Mascot Crazy!

Walking around Korea, by far one of the most interesting aspects is the amount of weird signage and strangely decorated buildings. It seems that most restaurants and bars desire to create a friendly image, many times by creating a mascot. I'm not exactly sure why you would want to meet and be friends with the food item you are about to eat, but I'm new here. One of my favorite games is to come up with what each of these mascots might be saying. Here are a few:

"I have studied hard so you can enjoy my large, delicious brain!"

"I could not possibly make less sense!"

"Go ahead, try me."

"I am skillet cow. My meat is very expensive, so how about I make you something else!"

"I am Korean Tom Hanks!"

"I'll call my friends and we'll get them in the skillet!"

(I have no idea)

Brad's (Barely) Korean Recipes

This is a post in a new series called Brad's (Barely) Korean Recipes. I thought it would be fun to show off some of my cooking and show everybody what I make at home. I don't cook often, so this may be a short series.

Today, the recipe is for Peanut Butter and Banana Pancakes. This dish is my favorite breakfast I make myself, and can actually be made for roughly $1.5. The ingredients are shown below:
One package Samlip Peanut pancakes (three come in a package)

One mini banana (I like to call them minanas) per pancake made

One tablespoon creamy peanut butter per pancake

The pancakes are placed in a toaster oven and cooked for three to four minutes. I like to eat them when they are hot and just a little bit crispy. The minanas are cut into thin slices, this can be done before hand or they can be cut and placed directly onto the cakes.

Once the pancakes are hot, they are removed and the peanut butter is added. Then, place the minana slices on top of the peanut butter, and enjoy with coffee or milk. I am generally satisfied with two pancakes, but if I have a big day ahead I will eat three.

Well, that is how you make the peanut butter minana pancakes, I realize that these pancakes may be hard to find outside of Korea (not sure about that). I guess you will have to come and visit so I can make them for you.

A Crazy July 4th

This post is definitely prompted by my friend Hyun-Joon, from Korea, who told me to post about the bad parts of Korea.

Saturday, July 4th, I was walking around town on an exploration voyage. My trip took me though my local neighborhoods, including the market which is very close, and then into the Bus Termeener (get it?). While walking through I was looking at the various shops, but then noticed a large group of people crowded around two. They were two men, I estimated one to be about 40 and one to be about 50, in a heated argument. Suddenly, the younger man lurches forward and shoves the old dude in the chest. His glasses fly off, fall to the ground, and break. The younger man then hurriedly walked out the nearest exit, while the older man composed himself and chased after. Ridiculous. I did not follow.

Flash forward to later than evening, when I am hanging out with foreigner friends. We are walking from dinner to Dan's apartment, and we pass a man, drunk and muttering. As we pass, he notices us, and starts yelling. My thought is that he noticed one of our group members was black, and obviously all five of us were not Korean. He then drunkenly yelled at us, as I looked back repeatedly. I wasn't sure what he was on about since I don't speak his language (especially not a slurred version) so I kept leering back at him which probably made him more angry.

So this guy actually starts walking after us. I wasn't even slightly worried about my safety, as there were three men in the group, each easily much larger than this guy. My only worry was that I didn't want to have to lay this dude out on the pavement. He kept walking after us. We kept walking, trying to ignore him as he kept following us, probably for a block. By that time, he started to slow down, at my last look he was at about zombie pace. Anyway, this situation passed with no harm.

I was talking with a friend Lisa from the UK, and her response to the bus terminal incident is that they probably had way too much Soju. Soju is this Korean rice liquor which can be very alcoholic. It's very common for Korean businessmen, etc., to get liquored up with business associates. Soju is also consumed at many meals.

Anyway, the 4th ended well, we all went to Dan's apartment and ate cake with jello and played hot dice. I was super tired so I went to bed about 11. Happy ending to a weird day.

A Few Notes

Hi Everybody! Thanks so much for reading this and leaving your comments, I really appreciate it. I want to point out a few upgrades I have made to Brad's Korean Adventures. First, I have changed a setting so that anybody can comment, even anonymously. Second, I have added a music player stocked with my favorite new songs, so you can check out what I listen to (if you haven't already). Just hit the play button next to a song. Thats all, thanks again for reading!

One Week Reflections

Well, one week in. It's been a long week, though in a good way. This post is a summary on my experiences so far in Seosan, Korea.

It is easy to say that Korea is culturally different from the USA. One of my most noticeable changes is how the accepted greeting is the bow. I really like this part, where in either the hello or goodbye, each party is expected to bend forward at the waist for the bow. At first I did a somewhat lazy head nod, but since I have gotten more comfortable with it. Another thing I like is how each place (except for stores, etc.) will have a lowered area where the shoes are expected to be placed at entry. For places such as my school, a pair of sandals is awaiting me.

My doorway.

Another huge difference between here and the states is cultural norms on the street. For one, people are generally not friendly to anybody on the street. It is not in a disrespectful way, it is just somewhat impolite to make eye contact with passersby. With me as a 6'4" white man, I of course am very noticeable. This means the people on the street really, really want to stare at me. If I look around, I can generally catch many people trying to stare at me out of the corner of their eye while facing directly ahead. It's amusing.

I do enjoy the city I am living in. With a population of about 140,000 (via wikipedia) Seosan is considered somewhat small for Korea. Within this populate, I gather that there are about 40 or 50 foreigners in the city from places such as the USA, Canada, UK, New Zealand, and Australia. Many of these people are somewhat close knit, which I like, and I have made a bunch of friends. Generally, every time I venture out of my apartment I will run into someone.

There are also the foreigner hangouts. One place, Holly's Coffee is very close to my apartment. This place is OK, though the coffee is very overpriced. There are also some bars which the foreigners frequent, one is called 'Bike Bar.' From what I hear, foreigners are there almost every night. Another hangout similar to this is 'R&B Club,' which I also went to last Friday night. I met some nice people from New Zealand and UK there, as well as some nice Korean girls. My first night out at the bars on Friday, I ended up staying out until about 5! Bars here will stay open pretty much as late as they still have customers.

One last thing I like very much about Seosan is transportation. By far, the easiest way to get is around is via taxi. There are a few key spots which the cab drivers know in English, such as 'Bikee Bar' (Bike Bar), 'Dunkeen Donutsoo' (Dunkin Donuts), and the 'Bus Termeener' (Bus Terminal). I luckily live a block or two away from the bus terminal so I just say that when I want to get home. By cab, one can get anywhere for about $2 American.

Thoughts on Teaching:

The reason I am here in Korea is for this teaching job, after all, so I plan to get very good at it and improve this as a life skill. Teachers are in demand everywhere in the world, obviously.

At first I wasn't sure at all what to expect. My first day, I was allowed to sit in on three classes which the other foreign teacher, Chea (from Minnesota), taught. After this, I was expected to teach my first class that same day. Really pretty crazy. Luckily, this class was one which only had six students who were are advanced and very well behaved, and all I had to do was cover a few pages from the book.

The ages I teach range from kindergarten to late middle school. My mornings are filled with four kindergarten classes where I generally show videos and have them repeat sentences. Then, afternoon are the middle school kids, which is a whole different game. These classes are half and half, one half being about 6 kids, well behaved, and good listeners. The other half is much closer to hell with ten students. Not really hell, but I think it's easy to get what I mean. One of these classes is nine middle school boys who are all so loud, attention spans so short, and generally don't like to listen much. My first day with them was rough, but I am getting better to relating to them (and yelling). I also have two conversation classes with older kids. These are fun, but I didn't know the class was coming up each time so I had to fly by the seat of my pants. All I could really come up with was asking them what they want to be when they grow up, and then to talk about food (after that I killed a lot of time with games).

When the kids are good and there is extra time, I like to play Pictionary. The way I conduct this is I first draw a picture on the board, which the kids have to guess. Whoever guesses first gets to write the word on the board and then think of something to draw on their own. I feel that this is a good way to work on vocabulary and creativity, and for me I really like to doodle on the board so that works out.

My school administrator, Jay, is an extremely nice guy. My first day there he picked my up from the bus terminal, showed me where my apartment and the grocery store were, and then showed me around the school. He is very easy going and more than easy to get a long with. The school also provides a free lunch to me everyday which I usually spend with him. The other foreign teacher, Chae, was so helpful to me my first few days and also was nice enough to show me around the town on my first night there.

Overall, I enjoy teaching these Korean kids very much. Korean kids are ridiculously cute (sorry, American kids). My kindergarteners are all very affectional and like to give me hugs and high fives, while the older kids enjoy games and asking me questions and such. It turns out teaching is super exhausting, as I'm sure every teacher knows. I am really happy when class gets out everyday as I am sick of talking and yelling and watching kids. This really is no match for how overall rewarding I find this teaching experience, though. I am excited to see how the rest of this year turns out.

Some presents the students made me:

I Had to Put These Up

Well, since I am in the mood to post about food tonight, here is some more. I am replacing a woman in her late 30's from New Zealand (who apparently never dusted but I won't get into that) in both her job and apartment. I had to show a few food items she left here:

This one's for you, Mom

Does anybody have suggestions for how to use this? I know Australians spread it on bread. I opened the jar and quickly had to close it due to the horrible stench.

A Food Buying

Sorry for the slow posting progress, I've actually been really busy. Surprise? I'm going to write soon about how school and teaching are going, so don't worry. This post is about my first grocery trip experience.

My second night in Korea, I walked towards the closest grocery shop to my home. On the way, I first ran into a white couple. Cool, you know, my first foreigners I have met by chance. Their names were Steven and Jackie, nice people from the east coast. We chat briefly and are on our respective ways. Next, bam, I run into another two foreigners about thirty seconds later. They were Nick from the USA and a girl from Canada whose name I do not remember. Sorry.

Then, bleary eyed from the 14 hour time shift, I stumble through the aisles of the supermarket, pick a bunch of random food, and head back.

Bam, third foreigner run in. This time, I meet a man named Roger, out on the street for a smoke. Roger ends up being quite the interesting guy, and is 51 and from the UK. We decide to run right across the street for some coffee, chat it up about teaching since it turns out he has been there three years and is somewhat of a pro, and I run home in order to salvage my strawberry and chocolate milks.

All in all, a good trip to the market. It turns out there are upwards of 40 or so foreigners living in Seosan, so the chances of running into somebody while out is pretty good. It was very encouraging to me to meet so many people who speak the same language as me.

Oh, here was my score at the super market:

Some notable items:

Tiny bananas - made me somewhat nostalgic for the ones I had in Rwanda

Ham tube - was hoping it was spam since I couldn't read the label

Spaghetti Raman - y'know

Cookies - closest thing I could find to Oreos

Corn Cho - friggin' amazing, corn puffs half dipped in chocolate

This all cost about $17 American, not too bad I think.

Annyong, Korea

So, I went to Korea yesterday (already feels like a week ago). Gonna teach a year of English in a town called Seosan. I have zero experience teaching children, so we'll see how that goes.

The trip here ended up being of the most pleasant nature. Besides the fact that I had to wait at O'Hare for over 5 hours and the 13 hour plane ride of course, it was enjoyable with the new people I met and fresh sights. The flight somehow felt like a mere 8 hours....maybe only 6. I slept for about 6 hours, though I have no idea if this is how long it lasted because I couldn't keep track of time on the flight. My Asiana airlines flight was well staffed with 13 flight attendants, mostly Korean women. Quick and efficient, with hair tied back in a bun and adorned in red aprons while serving food, they actually produced a nice breeze while gliding by.

The rest of the trip included customs and waiting at the airport for about an hour, then a cab ride to the bus station in Seoul. This trip to Seoul would have been unnecessary, but I got there so early in the morning there were no direct busses to Seosan from Incheon, and I had to endure a two hour ride in traffic. That ride did end up being an optimal napping period, and the driver gave me a sandwich consisting of a mix of egg salad, ham, and something like water chestnuts. Then a short 1.5 hour bus ride to Seosan where my boss Jay met me, and I was at home in my new apartment.

Now, for some photos:

A strange sign on the outside of my apartment building.

I do like my apartment which is about 300 square feet and eerily similar to a place I lived in Madison.

The view from my balcony.

Office area.

The closet.

And finally, the bathroom. but where is the shower?

Oh, there it is. The bathroom is the shower. I actually enjoy showering like this alot.