Mime Festival Part Deux!

Our day at the festival was so fantastic, I had to make it a two-parter!

In this picture, you can see the teacup that the little girl was painting in my last post is now fully decorated. Michael really liked the military tank with flowers. I think he wished he was a few years younger and could climb it like the rest of the kids. 

We saw a couple of performances on stage, one of which was a man pretending to be old. He did some typical shtick comedy that was fairly amusing. Here he is jumping rope on stilts.

The last performance that we saw was a bunny. I initially thought it was pretty cute until it turned into a partial strip tease. It must not have been too shocking because none of the conservative Koreans in the audience seemed to mind.

Here is a video of part of her performance. 

From Chuncheon International Mime Festival

I will put a link to the photo album soon. 

Mime Festival!

Michael and I are really happy to live in Chuncheon. The city is beautiful for at least a few months of the year, and it has a lot of scenic/outdoorsy things to do. This weekend we went to the Chuncheon International Mime Festival. The weather was on its best behavior and the views of the misty mountaintops were so unbelievably gorgeous that pictures cannot do it justice.

Being the ignorant foreigner that I am (knowing next-to-no Korean and directionally challenged), I wasn't sure how to get to the festival. I actually spent quite a bit of time researching the festival, trying to figure out how to get there. My research was useless though. I found that it is usually held on Goseumdochi Island, also known as Wido and we just told our taxi driver to take us there. He was a friendly guy and he asked us right away if we were going to the "Pantomime Festival." We told him yes and he took us out to Wido. We got there and there was nothing to be seen. He stopped the cab and forced a young man to give him directions. Turns out the festival was moved to Gonjicheon. We drove back into town and paid the 20,000 won to the driver, who was very apologetic.

There was a bit of a hike to the festival grounds. It was very scenic and flowery. Admission to the festival was 10,000 won each and that included everything but food. We ate lunch before coming, so we didn't eat anything there. It was fun, to say the least. I don't think Michael enjoyed it as much as I did, but the atmosphere was very creative and whimsical.

There were installations everywhere, encouraging passers-by to add their creative input to teacups, chairs, statues, their faces, whatever... This little girl was adding her flair to the pink teacup that later would be full of decoration.

One of our favorite performances were the papier-mache dinosaurs. They roared and let kids pull on their tails and were overall amazing.

The views from Gonjicheon were amazing.

There were a few walking statues. People would poke them and try to get them moving and finally one would "snap" and the kids would giggle and run away. They were really popular so I only got a couple of pictures  from a distance.

Michael thought these guys were kinda creepy but I though they were cool.

After walking around for a while, we decided to get decked out in festival attire. We made hats out of overturned popcorn tubs and I made a set of butterfly wings for my back. A photographer insisted on taking a       picture of us and he took one with my camera as well.

This little boy was posing for his parents and I thought he looked pretty cute.

Tune in tomorrow for Part 2!

Random Stuff That Is Going On

It's been a pretty busy week in Chuncheon. First, there was the whole North Korea/South Korea entanglement. I do not follow any news very well, so if you want to know more about what's going on with North Korea, you should probably check out CNN or something. Anywho, South Korea officially came out last week and said that North Korea sunk the Cheonan back in March. Insanity ensued and the won dropped a billion points. At one point, it was 1270 won to a dollar. I was freaking out. It's down to 1210 now and hopefully will go back to the low 1100s by next week where I hope it will stay. Some foreigners have been pretty worried about the whole North Korea issue, but our school - the students, other teachers, and director - has not said a single thing about it, so we haven't really thought about it too much. At the moment, we're in kind of a waiting game to see if China will back up the US, Japan and South Korea's desire for sanctions against North Korea. If they do, anything could happen. Looking at issues between the two countries in the past, this will probably (and hopefully) amount to nothing.

Elections are coming up on June 2nd. A lot of schools will be closed so everyone can go out and vote, but we don't know about ours. Maybe, maybe not. No one has said anything to us about it, and it isn't marked on the calendar, so I am thinking no. Michael thinks they will wait until the day before to tell us. We're not sure. The campaigns are out in full force, and frankly, are annoying. Basically, as far as we can figure, people drive around in campaign trucks and bring out a bunch of "groupies" that sing and dance to campaign music. Those who have the best songs and dance routines win the election!

We decided that we could never vote for #7 because his campaign music is to the tune of "If you're happy and you know it" and "Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer." "Jessica," one of my really smart 2nd graders, told me that on election day, you just write the number of the person you like. You don't even have to remember their names! That makes it easy when there are more than 10 people running. We actually have no idea what these people are running for. Could be mayor, could be the president. None of the kids know, and everyone else at the Hagwon thinks we're too dumb to understand.

I've spent the most part of this week sick. I have a head cold that is finally on the getting better side of things. Surprisingly, I have not been to the doctor. I have been taking plenty of Dayquil and Ibuprofen to get me through the days here at the Hagwon. Yesterday, I had almost no voice, but I only had two classes to teach and the kids that I tutored were really nice to me. Michael is starting to get it now, too, so hopefully he won't be too sick to go to the Mime Festival this weekend.

Finally, the word "crazy" has been banned at our Hagwon. Why? People think that the word actually means mentally challenged. I ask you all for your comments. Is crazy too strong of a word? We say things like, "Sit down, crazy." "That liger is crazy!" and "You're driving me crazy, Tommy" After losing a couple of students, our school is having a crackdown on "offensive words." It is still okay for the students to say "F--- you!" but the word crazy is not allowed.

Well, that's our week in a nutshell. I hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

Yongsan, or how our vacation did not go as planned...

After a series of wrong turns and a combination of downright rude and surprisingly helpful Korean subway passengers, we made it to Yongsan Station in a pretty nice area of Seoul. Yongsan Station is connected to a large mall called l'Park Mall, which includes an E-Mart, CGV Multiplex, and Electronics Megastore (I can't remember what the store was called, but it was enormous). We wanted to find the spa that we had planned on staying for the night first, so I followed the directions I wrote down and it turned out to be right across the street from the subway station. Knowing where we had to go, we decided to do a little shopping and see a movie.

We went to E-Mart to look for some summertime clothes. Michael wanted some shorts and we both wanted flip-flops. The shorts were easy to find, but the sandals, not so much. They had a small display of flip-flops starting at 19,000 won. We were more in the 10,000 won and under price range, so we turned them down. We went into the mall and walked around a bit. There were many clothing bargains, but for Koreans who don't like to get their feet dirty, flip-flops are a relatively unknown item here. I have seen a handful of people wearing them, and half of those people were foreigners, so I'm not sure if many people here wear them.


Later on, we stopped in at the CGV and checked out what was playing. There were several options for us - IMAX, 3D, 4D, and regular theaters. We ended up going to the IMAX 3D showing of How to Train Your Dragon. The theater was understandably busy for a Friday holiday night, so we bought our tickets and then went to eat dinner. One of the first places that we saw was Pizza Hut, so we went in. We had a nice dinner and then went to our movie. The movie was good. We both enjoyed it and the IMAX was fun, although not that impressive. I don't think you miss out on anything by seeing the 2D version either, but it was a good time.

The movie got out a little before midnight and we headed over to Dragon Hill Spa. It is what is known as a Jjimjilbang in Korea. We chose a spa because they are known for being cheap places to relax and spend the night. We chose this particular spa because it is known to be more foreigner friendly and has English-speaking staff and signs in English. We walked in and were immediately impressed. The man at the counter took our money (24,000 for both of us) and gave us our uniform and locker keys.

At jjimjilbangs, it is customary to wear a uniform/pajamas. They give you a baggy shirt and a pair of shorts that you put on when you enter. First we had to take off our shoes and put them in a locker. We were a bit confused after this part, but eventually we walked in and figured out where we had to go. Michael went to the men's spa and I went to the women's. I can't speak for Michael's experience, but I suppose I can talk about mine. I took the elevator to the third floor and walked through the doorway marked Lady. I immediately saw women off all sizes walking around naked. What also surprised me was the amount of girls (ranging from crying toddler to pre-teens) that I saw at 12:30 am. Everyone goes to their assigned locker and takes off their clothes. They grab their towels and go to the showers. I wasn't sure where the showers were. I started walking to a doorway and a woman stopped me. She shouted "No!" and pointed to another doorway. I was walking to the main hall!

I made it to the showers and found an empty stall in the corner. All of the standing showers were occupied, so  I was at one with a stool and a nozzle that you have to move yourself. It was a weird experience, to say the least. All of the women around me were bathing each other and scrubbing down vigorously. I just took a shower and left. After you take a shower is when all of the good stuff is supposed to happen. There is a sauna, hot tubs of varying degrees, and even a warm lap pool, all of which is done naked. When you are finished with that, there are masseuses and spa treatments that you can buy. I opted to skip all of that stuff and got dressed into the pajamas. There was a station with hairdryers, hair gel and body lotion that I used to dry my hair off and then I went to meet Michael. We walked around, finding everything out, and then decided that maybe we wanted to go to sleep.

Our friend Dathan had warned us that it gets busy on the weekends, but we didn't really think about it that much, especially considering that this holiday is a little like Christmas for those who are Buddhist and figured most people would be visiting family for the weekend. Whole families were sleeping together on the floor in the common room and the sleeping rooms (not co-ed here like I thought) were completely full. We also seemed to miss out on pillows, blankets and sleeping mats that most people seemed to be carrying around. Note to self, if we ever try to do this again: get there as early as possible to secure a place to sleep! We went up to the rooftop garden and found the perfect spot. There were two gliders and one was unoccupied. We sat down on the glider, which was basically a futon in couch position and figured we could sleep here. It was still busy up on the rooftop. Two children were playing taekwondo on the stage and a group of Korean men were drinking and singing along to the loud music playing. We decided to get some beer.

We were just hanging out when around 2 am, a man shooed us all off of the rooftop. Apparently it is closed at night! Just our luck, the place we had banked on sleeping was now closed and all of the nooks and corners of the jjimjilbang were occupied with sleeping people! We finally found a dirty corner next to a vending machine in the PC room. It was fairly quiet in there with 12 year old boys playing Counterstrike and a mother and her son sleeping on the floor next to us. The lights were still on, but I was beginning to feel like I could sleep there.

Then the mother and son got up for some reason and left. The space was immediately occupied by a couple with their toddler. The toddler refused to go to bed. Then the room started getting cold. Then more teenage boys came in to play Starcraft. Michael and I decided that we couldn't sleep. We gave it an hour, and neither one of us was able to get any shut eye. So we decided to go to the main hall and hang out. We did a little karaoke and some arcade games and another hour went by. Finally, we went down to the PC room and hung out there until 6:30. We got dressed and left.

Exhausted and hungry, we made our way to Cheongnyangni Station, where we were supposed to meet our friend Jason at 11. Around 8, the Starbucks opened and we bought a cinnamon roll and a scone and went to hide out upstairs. We started eating, but neither of us was feeling well and we only got a few bites in. We both fell asleep on the cushy chairs. An hour later, Michael started getting sick and we decided that we should probably just go home rather than wait two more hours to start sightseeing.

We went back to Cheongnyangni Station and booked two tickets on the next available train, which was 50 minutes away and standing room only. Ugh. Two people not feeling well, one of which has to go throw up every 15 minutes, traveling on a standing room only train for 2 hours. Not fun, I'll tell ya. Oh well...

We made it back and Gizmo was very happy we came home early. We all fell asleep together on our twin bed and took a nice 4 hour nap. We're better now, don't worry. And we'll be back in Seoul before you know it!

Yeouido

We've been planning a trip to Seoul ever since we got here in February, but things kept coming up. Well, we finally made a trip. 

We took the train. It was easy and comfortable and about $10 each way. Not too bad. I took a lot of photos on  the train ride. The window was really dirty though, so there are streaks on the pictures...sorry. The Korean countryside is pretty much gorgeous now that winter is over. We had a really enjoyable trip over. I took pictures and read a book on my kindle. Michael read and watched a movie on his ipod. 

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We arrived in Seoul around 1 pm. We were hungry but determined to get to our destination before eating, so we forged on. We took two lines on the subway and made many mistakes on which stops to get off at. In Seoul, there are many repeated station names, so you need to read very carefully. All in all, we made it. It only cost us a few thousand won to backtrack a little. We got off at Yeouido. There is supposedly another station in Seoul's business district being built, but the other stop that we got off at is a ways from the "action" of the area. Our main destination there was the 63 Building, which all of our students talk about being fantastic. 

I suppose a kid would think it to be fantastic. There is an aquarium and a IMAX, as well as a wax museum and some sort of ride to the top of the building. The building is 60 stories tall, 3 stories are underground for a total of 63. I was led to believe that the viewing of the top was free, but it was 12,000 won and over an hour wait, so we decided not to do it. We ate at a Japanese Fusion chain restaurant that I now can't remember the name. Michael ordered the sushi set and I ordered the fried tofu set. They were okay. We found it funny that even though we were at a Japanese restaurant, our meals still came with kimchi and radishes.

After our stop at the 63 building, we headed over to Hangang Park, which was just across the street. I had planned on going to Yeouido Park, but it was farther away. It was just as well, because Hangang Park was pretty much awesome. There was a huge biking lane and lots of grass for hanging out, flying kites and camping. We rented a tandem bike and went for a ride. It was a lot of fun. I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking. 

We rode about 10 miles I'd say. I'm not sure how long the lanes continue, but I think they might connect to other parks as well. If we lived in this area of Korea, I would definitely consider buying a bike. We headed back to the subway station around 6:30 to head for Yongsan, a trendy district of Seoul. 

Grocery Shopping

Michael and I go grocery shopping about once a week. Last weekend, we went to Homeplus, which is our usual place for groceries. Sometimes we go to an actual grocery store, but Homeplus seems to have a better selection and is overall cheaper. On occasion we will eat at the food court like I talked about earlier this week. At their food court, the food is a little cheaper than Emart, but also not as tasty. We bought a set which included donkatsu, soup, salad, radish and rolls for only 6,000 won. Due to the horribly declining rate of the won, that is only $5.13. The rolls had kiwi dressing on them, which we decided made them taste funky.

There was nothing very exciting about our shopping trip. We bought our usual supplies. Fruit is still expensive, so we spent nearly 1/3 of our total on kiwis, bananas and grapes - the only things that seem to be in season. We stock up on cheap things like eggs, yogurt, and lettuce and splurge on milk, onions, and wheat bread.

One cool thing here is the concept of bonuses. They seem to be on everything here. Basically, stores find whatever they have laying around and tape them to the package. Sometimes we get extra yogurts taped to the front, or extra handsoap. You may find an extra pack of tofu with your purchase, it's pretty random. Last week we saw stock girls taping mugs and storage containers to the boxes of Kellogs cereal. Michael insisted on getting two so we could both have a mug. They are pretty sweet.

In Korea, there is a large shift from plastic to reusable bags (I assume that this is happening in a lot of places, not just here). Some stores like Emart no longer sell plastic bags and others like Homeplus charge 100 won per bag. We bring our own bags because they give us a discount. For anyone who doesn't want to spend money either way, they do things Costco style here. There is a counter with boxes and tape and you fill up the boxes with your groceries. It's pretty nifty, but it's always crowded. It's much easier to just remember to bring our own bags. 

When we get home, Gizmo is there to greet us. She likes to help me unpack :) 

Gizmo's Haircut

I'm sorry I have been lazy about this. I promised you all a cut kitten. She got her hair cut a few weeks ago, but we never finished it! Mostly she got her midsection and part of her tail shaved so she wouldn't be shedding so much. It's been wonderful to not have to worry about mats in her hair and to not have to de-hair all of my clothes before going to work. Plus, she's super cuddly without all that hair. She gets colder more easily so she likes to sleep with us and snuggle up with us when we're hanging out at home. We like it. Anyway, Gizmo doesn't look so hot, and we fully intend to cut her hair again in a week or so, but here is what she looks like now:

Yo!

In Korea, many people still sleep on the floor. If we didn't have two clunky beds taking up so much room, I think we would too. The floors are heated in winter, so it makes it very comfortable to pull up a mat and go to sleep. In summer, the floor is the coolest place in the apartment. It seems comfortable beds haven't made it to Korea yet.

I'm sure many of you have heard us complain about our terrible bed. It is downright uncomfortable. The springs in our mattress poke us at night, even though our beds are brand new. We set about remedying our situation this weekend. We went and purchased a yo. They are meant as floor beds, but we put ours on our bed for extra comfort. We walked to a bedroom store about 3 miles from our apartment. On our way, we stopped at Hi Mart so Michael could look for a mouse. Hi Mart is like the Best Buy of Korea. It has five floors and is jam-packed with electronics. Sending a nerdy boy like Michael in there was just like bringing a child to a candy store: he wanted to look at everything. He found a mouse he liked on his small budget. It was a small, red optical mouse for only 7,000 won. With the horrible won value these days, that's $6.

We kept walking and we saw lots of pretty flowers. Chuncheon is gorgeous in spring. It almost makes up for how frigid and barren it is in winter. Almost.

We made it to the store and they didn't have anything we liked. We were on a budget and the cover alone for the yo was going to cost us 50,000. So, we walked about a mile to Emart. When we got there, we were pretty hungry (it was about 3 pm or so and we hadn't had lunch), so we stopped at the food court. Here all of the big mega stores have food courts. There is a display case with a bunch of fake food and you pick out with one you want. Then you give the number to the cashier and she sends the order to the booth were they make the food. With the exception of the ordering counter, the food courts are very similar to the US. You choose from Chinese, Korean, Japanese, or "Western" food. We choose Japanese, and for $6, we got this set.

A bowl of rice, some daikon radish slices, cabbage salad with kiwi dressing, corn salad, donkatsu, and a Japanese noodle soup. Michael ate the pork cutlet and rice and I had the soup. We shared the rest. It was pretty good for fast food. Very salty though.

Emart had some affordable yos, but the selection was poor. We had to choose between a few very flowery, very girly designs. They all looked like they were made for a six year old. I looked around, but I couldn't find any replacement colors that were not pink and girly. We choose the purple flowery one. It goes well with our flowered wallpaper.

Summertime?

Here in Korea, we seem to have jumped directly from winter to summer and skipped spring altogether. It's been hot and sunny the last week or so. Here's some pictures taken of the flowering plants around our apartment.

Teachers' Day

Teachers' Day is May 15th in Korea, which is a Saturday this year. Traditionally, students bring gifts to their teachers (of course, we are not really teachers, so I didn't expect much). Earlier in the week, one of the mothers sent some cookies to school. They weren't very good, but it was nice of her to try.

When we got to school on Friday, our director brought in coffee and donuts for Michael and I and the Korean teachers. It was very thoughtful, but none of us were hungry because we just came in from lunch. We drank the coffees, which was quite a shock to our systems. For the past few months, we've been drinking instant coffee packets and on occasion a Coke Zero, both of which have minimal caffeine contents. The 16 ounces of pure coffee didn't bade well with me. I was shaky all afternoon and both of us were unable to sleep last night. Since very few donuts were eaten, they told us to bring the leftovers home. We ate them all but the kimchi croquet.

Michael received a gift from one of his students. I think it has to be the ugliest pen I have ever seen, but maybe I'm just jealous because I didn't get one.