Before the party, Neil I had made sure we cleaned up the place and prepped some snacks and drinks. Neil had some chili, I made some cocktail sausages, cucumber sandwiches and yogurt soju cocktail. There was also chips and veggies and dip. 

The game of the night was Cards Against Humanity. It is one of our favourite games and some people has never heard of it so we were really eager to introduce it to them. Joanne made a real strong impression by winning a lot of the cards. If you don't know what the point is, it's a game that showcases our worst thoughts. Each person gets a set of white cards that contain phrases and words. Each person gets to turn over a black card and which has a sentence with blanks. These blanks are filled by a white card. Everyone puts their choice in a pile and the person who turned over the black card picks the worst choice or one of their choosing. Whoever is chosen gets to keep the black card. Once a person collects 10 black cards, they win the game. This is a simple explanation, you might be better off googling it. :) 

Boseong Green Tea Fields

A month after our arrival, my friend Jini from Daegu came to visit us in Gwangju. She offered to take us out to Boseong Green Tea Fields in Boseong. Jini and her boyfriend picked us up from our apartment and drove about an hour to reach this place. She's only been there once and I'm not sure if her boyfriend's been there before. They used their GPS which looks like a video game, it's so detailed and colourful!

It was a really nice day and we parked in the lower parking lot and walked along the path to reach the entrance. Entrance fee is about 2,000 won each, pretty decent. We walked towards the fields and it is built upwards. It winds upwards so it's not that steep, but parts of it was still very steep. We saw a sign that said "ocean" and decided to follow it. I was excited because I thought we were by the ocean but the path kept going upwards?!? It turns out the path leads us to a look out point where we can see the ocean. So what happens when something goes up? It must come down, so we trekked back down. I felt bad for Jini because she was wearing heels. Good thing I decided to wear my runners. It was still very difficult.

The best part of the field was the green tea ice cream! I had the green tea ice cream while Neil, Jini and Jini's bf had the green tea yogurt. It was the best green tea ice cream I've ever had. It didn't have the chalky aftertaste I find with most green tea ice cream. If I could eat more, I would've eaten more and buy some home. 

But instead, we went to look for some real lunch instead. We ended up at a samgupsal place where the meat and dishes were green-tea infused. It was so much food! But super delicious! Jini generously paid for our meal.

First week of work

Even as I write about our first week of full-time work, I still need to take a breath and remember it's all over. We had decided to forgo cooking during this week since our place was still not quite ready and set up yet and we doubted we'd have enough time this week to do it. On top of many other things that happened, this was a great idea!

After the BIG move, we spent almost every night cleaning and rearranging things. We moved the furniture in the bedroom around. I set up my make up desk/table. The dining table originally in the living room, we decided to put it in one of the spare rooms to create more space. We dubbed this room the dining room. There was an old fridge that didn't work, we moved that out on the balcony and only kept the good one. We also placed our toaster oven on top of it. One of the spare bedrooms we made it into a guest room. We stacked the two single mattresses so we'll have more room. We can separate the mattress when we need to. We really dislike the colour of the couches and leather is a terrible material in this type of weather! We ended covering it with some blankets to make it softer and more comfortable. We cleared out the long tv stand and discovered so many guide books for Gwangju, Korea and even Seoul. All things left behind by our predecessors. All of this is only a portion of the changes we made. I can't wait to do the video blog of our new place. We're also looking forward to inviting new friends and coworkers over. We're really proud of it now and this apartment is very nice!

We didn't get any of the classes we had previously. I got whole new sets of students and course books. On the first day, we also had to hand out books to the students. They are super heavy! I managed to wrangle some poor unsuspecting students to help me. Unfortunately some of my books were messed up for two of my classes and it caused a bit of a confusion. With the new books, Neil and I had to get to work pretty early to make sure we find all of our books and then figure out how we want to prep our lessons. Some were easier than others. But 2 hours to prep for 7 classes is not enough time. Especially when some didn't have a guide on how we should teach it. It's a bit of a bummer. Good thing some of the older teachers were able to help us and give us some insights. We felt pretty bad having to ask about every little thing, but we didn't know :( So for Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, we have one set of schedule. For Tuesdays and Thursdays, it's another set. So some students see us once a week, some three times and some even five times a week. We don't teach on Saturdays but for those that we teach on T/T, they also have classes on Saturday taught by Korean teachers. It would have been fine if all we did was school/work but we had to get our bank account set up as well and go to our Korean classes.

Neil and I signed up for Beginner Korean classes with the GIC (Gwangju International Center) and our classes are Wednesdays and Fridays from 10am-12pm. Theres only one other person in our class. An American named Nick. He's super friendly and nice and he also lives and works in the Sangmu area. We would probably end up meeting each other one of these nights. He's been here about two months longer than us and is so helpful to us. The Korean classes itself are really good. We really like our instructor, she's very energetic and happy all the time. Even if I'm tired, it perks me up with her abundant energy. The first week was basic Hangeul so it was a breeze. I started learning this stuff two years ago so it was more of a review for me. But it's good to confirm what I know.

On Wednesday we get into work and Mr. Lee gives us our Alien Registration Card. He proceeds to let us know that his friend has a deal on phones today. We can get a phone for free if we sign up for a two year contract today. But first we need to open a bank account. It'll cost us $35 per month with 500mb of data, lots of text and 100 minutes or something. A basic smartphone plan. It's an LTE phone so it's not 3G. But Internet here is pretty fast already so it's not bad. Although the phone only has 8gb, there is a microsd slot to increase your memory capacity. I doubt I'll use it for anything other than messaging, map, emails and quick info search. All my games are on my ipad.

We opened up our bank account with KEB because we heard the transfer and service is really expat friendly. We didn't have our passport so we had to go back the next day to get our debit cards. It's funny for every service you want, you have to sign a form. To open a chequing account - one form. To get a debit card - one form. To use Internet banking - one form. To transfer money - one form. We still have to do the last two items.

Yeah...it's been a really busy week. We cancelled our plans for Seoul and decided to stay in Gwangju to relax instead.

The BIG Move!

Before the move, we didn't do anything interesting. We just wanted to rest and do nothing before our big move and first week of full time classes. So on Sunday we prepared to make our move two subway stops away.

We started moving around 2:00pm. We had our big suitcases and some bags. We proceeded to roll them to the subway and from the subway to the new apartment. I got us a bit lost on the first try and went a block too far and had to turn back. Oops! When we arrived, Rob and Carly were still packing and had just finished cleaning. We dropped off our stuff and went back to Sangmu to grab more stuff. After the second trip, Neil would do one last trip solo so I can start moving things around and prepping our place to sleep that night in one of the spare rooms.

Neil had to do one last sweep of the old place before coming back so I picked us up some snacks and drinks. We finished moving everything around 5:00pm. Rob and Carly took us to an Indian restaurant in downtown called The First Nepal. It was pretty yummy! We really enjoyed our meal and will definitely go back. After the meal, we looked for a dessert place. Ended up at A Twosome Place and had some cake before heading home. Neil and I were really tired so we fell asleep pretty quickly. After all tomorrow was our first day of full time work with new classes and books. We wanted to make sure we were in tip top shape.

Rob and Carly left that morning and thus began our weeklong task of moving in and reorganizing everything to our liking.

Neil's birthday and first time in Seoul Part Two

After a good night sleep on a slightly more comfortable bed (no springs!), we set out to have a bit of breakfast before meeting my friend Christy. Since we're meeting back in the Hongdae area, we decided to go to Dunkin Donuts for some breakfast sandwich and donuts. When we met up with Christy we went to EatYourKimchi's You Are Here Cafe. Christy with handy map got us there in one piece. The place is really nice. Very trendy looking and very clean.  I see the EYK touches. Since it's a collaboration with TalkToMeInKorean, we see some books and such as well.  The milkshake was really thick and it took a while before it melted enough to drink properly. Otherwise, it tasted pretty good.

Afterwards, we decided to head to the 63 Building. Neil and I wanted to check out their wax museum (we love wax museums!) and invited Christy along. I had to make a pit stop to pick up a charger for my ipad because the converter I was using (non-Apple product) was too slow. The legit Apple product made a difference in the charging speed. Then it was off to the wax museum we go! We took a cab and it was only about $10. Considering how far we went, it is really cheap. It was a busy place with lots of kids since there's an aquarium and other attractions there. We got our tickets and went down to the basement where the museum was located.

Poor Christy helped us take a bunch of pictures, but she got into some as well! I hope she had as much fun as we did. Next we headed to Gangnam area and went for some Ddeok Galbi. Basically there is a giant hot plate in the middle of the table. You order what type of meat you want and one of the servers will help you cook it. They also throw in a bunch of sauces, spices and veggies. And you can also choose what you want. We decided to have some noodles. There's a lot of red pepper sauce so even at its most mild, it was still very spicy. Neil is definitely learning to eat his spicy food. A cool thing about this is everyone has to wear this red apron to protect our clothes from the bouncing oil and such. At the end of the meal, you can also order a bowl of rice and they will cook it in the same mixture of meat for you so with what's left over, you have Ddeok Galbi fried rice. We were super full after that!

Christy left to meet her friend and see a soccer game. Neil and I tried to kill some time by walking around we were pretty tired so just found a coffee shop to sit in. Oh yeah before Christy left, she helped us take a picture using the media poles in Gangnam. Apparently these poles (looks like light lamp poles) allow you to take pictures and send it to yourself. It's pretty laggy. Good thing she was there to help us.

We stayed around Gangnam because we wanted to go to this comedy thing Neil found on facebook. But when we got to the hotel, people were confused what we were looking for. The events bulletin board had nothing as well. I decided to send an email to these people to ask about getting tickets but no response. Even today, no response. Is there a joke there somewhere?

We mad our way back to Hongdae area (again) and decided to have some chicken and beer to celebrate Neil's birthday. After getting dessert we headed back to our hostel to rest. The next day is another long trip back to Gwangju.

On Sunday, Seoul was a bit overcast and slight rain so we didn't think much of it. We kept our umbrellas out and made our way to the bus terminal. We used one of those short term lockers to put our bags and headed to Itaewon area for breakfast. It was such a long trip from our hostel to the bus terminal to Itaewon, we didn't have much time to explore. I found a market that sold lime leaves and that's pretty much all we did. Oh and have brunch.

When we got the terminal, it took us a bit of find the right terminal. The terminal we arrived at is the not the terminal we leave to go back to Gwangju. But they are just across from each other, so it wasn't that hard. We finally got our tickets and this time got the extra comfy one. While Neil waited with our bags, I went in search of his favourite drink: Fanta Pineapple. It was hard to find that flavour in Seoul. They had orange, grape and even cherry but no pineapple. I finally found one! When I got back, our coworkers Rob and Carly was also there. They got a bus just 15 minutes behind us so we said our goodbyes as we boarded. thus began our journey home on a 3.5 hour bus ride. It started to rain pretty the closer we got to Gwangju. This should have been a sign :( By the time we got back, it was torrential rain. My umbrella ended up having a hole so I had water dripped on me the entire time. We had to pick up some stuff from E-mart (to make Neil's bday soup) so we didn't take a cab. Also, the cab line up at the bus terminal was massive! We decided to walk. My shoes, bottom half of my clothes and most of my hair was soaked. So was Neil. We were a wet terrible mess. I was not happy. We were not happy. After lugging all our stuff back via the subway, we proceeded to dry ourselves and make dinner.

That night we also discovered something was wrong with our hot water tank and we did not have hot water for three days :( We ended up showering with boiled water from a pot. It reminded me of when I first went to China as a child. I didn't think I'd have to do that anymore. After three days, we got an unexpected knock/ring at 10am. Good thing we were already up and having breakfast (and dressed!). It was someone from school to help us with the hot water tank. He also got some plumbers to come by too. It was too early for me to put my makeup on so yeah...that was a bit of a gong show. But by the time everyone left, we had hot water again! Yay!

Neil's birthday and first time in Seoul Part One

In August we got a three day holiday, which coincided with Neil's birthday. (In Korea, he's a year older because Koreans are one year old once they are born.) So from August 15 - 17, we went to Seoul.

From the big bus terminal (U-Square) we were able to take a bus to Seoul. There are two types of buses, one that's super comfy with only about 20 people on the bus and takes 3.5 hours, the other is a bit more squishier but still roomy for me and takes about 4 hours. Both buses do make a pit-stop at these rest stop places that has washrooms, food court and vendors. They are quite interesting, I wish I had taken a picture of it, next time.

We arrived at about 10am and made our way to the bus terminal. It was quite busy, I get the feeling this place is always busy. With no knowledge of Korean, I got confused buyiing tickets and ended up having to change windows and got the cheaper tickets instead. Oops! It wasn't that bad for me because I don't need a lot of leg room but poor Neil could use that extra space. We waited only 15 minutes before our bus left for Seoul After two hours, we made the pit stop. Neil tried to nap while I listened to the Beattles and looked out the window. I find it hard to sleep anywhere...bus, planes...etc. 

As we neared the city, the traffic increased, and I'm convinced we would've arrived earlier but got caught in traffic jam due to an accident. The buses were in special lanes (HOV?) and was able to move a bit more than the normal car. It reminded me a bit of LA traffic. I'd hate to be driving in that. After arriving at the Seoul Express Bus Terminal, we had to navigate to our hostel. The subway system reminded me a bit like New York's except the trains are much further apart rather than one or two floors away. 

It took about 15 minutes to twalk to the train station we wanted to get on. Since we didn't have any internet/data, it was hard to check where we were. At one point we had to transfer to another train and had to take escalators to it. I swear the escalators were at least three stories high. I thought it would never end.

There is an inner circle line that brings you to most of Seoul's attractions. Our hostel (ShinChon) was along this line so it was very convenient. It was minimal and basic with just the things we need. The receptionist spoke perfect English and was able to tell us what we need to know about getting in and out. This hostel is pretty small so it was stairs only. We were on the third floor. Our room was double occupancy but it was two single beds instead of a double or queen. LOL. The A/C was good which was necessary since it was hotter in Seoul than Gwangju. We relaxed a bit and browsed through the TV (we didn't have cable). After relaxing, we made our way to Hongdae.

Hongdae is really a nickname of hte place. The name comes from the fact that area is near Hongshik University. There's tons of people walking aound. Mostly young teens and 20-somethings. The whole area is mostly pedestrian but some cars do try to make its way in. It's a bit ridiculous if you ask me. Neil was able to book a hair appointment so we went to the salon first. I wanted a wash but it's not as cheap as I hoped. In China, you can get a hair wash and blow dry for less than $5 but it's like almost $30 here :(. To bad. After the salon, we walked aroud the area. Some buskers around, again mostly young people. And we finally settled for some Korean BBQ for our first meal. You order the food by the plate and it actually came out pretty small. It was still very yummy! We walked around some more and called it a night. We were pretty tired from the long bus ride and journey to the hostel. The next day we were meeting my friend Christy.

Quick update from Gwangju!

We completed our first week of work last week and I'm just finally writing about it. We've been busy adjusting to life here and trying to get everything we need with our limited capital. We were able to pick up some second hand items last weekend from people who are leaving the country. We picked up a toaster oven (yay!!) and after cleaning it I made some peanut butter cookies (only 3 ingredients: peanut butter, sugar and egg). Can't wait to try baking and roasting more stuff :) We picked a tv and have finally been able to watch shows on a bigger than 13" screen. Can't wait to get internet and start streaming some dramafever. We were also able to take a look at our next apartment. We met up with with the C and R and they gave us a tour around their place and neighbourhood. After which we went to eat at an American chain buffet restaurant: Ashley's.

The new neighbourhood and place is very different to what we are living in right now. Forst the apartment is much bigger. There's more rooms and windows. It's too bad they don't have the keyless lock. The neighbourhood is much more residential and less shops and cars around. Neil likes the convenience of our current area but I kinda like the new residential area. It's more homey. The area is super hilly so I'm going to develop some pretty good leg muscles.

Apparently on the second and fourth Sunday of the month all the big box grocery/department stores are closed. This is to help the little mom and pop stores make a better living. We didn't know so we trekked all over the city only to discover Home Plus, E-Mart and Lotte Mart were closed. It was a hot day and Neil even got sunburned. 

Next weekend we're heading to Seoul because we have a 3-day weekend! I'll update about that next. 

First Apartment Tour

For the first month of our stay in Gwangju we are temporarily staying in an apartment that's 5 minutes from the school. It is a studio apartment near Sangmu subway station. There's lots of restaurants and shops nearby and we've spent most days walking around th neighbourhood.

We've created a video blog for the apartment tour. Below are some pictures and a a floor plan our first apartment.

If the video doesn't load use this link: http://youtu.be/hiWVZfV6D3Q