Ice Bar and Han Cruise

On Friday night after school Melodie and I made the trek to Hongdae with some friends to check out the "Ice Bar". We'd seen lots of pictures online and were pretty excited. It was a night of temperature extremes as we got on an express subway train that was p-a-c-k-e-d and sweaty. You could feel the steam pouring out of the car each time the doors opened. We were lucky to get on the express train though, becase it only took us about 30 minutes to get to our destination and it's usually an hour's ride. Hot and dizzy, we arrived in Hongdae and headed for a Thai restaraunt we'd read about.

The meal was oooooookay, but didn't hold a candle to the Thai place we'd enjoyed so much in Songtan. It was definately koreanized, which was obvious when they served us a plate of pickles. Sweaty memories of the subway returned for some of us when the green curry was much spicier than expected. The noddles were good though! Khaosan restaraunt: 4/10 stars.

After we'd finished eating we still had about an hour before our reservations at the Ice Bar, so we went to "Ho Bar" where all the korean homies were hanging out. It was a cool place, and we made a lot of new friends when we brought out the horse head mask and it got passed around the bar. The humor resulted in complimentary nachos being served to our table. Score! Ho Bar: 8/10 stars

After that we were off to the ice bar. We were each given big silver parkas and headed into the giant meat-refrigerator-turned-bar. It was pretty cool (pun intended). Everything was made of ice: the bar, the walls, the tables, even the cups our drinks were poured into. There were lots of ice sculptures as well. It turned out our reservations were irrelevant as there was nobody at the bar!! It was fun to have the place to ourselves to slip slide around though, and eventually two other people showed up...

... and they brought costumes! Never ones to resist a photo op, we pulled out our own "fancy dress" and snapped this pic. The horse head, once again the most popular inanimate object in the room, was passed around and even tried on by the bar owner. After our toes started to go numb, we reluctantly returned our fashion parkas and went to a norebang, and then called it a night after a crooked cab ride home and some fireworks on the roof. Ice Bar: 9/10 stars

On Saturday, Mel and I decided to take a ferry ride along the Han River off Hangang Park. We left at 6:30 so we were cruising along as the sun was setting and it was really nice. The shoreline along the Han is really cool, with lots of skyscrapers and bridges to look at. We met pleasant old Minnesotans, and a nice local man next to me offered additional information about the sights we were passing as well. It was a nice and relaxing way to enjoy the night. Han River Cruise: 9.5/10 stars

I felt the need to share this picture with you... before we got on the boat we hung out around the water for a little while and notice this woman hanging out with her chicken. Woman with a chicken: 10/10 stars (priceless).

We've joined the Korean Army!!!!!!!!

Well, not really!!

Today we woke up a little before noon. It seemed to be a nice and sunny day... about 22 degrees. Since we hadn't accomplished anything significant over the weekend other than the usual horse-play on Friday and Saturday, we decided that today would be a good site-seeing day. We decided on the National war museum in Seoul.

After taking the commuter train from Suwon to Seoul (much nicer to actually sit for an hour than stand), we ended up in Samgaki. There were many people outside having picnics and children playing. We bought our tickets and enjoyed an hour and a half of war history. It was actually a very interesting place complete with models and movies depicting different battles from throughout Korean history. We especially liked the "Moving direction" arrows that took us through tunnel and cave walkways, led us into the inside of a ship and into a mini airplane. After we looked at the three floors of exhibits, we went outside where Shawn noticed an American woman drinking from a Taco Bell cup. Upon his questioning, we learned that there is a Taco Bell at the army base. Unfortunately, we are Canadian and won't be able to go into the American Base in Itaewon. Oh well, I don't like Taco Bell that much anyways.

Outside, there were lots of Army tanks, jets, helicopters and cannons that children were allowed to go inside and play on. Of course, Shawn and I booted some children off so that we could have some good photo ops. The tanks are very crowded inside and of course, I hit my head on something. I'm surprised that children are allowed to run around inside those things. I can't really see that happening at a War museum back home, but it was pretty cool nontheless.

This "tear drop" made from dog tags represents the soldiers and the barbed wire surrounding the drop represents the struggles of the war.

After we left the museum, we went on the longest walk of our lives (maybe even longer than the time we got lost on the mountain). We took the subway a few stops and attemped to find a buffet restaurant that Shawn had read about on the internet. Of course, we walked forever and did not find it. So we settled on Mr. Chow's -an expensive Chinese restaurant that served pinkish chicken and crappy fried rice.

Then we took the commuter train back home to Suwon. But all in all, I think that today was a pretty productive day!

The Side Effects of Being an English Teacher in Korea

- Eating a lot of ice cream and getting fat.

- Children's camp songs are always stuck in your head, and you sing them in your spare time.

- It may start to seem like a good idea to wear a big rubber horse mask out on a Friday or Satrurday night.

-You don't have a pet so you start naming everything. Your laptop is now "Lappy", the picked-on fish in the school aquarium is "Chance", and your rubber chicken toy is "Bessie".

- Sweet potato pizza starts to sound tasty.

- Your vision is fine, but yet you find yourself buying a pair of fashion glasses.

- You are willing to travel 3 hours round trip to buy $7.00 Hamburger Helper on the black market.

- Your allergies go away, but you are always sick or in some stage of becoming sick.

- An increase in the number of funny t-shirts you own is noticed.

- Third degree burns in your mouth, at least twice a week from surprisingly spicy food. Another side effect? After a while, the burns stop bothering you.

- Pork intake increases tenfold. Ditto for your consumed amounts of cuttlefish and other miscellaneous fish by-products.

- Your english speaking ability slips while your korean never really gets any better. "Students how was your lunch today?" slowly becomes "Students- lunchy good?"

- Your TV watching standards lower, and you become grateful that anything english is on TV at all. Hours of "Top Model" reruns become must-see-TV. As a result, your Tyra Banks impressions are spot-on.

- Chips are a good supper.

- Watching car accidents occur out your window is a pasttime.

- A back hunch rapidly develops as your time spent on the computer increases. Manically hitting refresh on Facebook and Perez Hilton.com is fun.

- You start to recognize, love, and sing along to crappy korean-pop songs.

- You miss Canada, and become more patriotic that you would ever be at home (odd)

- Loss of sleep due to a squeeky pipe in your apartment. Also, sleep may be lost due to your neighbours' high heels clomping up and down the hallway all night.

- You care that there is a 'u' in neighbour.


- Department stores dictate your moods. You are elated when Home Plus starts selling tortillas, but depression sets in when you realize that they have stopped carrying chicken gravy.

- You start a blog

- The fear and panic that sets in when you realize that in 3 months, 2 weeks and 4 days you will no longer be an english teacher in Korea. AHHHHHHH !!!

Thirsty???

At your local Outback Steakhouse, carbonated tomato puree. Buy a pitcher for only 17,900 won.

Meh, it's a slow news day.

Happy Mother's Day, Moms!!!

Shawn's mom Linda with Things 1,2

Mel's mom: Caroline (sorry, I couldn't find any other digital pics!!!)

We hope all moms have a nice day today. We would have called, but we got home too late! Did you know that Koreans do not celebrate this holiday but instead they have both Children's Day and Parents' Day?

This weekend we went out to Carne Station with some fellow teachers. It is quickly becoming a favourite place of ours....all you can eat bbq and all you can drink whiskey, wine, beer, etc... You can only imagine the chaos that ensued....

So as we were stumbling towards the Luxury Noraebang (karaoke), a man was selling costume hats.....guess what happened?

On Saturday, we went shopping in Seoul and when we got home, we were forced into a make-shift Karaoke room on the first floor. A middle aged Korean woman sang us "traditional" songs by Neil Sekada and Patti Page. It is very awkward as she speaks little English and is very forceful. She gave us old food and our friend got some dead flowers. We are worried that she is becoming quite a problem since her performance room is right outside the elevator and she is forcing us to watch her perform any time we leave the apartment!

Today we went to Itaewon in Seoul to have dinner with Dayna and her parents. We ate at an Egyptian restaurant called "Ali Baba's". Dayna's parents treated us for the meal. Ahhhh, I miss parents!!!!! Last week they were in China, this week they are in Korea, and next week Thailand. They are sooooo lucky. We already miss Thailand!!!!!

Modern Conveniences

I've read that just a few years ago it was very hard to find foreign products in Korea, so when I moved here I didn't really expect much. However, there are very few foods from home that I cannot find here, and it seems like there are more and more available every day. Here are some of the products that weren't around when we moved here, but have become available in Korea in the last few months:

Nestles Crunch- I bought a dozen of these bars in Thailand and brought them back with me. The day after we returned I went to Home Plus and there they were!

Mr. Big, which I don't particularly enjoy, but I was nonetheless pleased to see a familiar face.

Jelly Belly jelly beans.

Clearly Canadian Soda, a recent find at the Galleria grocery store.


And the most exciting new addition... Lays Chips!!! Only the original flavour though. I first noticed these on Friday and have gone through quite a few bags since then. Generously produced by the Lotte Company (who else?)

Still no Arbys sightings, but I'll keep you posted.

Seoul World DJ Festival

Alright this post is about the DJ festival, but first I have to mention that on Friday night we went to a bar that looked like a cave. It was pretty cool- there were stalagtites hanging from the ceiling and rocks on the walls. But this was not your mother's cave bar- one of the stalagtites was penis shaped! Our mapagi wig from school came along, and the above picture is Chris on a dare walking around the bar with the wig on.



Okay, back on topic. Saturday was Cinco De Mayo, so we met up with a bunch of teachers from the Suyu English Village for some Mexican food in Itaewon. The restaraunt specialized in shots with amusing names, such as the "duck fart". Mmmmm, quacky! Even though we had reservations the staff was ridiculously slow and only took our orders after we took the initiative to pass a piece of paper around the table, wrote down what we wanted, and passed the note directly to the avoidant server. Feeling slightly fed, we headed to World Cup Stadium where the concert was being held.




It was very hard to find! The concert itself was about 1.5km from the nearest subway station, but we weren't quite sure of which direction to go. After wandering around with a bunch of other equally lost people, someone eventually noticed a small 8x10 piece of computer paper taped to a fence that said "DJ Festival this way". For an event that had thousands in attendance you'd think they could foot the bill for a proper sign !!!




When we finally heard the music in the distance we started to get pretty excited. The event had a few stages and was held near the water. The admission was free as well, which was a fantastic price. There was so so so many people there, a lot of freaking foreigners, but a lot of Koreans as well.


The Festival was a 3 night event, and on the night that we attended there were DJs from Korea, Japan, Canada, France and China. The only complaint was that they didn't sell alcohol! I bought a few warm beers from a guy at a table and gagged them down, but I mean c'mon. What kind of a music festival doesn't sell booze? Meanwhile, the music was amazing and I think the crowd really enjoyed it- even the little kids that were with their parents, still dancing around at 3am. It was really great just to hear some good live music.


While they were short on liquor, they had a book cafe in case you needed a quiet place to read a chapter book. Can you imagine? There's throbbing music and thousands of dancers 15 feet away, and you're sitting down to a fresh copy of "War & Peace"? Well, at about 4am Mel and I hopped into a cab and got back to Suwon just in time to watch the sun rise. It was a really good time and now I'm looking forward to the Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival in July with the Chemical Brothers, Damien Rice, Muse and more more more. Yay, I love the summer!

I Bought Some Bubblegum

Camp songs are great when the school you work is more like a camp than a proper school, and my favorite of them all has to be the infectious "Bubblegum Song". We learned this one at the Suyu camp and I've read that it was originally used in old Bazooka Joe commercials. Sadly enough, this song has kind of been the soundtrack of our trip. Anytime something good happens someone is bound to start singing "ni ni ni ni ni ni ni ni..." Well, I've had a lot of classes with low english lately and it can be hard to teach them a drama that they can pull off in 5 days, but they're usually pretty good at picking up songs. My kids really had fun with this one this week.

The stars themselves!

So, here it is: the debut performance of "Bubblegum".... Please ignore the part where I'm introducing it :P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUQBsoOs_yM

Sickness and Daegu City!

Shawn and I at Amy and Ellen's university in Daegu

So we haven't posted in a while because both Shawn and I have been sick with some strange kind of cold. I was sad because I had to take a day off of work last week resulting in a loss of 200,000Won from my no absense bonus. Feeling feverish, I felt I had no choice in the matter but to try to sleep it off. This cold came in many different phases; First fever, then loss of voice, sinus congestion and a deep chest cough. Apart from still feeling tired, I feel better now. Of course, that did not stop us from going to Daegu last weekend albeit mid-cold.

The "Big Man" at the university

Before coming to Korea, I had promised my former adult students I would visit them in Daegu. Daegu is the fourth largest city in Korea with a population of about 2 million. We took a train from Suwon and enjoyed a 3 hour trip. Unfortunately, it is hard to get a train on a Friday evening and we had to wait for 3 hours at Suwon Station before we could even get on a train.

Korean countryside-lots of mountains and farms on any available land

When we got there it was after midnight so we decided to find a hotel to sleep in. We chose what is commonly referred to as a "love motel". These motels, found everywhere in Korea, are catered to the affairs of married businessmen. They are very cheap and offer such luxuries as a huge flat screen tv, jacuzzi, computers and everything you might need if you did not plan on staying in a hotel such as razors, toothbrushes, hairspray, etc...

Our motel room- At Motel Zen

Of course, you can rent a room for the night or even just for an hour!!! It really blows my mind how many there are, in fact, there are probably at least 10 of them within a block of my apartment. Although I don't agree with it, I find this to be an insightful peek into a seedy and not-so-secret part of Korean society.

Amy, Me, Ellen

But on with the trip. When we woke up, I called Amy and we decided to meet. Amy and Ellen took us to their university which was quite nice. Imagine a 20 floor skyscraper for your library...very nice! Then we ate a chicken stirfry which was very delicious. We went shopping and eventually called it a day. We spent 9 hours walking and exploring Daegu so I think we got the experience we were seeking. Amy and Ellen were a little worried about showing us around Daegu, because I guess when you've been to Seoul, you've pretty much seen it all. And they were right, Daegu was a lot like Seoul and Suwon. We were happy to have seen the girls in their hometown and to see that they are still doing well.

That night we stayed in another love motel but unfortunately, it was not as nice as the first one. Oh well, it was only about 30, 000W (30USD), so you get what you pay for!!! We returned home happy we had a good weekend journey.

In other news: I might have to have my wisdom teeth taken out! Aaahhhhhh! Updates to follow....