A Korean Sundae

I had my first Korean sundae last night. Big deal, right??? But before you go getting some visions of a tasty little ice cream treat that you get at Dairy Queen, I should tell you there are a few differences between Canadian sundaes and their Korean counterparts. First off, the word is pronounced soon-day here -> somewhat of a minor difference, if you ask me.

Secondly and most importantly, the Korean sundae is light on ice cream and heavy on pig intestine. Truth be told, that is all that you get in a Korean sundae: a giant serving of pig intestines and just to mix it up they throw in some slices of lung and liver (their is no ice cream at all). Well the kids eat this stuff up like it actually was ice cream and they really wanted me to try it, so I did. How did it taste? Actually the sundae itself was OK but the lung and liver I could do without. I think the texture of the meat and just the thought of eating those parts was enough to make me not like it.

To reward myself for being so adventurous I went to my favorite new restaurant after class and ordered what amounts to a deep fried pork chop --- mmm, now that is a part of a pig I can handle eating!

Final verdict: Dairy Queen has got my buck ;)

Shopping

Seoul has incredible shopping for absolutely anything your little heart could desire. I travelled to Dongdaemun the other day and went inside some department stores that make the Bay seem like Kmart.

Yesterday I finally got my new cell phone. Only $80 for the phone (it is used) plus $11 for the charger and then a $1 discount - SO GENEROUS!!! A lady and a young guy sold it to me and when she asked how old I was and she found out 23 she got very excited because I was the same age as the other guy. Apparently in Korea this means you are friends. It happened once before where someone asked how old I was and then said that her coworker beside me in the store was my girlfriend because we were the same age. It must be easy for Seoul people to make friends. All they have to do is find someone the same age.

Today is the first day of the new semester which means much fewer hours. Only 5 today!!! Last month I worked about 9 hours each day and 6 on Friday but now I am down to 3 1/2 on Friday so that will be nice.

Starting to pick up the language a little. I can now say hello, good bye, yes, no, thank you and the names of a few foods I like. Don't need much more than this, do you...

Clark

Koreans - kids

Koreans are pretty cool for the most part. They all seem pretty friendly. They smile a lot when I see them because I guess that since I don't know Korean, that is all we can do...just look at each other and smile. Well they also stare at me quite a bit. Some people I know get quite bothered by it but I don't mind at all. They are especially enamoured whenever I where shorts and a short sleeve shirt because then they can see my body hair. The kids at school would be happy to sit and pet my arms all day long. I don't let them do this but sometimes they get a little heavy petting in when I turn my back and when I tell them to quit they look up at me and say "Hair so softa". It is sort of cute and slightly creepy. I know I cant complain too much because a girl I met who (dirty blonde hair) teaches kindergarten has a little girl in her class that licks her arm hair and says "Teachers hair golden". Guess sometimes touching it isn't quite enough and you actually have to put your tongue on it to get the full effect :)

For the most part the kids are just like kids anywhere else. They study much harder than kids back home. A typical high school students schedule is to start school at 8am, get done at 7 or 8pm and finally get to bed at 1 or 2 in the morning after 4 hours of homework. I am working at an Academy so I am teaching kids that have already spent their 6 1/2 hours in public school. Then they will have a few academies (maybe math, Korean, and English) and then finally make it home around 7 or 8. A teacher at my school said that in public school a good portion of the class sleeps through class because they are so tired from all their late nights. Since the classes have about 50 kids in them it is hard to stop anyone from sleeping. It is sort of sad to think that these kids spend so much time in school.

Clark

Daechon Beach

On the weekend of August 12, I had 4 days off so I decided to go somewhere outside of Seoul. I got some advice from other staff and eventually decided to head to Daechon Beach ( on the East coast about 2.5 hours from Seoul by train) for a weekend of fun in the sun. It was a Korean national holiday so many Koreans also decided to make the trek which meant space on the train was tight and I could only get standing room for most of the trip (by the way: standing space is a little compartment just outside the washroom area between cars).



Despite all this I did manage to see a bit of the Korean countryside which looked quite nice. They grow rice pretty well everywhere they can and then they fill in any small spots with potatoes and other vegetables (they will plant anywhere--- like 2 feet away from the train tracks on 1/2an ounce of soil! ) I also managed to meet a few other foreigners travelling to the same beach so I had some people to hang out with.The beach itself was not that impressive. There was not a whole lot of sand but it I enjoyed being able to relax. It was nice to dive in the ocean and cool off. Despite warnings that the water was a little dirty, the Koreans spent all day in it and appeared to come out relatively healthy.

At night they all went crazy over fireworks. The sky over the whole beach was lit up with crappy fireworks that made Clearwater Lake Store seem like a fireworks mecca (for anyone that has witnessed the Flaming Outhouse firework, imagine this x10). You would think being so close to China would mean that Korea had a little better supply but this is obviously not the case. Anyways all in all I had a great trip down and enjoyed being able to see a little bit of the country.

Clark