Pulmuone Kimchi Museum

the silly foreign teachers making kimchi!

radish, cabbage and spring onion

salt, anchovy oil, pureed salted shrimp, minced onion, minced garlic, red pepper powder, etc.

mixed together... kimchi sauce!

adding the fresh ingredients to the pre-made sauce

after putting the sauce between the layers of the cabbage, it gets all wrapped up!

The Garden of Morning Calm

For "Children's Day" (May 5th), I went with two of my coworkers, English names Ritta and Grace, and my neighborhood friend, Becky to a beautiful garden area outside of Seoul. The Garden of Morning Calm is a 330,000 sq meter space filled with various gardens and greenery (a stark contrast to the gray, urban jungles of Seoul and Incheon). According to the web site, Professor Han San-Kyung conceptualized the garden and it now has 20 themes and receives upwards of 600,000 visitors each year. It's open year-round and it's a wonderful escape from the city, although, the day we went it was packed, so the hustle and bustle of people everywhere was still present. Read about it on the Official Site of Korea Tourism or in this 2007 Korea Times article.

The trip to and from the Garden was quite the adventure! 

We took Subway Line 1 almost to Cheongryangri Station, then got a train to Cheongpyeongri Station. Grace prepared some incredible food for the train ride. My favorite:

These are a traditionally Japanese dish, fried tofu with sushi rice inside

We then packed onto a bus, missed our stop, exited and started pegging. We were still about 4.7km away (keep in mind, both of my big toenails were on their way outta there) when we hailed a cab, which took us almost to the entrance. The pedestrian traffic was unreal because of the holiday.

My amazing coworkers, Grace and Ritta

After our peaceful walk through the gardens, we were given a lift by a nice family down the road to the dark galbi restaurant!

It was delicious! Me and my Irish bestest, Becky

spicy, cold noodles... very delicious!

bean sprout soup... tastes exactly as it sounds, but it sure grows on you

 
After lunch, we ran to the bus stop and thankfully caught a bus fairly quickly. The entire bus ride (which was almost standstill because of the traffic), Becky was practically harassed by the elderly, drunken, benevolent Korean man next to her. He meant no harm, but he kept yelling, "K-O-R-E-A". (Thank you sir, we speak English fluently.) From the bus stop, we got a taxi to the train station and literally ran to the tracks- we got there exactly, to the minute, of our train departure. Thankfully, our train was running late. The seats were all sold out, so we spread out some plastic bags and sat for the 1-hr train ride back into Seoul!~

Seoul RMT FC

In the words of Springsteen, "I was bruised and battered and I couldn't tell what I felt."

Just finished my first soccer practice after a 10+ years hiatus. Seoul RMT FC (Rocky Mountain Tavern Football Club) is a womens expat team; women from all over the world (although, right now half are from Canada.) 

It was great getting back onto a field, but I'm not sure if I'll be getting out of bed in the morning! There are some really strong players on the team and it's sure to be a great ride. The coach, Coach Phil, works for the US Army and has been able to get us practice time on the army base in Yongsan. Also, Rocky Mountain Tavern in Itaewon is sponsoring our team.

The best part, I was able to secure #4... the Baker soccer number is rockin' in Korea.

Rejuvenation

1) I almost cried tears of joy in my advanced elementary writing class. Actually, today I felt complete success. But first about the advanced class- We’ve spent the past two months working on Gulliver’s Travels. I've been wondering if they are really following with what was going on. In class today, they were instructed to write as much as they could about each of the three parts that we studied (Lilliput, Brobdingnag and the Houyhnhnms). For 40 minutes they worked individually, saying aloud some of their thoughts and asking me to correct their work. I was so proud of them! They were able to recall the key facts from each of the ‘adventures’ and write them into coherent sentences. The one boy looked at me kind of funny when he saw how overjoyed I was with his work!

2) I’m rejuvenated. After having a brief discussion with a coworker, I realized that I am not the only one feeling the tense atmosphere in work. Working at a language academy in a country like Korea, where there are multiple schools in practically every building, is very challenging. It is challenging for the owner, the supervisors and the teachers. Unfortunately, not every student is going to be happy with every lesson- this is the fine line. Finding the balance between games and activities and teaching the student that it will take some hard work to learn a new language. Movie English and other multimedia tools are excellent, but no matter what, grammar and writing are a necessity. Also, it is not a school- it is a business. The customer (the parent) expects results immediately. This is not an easy task. So, in the words of Benjamin Spock, "Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do," and what I know is that 'I Appreciate Notes' are amazing. I stuck a note in my distraught coworker's purse for her to find later telling her she's a great teacher. Today, she brought me a jar of homemade kimchi. Life is good!

**P.S. There is something crazy going on in the apartment above me. It's quiet all week, but on Friday nights there is always a young kid crying (I think). Of course, they are speaking in Korean so it's not even fun eavesdropping...**