Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. golden sun.......

So last weekend we had a 3 dayer which is always glorious. Heaps of people decided to KTX it down to BUSAN, koreas favorite beach town. THe beach
We left early on Friday and got there around noon, where I dropped off my bags and b-lined for the beach. It was glorious. We day drank, layed, put our feet in the water (some when in, it was far too cold!) read the Hobbit and napped.
Koreans HATE sun. This is how they were at the beach....
It was awesome. Nothing can replace a beach day, not even a park day. It seemed that every foreigner in Korea was doing the same thing so there were just heaps of white kids chillin' on a beach. It was kind of nice, cause it was very American It was sunny and hot and perfect and then....
TRAGEDY!
It rained. Not drizzled, not misted. It dumped. For 2 days. 22222 days. 2 out of 3 days of my 3 day weekend. Now you may ask, what do you do in a beach town when it rains? Not a whole lot.
Saturday I woke up later to a bustling hostel. After eating breakfast and chatting with the kids in the hostel, I rolled back to Heundae beach to chill with brad and his friends, and hit the aquarium. I was not impressed by the aquarium, and for my fellow CTn's the Mysic one was significantly nicer. This one did have a SICK shark tank though, but that was the only way it was superior. I do like aquariums, so it was nice to walk around one.
Sharky!
After this I met up with Angela, and we went to visit her Aunt and move her things to the hostel. Our hostel was in the Jagalchi district, next to the fish market so we decided to get dinner here. This was the most traumatizing experience of my life. we're talking LIVE SKINNED EELS SLITHERING AROUND AND FISH HEADS ON PLATES. I kid you not people. It was aweful. the dinner was solid, but throw me a bone! We hung out in Jagalchi for the night and explored a little bit. It was a special area. It was fun, and I guess where PIFF takes place, so I may go check that out.

Sunday we woke up to even MORE rain, if that is possible. We went back to Busan station, ate lunch and took the KTX home. I love Busan, but its just not as fun in the rain. I was so glad to be back!
All in all it was a grand weekend, and I caught up with a few of my friends. That was our last day off until July though :(

On the next edition;
Beasting seoraksan National park
and maybe some learning Korean...
Patience and Faith, and an umbrella,
ErinJ

playing with mirrors in the the aquarium

Merry Buddahmas!

Some Pretty Lanterns
I know, I know, I'm backlogged like you would NOT believe, but being a busy cripple sure will do that do ya. So there is heaps to write about, but for today you just get the SEoul Lotus festival and lantern parade. For better or worse, we missed the festival in order to scope out kickass seats for the parade. Thats not to say we didn't do anything, as we did enjoy making lotus lanterns, that were easy if not difficult with a splint on. Alas. We also got our picture taken in a Hambock (the Korean outfit which was NOT made to fit people with my shape) and walked through Insadong.
After enjoying a kabob and a smoothie, we realized that they were putting out chairs, and decided to stake out seats. We hung around for seemingly forever before the parade got to where WE were. The parade was spectacular, if not a little long, as it was float after float of lantern, or organizations holding lanterns. Think Macy's Thanksgiving parade, minus santa, and replace the balloons with big lit lantens and I think you have the idea. I love lanterns, but my favorite were the FIre BREATHING DRAGONS RAWR RAWR. They were cool. we enjoyed the parade, and the lanterns that Tina eventually got and called it a night. All in all, although touristy was worth the trek. I know, for such an event this is short, but what can you say about a parade?
And now for the part everybody skips too...Pictures!!
Many Many
See? IT BREATHES FIRE.

The queen of Asia

Pretty ladies dancing
On the next Edition:
Busan 2.0:The rain edition
Learning Korean


Until Next Time,
Patience and Faith with some Culture and Class,
ErinJ

Tina, Angela and I in Hambocks

So what does that mean for us?

So official reports were filed this morning that accuses North Korea of sinking the battle ship Cheonan. Like most of the K blogger sphere, and all of the expats in Korea we've been watching this closely, and it has been interesting.
While its taken 2 months for us to get to this point through some intense investigation, one question is still unanswered. What does that mean for us? Like many people, I don't know if I'd feel comfortable living here if South Korea went to war. BUt should they sit back and take it? Yesterday South Korea was thinking about blacking out the North Koreans so they wouldn't be able to watch the world cup, and North Koreas pissed, but is that really going to be good enough?
Its a tricky situation.
What do YOU think South Korea should do?

Why I love Korea

Sometimes, Korea is a fantastic place to live.

A few weeks ago I wiped out inline skating, and my hand hurt. I wrapped it and went on my merry way until I screwed it up in TKD again, so I decided to go to a walk in clinic.

we waited for approx 10 minutes, where I saw a doctor. I told him it hurt and I got an x-ray. 5 minutes later it came out, where the doctor saw me, diagnosed me with a fractured hand, wrapped one of those splint cast things cause I told him I didn't want a plaster one and sent me on my way.
Thats right people, 20 minutes, 14,000 won (12 USD) and I was done.
Which makes me wonder, what is going on in the states where this is a 200 dollar, 6 hour process? There was no paperwork, I literally handed them my Alien Regastration Card and gave them my phone number.
So...Rock on Korea.
And yes, I will be okay. Its not that bad, it hurts. immobilized for a few weeks and I'll be good to go :)

On the next editions:
The lotus lantern festival
Surviving open classes
and, a weekend in Busan 2.0

Patience and Faith, and a little pain,
ErinJ

And I said, what about, Breakfast at Tiffany's

Korean food is good. Like, SO good. ANd even when its not, its better than "KOrean-Western" which is bastardized Western food (and suddenly I know how Chinese people feel when they order at King Wah.....) But theres one thing that SUCKS about Korean food. BReakfast. Rice and Kimchi for breakfast? I'd rather STARVE. SOOO me and a few friends made the trek out to Suji's in Itaewon for a legit Brunch. Now, keep in mind I haven't had a brea fast since I left the states, so when we arrived and there was a wait, I didn't care.

Taylor and I started off with Bloody Marys, which came with a plant.
Spidey drank mine though :( I KID!

OUt came the most delicious meal I have had in a while. Maybe not, but it seemed like it. BACON, scrambled eggs and PANCAKES with SYRUP. This may not seem like a lot to you, but in Korea world, its HUGE. And although this meal would have been meh in the states, it was AWESOME.

So why not do brunch every sunday? well, for one, it was a 2 hour sojurn from start to finish. And for 2, I spent 30,000 won on this (Read:26usd) on something that in the states would have cost 10 (WITH beverage!) So its nice to do...once in a while. But I probably won't do it again for month or so.

So this Sunday, everybody should have brunch for me! :) <3

Stay tuned: I have some AWESOME shit planned for this summer including (but not limited to) A deep sea fishing trip I got talked into, a Buddhist temple stay, a hiking trip, a trip to the beach, A mud festival, Surfing camp in Indonesia (And that takes us through July). Its going to be a good one!

Patience and Faith!
EP

...But hes so small!

Me, My Co-teacher Annie and Saturn, in front of a minature Mosque from Iran

So last week our school took our kids to Aiine's World. This was a park with famous scenes from around the world in minature form. YOU try explaining some of this to 5 year olds. We got on a bus and drove to Incheon (about 40 minutes from Anyang)

With Big Ben
We ate some snacks and then we went to a magic show, where I entertained kids with my Kpop singing and dancing. We then walked around the park looking at things. They had minature all sorts of things. I tried explaing what they were looking at (pyramids, maccu piccu, New York City etc).

All of the kids I teach-Saturn and Jupiter Classes :)
The best quote of the day was when we were looking at a mini white house. I was talking to one of my more intelligent students, James. I said, this is where Barack Obama, president, or America Teacher lives. Washinton DC. Hes like Lee Myung-Bak.
James looked at me and said "Erin....American teacher, SO SMALL"
I just don't think that my kids could grasp that there are things that are not in Korea. It was so funny though.

James with Barack Obama home

After running around all day we went back to school for lunch, and we played in the sun on the roof. All in all, although I highly doubt my kids got anything out of it, it was a good day. It was kind of fun watching my kids be able to be kids, by running around and acting their age, instead of doing reading and phonics. They are a lot of fun.

Until next time,
Patience, Faith and a little bit of destruction!
ErinJ

RAWRRRR

Children's Day! or: Cheering on FC Seoul

So yesterday all of Korea land had a day off from school for Children's day! All kids got presents from there parents (mine came a week before in the form of Maple Syrup and Glee) and went to zoos, parks, amusement parks and other places kids go I guess. I don't really understand the day, and like Labor day, I simply don't care, I got a day off.
Angela and I started the day early in Iteawon, doing some shopping, getting some breakfast and getting a few refreshing beverages in our system. Why not? We had a day off. IT was generally relaxing.
We then made our way to World Cup Stadium, where the world cup was in 2002 and is now the home of the national team (who is training for the world cup as they should be) and home of FC 서울 (FC Seoul). They had a game at 3, and after hearing from numerous sources that games never sell out, we rolled in at 2:30. MISTAKE. The place was packed (I read later today that a record crowd of over 60,000 was there). It was CHAOS, and we weren't really sure what to do. After getting our 4,000 won (3usd) tickets, We met up with Brad (Remember him from Cambodia?), saw many of our friends from Beomgye, and eventually got to meet up with Tina, where we abused the Meakju man, yelling Phiting! more than necessary and generally enjoyed my first sporting event in Korea. The stadium was huge, and after further investigation, rarely gets morea than 35,000 visitors, so apparently children's day was the day to go.
After cheering FC Seoul to victory (4-0!) against Seongnam (with fireworks for every goal, very neat) we headed back to Iteawon for some mexican for Cinco de Mayo. And to hit the forein market where I got Jello and Cheese (but not macaroni and cheese since a block of cheese cost less than that box) The mexican would be considered subpar, but for Korean mexican, fairly exceptional. But I was so tired from such a....long day, I slept on the subway home.

I love sporting events, and am glad that korea has heaps. Unfortunatly, they aren't playing at home again until after the world cup, and the 2 weekend in July I'll be away (I'll actually be away 3 weekends, one on the coast of Korea, and 2 in BALI) so maybe you'll see a baseball related post soon.

On the Next Edition:
Breakfast food in Iteawon
Field trips with the rugrats

Patience and Faith,
ErinJ


Notice Tina and I's Children's day gift from our TaeKwonDo instructor :)

For A Price

So I haven't blogged in a while so heres the teaser trailer for my life.

Yesterday in one of my many adventures we were lurking Iteawon, a foreign friendly district where we saw THIS:





Yeah, thats a 13,000 won box of MacandCheese. 13,000 won=about 12USD for ONE BOX OF CHESSE. SO this is why I am so thankful when you folk think of me and send me things!
I thought this was fitting due to the conversation I had with my mom about how CRAZY everything is that comes from the west. So you can get almost anyting in Seoul, if your willing to sell your....soul. Bahaha.

On the next Edition of EPsHinS:
Children's Day Shinnenigans
Breakfast in Seoul

Happy Cinco De Mayo! (well, here its the Seis de Mayo!)

Patience and Faith,
ERinJ