Christmas in Japan - part 2

When we got back from the island we joined the Christmas party at our hostel where we got free sushi! We met a lot of really nice people from all over the world. After the party we went to an Irish pub with a group of people from England, Australia, Swizterland, the States, and Japan. Then after the pub we went to a karaoke room and sang for a few hours....it was a great evening and a very different Christmas Eve than I had ever experienced. On Christmas day we went to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Not a very Christmasy thing to do but it was really interesting as well as difficult to see the awful effects of an atomic bomb.

That evening we went out again with some of the friends that we had made the night before. We first walked along the Peace Blvd. where there were so many lights set up. It was really pretty.

Our last day in Hiroshima we went on a guided tour of the Peace Park. It is hard to believe that this picture was taken on Dec.26...it kind of looks like spring. The World Frienship Centre gives tours to guests of Hiroshima. It was really interesting to learn more about the history and background behind all of the monuments.

This is a statue of Sadako with a crane. I remember learning about her story when I was in elementary school.
Here is the a-bomb dome which is a popular site in the park. This was one of the few structures that was still half standing after the bomb was dropped.
Hung on many of the monuments in the park were many paper cranes which symbolize peace. This picture was taken at the monument for all of the Korean people that were killed because of the a-bomb. There were many Koreans working in Hiroshima at that time. The word on the paper says "Pyeong Hwa" in Korean which means peace in English.
After the tour we met an a-bomb surviver who shared with us her experiences from that time. I'd like to say more about this...but it will have to wait until another time.

Christmas in Japan - part 1

After a long day after commuting we made it to Hiroshma, Japan last Saturday. I was worried about some of the transfers from train to ferry and all of that but we made it. Our ferry was this fancy hydrofoil kind that goes super fast. Because it was pretty windy that day the waves were so big so it was a pretty awful part for me...but I survived.

The next day we were picked up and brought to church by a woman named Michicko. She works at the World Friendship Centre in Hiroshima and knows some of the people at KAC/Connexus so we were connected to her. We didn't understand anything of the service except for the familiar tunes in the Christmas hymns. After the service we stayed for lunch which was followed by some amazing musical performances from some of the people as well as a gift opening. Here is Mark and Michicko. She is a really kind woman. She also organized a tour of the Peace Park for us as well as meeting with an a-bomb surviver.That night we went out for some sushi. The first restaurant we tried we walked in and said "sushi?", the waitress said "no,no" and walked with us for about three blocks to a different restaurant that served sushi. We were pretty impressed...what service. So, at the sushi restuarant we had no idea what to order so we asked our waitress to bring us what she would recommend (we said this in Japanese using our "Lonely Planet" book). After watching them take some fish out of their tank we were brought this plate. Some of it was really good...but some of it also almost made me gag.
The next day, Christmas Eve, we took a ferry to an island just outside of Hiroshima called Miyajima. There were deer walking around every where. I'm pretty proud of myself that I had the courage to pet one.
Here is a famous structure just off of the island. It's on all of the postcards...I forget the name of it.
We hiked up one of the mountains on the island. It was so beautiful and peaceful! Almost no people around which is something we don't experience very often. There was a sign that we shouldn't feed the monkeys...but sadly we didn't see any. The hike was really difficult though...so many stairs! We were pretty exhausted when we got to the top but the view made it so worth it! It was so beautiful!

Connexus/KAC Christmas Party!

Yesterday was our christmas party at connexus. So now I am totally in holiday mode...but I still have two classes to teach tonight...I will make it. The party consisted of lots of food, lots and lots of students, a silent auction, and some christmas carols. It was a lot of fun but crazy because the place was so packed! Here is a picture with Joel and some of my interview students. They were one of the firsts to arrive and the lasts to leave. I think they are pretty awesome! Mark and I were the MC's of the evening and we didn't really know what we are doing, so here we are a bit confused. It all worked out in the end, just a bit chaotic.
Singing some Christmas carols. Notice Mark playing the ukulele.
Group shot...this is even after some students had left...so many people!
A fancy collage of the pictures that my student took. The Christmas cookies were baked by Heather and Karen and were so tasty!So, that was the party, again, Merry Christmas to you all!

service

"Service" in Korean means on the house. Its a free little side dish that you get complimentry. Now in Canada this means salt, pepper, ketchup, etc. At a good bar this means peanuts or pretzels, but things on the house are not that common. Its too bad, but thats life.

In Korea they are all about the service. Usually there are more plates of service stuff than there are of regular stuff. The best part is that they are unending, if you eat it all, you can just ask for more.

Here is a picture of the food we ate at a wedding we went to. Now at the wedding the whole meal was free, but the side dishes are plentiful. (Vanessa posted this picture, but redundancy is not always bad)


Here is another picture that was posted before. We only ordered some meat on the grill, the rest were side dishes, all service. We had to move stuff off the table because there was too much stuff that was service (including kim chi, mini octupus, oysters, more kim chi, some egg, corn and other stuff).


Now comes the interesting one. At a bar. Now normally I associate nuts, pretzels, maybe some chips as bar food. But in Korea they have the goods. Bar service is impressive as it almost includes everything from the four food groups. Now its hard to see in this picture but the free food comes along with this meal includes: canned peaches, boiled egg, corn, popcorn, some fried pork, cold mashed potato and this ice cream dessert kinda thing with shaved ice. Crazy. Not the typical bar food that I am used to, but thats just my cultural narrow mindedness.

Thoughts on the Korean Election, of which I only understood a little

The Korean election was yesterday, and while it was supposed to be a national holiday, us private school teachers had to work. So while everyone was sleeping in and recovering from their previous night of drinking soju, we began our day of work.
Things I learnt from the Korean election:
- each presidential candidate has a number, so on every poster there is a number. This year there were 12 candidates, too many according to my students.
- #8 candidate was a comedian. He said he would give $100 000 to every newly married couple. The colour of his face was also different than the colour of his neck because of all the make up he wore (according to my students)
- #2 won despite huge scandals about his company and tax evasion, he was the former mayor of Seoul and people like his decisiveness.
- voter turn out was the lowest in south Korea's history, which doesn't really surprise me as its a natural progression. As a country becomes more stabilized people realize/think that a president (or prime minister) can not really make that much of a change and they have no motivation to vote.
- #2 won because he is conservative and will supposedly help the economy. The Korea Times headline is "Koreans vote for economy." I think the korean economy has been slower recently and #2 wants to push the economy from 13th largest to 7h largest, which is impressive considering South Korea was impoverished after the war. I think its from the work ethic.

Anyway, thats all i got for now. Its time for lunch.

Merry Christmas!!!!

It is starting to feel a lot like Christmas…There are many Christmas lights around Seoul as well as Christmas trees. There is one I want to introduce to you…it catches my eye every day as we pass by it on the bus. There is a large wreath hanging at the top of the tree that has the words on it: “Helpy Christmas.” I was really surprised when I first noticed it. What does it mean? Is it a mistake or was it intentional? Does it mean “help others at Christmas” or “have a healthy Christmas?” I’m just not sure. What do you think?
Mark and I are really looking forward to a holiday. We have three more days of work, which includes a Christmas party with staff and students, and then we are off to Japan. We leave on Saturday morning, first we take a subway, then train, then taxi, then ferry, then maybe another bus, then train, and maybe another bus until we get to our hostel in Hiroshima, Japan. It’s going to be a ball! Before we head back to Seoul on the 29th we’re spending two days in Busan (sometimes spelled Pusan), which is in the southern part of Korea.

I wish you all blessings and peace as you celebrate the Christmas season!

My nephew dancing

While this has nothing to do with life in Korea, my brother and sister sent me this.

Our new friend

On Saturdays Mark and I have develped a bit of a routine. We usually get breakfast at the bakery we love Paris Baguette or at Issac Toast which is a place that makes sandwiches with toast, eggs, some kind of meat, cabbage a piece of processed cheese, and this really good sweet sauce, sounds pretty appetizing, don't you think? After breakfast we go to our nearby market and buy some fruit. Last week we went to a stand and the woman working there was so nice to us, so this past we decided to go back to the same stand. She was there again and she remembered us. We used our broken Korean and tried to communicate what we wanted. She kept giving us extra fruit and saying “service” which means free...Then she started asking us all these things in Korean. We actually had a semi conversation all in Korean! First she asked if we were American, and I could understand and could use one of the sentences I know in Korean: "I'm Canadian" - which sounds like "kahnahda sarum eeaeoo." Then she pointed at both of us and then linked her fingers together well saying lots of words...we just kind of nodded and I pointed at my ring...Then she asked if we were students...again I could understand!...i was so surprised..and we could say that we were English teachers. Anyways, this woman was so kind and really funny so now we have to go back to this stand. I need to memorize some more sentences before we go back so I can say a bit more.

Jeonghwa's last day

Our wonderful receptionist at Connexus Jeonghwa had her last day with us on Friday. I will really miss her. She would often hang out with us after work as we would watch episodes of “The Office” and “Arrested Development,” or go out. I am sad…but she says she will come and visit…so I hope this is true.

On her last day a bunch of us went out with her after work. It was really exciting as we were walking through the streets trying to find a place because there were such big flakes coming down. It was so beautiful! Now the snow is all gone already. I hear it's quite different in Canada these days... And a group shot:

Should be working

Christmas is almost here which means a week vacation. This is nice. It also means that we are going to have a Christmas party next week with students, which means that we wont have classes that night which is a nice break in planning. I am excited to go traveling again, but am going with the knowledge that I will return to an even busier schedule. Since in January and February there are no classes at University, Connexus is really busy as they all go to private schools for extra practice. We will be teaching eight classes. But they have changed the schedule around which means I might be getting off at 9pm on mon,wed,fri instead of 10pm. That will be nice

This weekend was good. Some of the students in my High Basic English class took us (me, ness, joel and heather) out for a night on the town. This consisted of a boat ride down the Han River at night, followed by supper and we ended the night with a Luxury Norae Bong experience (with free ice cream). I took videos but I cant seem to upload them. So here are some pictures instead.


On the boat, it was cold.


Eating supper, it was spicy.


Singing and dancing, it was fun.

I will try to upload the videos. Here's hoping.

last day of semester number 3

Well, we are now entering the fourth semester. Since semesters are so short they just go by so fast! Here is an overview of my classes from yesterday. In my 4:00 interview class I gave my two students a separate formal "practice" interview and then the three of us went out for italian food.Here is a picture of the pizza we ate. The white circles are squid, and you can see the mussels and the shrimp. I'm not a big seafood fan but I tried everything and it was actually pretty good. I still can't get used to the rubbery texture of squid...maybe someday.
Here is my 6:30pm class. We spent the class eating snacks and playing "Would you rather"...they all had to think of a "would you rather" scenario...they came up with some funny ideas.
My second last class of the evening was a no show. There are only two students in that class and they both didn't show up...so I just took the time and relaxed. My last class of the day is a speaking class. We went out to a coffee shop. Joel teaches the writing class which is right before the speaking class so we all went out together.
That was my day. I guess I should start planning for tonight. Time to work!

Foxy Bar Apartment

I thought I would give you all a visual of the outside of our apartment. Our apartment is on the very top...that little box that you can see on the top. Beneath us live our landlords, and on the third floor there are two more apartments. On the second floor is the "Foxy Bar"...it is this really classy bar....and has given our apartment the nickname that it has. Then on the first floor there is a restaurant/bar...we think it might be japanese. So, this is home.