I bought a plane ticket last night to go visit Charlie at Chuseok, Korean Thanksgiving, at the beginning of next month. It's been a constant struggle the past couple of days- going means taking a mandatory week of quarantine from school when I get back in case I caught swine flu on the plane, and therefore pissing off the coworkers who have to cover my classes for a week- not going most likely means coming to hate Korea even more than I already do because I'm stuck here.
In the end, I decided that sanity wins out over being liked at work...and I found a really cheap ticket to Shanghai. Its about 2 hours or so to Hangzhou where Charlie lives, but he has the time off too so he can come pick me up. I also doubt that a 2 hour bus or train trip in his company will be the worst thing I've ever experienced.
Now what I have to do is go to the Chinese Embassy in Seoul with a bunch of paperwork, apply for a tourist visa, and pay $120. Not the most exciting thing, since I will have to go before work early one morning in order to make it during open hours, but I guess it could be a lot worse. I am getting to see Charlie, after all :)
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Pitas
The weather is getting cooler and today I was in the mood to experiment and cook something new and filling, so I decided to try my hand at making pita bread. I found a recipe to cook them on the stovetop, since I don't have an oven, bought some yeast, and got to it. I filled them with some carrots, onions and tomatoes that I cooked, and a little Parmesan cheese.
One just cooked, and another on the way:
The filling:
And the final product, with some cucumbers on the side:
All in all, they didn't turn out too bad. The dough wasn't as light as I would have liked, and I don't have a serrated knife, so I kind of butchered the bread trying to cut them open, but they tasted good and the filling stayed in. The rest of the dough is in the fridge, so I'll probably cook a couple more tomorrow at dinner.
Any other ideas for stuff I can make, sans oven or microwave?
Here's the dough this afternoon, starting to rise:
One just cooked, and another on the way:
The filling:
And the final product, with some cucumbers on the side:
All in all, they didn't turn out too bad. The dough wasn't as light as I would have liked, and I don't have a serrated knife, so I kind of butchered the bread trying to cut them open, but they tasted good and the filling stayed in. The rest of the dough is in the fridge, so I'll probably cook a couple more tomorrow at dinner.
Any other ideas for stuff I can make, sans oven or microwave?
Monday, September 7, 2009
1.8 million
Won, that is. That's about $1,500 and is equal to my first paycheck! As of today I am no longer broke. :) I still have to pay my utilities bill and pay my school back for my cellphone and medical bills from the pink eye (utilities are about $55 and I owe the school $45 or so). My first 3 paychecks are also smaller since I have to pay a 600,000 won deposit on my apartment, so 200,000 each paycheck. But on the bright side, I've made it perfectly well so far on less that $100 a week, sometimes way less, so cost of living won't be an issue.
In other news, I might be fostering a dog. I saw an ad on craigslist for a girl in Seoul who needs someone to foster her dog long term, since she just got a new job and new apartment, and the building owner doesn't like dogs. I want a dog but can't really jump into owning one right now, given the fact that taking them to new countries is so expensive, so this might be a good plan. I get to take care of the dog day to day, but don't have to worry about what's going to happen to it when I leave the country. And I don't have to pay for anything, she will do all of that. Basically, I will just be this dog's babysitter for a really long time. He's a three year old Boston Terrier named Coby, and I'm meeting him on Wednesday after work, so we'll see what happens.
That's about it for tonight, just a quick update.
In other news, I might be fostering a dog. I saw an ad on craigslist for a girl in Seoul who needs someone to foster her dog long term, since she just got a new job and new apartment, and the building owner doesn't like dogs. I want a dog but can't really jump into owning one right now, given the fact that taking them to new countries is so expensive, so this might be a good plan. I get to take care of the dog day to day, but don't have to worry about what's going to happen to it when I leave the country. And I don't have to pay for anything, she will do all of that. Basically, I will just be this dog's babysitter for a really long time. He's a three year old Boston Terrier named Coby, and I'm meeting him on Wednesday after work, so we'll see what happens.
That's about it for tonight, just a quick update.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
La douleur passe, la beauté reste
This was written on the wall in the Seoul Museum of Art, along with the translation into Korean, and attributed to Renoir. It means something like "the pain goes away, beauty stays."
I finally made it to the Renoir exhibit today. Unlike last time, there was no line at all when I got there (although there was one later in the day when I left). I didn't take my camera because photography wasn't allowed in the museum, so unfortunately there aren't any pretty pictures to show. The paintings, however, were really beautiful. It was a big exhibit with lots of paintings on loan from museums and private collections all over the world. It was pretty neat to be able to see all of that together at once, knowing that in a couple weeks everything is going to be returned to it's original home. Unfortunately I couldn't read any of the literature or the descriptions since it was only in Korean, as were the audio sets. The names of all of the paintings were only displayed in the original French and in Korean, so I got to pull my couple years of French from the closet and dust it off to read the labels. :)
Some of my favorite paintings that I saw were ones I had never heard of before, I guess they're a little more obscure, but they were absolutely breathtaking. I love impressionism because of the way the artists painted light, and there were some outdoor paintings that look like they're just bathed in sunlight. Since I took an hour subway ride there and paid $10 to get in, I decided to wander through twice- once to see everything, and a second time to go back and look at my favorite ones again.
Afterwards I walked to the Paris Baguette (chain bakery here in Korea) on the corner and bought some food for a late lunch, which I took back to the museum and ate on a bench in the outdoor courtyard. I ended up getting a pastry that was filled with chicken curry. Sounds kind of weird, but it was really yummy- wonderful soft bread, crispy crust, and shredded chicken in curry sauce.
Today was a great day to unwind after this week from hell and kind of regain my bearings before I have to go back to work. I'm feeling better physically, and have a slightly sunnier outlook again. I think all of those beautiful paintings worked like Prozac at curing my bad mood.
Tomorrow I'm meeting up with some foreigners at Starbucks for a Korean study session. I'm not sure how successful it will be, but maybe it will be some motivation for me to get back to studying at home.
I finally made it to the Renoir exhibit today. Unlike last time, there was no line at all when I got there (although there was one later in the day when I left). I didn't take my camera because photography wasn't allowed in the museum, so unfortunately there aren't any pretty pictures to show. The paintings, however, were really beautiful. It was a big exhibit with lots of paintings on loan from museums and private collections all over the world. It was pretty neat to be able to see all of that together at once, knowing that in a couple weeks everything is going to be returned to it's original home. Unfortunately I couldn't read any of the literature or the descriptions since it was only in Korean, as were the audio sets. The names of all of the paintings were only displayed in the original French and in Korean, so I got to pull my couple years of French from the closet and dust it off to read the labels. :)
Some of my favorite paintings that I saw were ones I had never heard of before, I guess they're a little more obscure, but they were absolutely breathtaking. I love impressionism because of the way the artists painted light, and there were some outdoor paintings that look like they're just bathed in sunlight. Since I took an hour subway ride there and paid $10 to get in, I decided to wander through twice- once to see everything, and a second time to go back and look at my favorite ones again.
Afterwards I walked to the Paris Baguette (chain bakery here in Korea) on the corner and bought some food for a late lunch, which I took back to the museum and ate on a bench in the outdoor courtyard. I ended up getting a pastry that was filled with chicken curry. Sounds kind of weird, but it was really yummy- wonderful soft bread, crispy crust, and shredded chicken in curry sauce.
Today was a great day to unwind after this week from hell and kind of regain my bearings before I have to go back to work. I'm feeling better physically, and have a slightly sunnier outlook again. I think all of those beautiful paintings worked like Prozac at curing my bad mood.
Tomorrow I'm meeting up with some foreigners at Starbucks for a Korean study session. I'm not sure how successful it will be, but maybe it will be some motivation for me to get back to studying at home.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Month 2, Day 1
I've made it a month at my job. Every month our schedule changes, so it was a rush this morning to find new books, figure out new times for a lot of my classes, and meet a new kindergarten class that I will be teaching 40 minutes a day, plus meet random new students in a couple classes. And we had a field trip in the morning, so I experienced my first kindergarten field trip. It was a neat idea: "we're taking the kids to the farm to plant cabbage." In practice, it was the better part of 2 hours spent keeping kids corralled and entertained, and then about 5 minutes per class actually with the farmer planting the baby cabbage plants. I did enjoy the break from "No speaking Korean!" to see my kids actually interacting on their age level with their peers- you forget how well 4 year olds actually speak their native language when you only interact with them in a language they've been learning for 6 months.
The job is hard. The kids try my patience. Mostly what's been bugging me, though, has been my supervisor, because she somehow expects me to remember 1. what I'm supposed to do and 2. how to do it, when last month she did 90% of it (and the other 10% I did once, a month ago). But it was kind of funny when she got mad at me for asking her to help me find a teacher's edition for one of our books...she got all huffy and asked the desklady, who promptly informed her that she never ordered it. Hah!
So that's my life. I've been sick and culture shock is setting in, so I haven't been in the best mood lately, but hopefully that will change soon.
In other more exciting news, Charlie's in China! (Hopefully. He should have got to Hangzhou an hour or so ago if all went well.) If I get lucky I can maybe go visit at the beginning of October, when I have time off for Chuseok (Korean Thanskgiving).
The job is hard. The kids try my patience. Mostly what's been bugging me, though, has been my supervisor, because she somehow expects me to remember 1. what I'm supposed to do and 2. how to do it, when last month she did 90% of it (and the other 10% I did once, a month ago). But it was kind of funny when she got mad at me for asking her to help me find a teacher's edition for one of our books...she got all huffy and asked the desklady, who promptly informed her that she never ordered it. Hah!
So that's my life. I've been sick and culture shock is setting in, so I haven't been in the best mood lately, but hopefully that will change soon.
In other more exciting news, Charlie's in China! (Hopefully. He should have got to Hangzhou an hour or so ago if all went well.) If I get lucky I can maybe go visit at the beginning of October, when I have time off for Chuseok (Korean Thanskgiving).
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Lake Park Part Deux
Sorry this is so late coming, but here's the rest of the lake park pictures I promised you:
Big paved area, complete with benches and big low table things, perfect for laying on
Some pretty views of the lake
My house is back there somewhere...
Not many trees have started changing, but this one has
Part of the running/biking trail...normally when I go in the evening you can't even see the green
There are a million statues in the park... here's the first
People bowing to a TV. Odd, but cool.
It looks like a pigeon to me.
Pretty flowers
Mural underneath a bridge
Rawr
You are here
This pagoda thingy was not very photogenic, until I noticed that it's completely blocked by the tree from this angle
The city's motto: Let's Goyang (Goyang being the city that Ilsan is located within). I think it's cute.
Big paved area, complete with benches and big low table things, perfect for laying on
Some pretty views of the lake
My house is back there somewhere...
Not many trees have started changing, but this one has
Part of the running/biking trail...normally when I go in the evening you can't even see the green
There are a million statues in the park... here's the first
People bowing to a TV. Odd, but cool.
It looks like a pigeon to me.
Pretty flowers
Mural underneath a bridge
Rawr
You are here
This pagoda thingy was not very photogenic, until I noticed that it's completely blocked by the tree from this angle
The city's motto: Let's Goyang (Goyang being the city that Ilsan is located within). I think it's cute.Sunday, August 23, 2009
Catching Up
I've been bad and haven't updated anything this week, so i just figured I'd post a couple quick comments... I finally got my cable and internet hooked up this week, so I have reliable internet, plus over 60 channels (mostly in Korean). I do have Discovery Channel in English, which means I can feed my Deadliest Catch addiction :)
In other news, I went out for Mexican food Friday night with one of my coworkers, at a place just a couple blocks from our building. The food was pretty good, not Mexican, but pretty much like you'd expect Mexican food at home to be. They also had American food like burgers and wraps and stuff, and apparently they do a huge brunch buffet on Sundays- kinda pricey though, so my cheap self probably won't ever try it out. On Saturday I met up with a couple English guys I met through a facebook group, and we went and had a few beers at the Frog and Toad, which is the local expat bar. The weather's been really nice this week, so it was great to sit out on the deck and talk. Both of the guys are new to Ilsan and they're trying to start up some social group of foreigners, kind of get together and go to dinner regularly, that sort of thing. I liked meeting people besides my coworkers that I see everyday, and I hope this pans out and I can make more new friends.
Other than that, it's been an uneventful weekend. I've got a sore throat which I probably caught from one of the kids at school, so I've been resting and eating oranges and trying to keep from getting really sick. Laundry and cleaning were the order of the day today. Once I get a paycheck I will probably get out and adventure more, but right now I don't even really have money to top up my subway card, so I'm just going to enjoy my cozy apartment and my neighborhood for a couple more weeks.
In other news, I went out for Mexican food Friday night with one of my coworkers, at a place just a couple blocks from our building. The food was pretty good, not Mexican, but pretty much like you'd expect Mexican food at home to be. They also had American food like burgers and wraps and stuff, and apparently they do a huge brunch buffet on Sundays- kinda pricey though, so my cheap self probably won't ever try it out. On Saturday I met up with a couple English guys I met through a facebook group, and we went and had a few beers at the Frog and Toad, which is the local expat bar. The weather's been really nice this week, so it was great to sit out on the deck and talk. Both of the guys are new to Ilsan and they're trying to start up some social group of foreigners, kind of get together and go to dinner regularly, that sort of thing. I liked meeting people besides my coworkers that I see everyday, and I hope this pans out and I can make more new friends.
Other than that, it's been an uneventful weekend. I've got a sore throat which I probably caught from one of the kids at school, so I've been resting and eating oranges and trying to keep from getting really sick. Laundry and cleaning were the order of the day today. Once I get a paycheck I will probably get out and adventure more, but right now I don't even really have money to top up my subway card, so I'm just going to enjoy my cozy apartment and my neighborhood for a couple more weeks.
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