It all happened so fast...

So, in a nutshell: Sam got accepted to grad school so we left Korea a little early. So, we're home!

Anyway, we're glad to be home for the holidays, and to be around friends and family.

Meanwhile, we have a few weeks before school starts, and we want to have one more adventure. So where should we go? Guatemala? Thailand? Mexico? Alaska?

Fishy...

So, since we’re leaving pretty soon our hagwon is in contact with recruiting agencies to find replacement teachers. We were assured by our recruiter that hagwons look for qualifications like education and experience when hiring teachers. But sitting on our supervisor’s desk was a paper with a summary of an applicant. The only information it contained was a large picture, and a list of the following “qualifications.”

Physical characteristics:
Demeanor:
Race:
Accent:
Physical Appearance:

And that’s that.

Saturday Trip

On Saturday morning I made my way to Seoul to help out with a Primary Activity, and Sam went to a museum with our friend Mark. We met up a couple hours later and headed south to Suwon where Anna and Justin live. We checked out a beautiful fortress there, and then ate the most delicious kalbi (Korean BBQ) we've ever had.

The proof:

(from the museum)




(the changing of the guard at gyeongbukgong)


(This is one of the gates at the fortress in Suwon)






NBF!




Can you spot the Big Golden Buddha?






We stumbled upon this archery demonstration:




The fortress wall is huge!

What goes around...

So for two days in a row, only one student showed up for my and Sam's Kindergarten classes. Everyone is home sick; and in fact, we should be home because we're sick, too. But instead we're here, and they've decided to cancel Kindergarten for the rest of the week! Does that mean we get 3 days off? NO! Ha! This is Korea! Just because you have no work to do doesn't mean you don't show up (look at our supervisor!) We get to spend all day at the school pretending to work! Yay! Our afternoon classes are still on though, so we will have classes starting at 2:30 everyday. But from 9:30 until then... we get to surf the internet... and blog...

Saturday Trip: Moran Market

On Saturday, with our friends Anna and Justin, we went to the Moran Market, which is just a couple subway stops from where we live. It seemed as though foreigners don't often come to the market; we received lots of oogly stares while we wound our way through the maze. Crowded tents and tables were selling grains, vegetables, fried food, plants,...oh, and dogs...but not dogs to keep as pets. These were special dogs bred for their meat. But they looked sad to me. There's something different and more appalling in killing and eating dogs than cattle or chickens or fish to me. Maybe it's that dogs demonstrate so much love and loyalty, and a fish couldn't care less? I don't know. Maybe there's no valid reason to attach more value to one animal than another, but I can't help it.

Here are the photos:


yum?












yeah. sad, right?










seaweed, anyone?


That salt. Mmmm, It makes my mouth water just looking at it:

Saturday Trip: We saw North Korea

That's the North on the other side of the river:




South on the left, North on the right:


Watching the propaganda-rich film in the visitor's center:


Later on, in Insadong for dinner:


Sam got this:


Hungry for seafood?


...or how about feminist fashion?

Kid Stuff

(Holding up a picture of a bottle of sunscreen)
Teacher: What's this?
Student 1: Sun...shine?
Student 2: Sun...glasses?
Student 3: Sun...KETCHUP!

Teacher: What are things that make you scared?
Student 1: GHOSTS!
Student 2: The dark. And dogs.
Student 3: I'm scared of dying.

That last Student 3 is the same one that told me one time: "My parents got de-married because there was no more love." He's sort of forlorn all the time.

But let me switch gears here and tell you about the candy.

Hi chews: akin to Starbursts but with a milder, friendly flavor, they come in strawberry (and other flavors we haven't tried).
Choco Babies: Small pellets of chocolate, sort of waxy on the outside, that come in pez-like containers.
Ghana Bars: Very cocoa-rich, thin bars.
Dars: Delicious bites of smooth chocolate.

And the cookies.

Sables: Crispy vanilla cookies. SO good with icecream.
Digets: In plain or with a chocolate layer, they're like British Digestives. And yes, there is no S before the T. It is D-I-G-E-T. Awesome. 11% WHEATMEAL is written boldly across the boxes.
Fake Oreos: The name is written in hangul. But they're pretty darn close.
Binch: Smaller than digets, these are whole weat biscuits with a chocolate coating.
Here's the ad for Binch cookies.